Inspired by colour

Whenever I see the colour palettes at the ColourQ, I want to drop everything and roll my sleeves up! Sadly, that's not always possible, but this week I'm afraid duties were a little neglected in my excitement over not only the colours but also the inspiration picture - just look at them! Come and see where it all led me:

A real mix of stamps were used to produce this scene, which I shall also link up to Make My Monday where the challenge is to 'Create a Summer Scene'.

I started by using a post-it note mask and sponging Pool Party into it to make a 'mountain'. The grass from Love and Sympathy was stamped over the bottom of the panel and the floral branch from Hopeful Thoughts at the top. I used markers to ink up my stamps, substituting Rich Razzleberry for Orchid Opulence since I don't have it.

The colours needed balancing so I cleaned my Hopeful Thoughts stamp, inked up a group of flowers from it to sprinkle in the grass, and added birds from the retiring Up, Up and Away set. The sentiment is from a hostess set long since retired but still a big favourite of mine.

To finish the card, I stapled a tab to the panel made with the new Mosaic punch (available 2nd July). Running a Summer starfruit marker round the edge of the stamped panel and a Rich Razzleberry one round the edge of its mat adds subtle dimension.

There! And I feel positively wicked having that much fun when I should've been tackling my 'to do' list!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Hopeful Thoughts, Love and Sympathy, Up, Up and Away (retiring), sentiment (retired)
Ink: Pool Party classic ink, Rich Razzleberry, Basic Grey, Summer Starfruit markers
Card stock: Very Vanilla, Naturals Ivory
Other: Mosaic punch (available 2nd July), stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until SUNDAY!

My children have very kindly taken over washing up duties after my accident at the weekend (I sewed through my finger with the sewing machine - ouch!) so naturally they are eager to keep themselves up to date on the healing process! Yesterday at breakfast they asked how the finger was and I told them it was fine now. My youngest son sighed with relief. "That's good," he said. "Thank goodness you didn't sew through it with Big Belinda!" That transported me back to when he was tiny and used to 'tidy' my sewing box for a special treat - Big Belinda was the name he gave to my bodkin!

Have a lovely weekend and I'll be back very soon with more crafting fun!

Three Minutes of care with Papillon Potpourri

I should really give up saying it's been one of those weeks because it seems ALL the weeks are those kind of weeks these days! I couldn't let the week slide by without making a card for the Less is More challenge though - especially as the challenge this week is to make a birthday card for the lovely and supremely talented Jen. Now it's Three Minute Thursday here on my blog today but Jen is a busy lady so I know she'd approve of a three minute card! Come and see what I came up with:

For my background, I used a panel of embossed card stock that I'd made a pigs ear of stamping on earlier! It's embossed with my fabulous brand new Wildflower Meadow folder (which will be available when the new catalogue goes live on the 2nd July - get your copy in my side bar!)

The sentiment from Sassy Salutations is stamped onto a separate piece of card stock that I scored along the long edges for a neat finish. Jen likes butterflies she says, so I stamped this gorgeous one from Papillon Potpourri and cut it out with the coordinating punch. The butterfly is blue because Jen's gorgeous blog is called The Tiny Blue Butterfly of course and I embellished it with one of the retiring designer brads and a pearl!

Happy birthday Jen! Hope you're having a fab time in Istanbul!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Papillon Potpourri, Sassy Salutations
Ink: Island Indigo
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Elegant Butterfly punch, Big Shot, Wildflower Meadow embossing folder (available 2nd July), Designer brads (retiring), Basic pearls, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

I may be later than usual for the Less is More challenge this week but I am NOT always late, no matter what my youngest son may think. Yesterday I took him along to his piano lesson and when his lovely music teacher answered the door he greeted her with a big smile. "Hello," he said and then, obviously feeling an explanation was required: "We're on time this week!"

See you tomorrow,

Mosaic Madness for Christmas

Everything is selling out fast on the retirement lists now and there's all the excitement of the brand new catalogue coming out next month! As a demonstrator I get to pre-order items - such as the fab new stamp set I'm using today. It's called Mosaic Madness and I love its trendy quatrefoil images (and its coordinating embossing folder and punch!) And wouldn't those quatrefoils make great Christmas ornaments...?! Come and see:

I know it's the summer and I shouldn't be thinking of such things, but there are plenty of fab challenge sites to help us make our festive cards all through the year: 52 {Christmas} Card Throwdown where the challenge is to use pearls and/or sequins; Merry Mondays where there's a great sketch (scroll down to see); and Rudolph Day where the lovely Sandra reminds us to make a Christmas card on the 25th of each month!

I used one of the quatrefoil shapes to stamp my ornaments, decorated them with lots of pearls and doodled string and bows using a marker.

I love the border stamps in this set - this is one of them which I used to form a base for my ribbon-tailed tabs. I embellished one of the tabs with a string of pearls, underlining the sentiment which was put together out of two separate sentiments using my stamp-a-majig.

This is the fabulous sketch from Merry Mondays that I based my card on today:

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Mosaic Madness, Delightful Dozen, Made For You (retiring)
Ink: Raspberry Ripple classic ink, Rose Red and Raspberry Ripple markers
Card stock: Whisper White, Raspberry Ripple
Other: In colour Patterns designer paper (retiring), Corner rounder, 1" square punch (to make ribbon tails), Basic Pearls, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

Don't you just love it when you go to your computer in the morning and someone has got there first?

Ahhh! It set me up for the day. Bet the CEO of IBM doesn't get perks like this!

See you tomorrow,

Take Care little bird!

I was absolutely thrilled to win the 'Yellow' CASology challenge with this card and delighted to be asked to join the lovely ladies as a guest designer this week. The regular design team always come up with amazing samples and this week is no exception, so do pop over to take a look.

The cue word immediately made me think of the phrase 'free as a bird'.  Come and see what I came up with:

It won't be all that long before my daughter leaves home and I was thinking of her while making this. I was trying to convey the idea that the bird has escaped from the confines of the cage and is about to take flight. I used the wonderful Take Care set for the branch and the sentiment, the retiring Aviary set for the pretty cage and...

... Everything Eleanor for the cutie patoot bird which is a real favourite of mine. TIP: When stamping the second bird to pop up over the first, I inked her body up with a marker excluding the legs so I could leave a nice neat white border all the way around when I cut it out.

The bird in the card looks as if she's going to untie the cage before she leaves and send it crashing to the ground but I'm rather hoping that my daughter hasn't got anything dramatic planned for her departure!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Take Care, Everything Eleanor, Aviary (retiring)
Ink: Smoky Slate classic ink, markers
Card stock: Pacific Point, Gumball Green
Other: Linen thread, paper snips, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

Thank you so much to all the lovely people who have been so kind about my sewing accident. My finger seems to have taken being stabbed with a sharp implement in its stride and is behaving pretty much like a normal finger now!

See you tomorrow for something completely different!

Pleasant Poppies on the block

The poppies in today's card started life on another one which I didn't like much. When I saw the sketch at CASE this Sketch I thought they'd be perfect for it, so I dismantled that rubbish card and started again! Come and see:

I'm having a thing about using colour as 'white' space at the moment so I used a panel of gorgeous Gumball Green card stock. By inking up one of my acrylic blocks and stamping with it, I made a textured background for the flowers.

The poppies, which had been stamped, coloured with markers and fussy cut, were arranged on their new background and finished with a bakers twine bow.

I love a white embossed sentiment!  I hunted through a fair few sentiments before I found this one from Sassy Salutations that fitted the space perfectly and was bold enough to balance out the poppies.

This is the fabulous sketch I was working from today.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Pleasant Poppies, Sassy Salutations
Ink: Gumball Green
Card stock: Gumball Green, Whisper White
Other: Acrylic block E, markers, Lucky Limeade bakers twine (retiring), versamark, white embossing powder, heat tool, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, only while stocks last, until 30th June.

I hope your weekend was a lot more successful than mine. I'm feeling very sorry for myself after an accident in which I managed somehow to sew through my index finger with the sewing machine. The needle broke off, lodged through my finger and the nail bed on the other side... OUCH! Actually there was such an adrenalin surge that I didn't feel the pain and only screamed when my husband advanced on me with a pair of pliers! After threatening divorce if he so much as went near me, I managed to pull the needle out myself and bathe my finger in boiled water with a few drops of tea tree oil added and just need to watch out for potential infection now. There's no denying that crafting - and typing for that matter - is a lot trickier when you're not using your index finger!

See you tomorrow,

A bit of By The Tide fishiness

I was really pleased to see the FISH cue card at CASology this week because I've been looking for an excuse to give my By the Tide fish another outing. Come and see:

It gave me a chance to use my new Soft Sky ink pad and card stock too - and it's an understatement to say I am thrilled to bits with this fabulous new colour which is similar to, but paler than, Baja Breeze. The background was made by swiping my ink pad directly over the card stock - the firm foam filling in the pads makes this technique much easier than it used to be with the felt filling.

I stamped the fish, coloured it with a marker and cut it out with my lovely sharp paper snips before mounting it onto the background with dimensionals. The sentiment is from a brilliant set of three, all with a lovely quirky curve in one of the letters. It's called Made For You and is on p.the retirement list - it could be a very useful addition to your stash! I added a pierced interrupted frame to link the fish and the sentiment and mounted the panel onto a lovely Soft Sky card base.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: By the Tide, Made For You (retiring)
Ink: Soft Sky, Basic Grey
Card stock: Soft Sky, Whisper White
Other: Essentials paper piercing pack and tool, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

Yesterday I made chicken drumsticks and salad for dinner and my youngest son made yummy noises the whole way through the meal. While it may not have been my finest culinary hour, I was flattered that he was obviously enjoying it (was it the exact choice of leaves and vegetables in the salad perhaps? or maybe the piquancy of the dressing?) so I was a bit taken aback when he finally put down his cutlery, smacked his lips and said: "Mmmm. Tasted just like fish and chips!"

Have a great weekend and I'll see you very soon,

Hugs,

A Spec-tacular hello

Stampin' Up stamps mostly come in sets containing images that have been designed to work beautifully together but, at the beginning of this month, the company released some exciting new stamps that were available as singles. There are some fabulous images but of them all, the one I've used today is my must-have. Come and see:

It's Three Minute Thursday here today, so this is a really quick card - don't let colouring the specs put you off! When I first started stamping, I spent ages colouring the rubber on my stamps when I wanted multi-coloured images but I soon learned that a quick scribble of colour is just as effective!

The label is stamped with a sentiment from the retiring Tiny Tags set. To keep it quick, I cut it out with one of my square punches and snipped the final side with my paper snips, then attached it to the specs panel with a stapler. (By the way, two of the square punches are also on the retirement list and, if you don't already have them, I'd highly recommend going for it. They're great for quick, accurate labels, for inchie-style cards, for cutting ribbon tails on banners, for cutting squares FAST - I don't know what I'd do without mine!)

The Spec-tacular stamp I used today is one of five different single stamps which will only be available until 31st August. They're all cling mount and are priced at £6.50 - £6.95.

Here's what you'll need to make today's card
Stamps: Spec-tacular, Tiny Tags (retiring)
Ink: 2012-2014 in colour markers
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Square punch (1 3/8" and 1 1/4" square punches retiring)
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

I look forward to my children coming home from school. They tend to arrive at different times and come through the living room where I'm usually at my desk so I always get to have a chat. Sometimes our discussions are lengthy and sometimes they're not. "Hi sweetheart! How was your day?" I said yesterday when my daughter came in. "Long!" she said and disappeared upstairs to her room. "Right, " I said to the air. "Well, I can't spend all day chattering away - I'd better get on then!

See you tomorrow when there'll be something fishy going on around here!

Sending sympathy with the Best of Flowers

Stampin' Up's new Best of Flowers is such a versatile set with images suitable for practically every occasion. The daisy image for example can be bright and cheery but is also perfect when used in a more subtle way for a card intended to give comfort. Come and see:

I started by masking off a rectangle with sticky notes and sponging in a soft background. The daisies were stamped over the top in black and the sentiment added. When the mask was removed I scored in a handkerchief-style border using the Simply Scored tool.

The panel is attached to one corner of the card base and the card finished with a sprinkling of gems.

I shall link this card up to the fabulous Paper Players challenge where they're looking for CAS with bling.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Best of Flowers, Love and Sympathy
Ink: Old Olive, Wisteria Wonder, Pink Pirouette classic inks, black stazon
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Simply Scored, Basic rhinestones, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

I've had lots of questions about 'handkerchief-style' cards. Er... it isn't a real thing, it's just something I made up - I call them that because they look like a folded hanky. Of course I could also include my blooper cards under this heading but they'd be more like a used hanky! Oh dear, I think this post should definitely end here!

See you tomorrow when I'll be showcasing a fast card for Three Minute Thursday (and not being quite so vulgar hopefully!)

Secret Garden - handkerchief-style!

I'm quite fascinated by hanky-type layouts at the moment and today's card came about when I saw the sketch at CAS Colours and Sketches. It also fits challenges at ATSM (to make a clean and simple card), CAS on Sunday (to use black and white plus one other colour), and Dynamic Duos (a colour combo of Pear Pizzazz and black with the option of featuring a plant). I'm panting after that sentence so without further ado - come and see what I've made:

Black and green is quite a favourite combination of mine and I do feel that a black card base can give a simple layout a nice bit of drama. I particularly like a black silhouetted flower with green accents like this one from Stampin' Up's Secret Garden.

The flower was stamped onto the white panel and the handkerchief-style scoring added over the top using my Simply Scored tool. I stamped another flower, cut it out (there are framelits to make this easy!) and popped it up over the first. I used a marker to add colour to the flower centre with a marker before dotting it with my 2 way glue pen and heat embossing with clear embossing powder.

I could have used the leaves from the Secret Garden but I noticed the clock ticking urgently at this point and felt a quick click with a punch was the answer!

This is the fabulous sketch I was working from today:

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Secret Garden, So Sorry
Ink: Black stazon, Pear Pizzazz marker
Card stock: Basic Black, Whisper White, Pear Pizzazz
Other: 2 step bird punch, Simply Scored, Secret Garden framelits, Big Shot, clear embossing powder, heat tool, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

Whenever I offer pears to my family I always ask if they'd like 'a pair of pears'. I started mucking about with words to amuse myself and the children when they were small and I'm afraid I never stopped! (More examples are Sammy Sandwich, sublana (my eldest son's way of saying banana), nippy noodles and creme de la creme a la Edgar (meaning cream and taken from Disney's Aristocrats). We are a weird old lot but it makes me smile and I bet my children will do the same with their own children!

I shall be back tomorrow with another hanky-style creation. See you then!

Washi tape and hexagons for fathers day

It's a bright and breezy day in Buckingham today - perfect for getting up early and sneaking in a Less is More card before the chores begin. The challenge there today is Hexagons - and there's certainly no lack of those among my Stampin' Up stash! Come and see what I made:

I started by partially embossing a white panel with my Honeycomb embossing folder and added a strip of hexagonish (!) Epic Day washi tape where the embossing met the smooth card stock.

It needed something more... oh I know, MORE hexagons! I like the shape this fathers day sentiment from Delightful Dozen makes so I emphasised it by adding these fabulous map-patterned hexagons snipped out from a gorgeous design in the Epic Day designer paper pack. An accent of contrasting washi tape adds a bit of interest.

All the hexagons I used are different sizes  - but I didn't let that stop me!

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Delightful Dozen
Ink: Black stazon
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Epic Day washi tape and designer paper, Honeycomb embossing folder, Big Shot, paper snips, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

Notice that I might get the card made early but posting it takes a bit more ingenuity! Have been up to all sorts of mischief this morning, including this game:

I called it 'Pin The Hem on the Donkey' which was VERY rude but which caused me to cackle like a hen!

See you soon,

Smile! It's a Happy Day!

Since all the local cats seem to be using my back garden as the venue for their nightly raves at the moment, I'm feeling a tad sleep-deprived. I had some cheer-up therapy though in the form of this week's CASology cue word - Yellow - and some new stash YAY! Come and have a look:

It's impossible to feel tired and low when working with bright yellow - especially when you get to use this fabulous new gingham washi tape!  I laid strips of it onto a piece of card stock and cut out a frame using two of my Ovals framelits. I also cut an oval aperture into a panel of Daffodil Delight card stock and mounted the frame on top.

The wonderful, bold sentiment is from a new set called Happy Day (which will be available in to order in just 11 days time!) It was stamped directly onto the card base using a stamp-a-majig to make sure it was centred properly. The card was finished with a flower from Secret Garden centred with one of the retiring designer buttons and some delicious new Crushed Curry bakers twine.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Happy Day (available 2nd June), Secret Garden
Ink: Daffodil Delight classic ink, black stazon
Card stock: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight
Other: Ovals framelits, Gingham Garden washi tape and Crushed Curry bakers twine (available 2nd June), Brights designer button (retiring), paper snips, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• To make way for new items some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links to see STAMPS and ACCESSORIES available, while stocks last, until 30th June.

My youngest son has begun to organise his social life but seems to keep forgetting that communication is key! Having had several upsets on the matter, he has resolved to improve. Yesterday, at dinner, he announced that he'd been invited to a friend's birthday party. "That's great!" I said. "When is it?" He looked up from his plate. "Oh I don't know yet," he said. "I just thought I'd give you a pre-warning!" Hmm, not entirely the most useful information then. And what IS a pre-warning? A warning about a warning?! Don't worry though, I will find out when the party is... about five minutes before my son is due there!

Have a great weekend and I'll see you very soon,

Three Minute Summer Silhouettes border

Of all the stamp sets in the Stampin' Up catalogue at the moment, Summer Silhouettes has to be one of my favourites and most used. But if you thought the set was just about flowers, think again! Come and see the fast card I made for my Three Minute Thursday slot today:

That little garden trellis in the set can turn into a rather interesting quatrefoil border! I stamped it in Gumball Green ink and coloured it in with markers. I chose these sugary colours but you could easily use more masculine colours for a male card.

The sentiment is from Delightful Dozen and used to say 'Thank you so, so much' until I doctored it with my craft and rubber scissors! I think it's important to make your stamps work for you. I added a die-cut butterfly (I keep these ready cut in a jar in every colour) and topped it with a gem to finish the card but again, a button would work for a male card or, if you had more time, you could stamp the border on scrap card and cut one of the shapes out and pop it up over the original with a dimensional.

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Delightful Dozen
Ink: Gumball Green classic ink, black stazon
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Markers, Big Shot, Beautiful Wings embosslits die, Basic rhinestones, stamp-a-majig
I CAN ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO FIND OUT MORE OR TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• It won't be long before the new annual catalogue is here and, to make way for the new items, some of our favourites are retiring. Click the links for lists of the STAMPS and ACCESSORIES that are retiring - some at amazing prices! Sale items are never around for long, so contact me as soon as possible to avoid disappointment.

My favourite story all over the internet this week is the one about PC Peach - have you seen it? Apparently the crown prosecution service demanded a written statement from PC Peach, despite being told several times he was a police dog, so eventually police submitted the requested statement:

Picture from Twitter

Unfortunately the prosecution service were unable to see the funny side of it (what?!!!) but it certainly brightened up my day!

Are you wondering what I've been doing with my brand spanking new stash? Well, I've been putting it away on my shelves and stroking it and if I haven't been able to resist using some of it on a card made for tomorrow, well who can blame me!

See you then,