Does it have to retire...?

Hello, a while ago a dear friend and SU colleague kindly gave me a bag of spares and offcuts from cards she had previously made. Amongst the crafty stash were some flowers stamped and punched from the Petite Petals set. This set is sadly now retired, I really don't know why as it's lovely. I've since been lucky to find them on a selling site so they are sitting happily on the shelf in my craft room.

Close-up of the flowers

It was during the recent heatwave here that I thought I'd like to make a fresh summery card and remembered these flowers already stamped and punched, it saved me so much time.

I started by stamping the wreath from Wondrous Wreath using Old Olive and Pear Pizzazz and then die cut it. The flowers were added after shaping them, along with some small shapes that looked like leaves. I thought it just added a little more texture. My base card was made from Whisper White and I added a border in Daffodil Delight to match the flowers before embossing my top Whisper White layer with the Softly Falling embossing Folder.

The wreath was added using dimensionals. A couple of butterflies couldn’t resist fluttering down to settle either side of the wreath. Again, they were found in the stash.

I wanted a bow, but didn't want it to overpower the design so once again Linen thread came to the rescue. I tied a small triple bow, wrapping the thread around a fork before securing with a tiny blob of liquid glue.

Finally I added a sentiment, taken from Cottage Greetings, which is the only current stamp set used. “Hope your day is wonderful” is relatively generic so the card can be used for more than one occasion. 

Pleats, Folds and More Pleats

Hello, this last week week I've been looking at ways to use DSP in my cards. I came across the idea of pleating it to create different effects and have to say, I really like the results.

For my first one I used 2 sheets of 6"x6" paper as I didn't have any 12" double sided. This really caused me headache trying to get the join hidden and I honestly wouldn't recommend it unless you have paper that you just can't not use.

Calypso Coral

Old Olive

Whisper White

As the paper has such a busy pattern I tried to keep the decoration to a minimal, with just a sentiment and one butterfly. I love butterflies, so the end result, for me, justifies the headache caused matching the paper. The DSP used is the sadly retired Pretty Petals and the butterfly was stamped from Papillon Potpourri and punched with the matching Elegant Butterfly punch.

The next card I made was far easier courtesy of Susan  from Craftyduckydoodah who on hearing my plight kindly sorted through her 12"x12" DSP stock and brought some sheets for me to use when I attended her Coffee and Card group.

Night of Navy

Whisper White

This time, the pleats weren't so close so more of the 2nd side could be seen. With the words facing, I thought it would be nice to add balloons.I didn't have any wide ribbon in either white or Night of Navy so used narrow navy on a strip of Whisper White cardstock. Balloons were punched from Whisper White, Night of Navy and the DSP.

So flushed with success I thought I'd try a collar fold for the third card. I combined  a sheet from Pretty Petals with my favourite bundle, Jar of Love to create this one. I think it might even be my favourite card of this group.

Calypso Coral

Very Vanilla

Old Olive

At the time of making this, a friend let me know that her son had been involved in an accident and was undergoing emergency surgery, hence the sentiment. Thankfully, he's making a good recovery and due to the skill of the maxillofacial surgeon will have minimal scarring.

And finally, getting right into folding, I chose to make a double pleated card. This one used Affectionately Yours DSP. I also used a Swirly Scribbles die and the tiny flowers from the Jar of Love bundle - could it have really been anything else!

Cucumber Crush

Watermelon Wonder

Crumb Cake

Whisper White

I really hope you like this selection. Next on my to do list is to try a different for me ink technique. I'm going to attempt to recreate the Northern Lights and will report back once it's completed. I expect to have very inky fingers.