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. 

How many Xmas cards do I need??

Hello, thanks for stopping by. I can't believe on Christmas Eve I'm still making cards for the holiday season. I am really enjoying making them so I've started on my stash for 2017; how's that for forward planning? No getting caught off guard this next year for me.

This time I'm sharing a shaker card. Susan of Craftyduckydoodah showed me this easy way of making them at one of her Coffee and Card sessions. I've used mainly SU products although I confess the church stamp is one I've had for several years and is not made by Stampin Up. I chose Night of Navy and White with silver accents for a fresh look.

Night of Navy

Whisper White

 I've used dies from several sets to create the bauble card so my shopping list might seem excessive this time. Those of you that know me, are aware I like to get value for money so this time, in my defence, I was trying to think outside the box. The bauble is actually just a round die with the top taken from the Delicate Ornament Thinlits. The bow is from Everyday Jar Thinlit dies although I could have used the bow as well as the sentiment fromWonderful Wreath Framelits. The Softly Falling embossing folder added some texture and just made the whole scene feel a little more Wintry

The band of Silver Glimmer Paper and die cut sentiment complete the look. Please look out for other cards based on the bauble theme; I intend to make a variety of them.