Lots of Lavender

Hello, if you've been following my posts you'll know that I made a book box and filled it with a variety of cards for a friend and work colleague using colours found in the Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper.

This is card number four and for this one I chose to use Lots of Lavender which was free during Sale-a-bration with a spend of £45. I have to admit that I'm not using colours associated with lavender as I need to keep to the colours found in the DSP.

Calypso Coral

Old Olive

Crumb Cake

Whisper White

I used a base card of Calypso Coral; while I love lots of white space, this time I wanted a bit of a zing. The eagle eyed amongst you will also have noticed that I've used a little Crumb Cake too, which although isn't one of the DSP colours, works really well with Calypso Coral and Old Olive. It also gives a much softer stamped image.

Because I've used a coloured base card, I added a Whisper White insert for writing on. As usual I stamped inside the card and on the envelope.

Whilst this stamp set could be used for may occasions, I thought it would make a lovely thank you card this time. I know lots of people have used the watercolour pencils or write markers to colour in the image but I've stamped the colour, making it very quick to make.

I used some burlap ribbon, unfortunately not from Stampin' Up! which is a better width.

Jar of Love meets Delightful Daisy

Hello, I've finally made it into my craft room. End of term just can't come soon enough, while I love my job in college, it really doesn't leave me as much time as I'd like to be creative now that I'm full-time.

A while ago I made a book box and filled it with cards as a little thank you to a work colleague who sometimes gives me a lift home. She lives in the same village as me luckily and I have to say I really appreciate her kindness, especially at the end of a hectic day.

Pool Party

Smoky Slate

Calypso Coral

Old Olive

Whisper White

Today I'm going to show the first of the cards I made. I based them all on the colour palette of the Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper although I did use various stamp and die sets for a range of cards that hopefully cover most life events.

For this card I went back to one of my favourite stamp sets, Jar of Love. I chose to use a Whisper White card base for this birthday card. My DSP was cut smaller and using a collar fold mounted onto Calypso Coral. I really like collar folds as it shows off both sides of the DSP. This in turn was stuck onto the front of the base card.

Using a scrap of Whisper White card and the Pool Party ink pad I stamped the small jar and mounted onto the card to the left hand side. I don't know about you, but I love stamping and die cutting leaves, flowers and butterflies so that I can use up the smallest scraps of card stock. I hate throwing any away and if it's big enough to take a die or punch then I put it it in my scrap folder for later use. I arranged the flowers and stuck down using dimensionals once happy with the layout

A small bow using Pool Party ribbon and birthday sentiment taken from the Cake Soiree stamp set completed the look. As usual I decorated the inside of the card and the envelope, this time by adhering a strip of the DSP along one side.

So, this is card number one, I hope you like it. Keep an eye out for the other four cards and the book box I made for them to go in.

Flower Shop again??

Hello, if you saw my last post, you'll recall I woke during the night with an idea for a card. Well once I started, I had ideas flooding in from goodness knows where using the same stamp set! This is the second card, again using soft pink and white.

Pink Pirouette

Pear Pizzazz

Whisper White

First of all I took my Pink Pirouette inkpad and stamped one of the flowers from Flower Shop over Whisper White card trimmed a little smaller than the card base, leaving the centre clear. I made sure to leave enough space so that I could add small flowers from Petite Petals for a little variation. When creating your own background paper, I think it looks more natural if some of the stamping is off the edge of the card as you can see below.

Next I die cut a circle from it before mounting onto a slightly larger piece of Pink Pirouette. The die cut circle was then die cut again using a slightly smaller Stitched Shape Framelit circle and them stamped with the sentiment. I love that the pink background forms an edge around it to make it pop more.

I stamped and punched one larger and two smaller flowers alongside some leaves, arranging them to the lower right of the sentiment. Once again, I stamped inside the card and on the envelope for a cohesive look. Another quick and easy card, I hope you like it.

Flower Shop

The other night I woke in the wee small hours with an idea implanted for a card. Unfortunately I didn't have the customary notebook and pencil nearby as I'd been sketching designs in the craft room earlier in the evening. I felt so lucky that when I finally got up, I could still remember what I wanted to make!

Pink Pirouette

Pear Pizzazz

Whisper White

I wanted a soft background so created my own using clear powder to heat emboss one of the flowers out of Flower Shop all over the white card. My sentiment was stamped and heat embossed on a stitched Framelit circle. To get the pale pink text I inked up the stamp first using Versamark before then inking in Pink Pirouette immediately afterwards. Clear embossing powder was heated over the top. I used dimensionals to raise the sentiment slightly.

Using a scrap of white card I stamped, heat embossed and punched out one flower. It was coloured using a pencil with blender pen before the petals were shaped. A couple of leaves were punched and strategically placed but I still felt it lacked something. I personally think the loop of mini silver sequin trim just finishes it off. It really doesn't take much; there numerous ways to use just a small amount of special trim and still get a fabulous finish.

The Joy of Sets Design Challenge 4 (Letter B) - Birthday Blooms

Hello, this week our challenge is to use a stamp set with the letter B in the title. Once again I went for Birthday Blooms. The other week I mentioned I had several ideas for this stamp set? Well this is the 2nd design I came up with that day based on the same theme.

One of my favourite stamp set

I chose to make a card to fit a DL envelope so although A4 cardstock is just short of 30cm in length, I cut across at 20cm and scored at 10cm. The remaining piece, once trimmed at the side was perfect for my top layer. I do so hate waste. Between the base card and top layer, I added Blushing Bride so that it created a narrow border.

Blushing Bride

Pear Pizzazz

Whisper White

Once again I used the Scalloped Tag Topper punch to create a cute tag in both vellum and Whisper White cardstock. This is a really card to make, I think less is more in this case but it does require careful measurement as there is nowhere to hide mistakes. Each of the 3 flowers line up in a row so to ensure they were level I brought out my trusty stamping press. 

The flowers stamped on card were water coloured loosely, going over the lines of the image. For the flower on vellum I chose to use ink and blender pens to colour in from the back as it had been heat embossed.

Did you know that you can colour the White Perfect Accents using Promarkers? Although I don't have that many I managed to find a reasonably good match for Blushing Bride as you can see in the picture. These 3 Perfect Accents balanced out the sentiment, stamped directly in the top left corner. I also wrapped some silver Metallic Thread round my fingers in a figure of eight before adding behind the tag.

Happy Birthday Christine's Mum

Hello there, today I thought I'd show you the 2nd card I made for Christine. The first one was for her daughter's 14th birthday and this one for her mum's birthday. The design brief was "something with flowers but I'll leave it up to you." The other week I took delivery of a reasonably sized Stampin Up order - well by my standards anyway. As a hobby demonstrator I try to order once a quarter if I can so each parcel is jam packed full of goodies. Amongst my new stash was the Wild about Flowers stamp set. I#d been eying it up for a while and couldn't wait to try it out.

Perfect Plum

Sweet Sugarplum

Garden Green

Wild Wasabi

Whisper White

It's funny because since Wimbledon started I seem to have gravitated towards purple and green, must be a subconscious choice. It certainly wasn't planned, I'm not that organised.

I created my background by stamping off first to get a softer colour. I love cottage gardens and wanted to try and recreate a slightly wild and wooly effect with flowers jostling for position.

Using full strength colours I stamped one of the flower stalks onto white card  along with the flower heads. It really doesn't matter if they they don't align perfectly. I then die cut it out using a die from the Lots of Labels set. To make it stand out more I mounted it onto a slightly larger die cut in Perfect Plum, taken from the same set. Three gems and bugs strategically placed on the card just added a little extra zing. I always try to use an odd number as it has a more pleasing effect on the eye.

Now I don't know about you, but I really struggle to stamp sentiments straight. Sometimes you can get away with stamping on a scrap and either punching or die cutting which is very forgiving. But this time I wanted to stamp directly onto the card; not once but twice! I've worn glasses since I was 4 years old and as I've got older, my eyesight has increasingly got worse; sometimes I struggle to see the letters on the keyboard. And I've always had problems with straight lines! So, out came my trusty stamping press - it really does earn it's keep. With a practice on scrap paper to check alignment first, once I was happy I committed to the card. I think it looks ok, maybe you can see a slight slant? Anyway, a handmade card is made with care and love and may have slight imperfections that as far as I'm concerned, add to the overall effect. In fact there are no mistakes, only happy accidents!

Joy of Sets Designer Challenge 2 (Letter S) - Flower Shop

Hello again, do you ever have a design in mind and find as you're busy creating, it totally changes? For The Joy of Sets Challenge this week I chose to use Flower Shop. I used a gorgeous card I'd seen on Pinterest by Becky as my starting point.

So Saffron

Pear Pizzazz

Whisper White

created by Becky at
 scrappinandstampingj.blogspot,co.uk

 I love the simplicity and softness of this card; white on white with a touch of colour is so elegant.

First of all, I used Versamark to stamp 3 flowers onto vellum before heat embossing in white. I coloured a piece of vellum with Pear Pizzazz before cutting some leaves using a leaf from Swirly Scribbles Thinlit dies.

Using the smaller of the butterflies from Watercolour Wings I again stamped on vellum and die cut it out. The beautiful quote is from Butterfly Basics; I bought this stamp set specifically for the quote! It was stamped onto a piece of Whisper White card stock and die cut with a circle from the Stitched Shape Framelit die set.






I also used the fern from this set to create a background, stamping off to get a paler version of Pear Pizzazz.

As you can see from the close-up. my card has much more colour! There is a narrow border of So Saffron card which helps to tie in the colours. I'm really still not sure how I went from the card above to the one below! Yet another happy accident. It just shows that it pays to be open minded and experiment as you go along.

The finished card