Happy Birthday bird card

Afternoon!

Are you glad it's Friday? I am, it's been a long week, even though we did have a Bank Holiday this week. I'm a little disappointed today, as many of my crafty friends are heading down to the Stampin' Up! regional training event in Telford today. This is a yearly day event, and was held in Leeds last year, which was handy for me! The event is tomorrow so most people are stopping in a hotel overnight so they get there early tomorrow. I'm not going this year as I decided to save my pennies for Convention in November, which I also missed last year. No excuses this year, it's in Manchester so I'm determined to go.  I can't wait to see pictures and hear all the stories from the day and see what they all made.

Today I'm sharing a card I made this week for a friend's birthday. I fancied doing something new that I'd not done before so I got onto my Pinterest boards where I pin my inspiration and cards to copy. I've that many saved I don't know when I'll get round to making them all!

I used Bashful Blue card stock for the card blank, and stamped Crumb Cake ink onto Very Vanilla card stock using the Woodgrain background stamp. These were cut into strips of 2cm wide and trimmed to the size I liked. I daubed around the edges with Crumb Cake ink to give the fence panels a bit of depth. The Happy Birthday sentiment was stamped with Wild Wasabi ink using the Itty Butty Banners stamp set and was cut out using the matching Framelit dies. Lastly a bird was punched out in Baja Breeze and Daffodil card stock, and the branch cut from Wild Wasabi. A Rhinestone Jewel was used for the eye of the bird and Mini Brads were placed on the ends of the horizontal fence panel to look like nails.

 

Bag and card set

Afternoon all,

I hope you are all well.  I had a nice break away from work last week, visited my family and fitted in a bit of crafting too.  I'll be sharing what I made last week very soon.  In the mean time, here's a very overdue post about a project that I made at a team training day, I'm not even sure when it was, it was that long ago! I also shared it with my class ladies at my monthly class a few weeks ago.  It's a gift bag and four cards and envelopes set, and I love it!  The papers used are the Natural Composition Speciality Designer Series Papers, and have more of a feel of card, they are think and have a lovely glossy finish.  There's 6 different designs, and there is 2 of each in the set.  The colour combo used was Summer Starfruit and Primrose Petals, two of the colours in 2012/13 In Colours.  I did get a little confused when I placed my order, and accidentally found myself with a pack of the Raspberry Ripple card stock, oops! I'm sure I'll find something to make with it instead.  

These are the four cards that we made.  The butterfly stamps are from the Papillion Potpourri, and they have been punched out with the Elegant Butterfly punch.  

This is the gift bag that the cards fit perfectly inside.  The bag was really easy to make, and the top has been made using the Big Shot and the Adorning Accents Edgelits dies.  The handles are two strips of Primrose Petals card stock, with a bow tied in the Stitched Satin Ribbon.  

This is a close up of the flower that was created by punching 6 flowers with the Blossom punch, wetting them with the Aquabrush, scrunching them up, and unfolding once they were dry.  A Vintage Faceted Button was placed in the middle, and the flower was spritzed with the Gimmer Paint.

Here's one of the cards from the set.  This one is made with the Summer Starfruit card stock.  One of the small Vintage Facted Buttons was placed on the butterfly, and the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set was used for the Thank You greeting.

Here's a close up of the Butterfly, stamped using the Papillion Potpourri, and punched out with the Elegant Butterfly Punch.  Look at the detail on the Natural Composition papers, aren't they lovely.

Here's a picture of the envelopes, stamped with the Summer Starfruit and the Primrose Petals inks.

Shoe Box Swap - Distressed Creative Elements card

This is quite a different style of a card from what I usually make, and I'm pleased that this was brought to the Shoe Box Swap class by Caroline Lovett. The technique is known as distressing, and around the edges of the layers of the card were roughed using the edge of the Paper Snips scissors. The edges of the Very Vanilla layer were also curled for extra detail. I'll be using this style more often.

The background was made using the flower stamp from Creative Elements, in Daffodil Delight and Tangerine Tango. The Tangerine Tango was stamped into the ink pad, and then once on scrap paper, to give a less strong colour. The flourish stamp from the set was stamped in Soft Suede. A spritz spray was used with the Champagne Shimmer Paint to give the golden effect. The Music Notes wheel stamp was rolled across in Basic Black ink. The flower stamp was then stamped onto Tangerine Tango card stock and cut out, as was the sentiment from a new stamp set called Itty Bitty Banners.

I've got another project in the pipeline from this card. I said above that I stamped off some of the Tangerine Tango ink to make it more subtle for the background. My sister saw the sheet I'd stamped these on, and has asked me to make something for her bedroom for her walls. I've got my thinking cap on for this, and hopefully I'll design and share the project with you soon.

Shoe Box Swap event

Morning,

I'm off to a Shoe Box swap event today. What's that you ask? Well, it's like a card class, but everyone brings a box containing all the card, papers, stamps, ribbons etc, and we'll be swapping boxes around the table, and making each others cards. Sound fun, I'm looking forward to seeing what everyone else has come up with.

This is my design. It took me all afternoon yesterday, I wasn't feeling very inspirational! I'd been off all week, and should have got my kit out and had a play earlier. After sitting on my craft room floor for far too long, I made it up to the desk and got going.

I used two new stamp sets a sneak peek from the Annual Catalogue, called Make A Cake, and Itty Bitty Banners. The Stamp-a-ma-jig is a must for this set, with all the stamps designed to be used together to create an image. Two step stamping it's called. I used Island Indigo, Pool Party and Rose Red ink. The Scallop Border Punch was used to create the edge on the two layers of card stock, and a piece of Pool Party bakers twine was wrapped around the centre of the card a few times and tied in a bow.

I hope everyone at the event likes my card.