Parisian Butterfly

 I sat down to make a card recently and had one of those “blank creative mojo” moments! I wasn’t too sure what I was going to put together and had no plan for the card layout! I started with a new DSP that I love (Pairisian Breeze) and then added a favourite stamp set (Great Friend) and after having putting the pieces down on the card, they just kind of fell together and I really love how it turned out!!

 

Isn’t it funny how sometimes the things which we don’t plan, actually turn out better than we could have ever planned ourselves! This came together very quickly in the end and just uses a little bit of cutting, an eyelet border punch, and then that little strip of Chocolate Chip and Baja Breeze spotted card is actually just the leftover piece that you get after punching the border! I always keep these little strips and find myself going back to use them all the time! But it worked quite well to use this piece on the same card as an accent to the DSP by just turning it around to the back!!

What amazing creations have you made while feeling that you are lacking in creative mojo?

Thankyou Box

I saw a great idea for a 3D project in my e-travels lately and decided to have a go at making it! This box (dubbed the Sevens Box because all of the score lines are made at multiples of 7!) was designed by Marelle Taylor and is a super easy box to make. You can find the tutorial with very easy to follow instructions on Marelle’s blog.

 Here’s my box:

My box doesn’t actually have anything inside it yet… but it is perfect for filling with lots of yummy treats! I used a piece of Pumpkin Pie cardstock for my base and decorated the top with a square of Sweet Always DSP and a piece of Regal Rose grosgrain ribbon. Then I stamped the Elegant Thankyou stamp (from Spring Mini) in Chocolate Chip ink on Regal Rose cardstock and punched out with the Scallop Square Punch.

The great thing about this design is that it is so simple to make that you could make multiples quickly – so it is perfect as a party favour or treat box!

Pretty Little Chest of Drawers

I made a very cute little 3D project recently and demonstrated it at a workshop!  I was really happy with how it turned out and it is so simple to make!

I saw something similar on Mary Fish’s blog, and just adapted it to suit the products I had and what I wanted to do.

Here is my pretty little Chest of Drawers:

With the drawers open:

Wouldn’t it be perfect for a little gift of jewellery, or some choccies or something special?!

I made the chest of drawers by folding 2 little boxes using the Walk in the Park DSP. These are made like an origami box (you can find instructions for these in lots of places… like here!) using a 6 x 6” square of DSP. Usually I would make a base box with a lid, but these are just 2 bases of the same size.

I wrapped a piece of Baja Breeze cardstock around the drawers which was 6 cm wide and overlapped on the bottom. Then I attached a strip of DSP to the card and secured it all at the bottom of the drawers. I also added a piece of cardstock (the same width as the drawers and then had little sides) to the inside, with the sides attached to the walls of the chest, so that the drawers were separated and could be pulled out independently.This added an extra section kind of like a shelf. I added a Baja Breeze corduroy brad to each drawer which are solid enough to be used as handles to pull the drawers out.

It was pretty quick and easy to make, and I think it makes a perfect “gift wrapping” for a special little present for that somebody special! Or maybe it will just sit on my dresser and hold some pretty little things of mine… !!

Inkspirations/ Raspberry Suite Challenges!

I have not been able to take part in many challenges lately – life has just been very busy! So I was determined to take part in at least one this week! I also needed a few personal cards, so wanted to work it in with those. I was looking through some of my fave challenges and I decided I could combine a couple of them and “kill two birds with one stone”… so to speak!

So here are the criteria for Keesh’s Inkspirations Sketch Challenge #12 and also for Dawn’s Raspberry Suite Colour Challenge #15!!

 

And here is my finished card:

 This is a larger than normal card (it is a whole A4 sheet of cardstock, folded in half), as it will be for one of the girls at work, and everyone will need to sign it. It was quite nice working with such a large card though, because I could include a bit more detail in the “garden”-style circle part. By the way, I really need to get myself some circle cutters… these circles were, once again, cut by hand! Hope it’s not too obvious!!

Thanks for stopping by!

“Butterflies for You”
Stamps: Great Friend
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Regal Rose, Certainly Celery, Sweet Always DSP
Ink: Certainly Celery, Regal Rose, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Certainly Celery Ribbon, Scallop Border Punch, Clear Rhinestones, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Stampin Dimensionals

Rock a Bye Baby

I went to a lovely baby shower on Saturday,  for my friend, Kate, who now has 3 1/2 weeks to go til her little one arrives! Very exciting!

So, of course, I had to go shopping for baby clothes and make a lovely baby card for her!! She doesn’t know the gender of the baby yet, so I picked my usual non-gender specific baby colours of Barely Banana & Certainly Celery!

Here is my card:

I used some retired DSP that I love for baby cards - it has the perfect colours and designs!! I punched it with the Scallop Border Punch and used a little Certainly Celery ribbon. I used Nursery Necessities - my fave for baby cards! I used Barely Banana, Certainly Celery & Pink Pirouette inks for the elephant and birdie and the oh so cute sentiment is from Nursery Necessities too.

Now I will have to make another card very soon, when the baby arrives!!

Recent Workshop Projects…

 These are some projects I have made or demonstrated at workshops recently… They all use the wonderful products from the Spring Mini!

 Here is a cute little box that I made using a template from the SU! Demo website – one of the joys of being a demo!!

 This was made using Kraft cardstock and I used a Close to Cocoa panel on the front. I added the butterfly & frame from the Great Friend stamp set to the front, and a sentiment from the Oval All stamp set, punched out with the Scallop Oval Punch! Simple but cute!

 This card was one I made to show how easy it is to incorporate the individual stamps from the Spring Mini when you have limited supplies!  

I stamped the Birthday Wish stamp in Regal Rose and used it with some lovely Tea Party DSP. The flower is an image cut out from the DSP (another great way to include images!). I used the colours from the DSP to make the card – an Almost Amethyst panel punched with the Scallop Border Punch and a base card of Certainly Celery.

This card demonstrated the individual Thankyou stamp with some extra embellishments!! 

I used a Baja Breeze card base and wheeled the So Swirly wheel in Baja Breeze ink. I used a Pink Pirouette panel with a Basic Grey side panel punched with the Eyelet Border Punch. I added a panel of Whsiper White and a strip of Basic Grey. I stamped the Thankyou stamp in Basic Grey and punched it out with the Scallop Square punch. I finished it all off with some Pink Pirouette ribbon and two Baja Breeze corduroy buttons!

If you want to get yourself some gorgeous products from the Spring Mini Catalogue, just contact me here!

Happy Birthday Tool Card

Here’s a card I made recently for a friend’s birthday!

He’s a bit of a Mr Fix It – especially with cars, so I thought the Totally Tools stamp set would be perfect!

I stamped the tools on Whisper White and then coloured them with my aquapainter. I also used the new individual Birthday Wish stamp from the Spring Mini. I also used some Hemp Twine & the very masculie Windsor Knot DSP.

“Happy Birthday Tools”
Stamps: Birthday Wish, Totally Tools
Paper: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip, Creamy Caramel, Windsor Knot DSP
Ink: Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Really Rust, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Hemp Twine, Wide Oval Punch, Stampin Dimensionals

Butterflies for you

Here’s a card I made recently for a hostess – hi Amy!

I used the Great Friend stamp set… can you tell it’s my new favourite??!!

I mixed it with Pacific Point & Baja Breeze and a little Walk in the Park DSP (another fave! I’m going to have to buy some more of this paper soon – I’ve nearly used it all already!). I used some lovely silver Antique Brads in the centre of the butterflies and then popped them up on dimensionals. I also popped up the sentiment which I stamped in the co-ordinating little frame! 

I love this colour combo! I’ve been using heaps of Basic Grey lately – probably because all my favourite DSPs use it! It’s a great neutral to mix with and is even starting to take over my use of Kraft!!

Button Bouquet

After making my “button trees” yesterday, I kept playing around and decided to make a bouquet of buttons – or some button flowers!

I needed some stems for my flowers, but couldn’t really find many options in my stamp stash! I finally found the stem from the hostess set “Live Like You Mean It” and only inked up part of it so the stem was shorter. I also wanted the stems to face different ways so that they looked more natural, so I used my Certainly Celery marker to draw some more stems with leaves. Then I poured out my button stash and picked some pretty coloured buttons to be my flowers (it helps that many of the buttons are shaped like flowers!)!

Here is my “button bouquet”:

  Here’s a close up of the garden of buttons:

I’m really pleased with how the card turned out and I think it looks really pretty! I always want to hoard my button stash and I tend to be quite reluctant to break them out and actually add them to projects! I even stopped halfway through making my card and thought – No!! I’m using too many buttons on one project! I could have used half this many buttons!! Aagh!!

But I kept pushing through my button angst and I love the way it turned out in the end! It’s a large card (a full A4 piece of card folded in half) so it needed to be a fairly big garden of buttons! This card will be going to one of the lovely girls at work who is having her birthday today, so it has lots of space for everyone to sign.

If you’re curious about the colour co-ordinating thread – yes, I did “thread” each one of those myself and no, I do not have thread in all of the Stampin Up colours! I “threaded” each of my buttons with a thin sliver of cardstock! There is a great explanation of how to get the perfect cardstock threaded button on Andrea’s blog over here.

I’m going to have to buy some more buttons now… maybe I can plant some button flowers and see how they grow…!!

 

 “Button Bouquet”
Stamps: Live Like You Mean It (stems), Great Friend (sentiment), Polka Dot (background)
Paper: Baja Breeze, Pink Pirouette, Walk in the Park DSP
Ink: Certainly Celery, Kiwi Kiss, Baja Breeze
Accessories: Pink Pirouette Striped Ribbon, Scallop Border Punch, Designer Bouquet & Latte Buttons, Word Window Punch, Stampin Dimensionals

Trendy Button Trees

 I have seen a lot of cards recently using buttons as a feature of the picture and after seeing Dawn McVey’s design using trees with buttons for the tree tops, I decided to create a similar design using our Trendy Trees set. I’ve since seen this around on a couple of blogs, but here is my version of “button trees”! 

I used the Trendy Trees spiral tree with some Walk in the Park DSP (from the new Spring Mini) and some Chocolate Chip ribbon. Then I added some cute buttons from the Designer Bouquet and Latte Button collections! Aren’t they cute?! I also added some co-ordinating “thread” to the buttons using little strips of cardstock! It’s a little bit fiddly but it just finishes the card off really nicely!

I played around with the button idea a bit more after that and came up with another super cute idea which I will show you tomorrow!

“Trendy Button Trees”
Stamps: Trendy Trees
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Walk in the Park DSP
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Kiwi Kiss, Certainly Celery, Old Olive
Accessories: Chocolate Chip Grosgrain Ribbon, Scallop Border Punch, Designer Bouquet & Latte Buttons, Word Window Punch, Stampin Dimensionals