Thank you downlines!

Last week I received a call from Stampin' Up! HQ congratulating me on my leadership bonus. I was thrilled and also a bit surprised. I'd taken my eye off the ball so I thought I'd best make some cards to thank the downlines directly responsible for me receiving the bonus: Fiona, Bev and double thanks to Diane!

 The card base is Crumb Cake that has been stamped all over with the Very Vintage wheel using Soft Suede ink. This wheel is fabulous as it makes a really aged look but super fast.

 Then I set about using some of the products I ordered in my latest splurge: Apothacary Art and the matching nesting dies. Plus I purchased the watercolour pencils and used them to colour in the images. Oh how I have fallen in love with these!!

 The top version is Pool Party, then we have So Saffron and then at the bottom it's Pirouette Pink. Which is your favourite colour combination? I think I like them all!!!

Embossing all over the place

A late post today as it's been a busy day. I went along to Natalie's training session today and had a fab time. We had business training as well as gaining lots and lots of great ideas for future classes, demonstrations and so on. Oh and we spent over 4 hours stamping and chatting!

(If this sounds like fun to you, why not join my team? You'd be able to attend training sessions too! Contact me for more information)

Anyway, I got back too late to photograph anything that I'd like to share so instead I have this card for you. It features a lot of embossing - the background is clear embossed using the Very Vintage jumbo wheel, the words & All A Flutter butterfly are in gold embossing powder.

The 'thanks' greeting is from the Sale-A-Bration set So Happy For You. Such a fun font, and one of the sets that you can choose for FREE with every £45 worth of products ordered until the end of February.

I've used Chocolate Chip and Rich Razzleberry to compliment the golden butterfly. Lots of distressing to the edges and sponging for texture. Currently I appear to be glued to my distressing tools...

The butterfly is attached to the card with a Dimensional that is attached to a 1p coin so that the butterfly spins along the long oval window. Sweeeeeeet! I have the adapted the tutorial I saw ages ago on Monica Gale's website and it's such an easy technique.

If you are interested in learning how to make this type of mechanism on a card, you'll love my Easter class as we'll be making a card that has the same moving part!! Click on the 'Classes' tab at the top of the page for dates.

No such thing as a mistake!

My sister made this card for my Open House back in April. She's not a card maker usually, but fancied playing around with the supplies that littered my dining table.
I really liked the design, especially the vintage look. I guess the stamps helped (all those vintage ones!), but also the way that the sentiment has little black lines where the ink has rubbed off other parts of the rubber matting. I'm told that this was a mistake so she decided to continue the sentiment to make it look like she meant it to be that way, and I am super impressed! What a clever sister I have!!

Card: Close to Cocoa, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip, Bashful Blue
Ink: Basic Black
Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Very Vintage jumbo roller, Tiny Tags
Other: Jewellery punch, White satin ribbon, Linen thread, Random paper scraps