Cart of cards

Hello and welcome to another kit creation. This one is a cute little cart made from scalloped envelopes. You use 3 die cuts. The first two had the scalloped edge off, the third had the scalloped edge and small flaps removed. This very stripped envelope was cut in half to make the sides of the box.

 

The wheels were 1 1/4" circles of black card and 1" Daffodil Delight centre.

 

  The Flight of the Butterfly set has been sorely neglected so it was good to use them to decorate the mini cards. The coordinating punch made them super easy to cut out!

The patterned paper is called Big Top and is really fun. Such a bright colour combination!

Tomorrow is going to be a very exciting day as there is a brand new Mini catalogue going to be available!!!! So exciting! Check back tomorrow for more details.

Cirlces Theme

Greetings LIM fans! Here is my entry for the Circles Theme this week on the Less is More challenge blog.

I used my 1/2" circle punch to punch out the rainbow. As soon as I heard the challenge I knew I wanted to use that punch. I forgot that the rainbow has only 7 colours so I had to do a bit of arranging but now I'm pleased with the end result.

For the sentiment: it was stamped in White Craft ink using a stamp from Flight of the Butterfly that says "thank you so very much". It's much more striking in real life but that's me taking photos I guess!

Such a great challenge this week - seeing everyone else's creations has been a real treat. Hope you like mine!!!

Flower power

This card is seriously cased from the latest issue of Impressions, the monthly publication sent to all UK Stampin' Up! Demos. To be fair I have changed the colours and stamps that I used but the techniques and layout are the same. This card features 4 different stamping techniques. The flower accent stamp is in the Mini catalogue and I lurve it. I think the shape of the petals is just divine.
Anyway from the top down:

• Regular stamping in Rose Red
  
• Rock and roller (or something like that), where the stamp was inked with Pretty in Pink first and then rolled on the edges through Rose Red. The darker colour tints the edges of the flower giving a graduated colour, which is really pretty.
  
• This flower was 'stamped off' i.e. the stamp was stamped once and then this image was made when the stamp was stamped again to produce a lighter image
  
• This is 'reverse kissing' where the flower stamp was inked up and then pressed against Baroque Motifs swirly stamp that had no ink on it. The result is this delicate pattern.

So it looks complex but actually they were incredibly quick and easy, and I managed to make 4 in about 30 minutes... the hardest part was cutting out the flowers by hand! I will have to invest in a mat pack as my piercing is shamefully wonky!
This photo was taken today of the Munchkin before we got dressed. Immy wasn't feeling well as she's been teething and hasn't been enjoying the pain! It was a looong day waiting for a stairgate to turn up (which is still yet to arrive) so we went out to Wizzy World, a soft play centre near us. Oh my gosh the noise was horrendous! As it was raining the place was heaving and it was quite a job protecting the little one from wild big kids who were on the rampage! Still, she loved it and slept really well afterwards!!

Happy anniversary to us!

Today is our first wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe a year as passed so quickly. So much has changed: we have bought our first house together, had a baby, got chickens and become ridiculously Surrey.
Still, it was a great excuse to use my pretty Bride DSP paper on this card for my gorgeous husband. I love this paper so much... if only it had been around when I was making our wedding invitations! I kind of stole (ahem!) I mean borrowed the idea from Monica Gale (are you spotting a pattern for my inspiration?!). The Flight Of the Butterfly is such a pretty stamp set and the matching punch makes this sort of card a breeze to make.
Tonight we're going for a meal at the venue we had our wedding reception and we're even eating the same dishes! This is great news as I was bang on 12 weeks pregnant on our wedding day and could barely breathe in my wedding dress, let alone eat anything the entire day!!
Have a great sunny day and I hope to see you at my Open House this weekend.

Easter Basket

This basket was inspired by one I saw on Linda Lloyd's site (aka Gadget Monkey). I adapted it to suit me by using my Big Shot box die to make the base of the basket and then white strips were adhered to create a white picket fence look. I then got stamping and punching butterflies to decorate the basket.
It was incredibly quick to make which is handy as I am making them to sell at a fair next Saturday (although I only decided to do it yesterday afternoon!). So I will be v busy this week making sure I have plenty of goodies to sell! By the way, if you've got an ideas for quick Easter themed things to make please let me know via the comments as I could do with some more ideas.
The only thing I am not happy about on it is the grass as I should have used one continuous strip instead of separate ones for each side to prevent a bit of blue showing right on the bend.

Chocolate Favours

A simple but stylish table decoration is a chocolate favour. These are made with 3/8" circles that have been stamped with a co-ordinating colour. These are mounted on circle scallops and these sandwich Elizabeth Shaw after dinner mints. You can buy these from most supermarkets and come in mint and orange flavours.

You can embellish the stamped images with brad and glitter. You could even print the bride & groom's initals if they were for your wedding table. The perfect accompaniment to after dinner coffee no matter what the occasion!

Another card inspired by someone else's work. KarenG on SCS was the original person to design this card layout. I simply altered the colours and greeting. Featuring Certainly Celery as the main card and a lovely Cameo Coral butterfly from the Flight of the Butterfly set. The greeting is from the same set - you can't have enough Thank You cards, can you?

The simplistic design works really well I think. You could 'butch' it up a bit by not having a butterfly on there if the card was for a man. Maybe a pint glass or something instead?!

Butterfly birthday

Before I encountered Stampin' Up! I had never used punches before. Now I couldn't live without them!! They are so useful and give a really professional finish to cards. This card feaures my lovely butterfly punch, which co-ordinates beautifully with the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set. Very delicate and graceful.

I've also rediscovered paper pricking so there are a couple of rows of that on this card on the So Saffron layer.

New cards

Here are a couple of cards I made recently based on some designs I in the December issue of Creating Keepsakes magazine (from the USA). Lots of lovely Stampin Up products used and a scrap of patterned paper I found in my scraps drawer.

I'm loving scrunching paper. The big flowers look really boho and cool, I think. It's a really easy technique. the white parts of the flowers were made from plain whisper white cardstock that I stamped an image onto. In this case I used a flower stamp from the Simply Said kit (pg59) and chocolate chip ink. When scrunching the flowers you simply use a water spray (similar to the kind used for misting plants) and spray the water directly onto the back of the card and scrunch it up.