Happy Easter! It's Time For Some Cracking Deals!

Happy Easter! I hope the Easter Bunny has visited all of you. We had a lot of fun on our Easter Egg Hunt on Easter Sunday and there were some very full collection baskets when all was done. 

I have hung my Easter banner from last year which some of you who have been following a while may recognise. I know, a bit of a spoiler as it is a project you have seen before, but I loved getting it out of it's box and seeing it again, it was almost as exciting as the familiarity of old favourite Christmas decorations when you unwrap them each year. 

I have the banner hanging in pride of place on the mantle piece this year and it is catching my eye and making me smile each day with pride as to how lovely it looks. So why show it again and not something new? Well if you haven't checked out the weekly deals for this week just take a look at what follows......

.......and there they are, the Banner framelits dies for the Big Shot! Exactly what you need to cut your very own beautiful, unique banners for all occasions. This is what I used for my Easter banner along with cardstock and designer series paper stack sheets.  

If you are not looking to make your full sized banners, what about some cute mini banners?  In the weekly deals is also the Banner Punch. I have loved this little punch it is so easy to create a little mini banner magic on a card with it. Here is a recent card I made for my niece who was thrilled with it.

We are fast approaching the end of the Spring/Summer catalogue and the end of the main annual catalogue so soon too. Although I am excited about the new products which may be soon to come, I will be sorry to see some of my favourite colours leave with the new catalogue. Remember, with a new annual calalogue we have to say goodbye to the previous year's In Colours. For this catalogue change, this will mean the In Colours 2013-2015 will leave; Strawberry Slush, Coastal Cabana, Crisp Cantaloupe and Pistachio Pudding. All seen here on my Sea Street stamp card.

Remember, the weekly deals change every Wednesday so if you would like to order any of the items at these great prices then get in touch in plenty of time for me to place the order for you. The cardstock is all extremely popular at the moment too as demos and customers are stocking up so if you have a favourite colour and you don't want to run out then you may wish to purchase shortly.

Alternatively, you can order right away via my online shop (just see the top right of my blog page for the image to click to take you straight there).

For my Sea Street Card I used:

Sea Street Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Strawberry Slush Thick Baker's Twine	2013-2015 In Color Designer Series Paper Stack	2013-2015 In Color A4 Cardstock	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad
Crisp Cantaloupe Classic Stampin' Pad	Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Four You
On Film Framelits Dies	Banner Punch	Medium Window Sheets	Stampin' Dimensionals

Please note: 

I did also use my own sequins inside the window frame, however a similiar effect could be achieved with the 2013-2015 In Colour Sequin Assortment seen on page 208 of the main catalogue.

To place an order, book a workshop in your home or come to a class, just drop me an email at craftyinkbuds@sky.com. Remember you can now order online at anytime too.

Seaside Sea Street Treat Cup Card

There's been lots of glitter, lots of sparkle and lots of Christmas projects on the go, but this weekend saw little one attend a birthday party for a school friend so of course a little card was needed.

After spending some time lost in the world of Pinterest I of course had narrowed my crafting time to produce said card down to an hour or so. Whilst browsing I came across some examples of the Sea Street stamp set and I realised I could use this. I just moved away from the usual nautical red and blue combinations, added a little pink here and there and this is what I came up with.

My little fishes are stamped in Melon Mambo and also some Strawberry slush.  To get the lighter tone I stamped off first. My other colour combination is Bermuda Bay.  I wanted the card to be a bit special so I added a Treat Cup and then put in some of the little 'friends' from the set, the little crab and the little lobster along with some of the starfish cut out.  

It's a must to have some sparkle right?  I add some beads I had from my stash and there are also some punched out Glimmer stars from the Dazzling Diamonds glitter paper. You can also just see in the photo that my Perfect Print Numbers dies have come in handy too to add the number '5' to the octopus. Here is a closer view.

I stuck my treat cup to the outside of the card to keep the image behind it and then I used my Circle Framelits to create a border.

The birthday celebration needed a little banner so I used the Banner Punch with the Designer Paper Stack in the In Colours 2013-2015 and the Thick Baker's Twine to create my banner. I glued the twine of the banner with glue dots and then stuck the banner pieces down with the two-way glue just overlapping the twine.

To finish it off with some birthday greetings, a little 'Happy Birthday' from the Something to Say stamp set and the 'Birthday Wishes' inside is from the Four You stamp set.

I hope the birthday girl liked it!

Suzanne

x

If you would like to try this card, these are the products I used:

Sea Street Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Strawberry Slush
Strawberry Slush Thick Baker's Twine	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad	Sweet Treat Cups	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Banner Punch
Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack	Something To Say Wood-Mount Stamp Set	Four You	2013-2015 In Color Designer Series Paper Stack

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

To place an order, book a workshop in your home or come to a class, just drop me an email at craftyinkbuds@sky.com. Remember you can now order online at anytime too.

Forests of Festival of Trees

Sunday's are great for a walk through local areas of beauty and I hope we will be enjoying some fresh air later too, but in the meantime I am going to reveal my last project (or two) from my Festival of Trees selection.  At the beginning of the week I promised a special cad made from this great bundle from the Autumn/Winter catalogue and here is the card I made.

I have folded the card front to create layers to add my trees to. I created curved landscapes with embossed cardstock embossed with the Decorative Dots emboss folder.  I am loving this folder for it's lovely larger non-uniform dots which remind me of snowballs.  Not, by any means am I ready to be thinking of snow! Way at the back of the class there is a layer of sparkle from the All Is Calm speciality papers and also a layer of the Glimmer Paper I used on my previous cards too.  I feel am feeling a re-stock order is needed already for these two papers.

There are Lost Lagoon, Soft Sky, Smoky Slate and Pear Pizazz stamped images using the various tree designs in the set. I have also created a little banner for the sentiment. The banner is fixed with dimensionals to give it the raise which allows the top folded card to sit under so the card sits upright when opened.

Products I used:

Festival of Trees Bundle

Glimmer Paper Dazzling Diamonds

Decorative Dots Emboss Folder

Banner Punch ***Weekly Deal ***

Taffeta Ribbon - Soft Sky

Inks: Smoky Slate, Lost Lagoon, Soft Sky, Pear Pizazz

Cardstock: Smoky Slate, Whisper White

Another card for you today as whilst I was posting earlier this week I said I had an idea come to me. Here it is, a more traditional looking card which can also be for other occasions and not just Christmas.  And for me, this is a big step away from my usual blue and silver Christmas colours that I love.

This one uses the pine tree style of the set so I have created my own little pine wood by stamping in Pear Pizazz and the new Mossy Meadow.  I have stamped off twice for the lighter shade of the trees. This is just simply the technique of inking and stamping off once on your grid paper or spare sheet and then stamping the image onto your project.  

I have then added my glistening snow to the Mossy Meadow tree using a Glue Pen and some Dazzling Diamond glitter. The glue pens are great when adding glitter to get a fine thin layer of glue and no glitter blobs.

The shaded areas under the tree I added with a little Pear Pizazz ink and a blender pen. Just pick up a little ink on your ink pad on the blender pen and then gently add some sweeps under each tree trunk.

Tip: Tempting as it is, don't pick up the ink directly from the ink pad with the blender pen as you will end up with little white dots of no ink on the pad. Instead whilst your ink pad is closed, give it a little squeeze together. Open it up and there should be a little ink squeezed onto the lid of the ink pad and you can use this with the blender pen.

Extra Products Used for Card #2:

Good Greetings Stamps **Promotional Offer ***
Blender Pen
Dazzling Diamonds Glitter
Glue Pen

Cardstock: Mossy meadow, Pear Pizazz, Whisper White
Inks: Mossy meadow, Pear Pizazz

Enough of the tree love for now. I will work on some other projects to come back with soon.

Suzanne
x

To place an order, book a workshop in your home or come to a class, just drop me an email at craftyinkbuds@sky.com. Remember you can now order online at anytime too.