Blackberry Bliss Petite Petals Butterfly

Today we have been out enjoying the fabulous sunshine (when it finally arrived) and sitting watching the Farnborough Air Show as the planes flew over.  Unfortunately after a busy theme park day for my little one yesterday and a late drive back he fell asleep way before the Red Arrows display he had been waiting for started.  Oh well, another chance tomorrow to see them if he can stay awake!!

Today's card is a simple design using some of the new In Colours 2014-2016 again.  I have layered in Smoky Slate and Whisper White with a circle cutout with the Circles Collections Framelits dies.  I have left off all the dimensionals or any embellishments on this one so apart from the butterfly there is nothing standing out to cause the extra postage.

I simply stamped using the Petite Petals with the colours Blackberry Bliss, Lost Lagoon and Hello Honey in a random pattern.  I have been using only one or two of the flower designs so I had purposefully picked out one of the other designs for this card and I am glad I did.

The 'Thank You' comes from the Something to Say stamp set which is already proving very useful for a number of occasions and celebrations.  You can never have too many thank you cards lined up ready to send.  The butterfly, of course, you will recognise from the Papillon Potpourri set as it has made a number of appearances, but with all these flowers in the garden in bloom and watching the wildlife each day it is hard not to put the two together too when crafting.

I love the new colours and I am loving finding new combinations with them with both my existing stamp sets and the new ones I have to show you too.

Don't forget to drop by again soon for some new inspiration. 

Suzanne

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To place an order for any of the products I have used, 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 by just using the online shop link at the top of the blog page.

Confessions of the New Catalogue Addict

What a wonderful few days I have been having! I have been busy beavering away at that stash of birthday cards to make for the family birthday run in July, but I have also been able to enjoy some memorable family time sharing those birthday moments with those dear to me.

It is all the birthday for my Mum, my sister and me in the first few weeks of July and as it was a special birthday this year for my Mum we all booked ourselves tickets for the flower show at Hampton Court Palace.We had a lovely day enjoying all the beautiful flowers and the colour inspiration from the displays was just stunning!

A confession to make though was that our day did involve quite a bit of food as well as flowers. Well not so much food, but more specifically cake! We took Mum for an Afternoon tea near by and that was after we had sampled a little late morning tea and cake at the show.  As we made our finally way round the show in the afternoon we did our best to sample as many of the fine food wares from the stalls as we could and came home laden with goodies to stash in the fridge and cupboards! I think there may have to be some rationing to make them last!

After all that colour inspiration I also had another day of crafting inspiration joining my extended crafting family for a fantastic day of training with our lovely crafting 'Mummy'.  I came home with lots of ideas and samples and realised just how naughty I have been enjoying my new catalogue products and not sharing them all with you, up until now that is......

Here are the New In Colour 2014-2016 collection colours from the new catalogue on a simple card I have made to show them off.

The new colours in the collection are called Mossy Meadow, Lost Lagoon, Tangelo Twist, Hello Honey and Blackberry Bliss.  I can already tell you my favourite is Lost Lagoon.  No surprises there as it is always the blue tones I seem to love the most!  Blackberry Bliss is gorgeously rich in colour though and a very close second.

Which one do you like best?  Leave me a comment with your choice as I would love to know.

This card is using the dotty Petite Petals flower, but can you see the new stamps on it too?  There is the little flower centre on the Blackberry Bliss flower at the end of the row and the 'Happy Birthday'. These are both in a new set from the catalogue called 'Something to say'.  As well as lots of useful sayings in the set there is a little heart, a little star and the little flower.  In true Stampin' Up! style there is the Itty Bitty Punch pack to co-ordinate for instant punching (we love this!)

A really simple Happy Birthday card and the colours are so vivid against the Whisper White.  I am not sure why my birthday sentiment is looking a little wobbly though I think I may need to go back and check my mounting on that one.

Well I am sitting here with the french doors open enjoying the burst of sunshine coming through and the day is calling me away from the computer to enjoy it some more.  Back soon with some more inspiration and colour to brighten up your days I hope.

Suzanne

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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 browse the products and order online at anytime too.

Springtime Sunshine, Petals and Butterflies

A bit later than promised as I just had to tell you about the Weekly Deals being offered by Stampin' Up! throughout April first, but here is the card layout that I was playing with previously.  Now the sunshine is with us it is the perfect time to be out enjoying the sunshine.  Pack a picnic, take a rug and find your spot to sit and enjoy nature in all it's glory!

This card is one I made with a group of lovely ladies this week and they loved the colour combinations of the Elegant Eggplant, Coastal Cabana, Daffodil Delight, and Pear Pizzaz. 

The designer papers used for the card were the Afternoon Picnic from the main catalogue.  These papers have a selection of patterns to play with; five-sided hex's, chevrons and circles.  All of these shapes are featured with the other co-ordinated products, punches and Big Shot framlits.

I started our card with a base of cardstock measuring 13.5cm x 27cm to make a finished card 13.5cm square.  The card base is then easily made by creating a diagonal fold on the top of the card and it is the decorative label mounted on the dimensional foam pads which then holds the card in position when opened.  The fold line was started from the top left down to the bottom right for the diagonal.  Once we had figured out the fold the right way, the ladies were off to a great start!

For our card, I layered up the designer paper with Petite Petals and Papillion Potpourri punched images for a beautiful celebration of spring.  See also the Label Love sentiment and Artisan Label also on there for the greeting.

I loved the colours, patterns and the Springtime theme of this one, I hope you do too.

Suzanne

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Products I used:

Punches/Dies -

130920 Artisan Label

120907 Decorative Label

133322 Petite Petals

*** Bundle Offer *** Buy the Petite Petals Stamps and punch for a saving of 15% 134821 Petite Petals Bundle

127526 Elegant Butterfly

129406 Bitty Butterfly

Stamps -

132058 Papillon Potpourri

Petite Petals 

Paper/Card - 

131390 Afternoon Picnic Designer Paper 

108614 Elegant Eggplant

106550 Very Vanilla

Colours -

Elegant Eggplant

Coastal Cabana

Daffodil Delight

Pear Pizzaz

NB: The Afernoon Picnic colours vary slightly from the selection I have used.

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.

Pretty Petite Petals and Butterflies All Around

The sunshine today has drawn us out into the garden to finally paint the new fence panels we had installed after the recent storms.  We did manage a trip out to the local garden centres too where we enjoyed seeing all the Spring flowers in full bloom.  What a delight to see the bright vibrant colours in all the container plants!

So today's card is another using the springtime favourite, Petite Petals.  I could have just stamped directly onto some card, but I wanted to layer my flowers with some tiny leaves so I punched my flowers out.  I also wanted to add some ribbon detail so made a wrap of Crumb Cake seam-binding ribbon with a flower detail of it's own.

Why stop at flowers?  I thought I would add some Butterflies too!  It's a full Spring/Summer celebration card with this one!  The elegant butterfly and petite butterfly punches make a a lovely frame detail round the 'For You' sentiment from the Chalk Talk stamp set.

The whole card is layered onto the Hexagon emboss folder background in the matching Rose Red colourway now in the Regals colour collection.

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.

Pretty Petals All Around

Just a quick post from me today as we are getting ready to be battered by the storm outside.  This card was one I have made recently, but it is my favourite.  I am sure you can see the inspiration from my previous posts, the wreath kit and my other cards with the Petite Petals.

The idea came to me one morning as I woke and I knew I was going to have to make it before I lost it in the muddled mummy memory bank.

The card is on Whisper White layers, but the best bit in the middle is the Vellum window created with Stampin' Up!'s Vellum Cardstock.  I have seen so much of the new vellum embossed papers we have around and it inspired me to dig out my pack of the special cardstock to have a play.  The Chalk Talk saying in the middle is white embossed which was my creative moment when I thought of this as the idea.

The best bit about the wreath too and the Petite Petals was I was using up all my off-cuts of strips of card.  I just inked and stamped a row of each colour flower and design on a strip and then punched away whilst catching up on some TV viewing - perfect!  I had some Little Leaves prepared too with the small Sizzlit die for the Big Shot to add the leaves around the wreath.

Here's another view of the card so you can see I layered it and used some dimensionals to give the top layer a lift from the vellum.

There is a lovely banner of heart embossing across the bottom of the card too using the Adorning Accents Emboss Folders.

Talking of embossing, did you know Stampin' Up! have released a new tool and I have only just got round to telling you all about it!  It is so exciting!  There is the new Texture Boutique Tool which allows you to emboss with embossing folders, but without the bulky Big Shot cutting machine.  It is much smaller, lighter and transportable for those catch-up crafting sessions on-the-go.  The best bit, it is only £26.95 so not too heavy on the purse either!  If you like the embossing on my card, why not treat yourself with some love this Valentine and give yourself a treat or just send your hubby to my online store to order yours. 

Texture Boutique 132657

Before I go, here is another card of Petals.  See the vase?  It is one of the Delightful decorations stamps with the bottom modified slightly to give it a flat base.

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.

Stampin' Up! Sale-a-Bration is nearly here....................

It is only a few days left to the start of the best time in the Stampin' Up! year, Sale-a-Bration!  It starts on 28th January and during the Sale-a-Bration you get to choose a free item from the Sale-a-bration leaflet with every £45 you spend.  There are 13 items on the leaflet so it is a great time to fill up your order form and earn yourself free products too!  Everybody loves something for free right?

Stampin' Up! do not just have this amazing leaflet for you to enjoy with free products, the new Spring/Summer seasonal catalogue is also coming out.  This springs into action on 28th Jan too!  It is also brimming with new products and tools you will want to get your hands on!  

Today's card is a sneek-peek of one of the products in the Spring catalogue, Petite Petals.  If you are loving the Flower Shop from the annual catalogue, then this is the 'petite' version.   It has a set of flowers just in a smaller version which work perfectly with your bigger blooms too.  Of course there is a matching punch and even better, it is a bundle offer to buy the stamps and punch, a saving of 15%.

I don't know about everyone else, but we have all been suffering with winter sniffles in this house and it seems all the family at various times in the last few weeks have been the same so today's inspiration was some get well wishes for all.

I have used Elegant Eggplant and Perfect Plum for the card and mat colours and then I have just worked with a simplistic design of a white polka dot emboss with a Framelit Label cutout. I attached my top layer with Dimensionals to raise the frame and give the shadow contrast.  The 'feel better soon' is from the hostess set Express Yourself.

Now, me being me, having created a simple card, I could not leave it alone at that and started to play some more.  A theme in the Spring Catalogue, without giving away too much, is water colouring so I decided to add a little bit more colour to my flowers with a Blender pen and some more of the Elegant Eggplant.  I also added some small pearls to the centre of the flowers.

I didn't stop there though, I then tried to add a colour wash over the sentiment just using some graduation with the blender pen again.  I am not sure if this works or just looks messy, what do you think?  I'd love to know your thoughts or suggestions on it.

Suzanne
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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.