One of those moments...

I woke up this morning to overcast skies and drizzle... but I don't know if it happens to you but I often wake in the night with ideas for cards.

Last week I had a few of those, and for many years now I have kept a pad and pen by the bed as there's nothing more frustrating that getting up in the morning having forgotten what it was you had thought of in the night!

This is one of the outcomes and I'll be sharing more in the next few days - each with a video tutorial.

I call it the Arcing Slider Card... see how the butterfly flies up the card? Simply done with the Circles Collection Framelits.

How cute is that? The flowers are stamped using Flower Shop cut out with the matching Pansy punch, the butterfly is from Papillon Pot Pourri, cut with the Elegant Butterfly punch.

Both styles of leaves are cut using the Bird Builder punch. All the supplies are Stampin' Up! and available from my on-line shop.

Here is the video for you if you would like to have a go yourself. Have fun and I'll be back later with another post... The next card I'll be showing features owls...

Celebrating in style!

I have just come back from a 5 day break in the most amazing property, Wortham Manor, owned by the Landmark Trust. www.landmarktrust.org.uk

It's a stunning building and there were 14 of us celebrating my friends 50th birthday. Complete with a resident ghost - though I didn't see it! The manor is in Devon, not far from Okehampton just a few miles from Launceston (Cornwall).

I have so many photo's in my 'to Project Life' folder - I must get on with some!

I combined the old and the new for my friends 50th birthday card and obviously couldn't post it until I got home!

There were 3 hand made cards as three of us make them and I have to say the others were stunning! I just wish I had taken photo's!

I coated the butterfly with Dazzling Details again!

The flowers and leaves were all fussy cut, I will miss this stamp set!

I have a class tomorrow night so I will be back soon - don't forget you can book classes for dates to suit you as I am flexible, or you can attend the monthly class in Thame on the 2nd Monday of each month.

Congratulations!

One of my lovely ladies promoted last week. I am so pleased for her and as always had a lovely gift to give her in recognition of her achievement.

So my dilemma was how to package it!

I decided to use some items from my pre-order... so here's a sneak peek!

I used my Gift Bag Framelits for the bag, heart and wording. The paper is the fabulous new Envelope Paper, The banners were cut using the new Triple Banner Punch!

The slightly stretchy Lace Dotted Trim is available in each of the 5 new In-Colours. It's gorgeous and this is shown in Cucumber Crush.

The other 2 new In-Colours shown here are Watermelon Wonder and Delightful Dijon. My photography I'm afraid, doesn't do them justice!

I hope Lisa likes her gift! Well done Lisa! xxx

I'll have a New Baby card to share soon, as a friend of ours in Greece had a baby last week... and I have a beautiful 50th birthday card that I can't share until after the weekend... Too much going on - I just can't keep up!

Beautiful Butterflies

Today I want to share a little technique I discovered playing with ink and dies...

I LOVE butterflies and just had to have the Butterfly Basics stamp set and Butterfly Thinlits. If you love them too - you have a treat coming with the new catalogue!

This is the first card I made using this technique.

Isn't that butterfly stunning? This was the card I made during the video tutorial.

It's hard to see on a photo but each butterfly is coated in Dazzling Details...

In the flesh these cards are stunning and I couldn't resist making another. As you know I use lots of Thank You cards as every customer who places an order gets one!

I used the sentiment from Sassy Salutations and did a little masking here.

If you're itching to find out how it's done and have a try yourself... here is the video.

Got the kit?

I mentioned I was going a little 'Off Piste', so here's the first post showing some new things I'm trying...

Firstly - Card kits - this brilliant kit - the Hip Hip Hooray card kit is on sale as part of the retiring list, and never having tried out one of the kits before I thought I would give it a whirl.

This first image shows the 20 standard cards you can make with the kit, there are 3 sentiments in the kit - but as you know... I like to say Thank You so have made them all with that sentiment.

The kit comes with everything you need except scissors! So you can buy one of these kits, pop it in your luggage and have something to do wherever you go, if it's raining, on the train... You name it!

There are a few extra elements too - and not one to waste anything I decided to see how many more cards I could make.

 The answer was FOUR, the only things I added were the Gorgeous Grunge stamped images on Crumb Cake card stock, a couple of hearts punched using the Itty Bitty Accents punch pack and two arrows using the What's Up! punch (also retiring)

So - while you have the chance, why not grab yourself a bargain and try one of the kits?

It's May!

Can you believe how quickly the year is passing. It's unbelievable - items on the retiring list are selling fast and there's a new catalogue just around the corner.

It only seems like yesterday we got the last catalogue and there are so many lovely things in the current catalogue that are retiring but I have seen the new one and... WOW.

Today I'm showing just a couple of the projects we'll be making in our May classes just £10.95, this stamp set is staying with us and I'm so glad as there is so much I still have to do with it!

The set is called Kinda Eclectic and I was DYING to make these super little bookmarks, finished off with a tassel made using the Gold Bakers Twine

This card posed a dilemma - sun? Or no sun? What do you think?

I think both versions are stunning so I'll let the ladies in my class decide.

Today I'm planning on stepping out of my comfort zone - I was so inspired by the new catalogue and some of our existing kits... I'll be back soon to share... as it's a Bank Holiday here on Monday it's almost guaranteed to rain this weekend so I'll be crafting.

I would love to hear how you spend the weekend so please leave a comment - or share your projects on my Facebook page!