October - New Idea Book & Catalogue!

Needless to say I managed to place an order for myself to allow a sneek peek at the new Idea book - hoorah! And in the spirit of confession I have already placed an order as they have produced a stamp specifically for the square scallop punch and I simply couldn't resist! This is a Birthday card continuing my fascination with the star stamps - simply with not quite navy card stock and then whisper white stamped with not quite navy ink - using a nifty stampin dimensional to emphasise the Happy Happy circular edge . . . . . . and then of course one on the envelope to brighten the posties day :-)

Happy stampin all - just uploading card photos to my computer and then I can share with you my latest attempts :-)

A Gift To You from Stampin Up!

FREE Exclusive Ribbon Bundle throughout August 2009!

To show appreciation to all customers and hostesses, Stampin' Up! is offering an exclusive ribbon bundle FREE with a qualifying purchase or workshop! From 1-31 August, Stampin' Up! is giving you a FREE ribbon bundle when you

• Spend £45 on any Stampin' Up! products, OR
• Host a £300 workshop. The bundle includes 9.1 metres each of Certain Celery 5/8" poly-twill ribbon and So Saffron 5/8" grosgrain ribbon!

I already have mine and they are really fab! Enjoy!

Where is the time going?

I simply can't believe how fast this year is going! At the moment it's the best I can do to keep up with my own cards let alone think of anything else - hay ho! Stampin Up send out a monthly Ispirations newsletter and this idea landed in May - I was dying to try it out for myself!

Here you use the Tag punch and the 1-3/8" Circle punch.
Use one punched circle as your base (the back of your flower) and one as the centre, using 8 punched tags as your petals.

To make the petals, position the tag shoulders uppermost, fold in half vertically. Then with the fold on your right, fold the top half back from bottom-left corner to top of the first vertical fold (making a diagonal fold, and the rounded petal).

To complete your flower, adhere 8 petals around the base circle - I then printed the petal stamp before I stamped out the top circle (so it was central) - simply securing the whole thing with a central brad. For papers I used the free hostess patterns pack in my last order and then the So Saffron Striped Grosgrain Ribbon from the Mini Catalogue :-) I have to admit that I ordered all my wish list for the Mini Catalogue as it only runs to the end of September, and I'm bound to forget otherwise ;-) The new 2009/2010 Ideas Book will also come out in October so if there is anything you need to order from the current Ideas Book just email it through. Will try to put up my other cards so that you can see what I've been up to!

My final addition - for today!

I simply can't get enough of these Fresh-Cut Notes - they are so simple yet stunning! Here I have used some blue hand made paper as I really like the effect that the backgroung stamp gives on rougher paper. Using Not Quite Navy ink, I then stamped the small flower securing with an earth elements brad, contrasting cameo coral and stamped the greeting on the bottom right hand corner and couldn't resist the envelope to cheer the posties day - hoorah! Back to work for a rest now!

Anniversarys too!

And so the month of Weddings too - thought I had rescued myself by remembering an anniversary tomorrow and now it turns out I've forgotten that it's their Silver Anniversary! Alas this is the card they'll recieve - the gorgeous Baroque Border standard wheel at the side in Chocolate Chip, and my favorite swirl from Season of Joy set (nope doesn't say Christmas to me either). With a central simple embellishment of the Flower Heart and surrounding edge in More Mustard and Really Rust card using the stampin dimensionals to raise the heart from the card. Hope you can see the detail of the writing as I think this stamp set is so wonderful for celebrations of love. The stamping of the same colour onto the ink also allows a subtle elegance - although in this case it should of been a screamingly silver affair - hay ho!

Dad's Birthday!

As you can see the July celebrations are fairly un-ending! My star fasination continues with a card for my Dad, and as he's usually in the garden Green was the theme - here it was of course Garden Green and Old Olive. The only variation here was to use my star punch and silver emboss the cake and greeting :-) Then of course get completely carried away by envelope embellishment and make a matching tag - hee hee!

Shhh.....It's a Surprise!

Secert Seventieth Celebrations for Tara's Dad! Glad to say I was in on the act and helped with the secret invitations and party room prep! Here's the card I made for him - as you can see I'm having a serious starry thing going on and simply love the embossing powder and heat tool as the image springs up and shines away :-) It's also very easy to use the Not Quite Navy to create a seriously male card - I used the jumbo wheel Swirling Stars as a top frieze, the scallop punch and Just for You scallop stamp from the Mini cat, the silver embossed stars are from In the Stars - and how can have a Birthday without cake from Fun & Fast notes. The ribbon here was actually around a card bundle I bought at a craft exhibition - nothing wasted ;-)

Joyful July!

Welcome to the World little baby Yasmin!

A great excuse for me to send gorgeous girlie things with a matching pink card :-) Here I used my scalloped circle punch on some delicate baby pink hand made paper as the background for a silver embossed Baby star - reading Twinkle twinkle, little star.... do you know how loved you are around the outside! Punched out from a circle of Cameo Coral card from the In the Stars set. Baby pink organza ribbon at the side with tiny silver outline sticker stars and edging, then a couple of baby pink scrapbook buttons in the bottom right hand corner.

Week off - where did that go?

And I had such plans of things I wanted to get finished and am now yearning to go back to work to have some structure back in my day! I thought the lease I could do was update my blog with a few of my recent SU efforts :-)

Here are the first Birthday cards I did for June - I wanted them to be the same but in their different colours! I used Cameo Coral and Not Quite Navy card and silver embossing powder with the teddy from Bundle of Joy set and a polka dot star from In the Stars. Still fending off temptation from the outline stickers as you can see :-)

Pictures speak a thousand words

This is an Anniversary card - where I used Ruby red card, versa mark & gold embossing powder. The Anniversary stamp is from the Cheer & Wishes set, the long heart stamp is from the hostess set A Little bit of Happiness and the flower heart is from the Simply Said set. I punched out with the greeting with a scallop punch, sutting the others by cutter and hand and then added a little gold ribbon I had hanging around.

Here on the right is a card that I did for my friend who has a passion for green :-) This is taken from the Mini catalogue and it's the Fresh-Cut notes and matching stamp. This set is really easy to use as the backgorund stamp peeks theough the cut out of the card. I then stamped two garden green flowers onto the green hand made paper, securing one in the centre with an earth element brad and balancing the card with the for you stamp on the bottom right corner.

Sorry that this is on the side - still struggling with technology! Thought I'd show you what I did with the cut outs from the above cut out card - still using the Fresh Cuts set, I used the leaf stamp on the cut out petals with Chocolate Chip backing and Ink. I used the background stamp for the smaller flowers punched with the Boho Blosoms stamp secured with Earth Elements brads and a simple greeting from Cheers & Wishes again

:-)

Got totally carried away for Father's Day - but that's very easy with Shelli's signature collection Oval All stamp set from the Mini catalogue. I stamped the Just for You with Not Quite Navy onto white card, with the white crossgrain ribbon. I also used the Jumbo Swirling Stars wheel for the long side border on the card, envelope and wrap! Then the other stars come from the In the Stars set.

Carrying on the theme of matching card and wrap - any excuse to use my wheels ;-) Here I've used It's Beutiful jumbo wheel on the wrap and the chocolate chip at the side of the card as the red on the brown is quite subtle, also for the Boho Blossoms, braded into postion on the bottom right. Then Ruby Red and Chocolate chip inks and Cheer & Wishes greeting on the wrap and the Birthday cake from the Cheers & Wishes set. I simply used the scallop punch down the right side of the contrast strip with white crossgrain ribbon to finish.

Blog beginner!

Well, here goes - thought I'd use this as a way to show my experimentation with my latest fascination with Stampin' Up products. I have always enjoyed creating cards, so thought I would post the last card I've done for all to see.