Butterfly Birthday and a crafty night in . . .

Here's a card that I made for the Gorgeous Jordan, whose recent bedroom makeover was in white, so I used this as the inspiration for her card. The only problem being that you can hardly see the embosslit Beautiful Butterflies on the predominantly white DSP background - using rhinestones for the bodies, is the only thing that gives the butterflies position away!! I have used some Rose red seam binding to highlight the Birthday greeting, from the Perfect Punches set (IB&C p66), also in Rose Red ink.

And so to my crafty night in at home with Jo, Steff, Teressa & Wendy - many thanks for coming along and making it such a fun night :-) I tried to concentrate on the retiring items that once they're gone, they're gone (see list link right). We started the evening with the fabulous Fresh Cut stamp set (IB&C p67), and matching aperture card (p87) - using In Colours Peach Parfait and Concorde Crush. The beautiful background stamp of this set is so detailed you can easily use it on it's own, but here we've used the Peach Parfait card stock with Concord crush ink, a concord five petal flower secured with a fire rhinestone brad and then diagonally stamping the leaf detail top left and the greeting in the bottom right, with of course a little flower for the postie to see :-) The loveliest thing about this for me is that you get five white petals, which when you stamp them with the leaf detail forms another card, see the examples below - there really is no such thing as rubbish anymore!

So having eased ourselves in with some straight forward card making, I couldn't resist the temptation any longer and got my Big Shot Machine out to play with - exciting!!! And so, we set about making this. .

Here we have used the Springtime Vintage Designer Series paper from the Mini catalogue (p17), with the Fun Flowers Bigz L die (p7), and then textured the large and small flowers with the Square Lattice Embossing Folder (p10). As the SU papers are double sided I have only turned the middle flower over to give some contrast, see detail below. I continued with the Springtime Vintage colour theme and used River Rock card stock for the Top Note (p7), on the left side of the card and used the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder. Then finishing with a greeting from the Fresh Cuts set bottom right in Rose Red and also for the seam binding and the central Big Designer Button in the centre of the flower. (All P17 of the present Mini catalogue). I really love the square lattice embossing, as it gives the paper a real patchwork feel :-)

And, as with many of my workshops, I can't resist the temptation to bring paper craft into the 3D arena - and a great excuse to try out the gorgeous square basket that you can make out of four of the Scalloped Envelope Bigz Die (Mini cat p7), that I have seen on the ILWS gallery and other blogs that I'm watching :-) Also, as we seem to be steaming through September I have to make some start in preparation for Christmas, and make the most of the Last Chance list myself by buying Riding Hood Red card stock, which for me the ultimate Christmas colour. And here it is!

The handle is made from what's left when you cut a 12"x12" for the four envelopes, and I scallop edge punched the DSP to match in with the scallop edges of the envelopes. It may be a little difficult to see in the picture, but I also stamped the funky Christmas tree from the retiring Holiday Hoopla stamp set (IB&C p25) on the side - think I may do this in Gold Emboss next time, but this is the subtle version! I have left the DSP inner complete and so it is like a contrast interior with the double frill edging, and playing with this design I will place the tree so that the rhinestone brad that secures the handle, can also be the pinnacle of the printed Christmas tree. I would really like to thank all that attended as they have given me renewed inspiration for the Christmas wreath that I have reached a hiatus with, and encouraged me to use Ferrero Rocher gold wrappers in embossing folders which looks truly spectacular, and the excuse I need to continue eating chocolate - hee hee hee!



To end on a high note, I would like to send all my love to Steff and Martin who celebrate their Ruby Wedding Anniversary. Here's the simple card I sent, with a tatted heart with interconnecting gold beads around an embossed scalloped heart (Mini p9), of course from a Ferrero Rocher wrapper, and then stamped off, to fade the colour of Riding Hood Red confetti hearts at the left side of the card.It was so wonderful to share their celebration yesterday, surrounded by their family and friends.

 Keep on crafting, Gen x