Belated Butterfly Birthdays

One of my new year's resolutions was to be better at sending out birthday cards on time!  I've not done brilliantly so far.  A few people have received their cards on time, but others have not been so lucky!  SORRY!!

To catch up I thought I'd get one of my favourite stamp sets out and make a set of cards to write and send out in one go.  It's so much easier to make 10 cards in a batch than doing them one by one as they are needed.

After stamping the butterflies in white all over the crumb cake card base I varied the design slightly on each card.

Now I'm up to date with my birthday card list - yey!

Kylie x

Anniversary card

I love the You are Loved stamp set. It's not just for valentines cards but is really great for weddings, anniversaries or any card for that someone special.  It's a well used set!

For this card I heat embossed the heart design with gold embossing powder on Pool Party card stock. It creates a lovely raised metallic effect. The Crumb Cake background is stamped with the En Francais background stamp with Crumb Cake ink.

The sentiment is from the Teeny Tiny Wishes set and an antique brad and linen thread finish off the card.

Products used:

Stamps: You are Loved, Teeny Tiny Wishes, En Francais

Card stock: Pool Party, Crumb Cake

Inks: Crumb Cake, Versamark

Other Gold embossing powder, heat gun, antique brad, linen thread, Word Window punch

A rapid recovery

Here's a quick card I made for a colleague who was having a minor operation.  She actually recovered so quickly that she was back at work before I had time to post it!  But still she appreciated the sentiment and loved the card.

The stamp is one of the five stamps from Patterned Occasions (there is still time to get this set for free with a £45 spend until 22 March - contact me for details).

Petite Purse craft fair project

Good morning!  Today's post is to give you a quick peek at the super-cute dinky handbags you can make using the Petite Purse die (with the big shot, extended cutting plates and extended crease pad).

For this one I have used Primrose Petals card stock and a small piece of one of the Print Poetry paper stack.  The tag is made from one of the Pretty Petites stamps and co-ordinating punch (both Sale-a-Bration items).

You can make an endless number of designs by varying the card and papers, stamping and embossing the card and adding embellishments. I will be making a stash of these for an upcoming craft fair and I will post more pictures of these in a couple of weeks!

Kylie x

Happy Birthday Husband

Here is a card I recently made for my husband, Paul. I had fun finding all my birthday stamps from sets new and old, many are retired ones and some haven't used for a while! The different fonts look great together - like the typographic artwork that's so popular at the moment. And the chalkboard technique was the perfect way to use the stamps.

I used the Stamp-a-ma-Jig to make sure I got a good fit. I just used white craft ink - I would normally want to emboss the stamped words with white embossing powder but that felt a bit a bit complicated (ok maybe I was being a bit lazy!). But I think it worked out ok.

The silver glimmer border adds just the right amount of glitz and the Summer Starfruit border gives it a slight pop of colour to contrast with the black and white.

I was enjoying using all these stamps so much I decided to stamp some coordinating wrapping paper. I used Midnight Muse and Summer Starfruit and didn't bother with the Stamp-a-ma-jig! So much fun!!

The gift was wrapped with a matching tag and some lovely Midnight Muse stitched satin ribbon.

To complete the birthday trio, I baked some chocolate orange cupcakes. I was very happy with the colour of the buttercream icing but I filled the piping bag only to realise I hadn't put the nozzle in! So the effect wasn't quite what I was aiming for. Never mind - they tasted great if I do say so myself!

Kylie x

Happy Mother's Day

I hope all the mums out there are enjoying their special day!

Here are a couple of cards I made after I got some orders at work for mother's day cards.  I made several of each design so I took in some spares for anyone who needed an emergency card - there were a few!

The first one was the most popular design - I think because it was so bright and colourful.

Products used:

Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Primrose Petals, Early Espresso

Card stock: Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango

Punches: Elegant Butterfly,Word Window, Modern Label

Equipment: Fancy Fan Embossing Folder

This second one was my favourite - I love the simple designs!

The sentiment was stamped onto a strip of vellum card.

Products used:

Stamps: Papillion Pot Pourri, Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Primrose Petals, Early Espresso

Card stock: Crumb Cake

Other: Vellum card stock, Pearls

Hope mum likes it too!

Kylie x

A card for Mum

This weekend is all about the Mums! I have made several different Mother's Day cards this year and I've found it so easy with the products from the Spring/Summer catalogue.

This one started out as a Mother's Day Card but I actually ended up adapting it for my Mum's birthday which was a few weeks ago (she's 60 years young this year so I added a die-cut 60 in the glitzy silver glitter card - I forgot to take a photo though!).

The design is one I adapted slightly from Julie Kettlewell's at our quarterly team training event. I  just loved using the alphabet stamps to create my sentiment, so much so that the alphabet set ended up on my next order! Ooops!!

Products used:

Stamps: Noteable Alphabet, Oh Hello

Card stock: Naturals ivory, Very Vanilla

Inks: So Saffron, Early Espresso

Papers: Tea for Two Designer Series Paper

Equipment: Honeycomb Embossing Folder, Elegant Butterfly Punch, Bitty Butterfly Punch,Oval Framelits

Embellishments: Pearls, Calypso Coral Ruffled Ribbon

Speedy new home card!

I needed a new home card and I needed one quick! I only had 5 minutes before work to create something from scratch so I got out my new Tea for Two papers, square punch, small heart punch and I made this....

OK so it's really basic!  But I do like the lovely vintagey designs and muted spring colours in these papers.  The only thing missing is a sentiment, I don't have a new home stamp.  It's one I'd like to see in future Stampin' Up! catalogues - please!!

Kylie x

Sympathy and butterflies

Luckily I don't often need to make sympathy cards.  I do end up thinking more about the design than I do for other cards, finding it hard to get the balance of mood right.

But the ever versatile Papillion Pot Pourri stamps always comes to the rescue.

The sentiments from Petite Pairs say exactly what I wanted to on the front and on the inside of the card.

Products used:

Stamps: Papillion Pot Pourri, Petite Pairs

Card stock: Not Quite Navy, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Inks: Crumb Cake, Not Quite Navy

Papers: First Edition speciality papers

Other: Elegant Butterfly Punch, Pearls

Sycamore Street thank you card

This is a quick card I CASEd from Julie's display table which showcases 3 of the products you can get for free during Sale-a-Bration.

Firstly the papers - these are Sycamore Street and are such happy vibrant colours!  Secondly I used one of the stamps from Madison Avenue and I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig to create a border.  Lastly is the ribbon - this comes in a set of 3 reels and also includes a pack of buttons too.

Products used:

Stamps: Madison Avenue (SAB), Perfectly Penned

Card Stock: Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango, Pool Party, Summer Starfruit, Island Indigo

Papers: Sycamore Street Designer Series Papers (SAB)

Ink: Rich Razzleberry

Equipment: Itty Bitty Punches

Embellishments: Sycamore Street Ribbon and Button set (SAB), Rhinestones

Madison Avenue birthday card

Morning - sorry it's been a little while.  Have been recovering from a virus which left me completely drained and without much energy for crafting! Or housework! Luckily my very understanding husband told me it was ok - the chores would wait until I felt better!! So I'm gearing myself up for a mammoth cleaning session, and then I can catch up with all the crafting projects I'm behind with!

For now I'll show you a card I made a few weeks ago.  The design was cased from Julie again - from one we made at our quarterly team training event.

The stamp set is Madison Avenue - and if you love it there's still time to get your hands on it for free with a £45 order by 21st March!

Products used:

Stanps: Madison Avenue (SAB), Perfectly Penned

Card Stock: Rich Razzleberry, Whisper White

Inks: Rich Razzleberry, Pool Party, Basic Grey

Equipment: Bitty Butterfly Punch

Embellishments: Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon, Silver Glimmer Card, Rhinestones