Love What You Do, Lovely Lipstick... and lovely weather

Flower cards are difficult for me for some reason; I’ve always struggled. But this card came pretty easily to me. Perhaps I was inspired by the gorgeous new Love What You Do stamp set ... or maybe I took my inspiration from by the weather, because it really was a Beautiful Day when I made this project, and I took advantage by sitting crafting on the patio in the sunshine.

As you can see, I had to spread my supplies onto a chair (I can’t be the only one who does that!) because I was sharing the table with my daughter, who was working on her university project. If you like mid-century retro, bold colours and space themes, you can check her out on Instagram here.

This colour combination uses the new In Color™ Lovely Lipstick, as well as returning Coastal Cabana (the hottest spot north of Havana). If you’re looking for LOTS of colour combinations, please do keep an eye on this blog as I am squirrelling away behind the scenes to bring you some fantastic combos for ALL the new and returning colours. As you can imagine, this is a considerably bigger job than usual due to the upcoming Colour Revamp. Not complaining – I LOVE colour combos!

Petal Passion Designer Series Paper

Minimal stamping here... just some colouring of that oh-so-versatile Petal Passion Designer Series Paper and a vellum banner embossed with Dynamic Hexagons. Love those self-adhesive sequins, too!

(Sorry, no Mix It Up Monday today, I have the lurgy and didn’t feel up to stamping at the weekend)

Hexagons Dynamic Embossing Folder gets the ombre look

One of my favourite products from the Spring/Summer catalogue is the Hexagon Dynamic Embossing Folder, as it’s so versatile. It goes with masculine projects, can be used to create honeycomb for bee projects, chicken wire to go with everybody’s favourite Sale-a-Bration set, Hey Chick... and here I’ve used it on a more feminine project.

It was inspired by a project I saw by the hugely talented Kristina Werner and uses a favourite technique of mine; watercolouring.

I began by creating an ombre effect on the watercolour paper. This is really simple: I wet the paper, then loaded a brush with diluted ink (Emerald Envy, Flirty Flamingo, Peche Fraiche) and swiped across the width. Then, instead of adding more ink, I wet the brush with clear water. This dilutes the colour so you get a graduated effect as you work down the paper. Once it was almost dry, I embossed each piece, then turned them around so the darker colour was at the bottom to create these fun projects.

This last one also has a watercoloured ombre background behind the balloon. The dies come with three wide bands, which you can use to create a striped effect to your balloon. I used the darker stripe at the top, to make it stand out from the paler sky.

If you wish to purchase the whole bundle (stamps and dies) instead of just stamps, these are the codes you need:

Lift Me Up Bundle

Wood mount: 144711

Clear mount: 144712

Honeycomb and bees with Hexagons Dynamic Embossing Folder

Just another reason to love this Hexagons Dynamic Embossing Folder: honeycomb! Turn it “upside down” and you get the perfect honeycomb effect, to co-ordinate perfectly with Dragonfly Dreams, which just happens to feature this cute bee stamp. I did cut each of the bees out by hand because the co-ordinating die cuts away the middle of the bee, which I didn’t want in this case as I wanted to show the blue of the wings and the yellow of the body. Love this set, love this folder!

Hey, Chick! It's Friday!

We couldn’t head into the weekend without another chicken card, could we? This was the Make & Take from my team meeting recently; I wanted to show the team the amazing versatility of the new Dynamic Hexagons embossing folder.

Yes, the chicken wire is made with the embossing folder - simply ink it up and press directly onto your cardstock. I love this embossing folder – it goes with everything! Masculine, feminine, chicken wire, honeycomb... if you don’t have it yet, it would be a valuable addition to your next order! Bump it up to £45 and you could choose this fabulous chicken stamp set as your free gift!

And if you fancy joining the fun and becoming a demonstrator, I’d love to welcome you into my team. There are so many advantages to being a demonstrator that I won’t even try to go into them here, but if you have any questions, please do drop me a line. And if you’re ready to take the plunge, just click the image below!