Field of Flowers on a brick wall

The Field of Flowers bundle is new and beautiful and is a great way to use up all of those watercoloured backgrounds that I have a tendency to hoard.

Here I’ve used it with the Brick & Mortar 3D embossing folder, embossing Whisper White cardstock to provide a stark contrast. A few flowers punched out with the Confetti Flowers Border Punch add splashes of random colour.

I’d like to say this was a pre-planned card with sound design principles at its heart but really I just cobbled it together with some leftover pieces. Turned out okay, though, didn’t it?

Creating watercoloured backgrounds is fun, but they don't always turn out how you want. However they turn out, my tip is to save them for another day. They always look different when you’ve had a sleep, and they may just go perfectly with another project, another time.

Tropical Oasis sponged card

So much for being organised! I had this card ready to go for Crafty Friday this month, but had to change my plans due to the Lockdown as this doesn’t lend itself well to distance crafting.

It is inspired by Tina Wardell at tinascraftyinkspot.com and uses products from the Tropical Oasis Suite. I love a technique card and this one is packed with fun techniques; sponging, masking, embossing paste to name but a few.

It uses products from the Tropical Oasis Suite, which is well worth checking out.

Take a look at your dies; can you create something different from them? This card uses a couple of leaves to make a grassy mound.

Keeping it simple with Magnolia Lane Cards & More

Who says cardmaking has to be complicated? Ok, so I’ve used a couple of die sets here but they were just leftover from other projects, I promise! The main point is that you can buy packs of these little card blanks, with pretty printed cards to fit on the front.

In fact, you can buy a whole bundle of products for £42.25 which are ideal for getting started. You get a stamp set, clear block, mini ink pads, adhesives and these cards.

Please look online for the "Getting started" section of my website to see these great products and more.

Keep it simple! At this time of crisis, sending a card to someone is more important than making it fancy!

Pigment Sprinkles meet Friendly Silhouettes and Honey Bee

As much as I love Stampin’ Up!® product coordination, sometimes I also love to mix things up. It's a real pleasure to find that your older products work perfectly with your newer ones.

It’s no secret that I love the Honey Bee stamp set and also that I love the Pigment Sprinkles. But I've sadly neglected The Friendly Silhouettes dies, so I thought it was time to bring them all together and create crafting magic, although I say so myself...

With Pigment Sprinkles, it doesn’t do to have a fixed idea of what the results will look like before you start. Just let the magic happen!

For the rainbow card, I sprinkled some of each powder onto some watercolour paper and spritzed with water. For the green and yellow card, I wet the watercolour paper first, sprinkled green and yellow powders and then spritzed on top. 
 

Nature's Beauty with Feels Like Frost DSP

Woodland theme again! You can't escape it on this blog because it's my favourite theme. And how gorgeous is the Feels Like Frost Designer Series Paper with this lovely Nature's Beauty stamp set?

The animals are coloured with Stampin' Blends but I was concerned the colours weren't quite right so I gave the rabbit and deer a swipe with some Seaside Spray ink on a sponge to tie them in with a hint of blue.

The silver birches are stamped in Seaside Spray, too, but stamped off so they don't overwhelm. I used the Stamparatus for perfect positioning - just move the plate along one slot each time.

The copper leaf accent brings out the colour of the fox (coloured in Calypso Coral Stampin' Blends). I made sure to position them on opposite sides of the card to balance it out. 
 

Fabulous fox from Nature's Beauty

If you’re a regular visitor (and, if you are, thank you!), then you’ll know I’m a sucker for a woodland theme.

My craft stash is bulging with woodland-themed products – and, with the new Autumn/Winter catalogue, my collection just got a whole lot bigger.

The Nature’s Beauty stamp set was sure to end up on my list – and finding out that £2.50 from every sale goes to mental health charities in the UK was a bonus.

This is one of the projects we made at Crafty Friday last week. Along with the stamp set, I used the new Beautiful Boughs Dies and the Woodland Embossing Folder.

I stamped the fox first, then masked with a sticky note before stamping the foliage around him in Gray Granite. The stark white theme is enhanced with a splash of silver, which echoes the Gray Granite (my silver ink pad isn't due to arrive until today!) and really helps the Cajun Craze fox to stand out. 

Sneak Peek: Perfectly Plaid

The new Autumn/Winter catalogue is now available to demonstrators - and we get the perk of being able to order early. One of the first items on my order was the Perfectly Plaid bundle as these are the projects we'll be using at my All-Day Craft Event next month.

Everyone who attends will get this stamp set as part of the kit, and there is the option to upgrade to get the Pine Tree Punch at a special price, too.

Please click here for more details of my All-Day Craft Event

This is the first project I've made with my new products; a simple Make & Take for a team garden party I hosted at the weekend, using a non-traditional colour combo of Cherry Cobbler and Seaside Spray.

Everyone brought some food to share and a project to make, and a lovely time was had by all. The sun even shone, which was a miracle after the wet week we've had!

Pop your tree up on Stampin’ Dimensionals before attempting to tie the linen thread around the trunk as this will make it more stable and easier to manage. Sounds simple but sometimes we can overlook the obvious!

Bird Ballad wine bottle tags

Packaging a bottle to give as a gift couldn't be easier with one of these tags. It's so simple I won't insult you with measurements - just wing it, as I did.

The bird is cut out from the Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper; only the leaves, floral background and greeting are stamped. 

I rattled out half a dozen of these for my husband's classroom helpers, to mark the end of term. Easy to make, easy to transport on a bike, and hopefully much appreciated.

To make a bottle tag, you don't need a tutorial, just a strip of cardstock with a hole punched in it (I used the Pretty Label Punch), and a couple of score lines to help it sit nicely around the neck. Then decorate as you wish. 
 

"Wow" card - Beautiful Friendship floral pop-up card

I don't often tackle fancy folds but I loved the idea of making a pop-up card using the Beautiful Friendship stamp set. What's so lovely about pop-up cards is the element of surprise – it looks like a perfectly nice but simple card on the front, then you open it and bam! You're hit by an explosion of flowers.

 Here’s a better picture but I took it before adding the greeting...

For instructions to make this card, please click here

While assembling the inner floral section, keep closing the card to check your flowers don’t spill out over the edges. Not only would this spoil the element of surprise, it would prevent your card from fitting in the envelope! 

Wedding card? It's a Piece of Cake

Pretty cards are a challenge for me so I struggled with this wedding card for my brother, who finally married his childhood sweetheart at the weekend, 40 years after they first met!

Eventually, I settled on the Piece of Cake Bundle, which has a lovely wedding cake image.

I used a watercoloured background, in Blushing Bride with a hint of Pool Party, then popped up the cut-out cake, which I'd stamped in Blushing Bride, Pool Party and the new colour, Rococo Rose. The greeting (Better Together - retiring) is stamped in Rococo Rose and embossed using clear embossing powder (the Stamparatus is invaluable for this technique).

It's all framed with a stitched rectangle frame, which I embossed using the Country Floral 3D embossing folder, a Sale-a-Bration item which is carrying over to the new catalogue.

Some self-adhesive sequins finish it all off.