Fun fold wedding cards using Cup of Tea bundle

 

Floral cards for special occasions are not my forte so when I happened upon this fabulous fun fold card idea from fellow Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator Terri Gaines, it was just what I needed for several special occasions. I fiddled around with her template and converted it for A4 cardstock and C6 envelopes – please read on for measurements, and an alternative version.

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.

Delightfully Detailed Golden wedding anniversary card

I don’t normally do card commissions but my Mum laid on the emotional blackmail pretty thickly so I caved in for this one. To tell the truth, I’d agreed to create a golden wedding anniversary card before the true scale of the job was revealed. Gold-themed card? No problem. “With their names on...” Aaaaaaagh!

I have known Jean and Tony all my life so know Jean isn’t a fan of bright colours and favours pastels. (She also likes frogs but I held back, despite the temptation of using Animal Outing...) So I created a gentle watercolour wash background and, thankfully, managed to stamp their names right first time using the Pick a Pennant stamp set.

You may recognise the watercoloured background from these projects, which were made from the leftover pieces.

You can’t see from the photo but I have applied Wink of Stella all over the laser-cut DSP to give a hint of glitz, and the sequins and gold “celebrate” are a further reinforcement that this is for a 50th anniversary celebration.

Golden wedding anniversary card... and out of my comfort zone!

Ha! Bet you never thought you’d see a card like this at All Things Stampy, eh? Not my usual style at all, is it? And, I have to confess, it was really hard to do, even though I was practically CASEing this project by Heidi Weaver. 

I tried using the spiral flower die to create the flowers from vellum but, of course, the vellum was too stiff. So I dug out some filter paper and tried again… but got in a terrible mess and ended up burning my thumb with the hot glue gun (that hurts!) 

Eventually I settled on simply punching out the filter paper and scrunching it up to create flowers. Happily I had exactly three tiny brads left, and just one gold sequin from an old kit, so could hold the flowers together easily. 

I don’t think I’ll be doing it again in a hurry, but then 50th wedding anniversaries don’t come around that often, so I think I’m safe. The alphabet dies are retired, by the way; I don’t make a habit of using retired products but these are too useful to get rid of and too perfect not to use. 

Something To Say Clear-Mount Stamp Set [134180]	Ovals Collection Framelits Die [129381]	Decorative Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [133520]	1-1/4" Circle Punch [119861]
Pansy Punch [130698]	Builder Bird Punch [117191]	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack [133787]	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]
White Filter Paper [129393]	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]	Gold Glimmer Paper [133719]	Gold Foil Sheets [132622]
Basic Black A4 Card Stock [121688]	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490]	Tea Lace Paper Doilies [129399]	Silver Mini Brads [122941]
Typeset Alphabet Bigz Die [127553]

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Nuts About You card for wedding or anniversary

A really simple card that makes a quirky alternative to the traditional engagement/wedding/anniversary card and is also handy for using up tiny scraps of DSP!

Nuts About You is a fun set that you can only get if you host a party (or place a qualifying order). If you’d like to discuss holding a party, please do get in touch as I’d love to show you and your friends some of our fabulous new products. All you have to do is find the friends and lay on a few snacks (coffee and cake is fine, as are crisps and wine – nothing fancy) and I’ll do the rest. Drop me a line to schedule a date!

133946	134180	131174
133642	131301	133701
106549	120906	130931

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Two little love birds

Oops, I thought I’d posted this on the blog ages ago! It’s the little confetti box we made at my catalogue launch at the beginning of the month.  As the day was about products and not techniques, I saw no need to reinvent the wheel and recycled a template I’ve used before. You can see it here.

I used the new Cheerful Treat Designer Series Papers, which are absolutely gorgeous – but only available to hostesses so, if you want to get your hands on it, you know what to do! Either book a party or get together with your friends to place an order of £150 or more.

The image is from the oh-so-versatile Easy Events and features two little lovebirds. I punched it out separately to remove the image, then used the sentiment on the tag at the top.  The image is coloured with blender pens and ink pad lids – and it’s a very quick and easy one to colour.

To get the hole in exactly the right place, first punch the circle out of scrap paper. Then stick the scrap circle to the box, where you want the hole to appear. Hold your punch upside-down over the circle and punch.

Stamps: Easy Events

Cardstock: Bashful Blue, Wisteria Wonder, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White

Paper: Cheerful Treat (hostess)

Ink: Basic Gray, Bashful Blue, Pink Pirouette, Lucky Limeade

Accessories: Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, 1 3/8” Square punch, ¾” circle punch, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Whisper White

All products by Stampin’ Up!®            

Wedding neutrals

It was only after I sent this wedding card that I realised that a birdcage isn’t perhaps the most appropriate image! Hope the bride and groom don’t feel caged in – oops! I’m not very good at elegant cards for frilly occasions such as weddings so I went for soothing neutrals – but with a hint of bling. Which, of course, the photo doesn’t show. After I completed the card I spritzed it with some Champagne Mist shimmer spray made from Champagne Mist shimmer paint and alcohol.

But, other than the bling you can’t see, the perhaps drab colours for a wedding and the inappropriate image, I really do like this card!

If you'd like to have a go at distressing, why not come along to my class in September? Details are on my events page, here.

Stamps: Nature Walk, Something to Celebrate (hostess)

Cardstock: Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla

Ink: Sahara Sand, Soft Suede

Accessories: Distressing Kit, Taffeta Ribbon – Very Vanilla, Neutrals buttons, linen thread, Basic pearls

All products by Stampin' Up!®

Something borrowed, something blue

Another wedding, another card... but I have to say I don’t like this one as much as the Melon Mambo one I made earlier.  I was completely thrown by the fact that I had no Baja Breeze cardstock left... must have used it all up at my Mini catalogue launch. So I compromised with a combo of Marina Mist, Basic Gray and Whisper White.

There's nothing old on this card, it's all new - stamps, embossing folder, die, ribbon are all from the new Mini. Something borrowed? Yes, the flower die belongs to my lovely downline, Kelly. And something blue is self-evident!

Stamps: Something to Celebrate (hostess set)

Cardstock: Marina Mist, Basic Gray, Whisper White, Vellum cardstock

Ink: Baja Breeze

Accessories: Seam Binding ribbon – Baja Breeze, Big Shot, Elegant Bouquet Embossing folder, Fun Flowers die, Neutrals buttons, Whisper White taffeta ribbon

All products by Stampin’ Up!®

Wedding bells are ringing

It’s wedding season and therefore time to get out of my comfort zone. I’m not great at “pretty” or “elegant” but needed a couple of wedding cards.

Of course, at the moment I cannot possibly make a card without using the Big Shot, so Elegant Bouquet was perfect for the job.

First I stamped “congratulations” in Melon Mambo on Whisper White cardstock, then ran it through the Big Shot with the embossing folder. I really like the look this achieves as the stamping is partially embossed, too. The stamp set is the brand new Level 2 Hostess Set from the Mini catalogue. I don’t usually mount and use my hostess sets but this one is REALLY useful as it contains all those greetings you’ve been longing for. Book a party and let’s see if we can earn it for you free!

To create the flower, I ran some Melon Mambo cardstock and vellum cardstock through the Big Shot using the Bigz L Die, Fun Flowers. You can do several sheets of cardstock at a time with this hefty die!

The vellum flower was then embossed using the Elegant Bouquet embossing folder – I love this look, too.

I thought it would look nice sparkly, so I sprayed it with some Champagne Mist shimmer spray, which I made using our Champagne Mist shimmer paint, mixed with isopropyl alcohol and water. This did indeed give it a lovely shimmery finish – and also made it curl, which I quite liked.

The button is the same as yesterday’s – just an old button covered with some Newsprint DSP, wetted and moulded to shape.

The ribbon is Whisper White taffeta – using a needle and thread (gasp!), I ran some long stitches through the length of the ribbon and gathered it up to make random pleats. I stuck the ribbon down using Sticky Strip, carefully covering any thread which showed.

Stamps: Something To Celebrate

Cardstock: Melon Mambo, Basic Black, Whisper White

Paper: Newsprint

Ink: Melon Mambo

Accessories: Big Shot, Elegant Bouquet embossing folder, Fun Flowers die, old SU button, Champagne Mist shimmer paint, Whisper White taffeta ribbon

All products by Stampin’ Up!®            

Vintage elegance

I’m running so behind with blog projects! I have loads made but not photographed yet, or photographed and not written up. So, in an attempt to catch up, here’s one of the projects we made at the Vintage Vogue class.

It’s a blatant CASE (Copy And Share Everything) of a much more beautiful card made by Stampin’ Up!® Demonstrator Joanne. She’s a big fan of flowers, as you’ll see if you visit her blog! Her card was a little too complicated for a class where we were making three projects, though, so I simplified it a little.

First we stamped the two flowers from Vintage Vogue on Very Vanilla cardstock, using Soft Suede ink and the combined techniques of stamping off and rocking and rolling. Sounds complicated? Not really, it just means we inked the stamps in Soft Suede and then stamped them on scrap paper to remove some of the ink before rolling just the edges of the stamp back on the ink pad to make the edges darker.

After cutting them out, we then applied Frost White shimmer paint onto the flowers using a sponge dauber. Frost White is translucent, so the Suede still shows through but the flower now has a lovely, shimmery effect.

We punched a hole in the centre of the flowers using the large hole punch on the Crop-A-Dile™  - you need a pretty big hole when using these gorgeous rhinestone brads because of their shape.

Stamps: Vintage Vogue

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Soft Suede

Ink: Soft Suede

Accessories: Frost White shimmer paint, clear rhinestone brads, sponge dauber, Soft Suede polka dot ribbon

All products by Stampin' Up!®

Happy engagement

We were delighted – and quite surprised - to hear recently that a friend is to be married, so of course a card was in order. I can never understand why engagement and wedding cards are so frilly and girly – because 50 per cent of those involved are men. So this has a bit of subtle bling and some champagne – because surely champagne is always welcome.

You may have noticed that a lot of my cards recently use retiring colours. Yes, I’ve decided to use them up as much as possible but the weird thing is, most of these cards were made before the Colour Renovation announcement.

I’d realised that there were some colours I hardly ever used, so I decided to make more effort with them. And guess what? All of those colours are on the retiring list! So it seems I am a typical SU customer and do generally stick to the most popular colours which, of course, are surviving the Renovation.

Stamps: Cheers to You, Happy Everything
Cardstock: Taken with Teal, Whisper White
Ink: Taken with Teal, Basic Black
Accessories: Watercolour Wonder™ crayons, blender pens, Crystal Effects®, Dazzling Diamonds glitter

All products by Stampin' Up! ®

My second recess card

It’s the wedding today so I have to show you the wedding card. It is my second ever recess card, made for the wedding couple to match all the other stationery, of course. I wish I’d had enough of the swirly Bridesmaid paper to add a border to this card but I didn’t, so settled on a panel inside instead.

What’s a recess card? It’s a card where the outer border sits above the inner panel. I have to confess that it’s something I didn’t think I’d be able to achieve, even after seeing Kelly’s wonderful demonstration at a recent team meeting. And I’m beginning to wish I’d made something different for the wedding, after Alison reminded me that I said I’d eat my hat if I managed to make a recess card!

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that this is my second recess card. You'll just have to wait for the first... and the instructions.

Stamps: One of a Kind, In The Stars (inside sentiment)
Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla
Paper: Bridesmaid
Ink: Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Elegant Eggplant

All products by Stampin' Up! ®

Pulling in some favours

Finally, the wedding favours. They look easy but I really struggled to tie them up with cotton before adding the ribbon. This isn’t even how they are as I ended up threading the ribbon through the punched hole, which looked slightly neater.

Thank you to Mum for cutting out the circles of fabric and to Gayle at work who fetched the fabric from the Eagle Centre Market for me because I didn’t have time!

If anyone pulls these apart to eat them at the wedding, I may just hit them.

Stamps: One of a Kind
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Elegant Eggplant, Crop-A-Dile™

All products by Stampin' Up! ® (apart from fabric and chocolates)

The wedding invitation

And here’s the much agonised-over wedding invitation. It’s made using a piece of Bridesmaid Speciality Designer Series Paper, which is cardstock quality so heavy enough for a card base. There are three panels, folded to about DL size, with a strip of distressed Elegant Eggplant down the front. The bands were the tricky bit. It is meant to be removed by sliding it off but, in the event of someone trying to untie the bow, I didn’t want it to look like a pig’s ear. So the band is actually tied together and the heart charm is tied on using purple thread.

Stamps: Sincere Salutations
Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Elegant Eggplant
Ink: Versamark
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Elegant Eggplant, heart charm, embossing powder

All products by Stampin' Up! ® apart from heart charm and embossing powder

Wedding placecards

The wedding. Yes, it’s looming and I’m getting there. These are the place cards. They were all going to be the same but I didn’t have enough of the swirly paper left after the invites - which used most of a full sheet each - so decided to make the men’s cards using the more masculine striped paper and without the ribbon. The names are printed on good quality printer paper (my printer has a hissy fit if you put cardstock in it) in a colour that is as near to Elegant Eggplant as I could get. The Elegant Eggplant panels are distressed ever so slightly.

You've not seen the invites yet, have you? Maybe next time...

Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant
Paper: Bridesmaid
Accessories: ¼” Grosgrain Ribbon - Elegant Eggplant

All products by Stampin' Up! ®

Wedding bells getting louder!

I’m frantically making wedding stationery at the moment for my brother’s wedding in less than two weeks. The invites have gone out (thankfully), the placecards are made (phew!) and now I’m working on the favours and the thank yous. This is the thank you card – I just have to make the rest now! I’ve folded the cards, stamped and stuck the inserts, stamped and cut out the flowers and cut all the pieces for the front. Just need to stamp “thank you” on them (I have two chances on each strip!) and then assemble.

As for the favours... don’t ask. Not going well at the moment.

On another topic, who’s going to the NEC this weekend? I’m going on Saturday and expect to see a few familiar faces!

Stamps: One of a Kind, Wonderful Words
Cardstock: Elegant Eggplant, Very Vanilla
Paper: Bridesmaid Speciality Designer Series Paper (which is actually cardstock weight). Insert is good quality printer paper (still not as good to stamp on as SU Very Vanilla!)
Ink: Elegant Eggplant
Accessories: Scallop Edge Punch

All products by Stampin' Up! ®

Teal wedding card

I completely forgot to show you this card, which I made for a happy couple back in September. Not the most conventional wedding card colour but the bride’s favourite colour is Taken With Teal, which was also the theme of the wedding, so I just had to use it. Sorry about the dark photo - I took it too late in the day.

I kept it very simple, just stamping Autumn Days a few times, stamping off to get different shades. I added the Mr & Mrs stamp from Basic Phrases and a pearl from the Pretties kit. That’s all!

Stamps: Autumn Days, Basic Phrases
Cardstock: Whisper White, Taken with Teal
Ink: Taken with Teal
Accessories: Pretties Kit

All products by Stampin' Up! Please email me to order a catalogue, or click the link on the right to view it online.