Some Pretty Petals projects CASED from the Stampin' Up! Catalogue and some pretty good deals to be had too!

Today I have another couple of versions of the Six-sided Sampler card that is on page 105 of the Stampin' Up! 2015-16 Annual Catalogue, similar to my recent CASE that I based my team training swaps on.

Here is the original card that is in the Catalogue. I think it is so pretty:

And here are the CASED versions I showed you recently, that I made for my Inspiration Station based on the Go Wild Designer Series Paper (DSP) Stack. (The second of these photographs shows my 3x3" swaps.):

I so love the layout of the Stampin' Up! card and I really wanted to try it in other colourways. I recently bought a stack of the 6x6" (15.2x15.2cm) Pretty Petals DSP, which, like the Go Wild stack has a matching cardstock pack to go with it. The DSP Stack has 48 sheets of gorgeously patterned papers (4 sheets each of 12 double-sided designs) for a bargain £7.25/9,75€. The Pretty Petals A4 Cardstock Pack has 8 sheets each of Calypso Coral, Old Olive and Mint Macaron (so 24 A4 sheets in total, for £6.50/8,50€) - perfect for making multiples of your projects and for getting the most out of your paper stacks too!

I have been itching to use the Pretty Petals papers ever since I got it, but haven't had a chance until now - here is what I made yesterday:

Aren't those patterns just gorgeous - and I've only used a few of them in these two cards. I decided to just use three punched hexagons of the paper on the Mint Macaron card - mainly because I couldn't decide which of the remaining gorgeous patterns to use for the two extra hexagons - there are so many fabulous combinations and they all look good!

I used the Silver Metallic Thread, Silver Glimmer Paper and Silver Glitter Adhesive on these ones, instead of the gold, as per the black and white cards above. I also used Very Vanilla as the mat layer on the card, as the Pretty Petals DSP is vanilla-based instead of white-based. I love how muted and vintage these look with the use of the Very Vanilla and I wonder why I don't seem to use Very Vanilla more often in my projects? Silly really, as it gives such a nice, soft look, don't you think?

I am going to use these as one of my next class projects. I will make an Old Olive version when I demonstrate to my class attendees how to make them, so that they can choose which of the three base colours they prefer. I might even offer them the option of making the Go Wild black/white/taupe version too!  I love how just one example shown in the catalogue, has inspired so many versions of effectively the same card, but with such different outcomes. Just goes to show how versatile Stampin' Up! Products are and how beautifully they coordinate with each other!

Which one is your favourite? I'm not sure I can decide!

Here are a couple of close-up shots to show you the butterflies in more detail - I have used the Bold Butterfly Framelits SO much since I got them, they are so pretty and so useful:

I love how the Silver Glimmer Paper, Glitter Adhesive and Metallic Thread shine so prettily in these photographs. They really are that shiny in real life - sometimes it can be hard to capture just how shiny they are in photographs. It was such a dull and gloomy day yesterday; I had to resort to using my daylight lamp when taking these pictures, rather than my usual preference of diffused, natural daylight. A happy "accident" perhaps? - They do say that things happen for a reason! Hehe!

Talking of happy things - today we have a new set of Weekly Deals out! Again, there is only a limited stock of each item, so once that item's allocation has sold out, the deal price will no longer be available and the item will revert to its normal, full catalogue price.  So hurry up and place that order if you don't want to miss out on the discounted prices! I think that there are some fantastic products this week. Come and take a look:

I have the Stars Framelits and have used them so much - and not just for Christmas projects. Having seen what is in this week's deals, I have had an idea for a card that uses the Stars Framelits and the Every Day Chic Designer Washi Tape, plus the Metal Rimmed Pearls... so come back soon and see what I come up with!

To buy any of these Weekly Deals items click here and you will go to my online shop. Remember to add the host code of FQZ4JER4 (for this and any other online purchases from me before 31 July 2015) and I will send you a thank you gift in the post in August. To get your gift, you will have to make sure that you un-check the "no contact" option, otherwise I will not be given your contact details and will not know to whom or to where to send your gift! If you have any questions, please do contact me to ask and I shall be happy to help!

Thank you for taking the time to visit and read my blog post today. I do hope you have been inspired to go and do some crafting yourself. Do leave me a comment, as I would love to hear what you think of today's projects.

So, until next time, happy stamping everybody!

Lucy x

Winging it with hand-dyed ribbons for a pretty little gift!

Today I would like to share with you a little gift set I have made using Stampin' Up!'s Watercolor Wings stamp set. The folded pouch holds four 3x3" cards and envelopes and is made with the new Envelope Paper in Mint Macaron. I think it would make an ideal teacher thank you gift or even a nice little birthday present and it is very quick to make:

I used Mint Macaron and Perfect Plum. I love this colour combination. I used the same two colours in my covered notebooks that I showed you in my recent Pinkies Blog Hop post.

As Stampin' Up! do not have any Perfect Plum ribbons, I decided to dye some of the Whisper White Organza Ribbon and Whisper White Bakers' Twine with a few drops of Perfect Plum Ink Refill ink and a tiny bit of water. I placed about a dozen drops of the ink into a small plastic pot, added about a tablespoon of tap water and then coiled the ribbon and twine into the liquid, making sure that it was all submerged by using a bamboo barbecue skewer to dunk it under the surface! (You could use a cocktail stick, but I hadn't got any left!) I left it for a few minutes to let the ink to soak in, then removed it and pegged it to my washing line to dry in the sunshine. 

The ribbon came out a bit paler than I wanted for this particular project, so I decided to use my Perfect Plum Ink Pad to add a bit more ink to it. I placed one end of the ribbon on the ink pad and held a small acrylic block over it with one hand, whilst gently and slowly pulling the ribbon with my other hand, until the ink covered all the ribbon. Be warned - you will get inky fingers doing this, however careful you are (my fingers looked like I had been picking blackberries afterwards!) and you will need to allow plenty of drying time before you use the ribbon on your project, too. I do love how you can make bespoke ribbons and twines this way though. It is worth the wait, do give it a go!

Here are a few more photographs of the gift set and the cards inside it:

I do love the versatility of the Watercolor Wings stamp set - the butterflies are so beautiful. I really like how the four butterflies above look so different, despite only two ink pads being used. I stamped off the ink first on my grid paper, before stamping some of the layers and then used direct stamping on other layers. This gives a fantastic range of tones of the same colour - thus showing that you can still get a variety of effects even if you don't yet have many ink pad colours in your craft stash! It doesn't look like only two colours have been used, does it?

I like how you can see the lovely wood grain pattern on the inside of the gift pouch in the last photograph too. If you haven't yet bought the Envelope Paper, I can highly recommend it. I have used it a lot - and I must confess I've not even made an actual envelope with it yet! Ooer! It is hugely versatile and a bargain at only £5.50 (7,50€) for twenty 12x12" (30.5x30.5cm) sheets. It is strong-enough to be scored and folded, but is a slightly lighter-weight than our regular Designer Series Paper.

Well, that is it for today, do leave me a comment. I am wondering if you would like to see a step-by-step tutorial for making the above folded gift pouch? If I get enough response I will do one for you all to see.

Until next time, happy crafting everyone!

Lucy x

ONLY FOUR DAYS LEFT to get yourself TWO FREE STAMP SETS with your starter kit - so hurry or you will miss out! Click here or on the photograph below, to find out how: Offer ends this Tuesday, 30th June 2015.

Watercolor Wings decorated notebooks for another Pinkies Blog Hop!

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We're showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin' Up!® Annual Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

Thank you if you have joined me from Sarah's blog - what lovely ideas!

I have totally fallen head over heels with the Watercolor Wings stamp set - I am a huge fan of butterflies and the two-step layered butterflies in this set are just beautiful. I love their slightly sketchy, textured look and have discovered that there are endless ways of combining ink colours to produce a myriad of designs.

Today, however, I am keeping it simple and using just two colours in my projects: Perfect Plum and the new Mint Macaron. I adore how these two colours go so beautifully together. Come and see what I have done with them:

I decided to decorate two hardback notebooks by covering them with some of the Mint Macaron Envelope Paper, stuck down with Fast Fuse (so quick and easy to do!). I then stamped a large butterfly directly onto the larger book's cover with the larger butterfly layer pieces from the stamp set. I cut out a filigree butterfly from Perfect Plum cardstock with the Butterfly Thinlits using my trusty Bigshot (and a bit of wax paper to release it easily) and applied tiny dots of Tombow glue to the back of it to stick it down securely:

For the smaller notebook I used my Chalk Talk Framelits to make a double-layered label, wrapped a little of the gorgeous Mint Macaron 1" (2.5cm) Dotted Lace Trim around it, overlapping two pieces ever so slightly to make it appear wider. I then stamped one of the smaller butterflies from Watercolor Wings onto Whisper White cardstock, cut it out with the Butterflies Thinlits' smallest butterfly shape and then adhered it to the ribbon with Stampin' Dimensionals:

I think it looks really pretty, don't you? A good mix of vintage and feminine whilst still being clean and simple.

This last photograph shows the inside of the larger notebook. I decided to stamp the inside cover with the words "There is nothing in the caterpillar that tells you it is going to be a butterfly" taken from the Butterfly Basics Stamp Set. I also stamped some of the stylised flowers from that set onto the first page of the book and the front cover too, to keep it from being too plain! I love how these two stamp sets and the two butterfly thinlits sets coordinate so beautifully. Even better is that they are available in bundles with a 15% saving - thank you Stampin' Up! for that!

That's it for today, don't forget that you can get two FREE stamp sets if you join my team before the end of June 2015, I welcome both hobbyists and business-minded stampers and am happy to help answer any questions you may have about how to join and what to expect. If you join my team you will also come under the umbrella of the Pinkies team and together we offer a huge pool of knowledge, experience, inspiration, ideas  and friendship. I love being a demo and being a Pinkie too is the cherry on top of that!

Thank you for taking the time to view my post today, please click on the images below to hop onwards to the next person, Christa's, blog, or, back towards Sarah's.

Hope you come back to see me again soon:  next week I will have another project to show you, using the same colours and stamps that I have used today' to make a pretty gift set of cards which would make an ideal teacher thank you present! 

Until next time, happy crafting everyone!

Lucy x

Pinkies Blog Hop - A sneak-peek Sprinkle of Life from the new Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue 2015

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We're showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin' Up!® Annual Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

Thank you if you have joined me from Christa's blog - what lovely work!

For me, one of the most exciting things about every new Annual Catalogue from Stampin' Up! is the new set of In Colors - and the new ones launching 2nd June 2015 do NOT disappoint: Tip Top Taupe, Watermelon Wonder, Cucumber Crush, Delightful Dijon and Mint Macaron... Come and see what you think:

I have made some simple 3x3" cards using the new In Color A4 Cardstock, ink pads and Stampin' Write Markers with the gorgeous new "Sprinkles Of Life" charity stamp set:

The "Sprinkles Of Life" stamp set is the new charity stamp set from Stampin' Up! and for every set sold, Stampin' Up! give £2 to the Ronald McDonald House Charities®  which keeps families together and surrounded by love when their children are receiving medical treatment far from home (with over $1million contributed to date!).

Stamping these cards was a breeze as the "Sprinkles of Life" set are photopolymer stamps so alignment is easy peasey! The cute tree trunk is stamped in Tip Top Taupe. The tree leaves and the grass/vegetation are all the gorgeous fresh and bright new green that is Cucumber Crush and for the flowers I have used the ink that matches the card base - so either Delightful Dijon, Mint Macaron or Watermelon Wonder. The tiny bird's outline is stamped with Memento Tuxedo black Ink and then coloured in with my Tip Top Taupe Write Marker. I then punched out the bird using the fabulous new Tree Builder Punch and adhered it to the card with a portion of a Stampin' Dimensional to raise it up a bit and make it look like it is sitting on the branch of the tree:

The inside of the card has a matching Whisper White insert stamped with one of the 8 sentiments that come in the 22-piece stamp set - yes, that's right: twenty two stamps in the set for a bargainous £19 (25€).

I have repeated a group of the flowers inside each card and on the front of each envelope, as, you can't have a naked envelope, now, can you?!

I cannot decide which of the colourways is my favourite - I like them all, for different reasons. I think perhaps I am edging towards the Watermelon Wonder one at the moment... but, I the Delightful Dijon is growing on me!! I must confess I wasn't sure about the dijon to begin with, but I really like the colour now and it goes really well with so many other Stampin' Up! colours too... 

Which one is your favourite? Do let me know in the comments below...

There are so many other lovely stamps in the "Sprinkles Of Life" set: there is a cloud that doubles up as a scoop of icecream, or, the top of a cup cake; in the same shape there is a bunch of pretty flowers for you to colour in;  there is an apple, a candle, raindrops, cupcake sprinkles and loose leaves; plus an icecream cone cup and a wicker basket too, as well as the 8 gorgeous (and useful!) sentiments... and these shapes match the fab new Tree Builder Punch too... I have SO many ideas for many, many different projects... so do come back and maybe you'll see some more ideas here sometime soon! I think I could base a whole day class, just around this one stamp set actually! Hmm... Now there's an idea... ;0)

Thank you for taking the time to look at my blog hop post today. I hope I have inspired you to make something with the new items once the catalogue launches on 2nd June! If you would like me to send you a paper copy of the New Catalogue, please contact me.

Until next time, happy stamping - and hopping too!

Lucy x