Summer Flowers

So I have the new Garden in Bloom set from Stampin' Up!  It's lovely...but my creativity is stunted! After a whole week of looking at them, I finally cracked them open and stamped....a row of flowers!
*sigh*

Lots of summery challenges out there this week, so I'm entering this in the following challenges:

Tip Top Tuesday {Summer Fun}

 Friday Mashup {Fun in the Sun}

Corrosive Challenges {Hot, Hot, Hot}

I'm off to try again....

A Flowery Challenge

Flowers are always a favourite!  I love stamping and punching them as you might tell.  Well, flowers and butterflies....oh and the occasional dragonfly.  Let's face it...I like stamping and punching :-)

I made this card with the  Paper Shelter challenge in mind (Flowers!) but still using the colours from the Color Throwdown Challenge I entered earlier:

So I'm going to enter this in both challenges :-)

Petite Petals

This is using the Petite Petals and Woodgrain stamps from Stampin' Up.  

It's a 5x7" card which is slightly bigger than the woodgrain background stamp so I've hidden the join with a cunning border which turned out to be a handy place to hang my sentiment :-)

I've glammed the flowers up with perfect pearls and a bit of glamour dust, just to add sparkle.

Hope you like it.

BFN

Linda

Flowers!

Morning!

A quick post before we're out to the garden centre again!  We're determined to have thegarden sorted for summer!

I've used Petite Petals and Gorgeous Grunge from Stampin' Up to make these CAS cards.  I'm entering this card in the Flowers Challenge over on Wags n Whiskers.

Melon Mambo

I may have hit the grunge a little hard on the first one (above) so I laid off it for this one.  I took the sentiment from Butterfly Basics.  It's a good size!  I'm entering this card in the Space Challenge on Inkspirational.  

Cajun Craze

Right - off to garden centre!

BFN
Linda

New Start!

OK - here we go again!  It's been a while since I did any challenges so thought I'd ease into it with a "Anything Goes".  I love 'em!

It gives me an opportunity to use the Six-sided Sampler and punch from Stampin' Up.  I bought the punch to make honeycombe for a special ordered card....haven't really used it since!!  I struggled with the question...."why hexagons on a birthday card?"  but I think these work :-)

Six-sided Sampler

This has a vintage look to it....so I also tried some brighter coloured ones.

Island Indigo

Rose Red

I'm going to enter these in the Anything Goes challenge on Addicted to Stamp.

Thanks for looking

BFN
Linda

Happy Eas….oh…

Just like Christmas…I’ve missed sharing all the little things I made for the kids and friends!  *sigh*

Here’s a couple of pics of our Easter Table anyways:

I’ve made the flowers for the centre piece using the Stampin’ Up flower punch.  Let me know if you want to know how to make them and I’ll add a photo tutorial to my page.
The little egg place names I made by accident, while trying to figure out a box.  I eventually made the boxes too…but can’t find my photos of those!
And Annie made the lovely flower confetti for me…it’s a fab way to keep a 5 year old busy while making dinner :-).
So only a quick share today….back with some more makes later
BFN
Linda
X

Back to CAS

Ok…my last couple of cards have been borderline CAS recently so I’m getting back to the Clean and Simple look today but  I’m sticking with the blue theme:

I’ve used the Level One Hostess Set from Stampin’ Up!  Silhouette Sentiments and stamped flowers in Night of Navy, Pacific Point, Marina Mist and Baha Breeze.  I’ve then inked around the stems to “ground them”.  (I’ve actually used this technique before.  You can see it here.)
I’ve matted the image on to  Marina Mist, adding a border with the Scallop trim punch, and 3d’d it to the front of a 15cm card.
BUT what to do for the sentiment?  I’ve used a dark card blank (Night of Navy) and having constructed my card before thinking about the sentiment I was a little stuck for the medium to use….
So I resorted to good old-fashioned handwriting.  Adds a personal touch too.  I’ve used the Signo uni-ball Gel Pen for this….available from Stampin’ Up! at £3.75. 
So I hope you like it.  I definitely think this technique of stamping a “wild field of flowers” is soo suitable for any occasion.  I’d love to see your versions…
I’m entering this in the following challenges:
Less is More {Shades of Blue}
Papertake Weekly {Anything Goes}
Allsorts Challenge {Free and Easy}
BFN
Linda
X

LIM: Framed Flowers

Morning all!  Just a quick post today as it’s a day full of football (again!!).  Thanks for all your comments yesterday about my photo….it really was a blue card though and not a dark picture…LOL!  I don’t think I’ll be using Baja Breeze as a card blank again.  But I thought I’d check out this Picasa everyone is raving about and I’m glad I did.
It is a grey day today so perfect opportunity!  Can you tell which one has been Picasa’d:

This is my latest entry for the in the frame challenge over on Less is More.  I masked a 5 cm band across a 15cm card blank using post-it notes and stamped flowers from Silhouette Sentiment in Night of Navy, Pumpkin Pie and Cherry Cobbler.  I finished it off by blending Old Olive along the bottom of the frame using Cut ‘n’ Dry.  After removing the post-it notes I used the piercing mat from Stampin’ Up to frame it.
So I hope you like it….and I too can now highly recommend Picasa .
BFN
Linda
X

A Touch of Red

Such a late post tonight because I’ve been playing with my new purchases from Stampin’ Up!  It’s like Christmas *girly hand clap*.  I have some lovely products that I’m so looking forward to using and making some lovely cards to show you.  It’s OK….I don’t mind doing that.
My latest card was inspired by my upliner, Victoria over on Blue Jelly Stampin’.  So much so I wanted to give it a go myself, so I’ve used it to enter the challenge over on “Less is More” – A Touch of Red.

I’ve used my newly acquired ‘Pick a Petal’ stamp set and to stamp a five petal flower in Real Red, using my new and ingenious Stamp-a-ma-jig to align the petals exactly how I wanted them (such a simple but brilliant gadget!!). 
I’ve trimmed the card with some of the red spotty paper from the Designer Series Pattern paper and added a greeting to finish it off. 
Now, I nearly added a gem or two….but couldn’t decide where to put them….so I left them off.  And I’m glad I did.  I don’t think it needs anymore.  Less is more, right?
All in all, I’m quite pleased with the result.  Let me know what you think .
Thanks for reading,
BFN
Linda
x

New Stampin’ Up Demonstrator

Now you might have already seen the subtle changes to my blog recently….but I would like to officially announce….

I’m now an Independent Stampin’ Up Demonstrator!!

….and I’m sooo excited *girly hand claps*.   So check out my side bar to peruse the catalogue…but especially to review the March Frenzy offers!! 

(Here’s a sneak peak at my new samples.)

I have been working on some samples and making plans  for the last couple of weeks so I’ll be sharing those over the next few days.
This first card I’m sharing is made using a tutorial found on Lady& the Stamp.  I’ve adapted it to an A5 size so email me for dimensions if you want to recreate it. It’s a Box Arm Card and I think this is quite effective.
I’ve entered this in the ‘Flowers’ challenge over at Little Claires.

It’s a three panel card where the front panels stand out and prop the back panel up.   I’ve used the dainty flower stamp from the ‘Simply Said’ stamp set and the “Just for you” from the Afterthoughts set, both stamped in Pumpkin Pie ink.  The backing paper is from a recent Stampin’ Up win courtesy of Blue Jelly Stampin’ but unfortunately I can’t tell you what it is.  It’s very pretty though and matches the delicate flower image perfectly.  I’ve trimmed it with a punched border (which in hindsight probably should have been Pumpkin Pie in colour) and added matching ribbon.
Here’s a picture from the top of the card to give you an idea of how it all fits together.

Hope you like it…let me know what you think . 
BFN
Linda

When in doubt, get the Pink Petticoat out!

So every now and then, I get a request for a handmade card from one of my husband’s friends.  It’s great that they consider a handmade card as a special thing for their ladies….but to put it bluntly, boys are so rubbish at telling you what they want! 

This time however, I sent hubby armed with printouts of all my cards.  His friend only had to pick on….and he did – a black and red themed Valentine Card. No problem.  Colour scheme?  “Exactly as it is in the picture”.  Great! Seems straight forward.

However, by the time hubby’s got home to point at the required card, requirements had mellowed somewhat into “A card like that, but not that style and could you change the colours so it’s not so dark.  He didn’t want to say anything ‘cos he didn’t want to be a bother”. *sigh* 

So to the trusty Pink Petticoat papers and my interpretation of what is required

I think he’ll like it.  It’s a 8 inch easel card trimmed with ribbon and gems and embellished with flowers.

Let me know what you think

Thanks for reading.

Another Mother’s Day Card….

I might have said this before, I’m not a cutesy kind of person….so why did I get more Fizzy Moon stamps?  Well…because they make lovely Mother’s day cards when water coloured with distress inks, of course!

This card uses the new Desert Bloom papers.  It’s such a simple but effective design and can be adapted to so many occasions.  I’ll try and make some different occasions….but for inspiration on designs, hop over to CardPatterns.
Let me know what you think….thanks for reading

Daisies and Dragon flies…

Now I don’t know if you actually get green daisies but I have a lot of green scraps, several daisy punches and my mum-in-laws birthday coming up soon….and I bet she likes green
I’ve made this card before with blue (check out my gallery) but I wanted to use the so-in-vogue kraft card.  This is a trifold card, but you can make it five-panelled if you have the time.  I think I went a little mad with the dragon flies on this…but it kinda works. 

I’ve just realised I have to put a greeting on this one….but not tonight!!
Thanks for stopping by….hope you come back again soon