Try It Tuesday on a Wednesday

 Good afternoon and hello to my Try it Tuesday feature (a day late again!). Maybe I should change it to Making on a Wednesday instead ;0)

 

I am back to normal scrapbooking service this week. The above layout is one of the pages we created last night at our monthly scrapbooking class. I cannot for the life of me remember where I found the inspiration for this page. I have looked all over Pinterest to see if it was there to no avail. I saw a page with a beautiful paper created birdhouse that inspired this layout and would love to give credit.

 

I used the beautiful Birds of a Feather and More Amore Designer Series Papers on a Marina Mist base for this 12"x12" page. The stamped images are from Elements of Style and Aviary (the Marina Mist accent bottom right). We created the floral embellishments using a variety of papers and circle punches (finished with designer buttons).

 

I love the simplicity of this page and the multifunction use of the birdhouse. It would work for a number of pictures, themes or occasions.

 

Next months theme is going to be formal evening wear. I look forward to creating some pages for my ladies to use their lovely cruise photos on.

 

I have some pictures to share with you of some beautiful projects my team shared with me on Monday at our monthly shoebox swap. But to finish today I will share with you my project that I created for the swap. I love this simple little triangular gift box. I found the instructions for this project here.

Thanks for joining me today. Please get in touch if you'd like to join my scrapbooking class or find out more about Stampin' Up! and their products.

 

Happy crafting ;0)

-X-

A Happy 40th Birthday

Sam, Summer and I were invited to a 40th Birthday Barn dance on Saturday evening. This was for one of my lovely ladies who I have met through Stampin' Up! Wendy, so I set about creating a Stampin' Up! birthday card for her. I started with a blank canvas of Crumb Cake cardstock and I was a bit stuck. Then I remembered this fab card I'd seen on Pinterest (while I am getting used to life with less sleep Pinterest is often my saviour as it helps me no end with my sometimes lacking mojo- well not so much lacking, it is more likely tucked up in bed somewhere sleeping!). The Aviary stamp set is one of my go to favourites. I just love those bird cages. And tone on tone stamping is also one of my favourite techniques.

I always forget you can colour the white organza ribbon with the reinkers or pens to create a perfectly matching ribbon for any card. I love the sheen of this ribbon as it really sets off any project.

The colour scheme for this card is Cherry Cobbler and Crumb Cake. The numbers are from my scrapbooking stash. I used them as they matched the Antique Brad perfectly.

I'll have to tell you about the barn dance on another occasion as I am writing this in advance and scheduling this post (so as I write I haven't yet been to the party!!!). I've had to schedule some posts as I have a rare hour or so to get online while Summer is sleeping ;0)

Hope you all had a lovely weekend and happy Monday crafting

-x-

Two Birthdays

Firstly, I must start by apologising today as both todays cards are Stampin' Up! inspired but they are not strictly all SU product and also utilise retired stamps too. Since being on leave from work I have been going through old stash and having a play and these are two of my results. Hopefully we might see a few of these fab products return in the new main catalogue in October.

I couldn't share my Dad's birthday card with you on his actual birthday yesterday due to the blog hop. So I thought I would share the birthday tidings today with my sisters card also. Dad's card was inspired by this incredibly creative creation over onVicky's blog. As soon as I saw it I realised I would have to have a go for my Dad as he is an avid stamp collector. I love how these punched stamp shapes all fit together so perfectly. I went through all of my stamps to find an appropriately masculine image to include on the stamped images and came up with this now retired set from last years Mini catalogue. I stamped them tone on tone in Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Island Indigo, Pumpkin Pie and Elegant Eggplant.

Happy Birthday to my sister, Sophie, whose birthday it is today. Her card was inspired by the little owl image in the Aviary stamp set. I came across some old (non-SU) papers in my crafting cupboard and thought they would be perfect for her (covered in glitter and mini cupcakes). I matched the colours of the owls to the colours in the papers. I embellished with a flat bow made from Blushing Bride Stitched Poly Ribbon and a Happy Birthday stamped in matching ink from the Curly Cute stamp set. I, like all crafters, have amassed a lot of lovely papers and products over the years,  I love to sometimes challenge myself to match up Stampin' Up! colours and accessories to papers I already have. And I guess this card is a simple example of how complimentary Stampin' Up's stamps and embellishments can be.

In other news, I am still on a countdown to my 40 weeks next Tuesday. Fingers crossed it will be any day now ;0) And if my blog goes quiet, you'll know where I am....

-XXX-

Sale-A-Bration Scrapbooking

Here is the first of our Stampin' Scrappin' layouts for this month.  I used the current In Colours and the Sale-A-Bration Everyday Enchantment papers as my inspiration. I love how the Aviary stamped images and the punched bird match the tiny birds incorporated in the paper design.

The more colourful the layout the more I love it. So this months class was fun for me to design as it used so many big bright colours: Lucky Limeade, Pool Party, Calypso Coral &  Peach Parfait. The page was embellished with a few basic pearls and a strip of Daffodil Delight ribbon.

I'll share the second layout tomorrow. In the mean time, happy crafting to all ;0)

-X-

New Catalogue Celebration Blog Hop

Happy blog hopping Sunday to you and welcome to the Isle of Wight part of this In Love With Stamping blog hop to celebrate the launch of the new Stampin' Up! catalogue. Thank you for joining me from Kara's blog and I hope there has been inspiration-a-plenty so far.

I have two quick and easy projects to share with you today using two of my favourite new items from the 2011-2012 catalogue.

The first project is a swap I recently completed for our Regional Training in High Wycombe. This uses the much loved stamp set Aviary. I know a lot of us Demonstrators have been asking for this since it launched in the US catalogue. It is such a cute and versatile stamp set.

For this card I used Pool Party as my theme colour to highlight our lovely new In Colours. I then combined this with So Saffron, Whisper White and Basic Pearls to create this little 4x4 card front. It doesnt show up too well in the photo but I also ran this through the Big Shot using the Perfect Polka Dots Textured Embossing Folder.

The second of my favourite new buys is the Lace Ribbon Border punch. I just love this effect using a tone on tone Lace Ribbon strip backed with circles cut with the 1 inch circle punch (which fits 100% perfectly- yet another reason to love Stampin' Up!). This simple card could be altered to fit any occassion just by changing the colours used behind the punched strip. But as my thoughts are turning towards Christmas I decided to go with my favourite festive colour combo, Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive. And I finished with a large Basic Rhinestone in the centre of each circle.

Apologies for the simplicity of my projects today, I have been a little under the weather this week and between work and sleep my crafting has taken a little bit of a backseat.  But I hope you have enjoyed your unseasonably sunny stop by the Isle of Wight today and now click on over to Tracey's blog to continue your creative blog hop.....

-xxx-

Less is More 'With Legs'

I thought I would have a go at this weeks Less is More challenge, a one layer card 'With Legs'. The moment I saw the weeks theme I thought of this stamp set, Aviary (sadly, while this is Stampin' Up! it is not currently available in our catalogue.This was a gift from an American counterpart).  I was actually thinking of the bird cage leg as opposed to the birds' (do I get extra points for having double the legs?) I have had this set in my stamp cupboard for months and never gotten around to using it. So I decided I would 1) use a brand new set and 2) try a new technique. Now heat embossing is my favourite of all crafting techniques, but until this card I had never tried masking part of the image. So I stamped my fancy yellow bird first then created a mask from a post it. I then lined up my bird cage with my Stamp-a-ma-Jig and stamped with Versamark. I then heat embossed over the bird in gold embossing powder.

OK so its quite a simple card. But I think I am getting my head around CAS slowly but surely. I couldnt resist the one little rhinestone to embellish the bird cage though. I love these challenges set by Mandi and Chrissie and I love challenging myself to go against the grain crafting wise (I still want to glitter and embellish everything).

So thats me 'LIM'd' for the week. Onwards to Saturday and a new challenge.....

Happy Crafting ;0)
-X-