Spring Is Here!

 

Welcome to the Isle of Wight and my little section of the In Love With Stamping blog hop to celebrate the launch of the new Stampin'  Up Spring Summer Catalogue. You should have hopped here from Michelle's blog.

 

I have been giving little sneak peaks of the new products for a little while now and I am super excited to be able to share everything fully now. If you popped by here yesterday you will have seen my technique idea blog post about puffy hearts, well here is the finished Valentines project. I am 100% sure my other half won't be reading by blog anytime soon (nor rooting around in my craft room) so I don't mind sharing his card here. I am back to work after my 10 months of maternity leave this week so I have had to be a bit more organised with my makings. When I saw the beautiful More Amore DSP and Fabric I knew it would make a perfect Valentines card.

 

I layered my three puffy padded hearts onto lace and ribbon from the absolutely beautiful Artisan Embellishments kit (I am having to order another kit as I have used my first on all the projects I have been sharing this week- it is so versatile as I used it for a scrapbook page, a birthday card and now a Valentines card!). The greeting is stamped from the Wacky Wishes Hostess set from the main catalogue (and cut using the Apothecary Accents Framelits).

I finished my card with large pearls and an itty bitty heart button.

 

While we are hopping I thought I would also share with you a couple of projects I made for a Hostess thank you at a recent party. I do not know how I missed these fab Kraft Gift boxes in the main catalogue. But upon ordering them they are just about my new favourite gift box. I covered this one with Tea for Two Designer Series Paper and wrapped with the gorgeous new two tone ribbon (Pink Pirouette/Rose Red). This was then filled with a mini taster box of products from the new Spring Summer catalogue including buttons, brads and ribbons (and a few added extras too!). 

Here is the thank you card I made to match the gift box which again uses the Tea for Two DSP, the fab Honeycomb Embossing Folder and the gorgeous new Flower Trim (another thing to add to my next order as I have been endlessly using the first 1.8m I purchased!)

Thank you for hopping by today. I hope you enjoyed my projects. Please continue the hop by popping over to Clare's blog.

 

Just a few reminders for my regular readers. My new catalogue Open House is tomorrow between 10am-3pm. I will have a copy of the new catalogue for all attendees as well as a goody bag prize draw and my extra special Sale-A-Bration promotion announcement for anyone placing a qualifying order with me before March 22nd (more info tomorrow).

 

Happy Crafting ;0)
-X-

 



A belated Mothers Day card

Thats not to say I belatedly gave the Mothers Day card, I'm just late in posting a picture of it. Again, I have to thank the fabulous Vicky for the inspiration. Her blog is just lovely so I thoroughly recommend a visit. I spotted her crocus card a couple of weeks ago and loved the use of markers and vellum to create this delicate flower card. I knew it would be perfect for my Mum for the big day yesterday. So I set about recreating it with my Stampin' Up! stash.

This uses the large heart from the Heart to Heart punch punched from vellum and coloured with Wisteria Wonder and Concord Crush. The grass background is stamped using Just Believe. The basket is made with Early Espresso and embossed with the Square Lattice embossing folder for the Big Shot. I embellished with Lucky Limeade ruffled ribbon and the smallest designer buttons from the Subtles collection.

We all had a lovely Mothers Day here on the IOW yesterday. My day started with a surprise card and box of choccies from my soon to be born daughter (she is already writing from the womb would you believe? Although suspiciously the writing looked remarkably like her Dads!). Then bump and I drove over to Mums for a Mothers Day feast with my whole family. My Dad has a smoker and cooked the most gorgeous smoked salmon to accompany out buffet lunch. I just cannot get enough of smoked salmon during this pregnancy (I think she has expensive tastes). I then promptly snoozed the afternoon away on Mums sofa. It is a tough life being 7 months pregnant ;0)

Hope your week has started well. Thanks for stopping by today.

Happy Crafting ;0)

-XXX-

Bundle of Love for my Secret Stork

 I'm not sure what happened with the colours in todays photos. This card is actually created using Pretty In Pink cardstock but in this photo it seems to have taken on an orange-y hue.

I am taking part in a Secret Stork with a Facebook group for ladies having babies in May. I wanted to create a baby themed card to go with my baby pressie. The lady I am sending to is expecting a girl and I have bought several pink items to go in the parcel. This card coordinates perfectly.

I created this card using the Bundle of Love stamp set paired with my various sized circle punches. I punched circles using Rose Red and Melon Manbo to make the most of Stampin' Up!'s coordinating pink shades. I coloured the details of the baby images with my Pretty in Pink Stampin' Write marker. I then used a paper ribbon from my stash (the Stampin' Up! crochet trim would work just as well) and embellished with the large size Basic Pearls.

This card looked like it was going to go very wrong as it was originally created as a 15cm x 15cm square card. I stamped the images across the whole card but it just didn't work properly. The layout was all wrong. So I cut the card in half and scored down the centre (creating a 7.5x15cm card instead).  I used the circle design for the front of the card and the pram and hearts are the reverse of the card. Dividing the card up like this worked so much better and I am much happier with the result.

Now all I have to do is pack up the parcel and pop the card in and its all set for posting.

Hope your Wednesday is going well. Hump day is nearly over ;0)

Happy Crafting ;0)

-X-

Last Chance List Blog Hop

Welcome to my little part of todays Blog Hop. Thank you for joining me from Laura's blog and I hope you've enjoyed all the inspiration so far.

For todays Last Chance List inspired hop I have chosen one of my favourite Stampin' Up! sets, Love You Much (if you click here you will find all my blogged projects using this stamp set previously). When I first discovered Stampin' Up! a couple of years ago this was right at the top of my shopping list and I will be so sad to see it retire come September 30th. Its been perfect for the recent spate of engagements and weddings amongst my friends and I've given this stamp set a fair few outings.

And on that note, that is where I am today. At one of the many weddings of 2011. So fingers crossed technology hasn't failed me and that you can all see this at the right time ;0) I will be home tomorrow and will be completing the hop and commenting on all the participants lovely projects then. Please bear with me.....

For todays project I decided to have a go at making an acetate box. I've seen lots of these made around the blogosphere and always think they look so lovely.  I wanted to use one of my less used colours, Rich Razzleberry and combine this with retiring striped ribbon and DSP (Love Letter).

My card and gift box together:

For the card I used the large Love You Much heart stamped in Rich Razzleberry onto Very Vanilla. I wrapped my Rich Razzleberry card stock layer with a trimmed length of striped ribbon and glued the heart to this. I then embellished with Basic Pearls (I used the smallest ones for the centre of the flowers on the heart and the pearl lengths to line the striped ribbon).

My acetate box is a small 2"x2" square base. Perfect to fit 4 pink heart shaped bath bombs in to make a lovely hostess gift or Valentines pressie. I created the top and bottom of the box using plain Rich Razzleberry cardstock. I then cut lengths of Love Letter DSP which I wrapped around the top and bottom. I embellished this with hearts punched with my Heart to Heart punch. The front embellishment is a Rich Razzleberry scalloped circle layered with the 'Hugs and Kisses' stamp from Love You Much (and basic pearls circling the scallops).

I hope you've enjoyed your stop by my blog today and be sure to continue by hopping onwards to Theresa's blog.

The full list of participants can be found below:

1. AlisonP http://craftyalisoninlyon.blogspot.com/
2. Twintrouble (Erika) http://twintroublescreations.blogspot.com/
3. Lauralou http://airingcupboardstamping.blogspot.com/
4. Sarah (IOW Sarah) http://www.stampinsarahiow.blogspot.com/
5. Theresa M http://my-next-chapter.blogspot.com/
6. Rozelle (LittleMoo6) http://thepapercraftsessions.blogspot.com/
7. Valerie (valmoody) http://stampingwithval.wordpress.com/
8. EmmaH http://emma-letsstamp.blogspot.com/
9. Donna (DonnaM) http://www.head-over-heels-by-dlm.blogspot.com/
10. Julie H (The Crafty Bug http://the-crafty-bug.blogspot.com/
11. Elaine (Sassy Stamper) http://www.thesassystampers.blogspot.com/
12. Sandra (Sarnie) http://www.kraftybiker.blogspot.com/
13. Natalie http://www.natalieoshea.co.uk/blog.html
14. Kimf http://kimfeecrafter.blogspot.com/
15. CarolineSkinner http://stampinupandbranchingout.blogspot.com/
16. VickyLou http://www.vickylouscorner.blogspot.com/
17. Michelle (ShellieStamps) http://michellescraftypaper.typepad.com/
18. allyf http://www.serendipitypapercuts.blogspot.com/
19. Maggiemae http://thefineartofstampin.blogspot.com/
20. Evy C http://www.evyscraftycreations.blogspot.com/
21. Niki http://www.mygroovystampinup.blogspot.com/
22. Sarah-Jane www.cardsandacuppa.blogspot.com
23. Tina( Tina Faghy) http://littlewhitehousecrafts.blogspot.com
24. Sally (Pink Sky) http://pinkskysu.blogspot.com

A final wedding card

Good morning all. Not sure whats got me up so early this morning. But as I am awake I thought I would share a new project with you. This Saturday is the final of my three summer weddings this year. I am safe to put this on my blog a bit early as I am sure the Bride and Groom have much more pressing matters to deal with than surf my blog ;0)

I made this card with the left overs from the wedding invites. If you see this post you can see that I have themed the wedding card with both the acceptance and invites that I made for them. They were so pleased with their invites that I wanted to tie in the additional cards I made for them (I also have one final project themed in the Cajun Craze, So Saffron, More Mustard, Early Espresson colour scheme to share. But that will have to wait until next week....)

To create this card I used a base of More Mustard and added Cajun Craze and stamped layers to this.  The leaf stamp is unfortunately from a retired Hostess Set from 2009-2010. I stamped the 'Congratulations' from Curly Cute in Chocolate Chip and added a length of Early Espresso ribbon. The hearts were punched with the Heart to Heart punch (the tiny Kraft letters are not SU but from my scrapbooking stash. They were the smallest letters I could find to add a tiny monogram). And finally I embellished with a length of linen thread and two tags stamped with 'Mr & Mrs' and 'Love' from Tiny Tags.

Really pleased with the result. I think the tiny tags finished the card off perfectly ;0)

And one more thing while I am blogging on this fine Thursday morning. This Saturday is the In Love With Stamping Last Chance List blog hop. So please pop by at 10am (*fingers crossed* the technology doesnt fail me as I will be at the wedding on the mainland!) and see all the lovely projects created by Stampin' Up! Demonstrators with stamp sets and products that are about to retire from the catalogue.

Happy Crafting ;0)

-X-

Stampin Up Perfect Pairs for March

Great offer on Stampin Up stamps sets and coordinating punches. Information below:

Perfect Pairs

Stampin’ Up!’s perfectly coordinated stamp sets and punches make crafting simple!
And during the month of March, get 20 percent off select punches when you purchase the coordinating stamp set. Plus, get a sneak peek at the brand-new Full Heart punch--not available again until the release of the 2010-2011 Idea Book & Catalogue!

To view further information check out the link here:

http://www2.stampinup.com/gb/eng/6577.asp