Once around the block....

Yesterday I shared I card I had made in the style of the screen card which seems popular at the moment. 

Today I tried my hand at another popular style of card currently - the block card. This is one of those clever 3D cards that will fold flat to go in and envelope - although because of the flower this would need a gusseted envelope.

There are tutorials galore for block cards on the wonderful web - including You tube if you are a visual learner. 

I delved into the wonders of the "All Abloom" paper stack for the little mats on my card and the main 3 colours are mossy meadow, strawberry slush and pistachio pudding. I made the 3D flower on top using the pansy punch. I found a tutorial on a Facebook page a few weeks ago - but can't now find it, so my heartfelt gratitude to the person who originally came up with the flower - I love it. The other embellishments were created with the petite petals stamp and matching punch. I embossed the flower with white emboss powder. I also used the larger butterfly punch - I used tone on tone stamping for this one, stamping one of the butterflies from the Papillon Potpourri in mossy meadow ink. The sentiment stamps came from the petite pairs set and for these I used mossy meadow ink on pistachio pudding card which was punched with the hexagon punch. I inked around the edges with mossy meadow to give some definition. To finish off I created a bow in the mossy meadow ribbon and  draped the tails down the card, attaching the ends with glue dots.

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Quite pleased with this for a first effort.This style of card of course screams out to be made into a new baby card and the minute a succumb to the beautiful "something for baby" bundle I shall have a go at one. (My excuse for buying it will, of course, be the duck stamp and matching framelit.)

I have had an exciting day today because I have been accepted and have agreed to stock some of my creations in a lovely little shop in the Courtyard at Wollaston called "Eye to Eye." This is a wonderful new adventure for me.

Check out their Facebook page here

I am also busy getting ready for an event on Saturday afternoon. Do come along and join us:

The Big Screen

I had seen quite a few cards of this style on Facebook, Pinterest and blogs and decided to have a go at one myself and I had great fun making this card with its beautiful soft vintage colour. It is a mixture of old and new materials as well, as I have used some of my retired stash for this card. But there is no reason you couldn't use some of the papers from the new catalogue for this style of card. I am thinking something from the Gold Soiree collection would be fantastic.

To make the basic shape of the card, I cut a piece of pistachio pudding card to 28cm long and then scored it at 7cm intervals. the legs of the screen are made using the decorative label punch. 

The tops were created by punching with the scalloped tag topper punch and snipping off the excess. You could border punches to give a pattern along the top, or what about checking out this week's weekly deals and treating yourself to the finishing touches die set.

 I cut some mats from DSP to decorate each panel. I then stamped onto these with the swirl stamp from the beautiful "Everything Eleanor" collection using Versamark ink and heat embossed it with gold emboss powder. I attached them to the 4 panels of the card.

 Using the 2 butterfly punches I punched 4 small butterflies from DSP and 4 large from pistachio pudding card, I dipped the edges of the big butterflies onto the Versamark ink pad and added gold emboss powder and heated it. 

I used some strips of watercolour wonder washi tape across each panel of the screen. I was lucky enough to win mine a few days ago on a SU Facebook competition, but if you are quick you could be lucky enough to pick some up in the weekly deals this week.

I stamped and embossed my greetings from the "Petite Pairs", again in gold and punched them out with the hexagon punch. I backed these onto some oddments of gold mirri card. My finishing touches were using the now retired ruffle ribbon, both along the top and bottom of the panels and around the sentiments. You could ruffle your own ribbon or use washi tape. Just make sure you use sticky strip if you are using ribbon, to ensure a good hold.

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

don't forget to check out the weekly deals button on the right hand side for the dies, the washi tape and other goodies including, this week, the cupcake builder punch. you may noy be ableto eat them, but it is still delicious.

Don't hesitate to contact me for any more information about any of these products or the many, many other beautiful things available from Stampin' Up.

Helen

xx

Whoops - hope you feel better soon

What sort of a card do you send to someone who isn't at work because they have taken a tumble and hurt themselves. This was the challenge I was set recently by my husband who needed a card for the office to send to a work colleague.

My solution was this "whoops" card. 

Not even Stampin' Up has a stamp with a "whoops" sentiment on, so I had to print this from my computer onto very vanilla cardstock. I used Blackberry bliss card, ink and DSP (designer series paper) for my colour theme. Clear embossing powder and the hostess stamp set  "I like you" were used to create the background image on the card stock and the same stamp set for the blooms that border the sentiment banner. This stamp set alone is worth having a party for. My faithful scalloped tag topper punch and butterfly punch teamed with the Papillon Potpourri stamp set came in useful once again and a little piece of very vanilla seam binding finished off the tag.

This was an 8" square card and so there was plenty of room for everyone to write their best wishes.

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

The weather is continuing to be warm and in true British style we like to grumble about it. But it is lovely to be able to get out and about to enjoy our beautiful countryside and my own personal wildlife haven - or should that be weed filled garden!!! My brother-in-law has however informed me this afternoon that there are tell-tale signs that we have a hedgehog visiting our garden - and that is fabulous news because I knew they are finding it difficult to find appropriate habitats. I shall be keeping my eyes peeled.

Helen

xxx

loveliness

We are almost a month into the new catalogue and these lovely new rich in-colours have firmly established themselves in my affections.  Whether it is the card, the inks or the gorgeous ribbon I keep raving about, I love them all. Have you succumbed to them yet?

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

While we are drooling over crafty loveliness, today is Wednesday and that can only mean this week's weekly deals have been announced. Some more punches, fabulous chevron ribbon, bright buttons and whatever celebration you have planned soon, now is the perfect time to grab the celebration banner kit.

Table built using Product Table Builder by The Crafty Owl - Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator.

Do get in touch if you want to know more about any of these crafty goodies.

Helen

xxx