Touches of Texture ....

Had these stamps for a while (with the launch of the new catalog) I have mainly bought them for all the textured backgrounds for mixed media scrapbooking, but I thought I would challenge myself today to make a card, yes don't all faint, it has been a while, but here you go ....

these are the little bee and dragonfly that i have used on my previous project, I added a little touch of "wink of stella" to their wings to give them a little sparkle.

Swallowtail ....

Promised my friend Sally-Jo that i would have this project finished by the time i see her again. We we're both messing around with spritzing and I wanted to use some gilding flakes I have had for eons and never used. We had worked on a piece of 8x8 card, so I promised SJ I would mount it onto something and frame it. I decided to go for black cardstock which I have embossed using another blast from the past Pillion Potpourri  butterfly stamps and a couple of small insect stamps from a new set, which I will share some samples from shortly.

Sign UP ....

If you've ever considered signing up to Stampin Up and even just being a hobby demo, in other words someone who only wants to order for themselves (or themselves and a couple of friends) gaining great discount and hearing about offers and new products before anyone else, This Month Only, SU have a fantastic offer for you. The starter kit is still only £99 and for this amount you can select £130 worth of products from the new catalog AND only in July, you will receive an additional 10 Ink pads, these giving you an extra £70 of value to your starter kit.

National Scrapbooking Day ....

While feeling inspired to use paints and inks after our Scrapstars weekend, I just went crazy on this background, having the confidence to know that if it was a disaster, I was only wisting a sheet of white card :) but I'm really pleased with the result and inspiration from attending classes with Julie Taylor ....

Summer Party ....

Here's a layout using a little bit of my Ephemera, and also using Echo Park, Summer Party papers.At the recent Scrapstars event one of the teachers was using a lovely wide scallop punch, immediately i knew I had to have one, but ended up sourcing one that was completely different lol. I still love the punch and have been itching to use it, so here it is on the layout.

Ephemera ....

Today I've been making my own Ephemera, when you consider all the punches and dies we own, why are we buying these little packets of Flowers, Butterflies and Leaves ! I made a simple background using the wet wipe technique a bit of spritzing and some "flicks" of paint (you could use water colours, and packaging technique, anything goes really). As you can see my background doesn't look very impressive but once it is die cut or punched, the results are great :)

Stampin Up girls ......

So a few weeks ago I had the pleasure of hosting my Stampin UP buddies, we had a fun filled few days, yes they booked themselves in to the Premier Inn  up the road, so we could spoil ourselves with two consecutive days of uninterrupted crafting. We had great fun, a good old catch up and threw ourselves into our crafting. Sharon is always so organized and knows exactly what she is doing in order to prep for her classes, or making gifts and cards for up and coming events. Yvonne brought along her jelly plate, something I have been wanting to have a play with for some time, and she made back ground after background for a whole stack of cards, and also made a beautiful card for her daughters birthday. Jane sewed and challenged me to my second sewing challenge since I left school (a couple of years ago I made some rabbits, but it was a massive challenge for me), and now Jane wants me to sew freehand!  Ginnette made beautiful jewelry, and Sally Jo and I jumped around between everything LOL.

something SJ and I did between us,
 I wanted to mess around with Gilding Flakes

My effort at embroidery, my squirrel is
rather large !