Floral Spray

Hey! 

So, I'm not at school today - just too unwell! Ugh! I was up half the night and just feel totally rough. I've managed to sleep most of the morning but now I've been up an hour or so I'm starting to feel pretty awful again. Gonna have another sleep after I've written this blog post for you!

Despite these last couple days being sick, I think I'm finally getting back into the groove of participating in challenge blogs! The last few weeks I've been a bit flakey and I've missed it. Today's share is the Colour Q challenge. It's a totally beautiful colour combo! 

Love, love, love purple and yellow together. ITs not a colour combo I use often but it just looks so bright, cheerful and fresh! It reminds me of crocuses! 

Stamp Set: Express Yourself, Hardwood

Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Crumb Cake

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Elegant Eggplant, Daffodil Delight, Pear Pizzazz

Big Shot: Little Leaves, Blossom Party, Floral Frames Framelits

Punch: Boho Blossoms, Itty Bitty

Embellishments: Candy Dots, Vintage Faceted Buttons, Whisper White Baker's Twine

I wanted the elegant eggplant and daffodil delight to have a real colour hit on this card so I thought it'd be nice to do a big blossom with some little white and yellow flowers scattered around. For this big blossom I used the blossom party die for the outer layers and floral frames for the yellow centre. I used the bone folder to split the card into 2 layers. I love the light fluffy texture it gives the paper. To give all the layers I scrunched the layers for that little variation in different sizes. For the centre two layers I actually cut the petals up into individual pieces and adhered as it kept the flower a little neater and flatter. 

I hadn't used the vintage faceted buttons in ages and thought it'd be the perfect touch here. It'd add that sparkle and wow to the card without taking away the punch of colour. 

I realise that I used a lot of candy dots here but they work so well for the centres of the little blossoms. Candy dots are certainly one of my favourite  embellishments of the moment! 

The hardwood background adds the needed texture and seems to fit so well with flowers - like a wood panel fence.

Okay, I need to get off for a sleep. Have a great day! 

Catch you again tomorrow! 

Happy Stampin',

Hardwood Rose Garden

Hello! 

Happy happy Friday folks! So glad its Friday! Looking forward to a break from kids now as its the Easter holidays! I'm a little sad my time working front desk in Student Services has come to an end, its been very different and challenging but I've genuinely enjoyed it! I'll miss all the lovely ladies who work there too! 

Now, I've got card club this weekend, we're using Mosaic Madness as this month's set which is just beautiful! Also some manic sewing to get a project finished - I'll share it once its finished and gifted! 

 I've just got time to share with you the therapeutic crafting I did last night - it was a bit of a rubbishy day but I am so thankful to be able to come home, sit in my little sanctuary and just craft away the worries of the day! Today's card is for both The Paper Players and Freshly Made Sketches challenges!

I loved the choice with the paper players challenge this week. I chose to use the 3 boxes down the left hand side - Birthday, Yellow and Paper Piercing. 

Such a cute sketch and thought it'd work well with the vision I had for the Paper Players challenge too! I love it when things just work out like that!

Stamp Set: Remembering Your Birthday, Hardwood

Ink: Versamark, Baked Brown Sugar, Crushed Curry, Strawberry Slush

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Baked Brown Sugar, Blushing Bride, Crushed Curry, Strawberry Slush, Gumball Green, Vellum, Gold Foil

Punch: Petite Petals, Itty Bitty

Big Shot: Little Leaves Sizzlit, Spiral Flower

Other: Fringe Scissors, Essentials Piercing Pack, Gold Embossing Powder

Embellishments: Pearls

I realise there's a lot going on here but I kind of think everything works! In all honesty I got some new toys - Hardwood, spiral flower, fringe scissors....I just HAD to play! 

I thought the vellum would be nice as the over layer as I didn't want the top layer to be heavy - the hardwood and flowers were the real stars of the show. When I stamped and embossed the sentiment in gold it looked brilliant but a little lost on the size of vellum so I went back in with the versamark pen (unfortunately SU no longer sells it but I still have mine kicking around) which I used to hand draw in some cute little hearts! 

I thought I'd add just little pops of yellow - the crushed curry is a really powerful colour so just a little still has a big impact! 

The rose is so pretty, isn't it? I sponged crushed curry on the inside edge and strawberry slush on the outside edge to make the flower look more realistic! the centre is a rolled up strip of the fringe strip. after the flower was rolled up and glued I went back in and used some tweezers to fold back the petals. I thought the addition of gold leaves with green was a nice touch to marry the gold sentiment and flowers together. 

I hope you enjoy this. It definitely made me feel better! 

Happy Stampin',

watch me on you tube?!

I am sorry once again for being a absentee blogger once again! But I promise you I have a good reason (or two!). 

I'm trying something new! I am trying my hand at some you tube videos! For all of those craft obsessed people like myself who can spend hours watching youtube crafting tutorials, now you can while away the time with the lul of my voice! Haha! Maybe not so much of a lul but hey! I'm on there doing my thing! 

So I am hoping to do some general demos with different products and techniques and I am also planning (in the pipeline) to do some product reviews/how to use and get the most out of a certain product! For example the Big Shot or the Simply Scored board so watch this space! 

In the mean time I have a could videos already on, one was for this sweet little place setting favour for our Thanksgiving meal which we celebrated on Saturday! 

Ink: Raspberry Ripple

Cardstock: Raspberry Ripple, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

DSP: Orchard Harvest

Big Shot: Little Leaves, Lots of Tags, Mini Milk Carton

Punch: Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border

Ribbon: Raspberry Ripple Stitched Satin

Accessories: Pearl

For those of you interested to know what I filled these with - two Ferrero Rochers fit perfectly inside!!

And don't forget that if you switch up the colour combo and DSP you would have a delightful place setting for Christmas too! (Or any other dinner party for that matter!)

Please do feel free to leave me some feedback about my videos, if you like them and what you would be interested in seeing yourself! 

Have a lovely day! 

Amanda xx

what a festival of prints!

I'm back with a very clean and simple Christmas card for you today.

Merry Holly

Stamp Set: Pennant Parade

Ink: Cherry Cobbler

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Lucky Limeade, Crumb Cake

DSP: Festival of Prints

Punch: Jewellery Tag, Decorative Label, Corner Rounder

Big Shot: Little Leaves

Baker's Twine: Early Espresso

Accessories: Pearls

Extras: Red Permanent Marker

The Festival of Prints paper stack is lovely, its a small stack of designer papers sized just slightly larger than your standard 6x4" photo. This makes it perfect for matting behind holiday photos for speedy scrapbooking but also perfect for card making! You get a HUGE range of designs, not all are overtly Christmassy, some in fact would be perfect for masculine cards!! Right, so this car only uses a little bit - very economical. I punched a decorative label punch out and then laid a strip of another paper that I felt co-ordinated nicely with it over top. The leaves were cut with the big shot and then baker's twine bow, sentiment on a tiny tag and pearls added for embellishment! The red pearls are just Stampin' Up! pearls coloured with a permanent marker for colour! Its such a great little tip to make your pearls go further and match with whatever project you might be working on! 

I rounded the bottom corner just to break up all the sharp lines in the card and just add a little quirky twist!

I feel like I've babbled way too much this morning...

Happy Stampin',

Amanda x

'twitterpated' owls

I am super duper excited!! One of my good friends (and bridesmaid) got engaged last Sunday! I am so happy for her!

Anyway, an engagement means I needed to make a lovely and special card for them to say congrats! 

This card actually came from a card I pinned recently on Pinterest - it was two owls in a cluster of leaves and some hearts. I just loved how the owls had their eyes closed, if you want to see the original card I pinned you can see it here. 

Engagement "In Love" Owls

Stamp Set: For My Family

Ink: Basic Black, Crumb Cake

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Pear Pizzazz, Riding Hood Red, Basic Grey, Sahara Sand, Peach Parfait

DSP: Twitterpated

Punch: Owl Builder

Big Shot: Lots of Tags, Little Leaves

Uh this doesn't really need any explaining. Its cute owls. I think the closed eyes enhance their cute "in love"ness! 

Hope you enjoyed today's exciting little share! Join me tomorrow for some more creative inspiration! 

Thanks for stopping by, 

Happy Stampin',

Amanda x

paper players challenge

Any of my faithful blog readers will know that I am a design team member for Simply Stampin' Challenge blog. I love doing it, but what with having to produce an entry for that every week, my own personal projects, SU business stuff and general life I don't really find time to look at other challenge blogs and NEVER seem to be organised enough to actually enter any - I've had the best of intentions several times but not quite succeeded. Anyway, today I was surfing the net and came across The Paper Players. Their sketch for the week looked interesting and I thought I could do something with it! So here's the sketch I was working from along with my own take on it!

Spring Flowers & Frame

Stamp Set: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Rich Razzleberry

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango

Punches: Scallop Circle, Boho Blossoms, 5 Petal Flower, Curly Label, Scallop Trim 

Big Shot: Little Leaves, Oval Frame

Ribbon: Very Vanilla Satin

Accessories: Brights Brad, Rhinestones

So this was actually my third attempt at this sketch - my first two attempts just developed into something else and they were so pretty I didn't want to mess around with them to fit the sketch so this is my third try and its using a few left overs! Oh I love cards that use leftovers! I had this Razzleberry flower which has been sitting in my craft room for probably about 9 months now - its the scallop circle, split cardstock to make it poofy and fastened with a brights brad. Underneath is the 5 petal flower for the leaves. I had the idea that it would look really nice in the oval embossed frame but it looked a little lonely so I used some little tangerine boho blossoms and little leaves to fill it out. I added my sentiment to the side and punched a border with the scallop trim for the bottom of the card. Finally I added some ribbon and rhinestones to just finish it off. 

I hope you like this little number - I'm quite pleased with how it worked out - its defo a hand delivery number though as the flower is POOFY!!! Let me know what you think and leave me a comment! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

Amanda x

wreath class

I have been meaning to put up a photo for a week or so now of the flower wreath that I made for this month's class - so you could see what the lovely class girlies had fun making and what you all missed out on! Finally I got around to photographing it and uploading it for you all to see! It was super fun making it and the girls that came to the class really seemed to enjoy making it! 

Ink: Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, So Saffron, Peach Parfait

Cardstock: Whisper White, Very Vanilla, So Saffron, Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzazz, Wild Wasabi

Punches: Owl Builder, Blossom Builder, Itty Bitty, Circle (Various Sizes)

Big Shot: Blossom Party die, Little Leaves Sizzlit

Ribbon: Wild Wasabi Striped Grosgrain

Extras: Sponges, Polystyrene Wreath

How gorgeous is that?! I love mine and have it hanging in my living room on the door - our wall is painted in Wild Wasabi so it fits in really nicely!

If you missed out and would like to create something lovely for your house why not come long to March's class and make some pretty bunting (to die for!!!) using the pennants die and big shot! I will upload a photo of my bunting beginning of next week for you all to see!

Please do leave me a comment, I love reading them!

Happy Craftin',

Amanda xx

flowers for anna

One of the lovely ladies that comes every month to my classes had her birthday last week so I made her a little card, and here we go...

Stamp Set: Teeny Tiny Wishes

Ink: Rose Red, So Saffron

Cardstock: Very Vanilla, Wild Wasabi, Baja Breeze, So Saffron, Rose Red

Punch: Itty Bitty, Boho Blossoms

Big Shot: Square Lattice Emboss Folder, Little Leaves Sizzlit

Accessories: Pearls

Extras: Sponge

I adhered the leaves down to the vanilla cardstock and then ran it through the embossing folder. I then sponged it very lightly with  So Saffron ink. I punched out a bunch of flowers and adhered them together in a small spray. This was adhered to some Rose REd and Baja Breeze cardstock and then to a card base. I finished it off by adding a sentiment below and a few pearls! Cute and sping-like! 

Do you like it? Hope you enjoyed seeing it! 

Thanks for stopping by, please do leave a comment! 

Happy Stampin',

Amanda xox