As you will have guessed if you read yesterday's post and saw my 'sneak peek', today's post features butterflies - quite a few, in fact! Ever since I saw this piece of wall art by Fiona Duthie on Pinterest I've wanted to have a go at creating a version of my own. Butterflies have a special meaning to one of my best and most dear friends and she is also someone who loves home décor, so I decided to create this piece as a Christmas gift for her. Here's my finished piece:

The finished piece measures 50cm x 50cm (approx. 20") so is a definite statement piece. I used a variety of colours across each of the Stampin' Up! colour families, including in-colours, along with one or two retired colours too. I wanted to give a full rainbow spectrum of colours, particularly given the size of the piece.

For the butterflies, I used the Beautiful Wings Embosslits to make the butterflies as opposed to a punch, as I wanted the texture that the embosslit provides - here's a closer look:

You could quite easily create a similar piece using one of the butterfly punches and it would be equally effective. I'm so pleased with the finished piece - it was quite tricky to photograph, but I hope you can get a sense of the movement it gives - it is so colourful and dramatic. 

This is a nice early post from me today as I'm out with friends this evening on a cookery course, in an attempt to master the art of Indian cookery; it's the second one that hubby and I have attended (I'd like to say it's because we want to expand our repertoire, but it might just be that we need the practice - I'll have to get back to you on that!)

Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Standard Cutting Pads	Beautiful Wings Stampin' Up! Embosslits Die	Regals A4 Card Stock	Subtles A4 Card Stock
Brights A4 Card Stock	2013-2015 In Color A4 Cardstock	2012-2014 In Color A4 Card Stock	Whisper White 12 X 12 Smooth Card Stock	Tombow Multi-Purpose Adhesive

As promised, I'm back with the last of the current run of my patio Party birthday cards today, but first I thought I would share with you another somewhat unexpected challenge that found it's way into my craft room this week - half term homework! Both James juniors have had holiday homework this week - the youngest was tasked with making a sculpture (this is still 'work in progress' - I'll share a picture when complete!) whilst the eldest has this week to complete this term's geography project - an analysis of an African country of her choice.

With the bulk of the content complete, the important task of 'making it look pretty' came to the fore. Whilst working out the best way to draw/write 'South Africa' in big letters for the cover, I (possibly with too much haste!) suggested we could make light work of this by using Mummy's Alphabet typeset die and the Big Shot to knock these out in a jiffy. A few turns of the handle later and the cover was complete: 

I wish I could take the credit for the photograph here, but this is all Daddy's work, captured the last time we went on safari to Sabi Sands in South Africa. Thinking we were now done, Rebecca promptly announced that she wanted me to teach her how to make a giraffe like the ones I'd made in my last card class; oh and by the way, as she had written a piece about going on safari and the hunt for 'the big 5', if I could come up with an elephant, lion, rhino and buffalo too that would be great! I wasn't phased by the lion or elephant, having seen lots of examples of these on Pinterest, but a rhino ... and a buffalo?! Never one to shy away from a challenge, I set to it and by the time Rebecca had made her giraffe the other animals were complete. Here is my version of a punch art 'big 5': 

What do you think? Easy enough to work out which is which, but I'm not sure if you saw the buffalo out of context you would immediately recognise him as one!! Main thing is Rebecca loves them - and her project is finally complete. Who would have thought that Stampin' Up! punches would be so versatile?! I should just point out that I know technically these are not the safari 'big 5' rather Rebecca's personal interpretation - she substituted the leopard with the giraffe, because this was the animal she really wanted to make (that's 7 year olds for you!)

Lastly, for those of you who did check in today wanting to see the last Patio Party birthday card, here it is:

Same layout as yesterday's post-friendly card, but in the opposite orientation and picking up the butterflies in the paper pattern with a trio of co-ordinating ones flying around the sentiment.

Back tomorrow with another (non Patio Party!) project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies (for the card):

Stamps: Sassy Salutations

Cardstock: Primrose Petals, Whisper White, Raspberry Ripple, Baja Breeze, Summer Starfruit

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Midnight Muse

Tools: Large Scallop Edgelit, Beautiful Wings Embosslits

Finishing Touches: Basics Pearls

As promised, today I'm going to share the swaps I made to take to Telford for the Stampin' Up! regional training day on Saturday; lots of excited crafty ladies (and a few gents!) spent the day crafting, swapping and getting up to speed with all the latest news from Stampin' Up!. As is customary at these events, we all created 'swaps' to share and showcase each other's work. I often find swaps a tricky concept - the desire to create something special, but at the same time simple enough that to create a large volume of them won't take hours or break the bank.

In my wisdom, I decided I would break the seal on a stamp set I bought at the start of the year, but haven't yet used: Summer Silhouettes. I loved the look of this stamp set and have seen many beautiful examples of cards 'random stamped' with the flowers in this set. This was however, my first challenge; as my dear husband so often says to me, "(you) don't do random" - and it would seem this follows me into my stamping. I lost count of the amount of card I cut, stamped and binned before getting to a design I was finally happy with! So I ended up with this as my 'first final design' (I know, bear with me!):

I loved the stamping and fussy cut edge, along with the sentiment and pierced border to ground it. However I didn't like the position of the butterfly, but couldn't move it without removing the ribbon, so here is my final (yes, really!) design:

It took hours to finish them and I still could have made twice as many - there were so many people with great swaps! I will photograph some of my favourites and share those with you later in the week. If you would like to be one of the first to know what's going on in the world of Stampin' Up!, get free products (yes, all still to come!), great training and business advice and a permanent product discount to feed your own crafting habit, then this is a great time to join my team - until May 30th, you can get £155 of products for £99; add in a business supplies pack and you get a whopping £200 of kit for £99 - bargain! Check out the Special Offers box on the right hand side of my page or Contact me to talk about how you can sign up and start benefiting straight away; if you sign up in May, you will be one of the first to preview and order from the new annual catalogue due out on July 1st and you will have the opportunity to attend Stampin' Up's! European Convention in November, which is being held in Manchester in the UK this year.

Pop back tomorrow for another project; I have so much to share this week, including some great cards that we are making at this week's card class. Until then, happy stampin!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Summer Silhouettes, Wacky Wishes

Cardstock: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Pool Party

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Wild Wasabi

Tools: Beautiful Wings Embosslits, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Piercing Tool

Finishing Touches: Daffodil Delight Seam Binding Ribbon

Today's card is one I made as a commission for a friend of mine, who wanted a 'thoughtful' sentiment and bright blues, yellows and oranges. I love rising to the challenge of working to a specific brief and actually used it as the basis for a number of very different cards. I'll share the others with you some other time, but here's one of them for today:

The sentiment is from a set called 'Word Play' and is the perfect size for one of my oval framelits, which also made creating a frame for it a breeze. I used a strip of striped brights DSP to tie the frame to the card background, then used the Beautiful Wings butterfly embosslits to make a variety of butterflies and really create a strong focal point. I love these butterflies - well, I love all butterflies, but these have lovely textures and are great for using with plain coloured cardstock. A cheery card that meets the brief - job done!

There are lots of other great sentiments in the Word Play set, so I've included an illustration of the whole set below. They are suitable for so many occasions and work for both for cards and scrapbooking.

A quick post from me today - I have a Parents' Association meeting at school to attend, so am rushing out the door. Back tomorrow with another project - until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Word Play

Cardstock: Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango, Whisper White, Brights DSP

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Tempting Turquoise

Tools: Ovals Framelits, Beautiful Wings Embosslits

Finishing Touches: Basics Rhinestones