A late blog post today, but a post none the less! I've been busy putting the finishing touches to some teacher gifts that I'll share with you later in the week, but for those of you who follow me on Facebook and saw my 'sneak peek' earlier today, you will know that today's card features a butterfly - one of the stamps from this month's 'Best of' anniversary set, Best of Butterflies.

I spent some time with my downline Barbara yesterday afternoon working on different embossing techniques and this is one of the cards we produced:

The butterfly takes centre stage on this card and is stamped in Versamark on vellum then embossed in black to give a textured outline. We then picked up the colours in the now retired Sale-A-Bration Sycamore Street paper to shade our butterfly, colouring with markers on the underside of the butterfly so that the muted colours show through. Here is a close up of the detail where you can really see the texture of the black embossing on the butterfly:

This is the first time I've tried this technique and I really like the effect that this gives. I will be sharing more cards featuring the Best of Butterflies stamp set in coming days, but if you can't wait to get started creating your own butterfly cards, contact me and I will happily order this stamp set for you.

Back tomorrow with more embossing and another new product ... any guesses? I'll give you a clue - it was one of my 'top 5' wishlist products in the video I shot to accompany the launch of the new annual catalogue this month. If you haven't yet seen it, you can find it here. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Best of Butterflies

Cardstock: Island Indigo, Tangerine Tango, Sycamore Street DSP (Sale-A-Bration - retired), vellum

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Island Indigo, Pool Party, Tangerine Tango, Summer Starfruit, Basic Grey, Versamark

Tools: Window Framelits, Heat Gun

Finishing Touches: Black Embossing Powder

Two posts from me today - the first to announce the new 'Best of' set for July - Best of Butterflies. Following last month's launch, to celebrate its 25th anniversary, Stampin' Up! is releasing a new 'Best of' stamp set featuring 3-4 past favourites and one brand new design, each month until October. Each set costs £13.95 and will be available to purchase until 31 March 2014 (clear mount only). The box to the right of my blog page will show the current stamp set - the set for July is called 'Best of Butterflies' and features the following delicate butterfly designs:

I will have some samples using these stamps to share with you in due course, but if you can't wait to get your hands on them, then drop me a line at joanne@thecraftyowl.co.uk and I will happily place an order for you.

Also, this month's card class will feature last month's 'Best of Flowers' stamp set. This month's classes are scheduled for Monday 15th and Wednesday 17th July; we will be making one card using each of the stamps and the cost of the 2 hour class is £10. If you would like to attend, do drop me a line or give me a call for more information.

Back shortly with another post; until then, happy stampin'!