What can I say? Busy, busy, busy! Now that my little ones are on holiday, I'm struggling to find blog time; usually I'm short on time to make up my creations (well, there's never enough time to put all one's creative ideas into practice!) but having got ahead of myself on the making front, I now can't seem  to get in front of my laptop. Hey ho - I am going to try and schedule a few posts starting tomorrow, so that should make things easier.

Now that I am here, I wanted to share with you the other of my 'Best of Flowers' cards featuring the floral bouquet. This time I went for a more colourful look and took the opportunity to use up some of my Tea For Two designer series paper:

I stamped the bouquet in Early Espresso, then picked up the colour of the rose on the DSP with my marker pen to create the central focus of my bouquet. I made this card notecard size, to fit in one of the crumb cake notelet envelopes. Quite different to the last card using this stamp, but altogether very pretty.

More fun in the sun tomorrow, but all being well will have something new to share with you too, so do pop back to see. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Best of Flowers

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla Tea For Two Designer Series Paper (retired)

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Early Espresso, Calypso Coral, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette, Old Olive

Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Designer Frames Embossing Folder, Ovals Framelits

So I have a confession: I don't like all the stamps that Stampin' Up! has to offer! I like modern, clean and unfussy design and don't really go in much for the vintage, distressed look. So whilst I loved three of the four stamps in June's 'Best of Flowers' set, I struggled with the fourth one. The bouquet of roses had a real 'old fashioned' look I thought and I would probably have left it in the box uninked. I could happily spend endless hours creating things with the other three stamps in the set, each of which I love, but for the fact that I had decided to use this set for this month's card class and therefore felt I should use each of the stamps equally. After much huffing and puffing, I came up with a couple of cards and this is one, of them:

This is something of a departure from my usual style, but I quite like the way it turned out. It was also a great opportunity to teach the ladies in my class the double embossing technique, which enabled me to make the stamp the focal point, without creating an overly fussy design. Some sponging of Crumb Cake ink over the surface and some ruched seam binding ribbon were all that I needed to finish it off.

I think maybe it's the kind of card that grows on you; the more you look at it, the more appeal it has - some 'olde worlde' charm, perhaps! if you would like to own the 'Best of Flowers' set, it is still available to purchase for £13.95 until 31st March 2014. Equally, if you would like to join one of my card classes, do get in touch for more details - our September class will feature the new 'Mosaic Madness' stamp set, along with the coordinating punch and embossing folder.

Back tomorrow with another card I made using this stamp; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Best of Flowers

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Crumb Cake

Tools: Stamp-a-ma-jig, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, Designer Frames Embossing Folder, Sponge Dauber

Finishing Touches: Crumb Cake `1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon