This morning I held one of my weekend project classes. They generally last longer than my monthly card classes and are a great opportunity to do something different and a little more involved. Following a successful class last December to make festive Christmas banners (you can read more about that and see our wonderful creations here), at the request of a few of the ladies who attended I decided to hold one to make a Spring/Easter banner with the other half of our banner kits. I chose a colour scheme that would compliment that of the Burlaps and Blooms wreaths that several of us made at my last weekend project class - you can see my finished wreath here. So here is my completed banner:

I chose to feature the word 'Spring' on my banner, as I am intending to leave it up to decorate for a while, but some of the ladies in my class made one that featured the word 'Easter'. We stencilled our backgrounds and letters using the now retired Build a Banner stencil kit in Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango and Pool Party with lettering in Smoky Slate.

The banner is decorated with flowers made with the Spiral Flower Originals Die and punched and die-cut butterflies. Here are some close ups of the individual banner pieces - this is the first piece, with a layered butterfly with a lightly embossed layer and some tiny ones punched out with the Itty Bitty Butterfly punch: 

Here's a close-up of one of the letters, along with a couple of the spiral flowers; a single yellow flower and a two-tone blue flower, finished with some Smoky Slate leaves cut out with the Secret Garden framelits:

This one has a So Saffron single flower and a two-tone one in Tangerine Tango and Crisp Cantaloupe, finished with an extra-large pearl, along with a bitty blue butterfly:

My banner simply served as inspiration and as is often the way with this kind of class, everyone makes theirs slightly differently and adds their own unique touch. If you hop on over to my Facebook page, you will be able to see the finished banner that Julie, one of the lovely ladies who attended the class made - different to mine, yet equally gorgeous!

If you live in Northampton and would like to join any of my card or project classes, check out my schedule of forthcoming classes here or contact me for more information.

Back tomorrow with a card to share; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Spiral Flower Originals Die	Beautiful Butterflies Stampin' Up! Bigz Die	Secret Garden Framelits Dies	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Pool Party A4 Card Stock
So Saffron A4 Card Stock	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Smoky Slate	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky
Card Stock A4 Crisp Cantaloupe	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin Ink Refill	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Ink Refill	Pool Party Classic Stampin Ink Refill	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Ink Refill
Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder Die	Bitty Butterfly Punch	Sponge Daubers	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents	Large Pearl Basic Jewels

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