It's the middle of April and finally my tulips in the garden are starting to bud! Still not yet in bloom, unlike my neighbour's daffodils which cheer me up every time I drive on and off the drive. So whilst I'm waiting for the real thing, I thought I would share a tulip card I made:

Can you tell how I made the tulips? Yes, my much beloved Owl Punch was used to create the petals; a whole one (minus feet!) for the base, followed by two sections overlaid for petals. I sponged the edges of the sections in the co-ordinating ink colours to add body and tied the stems with some linen thread for simplicity. I also paper-pierced the background just for added interest; this was so easy with my piercing tool and guide template, yet quite effective I think.

This is just one of many alternative uses for the owl punch. I will be sharing this and many more of them in my next card class on May 15th; if you would like to attend, just contact me at joanne@thecraftyowl.co.uk for more details. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Cardstock: Rose Red, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Lucky Limeade

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers:  Rose Red, Daffodil Delight

Tools: Owl Punch, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Paper Piercing Tool

Finishing Touches: Linen Thread

I enjoyed a pleasant card class yesterday evening with a lovely group of crafty ladies. We were using the 'Mixed Bunch' stamp set and the co-ordinating blossom punch and learning a few new techniques and tricks along the way. We made a number of different cards that can be used for different occasions and today I thought I would share with you my favourite of them all:

This four inch square card features the most detailed of the flower stamps in the Mixed Bunch set and the variagated colour effect was created by making our own ink pad using a baby wipe and three different coloured reinkers. We stamped and punched the first image, then without reinking the stamp, stamped off onto a square of white card to create a muted background paper. If you've never tried it, you should give it a go - it's great fun and the stamped images are really unique! We then layered the punched flower with a red punched blossom to add definition, finished with a basic rhinestone coloured red to match and layered the double flower using a dimensional to make it 'pop'. The addition of a sentiment in the bottom corner completed the card.

When I was making up the instruction sample before the class, I must confess to getting rather carried away with all the pretty stamped images I was producing, so printed a few extra to make into butterflies similar to the Easter egg butterfly I shared here, but this time to make into thank you cards to pop in with some customer orders and also to make this cute little magnetic note holder to stick on my fridge:

Cute, don't you think? The baker's twine antennae are the perfect finishing touch too. All in all, a fun class and with quite a few laughs along the way - what better way to spend a Wednesday evening. I'll share some of the other things I made for this class in future blog posts; meanwhile, I'm already looking forward to next month's class, when we will be using the owl punch and looking at both great owl cards and some of the many other things that can be made using this shape.

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

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Sassy Salutations

Cardstock: Real Red, Island Indigo, Whisper White

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Real Red, Island Indigo, Tempting Turquoise

Tools: Blossom Punch

Finishing Touches: Basics Rhinestones

Every once in a while I get a little bit more creative than usual and make something different to a card or box. I've been wanting to have a go at a paper wreath for a while and initially wanted to make a spring wreath in pastel shades, however when I received my Summer Smooches designer paper I fell in love with the bright colours and decided they would definitely enable me to create something that would brighten things up. So, after much punching, piercing and gluing, here's what I came up with: 

I used a combination of Summer Smooches and Brights designer series papers, mixed in with some solid colours, all finished off with some co-ordinating brads and a lovely piece of wide vanilla and Rich Razzleberry ribbon, sadly now retired. I love the overall fiished effect - perfect to brighten up a dull corner of the house - and not a stamp or ink pad in sight!

Here's a close up of some of the flowers: 

I think the layered flowers look really effective; another great example of what you can do with the blossom punch. You can also make a variety of stemmed flowers using this punch, but that's a blog post for another time! Meanwhile, if you would like to see more of this punch and the co-ordinating Mixed Bunch stamp set in action, join me for next week's Card and Technique class on Wednesday 17th April. The details are included in yesterday's post - if you'd like to come along, just drop me a line at joanne@thecraftyowl.co.uk.

I'll be back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Cardstock: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Rich Razzleberry, Tangerine Tango, Summer Smooches DSP

Tools: Blossom Punch, 1" Circle Punch, 3/4" Circle Punch, hot glue gun

Finishing Touches: Brights Brads, Razzleberry Ribbon (retired)

It's rained pretty much all day today, so I thought I'd share a blue card for a 'blue' mood, at least as far as the weather is concerned! This is a card I designed and made for a recent team 'Rainbow Swap'. Across my wider team, we all chose one of the colours of the rainbow, then made five cards with that colour as the basis for the colour scheme and sent them to the others in the same colour group. In return, we received a 'swap' of a different design but with the same colour scheme. I was in the Blue colour group; here is the card I made: 

I used one of the flower stamps from the Mixed Bunch stamp set and the co-ordinating Blossom Punch for my bold all-blue card. I used Pool Party as my base card, then layered flowers across the front in Island Indigo, Pool Party, Island Indigo and Midnight Muse. A simple greeting for any occasion and some ruffled ribbon and rhinestone detail on the uppermost flower added just enough sparkle to turn this card into something special. I got a lovely set of cards in return (but unfortunately haven't had the chance to photograph them - I will share them another time).

The Mixed Bunch stamp set and Blossom punch used to make this card is the stamp set that will feature in my card and technique class next week. The class will be held on Wednesday 17th April, 7.30-9.30pm. The class costs £10: we will be making four cards using the various stamps in this set and learning a number of new techniques along the way. All stamps, punches, cardstock and embellishments will be provided; all you need to bring is a basic toolkit (wet/dry adhesives, pencil, ruler, rubber, scissors, bone folder and cutter if you have one). If you would like to attend this class or any of the others currently planned, please contact me at joanne@thecraftyowl.co.uk for more details.

I'll be back tomorrow with a 3D project made using the Blossom Punch. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Mixed Bunch, Tea Shoppe

Cardstock: Whisper White, Pool Party

Ink/Stampin' Write Markers: Pool Party, Island Indigo, Midnight Muse

Tools: Blossom Punch

Finishing Touches: Ruffled Ribbon, basics Rhinestones

I haven't blogged for a couple of days, so two posts today to make up for it! The first one is a really quick last-minute Easter make by Sarah Willis that I saw on Pinterest; these cute butterflies are so quick and easy to do you could easily make a whole pile of them in ten minutes:

And we did! My 7 year old made all the butterflies in today's post - they were left over from a huge pile that she made as little end of term Easter gifts for the other children in her class at school. She simply stamped one of the flowers from the Mixed Bunch stamp set in four different colours, punched out with the co-ordinating punch, snipped out the top and bottom petals then used some sticky strip to attach some antenna and a mini egg to the centre of the wings and voila - one Easter egg butterfly, done. She managed to make a whole pile of these in no time at all: 

Another great way to use this stamp set, which is one of my personal favourites. I am running a card class featuring this stamp set and the co-ordinating punch on the 16th and 17th of April. There will be more details to follow shortly; if you live local to me and would like to know more, please contact me for further details.

That's all for now - another quick post from me shortly to share an Easter card I made today. Happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Mixed Bunch

Cardstock: Whisper White

Ink: Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Gumball Green, Perfect Plum

Tools: Blossom Punch

Well, not doing so well with the blogging this week - I've no shortage of things to share as I've been a very busy bee - just short on time!

Yesterday I held a class attended by a lovely group of ladies to make this waterfall album designed by Becca Prideaux:

The album opens up to reveal a waterfall of pockets that can be used for all kinds of things: photos, recipes, journalling, a birthday calendar ... the possibilities are endless! It also makes a nice Mother's Day gift and there will certainly be some lucky recipients following yesterday's class.

There was lots of cutting, punching, stamping and gluing, and enough of that lovely silver glimmer paper to add some real sparkle. Thank you to everyone who attended - it was a very fun evening. If anyone following my blog would be interested in attending any of my classes, do drop me a line for more information. There will eventually be a full schedule available on my website which is still currently under construction, but if you'd like to know more in the meantime, do give me a call or drop me a line and I can share with you my schedule of both card and project classes.

Back tomorrow with a Mother's Day card for you; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up Supplies:

Stamps: Bloomin' Marvelous

Cardstock: Crumb Cake, Sycamore Street DSP

Ink: Crumb Cake

Tools: Bitty Butterfly Punch, Elegant Butterfly Punch, 1 3/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch,  1 3/4"scallop circle punch, 2 3/8" scallop circle punch, scallop edge border punch, Stampin' Trimmer

Finishing Touches: Silver Glimmer Paper