Hello everyone! I can't quite believe it but James Juniors have broken up from school for their Easter holidays today - aargh! Where did that term go? Anyway, on the upside that will mean a few weeks of fun with hopefully not too much holiday homework. Today I've another quick post as I'm out hosting a crafty Stampin' Up! party this evening, so I'm blogging early (for me!) and thought I would share one of this week's class cards. In this month's classes my ladies are learning watercolouring techniques using Aquapainters and we are using the 'Blessed Easter' stamp set. All this month's cards are quite simple in design, as the aim is to spend the majority of the class time focusing on watercolouring and practising the technique rather than doing lots of stamping, cutting and sticking. Here is the first of this week's cards:

A Real Red card base and Pear Pizzazz panel, with the tulips and sentiment stamped onto watercolour paper using Jet Black Stazon and then coloured using the corresponding coloured inks and our Aquapainters. I think all the ladies in yesterday's class were pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to get a great result and the nice thing is even though everyone had the same tools, the cards all looked really different, depending on the individual shading and detail on the tulips. To finish we embellished with a piece of Real Red grosgrain ribbon.

That's all from me - I'm off to pack my bags for later. Back with more tulips later in the week; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Blessed Easter	Aqua Painter	6 X 9 Watercolor Paper	Jet Black Stazon Pad	Stazon Cleaner
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red A4 Card Stock	Pear Pizzazz Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Pear Pizzazz
Real Red 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon

I had a busy day in London yesterday so despite my best efforts to get ahead of myself I still didn't manage to blog yesterday and having had a class and put in my last Sale-A-Bration order I'm almost running out of time today, so before I do here is my intended share for yesterday, one of the Mother's Day cards I made in a couple of different colourways that I couldn't share before the day itself. Here it is in the predominantly pink colourway:

The card is similar to one I saw on Julie Kettlewell's blog here - I made a 5 1/2" x 5 1/2" square gatefold card and created an overlapping framed circle that I cut with my Circles Framelits and created a wreath of tiny stamped and punched flowers around the central bold 'Happy Mother's Day sentiment. I also made this card is an aqua colourway here using Coastal Cabana for the base:

The hardwood background stamp makes such a great background for the focal point and some flower stamping inside and on the envelopes along with a few rhinestones just finishes off the card perfectly.

My Mother's Day was rather unconventional and was only spent with one of my offspring, which felt slightly strange, but Rebecca and I had a great day in London (she was so excited that she got to have her picture taken in front of Big Ben!) and the bonus is we get to have another Mother's Day next Sunday altogether to make up for it!

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

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

My Mother	Petite Petals Clear-Mount Bundle	Hardwood	Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine
Magnetic Platform	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Melon Mambo Classic Stampin' Pad	Melon Mambo A4 Card Stock	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad
Pool Party A4 Card Stock	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad	Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad	Bermuda Bay Classic Stampin' Pad	Wild Wasabi Classic Stampin' Pad
Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents	Coastal Cabana Classic Stampin' Pad	Coastal Cabana 3/8" Ruffle Stretch Trim	Card Stock A4 Bermuda Bay	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad
Crisp Cantaloupe Classic Stampin' Pad	Pistachio Pudding Classic Stampin' Pad

A quick (and late!) post from me today - I have one of the busiest weekends ever today and tomorrow. I've been putting the final touches to my class preparation for next week today and have spent the evening at the swimming pool with Rebecca as she was participating in a swimming gala. We are having a real 'girls versus boys' weekend; we each went to our separate swimming pools today (and Granny came along to watch Rebecca for the first time today too) and tomorrow Rebecca and I are travelling to London so that she can take part in an inter-school music festival with the rest of her school choir, whilst the boys have a fun day doing their own thing at home.

Anyway, with all that in mind there will be a couple of quick posts from me over the next couple of days. Today I'm sharing a gift I made for one of my customers who celebrated her birthday recently. If you follow me on Facebook, you will have see this photograph I posted yesterday of a lovely box I made using the Sweet Sorbet papers (yours free with a £45 spend during Sale-A-Bration - only 2 more days to go to plae a Sale-A-Bration order!)and my Box Buster tool and Envelope Punch Board:

Today I thought I would share what was inside - a sweet little box frame:

Just a simple stamped sentiment, decorated with a punched butterfly and a few flowers stamped and punched using the Petite Petals stamp set and co-ordinating punch. A decorated frame makes a lovely gift.

Back tomorrow with a card (or two!); until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper	Chalk Talk	Spiral Flower Originals Die	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Crisp Cantaloupe Classic Stampin' Pad
Whisper White 5/8 Inch Organza Ribbon	Envelope Punch Board	Perfect Pennants	Petite Petals Clear-Mount Bundle	Stamp-A-Ma-Jig
Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Brights Stampin' Write Markers	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad	Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad
Subtles Stampin' Write Markers	Bitty Butterfly Punch	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents

Today I’m sharing my entry for this week’s Less is More challenge where you have to create a card with three of something. I decided to indulge in a spot of watercolouring and use a new stamp of mine from the ‘Baby We’ve Grown’ stamp set:

What can I say – I love this trio of owls! I’ve never purchased a dedicated baby-themed stamp set before, but I saw this set and it really appealed to me: a cute bunny, some of the sweetest baby shoes, some sentiments and well – those owls!

I simply stamped the image onto watercolour paper and coloured using my Aquapainter and a range of browns and pinks – this card is heading for my ‘baby girl’ pile – and mounted on a mat of Baked Brown Sugar and a card base of Blushing Bride.  Well, this is ‘Less is More’ after all! I'm still a novice at this compared to some, yet I love the blending I get with an Aquapainter - here's a close up:

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

Stampin’ Up! Supplies Used:

Baby, We've Grown	6 X 9 Watercolor Paper	Jet Black Stazon Pad	Aqua Painter	Blushing Bride Classic Stampin' Pad
Card Stock A4 Blushing Bride	Baked Brown Sugar Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Baked Brown Sugar

It's all go in the office of The Crafty Owl - I've been busy finishing my last Mother's Day cards today and I've recorded two video tutorials, along with all of the other things mothers do in a day. I won't bore you with that list, but I'm sure lots of you are reading this thinking "I know what you mean!" :-) Anyway, today I have a Mother's Day card to share with you, which I made using this week's sketch over at The Paper Players. This is Sandy's sketch:

I loved the layered circles on this sketch and it allowed me to get out on paper an idea I've had floating around in my head for a while (love it when that happens!) So here is my card:

I used Coastal Cabana for my base, then cut out a 'window' using my Word Bubble framelits through to the stamped sentiment "You're the best!" on the inside, used my largest circle for my bespoke 'Mum' sentiment where I used two circles cut with my Circles framelits to create an inset so that I have a border without an extra layer here. I then added an ‘xoxo’ cut out with my Circle Card thinlit set, attached with rolled glue dots, and lastly my final layer with the ‘love ya’ word bubble, stamped, cut and mounted with dimensionals for height. The cut-out on the front gives a glimpse of what’s inside – here’s the close-up:

Now I know this is not such a typical Mother's Day card: not traditional colours, no flowers in sight. It's quite clean and graphic in nature, but I really like it! I think it’s a great card for a Mum who likes something a little different; I for one would be thrilled to receive this card (hint, hint James Juniors!)

That’s me for today; come back tomorrow to see my entry for this week’s Less is More challenge. Until then, happy stampin’!

Stampin’ Up! Supplies Used:
 

Just Sayin' Clear-Mount Bundle	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform	Abc-123 Sketch Alphabet & Numbers	Perfect Pennants
My Mother	Circles Collection Framelits Dies	Card Stock A4 Coastal Cabana	Pacific Point A4 Card Stock	Real Red A4 Card Stock
Pacific Point Classic Stampin' Pad	Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad

Another busy day today and my third night out in a row: today to a school concert, which was very entertaining with lots of singing and instrumentals. Now I'm back and today's card uses the colours over at Dynamic Duos this week, where it's actually 'Triple Threat' week and this week's sketch over at Retrosketches, which has an interesting decorative element:

And here is my card:

My card uses a single flower from the 'Simple Stems' stamp set and I printed the offset flower head on the base layer and the stem on a layer of Soft Sky, having cut out the area around the flower using the co-ordinating Secret Garden framelit. The Soft Sky layer was layered with dimensionals to give depth and allow a simple white baker's twine bow to be wrapped around the base.

As Pale Plum is a retired SU! colour, I substituted with Perfect Plum. I was a little concerned that it wouldn't have enough pink in it to work with the Rich Razzleberry, especially I had decided to experiment with stamping the Rich Razzleberry onto the contrasting Perfect Plum cardstock. I don't generally take two tones of the same colour and use them together in this way, but I quite like the effect - the Razzleberry 'warms' the Plum I think. I thought I would include a picture of my test card to show you how the effect differs depending on the colour ink you use:

The flowers are stamped clockwise from bottom left in Elegant Eggplant, Perfect Plum then Rich Razzleberry on Perfect Plum cardstock - it's interesting to see how different they each look, don't you think?

Anyway, back to my card! I finished it with a little 'get well' sentiment that I stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in white. This card will be sending get well wishes to one of my lovely customers who is having major surgery at the end of this week; if you're reading this Chris, I hope you're up and about again soon!

That's all from me today - I'm off to catch up on my beauty sleep! Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Simple Stems	Secret Garden Framelits Dies	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform	Perfect Plum A4 Card Stock
Rich Razzleberry Classic Stampin' Pad	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	White Baker's Twine	White Stampin' Emboss Powder	Versamark Pad
Stamp-A-Ma-Jig	Heat Tool - Uk Plug

Good evening lovely blog readers - a quick post from me today as I've been out and had a full-on day today. I finally found the time to make a card for this week's challenge over at Create with Connie and Mary. They have a great design team with inspiring sketches and designs; this week it's a sketch challenge:

I decided to make an Easter card using the egg stamp from the Eggstra Spectacular stamp and designed a card that is entirely faithful to the sketch layout - here it is:

I made a 5" x 5" square card and using a piece of the lovely Watercolour Wonder DSP as my focal background and layered with some simple card stock strips, picking out the colours in the paper. I finished with an oval featuring the 'Happy Easter' stamp which I inked up with my Stampin' Write Markers in the same 3 colours as my paper strips. I inset this oval inside a larger one in Tangerine Tango as opposed to mounting it onto a base layer, as I wanted the oval to sit flat across the strips underneath. Here's a close up:

Hope you like today's card; back tomorrow with another project. Until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Eggstra Spectacular	Watercolor Wonder Designer Series Paper	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Calypso Coral A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock
Whisper White A4 Card Stock	Big Shot Die-Cut Machine	Magnetic Platform	Ovals Collection Framelits Dies	Subtles Stampin' Write Markers
Brights Stampin' Write Markers

Good morning blog readers! It's Monday and the start of another busy week. Today I'm sharing my card for this week's Pals Paper Art challenge. I was thrilled to be a Top 3 winner over at PPA last week with my flowerpot card (if you missed it, you can see it here). This week the Pals have a great sketch by the talented Margaret Moody:

I was initially tempted to use a feature piece of DSP for panel 2, however I had some punched butterflies left over from preparing my weekend Spring banner class and decided instead to use them to create my card. Here it is:

I used a Soft Sky base, then layered a Whisper White panel on Daffodil Delight and carefully aligned my punched butterflies. I finished by stamping the 'Smile' sentiment in Versamark and heat embossing with clear embossing powder onto a panel of So Saffron, which I raised on dimensionals. A simple layout that worked for me and saved my excess butterflies from the scrap box; who else hoards bits and pieces then never goes back to use them on a card, instead punching the shape from a fresh piece of cardstock? Go on, admit it - we've all done it ;-). I loved the mix of brights and subtles on this card and the feeling of spring that it conjures up. 

I'm off to do some work before meeting some friends I haven't seen in a while for lunch. Back tomorrow with another project; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

So Saffron A4 Card Stock	Daffodil Delight A4 Card Stock	Tangerine Tango A4 Card Stock	Card Stock A4 Soft Sky	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Bitty Butterfly Punch	Basic Pearls Jewel Accents	Happy Day	Embossing Buddy	Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder
Versamark Pad	Heat Tool - Uk Plug

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

I've had a busy day today preparing for tomorrow's Spring Banner class - photos to follow - and working on some other projects, so just time for a quick post today. I'm sharing a thank you card designed by Monica Gale that we made at our January team training session:

This is a lovely pastel card featuring the orchid stamp from the 'Happy Watercolour' set'. It is stamped onto a scallop topped tag and coloured with Stampin' Write markers and a blender pen and layered on a few layers of Sale-A-Bration Sweet Sorbet DSP in co-ordinating colours. along with an offcut from one of the laser-cut cards from the 'Simply Fabulous Simply Sent' kit sets. Some background stamping and a banner are stamped with two of the other stamps in the 'Happy Watercolour' set and the tag is finished with some ribbon and rhinestones to complete the look.

Come back tomorrow to see the outputs from tomorrow's Spring Banner class; until then, happy stampin'!

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used:

Happy Watercolor	Scalloped Tag Topper Punch	Simply Fabulous Simply Sent	Card Stock A4 Pistachio Pudding	Whisper White A4 Card Stock
Pool Party A4 Card Stock	Pistachio Pudding Classic Stampin' Pad	Crisp Cantaloupe Classic Stampin' Pad	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad	Jet Black Stazon Pad
Blender Pens	Crisp Cantaloupe 3/8" Ruffle Stretch Trim	Scallop Edge Border Punch