More scrapbooking with Sweet Pea

It's been a while since I did any scrapbooking.. card-making seems to have taken over for the last few weeks. But I've been itching to get back to it, and yesterday I came up with this:

The photos were taken in our garden and at the Chalk Farm Hotel where I was experimenting with the macro setting on my camera. The patterned paper is from the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper stack - I used one sheet and cut out a couple of butterflies from another and stuck them on with foam pads. Can you spot them?

I used Old Olive cardstock to mat the photos, stamping it with flowers from Baroque Motifs and Flight of the Butterfly stamp sets. I layered the Old Olive with So Saffron cardstock, using the Scallop Edge punch on the top and bottom edges.

The 'Summer' part of the title was made using Stampin' Up!'s chipboard letters pack - On Board Loads of Letters, £10.25 for three 12x12" sheets in various designs. I pressed each letter on to an ink pad - Ruby Red and Old Olive - until the letters were covered in ink.

The 'garden' letters were stamped using the Just Perfect alphabet stamps - Ruby Red ink on So Saffron cardstock - then cutting out each letter. I gave the letters an aged look by dabbing around the edges with an orangey-yellow chalk ink, then creasing them up a bit.

To complete the distressed look, I ran the blades of a pair of scissors around the edge of the patterned paper and turned back the corners before adhering to a 12x12" piece of Summer Sun cardstock. The Sweet Pea designer papers are double-sided with coordinating patterns on each side, so it's nice to be able to see both sides of the paper in this way!

It feels good to be scrapping again.. watch this space for news of a scrapbooking blog hop coming soon!

Thanks for stopping by,

Sarah x

Baroque Motifs.. my new favourite stamp set!

This morning I held my second card-making class, this time in the comfort of my dining room! I had three ladies - Jo, Michelle and Joan - and we had a lovely time making some beautiful cards with (my new faves) the Baroque Motifs stamp set, along with Sincere Salutations for the greetings.

 

The cards made by the ladies were fantastic - all made to the same recipes but each made unique by the ladies' colour choices and addition of ribbons and gems. I wish I'd taken photos of their cards but I forgot - so here are some pictures of the ones I made...

I am also LOVING the Oval punch combined with the Scalloped Oval punch - together with the Sincere Salutations stamps, they are the perfect way to add a classy greeting to your cards.

 
Thanks for looking!

Sarah x

A special birthday card.. and the one that got away

This week I had two special birthday cards to make - one for my dear mum-in-law's 60th birthday which was on Monday, and one which was commissioned by a Toddler Group friend for her mother-in-law who is 98 at the end of the month.

Both cards needed to say 'Mum' and 'Happy 60th/98th Birthday' as appropriate. Not having the alphabet stamps needed to stamp this out, I 'cheated' and printed my greetings on patterned paper. Both cards used pink papers from the Sweet Pea Designer paper stack, along with the 'Baroque Motifs' stamp set (my absolute favourite at the moment). I also used the Two-Step Bird punch on my mum-in-law's card.

The Baroque Motif was stamped with Versamark and embossed with holographic embossing powder so it catches the light much better than the photo shows.

And the one that got away...? Well, what a numpty I am. In my haste to get to Toddler Group this morning with the 98th birthday card I forgot to photograph it. It was similar to the one above.. but the image was stamped in Old Olive on the houndstooth check paper, and instead of the bird it was festooned with pinky-lilac paper hydrangeas (from Prima I believe). I'd also printed the 'Mum' and '98th' a bit bigger, which looked better I think.

My second monthly card-making class is this Friday - and we'll be making cards using the Baroque Motifs set.. can't wait! Also, I have lots of exciting plans for September, including an idea for a scrapbooking class which I've been nurturing for soooo long.. I'll share more details very soon.

Meanwhile.. if you are interested in coming to a class, or purchasing anything from the Stampin' Up! catalogue, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

Inspired by... a sparkly birthday card

I tend to hoard my birthday cards for years.. especially those ones which have a design I love (thinking 'I'll make something like that one day..'). Well, last night I actually did!

Here's the card I was inspired by...

And here's my interpretation...

Supplies:
Stamps - Baroque Motifs, Fun & Fast Notes (for the sentiment), Bird On A Branch (for the flowers on the butterfly)
Punches - SU! Butterfly (trimmed to change its shape slightly) and a tiny non-SU! butterfly
Cardstock - Whisper White, Rose Red
Ink - Versamark
Embossing Powder - Stampin' Emboss Black
Glitter - Pink (non-SU magazine freebie)
Sequins and black adhesive pearls - from stash

Techniques:
The swirl was stamped on Whisper White cardstock with Versamark and embossed with black embossing powder. I used my new (and fantastic!) Stamp-a-ma-jig to get the swirl exactly where I wanted it.


The panel was layered on to Rose Red cardstock and again on to an A6 folded card of Whisper White.


I punched the butterfly from Rose Red card, folded and trimmed it a little, before adding the stamped flowers and a little glitter.

I added some iridescent flower sequins and some glitter glue for a bit of sparkle. :o)

One thing I learned... I need an Embossing Buddy! This is an anti-static thingie that you rub across your paper before embossing to stop the powder sticking where you don't want it to. Add it to my list...

Thanks for reading!

Sarah x