Almost Binned!

I have been a bit busy last night and today.  I have joined a card front swap with some other Stampin' Up! demonstrators with items coming out in the new catalogue, so I made a great card front ... I just can't show you yet or it will spoil the surprise!

What I can show you is a card I worked on this afternoon.  It started out with the three little butterflies that I coloured in using three of the new In-Colours - Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple and Primrose Petals.  I wasn't really sure I liked how they turned out and they were headed for the bin, until my lovely daughter said she thought they looked amazing.  I have to say I am really happy with how it turned out, just goes to show that even scraps can become art.

Happy Stamping

Butterfly Frames

Another week has passed so it's time for another Paper Lovin' Gals challenge, the design team have come up with some great creations to provide additional inspiration so please consider joining in with us.  All you need to do is to make a project taking some inspiration from the picture, for me it was the colour and the frames, and of course the butterfly.

Surprise, surprise, surprise ... I used the Fresh Vintage stamp set again!!!  This time however I chose to down play the floral image, and used the stamp image which I haven't used before.  Instead of cutting it out directly with the postage stamp punch I cut free hand and then mounted on a black postage stamp frame.  I kept to the main colours in the photo and used Naturals Ivory for the base, and then Very Vanilla, Cajun Craze and Basic Black.  The red colouring on the butterflies is actually Cajun Craze coloured with a blender pen, it brought out more of the red tones!

'Til Next Time ... Happy Stamping

Playing With New Toys

Don't you just love playing with a new stamp set for the first time?  I certainly do, and it was definitely the case on this card, my first with the Kindness Matters stamp set.  I received this set as part of my final gift from my Secret Sister, and so happy she sent it to me, it's such a cute little set with pretty butterflies, swirls and sentiments I think it will be getting a real work out.  

I was inspired to use it in the Freshly Made Sketches challenge this week. I enjoy the simple lines of the Freshly Made Sketches, not too many layers and there is a lot of room to be creative.  I chose much softer colours than I would normally put together, I think the delicate nature of the butterflies steered me in that direction.

I used a Baja Breeze base for my card and layered the First Edition Specialty DSP which I gave a spot of colour to using my Stampin' Pastels.  I find Pastels give a softer finish than sponging and that was just what I was looking for with this card.  If you look closely the typed passage is all about butterflies, so it went really well with this card.  I stamped the three butterflies onto Very Vanilla and then ran it through the Big Shot with the rectangle Designer Frames embossing folder and trimmed off the excess. I usually would only use an image that fits within the frame, but lately I have seen so many where the image is larger than the frame I thought I would give it a go!  I used Pastels again on this piece on the edge of the frame and in the centre to match it up with the Baja Breeze and So Saffron that I used on the DSP.  I also used some sponging right on the edges of the frame, and used my Stampin' Write Marker to highlight the inner crease of the frame. 

I finished the card off using the Lace Ribbon Border Punch layered with Crochet Trim, and then a single piece from the same punch as the embellishment with one of the flower shaped buttons from the Subtles Buttons.

Happy Stamping