Poinsettia Cards from Class

These are the two cards from the morning session of Friday's punched flowers class. We started with this single flower card to warm up with. The flower is made using designer paper, and two sizes of birch leaf punch for the petals, with little yellow pearls in the centre.

The second card uses the same flower, but in a creamy pearlised paper for a different look, and has some maple leaf ivy with some simple little flowers to build up more of an arrangement.

I promised Candy yesterday, but my day hasn't gone as planned, so here I am at 11:30pm - typing on my laptop and keeping a coughing child company whilst she goes back to sleep. I'm hoping to get the candy photographed and put up tomorrow. Sorry about that!

Last Stop on our New Catalogue Safari

Welcome to the last day of the safari - and we're flower spotting again. But then what else would you expect from me?!

This card is for my daughter Nicola who was 21 yesterday.

Card/Paper: Barely Banana, Lovely Lilac, Certainly Celery, Whisper White plain & textured
Ink: Lovely Lilac, Barely Banana, Certainly Celery
Stamps: None - computer generated wording
Other: Pretties Kit pearls, Heat & Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds
Card Size: 21cm x 15cm (approx 6" x 8.25")

Keen eyed safari goers will also spot the new border punch that I've used on this card. It's so nice to have a pretty border punch that will work happily on card as well as paper! I punched the edge of a piece of card, and then trimmed off the punched edge to make it into a narrow strip which I snipped and curved along the edge of the white.

The top corners and the line of holes for the faux stitching were done using more new items - the mat pack and paper piercer. Even though the template has holes in straight lines, you can use it to prick along a curve as I have done here.

I used my drawing program and a font called Harrington to generate the 21 and the greeting. The mat layer on the 21 has been cut from Whisper White then glittered using Heat & Stick powder and Dazzling Diamonds glitter. I embossed the yellow numbers using a Cuttlebug folder, and sponged the edges with the matching ink. The background was quilted using my Fiskars paper trimmer and bone folder.

I've discovered that the paper piercer makes an excellent tool for scoring the line down the middle of my leaves and petals, so I've used that for these ones, along with an embossing stylus. I used three punches for the flowers - the Scalloped Circle, Five Petal Flower, and Boho Blossoms Punches.

Christmas Roses

I had a lovely day teaching a floral punch class yesterday at my local craft shop. It's so nice tucked in the class room there, overlooking the fields and away from the world. Easy to ignore the rain when you're engrossed in making flowers! Thank you to all the ladies for being such a lovely group to teach.

This is the card we made in the afternoon. The large white flowers - the Christmas roses - are made using a birch leaf punch for the petals, stuck onto a five petal flower shape to give the spacing and finished with a stamen punch for the centre. Holly leaves and a maple leaf punch for the ivy had a little brown sponging round the edge for a bit more dimension. The centres of the small white and red flowers all have liquid pearls.

We had a little extra time, so made a tag to match the card.

Don't forget to hop over to Natalie's blog today for the Safari!

On Safari with Bella Toile

Phew! I've managed to be on time for my second turn at hosting the safari - although a flat camera battery did its best to thwart me. That's what you get for forgetting to turn the camera off. Really must get a spare battery! Still, it's charged up overnight, and fortunately it's not raining this morning so I could get outside for some good light.

Card/Paper: Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla
Ink: Always Artichoke, Versamark
Stamps: Bella Toile, Fresh Cuts
Other: Clear Embossing Powder, Always Artichoke 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Very Vanilla 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon
Card Size: 15cm x 10.5cm (approx 4" x 6")

My first order from the new Stampin' Up! catalogue arrived yesterday, but I have been very good, and did my preparation for the class I have today, before playing with anything! Sadly I didn't have a lot of time, so had to content myself with this very quick card for today's post. I used my lovely new Bella Toile stamp, and heat embossed it using Versamark and clear embossing powder. The Stampin' Up! powder is very fine, and perfect for the detail in a stamp like this. I didn't want to cover up the image too much, so I just added a strip of card punched with the Eyelet Border punch and some ribbon. Finished off with a sentiment from Fresh Cuts.

Off on the school run now, and then to the class I'm giving at my local craft shop.

If anyone is waiting on an email reply from me, I couldn't access my email account last night, and still can't this morning. My apologies for this - I'll sort it out when I get back late this afternoon.

Robin Step by Step

Here's a little step by step for the robins on this card. You'll need:

Scraps of Chocolate Chip, Close to Cocoa, Ruby Red, and Basic Black card.
Chocolate Chip and Close to Cocoa ink.
Close to Cocoa marker.
White gel pen.
1 3/8" Circle Punch, Five Petal Flower Punch and 1/8" Circle Punch.

Punch out one 1 3/8" circle of Chocolate Chip, and one of Ruby Red. Put the red circle back in the punch as shown - so that the edge is about half way across the gap. Punch with the card in this position to give the tummy shape.

If you have trouble punching the tummy like this, then lay the Chocolate Chip circle over the red one so that the edge of it is touching the centre of the circle. Easier if you make a dot in the centre of the red circle first. Use the edge of the Chocolate Chip circle to draw a line on the Ruby Red one, and then cut out using scissors or a craft knife.

Punch out a Five Petal flower from Chocolate Chip, and another from Close to Cocoa. Mark the centre with a dot and cut into this dot from between each petal to divide them as shown. If you're only making one robin, then you can save card by only putting the card into the punch a little way - enough to get one petal of Close to Cocoa, and two of Chocolate Chip.

Sponge the edges of the Chocolate Chip pieces with Chocolate Chip ink, and the Ruby Red and Close to Cocoa pieces with Close to Cocoa ink. Use the Close to Cocoa marker to draw in a line on the beak. Punch a 1/8" circle from the Basic Black card. Alternatively draw in the eye with a black marker. Use the picture of the finished robin above to assemble the pieces. Add a white highlight to the eye with the gel pen. Once the robin is stuck to your project, draw in his legs using the Close to Cocoa marker.

Safari Bus Arrived at Last!

My turn to drive the safari bus, and of course it's late! One or two little hitches, and of course, being me I had to stop and look at the flowers. So it's now late afternoon instead of morning - but we've turned up eventually, so hop on board for my tour!

Today we're visiting the Autumn Harvest set from the new Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalogue. I love this set. It has a lot of potential for cards throughout the year. Christmas, masculine, pretty - it can do them all. My first card uses the pine cone stamp from the set for a kind of rustic masculine Christmas card.

Card/Paper: Close to Cocoa, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke
Stamps: Autumn Harvest, Season of Joy, Sanded
Card Size: 12.5cm x 12.5cm (approx 5" x 5")

I inked the stamp using my markers in Always Artichoke and Close to Cocoa. Then I just randomly dabbed the tip of the Chocolate Chip marker over the pine cone to give a slight variation in shading. This was then stamped onto Very Vanilla. Using a sponge dauber I put a little Close to Cocoa around the edges of the vanilla card. The background is Always Artichoke card, stamped again with the pine cone around the edges in Always Artichoke ink. Matted onto Very Vanilla. The base card is Close to Cocoa stamped with the Sanded background stamp in Close to Cocoa ink, and again sponged around the edges using the dauber with Close to Cocoa.

Having stopped to look at the flowers, my second card had to include some of them! This time I used the ivy/maple leaf and dotted flower spray stamps as a background to the punched flowers, and also to frame the ribbon.

Card/Paper: More Mustard, Always Artichoke, Mellow Moss, Whisper White
Ink: More Mustard, Always Artichoke
Stamps: Autumn Harvest, Sincere Salutations
Other: More Mustard 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Scallop Circle Punch, Boho Blossoms Punch, 1/8" Circle P
Card Size: 15cm x 10.5cm (approx 4" x 6")

The large flower was made from one punched Scallop Circle. I cut between every other scallop towards the centre, lightly sponged on some More Mustard ink, then used scored down the centre of each petal. The centre of the flower uses two of the Boho Blossoms punch shapes. I'll do a step by step when I get the chance!


Continuing with our tour of the catalogue, let me show you a couple of the new things that caught my eye:

There are some lovely new designer papers - some bright and cheerful, and some more subdued. Being on the more subdued side of the fence, here's one of my favourites Bella Bleu. Can see some very restful, elegant cards and scrap pages made from this.



Designer Brads - mmm, yummy. Love those Filigree Flower ones - of course!



And finally, not quite as thrilling as new stash perhaps, but if you are tired of your wheels rolling all over the place, here are some nice boxes specially designed to keep them under control.



If you're still with me after all that, it just remains for me to say that Natalie is our driver tomorrow - so fasten your seatbelts!

Twinkly Trees

Card/Paper: Night Of Navy, Brocade Blue, Whisper White

Ink: Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Brocade Blue, Versamark
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, En Francais, Birthday Cheer and Wishes
Other: Night of Navy 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Heat & Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds
Card Size: 15cm x 10.5cm (approx 4" x 6")

I've never really been one for glitter, but Dazzling Diamonds and Heat & Stick have converted me. It's so twinkly! On this card I stamped the tree image, and then used the Versamark pad directly on the paper to get a good covering over the whole image. Then embossed with Heat & Stick powder, then sprinkled on the Dazzling Diamonds. You can see the sparkle a little bit better if you enlarge the image, but unfortunately, the picture can't quite capture the frosty twinkle!

I made the same card in different colours - but think that I like the blue one best.

Card/Paper: Whisper White, Always Artichoke, Bravo Burgundy
Ink: Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Bravo Burgundy, Versamark
Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, En Francais, Birthday Cheer and Wishes
Other: Always Artichoke 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Heat & Stick Powder, Dazzling Diamonds
Card Size: 15cm x 10.5cm (approx 4" x 6")

Anyone for a Safari?

I can't believe it's the 1st October already - seems only a few weeks ago that it was the release of last year's new catalogue! But here we are, with a sparkling new catalogue again, and to celebrate the launch, a few of the SU team I am in are having a little blog safari.

We are starting off at the lovely Caz's today, and she has the link for tomorrow's visit. Each day one of us will have something made with a set from the new catalogue, and details of new products. By following the links each day, you will be led on the safari around our blogs. If you are coming to this post after the 1st, Just start with the link here to Caz's blog, and you can catch up!

Be sure and ride with us to the end of the safari!