Garden Greenhouse

Hope you are all having a good weekend & have managed to dodge most of the rainshowers.

Here are a couple of quick cards using the Garden Greenhouse stamp set. As this a 2-step set you will need to use a Stamp-a-ma- jig to get the best results.

On this card I stamped a large sheet first then gradually I am cutting it up to make indivindual cards from it, so watch this space for the other cards I plan to make.


On this card I have just 3 of the flowers out & then mounted them onto the background made with the stems that are in the set.
RECIPE
Stamps: Garden Greenhouse (113824), Oval all (113790)
Cardstock & Inks: Apricot Appeal, Tempting Turquoise, Regal Rose, Handsome Hunter, Gable Green, Pretty in Pink, Brilliant Blue
Punches: Eyelet Border, Scallop Oval, Large Oval, Boho Blossoms
Ribbon: Regal Rose 5/8" Grosgrain

A little bit of Rock & Roll

What a great afternoon I have had today.

I was invited to demo at Gem Crafts, which is a craft group who meet fortnightly at High Kelling, which is near the beautiful North Norfolk coast for those of you who do not know.

What a wonderful group of ladies they were. They really made me feel welcome & they spoilt me rotten with tea & a choice of 2 different cakes Yum Yum

They were all so enthusiastic to learn some new techniques so I decided to teach them the rock & roll stamping technique, which is explained really clearly here : http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/resources/tutorials/rock_n_roll/.

Here is the card I cased using this great technique

The colours used are Sage Shadow & Close to Cocoa which I love together & it also uses my new favourite stamp set - Vintage Vogue.

Unfortunately I did not have enough of the Sage Shadow card to demo it so I designed this card using the new Stamping Up colour Melon Mambo, which I am totally in love with despite not being a "pink sort of a gal".

And don't get me started on the new polka dot ribbon, which if you do not know is plain on the opposite side, so it's a 2 for 1 look YIPEEE........

RECIPE

Stamps: Vintage Vogue (117690)

Inks & Card : Melon Mambo (card:119980, ink:115656) Chocolate Chip (card:109982, ink:110065) Whisper White card (109899) Sage Shadow ink (110085)

Ribbon: 1/2" Polka Dot in Melon Mambo (115611)

Sweetpea card

Hi everyone & so sorry about the lack of posts but for those who do not know I started a new job last week & I'm afraid that this has been taking up the majority of my time.


I have changed to a completly different field of nursing & I'm having to learn everything from scratch so until I find my feet my crafting has had to take a back seat but hopefully things will gradually improve.


I did find time today to play with my punches again & having seen some different flowers made from the punches on the web I came up with this card.


I do hope you like it.

Recipe

Punches - Butterfly (117404), 5-Petal Flower (112829), Extra-Large Two-step Bird (117191)
Cardstock - Pretty in Pink, Summer Sun, Regal Rose, Orchid Opulence, Lavender Lace,
So Saffron, Old Olive
Misc - Polka Dot Background Stamp (109276), Whisper White 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon,
Melon Mambo 1/2" Polka Dot Ribbon (115611)

Part 2 of the Mini Swap

Sorry this is a couple of days later than promised as yet again my scheduled post did not work AHHHHHHHH!!!! If anyone has a solution to this problem PLEASE let me know what it is.

Here goes with part Two of the Mini catalogue swap.

We are on page 18 where we find...........
Bird on a Branch (113266)
This is a recent addition to my ever growing collection so I'm looking forward to playing with this later tonight & I just love what Tara has done on this card & I know I will be copying this layout.

By Tara

Page 20 - Serene Snowflakes (115438)

This is my contribution to the swap & its one of the card I used for blog hop. I love this set despite saying I did not need any more Christmas stamps but these snowflakes are just so LOVELY.....


By Sharon March (that's me in case you have not guessed yet!)

On page 22 we have several stamps & as you can buy these singularly they are all very affordable. So we are going to start near the top of the page (unfortunately no one did Flower Accent)

All a Flutter (118284)
Which is a lovely little butterfly that has such detail on it & at £4.95 is a bargain.

By Kara M

Next is Dasher (116816) now have you ever seen a more elegant reindeer?

And again I love the simplicity of this card by Diane .

By Diane P

Then we have Elegant Thank You (114484) The designer Margaret has taken the name to heart & made a very elegant card with very few supplies. Which just goes to prove the old saying "Less is more"

By Margaret Rose

Lastly on this page we find Sweet Birthday (115564). This stamp is versatile as you can use the script on its own, which is how Victoria has used it.

Page 23 has our new smaller background stamps, which are going to be great for those people who like me who have "small" hands & who find the usual background stamps a bit of a handful (sorry please forgive the pun)

A to Z (115711) is a small alphabet stamp that has been used as the background on the butterfly picture at the top of this page

By Linda

Next is Fine Flourish (115709) which you are going to love if you love the medallion stamp in the main catalogue.

By Sarah Makin

Lastly we have Dot, Dot, Dot (115332) as unfortunately we had no one doing the Solid Stripes sample.

On this card Clare has used the stamp in conjunction with our punches to give a different look again.

By Clare

Well that concludes our tour of the mini catalogue I hope you enjoyed all these cards & if you want to order anything then please do not hesitate to contact me.

Mini Swap

I recently took part in a swap over on the forum In Love with Stamping. We all had to use one the lovely new stamp sets from the mini & I thought it would be lovely to share all the great samples I received. As there were quite a few cards involved I thought so you can savour them I will do this in 2 parts with part 2 tomorrow.

I also thought it would be nice if I gave you the cards in order of where the stamps appear in the mini so this can be you own virtual tour of the mini.
So here goes with Part 1

On Page 6 you will find the
Extra-Large Two-Step Bird Punch (117191)
I know this is not a stamp set but it was far tooooooo lovely to leave out of the swap.

ByKara Watson

Page 7 finds versatile - I {Heart} Hearts (117010) which coordinates with our heart from the main catalogue.
By Emma Crockett

Page 8 & 9 - Something Sweet (117688)
This set can make great cards when used in cojunction with the Sweet Treat Cups (116802)
But here my lovely downliner Sarah has used in another way & 2 of the cute fishies even "swim" around.

By Sarah Horan

Page 10 - Framed with Love (114389)
Another really versatile set that I think gets somewhat overlooked but I know I will be using a great deal

By Amanda Bates

Page 11 - The ever so cute Fox & Friends (117020)
> By Emma H

On page 12 you find My Sweet Pea (118506)

Which was one of the sets we used at my recent all day event

ByPat

Page 14 is where we find one of my favourites Vintage Vogue (117690)

We also used this at the all day event & it had to be the set that you all wanted to have. Carolyn has kept this card very simple but its still really elegant.

ByCarolyn

Page 15 has Tiny Tags (118091) which coordinates with the Medium Jewelry Tag punch (117190) which you can find on page 6
By Jan Jackman

And finally for today we come to page 16 & 17
Autumn Splendor (116503)
By Kirsteen Gill

Mays New Offers

Look at all these new goodies on offer. Aren't they all just so lovely, I cannot wait to get my hands on them & if you want them to then let me know & I'll order them for you.

Some will only be available until 30th September or until stocks last so be quick to avoid disappointment.