Retro Flower

I'm supposed to be at the summer house out of reach of wifi. Unfortunately I caught a tummy bug and am stuck at my Mum's until I'm better. Hopefully tomorrow we can head up to the summer house to enjoy peace, quiet and lack of all connectivity with the outside world. At least I have my Mum to take care of me when I'm sick, Mums have that magical healing power!

So I thought I would post this card as I'm stuck in bed and very bored. The background is made by inking through a stencil and the Flower is stamped using several Stampin' Up flower stamps and matching punches. Last, I die cut two hellos and stacked them. I added a few candy dots for a finishing touch.

I would like to link up with the following challenges:
Inspiration Destination - Anything Goes
Penny's Paper Crafty Challenge Blog - Anything Goes
Clear It Out - Anything Goes
Loves Rubberstamp Challenges - Anything Goes
Artistic Inspirations Challenge Blog - Anything Goes

Card: Stampin' Up Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral, Old Olive
Stamps: Stampin' Up Mixed Bunch, Flower Shop, Petite Petals
Ink: Stampin' Up Calypso Coral, Soft Suede
Paper: Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper Pack Brights
Other: Hello You Dies, Blossom Punch, Pansy Punch, Petite Petals Punch, Brights Candy Dots, Happy Patterns Decorative Masks

 

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Retro colours

Today's card is a play around with the colours from this week's Colour Me...! challenge, and this is what I came up with. It was supposed to be something completely different but turned into this instead. Oh well, it's always a journey. I was also inspired by the Just Add Ink "Just Add Thank You" theme. 

I absolutely adore Vintage Photo, it's the most amazing brown colour and I use it all the time. This time I inked it through a Tim Holtz stencil to create a background. I punched the flowers and inked around the edges in matching colours, and added a big rhinestone after shaping the flowers for a bit of a 3D effect. I stamped the butterfly and fussy cut before adding the clear jems. Last I stamped using Gorgeous Grunge for the splatters, stamped the sentiment, and inked around the edges of the front panel which I adhered with foam pads.

Card: Kraft card, Stampin' Up Pool Party, So Saffron and Real Red card

Ink: Stampin' Up Pool Party, So Saffron, Real Red and Tim Holtz Vintage Photo

Stamps: Stampin' Up Yippee-Skippee!, Gorgeous Grunge, Bloomin' Marvelous

Other: Tim Holtz stencil, Stampin' Up Petite Petals punch, Papermania adhesive rhinestones

Another great Retro Skech and Colour Me

I wasn't going to post today, but I ended up doing a bit of crafting despite my Mojo being dead and gone once again.

Week after week I love the Retro Sketches. They never disappoint. This time I had too many ideas, and I started with one card, which didn't turn out as I wanted so I made this instead. Then I tweaked the first card and it turned out better than this one, but you will have to wait until tomorrow to see it. This card is also inspired by the new Colour Me...! challenge where there are two different colour combos to choose from.

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Pear Pizzazz
Paper: Stampin' Up Sweet Sorbet
Stamps: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk, Petite Petals 
Ink: Stampin' Up Rich Razzleberry, Pear Pizzazz
Other: Stampin' Up Chalk Talk Framelits, Petite Petals Punch, Papermania Rhinestones Capsule Verde and Capsule Heather

Perfect sketch for paper scraps

I absolutely adore the current Retro Sketch. To be fair, they always have amazing sketches, but as soon as I saw this week's one I had to jump into the craft room despite it being past my bedtime. This is absolutely perfect for using up all those scraps that end up in that "no idea how to use them but can't throw them away either" box (admit it, you have one too!!). I wish this sketch would have come around on a less hectic week, and I would have made a dozen cards with it (and still will, just some other week...) as I had so much fun going through my scraps and making this card. It would also be perfect for Washi tape, and I might have to make one with my newly acquired stash of Washi, even if it won't make it for the challenge deadline. I'm also submitting the card to Craft Hoarders Anonymous where this week the theme is "All the Pretty Flowers". I'm most certainly a flower stamp and flower punch hoarder, and I do use them a lot. 

For this card, I decided I have to limit myself to anything I can find in my leftover stash box. I started with a background I have stamped before but didn't end up using at the time. Then I took my sweet time to select paper scraps I thought would go well together, and cut the scraps into banners. I also punched a few flowers using the lovely Petite Petals punch, finishing it all off with a great sentiment from Paper Smooches and a few pearls. Quick, simple, impressive, AND a great way of using those paper scraps. Perfect!

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm smooth white card, Stampin' Up Smoky Slate card
Paper: Various Stampin' Up Designer Series Papers
Stamps: Paper Smooches Sentiment Sampler, Stampin' Up En Français
Ink: Tsukineko Memento Tuxedo Black, Stampin' Up Smoky Slate
Other: Stampin' Up Petite Petals punch, Basic Pearls

Enjoy the kraft journey

Yesterday's card was a total pain in the you-know-what to put together. Whatever I did just didn't look right, and I had to try so many different layouts and versions before I felt I was even remotely content with it. Certainly not one of my proudest moments. Today's card couldn't have been any more different, it hardly took any time to put together. I didn't have to change a thing and basically just glued all the bits and pieces in place. That's how a good card is made. For some reason I'm currently stuck with this one card layout with a central focus panel, it just works.

I was so inspired by the absolutely gorgeous inspiration picture over at Addicted to Stamps and More. My card is not so much an interpretation as just a direct copy of the picture. Even before I had scrolled down to look at the DT's creations I knew there had to be a vellum flower on my card. I was also inspired by two craft themed challenges, Witch Kraft over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge (although this time it's all kraft and no witch), and K is for kraft over at the Snarky Sisters (this time without any snark, but hey - a girl only has so much snark to give). So I knew the background should be kraft. I was thinking a swirly pattern, but then I looked at the inspiration photo again and realised the only background that would be acceptable is woodgrain. Great excuse to dig out my lovely hardwood background stamp. 

I also love my white embossing powder (and need to get more of it soon), so I wanted to keep the card very simple with nothing but white embossing and kraft. There is just something special about white embossing on vellum. It's almost like magic, it's light and airy and cloud-like. The woodgrain on the smaller background panel is simply stamped with VersaMark, I like the subtle effect as the kraft on it's own was too plain, but I didn't want anything in the background to distract from the focal flower.

Finally I just needed to pick a sentiment, and although I was first tempted by something in a swirly font to complement the flower, I changed my mind and used something that would go with the harshness of the woodgrain. And it's a great sentiment, would go for many different occasions. To finish I stamped and heat embossed some flowers inside the card and on the envelope to make a matching set. I absolutely love how the card turned out, this is one I'm genuinely proud of, and it was so much fun to make too! Once again I'm so grateful to the wonderful challenge blogs and inspirational DTs who provide ideas week after week.

Card: Craft UK kraft card and envelope, Ribbed 300 gsm rustic kraft card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm cream card, Dovecraft 110 gsm premium vellum
Stamps: Stampin' Up Hardwood, Mixed Bunch, Flower Shop, Petite Petals, Tim Holtz Stampers Anonymous The Journey
Ink: Tsukineko VersaMark
Other: Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Stampin' Up Basic Pearls, Blossom, Pansy and Petite Petal punch

Floral Celebration

Looks like my lil' old mojo came back for a short visit this morning, and I finally managed to finish my card for this week's Fusion challenge, which I have been attempting for days, only producing things that went right into the bin. But this morning I managed to put this card together. Not my best one, but good enough for public scrutiny. I'm also entering this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge where anything goes this week.

I adore the Penny Black Life's Messages stamp set I used for the sentiment. It is one of those stamps that I just had to have when I saw it, and it did involve quite an intricate hunt over the interwebs before I managed to secure it. I love to use it for scrapbooking (see here) and I have used it on some faux chalkboard cards (see here). It's just so versatile. The little star in the sketch immediately became a flower in my mind, and I even managed to use up the green leaves I had coloured in when I was testing some markers the other day. It's always great to get rid of things in your stash, isn't it!

Cardstock: Cream linen textured card from my stash, Hobbycraft 160 gsm cream card
Paper: Stampin' Up Patterns Stack Brights and Polka dot parade DSP
Stamps: Penny Black Life's Messages, Stampin' Up Flower Shop, Petite Petals and Mixed Bunch
Inks: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Pumpkin Pie and Regal Rose
Other: Lace from my stash, Stampin' Up Basic Pearls, matching punches for the flower stamps

Graduation cards - all done

This is finally the last of the graduation cards for my Sister's friends. Of course there is still my Sister's card which I will post in a few days once I have time to write the post. The graduation took place yesterday and everything went smoothly as expected with a big bunch of new doctors released out into the wild.

My sister suggested I make a box card for this new doctor, so a box card I made. I used my trusty box card design which I have used here, here and here. I covered the box with paper that I got for free with a crafting magazine. I used Stampin Up Petite Petals and Flower Shop stamps to stamp the flowers and punched them with the matching punches which makes life so much easier. Unfortunately I don't have a matching punch for the butterfly from the Bloomin' Marvellous stamp set so I had to fussy cut the butterflies. Finally as for all the other cards, I die cut the letters using my favourite alphabet die, the Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out Alphabet die.

I'm entering this card into this week's The Pink Elephant where the theme is Summer Time.

Card: Leonardo Workshop 300 gsm White card, Coloured 240 gsm craft card in Pink Raspberry, Purple Grape and Ruby Red

Paper: The Country Diary of and Edwardian Lady (free with Cardmaking and Papercraft magazine earlier this year)

Ink: Stampin' Up Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Real Red, Rich Razzleberry andTempting Turquoise

Stamps: Stampin' Up Bloomin' Marvellous, Flower Shop, Petite Petals

Other: Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out Alphabet Die, Stampin' up Petite Petals and Pansy punch

 

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Petite Petals graduation card

This is the second-to-last in the bunch of graduation cards I have made for my Sister's friends. It seems like ages ago when I started with the first one, and still I was struggling to get them all done in time. It's been a challenge to come up with something individual and unique for each of the new doctors, but I've had a great time creating. 

This card came together easily using the Stampin' Up Petite Petals stamp set and matching punch. It's so fun to stamp and punch the flowers, I could make oodles of cards like this. I also added some splatter using the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set (which seems to feature on about 90% of all my cards, but what can you do, if it ain't broken don't fix it). I die cut the letters and put everything together with a few adhesive gems for a bit of bling. I stamped a row of flowers inside the card and on the envelope as well.

I'm entering this card in Addicted to CAS which this week is about "Celebrate". If graduating as a Medical Doctor is not a reason to celebrate, I don't know what is. I'm also entering this week's Addicted to Stamps and more where the theme is CAS. I also had to enter the Shopping our Stash challenge as the theme was to use something you can't put away, and these two stamp sets definitely have seen their fair share of use in my craft room. 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 300 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Crumb Cake
Stamps: Stampin' Up Gorgeous Grunge, Petite Petals
Inks: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Sahara Sand, Smoky Slate, Wisteria Wonder
Other: Stampin' Up Jewels Basic Rhinestones, Petite Petals punch, Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out alphabet die

Graduation card with purple flower

I have a few more cards on my list of graduation cards for my Sister's friends. Their graduation is looming, only two more weeks to go so I thought I better get my crafting mojo in gear and finish a few more. This card was inspired by this week's Colour me... and Freshly Made Sketch, although I don't have Elegant Eggplant so I had to improvise a bit with the purple colour. Doesn't that inspiration picture just make you smile, it's too cute to be true.

I created the flower using the Stampin' Up Blossom, Pansy and Petite Petals punches and matching stamps for the last two. I stamped the flowers in Tim Holtz Distress ink in Seedless Preserves, inked around the edges with a foam applicator and curled the leaves a bit for a more three dimensional flower. I added a bit of Tim Holtz idea-ology Paper String as a finishing touch and in line with the sketch. I stamped the blue flowers in Soft Sky and die cut the letters using the Tim Holtz inside out alphabet die.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Coloured craft card 240 gsm in Purple Grape, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm three shades of blue

Paper: Stampin' Up Sycamore Street DSP

Ink: Tim Holtz Distress ink Seedless Preserves

Stamps: Stampin' Up Flower Shop and Petite Petals  

Other: Tim Holtz idea-ology Paper String, Stampin' Up Jewels Basic Rhinestones, Tim Holtz alterations inside out alphabet die

Blossom graduation card

When I saw this amazingly beautiful card from Peg Coombes I knew I had to recreate it for one of the graduation cards I'm making. I love the flower stamps with matching punches, it's so easy and quick to create an impressive card, much quicker than die cutting. I like the cascading fold and the flowers all over the edges. Still the card fits in a normal size envelope. I also love the understated neutral colours which make the card very elegant.

For this card I used Stampin' Up Whisper White cardstock for the base and stamped the flowers in Sahara Sand. After punching them out I added Ranger Ice Stickles in Coffee Ice in the middle of the flowers for a little understated bling. I heat embossed the sentiment in white embossing powder onto Crumb Cake cardstock, and die cut the letters using a Tim Holtz die from the same card. After assembling the card I stamped a matching envelope.

Card folded and the envelope

Card: Stampin' Up Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Ink: Stampin' Up Sahara Sand, Tim Holtz Embossing Ink
Stamps: Stampin' Up Flower Shop, Petite Petals, TPC Studio Graduation Clear stamp set
Other: Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out alphabet die, Ranger Ice Stickles in Coffee Ice, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder, Stampin' Up Pansy and Petite Petals punch

Flower shop

I am continuing my exploration of my new Stampin' Up goodies that arrived a few days ago. Along with the SoVery Grateful stamp I tried out yesterday, I also ordered the Flower Shop bundle with stamps and punch. It seems like I have a thing for these flower stamp and punch combos, as I now have three of them. I sat staring at my stamps for a while with my neurons firing on empty. Then I had a quick browse through my trusty inspiration source, the great crafting challenges out there. The colours of this week's Color Throwdown are amazing - Coastal Cabana, Sahara Sand and Strawberry Slush. I also liked this week's Freshly Made Sketch, although I ended up taking some liberties with the interpretation of it. I was also inspired by the Shopping Our Stash challenge which this week was "Stamp your background". 

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana and Sahara Sand

Inks: Stampin' Up Coastal Cabana, Sahara Sand, Strawberry Slush

Stamps: Stampin' Up Flower Shop, Petite Petals, Yippee-Skippee, En Français

Other: Stampin' Up Pansy punch, Petite Petals punch, Tag topper punch, Melon mambo striped organdy ribbon, Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Red Hot

M is for metallic

I had a browse through my stash the other day. All those extra bits and pieces you don't want to throw away just in case, but which you have no use for. I had so much more stuff stashed away than I could remember... So I decided to pick something from the stash and make a card or two. I picked two metallic panels I had made quite a while ago using an Inkadinkadoo stamp and heat embossing. I then browsed some of my favourite challenges to find some inspiration what to do with them. 

Stash part one - left over card parts waiting to be used

Stash part two - left over cardstock slivers sorted into whites, DSP and colour card

Stash part three - more or less finished card panels waiting for inspiration

By coincidence the theme of both the Shopping our Stash challenge and Addicted to Stamps challenge is Inspired by a song. For the golden panel, the obvious choice was We are Golden by Mika. A song about friendship. Inspired by the song, and this weeks Retro sketch the card came together. I am also entering the gold card into this week's Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge "Die Crazy" as the circles and the letters are die cut, and as a bonus the flowers are cut using a punch.

The silver card was inspired by this week's Freshly Made sketch and the great colour combo in Color Throwdown. I am also entering it into Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge which is themed M, and in my card M is for metallic, Melon Mambo and Mixed Bunch (the name of the stamp set I used for the flower).

To create both metallic panels I stamped the Inkadinkadoo background stamp in Tim Holtz distress embossing ink and heat embossed using Papermania silver and gold embossing powders. For the gold card, I used a DSP from the Kaisercraft Christmas collection pad which came with issue 117 of Simply Cards&papercraft magazine. I die cut the circles from leftover bits of black and gold paper in my stash. The flowers are from Stampin' Up Petite Petals and heat embossed using gold embossing powder and punched using a matching punch. The letters for "Friend" are cut from the same scrap gold paper using Tim Holtz alterations inside out alphabet die. As final details I added some gold sequins from my stash I have never used before although having them for years and used a gold Sharpie to colour a few clear adhesive gems to add to the sequins and flowers. I matted the DSP onto leftover black cardstock and adhered everything onto a square kraft card.

For the silver card, I stamped one of the flowers from the Mixed bunch set in clear embossing ink and heat embossed using silver embossing powder, and punched with a matching punch. I cut a strip from Stampin' Up summer smooches DSP in lucky limeade and another from white cardstock. I used a sentiment from the Papermania Urban Stamps 12 days of Christmas Word banner stamp set and inked around the edges with a foam applicator. I attached everything onto Stampin' Up Melon Mambo DSP and matted onto black paper before attaching to a square white card. To finish, I added a pink adhesive gem to the flower.

It always feels extra good to create cards with leftover bits and pieces, and to see how something that originally wasn't going to amount to anything actually turn into a beautiful card. I'm extra pleased with the gold card as I'm really bad with using metallics and using gold is very difficult for me.

Card: Craft UK craft card, Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Stampin' Up cardstock in Melon Mambo, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, unidentified leftover black and gold card from my stash
DSP: Stampin' Up Patterns stack - Brights collection and Summer Smooches, Kaisercraft 6" Paper Pad Christmas Collections
Stamps: Inkadinkadoo background stamp, Stampin' Up Petite Petals and Mixed Bunch, Papermania Urban stamps 12 days of Christmas - Word Banner
Inks: Tim Holtz distress embossing ink, Stampin' Up Wild Wasabi
Other: Stampin' Up Petite Petals and Blossom punch, Papermania embossing powders Tinsel Silver and Enchanted Gold, Papermania adhesive gems Capsule Red Hot, Stampin' Up clear adhesive gems, Tim Holtz Alterations Inside Out Alphabet die, golden sequins from my stash, gold Sharpie

Mother's day card in a box

Now that my Mum has seen her Mother's Day card, I can finally show it on the blog as well. I wanted to make something special for Mum, so I made a card-in-a-box filled with flowers. I don't know who originally came up with the idea, but I used this lovely flower filled box card with from Mommy Stamper for inspiration. However, as the measurements in that blog post were in inches, and I feel more comfortable working in centimeters, I used this tutorial from Monica's Passions for making my box. If you don't know how to make the card, instead of me explaining, just hop over to either of those blogs for a video tutorial. The centimeter card results in a bigger card as you use a sheet of A4 to start, whereas the card on Mommy Stamper starts with a 9x5 1/2 (22.8x14cm) in sheet of cardstock.

I used the Stampin' Up Tea for Two DSP for my box and stamped flowers from the Petite Petals stamp set in Regal Rose, Calypso Coral, Blushing Bride and So Saffron. I also stamped the butterfly from the Bloomin' Marvelous set in Marina Mist. I fussycut the butterflies and punched the flowers with the matching punch. I also punched a few flowers from an old scrap of Old Olive cardstock to make the leaves. I used a stamp from the Punch Bunch for the sentiment and finished with a bow and some bling in the form of adhesive gems.

I am entering this card in the following challenges:

The Pink Elephant #249 - Mother's Day

Stampin' Royalty challenge #227 - May Flowers (this is my second entry for this challenge)

Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge - Spring Flowers (this is my second entry for this challenge)

Craft Hoarders Anonymous - Ribbon, Lace and Twine

Inks: Stampin' Up Blushing Bride, Calypso Coral, Marina Mist, Regal Rose and So Saffron
Cardstock: Stampin' Up River Rock, Calypso Coral, Old Olive, Hobbycraft cream 160 gsm cardstock
Stamps: Bloomin' Marvelous, Petite Petals, Punch Bunch
Paper: Stampin' Up Tea for Two
Other: Petite Petals Punch, Pink ribbon from my stash, Stampin' Up adhesive gems

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Birthday present bag and card

I'm going for a birthday celebration tomorrow, and wanted to make a customised gift bag and matching card for the present. I got my inspiration from the beautiful pastel yellows, greens and pink/coral of the chocolate box I bought as a present. 

The inspirational colour combo

For the card, I used the colour combo from the chocolate box and I stole the idea for the card from my guest stamper, my Sis. She made the awesome green and pink birthday card you can see below, and I used the green hardwood background as an inspiration for my card. I added the same Petite Petals flowers I used for the bag and added a birthday sentiment in bright yellow. It was so much fun stamping with my sis. She got very creative and also made some artwork for her home.

Birthday Card made by Sis that I used for inspiration.

My Sis got inspired by stamping and made this scrapbook page.

To create my bag I measured the chocolate box and calculated the size of the gift bag that would be needed. I ended up using a 10x12 in piece of DSP, and used the remaining 2 in piece to create the tags for the ribbon. I scored the DSP at 1.5 and 8.5 in in the longer direction and at 5 1/4 and 6 3/4 in in the shorter direction (see sketch below). Then just cut as indicated, fold and put some double sided adhesive on the small squares and one of the long side "flaps" on both sides and assemble. I got the idea for this bag from the Pootles blog, which has a video showing how to assemble the bag (although it's a different size to mine), check it out. I then inked the edges of the bag with Daffodil Delight ink and a foam applicator and created 2 tags with the scalloped tag punch. I inked the edges of the tags as well and attached the ribbon to the back of one of the tags. I then attached the tags to the gift bag. To finish off the bag, I stamped four flowers in Pistachio Pudding using the Petite Petals matching stamp set and punch, curled the leaves of the flowers and attached adhesive gems. 

For the card, I stamped the hardwood stamp in Pistachio Pudding onto white cardstock. I also stamped the birthday sentiment from See Ya Later in Daffodil Delight and cut out in the shape of a banner. I used the same ink and a foam applicator to ink the edges of the banner. I stamped flowers in Daffodil Delight and Crisp Cantaloupe I attached everything into place and matted onto Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock. 

The theme of this week's Simon Says Stamp Monday Challenge is Five. I'm entering my card with five flowers. I'm also entering this card as my second contribution to Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge where the theme is "Anything goes" (my first contribution is here).

Card: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card
Paper: Stampin' Up Sycamore Street DSP
Inks: Stampin' Up Crisp Cantaloupe, Daffodil Delight and Pistachio Pudding
Stamps: Stampin' Up Hardwood, Petite Petals and See Ya Later 
Other: Green Ribbon from my stash, Stampin' Up Petite Petals Punch, Papercraft adhesive gems in Capsule Verde

Blossom thank you

I was going to craft my way through the Easter break. Somehow I have managed to find next to no time for crafting. Time just flies when you are having fun, eh?

This morning I finally sat down for my Sunday morning crafting session (Monday has to play the part of Sunday this time as yesterday morning was too busy for crafting). I have been planning to participate in the current CAS(E) this sketch but not had time to do it yet. It's a double challenge with a sketch and a fashion photograph for added inspiration. The good thing is that I have had this challenge in the back of my mind for a while, so when I sat down to craft I had a good view in my mind of what I wanted to do with it. I decided to combine it with this weeks Color Throwdown, as the grey on the trousers of the model made it connect really well with the colour challenge. And I knew exactly which grey cardstock I wanted to use, I have a slightly shimmery grey cardstock that was a perfect fit with the grey in the picture. I decided to go for a very literal interpretation of the sketch as it fit right in with what I had in mind, and the colours from the challenge fit in perfectly with the inspiration picture from CAS(E) this sketch.

So here we go, my thank you card. I embossed the grey cardstock, and heat embossed the flowers in white embossing powder onto Melon Mambo cardstock before punching them with matching punches. The leaves are made using the same punches. I added a bit of bling to the flowers, inspired by the glossy textures on the fashion image. Finally, I stamped and heat embossed the sentiment and used the Picket Fence marker to draw the stitching in freehand around the sentiment for some extra definition.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm white card, Stampin' Up Melon Mambo and Pistachio Pudding cardstock (I don't have Gumball Green) and silvery grey cardstock I ordered off Ebay which doesn't have any indication of make on it
Stamps: Stampin' Up Mixed Bunch, Petite Petals, Vintage Verses
Inks: Tim Holtz Distress Embossing ink, Tim Holtz Distress marker Picket Fence
Other: Embossing powder Papermania Seafoam white, Stampin Up punches Blossom and Petite Petals, Stampin' Up embossing folder Vintage Wallpaper, Papermania adhesive stones Capsule Red Hot

Condolence cards

I've been rather lucky in my life and have had minimal need for condolence cards. Recently someone very dear to me suffered an unexpected loss, so I thought I would make a card for them. For this card I used the sketch from Freshly Made Sketches 128. It's a rather simple sketch, so I thought it was perfect for the card I wanted to make.

I wanted to keep the card simple, but with a little bit of spring colour in there so that it wouldn't be too depressing. I needed one card with a greeting in Finnish and one in Swedish (long story...) so I printed the sentiments on my computer. Other than that, it's rather simple with some stamping, some punching and a big bow.

Cardstock: Leonardo Stationery 350 gsm Smooth White Card, Hobbycraft 160 gsm cream cardstock, Stampin' Up black cardstock

Stamps: Stampin' Up Hardwood, Petite petals

Inks: Stampin' Up  Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso
Other: Petite petals punch, black ribbon from my stash