Ombre feathers and why I need a bigger desk

I'm baaack! Ok, so maybe you didn't even notice I haven't been around in ages. I have an excuse... First it was work, and this weekend was the Culinary Consultant's birthday, so we spent some quality time with our favourite peeps, not leaving any time for the craft room. Me, the Culinary Consultant, my Sis and his Sis spent Saturday in Thetford forest climbing up trees, doing a bit of tight-rope walking from tree to tree and riding zip lines. It was really scary as some of it was really high up, but we had a blast. I have to admit I chickened out from doing one of the really big Tarzan swings where you just jump off a platform high up a tree, and then swing at full speed into a net. The Culinary Consultant and his Sis took it all in a stride and did great! 

Today, after Sis drove off home (and our guest room is once again empty, sad face...) I spent some time in the craft room, creating a huge bunch of stuff that went straight into the bin. Apparently my crafting muscles have atrophied. I pretty much pulled out every stamp set and die I owned. They are all spread across my crafting desk, you can see what it looks like... Every single thing I made was horrible. So I took a break, read a few chapters, had some cake and ended up having a bit of a nap as well (our sofa is way too comfortable). 

After my nap I decided to try again. I pushed all the crap on my desk to the side to make a teeny tiny little space in the middle of the desk. Stuff started falling off the edge of the desk... Hence the need for a bigger desk. And I guess the earlier messing around counted as warm-up, and I was finally able to create a card that wasn't too horrible.

My card was inspired by the colour combo over at Colour Me...! and the sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches. I was also inspired by the ombre challenge over at Simon Says Stamp Monday challenge. Not one, not two but three different ombre elements! The background, the feathers and the sentiment. I was also inspired by the tic-tac-toe board over at CAS-ual Fridays. My choice is diagonally Stitching, Spritzing and Embossing. Stitching is the faux stitching around the panel, there is some spritzing in the background I did by flicking a watercolour brush, and embossing is the white heat embossing on the feathers.  For the background, I was also inspired by The Friday Mashup, where one of the themes is to create a background filled with colour. 

Card: Daler&Rowney 300 gsm Aquafine watercolour paper, Stampin' Up Sahara Sand card
Inks: Stampin' Up Sahara Sand, Blushing Bride and Mint Macaron
Stamps: Stampin' Up Four Feathers
Other: Lawn Fawn Stitched Rectangle Dies, Scripty Hugs die, Papermania Seafoam White embossing powder

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

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