LOVE & AFFECTION DAY 2

Day 2 of  Love & Affection stamp set for this week and its going to be entered for three challenges.

The Challenge over at Pootles is a colour challenge using Whisper White, Green Envy, Smoky Slate  and Wisteria Wonder.  I found these colours very tricky and a lot of my attempts ended up in the bin.  But finally I found a combination I was happy with.  The sentiment from the set has been embossed on the Green Envy with white embossing powder.  I kept the card stock to Whisper White and the other colours provided the inks for the stamps.

 

 

 A touch of Wink of Stella on the flowers and a rhinestone in the middle gives the card a bit of sparkle.

 This card is also going in for the Case This Sketch challenge which gave us this sketch to follow






 I was inspired by Gemma's card who designed the sketch.  Click on the sketch above to be taken to their challenge.

The Challenge at SUO Challenges is Delight in Nature - You'll find their challenge here



 

LOVE AND AFFECTION - A WEEK OF ONE STAMP SET!

Over the next few days I'm going to be showcasing one main Stamp Set just to give you lots of ideas and to show you don't always need lots and lots of stamps, especially if like  most of us you are on a tight budget, but love your crafting.

I've chosen to use the Love and Affection stamp set.  Not maybe one of the most popular from the new catalogue at first glance but this little set has lots to offer.  It has 16 Polymer Stamps and three sentiment stamps which I've used an awful lot.  It does also come as part of The Affectionately Yours Suite so there are plenty of ways to add to this little set with Washi Tape, ribbon, Embossing Powders, Cardstock and even Designer Series Paper, not forgetting the gorgeous Embossing Folders.

 

I'm going to be focusing on just the stamp set. I may sneak in another now and then - just as I have on this following card with the butterflies from Papillon Potpourri. My game, my rules lol!

And anyway this card is in for the Watercooler Wednesday challenge this week and I needed to add something in threes on the card and I fancied doing the butterflies searching for the flowers.  Their challenge this week was a Sketch Challenge.  Sorry for the quality of the photos today - not sure what is going on there!  Here's their challenge - click on the image to be taken to the challenge website.

 I've actually used the Affectionately Yours Cardstock Pack for these colours which are Watermelon Wonder, Night of Navy and I've added Very Vanilla.  Mint Macaron is also part of the pack, though I've not used it here.

 The Night of Navy was clear embossed with the flower from the set to create my own background paper.

The Butterflies from Papillon Popourri were also clear embossed - I think you can just see them.  They were then blinged up with a bit of Dazzling Diamonds and a Rhinestone added to the main flower.

 As usual all products can be purchased from my Website - just click on the images above to be taken straight to it  - and don't forget our Bonus Days Promotion during the month of July.

 Happy Crafting

 

BONUS DAYS

 
 

We have a great new offer for July - Bonus Days! For every 60.00 €/£45.00 you spend* between 7 and 31 July, you’ll get a 6.00 €/£4.50 Bonus Days coupon that you can use 2–31 August.

Great news for me as there are some things from the new Catalogue I haven't ordered yet - well when I say some things you know I mean a long long list!!! Top of my list at the moment is the Jar of Love stamp set and the Jar Framelit Dies which luckily come as a bundle and allow me to save 10%.



I do have other things on my list and this Coupon Code is going to come in very handy.  Also, as I'm lucky enough to be a demonstrator it means I will get to purchase Pre-Order Autumn Winter goodies in August.  Which is good news as my Christmas Crafting Classes start in September!!  Yes I know sorry I said the C word in July!!

Here are all the details about the coupons from Stampin' Up! - in their words so I don't miss anything out.



*Note: Bonus Days coupon codes will be delivered via email, so an email address is required to participate in this promotion. We cannot resend emails with coupon codes, so make sure you save the email and write down the codes in a safe place so you don’t miss out on the coupons you earn.
*Participants will receive a Bonus Days coupon code via email for every 60.00 €/£45.00 (catalogue price before shipping and handling) they spend in a single order.*
Details

• Promotion period: 7–31 July 2016
• Redemption period: 2–31 August 2016
• An email address is required to participate in this promotion; Bonus Days coupon codes can only be delivered to participants via email.
• We strongly recommend that participants save emails containing their Bonus Days coupon codes AND write down the coupon codes in a safe place—the codes cannot be resent if the participant loses the email, and Demonstrator Support cannot recover lost codes.
• Participants will receive a 6.00 €/£4.50 Bonus Days coupon code via email for every 60.00 €/£45.00 they spend in a single order. There is no limit to the number of coupons participants can receive per order or throughout the duration of the promotion. There is no limit on the number of coupons participants can use on an order during redemption.
• Bonus Days coupons codes can be used in the checkout process during the redemption period

 

POST HOLIDAY BLUES

 I'm back from my week's holiday in Tuscany and I've got the post holiday blues.  Is it just me that gets them - surely not!  It was my first visit to Tuscany but not Italy and we managed to get to see Florence, the Ponte Vechio shown below and a lovely town called Lucca.

 Hubby and I at Ponte Vechio - not a lot there apart from jewellery shops but its something ticked off the list lol!

 The views from our villa.  Typical Tuscan one below I think with those signature trees.

 

And on to the crafting - I was prompted by Sam Hammond's new challenge on her blog.  Sam is my upline and its great to see her joining the challenge blogs.  Her challenge is a colour challenge and she gave us the following colours to work with - Click HERE to be taken to Sam's blog

Smoky Slate, Pool Party, So Saffron, Pink Pirouette.

I used three of the colours, including a touch of Whisper White.  I used Smokey Slate for the card base and for layering.  I used some of the lovely Designer Series Paper in Pool Party for the background and Pool Party ink for the leaves and Pink Pirouette for the flowers.

 

 

The Stamp Set I used was Love and Affection.  It has some lovely sentiments on it and with such small pretty stamps the possibilities are endless.

 

 I also used the Floral Affection Embossing Folder which works with this set.  They all come as part of the Affectionately Your Suite which also includes Designer Series Paper - which I don't have ..... yet!  I've finished it with a touch of Enamel Shapes in Pool Party.

All products as usual can be purchased via my website.  Keep an eye out for my blog tomorrow with news of some great SU Promotions for July.  Click on the catalogue below to be taken to  my website.

Happy Stamping

THREE STAMP SETS - FEELING BLUE?

 I didn't think I'd have time for any more crafting before I go away on holiday but I managed to sneak one in this evening.  I don't often do blue cards but found myself drawn to all these different blues this evening.  My card is inspired by the sketch on As You See It challenge. Click on their sketch to be taken to their challenge.





I've used three stamp sets for this card.  The stripes are from the Playful Backgrounds set.  I love this set - its so versatile.  They have been stamped in Soft Sky and I used Wink of Stella over the top to make them sparkle a bit.   The dots are from Painter's Palette and the sentiment is from Picture Perfect.  I've used some of our Designer Series Paper in Subtles for the background paper and the flower which is from the Botanical Builder framelits.  One of our enamel shapes in the middle finishes the flower.  I quite like the soft colours in this card - I may find I use blue more often.

 I think you can just about see the Wink of Stella sparkle.  I think my WOS may be on its way out.  I read a great tip from someone that, once its empty, fill it with water and you can still use it!

 Happy Crafting

Thanks for stopping by and do leave a comment - I love to read what you think.

Fiona

LOVE AND AFFECTION

 The weather is very depressing here in the UK at the moment, wet and cold and not at all like June.  So to cheer myself up I've been playing with the new Love and Affection stamp set.  This is such a pretty set with 16 polymer stamps and three great Sentiments.  I've done two types of cards - one quite plain and simple the other a little bit over the top.  I think my favourite is the clean and simple one below.

I just used two of the stamps out of the set for this card and two colours Pear Pizazz and Watermelon Wonder.  I love these two together. 

I'm putting this card in for two challenges this week:

Watercooler Wednesday -  which is asking for Clean and Simple Summer and

 Case this Sketch challenge which gave us the following sketch to work with.  Click on the sketch to be taken to their Challenge Blog.

Some basic pearls added to some of the flowers gives this a very gentle finish to this card.

My second card  uses the same colour ways but I've added some Designer Series Paper in Watermelon Wonder and stamped some of the Flower stamps on to it.  These were then cut out and fixed on with dimensionals and some basic rhinestones added to the middle.

I've used a few more of the leaves and flower stamps from this set also.  This card was also supposed to be for the Case this Sketch but then I realised I'd covered too much of the paper so I started again.

This will be my last post for a while probably as I'm off on holiday on Saturday - can't wait for some sunshine.  I'm off to gorgeous Tuscany - I've never been before so I'm so looking forward to it.  Hubby and I plan to visit Florence when we are there, maybe a vineyard or two!  We are staying on an organic olive oil farm so sounds wonderful.  I'm tempted by the wonderful Tuscan Vineyard stamp set we have in the new catalogue.  I will see what I think when I get back.

THE NON HOP BLOG HOP!

I should have been part of the Pootlers blog hop today but due to some scheduling issues and my blog being half an hour later than it should have been I've sadly been removed from the Hop.

Here's my card anyway.

I have chosen three new sets to show you - Painter's Palette, Thankful Thoughts, and Playful Backgrounds.  I have also used Botanical Builder Framelits for the flower.

I have also used some of our new In-Colours here.  The card base is Very Vanilla.  I have added a strip of Sweet Sugarplum which has been inked in Versamark with one of the Playful Background stamps.  The Versamark gives you that lovely tone on tone effect.

The picture frame is from Painter's Palette.  The background stamp of Dapper Denim was stamped off with the inside of the easel frame from Painter's Palette.  This gives you an extra square background stamp.

Using the Botanical Builder Framelits and the Big Shot , the flower has been cut out in Dapper Denim and the leaves in Emerald Envy.  A touch of our baker's twine to hang the picture from the little pin, also stamped in Dapper Denim.


The sentiment comes from a great set Thankful Thoughts and has been inked in Dapper Denim.

All products can be purchased direct from my Store - click on the image below and take advantage of my Hostess Code for June if your order is under £150.  If your order is over £150, please do not use this code as you become the hostess and get the Rewards!

HAPPY CRAFTING

PINKIES BLOG HOP SHOOTING STAR, THANKFUL THOUGHTS

Thank  you  for  joining  us  on  another  Pinkies  Blog  Hop!  We're  showcasing  lots  of  gorgeous
projects using products from the new Stampin' Up!® Annual Catalogue. Simply use the
buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

Our theme today is New Catalogue Items.   A chance to show you  some of the wonderful new products in our new catalogue.  What can we tempt you with today?


I've used one of the sets I won at Convention - not at first glance my favourite stamp set but I must admit I'm learning to like this one.   Its taken me right outside of my comfort zone with having to think a little bit outside the box on what to do.  I have made a few masculine cards with the stars which come in the set and a few spinner cards but today I'm concentrating on the bees and the hive.

This set also comes as a Bundle with the Sliding Star Framelits Die which I must admit would make cutting out the beehive a lot easier.  But I don't have these yet so my faithful SU snippers helped in this regard.

I'm also not a great lover of insects - bees and butterflies are about my limit.  But I do adore these little bees and, of course, in real life I appreciate the work that bees do for us for our fruits and veg.  I grow a lot of veg in my garden and have some apple trees and know that without these busy little creatures I wouldn't be able to enjoy my home grown fruit and veg.

 I've used Early Espresso Card stock as the base with the stamping done on Very Vanilla.

The larger bee has had his wing coloured with A Wink of Stella.  The background paper for the bee hive was stamped with Versamark ink to give that lovely tone on tone effect of all the bees rushing to the hive.

Some Enamel shapes in Crushed Curry have been added to the bottom.  The bee was coloured in Crushed Curry and Rich Razzleberry.

 For the inside I used another of our new sets called Thankful Thoughts.  It is a set of 10 stamps with some fabulous sentiments on them.   I added another little bee cause you just can't have too many bees.

As bees are in such dire straits at the moment and seem to be dying off wouldn't it be great if we could start a Bee movement #ihelpthebees and make bee cards which somehow we could sell and put the profits towards helping the bees. If we lose our bees, we lose all our fruit and veg!

I just thought I would add this little tip - when I receive my stamps I don't use the stickers to put on the stamps but slide them inside the inner cover of the sleeve.  Then I stick my stamps to the corresponding sticker and its easy to see that all the stamps are in the right place.

Don't forget to follow on to the next blog in our great blog hop.

As usual all products can be purchased from my SU website.  Click on the image below to be taken to my store.

INCHY CHALLENGE BLOG - BUTTERFLIES

There's a new challenge over at my Inchy Challenge blog this week which will run until 4th July.

The theme is BUTTERFLIES.

Here's an example of mine using Papillon Potpourri and some of our retired DSP.

Click on the image to play along with the challenge.

FIONA

 

PAINTER' S PALETTE - CHALLENGE TIME

I'm having a go at two challenges with this one card this week.  TGIF #tgifc59 challenge is a sketch challenge and here is the sketch.  Click on the image to be taken to their challenge this week.




 The challenge over at Time Out challenges is a colour image. Again click on the image to be taken to their challenge #58.




I wanted to use the squares and the colours of the TO challenge with the square image for the sketch in TGIF so used my trusty Painter's Palette stamp set once again.  The square colours were stamped with a very very old SU stamp in Bermuda Bay ink, Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie and Pacific Point.I used my Stampamajig to make sure the squares were stamped in the right place.

 The easel was stamped in Early Espresso and then covered over in a very light wash of another old SU colour Creamy Caramel.

The Early Espresso strip of cardstock was stamped with another of the stamps from this set in Versamark ink which gives that lovely tone on tone effect.  The Smoky Slate background card stock was also inked in Versamark Ink.

WARNING - CLOSE YOUR EYES AND LOOK AWAY IF YOU ARE A PURIST STAMPER!!!

 Now, a bit of a confession here - as you will probably see the tone on tone on the smoky slate is not quite true to its colour.  I have to confess my poor old Versamark ink pad is not quite as pristine as it used to be.  The actual colour of the ink pad is now a more sort of murky colour rather than white so when I forget and ink on light papers I never know what colour I'm going to get.  I know I should get another one and be vigilant about never letting any coloured ink get near it but...... I quite like this affect.

 The sentiment from Painter's Palette was inked in Early Espresso and a touch of baker's twine was wrapped around the Early Espresso card stock.  A touch of Wink of Stella on the coloured squares just gives the card an extra shimmer.

As usual all products can be purchased from my website direct -just click on the catalogue below to be taken to my store and don't forget to add your Hostess Code for June.