Christmas Eve Birthday

I have met soooo many of you who have been following my blog through the countdown to Christmas, thank you so much for popping by, it really is appreciated.  Here is possibly the last post of 2011, a special birthday card for a special person.
I have used Autumn Days, this is a lovely stamp set, the pheasant is so regal looking.  I have inked him up with pumkin pie (I love this colour!) and night of navy, a good combination.  Once I had cut him out and after sticking him to my card I covered him with glossy accents... so that he shines out.  The swirls are the little ones made for the big shot, corner flourish.
The larger background has been made by dampening a piece of card with a spritzer then screwing it up! I did this a few times in different directions to get many creases.  Then straightened it out and rubbed my ink pads straight onto the card.  I used distress inks which are really good for this technique, colours were tumbled glass, tea dye and forest moss.  The I spritzed the card again to make sure that the colours blended well.  Once I ws pleased with the look I ironed it dry through a paper towel and put my card togther.  I really hope you like this one as I have fallen in love with it. 
The sentiment is one from dreamy sentiments by creative expressions and is so apt to leave you with.... So have a brilliant New year's eve and I hope that 2012 turns out to be all you want it to be X x Elizabeth

On the twelfth day of Christmas

HAPPY CHRISTMAS to you.
I love this card, it says it all... with the presents wrapped and the wine open all that is left is to enjoy a lovely christmas dinner, whether yours is turkey or something else have a wonderful day and I will be posting again soon X x

For the eleventh day of Christmas countdown

A truely magical christmas is wished for you.  I love this wizard, just a shame the flash was in the wrong place!  Well it is not far from the magic hour... have you done everything you were going to do?  I read a funny line earlier in the week about 'to do' lists.  It suggested you put "eating chocolate" at the top, then you might at least get one thing done that day!  I know it is certainly going on the top of my list.. and next to it for tomorrow will be open a bottle of wine.
I hope santa brings all you have wished for, thank you so much for stopping by at this busy time, I will make one final christmas post tomorrow. X x

For the tenth day of Christmas countdown

Another really enchanting card from the 'enchanted' collection by papermania.  The card is a stepper card, I have kept the decoration simple but just loved making this one.  The background paper is from the set of papers and decoupage.  To make the icicles on the front I used a martha stewart punch (if you use it the other way up it looks like grass! - a really clever idea).
The bauble was cut from fantasy film, I have used fantasy fibres inbetween then passed it through a dotty embossing folder.  Got to go now as I still have presents to wrap! Thank you for poping by see you again soon x x

For the ninth day of Christmas countdown

Another Tatty teddy stamp, this time dressed as santa.  I have used the same idea of the vellum star as I used earlier for the penguin card, but I think it looks quite different, I hope you like him too.   As it gets closer to Christmas I guess you are all really busy with your own preparations so thank you for taking time to stop and look X x ... and can I say a BIG thank you to all those lovely ladies that have had the time to send me Christmas cards, they are really so appreciated :)

For the eighth day of Christmas countdown

The is one of my favourite christmas stamps, it comes from woodware and looks fab just inked up in black.  On some of the later ones I have coloured in the holly and the berries and gently smuged the boot over with a sponge and a light tea dye ink pad for effect.  To get the snow sparkle I have used a snowflake mask, rubbed very gently through the 'holes' with my versamark stamp pad till all was sticky, removed this and covered the card in a kaleidoscope embossing powder... heat and the effect is sparkling brilliance!.. Thank you for reading my post today, be with you again tomorrow. X x

For the seventh day of Christmas countdown

That little bit of snow soon came and went!  But I don't mind, it was more like a thin white blanket in our garden for a short while, it will be back later in the winter and with it a chance to build plenty of snow men!  In the mean time a very favourite teddy has built his best friend and is sharing his christmas carols... this is a lovely card. I have used a border die to cut the stars and threaded it through with ribbon.  The sentiment is one of a collection from Lili of the Valley, and the snowflake is punched from vellum using martha stewart's 'arctic snowflake' punch.  I hope you enjoy your day and see you again soon X x

For the sixth day of Christmas countdown

Did you have snow today?  we did... well not much, but enough to cover the ground for a little while.  Yesterday we went to Derby to the theatre to watch The BFG, it was the most wonderful performance, full of giants and little people!  So my post today is an enchanted card... the Snow Queen.  I really hope you like it, it is one of my favourites.  Hope this finds you cosy and warm, thank you for droppin by X x

For the fifth day of Christmas countdown

Another snowy card.  But don't you just love the little character, he is from lily of the valley, I really love their stamps.  I have stamped him and coloured him in using a blender brush and my ink pads, this gives a really subtle look.  To get the snowball effect I have used a 'mask' with my versamark pad.  Removed the mask and sprinkled a sparkly embossing powder over the top, this gives a wonderful wintry effect.  The card and papers are from stamping up and the punches used were from Martha Stewart, all put together on a Kraft coloured background.  Thank you for joining me, see you again tomorrow X x.

For the fourth day of Christmas countdown

With all this talk of snow I think today's card is quite appropriate!  I have made it for a couple who love Christmas and above all penguins, this is Percy Penguin and his little friend. 
The burst out star was an idea found in a magazine, I have adapted it and cut it out of plain blue vellum, I then put it through a dotty embossing folder to give it the snowflake look. 
Do be careful when embossing vellum, to prevent it from cutting the patten through my vellum I put a sheet of kitcken towel underneath my vellum sheet in the 'sandwhich'. 

Percy the penguin was a preprinted shrink plastic novelty sheet found under children's crafting.  I think my friends are going to love this, I hope you do too. 
Thank you for popping by, see you tomorrow X x

For the third day of Christmas countdown

Hello,

I really think that this retired stamp set,'summer fun', lends its self to the famous Christmas carol... I saw three ships come sailing in.  The background stamp for the scallop circle is the large medallion stamp, so really useful.  I really like the festive colours of this card and hope you do too.  Thank you for dropping by.  See you again tomorrow, this is really so much fun, posting each day! X x

The second day of Christmas countdown

Hi, I know I said yesterday I was going to post a card, but I thought you might like to see the bag in the box too.  These were all made using the Season of Joy stamp set, such a vesatile set - the flowers and swirls can be used for any time of the year.  So remember a stamp set is not just for Christmas!  Have a lovely day tomorrow, thank you for stopping by X x

For the first day of Christmas countdown...

Hello... long time no blogging :)  But I do hope that will change.  I took this photo of my rose in the frost, isn't it beautiful.  I really wanted to share it with you.

... And now for some cards.  I thought it would be a novel way to see out the end of the year by bringing to you a card for each of the twelve days of Christmas.  I do hope you like them as I have been so busy creating them.

So here is the first one.  I have used stampin up's Dasher as a black silhouette on a lovely background that was created using the inkdusters, I've not quite got to grips with the brayer yet!

Thank you for stopping by and hope to see you tomorrow X x

Sewing Roll

I just had to show you what one of my lovely ladies - Ann D has made.  Ann is a brilliant seamstress and has done very well in the local WI competitions this summer.  Here are pictures of the fantastic sewing roll that she has made and decorated with our 'sew lovely' stamp set.  I just think that it is a beautiful alternative way to stamp.  Well done and thank you for sharing your super project with us Ann X

Mini Bottle Bag

Sorry it has been so long since my last post,the month of July was so busy and now it has disappeared, I cannot believe how  quickly time is flying away.    I thought you might like to see the mini bottle bag and card completed during our last class.  The bag uses just one 12 x 12 sheet of DSP paper and will be so handy for a variety of bottle type presents.  I found the inspiration whilst blog hopping, thanks to Jill Coleman.  We have decorated the bag using a wonderful vine die that I just had to have!   The little left overs were used to decorate the tag.All the flowers were made stamping the build a blossom petals and then punching them out using the specially designed blossom petals punch.  Colours used were from the 'in colour' collection.  The embossing folder used for the card was the lovely vintage wallpaper.

Thank you for having a read, more pretty posts to follow, enjoy the sunshine X x

Even more lovely than a tree

This is a workshop that we did recently using the stamp set lovely as a tree and ink duster brushes.  The cards themselves were simple and clean in design with a little matting and layering and stamping to show off the lovely effects that can be created using our fabulous range of inks.

The trees are all stamped using black, other colours we used were cherry cobbler which gives this gorgeous red pink colour when combined with so saffron. 

We had great fun tearing our mountains and valley's!  The sun was created using our large circle punch and a sticky note, we used the hole that was punched out to ink through above the mountains and  inked around the circle on the other cards to give a different look. 

Colours used for the oak tree background were again so saffron, cajun craze, cherry cobbler and a light smudging of black ink to the bottom corners.

We have used pocket silhouettes to stamp around the edge of this card and lighter colours,pacific point and certainly celery to give this card a sunny feel.

I really hope that you like the cards, I am really proud of the cards that were made on that day, they all looked beautiful:) 

I have a repeat of this workshop on Saturday July 9th if you would like to try out the ink dusters.

Thank you for looking, I hope that I have inspired you to use this lovely stamp set. X x

Pirates beware

It was Oliver's birthday over the week end and I was asked to put together a 'birthday workshop'. There were six boys and one little girl. We had a brilliant time making this gable box to hold 'pirate treasure', and the post it holder in the form of a framed treasure map (which I found whilst blog hopping and downloaded for free!) Thank you too to the mums who helped to cut and stamp and stick - they were my treasures.

To make the flag we used the curly label punch. We folded the paper in half then put it into the punch but not all the way to the fold, hence we were then able to wrap it around our flag pole cut from the woodland walk paper collection (it looks just like real wood). The children were very pleased with their results. I hope you are too.

If you are interested in a children's crafty birthday party then just drop me an email: stampin-pinkbutterflies@gmail.com Thank you for reading x x

Victoria's 21st

Well it looks like I might have found a way around posting my pictures! I made this card for my niece who is travelling to America later this year so the stamp seemed just soooo appropriate. Paper flower and sentiment are from Stampin up. I have also used the scallop trim corner to punch out the top left corner of the picture, rather than at the edge~a different effect I thought, I hope you like it too.

Thank you

Just a short post to say Thank You to all those who are following my blog x x.  It is really super to have so many lovely comments too, thank you for taking the time to post them :) I really love to read them.
I have tried several times this morning to add more photos, but think blogger must be having a blip because they wont load :(  I will try again later, so please continue to watch this space x x

A new tie and a pair of slippers

Hi I really hope you will like this card :)  It uses 'all tied up' a tatty teddy stamp that I fell in love with for my children's fathers day craft class.  I have stamped him in chocolate chip and coloured him using the belnder brush~ (this is for you Buffy).. I really think he looks great.  We used a variety of stampin up ribbons cut and knotted to look like ties.  My sister in law has even used some diamond patterned ribbon to cut out socks!  The card is white confetti card sponged round the edges with our distress ink 'tea stain', the punch used for the bottom of the furniture was the curly label extra large.

... and we made these fantastic slippers too!  Inside each one is a chocolate surprise.  I cannot take credit for the idea, I found it whilst blog hopping here, I just thought it was a brilliant use for the pillow box die that we have in the mini catalogue.  I have used regal series paper, stampin up buttons and twill tape to decorate.  You can purchase the pattern from the web site but I cut mine by eye!... they are joined together with certainly celery ribbon. 
Do have a go, it's a brilliant idea.. you could make them for anyone if you used different papers and sparkly or girlie decorations.  Let me know what you think, I would love to see your comments x x

Victoria's Birthday Party.. my little book of little things

Crafting on a wet bank holiday, what could be better?... only the fact that it was a crafting birthday party!  Victoria was 10 yrs old yesterday and I spent the afternoon making handbags and notebooks with her friends and family, we all had a lovely afternoon.  "Happy Birthday Victoria". A stampin' up lady couldn't go to a birthday party without taking a card, so here is one I made earlier... sorry it is not using stampin up products but a brilliant stamp from lavina stamps, they are beautiful.  If you would like your own crafting party for children or 'mummies' then please get in touch stampin.pinkbutterflies@gmail.com

Here is a picture of the handbag and notebook that we made.  The papers used were from the lap of luxury range and the cardstock pink pirouette and concord crush, I really love this combination.  The swirls and butterflies were created using the embosslits and the big shot found in the new mini catalogue.Click here for a link to make the flower using the scallop punch.

Strength and Hope

Wow we had the most wonderful evening ....   I started out with the idea of holding a workshop for about 12 ladies and ended up with 20 lovely ladies, chatting and crafting, there was so much laughter about...they are certainly all invited back again :)

This is the project that we were making. 

A little handbag that when you opened it up there were two cards in there. I used a full A4 sheet of very vanilla confetti card, it is so pretty. the paper was lap of luxury and the inks pretty in pink and crumb cake.  The cardstock for the cards was pink pirouette and concord crush... and some glitter too on the sentiment and the butterfly wings.  The evening couldn't go by without a little cake, I had been busy baking too.  Here are some of the busy ladies and their wonderful smiles.  Thanks must also go to my Stampin up friend Tracey for cutting up the cake and helping the ladies to have such a wonderful time X

I really hope that you have taken inspiration from this project for a lovely stamp set that is special... for every set sold Stamoin up are donating £1 to breast cancer research.  If you would like to order one then please contact me on 0796 8630 826.. or maybe you might like to come along to my next strength & hope class where we will be making this beautiful project once again.  Saturday June 11th 3pm. 

A sense of time

I thought you might like to see these cards made with the sense of time set, all three are easel cards. I saw the idea over on splitcoast stampers and really liked it so have CASED it for my brother and brother in law who share the same birthday.  I have cut out a 1 inch circle of acetate to give the mini clock face a 3D effect.  The bottom card I have used my jumbo wheel to create the background (unfortunately this particular design has now been retired.)~ a little more simple in design but still really effective.

I love the verse that comes with this set~ "Learn from yesterday, Live for today, Hope for tomorrow".  Having had one of those days today when everything mechanical has given up on me I will 'hope' for tomorrow!!   Have a brilliant tomorrow yourself and thank you for looking X x

another word book

I really quite enjoyed creating the 'SPRING' word book so I have begun to put another together... this time I have used the letters to spell out FLOWER... it still needs decorating so need to go raid the stash, thank you for dropping by x x

Spring Word book

I have tried to post this once already, and thought it had been saved, but something was not right... so I have tried again/~ I hope I am more successful this time.

Inspired by the really nice weather we had been having and the fact that the children wanted to make a note book that was different I came up with this 'SPRING' word book.  I have used the' in colour' cardstock together with so saffron for a touch of sunshine.  The stamps are from garden whimsy, flight of the butterfly and every little bit.  We sponged around the edges of each of the letters and then randomly stamped!  We raided my stash to decorate the letters.  It was a brilliant couple of hours everyone had great fun.  I hope you like it too.

stash box

Wow was watching the Royal Wedding yesterday what an occasion!  gave me a wonderful opportunity to catch up with all my ironing!  Then just enough time to make a card before getting the evening meal ready.  I hope you like this one, it is made from all 'things out of the stash box', the paper is stampin'up hostess level 1 blushing bride from the in color assortment, I really like this it is not too pink.  The stamp is from me to you....coloured with pro markers and sprinkled with glitter, the sentiment is stampin'up too.  Thank you to Louise (sir stampalot) for the inspiration.

Sweet Lion

This sweet looking lion could also have come out of the jungle!  He is made from the heart sweet treat cup (but upside down).  This time he is filled with glitter as a shaker card, but could also be filled with mini sweeties too!  I took the inspiration when blog hopping... thank you tami. Here you can see him standing next to some special chocolates (they look like they are centre stage!).  One of my crafting ladies was recovering from an operation and could not make this class so we signed the card and sent the chocs too:)  Hazel is feeling much better now and is well on the way to recovery :)

Sir Stampalot

Wow have we had fun this week end.  I have been with a lovely group of friends on a whole week end full of crafting workshops at Sir Stampalot in Peterborough.. it was fantastic, thank you so much to Janice and Andy and those who arranged it.  The card says it all we did go bananas, stamping, colouring, cutting and sticking.  This was just one of the cards we made, not stampin up products, but hey with some thought it would be possible to come up with a brilliant design using our fox and friends set, what do you think?  I might be tempted to give away some card candy for those who email me their ideas send them to stampin.pinkbutterflies@gmail.com.... have fun

Sew Lovely

Hi Just a very quick post today to give you a sneek preview of a card we will be making during my class next week.  It uses the sew lovely stamp set from the new mini catalogue and is really well suited for all those out there who are interested in sewing.  I got the idea for a dresser card from jackie click for a link to her blog where you can search for a video. 

Hope you like the card, the idea of the dress made from the scallop punch came from a talented lady at Peterborough training, but I didn't catch her name (sorry).  I used pacific point to smudge around the edges and the twill tape to stamp the ruler onto and of course those lovely buttons are made with the new and exclusive sweet buttons embosslits dies... (only available through your stampin'up demonstrator).  They are so much fun and can be used with other die cutrting machines as well as the big shot... which is now available through stampin'up too... how brilliant is that! contact me if you would like to order yours :)

Strength & Hope

Yesterday I went along to a training day run by Monica Gale a very talented Stampin'Up Demonstrator... I had the most wonderful time. Everyone was so friendly, it was just a lovely day (the sun really was shining!) we crafted all day and still had time for tea and cake.

The card you can see here is made with the Strength & Hope set from our new mini catalogue that went live on April 1st through to September. 

What is special about this stamp set is that with it you can make a difference.  For every set bought Stampin'up will donate £1 to The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.  Come along to my class on Friday May 20th 7pm start and together we can make a difference as I too will donate £1 for everyone that attends on the evening. 

To book your place just send an email to stampin.pinkbutterflies@gmail.com  see you there x x