Catch up on cards

I realised that there are a few cards I've made recently and not posted on my blog so I'm catching up and putting that right.

First up is a card I made for my Sister-in-law's birthday. One of my fave colour combos is Melon Mambo and Black as it just POPS!

I have a stamp set from the US called Up Up and Away, which features hot air balloons. However, I really wanted to see if those balloons could be used as petals on a flower and yes they can! I stamped each one and added ink to the edges and lines to the middle to add depth. I cut them out then curled them slightly with my bone folder. I stamped the large flourish from Baroque Motifs and assembled the flower at the top using Stampin' Dimensionals and Tombow glue, adding a black faux brad as a centre.

For my Father-in-law's card I chose a masculine combination of River Rock and Night of Navy, with accents in Basic Gray, River Rock, Soft Suede and Night of Navy. The accents are stamped using the Circle Circus set and punched out with a circle punch.



Finally, I was challenged to make a card featuring snowflakes and lots of sparkle. I followed a tutorial from the latest Impressions magazine (exclusive to Stampin' Up! Demonstrators) that showed how to make a snowflake using the Lace Ribbon Border Punch. For the base of the card I embossed some Whisper White card with a snowflake background and then highlighted some of the snowflakes by adding glue and a mixture of Tempting Turquoise embossing powder and glitter. The main card is Pool Party cardstock and I've added a pretty bow from matching Ruffled Ribbon.

The Play Date Cafe Challenge PDCC109

As soon as I saw the colours for this week's challenge at The Play Date Cafe I felt all warm and fuzzy. Their choice of Smokey Purple, Blush and Champagne is so rich and reminds me of cashmere pashminas. For the purple hue I instantly thought of Wisteria Wonder, the new In Colour from Stampin' Up! I teamed that with some patterned paper in Blushing Bride and added Crumb Cake to the mix for the Champagne hue.

I've been dying to use my 'Beautiful Wings' Embosslit and thought this was the perfect project. All you have to do is pop your choice of paper into the little metal folder, run it through the BigShot and, voila!, you have a clutch of beautifully embossed butterflies already cut out for you! I made two lots of butterflies in both the patterned paper and the crumb cake cardstock and trailed them up the card. The sentiment is from a US Stampin' Up! set called Up, Up and Away.