Through the sadness… a reason to smile …

I felt sad and a little subdued whilst making today’s cards.  Two of my friends have recently lost someone very close to them.

I wanted to let them know how very sorry I was to hear their sad news, and for them to know I was thinking about them.

I  turned to a beautiful new stamp set from Stampin’ Up that will be available very soon.

Called a reason to smile, it is a two-step stamp set, so the line flower stamp comes with a complementary image to add colour with.  But this time I chose instead to do some water colouring with my aqua painter.

I stamped the flower twice in black stazon ink onto water colour paper, using my stamp-a-majig to line up and stamped the sentiment from the hopeful thoughts set.  To colour the flowers, I put a little ink into the lid of my elegant eggplant ink pad by squeezing it whilst shut – this transfers ink from the pad to the lid – and then used my aqua painter.

I added a few lines of dry embossing using the simply scored scoreboard.

I also stamped and coloured a matching flower on a small piece of very vanilla cardstock and adhered it to the inside.

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For the next card, I stamped onto a piece of very vanilla cardstock and again used the aqua brush to colour, taking care not to soak the cardstock too much.

Finally, I coloured a length of whisper white taffeta ribbon using my aqua brush and elegant eggplant ink, dipping the ribbon into the watery ink on the lid of the ink pad until I was happy with the depth of colour.  The ribbon then co-ordinated beautifullly with the cards.  Once the ribbon was dry, I tied it into teeny tiny bows and adhered to the cards with mini glue dots.

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And why a reason to smile? …  because they are fortunate to have known and loved two wonderful ladies…

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Papercraft supplies from Stampin’ Up!

Cardstock: elegant eggplant, watercolour paper. very vanilla; Inks: elegant eggplant, certainly celery, black stazon; Stamp sets: reason to smile, hopeful thoughts, teeny tiny wishes; Accessories: white taffeta ribbon, mini glue dots, aqua painter, simply scored scoreboard, word window punch, modern label punch, stampin’ dimensionals, stamp-a-majig.

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Hopeful thoughts on eleven, eleven, eleven …

On the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month …

From this week’s cake class…

 

 

I know my mum would have been so proud of my cake this week.

Growing up we always watched the coverage of Remembrance Day on the BBC, and were taught by my parents to respect and observe the minute’s silence at 11 o’clock. My mum and dad lived through the second world war – my mum was evacuated but my dad got his call up papers …

I remember clearly my lovely mum shedding a tear or two when we watched the ex-servicemen march past the Cenotaph as the army band played WWII tunes and they laid poppy wreaths in remembrance …

I miss my mum and my dad so much …

 

For the card, Hopeful thoughts stamp set from Stampin’ Up, with crumb cake card and ink, on whisper white with a touch of early espresso. That’s all it needs.

And for the cake, some real red satin ribbon with a row of the new black polka dot scallop ribbon to finish it off…

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Thinking of you …

 

 

One of our friends is under the weather at the moment.  I made this just to let her know we are thinking about her. 

I love the way the In Stitches stamp echoes the pattern of the flourish from the Strength and Hope set – it was a perfect way to finish off the card. 

 

Stampin Up supplies used:

Cardstock: very vanilla, crumb cake, pink pirouette; Inks: pretty in pink, rose red, crumb cake; Stamp sets: strength and hope, hopeful thoughts, in stitches; Punches: heart to heart, large oval, scallop oval; Accessories: pretty in pink taffeta ribbon, dazzling diamonds, heat and stick powder, glue dots, stampin dimensionals.   

 

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Love is like a butterfly …

The Stampin’ Up butterfly punch is fabulous and I love using it on my projects:

 

 I was playing with colours and loved this combination. I stamped onto cardstock first using various stamps and colours, before punching out the butterflies. I inked up the edges with crumb cake ink, and made little faux buttons for the centres with the left-over stamped cardstock pieces. I couldn’t resist adding a bit of bling and am really happy with the way it turned out! There is even room to add a sentiment if I wish…

 

 

Stampin’ Up supplies used:

Cardstock: very vanilla, crumb cake, pretty in pink; Inks: pretty in pink, crumb cake, pink pirouette; Stamp sets: tiny tags, en français, dot dot dot, music notes wheel, bliss (retired); Punches: butterfly, boho blossoms, ¼” circle (retired), jewelry tag; Accessories: very vanilla taffeta ribbon, basic rhinestones, paper piercer and mat pack, sponge daubers, crumb cake marker pen, stampin dimensionals, safety pin from my sewing box.

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