Royal Love

Over at Stampin' Royalty blog they offered up the following inspirational photo this week ... love the shades of pink and the little heart throw pillow which I thought were perfect for this submission inspired by my upline from a recent class!

Petal Cone heart embossed with the Vintage Wallpaper and embellished with the Fun Flowers die embossed with the Square Lattice ... offers lots of texture and packs a lot of love - I am going to hide my mans Valentine in this little envelope card and tuck it in his lunch box on Tuesday!

If you are looking for inspiration hop on over to the Stampin' Royalty blog and check out what others were inspired to make with this fresh photo!

Happy Stampin'
Margaret

Rosette fun

Loving my new Rosettes Die  ... making the Rosettes is just so quick and easy - love the texture and detail they add to a card ... this card features the Take it to Heart Stamp set and the Short and Sweet sentiment set along with the Enchanted Elegance DSP from Sale-a-bration and the color combo of Poppy Parade, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla!

Happy Stampin'

Margaret 

Kitchen reno offering

So sorry for going so long without a blog post - we are currently undergoing some home renovations that are consuming all my time and energy ... this is a card we made at our team meeting a few weeks ago ... I added some pearl and extra greenery at home to cover up some ink boo-boos - need to practice some more of that two step stamping technique - but gotta love embellishments cause they cover a world of misplaced ink!

Encore sneak peek - Open Sea

Another sample of the Open Sea ... hope you are not getting bored!

I am just loving the Nautical DSP - it allows you to do so many wonderful colour combos with this set and the great thing about Stampin' Up! Products is that they all coordinate so well together - I love the Word Play stamp set to add an additional sentiment to my envelope - the Go in the Directions of your dream goes great with the compass and is awesome for a Father who is retired and traveling!

I also just love the little Game Spinner hands and am so glad that they were carried over when the Occasion's Mini ends today - they added perfect male bling to this card and coordinate with the compass stamp perfectly as well - think this card would have also been perfect with a 'retirement sentiment' from the Teeny Tiny Wishes instead of the Happy Father's Day sentiment!

Thanks for stopping by and leaving your warm and wonderful comments - they make my day!

Open Sea Sneak Peek

Only two more sleeps until the Summer Mini goes live ... so excited!

This is a set that I have currently pre-ordered in My Digital Studio along with the coordinating Nautical Expedition designer series paper ... only because I love the versatility of the resizing of the stamped images in the MDS and well printing out the DSP as you need it requires less storage in my tiny space!

That said the more I play with hybrid projects the more I want the traditional set too! I just love watercoloring the ship and the complimentary pieces that go with it are just too cute ... I paired this set with the Uncharted Territory as well to dress up the envelope - don't they just go great together?

On this card I used the World stamp up in the corner punched out as the 'sentiment focal point' with the Teeny Tiny wishes set ... and well the Early Espresso and Marina Mist are just a striking combo specially with this set!

Bountiful Blossom Petals

I just love this new Blossom Petals punch from the Occasions Mini ... it is so versatile!

We played with it at last weekends Stamp a Stack to make this card ... stamping tone on tone in the Tempting Turquoise and holding it together with a Fabric Designer Brad and than paired it with the FREE Ice-cream Parlor DSP from Sale-a-bration catalog and Eyelet Border punch in Daffodil Delight! Sentiment is from Teeny Tiny Wishes - a must have for every stamper!

Bliss Butterflies

This is a card we made yesterday at our March Stamp-a-Stack ... note to self - make sure when working with white cardstock to keep fingers clean ... got a finger print on the polka dot later and than I had to 'fix it' by sponging some Pacific point on the white polka dot layer to make it look like I meant to do it ;)

This card features the Polka Dot emboss folder, Decorative Label punch, Word Window punch and the Bliss stamp set with pearl accents on Pacific Point, Tempting Turquoise and Whisper White cardstock and a Teeny Tiny Wishes sentiment.

Clean Simple Colour Q Challenge Cards

Happy New Year Everyone - may 2011 be full of abundance and prosperity for all!

Today's card offering palette is inspired by the Colour Q Challenge #65

As well as the layout inspired from the Clean & Simple 121 challenge a challenge that is my New Years resolution to take more often as I tend to design cards that are more time consuming that workshops and classes allow for so the inspiration from these challenges should help me to learn to find the elegant beauty that can be found in clean and simple!

So I think I did a pretty good job here combing both challenges! The colour palette of the Crumb Cake card stamped the En Francais background stamp in versamark and than the clean and simple inspired Old Olive cardstock strip run through the Plenty of Petals emboss folder and accented with the Scallop Trim border in Basic Black. Embellished with the 5 Petal Flower done in Basic Black, Basic Grey and Whisper White and accented with a Build a Brad button stamped with the Tiny Tags 4 You sentiment. The sentiment which I placed on the Word window punch layered with the Modern Label punch is the 'With Sympathy' stamp from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

This is a sentiment that you always regret needing but unfortunately I had a friend who has lost her father this holiday season and wanted to send her my condolences with a nice handmade card sending vibes of strength during her time of grief!

I love Snowman

Here is another offering from the recent Stamp for the Cure ... Snowman are just so much fun and versatile for both the holidays and winter birthdays as well!

Simple and quick this card was lots of fun to make ... nothing like carving out some time for the relaxation of colouring!

Thank you Cards for the Salsa Moms

I have had the wonderful opportunity to be asked to donate to the gift bags for some new mommies who are signed up to take the Salsa Babies classes here in London.

So I thought what better than some nice hand stamped thank you cards for a busy new mom - so she can thank everyone who has showered her and the new babe!

I opted for some Pear Pizazz as my colour theme - as the nice soft green is a neutral colour fun for both sexes!

My first card features the Medallion Stamp and the Think Happy Thoughts Stamp set punched out with a 1 1/4 circle punch.

The second card here is the Forest Friends stamp set sponged with some pumpkin pie sun and pear pizazz grass.

No card collection would be complete without an appearance from my favorite Upsy Daisy stamp set and the Teeny Tiny Wishes Thank you stamp.

Card number 4 features the Elements of Style stamp set and the little accompanying bird for the envelope - as no envelope should arrive to the party naked!

Last but not least the little Bird Punch came out to play with the Thank you stamp from Perfect Punches stamp set.

And all 5 thank you cards were wrapped up in a little plastic bag and topped off with the Big Shot Top Note stamped in Elements of Style and held together with a little brad!

Click the link for more information on Salsa Babies

Love is in the air

Simple but elegant ... this is a card I made at a workshop about the wonder way that with Stampin' Up! you can combine the punches and stamp sets to make quick and simple cards!

More Pleasant Purples

I am just in love with Purples lately ... this is a card was inspired by a technique class with another demonstrator, Lisa Bowman before I started selling myself ... and I loved it's combination and alternative use of punches ... the flower pot is actually using the Holiday ornament punch with the point left off the edge of the page when punched. The stamp set is Pocket Silhouettes which is a versatile set all on its own!

Hope everyone has a great Father's Day weekend ... here is another little nugget I created for Father's Day at a Stamp a Stack event last month ... cute little set called King of the Grill!

Plenty of Pansies!

This spring I planted a Pansie garden with the daycare kids and was totally inspired by their colors as they bloomed this past week that I wanted to create a card in their honor.

So off to Google I went to see if there were any Stampin' Up! techniques already out there inspired by pansies ... cause why recreate the wheel if someone else has already done it ... so as I was online in came an email from my up line mentor Liz Goldhawk with her upcoming technique class - and I couldn't believe my eyes ... she was featuring Pansies!

So once again karma answered my call and brought me what I needed into my life!

So after attending the class I came home to work on the following with my original Pansie inspirations!

A Cajun Craze and Daffodil Delight Inspired Colour Combo:

A Concord Crush and Daffodil Delight combination:

A Night of Navy, Brocade Blue and Daffodil Delight inspiration:

And a wonderful Real Red and Daffodil Delight creation:

I am so totally in love with this Pansie technique ... while some of the youtube videos I Googled showed the use of the re-inkers and involved soaking the paper and well 'mess' plus way more time in waiting for the Pansie's to dry before you can assemble ... this one used sponging and allows for much more control of ink placement and colour blending ... and well anyone who knows me knows that I totally prefer the control!

This technique is sure to become a favorite of mine ... I am excited to combine it with some fairy cards and butterfly cards cause well it is just so 'magical' creating them ... no two are the same!