Love is in the air...

And dont we need a little love right now??!!
February doesnt inspire me to do very much at all outside with squelchy mud, drippy bare branches and overflowing ditches everywhere. So its a good job that St Valentines day is plonk in the middle of the month to give us something to celebrate. A bit of romantic nonsense does us all good from time to time and for creative papercrafters its just the ticket to get a really really special one of a kind card made.
Here in 'Beyond the Greenhouse' land (currently blanketed in snow by the way) I am running a couple of Open House drop in sessions on Monday 11th February and again on Wednesday 13th from 10.00 til 2.00 so you can paly with different stamps and embellishments and make a super unique card for your darling. (Give me a ring for directions if you have not been here before) £2.50 per card.

To give some starting points for your creativity how do you like these designs?

The first two are in my current favourite colour palette of sahara Sand, Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake. Romantic but not too feminine (I dont think my man would really appreciate too much pink!)
Arnt the stamped then dies cut hearts nice? They are from the Hearts A Flutter bundle from the Stampin' Up! Spring Catalogue.

This one is in the same colour family but a bit more layered and blinged. Again I have made good use of the Hearts A Flutter stamps and dies. I spritzed in Smooch Spritz vanilla shimmer the sentiment and the wings (from Amore) with to make them gleam and added the gorgeous pearls for balance. Not a hint darling really but pearl earrings are very acceptable as a gift!!

This is a little chalkboard that I made using the frame from Papaya Collage and simply cutting a black insert before stamping it with Craft White. I made a little stand at the back so it stands like a little easel.

And finally here is a lovely simple card which uses my next favourite colour - Pool Party. I used a piece of the Sycamore Street DSP ( which I got FREE when I placed my last order because we are still in the Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration) and its lovely. The inks I used were Sahara Sand and Summer Starfruit. Doesnt the ruffled ribbon in Pool Party look beautiful - its really classy! Just like me!!

Please send me a picture of your Valentines creations!

Have a great day on Thursday.

Blog Hop

Good Morning Crafters! Are you here because of the Stampin' Up! Blog Hop? Great  Just a word of caution - we are trying this ambitious blog hop for the first time so please excuse us if some of the links are a bit wobbly! Fabulous Monica Gale is trying to help everyone become an IT genious as well as a crafting Diva and we will sort it all out but it may take an hour or two! Do come back if the chain isnt working!

 I hope you enjoy all the fabulous projects that we have made showcasing the products in the Stampin' Up!Spring and Summer catalogue for your delectation. We have each taken a page of products (I have chosen page 23)  to concentrate on and have listed what we used and how we made the items.  As you read each blog post you will see a link to the next person in the chain and can hop hopitty hop from blog to blog. The person before me in this blog hop is Isabelle - click HERE to go straight to her blog post.


Spring Sampler - even the name of this stamp set makes you feel better! With its 24 neat little stamps this is an ideal set to use for mini cards, tags and labels. All Spring is here - lambs, frogs and ducks even wellies and rain showers! Check them out on page 23 of the Stampin' Up! 2013 Spring/Summer catalogue. Here are some of the things I have made to show the versatility of this great little set! Please let me know which is your favourite and send me pictures of your creations!

These four tags were super quick to make and would also be a great little gift.

Products used: All Stampin'Up! unless otherwise stated

Stamps: Spring Sampler (images)

Inks: Rich Razzleberry, Pumpkin Pie, Gumball Green and

Card stock: Very Vanilla

Accessories: Bakers twine

Next I played with the umbrella stamp from the set and made a cute little post-it booklet. The stamp is a perfect size for the  1 "circle punch and looks bright and breezy in Pumpkin Pie, toning very nicely with the colours in the Sale-A-Bration Vine Street papers and the beautiful Pool Party cardstock. I stamped the perky brolly on the post-its too and used a modern label punched from Pool Party to make the closure. I inked the edges to give the whole project a bit of extra pop! Love inked edges!

Products used: All Stampin'Up! unless otherwise stated

Stamps: Spring Sampler

Inks: Pumpkin Pie

Card stock: Pool Party

Accessories: Modern label punch, circle punch

Next I made a quick bookmark for Felix - five whole years old and great little reader! The jolly frog fairly jumps off his lilypad and I love the bold F stamped in Gumball Green.

Products used: All Stampin'Up! unless otherwise stated

Stamps: Frog from Spring Sampler, F from Letter It alphabet set

Inks: Gumball Green

Card stock: Very Vanilla and Certainly Celery

Accessories:Scallop Circle punches (both sizes), Two Tags Bigz die and Big Shot

 And how about this for a great Easter card? I stamped a chick in Summer Starfruit (actually it might be a duckling but both herald Spring!), an Easter egg in Gumball Green, a basket of eggs using the In Color Stampin' Write markers and the sentiment in Gumball Green all on Very Vanilla cardstock (this has to be the most versatile colour in the world....) and inked the edges in Summer Starfruit.

I punched them using the Petite Pennants Builder punch and the 1 1/4" square punches and also punched the same shapes in Baja Breeze, used dimensionals to make them stand out and popped them on a piece of Vine Street Designer Series Paper. A brad and simple length of So Saffron Taffeta ribbon finish it perfectly

Products used: All Stampin'Up! unless otherwise stated

Stamps: Spring Sampler, Teeny Tiny sentiments

Inks: Summer Starfruit, Gumball Green, In Color Stampin' Write markers

Card stock:More Mustard

Accessories: Petite Pennants Builder punch , 1 1/4" square punch. So Saffron Taffeta ribbon

I do hope you have enjoyed seeing these projects. Thank you for visiting beyondthegreenhouse - do become a follower and see all my other projects. I am now sending you on to Aurora who is next in the blog hop Click HERE to see what she has made!

The Open Sea

Sometimes its really difficult to make a card for a man! So I was really pleased with the effect I was able to achieve using this lovely stamp set "The Open Sea".

I stamped the background - a kind of script that looks like the manifest or log from a boat in Marina Mist on Pool Party card. I also inked the edges. I inked up the edges of a piece of Sahara Sand card with Crumb Cake ink using those little sponges to get a very soft aged look (I did the same with the two cut outs in Very Vanilla and the base card also in VV). Anyhow - I wanted it to look as though it had been round the world a few times so I added the "splodges" from the French Foliage stampset and love, love, love the effect. The world and sentiment were also stamped with Crumb Cake, the envelope was stamped with the sailing boat on the front and generously inked. A couple of dimensionals and three toning brads completed the balance of the card.

 

 

I am sending this card to my big brother who has had some health issues recently and has been using his time to gain extra skills in yacht mastering. I found a wonderful book for him on the history of sea charts so just had to make a matching card to send him best wishes for a speedy recovery.

Do you ever make very specicific cards for special people? Cards that you could never ever find in the shops? I would love to see your creations. Do send me pictures!