Happy Blooming Birthday

I'm loving the big blooms stamps at the moment!  How's this for a pretty birthday card?

I think it is a rhododendron, which I love. Reminds me of the ones we had in our garden as a kid (although I think we spent more time making dens underneath them than admiring the pretty flowers!). Coloured with inks and blender pens which gives such a delicate effect. I'm seriously into the Sahara Sand card I used for the base of the card. A really lovely base card which goes really well with the purples.

This was sent off to Nicky my 'upline' in Stampin Up who got me started on my Stampin Up journey and answered all of my many questions so patiently! Hope she likes it and I hope you like it too :-)

Helen x

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Colourful Butterflies

 How gorgeous are these butterflies?  I love the Elegant Butterly punch. I resisted the urge to layer them up with the itty bitty punch (like I usually do) or to add bling or a sentiment.  It's so hard not to add more but this was enough...

The splats behind the butterflies is from my trusty Gorgeous Grunge set.  Seriously if you only ever buy one stamp set from Stampin Up get Gorgeous Grunge! I use it on nearly every project now - stripes, tiny splats, little dots like raindrops etc.

Love it! Hope you like the bright and beautiful card.

Helen x

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

Stamping on Vellum

 Hello everyone! At a recent SU training event I saw a technique that I just had to try and this is the result!

It was actually very simple.  I used the Butterfly Basics gorgeous flower stamp, and stamped in White Stazon ink on a piece of vellum.  Then I flipped it over to colour it with various inks (and the amazing SU blender pen!). When you flip it back you get the most gorgeous washed out colours and it doesn't matter if you smudge the lines.  Here's a little close up:

As you can see the glue through vellum I used washi tape to fix it to the card.  Such a pretty effect.  This one is going to a good friend who was such a support with my crafternoon. She really deserves it.

Hope you like it too and feel inspired to give it a go.

Helen x

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

2015 New In-Colours

Every year Stampin Up brings out 5 new 'In-Colours' (and retires another 5) so we constantly have some fresh colours to go with the old faithfuls. This year they are particularly lush: Mint Macaron, Cucumber Crush, Delightful Dijon, Tip Top Taupe and Watermelon Wonder. We've been having a challenge on our demonstrators FB page to use the new colours and these are two of my creations:

Top is Cucumber Crush and then there is Tip Top Taupe. I love creating cards tone-on-tone, especially when the ink, cards, ribbons etc all match perfectly! Not sure who these are going to yet but they are definitely good to have the card box for those last-minute cards. Hope you are liking the new colours too. Here's the chart to see how they fit with the old colours:

Back soon!

Helen x

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog