To A Forever Kind of Friend

Who remembers Flower Fairies? The poems and drawings by Cecily Mary Barker originally published in 1923 and are still being published to this day. During the 1980's Hornby, famous for its train sets, made Flower Fairy dolls, which I received and still have (see the end of this post!).

Whilst I was having a clear out of my stash with a view to Vinted, I rediscovered some of my Stamping Bella Garden Girls and decided it was time to put them to use again to make three cards to send out to some friends who have been hugely supportive of me recently. Forever kinds of friends.

I have inked up the Lily of the Valley girl several times and she was the starting point for my design. I coloured her in very lightly with Stampin' Blends - Cloud Cover, Granny Apple Green and some of the creams and browns.  

Of course I was going to use her with the Valley In Bloom papers - they were meant to be together!

Supplies:

• Granny Apple Green card - 14.8 x 21cm scored and folded at 10.5cm
• White card 14.8 x 10.5 cm
• Frame Die - mine is an old WPlus9 set
• Small frame die for sentiment - mine is of unknown origin!
• Valley in Bloom Papers 
• Lily of the Valley Stamp Set
• Versafine Onyx Black 
• Stampin' Dimensionals
• Tombow Multipurpose Glue
• Stampin' Blends in Granny Apple Green, Cloud Cover, SU100, SU600, Peach Pie

Method:

1. Stamp your image onto alcohol pen friendly cardstock and colour as you wish then fussy cut.
2. Die cut your frame from white card and cut a piece of Lily of the Valley paper to fit behind it. Mine was 12 x 9cm.
3. Glue your paper to the back of the frame and then the frame to the front of your folded card base.
4. Pop your image onto the card using foam pads
5. Stamp your sentiment onto some card and die cut with a small frame and pop it onto your card with foam pads.

I loved making this with variations below (Morning Glory and Chrysanthemum) and hope that the recipients also love them - and the sentiment that goes with them. I've known them all for a very long time and have stayed with me through a lot. Definitely Forever Friends.

I found my flower fairy dolls and I've rescued them from the bottom of the box they were living in. They deserve to see the light and flit about now and again when I'm not looking.

Is it time to go through your stash and see what you have you can revisit?

A Little Something to Brighten Your Day - Fruity Double Vision Cards

Deborah and I ran our second joint event down at Shipley Library on 6th June. We called it Here Comes The Sun as it was June, and generally it's sunnier in June than in previous months... or so we hoped!

The rain came, and the sun stayed away, outside at least. Inside we created our own seaside and summer cards and the atmosphere was definitely very warm and welcoming.

I shared my latest obsession, double vision cards. You can read about the other versions I've made of this design at my recent blog post 'Seeing Double..'. This time I made a square card to use the fabulous square fruity paper that I've had in my stash for some time and I thought fit neatly into our theme.

Here are the details of how you can make it:

Supplies: 

Daffodil Delight Card 10 x 5 inches

Basic White Card 4.5 x 4.5 inches

Designer Series Paper (DSP) - Fruit - 4.5 x 4.5 inches

White card - 7 x 3 cm

Daffodil Delight 7.5 x 3.5cm

Versamark Onyx Black

Glue and Foam Pad Adhesives

Paper trimmer and scorer

Method:

1.Score and fold your Daffodil Delight cardstock at 5 inches

2.Cut your fruit DSP into half inch strips, making sure you keep them in order

3.Glue your first strip down onto your 4.5 x 4.5 inch piece of white card. Place the next strip beside it, but don’t glue down. Glue the third strip next to the second. Repeat the process until the 1st, 3rd, 5th, 7th and 9th are all glued down.

4.Using foam pads attach the 2nd, 4t, 6th and 8th strips next to the glued pieces.

5.Attach this panel to your card.

6.Stamp the sentiment onto your small piece of white card and then attach to the Daffodil Delight Strip. Glue onto the raised strips.

7.Add some embellishments for extra zing!

You can't really go wrong with this technique as it's simple and very effective.

We're running another session in September called Autumn Vibes. This will have an Autumn Theme and we will be using Kits because we love them - everything you can want in one box to make paper craft things and cards.

You can see all the wonderful kits that Stampin' Up! produce via my website, and also take a look at Paper Pumpkin which is a monthly subscription kit. Every month you get sent a surprise in the post in a beautiful red box just for you! 

I do hope you'll join us! Happy Crafting in the meantime x

I've started so I'll finish...

As with many crafty folks, I have a habit of starting things and not quite finishing them. This dates back to childhood and I've never quite managed to shake it. I like trying things out, but when I come a bit unstuck, or a bit bored with the project I'll leave it. Ask me about a skirt I started making in 2003 that I've still not finished, and is very much unlikely to fit me now!

I very much enjoyed the team retreat in the middle of May, and Kylie is always very good at giving us more projects than we may be able to finish, so I came home with several incomplete. 

I was determined this time to not live up to my usual expectations and leave them languishing in a pile on my desk then move them to a drawer for years on end, so yesterday I finished the last two. They were slightly more complicated than your standard card, so I forgave myself for leaving them until I had brain space to do it.

Here's the first one, this amazing folding box card. The theme of the event was my favourite Valley in Bloom Suite and I loved having some more inspiration - I'm very much getting the most out of mine and welcomed getting some more papers as I'm about to run out of mine!

Looks impressive, but in reality it actually wasn't as complicated as I had initially thought. All I needed was some time to sit down and focus. This folds flat to go into an envelope.

I am thinking that I need to adapt this card for some upcoming classes, so I will get some instructions written up soon.

The final card was this extremely large one that was a 'Sampler' of all the different papers in the set. Being an occasional quilter, a sampler felt very fitting and I enjoyed deciding which papers I should use and where to place them.

I also feel like I've found a nice spot in my crafty basement to take photos finally!

So there you have it, I bucked my usual trend and finished off my projects from the Team Retreat. Now to start working on projects for my next classes - Card Café is coming up on 23rd June!

Procrastination is the thief of time and this time, it didn't win. Happy crafting ;)

Fruity Stencils and Funky Colours

I discovered when prepping for the recent Uniko and Stampin' Up! Mash-Up All Day Retreat (there's another one coming on 26th September so save the date!) that I owned quite a few purple inks - not a colour I'd immediately think of to buy, but ones that I have somehow managed to accrue.

I then decided to have a look through what other ranges of inks I had, and use them to ink up this fabulously fruity Uniko stencil, which I'm trying to persuade Bev to get back into stock as I took the last one!

Here they all are, along with the ink colours used. You can find all the products I used in my Stampin' Up! shop:

1. HELLO 

Card base - 14.8 x 21 cm, folded at 10.5cm

Granny Apple Green Panel - 13.8 x 9.5cm

Stencilled Panel - 13.3 x 9 cm

Colours of ink used - Lemon-Lime Twist, Daffodil Delight, Darling Duckling, Golden Glow

I die cut a sentiment from the panel and then 3 others in plain white and layered them all up and popped it back into the card. Love the look.

2. HAPPY BIRTHDAY ORANGE

Card Base - Timid Tiger 14.3 x 21cm folded at 10.5cm

White card - 10 x 13.8cm

Stencilled Panel cut into two cm strips - 10 x 13.8cm

Sentiment: Timid Tiger - 6 x 2.5 cm; White card - 5.5 x 2cm

Inks used - Crisp Cantaloupe, Peach Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Timid Tiger

To make the double vision technique, cut the stencilled panel into 2cm strips and alternate glueing one strip, then using foam pads for the next.

3. HAPPY BIRTHDAY LIME

Card Base - Granny Apple Green 14.3 x 21cm folded at 10.5cm

White card - 10 x 13.8cm

Stencilled Panel cut into two cm strips - 10 x 13.8cm

Sentiment: Granny Apple Green - 6 x 2.5 cm; White card - 5.5 x 2cm

Inks used - Lemon-Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green, Peaceful Pine, Garden Green

To make the double vision technique, cut the stencilled panel into 2cm strips and alternate glueing one strip, then using foam pads for the next.

3. HELLO FRIEND

Card base Strawberry Slush - 14.8 x 21 cm, folded at 10.5cm

Flirty Flamingo Panel - 13.8 x 9.5cm

Stencilled Panel - 13.3 x 9 cm

Colours of ink used - Barely Blush, Pretty In Pink, Flirty Flamingo, Strawberry Slush

I die cut a sentiment from the panel and then 3 others in plain white and layered them all up and popped it back into the card.  I added a small sentiment in Strawberry Slush Ink and popped it up on foam pads.

I thoroughly enjoyed the process of working out the best colour combinations and the best layering technique - lighter first works the best.

Whatever you are doing today, be bold and have a play!

Seeing Double... Double Vision Cards, the New In Thing!

I'm not usually one for jumping on the bandwagon with new techniques, but when we made some cards at the May Team Meeting using the Double Vision technique, I had to try some more.

They work perfectly for me and my style of card making. Simple and easy to make, and they look very effective. Plus you get to use all the lovely Designer Series Paper (DSP) you have been hoarding for a long time. I used the new Velvet Meadow which has a flocked texture that is just lovely.

Most of the dimensions I found online were for US sized cards which use inches more than centimetres, so  that's what I used for mine, albeit slightly smaller measurements because it meant I could get more than one card out of one piece of A4 cardstock.

We made this card at Card Café this week and I've made others since then because I am really on a roll with this technique. I do hope you get round to trying it out, as it is so simple to use. All of the products are available from my Stampin' Up! shop, and you can find links to them from My Projects.

This is what you will need to make this card:

• Darling Duckling Cardstock 8 x 5 ½ in
• Cloud Cover Cardstock 3 ¾ x 5 ¼ in
• Basic White Cardstock 3 ½ x 5 in
• Versafine Onyx Black Ink
• Velvet Meadow Designer Series Paper 3 ½ x 5 in
• White card ½ x 2 ¼ in
• Darling Duckling card ⅝ x 2 ½ in
• Small Sentiment - this one is from the retired Charming Duck Pond set but the size was perfect!
• Embellishments (optional)

1. Score and fold your Darling Duckling cardbase at 4 in 
2. Glue your Cloud Cover panel on top
3. Cut your DSP into ½ inch strips, keeping them in order
4. Glue the first of your strips onto the 3 ½ x 5 inch white card panel. Place the next strip beside it, but don’t glue down. Glue the third strip next to the second. Repeat the process until the 1^st, 3^rd, 5^th and 7^th are all glued down.
5. Using foam pads attach the 2^nd, 4^th and 6^th strips in between the glued pieces.
6. Attach this panel to your card on top of the Cloud Cover panel.
7. Stamp the sentiment onto your strip of white card and then attach to the Darling Duckling Strip. Glue onto the raised strips.
8. Add some embellishments.

If you do get a chance to make one, please let me know, and if you're on Instagram, tag me at ruthgetscrafty.

Jumping on the bandwagon may not be such a bad thing after all!

Fun Times

On Saturday 9th May I ran my first ever big craft session with Bev from Uniko Ltd. She's a pro at these, so I couldn't have been happier to have her share this session with me. We called it the Uniko and Stampin' Up! Mash Up - two companies, two friends coming together to share a mutual love of crafting with other crafty ladies.

We had 8 projects for our 8 attendees to take part in and I was pleased to see them getting stuck into almost all of them.

I'm really enjoying scrapbooking at the moment as you'll know if you follow me on Instagram. I can't get enough of it. Keeping those memories of those experiences in hard copy rather than on my phone is a real joy. I can flick through my folder and smile.

Of course I had to include one in my projects, and while only a couple of the ladies at the event did them, it won't stop me from including them again in future events - check out my Events page for all the events I have planned in.

I keep them simple because well, I don't really have time or brain space to think about very complicated ones. I also love using the Party Alphabet dies and stencils to make them stand out.

For this one I used Bev's Balloon Bash Stencils, the In Colors for 2025-7 Strawberry Slush, Darling Duckling and Cloud Cover and those nice big Party Alphabet letters to create something bold and memorable, but also simple.

Keeping it simple doesn't mean it's not worth doing, you don't have to overcomplicate your makes, In fact I find it makes me able to do more in the little time I have.

Keep it simple, and you can get more crafts into your day!

Arigato! Thank you!

Arigato! Thank you! 

We're big animé fans in our house. From Studio Ghibli classic films like Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind to TV series like Komi Can't Communicate, we enjoy the insights you often get into Japanese culture.

I was having a play with April's Product of the Month, the Eyelets Bloom Dye, and decided to emboss it onto some of the new Hydrangea Hue card stock. I cut it out and then I left it because I wasn't quite sure where to take it from there. 

Fast forward a week and inspiration came again in the form of embossing it, so I took my Versamark Ink and gently rubbed it over the surface and then used some gold embossing powder and it gave it a lovely sheen, but you can still see the blue background.

I thought it reminded me of the Kintsugi Inspirations papers, so I found what I had left of them (they're still available to purchase, and the stamp set, Inspiring Imperfections is on sale, so definitely worth a look!) and cut out a vase and a die in colours that fit with the Barely Blush card base I'd used. 

I cut the embossed die cut into a 7 x7cm square and then into two triangles and glued them into the corners of a white card panel, popping the vase and bowl on top with foam pads. The sentiment is also in Hydrangea Hue, and is from an old Mama Elephant set and there are lots of 'Thank You' in different languages, including Japanese. Perfect!

Sometimes you just have to start crafting, leave it for a while and then come back to it for the inspiration to finally come.

As we head into a new Stampin' Up! year, with a new catalogue, I just want to say a big Arigato Thank You to everyone who has supported me this past year, by following along with me on Instagram, coming to Card Café, and all the other classes I've run. You keep me going, and I definitely wouldn't be here without you!

Crafting is my happy place, and I know it's going to be a really good one this year!