How to make flower table decorations & decorated milkshake straws using Stampin Up Cycle celebration stamps

Another idea for party decorations today - milkshake bottle tags :) As we have no choice but to be girly here then any thing that enters the house stands a chance of being pinked or blinged up ;) and plain old milk bottles have plenty of pretty potential!

The tags were handcut from Whisper White card and then stamped in Strawberry Slush ink, blinged with a basic rhinestone jewel and tied with some whisper white bakers twine.

We had matching pink & white striped straws that I decorated half with with Simply stars stamped in pink pirouette and then hand cut and the other half with the Decorative label punch shaped Cycle Celebrations stamp in pink pirouette again. So cute!  

And to finish off, I scattered layered tissue paper flowers made by running tissue paper through the Big Shot with the Scallop circle die - funnily enough I had NONE of these left at the end of the party - think they were smuggled out by the guests!

Scallop circle bigz die (11.3 cm diameter) 113468 £16.95

Decorative label punch 120907 £15.50

Simply Stars w 130889 £12.95, c 130892 £9.95

Cycle Celebration w 130270 £19.95, c 130273 £15.95

Back tomorrow with some packaging ideas for you :)

How to make an Autumn inspired inchie sampler

I've fallen in love! Before you worry about a 40 something married woman with 4 young children having lost her marbles I should clarify ... I've fallen in love .. with inchie samplers ;) 

Here's another one I made to herald the beginning of the new school term in just 10 days time :(

Using naturals ivory as my background card, I ran the woodgrain embossing folder through my bigshot to get a tree trunk effect for the inchies to rest on. Then using a variety of autumn colours - cajun craze, baked brown sugar, early espresso, daffodil delight, tangerine tango & pumpkin pie I used the scallop square punch for the card layers and coordinated paper stacks for the squares

The morning post alphabet stamp was used for the lettering in the same colourways and the the Bigz Autumn Accents die for the dark brown leaves, the owl punch and a couple of stamped feathers completed the bottom layer of squares.

1" Square punch  124094 £14.25 & Postage stamp punch 122344 £14.25 

Fine feathers w 132578 £14.95, c 126517 £11.95 & Woodgrain emboss folder 127821 £7.50

Owl builder punch 118074 £15.50 & Autumn Accents bigz die 127812 £18.95

Morning post alphabet stamps w 132042 £41.95 c 126592 £33.95

There's quite a few back to school challenges online at present so I'm giving them a go with this project - Cute Card Thursday & Papercrafting journey - anything goes 3 week challenge.

So another week commences tomorrow .. pop by and see what I have in store for you!

Spots & stripes punch art sampler frame

Fab news to kick off my weekend - I was this weeks winner over at Charisma Cards challenges Make a Set - with my ice cream/lolly double act entry - woo hoo!!

Today's project is something I've been wanting to do for a while but thought it would take a fair amount of time so I kept putting it off. How silly of me! It actually was one of the quickest projects I have done thanks to the scallop square & square punches plus a number of other punches in the chorus line - in total I've used 7 punches - can you spot/name them all? 

The colour scheme was inspired by the challenge over at Split Coast Stampers and their CC440 Colour Combo challenge for which I chose Strawberry Slush, Daffodil Delight & Pool party - all fresh & summery colours :)

Starting out with some whisper white cardstock I punched strawberry, daffodil & pool party squares with both the scallop square and square punches which fit perfectly inside each other. I sponged the edges of the squares for added definition and then stuck them down with dimensions to add some layers.

Then using coordinating coloured embellishments including ruffle ribbon, elegant butterfly punch, taffeta ribbon, retired soda tops with marker coloured silver glimmer paper, boho blossoms punch, gingham garden washi tape, duo ticket builder and Lovely Little Labels stamps, bird builder punch and lastly boutique buttons. Phew that's a lot of new stash!

I've layered the whisper white onto coordinated cardstock to complete the frame.

Popped into a shadow box and taking pride of place on my studio shelf along with the Polka dot birds I introduced you to here ... 

Also entering into challenges at SCS TLC443 Free design, Crafty sentiment - lots of colour, craft room challenge - new stash, Try it on Tuesday - create a scene, Ladybug crafts - photo inspiration, Polka Doodle - all things bright & beautiful.

Fancy any of these products? Drop me a line & I'll order for you :)

Pop by tomorrow for another cute project! 

How to make rolled flowers & a banner card using Stampin Up supplies

Back to my roots today - soft, vintage & dreamy - the challenge over at Stampin Royalty was to use Blushing Bride, Pistachio pudding & crumb cake - three gorgeous colours but all together on the same project?? 

Here goes then! ...

I love scraps (my stash box is testament to that ;) - and making something worthwhile out of pieces of paper that would otherwise be discarded! Just think - what's the potential of your scraps? ;)

Starting with crumb cake card as my base layer, I knotted & strung some whisper white bakers twine and glued to the card. I cut a tea doily in half as the backdrop to the banner and then cut various shapes out of In colour paper stack papers & Venetian Romance paper using the heart punch, hand cut banners, apothecary accents framelits & the scallop oval punch.

For the rolled flowers, you simply punch a circle of paper, cut into it until it makes a spiral then starting at the initial end you cut roll the paper over and over until you rech the end - simple! 

I used more scraps of paper stack papers and put the new sticky back candy dots in blushing bride into the centres of the flowers (the candy dots can be used on their own or applied to a brad base for colour coordinated brads!). The flowers were offset with a branch from the Bird Builder punch.

The little sentiment tag was punched out of Naturals Ivory card which I had embossed with the Delicate Details embossing folders and then stamped in crumb cake using the Lovely Little Labels stamp set. The sentiment was punched using the cute little Petite Curly label punch and then sponged around the edges for definition. 

I'm entering this into Totally papercrafts - hearts & tags, Polka doodle wk 33 - hearts, Papertake weekly - flower power, Top tip Tuesdays #108 - use your initials (L is for lace, labels, leaves & B is for banners, bakers twine, bunting), Crafty creations # 236 Shabby Chic, Fab n Funky (you can stick it - self adhesive candy dots), Stampin Royalty # 190.

If you'd like any of the products featured today then please drop me a line to lisa.barton@hotmail.co.uk - you can pay for your products by cheque, postal order, paypal or BACS so no need to reveal your card details for securitys sake! If you'd like a free copy of the latest catalogue(s) for ideas & inspiration then do please ask!

See you tomorrow for bold & beautiful!

 

How to make a layered vintage style bookmark

At the recent Stampin Up convention in the US last month the guest designers/presenters featured a gorgeous bookmark made from Stampin Up ribbon .. so I thought I'd give it a go making one myself - I just love the result!

This project uses mainly circle & scallop punches - one of the basics I would recommend every crafter having in their stash - see my post here with top tips for a basic craft kit :)

The circles are punched from Calypso Coral cardstock, Very vanilla cardstock & making it's debut on my blog - Etcetera designer series paper. The circles have been edged in calypso coral ink using sponge daubers to add definition.

The sentiment is part of one of the stamps from the simply sketched set - the beauty of using markers instead of ink pads is that you can select with part of the stamp you'd like to use, if not all of it! A few basic jewels add a little bling :)

The ribbons are the new Calypso Coral chevron ribbon, some crisp canatloupe ruffle ribbon plus some antique lace left over from the now retired but still beautiful Artisan Embellishments kit. The cute little button snuggling between the ribbon & circles is one of the In Colour Boutique details buttons. 

Guaranteed to beautify any book! 

 In colour boutique buttons - 130938 £8.25         Etcetera designer series paper 130129 £9.95

This project seems perfect for this weeks Less is More challenge - round & round, the current Cutie pie challenge is # 51 Anything Goes as well as The Craft Barn letter "O" challenge wk 17 - all the circles are an O!! 

How to make a cupcake carry box & Tinkerbells house cake

Keeping it short & sweet today with more from our recent 6th birthday party celebrations - today the focus is on the end of party, take a piece home, cupcake carry box :)

I found the instructions for the carry box here on Pinterest and used my stash of subtles 12" x 12" cardstock to create the range. The aperture was made using the large scallop circle punch.

The boxes were sealed with some Wisteria Wonder bakers twine and the tags were stamped with sketched birthday, bring on the cake & sweetly framed stamp sets in pink pirouette, so saffron & soft sky to match the pastel cardstock.

The flowers were made from the Blossom Party die using scraps leftover from some Birthday Basics dsp, Gingham Garden dsp secured by subtles brads.

The butterflies were punched from same scraps using the Elegant Butterfly punch.

Popping this project into My time to craft #231 - aperture challenge.

And to finish off, here's the cake - or should I say here are lots of sweets masquerading as a cake ;)

Have a great day & see you tomorrow!

How to make ice cream & lolly shape cards & envelopes with DIY buttons!

We popped over to the wonderful Hidcote Manor, near to Stratford upon Avon at the weekend - it's one of my favourite National Trust gardens close to us and is renowned as an Arts & Crafts garden with its number of colourful and intricately designed outdoor ‘rooms’. I'm scrapbooking my Hidcote photos in the next few weeks so will have photos to show you soon! 

Anyway, no day out is complete with an ice cream or lolly and the Hidcote ice cream range includes Berry, Honeycomb & Cookies & Cream all made by local suppliers. I didn't take photos of the ice creams we had (btw the Honeycomb is to die for!) but I have created these little cuties as part of my thank you card range for one of my daughters birthdays last week ...

Let's take a closer peek ...

The ice cream was made using Crumb Cake cut into cornet shaped triangles & embossed with the Fancy Fan embossing folder and the Big Shot to give some texture, I then sponged the edges with ink for definition. The tags are stamped with Fabulous Phrases and then punched using the Duo ticket builder punch strung with the new Bermuda Bay 1/8" taffeta ribbon - a glorious colour reminiscent of the bluest of seas in the Caribbean :) The 2.5" circle punch made the "scoops" and I edged these using the scallop trim punch and then covered them with crystal effects to give a glossy shine.

 

For the ice lolly, I hand cut a rectangle & used the corner punch to round the edges then part of the scallop circle punch to make the bite mark. The ribbon is the new Crisp Cantaloupe ruffle stretch trim which coordinated with the cardstock. The stick was made with some left over embossed crumb cake from the cornets of the ice-cream :)

I hand made the tall thin envelope with some Crisp Cantaloupe designer series paper stack paper and then to make my own buttons I punched small circles of the same paper, punched two small holes in the centre of each circle then crystal effects them as well and voila - totally coordinated buttons :) I wound some bakers twine around them to seal the envelope & scallop trim punched the edge.

 Circle punches from 2.5" to 1/2" £15.50 - £5.75    Duo ticket builder punch 126883 £15.50

Fabulous phrases w 128577 £21.92, c 120501 £26.95

Crystal effects 101055 £5.25 for 57g bottle     Fancy Fan embossing folder 127751 £7.50

Scallop Edge Border punch 119882 £14.25

These projects would be perfect as party invitations or childrens birthday cards - but this week I'm entering them into the challenge at Crafty Creations #235 - make two, Charisma Cardz #32 - ice-cream, Cute Card Thursday #282 - button up, Crafty cardmakers #98 - fun in the sun, Creative craft challenge - #17 Not a square.

Back tomorrow with some more party decorations!