Less is More - One Layer Card (Spring Flowers)

The challenge this week on the Less is More blog is this...

The week the subject of your 

One Layer Card

should be 

Spring Flowers

Now 'One Layer Cards' are not my favorite card to create, but I do have a number of 'Spring Flowers' that I can use.  So after a bit of though here is what I came up with.

I used one of the flower stamps from the Backyard Basics Stamp Set (not the Tulip the other one - I don't know what type of flower it is though).  It was stamped in Stazon and coloured using Daffodil Delight, So Saffron, Old Olive & Pear Pizzas markers.

The sentiment is from the Express Yourself Hostess Stamp Set, stamped in Old Olive - the stamp in the set says 'always thinking of you', but using my Stamp-a-ma-jig I only inked and used the 'thinking of you'.

Sunny Sunday

What a great day today... The sun is shinning, the windows are open and every so often bits of paper blow around the craft desk or onto the floor :). 

I have just finished creating a card using a set of stamps new to me (they arrived in a parcel on Friday) -  the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set, in Soft Suede.  This is used with one of the flowers from the Flower Shop stamp set, in Old Olive.  The sentiment is from the Happy Watercolour stamp set, again in Old Olive.

Scrapbook Layout with Stampin' Up! Flowers

I don't normally do fussy layouts but this one was a bit different for me.

During 2014 I decided to complete a single layout each month, this is the February 2014 layout.  For Christmas a friend gave me a pack of monthly owl bookmarks, for this month I decided to cut of the owls from the top of the bookmark and to only use the calendar.

I was planning on stamping flowers in Daffodil Delight, however I forgot to take the stamps with me to the crop :) so plan 'B' was to use patterned Cardstock which was from the same set as the background paper (I can't remember the name of it).

For each flower in the bottom right corner I used a Pansy Punch and Petite Petals Punch with a yellow drop in the centre and the leaves from the Bird Punch.  In the top right I layered 2 of the Petite Petals Punch (slightly off set) with a clear drop in the centre and more leaves from the Bird Punch.

All in all is was very pleased with this layout and loved the look of the flowers :)

Butterflies and Petite Petals

Good morning, it is a lovely bright & sunny morning her in Lincolnshire (even if I had to scrap the ice from the car this morning LOL).

I received my second order from Stampin' Up! last week and have been having a good play with all of my new card/stamps and other stuff...  another order went in today and I cant wait for it to arrive at the end of the week - I have another list of thinks I want to try.

However in the mean time here is a card I made yesterday evening for a friend, it features both Butterflies (from the Papillon Potpourri  stamp set) and Petite Petals.  This was my first totally 'Stampin' Up!' card, and after a quick look at the colour coach for ideas, I love the way it looks.

The card base was Crumb Cake (1/2 sheet of A4, cut length ways). The images were stamped using Black Stazon onto Very Vanilla card stock and coloured using Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango & Daffodil Delight, I used the Aqua Painter to colour each of the images before cutting out with the Elegant Butterfly, Bitty Butterfly and Petite Petals punches.  I do like the way the butterflies have curled their wings... I think this is due to me punching them out when the card was still slightly damp from using the Aqua Painter :)

The sentiment was from Teeny Tiny Wishes and was cut out using the Word Window punch, the edges were then sponged with Daffodil Delight.

The card was finished with a insert of Very Vanilla, also sponged round the edges with Daffodil Delight.

Happy Crafting :)

I'm Back!!!

Wow... how time flies!!!

My last post was back on 11 July 2013... but as of today I am back blogging again.

I decided that after getting out of the habit of posting, I wanted to get back into the habit again.  So here goes, what will be the first of many more posts on 'Helen's World'.

The big thing that has changed is that I am now a "Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator", yes after drooling over the last couple of catalogues I decided that I just HAD to have more Stampin' Up! products.

Yesterday a very large & heavy box arrived from Stampin' Up! and I could not wait to open it, here is a little sneak peak...

Lots and lots of goodies are inside, but I have not had time to really play yet :(

So what do I plan to do next, well my brain is just buzzing with ideas and things I want to buy.

That leaves a very big problem...  In the past I have posted pictures of my workspace - it is not very big, in fact it is small and overflowing with stuff.

I have decided to be a bit ruthless and have a BIG clear out, especially of any thing that has not been used in the last 6-12 months (I do the same thing with my wardrobe every so often too).

I have decided that I will be putting most of the stuff I have not used on eBay to generate a bit of cash, many of the items will be starting at 99p (what a bargain!!).

If you want to see what I have up for sale pop over to eBay and do an advanced search for the seller 'helen-owl' alternatively click HERE (I hope this link will take you to the search results for me as a seller).

This will give 2 benefits more space and a bit more money to spend on more crafting goodies!!!

I am also thinking about organising a Stampin' Up! Make & Take event near Lincoln... I would love some feedback from you all about what you think:

A Saturday afternoon between 2pm &  4pm, no set times (you are free to drop in), Free to attend, but each Make & Take will cost £1.50 - maximum of 6 projects (including Cards, Boxes/Bags) all using Stampin' Up! materials & tools.  Depending on the venue (local village hall possibly) tea/coffee would also be available at a small cost.

So what do you think????

In the mean time I hope to get time to really unpack by box of goodies over the weekend and maybe even have some time to play.

Organising my Stampin Up stamp sets

I am normally an organised person, this being the case I have tried several ways of storing my clear stamps and up to now had them in A5 poly pockets in a box.  But this was not really working as I could not see them, even after I created a 'Stamp Catalogue' I would forget to look at it or update it when I got new stamps.

So when I saw this video from Dawns Stamping Studio (click HERE), about storing the Stampin Up stamps, I started thinking (you could probably smell the smoke from where you are)... I could use the same idea for my other stamps (or the ones I use the most).

Here is the box from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set...

The 'image' of the stamp is stuck to the outside of the case, so that when the stamps are put away they each sit over their image.

This also means that when you remove a stamp it is easy to see where it goes back again.

I hope this is useful and I will let you know how I get on with this method of storing my stamps over time.

Happy Crafting.

On a card making roll...

On Saturday I felt like creating some cards, so I sat down and before I knew it I had made the grand total of 8!!!

2 of them were for the 'Less is More' challenge, you can see them HERE.

Here are the other 6...

Created with some paper from a free magazine paper pack, Stampin Up Butterfly & sentiment.  very quick and simple but I do like it.

This one was also using the Stampin up Butterfly and punch (I stamped the image then used the whole from  the butterfly stamp to sponge through), the sentiment was from the Bitty Banners set.

Guess what.... more butterflies :)

A change from butterflies, this time one of the Tree stamps from the 'Lovely as a Tree' set.  

More butterflies, this time I stamped the sentiment onto card and then used the butterfly punch to frame it.

The only Stampin up items on this layout is the sentiment, it is one of my favorites at the moment..."Everything will be okay in the end, If it isn't okay, it isn't the end." (from the 'Pursuit of Happiness' stamp set).

As you can see I had a bit of a Stampin Up session (I do just Love their foam dimensionals!!) I was feeling guilty that I had brought a number of stamp sets & the butterfly punch but had not used them.  Now I am really glad that I decided to buy them, as I think they will get used quite a bit :)

New Goodies...

My order arrived yesterday from Ginny (the Stampin' Up Demonstrator) after the Demo evening last Wednesday.

As it fitted with both of us, Ginny delivered the goodies to me at work :)  The down side of this was that I was sat trying to work at my desk, while thinking about what was sat in my car... maybe not a good combination LOL.

So... I decided to use 2 hours of Lieu time and head off home early!!!

I decided to lay all of my new goodies out on the desk & take a picture to share with you all, however I had one problem... I could not see enough space on my desk to put all of the Goodies!!!  This meant that I had to have a clear up (which was really needed!).

Here are all of my Goodies, including: 1 Paper Pack; 2 Stamp Sets; 1 Butterfly Punch; 1 Ink Pad; 1 pack of paper peircing guides (I can't remember the real name for them) Dimensionals & a glue rubber.

The one I am most looking foward to playing with is the 'Lovely As a Tree' stamp set, but in the end I did not get time to start using them this afternoon :(



I already have another shopping list on the go for bits that I want to get, but they will have to wait a few months. I know that the Stampin' Up stuff is not cheap, but the quality of anything I have brought from them is great!!!!

Stampin' Up Evening

Following on from yesterday's WOYWW post we had a great evening with Stampin' Up Demonstrator Ginny Beard.

Due to a lack of space in the conservatory I asked Ginny for a Demonstration using the Stampin' Up Products (rather than a Make & Take event). I must say a very big Thank You to Ginny, her Demos were great and I think we all came away with more ideas for Cards & Projects.

It was a bit of a squash but we all fit into the conservatory :)

This was Ginny's First Demo and when the Gift Holder was completed she filled it with Chocolate Eclairs & gave it to me as a gift :)

Delta & Jumanji also made an appearance during the evening, comming into the house for a quick visit - well that was until Delta decided to discrace himself and poo on the carpet (guess who had to clean it up though!!).  We do say that we have the best spot cleaned carpet in Lincolnshire!!