Thumping Great Butterflies!

I love these colours together. Blushing Bride, Crumb Cake and Whisper White cardstock were made for each other. And the beautiful Organza ribbon has become a favourite of mine. It is so soft and easy to tie into a pretty bow.

The Strength and Hope stamp set really lends itself to making delicate, pretty cards. I wanted to see if I could make the butterflies have a little more depth and character though, so for this card I used the thumping technique. I chose a couple of colours of Stampin' Write markers and, starting with the lightest colour, used the side of the thicker point on the stamp. I bounced it around the stamp on the areas I wanted to highlight. Then I used the next colour, thumping it to fill in some more spaces, and so on till I had covered the stamp.

It took me awhile to add all the colours and some of the ink looked a little dry, so I 'huffed' (breathed warm air) on it to rehydrate the colours before stamping.

So there you have it - Thumping Great Butterflies! Lol!

July Card Class

We had a great card class today :) Thank you fro coming, ladies! I enjoyed our chats, the food (the Food! So much!) and of course sharing in your crafting :)

We made two projects today. I found a paper wallet online and made one up for the ladies to try, then found a lovely thank you card that I CASED from Wendy Hawkinson's blog (thank you for sharing, Wendy). I'll post some examples for you to see :)

PS: If you live in my vicinity, do remember I hold monthly card classes now. See SusanSalutations for details and to book in!

Watercolour Stamping

Have you tried watercolour stamping? Here I used some watercolour paper and Stampin' Up!'s Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set. After colouring the images with some Stampin' Write markers, I spritzed the images lightly with ordinary water before stamping as normal. The effect was lovely and soft compared to the usual crisp, clean images obtained without water.

There are a few more water colouring tips on PaperCraftCentral.com if you would like to explore a few more options :)

The other cardstock and ink are So Saffron, Bravo Burgundy and Garden Green. The ribbon is Night of Navy and the sentiment is from the Create a Cupcake stamp set also from Stampin' Up! The ferns in the background stamped in Versamark are from a retired Stampin' Up! stamp set called Organic Grace.

Children's Birthday Cards

If you have been wondering what we get up to at Card Classes, here is a sample of the parade of creatures we made last week! I showed my ladies how to make childrens birthday cards using their Scallop Circle Die and #2 Circle die with the Big Shot, and a few punches. What a fun day it was!

These little cards are just perfect fro a young child's party. They do not take long to make so you won't mind quite so much if they get ripped or crumpled, and the children do love them.

Actually we adults had a lot of fun reliving old memories of childhood and child rearing ourselves. The Muppets have been around for a long time! Lol!

If you would like to see how to make your own fun children's birthday cards, there is a tutorial on PaperCraftCentral.com for you.

Congratulations Cards

Here's a card with a little different style to the last one I posted :) While I personally love Vintage cards, sometimes I need a simple one for a man, and vintage style doesn't really make me think of masculine cards. I like to have a couple of congratulations cards on hand so I can be prepared for times when some recognition is in order!

I made this one using a stamp from Stampin' Up!'s Fun and Fast Notes. I don't know if this stamp set will be available in the next Idea Book and Catalogue coming out in September but I have liked this set from the start. The images make whipping up a quick card just so easy.

If you want more details for how I made this card, I wrote a tutorial about it on PaperCraftCentral.com for you.

Tiny White Flowers

Isn't this a pretty card? It was inspired by one made by Monica Gale and I just love it. I used the birdcage from the Nature Walk stamp set from Stampin' Up! plus the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder from the same source. The papers are Whisper White, Basic Black, Sahara Sand and Very Vanilla. I thought it was just such an elegant card I decided to teach a few friends to make some too at a card class today. Here they are:

I really think these little cards are beautiful! Well done, ladies :)

Do you like the little white flowers on the cards we made? If you have not tried making these flowers, of course there is a tutorial for you over at PaperCraftCentral.com. Enjoy!

Retreat!

Just thought I would share another cupcake card from the Brisbane Papercraft Expo stall we ran :) I like how cheery it is, being made of So Saffron cardstock and scrunched Old Olive ribbon and all. And it says 'Celebrate', which is what I just got finished doing at the Stampin' Up! Retreat held for our Independent Demonstrator team this weekend.

We stamped! We inked! We punched! We ate! We talked! We laughed! I think there were about 30 of us who stayed for the three days of the Retreat (I elected to leave half a day early to go to church) but we had a great old time while together.

In case you want to get away for a crafty break too sometime, I advertise when they will happen on SusanSalutations. I'll upload the dates for the next ones shortly. If you are within reasonable distance of Brisbane, Qld Australia, and you want to come along to a Retreat, let me know!

Motorbikes Forever!

I'll tell you a little secret. In my youth I rode a small motorbike. I had friends who had bikes and we would go for long rides, feeling free and exhilarated in the open air! So when I saw the new Motorcycle stamp in the 2011 Autumn-Winter Mini catalogue from Stampin' Up!, well, I just had to get it.

It is quite a lovely detailed stamp and when I saw it, I immediately thought of using the faux metal technique. I think I need a few more practice goes but in the end I was pretty happy with how the image turned out. I made it into a birthday card to have on hand when the next man in the family has a special day :) None of the other family women ever learned to ride a bike that I know of! Lol!

If you would like to see how to make a faux metal image, the instructions are on PaperCarftCentral for you now.

Embossing Makes Cards Pop!

The Big Shot is such a versatile machine! I love how it embosses and what you can do with the beautifully embossed cardstock. I made a series of cards with my Build a Cupcake punch and used the coordinating Create a Cupcake stamp set (both from the Stampin' Up! Autumn-Winter mini catalogue) but wanted to add a richness to the cards that only embossing and pretty ribbon can bring.

We used these cards at the Brisbane Papercraft Expo of course :) You can see the entire series at www.PaperCraftCentral.com, of course!

Scrapping an old photo

Have you ever got cold feet about an old photo and whether or not to scrap it? I have had this picture for a very long time and finally got the courage to do something with it. I was glad I did! Now it will be protected for years to come instead of floating around on my craft desk making me feel guilty :) Lol!

If you would like a little fuller explanation about how I made some of the elements in this retro layout, here's the link on PaperCraftCentral.com