Two CASEd Stamp & Die Combo Cards

I absolutely love the Hero Arts and Sizzix stamp and die combo sets - not forgetting the stamp and embossing folder combos too!  I saw this lovely card made by Julie Ebersole using one of the combo sets I didn't have.  I told myself I didn't need that set, I could just as easily make a version using a set I did have so that's what I did.  I started off with a card base made with SU! Confetti White CS and I made a tag with Crumb Cake CS.  I stamped using Calypso Coral and Old Olive inks, die cut the shapes I wanted and arranged them on the tag.  I also added a punched sentiment circle.  I'm not a lover of orange generally but I love the Calypso Coral and Old Olive combo!

Here's the inside and the envelope.

 

Of course, you won't be entirely shocked to know what happened later on - yep, I bought the combo set that Julie had used on her card,  what a big surprise eh?!   I decided I absolutely had to have it and I'm so glad I did buy it, the set is SO lovely - I mean - flowers AND butterflies, what's NOT to love?!  I'm finding myself drawn to botanical images recently, I've not always liked them before but I'm really attracted to them at the moment. Anyway, I made this version of the card using the butterflies set.

Here's the inside and envelope.  That dogwood image is gorgeous!  I'm sure there will be more combo sets on the way from Hero Arts and Sizzix and I'm equally sure more will end up in my stash!

Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts & Sizzix 'Floral' & 'Antique Flowers & Butterflies' stamp & die combo sets, Hero Arts 'Paper Art' background stamp, 'Have a Wonderful Day' Hero Arts clear stamp, 'Happy Birthday' from Hobby Art, 'for you' from SU! Fresh Cuts set, 'Best Wishes on your Birthday' from Hero Arts 'Friends are Treasures' cling set
CS: SU! Confetti White, Crumb Cake and Calypso Coral
Ink: SU! Calypso Coral & Old Olive, Adirondack Cranberry & Espresso
Tools: dies from combo sets listed above under stamps, SU! Ticket Corner punch, circle punches
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Old Olive grosgrain ribbon, SU! Linen Thread, brown & white striped ribbon from stash, 3d foam pads

Two Punched Holly Christmas Cards

I thought it was time to switch from a wintery blog template to a Christmassy one seeing as it will be here in a few short weeks!  These are two cards I made using my Martha Stewart Holly Branch punch.  I wanted to make them both gap cards but I couldn't make that work with this first card due to how I'd positioned the punched shapes, the gap just didn't look right at all - so the holly is hanging off the edge.  Actually, I really liked how this card turned out and I prefer it to the gap card!  The side opening A6 card was made with Cherry Cobbler CS and I cut 2 3/8" off the side.   I stamped a music background, heat embossed the sentiment with white powder and added white ribbon.  I punched 6 holly shapes and glued them front and back to add some strength and then I added some red pearls as berries.

Inside I stamped a sentiment onto a panel of My Mind's Eye paper and added a couple of Cherry Cobbler CS strips.  I stamped a sprig of mistletoe on the envelope flap to finish off.

 

So this next card is the gap card.  Again I used Cherry Cobbler CS to make an A6 side opening card and added a white embossed sentiment.  I used snowflakes as a background on this card and the ribbon is Chocolate Chip taffeta.  I cut the card apart and then re-joined two pieces of CS with the punched holly bridging the gap.  Again I glued the shapes front and back for strength.  As I used a large sentiment on the front of the card I didn't stamp a greeting inside.  The aqua patterned paper you can see through the gap has been glued to the inside back panel of the card and I've glued the red pearl berries onto the aqua paper. I stamped the envelope flap with the lovely mistletoe sprig again.

Supplies for card 1:
Stamps: Hero Arts Music Background, Hero Arts Very Merry Christmas clear set, mistletoe from SU! Peaceful Wishes set
CS: SU! Cherry Cobbler, Core'dinations Amazon
Patterned paper: paper from My Mind's Eye 'I Believe' collection
Ink: SU! Cherry Cobbler & Pear Pizzazz, VersaMark
Tools: Martha Stewart Holly Branch punch
Embellishments & accessories: white embossing powder, white grosgrain ribbon, red pearls


Supplies for card 2 (gap card):
Stamps: snowflakes from Butterfly Kisses Snowy Christmas clear set, sentiment from Stampendous, mistletoe from SU! Peaceful Wishes set
CS: SU! Cherry Cobbler,  Core'dinations Amazon
Patterned paper: paper from My Mind's Eye 12 Days of Christmas collection
Ink: SU! Cherry Cobbler & Pear Pizzazz, VersaMark
Tools: Martha Stewart Holly Branch punch
Embellishments & accessories: white embossing powder, SU! Chocolate Chip taffeta ribbon, red pearls

Festive & Fruity Merry Christmas Z Fold Card - Simply Stampin' Challenge #35

What a zingy colour combo for this week's Simply Stampin' challenge!  Apart from Whisper White, the colour names are all fruity but I decided to pair festive with the fruit and I made a contemporary Christmas Z fold card.  I've loved Z fold cards for ages and thought it was about time I made another one.  The card measures 5 3/4" square and I used Lucky Limeade CS for the base and added some Concord Crush ribbon.  I used Lucky Limeade ink for the trees - full strength for the central tree and stamped off once first for the outside trees.  I used a Melon Mambo marker to ink the stars and all three trees were cut out and applied to the white panel - the central tree is popped up on Dimensionals.  The poinsettias were stamped with Melon Mambo ink, the darker flowers were stamped full strength but the paler ones were stamped off twice.  I've put 3 rhinestones in the centre of each poinsettia and popped them up.   I stamped the swirl from the Season of Joy set onto white CS after stamping off once, stamped the 'Merry Christmas' over the top in Concord Crush ink, punched it out with the plain oval punch and matted that onto a punched Concord Crush scalloped oval. 

Inside I've added a strip of Concord Crush patterned paper, stamped swirls and 3 more poinsettias. The envelope flap has more swirls and a poinsettia too.  This is such a fun, vibrant colour combo and I really hope you'll join us this week at the Simply Stampin' challenge 'cos I want to see what gorgeous creations you come up with!

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! Season of Joy set
CS: SU! Lucky Limeade, Concord Crush, Melon Mambo & Whisper White
Patterned paper: Concord Crush paper from SU! In Color Patterns DSP pack
Ink: SU! Lucky Limeade, Concord Crush & Melon Mambo
Tools: SU! plain and scalloped oval punches
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Concord Crush Stitched Poly ribbon, Basic Rhinestones & Dimensionals

Snowflake Windows Season's Greetings Card

I made a daisies window card at a Make and Take evening at Joanne's a while back - the card can be seen on this post.  I really liked it and fancied making a Christmas themed card with the same technique.  I've used some Sizzix Sizzlits snowflakes dies to go in my windows - they are absolutely gorgeous but they give me fits when I'm cutting them - they are SO spindly and delicate!  Each time I get these dies out I'm reminded of what a pain they are and remember why I don't use them that often - so this card is a definite one off creation!

I started off with a side opening Marina Mist A6 size card and I punched out my square windows using the template I created back when I made the original daisies window card.   I glued the snowflakes behind the windows and then punched another set of windows in a Marina Mist panel and adhered that behind.  That way the snowflakes are neatly sandwiched in the windows.  I rounded the top right corner of the card, added a season's greeting's sentiment, some punched snowflakes and rhinestones and that finished off the card front.

On the inside I added a snowflake embossed Night of Navy panel, a Marina Mist strip and a Whisper White panel.  The lovely Warm Wishes sentiment is from Hero Arts, I love that it combines warmth with icy snowflakes and I thought it was the perfect choice to go inside this card!  I used my fave snowflake cluster stamp on the envelope flap.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! Curly Cute set, Hero Arts Warm Wishes, PSX Snowflake Medley
CS: SU! Marina Mist, Night of Navy & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Night of Navy
Tools: Square punch, Sizzix Snowflake Sizzlits dies, Spellbinder's Labels Trio die, snowflakes embossing folder from Cuttlebug Winter Wonderland set, Woodware small snowflake punch, Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper
Embellishments & accessories: clear rhinestones

New Forest Inspired Little Acorns Card

We stayed in the New Forest last weekend with our fab friends Debbie and Mike.  They have stayed in a lovely New Forest B&B several times and they always rave about it.  Oh my goodness, I can quite see why, we had such a wonderful time!  A lovely couple, Chris and Reg run it together with their gorgeous Cavalier King Charles spaniel called Willow who completely steals your heart!

The garden is huge, stunning and full of wildlife.  Badgers regularly visit the garden at night and Debbie and Mike have always seen them when they've visited - they saw 7 together one time!  Debbie had more or less promised us that we would see badgers.  Chris said they had been visiting much later though, in the early hours of the morning and the first two nights we didn't see them.  On our last night though, a badger came up to feed and we got a brilliant view - magical!

Chris makes cards and we got chatting about supplies etc. and Chris said she couldn't get kraft card blanks. I said I'd send her a few PaperMania ones which she'd be able to order online if she liked them.  Of course, I had to make a card to send with the package and as the B&B is called 'Little Acorns'  I had to make a little acorns card!

I've used the SU! Day of Gratitude set and a colour combo totally inspired by some of the beautiful forest colours we saw over the weekend.  I inked the medallion in Pumpkin Pie ink and then added Cajun Craze and Early Espresso with sponge daubers.  I cut out the shape, added an Antique brad and popped it up on the circle layers.  I then used the same inks to stamp the leaves but I used just Cajun Craze and Early Espresso to ink the acorns.  I then cut them all out and arranged them on the card, popping some of the acorns up.  To finish the front I added some raffia tied in a knot.

 
I stamped two leaves on a Very Vanilla panel, masking the first one off with a Post It note, added the sentiment and glued the panel inside the card.  I stamped and cut out 3 more acorns for the envelope flap.

I think it's wonderful that Chris and Reg are willing to share their beautiful New Forest home.  We loved our peaceful and relaxing stay there and I hope Chris liked her card as much as I enjoyed making it for her!  Here's a photo of part of the garden - * sigh *

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! Day of Gratitude set, sentiment from Waltzingmouse Stamps Say It With Style clear set
CS: PaperMania 13.5 cm square kraft card blank, SU! Cajun Craze, Early Espresso & Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Pumpkin Pie, Cajun Craze & Early Espresso
Tools: Circle Nestabilities dies, sponge daubers
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Antique brad, raffia, 3d foam pads

Triangle Trees Season's Greetings Card

This is a Christmas card I made using my Plain Pennant Framelits dies to make trees.  I started off  by stamping my Hero Arts Tree Trunk stamp onto Creamy Caramel CS, cut out three trunks and glued them to the card behind a torn CS snowbank.  I stamped the sentiment and sprinkled glitter along the top of the snow.  I then die cut three triangles using different patterned papers, sponged the edges of each triangle with inks and popped them up over the trunks.  I added blue punched snowflakes with rhinestone centres to the card front and added red pearls to the tree in the middle.

A stamped sentiment and more punched snowflakes are inside the card and I stamped a cluster of snowflakes on the envelope flap.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! Curly Cute set, Woodware Wishing You clear stamp, PSX Snowflake Medley
CS: PaperMania cream square card blank, SU! Whisper White & Creamy Caramel
Patterned paper: old Basic Grey papers, Bo Bunny Avocado Dot paper
Ink: SU! Early Espresso, Adirondack Cranberry, Tim Holtz Peeled Paint & Fired Brick Distress Inks
Tools: Sizzix, 'Banners, Plain Pennants' Framelits dies, Woodware small snowflake punch, sponge daubers
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Dazzling Diamonds, red pearls, clear rhinestones, 3d foam pads

Sparkly Ornament Merry Christmas Card - Simply Stampin' #34 Sketch Challenge

This week's challenge at the Simply Stampin' blog is a sketch challenge - and a very nice sketch it is too. 

I do hope you'll play along, I'd love to come and check out your creations!  When I see what others have made I find it so fascinating that everyone comes up with such different designs, that's what is so great about this hobby!

I've enjoyed making blue and green Christmas cards this year so I went with that combo again.  I decided to rotate the sketch, I love versatile sketches that lend themselves to being tweaked!  My card is a side opening Marina Mist A6 sized card.  I've used two sides of a patterned paper from the Nursery Nest pack for two strips and then I punched a Lucky Limeade strip with the Dotted Scallop Ribbon border punch.  For my main image panel I stamped the beautiful Baroque Motifs swirl and the sentiment in Lucky Limeade ink.  I stamped the ornament in Marina Mist ink, punched it out, patted VersaMark all over it, sprinkled on Heat & Stick powder, blasted it with my heat gun until the ornament was tacky and then applied Dazzling Diamonds so the ornament is super sparkly.  I gave the ornament another light blast of heat to set the glitter and I pressed a piece of kitchen paper over it - I find these two steps ensure the glitter stays put and doesn't shed.  The white panel and the ornament are popped up on Dimensionals.  This simple design could be used to whip up multiple cards I think.  It would be really quick to make if you omitted the sparkle - but then Christmas cards are definitely more fabulous with sparkle in my humble opinion!

I cut a panel of Whisper White CS, stamped the swirl a couple of times and glued the panel inside the card.  The envelope flap also got a couple of beautiful swirls to finish off.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! Contempo Christmas & Baroque Motifs sets
CS: SU! Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade & Whisper White
Patterned paper: SU! Nursery Nest DSP pack
Ink: SU! Marina Mist, Lucky Limeade & VersaMark
Tools: SU! Ornament punch
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Heat & Stick powder, Dazzling Diamonds & Dimensionals

Joyous Christmas Tag Card

A couple of weekends ago this John Lewis Christmas catalogue was included with our newspaper.

I was immediately drawn to it and kept it to one side to use as inspiration for a card.  I really love kraft, red and white for Christmas cards, I think it's very homely and cheery - and always makes me think Scandinavian!  I took some elements featured on the catalogue front cover - gingham, tag, button, snowflakes - and combined those with the colour combo to make my card. 

I started off with a square PaperMania kraft card blank, trimmed a bit from the right hand side and added a punched snowflake border and white strip.  I stamped the sentiment on a piece of  SU! Crumb Cake CS, added the heat embossed snowflake and cut the piece into a tag shape.  I punched a hole and made a re-inforcer ring by punching a 1/4" circle from Real Red CS and then punching that out with a 1/2" circle punch.  I put a Real Red brad in the centre of the snowflake, added twine to the tag and popped it up on the card front.  I wrapped gingham ribbon around the card, threaded on a natural coloured button and tied a knot.  To finish off the front I added some punched snowflakes.  Normally I add rhinestones to snowflake centres but I resisted here - I didn't think rhinestones went with the rustic vibe LOL!

Here's the inside and the envelope.

Supplies:
Stamps: snowflake from SU! Patterned Pines set, sentiments from Penny Black
CS: PaperMania recycled kraft square card blank & envelope, SU! Crumb Cake, Real Red & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Real Red, VersaMark
Tools: EK Success Snowflake slim edger punch, circle punches,
Embellishments & accessories: red & white gingham ribbon, button, SU! Linen Thread, 3d foam pads

Merry Patterned Pines Trio Card

A Christmas card I made using the lovely SU! Patterned Pines set.  I stamped the trees in Old Olive, Riding Hood Red and Always Artichoke using markers and the trunks were inked with an Early Espresso marker.  I cut each tree out and popped them up behind a glittered torn CS snow bank.  I embossed the red background panel with the Sizzix 'Sugar' embossing folder and added the Old Olive taffeta ribbon before gluing the red panel to the card front.  I added mini gold brads to the corners of the image panel and I popped the panel up.  I stamped 'merry', punched it out with the Word Window punch, trimmed it,  punched a tiny hole and tied it to the ribbon knot with white twine.

The Patterned Pines set includes a lovely small poinsettia flourish stamp which I used inside the card to frame the sentiment.  That gorgeous snowflake on the envelope flap is also from the set.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! Patterned Pines & Pennant Parade sets, Hero Arts Very Merry Christmas clear set
CS: PaperMania A6 white card blank, SU! Riding Hood Red & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Old Olive, Riding Hood Red, Always Artichoke & Early Espresso
Tools: Sizzix 'Sugar' embossing folder, SU! Word Window punch, 1/16" circle punch
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Old Olive taffeta ribbon, mini gold brads, SU! Dazzling Diamonds, 3d foam pads

Flowery Birthday Card

This is the card we made at our card group SU! workshop last week.  This was such a tonic for me, to have an afternoon crafting away from the mayhem going on at home while the new boiler was fitted! What an unusual, striking colour combo Joanne chose!  Now orange is not a favourite colour of mine but I'm pleasantly surprised by how much I like the Calypso Coral colour - and it looks fab here with the Pool Party.  I used it recently with Old Olive and I loved that combo. 

We used Post It notes to mask the very bottom of the Whisper White panel and then repeatedly stamped the outline flowery stem image from the SU! Simply Soft hostess set.  I stamped my row of flowers too low down so I stamped another row of flowers above, making sure to stamp off once first each time.  The Curly Cute sentiment was stamped on the dotty Pool Party paper in Calypso Coral ink and a Dotted Scallop Ribbon punched border was added at the top.  At the bottom, we added some Calypso Coral ruffled ribbon (we cut the ribbon in half length ways before gluing) and a Pool Party Scallop Edge border.  We rounded the bottom corners of the base card and the Whisper White panel.  A Whisper White panel was glued inside with a couple of stamped sprigs - you won't be surprised to learn that I stamped a couple of sprigs on the front of my envelope too! - I didn't take a photo of those though. 

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! Simply Soft & Curly Cute sets
CS: SU! Calypso Coral, Pool Party & Whisper White
Patterned paper: SU! dotty Pool Party paper from In Color Paper Stack
Ink: SU! Calypso Coral
Tools: SU! Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border punch, Scallop Edge Border punch, Corner punch, Stamp-a-ma-jig
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Calypso Coral 3/8" ruffled ribbon, Post It notes

Two Snowman Cards

Here are two Christmas cards I've made using the fabby Hero Arts/Sizzix Snowman stamps and dies combo set.  The first card was made using a new embossing folder - it's got snowflakes and a gorgeous brackety frame - what's not to love?!  I've been naughty this year with embossing folders, I just can't seem to resist them!  I embossed the front of the A6 card first and then embossed a piece of Pool Party CS and cut out the frame piece.  I stamped and die cut the snowman, stamping his scarf separately and trimming it.  I tore CS for snow banks, added glitter and popped up the snowman.  The 'be merry' sentiment was the perfect size for the SU! Modern label punch.  I popped that up too and added nailheads.

Here's the inside and the envelope.

For the second card, I made a side opening A6 size card from SU! Bashful Blue CS and stamped some snowflakes as a background in Bashful Blue ink.   I stamped and die cut two trees and a snowman - the front tree and the snowman are popped up.  Again I used torn white CS as a snowbank and added glitter to the torn edge and then I stamped the sentiment.  I've added nailheads to the trees and I added glitter to the centres of the background snowflakes to finish off the front.

Here's the inside and the envelope.  Another two Christmas cards to add to the box, I really do feel I may be on track this year!

Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts Snowman stamp & Sizzix die combo set, 'be merry' from SU! Warm Words set, Hero Arts Very Merry Christmas clear set, PSX Snowflake Medley
CS: PaperMania A6 white card blank, SU! Pool Party, Bashful Blue & Whisper White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, SU! Pool Party, Bashful Blue, Always Artichoke, Basic Gray & Riding Hood Red
Tools: Crafts Too 'Snowflake Banner' embossing folder, dies from Hero Arts/Sizzix Snowman stamp & die combo set, SU! Modern Label punch
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Dazzling Diamonds, self adhesive metal nailheads, 3d foam pads

Tinsel Tree Merry Christmas Card

I bought some Olive Tinsel embossing powder a while ago, it's a gorgeous sparkly green colour but it seems very temperamental.  It took me several attempts to get a decent coverage of powder over my VersaMark stamped image, the powder wasn't sticking in several places so the image was patchy.  I was very happy with the image in the end but I can't be doing with it taking several tries to get it right, you don't need that when you're making Christmas cards!  I'm not the most patient person and I get frustrated if a product doesn't work well, I want things to be consistently reliable.  I shall try it again at some point and if it still frustrates me I shall let it go.

After finally getting an image I was happy with I cut out my ovals and sponged the edges of both white ovals. I made a 5 3/4" square Cherry Cobbler card and added some embossed lines as a subtle decoration.  I added 3 die cut snowflakes, popped on some rhinestones and popped up the sentiment oval.

 

Inside the card I stamped a sentiment and used markers to colour in the holly.  I stamped a snowflake cluster on the envelope flap to finish off.

Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts Branch & Flourish Tree, SU! Contempo Christmas set, inside sentiment from Stampendous, PSX Snowflake Medley
CS: SU! Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green & Whisper White
Ink: VersaMark, SU! Cherry Cobbler, Riding Hood Red & Garden Green
Tools: Oval Nestabilities dies, Cuttlebug snowfake die, Scor-Pal, sponge dauber
Embellishments & accessories: Stampendous Olive Tinsel embossing powder, clear rhinestones, 3d foam pads

Boxed Set Of Four Leafy Cards - Simply Stampin' Challenge #33

This week's challenge over at the Simply Stampin' blog is a Leafy theme challenge.  Well, that's right up my street as I love leaves! I really hope you'll join in with this lovely seasonal theme challenge as I'd love to come and check out what you create!

I'm sure I can't be alone in keeping packaging with the idea of  "doing something crafty with that one day".  I have quite a collection of items and I finally dug something out - a square acetate box - and re purposed it to hold a set of four cards and envelopes.

To decorate the front of the acetate box, I cut a square of Old Olive CS, embossed one half with the Square Lattice folder and added some lovely glittery striped paper from the Holly Berry Bouquet pack to the other half.  I then tied some Chocolate Chip satin ribbon around the join in a knot.  I used the gorgeous fern stamp from the Growing Green set -  I absolutely LOVE this leafy image - to stamp two images in Cajun Craze ink on Very Vanilla CS and I cut them both out and attached them to the embossed Old Olive panel with glue dots.  I stamped a leaf from the French Foliage set in Early Espresso ink onto Cherry Cobbler CS, cut it out and mounted that over the ferns with linen thread tied round the stem in a bow.  I then glued the whole panel to the front of the acetate box with Sticky Strip.  Here's the box:

 5 1/4" square envelopes were the perfect size to fit the box so I made four cards measuring 5 1/8" square.  I used Cajun Craze, Chery Cobbler, More Mustard and Old Olive CS for the card bases and added a rectangular panel of Early Espresso CS that I'd embossed with the Square Lattice folder to each card front.  I then stamped each square Very Vanilla panel with the fern using the same colour ink as the CS and stamped the image three times without re-inking.  I then stamped a different Curly Cute sentiment on each panel in the matching ink.  The Cajun Craze card got Happy Birthday, Cherry Cobbler got Congratulations, More Mustard got Thank You and the Old Olive card got Thinking of  You. I stamped the French Foliage leaf in Early Espresso ink on each of the four CS colours and cut them out.  Before gluing the vanilla panels down I wrapped linen thread around each panel, popped up a leaf and tied a bow around each stem.  Here's a photo of the four cards:

 

I stamped a fern on the Very Vanilla panel inside each card and on the front of each envelope.

This last photo shows the box together with the four cards.  I kept the layout very simple, did everything in stages and then assembled at the end so it didn't take long at all to make the set.  The cards aren't too dimensional either so they fit really nicely in the box.

Supplies:
Stamps: SU! Growing Green, Curly Cute & French Foliage sets
CS: SU! Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Old Olive & Very Vanilla
Patterned paper: SU! Holly Berry Bouquet DSP pack
Ink: SU! Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard, Old Olive & Early Espresso
Tools: SU! Square Lattice embossing folder
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Linen Thread, SU! Mini Glue Dots, Sticky Strip & Dimensionals, square acetate box from stash

I'm Back - Hooray! Plus Two Snowflake Cards

What a week - I shall be so glad when it's over!  Firstly, we lost our internet connection and I spent a long and very frustrating time on the phone to our ISP.  At one point I was speaking to a supervisor and he suggested I Google something - erm, how on earth am I meant to do that with no internet connection?!  The upshot was we needed a new router so we couldn't get back online until we'd received that.  I know it's only a few days but I really, really miss the web when I can't access it - no blog surfing, Splitcoast Stampers, eBaying or Pinterest for heavens sake, what's a gal to do?

On Tuesday we were scheduled to have a new boiler fitted into our airing cupboard - which is in the spare bedroom I use as my craft room.  So I had to move most of my stuff out and try to craft in our tiny sun room.  After a good start the installers hit a few snags which delayed things.  On Thursday night hubby turned on the hot water tap at the kitchen sink and then we couldn't turn it off  - and we couldn't turn the stopcock off either!  The tap was on full and gushing at quite a rate as our water pressure has gone up a lot since having our new boiler system installed.  So an emergency plumber costing an arm and a leg had to be summoned to sort us out.  All done now but to say the week has been stressful is rather an understatement!  The bright spot was on Thursday afternoon when I attended a Stampin' Up! workshop - it was so lovely to escape for a few hours!

Anyway, here are two snowflake cards I made a while ago.  I wanted to use a die cut snowflake as a mask and spritz Blue Smoke Perfect Pearls mist over the mask.  I carefully peeled the mask away when I'd done spritzing and was chuffed to find it came away perfectly intact so I decided to use that on a second card.  I love the "A snowflake is winter's butterfly" sentiment and I have one in wood mount and a larger version in a clear set so I used both.  I haven't added a Christmas sentiment to either card so that I can use them as winter birthday cards or after Christmas thank you cards.  This first card measures a tad under 5 1/4" square but needed a larger envelope to accommodate the overhanging banner.  I fixed two blue felt snowflakes to the centre of my masked snowflake with a rhinestone brad.  I punched a decorative snowflake border on the white panel and added some Marina Mist ribbon.  A snowflake border was stamped on the front of the envelope - and inside the card too.

The second card is a standard C6 size made with SU! Perfect Plum CS and I used the thoroughly gorgeous Brushed Silver CS to add a strip and a decorative punched edge. This time I attached a pale purple felt snowflake to the centre of the large snowflake with a metal snowflake brad.  I popped a rhinestone on the centre of the brad and on the punched silver snowflake.  Again, I stamped the snowflake border on the front of the envelope and I stamped the same border on a white panel inside the card also.

Supplies:
Stamps: Hero Arts Winter's Snowflake wood mount stamp & Winter's Butterfly clear set, snowflake border from My Cute Stamps Let It Snow! clear set
CS: PaperMania square white card blank, SU! Night of Navy, Perfect Plum, Brushed Silver & Whisper White
Ink: SU! Night of Navy & Perfect Plum
Tools: Sizzix Snowflake #2 die, EK Success Snowflake border punch, SU! Eyelet Lace border punch, Woodware small snowflake punch
Embellishments & accessories: Perfect Pearls Blue Smoke mist, Hero Arts felt snowflakes, SU! Marina Mist grosgrain ribbon, rhinestone brad, snowflake brad, rhinestones, 3d foam pads