Dinner Jacket card

Here's one for the smart dad! This Dinner Jacket card is so easy to make.  The shirt is made from a pennant shape, I scored some lines down the edges to look like pleats in the shirt and added some punched circles for buttons.  The Bow Tie is from Dapper Dad, I added a second tie on top for dimension.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's day to all dads everywhere.  This is the card I made for my hubby, I thought the Bow Tie from the Dapper Dad stamp set was ideal for making a penny spinner card and it works beautifully!
My base card is Bashful blue which is a colour that is retiring shortly, I will miss it but there are some wonderful new colours coming soon instead. My sentiment and spinning bow tie are Midnight Muse.  There are lots of tutorials available online for making a penny spinner card so I won't go into detail here but I used the window word punch to cut the slot for my pennies which makes it really easy.
I have some more Father's Day cards to share in the next few days that we made at Make, Do and Send card cub recently.  All of the designs could be used as birthday or thankyou cards instead.

Butterflies and scallops

The Spring and Summer seasonal catalogue also comes to an end this month so if you still have things on your wish list then now is the time to order them.  
One product that was introduced in this catalogue and will continue in the new annual catalogue is the Simply Scored Borders Plate.  The designs coordinate with many of the die cut shapes and stamps.
On this card there is an embossed border along the bottom, a scalloped edge which echoes the scallop circle sitting behind the central butterfly.

Boutique Boxes

How cute are these little gift boxes?!  Boutique boxes come in a pack of 8 with all the coordinating embellishments that you could ever need, in fact I have several left over after making my boxes. They are just perfect for small gifts of jewellery and are also just the right size for one of those gift cards.

Pop up Dress Up

This gorgeous pop up card was designed by Amanda Fowler and we made it at one of her recent classes.  The dress form is perfect for this pop up design which is all cut out easily using the Big Shot.  A touch of designer paper makes a beautiful dress and some silver glimmer paper a perfect mirror.

Here is a better look at the inside of the card and aso ofthe lovely two-tone ribbon used as a closure.

Need For Speed

I love this stamp set but sadly Need For Speed will be retiring at the end of the month to make room for something new to come in the next annual catalogue.
We made this card at Make, Do and Send card club a little while back and I also used the design for my swaps at the Telford training day for Stampin Up demonstrators.  The background is made using Clockworks, the car has been cut out and 3d mounted and the sentiment is from wacky wishes, a hostess only stamp set.  The Lucky Limeade colour is also retiring at the end of June but we are getting a bit of a colour revamp along with some wonderful new In-Colours.

BIG Flower

We made this card at a recent team training day, the combination of lucky limeade and tangerine tango is very bright and cheerful.
The flower has been cut using the Big Shot from designer paper and layered up then finished with a pearl.

River Trip

Well, it looks as though Summer may at last be on the way! These photos were taken when we hired a boat on the Thames last Summer, we had such a lovely day in the sunshine.
I love the combination of Summer Starfruit and midnight muse, it works really well for layering.  I also layered the frames for the smaller photos, it makes them look a little like portholes.

Into Oblivion...Don't Look Down!

It's been a while since I shared a scrapbook page so I thought I had better rectify that!  
These photos were taken at Alton Towers last year, I love the movement in the main image.  I kept the decorating of the page to a minimum, just twisting the central layer and 3d mounting the lettering.

Going, Going, Gone!

It's that time of the Stampin' Up! year when I am both happy and sad. The new Annual Catalogue is just around the corner, launching at the beginning of July, bringing with it lots of lovely new and exciting stamps and accessories.  However, that means that in order to make way for the newbies we have to say goodbye to some of the older products.
The retiring products always sell out really quickly, I'm sure that some will have gone before the end of today even! So, I will be placing an order later today with more to follow.  If anything from your wish list is retiring then get in touch today to order it before it has gone forever. 
You can find links to the retiring stamps and retiring accessories lists here.

Banners

This is a great way to use up some of those scraps of designer series paper that you have hanging around.  Yes, we all have them, can't possibly throw anything away that might possibly be used on a card someday!  
The Feel Goods sentiment has been cut with framelits in the Big Shot but you have to cut the banners yourself. An easy way to get your banner tips even is to either use a square punch or snip up the centre first and then from the corners.

Dress Up and Score!

The All Dressed up framelits are proving very popular at the moment.  They are great for cutting card or fabric so you can put a real fabric dress on your tailors dummy! The designer paper border has a lovely scalloped edge which has been echoed with matching scorelines, although you can't see them very well in this photo. 
This card was designed by Amanda Fowler, you can see her blog here.

Secret Garden

Secret Garden is my favourite stamp set at the moment, I am using it A LOT and I love that it has matching framelits which make cutting out the images so easy!  
This card, however, was designed by one of my team Ashee for a shoebox swap that we did at my team training morning a few weeks back. You can see her blog here.
The flowers were coloured using a blender pen and ink from a melon mambo inkpad. Some flowers were adhered flat to the card front and others 3d mounted  to create dimension. The greeting is from Itty Bitty Banners.

Serene Silhouettes

Out of ideas for a background?  How about using your clear block! I inked mine  with two coordinating inkpads and then stamped straight onto the card to give me this lovely background for my image.  The flower image is from Serene Silhouettes.

Beth's Birthday Book

While I was in Wales a couple of weeks back visiting my daughter at uni she asked me if I could make something for her friends birthday, fortunately I rarely travel to Wales without card and stamps!  We bought an A5 notebook, I covered it with DSP and stamped the flowers from Blooming with Kindness.  The Lovely Letters were stamped, cut out and layered onto white and blue card which I had background stamped with the Confetti stamps and daubed the edge to soften it. The sentiment is from the Feel Goods stamp set.

 

Of course she then needed a birthday card too so I made this coordinating card, scoring the edges of the panels and completing with ruffled ribbon.  
I hope she liked it.

Papilon Potpourri

I have a very pretty card to share today.  It wasn't designed by me (no surprise there!) but by one of my Stampin Up colleagues Angela Blechynden and she demonstrated the card at the Sandown show in January. 
It doesn't show up very well in this photo but the background has been embossed with the Flower Garden folder and then the punched butterflies 3d mounted on top.

Celebration Virtual Party

It's such an exciting time at Stampin' Up! at the moment! In celebration of the launch of my Stampin up online store karengilchrist.stampinup.net I am holding a virtual party! If you place an order using my new store  and entering  Hostess code QBR3KDVA between now and May 30th then I will enter you in a draw to win the Hostess rewards.  Exactly what those rewards are will depend on the total amount of orders received but the goodies will be a minimum £25 value.

Lots of News from Stampin up!

Oh my goodness!  Where does the time go? I can't believe it's been so long since I was here.  
I have loads of projects to share with you and, after the regional training day in Telford recently, a lot of news from Stampin up too!

The most important piece of news for today is the launch of online ordering! 
You can now order from me at any time of the day or night, whenever suits you.  You don't even have to speak to me if you don't want to just head over to http://karengilchrist.stampinup.net and create your account.  The usual delivery charge of £4.95 will apply but if your order exceeds £150 then you will earn hostess benefits just as if you had hosted a workshop! 

I promise to be back soon with more updates and projects to share :)

New Wood Mount Stamp cases

Stampin Up! are really pulling out all the stops lately. Yesterday they announced that these wonderful new storage boxes for the wood mount stamps will be available from July along with lots of new goodies in the new Annual catalogue.
The new cases are similar to the existing clear mount boxes and therefore fit perfectly on the shelf alongside them. From July all wood mount stamps will come in the new style cases and you will also be able to buy empty cases so that you can transfer all your existing stamps into the new style storage.

Swallowtail Butterfly

Whenever Stampin up demonstrators get together we always swap ideas and inspiration and one way of doing this is to make a little something!  This is one of the swaps I received at a training day recently.  It showcases the beautiful Swallowtail butterfly stamp, I have seen so many beautiful cards made using this stamp and it is fast becoming one of my favourites.  The background paper is the First Edition designer paper and is matted onto Mavy and Melon Mambo card stock.  The greeting is punched using the new smaller size decorative label punch, that first appeared during Saleabration but has now carried over, and matted onto a scallop circle of silver glimmer paper. did you know that you can colour the silver glimmer paper using your markers, inkpads or reinkers? So cool!

Papillon Potpourri

Here's a card that we made at Make, Do and Send card club recently.  The base card is Wisteria Wonder and the butterflies are stamped in Wisteria, Pool Party and Lucky Limeade.  I'm so glad that Stampin Up will be retaining most of the current In-Colours although we will lose Lucky limeade at the end of June.
I also stamped the butterflies a second time and punched them out with the matching punch so that I could 3d mount them.  Some simple scoring and a little bling finish it off.

Asymetric Gift card

Today's card is from a shoebox swap that was held at our recent team day.  I can't remember who provided this one, sorry, but it I find out then I will point you in her direction. 
It's a great way to present a gift card as the clever fold creates a pocket on the front and also on the inside of the card.  Of course, it can be made for absolutely any occasion and decorated as you please but in this case we used designer paper in coordinating colours, the border punch and the ribbon flowers.

Exciting News!

Stampin' up! have this morning announced a Colour Refresh.  This means that a few of the colours will be retiring forever but also that we get some lovely new colours to freshen up the colour palette.  Some of the old In Colors will be making an exciting comeback! 

If you need to stock up on any of the retiring colours then give me a shout soon, they are sure to sell out quickly.

All Dressed Up!

The card I am sharing today was designed by Amanda Fowler, you can see her blog here. I had the chance to make it at a team stamping day recently. 
The base card is cut using the oval scallop framelits and the big shot, part of the background layers has been embossed too, you can just about see it in this photo. The dress and stand are from the Dress it up framelit collection.  We attached the fabric to card before cutting out which makes it much neater.