Backyard Basics - More Retiring Products!

I thought I'd get some inspiration from the The Paper Players and was happily playing with ink and paper....completed my projects and went to upload them...when I saw the closing date was yesterday!
Backyard Basics and the matching framelits are on the Retired List as is the DSP Gingham Garden !  Which means you only have until Monday 30th June to order them. Check the Retired List out here.

 This lovely sketch from Paper Players is a great one for using DSP, because if you are like me, I fall in love with some paper, only to find I hate to use it as it is too beautiful. Sound familiar?  Well, this is a another way to show off that beautiful paper. 

There are only a couple more days to take advantage of the amazing deals from Stampin' Up! at the moment.

http://www2.stampinup.com/ECWeb/ItemList.aspx?categoryid=3123&dbwsdemoid=5002019

A last chance reminder to visit the Retiring List on my website.  Some of these products are discounted, some aren't and some have already sold out.

FANTASTIC OFFER

Feed your passion for Crafting.......

• £55 product of your choice
• £45 business kit
•  Low cost to get you started

This really is an Amazing Deal.  For just £50 you can become a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator and reap all the benefits you can get as a result.

Is your Wish List bigger than your Bank Balance?

Turn your passion for paper, stamps and ink into a business.  Purchase your Starter Kit from me HERE and you will become a member of my team and also a member of Stampin' Stars!

Don't forget to check out the Weekly Deals.  These change every Wednesday morning.

Masculine cards

Wow, didn't we have a marvellous weekend, I thought Summer had come - 20 degrees.  Such a welcome relief after all the wet weather we have had over the winter.  We even managed to mow the lawn, I drew the line at cleaning the patio furniture, well a girl has to enjoy the day, not slave away!

I am going to share another of the tag cards today, and then a lovely easy male card.  This is directed at fathers, but if you want to mask out the sentiment, it becomes generic.

Hello Sailor

Look up to Father

Hexagon Hive Thinlit

Birds on the Wire

These cards are made with the Hexagon Hive Thinlits die, new in the Occasions Catalogue.
They are so much fun!

Colour coordinate your diecut with some Designer Series Paper, add a few cut outs or a sentiment and you have an easy card.
I was on a roll with these.







The bird is stamped in Black Stazon-On on vanilla cardstock.  It is from the Hostess set 'Nature's Hello' and cut out with the Backyard Basics  framelits.  The DSP is Modern Medley.

Nature's Hello, Papillon Potpouri, Small Butterfly Punch

 The trick to using the Hexagon Hive Die is to place a piece of wax paper between the die and the card stock.


I found I also needed to turn the die around when rolling through the Big Shott, so the pressure hits the die at different points.  It took a few failures before getting it right!

The DSP on the right is from the Fresh Prints Paper Stack, the butterfly from the 'Nature's Hello' stamp set again, in Real Red, and the hexagon in Soft Suede.

Backyard Basics, Simply Celebrate

The die comes a bit shorter than your average card.  Now I thought originally this was so that it fits the US card size, however I just think like a lot of thinlits it is just a bit short.
Now you can either centre it on your card or you can just make your cards a bit smaller.  The card on the left with the bees has been trimmed and the Pacific Point card with the Watercolour Wonder DSP, shows the size of the diecut on a normal  A5 card.

Nature's Hello, Petite Petals

Nature's Hello

It's summer! We have had the most unbelievable weather for the UK, the temperature has been in the 30's for the past couple of weeks, Bliss. I love the heat.
So I decided we needed to do some painting. After we painted the outdoor furniture it was time to get indoors and try out the Aqua Painters.
I had a class yesterday and we practised using the Aqua Painters on 3 different cardstock to see which worked best.

Top - Watercolour Paper 140lb
Middle - Naturals Ivory
Bottom - Whisper White

We embossed an image in black on the RHS of the paper.
Middle image is stamped with dye ink and LHS is stamped with Black Staz-On

We then used our Aqua Painter to colour the images, picking up colour from an ink pad.

Needless to say the Embossed image and the Staz-On image worked the best. The dye image made the colours muddy as they blended together.

All papers worked well, with the Whisper White cardstock giving a more subtle effect.
You could get more colour and saturation with the watercolour paper and naturals ivory.

Aqua Painter on Staz-On

Blender Pen on Staz-On

White embossed on Crumb Cake, coloured with Aqua-Painter

Secret Garden embossed on watercolour paper by Michelle Jenkins and coloured with the Aqua Painter