Had to share these photos.

Even though our children are well passed the age of cartoons – Roy and I still eagerly headed off to the Despicable Me 2 movie.

I just love the minions and had to try my hand at a card.

There are HEAPS of Minion cards out there that I chuckled over and drew inspiration from to come up my card.

This was quite a fiddly card to put together – especially the hair! But so worth it!

And then Beth did a Minion Cake decorating class last weekend – soooooo cool don’t you think!

 The Minion even has his own cake – a gorgeous layered creamed sponge cake!

And not only did he look fantastic – he was very tasty too!  Though very hard to cut.

My Super Six Stampers got to enjoy a piece on Monday.

He’s looking a bit worried about now!

Until next time

Jackie

As promised – here at last are the details of the second card made at my September Classes.

This black and “vanilla” coloured card uses the Papillon Potpourri Stamp Set and the Bitty Butterfly punch which are currently available as a bundle (see details below). The only ink colour used on the card is basic black. The colouring of the Naturals Ivory paper works beautifully for the look I wanted to achieve. Using a doilie as a mask, I sponged some Basic Black into the card and with the doilie still acting as a mask, I stamped the two larger butterflies. This technique is great for giving the impression of depth to the card.

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As Punches were one of the focus for my September classes, I wanted to show some different ways the punch could be used. We have used both positive and negative punched shapes on the card. By punching out the front Very Vanilla card-stock the negative acts as a window through to the Basic Black below. The positive butterflies are both stamped (on Naturals Ivory) and unstamped (Basic Black) and have been attached using glue dots. Those Basic Pearl Jewels give an elegant look to the card in keeping with the Crochet Trim. 

I have also used the Artisan Label for the sentiment and its mat. This label shape lends itself to being used as a matted sentiment embellishment – so easy to cut the mat (in this case black) in half and have a little showing at the top and the bottom. Alternatively you can also simply off-set the two labels a little for a different look.

I always look forward to new DSP and the selection in this year’s Annual Catalogue is awesome – something for every occassion.  I am loving the classic colour combination of Basic Black and Very Vanilla in the Modern Medley papers. And there is a dictionary pattern – doesn’t get much better than that!

Other Cards

Just as I had done with the Mosaic Aperture card, I had made a few other cards using the Papillon Potpourri stamp set to share with the class.

Keeping with the colours used in my class card, I had made a square card featuring several of the co-ordinating butterfly products. The Elegant Butterfly punch also co-ordinates with some of the stamps in the Papillon Potpourri Stamp Set.

First I stamped and punch out the small and large floral patterned butterflies. I wanted to use the negative spaces left behind on the card so punched them out using the and  circle punches. Before laying out my card front though, I used the Elegant butterfly as a stencil and then used a piece of cut up sponge to create the butterfly shape on the inside of my card – you can just see it peeping out below. By only sponging lightly the textured look of the sponge is in the butterfly shape.

I love how the Bitty Butterfly punched shape fits inside the negative created by the Elegant Butterfly punch. And then there are more butterflies – the Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die certainly lives up to its name! So cool layered AND they fit beautifully inside the Bitty Butterfly punch. The way products co-ordinate is just one of the many things I love about Stampin Up! – yay!

The second card I shared with the class was to show the butterflies in a more colourful light. Using all of the colours in the Brights card-stock

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This was a fun card to make. See the layered butterflies in the close-up? There are three of each colour – two on the outside of the card and one on the inside.

Finally – Just a reminder that the Butterfly Bundle promotion finishes on 30 September. This is a fantastic opportunity to purchase the versatile Papillon Potpourri Stamp Set and Bitty Butterfly Punch at a great price – with 15% off.

 Offer: Get 15 percent off when you buy this bundled butterfly stamp set and punch!

If you would like to order the bundle please contact me by email or phone 027 348 3901.

Or if you wish to order online, you can do so at my online shop 24/7.

Until next time

Jackie

Have you noticed my new profile picture – I’ve been framed!

I just love the frame on the front of our current annual catalogue and thought if only I had one like it that I could use to display cards … Luckily I have access to an amazing handyman – my hubby Roy. With a little “persuasion” he took to the task with his usual attention to detail and voila … an awesome frame!

Before using it as a display piece, I thought it would be cool to take a few pictures with the intention of updating my profile picture. So I asked Ross, our 18 year son, to be photographer for the “photo-shoot”!  Again with just a little persuasion, Ross obliged and we had a fun time trying out some options. Below are a few of the images that didn’t make the cut!

We started outside. While the backdrop of the inlet was pretty – the wind was a bit of a problem! Tassels everywhere and banners moving too quickly to be captured. The wind swept tassels were made from the rectangular sheets of Creped Filter Paper which had been coloured by spritzing. I put a few drops of Pool Party Ink Refill into a Stampin’ Spritzer along with some water and spritzed the sheets before cutting them into strips.

The large flower was made from the circle sheets of creped filter paper which I cut out using the Floral Frames Collection Framelits. As I wanted a rich colour on these, I used the Brayer and Strawberry Slush Ink Pad to build up colour onto the filter paper. The bottom ones are darker than the top. The little yellow flowers are also from the rectangular crepe filter paper, brayer with Daffodil Delight and cut into strips.

So we moved to more shelter spot outside – but still had trouble with the wind. Ross had to try and take his shots in the brief gaps between the the wind gusts.

The banner tags were cut on the Big Shot using the new Chalk Talk Framelits and stamped with letters from the Morning Post Alphabet stamps – Inspire in Strawberry Slush, Create in Pool Party and Share in Pumpkin Pie. The other images on the banners came from the Mosaic Madness stamp set. There are some strips of Island Indigo Chevron Ribbon behind “Inspire” and behind them some more strips of Pool Party coloured crepe filter paper strips.

As you can see – it was hard to take photos that didn’t have something moving or spinning. So we moved inside to try our luck there.

The bookshelf provided a good backdrop and I tried sitting, standing – even walking through the frame!

A bit hard to see in the photos – but there are some banners made from the Champagne Glimmer paper punched into 1/2″ circles and strung on Whisper White Baker’s Twine. I stuck these and all the banner peices on with Sticky strip – just as well considering the wind workout they got!

Hope these have put a smile on your face – we certainly had a few laughs taking them!

Until next time

Jackie

Project Supply List:

Ink: Pool Party (pad 126982, Ink Refill 122933), Strawberry Slush (pad 131178, Ink refill ), Daffodil Delight (pad 126944), Pumpkin Pie (Pad 126945)      

Stamps:  Morning Post Alphabet (Wood:132042, Clear:126592), Mosaic Madness (Wood:130246, Clear:130249)      

Card/Paper: Whisper White (106549), Creped Filter Paper (129393), Champagne Glimmer Paper (127885), Quatrefancy Specialty DSP (130141)

Accessories: Whisper White Baker’s Twine (124262), Sticky Strip (104294), Island Indigo Chevron Ribbon (131151)

Tools: Stampin’ Spritzer (126185), Brayer (102395), Floral Frames Collection Framelits (127012), Chalk Talk Framelits (129983), Big Shot (113439), 1/2″ Circle Punch(119869), Mosaic Punch (131267)

We recently got to celebrate the engagement of Tim and Laura – my nephew and his gorgeous fiancé. Laura has an great food blog and her first cookbook is due for release later in August. (Check out her blog at www.hungryandfrozen.com if you’re a foodie).

This was the second engagement we have been lucky enough to celebrate this year.  My niece Emma and her fiancé Simon celebrated with families and friends a few months ago. Exciting times!

Our gift to Tim and Laura was a “vintage-look” noticeboard – it was padded material with a vintage wallpaper print framed in an antique styled frame – all in neutral shades. Check out Stampin’ UP!’s neural palette in the annual catalogue on pages 144/145. The gift itself provided all the inspiration I needed to make a card! 

I layered two pieces of Very Vanilla cardstock onto my Early Expresso base. One piece had been run through the Bigshot in the Beautifully Baroque Embossing Folder which had been inked with the Chocolate Chip ink pad – I love the effects that inking up embossing folders creates. In this case it matched the gift we were giving so well. The second piece of Very Vanilla had been stamped with “En Françias” in Sahara Sand to provide a subtle background onto which I stamped “Congratulations” from the Sassy Salutations stamp set. I used a range of varying shades of browns (Early Expresso, Chocolate Chip, Soft Suede and Crumb Cake) to create a graduated effect. I place a piece of Chocolate Chip Grosgrain ribbon across the join. Since I made the card, our the new 2013-2014 Annual Catalogue has been released and this ribbon has retired.

The frame embellishment on the front of the card has three layers. The bottom layer was created using the Rectangular Frame from the Designer Frames Embossing Folder which I cut out and sponged to “age”. The middle layer used the inked Beautifully Baroque embossing folder again – though using Crumb Cake this time. The hearts are from the Hearts a Flutter stamp set – perfect for an engagement card I thought – so I just had to put them on the front of my envelope as well. The envelope flap also got the inked embossing folder treatment!

I’d had such fun with these colours and the effect they had that I decided to carry the theme through to the wrapping. Beth had made our Christmas wrapping paper last year by stamping onto newsprint – so we took it one step further and using sheets which had been scrunched a little (to give that vintage look), Beth stamped “Congratulations” in Early Expresso, “En Françias” in Crumb Cake, the “Beautifully Baroque Embossing Folder” in Soft Suede and the “Heart” in early Expresso all over the paper. So cool!

And of course any present is enhanced with the addition of a flower!

I sure enjoyed sharing this with Tim and Laura – and we had a wonderful celebration with their families and friends.

It has been a privilege to be part of both of these celebrations and reminded Roy and I of ourselves when we got engaged all those years ago. We celebrated our 27th wedding anniversary earlier this year so that was some time ago!

Emma & Simon and Tim & Laura – here’s wishing you a lifetime of love and happiness and the opportunity to make wonderful memories together. 

Ah – love is a wonderful thing!

Until next time

Jackie

Project Supply List:

Ink: Early Expresso (pad 126974, Chocolate Chip (pad 26979), Soft Suede (pad 126978), Crumb Cake (126975)      Stamps: En Françias (Wood 128562, Clear Mount 127790), Sassy Salutations (Wood 132070, Clear Mount 126707), Hearts a Flutter (Wood 131922, Clear Mount 129252)        Card/Paper: Early Expresso (121686), Very Vanilla (106550)     Accessories: Dimensionals (104430)     Tools: Beautifully Baroque Embossing Folder (130917), Big Shot (113439)