birthday blooms and butterflies... and Anything goes..

hello all

well, even though Stampin' Up!s Sale-a-bration campaign is well and truly behind us now.. tissues at the ready in 'Codicote crafting corner'... There are still lots of lovely things on offer and of course the lovely seasonal catalogue has still got a couple of months to run,  so plenty of time to stock up on some items on your wish list to get your creative juices flowing.

For my card this week - I mixed Blushing Bride and Whisper White cardstock with Watermelon Wonder Ink,  with a smattering of sponging, some natural toning elements for surface decoration and a bit of bling to finish, and came up with this.

And as  the current Challenge over at Simon Says is giving us  'Anything goes'  thought I would link it there.

I popped all the flowers,  and the butterfly,  up on dimensionals to add a bit of height and I think you can just about see the little bit on the patterned vellum (cut from one of the little Sketched Dots Tag a Bag Gift bags!) sitting underneath everything. 

I have to admit I added the butterfly as an after thought as I did think the card definitely needed something to balance it in that top left hand corner.  So with it sitting there about to fly off as it were,  I was finally happy with the outcome.

I opted for a 'natural' look in the decoration department as regards my trim,  with the linen thread, the jute ribbon and the 'Celebrate'  sentiment from the Expression Natural Elements set - but think it all worked, and I achieved my aim of offsetting all the sparkly rhinestones, my usual go to embellishment!

and inside?  another partial repeat of the large stamp from Birthday Blooms in conjunction with 2 related sentiments  from the Something to Say stamp set.

and of course no self respecting card would be complete without a toning envelope - made so easily,  courtesy of Stampin' Up!'s Envelope Punch Board.

What do you all think?

Stampin' Up! Supplies Used

Just click on the items below to easily access them in my on line store 

Blushing Bride A4 Cardstock	Birthday Blooms Clear-Mount Stamp Set	Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad	Whisper White A4 Cardstock	Expressions Natural Elements	Stamping Sponges
Linen Thread	White 1-1/4" (3.2 Cm) Jute Ribbon	Elegant Butterfly Punch	Stampin' Dimensionals	Rhinestone Basic Jewels	Envelope Punch Board

Or please just contact me if you have any questions or to place an order for you, if you would prefer.

The card is for Mummie,  who will be celebrating her 83rd birthday at the end of this coming week. I hope she likes it.

...And as I mentioned in my previous post - we are all off on holiday next week, taking her  away for a short break following her recent stay in hospital.  Can't believe it is here and how did it ever get to be April.?

and in case you are wondering - we are off to the Isle of Man touring the island on the little railway.  Looks lovely I think and we are looking forward to it, so hope the weather behaves itself!

But on my return, it will seem a very quick week as the following weekend sees a lot of UK and other European Markets , Stampin' Up! demonstrators (me included!),   heading for Telford for the latest Stampin' Up! On stage event.

Always a show case for what is coming up - so am really looking forward to it - but as ever will be in panic/last minute.com mode as I put the finishing touches to my swaps... ...what was that about a new year's resolution, some thing along the lines of making sure I start in plenty of time.. Hah, maybe next year.. !

Til next time - when I will be back fresh from my holiday and looking forward to Telford.