Shabby Chic, and a Sneak Peek!

Historically I have had trouble recreating the beautiful "shabby chic" look in my cardmaking.  No matter what I did, it always ended up looking like something made in cutting & pasting time at the local kindergarten (okay, that might be an exaggeration).

So I was delighted with this card ...

I was inspired by this card at Splitcoast stampers - isn't it gorgeous? - but went a little further with my trim using the Scallop Trim Border punch.  The grungy look on the embossed layer was created by swiping my Crumb Cake inkpad vigorously over the inside of the Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions embossing folder - the ink caught in the edges of the design and it looks kind of worn and faded.

The colours are little washed out - the base and butterflies are Pink Pirouette, which in real life looks so pretty with teamed with Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla and Old Olive as shown here.  I also sponged the butterflies with Pink Pirouette ink to highlight the embossing on the wings.

And you might notice a little something lurking in the background there ... see the Crumb Cake shape behind the leaves?  You can't see just how pretty it is, but come next month you will ... yep, it's a new product coming in the Autumn-Winter Mini (released April 1).  Mmmm, framelits ... I am going to have so much fun with these!

Want to know more?  Contact me!

Images © 1990-2012 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:
Ink: Crumb Cake, Pink Pirouette
Cardstock: Pink Pirouette, Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake, Old Olive
Other: Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Scallop Trim Border Punch, Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die, Little Leaves Sizzlit Die, Labels Collection Framelits Dies

Pretty Flowers

I love my Big Shot dies ... I find myself wondering how I ever managed without them, and can't seem to make a card without some sort of die cutting or dry embossing involved.  Here's a card inspired by this highly talented blogger - if only I could read French...!

I loved the white simplicity of the original, but found myself most inspired by the clever dimensional flowers - simply a die cut folded in half, but so effective!

In the absence of fancy brads, I simply used the circle from the Blossom Party die, cut in half and glued down for the flower centres.

And for the flower stem, the two step stamps from Awash With Flowers were perfect - one stamped "right way up" the other "upside down" so the stems bent in opposite directions.

mages © 1990-2012 Stampin' Up!®

Supplies used:
Stamps: Awash with Flowers
Ink: Old Olive
Cardstock: Pool Party, Old Olive, Very Vanilla, Daffodil Delight
Other: Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Blossom Party Originals Die