Meeting Friends

On Monday I was meeting some old school friends in town for coffee and of course I couldn't pass up an opportunity to pop into the large newsagents nearby just to glance at the crafty magazines.  As you've probably guessed by now I was tempted by one of the magazines on offer which had an embossing folder, some stamps and matching dies as their free gift.  I'm sure many of you will remember what came to be known as 'that embossing folder' which proved to be so popular about two years ago (I think) that there was even a Facebook group formed in its honour!  Well the folder I got this time was one from the same family which is great because I've so enjoyed using the original one over the years and it is nice to have a different one.  The dies and stamps are mainly floral too - very useful - and there is also a curvy die which matches the curve dividing the patterns on the folder.

I cut a piece of watercolour card to size and embossed before brushing two colours of ink lightly to define the different patterns.  The curvy strip was die cut and one of the sentiments stamped using the Misti for positioning.  I then stamped and die cut some flowers and flourishes, colouring the flowers with the same colours of ink.  The flower centres were some tiny punched flowers  finished with a pearl drop.  The magazine came with lots of really interesting ideas for using the embossing folder, dies and stamps and I will certainly be trying some of them as well as ideas of my own.

Embossing Folder - free with magazine, Apple Blossom (Craft Stash)
Stamps and dies - free with magazine, Apple Blossom (Craft Stash)
Flower centres - small flower punch Stampin' Up
Ink - Distress ink Wild Honey, Tumbled Glass

Twofer Card Challenge #6

I decided to have a go at this Twofer Card Challenge and if you follow the link to their blog you can see what this is all about and maybe have a go yourself.  I hope I've interpreted the rules correctly.  The theme is 'trees' and the idea to use the same stamp/stamp set or die/die set to make two cards for different occasions.  There are some really imaginative ideas from the Design Team whereas mine seem to have turned out pretty simple but then I was aiming for a fairly CAS style here. (clean and simple).  Both of the cards have to be submitted in one photo.

For one of them I stamped the bare tree and bicycle then stamped the branches onto a die cut circle and the wheels onto a scrap of card before cutting them out with scissors. These pieces were then popped into place with foam pads and a sentiment was stamped onto a strip of card and added in the same way.  For the second card I added some blossoms to the tree and some grass underneath (all part of the stamp set).  Again a simple sentiment was stamped onto a strip of card.

Stamp Set - Sheltering Tree from Stampin' Up
Sentiments - stamps from my words collection probably magazine freebies