A trio of thoughts from friends #1

Sharing some beautiful cards I received earlier in the year... from fellow friends, team members, customers and demonstrators...  In no particular order... and again thank you all for your thoughts at that time....

Uma Kathirgamanathan's gorgeous Pop Up Front Step Panel Card.... featuring Garden Lane papers and Rooted in Nature stamps... Tutorial for this card here...

Sarah Lavelle's beautiful A6 card featuring Pretty Label punched Label Me Pretty & Flourishing Phrases greeting... with Floral Essence flowers...

 And Caroline Merrick's super Botanical Blooms (retired) A6 card...

PS All is perfectly OK post-op... but I have to "take it easy" and not lift, bend or stretch etc "much" for another week or so... so "grabbing" my crafting supplies is a temptation I need to avoid... so I am taking the opportunity to share some lovely creations made by friends... Normal Service will resume soon... 

PPS At Home classes will continue as planned... I was ready for this month's classes pre-op so nothing to stop those... 

Botanical Blooms & Botanical Builder dies

Retiring soon... so a round up post of some of my makes using Botanical Blooms & Builder dies over the years.... this has been a very popular set of dies... last chance now... but rather nicely discounted for you... details at the end of this post...

Click on the project photo to go that blog post for more information...

Botanical Builder dies reduced 30% from £30 to £21

Botanical Blooms stamps reduced 25% from £15 to just £11.25... great leaves, flowers and feathers(at the Top Left!) And brilliant for a One Sheet Wonder session...

And for completeness... here are some projects Stampin Up! made...

August Monthly Jems Blog Hop

Well hello and welcome from me, Amanda Bates at The Craft Spa to the Jems Blog Hop ...

The theme this time is Boxes or Bags - or indeed any type of Packaging project...

So since it has been a long while since I made a Handled Cantilever Box... and my Affectionately Yours papers were still out desperate to be put to use again...

The box is made from Kraft card and I faux stitched everything with a marker pen...

I kept the decoration really simple as there are enough lovely flowers in the papers... just a copper embossed Love & Affection flower, Botanicals Blooms leaves and small Blossom Blooms punched flowers. And an admittance... the brads and candy dots are retired stock... but I had to have brads for the project!!

I do still have the Imperial and Metric pdf Tutorials for sale for this box. Reduced to £3  - OR  - if you are in the UK - free with a £25+ Stampin' Up! order (before P&P) - for the next week.

But PLEASE do remember to tell me whether you want the Imperial (inches) or Metric (centimetres) tutorial. 

The easiest and quickest way is to send £3(GBP) by Paypal to me at thecraftspa@gmail.com  stating CANTILEVER BOX and whether IMPERIAL or METRIC. Paypal does any currency conversion necessary if you select GBP as the currency to send so you don't need to worry about that.... I will send the tutorial through to your Paypal email address (unless otherwise advised on your payment notes) within 24 hours of your payment.

OR click here and EMAIL ME to request a Paypal invoice …  Please advise your Paypal account email address and state CANTILEVER BOX and whether IMPERIAL or METRIC. You will then receive an invoice via Paypal for payment. The tutorial will be emailed to your Paypal email address (unless otherwise advised on your payment notes) within 24 hours of your payment.

Or  (option for UK residents only) - place an online order here quoting the Current Stampin Rewards/Host Code (see Top Right for code).  Please make sure you can see my name (Amanda Bates) at the top right of your screen so that you know you are shopping with me…! Please then email me at thecraftspa@gmail.com quoting your order number and whether you want the IMPERIAL or METRIC version. The tutorial will be emailed to you within 24 hours. Your Stampin Up! goods will be with you direct from Stampin’ Up! in 4-7 days.

If you have not heard back from me within 24 hours... please check your Spam email folder first but then contact me if email communication has not been successful!

And so back to the Blog Hop...and without further ado...  I will now pass you onto the lovely Karyn who has something lovely to share with you... just press the Next Blog button!

Missed one? Or going in reverse? Here is your link to the lovely Sarah's blog and her fabulous project...

Or here is the full Blog Hop Listing

Jems Blog Hop - August

Sharon Glynn - Shari Anne Happy Crafter
Julie Dix - Scrapping Mojo
Sarah Lavelle - Sarah Lavelle
Amanda Bates - The Craft Spa  (YOU ARE HERE)
Karyn Davies - KD Crafts
Elaine Baines - Lainey B Crafts
Julie Kettlewell - Julie's Japes
Samantha Webster - Sam's Cakes and Crafts
Kylie Henshaw - Hello Stamper
Julie Wade - Create Handmade Happiness
Sarah Lindsay - Crafts with Sarah L
Karen Watts - Krafting K
Kate Martin - Krafts by Kate Martin
Linda Ellis - Linda's Papercraft
Gill Arnold - Make Moor Cards
Tracy Hill - Nathan's Tea Room

Gold & Vanilla Botanical Blooms Two Ways

Can't get the Botanical Builders die-cut and used much simpler than this... Very Vanilla flowers with gold foil centres...finished off with pearls in the centre... and gold foil leaves...

The cards are both made from the same 12.5cm card blank... the right hand just as a standard card blank... the left hand as a Simple Easel Card...

So (as some of you asked for directions) cut a piece of card 12.5 x 25cm... (5x10")

For the standard card blank...  score your LANDSCAPE panel at 12.5cm (5")

For the Simple Easel card... score your LANDSCAPE panel at 6.25cm (2 1/2") and 12.5cm (5") 

The square panel is just a 9cm (3 1/2") Square - finished off with simple paper piercing using the (very sadly retiring - but reduced!) Essentials Paper Piercing pack on the right - with the addition of Faux Stitching on the left (I used a crafty stash gold metallic Sharpie pen)

The paper is from the Botanical Gardens paper stack (12 cm or 4 3/4") Square. It is used also used on the inside of the standard card  - but with an extra Very Vanilla panel with the inside greeting and gold embossed leaves... sorry no photo taken... 

The gold embossed stamped leaves are from Grateful Bunch and again I have used the retiring (but also reduced) Sassy Salutations for my gold embossed wording

Simple, elegant and suitable for any occasion... 

Botanical Blooms Trio card

Been itching to share this card for a while...  it had quite an effect on my ladies at classes last week! I was so pleased that Sassy Salutations was at least reduced for them on the Retiring List! 

The border die and the flowers in the Botanical Blooms dies really are quite special... so I am very glad that they are carrying over into the new 2016-17 catalogue... plenty more to share using these...

Now I can't take any credit for the majority of this card! I have seen variants all over Pinterest as it really is too good not to make... so here are a few links to hopefully get the credit back to the originator(s). 

I believe Carolyn Bennie in Australia was the genius behind the marker/sponging decoration of the flowers with these stunning flowers she made shown here...

.... and although I was inspired to immediately make this when team mate Julie Kettlewell's posted her navy version... she in turn was inspired by Sue Vine 's stunning Melon Mambo creation.... 

All I changed was the colour (as my ladies do love their purples!)... and I used 3 of the flower sizes instead of just the large one... easier to die cut that way - and I prefer the resultant lighter look...

But I do have to laugh as my ladies are now all wanting to make boxes for their cards to go in as the flattening of those beautiful flowers is quite upsetting them!!! Think another Envelope Punch Board class and a Box Frame card might be on the cards in the not too distant future....

Botanical Blooms in Blues...

 

Quick share today... think I could have man flu! I couldn't even stamp straight and centrally on a card... so I have had to give up on anything creative for today...

We made this beautiful card at Monthly Training this week... gorgeous in these colourways...

Spot the White Perfect Accents at the flower centres... as they are easy to miss in the main catalogue...but they are ever so useful... and can be coloured with my permanent pens too....

So Silver embossed greeting .... die cut, sponged flowers and leaves...just the big leaf to bottom right with any stamping...

Very nice bundle...which does include a pack of papers ( which I initially missed) and Buy The Bundle get the SAB Botanicals For You used for the greeting for FREE...what's not to love...

So let's hope an early night tonight sorts "the flu" out quickly!

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