Experiments in ribbon ruffling

At training yesterday my lovely SU mummy Jules showed me how to ruffle ribbon. I've seen this loads but never managed to get to grips with it.

The trick is to use the wider Taffeta Ribbon and pull out one of the strands. It is a little bit fiddly - you cut into the ribbon and fray it up then use your nails (or tweezers) to eek one of the threads out.



Here are the cards I made featuring this technique. I used the Color Coach to determine the combo - Crumb Cake, Real Red and Bashful Blue. I love the Color Coach because I would never have thought of utting these colours together, but they look amazing. The stamp set is the now retired SAB Bliss, but I've not yet been able to put it down!



On this one I pulled out a thread in the middle, so it went crinkly on both sides. You can loosen it up a bit as you go along or pull it really tight.



Here I pulled out a strand at the very edge, so it created a valance effect.

Now I just need some of this ribbon in different colours ...

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Last SAB project - Bliss

Well, today is the final day of the amazing Sale-A-Bration promotion. I hope you have enjoyed the free stamp sets. I will certainly miss them, especially Bliss.

So today I had a final play and made a card for my friend Hayley as a wedding RSVP.



I used the scrolly stamp to create the background tone on tone in Crumb Cake. I added some Organza Ribbon, which is very classy and great for weddings.



The squares are Rose Red and I used the Rock and Roll technique on the flowers using Rose Red and Regal Rose. I finished them off with some pearls.

Stay tuned for some more exciting Stampin' Up! news tomorrow.

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SAB finale and a special birthday

Only four days left to get some FREE Stampin' Up! stamp sets with the Sale-A-Bration promotion! After Feb 28th they'll be gone forever, so don't miss out - contact me now to order!

And just for one last bit of inspiration, here are cards I have made with Bliss, which is my favourite of the FREE SAB sets you can earn when you buy Stampin' Up! products.



I teamed it with the Just Believe set and the Sweet and Sour DSP. Plus some bling with the Rhinestones!

One of these went out to my SU sister Sarah-Jane for her birthday today. Hope you have a fab time!

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Tessa's birthday

Today is my housemate Tessa's birthday so I made her a card and little gift.



I decided to go a bit cutesy with Bliss and combine this awesome FREE stampset with the stunning Lap of Luxury DSP and some grosgrain and taffeta ribbon. The colours are Pretty In Pink and Perfect Plum and I have slightly distressed the squares and inked with Crumb Cake.



This cute little treat holder was really easy to make and so much fun. I started with a 3" square of Wild Wasabi card stock and scored each edge 1/2" in then folded up. Added some more green card at the front and some Bashful Blue for the sky, all with scallop punched edges. I also did clouds using the Sponge Daubers and Whisper White Craft ink.



I added flowers in Daffodil Delight, which were covered in the Champagne Glimmer Paint and finished off with Rhinestones. The little Lindt bunny didn't have his usual ribbon so I added Read Red taffeta and a name tag. You will notice this one is actually for my mum ...hope she doesn't read this! These would be awesome for Easter too!

Tonight is our WI meeting so I'll be off to do some crafting with the girls. Think I will make some new clothes for the Dead Dolls I got the other day!

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ILWS Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my turn in the In Love With Stamping Sale-A-Bration Blog Hop!
There are four rounds altogether; I am part of number two so you may have arrived from the lovely Krafty Biker page. Links to the next blog in this loop and the start of each round are at the end of my post so do take time to look at the many wonderful creations using this year's Sale-A-Bration stamp sets from Stampin' Up!

Don't forget, these sets can only be earned until the end of February and then they are gone! You get them FREE by spending £45 or hosting a workshop with product sales of £300 or more. Just get in touch to place your order or arrange your home party.

I have two cards to share, both using the beautiful Bliss set in different ways.

On the first I have gone for the faux tile look, which I posted about a few days ago.



It is quite sraightforward but involves a bit of time and patience!



First, I created the whole tile image by stamping the beautiful motif in Crumb Cake and Basic Gray on to Very Vanilla cardstock. I used my Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line them up correctly.



Then I cut this up into squares, distressed the edges a bit with the Cutter Kit and covered each one with Crysal Effects. This dries to a clear laquer, making them look like ceramic tiles. I left them overnight to be absolutely sure I wouldn't smudge them!



Then I stuck on to Crumb Cake cardstock to act as the grout and finished off with some Twill Tape, stamped with the bird image from the set, and a Neutrals Button tied on with Linen Thread.



And now for the second card. This was inspired by my SU grandma Monica and I used my favourite colour - purple!



I adore this card so expect to see some variations in future!

I started by attaching a piece of Rich Razzleberry Striped Grosgrain Ribbon and a piece of the stunning Lap of Luxury DSP to the card blank.

Then I cut four squares of Crumb Cake cardstock and randomly stamped the motif in Crumb Cake and Basic Gray. The squares were then sanded at the edges, crumpled and inked up using the amazing Distressing Kit, which I am loving as vintage is soooo my thing at the moment! On one square I also stamped the Bliss and bird images in Rich Razzleberry.



The flowers and butterfly from the set were stamped in Rich Razzleberry on Very Vanilla cardstock and cut out, which was nowhere near as fiddly as it sounds! I stuck them on with Dimensionals for added effect.



As you can see I used lots of pearls all over as they are just soooooo pretty!



So there you go, two very different cards using the same FREE stamp set.

The next stop on round two of the blog hop is at Rachel's page, so go see what she has come up with!

And here are the starting points of each:
Round one: Sara
Round two: Theresa
Round three: Keren
Round four: Kirsteen

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