Monthly Archives: March 2014

Embossed butterfly cards

19 Wednesday Mar 2014

Posted by in Birthday, Cards, General occasion

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hello – thanks for reading Caro’s Pretty Things 🙂

Today I wanted to show you a really simple card using one stamp and some embossing.

Embossed Papillon Potpourri butterlyThis is simply a piece of Crumb Cake card stock, with a butterfly from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set stamped over the front in Versamark ink, then heat embossed with silver embossing powder.

Tip: when you are making a card with one repeated image, it’s a good idea to stamp some of the images partially off the edge.  It looks more authentic and just seems to make the pattern “work”.    (You can also use this technique to make your own gift wrap)

The butterflies look so beautiful embossed!

Silver embossed Papillon Potpourri butterfliesI also have to show you a card that my 4 year old made** – a special card for his grandma’s birthday.   He did an amazing job!

Embossed butterflies card - by Mr 4 :-)Although he did a brilliant job for a 4 year old, you can see here that he got some of the versamark ink around the edge of the stamp – which is made more obvious when the embossing powder sticks to it!   This is a good reminder to press gently when stamping!

Thanks for reading

Caro

** Although Mr 4 did the stamping himself, I held the heat tool with him and we did the embossing together.  Heat tools and unsupervised 4 year olds don’t mix!!!

 

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Sweet Sorbet and Scallop Tag Topper punch gift wrapping

18 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by in 1 inch circle, Big Shot, Blossom, Circle Thinlits, Dies, Gift tags & wrapping, Scallop Tag Topper, Using up scraps

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Hello

Yesterday I showed you a card I made for my Mum’s birthday using the Circle Thinlits die and the Sweet Sorbet Designer Series Paper (DSP).

Sweet Sorbet Circle Thinlits 'flip' cardToday I want to show you how I wrapped her gift.    I first wrapped it in ordinary brown paper, then stuck a leftover piece of Sweet Sorbet DSP on the top.

Sweet Sorbet DSP gift wrappingI made a gift tag from the Stampin’ Up! Scallop Tag Topper punch (Pistachio Pudding) – using the same Mixed Bunch embellishment as the birthday card.

Scallop Tag Topper punch, Mixed Bunch flower, with Blossom and 1" circle punch

(Looking at that now, I think next time I’d round the two bottom corners?)

A little Crisp Cantaloupe ribbon and the present was done!

Sweet Sorbet gift wrapping with Scallop Tag Topper gift tag

The gift and card looked really beautiful together 🙂

Sweet Sorbet card and matching gift wrap and gift tag

I hope Mum enjoys her present even half as much as I enjoyed wrapping it!

Thanks for reading

Caro x

Sweet Sorbet Circle Thinlit card

17 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by in 1 inch circle, Big Shot, Birthday, Blossom, Cards, Circle Thinlits, Circles #2, Dies, General occasion

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Hello

I’m really excited to show you today’s card.  I wanted to make a special card for my Mum’s birthday and I’m really pleased how it turned out.   It is my favourite card I’ve made in a long time – and I finally got to play with my Circle Thinlits die which was an added bonus!

Sweet Sorbet Circle Thinlits 'flip' card

(I bought Mum the Circle Thinlits die as her birthday present so wanted to make the card with my die so she’d see an example of her present in action!)

The card base is die cut from Pistachio Pudding and I’ve used the Sweet Sorbet DSP you can get for free from Stampin’ Up! during Sale-A-Bration.   I followed the instructions on Sara’s Crafting & Stamping Studio blog to die cut the DSP layers – thanks Sara!

I cut 2 Whisper White circles from the Circles #2 originals die (largest circle) to stick on the circle ‘flip’ part.   I sponged around the edge in Crisp Cantaloupe to bring out the colours in the DSP.

Inside of Sweet Sorbet 'flip' card

The flower on the front of the card was stamped in Crisp Cantaloupe from the Mixed Bunch stamp set , and punched out with the Blossom Punch.   I used Pistachio Pudding to stamp the flower centre (also from the Mixed Blossom set) and punched it out with the 1 inch circle punch.  I stuck the layers onto the card with Stampin’ Dimensionals and added a pearl for added effect.

Mixed Blossom flower

 

I really loved how this card turned out.   I think I see a few more flip cards in my future!

Thanks for reading – and happy birthday Mum!

Caro x

Upcycled container card sets

10 Monday Mar 2014

Posted by in 3D projects, Blossom, Card sets, Cards, General occasion, Gift card holders, Love notes, Punches, Tutorial

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Hi!

I mentioned in a blog post the other day that I love to look at ordinary, every day things and figure out how to make them prettier.   The other day I was in my kitchen rinsing out some plastic containers that berries and cherry tomatoes had been stored in, when it occurred to me that they would probably make perfect little gift card holders?  And they did!

Yesterday I showed you some gift cards I made with the Stampin’ Up! blossom punch:

Blossom Punch gift card setHere’s what the cards looked like packaged up in a plastic cherry tomato container!

Upcycled tomato container gift card holderYou can see a little better on an angle:

Upcycled tomato container gift card holderThe cherry tomato containers comfortably hold 8-12 note cards plus envelopes.

Check out these little blueberry containers!  They hold 4 cards plus envelopes.

Upcycled berry container gift card setI decorated the inside and the top of the containers so they look really cute inside and out:

Berry container gift card setBerry container gift card setAnd here are a few sets looking very cute all grouped together:

Upcycled plastic container gift card setsI am so excited with this idea.  I may never recycle a plastic container again!!!!

Now to find the lucky recipients of some little gift card packs … 🙂

Thanks for reading

Caro x

Blossom punch gift cards

09 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Birthday, Blossom, Cards, General occasion, Gift tags & wrapping, Love notes, Using up scraps

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Hi

The other day I had an idea for a gift card set which is just a little bit genius (if I do say so myself!!!).   I’ll show you that idea tomorrow.

But first I needed some gift cards …  so, it was off to my craft desk to make some!    I have been wanting to use my pack of Garden Party DSP from the current Stampin’ UP! catalogue for months so I started with that for inspiration.   I pulled out my Blossom Punch and some buttons, and voila!!  Here are some of the cards I made:

Blossom punch Garden Party gift cardBlossom punch Garden Party gift cardBlossom punch Garden Party gift cardBlossom punch Garden Party gift cardThey looked so cute all lined up together!

Blossom Punch gift card setBlossom Punch gift card setCome back tomorrow and I’ll show you my clever idea for packaging them up 🙂

Thanks for reading

Caro x

 

Pretty-ing up the ordinary

08 Saturday Mar 2014

Posted by in Home decorating, Thoughts and comments, Using up scraps

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Hello – thanks for visiting Caro’s Pretty Things!

In keeping with the name of this blog, I quite like taking ordinary things and making them a bit prettier.  For example, I can’t just take a normal note pad along to meetings, conferences etc, I need to have it look pretty!

Decorated note pads

See – much less boring!

It is amazing how ordinary, everyday things can be transformed with just a teeny bit of paper, glue and ribbon.   For example, who would want to keep rubber bands in a boring old jar when an old vitamin container with some DSP and some ribbon looks sooooo much nicer?!?

DSP decorated vitamin container

Why don’t you have a look around at home and see what stuff you have that could be given a new lease of life?

Thanks for reading

Caro x

 

Easter Bunny treat boxes

04 Tuesday Mar 2014

Posted by in 1 1/4 inch circle, 3/4 inch circle, 3D projects, Big Shot, Boxes, Candy Wrapper, Dies, Extra Large Oval, Gift bags, Home decorating, Kids party, Punches, Small Heart, Word Window

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Hello

Given we’re starting to head towards thinking about Easter crafts I thought I would show you some pictures of some little Easter gift boxes I made last year for our Easter brunch.

Candy wrapper Bigz die easter treatsThese are made with the Stampin’ Up! Candy Wrapper Bigz Die which is retired from the current catalogue, but thankfully making a return at a whopping discount in the current Clearance Rack *.

Here is a close up of one:

Easter Bunny gift box

The eyes are made with circle punches, the nose is an upside down small heart punch, and the ears are made from the extra large oval punch and the word window punch (cut off). I drew on the whiskers but you could probably be fancy and use twine.

These looked so cute on the table and lots of mini eggs fitted beautifully inside.

I hope that kick starts you thinking of some cute Easter craft!  Thanks for reading.

Caro x

*As always, please let me know if you’d like to purchase any of the Stampin’ Up! products you see on my blog, or any of the other products in the catalogue for that matter 🙂

“Scribble scrabble” butterflies

02 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by in Beautiful Butterflies, Big Shot, Bitty Butterfly, Butterfly (retired), Dies, Elegant Butterly, Kids craft ideas, Punches, Using up scraps

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Hello

One of the things that my little boy loves to do is make a “scribble scrabble” – a piece of paper where you scribble colours all over it to make a pretty picture.

Scribble scrabbleHe loves making them, and sometimes we use them as wrapping paper or the background for a card.

The other day it occurred to me that they would make gorgeous butterflies, so I got out my Beautiful Butterflies die and the Big Shot, as well as my butterfly punches and set him loose.   He adores being allowed to play with “Mummy’s precious toy” (AKA my Big Shot!).

Scribble scrabble butterfly IMG_2682

Scribble scrabble butterfly

Beautiful butterflies

 

This next photo shows you how to make the largest butterflies from the Beautiful Butterflies die – fold a piece of paper in half and line the fold up along the edge of the ‘half’ butterflies on the die.  This way you get 6 butterflies out of one run through the Big Shot.

Beautiful Butterflies negative image

 

This is his ‘art work’ after spending a happy half hour with his butterflies and a glue stick.

Scribble scrabble butterfly artYou could use the same technique to make gorgeous butterflies for grown up cards and decorations.

Thanks for reading

Caro x