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Well, most of April is gone with a new catalogue & almost no posts! What a slacko! It's been really busy around here & will probably continue that way until early May. Sadly, this means I've had almost no stamping time - so many new toys & so little time too, but it's for a good reason! My wonderful cousin (& UK SU Demo too!) Jean, & her family arrived from Scotland for a holiday yesterday, so the next two weeks will be spent having lots of fun with them. I'll also be spending a very exciting couple of days in Canberra at the annual Stampin' Up! Convention, which is guaranteed to have me brimming with new ideas. Last but certainly not least, my big girl, Cara is turning 8 on May 3rd. Anyway, back to the box set... I've wanted to share the project for a while - a box set of 4 note cards using 'Baroque Motifs' & 'Short & Sweet'.
I created this set in February for a class I ran for lovely hostess, Rachel (waving & smiling Rach!). She asked if I could use 'Baroque Motifs' & I of course said YES! as Baroque is so one of my faves. For the colours, I choose to use a classic combination of chocolate chip, close to cocoa, bashful blue & certainly celery (surprised?) teamed with some Close to Cocoa & Celery Prints designer papers (now retired). After seeing the project, a group of friends from church asked if they could make it too, so I thought you might like it too.
I created this set in February for a class I ran for lovely hostess, Rachel (waving & smiling Rach!). She asked if I could use 'Baroque Motifs' & I of course said YES! as Baroque is so one of my faves. For the colours, I choose to use a classic combination of chocolate chip, close to cocoa, bashful blue & certainly celery (surprised?) teamed with some Close to Cocoa & Celery Prints designer papers (now retired). After seeing the project, a group of friends from church asked if they could make it too, so I thought you might like it too.
I created a box template to fit 4 standard SU note cards, but you could probably fit 6 if you go easy on using dimensionals. Here's the box, closed & open.
The cards are very simple, but the ribbon & rhinestone brads add some yum! You might notice that some of the layouts are similar to cards in my Bali Breeze folder set too. This shows how different the same layout can look. Oh, I had one change between classes. The original card 4 used close to cocoa Prints paper, but I ran out of before the 2nd class, so I substituted it for some close to cocoa card rollered with the 'So Swirly' wheel & chocolate chip ink, which is what you see in the pic. I've also shown some extra cards I made at the same time as the first set.
Other than that, I think they're all pretty self explanatory, but drop me an e-mail if you have any questions. Apologies again for the colours in the pics – especially the celery - my camera & I are apparently still not on the same wavelength.Well that's all for now. No promises on when my next post will be, but I hope to find some time to stamp with Jean while she's here. In the meantime, take care & I'll be back soonish.
Inky wishes
Di
PS: A plug for my Cuz! - If you're looking for a lovely Stampin' Up!® Demonstrator in Glasgow, Scotland, then e-mail me for my cousin Jean's details. She doesn't have a blog, but I know she'd love to help you....once she's back home!
PPS: If you're love card sets, you must check out a fabulous card folder project here on my dear buddy Kellie's blog.
Supplies:Stamps: Baroque Motifs, Short & Sweet, So Swirly jumbo wheel
Card: note cards & envelopes, bashful blue, certainly celery, chocolate chip, close to cocoa, whisper white card, Close to Cocoa & Celery Prints designer paper.
Ink: chocolate chip, close to cocoa, bashful blue, certainly celery
Accessories: Ice rhinestone brads, 5/8 inch & ¼ inch grosgrain ribbon, 1 inch chocolate chip & bashful blue double stitched ribbon, ¼ inch bashful blue grosgrain ribbon
Tools: punches - word window & large & small ovals, piercing tool
& here's my card (sorry about the pic. Late night & my camera don't play well):
I'm running a mothers day class this weekend, so my mind was on pretty things for mums when I was thinking about colours. I've used 2 brand new in-colours (to Aus anyway) - Baja Breeze & Pink Pirouette, together with regal rose & white. The pink panel is rolled with the 'Scribble' wheel. The large silver brad is from the new flower designer brad pack & the clear rhinestones are from the Pretties Kit, but you can now order these in packs on their own (yyyyaaaaayyyy!). The flower stamp is of course from Pick a Petal & the greeting is from Always (which I'm overjoyed to say made the new catalogue).
The cards
Here they are in more detail:
The gorgeous stem is stamped in regal rose, rose red & celery. The stem panel has a part circle punched out & both the panel & greeting (from Birthday Best) are popped off the front.
The flowers are rock & rolled in regal rose/rose red & apricot appeal/pumpkin pie & coloured in the centre, then punched out with the 1 inch circle. The square panel is popped on the front.
The flower was inked in apricot appeal & markered with a pumpkin pie marker & then cut out & popped on a white & pumpkin panel.
The flower was markered with tempting turquoise & celery markers, punched out & raised on a taken with teal circle. I made 3 more cards to show the class some other ideas with the paper & set, so here they are too. These 2 cards are based on the pink stem card. I swapped the pink for some olive in the first one & for some pumpkin in the second one.
I really liked the layers one, but I thought it would take too long to make at the class & I prefer not to have too many layers to fit in the folder.
The Folder
Again, I kept the folder decoration very simple, with some subtle bling from a rhinestone brad. The flower was stamped in the same way as the 3rd card. The folder is tied with celery grosgrain. Here's how it looks on the inside:
Anyway, I hope you like this project. It's been another of my favourite projects, so I hope you like it too. Leave me a comment, as I love to hear what you think & drop me an 
Here's the first card we made. This is a free-standing pop-up card. It folds flat for posting, but it stands on its own when open. We used some of my (sob) beloved (sob) in-colours – in this case, blue bayou, soft sky & groovy guava (with a little ruby red thrown in) & the fabulous 'Eat Cake' set. I have to say that this set will NOT be leaving my collection when it retires, as it's such a great birthday set. If you'd like to make your own free standing pop-up, you can find a fantastic tutorial 
This is the second one we made. As the pop-up takes a little time to make, the 2nd card was really simple but I really like the layout - it's so flexible - & I like how the whole rectangle is popped off the card base (which you may not see clearly in the pic). 
I made the first one for our dear friend Jaed's '21st' birthday. First I stamped HBTY (happy birthday to you) in sage shadow ink on vanilla with the retired (last year) Headline alphabet, then mounted it on layers of chocolate chip, sage shadow & really rust, to match the striped Outlaw paper. I used 'Everyday Flexible Phrases' (retiring this month) to stamp the little words & mounted them on dimensionals. I couldn't resist adding a final little ribbon tab on the side.
I used the same idea with different colours & paper with the second card, which was for Zac, who turned 11 this month. I wanted the message to be more like a car registration with Zac's age, but I don't have the 'Headline' number set, so a little improve was needed. Thankfully, 11 was easily made with the 'i' & the dash came from the dot on the question mark stamp. The stamping & base is wild wasabi & the Jersey Shore paper added some fun. Sorry about the colours in the pic. It looked much better IRL, but my camera just doesn't seem to play nicely with wasabi (grrr).
Like 
The bubba from 'All in the Family' was stamped in blue bayou ink, water-coloured & punched out to fit on a metal edged tag. The letters (from the 'Big Deal' alphabet) were also stamped in blue bayou ink, cut out & raised on some spotty 'Fall Flowers' paper. The welcome baby is from 'Short & Sweet'. I've used more Fall Flowers paper & some soft sky ribbon on the base.
For this one, I've used more Fall Flowers paper & my favourite giraffe image from 'Wild About You'. The greeting is from a great retired hostess set called 'Riveting' from the 07/08 catalogue. Both the giraffe/soft sky layer & the greeting are raised on dimensionals. This colour combination of blue bayou, soft sky, celery & white is one I'm going to miss a lot too.
This was one of those cards that came together like a breeze (no pun intended) & is by far my most favourite card in a long time. By the response of the ladies who made it at the class, they really liked it too. I found 
What I did:
I first saw a tutorial for them at 
To get the multicoloured effect on the greeting (again from Occasional Greetings), I inked the whole image with a pretty in pink ink pad, then used a regal rose & rose red marker to highlight a some of the words. This is a great way to save time, rather than markering (is that a word?) the whole stamp.
This one was the first one I did & I really liked the layout, but after nearing breaking a circle punch by trying to go through too many layers at a time (see tip below!) & deciding it was a little busy with all the patterns, I decided to simplify the class design.
If you'd like to try making one yourself, check out