We have had the most beautiful late summer weather lately - lots of blue skies and sunshine! I have been doing a variety of things BUT I have also been scrappin cards - continuing the task of being inspired by cards created in January's UK Magazine CARDS.  I have tried some new techniques and learnt a few things that I cannot do as well as can do - and expanded my repertoire in thinking about what can be done where along the way.  Here goes:

This one is made of strips of paper embossed in some of the few embossing powders I have - it was SU Confetti with a punched edge (Fiskars) layered onto grey-blue card, and then lilac and a base card of pink. Three buttons and a sticker completed it. It didn't take long to make and I think it looks really classy.  My embossing powders are all subtle and so it has a vintage look.

This does not look as good as the one in the book - that was lucious - but I had a go at freehand cutting and making flowers and while it is not a technique I am confident with, with the proper papers I think it would be good. These are scraps and I stamped them with background stamps - SU Sanded and Lace and an Image Tree script stamp.  I used SU inks that were about the same colour or deeper than the card.  I cut out the flower shapes freehand and then sprayed then with water, scrunched them and flattened them again to made up two flowers, with a pair of brads from Cloud 9  - Brittany's Castle. The Friends square brad came from the same set. Some pink ribbon over some brown card, which had a scalloped edge top and bottom (cannot see the top) and my sentiment was from Waltzingmouse's set - Irish Blessings. So is the shamrock and both are stamped in SU Pink Passion on craft.

This one looks simple but took me hours - I was running out of steam!!! I had the teapot in a set of stamps by Tim Coffey, called Daisy Delight.  It has a pretty little butterfly in the set as well, and I have used that a few times and a leaf once but not anything else - and this is one of my first ever stamp sets. Anyway, I stamped the teapot in SU Ballet Blue, on Whisper White card, cut it out and then stamped the image onto the background card, masking the teapot first. This left the steam curls on the background paper (I used scraps), and I then layered the teapot next to it using dimentionals. My sentiment came from a pack of clear polymer stamps (no idea) and the stitches were from a packet of rub-ons. A couple of buttons, and some pretty ribbon, and it was done.  The casing of this can be seen clearly but it is not at all like the origional - I thought mine was a bit 'mmmnn - bland' myself....... BUT, I did have a go!

This was my attempt at a very pretty scallop card in pretty vintage cards of pinky fawn and blue, with green highlights.  Mine is not as dainty. I had a DP piece from Rhonna Farrer called In the Round so used that to get some scalloping going - I had a scrap piece of Vintage Moon collection - Moon Glade by Holly McCaig which I used and a sticker for the sentiment.  I stamped a flourish using SU Baja Breeze ink from the SU Baroque stamp set and a chipboard flower which I had painted, sprayed with vintage mica inks and then wiped this off and decided to lightly emboss with a bronze embossing powder. All on the yellow card SU Barely Banana, with a ribbon trim on the base of the card and some bling bits as well as yellow satin ribbon.

This next card had been made back in January, but never completed. I used a peel off on to acetate sheet, then coloured with alcohol inks (I tried severl different types of pens before I got some to stick and stay) and then put into a window in a plain white card.  I use gold trim peel-offs to make a window frame.  Inside the card I stamped a 'branch' using a flower from the SU Oh , So Lovely stamp set and SU markers.  I made it so the bird seemed to be perched on the branch when the card was shut. An interesting experiment.  The inside of the card was then covered with DP scrap. The sentiment comes from SU Pocket Sillhouettes.