Butterflies and Birthdays

Ok  Friends

Two more days.  Just two more days to take advantage of the Butterfly Bundle.  Until Sept 30, you can get the Papillon Potpourri stamp set and the Itty Bitty Butterfly Punch as a bundle at a 15% savings.  Now that's something to be thankful for!

The Itty Bitty Butterfly punch came in handy for this cute card.  Pair butterflies with the Wildflower Meadow embossing folder (I even used the de-bossed side sometimes) and sentiments from Fabulous Phrases, add a few pearls and you have before you this lovely card.  I think I used 9 or 10 different colours to create this little beauty.  But my favourites are the Rich Razzleberry, Tempting Turquoise, Melon Mambo and Perfect Plum variants.  And I am going to repeat it (for those who haven't heard me say it before) - *nothing* makes it easier to get perfect placement for your pearls, even the little teeny tiny ones, than the Paper Piercing Tool from Stampin' Up!.  This little baby has saved my sanity on more than one occasion!

I am truly thankful that butterflies make it so easy to create gorgeous thank you cards!  Each month I make between 40 and 100 thank you cards.  I have LOTS of reasons to be thankful and so many people who deserve thank you cards.  But I am sure you can understand that I need cards that are fairly quick and easy to produce.  Both of my choices this month fit that bill.  

See my second card?  

Silver Encore ink for the Flowering Flourishes, paired with the Feel Goods sentiment and some Bitty Butterflies again, and you have a card that is just perfect for saying just what you need it to - without taking too long to create!   Once again I tried at least a dozen colours to see which ones would create the cutest cards and I have to say, there were LOTS of winners!  I really liked the Real Red.  And the Bermuda Bay.  And the Elegant Eggplant.  And the Island Indigo.  And I could go on and on but I think you get the message....





 
Speaking of "get the message", did you hear?  

I have my birthday coming up next week, and so I am offering a special birthday promotion.  This is a personal special available only through me, but available to ANYONE in Canada.  From Oct 1 - Oct 7, on any order of $60 or more, I will pay the shipping and handling fees*.  That's right, s&h to be paid by yours truly, as my birthday gift to all of you.  (*regular HST fees still apply)

Make your wish list and contact me and we'll make sure my birthday celebration makes both of us happy!

Hope your weekend has been wonderful!  And hope you are looking forward to a wonderful week ahead!

God Bless,    ~Cynthia   <><

Thankful Thursday - Ribbon With Flowering Flourishes

At the Convention this past July I had the honour and privilege of sharing a room with 3 wonderful ladies whom I met through the Stampin' Up! websites.  We all needed roomies.  We all wanted to cut costs.  So we agreed to share a hotel room and the bill.

Boy did God ever smile down upon me!  I got to share my room with three of the nicest SU! demos you're ever likely to meet.  And I am going to tell you much more about all three of them in a future post.  But right now I wanted to acknowledge one of them.  Cathy Gray was both my room mate and my trusted alarm clock.  She made sure I was awake in plenty of time for my class rehearsals, sessions and my flight home!  Cathy has a terrific blog that I suggest you pop over and visit, and one of the features which she uses is called Thankful Thursday.  How wonderful is that?  We should all spend more time being thankful for what we have.  And we should voice it out loud!.  In honour of Cathy and all the multitude of blessings that I have in my life, I am going to start devoting my Thursday posts to Thankful Thursday!  And on this particular Thursday, I am thankful to and for Cathy.

So here is today's installment.  Each of my customers receives a Thank You card with their order (I write a note on a post-it and put it inside the card - That way my customers receive a card that they can either keep or use themselves).  Becky Jensen CASed a card from someone else, now I am CASing Becky's version of the card.   And it highlights the gorgeous Stitched Satin Ribbon that Stampin' Up! is offering Free all month. 

Of course, I finished the card and wondered if it needed just a bit more oomph so I added some bling.  What do you think?  I like the card with or without the extra bling....but I have to admit I think I like this stepped up version a bit more.

Supply List
Stamps - Flowering Flourishes, Just Believe
Paper - Very Vanilla
Ink - Primrose Petals
Big Shot -  Delicate Designs EF, Large Scallop Edgelit, Bitty Banners Framelits
Tools and Accessories - Primrose Petals Stitched Satin Ribbon, Basic Rhinestones, dimensionals


Remember - if you like receiving cards, either to give or to use for ideas, then place an order with me!  This card (or one one like it) just might be the Thank You card you receive from me!

Have a wonderful Thankful Thursday!  God Bless,   ~Cynthia   <><

Quick and Easy - Flowering Flourishes

Today's card is one of those elegant "black tie affair" type cards.  You know...the "shaken-not-stirred", Casino Royale type of card.   But best of all, it is really quick too!

Supply List
Stamps - Flowering Flourishes, Occasions Alphabet
Paper - Very Vanilla, Basic Black
Ink - Basic Black
Big Shot -  Labels Collection Framelits
Tools and Accessories - Basic Pearls, dimensionals, Black Grosgrain Ribbon (retired)


How unbelievably easy is that?  Stamp the flourish onto the Vanilla.  Stamp the appropriate alphabet sentiment onto a vanilla scrap and cut it out with the Labels Framelit.  Piece everything together and add a few pearls.  Voila.  Elegance and refinement in a very few minutes!


This is yet another one of the cards that the ladies will make at the card class on Thursday.  I hope they enjoy the selection I have designed for them.  You'll see another card tomorrow.  Then Thursday I will head to a law office downtown and do a private card class for these wonderful ladies.  I love that I can come in and they can have some creative therapy at the end of a long and stressful day!


Does a private card class sound like something you'd like to do too?  If you are in the Ottawa area and think this sounds interesting, contact me and we'll see if we can make it happen.


Have a wonderful day everyone.  God Bless      ~Cynthia    <><