Welcome to another Pinkies Blog Hop! As it's World Card Making Day today, we hope everyone will get some time to craft, and we've created some lovely projects to help inspire you to create your own beautiful card. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

While I love Autumn (the colours, the clear but cooler days, cinnamon in everything being completely acceptable), I never really get on with those colours in crafting! So here is something completely un-seasonal as inspiration for some bright and cheerful crafting on World Card Making Day.

The flowers are stamped in Soft Suede (stamped off first to make them form more of a faded background) using an outline stamp from the Garden in Bloom stamp set. I know they are perfect for two-step stamping, but sometimes the outline on its own is very useful. The sentiment is cut using the Greetings thinlits from Melon Mambo cardstock.

I grabbed some time last weekend to prepare my project for this blog hop, and I've since seen a couple of cards with this kind of pleated DSP as a pretty feature. It's so simple and an effective way to show off a teeny bit of the "other" side of our lovely DSPs. This pattern is from the English Garden DSP, which coordinates with the Garden in Bloom set.

I started by cutting 2½" strip from a piece of 12"x12" paper (make sure you choose one that has two patterns that you like – it's not usually that hard!).

1. Score at 4".
2. Move your paper along ¾" and score, then move it along 1½" and score.
3. Repeat step 2.
4. Move your paper along one more ¾" and score.
5. Cut a diagonal line from the edge of the paper at the second score line (at 4¾") to the end of the DSP strip, finishing roughly halfway along the width of the strip. You'll be cutting over the scored part of the paper, rather than the bit that's left flat.
6. Stick to your card, and trim off the excess DSP after the last pleat.

If you're using a scoreboard instead, your score lines will be at 4", 4¾", 6¼", 7", 8½" and 9¼".

Why don't you give it a go?

Next on our blog hop is Hannah, and I know you are going to love her project!

Thank you for joining us on another Pinkies Blog Hop! We're showcasing lots of gorgeous projects using products from the new Stampin' Up!® Spring/Summer Catalogue. Simply use the buttons at the end of each post to keep hopping!

The current cold weather is perfect for staying in and crafting, don't you think? So what better to inspire us all that a fun blog hop to celebrate the launch of the new Spring Summer catalogue. Even though we might not feel very spring-like…

I am really looking forward to finishing off my Perpetual Birthday Calendar kit, but it has taken me a while to get through all the months. So with the stamp set on my crafting table I wanted to see what else I could make with it, and here's one of the cards I created:

All of the small patterns are so useful in creating textures and patterns. I'm now looking at it as a kind of "tidy" Gorgeous Grunge set – just perfect for making the background a little bit more interesting, or adding a bit of extra decoration to an envelope. 

Do you want to know the best thing about embossing on vellum? You can stick it on to your project much more easily because you can hide the glue behind the embossing!

I have to admit that the Hello You Thinlits are driving me a little bit crazy, but that's only because I want to use them on everything and I've managed to lose my roll of wax paper to help pop the words out once they've been through the bigshot… It's taken a lot of prodding with my stylus and very careful poking with my paper-piercing tool to get them out! But I think it's worth it.

Next stop on our blog hop today is Lizy, but I hope you find time to see all of the lovely projects my fellow demonstrators have put together for you today.