Happy Friday All!  Hope it’s been a good week and you’re looking forward to some fun this weekend. I had a blast last weekend at my friend, Jeanie Stark’s (Just Stampin’) house.  We spent two nights and three days talking, laughing, eating amazing meals prepared by her husband, Carl and of course…creating & stamping!  Then a snow day on Wednesday!  Now I’m looking forward to getting together tomorrow with this wonderfully, crazy group of friends for a class with stamp company owner, Gina K at Photo Scraps in Eldersburg, MD.  Needless to say, I’ve been putting a lot of miles on my car lately!

Also, I’m sharing a few of my personal thoughts on this stamping gig of mine at the end of this post if you care to hang in there.  But for now, I’ll just share my card with you….

For today’s card, I pulled out the Petal Palette stamp set along with the coordinating Petals & More thinlits.  These are available in the Annual Catalog.  Sometimes, I get so caught up with all the new products that come out with the Holiday, Occasions and Sale-a-Bration catalogs that all the products I loved from the Annual Catalog sit and collect dust.  Well I’m concentrating on changing that and a few other things. More on that at the bottom of the post…

Here are the details…

• The A2 card base is cut at 4 1/4″ x 11″ and scored at 5 1/2″ for a top fold card.
• I covered the card front with a Crumb Cake pattern from the Neutrals 6 x 6  paper collection.  These are such a staple to have in your stash.
• The Whisper White panel is cut from the Rectangle Stitched framelits dies. I used the second largest.  Then it’s popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

• The flower spray is stamped in Black Memento ink and colored with Stampin’ Blends.  The colors are listed in the Product List at the end of the post. These are glued directly to the panel.
• The center lattice is also cut from the Petals & More thinlits in Crumb Cake card stock.
• The sentiment stamped with Versa Fine black ink is from the Sale-a-Bration set, Lasting Lily, which is free with a $100 purchase.  I love this set for both the images and especially the sentiments and fonts.  This will be staying with me for a long time!
• NOTE: For stamping that doesn’t require coloring, I use a Versa Fine Black ink pad.  It gives the crispest image of any black ink I’ve tried.  It does require some drying time and will not work if you plan on using alcohol markers as it will bleed.
• I glued the sentiment banner to the lattice and then was able to hide Stampin’ Dimensionals behind it for a pretty lift.
• A few sequins added the perfect finishing touch!

• Here’s a quick peek at the inside using two more sentiments from the Lasting Lily stamp set and a bit of the same Designer Series Paper I used on the front.

Stampin’ Up does a lot of things really well but in my opinion, most especially color coordination.  They make it so easy to have everything you need for a perfectly coordinated card with just a few products.

• A coordinated stamped envelope pulls the whole project together quickly and simply!  I did use a retired Crumb Cake envelope for this but a Whisper White would work just as nicely.

Thanks for getting this far and if you care to hear a few of my thoughts that I mentioned above, here you go….

Lately, I’ve been very sporadic about doing blog posts.  I just felt that my motivation was waning and really didn’t understand why.  I absolutely enjoy stamping and making cards and other projects.  I’ve still been purchasing new products and creating with them. AND (this is a BIG AND) I love the friendships I’ve made doing this. So what’s the deal?  Well, I think I’ve finally figured it out.

I will always love Stampin’ Up! and will continue to be a demonstrator and purchase and use their products.  Stampin’ Up! started this journey for me and has given me more fun, joy and friendship than I ever imagined.  However, along the way other companies and products have caught my eye and I’ve enjoyed using them, too.  I’ve found some non-SU products that work really well, which I would like share as well.  So I was a little conflicted about where to go with the blog as I would like to share all my projects and not just those using Stampin’ Up! products.  I’ve decided that the best direction for me to take is this…some of my posts will use only Stampin’ Up! products, some will use products from other companies and some will combine both.  Why not? I will also be sharing projects that use retired Stampin’ Up! products.  We all have them, so why not use them in new and different ways?  The idea is to get the creative juices flowing and provide a bit of inspiration while enjoying the process and I think this will do it for me.  I would still love to be your demonstrator of choice when purchasing Stampin’ Up! products.

Again, if you’re still with me, thanks so much for spending this time with me.

Take care,

Rosanne

You can click HERE to see more on the FREE products available during Sale-a-Bration.  You can also click on the Sale-a-Bration Catalogs on my sidebar.