Red, White & Blue

Many of the 4th of July celebrations begin today and so today's card, while not being patriotic, is red, white and blue. The butterflies are stamped using one of the images from the Papilion Potpourri set. There are six different butterfly stamps to choose from and three of them coordinate with the Elegant Butterfly punch. I really like the flower design on this butterfly stamp and then there is another with the same pattern only the butterfly is a little smaller. If you like butterflies, this set is for you. Have a wonderful day and a safe weekend!

Cottage Window

From my first look thru of the new catalog, a few of the stamp sets were "definitely needed" sets. You have already seen samples from Happy Hour and For The Birds and today's card is the first card I made using Cottage Window. The stamp set is just darling and as you can see, there is a little something for every season to put in the window. I lightly sponged a little Bashful Blue ink on white cardstock prior to stamping the window. After stamping and coloring the window, I cut it out and adhered it to the card. I then stamped the greeting (without my SAMJ) and it was crooked. So I stamped the sentiment again, punched it out using the Scallop Oval punch and covered the mistake. The stamp set is cute, cute cute and I will be making many cards with it. Have a great day and keep yourself hydrated!

Navy & Daffodil Birthday

An embellishment that I seldom use is a button. But lately I have been seeing many cards embellished with buttons and decided that I needed to make a button-embellished card. A fairly easy layout, the retired Night of Navy ribbon was threaded through the button holes and tied on the card front. If I mail this card, I will definitely need to add extra postage as the button does stand out a bit. The button matches the Designer Series Paper and as I am looking at it, I am thinking that a red button would have added just the right amount of "pop" versus the yellow blending in so much. Nonetheless, this is an easy card to make, with or without the button! Have a wonderful day.

July's Promotion

Today's cards were quickly made using an exclusive stamp set that Stampin' Up is offering during the month of July. The Reason To Smile set is available beginning July 1st and you can purchase it for $20.95 (wood mount) or $16.95 (clear mount). But better than that, when you place a $50 order during July, you can purchase the set for $5.00. It consists of flower images (7 stamps), is great for two-step stamping and is available in both clear and wood mount. For the card on the left I used Pink Pirouette with Pretty In Pink ink and Wild Wasabi with Certainly Celery ink. The words are from Fabulous Phrases. For the next card I used Rose Red with Pretty In Pink for the flowers. The images on the Rose Red cardstock are the outline images of the other flowers included in the set stamped in Rose Red ink to create a background. After using Reason to Smile for these two cards, I can definitely see myself using it frequently in the future. Have a nice day and find yourself a little stampin' time!