We have some beautiful star jasmine blooming in our front yard.  I only wish the blog had "smell-o-vision" so you could smell the beautiful fragrance from these flowers!  I wish it bloomed all year!  Sometimes we smell it the most heavily in the back of the driveway.  What a treat!

This card demonstrates how you can get inspiration from lots of places…even some flowers blooming in the yard.  The Garden Green card base is 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" and the Whisper White layer 3" x 3". I punched the flowers with the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack.  To give them a little dimension, I placed them on the Stampin' Pierce Mat and poked them in the center with my Bone Folder! The stems and leaves are punched from the Bird Builder Punch. I just put a dab of glue on the back of each flower and placed them on the stems and dotted a little Daffodil Delight marker in the center of each flower.  The greeting is from the stamp set "A Little Greeting" in the Spring Catalog.

And here is a photo of our blooming jasmine!  There used to be a pine tree in the center of it years ago. It's just gorgeous and the fragrance is wonderful!

If you want to play a little "I Spy" can you find the bumble bee and two other orange-ish insects in the photo??

Shop now at my Stampin' Up! Online Store for any of your stamping supplies!

If you're looking for an easy but elegant card to make, perhaps a card for Mother's Day, this is a good one. I used Regal Rose card stock, which is being discontinued with the Stampin' Up! Color Refresh. It's a pretty color, but I didn't really use it a lot. I embossed just a strip of Whisper White with the Stripes Embossing Folder, wrapped a bit of 1/4" Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon around it, and glued it down to the Whisper White layer. The butterflies were made with the Elegant Butterfly Punch, one butterfly punched out of Regal Rose card stock and one out of Vellum Card Stock which was them embossed with the Lacy Brocade Embossing Folder and decorated with the few Basic Pearls.

I love cards like this that you can use for many occasions.This could be for Mother's Day, a birthday, a wedding, a "thinking of you", even graduation.

Don't forget about the stamps and accessories that are retiring the end of this month from Stampin' Up! Check the retiring stamp list here and the retiring accessories list here.  

You can also see all the retiring products HERE in my Stampin' Up! Online Store! Some are even discounted!

Get them while they are still available!

It's funny how I don't always end up making what I thought I was going to make!  Since I had fun with the Spring Sampler stamp set in yesterday's post, I decided to make another card with it.  I was going to select an image for a baby card and just stamp it in one color on the Whisper White layer, maybe put a ribbon or strip of designer paper down the side.  Simple, simple.

I got out the Bashful Blue pack of paper and in there was a piece already cut but the front was narrower than the back. Either I cut it wrong the first time or I didn't end up using it. Since I had already pulled out the Sunshine & Sprinkles Designer Series Paper to possibly use, I decided to adhere a strip of it to the inside edge which would make it show on the front.  I love the colors in the striped pattern of the paper!! That changed the theme of the card from baby to flowers, choosing colors that coordinated with the paper….Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight and Marina Mist.  On the Color Coach , Marina Mist is the "Dynamic Duo" match with Bashful Blue, if you were doing a monochromatic color scheme.

And since I didn't stamp a couple of the flowers perfectly and since "there are no mistakes in stamping" I decided to stamp some extra flowers, cut them out, and pop them up with Stampin' Dimensionals over the "boo-boo" flowers.  No one would know I didn't plan it this way!

Although it is pretty cool outside today, the sun is out and the weather is gorgeous!  So I think this flowery, spring card is just perfect!

Today I found the Print Poetry Designer Series Paper Stack on my desk underneath a bunch of stamping stuff, so I thought why not use this somehow? I realized I hadn't used it much, but gee, the paper inside is beautiful! This green print on the bottom of my card is from the other side of the top design!  So easy to coordinate!

If you want to make an easy card, this layout is the simplest ever! The card base is made with a  5.5" x 4.25" piece of Very Vanilla card stock folded in half. Next I cut two pieces of the Print Poetry paper and adhered together.  At that point, I should have wrapped a strip of the ribbon around just the designer paper….but I forgot and glued it down to the card base! Since there are no mistakes in stamping(!), I just wrapped the 3/8" Primrose Petals Stitched Satin Ribbon around the front of the card and attached a separate bow.

For a little greeting, I stamped the word "friends" from the stamp set Sweet Essentials and layered it on the Ticket Duo Punch #126883.  You could use any greeting and any coordinating punch and you have an easy to make card for any occasion!

For these great Stampin' Up! products, visit my Online Store here!

Stay Tuned!!  RETIRED LISTS coming this Wednesday,

April 24!

If you are new, what does that mean?  Each year around this time, Stampin' Up! retires stamp sets and accessories in order to make room for NEW products in the NEW catalog coming out soon! It's an exciting time and a time to stay in touch with me so you can purchase any retiring products you really want but haven't gotten yet. This won't be the time to procrastinate! In fact, I would suggest not waiting for the list, but getting the products you really want NOW before there is a run on them.  No one can predict what will be retired and what won't…or what will sell fast and what won't.  Just fair warning!  

If you have any questions, please email me at Karen@KarenStamps.com…..and make sure you are on my Mailing List here!