Author Archives: Karen Fontinelle

Get the New #imbringingbirthdaysback Single Wood-Mount Stamp

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#imbringingbirthdaysback Stamp

While it is nice, if you are on Facebook, to see a whole list of birthday greetings from all your Facebook friends, wouldn’t it be even nicer to go to your mailbox on your birthday and find it filled with a stack of birthday cards (and not bills and credit card applications!)?! Put this #imbringingbirthdaysback Stamp #143573 on your Stampin’ Up! order and be part of the movement to Bring Birthdays Back! Let’s send real cards to our friends and family! Let them have the treat of finding a real birthday card in their mailbox on their birthday! Use this stamp to stamp the back of the card or the envelope to encourage others to participate!

This is how I remember birthdays growing up, when the mailman “knew” it was someone’s birthday because they got a whole bunch of mail! As a child I would often get a dollar or two or three enclosed in each card from family friends and relatives far and wide. Now why do I even remember that? It’s because I remember going out to the mailbox and finding that birthday mail, maybe even talking to the mailman (his name was Ed!), opening all those cards, setting them up on the piano, writing thank you notes when I got a gift, etc. And I might add, seeing the handwritten note in the card and the signature of the person, the real handwritten signature! People these days do not even sign their Christmas cards, they are all printed! Quicker for sure, but I think we are losing the personal touch! Your handwriting is so important! (But that’s a soapbox for another day!) Do you remember all the birthday greetings you got last year on Facebook?  Probably not!

Shannon West, from the Stampin’ Up! Home Office and one of our favorite presenters at Stampin’ Up! events, awhile back decided to do something about this and started sending birthday cards to friends and family and received hundreds of requests on her Facebook page for a birthday card in the mail. She actually made a stamp with the hashtag #imbringingbirthdaysback. Sara Douglass, Interim CEO of Stampin’ Up!, asked how Stampin’ Up! could support her effort and ended up making the stamp Shannon had designed. Last week the stamp was released, but it sold out in only four hours!  Today it is back in the Online Store and you can put it on your regular Stampin’ Up! order!

#imbringingbirthdaysback Single Wood-Mount Stamp  #143573  $12.00

imbringingbirthdaysback card stack

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online Here!  And YES, this stamp counts toward your $50 Sale-A-Bration order!!

 

Playful Pals Easter Bunny Pyramid Treat Box

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Playful Pals Easter Bunny Pyramid Treat Box

If you get the Playful Pals Photopolymer Bundle, which includes the Playful Pals Stamp Set and the Pyramid Pals Thinlits Dies, and you spend some time playing with it, you will just become more and more creative playing with all the stamps and dies and thinking of all the possibilities, such as my Playful Pals Easter Bunny Pyramid Treat Box.  I didn’t even know if there were proper “ears” in the set, but there were, and then I die cut a bunny ear out of orange card stock for a carrot and a green piece that is probably most like a frog’s foot for the leafy top of the carrot. I just drew in the little lines on the carrot and the leafy top with a black marker.  A lot of times I find that the more I sit and play with my stamps and accessories, the more ideas I can come up with.

Bunnies aren’t just for Easter!  You could make Playful Pals bunnies out of other colors, even designer paper, just for fun.  How cute will they be for babies or baby showers or gifts?! Little kids will like them as a birthday party favor.

With this Playful Pals Photopolymer Bundle, you can just stamp on the pyramid box or you can stamp and use die cuts to make things a little more 3D. So many possibilities! You can copy ideas you find online, but I also challenge you to just play and stamp and stamp and play and see what you come up with all the little pieces and parts!

Don’t forget the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals that end tomorrow!  You might for sure want the Ornate Tag Topper Punch and especially the very cute Tin of Cards Project Kit by Stampin’ Up! You might also want to add the Tin of Cards Photopolymer Stamp Set that has great greetings and little doodles that I’ve used on other projects, not just the Tin of Cards.

If you want to make fun little animals and other projects like my Playful Pals Easter Bunny Pyramid Treat Box, be sure to check out my Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE.

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online 24/7 or email me at Karen@KarenStamps.com if you would like me to put in your order for you.

Make an Easter Basket with the Berry Basket

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Easter Basket with the Berry Basket

Make an Easter Basket with the Berry Basket Die and the Big Shot! Choose your favorite card stock color for the basket and die cut. Decorate the outside of the basket however you like, and fill with some grassy material.  Just like that, you have a cute little Easter Basket for a gift, a decoration, or a table favor.

This Easter Basket is made with Crumb Cake card stock to be neutral and then I used the Easter Lamb Stamp to decorate it along with some Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper. I absolutely love this little lamb stamp! It’s just one single stamp, which makes it so cute just by itself! I just colored in a bit with some Stampin’ Write Markers and punched out with the 2″ Circle Punch. The Blushing Bride Glimmer Paper is punched with the 2 3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch. So easy and so cute!  Fill your basket with candy!

Don’t forget about the Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals, good through Monday, March 7.

Stampin' Up! Weekly Deal Mar 1 2016

Shop Stampin’ Up! for stamp, ink, paper, and accessories for making all kinds of fun cards and projects such as this easy Easter Basket made with the Berry Basket Die.

 

Circle of Spring Wreath Easter Card

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Circle of Spring Wreath Easter Card

If you are looking for a nice card to make, you might have overlooked the stamp set with which I made this Circle of Spring Wreath Easter card. The stamp set Circle of Spring is in the main Stampin’ Up! catalog on page 77. It’s a beautiful spring-like flowered wreath stamp and plenty of greetings as well as a bow and a flower.  Just stamp the wreath as I did on this card and color in or stamp it and die cut with the Wonderful Wreath Framelits Dies.

On this card, I simply stamped the wreath with Stazon ink on Whisper White cardstock and colored in the leaves and flowers with various Stampin’ Write markers.  Sometimes I used the marker itself to color and sometimes I scribbled marker ink on an acrylic block and picked it up with my Aqua Painter and watercolored. I stamped the bow, die cut it with the framelits die, and used Stampin’ Dimensionals to adhere to the card.

The Whisper White layer was to go on the So Saffron card base, but I felt it needed something. I decided to cut very thin strips of Melon Mambo card stock and very carefully glue the strips down on the card front. My Grid Paper sure came in handy to line it up.

Happiness is having a table full of markers and cardstock on the table and just coloring and relaxing! And at the end, I had this easy Easter card made with the Circle of Spring stamp set.

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online HERE!

Paper Pumpkin 3 Year Birthday! Join Now!

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Paper Pumpkin 3 Year Birthday

Stampin’ Up! is celebrating the 3rd birthday of Paper Pumpkin, the papercrafting kit that comes to you in the mail, with these pretty blue limited edition boxes for the March kit! If you are not already a Paper Pumpkin subscriber, you need to join before March 10th so that your March kit will be on it’s way when they go out mid-month! (Notice how they stacked the boxes in a “3” shape??!)

You have a couple of choices!

  • Join month by month by signing up HERE.
  • Order prepaid subscriptions on your regular Stampin’ Up! order. With a 3-month prepaid subscription, save $5 and earn a free Sale-A-Bration item!

Either way, just get signed up and activate your account by March 10th in order to receive the March kit. Do it after March 10th and receive the April kit.

Your first kit will include an acrylic block to use with the stamps included in each kit.  Each kit includes everything you need for your project, including an ink spot. Depending on the project, you might need adhesive and scissors, but often the appropriate adhesive is included.  Kits are not always cards, each month is a surprise!

Email me if you have any questions at Karen@KarenStamps.com! Or click on the links above for more information.  You can pause or cancel your subscription any time.

Watch the video below to see the February kit!

Sign up for Paper Pumpkin by March 10th and join in the 3-year birthday celebration!

March Comes in Like a Lion Playful Pals Card and Pyramid Box

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March Comes in Like a Lion Playful Pals Card and Pyramid Box

The saying goes, “March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb.” I don’t know if that saying will be true today or not for where I live and where you live, but I made some lions with the Playful Pals Photopolymer Bundle of stamps and dies in honor of March 1st.

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Help Bring Birthdays Back!

Maybe you recall THIS STORY posted on the Stampin’ Up! blog a little while ago about Shannon West, an employee at the Stampin’ Up! Home Office, realizing that people were just posting their holiday and birthday greetings on social media and not sending cards, and she decided to do something about it.  Stampin’ Up! joined in and now we have a new stamp that you can purchase and use on your cards or envelopes as Shannon is doing!

Here is a photo Sara Douglass, Interim CEO of Stampin’ Up!, posted on Facebook yesterday of the new stamp.  You can put Item #143573 on your Stampin’ Up! order.  The cost is $12.00. Right now it says the stamp is on backorder, but if you want it, I would put it on your order anyway. Maybe they just don’t have them all delivered to the warehouse yet for shipping.

imbringingbirthdaysback

 

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Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals
Stampin' Up! Weekly Deal Mar 1 2016

Here are the new Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals for March 1 through Monday, March 7, 2016. I think the main thing I would want if you don’t already have it is the Tin of Cards Project Kit. This kit is featured on the front cover of the Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog. As soon as I saw the tin, I knew I wanted the kit, and the cards are cute too!  You can make the cards and then wait to attach the greeting for when you need a card and then you can choose what you need. The tin also has dividers so you can store additional cards.  All the other products make stamping more fun, too!

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Shop Stampin’ Up! Online for all the best in stamping and papercrafting products!

Is Today Your Leap Year Birthday?

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Playful Pals Frog Leap Year Birthday Card

Is today your Leap Year birthday? If it is, then here is a Playful Pal Frog Leap Year Birthday Card for you! The rest of us can just celebrate having an extra day to do all those things we always want more time to do! It’s hard for me to believe it is the end of February already, even with the extra day.

I made this Playful Pal frog sitting on a lily pad using the Playful Pals Photopolymer Stamp Set. You can purchase the stamp set and the matching Pyramid Pals Thinlits Dies in a Bundle and save 15%. If you like either one, you will want both!

The card base is the same card stock as the lily pad, Mossy Meadow. The lily pad is punched with the 2 3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch. The frog is made by stamping pieces with the stamp set and then die-cutting some of the pieces with the Big Shot using the bright Cucumber Crush card stock. The background layer of the card is stamped with Soft Sky Ink on Whisper White with the Watercolor Wash Background Stamp.

Now to make the greeting, I happened to think of my Alphabet Rotary Stamp! Admittedly, I haven’t used it much, but it’s one of those things that comes in handy in the right circumstances. I just stamped each word on scrap paper and cut out each word. I think it’s a fun way to add a greeting to something, to just paste the single words.

I hope you will consider the Playful Pals Bundle which can be used for cards and projects such as my Playful Pal Frog Leap Year Birthday Card and of course the actual 3D pyramids for favors, gifts and treats.

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online! Earn FREE products during Sale-A-Bration!

Birthday Bouquet Thank You Card

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Birthday Bouquet Thank You Card

An easy way to find ideas for cards to make is to look in the Stampin’ Up! catalogs and copy, or copy some things and change others! I saw a sample card in the Occasions Catalog on page 8 that inspired this Birthday Bouquet Thank You Card. This photo looks like it is layered on a Whisper White base with the usual margin, but that is just the background, the designer paper actually covers the front of the card with no margins. This is a great way to use up some scraps of designer series paper.  Just cut strips of various widths, play around and see what order looks good to you, and adhere! On this card I used the Birthday Bouquet Designer Series Paper and a strip of Gold Foil. The greeting is from the Fabulous Four Stamp Set.

To embellish the card I used a small gold foil doily in the Metallic Foil Doilies cut in half and just stuck underneath the greeting strip.  I also added a Bow Paper Clip Embellishment. Since it is a paper clip and has that extra piece on the back, I cut that part off with my old Stampin’ Up! Rubber and Craft Scissors, if you have those. I used the tiniest dabs of the Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the back of the Bow Paper Clip to hold it on the card.

Just look through your designer paper or scraps and see what you could to make a card like this one!

Order your Stampin’ Up! supplies HERE at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store!  Every $50 purchases earns you a FREE Sale-A-Bration product!

Birthday Bouquet Ice Cream Cone Card

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Birthday Bouquet Ice Cream Cone Card

If you want to make a very easy card, this Birthday Bouquet Ice Cream Cone Card might be one you could make! It’s as simple as a card base, a layer of card stock, and a diagonally cut piece of designer paper! Stamp a greeting and you’ve got a card.  I added the ice cream cone but you wouldn’t have to if you want to keep it super simple!

The card base is the new Thick Whisper White Card Stock. It is just a little thicker than regular Whisper White so it makes a sturdier card base like other colored card stock.  Regular Whisper White is fine, but the thick is just a little bit nicer. The layer is Pool Party, one of the coordinating colors with the Birthday Bouquet Designer Series Paper. I diagonally cut the designer paper.  Not a difficult job when you have the Stampin’ Up! Paper Trimmer! Just line up the opposite corners in the channel where the cutting blade will slide and you have your diagonal!  See the photo below.

Diagonal Paper Cutting

I stamped the ice cream cone from the Sale-A-Bration Stamp Set Honeycomb Happiness, in the Sale-A-Bration Brochure on page 15 on Whisper White, colored it in with markers and cut out with Paper Snips.  Then I added a Honeycomb Embellishment in the Occasions Catalog. These are self-adhesive, just peel off the backing. Not that I realized that at first, but you can also add Glue Dots instead if you want or for extra stickiness.

Shop Stampin’ Up! During Sale-A-Bration and Earn Free Product with Every $50 Purchase!

Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals February 23 2016 & Paper Pumpkin

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Stampin' Up! Weekly Deal Feb 23 2016

Here are the new Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals for you!  These are good today through Monday, February 29. Wow!  February is almost gone, and it is a Leap Year so we get an extra day in February!

This week we have a flower punch, the Flower Medallion Punch, that coordinates with the flower in Crazy About You. You can also use it to punch cardstock or designer paper to make a multitude of flowers!  The Happy Heart Embossing Folder just got a workout for Valentine’s Day, but of course hearts aren’t just for Valentine’s Day!  You can use it for any sweet card, birthdays, anniversaries, all occasions really.  The Stars Framelits Dies are great to have on hand!  I’m a big believer in having “stars” to use on all kinds of cards such as congratulations, graduation, kids’ cards, 4th of July, birthdays – you name it!

We also have the 2015-17 In Color Stampin’ Write Markers on sale!  I use my markers a lot in various projects.  And if you don’t own all the ink colors, you can get by with the markers.  Just color directly on the stamp with the marker. And if you like buttons, we have the Classy Designer Buttons which are a vanilla color. Great neutral to use for many projects, but if you prefer, color them with Sharpies for a custom color.

Stampin' Up! Star Framelits 4th of July Card

Paper Pumpkin Sale for Sale-A-Bration

If you are a Paper Pumpkin subscriber, you can purchase refills of the February kit. This is a really pretty kit so you might want to add a refill to your regular order. Stampin’ Up! is also starting to send out a special Paper Pumpkin newsletter by email to Paper Pumpkin subscribers so watch for that!  Not a subscriber yet??  Add a 3-month Prepaid Subscription to your Stampin’ Up! order if you are ordering anyway and since it is over $50 you qualify for a free Sale-A-Bration choice. If you just want to try month to month, you can find more information and join HERE.  You can cancel or just pause your subscription at any time.  Join now so you will receive the March Kit!

Sale-A-Bration continues!!  Get a FREE product with every $50 Stampin’ Up! purchase! 

Easter Lamb Easter Card

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Easter Lamb Easter Card

I thought one of the cutest stamps in the Occasions Catalog was the Easter Lamb stamp I used to make this Easter Lamb Easter card. It actually comes with the Happy Easter greeting attached, but I cut it off to place it elsewhere on the card. It is just this one wood-mount stamp, and I think just the stamp itself would be cute set out for an Easter decoration when you aren’t stamping with it!

For a background I used my Watercolor Wash Wood-Mount Background Stamp. I mostly buy the clear-mount stamps because, well they are cheaper and they take up less storage space. But some stamps I do like the wood-mount, like these large background stamps so they are mounted and ready to go and just sturdier to use on the wood-block.  I also like wood-mount for very tiny stamps. I inked this stamp with Soft Sky ink, stamped off a bit and still had plenty of color on my Whisper White paper. It is easiest to lay the paper onto the stamp which is face up on your desk, and then lay scrap paper, like computer paper or your Grid Paper over it so you can rub the paper on the stamp without getting inky fingers.

The lamb is stamped with Stazon Jet Black ink and I colored in a bit with a Pink Pirouette Stampin’ Write Marker and Smoky Slate. I also colored the grass green with a marker.  I punched out the lamb with the 2″ Circle Punch and layered it on the 2 3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch. For a little glitz, I also punched a piece of Gold Glimmer Paper to layer behind.  I love that touch!  Then for a little more interest, I added a strip of Jute Ribbon and Venetian Crochet Trim.

It’s time to start making Easter cards, so use this Easter Lamb Easter Card as an inspiration to get started!

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online HERE!

Botanical Gardens Gift Bag

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Botanical Gardens Gift Bag

If there was one thing that made me purchase the products in the Botanical Gardens suite in the Occasions Catalog on page 26, it was the gift bag sample using this paper!  I guess it was the black background that really stood out to me. Actually, all the samples at the top of page 26 are so darn cute!  Did you realize the “plant” in the flowerpot is really stamped paper leaves??

Although this gift bag is not exactly the same as the one in the catalog, I used my Gift Bag Punch Board to make it with the paper from the Botanical Gardens Designer Series Paper. The Gift Bag Punch Board makes it easy to make a small gift bag, especially if you want one with the creases in the side. The instructions are written right on the Punch Board and a diagram, but rest assured there is also a Stampin’ Up! video if you need a more visual reminder of how to make your gift bag!  I’ve posted it below.

To make the tag, I just cut a 2″ wide piece of Whisper White cardstock and stamped the greeting from the set Enjoy the Little Things. This is the stamp set that coordinates with the Enjoy the Little Things Project Kit, but it’s also a good stamp set to have on its own! Then I punched the corners with the Curvy Corner Trio Punch. I sponged the edges of the tag with Pool Party Ink just for fun.  The greeting is stamped with Mossy Meadow Ink. Since I had some spare die cut flowers, it was easy to add a little flower to my tag. The leaves to embellish the tag were stamped with the veins in the Botanical Blooms Stamp Set and die cut with the Big Shot and the Botanical Builder Framelits Dies. The ribbon is the soft and pretty Pool Party Glitter Ribbon.

The Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog and the Occasions Catalog are certainly good places to start when you are looking for inspiration or need ideas for a project you want to make. If you don’t want to copy it exactly, just change out the paper, or the colors, or the stamp set to make it your own.

It’s always handy to have some gift bags made up and ready to go, such as this Botanical Gardens Gift Bag which is perfect for spring and summer coming up!

Get your favorite stamping and papercrafting supplies at my

Stampin’ Up! Online Store!

(Spend $50 or more and choose a FREE Sale-A-Bration product now through March 31, 2016!)

Easy Masculine Birthday All-Occasion Card For a Man

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Easy Masculine Birthday All-Occasion Card For a Man

Yesterday I made a card very similar to this one HERE in this post, and then I thought about changing it up in color and texture to make an easy masculine birthday all-occasion card for a man.  I just used Chocolate Chip cardstock for the card base, making it open at the top instead of the side.  Just cut the full piece of card stock lengthwise at 4 1/4″ and then score in the middle at 5 1/2″ for the fold. I used a piece of the Kraft Corrugated Paper (you also get white sheets as well in the pack!) for the layer. The Whisper White banner is stamped with several different inks in the Neutrals family. I adhered a piece of cardstock at the top of the banner and stapled it (for that “masculine” texture!) with the Stampin’ Up! Handheld Stapler. Be sure to order a box of the Silver Mini Staples so you will have some on hand. And it all counts toward your $50 order for Sale-A-Bration!

Don’t forget to check out the Weekly Deals this weekend if you are ordering!

Weekly Deal Feb 16 2016

If you are new and need catalogs (and a Demonstrator!), please email me at Karen@KarenStamps.com.  I have a few left on hand I can mail to you.

If you are reading this and are NOT on my mailing list, be sure to sign up in the box in the upper right of my blog or in the pop-up. I hope to have my mid-month newsletter going out today, but the gremlins may have run off with it overnight!  Yikes!  I may have to start over! Gotta love computers!!

Red Mailbox for Mailing List Sign Up

Order online at my Stampin’ Up! Store for all the supplies to make cards like the ones I have on my blog!

Fabulous Four It’s Your Day Card Idea

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Fabulous Four It's Your Day Card Idea

One of the many things I love about stamping is that it is okay to copy an idea, as I did with this Fabulous Four It’s Your Day Card. While a birthday card might come to mind, I think this card with this greeting could be for lots of occasions. I saw this idea in the magazine we receive as Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators and I changed it just a little bit.

The card base is Pool Party card stock stamped with an outline flower from the Garden In Bloom Photopolymer Stamp Set in Pool Party ink for a watermark effect.  The center banner is stamped with the same greeting from Fabulous Four multiple times in multiple colors. I chose Calypso Coral, So Saffron, Wisteria Wonder, Wild Wasabi, and Pool Party. At the top of the banner, instead of card stock, I put a strip of Cherry on Top Designer Washi Tape around the top and tied on a piece of Whisper White Baker’s Twine. For some extra pizzazz, I used my Botanical Builder Framelits Dies to cut out a little flower and its center to put on the banner. I also added one of the It’s My Party Enamel Dots to the center.

This is an easy card to make and can be copied and changed up a bit in colors or texture to make a card for anyone and any occasion. The Fabulous Four stamp set is one I have used a lot, especially the It’s Your Day greeting.

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online HERE for the best in cardmaking supplies!

Birthday Blooms For You Card

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Birthday Blooms For You CardMake an easy all-occasions card with the Birthday Blooms Stamp Set and some pretty paper and card base. This stamp set just is “pretty” to me! I love the font style and the pretty flower designs. The single flower is just stamped on Whisper White card stock with Black Stazon Ink and punched with the 2″ Circle Punch. This circle then layers on the 2 3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch  on a piece of Calypso Coral card stock.  The flower is colored with my Aqua Painter and some “ink” from the Calypso Coral Stampin’ Write Marker.  I just scribble the marker on my plastic stamp case and pick it up with my Aqua Painter or a Blender Pen. When I am finished, I just wipe off the stamp case with a paper napkin or towel, which I am probably already using with the Aqua Painter. The leaves and stem are colored with Old Olive in the same manner but you could also use Pear Pizzazz or another green of your choosing. If you don’t have the right markers, you can use a drop of ink refill or pick up some ink off your ink pad.  So many choices and ways to do things in stamping!

The card base is Crumb Cake. The designer paper is the Wildflower Fields Paper, FREE in the Sale-A-Bration Brochure on page 12 with a $50 Stampin’ Up! purchase.  I hadn’t looked closely at all the patterns in the package, but wow, when I did, I fell in love with this pattern of stems and a little bit of color on white! I love the simplicity and easy look of it!  I thought it would go perfectly with this simple, pretty single flower from Birthday Blooms.  I added a piece of Pear Pizzazz 1/4″ Cotton Ribbon across the top of the designer paper and tied on a small knot.  The greeting is also from the Birthday Blooms Stamp Set and stamped on Calypso Coral.  I thought I would just keep it simple by not layering or anything else.

At the last minute, I decided to stamp some flowers in Versamark Ink on the top part of the card base, which is not a good idea when you have the bottom paper already adhered.  I couldn’t space the flowers out very well and a few overlap as you can see – but, oh well, handmade doesn’t mean perfection! And probably no one else will notice but me! So don’t let your mistakes stop you. There ARE no mistakes in stamping!

Remember, there are 3 new Sale-A-Bration products to choose from as of yesterday! See them HERE.

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online HERE and get a Birthday Blooms Stamp Set for making cards or any other wonderful Stampin’ Up! products – and with a $50 purchase, get a FREE Sale-A-Bration item!