This Card Fit For the River Oaks Garden Club Azalea Trail 2019 in Houston was inspired by our annual visit to the Azalea Trail of homes and gardens this weekend!  My husband and I have gone to this every single year except one in all the years we have lived here in Houston.  There are a number of private homes that show off their gardens and sometimes even part of the inside of their house and every one has beautiful flower arrangements inside and out.  No photos are allowed inside the homes, unfortunately, but I take lots of them outdoors!  Yes, we do have flowers and azaleas blooming in Houston, Texas!  No snow!

I thought this Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper represented some of the beautiful flowers we saw on the Azalea Trail, not to mention some of our own azalea bushes at our house that are bursting into bloom!

You can get this Petal Promenade Paper FREE during this last month of Sale-A-Bration!  Stampin’ Up! added some Annual Catalog products to the Sale-A-Bration choices!  Just spend $50 or more and choose a free product from the Sale-A-Bration choices in the Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

This card was very quick and easy to make!  The card base is made from Blushing Bride Cardstock.  The greeting is from the Forever Lovely Stamp Set and is stamped with Blushing Bride Ink on Whisper White Cardstock.  Make sure your ink pad is well inked when using light colored inks like this one. Also, do a couple of practice stamps with the ink on scrap paper, especially with the photopolymer stamps.  It usually makes them stamp the image better.  And using the Stamparatus® is good, too, because you can stamp the image again over and over if necessary since the paper and stamp do not move in between!  Purchasing the Stamparatus plus “something else” will get you a FREE Sale-A-Bration item, too, once you reach $50!

After stamping, the greeting is die-cut with one of the large ovals in the Layering Ovals Framelits Dies and then layered on a die-cut scalloped oval in the same set.  I just adhered it flat on the card with Snail Adhesive, but you could also use to pop it up with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I couldn’t leave well enough alone, I had to add some Basic Adhesive-Backed Sequins to the greeting and around on the card!  They are so fun, especially with the adhesive already on them, and I find that the Take Your Pick tool is helpful to use in moving the sequins over to the card.

Here are just a few photos from the Azalea Trail the other day!

I hope you enjoyed these pictures of just one stop on the Houston Azalea Trail put on by the River Oaks Garden Club!  The homes, especially this one, are just amazing.  This one was worth the price of the whole ticket itself!  You just cannot imagine the size of the lot and the home.  I think we should move right in because they had doormats with an “F” printed on them!  Just for us!  Besides the main house, there is a guest cottage, a playhouse, a treehouse, an inground trampoline, a putting green, outdoor courtyards, and verandas – just spectacular!  The previous owner of the house had probably every celebrity and famous person come to a party or “houseguest” in her home, back in the day!  It was really interesting to tour this home and garden on the Azalea Trail.

Be sure to check out all the Sale-A-Bration choices before it ends March 31st!

Celebrate Cinco de Mayo with a handmade Margarita card like this one! Cinco de Mayo, the fifth of May, is historically a celebration of the Mexican victory over France in 1862 at the Battle of Puebla. (Who says you don’t learn history while you are stamping?!) In the United States, however, Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of Mexican heritage and culture. And what better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo than with a Margarita…….at least a card!

It’s very easy to make a Margarita glass!  Vellum Cardstock is great for this because it’s kind of sturdy and yet kind of see through to it will look for glass. For the top of the glass, just die cut or punch a circle, depending on what size you want.  I used the largest circle die in the Layering Circle Framelits Dies.  Then cut the circle in half.  Color on the backside of the half circle with green ink (or whatever color your beverage is) with a Sponge Dauber or whatever you like.  For the stem of the glass, just cut a strip of the Vellum Cardstock.  Then punch or die cut a small oval for the base of the glass.  I used the smallest oval in the Layering Ovals Framelits Dies.  It’s almost impossible to hide adhesive underneath vellum so do the best you can!

The card base is the retiring Tempting Turquoise with a layer of Lemon Lime Twist.  I thought those colors would be bright and festive for this Cinco de Mayo card.

Once I had the vellum glass set on the front of the Whisper White card front, I stamped some confetti from the We Must Celebrate Stamp Set as well as the greeting from the same set.  Who would think this animal stamp set would be perfect for a Cinco de Mayo card?! This cute stamp set is retiring May 31, while supplies last, so if you love little animals, be sure to order it.  I colored in the bits of confetti with my Stampin’ Blends markers.  So fun!  And for just a little fun embellishment, I added a little bow to the glass made of the Lemon Lime Twist 1/4″ Ombre Ribbon.

Here is another Margarita glass card I made last year.

I prefer some salt on the rim of my frozen Margarita, so to make that on this card I just used a strip of Tear & Tape and added some Dazzling Diamonds Glitter to the adhesive.  You could also add Glimmer Paper if you had that.  Or take your Margarita without salt!

Here in Houston, Texas we have a lot of great Mexican restaurants, so my husband and I celebrated early last weekend to beat the crowds this weekend on Cinco de Mayo!  Whether you have a real Margarita or make one on a card, have a fun Cinco de Mayo!

Maybe to celebrate Cinco de Mayo you want to just shop Stampin’ Up! Online HERE!

Images © Stampin’ Up! 2018 www.KarenStamps.com

If I were going to make a card to send to the Bush family, I would probably make one like this Rose Wonder card with a few pearls in honor of Barbara Bush.  I would say almost all of Houston, Texas is just heartbroken since hearing of the death of Barbara Bush yesterday evening. I don’t think most of us considered the ages of Mr. and Mrs. Bush because they have been in everyone’s lives for so long and so vital in our city. So it was a shock the other day to hear that Mrs. Bush was in failing health, and as with our own family members, even when death is expected, it still is shocking and sad when it finally happens. I was heartened the other day when I heard her granddaughter, Jenna Bush, say on the Today Show that her grandmother told her not to believe everything she hears! I was hoping that meant things weren’t as dire as thought.

I remember when President Bush was still in office and people would ask what they were going to do when his term was over. They never wavered in saying they were going home to Houston, but I detected a bit of skepticism on those asking the question that a former president would go live in Houston. They did make their home here (I used to drive out-of-town friends past their street to say that’s where the Bushes lived, not that you could get into the neighborhood of course!). They were “regular people” in the neighborhood, often seen at their favorite restaurants, Barbara was seen at her favorite grocery store, George was seen at his favorite BBQ restaurant and returning movies to Blockbuster back in the day! Schools were named after them here in Houston.

It was thrilling one time to be at an Astros ballgame and saw, down in the best seats right behind home plate, that President and Mrs. Bush were in attendance! I think I watched from my seat way up high with my binoculars what the Bushes were doing more than I watched the ballgame!  They were frequent spectators at Houston games and often featured on the “Kiss Cam” at the ballgame!

Of course there was all their public service work for which they are admired and will be remembered.  But here in Houston people will remember the kind of neighbors they were in the Houston community all over the city in many aspects. So many stories on our local news of people who knew the Bushes and have such loving stories to tell about Barbara Bush. Houston and Texas, as well as the rest of the country will miss Barbara Bush, but what a full and  exceptional life she led and shared with others. Her whole family can take comfort in that.

Coloring is said to be good for us, one of those things (like stamping) that takes our mind away from everything else for awhile as we get engrossed in the act of coloring. In the new Occasions Catalog, the Petal Passion Designer Series Paper really lends itself to coloring therapy with our Stampin’ Blends Markers!

The Petal Passion Designer Series Paper is designed with handpainted watercolor designs in black and white that can stand alone or easily lends itself to whatever coloring technique you would like to use on this paper. On this wintry night in Houston, I thought it would be fun to just sit and color for awhile on this paper. The Stampin’ Blends markers have their own unique way of “taking me away” with their smoothness and pretty colors.  Although each color comes with it’s own “Light” and “Dark”, don’t be afraid to use two different colors for coloring and blending rather than sticking with the one color.  Just play and experiment!

If I wanted to, I could color this whole sheet of paper OR I can choose a few flowers to color and then cut them out and use on a project. I know some people hate cutting out by hand, but I find using my Paper Snips to cut can be another relaxing activity while you are watching TV or even just sitting at your stamping desk (or kitchen table!).

Get a glimpse of all the Stampin’ Up! designer papers in the Occasions Catalog in this video.  The Petal Passion Paper begins at 19 seconds in!

Just remember, the designer papers always look WAY better in person than they do in the catalog picture. I think this video gives us a pretty good view of what the papers look like in person.

There is also a coordinating Petal Passion Memories & More Card Pack to go with the Petal Passion Suite. This card pack is on page 24 of the Occasions Catalog. These cards are perfect for memory keeping, but that’s not all!  You can also use them for making cards or gift tags or other projects.  Just pull one out and make something with it. There are also extras in the pack you might not expect like overlays, stickers, and other accents.

If you are snowed in or iced in like we are in Houston for the second day, coloring might be a good way to pass the time…..as well as stamping!  If you don’t have the Petal Passion Designer Paper, you can stamp any outline image with Memento Ink and color in. Try it! I think coloring is therapeutic, as they say, because it takes us back to our childhood and reminds us of that new box of crayons we all loved so much! Do some coloring today!

Well, the Houston Astros did it last night, they WON the WORLD SERIES!!! That’s never been done before in Houston so I thought I would also use something new to make this card, the new Stampin’ Up! Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers!

The sentiment is one of the images in the new Color Me Happy Stamp Set, available now to help you get used to the Stampin’ Blend markers and have some good images for coloring to use. This stamp set and matching card project kit are avaiable while supplies last.

I didn’t so much worry about “blending” today making this card. The word was pretty narrow and really I just wanted to emphasize the colors that “sort of” represent the Astros colors. I just love the feel of using these new markers!

The word “Astros” is die cut with the Little Letters dies, which are retired. (Too bad!  I like those!)

It’s fun to have my stamping supplies with which to make cards for special occasions like this! Otherwise I would probably have to run to the craft store and buy something or other to use to make some project. As you can see, even though my card is about winning the baseball World Series, there’s not one “baseball” thing on my card!  This shows that you can often make cards without having the exact stamp for that occasion. Often you can just get across the idea using colors, stars, embellishments, etc.

Check out the new Stampin’ Blends markers!  Order just a few colors to try them out if you like or go for the whole collection!

I thought using the Thank You in the new Color Me Happy Stamp Set was perfect to thank the Houston Astros for all their work this season and all the effort they put into the World Series games. Nobody can deny their heart wasn’t in it. You could probably say that about any teams that make it into a championship, but after Houston and the larger area around us were so affected by Hurricane Harvey and the flooding, the players were really playing for the city of Houston as a whole! One player said he had a picture of a flooded home taped in his locker so that if he thought he had problems if he had a bad game, all he had to do was look at that picture and realize that others had it much worse than him.  Many of the players stated in interviews that they were playing to win for Houston after all so many have been through!

Did you see Carlos Correa propose to his girlfriend and give her a ring, on the field, after the game while he was being interviewed?!  What a night for him!

Tomorrow is a parade in downtown Houston for the Astros and all the fans!  They are even closing schools I just heard!  People from far and wide are invited.  What a day it will be to celebrate the Houston Astros World Series win for the first time ever!!!