Something Old, Something New for Freshly Made Sketches

Well, I'm finally home safe and sound from a wonderful week in Northern BC, where the temperatures were in the mid 20s (that's in the 70s for my American friends)! I was there to celebrate my granddaughter's first birthday and here she is in all her dandelion glory! (Love her feisty streak!)

One of the first things I did when I got home was to unpack my goodies from my Stampin' Up! pre-order so I could make you some sneak peek cards using some of the new products from the 2015/16 Annual Catalogue! (Absolutely, one of the best perks of being a Stampin' Up! Demo! You get to see and order a full month ahead of the public.) And I needed a wedding card for a Sunday wedding we went to yesterday, so I quickly mounted and inked up my favourite stamp set from the pre-order selection, You've Got This! And I opened my new In Colour Ink Pads in Mint Macaron and Tip Top Taupe! And I cut up some new In Colour cardstock in the same colours and tried out some of the new In Colour Envelope Paper and some of the new In Colour Dotted Lace Trim.  So here, in matrimonial tradition, is "Something Old and Something New" for Freshly Made Sketches:

• I love this soft colour combination of Tip Top Taupe and Mint Macaron. It's perfect for a wedding card!
• The "Something Old" is *Your Perfect Day stamp set where I got the sentiment on the outside, and one on the inside that I'll show you further down! Also old and retiring is the *Spring Flowers embossing folder which I used to emboss the lower panel of Tip Top Taupe. By the way, the layout for this card comes from the Freshly Made Sketches Challenge #186 sketch:

• That beautiful striped Mint Macaron paper is from a new product in the up-coming Annual Catalogue called Envelope Paper. It is lighter weight than our regular DSP and when I used it with our Envelope Punch Board, it scored without cracking and folded so easily! It's perfect for making envelopes, but you can also use it on your projects, which I did!
• Take note of that lovely Mint Macaron Dotted Lace Trim! So delicate, and perfect for wedding, baby, vintage and almost anything else!
• The image panel is stamped with the new stamp set, You've Got This. My favourite thing about it is the almost full background stamp of cross-hatching! You know how much I like texture and this will be so useful for collage stamping and adding texture to backgrounds. I stamped off my Mint Macaron ink once before adding this to the background. Then I stamped the flower image in Tip Top Taupe! I punched out the image using the 2 1/2" Circle Punch and backed it with a Tip Top Taupe starburst, die cut using the retiring *Starburst Framelits.

• Here's a peek at the inside using the flower image again and another sentiment from *Your Perfect Day. The *Top Note Bigz Die is retiring as well, but I will never let it go!! It's my "card-insides" die! (insert foot stamping!)

Get Excited! Get Very Excited!!

I also now have copies of the new Annual Catalogue ready for distribution, so regular active customers can expect to see them soon.  If you would like a copy free, call me and place a $50 order and I will see that you get one! See you tomorrow with another sneak peek!

 Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the Stampin' Up! products used to make this card today!

Sneak Peek Products (Available June 2):  You've Got This Stamp Set, In Colour Envelope Paper, Mint Macaron Classic Ink Pad and cardstock, Tip Top Taupe Classic Ink Pad and cardstock, Mint Macaron Dotted Lace Trim

Product List

*Your Perfect Day Clear Stamp Set [138853]	*Your Perfect Day Wood Stamp Set [138850]	*Your Perfect Day Photopolymer Stamp Set [137160]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	*Spring Flowers Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [137365]
2-1/2" Circle Punch [120906]	*Starburst Framelits Die [132967]	*Top Note Bigz Die [113463]	Envelope Punch Board [133774]	Big Shot [113439]
Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755]	Glue Dots [103683]	Fuse Fast Adhesive [129026]	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430]

*Retiring June 2

Back from Zihuatanejo with February's Paper Pumpkin and Alternatives

Well, I am back home again after a wonderful vacation in Zihuatanejo, Mexico! It was probably one of my all time most relaxing weeks ever and I have come back really refreshed and looking forward to sharing more papercrafting projects with you, including today's projects brought to you by February's Paper Pumpkin.  Thanks for sticking with me after a quiet couple of weeks.  

Here are some photos of my wonderful week in Mexico:

Downtown Zihuatanejo

Our Club Intrawest Resort

Me and the hubby on the beach

Looking down on the pool area.

Another view of downtown Zihua!

Here's what awaited me on my return home:

So I decided that my project to share with you would be February's Paper Pumpkin and my variations on it.

This is the project as Stampin' Up! intended, and it was easy to complete using the handy directions in the box:

The kit comes with the kraft envelopes that you assemble yourself!

I decided to try and do a different theme besides "Thank You", so I chose birthdays:

• For this design, I added Retro Fresh washi tape for a bottom border and got out the Sale-A-Bration Stamp set called Big Day for the birthday images and sentiments.  I used the same colour scheme of Daffodil Delight, Pool Party and Tangerine Tango.
• By the way, the H is for Happy Birthday and the I is for ice cream.  I made the I from one the the Ts by cutting off the edges. I was pushing it, I know.  I was trying to come up with birthday words using the felted letters from the kit, which are all the letters in the word 'THANKS'. I was drawing blanks, big time!  What words can you come up with using those letters? I decided I would just used single letters that would have some significance, however slight, hence the H and I.

Here's the final design I came up with last night:
                                                                                 

This one is a wedding card design, with the additions of Something Borrowed Designer Series Paper, the Something Borrowed Embellishments, and Your Perfect Day stamp set. I used Sahara Sand and Pool Party for the simple colour palette.

Here is the envelope I designed for this card:

This uses the paper doilies and Pearls from the Artisan Embellishments Kits, and some Sahara Sand Lace Trim.

Now, I want to let you know that buying a 3 month prepaid subscription to Paper Pumpkin, which is 

on sale right now for $68.85, will not only get you the delight of creating some great papercrafting projects for the next 3 months, it will be enough to earn you a Sale-A-Bration reward as well. You can order this through me.

                        

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the Stampin' Up! products used to make this card today!

Product List

Big Day Clear Stamp Set [139112]	Big Day Wood Stamp Set [139109]	Retro Fresh This And That Washi Tape [133001]	Your Perfect Day Clear Stamp Set [138853]	Your Perfect Day Wood Stamp Set [138850]
Your Perfect Day Photopolymer Stamp Set [137160]	Something Borrowed Designer Series Paper [137785]	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730]	Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad [126944]	Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad [126982]
Tangerine Tango Classic Stampin' Pad [126946]	Sahara Sand Classic Stampin' Pad [126976]	Something Borrowed Embellishments [137855]	Sahara Sand 7/8" (2.2 Cm) Lace Trim [137866]	Glue Dots [103683]