"BLOSSOMING BASKET" THANK YOU

Blossoming Basket is one of the latest products that Stampin' Up! added to the Sale-a-Bration promotion, and it's already a favorite of mine!  Would you like to earn this bundle FREE?  It can be yours when you purchase Stampin' Up! merchandise (HERE) totaling $100 (before shipping and tax).  

Demonstrators were able to purchase the stamp set (and coordinating Basket Weave embossing folder) and, even though I told myself that I would just wait and earn the bundle for free, I ended up purchasing it because I just couldn't wait.  It is awesome!  This is one of the cards that I've already made with the stamp set:

Isn't that a lovely basket of flowers????  And that adorable tag stamp . . . ahhhhhh.  The "thanks a bunch" sentiment is from another fantastic stamp set, "Beautiful Bouquet", and it has such perfect (and gorgeously designed) sentiments!

My stamped image was colored with the Bermuda Bay, Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight, Cherry Cobbler, and Old Olive Stampin' Blends markers, and the sentiment was stamped with Crumb Cake and Bermuda Bay ink.

FEBRUARY SKETCH CHALLENGE (CLASS SWAPS)

For the past couple of months, my stampin' friends and I have enjoyed a sketch challenge for our monthly class swap.  Our February swap was borrowed from operationwritehome.org and looked like this:

Lisa had a very creative interpretation of the swap (above)--I love that!  She also brought her January swap to class this month (below).  You can see the other January swaps HERE.

Below is the card that I created for the swap.

We decided that our March swap will be another sketch challenge, and I can hardly wait!

"PETAL PALETTE" THANK YOU CARD

There's really not much to say about this card, except that I ❤ Stampin' Up!'s Petal Palette stamp set!  It kind of reminds me of the awesome Butterfly Basics stamp set in that it has a little bit of everything that a stamper might be looking for or needing when designing a card . . . gorgeous focal points, sentiments, backgrounds/filler, etc.  I used the Rich Razzleberry and Old Olive Stampin' Blends to color the flowers, and that was just too easy and fun.

Cardstock colors are Crumb Cake, Rich Razzleberry, and Whisper White.  There's even a set of coordinating dies (Petals & More Thinlits) to go with the Petal Palette stamp set, and I used one of them to die-cut the bird.

"PAINTED WITH LOVE" THANK YOU CARD

One of my mother's sweet quilting friends recently made a rain coat for our Border Collie, Ramsour.  Of course, I had to make a thank you card and, of course, it had to have a quilt-esque (or patchwork) design.  Because I love, love, love Stampin' Up!'s Painted with Love designer paper, I cut some of it into 1/2" strips, which I randomly adhered to a scrap of cardstock.  I wish the photo of the card had turned out better.  I thought it looked okay in preview, but I later discovered that I should have taken the time to either change the camera lens or do something magical to the funky auto focus that transpired.  Oops!  You can see a little bit of the designer paper pocket that I adhered to the inside of the card, which held a sweet little gift card.  Other Stampin' Up! products featured on this card are Melon Mambo cardstock to mat the decorated layer on the front, Whisper White and Powder Pink cardstock, white Baker's Twine, and a few enamel dots that were left over from last month's Paper Pumpkin kit.

I suppose you'd like to see a photo of Ramsour modeling his new coat.  He didn't know what I had just wrapped around him--he was mostly hoping that I was ready to play, but doesn't it look handsome on him?  

While it was raining buckets this morning, his new coat came in handy to keep all of that silky fur on his back nice and dry.  He looks a bit pitiful in the photo . . . as if to say, "Why must you take a photo now?"  Or maybe he'd like to know if he could get a hat and some boots.  It looks like two different dogs in the photos, but I promise they're both Ram.

Ramsour is just the best little dog!  He doesn't really seem to care what we put on him--all that matters is that we're ready to play.  He has worn his Panthers jerseys without complaint in the past, but I love that his new coat is easy to put on and doesn't look at all bothersome to him.