Hello, Stampers! Thanks for stopping by to visit me on another Stamping with Friends Blog hop! We are a group of Independent Demonstrators with Stampin' Up! who enjoy paper crafting and sharing our creations with each other and with you!  Front Cover of Mini Catalog Well, it's that time again...the debut of Stampin' Up!'s July - December 2021 Mini...AND...Sale-A-Bration catalog. Both of which will go live on my website on August 3, 2021. As an Independent Demonstrator, we are privileged to receive the catalog both in digital and hard copy format and (and this is the most important piece..lol), we are able to pre-order and get hold of some of these goodies so we can start creating card projects for you. If you've followed my on my socials (yeah, that's me trying to be "in"), you'll know that my style of card making is simple, yet elegant (#simpleyetelegant).  With that in mind and I knowing that  I wanted to use the bookbinding fold  this is where...

  The last few years have been an endeavor in purchasing lots of awesome products from Stampin' Up! but never having the opportunity to put ink to Stamp to create with it.  In keeping with my quest to utilize my stamps, I'm starting a new series "Ink To Stamp".  In this series, I'll go through my retired stamps, dies, bundles, suites, etc, and create cards with them. The inaugural stamp set is the Music From the Heart.   Music has always held a special place in my heart (soul, really)...starting with concert choirs in elementary, middle, and high school to a concentration in performance voice in college (Clark University, Worcester, MA). So you can understand why, when I saw this set, it was a must-have for me.  Why it took me so long to put "Ink to Stamp" is beyond me.   I used a simple card layout that I saw from a Jackie Bolhuis YouTube video. I started with a 6"x 6" Designer Series Paper (DSP) (I used the now-retired Ombre Sale-A-Bration pa...

I love being able to combine challenges. Over at SplitCoastStampers dot com, the color challenge on 6/23/2021 consisted of Stampin' Up!'s Pale Papaya, Marvelous Magenta, and Shaded Spruce.  When I looked at these colors, flowers and birds came to mind.  I'm also participating in a card swap that features Stampin' Up!'s Free as A Bird set.  So I said to myself, "Self, don't you think it would make sense to combine the two challenges?" Yes, I do talk to myself, doesn't everyone?  LOL  I purchased this set when it was first available as a Suite with the Designer Series Paper and the coordinating dies...and while I'd used it some, I didn't really give it the attention it deserved.  So here's what I created to satisfy both challenge and swap. I stamped and embossed the main image in Versa Fine Claire and clear embossing powder. Then I doubled down and colored the images with the Stampin' Blends and created the background using the alcoho...