Hi, Stamping Friends, and Hello June!  Welcome and thank you for joining me for another Stamping with Friends Blog Hop!  If you are new to my blog,  Stamping with Friends is a group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators who share our love of card making with you through monthly blog hops with various themes. If you are following the hop, then you'll have just popped over from Candi Suriano of Stamp with Candi's   blog.   I hope you took a minute to leave a comment for her as I'm sure she'll appreciate it just as much as I will.  If you are starting the hop with me, thank you so much and I hope you enjoy what I and the other hoppers have prepared for you today!  I just got back from a visit with my family in St. Thomas, USVI for nine glorious days but I'm totally going through withdrawals because I forgot my project kits right on the kitchen counter...go figure! But this was a good thing! It meant I got to be present and in the moments with family...amaz...

It's time for another, Ink to Stamps creation. A couple of months ago, I cleared out my craft room and with the assistance of several of my crafty friends who love to organize, I cleared out the space, and I am totally rediscovering gems from yesteryear.  I believe this one was a Hostess set from 2012. I know I wasn't a Stampin' Up! demonstrator then, so I must have seen someone create something wonderful with it, wanted it, got it, and promptly put it on the shelf and did nothing with it...til now...silly wabbit!   So where did I begin? As I seem to be doing more lately, I turned to Splitcoast Stampers to generate thoughts and ideas.  I follow the Color Challenges, the Sketch Challenges, the Clean and Simple Challenges so that's where I started: the 4/5/2021 CAS, titled "Flower Power" (CAS632) and the 7/24/2021 Color Challenge (CC853), titled "An Evening Smelling Mint Roses" (Evening Evergreen, Mint Macaron and Rococo Rose). Take a look at what I cr...

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...