Happy Blooms

I've been playing surgeon again, but more on that a little later. First a little about this card. very little, in fact, because it's one of the quickest and simplest cards I've ever put together. I started with a wild wasabi card base. I then layered three die cut blooms in bashful blue, pumpkin pie and real red. The die cut blooms are so fun and easy to use. The are made of our textured card stock and there is no trimming necessary -- just pop them out and they're ready to go! And you might notice that the four colors of the die cut blooms coordinate perfectly with the four colors of the new striped ribbon, which makes it even easier to put a card together!

I added a little "friends forever" sentiment from the Anchored rub-on assortment to the center of the assembled flower. I then pierced two holes in the center and poked through some pumpkin pie striped ribbon which I had previously wrapped around the card base. I tied the ribbon in a knot and the card was almost done. For the final touch I stamped the "happy days" sentiment from the Many Happy Returns set in versamark ink and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Super simple, right?

If you'd like to try out the die cut blooms for yourself call me to book a party -- I will be using cards featuring the die cut blooms as workshop make and takes, so you and all of your guests will get to see how fun these die cuts are and how easy they make it to create gorgeous cards.

And speaking of the Many Happy Returns set, that's where the surgery came up. As with the "Lots of Thoughts" hostess set from the Fall/Winter 2007 collection, this set is supposed to be mounted on three large blocks. However, I think it's just so much more versatile separated into the individual phrases, so once again I headed to Home Depot to purchase some 3/8" square dowels which Bill was kind enough to cut down for me to specified lengths. Now the set is mounted perfectly for me, which really is the big advantage of mounting our Stampin' Up! stamps ourselves. If the stamps came pre-mounted, doing this kind of "surgery" would have been much more cumbersome!

And this wasn't the only surgery I performed recently. During Sale-A-Bration I was fortunate enough to earn the Older and Wiser Level 3 Hostess set (Thanks, Adrian, for pointing out my original mistake -- I had the link right, but typed twhe wrong set name). I adore this set, especially the turtle and the monkey, so I was really excited to finally get my hands on it. But, of course, me being me, I completely custom mounted this set. I love the way it came out and can't wait to stamp some cards with it!