I only have a couple more days with our friends from Scotland... *sob* We've had so much fun and I'm not ready for it to end. Just 5 years ago TODAY, Audrey and I met... (ONLINE, remember?!) and look at us now! If it weren't for that big ocean between us, we'd be inseperable.
Now for another card I received - and LOOK! It's another blue and red one! That may just be my new favorite color combo! This one comes from
Jennifer Greeley and you can view more of her fabulous work by checking out
her blog!
For this card, Jennifer used the
For a Friend hostess stamp set and the
Sprinkles stamp set. The colors are
Ruby Red,
Soft Sky, and
River Rock, along with some
Western Sky DSP. Some
Whisper White narrow grosgrain ribbon finishes it off. I just love it!! Thank you so much, Jennifer!!
Now for some business items I've been neglecting... as you've already discovered, I did not send out a July 1st Stamp Link Newsletter. When our guests depart, I will get to work on that. But here are some things to keep in mind:
Current Ribbon Share: My July Ribbon Share is the other 8 colors of Narrow Grosgrain ribbon (we did the first 8 in June). So July includes
Basic Black, Very Vanilla, More Mustard, Pretty in Pink, Bravo Burgundy, Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, and Mellow Moss. The share includes
3 yards of each color for a total of
$12.00. If you are interested in joining the share this month, please send me an
e-mail and I will send you an invoice.
I need those requests no later than July 20th!Catalog Retirement Sales Event: I promised you a sale, and it's getting closer! Remember the dates of my sale will be from
July 15th through the 24th. The structure of it will be very similar (but maybe a little better!!) to the sale I held last year, and you can read those details in
this post. My upcoming Newsletter will have it all detailed for you, so if you have not signed up to receive it, do so by following the "Stamp Link Newsletter" link on the left sidebar.
Blog Candy: I promised a bit of blog candy for the wonderful people who sent me birthday cards so I wouldn't have to "work" too hard while my guests are here! I will be doing that drawing by the middle of next week, so stay tuned! As of right now, the participants of that draw are (in no particular order, and I have yet to show you two of these cards): Melanie T., Janet P., Cindy R., April W., Jennifer G., Pattie S., Seletta H., Tabitha A., Darleia C., and Marelle T. Please let me know if I've left anyone off the list!!
Edited to Add: I just received a beautiful card from Ali M., so she will be included in this list as well!I think that's it for now... or else it's all I have time for! I've got bacon & eggs to make just now! Again, please be sure to sign up for my Stamp Link Newsletter if you haven't already, as I'll have an issue going out by Monday or so.
There's no real tricks here, so I'm just going to leave you with the recipe.
I watercolored this beautiful butterfly with my Watercolor Wonder Crayons and an Aquapainter using mostly Elegant Eggplant. The image comes from Touch of Nature which is going to retire in a couple weeks. The sentiment was colored with Stampin' Write Markers so I could make the "One" part stand out. Of course, those Rhinestone Brads are attention-getters all on their own!
What impresses me most about this card is that I would've never dreamed of using Pumpkin Pie and Always Artichoke together, but they look fabulous! Isn't that the strangest thing? What sounds weird in your head looks great once it's carried out! Sarah used one of my favorite sets - Blossoms Abound - which is getting ready to retire. Boo hoo! She also used a sentiment from Stem Sayings. The Photo Corners punch up in the right-hand corner does a great job of filling in that blank space. Great card, Sarah!!
I made this card using the Year After Year and Sweet Thing stamps sets - BOTH of which are retiring in a few short weeks! I also used the Classic Alphabet which has already retired. I watercolored the elephant with Watercolor Wonder Crayons, and roughed up the edges with the Cutter Kit.
On this card, Ali used the Embrace Life and Tres Chic stamps along with Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Soft Sky, Certainly Celery, and Very Vanilla cardstock. The little pink flowers were made with the Boho Flower punch and they have a dab of Crystal Effects in the center. I also like how she used the Color Spritzer on the pink background. 
I really like this card... I don't have this stamp set, but it makes me want it! The "...is for Birthday" part is on the inside matted the same way the "B" is here on the front. These colors are Soft Sky and Blue Bayou - both about to retire, so get 'em while you can because they look so fabulous together as you can clearly see! The patterned paper on the bottom is the Blue Bayou Prints , the stamp set is Just B, and the ribbon is the Blue Bayou double stitched grosgrain. This is a wonderful monochromatic card, Tabitha - I've even had compliments on it as it's been sitting here next to my computer waiting to be published!
She used one of my favorite stamp sets on this one - Blossoms Abound - which is going to retire in just a few short weeks! Look how she glitzed it up with some chunky glitter! She also did a faux tile background which looks fabulous behind the blossoms! Seletta, thank you so much for helping me celebrate my birthday!
For this card, Jennifer used the For a Friend hostess stamp set and the Sprinkles stamp set. The colors are Ruby Red, Soft Sky, and River Rock, along with some Western Sky DSP. Some Whisper White narrow grosgrain ribbon finishes it off. I just love it!! Thank you so much, Jennifer!!
The gifts on the front are framed by square metal tags, and she used some Cutie Pie DSP as wrapping paper. Then she tied some Silver metallic thread around them. They are attached to a piece of vellum, which is sandwiched between the Saffron and Bashful Blue cardstock...
...and then the packages are repeated here on the inside with two other patterns of the DSP! Isn't it fabulous?! Her sentiment is on the inside of the card.
There is just something about the combination of a soft blue and a vibrant red that I really like (see this post for another one). Janet used Soft Sky, Blue Bayou, River Rock, and Real Red, along with some stamps from the Big Bold Birthday set. I'm assuming she used the Coluzzle to cut the big red circle, and then attached it to the DARLING cupcake using some Soft Sky double stitched grosgrain ribbon and a Rhinestone brad. Just beautiful, Janet! I love it!! 
Darleia used a lot of great embellishments on this card - from Rhinestone brads, to Rub-ons, to Paper Piercing, the Cutter Kit, and my favorite Old Olive Wide Grosgrain ribbon! The flowers are raised up with Dimensionals, which adds to the layered look. The colors are Only Orange and either Rose Red or Purely Pomegranate - can't quite tell, but either would look terrific! Fantastic card, Darleia! This was a lot of work. Thank you so much!!
Isn't it fun? She used one of my favorite sets - Baroque Motifs! You can never go wrong when you use that set! Although this looks very similar to Pale Plum, that's not exactly the color she used. The brown could be Chocolate Chip - and the combination of Pale Plum and Chocolate Chip would be stunning as well! April - great card! And thank you for your kind words inside... it was good to see you at the last Stamp-a-Stack! Hope to see you again soon! 