Lovely Lily Pad Sale-a-bration Bundle

Hi there Stampin' Friends!

First off, I need to apologize for my lengthy absence. I decided to take some time off during the Holidays, but found myself completely burnt out and unable to create. I've talked in the past about being a caregiver. Right now my mother is in the hospital, and has been since the end of November. Her health is declining, and I find myself grieving as she becomes more and more frail, and less able to communicate. I have needed an extended period of rest and time to allow myself to process the experience of trying to be there for Mom at this time in her life. We continue to wait for an appropriate nursing home placement for Mom, and I'm praying that it will happen soon. I thank you for your patience as I get my creative groove going again.

While I have been resting, Stampin' Up! has not! We are full swing in Sale-a-bration time. Sale-a-bration is a three month extravaganza of bonus products with purchases, extra product offers, and an absolutely amazing offer for those who think they'd like to join my  Granny's Craftin' Cannucks Team. If you've not received a brochure of the free Sale-a-bration products offered with a purchase of $60 or more, please let me know and I will be delighted to send you one. If you are interested in becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, contact me at kellyapulham@gmail.com for more information and a list of all the free goodies you can receive if you join during Sale-a-bration.

Today, I'm demonstrating several cards using the Lovely Lily Pad Stamp Set, Dies, and co-ordinating products that you can earn free with an order from the Annual Catalogue, Occasions Catalogue, or a combination of the two. The first card uses all of the co-ordinating products from the Sale-a-bration brochure.

For this card, I used a Whisper White Thick Cardstock base. If you don't have some of this cardstock on hand, you could use the regular cardstock, but I love how this thick cardstock holds up as a card base! The designer series paper is from the Lily Impressions DSP pack which can be earned with a $60 purchase. It has some lovely impressionistic images on one side, and beautifully rich colours on the back. The Lovely Lily Pad Stamp Set is reversible. I chose to use Memento ink to stamp, then stamped the reverse side to "colour" the flowers and lily pads. The flowers used Calypso Coral ink, stamped off once, and the lily pads used Bermuda Bay ink, stamped off once. The sentiments are from the Itty Bitty Greetings Stamp Set (another essential in my books), and the Sending You Thoughts Stamp Set (also available in the Sale-a-bration brochure, free with a $60 purchase). Finishing touches were added with the Metallic Baker's Twine and Sequins Combo Pack from the Sale-a-bration Brochure.

The second card I created was cased from Sue Mohr. I stamped a With Sympathy sentiment inside from the Flourishing Phrases Stamp Set (Annual Catalogue), but the card is definitely appropriate for many occasions. I went with a soft, textured look, using the Subtles Embossing Folder to create a Whisper White layer on top of a Whisper White Thick Cardstock Base. The die cut pieces placed vertically to the right are from the Lily Pad Dies, available with a $120 order. These are incredibly versatile dies, and I absolutely love them! 

The flowers were stamped first with Petal Pink ink using the back of the stamp, then Flirty Flamingo ink using the lined part of the stamp. The leaves and lily pad were stamped first with Soft Seafoam ink using the back of the stamp, then Pear Pizzazz ink using the lined part of the stamp. These were die cut, then positioned as shown, with the lower images popped up with dimensionals. The rectangle with the Thinking of You sentiment (from the Good Morning Magnolia Stamp Set - Annual Catalogue) is from the Stitched Rectangles dies and I popped it up with dimensionals.  For a video tutorial showing how to create this card using the reversible stamps, see my Facebook Page.

The final card I'm sharing today uses those versatile Lily Pad dies, along with my favourite stamp set from the Occasions Catalogue, Grace's Garden. Since I wanted to create a bridal shower card, I also used the Itty Bitty Stamp Set again for the Showered With Love greeting. In this card, I used the lily pad dies to represent raindrops. The card base is Petal Pink cardstock. I layered a Pool Party mat, then a layer of watercolour paper over which I put a Pool Party wash using an aqua painter filled with water. I used a Rectangle Stitched die to create the Pool Party rectangle which I matted with Petal Pink cardstock.

 The flowers, bird and kitty were stamped with Memento ink, then coloured using Stampin' Blends (Pool Party, Soft Seafoam, and Crumb Cake). I popped the stamped images up with dimensionals. The sentiment was punched using a 1" punch, then matted with a 1 1/8" scalloped punch in Petal Pink cardstock. The tiny flowers were die cut using the dies from the Grace's Garden bundle, then embellished with the Champagne rhinestones from the Occasions Catalogue.

I hope you enjoyed these cards today. The final two will be made in my Occasions Card Class locally here on January 26th. Contact me for more information about the class.

Have a wonderful day, friends! I hope you are enjoying an opportunity to create something beautiful.

Craftin' Granny