Tag: designer series paper

Botanicals · Country Flowers · sketches

Buckets of Birthday Flowers

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This week, we’re using portions of the Stampin’ Up! Country Woods suite to make all sorts of lovely card designs. We’re also using inspiration from fellow crafters as a jumpstart for our designs. Today, we’re taking a sketch from my sketchbook as inspiration for our layout.

When I see card layouts I really love, I try to make a quick sketch or save a photo of the inspiration card. There are many times that I love a card and immediately think of stamps and dies in my own stash that will work with that layout. Great layouts are like that — they can be used over and over and give you completely different looks based on the products you use.

For today’s card, we get started with a card base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. The background panel consists of two layers. The mat is Pretty in Pink and the foreground is a piece of Moody Mauve that has been machine embossed using the Eyelet embossing folder. The focal panel base is a piece of the lighter grey woodgrain pattern from the Country Woods designer paper pack that has been diecut using one of the larger Spotlight on Nature circles. The milk tin and floral bunches from Country Flowers have been stamped on white cardstock and then colored with Stampin’ Blends. The tin and flowers are adhered to the focal panel with dimensionals with the florals just a smidge higher than the tin they are resting in. A bow of striped iridescent ribbon sits just underneath the flowers at the top of the tin. The sentiment from Something Fancy is heat embossed in white on black cardstock and then cut into a thin strip with the paper trimmer. A few Berry Burst sequins from the sequins trio are placed to draw the eye across the design.

Pop in tomorrow to see what else we do with the Country Flowers.

Products used in today’s design:
Blackberry Bliss, Pretty in Pink, Moody Mauve, Basic Black, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Spotlight on Nature dies
Something Fancy stamps
Embossing powder
Striped iridescent ribbon
Sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Botanicals · Country Flowers

Flower Market Love

susanfoxbowen2 Comments

This week, we’re taking a closer look at a portion of the Country Woods suite by Stampin’ Up! In particular, we’ll be focusing on the Country Flowers bundle, which includes photopolymer stamps and coordinating dies, and the Country Woods designer series paper. There is so much to love about this suite of products, but what really drew me was the feeling of a slow, summer afternoon swinging on the porch, which is how I felt when I first saw the images and papers. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in the country, and the milk tin and flowers and woodgrains all had that country feel to them. But whether you like a rustic, country feel or not, these products are — like everything Stampin’ Up! designs — so very versatile and lend themselves to all sorts of styles.

Today, I’m borrowing a design from fellow demo Susan Wong. I love how she used the woodgrain paper to “build” a door and then how she stacked the milk tin full of flowers in front. I don’t happen to have the Country Lace designer paper, but I made my own patterned sheet to mimic the sheet in the inspiration layout by stamping a repeating pattern using the small detail stamp, and I think it turned out to be an okay substitution.

So we get started with a card base of Smoky Slate cardstock. The background panel, as I mentioned, is a hand-stamped pattern using Smoky Slate ink and the small detail stamp from the Country Flowers stamp set. I decided to use the darker blue woodgrain sheet from the Country Woods paper pack to make the door. For the milk bucket, I decided to use one of the lighter woodgrain patterns from the DSP pack and stamped the image on top in Basic Gray ink, adding a handle with a Stampin’ Blend. I used some leftover scraps of Meandering Meadow designer paper to cut the leaves and flowers and then used rainbow dots for the flower centers. The flower market sign on the door is made using a small die from the Unbounded Love die set and the sentiment from Country Flowers. A small piece of linen thread and a metallic gem serve as the hanger. The sentiment from Country Flowers is stamped on white cardstock and then cut with paper snips. Two rhinestones help draw the eye to the sentiment.

It’s so fun bringing inspiration designs to life. And this week, we’re going to be doing just that. I hope you’ll tag along with me as we make a whole array of beautiful cards with Country Flowers.

Products used in today’s card:
Smoky Slate, Crumb Cake, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods, Meandering Meadow DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Unbounded Love dies
Linen thread
Metallic gems, rainbow dots, rhinestone jewels
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Dies · Masculine Designs

Father’s Day in the Grove

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We’re continuing our tour of Stampin’ Up! products that help us make the perfect Father’s Day cards. And today, we’re enjoying a quiet walk in the woods with the two grove sets — Grassy Grove and In the Grove. I really love these two sets because they allow you to create a whole myriad of beautiful scenes. I spent a lot of time in the woods growing up, and it’s fun to paint these pictures of memories in cards.

I wanted to give a lot of realism to this scene, so I combed through my designer paper stash to find just the right sheets for the background and leaves, and I found the Meandering Meadows paper pack to be the ticket.

We get started with a card base of Early Espresso cardstock. The background panel for our woodsy scene is a sheet of Meandering Meadow designer paper that, to me, very much resembles a morning sky. It’s been diecut with the largest Deckled Rectangles die. Next, using the grove of trees die from the Grove die set and the largest Deckled Rectangle simultaneously, I cut a quarter sheet of Early Espresso cardstock. This serves as the base for the leaf panel, which will sit above it for depth of field. Adhere this to the Meandering Meadow base. Using a sheet of green patterned paper from the Meandering Meadow paper pack, I diecut another grove of trees — this time without the Deckled Rectangle border. From this sheet, remove all of the branch portions of the green paper. Then cut this panel to size so that the Deckled Rectangle edge of the Early Espresso mat is revealed around the edges once the two layers are adhered together. Apply dimensionals to the back of the green panel and then adhere to the Early Espresso mat, ensuring that you line up the leaves of each layer precisely. From Crumb Cake cardstock, diecut a rabbit, squirrel, and deer using the Grove and In the Grove die sets. Adhere between your two tree layers using glue dots. Stamp the sentiment from Trusty Tools in Early Espresso ink on Crumb Cake cardstock and diecut using the Happy Little Things Banner die. Adhere at the center of the base of the focal panel using dimensionals.

Tomorrow we’re going to be trucking in some Father’s Day fun. I hope you’ll stop by and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Early Espresso, Crumb Cake Cardstock
Meandering Meadow DSP
Trusty Tools stamps
Grove, In the Grove dies
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Fun Folds · Masculine Designs

True Blessing

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This week, we’re working through our stash of Stampin’ Up! products to honor all the guys. It’s hard to believe that it’s already June and Father’s Day is quickly approaching. I hope one of this week’s designs inspires you to create something special for your fellas.

Today, we’re combining some gorgeous designer series paper with our dies to create this stunning fun fold called the Faux Fold-Over. We get started with a base of Early Espresso cardstock that has been cut to give us a flip-up panel, or the faux fold-over panel, in the center. Our full background layer is the sheet of Pool Party woodgrain from the Country Woods designer series paper pack.

For the center panel, we emboss a piece of the Pebbled Path luster paper using the Leaf Fall embossing folder. The sentiment panel consists of three layers — the bottom two layers utilize both sides of the white woodgrain sheet from the Country Woods paper pack and the third panel is white cardstock. Each circle is cut using the Spotlight on Nature dies. The white sentiment panel is stamped with the Unbounded Love sentiment in Copper Clay. The sentiment panel is adhered to the darker circle to create a matted sentiment. This layer is then adhered with dimensionals to the largest circle and the full panel is adhered using dimensionals to the center panel over a twist of linen thread. From Copper Clay luster paper, we diecut deer and branches from the Grove die set and a maple leaf from the Autumn Leaves dies and then adhere them to our panel to create our scene. The card front is finished off with swirl dots. Our inside sentiment from the Something Fancy set is stamped atop the small leaves from the Autumn Leaves stamp set in the bottom-right corner of the message panel.

This week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode walks you through making this card step-by-step. Missed the episode? You can watch the full episode right here:

You can also download the FREE step-by-step PDF tutorial for today’s card by clicking here.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading through the grove. I hope you’ll stop by and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Early Espresso, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods, In Color Luster DSP
Unbounded Love, Something Fancy, Autumn Leaves stamps
Spotlight on Nature, Grove, Autumn Leaves dies
Leaf Fall embossing folder
Linen thread
Swirl dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Masculine Designs · Take to the Sky

Plane and Simply the Best

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Howdy, crafting friends. Welcome to another sparkly day filled with crafty fun. This week, we’re pulling out a whole host of Stampin’ Up! products to make some masculine cards. And with Father’s Day around the corner, it only seems appropriate to make a few masculine cards to honor the special dads in our lives.

Today, we’re keeping things on the simple side with this high-flying design. You’ll notice that the bulk of this card is comprised of the new Take to the Sky designer paper. Did you know that there is a full sheet of perfect focal images included in the Take to the Sky designer series paper pack? Simply cut them apart and you have an instant focal point for your cards! Let’s take a closer look at how this design comes together.

We get started with a base of Misty Moonlight cardstock. Our background panel consists of a base of Night of Navy cardstock that has been machine embossed with the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder — a retired Sale-a-Bration product from earlier this year. I loved that the pattern resembled a topography map, which is the piece of patterned paper from Take to the Sky that I’ve paired with it here. The current So Swirly embossing folder would work equally as well here for the same reason.

Our focal panel consists of a mat of Mossy Meadow cardstock for the perfectly pre-printed panel from the Take to the Sky paper. To dress up the pre-printed panel and tie it with our theme, I diecut the pair of propellers from silver foil specialty paper using the Adventurous Sky dies. An Industrial Trinket serves as the propeller hub. To complete the illusion of our plane flying in the sky, I stamped clouds on vellum using the Adventurous Sky stamps and then diecut them with the coordinating die. They’re affixed to our focal panel and sentiment panel using glue dots. The sentiment panel is diecut from the navigation map paper using the Everyday Details dies and the sentiment from the Adventurous Sky stamp set is stamped in the center. The sentiment panel is adhered using dimensionals so it stands above the scene. White transparent dots finish off our card and help draw the eye diagonally across the design.

Tomorrow we’re going to rummage through the tool box. I hope you’ll pop in and see what shows up!

Products used in today’s card:
Misty Moonlight, Night of Navy, Mossy Meadow, vellum cardstock
Take to the Sky, Silver foil DSP
Adventurous Sky stamps & dies
Everyday Details dies
Softly Sophisticated embossing folder (retired)
Transparent dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Gone Fishing · Masculine Designs

Best in the Box

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Happy Monday, everyone! We were thankful to have a few days of beautiful weather here in North Texas — with sunshine anyway. This summer we’ve done the abrupt gear shift from lovely spring to straight into the fire. But we were glad to see a string of dry days nonetheless. And we did our best to make the most of it. How about you?

This week, we’re going to be looking at a whole host of wonderful Stampin’ Up! products that you can use to honor the dads in your life. Today, we’re getting started with the Gone Fishing stamps and dies.

There are so many things that you can do with the combination of stamps and dies. And today’s card shows the most straight forward way — filling a tackle box. I don’t know about you, but I grew up fishing with my family. And it was always a treat when we could choose something to use from dad’s tackle box!

We get started with today’s card with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock, which won’t be visible when your card is closed. I chose a patterned background from the (now retired) Let’s Go Fishing designer paper pack. As you can see, only a tiny portion of the background pattern peeks out from behind the tackle box, so any subtle pattern will do. Next up, we diecut the tackle box from Basic Grey cardstock using the Gone Fishing dies. The tackle box is comprised of the base and topper dies. By using dimensionals to adhere to the two layers to the card front, you’ll get a realistic look into your tackle box from top view.

TIP: Don’t throw away the squares that are cut with the tackle box topper die. Save them to use as sentiment panels on other cards. You’re welcome! *grin* (Genius idea from my upline Patty Bennett!)

Now comes the fun part — filling your tackle box. On white cardstock, I stamped some of my favorite lures and tackle from the Gone Fishing stamp set. I chose minnows, a spoon, and a bobber. I used the detail stamps to fill in each image with some color. Then I diecut each one using the coordinating die. For added detail, I chose to remove the stamped hooks on the minnows and spoon and replaced them with hooks diecut from silver foil specialty paper, which gives the hooks a more realistic look. I added an additional spinner element to the spoon with the silver foil wing.

Now we fill the remaining bins in our tackle box. I assembled two peg-style bobbers. Using the larger bobber die, I cut white cardstock and then used the smaller portion to cut Real Red. The white pieces serve as the base for the red element. The bobber peg is cut from Crumb Cake and affixed to the back of each bobber. I used a twist of linen thread to represent fishing line behind one of the peg bobbers and added a few sinkers, diecut from silver foil, to the bin for a complete bobber setup. I adhered one bobber with a dimensional for a realistic look to the bin. From the silver foil specialty paper, I also diecut two larger spoons and a small triangular turning element. I tied them together using linen thread. The sentiment from the Gone Fishing stamp set is stamped on white cardstock that is diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies with the extension method. The sentiment is adhered over the tackle box to catch the eye. The scene is finished off with some Industrial Trinkets to catch the eye and draw it across the full scene.

This super cute design can be adapted with any sentiment to make a masculine card perfect for just about any occasion. And while it looks complicated to put together, it really does come together in a snap!

Tomorrow, we’ll be taking to the sky for our next design. And you won’t want to miss tomorrow’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays either — we’re going to learn a neat (and quick) fun fold and how to use the die extension method! I hope you’ll buzz by and check it all out!

Products used in today’s card:
Crumb Cake, Basic Gray, Real Red, Basic White cardstock
Let’s Go Fishing (retired), Silver Foil DSP
Gone Fishing stamps & dies
Autumn Leaves dies
Linen thread
Industrial Trinkets
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Friends for Life

Hey, Happy Birthday

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We happen to be big Duck Dynasty fans around here. So it’s not uncommon to hear us quote the show from time-to-time or use some of the famous catch phrases, like “Hey, Jack” or something similar. Today, I’m pairing the Friends for Life bundle with the Saying Hey set, which always just makes me think of Si from DD. *grin*

In seriousness though, today we’re making a more masculine design using the Friends for Life set by pairing it with some other great Stampin’ Up! products. This shaker card birthday design is sure to make any recipient feel special!

We get started with a base of Pretty Peacock cardstock. This is a standard sized horizontal design. The mat for the focal panel is a sheet of Mossy Meadow cardstock. The shaker panel base layer is a sheet of the Meandering Meadow designer paper diecut with the largest Deckled Rectangles die. The cover layer is diecut with the leaf-patterned heart from Friends for Life and the largest die from the Deckled Rectangles set. A piece of acetate is affixed behind the heart, and then to create the area to house the shaker pieces, a box is fashioned around the backside of the heart using foam strips. TIP: I save the acetate sheets from new stamp sets once I’ve placed them in cases. It’s amazing how quickly you accumulate a stash! I used a combination of green and yellow frosted dots and shaker pieces inside the foam square. To affix the front shaker panel to the back, I added additional foam strips around the exterior of the front panel and then adhered the two layers together.

For the sentiment, I began by wrapping linen thread around the base of the shaker panel. The frame from Heartfelt Hexagon is stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock using Pretty Peacock ink and then the Hey sentiment from Saying Hey is stamped using the masking tape technique to avoid stamping the punctuation. This panel is punched using the coordinating Heartfelt Hexagon punch. The paint smudge panel is diecut from the remaining portion of the Meandering Meadow designer paper and then Happy Birthday is stamped in a single line across the panel. The two are then affixed to the front of the card in an overlapping fashion. A few Pretty Peacock sequins across the card front finish things off.

I hope you’ll join me tomorrow as we wrap up our series using the Friends for Life stamps and dies.

Products used in this card:
Pretty Peacock, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake cardstock
Meandering Meadow DSP
Acetate sheet
Friends for Life, Heartfelt Hexagon, Saying Hey stamps
Friends for Life, Deckled Rectangles dies
Heartfelt Hexagon punch
Linen thread
Sequins trio
Foam strips
Adhesives

Friends for Life · Fun Folds · Gifting

Happy Birthday, Friend

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Today we’re continuing to explore all the many ways we can use the Friends for Life bundle by Stampin’ Up! to create fabulous projects. I don’t know about you, but I like to have birthday cards of all kinds on hand for those moments when I need to grab a birthday card on the run. And today’s design is a two-for-one — a gift and a beautiful card!

This gift card design is a modified version of the Slide Up Gift Card Holder by fellow demo Jackie Bolhuis over at Klompen Stampers. I simplified the design to have a slide out gift card holder rather than the slide up version Jackie makes, but both are equally as wonderful for providing a lovely way to give a gift card. What I really loved about this design is it offers so much visual interest. From a beautiful card front that serves double duty as the gift card pocket to the ample space on the inside to dress things up, you have plenty of opportunity to express your creativity.

We get started with a base of Pretty in Pink cardstock. The cardstock is halved on the long edge for this design, but rather than scoring in the center, you’ll instead score at 3 3/4-inches and 9 1/4-inches. That gives you a center portion of standard size and then a flip-up flap and smaller bottom flap for the card front. The smaller flap should be adhered to the card base on either side to create the small pocket, which will be visible when the card front is closed. I chose a sheet of the Flowering Zinnias designer paper as the background panel and cut it so that a small border shows on each of the front panels. The fun background image is the large heart from the Friends for Life die set. I cut a Pretty in Pink heart and used the center portion as the background for the Pretty in Pink glimmer hearts. For the glimmer hearts, nestle the leaf heart die inside the large heart die when diecutting. I then used both the outside and inside hearts on top of the Pretty in Pink solid heart. The sentiment panel is diecut from Pretty in Pink using the smudge banner and then the sentiment is stamped tone-on-tone toward one end. The word friend from Friends for Life is stamped in Pretty in Pink on white cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. The sentiment is adhered to the card front with dimensionals .Two small hearts are diecut from white glimmer paper and used as eye-catching accents for the sentiment. The card front is finished of with a few In Color shimmer gems.

The inside of the card is finished to coordinate with the card front. The top flip panel has a piece of the Flowering Zinnias designer paper. Two shimmery banners diecut from glimmer paper and cut using the Filled with Fun dies bring festive fun to this top panel. The inside sentiment from Filled with Fun is stamped on white cardstock diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies. TIP: In order to get the banner long enough for the sentiment, you’ll want to use the extension method.

The gift card holder itself is a pocket within a pocket. It’s made two-sided so that the portion visible through the card front disappears into the background. A tug on the Pretty in Pink bordered ribbon reveals the gift holder and the gift card in the pocket on the reverse side. Each side has a piece of the Flowering Zinnias paper to coordinate with the rest of the card, along with a repeat of the happy birthday sentiment. I chose to keep the inside of my card very simple, but you can see where you could really dress it up.

I hope you’ll join me tomorrow for a more masculine inspired design.

Products used in today’s gift card:
Pretty in Pink, Basic White cardstock
Flowering Zinnias, In Color glimmer, White glimmer DSP
Friends for Life, Filled with Fun stamps
Friends for Life, Autumn Leaves, Filled with Fun dies
Pretty in Pink bordered ribbon
In Color shimmer gems, In Color resin dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Botanicals · L2S Group Instahop

Hey, You’ve Got This

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Happy Thursday, friends. I don’t know if you guys have had crazy weather this week, but here in North Texas, we’ve had some big thunderstorms over the last week. The one we experienced on Monday has closed school for the remainder of the school year due to damage sustained to campuses and buildings across the district. I have to say that it’s the craziest wind I’ve experienced in a long time! Today’s card theme is getting through tough times. And there are certainly some folks who have had tough times this week with damage from the storms.

This week, we’ve been exploring all the ways we can use the Inspiring Snapdragons stamps and dies to make beautiful cards. Today, we’re using the dies to build a scene. And I gained color inspiration from Mother Nature herself. When you’re working with a set, especially botanical sets, do you ever look for photos of the plants to find inspiration? I love doing this when I’m looking to create art that imitates life, and that’s precisely how I put together the colors of these snapdragon blooms.

We start our card with a base of Flirty Flamingo cardstock. The background for the image panel consists of a mat of Peach Pie cardstock and a piece of Unbounded Beauty designer series paper. I slid a large strip of Peach Pie In Color glimmer paper behind the image panel for sparkle and a bit of blingy drama. The snapdragon blooms are a combination of Melon Mambo, Petunia Pop, Pretty in Pink, Basic White, Daffodil Delight, and Peach Pie and are all diecut using the Inspiring Snapdragons dies. I layered the blooms to give the illusion of a stand of snapdragons in the garden. The blades of grass are cut from Shy Shamrock cardstock and are scattered in amongst the snapdragon blooms. The sentiment panel consists of a strip of Peach Pie and a tab of white cardstock punched using the Heartfelt Hexagon punch. “Hey” from the Saying Hey stamp set is stamped tone-on-tone on the Peach Pie strip, while the “you’ve got this” from Unbounded Love is stamped in Flirty Flamingo on the white hexagon half-tab. I used Melon Mambo and Pumpkin Pie shiny sequins to add pops of sparkle across the card front and a large paper butterfly to really draw the eye in to the sentiment panel.

Today’s card is a part of the Luv 2 Stamp Group Instagram Hop. Click here to head over to my Instagram feed and check out what the other demos in our L2S Group have created for you today!

Products used in today’s card:
Flirty Flamingo, Peach Pie, Petunia Pop, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Pretty in Pink, Shy Shamrock, Basic White cardstock
Unbounded Beauty, In Color glimmer DSP
Inspiring Snapdragons dies
Saying Hey, Unbounded Love stamps
Shiny sequins
Paper butterfly
Dimensionals
Adhesives
Heartfelt Hexagon punch

Botanicals · sketches

Hi, Friend

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Howdy, friends! Thanks for popping by today for another look at the Inspiring Snapdragons stamps and dies bundle. Snapdragons were one of my Granny’s favorite seasonal flowers. She had the best green thumb when it came to snapdragons. I, however, did not inherit that part of her gardening skills. I have the worst luck with snapdragons, even though I enjoy them a lot. *grin*

We’re revisiting our sketch from yesterday … with a little twist. The fun thing about sketches is that they give you a place to start with design and give you the flexibility to adapt them. And today’s card is a perfect example of adapting, where I scaled down and adjusted the placement of the image panel to allow more of my background panel to show.

So let’s get started on today’s card. We begin with a base of Pretty in Pink cardstock. The background panel is a sheet of Meandering Meadow designer series paper. I chose a sheet that had flowers that, to me, had similar shape and look to snapdragons. I tied silver & white trim around the designer paper panel before adhering to the card base.

The image panel is a base of white cardstock diecut using the Everyday Details dies. I chose to make several snapdragons in the pink color family to really pull the pink blossoms forward in the background paper. I used a combination of cardstock and glimmer paper for the snapdragon blooms, including Berry Burst, Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink, white, and Petunia Pop. Each blossom consists of two layers—a base and detail layer. I adhered the snapdragon blossoms to the image panel and varied the height of each using dimensionals. The image panel is adhered to the background layer using dimensionals.

The sentiment panel is cut from white cardstock using the Spotlight on Nature dies. The sentiment from Wonderful Thoughts is stamped in black in the center. The sentiment panel mat is diecut from Pretty in Pink using a larger die from the Spotlight on Nature die set. The layers are adhered using dimensionals and then affixed to the card front using stacked dimensionals to ensure the sentiment panel stands above the layered snapdragons. I added a dragonfly cut from In Color glimmer paper above the snapdragon blossoms and then finished things off with iridescent foil gems.

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see how we can use this fabulous bundle to build a scene! You won’t want to miss it.

Products used in today’s card:
Pretty in Pink, Petunia Pop, Melon Mambo, Basic White cardstock
Meandering Meadow, In Color glimmer DSP
Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Inspiring Snapdragons, Everyday Details, Spotlight on Nature dies
Silver & white trim
Iridescent foil gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives