Best. Day. Ever.

Maybe I should say, “Best night ever.” I had so much fun that I forgot to schedule my blog for today. Oops! But one of the best things about being a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator is I get to spend time doing what I want, because I schedule my stamping business around my life.

Here’s my card for today, then I’ll tell you about our evening.

I have been wanting the Peaceful Place stamp set since I first saw the 2018-19 Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. I would love to sit on the bank and read a book, wouldn’t you? I finally ordered it as an incentive award from my up-up-upline. (Thanks, Tami Waddell!)

I wanted to try out some of the new Stampin’ Blends colors, so I stamped the image in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. Sometimes when images are very detailed like this one, some of the finer lines get lost. Because I have a Stamparatus, I was able to ink and stamp two times to get a really good base image.

Next, I colored the sides of the bank and the tree branches with Soft Suede and Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blends. The water was a lot of fun. I colored the ripples with Bermuda Bay, then blended the water with Pool Party. Honestly, I’ve never seen a stream this color, but it was a lot prettier than the muddy brown streams we have around here. It’s not the water; the water is clear, but you can see the bottom of the stream, which is, of course, mud and rocks. Besides, I needed some blue with all the greens and browns.

With the new Color Revamp, we have a plethora of greens, and several of the new ones are available in the Blends now – Granny Apple Green, Call Me Clover (a new In Color), Mint Macaron, and Soft Sea Foam. And, of course, Old Olive is a returning green. The evergreens are colored in Call Me Clover. This is a little brighter than I wanted for evergreens, but I was happy with the way it turned out. It definitely adds a contrast to the Old Olive grass and Granny Apple Green trees.

The rocks were a no-brainer. I used Smoky Slate for them. I also added a little shimmer using a Wink of Stella Glitter Pen. But, as we’ve discussed before, Stella is shy, so she doesn’t show up well for photos.

I dithered about a lot of different backgrounds and colors. I decided the best mat for the stamped image was a piece of Wood Textures Designer Series Paper. Love those designs! I stamped the leaf image from the stamp set several times on a Coastal Cabana card base using Coastal Cabana ink. Inside, I stamped the little squirrel image. Nothing fancy, so I don’t have a photo. It’s just stamped in the corner in Basic Gray ink.

The ribbon is the Coastal Cabana/copper ribbon  from the Tea Room Combo Pack. Gorgeous – and it adds just a little more shimmer to the card. If I decide to send this to a guy, I may replace it with some Linen Thread instead. Since I’m not sure how I’ll use this card, I didn’t add a sentiment. I also didn’t want to cover up any of the image.

So about last night…All the kids came over (including Amelia) and we played dominoes, ate blackberries (healthy snack compliments of Adrianna & Jon!) and popcorn (not quite so healthy, but we all enjoyed it. I made several batches since we ran out the last time we were (almost) all together for movie night. (Wes had to work that night. *sad*)

There was a little confusion when Amelia heard they were coming over for dominoes; her mind immediately went to “pizza.” After the dominoes games, we ordered pizza and watched Balto. I was in and out throughout the movie, but I did make it back for the end where I always cry. When I was young, we used to giggle at Mom, because she almost always cried at the end of movies. Close to the end, we’d just pass her a box of tissues. Now I’m the one crying, although the boys are a little more discrete than we were.

It was Amelia’s bedtime when the movie ended, so we had a sleepover. She was so tired, and we all decided it would be better for her to sleep here than fall asleep in the car and stay up late. (Ok – it was a sleepover with grandparents. She was still up later than normal. But we had fun!)

Thanks for stopping by Stamping with Buffy. Have a lovely day!

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