More Grace in the Garden

Welcome to another Friday StampOff with Jackie, Susan, and me! Last time, we showed our favorite Sale-a-bration products. This time, it’s all about the Stampin’ Up!® January-June Mini Catalog. I cannot wait to see Jackie’s and Susan’s favorites!

The hardest part of this challenge for me was deciding what to use. I love the Tropical Oasis Designer Series Paper (DSP) and absolutely gorgeous Peaceful Poppies DSP. But then the Mountain Air, Peaceful Moments and Painted Poppies Bundles also are some of my favorites. The My Meadow Stamp Set was at the top of my list; I love those “watercolor sets” like Snow Front and Waterfront.

In the end, I decided to go with the first bundle that I knew I wanted – Grace’s Garden. I’m not sure why I love gardening sets so much. Maybe it’s because I have two brown thumbs. I love flowers, but I’m not really great at growing them. Everyone else in my family – parents, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles – totally rocks at the gardening thing. Me? Not so much. So I stick to paper flowers.

I started with a card base of Pear Pizzazz. Next, I die-cut the gate and an arch from Whisper White Cardstock using the Garden Gateway Dies. (Yes, of course, I bundled the dies and Grace’s Garden Stamp Set to save 10%.)

I lightly marked with a pencil where the gate started on the arch, then sponged Balmy Blue Classic Ink above the gate and Old Olive behind the gate. (Yes, I really did sponge Old Olive; you just can’t see it, because I decided to add some flowers behind the gate. It is Grace’s garden, after all.)

Next I stamped the bird and all the flower images at least once on Whisper White Cardstock with Basic Gray Classic Ink. I used Highland Heather, Flirty Flamingo, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive and Granny Apple Green Stampin’ Blends to color the flowers, and Crumb Cake for the bird.

I adhered the sponged arch to the card, then added the die-cut flowers, bird, and gateway. After I stamped the sentiment – also in Basic Gray Classic Ink, I realized it was a little bare. Fortunately the Best Dressed DSP coordinated with my colors, so I added a strip behind the archway.

This stamp set just makes me happy. I’m longing for spring, and this card makes me feel warm. One bad thing about living in Northern Virginia (maybe I should say “Northwestern Virginia,” so you don’t confuse us with the nutty area of Virginia that’s near Washington, DC) is we get a “false spring” in late January or early February. We had several beautiful days. It even smelled like spring. But, sadly, we’re now back to icky winter. Before you feel too badly for me, “icky winter” means temps from the high 30’s to low-mid 40’s and rain. (Ok, the rain part could be spring. Or summer. Or fall. I’m thinking the rain is geographically challenged and is hitting us instead of the Seattle area. But that’s good. We had droughts for so many years – especially in summer – so rain is good. Or so I keep telling myself.)

Please take a few minutes to check out Susan’s and Jackie’s blogs. I’m excited to see what their favorites are. I always have suspicions, but they fool me every time.

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

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