Playing in the Rain

Happy Friday, my friends! I was so excited to get my preorder from Stampin’ Up!® yesterday! I’m not sure if I did something or something went awry at Stampin’ Up!®, but my order didn’t ship Tuesday like it was supposed to, so I kind of expected it to be late and arrive Friday. But no!! When I got home Thursday night, it was here – and my boxes of catalogs arrived today.

I spent all morning organizing my card stock, ink pads, markers, and Stampin’ Blends. As always, there are some new colors that I love – and a few that I’m not quite as thrilled about. There were two in particular that I was happy I didn’t get a full pack of card stock for. But then I showed the colors to my son and husband. Jon thought the 2023-25 In Colors were nice. Hmmmm. I didn’t totally share his opinion, but Mike agreed. They said they looked like villa colors in the countryside of France. Interesting. So maybe I just like “flower and beach” colors and need to expand my horizons.

This isn’t the card I intended to share today, but after the men’s comments this morning, I was determined to embrace all our colors, even the ones I wasn’t as fond of.

Well, of course, Winter Wheat was one of the colors I had looked down upon. Sadly, the only “French Countryside” stamp sets I own are retired, so I decided to use some more of my retiring Designer Series Paper (DSP).

I pulled out my Playing in the Rain Bundle and Rain or Shine DSP. While the bundle is returning to the new Annual Catalog, the DSP is not. I die-cut the little turtle and fox from the DSP with the Playing in the Rain Dies. They really looked nice with the Winter Wheat Cardstock. And it was very fitting for this week, because it’s been cloudy and rainy here. I added some stamped clouds and puddles under the die-cut images. I stamped the puddles in Pebbled Path Ink and colored them with a Water Painter and Pebbled Path Ink Pads. I stamped the clouds in Basic Gray Ink and colored them with Smoky Slate ink and a Water Painter. The sentiment is also from the Playing in the Rain Stamp Set. I stamped it in Night of Navy and added some Smoky Slate raindrops. I used a new set of dies, Countryside Corners, to die-cut the sentiment.

After adding all the DSP and die-cuts to the Winter Wheat Cardstock, I added it to  Pebbled Path Cardstock and then to a Night of Navy card base. I love how bashful the little turtle looks. And the little sly fox trying to look shy but is maybe waiting for a kiss in the rain?

I was surprised that this was the first color combination I decided to use, but I’m so glad I did. I’m tired of ignoring colors and then finally deciding to like them just before they retire. And it’s going to be easier to use new color combinations, because Stampin’ Up!® has moved colors around and added the new and returning ones. I reach for a color in its “usual” place and it’s not there any more. That’s kind of nice, because it causes me to challenge myself!

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