Stepped up Simply Sent kit

When I got home from work on Friday, I found a box of happiness on the doorstep: the goodies I preordered from the 2013 - 2014 Stampin' Up!^® catalog (along with a few retiring items) and my copy of the new catalog. I hadn't even peeked at the catalog online, so I was more than anxious to see it. But I exercised an extreme amount of self-control and did a few household chores first. I cleaned my bathroom, swept and vacuumed the whole house and did three loads of laundry all before I even opened the box. Impressive, right? I thought so.

I did eventually dig into the box, admire my new goodies and spend the evening studying the new catalog. But before I actually started crafting with my new supplies this weekend, I wanted to make the last unfinished card kit I had from Convention 2011 (see April 21, 2013, post Unfinished projects). And here it is:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Think Happy Thoughts
Card stock: Pretty in Pink, So Saffron, Whisper White, textured Rich Razzleberry
Ink: Rich Razzleberry
Accessories: Great Day Simply Sent kit, 1-1/4" and 1-3/8" circle punches, Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack, flower brads, crochet thread (DMC), Dimensionals, Glue Dots

This Great Day Simply Sent kit was in the Stampin' Up! catalog a few years ago, and all the attendees at Convention 2011 received one of the kits as a gift. On the left side of the photo above you can see the card that was designed for this kit. Most of the flowers and circles are preprinted on the cards, and there were stickers, buttons and ribbons included in the kit for embellishing the cards. To me the sample card looked a little empty -- like it was missing a few things -- so I used some of my other supplies to step it up a little.

The inside of the main Bashful Blue flower seemed like the perfect place for a sentiment, and I happened to have a stamp set with just the right size circular greetings. There are four greetings in the set, and the kit made eight cards, so I made two cards with each greeting. I stamped the sentiment on Whisper White card stock, punched it out with the 1-1/4" circle punch and matted it with a 1-3/8" circle of either Pretty in Pink or So Saffron card stock. I added a coordinating flower brad in the middle of the layered circles and adhered the piece to the middle of the large flower on the card base.

The circles on either side of the blue flower are stickers from the kit. I embellished them by adding a mini scalloped circle (from the Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack) in Pretty in Pink, So Saffron or textured Rich Razzleberry card stock. I tied a small piece of white crochet thread in a flower button and adhered it above the printed design on the card. I added a couple more stickers -- a small blue flower on the left side of the card and the scalloped So Saffron strip near the bottom of the card -- and then tied the Bashful Blue ribbon around the card front.

When I was done making all the cards, I had some stickers leftover: eight scalloped Rich Razzleberry strips and eight small Pretty in Pink flowers. I decided to add those to the envelopes so they coordinated with the cards (the small pink flower is on the envelope flap). And that's one more project done.

Thanks for stopping by -- and come back later this week to see a few cards made with some of the products that will be in the new Stampin' Up! catalog.