Happy Monday stampers. Life is grand! It is easy to say that when things are going well, but you have to dig a little deeper to say it and mean it when things are not going well. But life is grand. We need to live every moment, to take joy in the little things because sometimes there are only little things. Today as I was driving home from pickleball I noticed how the sunlight was glinting off the Thames River that runs through town. Now the Thames is not a very pretty river. It is usually muddy brown, but when the sun is glinting off it, wow, it sure does look beautiful. Now I am going to talk about the stamp set Life is Grand. What makes this stamp set so appealing to me is first that the font is large and flowy. Second, it is a distINKtive stamp, which means it shows up ombre, or in at least two colours and that really has a wow effect without you having to do anything for it. It is also not a fussy distINKtive stamp. Doesn’t matter if your ink pad is juicy, it will still give you that beautiful effect. Let’s take a look.

Here you get a closeup glimpse of the beautiful lettering. This was done in Real Red, my favourite colour. I absolutely love it with Granny Apple Green. You probably recognize the frog from So Hoppy Together. You can get this beauty for free with a $60 purchase until March 31. Time is running out!! The toadstool is from a gorgeous set in the annual catalog called Sweet Storybook.

I love everything about this card and I don’t even feel bad saying that even though I designed it myself and am tooting my own horn. This card just makes me feel happy when I look at it. I love, love, love the paper and sadly it is only available until March 31 as a free saleabration item, so if you love it even half as much as I do, you want to make sure you get it. If you live anywhere in Canada you can order through my online store. If you use the host code I will love you just a little bit more and send you a card to thank you. Well, let’s be real, you will get a card regardless because I believe that you deserve to be thanked if you give me your business. The toadstool (or mushroom) is from the set Sweet Storybook. I stamped the base on the white “band” of paper and then I stamped again and cut out just the top of it so that I could have it sticking out above the white band. I love the effect of that and it wasn’t difficult to do. I coloured the grass and the frog with our Blends. They are a wonderful product and at $6 each they are just slightly more expensive than our markers and infinitely better. One last thing to crow about with this card:  the patterned paper is cut exactly to 4″ by 6″ which makes it perfect for #loveitchopit. You can get six card fronts out of one 12×12 piece of paper with no waste. It then fits on our Memories and More cards which measure 4 1/4″ by 6 1/4″ and come with their own envelopes. So fast, so easy. The white strip measures 1 7/8″ by 6″.

Don’t you just want to touch your screen right now to feel those letters? Stamped in tranquil tide on Painted Seasons paper, they just pop off the page. I combined it with Wood Textures Paper covering the entire card front. Since the Wood Textures paper comes in 6 x 6 I didn’t feel bad cutting it to 5 1/2″ by 4 1/4″. You can use the remaining bits to decorate the inside of your card if you don’t want to waste it. Another great example of a #loveitchopit card.

I love the effect of stamping on the patterned paper. This works especially well when it is muted background rather than a busy pattern. Both papers are from Painted Seasons, the same set as the bright and colourful paper on the first card. This card would be great for a man, even though it has a linen thread bow. Nothing can come close to our linen thread, and now you can get it in old olive as well.

Here you can see the beautiful paper and the stamp set. You can get them free as a bundle with a $120 purchase or you can get just the paper with a $60 purchase. Let’s take a look at my last card. It doesn’t use this paper or the stamp set but it does use Life is Grand as well as So Hoppy Together.

Oh Granny Apple Green, how lovely you are, both on the lettering and on the frog. One of the things I have always loved so much about Stampin’Up! is the colour coordination. It makes it so very easy to take your cards from nice to stunning. On this card the ink pad, the cardstock and the Blends all match. The balloons were punched out with grapefruit grove and lovely lipstick foil paper and bermuda bay glimmer paper which I believe is still available on the clearance rack. I adhered the bakers twine to the balloons and to the frogs “hand” using our mini glue dots, also the very best in the industry. Just ask my class attendees who have brought “contraband”. Now they are believers too!!

I really hope that you get all you can out of the saleabration promotion which ends on March 31, which is Sunday. I have room for you on my team, and all my customers are also greatly appreciated. Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you have a super day! Hugs from Chatham, Ontario.

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