Hello stampers and welcome to a rare Saturday blog post. Since I had an “oma” day yesterday, I thought I would do a blog post today. I am featuring Pressed Petals specialty designer series paper for my Tuesday coffee and a card class so this post will showcase those cards. My main point is that when you have beautiful paper like this, it needs to be the star of the show. You start with the beautiful paper, then you choose a coordinating cardstock, which is very easy to do just by looking at the description of the paper in the catalog. Right there it will tell you which colours are in the paper and that makes it simple to choose which colour you want to accentuate in the paper. Add a little texture with ribbon or embellishments, choose how you want to frame your sentiment and you are all set!

While these three cards all look very different, they all use the same collection of Pressed Petals specialty designer series paper. Each card just focuses on a different colour found in the paper. Which one is your favourite? I don’t have the Path of Petals stamp set yet that goes with this suite because the coordinating framelits were backordered. I also wasn’t sure if I needed another stamp set with flowers. After a second look at this set, I realize that I really do love the sayings in it, so it will be on my next order!  I chose to use the Woven Heirlooms stamp set instead which I think is a very good fit too. Here are some close-ups of the cards.

It is a bit difficult to see in the picture that I used the Scripty embossing folder in the background on the Blueberry Bushel cardstock. It mimics the script of the sentiment from Woven Heirlooms. It may be a bit bright for a sympathy card but I feel that it is entirely appropriate if it is indeed a “celebration of life” event for someone who has lived a good, long life. Sympathy cards don’t always have to be dull and gloomy.

For this card I pulled the burlap theme from the background of the Pressed Petals patterned paper. I also distressed the background on the sentiment panel by stamping off with Rococo Rose and Woven Heirlooms. The sentiment was stamped in Merry Merlot. Both of these colours can be found in the Pressed Petals patterned paper. Layering the lace over the burlap ribbon evokes a lovely vintage feeling. You could also add some pearls if you wanted to.

This last card uses my favourite washi tape ever! It is called Pressed Petals specialty washi tape because one of the rolls actually uses individual flower petals that you can easily combine into different flowers. How awesome is that? The card also uses two of the coordinating sheets of the Pressed Petals designer series paper. I once again used the Scripty embossing folder for the background of this very vanilla card.

I am very excited to announce that I am going to start doing regularly scheduled weekly live Facebook sessions every Tuesday evening at 7pm called Coffee and a Card Revisited. It will feature the cards we made that morning at coffee and a card as well as any special insights that may have arisen during the class or cards evolved from it. Of course, given my squirrely nature, there also be random Facebook lives and other videos posted both on YouTube and on my Pampered Stamper Facebook page.

If you are a demonstrator needing or desiring more training and inside tips on how I work my business, you may want to join the Pampered Stamper Training Group. It is only $5 month just to slightly compensate me for my time. I am very excited to see how my trainees achieve greater success through their participation in this group.

Today is July 20, so there are only 11 days left for Bonus Days. If you spend $60 in July, you will get a $6 bonus coupon to spend in August. I thought I would end this post with a photo of yours truly on one of the formal nights of the cruise. I am on our own private balcony on the ship. Stampin’Up! spoils us with the best rooms. I had some truly relaxing moments on this balcony with a very full heart of gratitude.

After a hot week in Rome it was so nice to enjoy the cool breezes off the sea. Thanks so much for stopping by today, I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend.

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