Hello Spring!

Aloha, all!

     Today I'm welcoming Spring in my role as a member of the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge Design Team!  But I'm also taking a challenge from one of my online Stampin' Up! Demonstrator groups, SUDSOL, to make a card using only those Stampin' Up! products that you can find in the New Demonstrator Starter Kit.  The one big thing that this particular challenge meant to me was that there was to be no use of the Sizzix Big Shot or such fab Stampin' Up! tools as the Simply Scored!  Whoa, that slowed me down a bit!  But then I refocused and realized that this was a challenge to be clean and simple with my design.  Really clean!  No sponges or sponge daubers, either!

     But there were plenty of stamp sets and colors from which to choose!  I chose for my project colors from the Stampin' Up! Subtles Collection of colors and the Stamp Set, Easy Events.  A new demonstrator can choose 4 stamp pads and two Markers.  Oops!  I used 3 markers!  Man, that challenge was harder than I thought!  Well, I'm going to just assume that the new demonstrator who did this project for a workshop already had some Stampin' Up! products in her craft room ; ) .

     Another product that could be used for this card was a punch, and I used the default punch that was on the list – the Cupcake Punch.  I have seen so many people using the frosted part of the cupcake to make clouds, and now I had an opportunity to do it myself.  Woo-hoo!  Before I punched the clouds, though, I used the "hello" stamp that was on one of the stamps in the Easy Events set, though not on the stamp with the flowers.  Each of the 8 stamps in that set has a picture and a greeting.  As there are many times such as these that I want to use an image with the greeting from another stamp, I cut the greetings apart from the images.  If you're using the clear mount stamp set, it's easy to just cut the greeting and mount it on a clear block when you're ready to use it.  For my wood mount stamp set, I mounted each of the greetings on the end of the wood block on which I mounted the image. 

     And I was so glad that ribbon was in the Starter Kit!  Because you know I love to tie my cards all together with a ribbon!  For this card, I chose the Pretty in Pink 5/8" Satin Ribbon.  To get the bow oriented in the direction I wanted, I cut a 5" strip of the ribbon and wrapped it around the top two layers, adhering it on the back with Stampin' Up!'s monoadhesive, SNAIL (yes, it's in the Started Kit!).  Then I cut a longer length of ribbon and tied a bow around the strip of ribbon on the front.  Another nice feature of this way of constructing a bow is that you can slip it up or down on the straight piece until you get it right where you want!

     This was my first project of the week, and it certainly provides a bright beginning for Spring!  I hope your Spring is bright and that you'll have a great week with your own paper crafting!  And if you're in Australia or New Zealand, where this is the first day of Autumn, I certainly hope that you're enjoying cool days and gorgeous colors to brighten your days, too!