New Catalog Sneak Peeks!

Hello Everyone!  How has your long weekend been?  We (my hubby and I) have been finishing planting the garden, our blueberry patch, flowers, and yard work.  My shoulders are sunburned and now I'm ready for a break from the sun today! :)  So,.... what better thing to do than post to my blog? Oh, and maybe clean my messy house, too! but that can wait...

Ok, on to the cards!  I've been really enjoying playing with some of my pre-order goodies.   These cards that I'm featuring in this post, are ones we are going to make at my upcoming New Catalog Open House on June 29th.  This is a FREE event where you can come, eat chocolate, drink wine (if you wish), make three free projects --featuring brand new, hot off the press SU products -- shop the new catalog and my retiring table full of discounted retired stamp sets and accessories.

This first card features the Blendabilities markers again -- the Pumpkin Pie set.  These are new alcohol based markers that come in sets of three shades of the same color.  You can learn more about the techniques for coloring with these in this post.  For this card, I inked up just a portion of the Poppies background stamp and stamped it on a 2" by 4 1/4" panel and then used my scalloped tag topper punch to punch the top.  I used the Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, and Old Olive markers to color the flowers.  You can make this card easier by just doing the "spotlighting technique" where you stamp the poppies a second time on a scrap of Whisper White card stock and color the poppy in, then punch it out with the 1 1/4" round punch, layered on a 1 3/8" Mossy Meadow circle -- then put dimensionals on the back and line your spotlighted circle up with the stamped image on the tag.  Less coloring in this version.   Check out the new In Colors in this card -- Tangelo Twist and Mossy Meadow (a distant relative of Always Artichoke, but a much nicer version, in my opinion).  The designer paper used at the bottom of the card is from a new paper stack called "Moonlight".  Of course, I used the honeycomb embossing folder to emboss the Tangelo Twist panel.  Other products used on this card: (retired) Summer Starfruit stitched statin ribbon, Pumpkin Pie chevron ribbon, scalloped tag topper punch, large oval punch, scalloped oval punch, and the dotted scallop ribbon border punch.

This next card features the new In Color -- Blackberry Bliss.  This is a dark, but vibrant purple -- really quite close to the color of blackberries.  I LOVE this new color.  It is simply gorgeous in real life.  This is a super simple card, but I love it none-the-less.  I stamped the flourish image from the "Everything Eleanor" stamp set in Pear Pizzazz ink and the sentiment (from "Million and One" stamp set) in Memento Black ink.  I then used a brand new punch pack called "Itty Bitty Accents Punch pack".  It's a set of three punches -- one is this cute little four petaled flower, that looks kind of like a dogwood flower to me, a cute little star, and a small heart.  Definitely a must have -- this little set of punches.  I punched the flowers out of Pink Pirouette card stock, used my piercing mat and a stylus to  squish the flower centers in just a little to add dimension, and a little pearl in the flower centers.  I also gently sponged the tips of the petals with Blackberry Bliss ink.  The ribbon you see on the left hand side of this card, is the Blackberry Bliss stitched satin ribbon.  LOVE this ribbon -- ties so easily and a lovely result.  It's hard to see in the photos, but there is a little paper piercing in the corners of this card as well.

This final card, is another guy card.  I've been trying to incorporate at least one masculine card into every class I do, because we all need cards for the guys, too, right? :)  New products we're using here are the new In Colors -- Lost Lagoon (a lovely new blue), and Hello Honey -- truly a lovely honey colored yellow.  I used the starburst sayings stamp set and their matching framelits set.  This is available as a 15% off bundle for $38.95, and it is carrying over to the new catalog.  At first this stamp set and framelit set didn't seem like my style, but the more I have used it, the more I am really loving it.  The saw tooth looking edges have a really fun look in real life.  Also featured in this card: the "Moonlight" paper stack again, Itty Bitty punch pack accessories (the star punch), stylish stripes embossing folder (that returned from the last Holiday Catalog), the new Lost Lagoon stitched satin ribbon, and Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon ink and Regals and Neutrals candy dots.  Nothing fancy about this card, but still fun for the boys in your life.

Enjoy the last of your long weekend, and may we pause to reflect on the true meaning of this holiday!