A Bloomin' Marvellous final hurrah!

Yes it's true, Sale-a-bration ends today but if you're kicking yourself for not taking advantage, don't worry, I'll be taking orders today until 6pm - choose your free gift from this selection. If you want to join Stampin' Up you'll need to sign up by 22.30pm to benefit from choosing the extra 25% of products in your starter kit.  It's quick and easy to do this online - just follow this link.

I've really enjoyed Sale-a-bration this year and I hope you have too. Stampin' Up always lays on the most gorgeous stamp sets and this year the company offered other items from the catalogue as free gifts too. My card today uses my favourite free set and I've been inspired by Make My Monday where they're looking for monochrome CAS cards, Less is More, where the theme is Frame it, and CASology, where the cue word is Song. Come and have a look:

I used a fair few techniques on this card so bear with me while I explain. I used the 2 1/2" circle punch to make the circular panel, sponged it lightly with Bashful Blue ink and pierced a frame round it with my Essentials paper-piercing pack.

My Bloomin' Marvellous bird was facing the wrong way so I stamped him onto my brayer and then rolled him out onto a piece of Whisper White card stock. Once I'd cut him out with my paper snips and placed him on my card he was facing the right way like a good little bird! This stamp set has some fabulous sentiments and I used this one for the gospel song of the same name (check out the powerful rendition by Aretha Franklin and Mavis Staples at the bottom of this post.)

The leaves were stamped on the edge of the circle and then my flowers were stamped over the top and clear-embossed. I did it this way round because I wanted the flowers to seem translucent and the leaves to be slightly visible through them. I added a bit of shadowing with a Baja Breeze Watercolour Wonder crayon and added dots to the flower centres with a marker (TIP: leave these to dry for a while or they'll smudge!). Finally, I sprayed the panel with my Color Spritzer Tool and sponged the flowery edge of the panel with Not Quite Navy ink for a bit of dimension.

By the way, you get a great light effect you get when you pierce through the card front...

Here's what you'll need to make this card
Stamps: Bloomin' Marvellous (Sale-a-bration freebie)
Ink: Bashful Blue, Baja Breeze, Marina Mist, Pacific Point, Not Quite Navy, and markers
Card stock: Whisper White
Other: Essentials paper-piercing pack, brayer, paper snips, 2 1/2" circle punch, Subtles Watercolour Wonder crayons, Color Spritzer tool, versamark, clear embossing powder, heat tool, stamp-a-majig
I'D BE DELIGHTED TO ORDER STAMPIN' UP ITEMS FOR YOU AND HAVE THEM DELIVERED STRAIGHT TO YOUR ADDRESS IN THE UK. I'M COMMITTED TO PROVIDING EXCELLENT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND AM ALWAYS HAPPY TO OFFER HELP AND ADVICE. TO PLACE YOUR ORDER, JUST SEND ME AN EMAIL OR GIVE ME A CALL ON 01280 820593.
• Add a free Sale-a-bration item from this list for every £45 you spend! Offer ends today 6pm.

Thank you so much for all your get well wishes for my youngest son. He was completely fed up by the end of yesterday and much better so I (reluctantly) let him go back to school - he's always such good company, even when he's poorly! He was obviously pleased with the reaction he got when he pointed out the nut allergy warning (see Wednesday's post) and has been reading food labels avidly ever since. Yesterday he pointed out the information on a pineapple label which stated: Cholesterol: 0 mg. "Look!" he said to me. "Cholesterol - OMG!"

Have a happy day and a great weekend, and I'll see you very soon.

Hugs,