I Thought of You Today

 As we continue to organize, throw out, and pack our belongings (I know it's taking forever!), my thoughts continue to center on all of you - my friends.  How I will miss our classes, clubs, military cards get-togethers, and just visits.  I've been so blessed by God to have met so many wonderful, precious ladies through the years.  Yes, some of us have been friends for more than 20 years!  So with that said, I've chosen a pretty card to share today that speaks from my heart.  

I almost didn't post this card at all.  Can you believe I've spent a bunch of time trying to figure out where I got the sentiment from?  Yup, with everything packed, I've been looking through the catalogs trying to figure it out.  At this point, I have absolutely no idea where I got it from, so who cares?  (If you figure out where it came from, please post a comment and let me know.)  Any tiny sentiment would fit in here nicely, so just pick one that works for you!

The other elements of the card are from the 'Arrange A Wreath' stamp set and are die cut using the Wreath Builder Dies.  For some reason, I like wreaths and like making them for each season.  Because it's been gray, cold and snowy too, I thought it was time to post something spring-like.   Figured it would raise my spirits too.  

The colors I chose were Soft Seafoam for the 4 1/4" x 8 1/2" card base folded in half.  Next is a 4 x 4 layer of Basic White cardstock.  The leafy wreath was die-cut from Soft Seafoam cardstock.  The little accent flowers were die-cut from Balmy Blue and Highland Heather scraps of cardstock.  These were attached using either Glue Dots or a Mini Dimensional.  I tried a couple of different options for the bow (ribbons or twine??) and ended up die-cutting it from Gorgeous Grape cardstock.  I liked that the best.

While arranging the individual pieces on the card, I realized that it needed some larger flowers to balance it.  After a few trials and errors, I ended up stamping the larger flower from the set using Gorgeous Grape ink on the Basic White cardstock, then die-cutting with the coordinating die from the set.  

But it still needed something in the centers of those larger flowers.  Now for those of you like me who save all your retired embellishments because you never know when you'll find just the right piece that you've been looking for, I did find it!  I didn't want either rhinestones or pearls, but found these cute little dots (think they're from the previous catalog).  They are the Gorgeous Grape color so they didn't pop out too much, but gave an understated bit of elegance to the card.

Hope you liked today's edition.  If you're looking for a stamp set that you can use all year around, this one really fits the bill.  Included in the stamps are of course the wreath, but there are also 5 different sentiments for 5 different seasons.  There's a partridge, leaves, flowers, hearts, pears, Easter eggs, and a 'crate' or sentiment tag depending on how you use it.  Since it's Sale-a-bration time, the 'Arrange a Wreath' Bundle at $54 would be perfect to allow you to choose one of the Sale-a-bration free items.  That's definitely a win-win in my book.  Remember that Sale-a-bration only goes through the end of February this year so don't put off getting your freebies!

If you'd like to place an order this month, please use the Host Code for January.

I'll be sending out something in the mail to each person that orders from me this month.

Thank you for stopping in again.  Looking forward to reading any comments you would like to share.  Happy stamping.

Sharon