Yay... It's Official!

Hello Stampers and Happy Friday!

I'm so excited... it is here at last.... my very favorite season... SUMMER!
Yes, today, June 21st is the first official day of summer... the Summer Solstice!  Here's a quick list of the things I love about summer:  SUNSHINE (well, maybe not quite yet... we'll probably have to wait until July 4th for that), outdoor concerts, eating outside, listening to the frogs in the pond, reading a book or the newspaper on the front porch, barbecues, watermelon, corn-on-the-cob, beach days, grandchildren in the wading pool, cutting roses, my birthday, the Stampin'Up! convention, grilled salmon, grilled veggies, grilled anything, being outside, gazing up at a BLUE sky, sunflowers... I could go on and on!  How about you... what are your favorite things about summer?

I'm also excited to say that I've got all of my swaps made for the big Stampin'Up! convention.  Stampin'Up! is celebrating their 25th anniversary and this convention promises to be BIG... right around 5,800 stampers to be exact.  Whoa... that's a lot of crazy stampers in one place!  I think we might just be able to blow the roof off of the Salt Palace this year.  I'll show you a couple of my swaps next week, but for now I think I'll continue with my bird cards.  If you are a bird-hater, I'm sorry.  Or maybe you weren't a bird-hater until I started showing you all of these bird cards, but now you are. After this post, the bird cards will be gone, I promise.  These are the last two cards we'll be making at  my "Put a Bird On It" class that's coming up this Saturday.  There is still room if you'd like to join us at the last minute.  OK, let's get to the cards...

This card is "white on black" embossing... just the opposite of what we usually do (dark embossing on white).The stamp set is called Polka Dot Pieces (p. 85). I punched the bird and branch with the Bird Builder Punch (p. 183). The pretty paper is from the new Modern Medley collection (p. 154), a crisp collection of all black and white paper.  The adorable button is one of the new Very Vintage Designer Buttons (p. 169) and I used the Fancy Fan embossing folder (p. 191) to add texture to the Basic Black panel.  The large circle was punched with the 2 1/2 inch Circle Punch (p. 182).  A bit of narrow black taffeta ribbon (p. 173) look cute threaded through the button.

Bright and happy describes the second card.  The colors here are Whisper White, Coastal Cabana, and Crushed Curry.  I used one of the Label Collection Framelits (p. 186) to cut a hole in a panel, which I used as a mask.  I sponged Coastal Cabana  and Crushed Curry into the hole, then removed the mask and stamped over the sponging with the bird image from the hostess set Simply Sketched (p. 205) in Jet Black Staz-On ink.  The white background panel is embossed with the new Beautifully Baroque embossing folder (p. 191).  The pretty DSP is from the Eastern Elegance collection (p. 154).  Some of the new Ruffle Stretch Trim (p. 173) in Coastal Cabana adds a nice touch of softness.  Oh, and the sentiment is also included in the Simply Sketched stamp set.  I love it when they combine great images with good sentiments in one set!

OK, my friends!  I'm off to do a million and one things today.  My "to-do" list seems to keep growing and growing.  I'm sure yours does the very same thing!  I wish you a wonderful first day of summer and a happy weekend filled with fun things! Please come back on Monday for another classic card featuring some new goodies!
Hugs to all,
Susan