The journey of life is best shared with a friend, and I am truly grateful for all the wonderful friends in my life. My sweet husband, my girlfriends, and so many others all play an important role in my journey of life. My card today celebrates all my wonderful friends.

The new annual Stampin’ Up! Catalogue has two new embossing powders; Shimmer Black and Shimmer White. Today I decided to play with the Shimmer White, and it is magnificent. I have never embossed one of our DistINKtive stamps, so decided to give it a try. While some of the unique shading is lost doing this, it gave me the perfect opportunity to add some highlights.

So here is my story. While skiing in March I fell and sprained my thumb. It seemed to take a long time to heal, and is still rather weak, but I didn’t think too much of it. I recently found out I have a torn ligament. The extent of the damage isn’t known yet, I have to go for an MRI, but it may need surgery to fix. On the bright side, the doctor couldn’t believe I’m not in great pain, which thankfully I am not. However it they did give me a splint which I am to wear all the time. Did I mention that this is on my right hand? How will I stamp???

It’s summer and the birds are everywhere, enjoying my bird feeders, and the trees in the yard. The cute bird in my card today is on one of the pieces of Designer Series paper from the Bird Ballad Suite of products. This is a whole suite of wonderful items so watch for more of these in upcoming cards.

Each year when the annual Stampin’ Up! catalogue is coming to an end I feel a bit sad. All the gorgeous Designer Series Papers that retire will be missed. But then the new catalogue comes and WOW there are is a whole new bunch of gorgeous DSP to play with. Today my card features the Garden Lane Designer Series Paper, and I must say, it is lovely!

Sometimes we all miss a birthday. Life can be hectic and we may not get a card sent or delivered in time for that special day. That doesn’t mean we can’t still send a card to let someone know we were thinking of them and hope their day was special. Here is a card for just such an occasion.

I love combining bits and pieces from different stamp sets and dies, and that is exactly what I have done for today’s card to wish someone a ‘wild birthday!’.

My Sweet Husband (MSH) and I recently celebrated our 5 month anniversary! I am enjoying being a newlywed, and loving how beautiful our life is together. This is the card I made to celebrate, and give him on our date night.

Now that I am living at my cottage for the summer, I’m meeting up with ‘summer friends’. Many of them knew I was getting married in January, and have given me gifts to celebrate the occasion. A perfect opportunity to create another Thank You card!

Have you seen all the fabulous new InColours yet? I am really liking them, along with the coordinated products like the ribbon on my card today.

The Floral Essence stamp set has some lovely flower images, and coordinating punches to make card making easy. I used the flower and leaf punches to create this delicate flower card for the Case This Sketch challenge.

Since I declared this Suite Week (see my post from Thursday), I have used the Come Sail Away Suite for my card today. I made this for the Stampin’ Up! Only Challenge, and the theme this week is die cutting. How could I not use some the fun dies from Smooth Sailing for my card?

Okay, I admit I may have a small (or not so small) infatuation with the Come Sail Away Suite right now! Let’s just call this Come Sail Away Suite week, and then it all makes sense. Have I mentioned I can justify anything??

I have a great big Happy Birthday wish for the Case This Sketch challenge. I used bold colours and made my greeting big and filled with good wishes!

One of the best things about a new annual catalogue is the fantastic new InColours we have to play with. Today I’m celebrating a beautiful new InColour, Rococco Rose, and I have used the new Floral Essence stamp set to show it off.

I love the new Come Sail Away suite of products, and although there is lots to choose from in this suite, and some great embellishments to really step up your card, I kept this one simple with some #simplestamping.

The Global Design Project has a great colour challenge for us this week. Bright and happy colours make card making so much fun. I went for bold and bright for my colouring on this one!

Here is card that features another great new stamp set, Floral Essence. It has some pretty flower images, some lovely sentiments and a coordinating punch. It is a perfect place to start if you are new to stamping, as you get both images and sentiments in one set. There is also some gorgeous Designer Series Paper that goes with this suite that I featured in a couple of sneak peaks.

The Stampin’ Up! Only Challenge is to create a masculine card. I love making masculine cards, as they are very different than the ones we tend to make with flowers. (Although I love those too!!) I like to add a little extra challenge sometimes, and today I have added a twist to my masculine card. Can you find something on my card that may not be considered masculine?

A new catalogue is an exciting time, as we pull out new products, look at wonderful new colours, papers, embellishments and so much more. Today I’m showing off some new Designer Series Paper.

The brand new annual catalogue from Stampin’ Up! is now live, with all the fantastic products inside and available to you! There are so many great new things it is hard to know where to start, but here is a card that showcases a few new items for you.

The FabFriday challenge is a colour challenge, and it is a beautiful combination of soft and bright. I love these colours together to make a beautiful birthday card.

As you probably know, I got married in January this year. I have finally started putting together my wedding album which will be a combination of traditional scrap book pages, and memory keeping pocket pages. I really enjoy both, so combining the two types is perfect for me.

Do you like to walk on the beach and see the birds in the sand and wandering in the water to see what they can find? I live in Wasaga Beach which is on Georgian Bay, so walking the beach and watching the birds is right around the corner for me. It is fun to watch them as they search for bugs and things in the sand and the water.

The annual catalogue from Stampin’ Up! will come to a close very soon. If you don’t have everything you want from the retiring list, you only have until June 3 to get it. While the Geared Up Garage stamp set will be available in the new catalogue, the coordinating Classic Garage DSP will retire. I used some of the DSP for my card today.

We all know it will happen, and it is the circle of life, but losing a pet is difficult. Our four legged friends are an integral part of our family, with their often quirky antics and loving ways. Recently a friend of mine lost her cat Scruffy. I can’t change that, but I can send her a card to let her know I’m sorry for her loss and I’m thinking of her.

It is an exciting time as we move closer to the launch of a brand new Annual Catalogue from Stampin’ Up! And that means lots of new Designer Series Paper (among many other great things), and some new Cut and Create Crafty Cards. #cutandcreatecraftycards

Today it’s time for the SUO challenge, and the theme is Spring. Aren’t we all happy to say hello to Spring and some warmer weather? I know I am!! When I think of Spring, my thoughts turn to early bulbs bursting into bloom and adding some colour to our day. I love to see crocuses opening with their bright purple colour.

It truly is a beautiful day when kindness touches it, and when you get a sneak peak at some gorgeous new Designer Series Paper. My card today is for the Fab Friday challenge that is on right now, and gives you just that.

It’s CAS(E) This Sketch time, and I made a thank you card. People seem to be more casual about sending thank you cards and notes these days, so it is a great way to show how much you appreciate someone, or something they did, and so easy with a beautiful hand made card.