Today’s card is so special to me! Pun intended 🙂 Seriously though, it’s so rewarding to disappear into my craft room after the day’s work is done and pour myself into making something pretty. Can you relate?

I was inspired by a card I saw (somewhere) using a big banner and a large die cut sentiment and it rolled around in my head and then this popped out 🙂

Almost all of the product used here came from a Stamps of Life Card Kit. The pattern paper is from an older kit. When I saw it, I knew it would be perfect for my banner card! I ran into a bit of a problem though when I discovered that although this paper was in a card kit, this deep blue-purple color is not offered as a card stock or ink in The Stamps of Life product line. What? Luckily for me there was a solid piece of pattern paper in the pad that I was able to use in place of card stock. And the ribbon? I found the PERFECT shade (Royal Velvet) in my Papertrey Ink stash! Can you believe it? A month or so ago, they had all of their ribbon on clearance so I was able to get one roll of almost every color for about $30 total. Wow, right? And it worked out perfectly!! 🙂

The die came in a card kit…isn’t it sweet? I did puzzle over how I would use it. “So Special” doesn’t really seem like a stand alone sentiment to me so I went hunting and found two different options of “You Are” in my TSOL stamp sets. I inked one of them up and then die cut it with a stitched circle die. But once I had it in place everything seemed off balance for me (and I had Lionel Richie crooning “You are so beautiful…to Meeee” in my head) so I went hunting again and found another sentiment that actually reads “To You, From Me”. A bit of creative stamping and voilà! I think it turned out very charming 🙂

The stitched banner is courtesy of a die from Sunny Studios. I HAD to have it about two years ago and I’m sorry to say, this is the first time it’s been used. But there are four options for the fishtail and this is a fun layout so I think we’ll see a variation on this card in the future…

Now, today I am playing along with the NBUS (Never Before Used Schtuff) challenge. And the challenge is not only to use something not used before, but also to share a boo-boo or two. GASP!! What?!? Imperfection? Never!! Well…okay, if you insist…

Yes, on my first attempt, I die cut the fish tail upside down. And then sat there staring at the half with the stitching thinking “How can this be?”. Yep, a great way to ruin a perfectly good piece of pretty paper 🙂

And since I’m owning up to my mistakes, when I put this card together, I adhered everything flat. Then I decided that the banner needed to be popped up from the other pattern paper so I lifted the whole thing and re-adhered everything. It wasn’t until I went to open the card that I realized that I had ADHERED THE WHOLE THING UPSIDE DOWN!!!! Lucky me, after scrapbooking for many years, lifting (very carefully) and re-adhering is something I am familiar with and though while never preferable, something I can manage to do. Whew! Especially since I didn’t have any more of this pretty blue-purple paper!

One last thing…the inside…

It occurred to me when I started to work on the inside of the card…what on earth do you finish with when you start with “You are so special to me” without coming across as creepy and stalker-ish? Well, I’ll tell you, I had to look through every stamp set I own to decide that this sentiment would be appropriate, lol. Now it can be an “I’m thinking of you” or “I’ve got your back” or “It’ll be okay” kind of card and won’t be creepy…;)

Well, there you have it, my nightly therapy all wrapped up and tidy with it’s pretty envelope!

Thanks for stopping by! I truly appreciate you!

Products Used:

Card Stock: Pixie, Kiwi & Powdered Sugar by The Stamps of Life

Pattern Paper: Friend Collection by The Stamps of Life

Ink: Royal Velvet by Papertrey Ink; Memento Ink Tuxedo Black

Stamps:    flowerpower2fill & patterns4happymail by The Stamps of Life; Inside & Out: Healing Touch by Papertrey Ink

Dies: Stitched Ovals & Rectangles Dies by The Stamps of Life; Fishtail Banners by Sunny Studios

Tools:  Big Shot; MISTI; Paper Trimmer

Embellishments: Flower Jewels by The Stamps of Life; Royal Velvet Ribbon by Papertrey Ink

Other – Envelope – The Stamps of Life