Hey guys! Have ya’ll missed me? I can’t believe that I have slept so much over the last three days. Working the Akron Stamp Show must have absolutely worn me out. Today was the first day I’ve woken up at a decent time and by myself. Of course, my trips start all over again tomorrow when I go pick Mallory up from school. I’m bringing her home for the summer. Her school year is over. I know she can’t wait to get here and I’m just a little excited myself to have her back home for a bit. I have missed her babbling and her running in and out. She is also my eyes when it comes to finishing off a card – I’ve really missed her for that! Maybe I’ll finally get her stamping with me this summer.

Hanna Stamps is releasing four new sets at midnight tonight. There will be a Release Party in the Hanna Forum on Splitcoast tonight that you won’t want to miss. To give you a sneak peek, I decided to use the new Garden Set for today’s card. I’m sure you’ve probably already seen it a few times this week, but you haven’t seen mine

I looked at the Ways to Use It Challenge on SCS today and thought to myself this can’t be that hard. The challenge today is to make pleats, ruffles, etc. Well I have got to tell you – I wasted more time trying to make ruffles with this twill tape that I can even begin to tell you. I stitched basting seams in the twill, and started to pull for the ruffle, and it became so thick and bunched up that I had to start over. After many different attempts and variations, I decided to try pleats. I sat down at the sewing machine and started folding over the twill as I stitched. It’s just a tad bit crooked, but hey the pleats are on the card. It only took three layers of mounting tape to raise the image over the twill.

I stamped Hanna first and then stamped her again on a sheet of printer paper. Cut out my mask, and then stamped the wheelbarrow. I colored the image then with Copic Markers, hand drawing the grass (I know, I can’t draw grass). The bag of dirt was popped up over the images with mounting tape. Since this is a gardening card, I thought it would be fun to distress the edges a bit and sponge on some dirt. To finish off the card, I found a gardening charm from a cheap charm bracelet and basted it to bow made from some extra twill.

Stamps: Garden and Things Hanna Would Say from Hanna Stamps

Paper: Georgia Pacific White; Prism Intense Kiwi and Suede Brown Dark; BasicGrey Sultry

Ink: Tsukineko Brilliance Graphite Black; Ranger Archival Jet Black and Tim Holtz Vintage Photo Distress Ink

Accessories: Copic Markers; Sewing Machine; Tonic Tim Holtz Distress Tool; Tsukineko Sponge Dauber; Twill; Brads; Oval and Circle Punches; Gardening Charm; Mounting Tape

I hope you all have a wonderful day and if you have sunshine where you are, get out and enjoy it!