Well, hello there! You have landed at my little corner of the interwebs. I am Joanne Cantrell and I hail from an itty bitty town in the middle of the United States.

You are hopping along through this month’s installment of the Ink & Inspiration Blog Hop. We are a small group of avid Stampin’ Up Demonstrators from around the world. You may have gathered that our theme for the month is GRATITUDE!

I am always grateful. The fact that I get to wake up, eat breakfast with my daughter who I love… Go to work at a job that I love with people that I love… Come home to see my wonderfully patient husband who I love… And maybe talk to my sons who I love… Then, I get to go up to my craft room and create inspiring projects for you hoppers that I love!

Without love, you really can’t understand what gratitude is.  And, there is even more to be thankful for…  The new 2019-2021 In Colors!!!

Can I get an woot-woot!?!  

So, what better way to show my gratitude to Stampin’ Up! then to show you a great project I created using two of the new colors…

What… I know, right!!! Are these not simply the best?

This card uses the new Rococo Rose and Seaside Spray… And a little Very Vanilla just for fun!

If you are thinking that the Painted Harvest Photopolymer Stamp Set is just for the fall, you are so wrong. As I learned from Yami Mohr, the color combinations are limitless. I saw Yami had a blue and pink combo, so I thought, “Why not?”.

What do you think? Are you grateful that I showed you this? I am grateful the I found Yami’s wonderful card to CASE. And I would be so very grateful if you wanted to CASE it as well. 🙂

Let’s take that up close look…

See that little stitching effect? I used the Stitched Rectangle dies that are being carried over into the new 2019-2020 Annual Catalog. If you would like your very own copy of it… Just drop me an email and I will get one off in the mail to you as soon as they arrive!

And, we can’t forget the inside…

Don’t look at it too closely or you will see that I messed up the flower in the corner. But, in my defense… I am sure you also haven’t used this set in months. So I forgot how to create the look. Haha! It is just the two-step stamping… But I thought it was so much harder! I have no idea what I was thinking! 😂

Well, I guess now I will give my tips to make that little stitching.

First… Measure.

Well, first you need to cut a Very Vanilla and Seaside Spray layer. They are 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″. Then you need to measure. I measured up from the bottom and made a tiny little mark with a pencil of the edge.

Next, I slipped the layer into the largest rectangle die like shown below…

See how the die is lined up on this marks… But, you have to be very careful with you cut it. You only have to cut the one part. So you have to put it on the die cut machine the right way …

You only have to roll that one part in then right back out. If you roll the whole platform through, you will emboss the other end of the cardstock. And, no… I didn’t learn from experience! Lol. I realized that as I was rolling it though and stopped just in time! Heeheehee!

Of course, you don’t need to use the dies at all, you can just cut it at an angle and get the second effect!

Well, that’s all I’ve got for y’all today! Hope you have been inspired by what you have seen so far in your hop… I nsure there are a great many more inspiring projects to follow!

Until next time… keep it simple, Stampers!

:). Joanne