Sale-a-bration Inspiration

As promised, here are some cards I have made with the Sale-a-bration sets for 2009. I had a play with the sets I didn't own at a recent team stamping day, which was a lot of fun! I wish I took a photo of the group of cards we all made together, but alas my camera was left at home that day. Might have to see if someone else will share with me so I can show you the variety we created, it was quite interesting to see how many takes there were for each set.

The first photo shows the Botanical Blooms set, which is a 2 step stampin set. I have stamped the solid leaf in Rose Red ink on Rose Red cardstock. Next I took a strip of River Rock, and overlaid it with a strip of Mellow Moss, stamped in Mellow Moss ink using the leaf outline stamp. The flower and flower outline stamps were used on scraps of Very Vanilla, using the 'stampin off' technique to create a lighter and darker version of the same colour. These were punched with 1 1/4" circle punch and pop mounted with Stampin Dimensionals onto 1 3/8" circles and then scallop circles. I stamped the greeting from the Congrats set in Rose Red - next time I think Purely Pomegranate or Always Artichoke would make it stand out more. Live and learn!

The second photo is a card that popped into my head inspired in a way by a Christmas card made by Carol Dunstan, using whisper white ink on Kraft cardstock. I liked the subtle 'negative' look, but chose Kraft as the card base and Blue Bayou as the ground for the white. This is the Polka Dot Punches SAB set. As you can see, the doodle style dot flower fits beautifully inside the Scallop Circle punch. The star flower fits inside the 5 petal flower punch. The smaller flower suits the 1 1/4" circle punch. We don't yet have a heart punch, but I suspect there is one on the way!! I stamped the large flower again in Blue Bayou ink onto So Saffron cardstock and pop mounted it into the centre, before stamping the Congratulations greeting onto the Saffron strip with distressed edges.

The third photo shows the Yummy set and the card I made with it. "Yummy" is my favourite set from this year's collection, versatile, and useful for making quick tags for baked gifts and the like - the keenest eyes here might notice where else I previewed this set - a RAK will be sent for the first commenter to tell me!
The flourish and a little something for you sentiment are on the same large stamp, and I have been umming and ahhing about whether to cut them apart and mount separately. For now I have decided to leave it as it was made, and to use the option of marker-to-stamp omitting when I want to use one or the other but not both. I used markers here anyway, to colour the tiny flowers and greeting in burgundy, and the flourishes in artichoke. I used the Scallop edge punch (mmmmm, to die for!!) to create the vanilla scalloped borders, and mounted these on a different level with Stampin' Dimensionals. Underneath these are some Vanilla and Artichoke grosgrain ribbon. Oh, and the background is stamped with Polka Dot in Bravo Burgundy in on Bravo Burgundy cardstock.

Hope you like them, back with more before too long I hope!!