FMS 71

I've had a hectic 3 days away at my son's home, helping out with their two lively little men, 'cos their dad had surgery last week and they needed Poppy and Gran to take them fishing and to the park to run off some of the energy that Dad usually takes care of.

Since we arrived home my other two grandsons have visited, and when they left, I decided to have an hour or two of "me-time" to recharge before fronting up to some more darling children at school tomorrow!!

I've missed deadlines for some challenges that I had bookmarked (that happens a lot....LOL) but still have time for Freshly Made Sketches, one of my absolute favourites! If you click on that link you will see heaps more great cards by very talented players.

I have used some patterned paper from Sale-a-bration, it's called Sycamore Street, to set the colours for my card. Inks used are Pool Party, Tangerine Tango and I substituted Marina Mist for Island Indigo for a more subtle deep blue. The tag was cut with the Two-Tags die on my Big Shot using Whisper White card. I had tried it in Pool Party but it didn't look "clean" enough. The flower and leaf is from a Sale-a-bration set called Bloomin' Marvellous, and then I stamped a flower centre in Tangerine Tango with a little stamp from the Summer Silhouettes set. The same colour was used to stamp a stamp from the Papillon Potpourri and it was punched with its matching punch.

There's a new petite sized butterfly punch in the 25th Anniversary Catalogue (page 13) which punches the smaller butterflies from the Papillon Potpourri set and also the wee butterfly in Bloomin' Marvellous. I love the way everything mixes and matches. I was going to include one of the Bitty Butterflies too, but it made it a bit busy, I'm sure I'll use the other ones I punched very soon anyway.

At the top of the tag I have placed an Antique Brad over some Pool Party Seam Binding, which unfortunately covers the pretty scalloped top of the tag and the butterfly has three Rhinestone Basic Jewels.

Oh, and the greeting I used is from a Itty Bitty Banners stamp set that is available both as a sale-a-bration bonus (Free with a $100 order, before shipping) or it can be purchased from the Annual catalogue for $27.95 for wood mount. It's on page 134, where you can see that there are three shapes and sizes, six different greetings. Also available are Bitty Banners Framelits dies if you happen to have a Big Shot.

I'll say ciao for now,

Rachel