Bird Ballad FMS #385

Free As A Bird, the name of this stamp which will be in the new Stampin' Up! catalogue, is also a very apt description of me over the last week. I headed away before Easter with my husband for a coastal break, although we initially had a son and his family including two very lively little boys, so no free-time while they were with us, but plenty of fun-time!!! Sand castles on the beach, fishing from the pier and lego to play with made for very happy days. When they left, I was able to break out the ink and new stamps.

 This is one of the new Stampin' Up! In colors, available June 1st for you too to order, but I have all five colours already, and I'm loving them all. This soft mauve is Purple Posy and the contrasting paper is Fresh Fig which retires on May 31st, so it is a mix of old with new. Of course, it's not just new colours that will be new, there are new stamps in the cling-mount style, so easy to use on a clear block or with your Stamparatus.

After inking up the starry stamp from Bokeh Dots, I've stamped a lot of rectangles to use as backgrounds for images from Free As A Bird. There are so many good sentiments in this stamp set too. This is a quick and easy card, quite suitable for someone just starting out to try.

While looking for inspiration on how to make up my art pieces, I've stumbled across the sketch by Kim on the Freshly Made Sketches design team and decided it was exactly what was needed. Where do you get your inspiration from? Check out all the other ideas there by following my link.

P.S. After not being able to sleep last night, I decided to do some early morning crafting and put these two together using the same sketch. Still using the soon to retire Tranquil Textures paper, as it tones rather nicely with the new colours.

Isn't that a magnificent sand castle?