Share What You Love Suite | Swimming In Stamps

Are you getting excited about all the great new products in the 2018 Annual Catalog? I know I am!!!

Well there are a couple opportunities to get your hands on those products early. 1) If you are a demonstrator or sign up to be a demonstrator, you can order selected products a month early. If you’ve ever considered signing up, this is a great opportunity, because you can include pre-order items in your Starter Kit. (Contact me for more details.) 2) All customers can order early release bundles of the Share What You Love suite of products during the month of May.

Last week, I wrote about the three early release bundles. (Click HERE for details.) I also placed links to my online store to order these bundles at the bottom of this post. While the special early release bundles are ONLY available to purchase during the month of May (all of which include some free items), the contents will be available to purchase individually as of June 1, 2018.

Last week, I promised that I would post some projects using the Share What You Love Suite, so here are the first three!

I’m so in love with this whole suite of products! Of course, I had to get the big bundle called Gotta Have It All. It includes items such as the gorgeous specialty designer paper (SDSP), all three stamp sets, embellishment kit, ribbon, and Lovely Floral Dynamic Textured Impression Embossing Folder!!!

I have to say that the Share What You Love SDSP is amazing in real life. Many of the sheets have metallic elements in the design and they are really beautiful. I used some of this paper on each one of my cards.

For this first card, I created an embossed layer to break up the busy background. I embossed Shimmery White cardstock with the Lovely Floral Dynamic Textured Embossing Folder and then splattered it with Mint Macaroon ink using my Aqua Painter.

I also used my Aqua Painter to watercolor one of the gorgeous tags from the embellishment kit with a few swipes of Mint Macaroon ink, before stamping it with the sentiment.

Finally, I stamped multiple flowers using the Share What You Do stamp set with Basic Black Archival ink on Shimmery White cardstock and watercolored them with coordinating inks. Then, I fussy cut each one for layering. The final touch was to add some leaves using a die cut from the Sweet Cake Framelits.

The velvet ribbon, Artisan pearls, and Tranquil Tide Baker’s Twine all came with the Gotta Have It All bundle.

For my next card, I again used that gorgeous SDSP for a background. I also fussy cut the flowers from another sheet, and layered sections for some dimension.

I cut a Lots of Labels die from Shimmery White cardstock and then used a combination of smooching and splattering to color it with the new 2018 In Color Grapefruit Grove. This stamp pad also comes in the Gotta Have It All bundle, along with a paper pack that includes the coordinating cardstock, which I used as a cardbase.

For something a little different, I tried watercoloring the back of one of the Pearlized Doilies from the bundle to layer underneath my label.

I also used some Pick A Pattern washi tape to create a fun background layer on vellum and integrate a touch of black.

Final touches were to add some Artisan pearls and Very Vanilla 1/2″ Lace Trim.

I CAN SEE!!!

I really went all out on this last one, and there’s a big reason!!! I made all of these cards to thank several doctors that recently helped correct the vision in my left eye. This last one is for the surgeon!

I’ll try to keep this brief. About a year ago, I had to stop wearing my contact lenses due to dry eyes. (I had been wearing them FOREVER … haha … well since I was 12 years old!) This was a huge change for me, because due to a previous surgery on the right eye, the vision in my two eyes was vastly different. (-4.5 versus -18!) That meant that when I wore glasses, I could only see out of the good eye.

Up until this point, I had been advised not to attempt surgery on my left eye to even up my vision, because it was too high risk. But without contacts, the situation really changed … I was willing to take the risk. I mean, what did I have to lose?

It took a long time to find a surgeon willing to do the surgery, but with the help of several local doctors I did, and finally I had the surgery on April 30th! I’m please to report that it could not have gone better!!! The surgeon placed an intraocular lens in my left eye, so now my two eyes see virtually the same, and I can wear glasses comfortably!!! This is just a HUGE deal to me. It’s hard to put in words. I love my eyes, I love being able to create beautiful things and express myself artistically.

So bottom line is that I owe this surgeon the biggest, most amazing thank you possible! She is an unbelievably awesome and talented lady.

To create the sentiment for this card, I cut out words from different stamps, including both the Statement of My Heart and Love What You Do stamp sets. I layered them over another embellishment kit tag that I watercolored with Rich Razzleberry ink.

The rest of the card involved a lot of fussy cutting, but it’s a testament to how well I can see now!

For the background, I used Blackberry Bliss cardstock embossed with the Simple Stripes Textured Impression Embossing Folder. I absolutely loved this color when it was an In Color, and I’m so thrilled to see it coming back and being added to Stampin’ Up!’s regular palette of colors!!! It’s dramatic and gorgeous!!!