Thanks Card & Ruth's Reminder

I quite liked the look of the SU! Live Your Dream set but wasn't sure how much I'd use it and I didn't love it enough to buy it while it was a current set.  It obviously takes me a while to fall in love with some sets and by the time that has happened the set has retired!  As I'm not a demo it's not important to me if the set is current or retired, in fact some of my faves are old, retired stamps.  I've discovered some really great sets that I didn't realise the potential of at the time they were available.  Our friends Debbie and Mike have just visited friends in the USA and I was able to get some SU! sets from eBay shipped to their friend's USA address so that they could bring them home with them - I have a few sets on the way to me, I can't wait!  Anyway, I now have the Live Your Dream set and I love it!

The first thing I made was a thanks card. I started off with an A6 Crumb Cake card with the fold at the top, punched the bottom with the Eyelet Border punch and added an Old Olive strip behind the punched border.  I stamped the French Script background in Crumb Cake ink and then added some Itty Bitty Background speckles, some in Crumb Cake and some in Early Espresso.  I sponged the edges with Early Espresso ink.  For the image panel, I stamped French Script again on vanilla CS, inked the flowers with markers and stamped those.  I then added speckles and sponged edges.  I rock 'n rolled two butterflies and a bird and cut them out.  A clear gem was added to the butterflies and I popped up the bird on the sentiment label.  The Early Espresso oval layer was embossed with the Square Lattice folder and that was matted onto a plain Old Olive oval.  Last on the card front was the Early Espresso taffeta ribbon.

For the inside of the card, I stamped the dotted lines in Crumb Cake on vanilla CS, aded the small flower spray after stamping off once first and then stamped the sentiment over the top in Early Espresso ink.  I used the Decorative Label punch, sponged the edges and punched an Early Espresso label and cut it apart for a mat.  I stamped the flower border a few times across the bottom to finish off inside.  For the envelope, I added a small flower spray circle which also had the French Script and sponging treatment.

While I had the stamps still out on my desk I used them to make myself a 'Ruth Reminder'.  A couple of weeks ago I had a very forgetful time, I locked myself out 'cos I forgot my key and a few days after that, after queueing in the Post Office for 15 minutes I realised I'd forgotten my purse!  I've lost count of the times I've forgotten my mobile phone too.  A Post It note was duly attached to the front door so I cannot leave the house without being reminded to take the essentials with me.  It's a bright orange Post It note and it keeps falling off so obviously a prettier, permanent reminder was needed!  I stamped away merrily to my heart's content, added die cut letters, an Old Olive mat and this is now adorning the inside of my front door - with the essential items written in with my Early Espresso marker.

I owed a friend some money and I decided to make a CS envelope to put the cash in.  I also used this stamp set to decorate the envelope. Guess what? I forgot to take a photo! * sigh *


Supplies:
Stamps: SU! Live Your Dream, Sincere Salutations & Itty Bitty Backgrounds sets, SU! French Script bg stamp
CS: SU! Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Old Olive & Very Vanilla
Ink: SU! Crumb Cake, Early Espresso & various colour SU! markers
Tools: Petite Oval Nestabilities dies, SU! Eyelet Border, Modern Label & Decorative Label punches, SU! Square Lattice embossing folder, Sixxix 'Naturally Serif' alphabet Decorative Strip die, Stamp-A-Ma-Jig, sponge daubers
Embellishments & accessories: SU! Early Espresso 1/8" taffeta ribbon, clear gems, 3d foam pads