Happy New Year!

Well, another year has finally ended and we're starting off fresh with a brand new year ahead of us!  Isn't that exciting?  And what a really lazy day it's been today.  I  loved watching the Rose Bowl Parade from pre-start to finish.  The floats were simply gorgeous and the bands and others were great.  What a fun way to begin the new year.  Last night instead of going out anywhere to celebrate, we stayed home and had a quiet evening.  And what do you do on a quiet night at home, you ask?  Well, you stamp, of course!  At least I did, and talked with my sister who is also a demo and that's what she was doing too!  I got inspired to work on a Valentine 'cuz it's right around the corner, you know.  Here's what I made last night.

Stamps:  You Are Loved
Ink:  Regal Rose pad, Basic Gray and Rose Red markers
Paper:  Pretty in Pink, Regal Rose, Baja Breeze, and Whisper White
Accessories:   Big  Shot with Apothecary Accents Framelits, Fancy Fan TIEF, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Piercing Tool and Mat, Vintage Faceted Buttons, Regal Rose 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, Sponge quarter, Glue Dots, and Dimensionals

Isn't this card just gorgeous?  I'm almost shocked that I did this all myself with no casing what-so-ever!  Every time I look at it, it still surprises me!  Hmmm, I don't suppose I should actually be admitting to that, huh.  But it really is pretty!

Ok, enough of the pats on the back or I might just fall over!  I had seen a video on making the die-cut piece smaller so the regular die can frame it nicely, so I had to give it a try.  It's just so easy to reposition the framelit and run it through the Big Shot the 2nd time.  How easy it that?

For this card, I chose a stamp set that was introduced last year, but I didn't really do much of anything with it.  To get this look, I inked the stamp with Regal Rose, then went back with markers and added the lettering and touches of Rose Red on the butterflies and flowers to make it stand out.  As I was putting the card together, I thought the white embossed layer needed just a touch of color, so I sponged on a little Regal Rose very lightly on the edges just to help the texture show up better.  When the card was finished (I thought), it still looked a bit plain, so I started thinking about what little bit could be added.  I was going to stay with the  pink tones, but that just didn't get it!  When I added the Baja Breeze tiny butterflies, it was just perfect.

So there you have it.  The first post for the new year.  This one's going to be hard to live up to.  Maybe I should have posted something a little more boring to start out the year!   Wishing you and your families a very blessed year in 2013.  Sharon