Stampin’ Up! Special Reasons and Carousels

Good morning, y’all!  Welcome to the weekend!  I hope you’ve got something fun on your schedule  – are you planning to watch the Super Bowl??

I wanted to tell you that….we’ve had a death in the…”family”.  I can’t really tell you his name or all that much about him.  He pretty much kept to himself – not too cuddly, either.

Cuz…he was a fish.  A grass carp, to be exact.  We got him a couple of years ago for our back pond – he was the only fish back there.  We’re not really sure what did him in – maybe the big rain caused a really large influx of water and changed the temperature of the pond?  Maybe a bird – one of the big gray herons? – tried to get him and killed him but he was too big to carry off?

I don’t know.

What I do know, is that Finn – with every speck of his giant doggie heart – wants to get that dead and rotting fish.  He wants him bad!  To toss in the air….to chew and gnaw….to roll in!

Bleh!!

So far, he’s minding me when I call him away from the pond – but…I don’t know how long my wishes will overcome his overpowering need to douse himself in the sweet parfum of eau d’poisson!  If it does happen…the bath that, so far, has been a theoretical thing of the future….well. 😉

For my friendship card today, I went back to one of my favoritest  bundles in the Occasions catalog…the Special Reason bundle!  I put it over some Cupcakes & Carousels DSP.  Take a look-see:

This one was inspired by the sketch at Fab Friday this week.

I started with a pretty design from the Cupcakes & Carousels DSP Stack, that I matted on Calypso Coral card stock.

Then I built several flowers using the dies from the Stylish Stems Framelits.  I cut the detailed flowers from So Saffron and Bermuda Bay (this is a two-step process – first you cut the detailed flower die – and it makes a negative in the card stock.  Then, if you want a “flower”,  you use the outline die to cut it out.  Very versatile!).  Then I cut solid shapes in So Saffron Bermuda Bay and Calypso Coral.  I used Liquid Glue to adhere the detailed flowers to the solid shapes.

Then I adhered a large flower directly to the card front with Liquid Glue, then added a second large flower with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

Next came the Special Reason sentiment.  I stamped it in Bermuda Bay on Very Vanilla and cut the ends with my Banner Triple Punch.  I also made a Vellum card stock banner (I learned this little trick from my friend and awesome upline Amy Koenders!), punching it as well.  I adhered the Vellum banner to the card front with Liquid Glue and a Stampin’ Dimensional.  Then I popped the sentiment banner over it with more Stampin’ Dimensionals.

At this point, I cut a couple of leaves from Bermuda Bay card stock, using the Stylish Stems dies and tucked them under the sentiment with some Liquid Glue.

I pulled out the Cupcakes & Carousels Embellishment Kit and used a Glue Dot to nestle a Very Vanilla hassle up under the bottom of the sentiment.  I tied a little bow from the pretty ombre Calypso Coral ribbon from the kit, and stuck it on with another Glue Dot.  To finish it off, I popped the final flower on with a few Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I added a few gold sequins from the Embellishment Kit and then put some little seed Pearl Basic Jewel Embellishments onto each of those.  And the card front was done!

For the inside, I stamped a second Special Reason sentiment in Bermuda Bay onto a Whisper White panel.  At the bottom, I used the smaller flower from Special Reason to stamp a few images.  First I used Calypso Coral, stamping it off once before stamping the card.   I covered that one with a sticky note mask and added a second flower over the top in So Saffron.  Then I added another So Saffron flower on the top of the panel.

I SNAILd the panel to a Calypso Coral mat and then into my Basic Gray card base, popped the card front on with Stampin’ Dimensionals and the card was done!

My Very Vanilla Medium Envelope got more of the Special Reason small flowers on the front…

….and a little more of the Cupcakes & Carousels DSP on the envelope flap.

Et Voila!  I just love this bundle – it has so many possible ways to use it to create beautiful cards!  Hope you like!

Scroll on down for the card cuts and all the products you’ll need to make this one for yourself!

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