Life doesn't have to be perfect...

Hello again ~ another sunny, and not extremely cold day here... I think spring may have finally got the message and is on its way.. Hopefully?!

I recently participated in a swap a couple of weeks ago... I must say that I love swaps - it's a good way to get lots of ideas and samples using various Stampin' Up! products some that you may or may not have yourself!

For my swap I really wanted to try to make a masculine card - I thought I'd try some Pacific Point and Basic Black mixed with a bit of shine from the Metallic Silver Encore ink pad. I used the Petal Parade stamp set from the Sale-a-bration brochure (a definite favourite of mine), who am I kidding... I love every product in the brochure! I really love this arrow stamp - it adds a nice effect to the background for a card or paper project. I tried it out with the silver ink on the black and it was so striking so I went with it. Even if the image didn't stamp perfectly it gave a nice distressing effect to the card that was quite nice!

 

I added some Silver Baker's Twine, another favourite of mine is baker's twine - I use it on almost every project I create - and with the added sparkle from the silver and gold makes it even better!! The sentiment is from the 'Perfect Pennants' stamp set (from the Kaleidoscope suite! go figure right?!) I love this sentiment, it is so true because life doesn't have to be perfect to be wonderful, what is perfect anyways?! I used the 'Circles Collection Framelits' to cut out the Basic Black layer, the 2 1/2" Circle Punch to cut the Very Vanilla layer and the 'Starburst Framelits' to cut out the Pacific Point layer - I punched a 'small heart' in Silver Foil for some more shine.

The card swappers seemed to like my card, I hope you do too! Happy stamping :)