Nature Walk Swap

Reminder: The Stampin Addicts Sale-a-bration Blog Hop is coming soon - Friday, January 28th!! I'll be featuring one of the many stamps sets you can get for free!   

I participated in the Control Freak's Occasions Mini swap way back in December. We could choose which stamp set we wanted to make for the swap as long as it was one from the Occasions Mini Catalog. I chose Nature Walk because it contains so many elements that I love!

  Since everyone received their swaps weeks ago, I wanted to show you what I made for the swap.

  I had to make 27 so I really tried to keep it simple. That was really difficult for me because I always want to add one more thing! 

   Yes, some of you will think this is simple, and some of you will think it's not. It is simple in that it is easy to duplicate, but not so simple in that it involves such things as: cutting several pieces of cardstock, coloring a stamp with markers, cutting out the butterfly, punching, spritzing color with the Color Spritzing Tool, and much to the dismay of some of you, tying a bow! 

   This card uses all but 2 of the stamps in the set (the bee and the birdcage). And you know I still can't figure out why a birdcage is included in this set. lol. To me a birdcage is opposite of nature. If anyone has any insights, please comment. 

   Now you may be looking at this card and say, "That little oval punch isn't available anymore". Wrong! It is available, but it just isn't in any of the catalogs. It will be, come July. :)

   I used markers to color the butterfly but it is not stamped on watercolor paper. I used Naturals Ivory cardstock and because it is such a small area to color, markers worked well. I have said it before, and I will say it again. Markers are an investment worth making!

Stamps: Nature Walk (Occasions Mini)
Paper: So Saffron, Soft Suede, Old Ivory, Naturals Ivory
Ink: Soft Suede, Old Olive, Baja Breeze, Black Stazon
Markers: So Saffron, Soft Suede, More Mustard
Accessories: Medium Oval Punch (not in catalogs but available), dimensionals, sponge, Color Spritzer Tool, Baja Breeze Seam Binding Ribbon (Occasions Mini)

Happy Monday.