Avant Garden Smackdown

#stampinup    #faithfulinkspirations   #saleabration2017   I'm back!  Man, oh man! I was on a business trip in Texas at the beginning of the month and I caught a wicked virus of some sort. I was down and out for more than a week and I'm still recovering.  I'm pretty sure it wasn't the flu, but it was something, all right!  I'm still working my way back to full energy level--and I'm pretty close--but it was a long time coming!

So that was the icky Texas news. The wonderful Texas news is that I was in the right place at the right time and I was able to attend Lydia Fiedler's monthly stamping class in Austin! Woot! Chris, one of my coworkers and fellow Stampin' Up demonstrator, came along, too! We were super stoked to get to see Lydia and her Saturday stampers!

Here are a couple of pics of Lydia demonstrating the techniques we would use on our cards.

Here's Chris and me as we get ready to get down to stampin' business.

And here we are with Lydia! Squee!!!

We made three awesome cards during the class, which I'll be showing you today through Wednesday.

First up is an awesome card that uses the Sale-A-Bration set, "Avant Garden," and the "smackdown" technique.  I'd never done this technique but it's super cool and super easy. Just ink up your image and stamp, as usual. Then, without reinking, stamp around the image a bit. This will give you a watercolor effect.  See what I mean?

The flowers are stamped in Watermelon Wonder, the leaves and sprinkles are stamped in Old Olive.  The sentiment is stamped in Basic Black Archival Ink.  I cut down the main panel to 3-3/4" by 5" and then adhered it to a 3-5/8" by 5-1/8" Old Olive panel before adhering it to a Thick Whisper White Card Stock card base, cut lengthwise.

Isn't this a wonderful card? Isn't Lydia a talented designer? Want to get your hands on this stamp set? You'll need to place a $50 order by midnight (MT) this Friday March 31, 2017, and then you can choose this set as your FREE 
Sale-a-Bration item. Hurry! You don't want to miss out!

tams# 12538

Product List

Avant Garden Photopolymer Stamp Set [143272] $0.00	Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad [138323] $6.50	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad [126953] $6.50	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931] $7.00
Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Thick Cardstock [140272] $7.00	Old Olive 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100702] $8.00	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $9.00