Welcome to my crafty blog and an extra post today as we’ve got a new theme over at Alphabet Challenge. It’s now T and Caz has chosen ‘thank you’, which is very appropriate for this time of year. I’ve taken the opportunity to preview another new set from Stampin’ Up!, ‘sweet citrus’ which will be available in their new mini catalogue from 5th January. I took the colours from Colour INKspiration and will also be sharing it with Can You Handle The Pressure, although I haven’t picked up their optional twist of snow.

I started by making a card blank from ‘bermuda bay’ card and embossed it with SU’s ‘subtles’ folder. I stamped one of the images from the ‘oceanfront’ set in ‘bermuda bay’ onto a square of white card and attached it to the card front.

I stamped two of the images from ‘sweet citrus’, using ‘daffodil delight’ for the rind and ‘calypso coral’ for the centres, die cut them and then ran them through the co-ordinating embossing folder, which gives them a great texture. (I think they look like grapefruits in these colours). I glued a scrap bit of card onto the back of each and added them to the card front.

I then stamped and die cut leaves and flowers from the set, using ‘coastal cabana’ for the leaves and ‘pale papaya’ for the flowers (which I then coloured with the ink & a waterbrush and added the centres in ‘calyspo coral). The leaves came out a bit darker than I wanted as I was using SU Write markers to ink the stamps which don’t work quite so well on polymer as on rubber, so I had to stamp them twice to get a more even coverage. I tucked the leaves under the grapefuits and then added the flowers on foam pads.

I finished with a few scattered dots in ‘pale papaya’ from the ‘beutifully happy’ set and one of the ‘sweet citrus’ sentiments.

This is going to be winging it’s way to a friend who gave me a jar of her delicious homemade lemon marmalade for Christmas (as well as one of her amazing Christmas puddings!) Do check out the inspiration from the rest of the Alphabet design team, and then come and play along with us – T for thank you runs until Thursday January 11th.