Sweet Strawberry, Thank You Card, Stampin' Up!

Now I think I read that the "Sweet Strawberry" set and punch are retiring but I don't recall. I saw a lot of sets retiring and sometimes I get confused because I see they are retiring and it ends up being that the bundle is retiring but the set and stamp or dies can be purchased separately.  So I just thought I'd use the set and deal with it retiring later. If it is retiring, I think it's sad because it's a fun set and easy to work with. It's a set that has a thank you, birthday, thinking of you, and hello messages. VERY versatile.  It would be nice if they kept sets more than one year and maybe added new Designer Series Paper (DSP) to go with it. But I'm not in charge and this is what it is!

So to make this card you need a folded half-sheet of Basic White card stock. This card opens on the bottom and the fold is on the top. 

I cut a 4" x 5-1/4" piece of Balmy Blue card stock and a 3-7/8" x 5-1/8" piece of DSP from the "You're a Peach" 12" x 12" package. I taped the DSP to the Balmy Blue piece and then I taped that to the front of the card.

The layer is a piece of Balmy Blue card stock that was cut at 4-1/4" x 3". I took my blending brush and scrubbed on some Balmy Blue ink over the area where the strawberries were going to go.

Next the strawberry pieces were stamped. I punched out the 4 images onto a piece of scrap card stock. I set it in my Stamparatus and then added the strawberry, leaf, strawberry top, and flower stamps in the open areas on that punched piece. Then I closed the cover to the Stamparatus to the pieces were set in place. I removed that punched piece and put a piece of Basic White card stock in it's place, inked up the images using black Memento ink and stamped those images.  Then I put them in the punch and punched them out. I needed three of each image. 

The strawberry was colored using my light and dark Poppy Parade Blends pens. The strawberry top and leaves were colored in using the light and dark Old Olive Blends pens. The flower center was colored in using the light Daffodil Delight Blends pen and the petals were colored in using the light Balmy Blue Blends pen. 

Dimensionals were added to the strawberries, the top one on the right only had Dimensionals added to the right side and glue was used on the left. I didn't want to have it sitting on top of the other strawberries with a Dimensional on that side because it would not look right.

Before the punched items were set in place, I set them on top of the card for placement for the words. The words are from the same "Sweet Strawberry" set and were stamped using black Memento ink. I was going to use the "Hello There" stamp but I had temporarily lost it. I took it out of the case way before I needed it (Note to self:  never do that again). I looked everywhere. It wasn't on my worktable or the floor or the back of the case or on my clothing. I even looked in the recycling basket next to me but you'd think I'd hear it hit the basket. It was not where to be found. But when I took the Dimensionals out of the holder I had them in, it was stuck to the back of it. But it was too late, I had already given up and used a different stamp.  Still "living and learning".  LOL  

So, once the words were stamped I set the strawberries in place but I didn't press them down because I wanted to be able to slip the leaves and flowers in place. I used glue for the leaves in flowers so I could move them around if I had to.  I did glue the left side of the top right strawberry so that edge would stay down.

Dimensionals were added to the focal piece and it was set in place on top of the DSP.  And for the final touch, a few black sequins were added. I had them on hand and am trying to use up some embellishments around here. 

This was a very fun and easy card to make. I think it took me longer to write up this post than it did to make the card!

Thank you SO very much for taking your time to stop by and see today's thank you card,
Wanda