In the Stampin Up world the word Occasions evokes the joy of the Spring Mini Catalog celebrating all those Special occasions that  occur after Christmas and before Halloween. So its a lot of cool feelings. The 2017 Occasions catalog is filled with a lot of super fun stamps, dies, and embellishments. But sometimes you end up with a stamp set that puts your mind into fugue and you sit at your craft table going “Duh, … where do I go with this?”

The Oh So Succulent stamp set which I received at On Stage in Nov was one of those sets. So after using the super artistic Mediterranean Moments for the November Blog Hop, I challenged myself to make at least 2 cards with this set.

The first card I created features a 3 panel die cut opening thru which the succulents are seen.

I used Sahara Sand for my cardbase and stamped the images on Whisper White which I mounted on the inside of the front panel. I stamped my images in Memento Black and colored them in with Stampin write markers and a Water Brush. For the sky I lightly sponged on some soft sky. ( I used Peekaboo Peach, Sweet sugarplum, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Pear Pizzazz and Old Olive.) I finished the front by stamping the Birthday sentiment from the set in Soft Suede.

For my second card I went with a more floral theme, using the large and medium flowers as my focal point. I know from living in Arizona for many years that the plants these images are drawn are green but I just couldn’t stick with all greens.

So I layered my “flowers” making them Sweet Sugarplum with Rich Razzleberry outlines, Peekaboo Peach with Calypso Coral outlines and So Saffron with Delightful Dijon outlines. For my greenery, I used 2 solid images from the set- the large bubbles as my husband called it and the grassy one. I masked off my flowers and placed two bubbles in pear pizzazz on the upper right and upper left. Then randomly stamped the grassy image in pear pizazz stamped off once and delightful dijon stamped off twice. I cringed the first couple of times I used the Dijon as it seemed like a waste of ink but I really liked the effect. I have one 2nd gen Delightful Dijon that seemed too dark, so I tried stamping off twice. For my Sentiment I used Chocolate chip ink. The stitching is unfortunately not Stampin Up but I am addicted to stitched dies and looking forward to Stampin Up releasing some rectangles now we have squares, circles and ovals that are stitched. My cardbase is Sweet Sugarplum. (I hope my Mom likes this card when she gets in Jan)

‘Til next time…Happy Stamping!

~Kathy