Reason to Smile Swap Card (and Sneak Peek!)

As promised, today I have the card I prepared to swap with my SUper Friends group this month.  I also made a birthday card.  I decided to use a stamp set called Reason to Smile that will be part of a special promotion next month (stay tuned for more info on that around July 1st) and that demonstrators had the opportunity to pre-order from Stampin' Up! this month (gotta love the perks of being a demonstrator!!!)  This card also happens to have paper piercing on it, so fits with this week's challenge (#179) over at Late Night Stampers.

Here's my card:

The card is a "Double Dutch Fold" style, and there's a great tutorial for how to make these on Splitcoaststampers here.  I've actually been making a lot of these lately, and I will try to post some of the other cards I have made using this style soon.

The card base is Primrose Petals card stock, and the double doors piece is made with Midnight Muse, topped with designer paper from the International Bazaar Pack.  I used a small piece of Raspberry Ripple card stock, die cut with one of the Finishing Touches Edgelits for the trim along the side of the top part of the card.

The large Whisper White piece was die cut with a die from the Apothecary Accents, then I two-step stamped the daisies from Reason to Smile using Primrose Petals ink.  I used the new Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack to pierce around the die cut.

I stamped "happy birthday" in Midnight Muse ink, using the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set, on another piece of Whisper White.  Then, I die cut around it using the coordinating Itty Bitty Banners Framelit.


Three rhinestones in the bottom left corner add a bit more sparkle and interest.


This is such a fun card to make -- it will be one of the cards we will make at my Creative Connections Class coming up in July!  


Thanks for visiting my blog!


- Michelle