I purchased the Sweetest Cherries stamps and coordinating punch at the end of the previous “big” catalog. I’m trying to make sure that I use all of my stamps at least once, and I’m glad to finally get ink on these stamps. When a catalog ends and I pack the retired stamps in boxes I feel chagrin when I encounter a stamp set that I haven’t used. I’ve devised a new strategy to try to avoid that fate with the current catalog. I’ve flagged each of the stamp sets that I haven’t used yet, and whenever I want to do a project I prioritize those sets to use first. This stamp set has been flagged since the catalog came out and my strategy worked a charm because I picked this set right away to create this card. The images in this set are fantastic for a great summer card, and I had a lot of fun creating with it.
I have a friend in mind for this card. She has a cherry tree in her yard that she enjoys every summer – it produces loads of cherries, enough for her and the neighborhood birds. In fact, there have been several summers where she’s put the call out to friends to come on by and pick up some cherries before they go bad. I think that she will especially appreciate the card because of her love for her cherry tree (and its’ fruit).
This challenge was the inspiration for my card. I did change my design to be a horizontal layout instead of vertical. This gave me a little more space near the rectangle to add the punched cherry; I really wanted to include the cherry image as well as the greeting. I love the patterned paper on the sides of the card, and this sketch called to me to do that with my design. I do like this layout and I will likely revisit this sketch in the future.
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