VC Rocks Blog Hop

Welcome to the VC Rocks Blog hop for June. You should have arrived here from Gwyn's blog. If you didn't, you can go back to the beginning by heading to the  VC Rocks homepage. There are 30 other amazing stampers participating this weekend. Of course, if you wish, you may continue on from here and loop all the way around. I'll have a link to the next stop on the hop at the bottom of this post.

The theme for this month's hop is Any Size Card. Now, you would think it would be easy to chose something to post with such a broad theme. It actually wasn't this time. I have so many cards I've made in my  time away that I had a hard time choosing which ones to post, especially because I know the themes for the July and August hops, which I am planning to participate in.

Given all that, I decided I'd post a couple cards I made recently at an all Occasion class. I love going to stamp with my demo, because she gives us a basic concept and then she totally lets us go. I love the freedom to stray from the original design - even when sometimes it happens as a result of a 'mistake', as in the first card.

 The original sample of this card had a different size and style of pennant. I cut the cardstock wrong and had to adapt it. When I first saw the Bright Blossoms set, it did NOTHING for me. It's totally grown on me now.  I particularly love how it looks random stamped, as we did here with the flags. At this point, I have too many 'must haves' to buy this set, but it's moved of my 'no way' list. I divide stamps from the catalogue into three categories - 'Must have," "It depends," and "Not my style". Usually, the final decision on the middle category gets made at retirement time.

The second card  features some retired product, notably the Baroque Motifs set. It's a perfect example of a set that's been  on my 'maybe' list that I never got around to purchasing. It's not that I don't like it, I just found it kept getting bumped down the priority list. It's one of the ones I regret not buying; I'll be on the lookout for it as people sell their retired merchandise. If I can find it at an affordable price, I'll pick it up - it's great for embossing and playing with punch art, as we did here with the flower punch.

Again, I strayed from the original design - this time I stamped the flourish at a different angle than the original.

Card Details - All products Stampin' Up

Birthday Wishes

Stamps: Bright Blossoms, 

Cardstock: Real Red, Pacific Point, Whisper White

Ink: Old Olive, Real Red, Pacific Point

Wedding Card

Stamps: Baroque Motifs, 

Cardstock: Whisper White, Silver

Other: Silver embossing powder, pearls, Big Shot die

I hope you enjoyed these cards! Now hop along to Toni's blog to see what she has created for you this month!