...and In with the New!

It's the first Jems blog hop of the New Year! We've had Christmas, the kids are back at school, and now we have loads of time... wait, what?!  No, of course we don't, but it does seem like there's just a tiny bit of breathing space.

If you've come from Julie's blog, welcome!  I know you'll be feeling very inspired already, so I'll try not to disappoint and I'll crack on!

Our brief this month is to showcase some of the fab new products from the Stampin' Up! Spring/Summer Occasions Catalogue.  I know everyone says it every time, but I really think this might be my favourite ever catalogue.  It has rainbows, it has dragons, it has a nice Easter set, it has rainbows... did I mention that?  Oh, maybe I did...

I love stamps, but this time I've fallen in love with so many of the papers, and I'm sure I'll showcase more of these over the coming months.  Top of my list were the Myths & Magic Speciality DSP, Painted With Love (the gold accents are just heavenly), and the Petal Passions DSP.  I might have passed the latter by, but having attended OnStage in November and had a chance to play with it I can honestly say that it - and the coordinating Memories & More Cards - are probably the most versatile papers Stampin' Up! is carrying at the moment.

Yes, they're black and white.  They are beautifully simple and classic, with a good spread of predominantly white papers and predominately black papers.  But the amazing versatility comes from that white space, because - of course - it can become any colour you wish!

So, here is my project.  I wanted to introduce a bit of colour while keeping the overall monochrome style, and I made one of my favourite projects-of-the-moment.  Oh, and please ignore the random background soundscape of "five-year-old with a cold and a big mouth".

These look complicated but are actually pretty easy as long as you're accurate with measuring and cutting (which isn't difficult with a trimmer).  I'm going to be doing a class based on these soon, so keep an eye on this page if you're interested. I used a heart from Heart Happiness for the front, two greetings from Picture Perfect Birthday for the inner two layers and left a blank square on the final layer for writing a personal greeting.  The colours are Melon Mambo and Emerald Envy, which is a combination I love and have been trying to get into a project for ages!

Hop along now and visit Lynn's blog for some more new goodies to add to your wishlist!  Happy Hopping!