The Wayward Gypsy: Just to Say...

I'm a big fan of having a variety of cards available at all times. This means that I keep a stock of Thank you, Birthday, Congratulations, Thinking of You, and Sympathy cards at all times.

There's a little bit of everything in there. Some new, some older.

Sometimes these cards are completely custom and I've made judicious use of our Annual Inspirations and Seasonal Expressions for inspiration. You can also find great ideas for custom card making in our books that teach you how to be more creative and even how to balance color and shapes to make a pleasing composition. As an artist, I really appreciate that our Originals Card Confidence Program book teaches people how to make decisions based on time-honored design principles.

This book is so useful! There are layouts and basic design education.

Today I am going to share probably my favorite card kit out of the Holiday Expressions 2016 catalog. The Workshops Your Way Just To Say Cardmaking Kit (that's a mouthful, isn't it?!). This kit comes with a beautiful stamp set and all the paper, embellishments, and card blanks you need to craft 10 cards.

One of the things I love about this kit is the colors! It uses Sea Glass, our color of the year, which is a lovely muted turquoise color. It also uses two of our new Adventure Color Palette hues, Blossom and Raspberry, two very lovely pink shades that coordinate beautifully with Sea Glass. These beautiful colors are calmed a bit by Whisper, a soft warm grey.

Doesn't you just love them? The stamp set is very versatile, with sentiments for two of our most common reasons for making cards, and the adorable thought bubble and hearts. There are three different "border" stamps that you could use over and over to add a little color or texture to various projects.