How about some sweet little Cafe Cards?

Hi friends!
I apologize for being absent from my blog for a week now!  Real life happened and it involved a quick road trip to South Dakota for the funeral of a much loved family friend. For some reason, that took a lot out of me and while I thought about cards, I didn't actually do much.

I'm back now and happily throwing myself into all the "new" that is coming up. You are going to love the new catalog and most of all, the new colors. I've gotten my hands on some of it and am starting to play.  I'm feeling inspired and ready to roll again.

Before we say goodbye to the Occasions 2018 catalog, I want to share some more from it. One cute set I recently spent an afternoon with is called "Charming Cafe" (#146361). It was an interesting interplay of stamps and framelits and you could easily layer things differently. I tried a few options and here's what happened:

My first one was an experiment that I don't think worked out so well. I tried to create a window with our window sheets and stamped with Stazon on it. I then raised it up with dimensionals and put the table and chair piece behind it. For me, it just looks too crowded and cluttered.

After that experiment, I opted for all the way at the other end of the cluttered spectrum... super clean and lean. I like this and it's a great way to whip up some always-needed thank you cards.

For this one, I wanted to create a peek-a-boo card with the framelit. I like how it turned out. I adhered my Designer Series Paper to the card base before I cut out the window. I used the center cut out piece from the floral garland stamp as the inside piece to stamp on.

Finally, my favorite card is not mine, but a swap I received from a friend and my former upline, Kathy U.  She figured out the window and chair/table layering much better than I did!

I hope you'll take a look at this bundle while it's still available!  You have a little over a month to shop from the Occasions catalog before it goes away so be sure you check it out and look over your stock of stuff.

I'll put in another plug for the retiring colors!  At this time, there is still great availability of the card stock, ribbons, inks, reinkers for the retiring colors but I wouldn't delay!  There are a few I will be sorry to bid farewell to, but otherwise, I'm super excited for the color revamp and all the new creativity it will inspire. Color combinations are a favorite pastime of mine and I can't wait to start playing.

It's good to be back and thanks for stopping by!
Happy Stampin'!
Sarah