After creating this card, I still had lots of flowers and leaves left from my watercolored "Bold Blooms" by Spellbinders. Papertrey Ink had a good sale a few weeks ago. I needed some paper and wanted a few of their $5 sentiment stamps. The discount included the brand new products as well, so I added this "Country Hand Basket" die to the order, and I'm so glad I did.
It took awhile to figure out a good placement for the flowers, but I love the way the basket die is open in the middle. It was pretty easy to add even the blue flowers at the end, tucking them under the handle so they showed on both sides of the basket. It's hard to see the texture with the embossing folder above, but it's much better in the close-up.
Surprisingly, it's the only Stampin' Up product I own. Somehow in all my years of card making, I've never found a Stampin' Up distributor. When I saw this striped embossing folder, I ordered it from eBay since it's no longer available. It's the first time I've used it, but it certainly won't be the last! The sentiment is from one of the Papertrey Ink sets, "Vintage Picnic Sentiments" that I've had for years! It's the perfect sentiment for the card, and I love the mix of fonts.
This card meets the requirements of three challenges: AAA Birthday: Flowers, Addicted to Stamps and More: Make Your Mark (in this case watercolors) and Happy Little Stampers: Anything Goes with Dies as well as NBUS thanks to the embossing folder!
