I participated in a shoe box swap at the end of January (Yeah, I know, I'm REALLY late posting this but for some reason there seemed to be other cards that were more important to post) and my design was based on a gift bag featured in the Spring/Summer Stampin’ Up! catalog on page 149. I wanted to test out my design idea without actually having the stamp set yet. I was getting a pre order from the Occasions Mini but hadn’t received the set at the time I was preparing for the swap. I used the Baroque Motifs set instead to duplicate what I would eventually use. The colors aren’t exactly what I would normally use (this would have been a good color combination for a Splitcoaststamper color challenge) but I wanted to go outside of my comfort zone a little bit and I think it turned out pretty good. Got out of using a lot of the ribbon by "faking it" with a strip of card stock and then using the ribbon just for the bow. The next post will be the card that I actually had the girls make at the swap.

Recipe:
Stamp Set: Baroque Motifs, Sincere Salutations, clear stamp flourish
Paper: Kraft, Pumpkin Pie, Mellow Moss, Not Quite Navy card stock
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Mellow Moss, Pumpkin Pie
Accessories: Pumpkin Pie 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Scalloped circle punch, ½" circle punch, rectangle hand held punch, 1/16th"hole punch, gold brad