Here’s my first card with new catalog product, the Free As A Bird Friendship Card. There are a lot of pretty designer papers coming in the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog, but I think this Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper is one of the nicest. This new catalog has larger photos of the designer paper this year, but I still think you won’t know how beautiful the papers are until you see them in person!

I decided to use this card design with just half the card front being covered with designer paper so when I looked at the designer paper, I saw this grouping of yellow birds right near the bottom of the sheet so it was perfect! I chose Daffodil Delight Cardstock for the card base. First I planned to use one of the gray coordinating colors for a layer, but the birds seemed to have more brown in them so I switched to Crumb Cake Cardstock for a layer.

On a layer of Whisper White, I adhered the piece of Free As A Bird DSP with the yellow birds. I used a piece of the new Linen Ribbon with white edges along with the Mossy Meadow Linen Thread, both included in the Magnolia Lane Ribbon Combo Pack. I think the green linen thread is a nice accent on top of the linen ribbon. I doubled a separate piece of the green linen thread so I had two strands and made a bow with that, adhered with a Mini Glue Dot.

The greeting is included in the Free As A Bird Stamp Set, as are some other very nice, usable greetings. I stamped it in Crumb Cake Ink. I could have also used Black. The flowers from the stamp set are stamped in Memento Ink and colored with Stampin’ Blends, the Calypso Coral Light and Dark colors. I cut out the flowers with Paper Snips and adhered them to the card, one popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. I stamped one stem of leaves, colored with Old Olive Stampin’ Blends, and cut it apart to add to the flowers.

Again, the illustrations on the paper are just gorgeous! This piece I used looks like someone painted it or colored it by hand.

When June 4th rolls around, you might really want to add some of the products in this Bird Ballad Suite to your new catalog order! Especially the paper!

A stamp set on the Last-Chance List with a cute bird and flowers is called Petal Palette, so if you like birds you might want to check out this stamp set before it retires! Here is a card I made with the flowers in this stamp set.

Be sure to check out the retiring products and the Clearance Rack for what you need before the current catalog goes out!