July Stamp of the Month - Sweet Life

For those of you who don't know, my sister, Shannon Hensley, is also a Close To My Heart Consultant and lives in Durham, NC, about 2 1/2 hours away from me.  We try to get together often for a weekend of "papercrafting" either at her house or mine.  We don't usually coordinate what we are working on and are usually working on completely different projects.  We didn't get together this weekend, but last night I called her and found out that yesterday she did the same thing that I did - make a card with the July Stamp of the Month, Sweet Life.  This might be the first time in history that we have both created a card using the same stamp set on the same day and did not even communicate that with each other.  And wait until you see the cards - they are pretty similar.

So today I'm sharing what we created yesterday using the July Stamp of the Month, Sweet Life.  This stamp set is ONLY available during the month of July.

You can purchase the stamp set for $17.95 or get it for only $5 with a purchase of $50. 

So here is what Shannon made with this stamp set.

She colored the fruit with the Blending Pen and Ink pads. 

Here's what I created.

 Did you notice that we used the same paper? 

 And I think we even used the same embellishments.

I used the Alcohol Markers (Ruby Marker Set, Sweet Leaf Marker Set, and Alcohol Blending Marker) to color the fruit on my card. I just love using the alcohol markers.  They are very forgiving and you can continue to go over them until you get the look you want.

(PS- I had to use our old markers for the branch, because we don't currently have a brown available in our alcohol markers.  I used our old Desert Sand marker on the branch and it was much darker than I wanted it to be so I used the Blending Pen to try and lighten it up.  Then for the fruit stems I used the Blending Pen and the Desert Sand Ink Pad.  That's why the 2 look very different.)

Here are the rest of the products I used:
5 1/2" x 4 1/4" White Cards & Envelopes, Value Pack (X254)
Dakota Paper Pack (unfortunately already retired)
Sweet Leaf Cardstock
Ruby Cardstock & Ink Pad
Cocoa Mini Pigment Ink (Z2503)
Silver Shimmer Trim (Z1799)
Slate Polka Dot Washi Tape (Z1817)
Pink Glitter Gems (Z1807)

Remember the Canvas Art Workshop On The Go Kit is 50% off this month - only $19.95.  Click here to get yours.

Thanks for stopping by.
Jaime