Today is the Stylin’ Stampin’ Squad blog hop and I LOVED the theme idea this month.  Our task was to take our “oldest” stamp and our “newest” stamp.  How fun is that!  I had fun looking through my retired stamps that I’ve been holding on to to see what was my oldest set.  I had a hard time deciding but in the end found a stamp set I had almost forgotten I had – It’s Your Birthday.  And for the newest sets, I had to use my Be The Star set (Love, Love, Love this set!) with a little bit of Work of Art for good measure.

As you hop along, please be sure to comment and show some love on every blog! We are always excited to hear from our followers! You should have just left stop number #2 on the Stylin’ Stampin’ Squad Blog Hop – Darcy at Stampin’ DJ.  If so, you are in the right spot. If a link doesn’t work or you get off track, you will find the full blog hop lineup below.

So, here is my share for you today:

I just love this sentiment from the It’s Your Birthday stamp set.  Honestly, that is pretty much the reason why I keep holding on to this set because everything I see it, I think of all the cards and scrapbooks I can make for my kids where this is such a true sentiment!

And the birthday sentiments just go so perfect with the Be The Star stamp set.  It has a matching set of framelits which I have been using like crazy… guess I’m on a star kick right now.  But I had seen the idea of using the long swoosh from the Work of Art stamp set to make a star tail and I had a flash of inspiration!

(Be the Star stamp set & Work of Art stamp set)

The nice thing about the new Firm Foam ink pads from Stampin’ Up is that they transfer a lot more ink – this gives you a saturated image as well as, if you move fast, the ability to heat emboss with your regular classic ink pads!  So, that enabled me to have 3 different types of shine on my card.

1. Iridescent Ice embossing powder – after stamping my swoosh, I immediately added the embossing powder and heat set.  Voila!  A shimmering star tail!
2. In Color Sequins
3. Silver Ink – for a few more background stars to complete the sky.  Did you see that there is actually ink refills for the gold and silver pads now???  YAY!

And that star is colored with the new Blendabilities and a little help from Mr. Color Lifter.

Seriously, if you haven’t gotten your Blendabilities yet…. well, lets just say you won’t be sad if you take the plunge!  I colored the star using the three Daffodil Delight markers and then lightened up a spot in the middle using the Color Lifter.  I got it a little too light so I had to go back and color over with the lightest color, but I think in the end it didn’t turn out too bad!

And for my final touch, I first inked up my little swoosh image from the Work of Art stamp set and *stamped it off one time* on scrap paper and then stamped in the corner of my card front.  It made it just light enough to be a great background for my sentiment.

So I hope you enjoyed my contribution, and hop along to check out what everyone else picked for their old & new!

Blog Hop Participant List:

1. Erica B. of Stamping Starlette
2. Darcy J. of DJ’s Stampin’ Place
3. Jennifer B. of Northwest Stamper  <—YOU ARE HERE
4. Diana E. of Stampin’ Fun with Diana
5. Donna S. of Organized Chaos
6. Cynthia R. of Ink-a-Doodle Creations
7. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
8. Kathy P. of Katrina P’s Creative Corner
9. Shellie G. of Craft Smashup

PS – If you didn’t catch the news on my Facebook page, the Clearance Rack should be updated today (7/10) with new goodies for you!  So, make sure to check it out as soon as you can because some items may go fast!

I’ll be putting in a group order if I have interest by 10:30 AM pst, so if you want to join in on that let me know at jennifer@nwstamper.com.
(note – if you are hopping and have a demonstrator, make sure to contact them as they would love to help you out!)

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