Treasure bath!

Today I went treasure hunting. All by myself. I went to town, to local gardening centres, I searched everywhere for fine materials to use with my stamping addiction. And boy, did I succeed. I was a woman on a mission and I really shopped until I dropped. Or until someone ran into my car. That sort of spoiled the fun... But I lived and the man who hit me was very reasonable (yes, HE ran into ME, not my fault!). All is well again, just have to get the dents out and the paperwork going.

Anyway, I came home with loads of very cheap Christmas stuff (I'd like a bronze and cognac tree next year) and -drum roll please- loads of stamping goodies. Two Christmas stamping sets, tons of ribbon, a "gemstone" sticker alphabet, raffia in three tones of orange (what else?) and a noticeable amount of tree decorations that will be cut into nice little embellies for my cards. The strangest find of the day must be the yellow and green eggs for Easter. Just 50 euro cents for 10 eggs! How's that for starting Easter decorations early this year?

Posted my birthday card creation for my sister-in-law in Switzerland between all the shopping. When I showed it to my parents the other day, there were mixed reactions. My mother, not a very big fan of paisleys, loved the card. My father, normally my biggest fan, was not enthusiastic. He thought is was not a very girly card. But with my sister-in-law turning 40-something, I am not very worried. She loves orange as well as I do and she has a nose for sophisticated trendy designs. So I think I'll be save with this:

The paisley is a stamp by Hero Arts. The texts is a stamp as well, I got it from a magazine subscription. It says "Proficiat" which is a Dutch variation on "Happy Birthday". The background is stamped with a flower stamp by Sirius Hobby (Dutch manufacturer of stamps). The bar code at the back is a stamp as well, one from Hero Arts again. Both Hero Arts stamps were won with the Summer-contest at the HeroArts-website (not that I want to brag, but I had a honorable mention YIPPIE, sorry, bragged a bit there). I used bronze ink with the paisley and orange with the text and the background flowers. The button unmistakably came from one of my jeans... The birthday girl should receive the card by January the fourth. Hope she likes it.

Well, I'm off to put all my treasures away. Hope I'll have some time left to put some of it to use already...