Christmas Goes Patriotic?

Wow, what a weekend!
I know, it's been four days since I posted, but I know a lot of you took a three or four day weekend too, AND since it was my Birthday weekend, I got to celebrate the whole time!

Before I share the card I want to thank all of you who participated in my Birthday Bash Special. It is something I'll definitely be doing again next year, so be sure to watch for it, ok?
The winner of the $25 Gift Certificate was Laura Thompson! I've notified her via e-mail so hopefully she's jumping up and down with joy right now. :)
All of you who placed orders, you can expect to see your Surprise Packages in the mail next week. You're gonna LOVE them!

So, the card today came about because of a challenge. One of my downline team was lamenting the fact that we had very little patriotic items in our catalog, so I took it up as a challenge to think outside the box and be creative with the awesome things we DO have.
Here is the result:

What's that you say? You don't recognize some of the items I used on this card? Weeelllll, that's because you can't buy them until June 1st! Oh yeah, they are coming out in the NEW Stampin' Up! Catalog!

And what's even cooler than that - I used a piece of NEW Christmas Designer Paper for the main panel. It's from the Be of Good Cheer package - you'll love it - and I thought it looked a bit like fireworks. What do you think? It's Cherry Cobbler color and I combined it with a NEW In Color - Midnight Muse (which you'll also love!).

Here, take a closer look at the focal point:

The embellishment is made with the Itty Bitty Banners stamp set - also NEW - and the Bitty Banners Framelits Dies for the Big Shot. I added them to a Naturals Button - yep, NEW too! - and tied it all up with some Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine.
If you look very closely at the Very Vanilla background panel, you'll see some diagonal score marks. I made the design with my Simply Scored Tool and the Diagonal Plate. So quick and easy!

Here's a peek at the inside:

A very simple Vanilla panel stamped with the circle image from the My Friend stamp set. It was new in last year's catalog and again, reminded me of fireworks.

Isn't it cool how you can mix and match Stampin' Up!'s products in so many ways? It's one of my favorite things about SU!.

So, now I bet you're really wanting to get your hands on the NEW Catalog, huh? Well, if you're not coming out for my Open House and Clearance Sale on Friday, June 1st, you can message me and I'll be happy to send one out to you. If you don't already have a demonstrator that you work with, I'd be happy to fill that role for you!

Have a great day everyone - go stamp something out of the box and FUN!
~~Robin