Check You Out: Back to School Card (Blog Hop)

Summer is almost over and I have a split reviews about school starting again at my house:  two kids who are putting on the brakes, and one who can't wait to get started!  Of course, she is extra excited this year to be starting a new (middle) school, without any siblings in attendance, so that may be helping fuel the excitement.  ;)

Our blog theme this month was "fall", and for me the first sign of fall is back to school stuff!  I am a bit of an office-supply aficionado (if I do say so myself), and we all enjoy getting fresh supplies to start the year off right.

As always, the products I use are available for purchase in my online store here.

As I mentioned, my daughter is off to a new school this year, so I decided to design a card for her first day.

This super cute little set includes a lot of fun images for the book/school lover in your life, and comes with some great sentiments too.  How perfect is 'starting a new chapter' for this card?!  But it could so easily be used for someone retiring or having a baby or switching jobs or getting married...I love sets that do that!  Ohhh....just had a thought:  how about mirror-imaging two owls so they face each other and making a wedding card?!?!?  That might be next on my craft table...

But back to this card!  Even though my daughter is well past the primary school stage I felt strong, bright colours were the best to evoke a back-to-school feeling, so I chose Blueberry Bushel, Real Red, Granny Apple Green and Pineapple Punch for my colour scheme.

I stamped and fussy cut the owl in Crumb Cake and the library pocket in Soft Suede, and stamped my sentiment in Early Espresso.

This is the first time I have used the Brick & Mortar 3D Embossing Folder, and it was perfect to provide texture for my front mat....while looking A LOT like a brick school!  I will definitely be using this folder lots for Christmas cards too; wouldn't Santa and some presents look great with that brick?

I layered everything together for my focal  point and then added some (retired) gold thread behind it all.  Silver and Rose thread is still available on my website, and I LOVE this stuff!

On the inside of my card I stamped another Crumb Cake owl and paired it with the "woo-hoo" sentiment from the Time for Tags stamp set--how perfect is that combination?!  I love that Stampin' Up!'s product line often cross-over, allowing for more versatility and fun.

I'd love for you to comment below, so please consider dropping me a note before you hop along to see what my fellow crafters created this month!  Want what you see?  Everything is available in my webstore, just click on the shopping bags image to see all this and more!

And here are the links to hop over:

A La Cards (Leena)

LollyandSand (Sandy)

JustBStamping (Barb--you're here!)

Stampingjen.BlogSpot.com (Jennifer)

Hofkissed (Stephanie)