I'm Ba-ack...

Well, here it is nearly the end of 2011 and I FINALLY am back in the photo-taking business.  Thanks to a good repair job my camera is fully functional and ready for action.  Since I've been away Christmas has come and gone in a whirlwind of family visits and big dinners.  The dust has finally settled and I finally have time to catch my breath.  As is always the case, when I finally give myself permission to relax a little, I get sick!  In fact, my whole family is sick with a nasty cough and cold.  My son has another ear infection to go along with the horrible cough, which is making the nights not overly restful in our house!  The poor kid can't get a decent sleep because he is coughing his brains out!  We're hoping he'll be able to nap a little during the day to make up for the lost sleep at night.  This bug can move along any time now!
This morning I had a rather pleasant surprise in my inbox.  It was an email from Pals Paper Arts that two of my designs had been chosen for their "Best Dressed for 2011" list!!  I was chosen for July  and September and I have to say I am absolutely thrilled and humbled.  What a great way to start my day after a rather crummy night!
Now, on to a project...and isn't it about time??  This card is the first one I created when I received my Occasions Mini pre-order goodies.  It is CAS and uses a bunch of new products...check it out:

CAS card using the new Apothecary Art stamp set from the upcoming Occasions Mini

I have to say I did a little happy dance when I saw the new Framelits dies in the Occasions Mini.  Those of you who have received your copy will know what I am talking about, but for those of you who haven't, these dies are along the lines of Nestabilities dies, with several different sizes of the same-shaped die.  They are perfect for layering and are easy to position to cut out images from the coordinating stamp sets.  The Framelits set that I used on this card is the Labels Collection and it coordinates perfectly with the images in the Apothecary Art stamp set.  This card, in fact, used my Big Shot to the max.  I die cut the label after stamping the image on very vanilla in Staz-on ink.  I also die cut a larger-sized label in baja breeze and ran it through again using the perfect polka dots embossing folder.  The background is another piece of very vanilla that I also embossed using the vintage wallpaper folder.  I watercoloured the flowers using my aquapainter and baja breeze ink pads.  The finishing touch on this card is the gorgeous pleated satin ribbon, another new product from the upcoming mini.  I LOVE this stuff...you're going to be seeing more of it in the coming weeks!