Happy April – welcome to our "congratulations" edition of our blog hop.

As we approach the season of weddings and graduations we focus on congratulations. Today, though, I wanted to offer a twist on what you might expect a congratulations card to look like. Using scraps of our Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper (Stacked with Love Stack, pg. 5 of the Occasions catalog which expires June 2), I took what was meant as a Valentine paper and turned it into a generic, all-purpose paper by highlighting only the black and white pieces (no red or pink). Black goes with everything and a second color might be a school color or a wedding color or a team color or to congratulate a friend on a new home or a new job, etc…. Anything goes!

You might even swap out the sentiment and turn this into a birthday or thank you card. I had a blast piecing this together while watching old James Bond movies. Lots of photos today to show you how easy this was to do.

All strips of paper were 1/2" wide and every single piece was a leftover scrap. Just choose a base color that you want to coordinate with the black/white theme (I chose Crushed Curry) and allow it to peek through. Die cut with a large heart from the Framelits set appropriately named "Hearts Collection" (pg. 231 of our main, annual catalog). So easy!

And a little fun inside.

Some close-ups of the front.

To hop back to the lovely Laura Milligan's blog, link to the arrow below.

To hop forward to the creative Carol Payne's blog, link to the arrow below.