Botanicals · January Mini Catalog

Blossoms of Recovery

Welcome to the midweek, everyone! My best intentions of getting this post wrapped up and published yesterday didn’t come to pass. My day just didn’t quite go as planned. We’re still working to get back into the groove of all the things after the holiday break and I forgot how busy Tuesdays typically turn out to be.

This week, we’re continuing to take a look at some of the new products that hit the store last week. If you haven’t checked out all that’s new, click here to take a look. It’s definitely worth the peek!

So this week we’re working with the new Prayers & Promises stamp set. These sentiments cover a whole bunch of occasions and help with those “difficult” cards. Today we’re making a get well card using a whole host of new products, including paper, laser cut elements, ribbon, and embellishments!

We get started with a base of white cardstock. A sheet of the Lovely Blossoms patterned paper serves as our backdrop. I love the combination of the soft background with the bold Secret Sea accents. Our focal panel combines several elements. We start with a base of the January Product of the Month (still available!) called True Blue Florals and then layer the new Pleasant Patterns foiled paper on top. The sentiment from the Prayers & Promises set is stamped in Secret Sea on one of the diecut sentiment panels included in the 2025 Advent Calendar, which is adhered in the bottom corner with dimensionals. I layered some Covered in Flowers accents, colored with Wink of Stella, over a twist of the new white with gold ribbon. We finish things off with some sparkle dot essentials for an additional pop of twinkle.

This card comes together in a flash and is sure to be the perfect pick-me-up for a friend who’s under the weather. We’ll be staying with our botanical theme tomorrow as we pair our sentiment set with two new multi-image bundles. I hope you’ll drop in to see which bundles are coming to the stage!

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January Mini Catalog · Prayers & Promises

Prayers for Loss

Happy Monday, friends! We were traveling over the weekend for a family memorial service, so the weekend went by quickly. It was a beautiful service and it was wonderful to see everyone.

And honestly, this weekend’s activities spurred the idea for this week’s design theme centering on the new Prayers & Promises stamp set. This beautiful sentiment set can be used for a whole variety of cards — from sympathy to encouragement to recovery. There are so many ways to lift someone up with this set. Today, we’re pairing it with a whole collection of new products, including the Pleasant Patterns foiled paper, the Lovely Blossoms paper, and new embellishments.

We get started with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock, which pairs beautifully with the focal panel and gives grounding for the green accent color. The backdrop for our card front is the Peach Pie spotted sheet from the Pleasant Patterns paper pack. I loved the soft glimmer this panel provides and helps the focal panel pop. The focal panel itself is a combination of two of the ready-made elements from the Lovely Blossoms paper pack. I had the green panel left after removing a square from the center for another design and found that it made the perfect frame for the peachy floral & vine panel. A strip of the peachy eyelet-patterned paper from Lovely Blossoms gave the perfect eye relief in the background pattern, tying everything together. The sentiment panel is cut from the eyelet pattern using the Stylish Shapes dies and then the sentiment from the Prayers & Promises set is stamped in Secret Sea in the center and adhered in the corner with dimensionals. A bow of Old Olive rickrack adds a decorative touch of green and the white glossy dots give the perfect pop of shine to draw the eye across the full card front.

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow as we pair this sentiment set with some of the newest SU! releases.

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Botanicals · January Mini Catalog

Birthday Blossoms

TGIF, everybody! We made it thru the first full work week since the holidays. How did it go for you? It was pretty busy here. I’m glad I had worked ahead in the craft room last weekend!

This week, we’ve been working with the new Lovely Blossoms suite that just released in the store this week. Today, we’re combining all of the suite elements to create this lovely birthday card.

We get started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock, which provides a nice contrast with our focal panel background of Secret Sea. A sheet of the small white floral pattern from the Lovely Blossoms paper pack provides our backdrop for the focal panel. Our focal panel has lots of layers. We start with a piece of vellum machine embossed with the Lovely Stripes embossing folder included in the suite. This provides a subtle relief from our background and provides a soft landing for our bold focal backdrop of Secret Sea glimmer paper that has been cut using the Lovely Arrangements circle backdrop die. The floral elements use the coordinating Lovely Arrangements stamps and dies. The flowers are stamped in Cloud Cover on white and then cut with the coordinating die. We adhere them to our backdrop with dimensionals. The leaves are cut from Soft Sea Foam using the leaf die from the Delicate Pines die set and are tucked behind over flowers in opposing corners for balance. The sentiment from Lovely Arrangements is stamped in Secret Sea on white and then diecut with the small sentiment strip die from the coordinating die set. The sentiment sits atop a strip of the Cloud Cover broad ribbon placed in the center of our foliage. We finish things off with some Cloud Cover dots in opposing corners for just a flash of color and reflective sparkle.

I really love how this one came out. So soft and elegant. I’ll be taking a little break tomorrow as we travel out of town for a family funeral. But I’ll be back next week with some new products,

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Botanicals · January Mini Catalog

Blossoms of Smiles

Howdy, friends, and welcome back! This week is coasting along. And all I can think about is all of the things I have to do before we head out of town this weekend for a family funeral — get the kitties situated, tidy up the house, last-minute laundry, packing. Ack! So many things. But somehow I know it will all get done and things will be fine. We’re fortunate to have friends who are willing to let their teenager taking on the pet sitter gig, so we know our guys will be in good hands!

This week, we’re getting an in-depth look at the brand new suite called Lovely Blossoms. It just launched in the online store. Have you checked out all of the new goodies that dropped in the store this week? I’m really loving this suite because you can create so many different looks based on the products you combine. And today we’re letting our stamps and dies take center stage. I actually borrowed the inspiration for today’s card design from one of the samples in the online store. Maybe you can figure out which one?

Today’s card is actually pretty simple and comes together relatively easily. We get started with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. I used a quarter panel as the backdrop and punched it up by die cutting the eyelet pattern on the diagonal across it using the Lovely Arrangements die. The panel is then adhered to the card front with dimensionals to really give that eyelet pattern more prominence. Our focal section is the florals. I stamped a collection of both the large and small flowers from the Lovely Arrangements stamp set in Secret Sea on white paper and cut with the coordinating dies. The images are filled in with an assortment of Stampin’ Blends, using the darks from each pair for the centers and the lighter blends for the flower petals and edges. Nothing too precise — just swipes across the images. I really love this simple shading method and the look you get. I also stamped a couple of the leaf bunches in Garden Green on Soft Sea Foam paper and cut them with the coordinating die. And then we start arranging the flowers and leaves to get the layers of color and shapes that are most pleasing to the eye before sticking everything down. Glue dots adhere the elements that are in the background, while varying layers of dimensionals give us the depth and layers in the flowers. The sentiment sits on a banner of vellum cut with the Words of Beauty die. The sentiment from the Lovely Arrangements stamp set is stamped in Versamark on vellum and then heat embossed with gold and is adhered over a twist of the gold striped mesh ribbon with glue dots. A few traditional sparkling sequins finish things off with a pop of Pool Party.

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow as we continue our Lovely Blossoms design series with a closer look at the dies.

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Fun Folds · January Mini Catalog

Because You’re Amazing

Welcome back and welcome to the midweek! With most of us going back to work and kiddos returning to school, this is either the first full week for some or simply feels like the longest short week ever for others. *wink*

But how about some new product inspiration to give a little bright spot in this week for you?! Did you know that a whole bunch of new stuff hit the online store yesterday? Yep — there are 3 new kits, a whole new batch of online exclusives, PLUS all of the products in the new January Mini catalog. Soooooo many goodies. And this week, we’re getting a good look at the brand new Lovely Blossoms suite that includes paper, ribbon, embellishments, stamps, dies, and an embossing folder.

Today’s featured fun fold card puts another one of the ready-made card panels on display. The new Lovely Blossoms paper pack includes a full sheet of these panels of varying sizes. Today’s panel is a little smaller, which lets some of the other cool goodies in this suite get a chance at the spotlight. Let’s take a closer look.

Our card front starts with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. For this fun fold, we’re using a standard A2-sized base. The backdrop for our front focal panel is a combination of two patterned papers. The mat is from the Traditions of Christmas pack and our floral panel is from the new Lovely Blossoms pack. Our focal panel base is white cardstock that is embossed with the new Lovely Stripes embossing folder. This folder gives a nice, deep impression in the paper making the details really pop. I used my paper snips to cut closely around the focal image from the ready-made panel I cut from the Lovely Blossoms paper. The little detail of the overhanging leaves just added a nice soft touch to the card front. The because sentiment is from the Words of Beauty set and is stamped on vellum with Secret Sea ink and then set with clear embossing powder before being diecut with the coordinating outline die. It’s adhered to the focal panel with glue dots to keep the adhesive invisible. The focal panel is adhered to our embossed panel with dimensionals over a twist of the new Cloud Burst ribbon and we finish off our focal panel with a dash of subtle twinkle with the new Moody Palette glossy dots.

When we open our small front focal panel, we reveal the other portion of our sentiment I think you’re amazing from the Words of Beauty set. Our sentiment panel sits atop a beautiful backdrop of some of the smaller ready-made panels from the Lovely Blossoms paper. We add some interest to our backdrop using the Stylish Shapes dies and the set of postage stamp dies in the 2025 Advent Calendar.

The sentiment is stamped on vellum in Secret Sea and heat set with clear embossing powder before being cut with a smaller banner die from the Stylish Shapes die set. It’s adhered over a faux bow of Cloud Cover baker’s twine from the 2025 Advent Calendar. And we finish off our sentiment panel with a little pop of twinkle with some Secret Sea Moody Palette glossy dots. The card opens up to a blank white message panel which covers the anchor portion of our smaller front focal panel.

Tomorrow we’re going to let the stamps & dies from the Lovely Blossoms bundle take center stage. I hope you’ll drop in and see.

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Fun Folds · January Mini Catalog · Botanicals

Thankful Blossoms

Welcome in, friends! I hope your week is off to a good start. This is the first full week I will have had since the flu and the holidays. And I’m still not sure what day it is! *snicker* All of the kiddos in our area are returning to school today so the roads are back to being busy.

This week, I’m playing with some of my new January Mini Catalog goodies with an up-close look at the new Lovely Blossoms bundle by Stampin’ Up! This terrific bundle includes it all — stamps, dies, embossing folder, paper, embellishments…the works! And one of my favorite things about the paper in this set is the sheet of ready-made card elements. With a pretty tight schedule these days, it’s nice to have ways to still make handmade smiles without hours in the craft room.

Today’s fun fold card starts with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. I’m using the barn fold here which places the flaps opening squarely in the center of the card front. But I used an overly large overlay panel to give the look of a traditional cohesive card front. Isn’t that such a fun twist on this barn fold?! I used one of the largest ready-made panels from the Lovely Blossoms sheet and cut it down just a smidge with the largest Textured Notes die. The panel is then matted with Secret Sea glimmer paper and the full panel is adhered just to the left flap of our barn fold. The sentiment from the Lovely Arrangements stamp set is stamped in Secret Sea on white cardstock and then diecut with the Words of Beauty middle-sized sentiment panel die. The sentiment is adhered over a twist of the new white with gold ribbon in the bottom corner of our front focal panel. And we add bits of sparkle with some of the brand new Secret Sea sparkle dot essentials.

Now comes the fun part — the inside of our card. The message panel has a flower image from the Lovely Arrangments set stamped in the bottom corner. Each of the flaps is covered with a coordinating lighter floral and vine patterned sheet from the Lovely Blossoms set. And then we cover the exposed part of our front card panel with a coordinating Secret Sea patterned sheet from the Lovely Blossoms paper pack.

I just love how this one comes together. You could even add an inside sentiment on the left inside panel. That would be a really nice variation actually. *making note to self* Tomorrow we’re going to be making another fun fold with this suite and getting a sneak peek at a few more new products. I hope you’ll drop in and see!

Products used:
Secret Sea, Basic White cardstock
Lovely Blossoms, Peaceful Garden glimmer DSP
Textured Notes, Words of Beauty dies
Lovely Arrangements stamps
Secret Sea ink
White with gold ribbon
Sparkle dot essentials
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon

Here for You

Happy Monday, friends! Did you have a productive weekend? We ticked quite a few things off the to-do list. And then there’s still quite a bit left to do. Isn’t that how it always goes? A never-ending to-do list, it seems.

Even with all of the household to-dos, I still found some time to play in the studio with new stampin’ goodies. I’m really digging into the new releases that will go live in the shop tomorrow (1/6). You guys are going to love them! This week, we’re going to playing with the Lovely Blossoms suite. This gorgeous suite of SU! products includes patterned paper, stamps, dies, an embossing folder, ribbon, and embellishments. I love the cool hues of this suite! And *bonus* one of the patterned papers includes a side of mixed-size images that make quick work of a card front. And we’re using one of those today.

Today, we’re keeping things pretty simple. We get started with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. The background layer is the striped pattern from the Traditions of Christmas paper pack. I cut apart the image sheet in the Lovely Blossoms paper pack and used one of the large images. To make things interesting, I decided to cut it down with the Everyday Arches dies and cut a mat from a sheet of the silver Peaceful Garden glimmer paper with the next-up arch die. The sentiment is from the new (coordinating) Lovely Arrangements stamp set and is stamped in Secret Sea right on top of the focal image panel. The whole panel, including mat, is adhered to the card front with dimensionals. And we finish everything off with a bow of Misty Moonlight & Silver ribbon and some of the new Misty Moonlight sparkle dots.

This card comes together in a jiffy thanks to the ready-made card front panel. We’re going to use another panel tomorrow but in a dressed-up version. I hope you’ll pop in and check it out!

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Coming Soon · Product of the Month

Sunshine on the Porch

Welcome to the weekend, friends! I’ve started out my day in the craft room but have lots more on the to-do list since it’s a beautiful, sunny day here in North Texas. What about you? What are you getting up to today?

This week, we’ve been playing with some of my new crafty goodies. And we’ve started with the new On Display stamp & die bundle. The latter part of the week, we’ve paired this bundle with the new Gliding Garden Swing bundle that will release next week. And let me tell you, these two sets go together like peas & carrots! (And I don’t even like peas & carrots! *snicker*). Today, I’m also adding a little peek at a new ribbon and a new die set. Let’s take a closer look!

We get started with a base of Night of Navy cardstock, which works together perfectly with the current Product of the Month (leaving next week!) True Blue Florals patterned paper that gives us our background panel and grounding strip of white patterned paper. Adding to our grounding background is a circle pattern lattice from the new Lovely Arrangements die set. These pops of white provide the perfect lift from the dark background so that our scene really pops.

Speaking of our scene, we’re combining the new On Display bundle with the Gliding Garden Swing bundle to create our cozy porch scene. The swing set includes dies that allow you to create a bench rather than a swing, which is what we’ve done here using the Country Woods woodgrain paper. Our sweet kitty, stamped and cut with the On Display set, is cozied up next to the throw pillow, cut with the swing set. The little side table, cut with the swing dies, holds a little picture frame, cut with the On Display dies. We finish our scene with a few potted plants, which use both of our bundles. The sentiment from the Gliding Garden Swing set is stamped in Secret Sea on white cardstock and cut with the Stylish Shapes banner die and sits on top of a circle of Secret Sea glimmer paper cut with the Spotlight on Nature dies and a twist of the brand new gold & white ribbon. Some Secret Sea charming shimmer faceted dots finish things off with a dash of sparkle across the card front.

We’ll take some time in January to look at both of these bundles a little more closely. But next week, we’re going to be playing with some more goodies that will be available in the store on January 6th! So tune in for some more peeks at new product!

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Coming Soon

Great Friend

Happy Friday, everybody! What’s on your weekend to-do list? For us, a lot is going to depend on the weather. But we definitely have some outside work to do while we’re having more springlike weather. And it’s time to swap out the holiday decor, which means making some trips to & from the storage unit.

This week, I’m having fun getting some of my new crafty goodies out. We’ve been working closely with the new On Display bundle. And now we’re weaving in the Gliding Garden Swing bundle, as well. These two sets pair beautifully thanks to similar scaling with the images, which allows easy scene-building cards. Today we’re also getting a sneak peek at the new Lovely Stripes embossing folder. Both the swing bundle and embossing folder will launch in my online store on January 6th.

Today, we’re having some tea on grandma’s porch. I used my Granny’s porch as inspiration for the setup. So we get started with a base of white cardstock and emboss half of it with the new Lovely Stripes embossing folder. The focal panel starts with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock cut with the largest Textured Notes die. I used the fence die from the Notes & Totes die set to build the porch. We start with the floor, which is planks of Crumb Cake cardstock. Then we cut white cardstock planks to build the porch railing. Both the flooring and railing are adhered directly to the focal panel so they are clearly at the back of our scene. Next up, we build our swing by stamping the swing image on white cardstock with Gray Granite ink and then diecut with the coordinating die from the Gliding Garden Swing set. I also cut just the seat portion from white woodgrain paper from the Country Woods paper pack. The swing is adhered with dimensionals. We add some pillows and our comfy cat to our swing. The pillows are cut from Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon, and Cloud Cover cardstock using a combination of dies from the On Display and Gliding Garden Swing die sets. The center pillow uses the upside-down cookie jar from the On Display set to add some variety to our pillow collection. Our kitty is stamped in Gray Granite and Crumb Cake and cut with the coordinating On Display die. These are all adhered onto our swing using a variety of heights of dimensionals to give lots of depth here. Our little garden table is cut from silver foil and we add a pitcher and glass of tea on top which are cut from vellum to give a more realistic see-through look. And no porch is complete without some potted plants. The pots are cut from Cajun Craze using the swing dies and then filled with foliage cut using a combination of the leaf bunches and purple flowers from the swing die set and the large-leaf plant from On Display. I used the smallest rectangle from the Textured Notes dies to cut the sentiment panel and stamped the sentiment from the Words of Beauty set in Blackberry Bliss ink. I used a leftover flower to the end to tie things together. And we finish things off with a dab of shimmer with the frosted iridescent gems.

Do you want to sit a spell on this porch and enjoy a nice cup of sweet tea? I know I sure do! Brings back fond memories, for sure! We’re going to be wrapping things up tomorrow in our little On Display-Gliding Garden Swing mini series. I hope you’ll drop by and see what images appear together next.

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Coming Soon · On Display

Swinging Smiles

Happy New Year, everyone! Did you stay up until midnight? These days, I don’t ever make it to the new year in my own time zone, but I always make it for Europe. *snicker* We enjoyed a day full of family fun yesterday and I was just plain tired. But it was a great day and the perfect way to finish off the year. We’ve done much the same today, so I would call that winning as far as a fresh start!

This week, we’re playing around with some new crafty goodies that arrived in my studio over the last couple of weeks that I hadn’t had time (or felt well enough) to play with. We’ve been taking a close look at the new On Display stamp & die set and today I’m starting a little mini series to show you how well this bundle pairs with the *brand new* Gliding Garden Swing stamp & die bundle. In fact, today’s card gives you a sneak peek at the new swing set, some new ribbon, and another new stamp set! All of these goodies will drop on January 6th!

When all was said and done, I decided to make this a monochromatic backdrop rather than mixing in some patterned paper because, quite frankly, I didn’t find a small enough pattern that I liked well enough to pair up with the focal panel. That is, until I remembered the gorgeous new Beautiful Pattern embossing folder had just the pattern I had pictured and realized I could just make my own patterned paper by embossing!

So we get started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock and emboss just the card front with the Beautiful Pattern embossing folder. To help the pattern pop a bit more, I went over it lightly with a blending brush and Cloud Cover ink to give the pattern a bit more definition. The focal panel background is also Cloud Cover cardstock and we start building our scene right on top. The tree trunk is cut from Country Woods woodgrain using the new Gliding Garden Swing dies and adhered to the focal panel with a glue pen. I cut it to size by removing the overlapping portions with my paper snips. The leaves are stamped in Garden Green on Garden Green cardstock and then cut with the coordinating Gliding Garden Swing die. I cut apart the larger foliage piece to allow layering that looked more realistic. Dimensionals are just the ticket to give good depth of scene. The bits of branches are filled in with a Light Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blend. The swing is stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock with Gray Granite ink and then filled in with a Light Crumb Cake blend. I also cut the coordinating swing from Country Woods and used the coordinating die for the swing seat for a more realistic look. The seat is adhered with a glue pen directly to the diecut swing. The pillows are cut from Peaceful Garden and adhered to the swing seat with dimensionals. The sweet grey kitty is stamped in Smoky Slate on Smoky Slate cardstock and then cut with the coordinating On Display die. The sentiment from the new Lovely Arrangements stamp set is stamped on vellum that has been cut with the Stylish Shapes banner die and adhered with glue dots so it looks like it’s just floating at the top of our scene. Our focal panel is then adhered to the card front with dimensionals and then we tie a beautiful twist of brand new Cloud Cover linen ribbon right over the far-left side. We finish off with a touch of sparkle using the Cloud Cover flat pearls.

Today’s card keeps the pairing uber simple with just a single image from On Display, but I’ll show you tomorrow how you can really put both sets together to build beautiful scenes. Because tomorrow we’re going to have some tea on Granny’s porch! I hope you’ll drop in and sit a spell.

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