Author: susanfoxbowen

Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team

Flowering Thanks

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Our monthly Luv 2 Stamp Team challenge is to use our designer series papers. Do you ever find yourself just collecting pretty paper? Me too! But I’m getting much better about using all the pretty paper and you can too.

Today, I’m featuring the brand new Flowering Zinnias designer paper which is available as an Online Exclusive. I’ve selected 3 separate patterns from the pack for this card design. We begin with a base of Basic White cardstock, which really helps all of the busy patterns pop. I chose the pink zinnia sheet for the background panel and used two other patterns as the mat for the sentiment. To draw the eye to the center sentiment panel, I chose a strip of crinkled ribbon and natural wavy trim to serve as the center element. The sentiment is from the Softly Said stamp set. A combination of sequins and iridescent discs add a touch of sparkle and allow your eye to pass from corner to corner of the card.

Don’t be afraid to cut that beautiful cardstock! I find it much easier to do when I find great layouts to use for my card designs. Look for sketches or inspiration cards that have larger panels. That will get your creative juices flowing and make it easier to cut up that gorgeous paper!

Products used:
Basic White cardstock
Flowering Zinnias DSP
Softly Said stamps
Pool Party crinkle ribbon, natural wavy trim
Sequins trio, iridescent discs
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team

Field of Thanks

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Our monthly Luv 2 Stamp Team challenge is to use all of our beautiful DSP — love it, chop it! As soon as I saw the beautiful Perennial Lavender designer series paper in the current mini catalog, it went in my cart. It’s just stunning in every possible way. It works well standing alone and pairs stunningly with the other products in the Perennial Lavender Suite.

For today’s card design, I opted to let the beautiful Perennial Lavender designer paper stand on its own. And I borrowed the corner fold-down technique from upline Patty Bennett to add a little interest and allow both sides of this gorgeous paper be able to shine on one design. A sheet of Blackberry Bliss cardstock serves as the base for this lovely card. I chose to mat the sheet of designer paper with a sheet of Pretty Peacock soft shimmer paper for a little added sparkle, particularly in the exposed corner. I thought the exposed corner was the perfect place to feature a paper butterfly from the Perennial Lavender Suite and help tease forward the little butterflies from the designer paper. The sentiment is stamped on white cardstock to coordinate with the white paper butterfly and then diecut using the Thoughtful Expressions dies. The Pretty Peacock & gold metallic ribbon provides the perfect backdrop for the sentiment and, along with the fine shimmer gems, brings sparkle to the bottom of the design, allowing the eye to pass easily diagonally across the card.

If you love beautiful cardstock as much as I do and also have a hard time cutting it, try finding layouts that allow the designer paper to take center stage. It makes using it the highlight of your crafting time!

Products used:
Blackberry Bliss, Basic White cardstock
Perennial Lavender, Soft shimmer DSP
Botanical Leaves stamps
Thoughtful Expressions dies
Paper butterflies
Fine shimmer gems
Pretty Peacock & gold metallic ribbon
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team

Beautiful Thanks

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While I’ve been away tending to my family, I’ve had many hours to sit and gather inspiration for some of my newer stamp sets. The Hills of Tuscany set is one I was drawn to in the new mini catalog, but once I had it in hand, I felt stumped. Do you ever have stamp sets like that? You love them when you see them but then you find yourself a little intimidated by them once they’re in your stash? One of the things I love about our Stampin’ Up! crafting community is the number of forums from where we can draw inspiration. From Pinterest to Facebook to Instagram to Demonstrator Planning Place (if you’re a demo), there are so many incredibly talented stampers out there!

For today’s card design, I drew from several talented stampers who used the Hills of Tuscany stamp set to create beautiful watercolor-looking scenes. Here, I wanted to create a Tuscan sunset with a chateau in the distance. I used the larger and smaller hillside stamps to create the hill on which the chateau sits. To create the sunset, I used the cloud-looking stamp and covered it with a number of different color inks before stamping it. While not perfect, I do love the look that I was able to achieve here. I experimented with stamping it multiple times but found that using multiple colors and stamping once worked better. To pull the colors of sunset from the image panel, I matted it with rose gold and Moody Mauve luster paper. I used Pretty Peacock for the ribbon, blooming pearls, and sentiment to pull everything together with the Sweet Thoughts Memories & More card base.

Products used:
Basic White cardstock
Rose Gold, Moody Mauve SP
Sweet Thoughts Memories & More
Hills of Tuscany, Circle Sayings stamps
Deckled Rectangles, Thoughtful Expressions dies
Blooming pearls
Pretty Peacock & gold metallic ribbon, linen thread
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team

Can’t Thank You Enough

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Thank you so much for your patience as I have been navigating a family medical emergency. I have spent the last month between Alaska and Texas in various hospitals. While things are certainly heading in the right direction, we still have a very long way to go to have this medical crisis behind us. I hope to be able to post more regularly as I am home more in between several major surgeries. I’m also trying to figure out how to bring you Terrific Tuesdays content during this time period, but I think it will be another week before I’m able to do so.

I had so much content planned for the period of time that I’ve been away. I’m so sad that I missed the end of Sale-a-Bration! There’s SO much wonderful product in the (now retired) Sale-a-Bration catalog. I hope you were able to swipe some of your favorites. While it’s a little late, I’m still planning to share projects using some of my favorite SAB products. So be watching for those.

Today, I’m sharing a thank-you card design. Being gone from home for a month has required a lot of support from family and friends, as you can imagine. So needless to say, you’ll be seeing a lot of designs that are thank-you or gratitude in theme.

For today’s design, I wanted to keep things simple and play with a new stamp set from the current mini catalog. I used a card base from the Sweet Thoughts Memories & More pack as the base for this design. I built this hillside scene on a piece of white cardstock using the Hills of Tuscany stamp set. To help the focal panel pop, I used a piece of the Lost Lagoon Tartain Foil specialty paper and popped up the entire panel using dimensionals. I twisted some linen thread behind the panel to bring in a nice neutral. The blooming pearls on either side of the sentiment help draw the eye across and down.

Some stamp sets really lend themselves to simple yet beautiful designs. The Hills of Tuscany is certainly one of those. There aren’t many products in this design, yet it really stands out as an eye-catching design. Things don’t have to be complicated to be lovely!

Products used in today’s design:
White cardstock
Tartain Foil DSP
Sweet Thoughts Memories & More card base
Hills of Tuscany stamps
Linen thread
Blooming pearls
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Fun Folds

Sprinkling of Love

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The Bright Skies stamps and dies in the current Stampin’ Up! Mini catalog are some of my favorites because they allow you to make so many different cards for a variety of occasions. This is one of those sets that will remain in my stash even after the current mini catalog retires.

This card design uses a peek-through fun fold design to reveal the sentiment. And for me, the eye-catching twist on this fun fold is the use of the vellum.

This card is built on a base of Pretty Peacock. I removed 2 1/2-inches of the front panel to create the peek-through portion. A piece of the Sunny Days designer series paper serves as the base for the front panel. A sheet of vellum is diecut on each end using the Bright Skies cloud bank dies and then embossed with the Raindrops embossing folder. This vellum panel is adhered with dimensionals over the base. To create a variety of clouds, I stamped two of the four clouds on cardstock using the Bright Skies stamps and simply diecut two from colored cardstock. Dimensionals help create the cloud layers over the vellum.

The sentiment for this card is stamped in the inside message panel which is visible thanks to the peek-through panel we created with the front card panel. The little scene is created with the Bright Skies stamps and begins with the little hill of flowers. I used the back of one of the smaller clouds to stamp the hill and then filled in with the flower stems and tulips. And finished with the sentiment. A few foiled gems help the eye settle on the sentiment.

Peek-through designs are such a great way to dress the inside and outside of your cards at the same time.

Products used in today’s design:
Pretty Peacock, Shaded Spruce, Lost Lagoon, Smoky Slate, Basic White cardstock
Sunny Days DSP
Bright Skies stamps
Bright Skies dies
Gold foiled gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Sale-a-Bration · Terrific Tuesdays

Terrific Tuesdays: Jungle Pals Tip

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Welcome to this week’s Terrific Tuesdays short. Today, I’m going to share a little tip about using the tree in the Jungle Pals die set.

The Jungle Pals stamps and dies are a part of the current Sale-a-Bration offerings. For those who aren’t familiar with Sale-a-Bration, you can earn FREE product from Stampin’ Up!’s SAB catalog now through the end of February. For every $50 USD spent, you earn 1 SAB credit to redeem in FREE product from the SAB catalog. Stampin’ Up! offers the SAB promotion twice per year and we’re currently celebrating the first Sale-a-Bration period for 2024.

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Terrific Tuesdays

You’re Amazing

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Today we’re continuing to look at the Jungle Pals stamps and dies, which are currently available in the Sale-a-Bration catalog through the end of February. I love all of the cute jungle critters in this set, but is there anything cuter than a sloth?!

For today’s card, I wanted to create a window design. When I noticed that the backside of a sheet of Softly Stippled designer paper had a jungle leaf pattern on the back, I knew I wanted to incorporate it as the background for my sloth scene in the window. I used Sketch 620 from Freshly Made Sketches for the layout.

We begin with a base of Pretty Peacock. The focal panel base is the Pool Party linen patterned sheet from the Softly Stippled paper pack. I began by choosing my window size and shape and diecutting it from the patterned paper. I chose the Everyday Essentials circle that cut both the larger and smaller portions at one time.

I used the reverse side of the smaller circle with the jungle leaf pattern on it to serve as the base for the window portion. I diecut my tree and sloth from Crumb Cake cardstock using the Jungle Pals dies. The sloth is colored using Stampin’ Blends. The tree leaves are diecut from Shaded Spruce.

The sentiment panel is diecut from white cardstock using the Thoughtful Expressions dies and stamped the sentiment from Wonderful Thoughts in the center. The flowers are diecut from soft shimmer paper and More Dazzle paper using the Jungle Pals dies, which the stems behind are diecut from Shaded Spruce using the Thoughtful Expressions dies. Opaque faceted gems are placed so that your eye naturally flows diagonally across the card.

Products used in today’s design:
Pretty Peacock, Shaded Spruce, Basic White cardstock
Softly Stippled, Melon Mambo fine shimmer, Bubble Bath fine shimmer DSP
Jungle Pals, Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Jungle Pals, Everyday Essentials, Thoughtful Expressions dies
Opaque faceted gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Jungle Hello

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The Jungle Pals set is so fun to work with when you’re looking to build a scene. And for today’s card, I’m turning to one of my favorite fun folds — the Center Step fun fold.

I wanted to create a jungle scene with several of the adorable little jungle friends and especially wanted to have the sloth climbing between two trees on either side of the center section.

This fun fold design is built on a base of Pool party cardstock. I used the cloud pattern from the Sunny Days designer series paper pack to provide the background for the scene. I diecut two trees from Crumb Cake cardstock and placed them on either side of the pop up panel. This allows the space for the vines to run in the middle for the sloth. I used a combination of Shaded Spruce, Granny Apple Green, and Lemon Lime Twist for the greenery, vines, and leaves.

For a more realistic look for each of the animals within the scene, I diecut each of them from cardstock that would compliment their natural coloring. The sloth is stamped on Crumb Cake, the toucan on Basic White, and the lemur on Smoky Slate. Each one is colored with Stampin’ Blends to finish. The greeting from Heartfelt Hellos is stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock and diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies.

The inside of the card has its own adorable scene. I used the Sunny Days designer paper to provide a sky and used more of the leaves and vines to create a jungle scene. I tucked the alligator into the marshy weeds. He was stamped on Old Olive cardstock and then colored with Stampin’ Blends.

There are so many ways that you can use the Jungle Pals stamps and dies to create scenes. We’ll wrap up this week with another Jungle Pals scene building card tomorrow, so be sure you check back in!

Products used in today’s design:
Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Shaded Spruce, Granny Apple Green, Lemon Lime Twist, Smoky Slate, Early Espresso, Basic White cardstock
Sunny Days DSP
Jungle Pals, Heartfelt Hellos stamps
Jungle Pals, Autumn Leaves dies
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Terrific Tuesdays

You’ve Got a Friend

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On our tour of two stamp sets this week, today we focus on the Jungle Pals stamps and dies. These are both available in the Sale-a-Bration catalog through the end of this month. And they are even more fun to work with than I first thought!

For today’s card design, I wanted to recreate a scene from The Lion King where Zazoo and Mufassa are having their morning report. So naturally, I turned to the tiger and toucan from this set.

We begin with a base of Shaded Spruce cardstock. The background and underlying scene-building elements are all taken from the Sunny Skies designer series paper pack. I fussy cut the clouds so that I could take advantage of the variety of patterns and sizes. To represent the sun, I diecut the sun pattern sheet using the Everyday Essentials dies. I wanted some happy butterflies flying about in this scene but chose to pull them in a little differently by diecutting the butterfly pattern with the Thoughtful Expressions die. Our two main characters are stamped with the Jungle Pals stamped on white cardstock, colored with Stampin’ Blends, and then diecut with the coordinating dies. They’re popping out of the grasslands, which also use the Jungle Pals dies. Dimensionals provide all of the nice layering that gives this card design its depth and dimension. So cute and fun to make!

Check back tomorrow as we look at how one of my favorite fun folds builds yet another fabulous scene!

Products used in today’s design:
Shaded Spruce, Melon Mambo, Basic White, vellum cardstock
Bright Skies DSP
Jungle Pals, Bright Skies stamps
Jungle Pals, Everyday Essentials, Thoughtful Expressions dies
Tinsel gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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