Author: susanfoxbowen

Holiday Mini Catalog

Holiday Mini Catalog Unboxing

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The new Stampin’ Up! holiday Mini Catalog will go LIVE for customer orders on September 5th at 11:59 PM Mountain Time. Copies have been mailed out to those customers who have requested one from their demonstrator. Don’t have a demonstrator but want a catalog? Send me an e-mail and I will send you one! Now……who wants to see what I ordered as a part of my demonstrator preorder?

Edited to add: I realized that the original video uploaded to YouTube did not have audio, for some reason, so I have now corrected that and the YouTube video link has been updated. So…..if you tried to watch the video linked above previously and were without sound, you can now click it and hear the full audio!

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Christmas

White Christmas

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I can’t help but hum “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas . . . .” when I start thinking about Christmas. What about you? I wanted to create a very clean and simple card and the song White Christmas actually inspired this design.

Never underestimate the power of monochromatic designs. 100% of this card uses Basic White cardstock. I added twinkle to the Christmas tree with sequin ornaments and Wink of Stella all along the edges of the tree diecut. The pop of gold from the Ephemera elements add festive style and interest, as well as drawing the eye down the card to the sentiment.

Hop on over to the Etsy shoppe to check out the complete Twinkling Lights collection!

Products used:
Basic White
Expressions in Ink Ephemera
Trucking Along stamps
Twinkling Lights dies
Nested Essentials dies
Adhesive-backed sequins
Wink of Stella
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Christmas

Regal Tree

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“O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches.” These were the words humming through my mind as I was designing this card. The Twinkling Lights dies easily lend themselves to very simple but stunning designs.

One of my favorite parts of putting up a Christmas tree is the moment you get the tree up and all of the lights are on — just a twinkling tree full of lights. So for this card, I wanted to create a card where the tree full of lights is the centerpiece of the design. A lovely piece of Ever Eden designer paper featuring leafy garlands serves as the background for this design. To recreate twinkling lights, I used a sheet of gold shimmer vellum behind the tree. The tree skirt, gold rug, and banner mimic the twinkle of the lights in their shimmery, reflective nature and help draw the eye across the design. I am really pleased with how this card turned out — it is truly reminiscent of when I get my tree up and the lights are on.

Hop on over to the Etsy shoppe to check out the complete Twinkling Lights collection!

Products used:
Basic White, Handsome Hunter (retired), shimmer white cardstock
Pearlized cardstock
Glimmer vellum (retired)
Ever Eden DSP (retired)
Twinkling Lights dies
Expressions in Ink Ephemera
Adhesive-backed sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Christmas

Season’s Greetings

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Today we’re taking a closer look at the last of the five designs included in the Christmas Ephemera card pack that is currently available in the Etsy shoppe — Season’s Greetings.

The small but busy background needed design elements that could rise above the noisy pattern. To help break up the pattern, I cut a small strip of the background pattern and raised it on dimensionals and then added the metallic ribbon in the center. The gold geometric elements, along with the leaves and berries, further break up the busy background. This allows the eye to move to the center of the card and places more focus on the sentiment. The scripty font and off-set nature of the sentiment give a more personalized, hand-written feel that I really love.

The Christmas Ephemera card pack is available now in the Etsy shoppe! Check it out here.

Products used:
Basic White cardstock
Ever Eden DSP (retired)
Expressions in Ink Ephemera pack
More Merry Messages stamps (retired)
All That dies (retired)
Metallic ribbon (retired)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Christmas

Deck the Halls

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This card is the third design in the Christmas Ephemera card pack. Deck the Halls plays on the song lyrics. . . Deck the halls with boughs of holly! The background of this card features various types of greenery that are often a part of Christmas centerpieces. The gold leaves and berries bring the background forward and reinforce the overall theme of the design. The geometric patterns bring a playful feel and really lean into the playfulness of the popular holiday song Deck the Halls. This one just makes you want to sing, doesn’t it?!

The Christmas Ephemera card pack is available now in the Etsy shoppe! Check it out here.

Products used:
Basic White cardstock
Ever Eden DSP (retired)
Expressions in Ink Ephemera pack
Christmas Messages stamps (retired)
Christmas Season dies (retired)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Christmas

Joyful Tidings

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The third design in the Christmas Ephemera card pack is called Joyful Tidings. This gorgeous card features a leafy patterned background with gold foiled berries. The gold leaves and berries behind the sentiment panel draw out these smaller details of the background. The ornate font used in the sentiment mimic the trailing ends of vines and solidify the leafy theme. The iridescent sequins help draw the eye from top to bottom and across the card design. I really love the simplicity of this card!

The Christmas Ephemera card pack is available now in the Etsy shoppe! Check it out here.

Products used:
Basic White cardstock
Shimmer cardstock
Ever Eden DSP (retired)
Expressions in Ink Ephemera pack
Christmas Messages stamps (retired)
Stitched Nested Labels dies (retired)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Christmas

Christmas Wishes

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Today we’re taking a look at the second design in the Christmas Ephemera card pack — Christmas Wishes. I love how each design of this card pack coordinate and yet are uniquely different.

This card uses two sheets of the SU! Ever Eden designer series paper to create a beautiful layered background. Each distinctive pattern compliments an element of another, helping the eye move pleasingly across the card. The gold leaves and berries bind the design together and bring focus on the center sentiment panel.

The Christmas Ephemera card pack is available now in the Etsy shoppe! Check it out here.

Products used:
Basic White cardstock
Ever Eden DSP (retired)
Expressions in Ink Ephemera pack
Ornamental Pine stamps (retired)
All That dies
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Christmas

Christmas Blessings

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Is it too early for Christmas? For paper crafters, it’s never too early for Christmas. That’s because our Christmas designs are often more ornate and take more time to design and create. So you are likely already seeing many crafters posting Christmas designs.

And that brings us to the first design reveal on the first Christmas card pack of the season — Christmas Ephemera. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, you’ve already seen the Etsy shoppe posting with a sneak peak of each of the designs. But we’ll be taking a closer look at each one over the course of the next several days. The entire pack of cards features a gorgeous foiled SU! designer paper series called Ever Eden and a set of embellishments called Expressions in Ink Ephemera. These pair together beautifully to give stunning results, even with the simplest layout — sure to be show stoppers for each of your recipients.

This is the first of five designs and is called Christmas Blessings. The background features the vine design paper with the gold leaf and berry complimenting the designer paper. The geometric gold elements pair well with the geometric stitched sentiment panel. Simple but stunning, don’t you think?

The Christmas Ephemera card pack is available now in the Etsy shoppe! Check it out here.

Products used:
Basic White cardstock
Ever Eden DSP (retired)
Expressions in Ink Ephemera pack
More Merry Messages stamps (retired)
Stitched Nested Labels dies (retired)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Trucking Along

Birthday Delivery

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Today’s design was super fun to create. A fellow demonstrator (if I can remember who, I will update with a link) posted a design with a truck and trailer, which I thought was brilliant! Because this is a personal design going to a friend, I dug into my stash of some of my favorite retired product, as well as using some fun current products, to make this card pop with lots of flashy flare!

I decided to make this a diagonal split fold to incorporate some of my favorite Bright & Beautiful designer paper patterns and to really make the center image panel stand out. I stamped the background scene on a piece of white cardstock before I diecut using the Nested Essentials die. I then stamped and punched the tuck separately to add depth to the scene and allow the truck and numbers to stand out. To make the trailer, I first stamped the entire truck and then punched out just the back portion. The numbers were cut using a retired set of dies called Number of Years and I gave them an extra layer of dimensionals to allow them to stand up taller than anything else on the image panel. This design is even cuter in person and I’m really hoping that the recipient loves it!

Products used:
Night of Navy, Basic White cardstock
Bright & Beautiful DSP
Glimmer vellum (retired)
Glitter paper (retired)
Kaiserkraft glitter cardstock (retired)
Trucking Along stamps & punch
Nested Essentials dies
Papertrey Ink dies (front sentiments) (retired)
Curvy Keepsakes dies (stars) (retired)
Number of Years dies (retired)
Adhesive-backed sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Clean and Simple · Trucking Along

Sunny Thoughts

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Now it’s my turn to play with the new Trucking Along stamp set. You just might get tired of seeing this little truck, but I sure hope not because I have LOADS of ideas. (Get it?)

I actually built this little scene with the intention of using a diecut to snip just a portion of it, but as I was placing the diecut, my son walked by and said, “you’re not going to cut that up, are you?” I told you I might just have to hire him to help out in the studio! And so I kept the whole scene, which has way better balance anyway.

This is a very simple design that came together in less than 30 minutes from start to finish. The design sits atop a white card base. The image panel is on a single layer of dimensionals atop a piece of Hello Irresistible designer paper. I made a mask of the truck using the punch and plain paper in order to stamp the trees and grass around the truck without covering it in any way. The load of flowers in the back of the truck has been fussy cut and is popped up. And that’s only because I forgot about them and stamped a tree in that space, but it turned out to be a happy little accident.

Products used:
Basic White cardstock
Hello Irresistible DSP
Trucking Along stamps
Wink of Stella
Adhesive-backed sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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