Hats Off for the Grad

July 28, 2025July 29, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Monday, everyone! Our summer is flying by in a flash as we begin the last two weeks of summer break here in N. Texas. It’s hard to believe that school is just around the corner. And I don’t know about you, but that brings about a lot of anxious preparation as we begin gathering new school supplies and shopping for new clothes with a preteen (not for the faint of heart!).

It also means that we’re beginning a new week of fun crafty designs. And this week we’re going to be working through a stash of fun folds that I’ve been dying to try. And first up comes a design of necessity as my oldest nephew is headed off to college in a few short weeks. I might be just a teensy bit behind in honoring his graduation, but there’s always the last-minute items to buy right? *wink* Today, I’m trying my hand at a super cute cap & tassel fun fold that I saw over at Beth’s Paper Cuts.

For a giftie like this one, I try to coordinate the color palette with the graduate’s school colors. In this case, I need to work with a palette of royal blue, white, and black. Finding just the right shade of blue proved a little tricky since I was out of Blueberry Bushel. BUT I happened to still have a supply of Pacific Point in my retired stash, so here we go.

I decided to have the royal blue serve as the predominant color in the design and then I used white and silver as accent colors. I used white baker’s twine to tie the tassel and happened to have some silver thread on hand that I used to bind the tassel together. I liked having this silver detail tie together with the sentiment. I used the recently-retired die set called Wanted to Say to cut the sentiment. Silver trim and drusy embellishments give us nice pops of festive shimmer around the sentiment.

As I was putting my card together, I got a little ahead of myself and ended up adhering the panel that was intended to be the gift pocket, which meant I had to improvise a solution. I cut an extra square of silver specialty paper to serve as the money pocket and placed it in the center of the folding section. It works, but it wasn’t exactly how envisioned this coming out. I’ll fix it on the next go-around. *grin*

I chose to use the top-inside panel to include a hand-written note, so it is not strongly affixed in this short demo. But I still wanted to show how this adorable fun fold opens and where that message panel will eventually be situated. I haven’t had time to make the how-to video for this design yet, but I did take the time to create a PDF tutorial which is free to download here.

Products used in today’s fun fold:
Pacific Point (retired), Basic White cardstock
Brushed metallic silver specialty paper
Wanted to Say dies (retired)
Silver trim
White baker’s twine
Drusy embellishments
Brad
Dimensionals

Birthday Duo

June 28, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

We’re closing out our 3D design series this week with a fun combination of designs. Do you ever find yourself looking for a cute way to give a gift card? This combo is the perfect way to dress it up! Our gift box has the Timeless Plaid paper and up-and-coming Label Me Thankful set sitting front & center, while our card pairs the Everyday Arches and Scenic Adventure dies.

The card and gift box have coordinating bases of Misty Moonlight cardstock. The gift card box is covered with a sheet of the Timeless Plaid cardstock. The sentiment panel is cut from white cardstock using the Everyday Arches dies and then the sentiment from The Right Words stamp set is stamped in Early Espresso. I used one of the newest Online Exclusive die sets called Label Me Thankful (releasing Tuesday!) to cut the leaves and acorns and finished things off with a few of the Earth Tones shimmer gems.

I wanted the card to give the feeling of looking through an old window, so I used the Everyday Arches dies to cut a window shape out of the sheet of Country Woods patterned paper that serves as the focal panel. I set this panel aside to build the scene using the Scenic Adventure dies. The underlying scene panel starts with a sheet of white cardstock that I cut with the largest arch die to fit behind the focal panel that will ultimately sit on top. I started by filling in the top with Cloud Burst ink using a blending brush to create a soft sky. Next, we move to creating the water element at the bottom using the detail die in the Scene Adventure set. Moving the die around and passing through several times gives us the realist-looking shimmery water. To bring out the details of the water, I went over that section with Pool Party ink and a blending brush. The grass at the shore is cut from Mossy Meadow cardstock, while the small stand of flowers is cut from Granny Apple Green for a pop of contrast. The flowers are cut from pastel ombre glimmer paper and adhered to the floral stems with glue dots and then tucked behind the grass at the shore. The trees are a combination of Pecan Pie and Shaded Spruce cardstock and layered both behind and in front of the grass at the shore. The mountain in the distance is cut from Thoughtful Journey paper and adhered behind the grass and trees in the foreground. Dimensionals help give this scene a lot of depth and layers. The window pane layer is adhered on top using several layers of dimensionals to ensure that the scene looks as though it’s outside the window. We finish things off with the sentiment cut from Flower Garden Foil using the Wanted to Say dies. An assortment of riverside pearls, two tone gems, and In Color pearls add the finishing touches and help the eye pass across the design.

I hope you’ve found some inspiration in this week’s designs and have maybe even downloaded a tutorial or two to try out sometime soon! I hope you’ll stop in next week as we take a look at some new Online Exclusives!

Product List for Card

Misty Moonlight 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[153081]

$14.00

Shaded Spruce 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[146981]

$14.00

Pecan Pie 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[161717]

$14.00

Granny Apple Green 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[146990]

$14.00

Mossy Meadow 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[133676]

$14.00

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Thoughtful Journey 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[163303]

$12.50

Pastel Ombre Glimmer 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Paper

[164851]

$12.00

Flower Garden Foils 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Paper

[165511]

$10.00

Country Woods 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[163393]

$12.50

Scenic Adventure Dies

[165467]

$31.00

Everyday Arches Dies

[164629]

$29.00

Wanted To Say Dies

[161594]

$39.00

Cloud Cover Classic Stampin' Ink Refill

[165279]

$5.50

Pool Party Classic Stampin' Pad

[147107]

$9.00

Riverside Irregular Pearls

[164937]

$9.00

Two Tone Sparkle Gems

[164633]

$9.50

2025–2027 In Color™ Flat Pearls

[165192]

$8.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Product List for Gift Card Box

Misty Moonlight 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[153081]

$14.00

Timid Tiger 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[165626]

$14.00

Early Espresso 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[119686]

$14.00

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Timeless Plaid 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164678]

$12.50

Everyday Arches Dies

[164629]

$29.00

The Right Words Cling Stamp Set (English)

[165316]

$26.00

Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad

[147114]

$9.00

Earth Tones Shimmer Gems

[164070]

$8.50

Tear & Tape Adhesive

[154031]

$7.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Add All to Cart

birthday · Gifting · Treat Boxes

Birthday Pinch Box

June 25, 2025 susanfoxbowen2 Comments

We’re already halfway through this week. I’m not quite sure how that happened! This week, we’re making 3D designs. And today’s design is a super simple fold-over pinch treat box. There are all sorts of variations of this box out there – mostly varying in size or shape. Regardless of which one you choose to make, the box comes together in a snap! And today’s birthday box uses the Wildflower Birthday paper pack and ephemera sheet.

The box itself is made from a full sheet of Pool Party cardstock. After scoring along both the long and short edges and making some strategic cuts, you fold in the flaps to create the bottom of the bag and the top flap. A quick little pinch of the sides at the top create the closure for the fold-over flap. I use small Velcro dots to act as my bag closure because I find it the simplest and most effective method, but I know some folks have used magnets and some have chosen to have a ribbon closure. But for me, I’ll stick with the easy button! *wink-wink*

I used two coordinating sheets of the Wildflower Birthday paper to decorate the bag. I intend to use this as a little birthday giftie, so I chose the sheet with cakes on it as the focal section (both front & back of the box) and then used the decorative scalloped sheet for the bag flap portion. I tied a bow using the gold striped sheer ribbon and decided I needed a little more oom-pah-pah for the bag flap, so I pulled a few gold twigs and a small leaf from the Wildflower Birthday ephemera sheet. Together, these elements provide the perfect eye-catching addition to the bag flap.

These gift boxes come together so quickly that it would be easy to trim and score a whole stack of cardstock in no time flat! If you’d like to give this cute gift box a try, you can download the tutorial here.

Product List

Pool Party 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[122924]

$14.00

Wildflower Birthday 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[164591]

$16.50

Gold Striped 3/8" (1 Cm) Mesh Ribbon

[165599]

$8.00

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Tear & Tape Adhesive

[154031]

$7.00

Add All to Cart

Clean and Simple · Gifting

Thanks in the Bag

May 23, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

We’ve made it to Friday and that means that, for my kiddo, we’ve also made it to the end of another school year. It always feels like the second semester is on fast forward because we sure get from January to May super quickly!

This week, we’ve used the new School Days stamp set to create some cute clean and simple card designs. And we’re finishing things with a bag full of thanks.

We get started with a base of Basic Black cardstock. The background panel is a sheet of Pumpkin Pie with a border a pencils stamped in black. The focal section starts with stamping the backpack image in Poppy Parade onto the background panel. I stamped the small stack of books onto a scrap of Pumpkin Pie using Misty Moonlight ink and then fussy cut with paper snips before adhering onto the background panel with dimensionals so that there is a slight overlap over the backpack. I stamped the sentiment in Misty Moonlight above the pile of books. A few Timid Tiger pearls add a shimmery pop. I tied some twine around the focal panel towards the top and then adhered it to the card base with dimensionals.

It’s been fun to design cards with our talented teachers in mind. Hopefully you’ve pocketed a few ideas for next year.

Next week we’re going to explore some goodies from the new catalog. I hope you’ll drop in to check it out!

Products used in this card:
Basic Black cardstock
School Days, With You in Mind stamps
Textured Notes dies
Dimensionals
Gold textured dots

Clean and Simple · Gifting

Pack in Thanks

May 21, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Anybody else a little floored by the fact that it’s already Wednesday?! This is one of those weeks where time is flying by at Mach 10! And I’m pretty sure the teachers and students are absolutely hoping that this last week of school flies by.

This week’s designs are all about honoring those special teachers who give our kiddos 150%. And we’re using the current School Days stamp set to create clean and simple designs that show the appreciation they all deserve.

Today’s card keeps the punches of color to the focal elements. We get started with a base of white cardstock. The focal panel is diecut with the largest Textured Notes die. The sentiment from With You in Mind is stamped in black toward the bottom-right corner of the panel. I stamped the backpack from School Days in Poppy Parade on a scrap of white cardstock and then fussy cut with my paper snips. It’s adhered next to the sentiment with dimensionals. The apple is stamped in Garden Green next to the backpack. Things are finished off with some gold textured dots.

Designs don’t have to be overly complicated to have a big impact. And this card definitely brings home the thanks. I hope you’ll continue to follow along this week as we create more teacher appreciation designs.

Products used in this card:
Basic White cardstock
School Days, With You in Mind stamps
Textured Notes dies
Dimensionals
Gold textured dots

Clean and Simple · Gifting

World of Difference

May 20, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to another installment of teacher appreciation. As we wind down this last week of school, I know that students and teachers alike are counting down the days with gleeful excitement as their much-anticipated summer break is fast approaching.

We continue to use the new School Days stamp set to create our designs, and today we’re pairing it with the Timeless Plaid paper pack.

We get started with a sheet of Poppy Parade cardstock. I used a leftover strip of the blue plaid sheet from the Timeless Plaid pack to serve as the backdrop for our focal elements and then stamped the stars from School Days with Versamark on the card base on top. The book stamp was inked up in a variety of colors and then stamped onto white cardstock before being fussy cut in pairs. I stacked them up and adhered them to the backdrop with dimensionals. The apple is stamped in green onto Granny Apple Green cardstock and then fussy cut and set atop the tower of books. The sentiment from School Days is stamped in black and placed just next to the apple. A scattering of drusy embellishments adds a fun sparkly element.

I hope you’ll continue to follow along this week with all of the teacher appreciation designs.

Products used in this card:
Poppy Parade, Granny Apple Green, Basic White cardstock
Timeless Plaid DSP
School Days stamps
Dimensionals
Drusy embellishments

Clean and Simple · Gifting

Bushel of Thanks

May 19, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Monday, everyone! So glad to be back after an unexpected little hiatus. Between a crazy busy work schedule and prepping for and chaperoning my kiddo’s National Academic Pentathlon meet, I ended up having no time in the craft room last week. I’m pleased to report that the Texas teams represented the state well and my son’s school came home with 3rd place overall and a whole host of medalists in each of the 5 individual categories.

But never fear because all of the ideas for teacher appreciation gifts are still swirling around in the old noodle and need a place to go! So this week, the last week of school for us, we’re going to be exploring all of the ways we can use the Online Exclusive set called School Days to create some awesome designs to honor all of those teachers who have worked so hard all year. We’re starting our series with the old tried and true repeated pattern technique to create a sheet of patterned paper.

We start with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock. To create our sheet of patterned paper, I used the apple image from School Days to create the quarter sheet of apple paper using Real Red, Old Olive, Poppy Parade, and Garden Green. After cutting the panel down, it’s mounted on Old Olive glimmer paper to leave a large shimmery border on the bottom. A strip of gold trim serves to divide the apple pattern from the green glimmer below. The sentiment from School Days is stamped in Real Red on white cardstock and then diecut with the smaller sentiment die from Beautiful Butterflies. The sentiment panel is adhered to the glimmer panel with dimensionals. A few iridescent discs finish things off with a little extra twinkle.

I hope you’ll continue to follow along this week as we honor our hard-working and dedicated teachers.

Products used in this card:
Mossy Meadow, Basic White cardstock
Old Olive glimmer DSP
School Days stamps
Beautiful Buuterflies dies
Gold trim
Dimensionals
Iridescent discs

Christmas · Gifting

Beary Cute Envelope

December 13, 2024 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Howdy, crafty friends! I got a little side-tracked yesterday with a cookie project and ran out of time to play in my crafty stash. I was trying out a new cookie recipe to take to a cookie exchange. And once again, I forgot how much I hate messing with the candy coating. I can never get it to melt right and then end up making a big mess. I guess the good thing about this particular recipe is that the cookies are supposed to resemble snowballs, and snowballs are lumpy. Soooooo my lumpy candy coating is perfect! Hahaha!

I’m still furiously working away on gift tags and gift holders. And today, I’m bringing you a super easy gift card holder that I ran across on Pinterest that uses a standard card base. I decided to pull together some of my retired favorites for this one because the paper is perfect for my intended recipient!

We get started with a base of Night of Navy cardstock. It’s scored at 1 1/4 inches, 4 inches, 6 inches, and 8 inches and then folded to create the center gift card pocket. I used a 2-inch circle punch to make the pull-out section in the center of the gift card pocket. The pocket itself is held together with tear-and-tape. The Beary Christmas patterned paper pack was a part of last year’s holiday catalog, and I just loved it so much that I stocked up when it went on sale. I was able to use a collection of scraps from another project to cover the panels on the outside and inside of the gift envelope. I thought the sweater-patterned strips were perfect accents for the flap and adjoining panels. I found a cute star-patterned cardstock from the Irresistibly Yours paper pack (long ago retired) in my scrap stash that is the perfect panel for the gift message. Our smaller circle focal elements on the outside and inside of our gift envelope are diecut to highlight cute little critters. I used the Changing Leaves and Spotlight on Nature dies for these circles. I thought the decorative edges were perfect designs elements that add a lot of interest to the pop-out panels. The fox panel on the front is adhered to the flap with dimensionals, which gives a nice gap under which I slid the knotted diagonal striped ribbon to keep the envelope closed.

I just love how this turned out, and it came together quickly. The hardest part was choosing what adorable critters from the Beary Christmas paper that I wanted to highlight on each portion of the gift envelope.

Products used in this design:
Night of Navy Cardstock
Beary Christmas (retired), Irresistibly Yours (retired) DSP
2″ circle punch
Changing Leaves, Spotlight on Nature dies

Christmas · Gifting

Tree Pocket Gift Holder

December 11, 2024 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

We’re gearing up for Christmas here at Song Sparrow. Every day that Amazon shows up, my husband says something about the number of boxes that end up on the porch. *snicker* Hey, I can’t help it if the warehouses decide to box orders in a multitude of boxes.

But speaking of getting ready for Christmas, I’m still working on gifts and gift tags. And today’s design is a super cute gift-giving envelope that I plan to hang on the Christmas tree for a little holiday hide-n-seek. I ran across this super cute envelope in one of my Pinterest searches, and it’s super easy to put together.

We get started with a 6×6 sheet of Take a Bow patterned paper and score from corner to corner on both sides. Then you fold to create the envelope. For this one, the flap on the envelope is supposed to stay open, which makes it a snap to put together. I used two smaller strips of the Take a Bow paper to cover my score line in the center and also to serve as a nice break in the pattern underneath the focal panel. Our focal panel starts with a base of the (retired) Garden Walk patterned paper that is cut using the Peaceful Season decorative square die. Then I just layered the stocking and sentiment from the Joyful ephemera packs right on top using the dimensionals. The gift panel is a sheet of the (retired) More Dazzle specialty paper with a to/from panel cut from white cardstock using the (retired) Stitched Nested Labels dies. I cut some greenery fronds from Granny Apple Green cardstock using the Golden Greenery dies and adhered them to the back of the gift panel with dimensionals. A cute red bow tied from Cherry Cobbler & Gold metallic ribbon finish off the gift panel nicely. The whole kit & caboodle will hang from the tree with some green thread.

The hardest part of this whole design was picking what ephemera I wanted to use! Otherwise, it comes together in a snap. And don’t you think it will just be the cutest way to give cash or a gift card?

Product List

Take A Bow 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164309]

$12.50

Garden Walk 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[162227]

$12.50

More Dazzle 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Specialty Paper

[161749]

$7.50

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[159276]

$13.00

Granny Apple Green 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[146990]

$11.50

Joyful Images Mix & Match Specialty Ephemera Pack

[164110]

$9.50

Joyful Sayings Mix & Match Ephemera Pack (English)

[164109]

$9.50

Golden Greenery Dies

[164116]

$39.00

Peaceful Season Dies (English)

[164020]

$34.00

Stitched Nested Labels Dies

[149638]

$35.00

Cherry Cobbler & Gold 1/2'' (1.3 Cm) Metallic Ribbon

[156312]

$8.00

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Christmas · Gifting

Making Lists

December 9, 2024 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to a bright and shiny new week, crafty friends! We’re in full-on Christmas mode over here as we make our lists and check them twice. I pulled out all of the gifts we’ve purchased so far and started wrapping last night.

And that meant that I was also busy in the craft room making the gift tags. Did you know it’s super easy to make gift tags? Even with the smallest crafty stash, I have no doubt that you have the perfect combination of things to make cute gift tags. Today, I’m showing you a small sampling of what I whipped together last night using some patterned paper, several die sets, and the Joyful ephemera.

Are these not the cutest? And they are SO easy to put together. Let’s take a closer look at each one.

I got started on the first tag by diecutting the base from a sheet of Take a Bow paper using the largest Greetings of the Season die. I kept things simple with just a few elements from the Joyful ephemera packs — just a wreath and a sentiment. To help the wreath stand out against the polka dot background, I cut a sheet of red polka dot from the Take a Bow paper pack. I put this panel over a gold banner, which draws the eye nicely to the wreath panel. I mirrored on the reverse side with just the gold banner and then the Holly Jolly sentiment. For the to/from tag, I cut a smaller tag from white cardstock using the Greetings of the Season die and then finished off with some (retired) Cherry Cobbler twine to attach the tag to my package.

For this tag, I also used the largest Greetings of the Season die and cut a piece of the (now retired) Garden Walk patterned paper. I chose two larger images, some greenery, and two sentiments from the Joyful ephemera packs to decorate each side of the tag. I also cut some gold twigs using the Changing Leaves die sets. The bear, evergreen branch, and small sentiment are adhered on varying layers of dimensionals for a little depth. On the reverse side, I layered the drums, evergreen, gold sprigs, and sentiment. I also used varying layers of dimensionals on this side, as well. The small to/from tag is from Greetings of the Season and secured with some retired twine.

Our last tag uses a retired Memories & More set called Beary Christmas. I pulled the sleigh and sentiment from the Joyful ephemera packs and adhered on the package side of the Beary Christmas tag. I cut the to/from tag from white cardstock using the smallest banner from the Nested Essentials die set and secured with some retired twine. To cover the overhanging sentiment on the opposite side of the tag, I adhered two small stars from the ephemera packs to either side.

No matter the size of your crafting stash, you can dress up your packages with cute handmade gift tags! Tune in the rest of the week as we take a look at how we can quickly dress up our holiday gift-giving.

Products used in today’s featured designs:
White cardstock
Take a Bow, More Dazzle (retired), gold foil DSP
Joyful ephemera
Greetings of the Season, Nested Essentials, Changing Leaves dies
Beary Christmas Memories & More (retired)
Assorted twine (retired)
Dimensionals
Adhesives