Category: Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team

Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Sunshine on a Cloudy Day

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

When you’re browsing a new Stampin’ Up! catalog, do you ever think to yourself, “I know exactly what I’m going to pair with that!” As soon as I saw the Bright Skies stamps and dies, I just knew that I had to try it out with the Playing in the Rain bundle. To quote one of my favorite movies, “they’re M-F-E-O!” (MFEO = Made For Each Other … And bonus points if you can name that movie! *wink-wink*)

For today’s card, I built this adorable scene using the Bright Skies and Playing in the Rain bundles. The overall theme is “You brighten my cloudy days” and I decided to place the sentiment on the inside message panel rather than cluttering the scene on the front.

I began building the front panel scene with a base of Pool Party cardstock. Using the Playing in the Rain set, I stamped raindrops on most of the base in Versamark and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I fussy cut a variety of clouds from the Sunny Days designer paper and also stamped and diecut one cloud using the Bright Skies set. I wanted the clouds to look “rainy” but cheery too, so I balanced the grey clouds with the two Lost Lagoon. I gave them a more realistic layered feel by varying the heights of the clouds with dimensionals, which easily allowed the sun to pop out and shine in between.

I knew I wanted the cute fox to be strolling across a bridge over water, so I set about bringing that portion of this design to life. The grass and hills are cut from Old Olive cardstock. I freehanded the banks and diecut the grass strips using the Sending Love die. All of the grass elements are adhered to a strip of Lost Lagoon cardstock which is popped up on a layer of dimensionals. I added a few adhesive flowers on the grass banks for a bit of whimsy and fun. To give a more realistic shimmer to the water, I added Wink of Stella to the Lost Lagoon cardstock, and I also added water rings for the raindrops using the Pool Party Stampin’ Blends. The cute fox is stamped on white cardstock and colored with Stampin’ Blends. I diecut the fox with the coordinating Playing in the Rain die and then trimmed down the diecut image to further reduce the white edging all around. The bridge is diecut from Crumb Cake cardstock using the Playing in the Rain dies. I very lightly sponged the bridge with Crumb Cake ink to bring out the details in the bridge railing. The fox is adhered to the card base with dimensionals and the bridge is then layered on top in the same manner.

Don’t you just love it when an idea comes together even better than you imagined? I love, love, LOVE this card! It just makes me smile!

Want to see other design ideas using the Bright Skies bundle? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode for more inspiration!

Products used in this design:
Pool Party, Crushed Curry, Lost Lagoon, Old Olive, Crumb Cake, Basic White cardstock
Sunny Days DSP
Bright Skies, Playing in the Rain stamps
Bright Skies, Playing in the Rain, Sending Love dies
Clear embossing powder
Adhesive flowers
Stampin’ Blends
Wink of Stella
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

On the Wings of Love

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Anyone happen to be a Harry Potter fan? I absolutely loved the books and have read the series multiple times. I also enjoy the movies since they’re such a great adaptation of the books, thanks to J.K. Rowling’s involvement in the films. And though it might be a little hard to see it at first, Harry Potter was the inspiration behind today’s card design with its flying envelopes, which are inspired by the infamous Howlers in the books. Remember the screamer Ron received after crashing his dad’s car into the Womping Willow? I can still hear it!

This card design sits atop a piece of Berry Burst cardstock. The mat for the main focal images is a sheet of Lighter than Air designer series paper. I really loved the bright and cheery color combo and pattern of this particular sheet and felt it gave the perfect backdrop for this card theme. Each of the envelopes is cut from a piece of Delightfully Eclectic and Bright & Beautiful designer paper. Each of these designer series paper patterns plays off one another and pops beautifully from the busy pattern of the background mat, don’t you think? Each set of vellum wings is diecut using the flower in the Bright Skies dies. 

Two of the envelopes are winging their way to their recipients while the one in the middle is so full of love that it simply burst at the seams and all of that love has come floating out. The hearts are diecut from Berry Burst cardstock using the Sending Love hearts dies. And don’t you just love the escaping heart fluttering away up in the upper corner?! The sentiment is stamped in Melon Mambo ink on vellum that has been punched using the Heartfelt Hexagon punch. By placing the sentiment on vellum it allows it to appear as though it’s floating in the scene — perfect for flying envelopes, don’t you think? I really love how the tinsel gems draw the eye diagonally across the card.

Looking for some simple ways to create fun cards with the Sending Love bundle? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode for 3 simple designs.

Products used in today’s design:
Berry Burst, vellum cardstock
Lighter than Air, Delightfully Eclectic DSP
Sending Love, Bright Skies dies
Tinsel gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Love From Me to You

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Do you ever see a stamp set and have your idea wheels immediately start turning? That’s precisely what happened to me as soon as I saw the Sending Love bundle in the January mini catalog. One of the things that I look for in a set is versatility. And while this bundle certainly lends itself easily to Valentine cards, there are a whole host of other occasions for which you can put this bundle to work. And I can’t wait for you to see all of the cute designs I’ve been able to create with this bundle!

Today’s card design revisits a favorite fun fold that I recently learned from fellow team member Patti Dolan. The Center Step fun fold is just so versatile that I find myself circling back to it often right now. I mean, look at how perfectly it shows off the Sending Love mailbox die!

So this card is built on a base of Real Red cardstock. I pulled out my Sale-a-Bration Most Adored designer series paper pack for the perfect combination of patterns for the center and side panels. I love that you have the choice between foiled and patterned designs and, while the pack also lends itself easily to Valentines, the patterns can be used for so many different occasions. I built the mailbox scene using the Sending Love dies and cardstock. These dies make it so easy to build a detailed scene in no time flat. I decided on a more traditional look for the mailbox so that the eye would be drawn to the mail bursting from the mailbox. And I especially love the one taking flight with the hearts gushing out. I used the flower die from the Bright Skies die set to make the vellum wings. Doesn’t that envelope just remind you of that being-in-love feeling?

Want to see other design ideas using the Sending Love bundle? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode for more inspiration!

Products used in this design:
Real Red, Smoky Slate, Crumb Cake, Basic White, vellum cardstock
Most Adored, One Horse Open Sleigh, Bright & Beautiful, More Dazzle, Rose Gold DSP
Sending Love stamps
Sending Love, Bright Skies dies
Blooming Pearls
Sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Butterfly Thoughts

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

We’re wrapping up our week of Painted Lavender designs with this stunning center step fun fold card. If you’ve been following me for a little while, you may remember that I learned this fun fold from fellow Luv 2 Stamp team member Patti Dolan.

This time, I tried a little something different with the assembly and decided to cut one solid portion for the center and narrow bottom panel, which gives you a t-shaped panel. While getting the measurements down and everything cut correctly was a little tricky, I do like the look of having that continuous panel. And speaking of tricky, can anyone spot my cutting mistake? 😉

The base of this card is a sheet of Pretty Peacock cardstock. The designer series paper is all from the Perennial Lavender pack. I chose two different patterns for both the front and inside sections of the card. The sentiment is from the Wonderful Thoughts stamp set and stamped on vellum diecut using the Autumn Leaves die. The sentiment is matted by a Blackberry Bliss circle panel diecut using the Everyday Essentials dies. The sprig of lavender on the small step up panel is cut from Lost Lagoon and Blackberry Bliss cardstock using the Painted Lavender dies. A large paper butterfly serves as the focal image on the center panel and really draws the eye down to the sentiment.

Interested in seeing all of the designs we made this week using the Painted Lavender bundle? Check out Episode 9 of Terrific Tuesdays to see them all from start to finish!

Products used in today’s design:
Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon, Blackberry Bliss, vellum cardstock
Perennial Lavender DSP
Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Painted Lavender, Everyday Essentials, Autumn Leaves dies
Paper butterfly accents
Opaque faceted gems
Silver trim
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Amazing Things

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

I have really enjoyed working with the Painted Lavender bundle in preparation for this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video. And for today’s bonus post, we use a masking technique to create this lovely fun fold.

The Painted Lavender bundle is part of a larger suite of products called Perennial Lavender, which includes the Perennial Postage bundle we worked with last week, along with the Perennial Lavender designer series paper, paper butterflies, and purple fine sparkle gems which are all a part of today’s featured card.

I wanted to try using the paper butterflies ask masks and decided that a peek-through z-fold would be the perfect way to showcase a masked section. We begin with a card base of Lost Lagoon. I chose the sheet of Perennial Lavender designer paper that includes both flowers and butterflies in a tight-knit pattern. White cardstock serves as the base for the inside of the card and the peek-through section of the card. I used a larger and smaller paper butterfly as masks and inked over them with sponge daubers and Blackberry Bliss ink directly on the inside card base on the peek-through section. To keep a nice, even border on the left of the butterflies, I used a strip of washi tape to keep the sponged section just where I wanted it. Each of the butterflies are then flipped over to the uninked side and adhered to the front of the card. The sentiment from the Wonderful Thoughts stamp set is stamped on white cardstock diecut with the Nested Essentials dies. Two small butterflies from the Painted Lavender stamp set help draw the eye to the sentiment. Purple sparkle gems are scattered over the card front for pops of color and sparkle and to help the eye travel across the card design.

Interested in more inspiration for the Painted Lavender bundle? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode for more designs!

Products used in this design:
Lost Lagoon, Basic White cardstock
Perennial Lavender DSP
Painted Lavender, Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Painted Lavender, Nested Essentials dies
Paper butterflies
Purple fine shimmer gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Thankful for Friendship

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

This week, we’ve been exploring all of the fun designs we can make with the new Perennial Postage bundle. This bundle includes a set of cling stamps and dies that cut shapes that resemble postage stamps, and the stamps nestle perfectly within a coordinating die. 

Our Luv to Stamp Group team challenge for the month is to use designated Color Buddies. For today’s design, I thought it would be great to choose a buddy group to work with. I chose a neutral color palette with Crumb Cake, Pecan Pie, and Early Espresso.

Today’s card design also uses a new technique known as dry embossing. Dry embossing involves using your regular dies to emboss rather than cut. One very valuable tip I can pass along is that the way you build your “sandwich” on your die cutting machine absolutely matters to your results. I found a terrific article that discusses a whole host of die cutting machines and what order works best for dry embossing with each. And I wish I had found it before I made this card!

This card begins with a base of Early Espresso, which serves to frame the whole design. A piece of Crumb Cake serves as the mat for our focal panel and is embossed using the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder (currently available in the Sale-a-Bration catalog) to help soften the look and add a bit of interest. This layer is thinly matted with Pecan Pie, which helps to draw out the lighter elements of the stamped images in the focal panel. The focal panel is diecut from Basic White using one of the largest of the Perennial Postage dies. I wanted this panel to resemble a partial book of stamps. Using three of the smaller dies, I made impressions to create stamp windows in the white panel. The Planted Paradise stamps serve as the images for each of the stamps. I was careful to mask the edges of each of the stamp frames to ensure the stamp look really shone through. The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso atop a strip of Crumb Cake and then cut into a thin strip with each end snipped at an angle. To ensure the sentiment stood out, I diecut a small Deckled Rectangle from Early Espresso to serve as the sentiment backdrop. A few iridescent foil gems add a little sparkle and help draw the eye across the design. I stamped a coordinating image and sentiment in the inside of the card to tie everything together.

Interested in seeing all of the designs we made this week with the Perennial Postage bundle? Check out Episode 8 of Terrific Tuesdays to see the 3 projects we made from start to finish!

Products used in today’s design:
Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Pecan Pie, Basic White cardstock
Perennial Postage, Planted Paradise stamps
Perennial Postage, Deckled Rectangles dies
Softly Sophisticated embossing folder
Iridescent foil gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

You’ll Get Through This

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

This week we are working with the Perennial Postage stamps and dies. Does anyone collect stamps or enjoy looking through the Philatelic magazine from the U.S. Postal Service? I have enjoyed stamp designs since I was a little girl and even have a small collection from my childhood. Now I mostly enjoy the Philatelic as a purchaser and user of stamps more than as a collector. Today’s card is inspired by the sheets of stamps that formed one image, sort-of like a puzzle is made. Does anyone remember when the USPS used to offer those? They were my absolute favorite!

This card design sits atop a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I chose to build my focal image on white cardstock using the Bold Bouquet stamp set. And just like those sheets once sold by the USPS, I chose to vary the stamp sizes and selected a variety of dies to accomplish this. Before stamping, I laid out dies to get the desired effect and have the totality of the image fit on the vellum mat, which is diecut with the largest Perennial Postage die. I ultimately stamped the images on each little stamp separately, but in hindsight, stamping the whole scene and then diecutting each stamp would have provided much better continuity in the scene on the whole sheet without all of the fuss of the tedious alignment that was required the way I did it! Lesson learned for the next one for sure! 

I used Lost Lagoon as an accent color and built a visual triangle with it to help the sentiment stand out in the busy-ness of the stamp montage. I used the die extension method to make the Lost Lagoon mat behind the sentiment panel a little longer. Both the mat and sentiment panel are diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies. I used the debossing die included in the Perennial Postage set and carefully inked it with Lost Lagoon before I debossed my diecut stamp. The next time I do this I am going to apply a long strip of washi tape to the back of the die so that it is easier to place it on the cardstock for an impression. Hot tip from me to you….this will avoid inky fingers and ruining whatever element you’re trying to deboss!

I wanted a bold but soft color palette for this sympathy card. So I started with Blackberry Bliss as the bold element. I softened things with a bit of Bubble Bath and added Mossy Meadow as an accent. I would love to see what you can do with this color palette, if you’re up for the challenge. Simply post your designs over on Facebook or Instagram using the hashtag #SSP1Jan2024.

Interested in more inspiration for using the Perennial Postage bundle? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode for more designs!

Products used in this design:
Blackberry Bliss, Basic White, vellum cardstock
Lost Lagoon soft shimmer paper
Perennial Postage, Bold Bouquet stamps
Perennial Postage, Autumn Leaves dies
Lost Lagoon bordered ribbon
Sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Heartfelt Hexagon Sympathy

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While masculine card designs can be, in and of themselves, quite challenging, designing sympathy cards for the guys in your life can seem daunting. In this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays, we made a sympathy card together. A friend recently lost his wife, and since I needed a more masculine sympathy card myself, I felt it would be a good opportunity to share my process for designing cards for those hard times.

Today’s card design began with a pattern idea and a color palette. As I was making a project to-do list for this week, I knew that I wanted to make patterned paper using the Heartfelt Hexagon stamps and was inspired by the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder in the newly-released Sale-a-Bration catalog. As I was thinking about a color palette for a sympathy card that would appropriately convey both comfort and hope, I was drawn to the combination of Basic Gray, Night of Navy, and Copper Clay. 

So today’s card is built on a base of Basic Gray cardstock, while Night of Navy and Copper Clay luster cardstock serve as the mats for the main image panel. The single-framed hexagon from Heartfelt Hexagon is stamped in Smoky Slate in a repeating pattern that mimics the pattern of the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder. I liked the look of the larger stamped pattern rather than the smaller pattern for this particular occasion. The sentiment from Heartfelt Hexagon is stamped in Night of Navy on Basic Gray and then punched with the coordinating hexagon punch. The Night of Navy and gold glittered ribbon — a carry-over from the Holiday Mini catalog — adds a soft touch and ties the blue elements together, while a few brushed metallic dots tie together the sheen of the luster paper and sparkle of the glitter ribbon and add an additional layer of warmth.

As we’re wrapping up our week of masculine card designs, I hope you’ve been inspired by all of the possibilities there are to make gorgeous masculine cards for any occasion. In case you missed this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays, you can still catch it over on YouTube to find even more inspiration.

Products used in today’s design:
Night of Navy, Basic Grey, Copper Clay luster cardstock
Heartfelt Sympathy stamps & punch
Night of Navy & gold glittered ribbon
Brushed metallic dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Heartfelt Love You

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

This week’s project focus is masculine cards using the Heartfelt Hexagon bundle, including the fabulous coordinating Sale-a-Bration set called Heartfelt Hellos which will be available with qualifying orders beginning tomorrow. I don’t know about you, but sometimes I really struggle to make cute designs for the guys. So we’ll be exploring how we can look at our stash in new ways to make gorgeous projects with a more masculine feel.

For me, the hardest part of making more masculine feeling cards is finding a good color palette amongst my patterned paper stash. I absolutely fell in love with the Garden Walk designer series paper from the Holiday Mini Catalog. I was initially drawn to the beautiful mix of floral patterns in this paper pack, but as I was looking through my stash of DSP to design this card, I found so many lovely masculine options on the reverse sides of the florals in the Garden Walk pack. So my first tip for designing masculine cards is to never count out a pack of DSP simply because one side leans more to a more feminine feel — turn those pages over and look at the other side because you are bound to find some surprises!

So this fun fold design is all about showcasing beautiful patterned paper. We begin with a base of Lost Lagoon cut to standard size. It’s scored as usual but with an added 1-inch fold-back panel on the card front to reveal a section of the inside card base. I chose two separate patterns of Lost Lagoon and Pretty Peacock from the Garden Walk DSP pack and decided the striped pattern worked perfectly for the fold-back and peek-through sections of the design. The speckled pattern is adhered to both sides of the small panel on both the card front and inside panel.

The sentiment from Heartfelt Hellos is stamped in Pretty Peacock on white cardstock punched with the Heartfelt Hexagon punch. For some pop, the sentiment panel is mounted with dimensionals atop a banner diecut from Lost Lagoon soft shimmer paper using the Nested Essentials banner dies. I added a little silver trim underneath the sentiment panel and along the peek-through edge for some sparkle because even our guys deserve a little sparkle! A few Pretty Peacock sequins bring a little extra emphasis to the sentiment.

Don’t you just love how this turned out?! A lovely fun fold and some out-of-the-box thinking about patterned papers helped bring this lovely masculine design to life.

Interested in seeing some other ways to make masculine cards using your patterned paper stash? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode for more design ideas!

Products used in today’s design:
Lost Lagoon, Basic White cardstock
Lost Lagoon soft shimmer, Garden Walk (retiring today!) DSP
Heartfelt Hexagons stamps & punch
Heartfelt Hellos stamps
Nested Essentials dies
Silver trim
Sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team

Exciting News

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Good day to all of my crafty friends and a very Happy New Year to you! I wanted to let you in on a little secret that I’ve been keeping for the last several weeks. 

I’m thrilled to announce that I have been selected as a Luv 2 Stamp Group Artisan Design Team member! I am blessed to be a member of Patty Bennett’s Luv 2 Stamp Group and am incredibly honored that she has selected me as one of the Design Team members for the first quarter of 2024.

So what does this mean for all of you? Every Wednesday and Saturday afternoon for the next 3 months, I will be bringing you BONUS content. That means more even more ideas for how you can use your craft supplies to create beautiful projects!

I hope you’ll join me on this adventure. I can’t WAIT to get started!

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