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Friends for Life · Fun Folds · Gifting

Happy Birthday, Friend

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Today we’re continuing to explore all the many ways we can use the Friends for Life bundle by Stampin’ Up! to create fabulous projects. I don’t know about you, but I like to have birthday cards of all kinds on hand for those moments when I need to grab a birthday card on the run. And today’s design is a two-for-one — a gift and a beautiful card!

This gift card design is a modified version of the Slide Up Gift Card Holder by fellow demo Jackie Bolhuis over at Klompen Stampers. I simplified the design to have a slide out gift card holder rather than the slide up version Jackie makes, but both are equally as wonderful for providing a lovely way to give a gift card. What I really loved about this design is it offers so much visual interest. From a beautiful card front that serves double duty as the gift card pocket to the ample space on the inside to dress things up, you have plenty of opportunity to express your creativity.

We get started with a base of Pretty in Pink cardstock. The cardstock is halved on the long edge for this design, but rather than scoring in the center, you’ll instead score at 3 3/4-inches and 9 1/4-inches. That gives you a center portion of standard size and then a flip-up flap and smaller bottom flap for the card front. The smaller flap should be adhered to the card base on either side to create the small pocket, which will be visible when the card front is closed. I chose a sheet of the Flowering Zinnias designer paper as the background panel and cut it so that a small border shows on each of the front panels. The fun background image is the large heart from the Friends for Life die set. I cut a Pretty in Pink heart and used the center portion as the background for the Pretty in Pink glimmer hearts. For the glimmer hearts, nestle the leaf heart die inside the large heart die when diecutting. I then used both the outside and inside hearts on top of the Pretty in Pink solid heart. The sentiment panel is diecut from Pretty in Pink using the smudge banner and then the sentiment is stamped tone-on-tone toward one end. The word friend from Friends for Life is stamped in Pretty in Pink on white cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. The sentiment is adhered to the card front with dimensionals .Two small hearts are diecut from white glimmer paper and used as eye-catching accents for the sentiment. The card front is finished of with a few In Color shimmer gems.

The inside of the card is finished to coordinate with the card front. The top flip panel has a piece of the Flowering Zinnias designer paper. Two shimmery banners diecut from glimmer paper and cut using the Filled with Fun dies bring festive fun to this top panel. The inside sentiment from Filled with Fun is stamped on white cardstock diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies. TIP: In order to get the banner long enough for the sentiment, you’ll want to use the extension method.

The gift card holder itself is a pocket within a pocket. It’s made two-sided so that the portion visible through the card front disappears into the background. A tug on the Pretty in Pink bordered ribbon reveals the gift holder and the gift card in the pocket on the reverse side. Each side has a piece of the Flowering Zinnias paper to coordinate with the rest of the card, along with a repeat of the happy birthday sentiment. I chose to keep the inside of my card very simple, but you can see where you could really dress it up.

I hope you’ll join me tomorrow for a more masculine inspired design.

Products used in today’s gift card:
Pretty in Pink, Basic White cardstock
Flowering Zinnias, In Color glimmer, White glimmer DSP
Friends for Life, Filled with Fun stamps
Friends for Life, Autumn Leaves, Filled with Fun dies
Pretty in Pink bordered ribbon
In Color shimmer gems, In Color resin dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Friends for Life

Hey

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We’ve made it to the middle of the week. And here in North Texas, we just might need a boat to get about town. We’ve had so much rain over the last several weeks and just keep getting more. Everything is absolutely soaked and it seems we’re maybe stuck in this wet weather pattern for a while longer. I know we’ll be wishing for this rain come July, but for this brief moment, it wouldn’t be so bad if we had a day or two without it!

But how about some bright and cheery cards to bring us out of our blues? This week, our featured Stampin’ Up! bundle is called Friends for Life. This terrific bundle includes photopolymer stamps and coordinating dies. And today’s card is a clean and simple design that uses a fun technique called die debossing, where we use our dies to both cut and make an impression at the same time. Click here for a brand NEW Terrific Tuesdays video where I show you how it’s done.

We start today’s card with a base of Peach Pie cardstock. I also cut a quarter-sheet of Peach Pie for the debossed background panel. The twig of leaves is diecut from Summer Splash cardstock using the Friends for Life dies. By making a sandwich of Summer Splash, the twig die, and Peach Pie, you are able to cut and deboss at the same time. I trimmed the Peach Pie panel to ensure that a 1/8-inch border of card base shows on each side. Using the Heartfelt Hexagon stamps, stamp the double border on white cardstock in Summer Splash ink. Then stamp “hey” from the Saying Hey set in Summer Splash in the center of the hexagon, making sure you cover the ending punctuation with a piece of tape. Punch your sentiment panel using the Heartfelt Hexagon punch. Once you have determined the placement of your sentiment panel, stamp a small twig of leaves in the blank space of the debossed background panel. Affix the diecut twig using a glue dot. Then affix your hexagonal sentiment panel on top using dimensionals. Finish with Summer Splash In Color resin dots.

This card design is simple to replicate and could easily be adapted for any occasion by simply modifying color scheme and/or sentiment. Have you tried the die debossing technique? What did you think?

Products used in today’s card:
Peach Pie, Summer Splash, Basic White cardstock
Friends for Life stamps & dies
Heartfelt Hexagon stamps & punch
Saying Hey stamps
In Color resin dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Friends for Life

Excited For You, Friend

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This week we’re exploring all of the wonderful ways we can use the Stampin’ Up! Friends for Life stamps and dies. Do you ever use your stamps to make your own backgrounds? Today, we’re going to do just that.

I was feeling in the summer mood as I chose the color palette for this card, so I chose a trio that reminds me of rainbow sherbet—Peach Pie, Flirty Flamingo, and Coastal Cabana.

We get started with a standard card base of Coastal Cabana cardstock. Our background panel consists of three separate elements—two mats and a stamped background panel. The bottom mat is Flirty Flamingo diecut using the largest Perennial Postage die. The next mat is Peach Pie diecut using the second-largest Deckled Rectangles die. The stamped background panel is white cardstock, which has been stamped on the diagonal using the ink smudge stamp from Friends for Life in an alternating color pattern of Peach Pie, Coastal Cabana, and Flirty Flamingo. This panel is adhered to the card base with dimensionals.

Our focal section is layered with diecuts from Friends for Life. The base consists of Summer Splash and Peach Pie glimmer paper diecut using the smudge banner and adhered directly to the background panel. Next up is the heart diecut from Flirty Flamingo and then another smudge banner. Part of the sentiment is stamped tone-on-tone on the Flirty Flamingo banner. The heart and sentiment banner are adhered with dimensionals. A faux bow of striped iridescent ribbon is twisted behind the sentiment banner for some eye-catching shimmer. The word “friend” is cut from white glimmer paper and also adhered with dimensionals. I finished things off with In Color shimmer gems and a dot for the i using a white transparent dot.

Tune in tomorrow to see how we’re going to use our detail stamps and dies to add some pizzazz to a clean and simple design.

Products used in today’s card:
Coastal Cabana, Flirty Flamingo, Peach Pie, Basic White cardstock
Friends for Life stamps & dies
Perennial Postage, Deckled Rectangles dies
Striped iridescent ribbon
In Color shimmer gems, transparent dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Friends for Life

You Are Loved

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Happy shiny new week, friends! We had some more crazy, wet weather here over the weekend. So we didn’t get as much time in the great outdoors as we would ordinarily prefer. But we made the most of our sunny breaks with fun family time over the first few days of official summer break.

This week, we will be working with a brand new product bundle from Stampin’ Up! called Friends for Life, which includes photopolymer stamps and coordinating dies. Like so many SU! products, this bundle pairs smashingly well with a whole host of other items in the current catalog.

Today’s card design works with a monochromatic color palette. These 4 shades of blue-green are next to one another on the SU! color wheel. And we pair the Friends for Life bundle with the Leaf Collection and Softly Said stamps to turn out this stunner.

We get started with a base of Lost Lagoon cardstock. The background image panel is a quarter-sheet of Lost Lagoon that is stamped tone-on-tone using the Leaf Collection background stamp. This panel is matted with Pretty Peacock. Both the background panel and the mat are cut down to ensure that a very thin border of the card base is showing once both are adhered to the base.

Next, we diecut our complementary image pieces starting with the Pretty Peacock leaf-print heart from the Friends for Life set. I used both the heart outline and the print together when diecutting this piece. I cut a second heart outline from Pretty Peacock to make the center backing piece for the leaf-print heart. The two sets of leaves from Friends for Life set are diecut from Summer Splash cardstock and adhered behind the heart. A twist of Pretty Peacock & Gold metallic trim add a little sparkle to the focal section of the card.

The sentiment from Softly Said is stamped tone-on-tone on Coastal Cabana cardstock. Each word is then cut out using paper snips. The word “loved” is adhered with dimensionals to the paint smear die from the Friends for Life set that is diecut from Pool Party cardstock, while the other block-cut words are adhered askew over the heart using dimensionals. The design is finished off with a combination of Summer Splash In Color shimmer gems and ombré matte decorative dots.

Tomorrow we will be making our own designer paper using the Friends for Life stamps. I hope you’ll come check it out.

Products used in today’s card:
Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon, Coastal Cabana, Pool Party, Summer Splash cardstock
Friends for Life dies
Leaf Collection, Softly Said stamps
Pretty Peacock & gold metallic ribbon
In Color shimmer gems, ombré matte decorative dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Flowering Zinnias · Fun Folds · Shop the catalog

Wishing Strength

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We’re finishing out this week’s tour of the Flowering Zinnias suite with a beautiful fun fold featuring the designer series paper. The paper in this suite is what initially caught my eye, but once it was all said and done, I ended up with all of the coordinating products after being inspired by what other crafters were able to do with the suite as a whole.

Today’s card design uses a double fold-over panel fun fold and showcases the Flowering Zinnias DSP. We’re using the coordinating Simply Zinnia dies to accentuate elements of the gorgeous paper.

We start this card with a standard base of Mossy Meadow cardstock, which is scored in the center. The front panel is cut diagonally to make a smaller fold-over panel in order to reveal more of the gorgeous designer paper on the fold-over panel underneath. This small panel is then covered with the leaves and stems patterned sheet from the Flowering Zinnias paper pack, which is matted with a piece of Soft Sea Foam cardstock. Each layer is 1/8-inch smaller than the next.

Next, we move to assembling the overlapping front sentiment panel. The base layer is Mossy Meadow cardstock that has been diecut with the second largest hexagon from the Nested Essentials die set. Cut an identical size hexagon from Soft Sea Foam and then cut a sliver from the center so that a small border of Mossy Meadow is exposed on either side at top and bottom when the two hexagons are adhered together. The sentiment panel is cut from white cardstock with the next-smallest nesting hexagon from the die set and the sentiment from the Inspiring Snapdragons stamp set is stamped in the center. All three layers are adhered together in one flat panel and adhered directly to the bottom of the front fold-over panel. I cut a second sentiment panel from white cardstock and stamped the sentiment from Something Fancy in the center. This is adhered to the back of the hexagon on the inside of the small fold-over panel.

Now we move to assembling the inside fold-over panel. This panel also begins with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock, which is cut so that there is a 1-inch flap to adhere to the card base and serve as the hinge for this panel. The sheet of designer paper from the Flowering Zinnias pack is matted with a sheet of Soft Sea Foam and then adhered to the flap base. Each layer is 1/8-inch smaller than the one underneath. The inside message panel is a plain white sheet of paper that has been left blank for an extended message.

We finish off the card design by accentuating the zinnias in the patterned paper panel. Using the Simply Zinnia dies, I assembled two blooms. The petals are cut from Calypso Coral and Flirty Flamingo, while the flower centers are cut from Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie. I also cut a single bloom from the edge of the sheet of blooms paper from the paper pack and adhered a flower center to the top to add that bit of realism to it, as well. The partial flower is adhered to the left side of the sentiment panel to cover the center seam of the Soft Sea Foam layer. The two diecut zinnia blooms are placed so that they give some life and realism to the two DSP panels—one over the stems and leaves flap and one nestled in the floral DSP panel just under the sentiment. Everything is finished off with sequins and a butterfly.

Click here to download the detailed PDF tutorial for today’s card. Don’t be intimidated by the number of steps! I break things up into bite-sized pieces to help ME not miss a step the next time I pull out my directions. *wink*

Tomorrow we’re (finally) going to get a look at those By Your Side Kit alternatives. I hope you’ll pop in to see how you can make a few little tweaks to kits to give them a fresh look.

Products used in today’s card design:
Mossy Meadow, Soft Sea Foam, Calypso Coral, Flirty Flamingo, Pumpkin Pie, Daffodil Delight, Basic White cardstock
Flowering Zinnias DSP
Simply Zinnia, Nested Essentials dies
Inspiring Snapdragons, Something Fancy stamps
Paper butterfly
Shiny sequins, sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Flowering Zinnias · Shop the catalog

My Person

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I really love a good sketch. A good sketch allows for so many different applications with a wide array of looks. Today’s card is based on a sketch that is in my go-to stash in the sketch book. Our product focus this week is the Flowering Zinnias suite of products and today we’re focusing on the largest image from the stamp and die bundle, as well as the designer paper. This card only has a few elements, but I love how it’s a show-stopper.

This card design is built on a base of Basic White cardstock. The focal panel base is sheet of lattice pattern from the Flowering Zinnias designer paper pack that is matted with Basic Black cardstock. The focal panel itself consists of the background circle panel cut from the white woodgrain sheet from the Country Woods designer paper pack using the middle circle size of the Spotlight on Nature dies and adhered using dimensionals. Our focal image is the largest image in the Simply Zinnia stamp set stamped on white cardstock and then diecut using the coordinating Simply Zinnia die. I used Stampin’ Blends to color the stems and zinnia centers, leaving the flowers themselves white. I originally intended to color the flowers but loved the look of the white flowers against the busy background of this design. The (partial) sentiment from Wonderful Thoughts is stamped on white cardstock and then diecut using the Happy Little Things banner die. A bit of silver and white trim behind the sentiment panel adds a little sparkle and works together with the transparent dots to draw the eye across the design to the sentiment.

Tomorrow we will be closing out our series featuring the Flowering Zinnias suite and our project is going to highlight the gorgeous designer series paper and show how you can use the coordinating dies to add dimension to patterned paper. I hope you’ll pop by to see the end result!

Products used in today’s card:
Basic White, Basic Black cardstock
Flowering Zinnias DSP
Simply Zinnia stamps & dies
Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Spotlight on Nature, Happy Little Things dies
Silver & white trim
Transparent dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Flowering Zinnias · Shop the catalog

Thanks, Friend

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This week is all about the Stampin’ Up! Flowering Zinnias suite. And today we are looking at the Zinnia embossing folder and Simply Zinnia dies. What I think this card design illustrates so beautifully is how easily you can pair the Flowering Zinnias products with other gems from the Stampin’ Up! lineup, like the Friends for Life bundle featured here.

We get started with a card base of the new In Color Petunia Pop. I also cut a quarter-sheet and embossed using the Zinnia embossing folder. This embossed panel is cut 1/8-inch smaller than the card base and adhered with dimensionals. For the focal section of this card design, I diecut a square of Petunia Pop using the largest square die from the Nested Essentials die set and built the focal elements on top. The zinnias are diecut using the Simply Zinnia die set. The petals are cut from Pretty in Pink with each flower having Peach Pie and Lemon Lolly centers. The lovely foliage is cut from Shy Shamrock using the Friends for Life dies. Dimensionals help give a layered look to the zinnias. The sentiment panel base is white cardstock diecut using the banner die from Friends for Life. Thanks is stamped in black on one end of the panel using the Wonderful Thoughts stamp set. The word friend is mounted next to it. Friend is shadowed with black cardstock and a white glimmer paper helps the word sparkle and pop on the card front. The sentiment panel has extra layers of dimensionals to ensure it stands tall above the rest of the design and catches the eye.

Tomorrow we’re going to be keeping things simple. I hope you’ll pop in to see how a stamp, paper, and die can make a beautiful card in a snap.

Products used in today’s card design:
Petunia Pop, Pretty in Pink, Peach Pie, Lemon Lolly, Shy Shamrock, Basic Black, Basic White cardstock
Flowering Zinnias, glimmer DSP
Simply Zinnia, Friends for Life dies
Zinnia embossing folder
Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Shiny sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Flowering Zinnias · Shop the catalog

Flower-filled Thoughts

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We’re spending this week getting to know the Flowering Zinnias suite by Stampin’ Up! This suite includes designer series paper, stamps, coordinating dies, coordinating embossing folder, and a package of embellishments. (See the whole suite here.).

Today’s card combines the designer paper and coordinating dies. I saw a similar design layout posted by Mitosu Crafts and just fell in love and thought why didn’t I think of that! Do you ever have those lightbulb moments when you see a design you absolutely love? It just seems so obvious to put it together that way.

What I love about this layout is that I immediately feel like I’m standing in a garden row of zinnias. I may have mentioned before that zinnias are one of my favorite summer flowers. If I had room to have a whole section of my gardening space devoted to zinnias, I most certainly would!

We start this card design with a base of Granny Apple Green cardstock. I chose the leaf and stems patterned sheet from the Flowering Zinnias paper pack and mounted it with a very thin mat of Basic Black. This full panel is adhered directly to the card base. Building the beautiful zinnia blooms is snap with the coordinating dies for this suite. I chose to use the new In Color called Peach Pie — a soft, muted orange. The flower centers are a combination of Pumpkin Pie and Lemon Lolly. I used a single dimensional to adhere the two petal layers together and then a combination of glue dots and glue pen for the centers and then finished each flower with a Pumpkin Pie shiny sequin. Having flowers disappear from the frame gives the feeling of looking through a window or looking a snapshot, and I just love that effect here. The sentiment from the coordinating Simply Zinnia set is stamped on Basic White and diecut using the Friends for Life die. The sentiment is adhered with a layer of dimensionals so that it stands tallest in the overall design. A few carefully placed Garden Green Blooming Pearls draw the eye down and across the design so that the eye rests on the sentiment.

What I love about this suite of products is how you can create designs that look intricate and complicated but are actually a breeze to put together. TIP: when making a card with the zinnia blooms, cut extra pieces to make your next card come together in a snap. Make it even easier by having fully assembled flowers in your stash!

Tomorrow, the embossing folder takes center stage. I hope you’ll come check it out!

Products used in today’s card design:
Granny Apple Green, Peach Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Lemon Lolly, Basic Black, Basic White cardstock
Flowering Zinnias DSP
Simply Zinnia stamps & dies
Friends for Life dies
Shiny sequins, blooming pearls
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Flowering Zinnias · Shop the catalog

Words Fail

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Howdy, everyone! The next two weeks are going to be pretty busy as my little wraps up another school year. How did a whole school year go by already?! It’s good to be back home and able to do a little crafting.

This week we’re going to focus on the Flowering Zinnias suite of products. When I first saw this product suite, I immediately fell in love with the designer paper, but I wasn’t really won over by the coordinating stamps and dies. But as I worked more with the paper, I realized what I was missing. So this week, I want to show you how much further you can take your designs with the coordinating stamp/die bundle.

For today’s design, we’re starting with a base of Melon Mambo. The two patterns of designer paper are both from the Flowering Zinnias paper pack. The background piece is cut 1/8-inch smaller than the card base and then I distressed the edges using paper snips. This piece is mounted to the card base using dimensionals. The zinnia pattern is diecut using the Spotlight on Nature dies and one small section is cut from the side for an off-set mount with dimensionals on the patterned background. I slipped some iridescent striped trim underneath to add sparkle and draw the eye. The sentiment from the Simply Zinnia set is stamped on white cardstock and then diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies using the extension method. I mounted the sentiment on Berry Burst glimmer paper that was diecut using the Deckled Rectangles set. I added Melon Mambo shiny sequins to finish things off.

Tomorrow we’re going to walk through the zinnia patch. I hope you’ll come along!

Products used in today’s card design:
Melon Mambo, Basic White cardstock
Berry Burst glimmer, Flowering Zinnias DSP
Simply Zinnia stamps
Spotlight on Nature, Autumn Leaves, Deckled Rectangles dies
Iridescent striped trim
Shiny sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Country Flowers · Shop the catalog

Previewing Country Flowers

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My box of goodies from the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog came a bit ago, but I haven’t had time to play with much of it just yet. But as soon as I took a look at few of the items I got from the new Country Woods Suite, I knew I wanted to start with those.

I really love the Country Woods designer series paper and chose to have it serve as the backdrop of this card design. We get started with a base of Basic White cardstock. The main background panel is a sheet of the lighter woodgrain pattern from the Country Woods paper pack. I diecut the sheet of Pool Party woodgrain from the same designer paper pack using the largest die in the Spotlight on Nature dies set. I stamped the stool from the Country Flowers stamp set onto the darker woodgrain pattern sheet and then diecut using the coordinating die. I stamped all of the greenery, along with the bucket and teapot, onto white cardstock using the Country Flowers stamps and then colored them with my Stampin’ Blends. I layered everything up with dimensionals to build a lot of different layers on the card front so that it gives it a more realistic look. I finished things off with some of the pearlized sequins from the Sequins Trio set and a double twist of the Iridescent Striped Trim. I chose not to have a sentiment on the front so that I could easily choose an inside sentiment on the fly once I’m ready to send it out.

This whole suite of products is fabulous. There are so many different ways that you can take it — masculine, feminine, shabby chic, country, and the list goes on. I’ve seen so many wonderful ideas that I’ve put in my inspiration folder!

I hope to bring you some more designs later this week, assuming we get to go home from the hospital.

Products used on this card:
Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Stampin’ Blends
Iridescent striped trim, linen thread
Sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives