Online Exclusives · Pattern of Friendship

Birthday Plaid

Our featured product for this week’s designs is the new Pattern of Friendship bundle that just released in the Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusives section. This fun bundle comes with a set of stamps and a large-scale pattern die. And today we’re pairing it up with the Timeless Plaid and Wildflower Birthday papers to create a fun birthday card.

We get started with a base of Lost Lagoon cardstock. I used a sheet of Crumb Cake as the mat for the focal panel to provide some structure and stability to the panel. The mat has some detailing on the edges thanks to the Textured Notes die. I chose a sheet of the blue-green Timeless Plaid paper as the focal panel background and added some additional detailing with the Pattern of Friendship die before cutting it down to size with a smaller Textured Notes die. I loved the smaller cupcake panel from the Wildflower Birthdays accessories set and cut it down a little smaller using the Greetings of the Season dies. I ended up deciding not to use the decorative portion with the hole in the center and instead option to make a square with rounded corners instead. The sentiment from Pattern of Friendship is stamped in Misty Moonlight on Very Vanilla and then cut with the Autumn Leaves die using the extension method. I wrapped the ends with gold thread to tie the sentiment and focal image together with their gold elements. I added a few gold low profile dots for a pop of shimmer.

Sometimes our patterns don’t have to be complicated to be interesting. And playing up the plaid pattern was just the ticket for today’s card. I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow for another fun way to have the new Pattern of Friendship set work for you.

Product List
Online Exclusives · Pattern of Friendship

A Smile to My Face

This week, our featured design product is the Pattern of Friendship bundle by Stampin’ Up! This stamp and die bundle just released with the new Online Exclusive products. It’s not your typical stamp and die bundle though. The accompanying die is a full-size background die that leaves delicate lines of dots in your paper. What I love about this die is being able to create so many different looks with this one very simple die. Let’s check out today’s card to see what I mean.

This design was inspired by a card I saw made by fellow demo Mikaela Titheridge over at the Crafty O’ Ink Pen. We get started with a base of Balmy Blue cardstock. The focal panel has a mat of Misty Moonlight cardstock which serves to give some structure and stability to our focal panel and some depth to our color palette. The focal panel is a sheet of the blue Beautiful Bokeh that has been cut with the Pattern of Friendship die on the diagonal to create an argyle pattern. I love how this pattern gives the illusion of blowing rain. Using the Bright Skies dies, I cut several different sized clouds from white cardstock and adhered them in several different layers onto our focal panel. I stamped the sentiment from Pattern of Friendship in Versamark and then heat embossed with white embossing powder onto a sheet of the yellow Beautiful Bokeh paper and then cut a circle using the Spotlight on Nature dies to create the sun for the scene. I tucked the sun behind the clouds. I added some raindrops under the clouds using the blue tinsel gems and then added some bits of sparkly interest with the white and yellow starburst sequins.

Reimagining how to pair products in our crafty stash is what making a papercrafter so much fun. When I’m looking for a unique spin on an otherwise very traditional idea, I try to think of how I can use something from my stash differently. Like using the Pattern of Friendship background die to create the look of rain. How can you reimagine some of your favorites?

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see what else we can get up to with this week’s featured bundle!

Product List
Online Exclusives · Thankful Garden

You’re On My Mind

Happy Saturday….uh, I mean Monday? As I’m sure you could tell, Saturday came and went and all was quiet here. Saturday turned out to be a much busier day than we had originally anticipated. The kiddo had an Academic Pentathlon tournament and then we had dinner with friends. I expected to have enough time in between to make charcuterie boards AND a card. But those best laid plans didn’t quite pan out. But I had this idea in my head and wanted to share one final card to wrap up our week with the Lovely Garden suite. So today, you’ll be getting TWO posts!

Our final card in the Lovely Garden design series pairs this lovely paper with the new Pattern of Friendship die, Mixed Labels stamps, and paper butterflies (one of my favorite accessories). I wanted to try something a little different with the Pattern of Friendship die and double cut to create a pattern, and I really love how it turned out and am looking forward to trying out some other pattern ideas.

Our card gets started with a base of Fresh Freesia cardstock. I used the small floral pattern sheet from the Lovely Garden paper pack as the backdrop for our focal panel. The focal panel is also a sheet of the Lovely Garden pack and is matted with a sheet of the tungsten textured metallic cardstock that has been inlaid with a plaid pattern using the Pattern of Friendship die. I wrapped some Fresh Freesia velvet ribbon around the metallic panel before adhering to the base with dimensionals. The floral patterned focal panel is adhered over the metallic mat with several layers of dimensionals so that it would lie flat over the raised velvet ribbon. I stamped the sentiment from Mixed Labels in Fresh Freesia on white cardstock and then cut with the banner die from the Adventurous Sky dies. The sentiment is adhered to the floral panel with dimensionals. The paper butterfly is given a little sparkle with Wink of Stella before it’s adhered to the panel approaching a flower. A few two tone sparkle gems add the twinkle and draw the eye across the design to take in all the elements.

I hope you enjoyed getting a peek at a number of ways that you can use the Lovely Garden suite to make beautiful designs. This week, we’re going to getting a closer look at the Pattern of Friendship bundle. I think you’re going to love it!

Product List
Online Exclusives · Sketchy Fridays · Thankful Garden

Sketchy Fridays: Sympathy Garden

We’ve made it through another week, and I don’t know about you but this one went by quickly with Ash Wednesday in the middle. The start of Lent always means a lot more rehearsal time for me. Such is the life of a singer! Despite some crazy weather at the beginning of the week, we’re enjoying more springlike weather here in North Texas.

But the real business you’ve all come for is Sketchy Fridays, so we’ll get right to it! For those of you who are new here, Sketchy Fridays is a weekly series where we’re using a card sketch to design our featured card. Right now, we’re working through a full series of designs using the card sketches found in current Stampin’ Up! catalogs.

This week’s card is based on Sketch #16 from the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. Today’s design features the Lovely Garden paper and decorative masks, along with the Textured Notes dies, all from the new Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusives release.

I decided to try a different technique with the decorative masks after seeing several other demos use it. The masks for the Thankful Garden stamp set are made, not only to use with the stamped images, but also can stand alone to make lovely watercoloresque images.

Our card starts with a base of Balmy Blue cardstock with a background panel of the Lovely Garden designer series paper. I decided to reiterate the floral images on the focal panel, so I used the masks and 3 shades of purpley-pink (Bubble Bath, Fresh Freesia, and Petunia Pop) to create the flowers. I cut them out with my paper snips. I created the focal panel by first using the Textured Notes dies to cut a piece of vellum (because I wanted the lovely background pattern to show through) and then the piece of black and white polka dot from the Lovely Garden pack. I tied some Fresh Freesia velvet ribbon around the background panel before adhering and then adhered the focal panel pieces over it. I layered the flowers with dimensionals to give some depth. I stamped the sentiment in Fresh Freesia on white using the Mixed Labels stamps and cut it out with the Something Fancy hexagon die. The sentiment mat is cut from Petunia Pop glimmer paper using the Mixed Labels dies. I put a twist of gold thread in between the two sentiment layers for a little added sparkle before adding some of the starburst sequins.

Today’s sketch inspired a few changes here and there to the suggested layout. Remember, a sketch should never tie you down but just make the process of getting started and finishing a lot easier. When all is said and done, I really like the softer look you can achieve by using the decorative masks by themselves like I did here, but I’m probably much more likely to use them in conjunction with the stamped images because I really like the definition and detail. But isn’t it fun to try new things?!

We’ll be closing out our series tomorrow. I hope you’ll pop in and see how we finish off our week!

Product List
Online Exclusives · Thankful Garden

Silent Garden

This week, I’m featuring the new Online Exclusive suite called Lovely Garden. And today’s card uses a twist on a fun fold I learned from fellow demo Jackie Bolhuis called the panel Z-Fold to showcase the beautiful patterned paper and the stamp, mask, die bundle. Let’s get a closer look.

We get started with our card base, which is a quarter-panel of Shaded Spruce cardstock. Our sheet of Lovely Garden patterned paper actually serves as the bulk of the structural paper for this design. We cut it to a standard size for making a portrait orientation card (with the score line at the top), but it’s important that you cut the paper so that your design will be running in the right direction for a landscape card. So when scoring this patterned sheet, the long edge will be on the top/bottom and then you’ll score at 5 1/2-inches, 2 3/4-inches, and 1 3/8-inches. The two smaller panels will be adhered together so that both sides of the patterned paper will now show when the card is closed. I used the middle sized die from the Textured Notes set to cut an inside sentiment panel and a piece of the Graceful Greenery vellum for the card front.

After deciding on the orientation of the front panel, I lined them both up to go ahead and adhere the inside sentiment panel to the base for safe keeping. I moved on to the focal image from the Thankful Garden stamp set which is stamped in black on white cardstock. I used a combination of Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, and Peach Pie and the masks to color the flowers and then Shy Shamrock and Shaded Spruce for the stems. Using the coordinating Thankful Garden dies, I cut out the floral image. I stamped the sentiment from Wonderful Thoughts in black on the far-right side of the vellum and heat embossed with black embossing powder. Before adhering the floral bunch next to the sentiment, I made a bow of cream woven ribbon. An assortment of embellishments, including rhinestone jewels, shimmer gems, and starburst sequins, bring it all together and add some pops of sparkle.

Tomorrow we’ll be pairing this beautiful suite with a sketch. I hope you’ll stop by and check it out!

Product List
Online Exclusives · Thankful Garden

You Matter

Stampin’ Up! just released a brand new batch of Online Wxclusives. Have you checked them out yet? We’re using one of the new suites as our design focus for this week — the Lovely Garden suite. And today’s card shows off the included stamp bundle — with its stamps, masks, and dies — beautifully.

This design gets started with a simple white base. The background panel is a sheet of striped paper from the Lovely Garden paper pack. I wanted to keep the color palette very simple for this design so that the focal image really takes the stage. Our focal image backdrop is a circle of Petunia Pop glimmer paper that is cut with the Spotlight on Nature dies. I love how this pinky-purple really teases out the color variations in our focal image.

The hydrangea image from Thankful Garden is stamped in black. Using the coordinating masks and my blending brushes, I added a layer of Pretty in Pink, then Fresh Freesia, and finally Blackberry Bliss to color the flowers. The leaves and stems combine Garden Green and Shaded Spruce. The trickiest part was figuring out how to orient the first mask to get it to line up properly with the image, but once you get the notch marked it’s easy breezy for every mask thereafter. (I’ll do a video for Terrific Tuesdays.) Using the coordinating die from the Thankful Garden set, I cut out the image. It’s mounted on the sparkly backdrop with dimensionals and then the panel is adhered to the base with dimensionals, as well.

I finished things off by building the sentiment panel. I stamped the banner from the Mixed Labels set in black on white cardstock. I chose a portion of a sentiment from the Wonderful Thoughts set and stamped it in the center of the banner with Blackberry Bliss. Using the Mixed Labels banner die, I cut the sentiment. It’s adhered at the bottom of the focal panel in the center with several layers of dimensionals so that it peeks out just a touch above the focal panel. I added a few of the new Starburst discs around the focal panel for some visual interest.

Are you loving this week’s featured bundle as much as I am? I’m looking forward to bringing you more design ideas. I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow for a cool fun fold idea!

Product List
Online Exclusives · Thankful Garden

Thankful Difference

Have you seen the new Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusives that launched today? There are so many wonderful new things in the store. I still have a number of things hanging out in my cart.

This week, we’re looking at the new Lovely Garden suite, which includes stamps, dies, masks, paper, ribbon, and embellishments. And today’s card also incorporates the new Textured Notes dies, as well as the Pattern of Friendship embossing panel.

Our card starts with a base of Basic Black cardstock. I love how this brings out the details in the floral sheet from the Lovely Garden paper pack which serves as our backdrop. A sheet of Fresh Freesia that’s been embossed with the new Pattern of Friendship die serves as the mat for our patterned paper. Next, I stamped the sentiment from Thankful Garden in Fresh Freesia on white and diecut it with the narrow Textured Notes die. I cut the small frame from Melon Mambo using the Mixed Labels dies. In between these two layers, we’ve sandwiched a bow of Fresh Freesia velvet ribbon and mounted the full sentiment panel over some sparkly foliage with dimensionals. I added purple sequins around the sentiment panel for a sparkly detail, which works well to draw our eyes right to the sentiment.

The paper in the Lovely Garden paper pack is so pretty that it’s hard not to grab for it each and every time I go to make a card! Tomorrow we’re going to pair up this lovely paper with the stamps and masks. Can’t wait for you to see!

Product List
Online Exclusives · Thankful Garden

Thankful Friend

We are already to another Monday – the first Monday of March. MARCH! Man, it seems like this year just got started. It was a busy weekend for us, so March definitely came marching’ on in. We had some beautiful weather and enjoyed a lot of together time that included time outside. One of my favorite things about spring is the return of all my sleeping plants and the chance to visit the nursery for new plants. My boys entertained me with a trip to our favorite local nursery and even helped pick out our new flowers.

And speaking of spring, there is a whole crop of brand new stamps releasing tomorrow with the launch of new Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusives. So this week, we’re going to be getting a closer look at the Thankful Garden bundle, which includes stamps, masks, dies, paper, ribbon, and embellishments. And today’s card showcases the beautiful paper.

Our card starts with a base of Night of Navy cardstock. Our focal background pattern is from the Lovely Garden paper pack. The sentiment from the Thankful Garden stamp set is stamped in Melon Mambo on white cardstock and then diecut with the Something Fancy dies. I cut the sentiment mat from Berry Burst glimmer paper using the larger Something Fancy die. A faux bow of Shaded Spruce satin ribbon is affixed to the back of the sentiment. The dainty dot patterned strip from the Lovely Garden paper pack serves as our sentiment backdrop. I cut a stem of greenery from Shaded Spruce with the Thankful Garden dies and adhered it under the sentiment panel which sits on top thanks to a layer of dimensionals. Regal foil dots dress things up a bit and bring our eyes front and center to the sentiment.

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see more of this Thankful Garden!

Products used in today’s card:
Night of Navy, Shaded Spruce, Basic White cardstock
Lovely Garden (coming 3/4!), Berry Burst glimmer paper
Thankful Garden stamps & dies (coming 3/4!)
Something Fancy dies
Shaded Spruce satin ribbon
Regal foil dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Everyday Skies

Starry Thoughts

Whew, today turned out to be just as busy as I thought it might be, but it was a successful day nonetheless. The kiddo scored an “excellent” on his euphonium solo and bowled above his average for his league games today. We took advantage of the glorious sunshine and perfect temps here in North Texas and rode our bikes around the park and played ball outside. And to top it all off, I got to steal a few moments in the craft room to bring you our last card of our Everyday Skies design series for this week.

We’re keeping things simple with a clean layout using the reverse sides of the Everyday Skies paper, which we have paired with the ever-lovely With You in Mind stamp set. And as a bonus, we’re getting a sneak peek of the new Textured Notes dies that will release next week. If you’re like me, you were crushed when Stampin’ Up! retired the Deckled Rectangles dies and wondered what you would ever do without them. Well, we’re all in luck as this lovely set of textured-edge dies hits the shelves in just a few days!

We get started with a base of Night of Navy cardstock. I chose the navy starry night pattern from the Everyday Skies paper pack and used the Textured Notes dies to cut our panel. I stamped the sentiment from With You in Mind in Misty Moonlight on a coordinating sheet of a lighter blue patterned sheet from the paper pack. I wrapped one end with some Misty Moonlight natural tones linen thread and tied a small bow and affixed the panel to our focal panel before adhering everything to the card base with dimensionals. I added a few silver stars just above and on one end of the sentiment panel. The stars are cut from silver foil using the two small dies from the Merriest Trees stamp set. A few rhinestones add that last little bit of twinkle.

This clean and simple layout is very versatile and allows you to make a whole variety of cards for a number of different occasions in no time. And as you can see, the patterns in the Everyday Skies paper pack allow for a lot of versatility, as well.

Next week, we start a new design series using the brand new Thankful Garden suite. You’re going to love it!

Product List
Everyday Skies · Sketchy Fridays

Sketchy Fridays: Family You Choose

Happy Friday, everyone. It was a very busy but productive week around here. And the weekend is shaping up to be pretty busy too with the kiddo’s various activities. But we’re excited for some nice weather in store for tomorrow before the rainy spring(ish) season kicks in here in North Texas.

But let’s go down to the real business – Sketchy Fridays! For those of you who are new here, Sketchy Fridays is a weekly series where we’re using a card sketch to design our featured card. Right now, we’re working through a full series of designs using the card sketches found in current Stampin’ Up! catalogs.

This week’s card is based on Sketch #11 from the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. Today, we’re pairing up the Everyday Skies patterned paper with the new Online Exclusive stamp set called Pattern of Friendship (that releases next week!).

I just love this sentiment from the new Pattern of Friendship stamp set. It truly resonates with me because we certainly couldn’t have made it through the difficulties we faced in 2024 without our circle of friends who stepped in and helped our family!

This card gets started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I used Fresh Freesia as the background for our focal panel which is made up of scraps of the reverse side patterns of the Everyday Skies papers. I stamped the sentiment from Pattern of Friendship in Blackberry Bliss on a striped sheet of Everyday Skies and adhered it on a strip with a swallow pattern. Blackberry Bliss transparent dots give us some pops of interest to draw our eye to the center sentiment. This is a very clean & simple design that literally came together in 5 minutes (once I picked my papers, that is).

We’ll be closing out our design series using Everyday Skies tomorrow. And we’ll be using the patterns on the backsides to create another quick, clean & simple card. I hope you’ll pop in.

Product List