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
Everyday Skies

Shining Light

Welcome to the midpoint of this week! Our design focus this week is on the gorgeous Everyday Skies designer series paper by Stampin’ Up!, where just about every beautiful sky is represented. And today we turn to the night sky for our card design. This is a clean and simple card that you can make in 5 minutes or less.

We start with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I chose a retired piece of specialty paper from a silver foil pack that really brings out the lighter purples in our night sky background panel. I loved the light shimmer of this sheet of metallic paper, but you could easily substitute the Fresh Freesia glimmer paper from the current Three Color Glimmer pack. I decided to stamp the sentiment from You Are Beautiful directly onto the focal panel. I used silver embossing powder to bring out the twinkling stars in our background paper and tied a simple knot of silver trim above the heat embossed sentiment. The two tone sparkle gems are the perfect sparkly addition here with their combination of blue and purple glimmer.

I love having clean and simple card designs with a wow factor in the stash, and the Everyday Skies paper makes it super easy to do just that! Tomorrow we’re Instahopping with the Luv 2 Stamp Group crew, and I can’t wait to show you the super cool fun fold I’ve created with the Hot Air Balloon bundle. I hope you’ll float by and check it out!

Product List
Everyday Skies

Brighter Skies

This week we’re highlighting the lovely Everyday Skies paper in our designs. Each of the skies featured in this paper pack is like a work of art all on its own. Today’s design is using one of the more ominous skies to create an encouragement card using the Bright Skies stamps and dies.

We begin with a base of Basic Black cardstock. The Everyday Skies pattern serves as the backdrop and main focal panel. I wrapped a combination of Blackberry Bliss & Gold ribbon and Petal Pink diagonal trim around the bottom of the panel before adhering to the card base. Using the Brighter Skies dies, I cut two smaller clouds from Blackberry Bliss and a larger cloud from black. I heat embossed the sentiment from Bright Skies in black. The clouds are adhered to the focal panel with varying layers of dimensionals to give lots of depth to our scene. I added some Blackberry Bliss foil dots and two tone sparkle gems to draw the eye to our sentiment.

When you have wonderful product at hand, it doesn’t take much to make a lovely card. And the Everyday Skies paper certainly does the heavy lifting in today’s design! Tune in tomorrow for a clean and simple design.

Product List
Everyday Skies

Hi in the Sky

Here we are, finding ourselves at another Monday — another week of opportunities to spread some joy and handmade kindness! This week, our product focus is the lovely Everyday Skies paper by Stampin’ Up!

I love how this paper captures so many different beautiful skies — from sunrise to moonrise and everything in between. And this week, I’ll be highlighting many of these lovely skies by pairing this paper pack with some current SU! products. And we won’t forget the gorgeous backsides of this paper either!

Let’s get our new design series started with the Adventurous Sky stamp & die bundle.

Our card gets started with a base is Balmy Blue cardstock. I chose a sunny day high in the clouds as the sky background here. The plane consists of two pieces cut with the Adventurous Sky dies — I used red festive glimmer paper and silver foil to give a more realistic metallic look to the plane’s exterior. I also cut propellers from silver foil and a disc of vellum with the Spotlight in Nature die to give the look of spinning propeller blades. An industrial trinket serves as the propeller hub in the center. I colored a few of the smaller iridescent faceted gems with my black Stampin’ Blend to serve as the hubcaps on the wheels. The plane is adhered to the sky background with dimensionals. I stamped the sentiment from the Adventurous Sky set in Balmy Blue in the upper left corner. I wanted the plane to look like it’s flying in between banks of clouds and so I cut another sheet of the background, going around just the clouds on the left. I adhered this layer with double dimensionals on top so that this cloud layer is on top. I added a few of the white sequins from the sequins trio pack as little glimmers in the clouds.

This card is so fun and whimsical — definitely sure to bring a small to a recipient’s face! Tomorrow we’re going to be making a pick-me-up with Bright Skies. I hope you’ll drop in and check it out.

Product List
Frosted Forest

Trust in the Lord

We’re closing out the month of August and our week of In the Woods card designs. I’m still reeling over the fact that today is the last day of August! But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised since the temps here in North Texas certainly reflect the usual magma-level heat we’re accustomed to in late August.

Today, we’re trekking through the woods at dusk. We’re pairing up the Frosted Forest dies with a fun new Stampin’ Blends background technique. This card was inspired by a recent Stampin’ Up! Artisan (@thecraftyoinkpen) spotlight on Frosted Forest. And I decided I wanted to create my own dusky background using Stampin’ Blends to finish up my projects for a current Luv 2 Stamp Group team challenge. So let’s see how this all comes together.

We get started with a base of Moody Mauve cardstock. Our focal panel is a piece of white cardstock that has been “painted” with Stampin’ Blends using an acetate rub technique. I used a combination of Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral, and Pool Party Stampin’ Blends to create the dusky background. I’ll be sharing more on this Stampin’ Blend acetate rub technique in the next episode of Terrific Tuesdays, so be sure you tune in this coming week to learn all about it! I created a continuous panel of trees from Early Espresso cardstock using the die from the Frosted Forest die set and the extension method and then adhered it to the blended panel using a fine tip glue pen. The sentiment from Courage & Faith is heat embossed in gold between the two groves of trees. The focal panel is matted with Blackberry Bliss & Gold textured ribbon and the darker woodgrain panel from the Country Woods designer paper pack and adhered to the card front with dimensionals. For a little extra twinkle, I added some brown sequins in opposing corners.

Isn’t this just a beautiful backdrop for the trees? I just love this new background technique and can’t wait to tell you all about it on Tuesday! Speaking of which, next week is All About Autumn. I hope you’ll stop in each day to see how we’re putting some of the new items from the Holiday Mini Catalog to a unique use for our design theme!

Products used in today’s card:
Moody Mauve, Early Espresso, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Courage & Faith stamps
Frosted Forest dies
Gold embossing powder
Blackberry Bliss & Gold textured ribbon (coming soon!)
Neutrals sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List