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!

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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.

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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.

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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

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Changing Leaves · Fun Folds

Not Without You

Welcome to another bright & shining Monday. I don’t know about you, but it was a busy weekend for us. The kiddo finished up his summer bowling league and took some lessons in preparation for the start of the fall league. So we spent a lot of time at the bowling alley. But given the inferno we’re experiencing here in North Texas, that worked out just fine!

This week, we’re starting a new card series called In the Woods. Each we’ll be using products from Stampin’ Up! that fit our weekly theme. Today, I’m feeling all the fall vibes and thought it would be appropriate to get started with the Changing Leaves bundle paired up with the Splendid Autumn designer series paper that launches next week on September 6th.

To give an opportunity for our gorgeous leaves from the Changing Leaves bundle to take center stage, we’re working with the barn fold today. And we get started on today’s card with a base of Crushed Curry cardstock. We cover each of the front flaps of our barn fold with a strip of paper from the Splendid Autumn paper pack. The pattern is a very subtle brushed, grainy texture that gives some nice depth in our color palette. Next up, we emboss a quarter panel of Blackberry Bliss cardstock using the Changing Leaves hybrid embossing folder and then diecut it into a smaller panel with one of the larger Deckled Rectangles dies. On a quarter sheet of white cardstock, I traced the outside of the trio of leaves from the Changing Leaves die set in pencil to make it easier to stamp each of the leaf images and then diecut all at once. I used a combination of fall colors to ink each leaf from the stamp set, including Copper Clay, Blackberry Bliss, and Crushed Curry, and imitated the look of leaves in a color metamorphosis by going over sections of each leaf with other colors for a subtle two-toned look. I diecut a few additional leaves in gold foil and Blackberry Bliss and then layered everything together to create a leafy focal section behind the sentiment panel. Our hexagonal sentiment panel consists of a white center panel and mat of Peach Pie glimmer paper. The sentiments from Everyday Greetings and Changing Leaves are stamped in Blackberry Bliss. Our focal panel section is finished off with Blackberry Bliss & Gold textured ribbon from the upcoming Holiday Mini catalog, releasing next week on September 6th. A few shiny sequins finish things off with a little extra sparkle and help draw the eye across all the gorgeous design elements on the front of this card.

Tomorrow we’re working with another fun fold design and another gorgeous sheet from the Splendid Autumn paper pack to create a gorgeous peek-through scene. You won’t want to miss it!

Products used in today’s card:
Crushed Curry, Blackberry Bliss, Basic White cardstock
Splendid Autumn (coming soon!), gold foil, In Color glimmer DSP
Changing Leaves stamps, dies & hybrid embossing folder
Deckled Rectangles
Everyday Greetings stamps
Hexagon punch
Blackberry Bliss & Gold textured ribbon (coming soon!)
Shiny sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Frosted Forest · Fun Folds

Thoughtful Thanks

We are closing out our week of card designs where we’ve been using the new Online Exclusive by Stampin’ Up! called Frosted Forest. And we are doing so in style with one of my very favorite fancy fun folds called the Center Step fold. This is one of my favorite folds when I have a bundle made for scene building, and of course, Frosted Forest is absolutely perfect for that. For this design, we’re pairing it up with some patterned paper from the Thoughtful Journey designer series paper pack.

We get started on today’s fun fold design with a base of Lost Lagoon cardstock, which is cut to the standard size. The panel is then cut and scored to allow for the center standout section. (Click here for the full PDF directions.) I used the sheet of patterned paper with the evergreens from the Thoughtful Journey paper pack to serve as the backdrop for the front scene. The evergreen tree is stamped on Mossy Meadow using the Frosted Forest stamp and then diecut with the coordinating full tree die. The coordinating limbs are then diecut and added on top for additional detail. This is adhered to the left side of the center fold with dimensionals.

Next up is the tall tree, which is stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. The top of the tree is then also stamped on Mossy Meadow, diecut, and adhered on top. I also diecut a branch portion of the tree from Crumb Cake to be layered on top of the green canopy. I went over the trunk and limbs with a Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blend. The coordinating leaves are diecut from Old Olive and then adhered on top of the branches. This is adhered to the right side of the center fold with dimensionals and made to stand a little higher than the evergreen for greater depth of field. I added some low-lying bushes using the die from the Sending Love set. The squirrel and bunny are diecut using the In the Grove dies, while the deer is from the Grove set. I added some shading detail to the deer and squirrel using my sponge dauber.

The sentiment panel is a simple circle diecut from Very Vanilla using the Everyday Details dies. The sentiment from Changing Leaves is stamped in Lost Lagoon. I added coordinating rainbow dots on either side to draw the eye and some linen thread behind for a more natural attention-grabbing detail.

The inside panel of the card is covered with another patterned sheet from the Thoughtful Journey paper pack. This sentiment from Changing Leaves is stamped on Very Vanilla and then diecut using the Autumn Leaves die. It’s adhered in the centered of the inside panel with dimensionals.

This card is a perfect example of how a great piece of patterned paper and a beautiful scene-building stamp bundle allow you to make beautiful cards without a lot of effort. The patterned paper does the heavy lifting here, while the Frosted Forest just adds the icing on the cake.

Next week, we’re going to dip our toes in the snow and dream of cooler weather! I hope you’ll join me.

Products used in today’s card:
Lost Lagoon, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Crumb Cake, Pecan Pie, Smoky Slate, Very Vanilla cardstock
Thoughtful Journey DSP
Frosted Forest stamps & dies
Changing Leaves stamps
In the Grove, Grove, Everyday Details, Autumn Leaves dies
Stampin’ Blends
Rainbow adhesive dots
Linen thread
Dimensionals
Adhesive

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Frosted Forest · sketches · Sketchy Fridays

Frosted Thoughts

We continue our tour of the Online Exclusive bundle by Stampin’ Up! called Frosted Forest. And today, things are cooling off a little bit as we find our forest covered in a light dusting of snow.

Today’s card is also the start of a brand NEW blog series called Sketchy Fridays, where we’ll be using sketches as the basis for our card designs. We’re kicking off this series with the sketches found in the current 2024-25 Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. Did you know that there are 22 sketches included in the new catalog at the bottom of page 22? What a fantastic resource we have right at our fingertips to make beautiful cards in a jiffy!

And today, we begin with Sketch #4 which we are pairing with the Frosted Forest bundle. This sketch drew me because of its large focal panel which allows a beautiful product bundle, like Frosted Forest, to take center stage. TIP: remember that a sketch is just a starting point and moving elements around to suit your design is a-okay!

I loved the pairing of the Winter Meadow paper with the lovely evergreens in the Frosted Forest set. So we get started with a card base of Mossy Meadow. The base of our focal panel is a combination of gold foil specialty paper and a patterned sheet from the Winter Meadow designer series paper pack. Our focal panel is a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock where we stamp both the small and large evergreens from the Frosted Forest stamp set in black ink and then shade them in using the decorative masks and a combination of Shaded Spruce, Old Olive, and Garden Green inks. The snowflakes from Merriest Trees are stamped in Versamark and I then used mask #2 to apply Versamark to both trees and a Versamark pen to fill in underneath both evergreens. All of this is heat embossed using the opaque bright white embossing powder. The focal panel is matted with Boho Blue luster paper and then adhered with dimensionals. Our sentiment from Everyday Greetings is stamped in Versamark on Mossy Meadow and heat embossed in metallic gold rich embossing powder. Fussy cutting around the sentiment gives it a more casual feel. The sentiment is adhered to a Gold Mercury vellum mat with dimensionals. Our vellum mat has been diecut with the smallest Deckled Rectangle die and is adhered to the focal panel with a strip of tear-n-tape. I added a dove from Frosted Forest and a few rhinestone basic jewels to finish things off.

Using a sketch is like using a recipe when you’re cooking — it gives you a great place to start but allows you to spice things up with your own variations. For me, it helps a design come together more quickly because I have a great base.

Tomorrow we’ll be finishing up our card series using the Frosted Forest bundle with one of my favorite fun folds. I hope you’ll drop by and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Mossy Meadow, Very Vanilla cardstock
Gold Mercury vellum, Winter Meadow, Boho Blue luster, Gold foil DSP
Frosted Forest stamps, decorative masks, and dies
Everyday Greetings stamps
Deckled Rectangles
Embossing powder
Rhinestone basic jewels
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Frosted Forest

Forest of Amazing

This week, we’re working with the new Online Exclusive bundle from Stampin’ Up! called Frosted Forest. This bundle includes a photopolymer stamp set, coordinating dies, and coordinating decorative masks. Up until I added this bundle to my stash, I had staunchly avoided decorative masks. Decorative masks allow you to quickly color and add detail to your stamped images with sponges or blending brushes. I thought they were going to be too fussy, but Stampin’ Up! has made it super easy to line them up perfectly every time with the corner notches.

Wanna know something else I really love about the Frosted Forest set? It pairs beautifully with SO many other SU! products. And today’s card shows you exactly that, so let’s talk about how this one comes together.

We get started with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock. I chose a quarter panel of Pool Party as the backdrop for the focal panel so that I wouldn’t have to add the sky myself, and it allowed for a soft backdrop for all of the stamped images that follow.

So next we start building our background scene with a combination of the In the Grove and Grassy Grove stamp sets. The mountain range from In the Grove is stamped in Gorgeous Grape and then I lightly sponged over it with Highland Heather and pulled that color down to create a valley. With the grass stamp from Grassy Grove, we add a layer of grass slightly over the purple of the mountain valley using Mossy Meadow ink and continue down the panel with the grass stamp from In the Grove, also using Mossy Meadow, until the panel is complete. A few gaps here and there give a sense of changes in terrain and elevation.

Next up, we start building our forefront scene by stamping both the large and small tree from Frosted Forest in black in on Gray Granite cardstock. Each is shaded using the coordinating decorative masks with a combination of Shaded Spruce, Old Olive, and Garden Green and then each tree is diecut using the coordinating Frosted Forest die. The smaller trees are adhered on either side of the panel with dimensionals. The larger tree is adhered in the center with dimensionals so that it stands taller. The larger and smaller deer silhouettes are diecut from Crumb Cake cardstock using the Grove dies and then tucked into the trees and adhered with glue dots. The bird from the Frosted Forest set is stamped in black on Smoky Slate cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. It’s adhered with a dimensional over the grass so that it appears to be soaring through the valley.

Our sentiment from the Changing Leaves set is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut using the Friends for Life smudge banner. A piece of the Moody Mauve shimmer paper is also cut with the Friends for Life smudge banner and is cut in half to allow it to serve as a mat for the sentiment. The full panel is adhered with dimensionals and a few rhinestone jewels are added to draw the eye to the sentiment.

While this card may look a little complicated, it comes together quickly and easily. I love thinking about how I can use various sets together to create beautiful scenes, and the Frosted Forest set lends itself so easily to doing so.

I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow to see how we can create a snowy scene. You won’t want to miss it!

Products used in today’s card:
Mossy Meadow, Pool Party, Basic White, Crumb Cake, Smoky Slate, Gray Granite cardstock
Moody Mauve In Color cardstock
Frosted Forest stamps, masks, and dies
In the Grove, Grassy Grove, Changing Leaves stamps
Grove, Friends for Life dies
Rhinestone basic jewels
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Frosted Forest

Towering Thank You

Happy Wednesday, crafty friends! It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway to the weekend. This week, we’re exploring designs using the new Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusive bundle called Frosted Forest. Like so many other sets, Frosted Forest can be paired with a whole host of products in the current catalog to give you a variety of looks. Today, we’re using Autumn Leaves for a fall-inspired design.

I have seen so many wonderful cards using the Dotted Circles embossing folder and some sort of circular diecut, and I really wanted to give it a try. This card really just fell together. And I certainly can’t say that about very many cards that I make!

We get started with a card base of Cajun Craze cardstock and emboss just the front-facing portion of the card base using the Dotted Circles embossing folder. The tall tree from Frosted Forest is stamped on a quarter panel of white cardstock in black ink and then shaded using the decorative masks and a combination of Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, Pretty Peacock, and Shaded Spruce inks to tie with our other leaf elements. Our image panel is two layers — a mat diecut from Country Woods and the image panel, both cut using the Spotlight on Nature dies. I chose the two larger leaf dies from the Autumn Leaves set to complete our focal element. The larger leaf is cut from the Pretty Peacock sheet of Oxidized Copper, while the smaller leaf is cut from the Gold Mercury vellum. The leaf veining is cut from the darkest woodgrain patterned sheet in the Country Woods designer paper pack. The full focal section is adhered to the card front with dimensionals. The sentiment from Frosted Forest is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut with the decorative banner die in the Unbounded Love die set. I frayed an entire section of Pretty Peacock & Gold metallic ribbon by “unzipping” the gold and then separating the strands of thread. After gathering them together, I tied a small knot in the center and adhered it to the back of the sentiment panel and then adhered the sentiment panel with dimensionals. To help the eye move across the design, copper sequins are placed in opposite corners.

I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow to see how you can use the Frosted Forest bundle to build beautiful scenes. You won’t want to miss it!

Products used in this card:
Cajun Craze, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods, Oxidized Copper DSP
Gold Mercury vellum
Frosted Forest stamps & decorative masks
Spotlight on Nature, Unbounded Love, Autumn Leaves dies
Dotted Circles embossing
Pretty Peacock & Gold metallic ribbon
Neutrals sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Frosted Forest

Forest of Birthdays

We’re on day 2 of our featured Online Exclusive bundle from Stampin’ Up! called Frosted Forest. The full bundle includes photopolymer stamps, coordinating dies, and decorative masks. And today, we’re keeping it pretty simple, much like yesterday, because you really don’t have to put much with this bundle to make eye-popping cards.

We get started on our card today with a base of Early Espresso cardstock. Our focal panel is a sheet of white cardstock diecut using the largest Deckled Rectangles die. The evergreen trees from the Frosted Forest stamp set are offset on the right. I combined both the large and small tree to create the focal image section. The trees are “colored” using the decorative masks with a combination of Shaded Spruce, Old Olive, and Garden Green inks. To give the look of falling leaves or snow, depending on your perspective, I chose the small detail stamp from the In the Grove stamp set and filled in around the trees in Gray Granite ink using the stamp-off method so that my images weren’t super crisp. I diecut a piece of Gold Mercury vellum to serve as the backdrop for the sentiment to ensure that it stood out from the scene. The sentiment from So Sincere is stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed using black embossing powder and then diecut with the longest banner die from the Happy Little Things set using the die extension method. The sentiment is adhered to the vellum panel with dimensionals and the full panel is set apart with a strip of gold trim. To add some sparkle and draw the eye across the design diagonally, I added some neutrals sequins.

Tomorrow we’re going to kick things up a notch with more product pairing. I hop you’ll pop by and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Early Espresso, Basic White cardstock
Gold Mercury vellum
Frosted Forest, So Sincere, In the Grove stamps
Frosted Forest masks
Happy Little Things, Deckled Rectangles dies
Gold trim
Neutrals sequins
WOW embossing powder
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List