Wish You Were Here

February 10, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Hello, crafty friends. Welcome in. I know it’s only Tuesday, but it sure feels like we’ve lived about 3 Mondays this week! Anyone else? Hopefully the rest of the week smooths out.

This week we’re tipping our hats to our loved ones near & far as we think of ways we can honor the upcoming Valentine holiday in our designs this week. And today I still wanted to give a nod to the fellas with this blue-hued design combining blue cardstock and a few elements from the 12 Days of Advent calendar.

We get started with a base of Night of Navy cardstock. Our blue floral backdrop panel is from the patterned paper pack from this year’s Advent calendar. And the same goes for a sentiment panel — it’s one of the 3×4 notecards from the Advent calendar that’s been matted with Night of Navy before being adhered to the center of the card front with dimensionals. And to finish things off, some of the darker opal rounds are added in opposing corners to draw the eye across the design.

I think this is the perfect card to send to a friend you don’t see often — just to let them know they’re on your mind. And it could easily be for a guy or gal pal. What do you think?

I’ll be taking a break tomorrow to attend the kiddo’s basketball game. But we’ll be back at it on Thursday. Hope to see you then!

Products used in this design:

Night of Navy cardstock; 2025 Adventure Calendar; Misty Moonlight & Silver edged ribbon; Opal rounds; Dimensionals

Valentines

Extra Special Grove

February 9, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome back, friends! It’s Monday and my tail is dragging. What about yours? After getting a little crafty time on Saturday morning, the hubby & I set about tackling our to-do list for the day. Late in the afternoon, I got a headache that eventually morphed into a migraine. So my grand plan for rewarding myself for conquering our to-do list by playing in the craft room again was replaced by retiring to bed early and sleeping with a pillow over my head. Womp-womp.

So here we are at Monday again and time for a new design challenge. This week, we’re thinking about the upcoming Valentine holiday, if we want to call it that. It’s actually a perfect time to let your friends know you’re thinking of them — and that special someone too, of course! So we’re starting off with one for the fellas since they didn’t really get their due last week. And we’re combining the new Aspen Grove stamp set with the Country Woods paper and a sentiment from the 2025 Advent Calendar.

We get started with a base of Smoky Slate cardstock. A sheet of the grey woodgrain from the Country Woods paper pack serves as our focal backdrop. I arranged the Aspen Grove stamps on a large block and stamped the row of trunks in black ink onto white cardstock. I layered several shades of green leaves up top to create the treetop canopy. To give some realistic depth to the tree trunks, we use Crumb Cake and Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blends down the left side of each one, which gives a shadow effect. I filled in a touch of blue in the background with Cloud Cover ink, but you could easily skip this shading (and next time, I think I will!). The focal panel is downsized using the Textured Notes die and then adhered to the woodgrain backdrop. The full panel is wrapped in black & gold bakers twine that is tied in a knot on the left side before the focal panel is adhered to the card front with dimensionals. The sentiment panel is cut from Cloud Cover cardstock with the Stylish Shapes circle die and then the sentiment from the 12 Days of Christmas Advent calendar is stamped in black in the center and then adhered over the twine with dimensionals. I added a few of the lighter Shades of Green Hexagons on either side of the sentiment to draw the eye in and add a bit of colorful eye candy.

This design is 100% inspired by one of the samples from the January Mini catalog. Much like using a sketch, you can take a design and make it your own with a substitution here & there. It’s another great trick when you’re either short on time or lacking a little inspiration — or both!

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see another Valentine-inspired design.

Product List

Smoky Slate 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[131202]

$14.00

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Cloud Cover 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[165621]

$14.00

Country Woods 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[163393]

$12.50

12 Days Of Crafting Advent Calendar (English)

[167335]

$99.00

Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad

[101406]

$10.50

Textured Notes Dies

[165555]

$31.00

Stylish Shapes Dies

[159183]

$30.00

Aspen Grove Photopolymer Stamp Set

[167018]

$20.00

Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad

[147089]

$9.00

Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' Pad

[147088]

$9.00

Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin' Pad

[147111]

$9.00

Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154882]

$11.00

Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154904]

$11.00

Black & White & Gold Baker's Twine

[166005]

$8.50

Shades Of Green Hexagons

[165233]

$8.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Blossoms of Recovery

January 14, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to the midweek, everyone! My best intentions of getting this post wrapped up and published yesterday didn’t come to pass. My day just didn’t quite go as planned. We’re still working to get back into the groove of all the things after the holiday break and I forgot how busy Tuesdays typically turn out to be.

This week, we’re continuing to take a look at some of the new products that hit the store last week. If you haven’t checked out all that’s new, click here to take a look. It’s definitely worth the peek!

So this week we’re working with the new Prayers & Promises stamp set. These sentiments cover a whole bunch of occasions and help with those “difficult” cards. Today we’re making a get well card using a whole host of new products, including paper, laser cut elements, ribbon, and embellishments!

We get started with a base of white cardstock. A sheet of the Lovely Blossoms patterned paper serves as our backdrop. I love the combination of the soft background with the bold Secret Sea accents. Our focal panel combines several elements. We start with a base of the January Product of the Month (still available!) called True Blue Florals and then layer the new Pleasant Patterns foiled paper on top. The sentiment from the Prayers & Promises set is stamped in Secret Sea on one of the diecut sentiment panels included in the 2025 Advent Calendar, which is adhered in the bottom corner with dimensionals. I layered some Covered in Flowers accents, colored with Wink of Stella, over a twist of the new white with gold ribbon. We finish things off with some sparkle dot essentials for an additional pop of twinkle.

This card comes together in a flash and is sure to be the perfect pick-me-up for a friend who’s under the weather. We’ll be staying with our botanical theme tomorrow as we pair our sentiment set with two new multi-image bundles. I hope you’ll drop in to see which bundles are coming to the stage!

Product List

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Pleasant Patterns 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[166950]

$10.00

Lovely Blossoms 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[167168]

$12.50

12 Days Of Crafting Advent Calendar (English)

[167335]

$99.00

Prayers & Promises Photopolymer Stamp Set (English)

[167014]

$20.00

Secret Sea Classic Stampin' Pad

[165285]

$9.00

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

$10.00

White With Gold 3/8" (1 Cm) Ribbon

[166979]

$8.50

Sparkle Dot Essentials

[166991]

$8.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar

Advent Love

October 25, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to the weekend, everyone, and to our last day of this week’s SU! 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar series. Each day, we’ve been opening two boxes in our Advent calendar and then creating a project with the new crafty goodies. Let’s see what’s in boxes 11 & 12 today!

Alright, so we’re closing our 12 days of crafty treats with some gold glittery glue, a package of embossed notecards, and some beautiful, intricate laser cut pieces. Let’s get to work and see how we can put a lot of our new crafty goodness to work today. The first thing that I wanted to do was work with the laser cut pieces to create a focal feature for the card. And from there I built the remainder of the design around what ends up being the sentiment panel.

We get started with a base of Basic White cardstock. This really lets our other elements take center stage. I used two notecards from the Advent Calendar as our background pieces — a pink notecard with bows, flowers, & butterflies and then one of the new embossed panels from today’s box. The two cards are adhered offset over one another directly to our card base. To bring out the embossing on the white notecard in front, we use a blending brush and some Pretty in Pink ink to make a circle of color in the center where we’ll put our sentiment panel. The sentiment panel starts with a plain circle and decorative laser cut circle from today’s pack of embellishments that are adhered together with glue dots. Sequins, bows, and butterflies from the shaker elements bag gives us little pops of color and detail all around our wreath of flowers & greenery. Don’t you just love the tiny, little butterflies? I didn’t notice them in the shaker elements but wanted them to get special attention today! The sentiment from the Advent Calendar stamp set is stamped in Pretty in Pink in the center. And the full sentiment panel is adhered in the center of our brushed pink circle. We use leaf bunches and hearts in opposing corners to draw the eye in to our sentiment and finish things off with some dots of glittery gold glue next to each heart and then in the centers of each of the flowers on our wreath.

I hope you’ve had fun this week as we’ve opened our Advent Calendar and found creative ways to use each of the new additions to our crafty stash. You’ll be seeing these elements pop up in future designs. Next week we’re going to be touring the autumn woods. I hope you’ll stroll along!

12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar

Advent Hugs

October 24, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome back, friends. Today we’re on Day 5 of our 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar series, where we’re opening two boxes of our calendar each day and then making a fun project with the new goodies. Today we’re on boxes 9 & 10. Let’s see what we’ve got.

So today we have a set of notecards and a new set of pinkish-hued shaker elements. And guess what I figured out as I was going through the notecards to come up with a design — they’re two-sided! How fun is that?! Today’s design is extra fun because I wanted to use the shaker elements in a traditional way. Who doesn’t love a shaker card??

So we get started with a base of Strawberry Slush cardstock. The sheet of Very Vanilla leaves from the Advent Calendar paper pack serves as our neutral backdrop for the focal panel. I decided to use a little shortcut for the shaker panel and dug out a cellophane bag I’d saved from a prior order to serve as the shaker bits holder. The scrap of pink paper from yesterday is the mat for the center section of the focal panel. I used the pink floral notecard for the sentiment panel and picked the coordinating long oval diecut piece from an earlier calendar box as the panel where I heat embossed the sentiment from the Advent Calendar stamp set in gold. All of these elements are adhered together so they’re nice and flat so the shaker pieces will move freely in our containment bag. We tuck the panel in and then shake in the shaker pieces in the front and seal the bag shut. I adhered the bag to the neutral front panel piece with tear-n-tape to ensure a good stick. This panel is then wrapped with the Strawberry Slush baker’s twine from our calendar before the panel is adhered to the card front. I chose two diecut pieces from today’s bag—a pink butterfly & flower—as our accent pieces in opposing corners of the shaker panel. We finish things off with a few of the gold shaker bits in opposing corners.

It’s hard to believe, but we’re down to our last two boxes tomorrow and I absolutely cannot wait to see what we’re closing out our crafting adventure with! I hope you’ll drop in and see!

12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar

Advent Extra Special

October 23, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome in, friends, and thanks for joining me! We are currently on Day 4 of our 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar series, where each day we’re opening two boxes in our calendar and then creating a fun project with the new goodies. Let’s see what our calendar has in store for us today.

OOooo, today we’ve got a new set of postage stamp dies and two spools of baker’s twine — a Strawberry Slush & a Cloud Cover. And I think we’re going to try the layout that I started working on yesterday that just didn’t pan out with the elements I had to work with. I think a variation of Sketch #3 from the Holiday Mini works beautifully today.

We get started with a base of Basic White cardstock. I used a quarter panel of Strawberry Slush as the backdrop and stabilizing piece for the fractured panels of the floral Advent Calendar patterned paper. Using the new postage dies, I cut 3 panels of varying sizes from the sheet of pink from the Advent Calendar paper pack. The largest panel holds our sentiment from the Advent Calendar stamp set. The two smaller panels provide the perfect backdrop for our fuzzy foam stickers. I used the new baker’s twine to add some pizzazz to our long & skinny panel. The foil diecut elements from Day 2 make the perfect accents to help our postage stamp panels really pop. We finish things off with some adhesive gold heart sequins in opposing corners.

One of the fun things about this week is getting more comfortable with designing on the fly. We’re on to boxes 9 & 10 tomorrow and I’m excited to see what we’ll get to work with next!

Product List

12 Days Of Crafting Advent Calendar (English)

[167335]

$99.00

Strawberry Slush 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[165625]

$14.00

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Adhesive Backed Heart Sequins

[164920]

$8.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar

Advent Thinking of You

October 22, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to another day in our week with the SU! 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar, where each day we’re opening two boxes together and then creating a fun project with the goodies we found inside. Thus far, we’ve scored a set of dies that coordinate with the Advent Calendar stamp set, some patterned paper, some glitter shaker elements, and a set of foiled diecut elements. Today, we’re opening boxes 5 & 6. Let’s see what’s inside!

Alrighty, so today we have a set of decorative masks and some fluffy felt stickers. I’m not gonna lie, I was initially pretty stumped on what to do with our new goodies. But I started looking through the rest of the Advent Calendar goodies for some inspiration and decided that continuing with the floral theme would work best, especially since I wanted to incorporate the new items in today’s design. After stacking the decorative masks and getting a sense for the scene they would create, I pulled a sheet of patterned paper that would coordinate and went to town.

We get started with a backdrop of Cloud Cover cardstock. A quarter sheet of Cloud Cover is machine embossed with the *new* Beautiful Pattern embossing folder, which releases next week. I used a strip of the coordinating Advent Calendar patterned paper on the left of the panel. The focal panel floral scene is created with today’s decorative masks, blending brushes, and a combination of inks — Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Pretty in Pink, Strawberry Slush, Cloud Cover, Misty Moonlight, Garden Green, and Shaded Spruce. The panel is cut with the largest circle in the Spotlight on Nature die set and then adhered with dimensionals. The sentiment from the Advent Calendar stamp set is heat embossed in black on vellum and then diecut with one of the smaller circles from the Stylish Shapes set. The panel is adhered over Balmy Blue sheer ribbon with dimensionals and a pink bow from the new fluffy felt sticker set finishes off the sentiment panel. A fluffy felt flower and a few of the Hues of Blue Flowers in the corner finish off our floral theme.

Isn’t this fun? Every day we’re stretching our creativity! Can’t wait to see what our Advent Calendar brings us tomorrow!

Product List

12 Days Of Crafting Advent Calendar (English)

[167335]

$99.00

Cloud Cover 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[165621]

$14.00

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Spotlight On Nature Dies

[163580]

$35.00

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$9.50

Basics Wow! Embossing Powder

[165679]

$21.00

Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin' Pad

[147094]

$9.00

Crushed Curry Classic Stampin' Pad

[147087]

$9.00

Pretty In Pink Classic Stampin Pad

[163807]

$9.00

Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin' Pad

[165286]

$9.00

Cloud Cover Classic Stampin' Ink Refill

[165279]

$5.50

Misty Moonlight Classic Stampin' Pad

[153118]

$9.00

Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad

[147089]

$9.00

Shaded Spruce Classic Stampin' Pad

[147088]

$9.00

Balmy Blue 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Sheer Ribbon

[165767]

$8.50

Hues Of Blue Flowers

[165930]

$9.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Add All to Cart

12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar

Advent Thanks

October 21, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Howdy, crafty friends! Welcome back to our second day of the 12 Days of Crafty Christmas as we work our way through the new SU! 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar, where we’re opening two boxes each day and then creating a fun project with them.

Yesterday, in our boxes we received a set of coordinating dies that go with the included stamp set, along with a set of 6×6 patterned papers. Let’s see what boxes 3 & 4 have in store for us today.

So today, we have a set of gold glitter shaker elements and gold foiled diecut shapes. After thumbing through the set of patterned papers we opened yesterday, the white floral pattern really caught my eye — especially the golden centers. So I looked for a sketch that would make quick work of today’s project and settled on Sketch 2 from the Holiday Mini catalog on page 14. Let’s see how our clean & simple project comes together.

I wanted a nice neutral base that paired well with the subtle background of the patterned sheet and decided that Smoky Slate was the ideal choice for the card base. The sheet of patterned paper serves as the backdrop for our card front. I modified the sketch slightly so that our 3 diagonal elements are solid lines rather than broken and used the narrow Daffodil Delight satin trim for those diagonal elements. The sentiment from the coordinating 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar stamp set is heat embossed in gold on the long oval diecut from today’s box of diecut pieces. The sentiment panel is mounted over the ribbon with dimensionals. I used the shaker elements as individual embellishments in several floral centers by adding pieces of glue dots to the backs of each small gold glitter circle.

Are we having fun yet? I’m looking forward to opening the next two boxes of our Advent calendar tomorrow. What about you?!

12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar

Advent Birthday Wishes

October 20, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Monday, everybody! Have you missed seeing crafty inspiration because I’ve certainly missed having time for it! Sometimes we just have to know when to make a little space for other things — like coordinating major work programs and family time, all of which were time well spent.

But we’re back at it this week with 12 days of crafty Christmas! Each day we’re going to be opening 2 slots in the Stampin’ Up! 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar. Each calendar comes with a box of crafty surprises, as well as a coordinating stamp set. Let’s see what we have in store today!

So isn’t that fun — today we’ll be working with the coordinating dies and 6×6 patterned paper for the Advent Calendar stamp set. The first thing I wanted to do was put everything side-by-side to decide on a theme and color palette for a card design.

The pink floral pattern stood out to me in the selection of papers, so from there I looked for a simple design that would allow me to use the stamps & dies. I pulled out the Holiday Mini catalog and turned to the sketches on page 14 and was drawn to the very first one — clean and simple & a perfect way to coordinate the paper, stamps & dies.

So we have a sketch, our 2 Advent Calendar boxes, and the stamps. We pull coordinating papers together — Strawberry Slush, Pretty in Pink, Mossy Meadow, and white — to get started. To add a pop of interest, I decided to add some texture to the background panel using a *NEW* embossing folder that releases in just a few weeks.

We get started with a base of Strawberry Slush cardstock. The background panel is a quarter sheet of Strawberry Slush that I machine embossed with the new Beautiful Pattern embossing folder, which releases in just a few weeks! The sheet of pink florals is cut and then wrapped with Strawberry Slush ribbon before being adhered to the embossed background panel. Using the Advent Calendar stamp set, we stamp the large and smaller flowers on Pretty in Pink in both Strawberry Slush & Pretty in Pink ink. The center is stamped in Timid Tiger. The flowers are then diecut with the new coordinating dies we opened today, along with coordinating leaves from Mossy Meadow. Our flower is adhered over the ribbon on the left — substituting for the circle in our sketch. The sentiment from the Advent Calendar stamp set is stamped in Strawberry Slush on white cardstock and cut with the banner from the Mixed Labels die set and adhered over our flower element and just under the ribbon. A few Strawberry Slush & Pretty in Pink gems finish things off with pops of twinkle across the card front.

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see what our next 2 boxes will reveal. I know I can’t wait!

Product List

12 Days Of Crafting Advent Calendar (English)

[167335]

$99.00

Strawberry Slush 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[165625]

$14.00

Pretty In Pink 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[163793]

$14.00

Mossy Meadow 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[133676]

$14.00

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Pretty In Pink Classic Stampin Pad

[163807]

$9.00

Strawberry Slush Classic Stampin' Pad

[165286]

$9.00

Timid Tiger Classic Stampin' Pad

[165278]

$9.00

Mixed Labels Dies

[164652]

$21.00

Strawberry Slush 3/8" (1 Cm) Faux Linen Ribbon

[165274]

$8.00

Strawberry Slush & Pretty In Pink Gems

[165615]

$8.50

Tear & Tape Adhesive

[154031]

$7.00

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

[144108]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Beautiful Pumpkins · Peaceful Garden · Sketchy Fridays

Sketchy Fridays: BIG thanks

October 4, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Sketchy Fridays, everyone, and welcome to the weekend! Except it’s Saturday, but we’re all good with that, right? *snicker* My week could be summed up by lions and tigers and bears, oh my! We had a major cloud data migration at my office over last weekend and everything that could go wrong did go wrong. So we were having to make due with alternative ways of accessing e-mail and cloud files all week, and let’s just say that it’s been a mess! In and amongst all of that, we’re hosting a big educational conference in our office next week annnnnnd naturally all of my spreadsheets and files were a part of the data migration. *sigh* So it’s been a little challenging at the office this week, to say the least!

BUT here I am on Saturday bringing you the Sketchy Fridays card because it was just going to be too cute not to make & share! For those of you who are new here, Sketchy Fridays is a weekly series where we use a card sketch to design our featured card.

This week’s card is based on the Freshly Made Sketches #706 sketch. As soon as I saw it, I already had an idea in mind and that made it an easy choice! And we’re turning it on its head, so to speak, to make it landscape. Today’s design features the new Online Exclusives Beautiful Pumpkins bundle.

We get started with a neutral base of white cardstock. Our front panel backdrop is a sheet of the gold foiled script paper from the Nature’s Sweetness paper pack. The focal panel is a combination of two sheets of the Gathering Together paper – the Cajun Craze small leaf pattern and the gold foiled fall foliage pattern. It’s mounted to the card front with dimensionals. The sentiment from the *new* 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar stamp set is heat embossed in black at the top of the panel. I wanted the pumpkins to have more texture and interest than what the stamps alone would provide, so I selected several of the woodgrain patterns from the Country Woods paper pack and used the detail stamp from the Beautiful Pumpkins set and a coordinating, but light, color on top of each woodgrain and then used the coordinating dies to cut out each one. The pumpkin stems are also cut from one of the darker woodgrain patterns from the Country Woods paper pack. I tried several different colors for the leaves and vines before settling on the Old Olive sheet from the Season of Elegance paper pack. We give the pumpkins lots of depth of field by adhering them with varying heights of dimensionals. And we finish things off with some gold low profile dots.

I’ll be closing out this week’s design series with some home decor. I hope you’ll drop back by later to check it out.

Product List

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00