Christmas

Peace on Earth

I love a clean and simple design, and today’s card fits the bill in every way. When preparing for craft shows or even for my own personal mailings, clean and simple designs can help speed production without sacrificing the grace and beauty of handmade designs.

Today’s card showcases another “lost” stamp set I recently found in my craft room. Nature’s Peace is a stunning set, and it’s hard to imagine that it’s gone uninked in my stash! I decided to keep the color palette simple — red and cream. I used Cherry Cobbler cardstock for the card base (scored at the top rather than left) and focal panel base. The focal image of this card design is a single stamp. The stamped image is heat embossed with pearl embossing powder. The focal panel is elevated on dimensionals with natural finish ribbon running behind the focal panel and around the base on the inside. A small piece of Cherry Cobbler twine holds the ribbon together and in place. I finished the design with a shimmer spray so that the entire card front sparkles, which is unfortunately impossible to capture in photos.

I just love how this turned out and am excited to get started on a full set of these for part of my Christmas mailing list this year.

Products used:
Cherry Cobbler cardstock
Nature’s Peace stamps (retired)
Pearl embossing powder
Natural finish trim
Twine
Dimensionals

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Christmas

White Christmas

I can’t help but hum “I’m dreaming of a white Christmas . . . .” when I start thinking about Christmas. What about you? I wanted to create a very clean and simple card and the song White Christmas actually inspired this design.

Never underestimate the power of monochromatic designs. 100% of this card uses Basic White cardstock. I added twinkle to the Christmas tree with sequin ornaments and Wink of Stella all along the edges of the tree diecut. The pop of gold from the Ephemera elements add festive style and interest, as well as drawing the eye down the card to the sentiment.

Hop on over to the Etsy shoppe to check out the complete Twinkling Lights collection!

Products used:
Basic White
Expressions in Ink Ephemera
Trucking Along stamps
Twinkling Lights dies
Nested Essentials dies
Adhesive-backed sequins
Wink of Stella
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Clean and Simple · Trucking Along

Sunny Thoughts

Now it’s my turn to play with the new Trucking Along stamp set. You just might get tired of seeing this little truck, but I sure hope not because I have LOADS of ideas. (Get it?)

I actually built this little scene with the intention of using a diecut to snip just a portion of it, but as I was placing the diecut, my son walked by and said, “you’re not going to cut that up, are you?” I told you I might just have to hire him to help out in the studio! And so I kept the whole scene, which has way better balance anyway.

This is a very simple design that came together in less than 30 minutes from start to finish. The design sits atop a white card base. The image panel is on a single layer of dimensionals atop a piece of Hello Irresistible designer paper. I made a mask of the truck using the punch and plain paper in order to stamp the trees and grass around the truck without covering it in any way. The load of flowers in the back of the truck has been fussy cut and is popped up. And that’s only because I forgot about them and stamped a tree in that space, but it turned out to be a happy little accident.

Products used:
Basic White cardstock
Hello Irresistible DSP
Trucking Along stamps
Wink of Stella
Adhesive-backed sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Clean and Simple · Trucking Along

Out for a Test Drive

It was super fun to take the new Trucking Along bundle by Stampin’ Up! out for a spin. I think my son was as excited as I was about this new set, and HE actually got to christen the stamps by making the very first card design with them. And I’m thinking that I might have to hire him to help out from time to time because he came up with this entire card by himself!

Is this not the cutest card you’ve ever seen? He played around with his design on a piece of scratch paper. He got about halfway done and said, “I’m ready for the real thing now” and proceeded to make this little masterpiece. I love how the trucks look like they’re stopped on the shoulder of a roadway and how he was so careful to stamp all of the little details, like the grass and fence and trees. He had fun digging through ALL of the ink choices to find just the right colors …. and there are a LOT of choices because I have all of the retired colors.

What do you think of his test drive of the new Trucking Along stamp set? I’d say he passed for sure!

Here’s his card recipe:
Basic White cardstock (base)
Cherry Cobbler, Real Red, Early Espresso, Basic Black, Cajun Craze, Always Artichoke, Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, Garden Green, Bashful Blue, Fresh Freesia inks
Nested Essentials die
Dimensionals

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Clean and Simple · Creating Connections

Simple Stamping

I love a good clean and simple (CAS) card design. For me, I typically like to let a beautiful piece of designer paper take center stage when I’m making a CAS card. Just add a simple sentiment and maybe an embellishment or two and you have a lovely card. Right now, SU! has a stunning DSP called Delightfully Eclectic that makes show-stopping designs, like these.

Each card design consists of Night of Navy as the card base. A different pattern of the Delightfully Eclectic designer paper is mounted on each base. The sentiments are stamped in Night of Navy on Basic White cardstock using the Pansy Patch stamp set. And each card is embellished with ribbon.

Products used:
Night of Navy, Basic White cardstock
Delightfully Eclectic DSP
Pansy Patch stamps
Lemon Lime Twist ribbon
Petal Pink ribbon
Circle punch
Dimensionals
Adhesive