Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog

Merry & Bright Plaid

I don’t know about you, but I have a love-hate relationship with holiday weeks. We all love a short work week, but it always feels to me like I’m just squeezing in a lot more work into a shorter time period. That was definitely the case today anyway!

And I’ve been SO off on my days as of late that I was thinking today was the new product release day when it’s actually tomorrow….womp-womp! But it doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm for you to see all of the new stuff. I’m just sad you have to wait one more day.

Anywho, this week we’re getting another peek at some of the cute holiday products that will be available tomorrow. Our design focus this week is clean and simple holiday cards using the Joyful Days Memories & More card pack, the Greetings for You ephemera, and the Christmas Tags & More patterned paper pack with ephemera sheets included. So much good stuff! Today we’re mixing in an embossing folder.

Today’s card starts with a base of Cherry Cobbler cardstock. I had a leftover strip of light brown patterned cardstock from one of the sheets in the Christmas Tags & More pack which served as the jumping-off spot for the color palette and design for the rest of the card. I paired it up with a piece of Pecan Pie machine embossed with the Birch Wood embossing folder to create the backdrop for the focal panel. The focal panel backdrop is a combination of one of the smaller cards of plaid from the Joyful Days card pack and a plaid tag from the sheet of tags in the Christmas Tags & More pack. I chose the Merry & Bright circle sentiment from the Greetings for You ephemera pack and matted it with a banner of gold foil specialty paper and adhered it to the focal panel with several layers of dimensionals to be sure it really catches the eye. I finished things off with some gold sparkly sequins from the Traditional Sparkling Sequins pack so your eye catches some sparkles all the way across the card front.

I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow to see another clean & simple holiday card design.

Products used in today’s card:
Cherry Cobbler, Pecan Pie cardstock
Gold foil, Christmas Tags & More DSP
Greetings for You ephemera
Joyful Days Memories & More card pack
Birch Wood embossing folder
Traditional sparkling sequins
Dimensionals

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Happy Season

Welcome to a bright, shiny new week, everyone! We’re enjoying a day off and taking full advantage of not doing much! So that means plenty of time to play in the craft room with some new goodies and getting a start on making new gifties for an October craft show, which means playing around with goodies from the retired stash.

It’s hard to believe that a whole new batch of Online Exclusives AND the brand new Holiday Mini Catalog goodies are due to launch tomorrow! I’m so excited for you to see all of the new things. The last few releases have been a little underwhelming, in my opinion anyway, but this one is worth the wait. This release is jam-packed full of good, GOOD stuff!

This week, we’re taking an early tour of some holiday goodies as we play with the new Joyful Days Memories & More card pack, the Greetings for You ephemera, and the Christmas Tags & More patterned paper pack that includes coordinating ephemera.

For today’s card, we get started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. The background panel is a combination of patterns – a sheet of red Season of Elegance foiled paper and a sheet of the festive plaid from the Christmas Tags & More pack. The focal panel is one of the smaller tree scene cards from the Joyful Days card pack that is matted with some gold textured paper. Some new Real Red shiny ribbon is tied around the bottom third of the full panel. And tucked underneath on several layers of dimensionals is the foiled sentiment from the Greetings for You ephemera pack. I’ve finished things off with a touch of sparkle in opposing corners from the Traditional Sparkling Sequins.

I hope you’ll drop by tomorrow to see another holiday-inspired design.

Products used in today’s card:
Crumb Cake cardstock
Christmas Tags & More (launching tomorrow!), textured gold metallic, Season of Elegance DSP
Joyful Days Memories & More card pack (launching tomorrow!)
Greetings for You ephemera pack (launching tomorrow!)
Real Red shiny ribbon (launching tomorrow!)
Traditional sparkling sequins (launching tomorrow!)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Gathering Together · Online Exclusives

Give Thanks

Happy rainy Saturday, crafty friends. Here in N. Texas, it’s the perfect day to spend in the craft room as we sit and enjoy a cup of tea while listening to the pitter-patter of the raindrops falling and soft (or not-so-soft) rumbles of thunder.

We’re rounding out our design series this week which has featured sneak peeks of upcoming Online Exclusive releases of Gathering Together and Beautiful Pumpkins that will be live in my shop on Tuesday! Today, we’re using the Gathering Together suite to create a lovely home decor project. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you have maybe seen a post or two here and there about our family table prayers. And today’s featured project is a fall refresh for our framed prayer.

I’m continuing to use the 6×6 tabletop frame I bought off Amazon. I used a sheet of the Gathering Together patterned paper as the backdrop and cut it down to 6×6 to fit in the frame. Everything gets started with the selected scripture we’re using as the prayer. I used my computer to type it up and print it onto Crumb Cake cardstock and then cut it out using the Spotlight on Nature dies. It’s adhered in the center with dimensionals. Using the Gathering Moments stamps, I stamped both large and small leaves in a variety of colors onto Very Vanilla cardstock and then used the coordinating dies to cut them out. I also stamped some fronds of greenery and acorns onto Crumb Cake cardstock then diecut them with the coordinating dies from Gathering Moments set. I arranged these around the circular sentiment panel to create a wreath and adhered them all at varying heights with a combination of tear-n-tape and dimensionals. For some pops of sparkle, I cut some leafy fronds from gold foil paper and Old Olive glimmer paper using the Peace on Earth dies (another Tuesday release) and tucked them in and around the fall foliage wreath. I added a small bow of Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon at the top and finished things off with a few Cajun Craze foil dots.

What do you think? All in all, this comes together really quickly. It’s really striking in person, and I’m super pleased with how this turned out. I think I’m going to make a few more to display in my booth at an upcoming craft show.

Next week, we’re going to jump ahead just a little and have a Christmas sneak peek as I show you some fabulous goodies that will be available to you in Tuesday’s release. I hope you’ll drop in and see what’s in store!

Products used in today’s project:
6×6 frame
Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake cardstock
Gathering Together (coming Tues), Old Olive glimmer (retired), gold foil DSP
Gathering Moments stamps & dies (coming Tues)
Peace on Earth (coming Tues), Spotlight on Nature dies
Mossy Meadow & gold ribbon
Cajun Craze foil dots (coming Tues)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Beautiful Pumpkins · Coming Soon · Gathering Together · Online Exclusives

Height of Friendship

Happy Friday, everybody! I’m super excited to be (legitimately) wearing long sleeves & pants today as we’ve had our first major cool front of the season push through here in N. Texas. We’re not expected to get out of the 80s today. And if you’re at all familiar with Texas in August, well, this is quite a treat!

It’s definitely feeling like fall here which makes this week’s card theme all the more apropos. We’re working with the new Online Exclusive suite by Stampin’ Up! called Gathering Together. And once again, we’re pairing it up with the new Beautiful Pumpkins bundle to create a fun fall card design. All of the new products are set to drop on Tuesday, and everything is really and truly a must see!

Today’s card gets started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. I chose a sheet of the woodgrain pattern from the Gathering Together paper pack as the background for this design. The Beautiful Pumpkins stamps and dies create our focal image section. The pumpkins are stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock and cut with the coordinating dies. I decided to the use the Season of Elegance sheet for the vines and leaves because I loved the little touch of shimmery gold peeking out between the stacked pumpkins. The stem is cut from Crumb Cake and a lovely bow of gold trim sits atop the heap of gourds. Just for funsies, I added a mushroom from the Gathering Moments bundle that I had leftover from earlier this week to add a fun and whimsical detail at the bottom of the tower. The sentiment from Beautiful Pumpkins is stamped on Crumb Cake and diecut with the Mixed Labels die using the extension method. It sits atop some Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon, which helps tie all of our focal elements together. We finish things off with some Shades of Green hexagons.

Tomorrow we’ll be finishing off this week’s series of sneak peeks at the upcoming fall products release. I hope you’ll drop in and see how we finish things off….it’s sure to be a showstopper!

Products used in today’s card:
Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla cardstock
Gathering Together (coming Tues), Season of Elegance DSP
Beautiful Pumpkins bundle (coming Tues)
Gathering Moments bundle (coming Tues)
Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon, gold trim
Shades of Green hexagons
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Beautiful Pumpkins · Coming Soon · L2S Group Instahop · Online Exclusives

Small Things

This week, we’re getting a closer look at the new Online Exclusive suite called Gathering Together that will release next week. Aside from being a combination of beautiful products that stand just fine all by themselves, they also pair up beautifully with other products in the SU! lineup. And today we’re getting a second sneak peek as we pair up Gathering Together with the new OE bundle called Beautiful Pumpkins.

I think I mentioned yesterday that I’m really in love with the foiled paper in the Gathering Together patterned paper pack. Today I’m showing you one of the non-foiled, reverse-side patterns which serves as the backdrop for this design. But I couldn’t just abandon the sheen of the foiled paper altogether. I used a sheet of the vanilla Season of Elegance foiled paper to stamp and diecut all of my focal panel images. I just love the look! One tip: let the ink dry before diecutting or you’ll end up with ink in interesting places! *wink and ugh* To speed things up, I used my heat gun.

We get started with a base of Basic Black cardstock. This pulls out the small black pinstriping in the background panel quite nicely. I tied some Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon around the bottom of the panel before adhering to the card front. Our focal panel is a sheet of the foiled Gathering Together paper and is cut using the Nested Essentials dies. Using the Beautiful Pumpkins stamps, I stamped the pumpkins and acorns on the vanilla sheet of Season of Elegance paper, and I made sure to include some of the foiling in each of the stamped images. I used the coordinating dies to cut them out. I cut the pumpkin stems from Crumb Cake cardstock and the pumpkin leaves from a sheet of the Old Olive Season of Elegance paper. They’re all adhered to the pinstriped backdrop using different layers of dimensionals to create lots of depth in the scene. The sentiment from the Beautiful Pumpkins set is stamped on a strip of white cardstock, and I snipped the ends to create a banner. It’s adhered under the focal panel with dimensionals. I added some gold drusy embellishments in opposing corners to draw the eye across the panel.

Today’s card is a part of the Luv 2 Stamp Group Instagram Hop, which goes live at 9 AM Pacific Time (PST).  Click here to head over to my Instagram feed at 9 AM Pacific/11 AM Central and check out what the other demos in our L2S Group have created for you today! 

Products used in today’s card:
Basic Black, Basic White, Crumb Cake cardstock
Gathering Together (coming next week) , Season of Elegance DSP
Beautiful Pumpkins stamps & dies (coming next week)
Nested Essentials dies
Mossy Meadow & gold ribbon
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Gathering Together · Online Exclusives

Gathering of Thanks

We’re already halfway through this wonderful week and quickly headed for our long weekend. Do you have any special plans for the Labor Day holiday weekend? I’m hoping that the first significant cold front makes its way in as promised because I have some yardwork I’d really like to get done.

And speaking of yards, once fall arrives, they’ll be adorned with beautiful fall foliage. And this week is all about the foliage as we get an in-depth sneak peek at the upcoming Online Exclusive release called Gathering Together. Today we’re using more of the beautiful paper and the stamp set included in this suite to create a clean and simple Z-fold card. You guys, I’m just in love with this foiled patterned paper. Not into anything sparkly on your patterned paper? The back of each sheet is sans foiling so you get the best of both worlds in this pack of beautiful patterns!

Today’s fun fold gets started with a base of Cajun Craze cardstock, which creates our Z-shaped base. I chose a sheet of the Gathering Together patterned paper with a more subtle background to serve as the background on each of the panels. A sheet of the foiled fall foliage with berries and mushrooms is the backdrop of our focal panel which is cut using the Textured Notes dies. To pull out the lovely shades of yellow amongst the foliage, I chose Crushed Curry as the mat for this panel. The sentiment from Gathering Moments is stamped on Very Vanilla and I also stamped a few acorns in the background for some visual interest and to make the sentiment panel and background panel feel more cohesive. The sentiment is diecut using the Traditional Labels banner die and then adhered over some gold linen thread using dimensionals. I finished things off with a touch of extra sparkle with some Cajun Craze & gold dots in opposing corners.

Of all the fun folds, I really love Z-folds because they pack an amazing punch with very little extra work! And this particular layout with the larger overlapping front panel is a terrific way to show off beautiful patterned paper.

Tune in tomorrow for another fabulous fall-themed sneak peek. We’re going to be pairing up the Gathering Together suite with another new release product. You don’t want to miss this one!

Products used in today’s card:
Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla cardstock
Gathering Together DSP (coming next week)
Gathering Moments stamps (coming next week)
Traditional Labels (coming next week), Textured Notes dies
Gold thread (retired)
Cajun Craze & gold dots (coming next week)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Gathering Together · Online Exclusives

UnbeLEAFably Thankful

This week is all about fall. I heard on the radio yesterday that we’re just about 6 weeks from fall. And fall just happens to be my favorite season of the year. So naturally, I was pretty thrilled to hear that it’s just around the corner. Annnnnd we’re supposed to get a fall-like front moving through our area this weekend, so we’ll get a little preview of the wonderful fall weather we have to look forward to!

Our featured design product this week is the new Online Exclusive suite by Stampin’ Up! called Gathering Together. And today the diecuts are taking center stage. The fun thing about the large-scale dies in this bundle is the detail die that allows you to add the ribbing to the leaves. In this case, I chose to stitch the ribbing with linen thread, but you could just as easily use a marker to fill in the details or even use a fine-tip Versamark pen and heat emboss. The possibilities are endless!

Our card today gets started with a base of Cajun Craze cardstock. I used a sheet of the foiled plaid as the backdrop for the focal images. The reverse side of the foiled plaid made the perfect detailing at the bottom of the focal panel. And I used a sheet of brushed gold foil to mat the focal panel to add an extra bit of glimmering gold in the background. I used the oak leaf die from the Gathering Moments set to cut two leaves – one from Pretty Peacock and one from Very Vanilla Season of Elegance sheets. I love the look of the gold-foiled leaves. The detail die adds the stitch lines that are then filled in with Cajun Craze linen thread. You could use any color thicker thread you have on hand or simply fill in with a matching marker. The leaves are adhered to the card front with dimensionals. The sentiment from Gathering Moments is stamped on Very Vanilla and die cut using the smaller Traditional Labels die and then a sheet of Old Olive Festive glimmer paper serves as the mat. The sentiment is adhered over a bow of gold trim and then placed in the bottom right corner of the card front and adhered with several layers of dimensionals to ensure it sits proud above the leaves. For a little extra sparkled, I added a few drusy embellishments to draw the eye down and across the center of the panel and down to the sentiment.

Tune in tomorrow to see how we can use this suite to create a fun fold design.

Products used in today’s card:
Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla cardstock
Season of Elegance, Festive glimmer paper (retired), Brushed gold foil, Gathering Together (coming next week) DSP
Gathering Moments stamps & dies (coming next week)
Traditional Labels dies (coming next week)
Cajun Craze linen thread (retired), gold trim
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Gathering Together · Online Exclusives

Heartfelt Gratitude

It’s another bright & shiny week. Are you ready for it? We enjoyed a nice weekend of family time. It’s always a great start to the week coming off a solid family-togetherness weekend. And with a teenager in the house, I’ll take as many of those as I’m given! *wink*

We’re starting a new design series this week and another week of Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog sneak peeks. This week, we’ll be working with a new Online Exclusive suite called Gathering Together. The suite includes some beautiful foiled fall-inspired paper, coordinating stamps & dies, an embossing folder, linen twine, and embellishments. I personally chose products from this suite because they pair beautifully with other current products, like the Season of Elegance paper pack and Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon.

I used a clean and simple card sketch to turn out this beauty. We get started with a base of Early Espresso cardstock. I cut a piece of the foiled leaf paper from the Gathering Together paper pack to serve as the backdrop for the focal panel in the center. The sentiment from the Gathering Moments stamp set serves as our focal point and is stamped in Cajun Craze on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock that is diecut with the Traditional Labels dies. I cut a second panel from gold specialty paper, cut it in half, and mounted it behind the sentiment panel as a mat. The two leaves from Gathering Moments are stamped in Cajun Craze & Mossy Meadow on two different sheets of Season of Elegance paper and then cut with the coordinating Gathering Moments die and mounted on opposing corners of the sentiment panel using dimensionals. Cajun Craze & Gold dots on either side of sentiment bring the eye in to the center. The sentiment panel is mounted on dimensionals over a bow of Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon in the center of the card. We finish things off with a few Drusy embellishments for a bit of extra sparkle.

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see some cool features of the gorgeous dies in this set.

Products used in today’s card:
Early Espresso, Very Vanilla cardstock
Gathering Together (coming next week), Season of Elegance, gold foil DSP;
Gathering Moments stamps & dies (coming next week)
Cajun Craze & Gold dots (coming next week), drusy embellishments
Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Lights of Aurora

Year of Magic

Welcome to the weekend, everyone! I don’t know about you, but I had the Monday-ist Friday everrrrrrrr. So needless to say, by the time work was over and I was home, I had zero energy or creativity left for getting crafty. But I’m hoping to make up for it today as we close out our design series using the new SU! Lights of Aurora suite set to launch in a little over a week.

Today we’re pairing up the Lights of Aurora paper and dies to create this stunning fun fold scene. I’m calling this the Dutch Door fold because it reminds me of the divided swinging doors. What do you think?

Our card gets started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. I have to say that I think this might be my new favorite neutral background starter! I chose a sheet of blue paper from the Lights of Aurora paper pack that reminded me of the sky, which happens to look bright & blue just like this in our area today. The card front is cut into three sections to create the center section and then spanning section over the top. The Light & Wonder dies help us create the mountains and trees that span the front of the card. A small lake created with the pastel ombre paper peeks out from the glad in the middle of the trees. The sentiment from the Light & Wonder stamp set is stamped on the center panel and heat embossed in black. When the connected panel is lifted to reveal the center section of the card front, you can see that I’ve used the Light & Wonder dies to recreate a portion of the larger scene – a lot like a picture-in-picture effect. A scattering of some frosted iridescent dots finish things off with a little twinkle.

I think the Dutch Fold would work perfectly with similar die sets that create a cut that spans a longer distance. Think tree lines, mountains, or something similar. Would you like to try your hand at this fold? You can download the free PDF tutorial here.

Products used in today’s card:
Cloud Cover, Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow, Basic White cardstock
Lights of Aurora (coming in Sept), pastel ombre glimmer DSP
Light & Wonder stamps & dies (coming in Sept)
Black embossing powder
Frosted iridescent dots (coming in Sept)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Lights of Aurora

Do Anything

As we work our way toward the release of the SU! Holiday Mini catalog, we’re getting sneak peeks of some of the things that I just had to have in the crafty stash. This week, we’re working with the Lights of Aurora suite that will launch in the Holiday Mini. Aside from the fact that the paper and embellishments are stunning, one of the things I love about this suite is its scene building potential.

And today, we’re using the Light & Wonder dies to create a stunning sunrise scene. And this design is actually inspired by the pictures of the dies in the catalog. In particular, I was drawn to which dies that had placed next to each other and my brain just started painting a complete picture that I had to try to bring to life.

We get started with a base of Cloud Burst cardstock. It provides a nice neutral that lends itself well to the sunrise. I chose a sheet of the pink-hued Lights of Aurora paper to serve as the backdrop for the rest of the scene. The larger tree die in the Light & Wonder die set makes the perfect line of trees in the background. Can’t you just picture a towering stand of cypress back there? I also used the smaller line of trees to help give realistic layers to our scene. Both lines of trees are cut from the green-hued sheet of Lights of Aurora paper. I wanted to give the illusion of a large lake with a smaller inlet in between the trees. So I used two different shades of blue glimmer paper to give the effect of different depths of water. The deeper water is a sheet of Pretty Peacock glimmer paper (sadly retired but still in my stash of faves), while the shallow inlet is a sheet of blue pastel ombre paper. I used the Light & Wonder dies to cut both bodies of water. Dimensionals give some depth to the scene by raising the elements in the foreground. The sentiment from More Messages is stamped in black on white cardstock and adhered over a faux bow of iridescent striped ribbon using dimensionals. The clouds are diecut from vellum and tucked high in the sky behind the trees. A few frosted iridescent dots give the twinkle of the last remaining stars in the dawning sky.

We’ll be working with a fun fold tomorrow. I hope you’ll pop by and check it out.

Products used in today’s card:
Cloud Burst, Basic White cardstock
Lights of Aurora (coming in Sept), Pretty Peacock glimmer (retired), pastel ombre glimmer DSP
Vellum
Light & Wonder dies
More Messages stamp & die
Iridescent striped ribbon (retired)
Frosted iridescent dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives