Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog

You Make Me Smile

Happy New Year, everyone! We had a delightful evening, enjoying a steak dinner, some s’mores around the firepit, a family movie in our pjs, and some celebratory poppers & bubbles to ring in the new year. What about you? Did you do something fun to ring in the new year?

Today, we’re working with the Beautiful Butterflies bundle that will release on January 7th with the new Stampin’ Up! January Mini Catalog. This bundle includes stamps, dies, and a hybrid embossing folder. And today, the hybrid embossing folder takes center stage in our design, along with the new patterned paper called Beautiful Bokeh.

We start our design today with a backdrop of Fresh Freesia cardstock. I chose a coordinating sheet of Beautiful Bokeh as the focal panel and embossed it using the Beautiful Butterflies embossing folder and, at the same time, I cut the large butterfly from the center of the embossed panel using the coordinating die. To bring out the detail in the embossed butterfly that has been cut from the center, I went over it with my finger and silver ink. I added some pastel ombre wing tips for extra sparkle and color. Both the focal panel and butterfly are adhered to the card base using dimensionals of varying heights. A strip of Fresh Freesia seam binding ribbon behind the butterfly really brings out the purple hues in our backdrop. The sentiment from Hugs for Love is stamped on white cardstock and punched with the coordinating Hugs for Love punch and then adhered in the bottom-right corner of our focal panel. A few purple sequins add that extra touch of sparkle that draws the eye across the card.

I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow as we continue to explore all of the lovely designs we can make using the Beautiful Butterflies bundle.

Products used in today’s design:
Fresh Freesia, Basic White cardstock
Beautiful Bokeh (coming soon), pastel ombre glimmer (coming soon) DSP
Beautiful Butterflies dies & embossing folder (coming soon)
Hugs for Love bundle (coming soon)
Fresh Freesia seam binding ribbon (coming soon)
Purple sequins (coming soon)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog

Toadstool Butterfly

The upcoming Stampin’ Up! January Mini and Sale-a-Bration catalogs have so many adorable products. We’ve gotten a quick peek at some of my favorites, and this week we’re taking a closer look at the Beautiful Butterflies stamps & dies bundle.

Today, we’re pairing up Beautiful Butterflies with the adorable SAB paper called Toadstool Gardens. I’m circling back to a recent color combo that the Luv 2 Stamp Group is using for our December color challenge. I mean, you can’t go wrong with Melon Mambo, Night of Navy, and Pool Party. Today we’re keeping the Melon Mambo on the down low and bringing forward the more masculine colors. Let’s get started!

Our card begins with a base of Pool Party cardstock. The background panel is the woodgrain pattern from the Toadstool Gardens paper pack. The focal panel is a strip of Toadstool Gardens matted with Night of Navy. I cut the large butterfly using the Beautiful Butterfly dies and black and Pool Party cardstock. The sentiment from Beautiful Butterflies is stamped in Night of Navy on white cardstock and cut with the Mixed Labels die. The mat of pastel ombre glimmer paper is cut with the larger label from Mixed Labels. I tied some Night of Navy thread in the center to draw the eye to our focal point. A few navy foiled dots help the eye land squarely on our sentiment.

Tune in tomorrow as we get a look at the gorgeous embossing folder that’s part of the Beautiful Butterflies bundle!

Products used in today’s design:
Pool Party, Basic Black, Night of Navy, Basic White cardstock
Toadstool Gardens (coming soon), Pastel ombre glimmer (coming soon) DSP
Beautiful Butterflies bundle (coming soon)
Mixed Labels dies (coming soon)
Night of Navy thread
Night of Navy Regal foiled dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog

So Thankful

Welcome to the last bright & shiny new week of 2024! It’s hard to believe that this year is almost gone, but on a personal level, I can’t say that I’m disappointed to see the year go. It’s been a tough year for our family, and we’ll be glad to see a new year with new possibilities and fewer hardships!

In just a little over a week, the new Stampin’ Up! January Mini and Sale-a-Bration catalogs will officially launch. You’ve gotten smaller glimpses into some of my favorite products from the upcoming catalogs, and now we’re going to spend some time looking at all of these wonderful sets a little more closely. And I’m going to be pairing together products, as well, so you can see just how well they can work together.

This week, we’re getting started with the Beautiful Butterflies stamps & dies bundle. Stampin’ Up! has given even more versatility with this set of dies as we get to see a new half-panel cutting feature at work. And today’s design is my first foray into putting this new die feature into action.

We get started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I scored the standard-sized base as usual and then used the half-panel die to cut just one panel of the card base. This gives a solid base panel and then the decorative flap on top. I chose a sheet of the purple Bloom Impressions Sale-a-Bration paper to serve as the backdrop for the decorative top panel and inside sentiment panel. The inside white sentiment panel is also cut using the half-panel die and then adhered over the Bloom Impressions paper to create a slight shadowing effect with the front decorative panel. The decorative butterfly panel is dressed up with the purple ombre glimmer paper and purple shimmer gems around the edges of the wings. The sentiment from the Beautiful Butterflies stamp set is stamped in Blackberry Bliss ink on white cardstock and then diecut with the smaller sentiment die included in the Beautiful Butterflies dies. A strip of Blackberry Bliss & Gold ribbon serve to ground the sentiment panel. A scattering of the Sale-a-Bration purple sequins give some additional sparkle and draw the eye across our card design and to the sentiment.

Drop by tomorrow to see more of the Beautiful Butterflies bundle!

Products used in today’s design:
Blackberry Bliss, Basic White cardstock
Bloom Impressions (coming soon), Pastel ombre (coming soon) DSP
Beautiful Butterflies stamps & dies (coming soon)
Purple sequins (coming soon), Purple shimmer gems
Blackberry Bliss & Gold ribbon
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog

Heartfelt Thanks

Today we’re rounding out our quick peeks at some of my favorite products from the upcoming Stampin’ Up! January Mini and Sale-a-Bration catalogs. This is a super easy design that uses the new Memories & More kit called Mixed Media Florals and the gorgeous new Plaster Painting embossing folder.

Our design begins today with a base of Petal Pink cardstock. The focal panel backdrop is a piece of Beautiful Bokeh patterned paper that is embossed with the new Plaster Painting embossing folder. I made sure to give the panel a deep impression, which allows the white center of the paper to show through. I really loved this distressed look ad how it brings out the white elements of our focal panel. Our focal panel is one of the smaller cards from the Mixed Media Florals Memories & More kit, along with one of the included sentiments from the same. The focal panel is adhered to the backdrop over the Petal Pink diagonal trim using dimensionals. I added Wink of Stella across the wings of the butterfly and adhered to the corner of the focal panel with dimensionals. A few shiny sequins and foiled gems help draw the eye across our design and settle on the sentiment.

Next week, we’ll be taking more in-depth looks at all of these new products and we’ll be getting started with the Beautiful Butterflies bundle. I hope you’ll come along as we combine a few products from the upcoming catalog to make gorgeous projects!

Products used in today’s design:
Petal Pink cardstock
Beautiful Bokeh DSP (coming soon)
Mixed Media Florals Memories & More (coming soon)
Plaster Painting embossing folder (coming soon)
Petal Pink diagonal ribbon
Petal Pink & Gold foiled gems, shiny sequins
Paper butterfly
Wink of Stella
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog

Hearts Full of Thanks

Today, I’m continuing to work through my stash of favorites from the Stampin’ Up! January Mini and Sale-a-Bration catalogs that are set to launch on January 7th. And today we’re working with some Sale-a-Bration goodies — the Heart Shaped bundle and 2 lovely paper packs called Bloom Impressions and Toadstool Gardens. So let’s dive in.

We get started with a base of Basic White cardstock. A sheet of the Toadstool Gardens paper pack serves as the backdrop for the design. I used a strip of the Bloom Impressions paper to break up the geometric background pattern and provide a unifying floral element for our decorative pieces. The two vine hearts are diecut from glimmer paper using the Heart Shaped dies. The sentiment from the Heart Shaped stamp set is stamped in black on white cardstock and diecut with the Beautiful Butterflies banner die. The sentiment is matted with a Petunia Pop panel diecut with the largest banner from the Mixed Labels die set. Our focal elements are mounted on the card front with varying layers of dimensionals for lots of depth. A few Sunny Day iridescent dots give us a little shine and draw our eye to the sentiment.

If all goes well and my favorite UPS driver stops in today, I’m planning a super fun design for tomorrow. We’ll keep our fingers crossed! But never fear, I have a backup plan in mind. *wink wink*

Products used in today’s card:
Basic White cardstock
Shy Shamrock glimmer, Bloom Impressions (coming soon), Toadstool Gardens (coming soon), Pastel ombre glimmer (coming soon) DSP
Heart Shaped stamps & dies bundle (coming soon)
Beautiful Butterflies (coming soon), Mixed Labels (coming soon) dies
Sunny Day iridescent dots (coming soon)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog · L2S Group Instahop

Birthday Florals

Welcome, crafty friends! I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful holiday with friends & family. Our time was filled with music, food, memories, and fun! And today we’re snuggled in enjoying a day of rest. What about you? I know lots of folks like to get out and shop the deals on the day after Christmas. I would much rather do that in my PJs these days myself.

On to crafty things. I wanted to highlight the beautiful new Mixed Media Florals bundle that will be launching in the January 7th Mini Catalog. Today’s design began with Sketch #16 from the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog, but when all is said and done, it’s more of a jumping off point for today’s card. I love how the elements work together in this design to move your eye down and across.

We get started with a base of Basic Black cardstock. The background panel is a sheet of the Mixed Media Florals designer series paper. Our focal elements are all standing front and center thanks to some dimensionals. That starts with the greenery cut from a sheet of pastel ombre glimmer paper using the Mixed Florals dies. I added a few flowers cut from white and Real Red glimmer paper using the Country Woods dies. The flower centers are gold low profile dots. A paper butterfly is coming in for a sniff up in the corner. The sentiment from Beautiful Butterflies is stamped in black on white cardstock and then cut using the Heart Shaped banner die. We ground the sentiment with a strip of Shaded Spruce satin & sheer ribbon that is tied off with some gold thread.

Products used in today’s card:
Basic Black, Basic White cardstock
Mixed Media Florals (coming soon), pastel ombre glimmer (coming soon), white glimmer, Real Red festive glimmer DSP
Beautiful Butterflies stamps (coming soon)
Mixed Florals (coming soon), Country Flowers, Heart Shaped (coming soon) dies
Paper butterfly
Low profile dots (coming soon)
Shaded Spruce satin & sheer ribbon, gold thread
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog

Purrrfect Hello

We’re continuing to get some sneak peeks at some of my favorite products from the upcoming Stampin’ Up! January Mini and Sale-a-Bration catalogs. And as soon as I saw this large-scaled cat stamp, I just had to have it. I often mentioned my “office assistants” in my social media posts. We’re a family of cat people and currently have 4 fur babies in the house and feed a colony of feral kitties outside. Each and every one of them is spoiled in their own way, even the ferals. While not everyone is a fan of cats, we love them and enjoy getting to see their individual personalities really shine.

So on to today’s project, today we’re pairing two new lovely papers — Beautiful Bokeh and Timeless Plaid — with the cute new background stamp called Meow Mates. One thing I took for granted was being able to get the coat pattern in my mind’s eye translate to paper. Next time, I’m going to try using my watercolor pencils instead of Stampin’ Blends —namely because I’m simply better with the subtleties and blending with the watercolor pencils than I am with blends. And that just comes down to practice!

We get started with a base of Petal Pink cardstock. A sheet of Beautiful Bokeh paper serves as our backdrop for the larger center focal panel. The focal panel background is a sheet of Timeless Plaid cut with the Perennial Postage dies. I stamped the Meow Mates image in Early Espresso on white cardstock and then selected the portion I wanted to highlight and cut using the Spotlight on Nature dies. I colored in the cats with Stampin’ Blends. I used a twist of gold thread behind the image panel to draw the eye in. The sentiment from Beautiful Butterflies is stamped in Early Espresso on white cardstock and then cut with the Mixed Labels die and adhered it over a strip of Petal Pink striped ribbon. The focal section is all adhered using dimensionals to bring it forward (literally). Low profile dots across the card front bring our color palette together and add some pops of interest to draw the eye across the design.

I’m looking forward to playing around more with the coloring and shading of the Meow Mates stamp. And we’ll see if we can find a version that looks a bit more realistic than cartoon-y. I still have several more favorites to show this week, so I hope you’ll stop back in.

Products used in today’s card:
Petal Pink, Basic White cardstock
Timeless Plaid (coming soon), Beautiful Bokeh (coming soon) DSP
Meow Mates (coming soon), Beautiful Butterflies (coming soon) stamps
Perennial Postage, Spotlight on Nature, Mixed Labels (coming soon) dies
Stampin’ Blends
Petal Pink striped ribbon, gold thread
Low profile dots (coming soon)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog

Made My Day

We’re marching right into Christmas, but I think I’m finally ready. What about you? Do you still have things on your to-do list? Today, I’ve put the last batch of holiday cards in the mail (I hope) and I’m making the last batch of holiday Chex mix and doing a bit of cleaning. But otherwise, packages are wrapped and we’re ready to go.

The last few days leading up to Christmas are always a bit reflective for me. As a church singer, the music I’m usually preparing for these last few days of Advent puts me in that frame of mind. But this year hits just a little differently.

We’re continuing our sneak peeks at some of my favorite things from the new Stampin’ Up! January Mini and Sale-a-Bration catalogs that are set to release on January 7th. Today, we’re pairing Sketch #17 from the Annual Catalog with the new Timeless Plaid patterned paper and Mixed Labels stamps.

We get started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. Our backdrop is a split panel of Regal Winter cardstock matted with Pretty in Pink glimmer paper. The focal panel is a sheet of Timeless Plaid patterned paper cut with the Deckled Rectangles dies. I used some Blackberry Bliss & Gold ribbon to bring out the subtle stripes of purple in the plaid and really tie our color palette together. The sentiment from Mixed Labels is stamped in Blackberry Bliss on Petal Pink and then diecut using the Unbounded Love dies. A wrap of some gold thread and a few purple fine shimmer gems bring things together.

Products used in today’s card:
Blackberry Bliss, Petal Pink cardstock
In Color glimmer, Timeless Plaid (coming soon), Regal Winter DSP
Mixed Labels stamps (coming soon)
Unbounded Love, Deckled Rectangles dies
Blackberry Bliss & Gold ribbon, gold thread
Purple fine shimmer gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog

Clear Skies for ’25

We’re continuing our sneak peeks at some of my favorite products from the upcoming Stampin’ Up! January Mini and Sale-a-Bration catalogs. And today, we’re making a super easy easel calendar using the new Everyday Skies designer paper and (what is clearly showing as one of my top favorites) the pastel ombre glimmer paper. I just love all of the skies depicted in this paper pack — from moody to dark to beautiful sunrises & sunsets, this pack has them all!

I needed some simple Christmas gift stuffers, so I whipped up these two easel calendars last night. Let’s see how these two beauties come together.

For the first calendar, we get started with Basic Black cardstock. This is cut so that the card would be in portrait orientation and the score mark is at the top. To make the easel holder in the center of the base, I cut down a quarter panel of black to 4-inches by 5.5-inches and scored it in half and then a half-inch from each side on the short edge. I chose a lovely sunrise sheet from the Everyday Skies paper pack and matted it with the pink/purple ombre glimmer paper. I moved the mini calendar around until I got the placement just right to show off the beautiful sky. A few two-tone sparkle gems give us some twinkle.

For the second calendar, we start with a base of Night of Navy cardstock. This time I chose a night sky from the Everyday Skies paper pack. I kept the mat color the same but varied the direction of the ombre coloring to really bring out the subtle colors in the sky. Two-tone sparkle gems give little glints of twinkle like stars.

These calendars are super easy to put together. I made the two of these in less than 30 minutes. You can try it out for yourself by downloading the full PDF instructions here.

Products used in today’s featured designs:
Taylored Expressions mini calendars
Basic Black, Night of Navy cardstock
Everyday Skies (coming soon), Pastel ombre glimmer (coming soon) DSP
Two-tone sparkle gems (coming soon)
Adhesives

Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog

Sending Big Hugs

Today, we’re continuing through our stroll of some of my favorite products from the upcoming Stampin’ Up! January Mini and Sale-a-Bration catalogs. We’re using Sketch #2 from the Annual Catalog to create this bright and cheery card using the Floral Delight paper and Hugs for Love stamps & punch.

We get started with a base of Daffodil Delight cardstock. I chose a sheet of Floral Delight patterned paper with lots of white space for a nice contrast against our base. To help the focal panel stand out, I matted it in Crushed Curry to bring out the details in the flowers in the focal panel background. The sentiment from the Hugs for Love stamp set is stamped in Pool Party on white cardstock and then punched with the coordinating punch. I also punched a panel from the pastel ombré glimmer paper and cut it in half to make a sparkly mat. A twist of Daffodil Delight satin ribbon and Lost Lagoon soft cording behind the sentiment panel bring everything together. A few of the new low profile dots add a touch of glimmer to the sentiment and really draw the eye in.

This whole paper pack is bright & cheery and will make some wonderful pick-me-up cards, as well as designs for the floral-lovers in your life!

Products used in today’s design:
Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Basic White cardstock
Floral Delight (coming soon), pastel ombré glimmer (coming soon) DSP
Hugs for Love bundle (coming soon)
Daffodil Delight satin ribbon (coming soon), Lost Lagoon soft cording
Low profile dots (coming soon)
Dimensionals
Adhesives