Howdy, everyone! Welcome to another sneak peek of some of the new products that are set to release next week. Like yesterday, today we’re combining a little bit of old and some new to create a super clean and simple design that you can put together in less than 5 minutes. If you’re like me, you need one of those designs every once in a while.
Today, we’re combining the beautiful Splendid Autumn designer series paper with the new foiled paper called Flower Garden foils and a new stamp set called Sentimental Framing. This stamp set is 100% sentiments perfect for all sorts of occasions.
Let’s get started on our card. We’re going to begin with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. Our focal panel is a sheet of the Splendid Autumn paper that is cut with the largest Textured Notes die and then matted with a sheet of the pink-hued Flower Garden foil specialty paper. I heat embossed the sentiment from the Sentimental Framing stamp set directly onto the patterned paper using some white embossing powder. I tied some iridescent trim just above the sentiment. I really love how the ribbon pulls in the more subtle colors of the sunset in our scene. I added a few purple shimmer gems for just a touch of sparkle and to help guide the eye down and across our card design.
Next up, we’re going to be taking a look at a new set that builds some beautiful scenes and is perfect for more masculine designs!
Products used in this card: Blackberry Bliss cardstock Splendid Autumn, Flower Garden foils (coming soon!) DSP Sentimental Framing stamps (coming soon!) Textured Notes dies Iridescent striped trim Purple shimmer gems
Happy Monday, everyone. It was a busy weekend around here with all sorts of different activities. I feel like I need a weekend from my weekend!
This week, we’re getting some little sneak peeks at some upcoming releases. Did you know that next week Stampin’ Up! will be releasing new Online Exclusives and a new annual catalog?! Today’s design is the perfect combination between old and new as we pair the Thoughtful Journey designer series paper with the new Sentimental Framing dies and Scenic Adventure stamps in this very clean and simple design.
We get started with a base of Petunia Pop cardstock. The sheet of flowering thistle paper from the Thoughtful Journey paper pack is cut using the new Sentimental Framing dies. The decorative frame is adhered to the card base with dimensionals while the center section is adhered directly to the card base to give a layered effect. The sentiment from the new Scenic Adventure stamp set is stamped in Pretty Peacock on white cardstock and diecut with the frame from the Enduring Beauty set. A twist of Fresh Freesia seam binding ribbon is adhered behind the sentiment panel at the base of the focal panel. The smaller flowers and leaves are cut from Mossy Meadow and Fresh Freesia cardstock using the Enduring Beauty dies and adhered behind the corner of the sentiment panel. Some starburst sequins finish things off with a pop of color and a patterned twinkle.
Tune in tomorrow for another sneak peek of products coming next week!
We’re rounding out our walk through the garden this week with a trip to the country. Today’s card design features the Country Flowers set by Stampin’ Up!, which is currently on the Last Chance list, and a card layout I spotted in a recent post shared over at Stampin’ Through the Catalog. I adapted the layout and color palette to fit the products I wanted to use.
We get started with a base of Gray Granite cardstock. I also cut a quarter panel and then ran it through the embossing machine with the Distressed Tiles embossing folder before cutting it down to a smaller size for the focal panel backdrop. This small embossed strip is matted with a piece of gold textured paper to help it stand out against the tone-on-tone card base. I layered a piece of the Nature’s Sweetness foiled paper on top. For the focal panel, I cut a piece of Misty Moonlight with one of the middle circles from the Spotlight on Nature die set and then heat embossed the sentiment from Country Flowers in white. The teapot from Country Flowers is stamped in Gray Granite onto the lighter woodgrain pattern from the Country Woods paper pack, while the flowers are stamped on white and then colored with a combination of Stampin’ Blends before cutting out the floral bunch with the coordinating Country Flowers die. The teapot and flowers adhered to the focal panel with dimensionals and the focal panel is then adhered to the center of card front with dimensionals, as well. I added some gold ribbon on the teapot and someiridescent faceted gems to the floral centers to finish off the arrangement. Some drusy embellishments finish things off with the perfect touch of sparkly goodness.
I hope you’ll tune in this week as we get a look at some of the new goodies that are set to launch in a little over a week!
Although I’m not much a fan of the allergies that accompany the advent of spring, I’m a huge fan of all things becoming new again. I love the early spring flowers — irises, daffodils, and primrose — the budding trees and the first influx of butterflies.
This week, we’re walking through the garden of our crafty collection and working with florals in our stash. Today, I’m combining the Stampin’ Up! Thankful Garden collection with Beautiful Butterflies. And what better way to showcase both than with a fun twist on a two-panel fun fold!
I wanted this design to have a fun twist on the usual layers you might incorporate into a more conventional two-panel fun fold design. And most especially, I wanted to give a more realistic look to a fluttering butterfly.
To accomplish this idea, I incorporated a sheet of acetate as the outer flap. This does two things — first, it allows the florals to remain center stage, and second, it gives the illusion of the butterfly coming in to light on the garden of flowers. Tip: I save the sheets of acetate from new photopolymer stamp sets to use later (act as window sheets).
So we get started with a base of Basic Black cardstock. I really love how this provides a nice but neutral contrast for the focal elements of the design. The focal backdrop on the card front is a sheet of the Lovely Garden designer series paper. I used paper snips to fussy cut two flowers from a separate sheet of the paper to add dimension to the flowers in the garden. One is adhered directly to the front card base on the left side and the other is reserved for the acetate panel. I wrapped some Fresh Freesia velvet ribbon around the bottom of the patterned paper, which acts to hide, if you will, the bottom of the acetate panel when the card is fully closed. I added pink sequins from the sequins trio to several of the floral centers for a bit of interesting dimension to the garden of flowers. The sentiment from the Layers of Beauty set is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut with the largest Beautiful Butterflies decorative banner and adhered to the bottom of the panel with dimensionals and finished with a pink Blooming Pearl on either side.
The acetate panel wraps around the front card panel from the inside of the card. The inside message panel and decorative paper cover where the acetate panel is affixed to the card base. A bone folder helps give a deep score line to the acetate so that it folds and lies flat more easily. Using the Beautiful Butterflies dies, I cut the base of the large butterfly from the sheet of aqua-hued Pastel Ombré glimmer paper and then cut the detailed piece from black cardstock to make the butterfly look similar to a Ulysses swallowtail. It’s adhered to the acetate panel with glue dots. The flower cut from the Lovely Garden paper is adhered with glue dots onto the acetate so that it perfectly aligns with the flower on the front card panel underneath. I added pink Blooming Pearls to the flower’s center and then added a few peacock sequins from the sequins trio to either corner of the acetate to tie the full design color palette together.
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!
This week we’re tiptoeing through the garden as we use beautiful floral products from the Stampin’ Up! lineup. Today we’re featuring part of the Lovely Garden suite using the diamond fun fold. I love this particular fold because it gives lots of opportunity to showcase beautiful patterned paper.
We get started with a base of Crushed Curry cardstock. I used two different patterns from the Lovely Garden paper pack as the backdrops for the inside and outside card panels. The diamond panel is a combination of textured gold specialty paper and a sheet of foiled paper from the Nature’s Sweetness paper pack. The focal image from the Thankful Garden stamp set is stamped in black on white cardstock and then colored using the decorative masks and a combination of Shy Shamrock and Daffodil Delight inks before being diecut with the coordinating die. For a little added visual interest, I stamped, colored, and diecut the smaller flower a second time and then popped it up on the full floral stem. The stem is adhered to the diamond panel with dimensionals. The sentiment from the Enduring Beauty set is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut with the smaller sentiment die from the Mixed Labels set. I tucked a twist of gold thread behind the sentiment panel before adhering it at the bottom of the diamond panel with dimensionals. A few gold textured dots serve as floral centers and eye-catching sparkle in opposing corners.
Tomorrow we’ll be stopping to smell the roses. I hope you’ll plan to come by and sit a spell.
Welcome to Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed a blessed and restful Easter weekend. While Holy Week is always busy in the life of a church singer, it’s still one of my favorite times of the liturgical year.
This week, we’re starting a brand new design series. We are all about the flowers this week. I don’t know about your area, but here in North Texas, the spring showers are certainly perking up all of the flowers that have been planted.
We’re starting off our design series this week with the Enduring Beauty bundle by Stampin’ Up! This bundle includes coordinating stamps, dies, and decorative masks. If you’ve been around a minute, you’ve heard me talk about decorative masks before. But for those of you who are new, I was a total decorative mask hater in the very beginning — just straight up refused to buy them or even try them. And in hindsight, I can’t give you a single good reason why (other than just plain stubbornness) because decorative masks make it SO easy to create beautiful colored images with terrific detail every single time.
Today our card gets started with a base of white cardstock. I’m using a sheet of the retired designer series paper from the Regal Winter pack as the backdrop for our focal panel. I tied some gold stripe ribbon (coming soon!) around the bottom before adhering to the card base. The focal panel gets started with a circle base of Nature’s Sweetness paper diecut using one of the largest Spotlight on Nature dies. I stamped the focal image from the Enduring Beauty set in black on white cardstock . I also stamped the center portion of the florals a second time to be able to cut out a flower and pop it up for some realistic dimension to the flowers. I used the decorative masks to color the images with a combination of Real Red and Shaded Spruce. Hint: you don’t have to use different shades to create the darker detailed areas; use the same color for all of the subsequent layers of color and it will have the same effect as using a different shade. I cut out the full image with the coordinating die from the Enduring Beauty set and then used my paper snips to cut out the single flower that I adhered on top with dimensionals. I added gold textured dots as the flower centers. The full image is then adhered to the circle panel with dimensionals. The sentiment from the Hope You Know stamp set is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut with the Something Fancy angled banner die and adhered under the ribbon. I added a few rhinestones in between the words of the sentiment and some gold low profile dots around to draw the eye.
We’re going to continue our tiptoe through the garden tomorrow with one of the new Online Exclusive bundles. I hope you’ll drop by and check it out.
Happy Easter Sunday, everyone. As we find the grave empty today, we begin the season of Pentecost which calls for a little update to our family prayer.
If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you have heard me talk about our daily family prayer. In the last six months or so, I introduced a new prayer traditional where we recite a chosen scripture as our prayer over dinner. And as the seasons on the church calendar change, we have changed our scripture to recite over dinner. So as we move into the season of Pentecost, I’ve selected a new prayer and have updated our table display.
I’ve been using the same simple 6×6 frame that I picked up on Amazon and simply changing out the insert as we’ve moved along. I copy and paste a scripture into my Word file on my computer and print it out on a 4×6 sheet of white cardstock and then use a die to cut it out. Here I’ve used a sheet of the Thoughtful Journey designer series paper as my background and cut out the scripture using the Textured Notes dies. I adhered the prayer to the bottom of the patterned sheet with dimensionals and then scattered some of the purple sequins for some extra pizzazz. So all in all, a super simple design that packs just the right punch.
Next week, we have a new design theme. We’re going to tiptoeing through the flowers, and I hope you’ll come along!
This week, our design theme has centered on the Holy Week holiday and we’ve been using the Online Exclusive bundle called Faith Collection by Stampin’ Up! to create our designs. Today is the culmination of the Holy Week series with the Easter card that pairs the Faith Collection set with the Enduring Beauty bundle to create this design celebrating Christ’s victory over death.
We get started with a base of white cardstock. The backdrop of our focal panel is a quarter sheet of white cardstock that is cut with the Pattern of Friendship die. This panel is cut down to size and then matted in a sheet of Petunia Pop glimmer paper. Our focal panel has the cross in the center that is cut from a sheet of white woodgrain paper from the Country Woods paper pack using the extension method so that the cross is a little taller. Our cross sits atop a floral spray created with the Enduring Beauty bundle. I kept the color scheme very simple and stamped the main floral image in Smoky Slate and used a combination of Shy Shamrock and Petunia Pop to add color to the leaves and floral centers and then cut out the image using the coordinating die. We’re matting the floral spray in gold mercury vellum and use the die extension method to cut the mat for our florals a little larger than the original. I’ve cut an assortment of leaves from Shy Shamrock cardstock using the individual leaves in the Enduring Beauty die set and then tucked them behind the florals. I added some Easter lilies around the cross. They’re stamped on white in Smoky Slate and have Petunia Pop centers, as well. The sentiment from the Faith Collection stamp set is stamped in Blackberry Bliss and then cut with the smallest banner die from the Countryside Corners die collection. The sentiment is mounted in the center of the cross over a sash of iridescent striped ribbon. I used some gold thread to help the sash keep its shape, making it easier to adhere to the cross underneath the sentiment. I finished things off with a gold butterfly cut from textured paper using the Beautiful Butterflies dies and also added a few purple sequins on either side of our focal image.
We’ll be closing out our Holy Week design theme with an update to the family prayer that we keep on our dinner table. I hope you’ll pop in later to see where our post-Easter scripture will lead us as we make our way to Christ’s ascension.
Happy Good Friday! While that may seem like a strange thing to say, given the historical significance of this day in the Christian faith, this day is indeed good when all is said and done. Today is necessary for the ultimate victory over sin and death and our full reconciliation to God in eternity. Thank goodness “Love never gives up!”
This week, we’re using the Faith Collection bundle to create designs to honor this Holy Week holiday. And today we pair the dies with several patterned paper packs, including Everyday Skies and Country Woods, and the Unbounded Love stamps. I used fellow demo Jackie Bolhuis’ easy step fun fold to create this Good Friday scene.
We get started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I used a sheet of moody skies from the Everyday Skies paper pack as the backdrop for our scene. The illusion of hills is created with Thoughtful Journey papers and both of the Grove die collections. I cut three crosses from two different woodgrain patterns from the Country Woods papers using the Faith Collection dies. For Christ’s cross in the center, I used the extension method to make this cross taller than the rest. The hills are adhered to the backdrop with differing levels of dimensionals. The two darker crosses are tucked behind the grass on either side of Christ’s cross in the center. The center cross is adhered to the center panel with dimensionals so it stands above the others. The sentiment from Unbounded Love is heat embossed in black on a lighter woodgrain sheet and then diecut with the smaller banner from the Autumn Leaves dies. A few two tone sparkle gems around the crosses draw the eye across the scene and the twist of gold thread behind the panel draws the eye down to the sentiment.
We’ll be rounding out Holy Week with a design honor Resurrection Day. I hope you’ll stop in to check it out.
We are midway through Holy Week. For me, this is the point where things get a little hectic as my musical obligations for this special week pick up between rehearsals and services. While it may be busy, I really do cherish this special season and am always blessed to be able to share musical settings that celebrate God’s ultimate sacrifice to reconcile us to Him for eternity.
This week’s design theme centers squarely on the Holy Week celebrations and, in particular, is focusing on the new Online Exclusive bundle by Stampin’ Up! called Faith Collection. Today we are pairing it with the Thoughtful Journey designer series paper and the Unbounded Love stamps and dies bundle in a double easel fun fold design.
I tried several different layouts with this double easel design before settling on the one you see here. In my mind’s eye, I originally saw the cross on the smaller easel in the front, but visually it just didn’t accomplish the look I was hoping for. But when I moved the cross to the back, on what is essentially the card front, it completed the illusion of walking up the hill to the lone cross. And I just love how this ultimately gives the feeling of a contemplative walk to the cross at Calvary.
We get started with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock, which is cut to standard A2 size. A sheet of the Thoughtful Journey patterned paper is the backdrop for our fun fold sunset scene. A sheet of Pretty Peacock cardstock serves as the mat for the patterned papers and the second easel section. Using the Faith Journey dies, a cross is cut from an Early Espresso woodgrain patterned sheet from the Country Woods paper pack and then adhered in the center of the card front panel with dimensionals so that the base of the cross is just below the front easel fold when the card is closed. A strip of Thoughtful Journey also covers the front easel panel. The sentiment from Unbounded Love is stamped in Early Espresso ink on Thoughtful Journey paper and then diecut with the decorative banner die from the Unbounded Love die set. Two greenery bunches, which to me look like palm branches, are cut from Mossy Meadow cardstock using the Winterly Treetops dies and are then adhered with glue dots behind the sentiment panel. Linen thread is wrapped around the small easel panel before the sentiment is adhered with dimensionals. A few In Color shimmer gems on either side of the sentiment panel add a little glimmer of color to draw the eye to the center focal section.
I’ll be taking a little break tomorrow but plan to be back with a Good Friday fun fold.