Fun Folds

So Thankful for You

I’m excited to show you a sneak peek of a new designer series paper set to release on November 7th. Meandering Meadow is a gorgeous set of oil pastel designs turned to designer paper. Each of the designs in this pack is simply stunning and a little reminiscent of some of my favorite Renaissance paintings. Monet or Manet anyone?

For today’s card, I tried a new fun fold so that I could retain as much of this beautiful paper in the design as possible. The base of this card is a sheet of Balmy Blue cardstock in the standard 8.5 x 5.5 inch format and scored at the traditional 4 1/4-inch mark. To create the flap, a 1-inch strip is cut from each side of the card front flap. The 6 x 6-inch sheet of designer paper is first cut to 4 1/8 x 6 inches. I next cut 1 3/8″ from each side of the panel to create a 3 1/4 x 4 1/8-inch panel. A plain sheet of white paper serves as the message panel on the inside of the card, and each of the 1 3/8-inch strips are adhered on either side of the inside message panel so that a portion peeks through when the card is closed. The larger patterned paper panel is adhered to the front flap. The sentiment from the So Sincere stamp set is heat embossed on a vellum panel diecut using the Autumm Leaves dies. A strip of silver trim and a few fine sparkle gems draw the eye to the sentiment.

What do you think of this fun fold? You can find the PDF instructions here. And if you hop over to Instagram, you can watch how this whole design came together.

Products used:
Balmy Blue, vellum cardstock
Meandering Meadow DSP (coming soon to Online Exclusives)
So Sincere stamps
Autumn Leaves dies
Silver embossing powder
Silver trim
Fine sparkle gems
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress and are based on your personal browsing history. I do not control ad content.

Fall · Fun Folds

Fabulous Friend

It’s really beginning to feel and look like fall here in Texas. Fall is my favorite season. At its peak, the main street to our house is lined with trees that look like fire. I try to run errands often once the trees begin to turn just to be able to watch the progression and transformation into a street lined with the beautiful colors of a warm fire.

And that brings us to today’s design which uses the beautiful All About Autumn designer paper. It has been so popular that it sells out as quickly as Stampin’ Up! can restock the shelves. I was lucky enough to get a sampling and just this week snagged a whole pack!

The card base for today’s card is Mossy Meadow cardstock. The fun fold design begins with the single Z-fold. (Hop over here for a PDF tutorial.) I selected the beautiful grove of trees and the foiled side of the limbs of leaves sheets of DSP. The grove of trees pattern is cut into 2-inch strips and adhered on the left of the outside and inside panels. The foiled sheet is approximately 3 inches wide to allow some overlap with the tree pattern. The inside sentiment from Heartfelt Hexagon is stamped on a 2-inch strip of white paper and the panel is adhered in the center on the left side of the center card fold (at 4 1/4 inches).

The outside sentiment from Bold Bouquet is stamped on a Very Vanilla banner diecut using the Nested Essentials dies. A strip of natural finish ribbon is layered behind the sentiment panel and adhered to the outside tree panel. Because I wanted a large focal point on the front of the card, the z-fold must be modified to a half-barn fold by adhering the two smaller panels together to ensure the sentiment and message panel inside the card are visible and accessible. And I absolutely love the result! If you want to see the evolution of this design, hop on over to Instagram to catch the reel.

TIPS for this design: 1) you can turn a one-line sentiment into a block using a simple masking technique. I inked each word individually and covered the inky words I didn’t want to stamp using a piece a masking tape; 2) you can keep a ribbon in place using staples.

Products used:
Mossy Meadow, Very Vanilla cardstock
All About Autumn DSP
Bold Bouquet, Heartfelt Hexagon stamps
Nested Essentials dies
Adhesive-backed speckled dots
Natural finish ribbon
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress and are based on your personal browsing history. I do not control ad content.

Fun Folds

Clouds of Love

I don’t know about you, but I like to keep an assortment of cards on hand that I can tuck into my hubby’s suitcase. As a commercial pilot, my husband is gone fairly often. With modern technology, he never feels very far away, even when he’s halfway across the globe. But even so, it can get a little lonely on the road, so I like to sneak a note in his suitcase every now and then. Do you ever do things like this for your loved ones?

For today’s design, I started with a card base of Cherry Cobbler and paired it with another of the designs from the Country Floral Lane designer paper pack. I decided to do a center barn fold, which simply meant scoring the card base at 2 1/8″ from each edge rather than at 4 1/4″ in the center. The sentiment panel is diecut from Petal Pink cardstock using the PTI Mat Stack 6 die. The hearts are punched from Cherry Cobbler, and the sentiment is diecut from Bubble Bath using a PTI die. I used dimensionals under the sentiment and one heart for a little added interest. The adhesive-backed sequins give a little sparkle and reinforce the center focal point.

Products used:
Cherry Cobbler, Petal Pink, Bubble Bath cardstock
Country Floral Lane DSP (retired)
PTI dies (retired)
Heart punch (retired)
Adhesive-backed sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress and are based on your personal browsing history. I do not control ad content.

Clean and Simple

Better with You

The Country Floral Lane designer paper is so fun to work with. When I saw the sheet of patterned paper used in today’s card design, I knew it needed to become an encouragement card.

A sheet of Blushing Bride cardstock serves as the card base. I used the Playing in the Rain stamps for the sentiment and focal image. The adorable turtle holding the flower is the perfect complement to this designer paper. The sentiment panel base is diecut from Calypso Coral using the Nested Essentials dies. The sentiment is stamped on the panel using the Playing in the Rain stamps. I stamped the turtle in black ink on white cardstock and colored with the Stampin’ Blends markers. Then it’s diecut using the coordinating Playing in the Rain dies and adhered directly to the panel. The panel and turtle are elevated with dimensionals. A few fine sparkle gems add a little touch of twinkle to the design and just that little bloop of happiness.

Products used:
Blushing Bride (retired), Calpypso Coral, white cardstock
Country Floral Lane DSP (retired)
Playing in the Rain stamps & dies
Nested Essentials dies
Fine sparkle gems
Stampin’ Blends markers
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress and are based on your personal browsing history. I do not control ad content.

Clean and Simple

Riding in With Thanks

Today’s design features another pattern from the Country Floral Lane designer series paper. All of the designs in this paper pack are fun and happy and lend themselves well to all sorts of occasions — even thinking of you or encouragement cards. In this case, I designed a thank-you card to send to my upline for all of her help with a recent craft fair.

The bicycle design works great for this cute peek-a-boo fun fold design. I started with a base of Blushing Bride cardstock and cut 1″ from the bottom of the front panel to give the peek-through to the bottom of the base panel. To achieve the peek-through with the paper, I separated the designer paper between the bicycle and floral patterns and then adhered the strip of floral pattern to the bottom of the message panel inside the card so that it shows through when the card is closed. The sentiment is stamped on white using the Heartfelt Hexagon and Circle Sayings stamp sets. The sentiment panel is popped up on dimensionsals and is the visual center of the card front. A few sequins add some sparkle and draw the eye to the sentiment. Simple but so cute! Don’t you think?

This is such a fun design and can easily be adapted to use any product you have on hand. If you wanna give a peek-through card a try, feel free to download the PDF tutorial here.

Products used:
Blushing Bride (retired), white cardstock
Country Floral Lane DSP (retired)
Circle Sayings, Heartfelt Hexagon stamps
Heartfelt Hexagon punch
Adhesive-backed sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress and are based on your personal browsing history. I do not control ad content.

Clean and Simple

Day Filled with Joy

I recently received a big box of happy mail (AKA new supplies), which included a lovely set of retired designer paper called Country Floral Lane. I love how the floral designs remind me of my grandmother’s house. She had a thing for floral wallpaper, and I remember many a summer where we changed out wallpaper to the latest and greatest design.

The card base of Lost Lagoon does a nice job of pulling the leaves and smaller greenery elements of the designer paper forward so they’re not lost in the floral pattern. The sentiment is heat embossed in gold on vellum and mounted on a Calypso Coral mat. The entire sentiment panel is diecut using two of the Deckled Rectangle dies. The sparkle gems and metallic ribbon add some visual interest to the design and walk the eye across the card design. This card just makes me happy with its light and bright color palette and fun patterned paper.

Products used:
Lost Lagoon, Calypso Coral, vellum cardstock
Country Floral Lane DSP
Heartfelt Hexagon stamps
Deckled Rectangles
Gold embossing powder
Metallic Flirty Flamingo ribbon
Fine sparkle gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress and are based on your personal browsing history. I do not control ad content.

Fall

Thankful

Are you a paper scrap saver or chunker? I just can’t bring myself to throw away perfectly good scraps of (expensive) paper. When I need to diecut smaller elements, I prefer to dig through and use my paper scraps rather than cutting a new sheet, unless that’s my only option. And today’s design is a perfect showcase of paper scraps.

I had two scraps of foiled All About Autumn designer paper that I wanted to use — one Pretty Peacock and one Moody Mauve. I thumbed through the All About Autumn pack and found the foiled mosaic that coordinated perfectly. So I started the design with a base of Pretty Peacock to provide a solid, earthy anchor for the busy foiled patterns of the selected designer papers. I wanted to pull the gold elements from the mosaic sheet and decided to diecut gold glimmer paper using the Nested Essentials dies. Rather than stamping a sentiment on this panel, I opted to diecut the word THANKS using the Alphabet a la Mode dies from a scrap of Pretty Peacock to tie all of the card elements together. The sentiment panel is adhered using dimensionals. The twist of copper twine and scatter of copper sequins add additional visual interest and sparkle and tie all of the card elements together for a more cohesive look throughout the design.

Products used:
Pretty Peacock, glimmer gold cardstock
All About Autumn DSP
Nested Essential, Alphabet a la Mode dies
Adhesive-backed sequins
Copper twine (retired)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress and are based on your personal browsing history. I do not control ad content.

Fall

Fall-ever Grateful

We recently had a virtual team stamping event. It was so fun to get to stamp together with team members who are scattered across North America. The beauty of that event was getting to play with some product that I don’t currently have in my own stash of products. After working with the Autumn Leaves dies, I just might have to change that though!

This design helps showcase the beauty of the autumn products on page 43 of the current Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog. This card sits atop a base of Very Vanilla. The card face sits atop a sheet of Copper Clay foiled designer paper from the All About Autumn paper pack. The focal image is mounted on a panel diecut from Copper Clay using the Deckled Rectangles dies. The iridescent ribbon is mounted between the Copper Clay mat and focal image sheet and tied using gold cord. The sentiment panel is diecut from Very Vanilla cardstock using the Autumn Leaves dies. The sentiment is stamped with Charming Sentiments in the center using Old Olive. The leaves are diecut from Oxidized Copper designer paper using the Autumn Leaves dies. (Check out the details in those leaves! Even more stunning in person!) The entire center panel sits atop dimensionals which really allows it to shine.

Products used:
Very Vanilla, Copper Clay cardstock
All About Autumn, Oxidized Copper DSP
Charming Sentiments stamps
Autumn Leaves dies
Adhesive-backed speckled dots
Iridescent ribbon
Gold cord
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress and are based on your personal browsing history. I do not control ad content.

birthday · Fall

Falling for Birthdays

The All About Autumn designer series paper is another line that lends itself really well to a variety of fun fold designs. This pack of paper is full of stunning designs with one side of the sheet being fall-themed, full-color photographs and the other side showcasing gorgeous foil designs. The paper is so popular that it sells out quickly each time it comes back in stock, so you can’t hesitate to swipe it when you see it or else it’s usually gone on backorder again when you go back to the online store!

For this design, I wanted to create a card that you would be perfect for any recipient and selected elements that would draw out all of the finer details of the papers. The single-Z fun fold is perfect way to spice things up and create more visual interest and drama. The card base is a sheet of Crumb Cake cardstock, which helps draw out the lighter brown elements of the leaves in the sheet of DSP that serves as the card front. The sentiment panel is diecut from Very Vanilla cardstock using the Nested Essentials dies and stamped with the Charming Sentiments stamp in Copper Clay. A sheet of foiled Copper Clay provides a good base for the sentiment. Adding some dimensionals under the sentiment panel, along with the metallic Flirty Flamingo ribbon, allows it to pop against the busier background. The ribbon also draws out the orange and gold elements of the leaves. The inside of the card holds a small panel of foiled Copper Clay and a small sentiment panel.

I can think of so many of my friends with upcoming birthdays for whom this design would be perfect. What about you?

Products used:
Mossy Meadow, Very Vanilla cardstock
All About Autumn DSP
Charming Sentiments stamps
Nested Essential dies
Adhesive-backed speckled dots
Metallic Flirty Flamingo ribbon
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress and are based on your personal browsing history. I do not control ad content.

Fall

Hello, Pumpkin

It’s really beginning to feel like fall here in Texas. And fall is my favorite season! I love everything about fall — cooler temperatures, beautiful colors as the leaves change, pumpkins, hot apple cider, toasty fires, going to sleep when it’s dark! There’s so much to love about fall.

The All About Autumn designer paper in the current Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini Catalog has been popular, and it’s no wonder because it’s absolutely stunning in person! There are beautiful photos on one side and gorgeous foiled designs on the other. Honestly, it’s hard to choose, but the great thing about the 6×6 pack of papers it that you have 4 of each design so you don’t have to!

For this card design, I began with a base of Mossy Meadow. I wanted to bring out all of the detail in the various pumpkins and so I chose to use two different foiled sheets, one in vanilla and one in peacock. I love how it brings out both the lighter details of the pumpkins and the greens in the heirloom pumpkin. To carry on with the natural theme, the natural wavy trim pays tribute to the pumpkin stems. The little sentiment panel is diecut from white using the Nested Essentials dies. A few speckled dots add visual interest and draw the eye to the sentiment panel and help carry the green elements through the entire design.

Products used:
Mossy Meadow, white cardstock
All About Autumn DSP
Pansy Patch stamps
Nested Essential dies
Adhesive-backed speckled dots
Natural wavy trim
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress and are based on your personal browsing history. I do not control ad content.