Valentines

Extra Special Grove

Welcome back, friends! It’s Monday and my tail is dragging. What about yours? After getting a little crafty time on Saturday morning, the hubby & I set about tackling our to-do list for the day. Late in the afternoon, I got a headache that eventually morphed into a migraine. So my grand plan for rewarding myself for conquering our to-do list by playing in the craft room again was replaced by retiring to bed early and sleeping with a pillow over my head. Womp-womp.

So here we are at Monday again and time for a new design challenge. This week, we’re thinking about the upcoming Valentine holiday, if we want to call it that. It’s actually a perfect time to let your friends know you’re thinking of them — and that special someone too, of course! So we’re starting off with one for the fellas since they didn’t really get their due last week. And we’re combining the new Aspen Grove stamp set with the Country Woods paper and a sentiment from the 2025 Advent Calendar.

We get started with a base of Smoky Slate cardstock. A sheet of the grey woodgrain from the Country Woods paper pack serves as our focal backdrop. I arranged the Aspen Grove stamps on a large block and stamped the row of trunks in black ink onto white cardstock. I layered several shades of green leaves up top to create the treetop canopy. To give some realistic depth to the tree trunks, we use Crumb Cake and Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blends down the left side of each one, which gives a shadow effect. I filled in a touch of blue in the background with Cloud Cover ink, but you could easily skip this shading (and next time, I think I will!). The focal panel is downsized using the Textured Notes die and then adhered to the woodgrain backdrop. The full panel is wrapped in black & gold bakers twine that is tied in a knot on the left side before the focal panel is adhered to the card front with dimensionals. The sentiment panel is cut from Cloud Cover cardstock with the Stylish Shapes circle die and then the sentiment from the 12 Days of Christmas Advent calendar is stamped in black in the center and then adhered over the twine with dimensionals. I added a few of the lighter Shades of Green Hexagons on either side of the sentiment to draw the eye in and add a bit of colorful eye candy.

This design is 100% inspired by one of the samples from the January Mini catalog. Much like using a sketch, you can take a design and make it your own with a substitution here & there. It’s another great trick when you’re either short on time or lacking a little inspiration — or both!

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see another Valentine-inspired design.

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Masculine Designs

Great Explorer

Happy Thursday, everyone! Whew — it’s been a rough week as we have all transitioned back to normal life after the Winter Storm Fern. Work and school and all of the things are back in full swing, and I guess I just wasn’t ready. Hopefully next week will go a little more smoothly.

But all that aside, I’m back with some more tips & tricks for those masculine cards. This week, we’re looking for those shortcuts to make cards for the fellas come together a little quicker. We started by using a sketch with geometric patterns. Today, we’re focusing on color palette as we take our cues from the new Nature Walk paper released by Stampin’ Up! This gorgeous paper combines hues of blue and brown and green to create perfect subtle patterns. We’re pairing it up with the newer Outdoor Adventure stamp & die set to make our adventure-themed card.

We get started with a base of Secret Sea cardstock and then add a sheet of the Nature Walk patterned paper as our backdrop. We cut an accent piece from a sheet of Timeless Plaid using the Textured Notes rectangle dies and adhered on the left side of our card. I stamped a stand of trees on white cardstock in a combination of Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, and Soft Sea Foam using the Outdoor Adventure stamp and then cut it out with one of the smaller Spotlight on Nature dies. It’s adhered over a bow of Secret Sea cardstock with dimensionals. Our wolf is stamped in Smoky Slate on Cloud Cover cardstock and then cut with the coordinating die from the Outdoor Adventure die set. It’s adhered at the bottom of our tree panel with several layers of dimensionals for some extra depth in the scene. I stamped the sentiment from the Outdoor Adventure set onto vellum with Versamark and then heat embossed with silver embossing powder. It’s cut out with the banner die from the Stylish Shapes set using the extension method to make it long enough to capture the full sentiment. The sentiment banner is adhered at the top of our focal panel using glue dots on either end to make it look like the banner is rippling in the wind. We finish things off with some Mossy Meadow and Secret Sea embellishments from the Moody Palette and Sparkle dot sets.

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see a clean and simple design that comes together in minutes.

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Masculine Designs

Amazing Nature

Howdy, friends. Can you believe it’s Monday already? There was lots on the to-do list this weekend which meant that the weekend flew by, but it felt good to get most of what we had on the list all done. We bid adieu to the Christmas decorations (am I the only one who waits until February to take it down?) and put the house back together.

This week we’re beginning a new design series that’s all about the fellas. It can sometimes be hard to make cards that feel more masculine, but we’re going to explore our crafty stash together and find some shortcuts to masculine designs. And today’s shortcut begins with a sketch. I’ve found that a geometric feel to a card layout can lend itself to feeling more masculine. With a more neutral color palette and some earthy patterns in the Autumn Toile and Nature Walk papers, we have the perfect recipe for a card fit for a dear dude. (Did you catch my play on words there? *wink*)

We get started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. I used a sheet of the Mossy Meadow Nature Walk patterned paper to serve as the backdrop for the design. Our three repeating shapes are from the Nested Essentials die set and are cut from a sheet of the Autumn Toile patterned paper. I really love how you can still make out the original scene as you look down the three shapes and how the deer repeat in each panel in a perfect triangle.

The sentiment panel finishes our visual triangle and is punched from vanilla cardstock with the To the Point label punch. The sentiment from the Words of Beauty stamp set is stamped in Early Espresso. We cut some oak leaves and acorns from Cajun Craze and Early Espresso cardstocks and adhere them behind the sentiment panel, along with a twist of white & gold baker’s twine. The whole panel is then adhered to the card front with dimensionals. And we finish everything off with some gold drusy embellishments for the perfect pop of sparkle.

Today’s sketch is from the current Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and also happens to be our current Luv 2 Stamp team challenge sketch. What do you think about using a sketch to inspire your masculine cards?

I hope you’ll drop by tomorrow to see what other tips we can use to make creating masculine cards a little less challenging!

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January Mini Catalog

Filled With Happiness

Welcome back for today’s bonus post! This week, we’re working with the new Memories & More card set from Stampin’ Up! called Days Like This. These notecards come in two sizes — 3×4 and 4×6 — and they can make it super easy to put a card together in a flash. And today’s bonus card is a perfect example of how you can do just that!

This card starts with a base of white cardstock. We use one of the 4×6 cards from the Days Like This pack and cut it down to size to serve as the backdrop for our focal panel. Using the largest banner die from the Stylish Shapes set, we cut out the sentiment from our backdrop panel before we adhere the background panel to the card front. To help our sentiment stand out and to add a bit more color to our design, we cut a rectangle from the small butterfly-patterned card with the Textured Notes Dies using the extension method. This rectangular piece is adhered over the cut-out in our background panel and adhered with dimensionals over it. Then we add our sentiment panel on top with dimensionals. I cut out the butterfly from a scrap of one of the smaller 3×4 cards I still had on hand and added some Wink of Stella and then tucked it behind the right-hand corner of the sentiment. I grabbed a few of the gold foil hearts from the Unforgettable Times ephemera pack and added them around the sentiment panel and finished things off with a few opal rounds and just a touch of Wink of Stella on the butterfly on our backdrop.

This one comes together in less than 5 minutes and is the perfect way to spread a little handmade kindness to someone who might need a little pick-me-up. Next week, we’re going to use the crafty stash to create more masculine designs. It’s going to be fun to pull together new & less-new products to make some projects for the fellas. I hope you’ll drop by and check them all out!

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Fun Folds · January Mini Catalog

Grateful Forever

Welcome in, crafty friends, on this frigid Saturday! We had a brief warm-up yesterday with temps well above freezing and today we’re back down in the low 20s. We’re thankful for the brief period of time we had to thaw out from all of the ice and snow Winter Storm Fern left us. And we’re praying for all of those in the areas that are still in the midst of the freeze and are without power and basic utilities. Having been there during Winter Storm Uri back in 2021, we personally know all too well what that is like!

We’re continuing our design series using the new Days Like This Memories & More card pack from Stampin’ Up! I love having at least one set of Memories & More cards on hand for those times when I need to make a quick card for a specific occasion. Today we’re using the Beautiful Butterflies dies and Lovely & Beautiful paper to make a fun fold card. Our Memories & More cards are perfect for the finishing touches on the inside of our card. Let’s see how this one comes together.

We get started with a base of Lemon Lolly cardstock on a standard A2 card base. We’re using a sheet of the Lovely & Beautiful patterned paper as the backdrop for our card front. The front panel focal panel is a fold-over panel of Lemon Lolly shimmer paper cut using the Beautiful Butterflies dies. This fold-over panel is cut just large enough to give us our butterfly shape for the front with about a half-inch strip to adhere to the inside panel of our card. Our butterfly details are made from vellum and black cardstock cut with the Beautiful Butterflies dies. The vellum is colored with the black Stampin’ Blend and then a layer of Wink of Stella is added to both pieces for some nice subtle twinkle. The detail pieces are adhered to the butterfly panel with glue dots. The front-facing part of our sentiment is the word grateful from the Unforgettable Times ephemera pack and is adhered at the base of the fold-over butterfly panel with several layers of dimensionals. I added some clear opal rounds on either side of the butterfly panel to draw the eye in to our front focal section.

When you lift the butterfly panel, lots of extra detail is revealed, including the second portion of our sentiment. I used the hybrid embossing folder to cut a detail butterfly from the Lemon Lolly glimmer paper and adhered it to the back of the fold-over panel. I love this hidden detail and it makes the butterfly more realistic because there’s a front and back view to their wings, after all. I cut a smaller butterfly from the hybrid embossing folder panel and used gold foil to add the details to coordinate with the gold foil forever sentiment from the Unforgettable Times ephemera pack. A small bow tied from the black & gold baker’s twine ties the two sentiment panels together.

We open our card to reveal our sentiment panel — complete with additional butterfly detailing. Here we’re using our Memories & More cards to add the finishing touches to the inside of our card. A larger 4×6 card from the pack serves as the patterned panel for the left-hand side of the message panel. I had a scrap of one of the smaller 3×4 butterfly cards left in my stash, and I cut out one of the butterflies to add to the corner of the patterned sheet. We use half of the more subtle butterfly-patterned 3×4 card to decorate the message panel. A few Peach Pie pearls finish off the opposing corners of the inside panels.

I love how each of the panels of this card reveals a fun surprise. And while it looks like a super complicated design, it really comes together quickly thanks to beautiful paper and Memories & More cards. I have a super quick & easy bonus card to bring you this evening once I knock out today’s around-the-house to-do list. I hope you’ll drop back by to check it out.

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January Mini Catalog · L2S Group Instahop

Smiles and Laughter

Howdy, everyone! Anybody know what day it is? I say that because the kiddos are once again out of school today due to the weather and we have all completely lost track of what day it is! Good news tho — temps have hovered just above freezing overnight so we’re expecting all of our slick roadways to completely thaw today so the kiddos can return to school tomorrow. Fingers crossed anyway!

This week we’re having fun with the new Days Like This Memories & More card pack that just released in the Stampin’ Up! January Mini catalog. Today we’re pairing it up with the new Lovely & Beautiful paper and Beautiful Butterflies dies to finish off the message panel of our card. Let’s see how it all comes together.

We get started with a base of Pool Party cardstock. Our card front begins with the larger floral pattern foil sheet from the Lovely & Beautiful patterned paper pack. The sentiment from the Lovely Arrangements stamp set is stamped in a combination of Versamark and Pretty Peacock and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. We use the smaller banner die from the Stylish Shapes die set to cut out the sentiment using the extension method to get the full sentiment and a little border. The sentiment panel is adhered over a faux bow of black & gold bakers twine using dimensionals. Now we work on our sparkly butterflies. The detail portion of each set of butterfly wings is cut from Pool Party shimmer paper using the Beautiful Butterflies dies. The larger wings are cut from vellum that is covered with Wink of Stella. Each butterfly body is cut from black cardstock that is covered with Wink of Stella. We assemble our butterflies with glue dots and then adhere them to our card front on either side of the sentiment panel using varying layers of dimensionals. And just look at how those butterflies sparkle thanks to our shimmer paper and Wink of Stella! We finish off our card front with some of the white opal rounds.

Our message panel is where our Days Like This cards come to our aid. We use one of the larger 4×6 panels as the base layer and the grid pattern is perfect for writing a nice straight message. I used a leftover scrap of the reverse side of the large base panel as the detail piece on the left-hand side. We tie together our butterfly theme between front and inside panels by adding a touch of Wink of Stella to the small butterfly in our side accent panel. The inside sentiment is diecut from one of the smaller 3×4 cards in the Days Like This pack using the Nested Essentials banner dies. We finish off our inside message panel with a few yellow opal rounds.

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! 

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January Mini Catalog

Happy Day

We’ve made it to the midweek, friends! For us here in North Texas, where everything is still covered in a thick sheet of ice, that’s kinda saying something. Kiddos are out of school again today, and it’s a good thing given the current conditions. The sun is shining bright and we’re supposed to get above freezing today, so we will see if we have greater success than yesterday at thawing out.

This week, we’re using the new Days Like This Memories & More card pack to design our projects. And today’s card is another clean & simple design where we’re using a few dies, some patterned paper, and the new pack of Unforgettable Times ephemera to create a bright and happy card. (See what I did there? *wink*)

We get started with a base of Basic White cardstock that sits under all of our pretty patterns. A sheet of the green Pleasant Patterns foiled paper serves as the backdrop for our Days Like This card covered in butterflies that has been sized down using the Perennial Postage dies. We wrap some white with gold ribbon around the center of the butterfly panel before adhering to the card front with dimensionals. To help the sentiment from the Unforgettable Times ephemera pack really pop against the busy butterfly background (whew — that was a lot of Bs!), I cut a circle of vellum with the Spotlight on Nature Dies to break up the pattern just a bit. Both the sentiment and circle panel are adhered to the card front over the ribbon with dimensionals. I added a combo of green and pink In Color pearls on and around the sentiment.

This easy peasy card makes me happy just looking at it! It will be sure to brighten someone’s day, don’t you think? I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow when we pair the Days Like This cards with the Beautiful Butterflies bundle. It’s sure to make your heart flutter!

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Winter

Warm Hello

Welcome back, friends. I got a little side-tracked during my afternoon crafting session and suddenly realized I hadn’t gotten my project posted. This card is inspired by a cute card made by fellow demo Bree Renwick over at Craft-somnia. It’s always fun to start with an inspiration and see where the variations take you. I paired the Outdoor Adventure bundle with the Soft Waves embossing folder to create this snowy scene. And I recycled some scraps of glimmer paper from another project using the Lovely Arrangements dies — can you spot them?

We get started with a base of Secret Sea. I think it’s the perfect blend of black and navy and certainly sets the scene nicely here. Our scene is built on a base of Cloud Cover, which peeks out at the top to create our snowy-looking sky. Next up is our stand of evergreens created using Soft Sea Foam as the base and then we use the Outdoor Adventure stamps to create the tree line with Soft Sea Foam, Old Olive, and Mossy Meadow inks. I fussy cut around them and adhered them to a strip of white cardstock. To create our snow in the foreground, I embossed a piece of vellum with the Soft Waves embossing folder and adhered it over a scrap of white cardstock. This is adhered over the bottom of our tree panel with dimensionals to create the look of the snow being in the foreground. Our elk is stamped in Crumb Cake on Crumb Cake cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. I fussy cut a little closer to the elk image and then adhered it over the snow with glue dots. The whole panel is wrapped in Secret Sea bordered ribbon tied in a knot and then it’s adhered to the card front with tear-and-tape. The sentiment panel is cut from vellum using one of the sentiment dies from the Lovely Arrangements die set and then the sentiment from the Snowy Delights stamp set is stamped in Secret Sea. I used my heat gun to speed up the ink drying process so the sentiment panel could be adhered to the card front with glue dots. I pulled the Secret Sea sparkly diamonds from my scrap pile and adhered them with glue dots.

Schools are officially closed in our area for the next two days, so all of us working folks have to figure out how to “work” from home productively the next couple of days. Here’s hoping! *wink* And speaking of days like this, we’re going to be working with the Days Like This Memories & More pack this coming week. I hope you’ll drop in and see all of the fun projects you can create with this set of cards.

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Winter

Warmest Winter Wishes

Welcome in for a bonus day of crafty goodness from the winter wonderland of Northeast Texas! True to the forecast, Winter Storm Fern dumped lots of sleet and snow here overnight, and we woke up to a slippery mess. With temperatures not forecasted to get anywhere near freezing until Tuesday afternoon, if we’re lucky, we are going to be tucked inside where it’s warm & dry for the foreseeable future.

But all this wintery weather has me in the craft room and thinking of snow. So I’m dusting off my winter crafty goodies to bring you some bonus cards today. We’re starting with a super fun pairing of the Winter Scenes and Delicate Pines stamps with the Lights of Aurora paper to create this warm wishes card.

We get started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. A sheet of the Lights of Aurora paper serves as the backdrop for our winter scene and it’s matted with a sheet of the blue Pastels Shimmer paper. Our scene panel begins with the cabin stamp from the Winter Scenes stamp set and is stamped in Crumb Cake on the right edge of a quarter panel of white cardstock. I used the smaller trees from the Light & Wonder die set to cut a stand of trees next to the cabin and then fussy cut around the cabin to finish the scene. Using a water painter, we add color to our scene with a combination of Mossy Meadow, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze, and Basic Gray inks. I went over the whole scene with Wink of Stella to add the sparkle of fresh snowfall. The sentiment from the Delicate Pines stamp set is stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed with silver. I wrapped and tied some white & gold baker’s twine just above the sentiment to pull the eye down to the sentiment. The panel is then adhered to the card front with dimensionals. We stamp some snowflakes from the Delicate Pines set in Versamark and emboss with clear embossing powder before cutting with the coordinating Delicate Pines die and then covering with some Wink of Stella. The flakes are adhered in the sky with glue dots. I added some frosted iridescent dots to the snowflake centers and a few around the sentiment for good measure.

I hope you’re staying safe & warm if you’re in Winter Storm Fern’s path. Pop back in later this afternoon to see what other winter-inspired designs I find time to make.

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Snowy Delights · Winter

Winter Wish

Welcome back, friends, for a bonus post on this snowy day in North Texas. Winter Storm Fern is living up to all the hype here for sure as temperatures are frigid and mixed precipitation continues to fall. The streets are covered and roads are slippery, so needless to say, we’re staying home where it’s safe & warm.

And that’s giving me the opportunity to make up for the crafting time I didn’t get earlier in the week. I thought it would be fun to have a few bonus posts that give an ode to the current weather here. So today I’m inking up a stamp set I’ve had for a while that has *eek* made its way to the Last Chance list — Snowy Delights. Time to get it inky! And it just so happens to pair up perfectly with the new Nature Walk paper.

We get started with a base of Night of Navy cardstock. The background pattern is from the Nature Walk paper pack and I machine embossed it with the Soft Waves embossing folder to give a snowdrift effect. The embossed panel is wrapped in a combination of Cloud Cover and Misty Moonlight & silver ribbons before it’s adhered to the card front. Our focal image from the Snowy Delights stamp set is stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed in silver before being diecut with the coordinating outline die. I added some of the white frosted iridescent dots to the center of the snowflake for some extra detail and a bit of sparkle. The snowflake is adhered over the ribbon with dimensionals. The sentiment from the Snowy Delights set is embossed on vellum in silver before being cut out with the banner die from the Stylish Shapes set. It’s adhered over the snowflake with glue dots so the adhesive isn’t visible. A few extra iridescent frosted dots finish things off.

What do you think of this super simple tribute to Winter Storm Fern? I think it’s pretty perfect. I hope you’re staying & safe and warm in your neck of the woods. It’s the perfect evening to curl up with some soup and a good movie and that’s just what we plan to do!

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