birthday

Peaceful Birthday Wishes

After a day like today, it has never seemed more appropriate to be working with a peaceful product line. This week we’re restocking our birthday card stash using a variety of products in the crafty stash. And today’s design pairs the beautiful Peaceful Garden products with the Simply Said stamp set to create this lovely botanical birthday card. The super classy and versatile layout is inspired by Sweet Stampin’.

We get started with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. The background panel is a floral sheet of the Peaceful Garden patterned paper that is matted with a sheet of Misty Moonlight glimmer paper from the coordinating glimmer pack. Our focal panel is a trio of elements starting with an arched backdrop cut from Secret Sea using the Everyday Arches dies. I fussy cut the hydrangea bloom from a sheet of the Lovely Garden patterned paper and affixed it to the arch panel using dimensionals. The sentiment from Simply Said is stamped in Secret Sea on Cloud Cover cardstock and then cut with the smallest Peace on Earth dies using the reverse-extension method, making it smaller than the standard die size. It’s tucked under the hydrangea bunch. The full panel is adhered to the card front with dimensionals. We add a knot of Misty Moonlight & silver edged ribbon over the sentiment, some Wink of Stella to the hydrangea blooms, and two bunches of silver Drusy embellishments opposite one another on the focal panel.

I feel like this card imparts a lot of warmth with its hues of blues and subtle sparkles. It certainly makes me smile anyway! Pop in tomorrow and see what we can pair together next to create a cheery birthday design.

Product List
birthday

Falling for Birthdays

After a long day at the office, I alllllllmost pulled a skip for today. But I found some inspiration over at The Crafty Carrot that pulled me out of my dog-tired slump and I managed to pull together this super cute variation of the inspo card.

This week, we’re working on restocking the birthday card stash by pulling together goodies from the stash. Today we’re using another combination of new and old with the Gathering Together products and With You in Mind stamp set.

We get started with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock. Two patterns from the Gathering Together patterned paper pack work together to create our backdrop. I chose the large birthday sentiment from the With You in Mind stamp set and cut a circle from Whisper White cardstock using the Spotlight on Nature dies to create the panel. The largest leaf from the Gathering Moments stamp set is stamped on either side of the sentiment. The panel is adhered in the center of the card with dimensionals. And then a collection of leaves from the stamp set is stamped onto white using a combination of Mossy Meadow and Old Olive inks and then diecut with the coordinating Gathering Moments dies. A few acorns are stamped on Crumb Cake and then diecut with the coordinating die. The leaves and acorns are tucked around the sentiment panel. A festive bow of gold striped mesh ribbon is placed at the top to hug the birthday sentiment. We finish things off with a few Cajun Craze & Gold dots for a pop of eye-catching color.

This design is super easy to replicate and would be great for a guy or gal in your life. I love having neutral designs like this in the stash to make it easy to grab one, write a note, and drop it in the mail on the fly. Tune in tomorrow to see what combination we’ll be using next!

Product List
birthday

Celebrate Adventure

It’s hard to believe that we’re already starting a new week. I feel like we just started Friday! It was a nice weekend around here. The temps were cool and we had some rainy days – perfect for staying in and doing nothing.

We’re on to a new week and new design theme. For me, September is a very busy birthday month between family and close friends, and so I’m (a little selfishly) in birthday mode for this week’s projects. We’re going to be pulling out old and new sets from the crafty stash to create our designs. First up is this card for the nature lovers in your clan. Inspired by a lovely window scene created by Simple Stamper over in the Instaverse, we’re combining the Scenic Adventure and Light & Wonder die sets to create this beautiful mountain vista in our picture window.

We get started with a base of white cardstock. We build our scene on the front panel of the card base. I started by lightly sketching the smallest arch on the card front to ensure that I covered what would be visible through the picture window. We started by “painting” the sky with Cloud Cover and Pool Party inks blended using the small blending brushes. The mountain is cut from Cloud Cover cardstock using the Scenic Adventure die and then gave the mountain a bit more dimension by shading with Cloud Cover and blending brush. The mountain is adhered using dimensionals. I had a leftover piece of light blue pastel ombre glimmer paper that was embossed using the Soft Waves embossing folder that I adhered at the bottom of the mountain so that it would peek through the line of trees in the front of our scene. The trees are cut from Mossy Meadow cardstock using the large treeline die from the Light & Wonder die set, which is adhered with dimensionals. The clouds are cut from a small scrap of vellum using the Scenic Adventure dies and adhered in the sky using glue dots. They’re colored with Wink of Stella so they sparkle and then the mountain scene is splattered with Wink of Stella for some subtle twinkles across the scene. I cut nesting arches using the Everyday Arches dies from two additional quarter panels of white to create the window frame. The sentiment from Beautiful Butterflies is stamped in Secret Sea under the window of the outside panel. The window pane look is create by adhering the two arched panels together with dimensionals. A scattering of frosted iridescent dots add some additional ethereal sparkle across the card front.

We’re continuing our birthday theme tomorrow. I hope you’ll drop in and see what pairing we have tomorrow.

Product List
Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Christmas Wishes

Howdy, friends! Have this week’s card designs gotten you into the holiday spirit? Well, today’s card will have you smelling evergreens. *wink*

We’re using some of the new Stampin’ Up! holiday release products to create our clean & simple holiday card designs this week. And today, we’re pairing up the Joyful Days Memories & More card pack with the Christmas Tags & More paper pack with coordinating ephemera sheets and the Greetings for You ephemera pack. And what kind of card would it be if I didn’t include some sparkle? *grin*

We get started with this card with a base of Shaded Spruce cardstock. The background panel is a sheet of snowflake pattern Christmas Tags & More paper diecut with the largest Textured Notes die. The bottom of the panel is wrapped with Shaded Spruce sheer ribbon that is tied off with some gold thread (both now retired). Our focal panel is the smaller evergreen card from the Joyful Days card pack that is matted with some (retired) Shaded Spruce festive glimmer paper and mounted on dimensionals. I added some of the packages from the ephemera sheet included in the Christmas Tags & More pack and mounted them on varying levels of dimensionals for some realistic depth of scene. The tree baubles are some of the traditional sparkling sequins. We finish things off with a holiday sentiment from the Greetings for You ephemera pack and mount it with enough dimensionals to stand above the center focal point.

This is such a super simple design – so fun & so easy to put together. And don’t you think it’s just a lovely way to send some holiday cheer? Tomorrow we’re going to close out this week’s design series with a traditional evergreen wreath. I hope you’ll pop in and check it out.

Product List
Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

From Our House

It’s hard to believe that we’re already quickly approaching the weekend. It’s been a super busy week, so it’s really just flying by. I’m gonna need two weekends just to recover. *ha!* So have you gotten to check out all the new goodies that launched yesterday? Which ones are your must-haves? I’m looking forward to playing around more with my faves from the new Holiday Mini catalog & the new Online Exclusives. And since it’s craft show season, I’ll have even more reasons to be in the craft room creating fun new projects!

This week, we’re getting a look at some of the must-haves that I got from the new release. And we’re using the new products to create clean & simple holiday cards. Today’s card combines the Joyful Days Memories & More cards with the Christmas Greenery Dies and the Gathering Together patterned paper to create a design that extends well beyond the traditional Christmas holidays. With the more masculine, neutral color palette, you can easily use this design from fall through winter. And that’s a design I can get behind!

We start with a base of Cherry Cobbler cardstock to tie with the subtle striping in our focal panel plain backdrop. I chose a sheet of the striped foiled Old Olive paper from the Gathering Together paper pack as the full-panel backdrop. It coordinates perfectly with the Joyful Days card that serves as our focal panel background. The evergreen branches are cut from gold foil specialty paper using the Christmas Greenery dies and are tied together with some (now retired) Cherry Cobbler & Gold satin ribbon. The sentiment is from the Greetings for You ephemera pack and is mounted on a small panel of gold & white foiled grid paper from the Nature’s Sweetness paper pack and cut using the Traditional Labels dies. I added some dimensionals behind the sentiment and then behind the full panel when adhering over the greenery to be sure they catch the eye. Some extra sparkle from the traditional sparkling sequins add the perfect coordinating gold finish.

Tomorrow we’re headed to the trees … the Christmas trees. I hope you’ll drop by and check out O Tannenbaum!

Product List
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