Gifting

Home Decor

It’s been a tremendously busy week. I’ve been working away in the craft room as I’m down to the wire for my craft booth items. Today is setup day and tomorrow is booth day!

Today, I’m popping in to share another fun giftie that will be available in my shop — home decor items. On one of our recent virtual team events, we made a framed project and I just fell in love with the idea.

And as with most things I prefer to undertake in the craft room, projects don’t have to be overly complicated to have a WOW factor. Today’s sample is a Christmas project using the O Holy Night suite. This set of products retired last year and I’m still super sad about it! This particular project is a combination of patterned paper and diecut elements — most of them are repeated images. A simple bit of layering with dimensionals builds a gorgeous scene of the wisemen on their journey to find Jesus.

For those of you who have been following along over the last week and expressed some interest in the lip balm box, I was able to carve out a little time to make a video and PDF tutorial to walk you through putting a box together.

Next week, I’ll be popping in with a preview of my favorite soon-to-release Online Exclusive bundle. It’s otterly adorable! *wink wink*

Holiday Mini Catalog

Hello, Fall Wreath

This week, we’re using the Nests of Winter suite by Stampin’ Up! to create our designs. This suite of products includes coordinating stamps & dies, patterned paper, an embossing folder, twine, and shimmer gems. Today’s card showcases the versatility of this set as we make a lovely fall design.

I don’t know if you’re one to change your decor based on the seasons, but I really love to do that. Some seasons I go more “all out” than others, but I have some very basic elements around the house that change based on the season. One thing I’m sure to change is the wreath on my front door, which inspired today’s design. The greenery swag in the Winterly Tree Tops set is perfect for wreath-making!

We get started on our card with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock. Our background panel is the woodgrain pattern from the Nests of Winter patterned paper pack. I just love the old barn door look here! Our wreath is made with the greenery swag image from the Winterly Tree Tops stamp set. The image is stamped in Crumb Cake on Wild Wheat cardstock. The berries are completed with a combination of In Color resin dots and Rainbow dots using a combination of pinks, oranges, and yellows to really reflect our fall color palette. I decided to mimic the look of fall wreath picks and used the smaller greenery elements in the Winterly Tree Tops die set to accomplish this. The picks are a combination of Early Espresso, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze, and gold foil papers. They’re tied together with some of the lovely Very Vanilla satin ribbon. Our greeting placard is a combination of Very Vanilla and Early Espresso cardstock diecut using the Unbounded Love dies and the sentiment is stamped from Wonderful Thoughts is stamped in black. Everything is adhered with dimensionals to really give the look of a wreath hanging on the door. A few drusy embellishments add a little sparkle and really bring our eyes across the lovely wreath.

Tomorrow we’re going to be using a new sketch and once again using our Nests of Winter to create a lovely fall-inspired card design. Come check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Mossy Meadow, Very Vanilla, Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze, Old Olive, Early Espresso cardstock
Nests of Winter, gold foil DSP
Winterly Tree Tops stamps & dies
Unbounded Love dies
Rainbow dots, In Color resin dots
Very Vanilla satin ribbon
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Holiday Mini Catalog

Hi, Friend

We’ve made it to the halfway point of the week already, friends. I don’t know about you, but I have more things to do than I have time to do them these days! I’m preparing for 2 craft shows this month and my craft room looks like it! *snicker*

This week, we’re using the Stampin’ Up! Nests of Winter suite of products to create our projects. Today, we’re pairing up the lovely patterned papers with a few other current products in the SU! lineup to create this lovely Hello card.

We start with a base of Lost Lagoon cardstock. I love how this base brings out the subtle hues in the greenery around the birds. The background panel consists of the snowy and woodgrain patterns from Nests of Winter. Our focal panel is all about the birds. I chose to fussy cut the chickadee and pair of cardinals from the sheet from Nests of Winter to serve as our focal images. Our birds are layered on top of a sparkly glimmer paper circle cut with the Spotlight on Nature dies and greenery cut from the Season of Green & Gold paper with the Golden Greenery dies. A twist of gold trim behind the panel complements the sparkle of the gold-foiled greenery. The sentiment from Wonderful Thoughts is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut with the Changing Leaves dies and tucked behind the greenery. A few blooming pearls across our design help the eye move across our focal panel to take in every detail.

Tomorrow we’re going to build a fall design with our feature suite. I hope you’ll pop in and see how it turns out!

Products used in today’s card:
Lost Lagoon, Basic White cardstock
Nests of Winter, white glimmer, Season of Green & Gold DSP
Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Golden Greenery, Spotlight on Nature, Changing Leaves dies
Gold trim
Blooming pearls
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Holiday Mini Catalog

Nested Love

It’s starting to feel a lot more like fall in North Texas as our mornings are beginning to be more brisk. Fall is one of my favorite seasons, and one of the things I love about fall is that our winter bird friends return. My son got the family into bird watching when he was younger and we have enjoyed it ever since. We have birds that come and go from our area each year, and we enjoy looking for them.

This week, we’re using the Stampin’ Up! Nests of Winter to suite to design our projects. This suite of products includes lovely patterned paper, stamps, and dies that all share bird images. Today, we’re using a very simple layout to create our design.

We get started with a base of Smoky Slate cardstock. Our center background panel is a strip of patterned papers. The woodgrain pattern is from the Nests of Winter pack, while the mat is from Nature’s Sweetness. I love how the mat really accentuates the colors and shading in the woodgrain pattern.

Our focal panel also has several layers. The base is a piece of the Pretty Peacock Season of Elegance foiled paper that is diecut using the Nested Essentials set. I wanted to pull in pops of color that would accentuate the blue undertones in the birds’ feathers.

The sentiment panel is a piece of white cardstock diecut using the Greetings of the Season dies, and then the sentiment from Wonderful Thoughts is stamped in black on the left side to allow for our focal image. Our duo of birds is stamped in black on Smoky Slate and then colored with Stampin’ Blends. I used a combination of Smoky Slate, Pretty Peacock, and Calypso Coral to shade the birds to resemble tufted titmice—some of my favorite little winter birds. I fussy cut the birds to omit the seasonal greenery to keep things more seasonally neutral for this card design.

The focal panel is adhered with dimensionals over a twist of the Pretty Peacock & Gold metallic ribbon. Groups of Pretty Peacock sequins are added on either side of our focal panel for a pop of sparkle and to help move the eye across our design.

Tomorrow we’re going to be using more of the images from the papers in this suite. I hope you’ll pop by.

Products used in today’s card:
Smoky Slate, Basic White cardstock
Nests of Winter, Season of Elegance, Nature’s Sweetness DSP
Winterly Tree Tops, Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Nested Essentials, Greetings of the Season dies
Stampin’ Blends
Pretty Peacock & Gold metallic ribbon
Sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Holiday Mini Catalog

When Words Are Too Much

Welcome to a brand new week. It’s the last day of September. Who else is reeling a little bit about that?!

This week, we’re starting a brand new series using the Stampin’ Up! Nests of Winter suite. We’re starting off super simple by letting the beautiful paper do all the talking. With so many of you dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, this sentiment felt appropriate today. The photos of the damage left behind is simply overwhelming! Our prayers are definitely with you all.

We start our card with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I love how that pulled the subtle purple hues in this paper more forward. I chose the one-sheet-wonder sheet from the Nests of Winter paper pack as our focal sheet for this card. I twisted the Night of Navy linen thread around the top. I love how this makes the little blue bird in our focal sheet really pop. The sentiment from Wonderful Thoughts is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut using the Greetings of the Season dies. I added a few regal foiled dots on the sentiment panel and scattered a few among the branches below.

This clean and simple design is a great way to let a gorgeous piece of paper do all the heavy lifting. Check in tomorrow to see more from this lovely suite of products.

Products used in today’s card:
Blackberry Bliss, Basic White cardstock
Nests of Winter DSP
Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Greetings of the Season dies
Natural Tones linen thread
Regal foiled dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Autumn · Holiday Mini Catalog

Autumn Birthday Greenery

It’s a beautiful weekend here in North Texas and things are beginning to feel a little more fall-like. The Great State Fair is now underway and morning temperatures are cooling off. I would be remiss if I didn’t express thoughtful concern for all of those who have been or will be impacted by Hurricane Helene. Please know that our thoughts and prayers are with you and we wish you fair weather for cleanup very soon!

Today we’re wrapping up our series of card designs using the Stampin’ Up! Season of Green & Gold suite, which is concluding with a mini series of fall designs using these products. One of the many ways that you can get more “bang for your buck” is to look for unique ways to use your crafting supplies. In the case of the Golden Greenery stamps and dies, we’re taking inspiration from all of the fall foliage that begins its color transformation this time of year. And today’s design highlights some fronds of fall foliage in the foreground of a field of Queen Anne’s lace.

We get started with a base of Cajun Craze cardstock. Our background panel is a sheet of Splendid Autumn patterned paper. Our fall foliage is diecut from Cajun Craze using the Golden Greenery dies. To create the buds on one of the stems, we use the heart die from the Filled with Fun set to cut hearts from a variety of cardstock colors, including Crushed Curry, Real Red, Garden Green, red Season of Elegance foiled paper, and blue Oxidized Copper paper, and then adhere them to the base stems with glue dots. Our rusty stems of foliage are adhered to our background panel with dimensionals. We then layer in a little sparkle in the background with some sprigs diecut from Peach Pie glimmer paper using the Changing Leaves dies. The sentiment from Greetings of the Season and Everyday Greetings is stamped in Copper Clay on white cardstock and then diecut using the Greetings of the Season banner die. Some gold trim is tied around the end and the panel is then adhered in front of our foliage with dimensionals. A few copper sequins finish things off and help the eye pass neatly over the card front and settle on the sentiment.

Next week we’re touring the Nests of Winter suite. I hope you’ll pop by and see all the ways you can make this beautiful suite of products work for you!

Products used in today’s card:
Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Real Red, Garden Green, Basic White cardstock
Season of Elegance, Oxidized Copper, In Color glimmer, Splendid Autumn DSP
Everyday Greetings, Greetings of the Season stamps
Golden Greenery, Filled with Fun, Changing Leaves, Greetings of the Season dies
Gold trim
Neutrals sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Autumn · Holiday Mini Catalog · Sketchy Fridays

Sketchy Fridays: Birthday Greenery

We’ve made it to another Friday, and you know what that means? It’s time for another Sketchy Fridays!

Each week we’ll be using a card sketch to design our featured card. Right now, we’re working through a full series of designs using the card sketches found in current Stampin’ Up! catalogs.

This week’s card is based on Sketch #4 in the Holiday Mini catalog and features the Golden Greenery dies and the Splendid Autumn designer series paper in the new Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog.

One of my dearest girlfriends is celebrating a birthday in a few weeks, and I knew that I wanted to create something special for her. I’m always a little nervous creating things for her because she’s such a gifted artist. She draws, she paints, she watercolors….and everything is just stunning! So it seemed only fitting to use the beautiful Splendid Autumn designer series paper with its gorgeous watercolor look. And I really love how you can change the look and feel of the sheet of paper simply in the way that you selectively cut it to size.

Our design gets started with a base of Cajun Craze cardstock. The focal panel is a combination of Splendid Autumn patterned paper and gold mercury vellum as a mat. The Splendid Autumn paper in this design is trimmed so that only the trees from the scene are showcased in the panel. I think it’s such a neat look, especially considered in context with the full sheet of paper.

Our focal section consists of the sentiment panel. The sentiment from Everyday Greetings is stamped in Copper Clay on Very Vanilla and then diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies. We have two sets of fall foliage behind our sentiment panel. One is cut from Oxidized Copper, while the other is cut from Season of Elegance paper. Both are cut using the Golden Greenery dies. A twist of linen thread in between ties our fall color palette together nicely. And we finish things off with the sparkle of Earth Tones shimmer gems.

The next time you’re cutting down a sheet of patterned paper, think about how you can create a different and interesting look based on the overall feel you want to convey in your design. I think you’ll be surprised how it changes the look of the panel you trim down!

Tomorrow we’ll be finishing off our Season of Green & Gold series with another fall-inspired design. I hope you’ll drop in and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla cardstock
Splendid Autumn, gold mercury vellum, Oxidized Copper, Season of Elegance DSP
Everyday Greetings stamps
Golden Greenery, Autumn Leaves dies
Natural Tones linen thread
Earth Tones shimmer gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Christmas · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Happy Holidays Greenery

How excited was I to wake up to a rainy cold front this morning?! While it’s not exactly fall cool yet, we’re definitely headed in the right direction.

Today, we’re continuing a closer look at the Stampin’ Up! Season of Green & Gold suite of products. This suite includes beautiful gold-foiled patterned papers, coordinating vellum, stamps & dies, and lovely satin ribbon. Today’s card is another take on a traditional holiday design.

We started with a base of Basic Beige cardstock. Our background panel is a greenery pattern from the Season of Green & Gold designer series paper pack. Our focal panel background in the center is a strip of Basic Beige that is embossed using the Cute Crochet embossing folder and then matted with the backside foiled pattern of the background panel sheet. The sentiment panel is cut from Basic Beige using the Greetings of the Season dies. The sentiment from Greetings of the Season is stamped in Mossy Meadow toward the bottom of the tag. Using some of the leftover sprigs of greenery that I cut for yesterday’s card design, I affixed them to the sentiment panel to overlap the top of the tag and then tied a bow of Very Vanilla satin ribbon and affixed it in the center. A few drusy embellishments on either side of the sentiment help draw the eye and add a bit of finishing sparkle.

Tomorrow we’re going to round out our winter holiday designs before transitioning to a few out-of-the-box designs. I hope you’ll pop in.

Products used in today’s card:
Basic Beige cardstock
Season of Green & Gold DSP
Cute Crochet embossing folder
Golden Greenery dies
Greetings of the Season stamps &dies
Very Vanilla satin ribbon
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Christmas · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Bright & Beautiful Greenery

Welcome to a brand new week and the start of FALL! Have I mentioned that fall is my absolute favorite season? Unfortunately, Texas isn’t being very cooperative with me right now, and it doesn’t feel a bit like fall. Not one bit!! In fact, it’s still feeling like we’ve been thrown into the deep end of the frying pan. But we’re only a couple of good cold fronts away from fall officially being here to stay! *wink-wink*

This week, we’re going to be spending time with the Season of Green & Gold suite of products by Stampin’ Up! And we’re going to mix it up with some obvious holiday designs and some out-of-the-box fall designs. Today’s card is solidly in the holiday mood.

We get started with a base of Shaded Spruce cardstock. Our focal panel is a sheet of white cardstock that has been diecut using the Dotted Circles embossing folder and then the panel is matted with gold mercury vellum. Using the Golden Greenery dies, we cut a variety of greenery from the Season of Green & Gold patterned paper with coordinating shapes. These are then layered on the focal panel using dimensionals to create several different visual planes. Our sentiment from Peaceful Season is stamped white cardstock in Versamark and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder. We cut it out with the smallest circle from the Everyday Details die set. This is then mounted on a circle of white glimmer paper cut using the Spotlight on Nature dies and adhered over a twist of Cherry Cobbler & Gold satin ribbon in the center of our greenery. A few iridescent faceted gems finish things off with a nice sparkle.

Tune in tomorrow as we keep things in the holiday zone.

Products used in today’s card:
Shaded Spruce, Basic White cardstock
White glimmer, gold mercury vellum, Season of Green & Gold DSP
Dotted Circles embossing folder
Golden Greenery, Spotlight on Nature, Everyday Details dies
Peaceful Season stamps
Versamark
Gold embossing powder
Cherry Cobbler & gold satin ribbon
Iridescent faceted gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Christmas · Fun Folds · Holidays

Season of Evergreens

We’ve made our way to another weekend and halfway through the month of September already! This week, we’ve been All About Christmas and have been exploring a whole selection of Stampin’ Up! holiday products. Today, we’re revisiting a set of products that carried over from last year’s holiday release. And it’s no wonder because the Merriest Trees set and the Winter Meadow paper pack both offer so many ways to create beautiful cards and not just holiday designs!

Today, we’re pairing up the Merriest Trees dies with one of my all-time favorite fun folds — the Center Step fun fold. I also gave a new coloring technique a try to make my own patterned paper for the trees. So let’s take a closer look at how this fun fold comes together.

We get started with a base of Pretty Peacock cardstock. A sheet of the Winter Meadow designer series paper serves as our backdrop for the center focal panel. Our pair of trees start with a custom coloring technique using Pretty Peacock and Old Olive ink. (Tune in on my YouTube channel on Tuesday for a full tutorial during the next episode of Terrific Tuesdays!) I also splatter some white craft ink to give the look of snowflakes falling in front of the branches. Using all of the various sizes of trees in the Merriest Trees die set, I cut out tree panels and then selected ones to layer to create each tree. Dimensionals on the bottom fringes of the branches help give a little dimension and the look of the stacked branches. Each tree is then decorated with garland and stars cut from textured gold specialty paper. The trees are adhered to the bottom of the center fold portion of the card base with dimensionals. Our sentiment consists of a mat of gold foil cut with the banner die from the Peaceful Season die set. The sentiment from Merriest Trees is heat embossed in gold on white cardstock and then diecut using the Peaceful Season dies. It’s adhered to the top of the center panel with dimensionals. I tucked a few bunnies by the trees for a little added interest and then scattered snowflakes in the background.

Next week we’re going to be exploring the new Christmas ephemera. I hope you’ll tag along!

Products used in today’s card:
Pretty Peacock, Basic White cardstock
Watercolor paper, Winter Meadow, gold foil, textured gold DSP
Merriest Trees stamps & dies
Peaceful Season, Grove dies
Gold embossing powder
Pretty Peacock, Old Olive reinker
Snowflakes, rhinestone jewels
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List