Christmas · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Festive Christmas Gift

Do you ever include a gift with a Christmas card? Do you ever find yourself looking for cute and/or creative ways to include the gift? Today, we’re looking at a fun way to include a gift card with this year’s Christmas card to friends or relatives. This card is literally a gift that keeps giving!

For our special gift card, we’re pairing some of the beautiful new patterned paper packs with the dies from the Season of Elegance Suite included in the new Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog. So let’s take a closer look at how this all comes together.

We get started with a base of Real Red cardstock. Our focal gift panel also starts with a base of Real Red that is cut down to leave enough room at the top for our decorative gift card insert. Using the smaller square from the Peaceful Season dies, we cut squares from two sheets of the Season of Elegance paper and one sheet of the Season of Green & Gold paper pack. I alternated the red and cream-colored rows and tried to ensure the center squares lined up so that the Cherry Cobbler & Gold ribbon element ran cleanly from top to bottom. Our sentiment from the Trucking Along stamp set is stamped tone-on-tone on Real Red cardstock and then diecut using the Peaceful Season die, which is matted with the larger rectangle banner from the same die set. The sentiment panel is adhered at the bottom of our package focal panel using dimensionals. I added Drusy embellishments to the panel for added sparkle and to ensure the eye moves to the sentiment. We adhere our full focal panel to the card front using foam strips on three sides to create a pocket behind the panel.

Our gift card holder is a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock that is diecut with the largest tag in the Greetings of the Season die set. We create the bow for the top by cutting Garden Green Festive glimmer paper with the Peaceful Evergreens dies. The bow is assembled with glue dots and then adhered to the top of our tag with dimensionals. You can lightly hold a gift card in place by placing a few glue dots on the back and then placing it on the tag. Tuck it into the pocket and you have an instant gift in more ways than one!

I really love how this turned out and can’t wait to use this design this year. It’s always fun to be able to present a gift card in a fun and creative way and with a lengthier note.

Tune in tomorrow for a new Sketchy Fridays card design and see what our snowman is getting up to!

Products used in today’s card:
Real Red, Very Vanilla cardstock
Season of Elegance, Season of Green & Gold, Festive glimmer DSP
Trucking Along stamps
Peaceful Season, Peaceful Evergreens, Greetings of the Season dies
Cherry Cobbler & gold metallic ribbon
Drusy embellishments
Foam strips
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Christmas · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Trucking In Christmas Cheer

We’re already halfway through this week and halfway through our All About Christmas week. I really love making holiday cards, so I’m having a great time working with all of the wonderful holiday products that Stampin’ Up! currently has to offer.

Today, we’re combining a little new with some old as take a drive to the tree farm in the woods to pick our Christmas tree. Do you like having a real tree or do you prefer artificial Christmas trees? I love real trees but unfortunately have allergies that prevent me from having real trees inside. Today’s card pairs the famous Trucking Along bundle with the Peaceful Evergreen set. Let’s take a closer look.

We get started with a base of Poppy Parade cardstock. I loved the contrast that this color provides with the Real Red in the other card elements. Our focal panel base consists of a piece of white cardstock that has been embossed using the Snowflake Sky embossing folder and the candy cane striped sheet of patterned paper from the Take a Box paper pack. To add a little definition to the snowy sky and create a definitive sky in our panel, I used my sponge dauber to add a little Misty Moonlight to the top of the embossed panel. Our grove of evergreens is created using the Peaceful Evergreens stamps and dies. I stamped two different sizes of evergreens on Mossy Meadow and then diecut them using the coordinating dies. They’re adhered to our focal panel using dimensionals. Our truck is stamped in black on Real Red cardstock using the Trucking Along stamp set and then punched with the coordinating punch. The tree in the truck bed is stamped tone-on-tone on Garden Green cardstock and then cut out with paper snips. The truck is adhered on extra dimensionals in front of our evergreens. Our sentiment from Filled With Cheer is stamped in Real Red on white cardstock and then diecut using the Peaceful Season banner die. I cut a second banner from Real Red to mat the sentiment panel and help it stand out. It’s adhered to the top of our focal panel, just like that welcome banner at the tree farm. A few adhesive peppermints on either side of the sentiment finish things of nicely.

The next time I make this card, I think I will stamp the truck on white cardstock instead. While I like the richness of the red we get by stamping the truck tone-on-tone, I like the background of our punched image blending in more to our snowy background. Try it out and see what you think!

Tomorrow we’re getting a look at a cool technique for creating a gift card and holiday card in one. Hope you’ll pop in and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Poppy Parade, Real Red, Mossy Meadow, Garden Green, Basic White cardstock
Take a Bow DSP
Filled With Cheer stamps
Trucking Along stamps & punch
Peaceful Evergreens stamps & dies
Peaceful Season dies
Snowflake Sky embossing folder
Real Red & white peppermints
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Christmas · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Sledding Season’s Greetings

Do you ever say to yourself, “This year, I’m not going to wait until November to start on my Christmas cards.” Yeah, me too. Wanna know what’s funny about being a paper crafter and most especially a card maker? I always ended up starting my Christmas cards in November!

So this week, I’m trying to help us all out by getting started with the Christmas design mojo a little earlier. Today, we’re pairing up two of the new holiday sets from Stampin’ Up! — Sophisticated Sled and Peaceful Evergreens. And I based today’s design on an older single-image SU! stamp that had a sled leaning up against a doorway in a snowdrift. Anyone remember that one? I thought it would be fun to give a nod with something similar.

We get started with a base of Basic White cardstock. The main focal panel is also white cardstock and it’s been matted with Real Red to help everything in our focal panel really pop. I used a piece of scrap paper to mask off snowdrifts as I stamped the background of trees using the Peaceful Evergreens stamps. To create the depth in the scene, I used the stamp-off method to get a variety of hues of Mossy Meadow. To keep a simple color palette, I diecut the sled using the Sophisticated Sled dies from silver foil and Real Red. Rhinestones serve as the connecting rivets and add a little sparkle to our sled. The sled is adhered to the background with dimensionals. I tore a piece of white cardstock to make the bottom snowdrift and stamped the sentiment from Greetings of the Season in the bottom corner and then adhered the torn panel over the background and base of the sled with several layers of dimensionals. Adding some Wink of Stella at the top of the torn panel gives a more realistic snowdrift look and a little sparkle. A few iridescent faceted gems on either side of the sentiment help draw the eye and a few snowflakes in the trees add a little realism to our snowy scene.

I love the simplicity of the scene and how quickly it came together. Tomorrow we’ll be trucking through the forest in search of our tree. I hope you’ll ride along!

Products used in today’s card:
Basic White, Real Red cardstock
Silver foil SP
Peaceful Evergreens, Greetings of the Season stamps
Sophisticated Sled dies
Rhinestone jewels, iridescent faceted gems, snowflake assortment
Wink of Stella
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Christmas · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Christmas Greenery

Welcome to Monday, crafty friends! I hope you all enjoyed a nice weekend. Here in North Texas we’re beginning to enjoy the first of a string of very fall-like temperatures in the mornings and it’s been glorious!

This week starts a new design series and we’re All About Christmas! I know it’s hard to want to think about the holidays when we’re not even officially into fall yet. But as you know, beautiful Christmas cards don’t just make themselves! *wink* Today’s card features the Golden Greenery stamps and dies, as well as several of the new patterned paper packs that just launched in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog.

So let’s get a closer look at today’s card. We get started with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock. Our focal panel base consists of two coordinating gold foil patterns — the foiled greenery patterned paper from the Season of Green & Gold paper pack and the Old Olive pattern from the Season of Elegance paper pack. I love how the gold foiling in each sheet plays off each other so well to give a cohesive sheen to the background. To create the layers of greenery, I began by stamping two different greenery patterns from the Golden Greenery stamp set onto Soft Sea Foam cardstock. These greenery bunches come together in two steps, and I used a combination of Shaded Spruce and Pool Party to create the stems of leaves. Each one is then diecut with the coordinating Golden Greenery dies. I also cut coordinating stems of the same varieties from shimmer papers using the detailed dies in the set. I chose a mixture of greens to cut the evergreen fronds. All of the stems are then layered up with dimensionals to give a variety of height to the bunch. The sentiment is broken into two parts for a little added drama. The Merry panel is diecut from white using the Peaceful Season dies and Merry is then stamped in Real Red in the center. A twist of Cherry Cobbler & Gold metallic ribbon is adhered behind the panel. Christmas is diecut from Real Red glimmer paper using the Peaceful Season die and then placed to overlap the sentiment panel and greenery. A few red iridescent discs add a pop of sparkle across the card front.

The style of this card would be what my grandmother would have referred to as “plop decorating.” You literally just plop things where they look good. And this card certainly made me smile as I plopped greenery and thought of her!

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow as we take a little sleigh ride.

Products used in today’s card:
Mossy Meadow, Soft Sea Foam, Garden Green, Shaded Spruce, Basic White cardstock
Season of Elegance, Season of Green & Gold, Basic White shimmer, Festive shimmer DSP
Golden Greenery stamps & dies
Greetings of the Season stamps
Peaceful Season dies
Cherry Cobbler & Gold metallic ribbon
Iridescent discs
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Autumn · Fall

Joy to My Heart

We’ve made it through the first week of September. I don’t know about you, but holiday weeks always feel longer, for some reason.

This week, we’ve been all about the autumn designs and looking at a variety of different ways to pair Stampin’ Up! products or to use techniques. Today, we’re revisiting the emboss resist technique with this card design which features the Leaf Collection background stamp. I recently saw a card posted by a fellow demonstrator that paired this stamp with a Blackberry Bliss and metallic gold color palette. It was super elegant and I wanted to give it a twist. So let’s see how it all comes together.

We get started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. The focal panel is also Blackberry Bliss that has been stamped with the Leaf Collection stamp and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. To help the pattern pop, I went over the panel with metallic gold ink which gives the entire panel a subtle sheen and really makes the clear embossing twinkle. This panel is matted with Rose Gold textured specialty paper and then wrapped with Blackberry Bliss & Gold textured ribbon and tied with a bow. The sentiment from So Sincere is stamped on Blackberry Bliss cardstock and then heat embossed with gold before being diecut with the Greetings of the Season die using the extension method. The sentiment panel is adhered underneath the bow using several layers of dimensionals. I cut some sprigs of leaves from gold foil using the Changing Leaves die and adhered them with dimensionals around the bow to keep things cohesive. Drusy embellishments finish things off with lots of extra sparkle.

It’s been a lot of fun designing cards all about autumn, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration. Next week is all about Christmas as we get a better look at the new product from the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini Catalog. In the meantime, I hope you’ll tune in on the socials for a little bonus All About Autumn content this afternoon.

Products used in today’s card:
Blackberry Bliss cardstock
Gold foil, Rose Gold textured SP
Leaf Collection, So Sincere stamps
Greetings of the Season, Changing Leaves dies
Clear, gold embossing powder
Blackberry Bliss & Gold textured ribbon
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Autumn · Fall · sketches · Sketchy Fridays

Sketchy Fridays: Accomplished So Much

This week is all about autumn, and we’re using unique combinations of Stampin’ Up! products to make some beautiful card designs.

And it’s already time again for another installment of Sketchy Fridays, where 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 on page 22 of the current Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog.

This week’s card is based on Sketch #14 and features the gorgeous Splendid Autumn designer paper from the new Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog.

As I was thumbing through the papers in the Splendid Autumn paper pack, I was looking for a sheet that would lend itself to an unexpected combination of products. When I saw this beautiful sheet of the groves of trees separated by a stream with its hues of greens and purples, along with the usual fall foliage colors, I knew I had found the sheet I was looking for.

The beauty of today’s Sketch #14 is it lets us use this gorgeous paper as the focal point and then support it with mats as complements. We get started with a base of Calypso Coral cardstock. I love how this base color makes the oranges in the trees pop over the golden hues. Our sheet of Splendid Autumn is matted in two different colors. We use a very thin mat of Peach Pie glimmer paper right up against the Splendid Autumn, and it’s such a nice complement to the golden hues in our paper. Then we’re using a larger secondary mat of Old Olive Season of Elegance designer paper. Just look at how this brings out the grass along either side of our creek that’s reflecting our gorgeous dusky sky. And in person, the sparkle of the gold foiling in this sheet plays along perfectly with the glimmer paper. The sentiment from Wonderful Thoughts is heat embossed in gold on a sheet of white vellum from the Graceful Greenery vellum pack and then diecut using the Greetings of the Season dies using the extension method to give us a full banner. We finish things off with a twist of ribbons, including iridescent striped sheer ribbon, gold trim, and two colors of linen thread from the new Natural Tones pack, and a few of the new Earth Tones shimmer gems in opposing corners for a little sparkle.

I hope you tune in tomorrow as we round out our All About Autumn card series. I’ll be bringing you another emboss resist project, as well as a BONUS post showing how you can make a simple easel project that packs a big punch!

Products used in today’s card:
Calypso Coral cardstock
Season of Elegance, Splendid Autumn, Graceful Greenery vellum, Gold textured DSP
Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Greetings of the Season dies
Iridescent striped ribbon
Gold trim
Natural Tones linen thread
Earth Tones shimmer gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Autumn · Fall

Feel Better

This week’s designs are all about autumn. Aside from using some great new product from Stampin’ Up!, we’re using some fun new techniques to boot!

Today, we’re pairing up the beautiful new Splendid Autumn patterned paper pack with the new Birch Wood embossing folder and a cool heat embossing effect that I learned from a team member. So let’s check it out.

For today’s color palette, we’re drawing out all of the beautiful autumn hues in our Splendid Autumn patterned paper — Copper Clay, Moody Mauve, and Very Vanilla. So we get started with a card base of Copper Clay. Our focal panel is a piece of Moody Mauve that’s been embossed using the new Birch Wood embossing folder. I then filled in all of the debossed sections with Versamark and embossed with copper, BUT I did not completely set the embossing powder. Instead, I only embossed it to the point of looking grainy and then quickly moved on to another section. I felt like the grainy texture looks much more like bark. I wanted a polaroid look for the sentiment panel, so we get started by diecutting a cross-hatch gold foiled sheet from the Nature’s Sweetness paper pack using the largest Nested Essentials banner die. The sheet of Splendid Autumn is then cut to size to fit within, leaving a small border. The sentiment from Unbounded Love is heat embossed in copper on a banner diecut from a sheet of the white Graceful Greenery vellum using the Happy Little Things die. The top of the sentiment panel is wrapped in the new Copper Clay linen thread and the full panel is adhered to the focal panel using dimensionals. A few of the new drusy embellishments in each corner help move the eye across the card.

Isn’t this such a fun embossing technique? I really love the realism it adds to the woodgrain embossed panel. Speaking of embossing techniques, tomorrow we’ll be using another oldie but goodie. I hope you’ll pop by and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Copper Clay, Moody Mauve cardstock
Nature’s Sweetness, Splendid Autumn DSP
Graceful Greenery vellum
Birch Wood embossing folder
Unbounded Love stamps
Nested Essentials, Happy Little Things dies
Copper embossing powder
Copper Clay linen thread
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Terrific Tuesdays

Autumn Birthday

We’re continuing our All About Autumn design series today, and I’m excited to bring you the much-anticipated in-depth look at the acetate rub technique that I first mentioned in my post on Saturday.

Today’s card mixes things up just a little bit to give us a different look to Saturday’s card design. We start with a card base of Pretty Peacock. Our focal panel background starts with a piece of white cardstock. Using the acetate sheet and 4 colors of Stampin’ Blends — Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral, Cherry Cobbler, and Pool Party, we create another dusky backdrop for our trees in the midst of a wardrobe change. To achieve that look, we’re using the Pretty Peacock Oxidized Copper and the Real Red Season of Elegance specialty papers and Frosted Forest dies to create the foliage for our trees. Our groves of trees are diecut from Early Espresso cardstock using the Frosted Forest dies. To help our focal panel stand out against our card base, we mat it with a combination of Country Woods woodgrain patterned paper and the Real Red & Gold satin ribbon. The sentiment from Simply Said is heat embossed in gold and then flanked with some drusy embellishments. A few extra drusy embellishments are added in opposing corners to help draw the eye across our focal panel to the sentiment.

You can learn all about the acetate rub technique and how to make this card from start to finish in this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays.

I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow to check out a cool technique to try with your embossing folders.

Products used in today’s card:
Pretty Peacock, Early Espresso, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods, Oxidized Copper, Season of Elegance (out tomorrow!) DSP
Window sheets
Simply Said stamps
Frosted Forest dies
Stampin’ Blends
Gold embossing powder
Cherry Cobbler & Gold satin ribbon (out today!)
Drusy embellishments (out tomorrow!)
Adhesives

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Frosted Forest

Trust in the Lord

We’re closing out the month of August and our week of In the Woods card designs. I’m still reeling over the fact that today is the last day of August! But I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised since the temps here in North Texas certainly reflect the usual magma-level heat we’re accustomed to in late August.

Today, we’re trekking through the woods at dusk. We’re pairing up the Frosted Forest dies with a fun new Stampin’ Blends background technique. This card was inspired by a recent Stampin’ Up! Artisan (@thecraftyoinkpen) spotlight on Frosted Forest. And I decided I wanted to create my own dusky background using Stampin’ Blends to finish up my projects for a current Luv 2 Stamp Group team challenge. So let’s see how this all comes together.

We get started with a base of Moody Mauve cardstock. Our focal panel is a piece of white cardstock that has been “painted” with Stampin’ Blends using an acetate rub technique. I used a combination of Daffodil Delight, Calypso Coral, and Pool Party Stampin’ Blends to create the dusky background. I’ll be sharing more on this Stampin’ Blend acetate rub technique in the next episode of Terrific Tuesdays, so be sure you tune in this coming week to learn all about it! I created a continuous panel of trees from Early Espresso cardstock using the die from the Frosted Forest die set and the extension method and then adhered it to the blended panel using a fine tip glue pen. The sentiment from Courage & Faith is heat embossed in gold between the two groves of trees. The focal panel is matted with Blackberry Bliss & Gold textured ribbon and the darker woodgrain panel from the Country Woods designer paper pack and adhered to the card front with dimensionals. For a little extra twinkle, I added some brown sequins in opposing corners.

Isn’t this just a beautiful backdrop for the trees? I just love this new background technique and can’t wait to tell you all about it on Tuesday! Speaking of which, next week is All About Autumn. I hope you’ll stop in each day to see how we’re putting some of the new items from the Holiday Mini Catalog to a unique use for our design theme!

Products used in today’s card:
Moody Mauve, Early Espresso, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Courage & Faith stamps
Frosted Forest dies
Gold embossing powder
Blackberry Bliss & Gold textured ribbon (coming soon!)
Neutrals sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Terrific Tuesdays · Winter

Warm Feelings

We’re continuing our trek through the woods today with a fun new-to-me card technique called a fractured card design. I’ve seen this card layout featured a number of times in my inspiration searches but, honestly, thought it was going to be too difficult to learn and so I passed it by. But I decided to do a little more research on fractured card designs and do you want to know what I discovered? It’s probably the easiest “hard” card you’ll ever learn! Let’s take a look and you’ll see what I mean.

What I love about this particular card layout is that it’s a great way to showcase designer series paper patterns. And there are all kinds of variations that make this card layout easy to adapt to any patterned paper and keep your cards interesting even when using the same patterns multiple times.

For today’s card, we get started with a base of Blueberry Bushel cardstock. I used white cardstock as the backing for the fractured panel. I chose to showcase the Winter Meadow designer series paper and chose two coordinating patterns. Silver serves as a nice compliment to the wintery feel and a terrific sparkly backdrop. Pretty Peacock serves as our fracture strips and draws out the predominant color in our patterned paper pieces. The sentiment from the new Peaceful Season stamp set is stamped in Blueberry Bushel and then diecut on the diagonal using the Perennial Postage die. A faux bow of silver ribbon and few iridescent faceted gems draw the eye front and center to the sentiment.

Want to know how to make today’s card step-by-step? You can catch this week’s of episode of Terrific Tuesdays to see a fractured card design come together from start to finish and see first-hand how versatile this design can be. I’ve also provided a FREE PDF tutorial here. Please note that some of the products shown will not be available until September 4th.

Products used in today’s card:
Blueberry Bushel, Pretty Peacock, Basic White cardstock
Winter Meadow, silver foil DSP
Peaceful Season stamps (coming soon!)
Perennial Postage dies
Silver trim
Iridescent faceted gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List