Botanicals · Clean and Simple · Country Flowers

Bunches of Thanks

This week, we’ve been using the Country Flowers bundle by Stampin’ Up! to make some lovely cards. Today, we’re rounding out the series with a clean and simple design. This is a layout that could be used over again and would work beautifully with a larger floral image, as well.

We get started with a card base of Basic White cardstock. Our focal panel is a pairing of Pretty Peacock and Moody Mauve cardstock. I stamped a repeating floral image in Versamark using the Country Flowers stamp set. The sentiment from Something Fancy is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut using the Unbounded Love set, which is then matted with a circle diecut using the Spotlight on Nature set. A pair of faux bows using Pretty Peacock & gold metallic ribbon and iridescent striped ribbon are adhered by the sentiment panel. To draw the eye across the design, I’ve used pink and peacock sequins from the Sequins Trio for some sparkle.

I hope you’ve been inspired by this weeks Country Flowers designs. Tune in next week as I give you a sneak peek at one of my favorite upcoming Online Exclusives bundle set to release on July 3rd!

Products used in today’s card:
Basic White, Pretty Peacock, Moody Mauve cardstock
Country Flowers, Something Fancy stamps
Unbounded Love, Spotlight on Nature dies
Pretty Peacock & gold metallic ribbon, iridescent striped trim
Sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Botanicals · Country Flowers

Best Friend Tea

This week, we’re exploring all of the ways we can use the Country Woods suite by Stampin’ Up! to make beautiful projects. We have focused on the Country Flowers bundle, along with the Country Woods designer series paper. Today, we’re headed to tea.

One of the things that I enjoyed sharing with my grandmother was a love of tea sets. Anytime we found ourselves in a shop with tea sets, whether big or small, we couldn’t help but oooh and aaaah over them. We were most fond of the sets with intricate floral patterns. And that has inspired today’s card design — right down to the designer papers that stand front and center.

We start our card today with a base of white cardstock. The main panel sits on a quarter panel of white cardstock that has been cut a wee bit smaller than the card base itself. The lovely floral pattern from the Unbounded Beauty designer paper pack serves as the backdrop for the focal panel with a top of diagonal trim to draw on the patterns in the paper. The asymmetry of this floral panel really draws the eye up the card to the center focal panel.

Our focal panel begins with a base of white shimmer paper that has been diecut with the Spotlight on Nature dies. The mat for the focal image is Berry Burst cardstock diecut with the radiating circle from Spotlight on Nature die set. Our teapot is diecut from a sheet of the Unbounded Beauty paper pack using the Country Flowers dies. Note the white space at the bottom of the teapot, which gives this patterned vessel a very lifelike feel. The lovely foliage is spilling out the top of the teapot and has been cut from Summer Splash and white cardstock using the greenery and flower dies from Country Flowers with the flower centers being various sizes of rhinestone basic jewels. The sentiment from Country Flowers is stamped around the panel with rhinestones on either side to really draw the eye in.

I really love how this card makes me feel like I’ve sat down at my grandmother’s kitchen table for tea and a chat. It only seemed fitting to have the sentiment reflect friendship. Don’t you just love it?!

Tomorrow we’ll be wrapping up our walk through Country Flowers. I hope you’ll pop in and see how we round things out.

Products used in this card:
Basic White, Summer Splash, Berry Burst cardstock
Unbounded Beauty, white shimmer DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Spotlight on Nature dies
White diagonal trim
Rhinestone basic jewels
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List
Botanicals · Country Flowers · Fun Folds

Country Flowers Sympathy

Welcome back, everyone! This week, we’re taking a tour of the country — Country Flowers, that is. We’re making an assortment of cards using products from the Stampin’ Up! Country Woods suite. Today’s card is a fun fold that features the Country Woods paper and Country Flowers bundle.

I really love the Barn Fold and once I discovered a little modification where your designer paper covers the center fold so the card front background looks totally cohesive once closed, I was even more sold on this fun fold! The Country Woods designer paper pack includes a whole host of woodgrain patterns and they come in any number of colors and textures. When I ran across the sheet of Petal Pink woodgrain, I knew it would be perfect for today’s card.

We get started with a card base of Petal Pink cardstock that is cut to open front and center, literally. The sheet of Petal Pink woodgrain serves as our backdrop for the front panel. The focal panel in the center has a base of white woodgrain, also from the Country Woods pack, that is diecut using the Spotlight on Nature set. The sentiment panel is diecut from Petal Pink cardstock with the Autumn Leaves die using the extension method. (You can watch a Terrific Tuesdays video tutorial on the extension method here.) The sentiment from Country Flowers is heat embossed in copper. Behind the sentiment panel are layers of iridescent striped ribbon and Petal Pink diagonal trim. And then nestled behind and around the sentiment are flowers and greenery that have been stamped or diecut using the Country Flowers bundle. I used Stampin’ Blends to color the flower bunches, and the greenery is diecut from Soft Sea Foam cardstock. Layers of dimensionals give the center focal panel lots of depth. The design is finished off with Petal Pink foiled gems scattered across the card front to draw the eye up and across the design.

With a simple sentiment substitution, you could easily make this a birthday or wedding design, or even a thinking of you. The possibilities are only limited by what’s in your stash!

Tomorrow, how about some tea? Stop in and join me for a cuppa — with some flowers, of course!

Products used in today’s card:
Petal Pink, Soft Sea Foam, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Spotlight on Nature dies
Copper embossing powder
Stampin’ Blends
Iridescent striped ribbon, Petal Pink diagonal trim
Petal Pink foiled gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Botanicals · Country Flowers · Fun Folds

Buckets of Thanks

This week, we are looking at all the ways we can use parts of the Stampin’ Up! suite of products called Country Woods. In particular, we’ve been focusing on the Country Flowers bundle, which includes stamps and coordinating dies, and the Country Woods designer series paper. Today, we continue with a brand new fun fold design.

Today’s fun fold is called the Front Panel Z-fold. What I love about this particular fun fold is that you can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. For this card design, I went somewhere in the middle. This design requires a little fussy stamping and some die cutting but all-in-all comes together pretty quickly once you get the hang of it. You can download the full PDF tutorial for today’s card, which includes a complete materials list and measurements, by clicking here. But for now, let’s take a closer look at how this card comes together.

Our card front consists of the smaller panels of the Z fold. Using the small detail stamp from the Country Flowers stamp set, we stamp a repeating pattern tone-on-tone on Smoky Slate cardstock. I chose a very symmetrical pattern and used a sheet of grid paper along with grid lines on my stamp block to accomplish this. This stamped panel is then cut into two smaller panels that are just a tick smaller than the card base. We cut a second quarter panel of white cardstock to make an identical sized mat that is adhered on the outermost fold to precisely overlay the inside message panel.

We start with a card base of Basic Gray cardstock. Our card base is of standard size and scored to give us our Z panel. The full-sized panel is our inside message panel, while our Z fold serves to give us a look inside with the overlapping front focal panel. For the inside panel, we cut a sheet of the gray woodgrain panel just a little smaller. The inside message panel is a quarter sheet of white cardstock that has been cut to size and then adhered to the center of the woodgrain panel. Be sure you only adhere to the outermost small panel so that your card will open. Next, we diecut a piece of the Pool Party woodgrain pattern from the Country Woods paper pack using the Deckled Rectangles die set. Using a glue dot, a faux bow is adhered diagonally across the front white mat and then the Deckled Rectangle piece is adhered over it using dimensionals. Using the Country Flowers stamps, stamp a bucket in black ink on Smoky Slate. I used Stampin’ Blends to provide shading and shadowing to the bucket, then diecut the bucket using the coordinating die from the Country Flowers die set. The greenery is cut from Old Olive and Mossy Meadow cardstock using the die from Country Flowers. The bucket and greenery are adhered with layers of dimensionals to give realistic visual planes. The sentiment from Something Fancy is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut using the Spotlight on Nature die set. The sentiment is adhered over the corner of the image panel using dimensionals. To draw the eye to the sentiment, rhinestone basic jewels are placed in a triangle around the sentiment panel.

Want to watch how this card comes together? You can watch the full episode of this week’s Terrific Tuesdays where we walk through the making of this card:

Tune in tomorrow for another fun fold design that showcases the beautiful greenery in the Country Flowers bundle. You want want to miss it!

Products used in today’s card:
Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Something Fancy stamps
Deckled Rectangles, Spotlight on Nature dies
Stampin’ Blends
Linen thread
Rhinestone basic jewels
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Botanicals · Country Flowers · sketches

Buckets of Birthday Flowers

This week, we’re using portions of the Stampin’ Up! Country Woods suite to make all sorts of lovely card designs. We’re also using inspiration from fellow crafters as a jumpstart for our designs. Today, we’re taking a sketch from my sketchbook as inspiration for our layout.

When I see card layouts I really love, I try to make a quick sketch or save a photo of the inspiration card. There are many times that I love a card and immediately think of stamps and dies in my own stash that will work with that layout. Great layouts are like that — they can be used over and over and give you completely different looks based on the products you use.

For today’s card, we get started with a card base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. The background panel consists of two layers. The mat is Pretty in Pink and the foreground is a piece of Moody Mauve that has been machine embossed using the Eyelet embossing folder. The focal panel base is a piece of the lighter grey woodgrain pattern from the Country Woods designer paper pack that has been diecut using one of the larger Spotlight on Nature circles. The milk tin and floral bunches from Country Flowers have been stamped on white cardstock and then colored with Stampin’ Blends. The tin and flowers are adhered to the focal panel with dimensionals with the florals just a smidge higher than the tin they are resting in. A bow of striped iridescent ribbon sits just underneath the flowers at the top of the tin. The sentiment from Something Fancy is heat embossed in white on black cardstock and then cut into a thin strip with the paper trimmer. A few Berry Burst sequins from the sequins trio are placed to draw the eye across the design.

Pop in tomorrow to see what else we do with the Country Flowers.

Products used in today’s design:
Blackberry Bliss, Pretty in Pink, Moody Mauve, Basic Black, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Spotlight on Nature dies
Something Fancy stamps
Embossing powder
Striped iridescent ribbon
Sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Botanicals · Country Flowers

Flower Market Love

This week, we’re taking a closer look at a portion of the Country Woods suite by Stampin’ Up! In particular, we’ll be focusing on the Country Flowers bundle, which includes photopolymer stamps and coordinating dies, and the Country Woods designer series paper. There is so much to love about this suite of products, but what really drew me was the feeling of a slow, summer afternoon swinging on the porch, which is how I felt when I first saw the images and papers. Perhaps it’s because I grew up in the country, and the milk tin and flowers and woodgrains all had that country feel to them. But whether you like a rustic, country feel or not, these products are — like everything Stampin’ Up! designs — so very versatile and lend themselves to all sorts of styles.

Today, I’m borrowing a design from fellow demo Susan Wong. I love how she used the woodgrain paper to “build” a door and then how she stacked the milk tin full of flowers in front. I don’t happen to have the Country Lace designer paper, but I made my own patterned sheet to mimic the sheet in the inspiration layout by stamping a repeating pattern using the small detail stamp, and I think it turned out to be an okay substitution.

So we get started with a card base of Smoky Slate cardstock. The background panel, as I mentioned, is a hand-stamped pattern using Smoky Slate ink and the small detail stamp from the Country Flowers stamp set. I decided to use the darker blue woodgrain sheet from the Country Woods paper pack to make the door. For the milk bucket, I decided to use one of the lighter woodgrain patterns from the DSP pack and stamped the image on top in Basic Gray ink, adding a handle with a Stampin’ Blend. I used some leftover scraps of Meandering Meadow designer paper to cut the leaves and flowers and then used rainbow dots for the flower centers. The flower market sign on the door is made using a small die from the Unbounded Love die set and the sentiment from Country Flowers. A small piece of linen thread and a metallic gem serve as the hanger. The sentiment from Country Flowers is stamped on white cardstock and then cut with paper snips. Two rhinestones help draw the eye to the sentiment.

It’s so fun bringing inspiration designs to life. And this week, we’re going to be doing just that. I hope you’ll tag along with me as we make a whole array of beautiful cards with Country Flowers.

Products used in today’s card:
Smoky Slate, Crumb Cake, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods, Meandering Meadow DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Unbounded Love dies
Linen thread
Metallic gems, rainbow dots, rhinestone jewels
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Masculine Designs · Trucking Along

Just Beachy

Today, we’re wrapping up our week of touring some of the Stampin’ Up! sets that lend themselves to making great Father’s Day cards. And it seemed only fitting that we finished off with the “truck that broke the internet.” If you’ve followed along here for a little while, you’ve heard me mention this before. For those who are new, when the Trucking Along bundle was first released by Stampin’ Up!, it was so popular that it sold out in hours on release day and quickly sold out each of the next several times it came back in stock.

So today’s card features the Trucking Along bundle and a super cute design layout that I’ve borrowed from fellow demo over at Stamp It Up With Jaimie. For the beach lovers or the fellas who just love some summertime fun, this card design screams of summer relaxation.

We get started with a card base of Pool Party cardstock. A piece of Lemon Lolly is diecut using one of the largest circle dies in the Spotlight on Nature die set. I thought the radiating edges represented a big sun really well. Our sand is represented by a strip of the white woodgrain pattern paper from the Country Woods paper pack. I chose to make a one-layer focal image using the Trucking Along stamps and filled our truck with the beachy accoutrements. The truck is filled in with the coordinating filler stamps, while the items in the truck bed are colored with Stampin’ Blends. Everything is fussy cut and then adhered to the background panel with dimensionals. The sentiment from Trusty Tools is stamped on white cardstock and then cut with a combination of paper trimmer and snips and then adhered in the center over the “sand.” Everything is finished off with the swirl dots and shiny sequins embellishments.

This card comes together in no time flat and could easily be adapted for other occasions, like birthday, graduation, etc. And it’s perfect for any recipient, whether guy or gal. I love having designs like this in my inspiration folder for those times when I need a card I can put together quickly but delivers on the cute and fun!

I hope you’ve enjoyed all of the Father’s Day cards we’ve made this week and maybe got an idea or two for the fellas in your life. Tune in next week as we unwrap the Country Flowers bundle.

Products used in today’s card:
Pool Party, Lemon Lolly, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Spotlight on Nature dies
Trucking Along, Trusty Tools stamps
Stampin’ Blends
Swirl dots, shiny sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Dies · Masculine Designs

Father’s Day in the Grove

We’re continuing our tour of Stampin’ Up! products that help us make the perfect Father’s Day cards. And today, we’re enjoying a quiet walk in the woods with the two grove sets — Grassy Grove and In the Grove. I really love these two sets because they allow you to create a whole myriad of beautiful scenes. I spent a lot of time in the woods growing up, and it’s fun to paint these pictures of memories in cards.

I wanted to give a lot of realism to this scene, so I combed through my designer paper stash to find just the right sheets for the background and leaves, and I found the Meandering Meadows paper pack to be the ticket.

We get started with a card base of Early Espresso cardstock. The background panel for our woodsy scene is a sheet of Meandering Meadow designer paper that, to me, very much resembles a morning sky. It’s been diecut with the largest Deckled Rectangles die. Next, using the grove of trees die from the Grove die set and the largest Deckled Rectangle simultaneously, I cut a quarter sheet of Early Espresso cardstock. This serves as the base for the leaf panel, which will sit above it for depth of field. Adhere this to the Meandering Meadow base. Using a sheet of green patterned paper from the Meandering Meadow paper pack, I diecut another grove of trees — this time without the Deckled Rectangle border. From this sheet, remove all of the branch portions of the green paper. Then cut this panel to size so that the Deckled Rectangle edge of the Early Espresso mat is revealed around the edges once the two layers are adhered together. Apply dimensionals to the back of the green panel and then adhere to the Early Espresso mat, ensuring that you line up the leaves of each layer precisely. From Crumb Cake cardstock, diecut a rabbit, squirrel, and deer using the Grove and In the Grove die sets. Adhere between your two tree layers using glue dots. Stamp the sentiment from Trusty Tools in Early Espresso ink on Crumb Cake cardstock and diecut using the Happy Little Things Banner die. Adhere at the center of the base of the focal panel using dimensionals.

Tomorrow we’re going to be trucking in some Father’s Day fun. I hope you’ll stop by and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Early Espresso, Crumb Cake Cardstock
Meandering Meadow DSP
Trusty Tools stamps
Grove, In the Grove dies
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Fun Folds · Masculine Designs

True Blessing

This week, we’re working through our stash of Stampin’ Up! products to honor all the guys. It’s hard to believe that it’s already June and Father’s Day is quickly approaching. I hope one of this week’s designs inspires you to create something special for your fellas.

Today, we’re combining some gorgeous designer series paper with our dies to create this stunning fun fold called the Faux Fold-Over. We get started with a base of Early Espresso cardstock that has been cut to give us a flip-up panel, or the faux fold-over panel, in the center. Our full background layer is the sheet of Pool Party woodgrain from the Country Woods designer series paper pack.

For the center panel, we emboss a piece of the Pebbled Path luster paper using the Leaf Fall embossing folder. The sentiment panel consists of three layers — the bottom two layers utilize both sides of the white woodgrain sheet from the Country Woods paper pack and the third panel is white cardstock. Each circle is cut using the Spotlight on Nature dies. The white sentiment panel is stamped with the Unbounded Love sentiment in Copper Clay. The sentiment panel is adhered to the darker circle to create a matted sentiment. This layer is then adhered with dimensionals to the largest circle and the full panel is adhered using dimensionals to the center panel over a twist of linen thread. From Copper Clay luster paper, we diecut deer and branches from the Grove die set and a maple leaf from the Autumn Leaves dies and then adhere them to our panel to create our scene. The card front is finished off with swirl dots. Our inside sentiment from the Something Fancy set is stamped atop the small leaves from the Autumn Leaves stamp set in the bottom-right corner of the message panel.

This week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode walks you through making this card step-by-step. Missed the episode? You can watch the full episode right here:

You can also download the FREE step-by-step PDF tutorial for today’s card by clicking here.

Tomorrow we’ll be heading through the grove. I hope you’ll stop by and check it out!

Products used in today’s card:
Early Espresso, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods, In Color Luster DSP
Unbounded Love, Something Fancy, Autumn Leaves stamps
Spotlight on Nature, Grove, Autumn Leaves dies
Leaf Fall embossing folder
Linen thread
Swirl dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Masculine Designs

Dad’s Trusty Tools

We continue our look at a good sampling of the Stampin’ Up! products that stand to make great Father’s Day cards. Today we’re revisiting a terrific set called Trusty Tools, which includes a photopolymer stamp set and a set of coordinating dies (sold separately). When I first bought this set, I only bought the stamps, but then I found myself fussy cutting way more than I really like to do when making projects. And I also realized that the set of dies includes things like a peg board and a tool box that really help give my stamps even greater value. And this set can go well beyond just Father’s Day designs.

This super fun design begins with a base of Daffodil Delight cardstock. The background panel mat is Basic Black. The background panel is a strip of Daffodil Delight stamped tone-on-tone with the nuts and bolts from the Trusty Tools stamp set and then a panel of white cardstock that has been diecut using the peg board die from the Trusty Tools die set. Each of these smaller panels is adhered directly to the black mat. The tools are diecut from a combination of black cardstock and silver foil specialty paper. I felt like this really gave the tools a more realistic look. The tools are adhered over the peg board using varying heights of dimensionals so that you really feel like you’re sitting at the tool chest. The sentiment panel is the bottom portion of the toolbox die and cut from Daffodil Delight. The word DAD is stamped in black in the center. The Happy Father’s Day sentiment is stamped on a banner diecut using the Happy Little Things dies. The design is finished off with some industrial trinkets to keep with the tool-look.

Tune in tomorrow to check out a brand new fun fold and fun outdoorsy theme!

Products used in today’s card:
Daffodil Delight, Basic Black, Basic White cardstock
Silver foil specialty paper
Trusty Tools stamps & dies
Happy Little Things dies
Industrial trinkets
Dimensionals
Adhesives