Sweet Jar

Sweetest Birthday

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you enjoyed a restful weekend. I spent lots of time in the craft room this weekend working ahead on these weeks designs knowing that my work week is going to be pretty hectic this week. What did you get up to?

This week, we’re using the new Sweet Jar stamp and punch bundle, along with the companion Jar of Joy stamp set, to create our projects. There are so many cute things you can do with this bundle and it plays well with lots of other stamp sets, too! Today we’re pairing it up with some DSP to create a fun birthday card.

We get started with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. Our background panel consists of three layers of cardstock. We started with a base layer of pink Beautiful Bokeh paper and then a layer of Unbounded Beauty, using a sheet of the Berry Burst glimmer paper (sadly retired) to add some sparkly eye relief in the middle. A strip of the Petunia Pop iridescent ribbon around the panel gives another hint of twinkle just behind the focal panel. Our Sweet Jar focal image is stamped on white cardstock and punched with the coordinating jar punch, but I decided to dress up the lid by punching it from a sheet of Shy Shamrock glimmer paper and wrapping it in gold thread. The birthday candles felt a little left out at the sparkle party, so they got a dab of Wink of Stella to make them festive, too. I combined several different stamps from the Sweet Jar set to make the sentiment and stamped it in the top-right corner. Some charming shimmer faceted dots help our eyes pass across the card and each of the key design elements.

We’re going to be making our way through a number of holidays and festive occasions this week. I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see what’s next!

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Fun Folds · Holiday Mini Catalog · Tutorials

Big Hugs

Howdy, everyone, and happy Saturday! We are officially to the weekend. We’re counting down the last week of summer break over here, so there are lots of things on the to-do list to be sure the kiddo is ready for his first week of 8th grade! What about you? What will your weekend plans have you doing?

Here in the craft room, we’re wrapping up our full week of fun fold designs. And today, I’m giving you a sneak peek of a full suite of products that will be available in the Holiday Mini catalog on September 3rd. We’re using the Peaceful Garden Suite to create a 4-Panel Accordion Fold. Demos were able to purchase this suite early as part of the special Creativity Now event in June, and I’ve saved using it until we got closer to the official release date for customers.

We get started by cutting down a 12×12 piece of Night of Navy cardstock and then score it to create the accordion base. I chose the leaf and vine patterned sheet from the Peaceful Garden paper pack as my focal paper and then matted these strips with the coordinating silver glimmer paper. The sentiment panel is created using the Peace on Earth stamp & die bundle included in the Peaceful Garden suite. I finished things off with a few Hues of Blue flowers and Misty Moonlight trim from the suite, along with a few drusy embellishments.

I dressed this fun fold up a bit by adding mats for each of the patterned paper panels. When you’re using heavier glimmer paper, like the sheets from Peaceful Garden, this will add some extra weight to your card. You could simplify this by omitting the extra mats or using lighter weight glimmer paper.

How would you like to give the 4-panel accordion fold a try? You can download the free PDF tutorial here.

It’s been a lot of fun learning some new fun folds this week. And there are quite a few that will be going into my more regular rotation. Do you have a favorite from this week’s fun fold series? Tell me in the comments!

Next week, we’re going to be exploring a super fun stamp bundle called Sweet Jar that has a new coordinating holiday stamp set called Jar of Joy. I hope you’ll pop in and see all of the fun things we can do with these cute stamps & punch!

Products used in today’s card:
Night of Navy, Cloud Cover, Basic White cardstock
Peaceful Garden, Peaceful Garden glimmer DSP (coming in September!)
Peace on Earth stamp & die bundle (coming in September!)
Misty Moonlight & silver edged ribbon (coming in September!)
Hues of blue flowers (coming in September!), Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Fun Folds · Tutorials

Incredible Fan Fold

This week, we’re having some fun exploring a whole new crop of fun folds that I’ve been dying to try. Today, we’re working on a “faux” fun fold I learned from my fellow Luv 2 Stamp team member Patti Dolan called the Fan Fold. I call this a faux fun fold because it’s made to look like a folded fan but doesn’t actually involve any special folding.

We’re working the lovely Floral Delight paper pack for this new fun fold design. And we get started with a base of Mossy Meadow. The card front uses two patterns from the Floral Delight pack — the daisy and fleur de lis patterns. Our fan element is created by cutting our card base and paper panels and then adhering them together to create the fan look. I used a More Messages sentiment and accented with Daffodil Delight satin ribbon and some Peach Pie glimmer paper. Drusy embellishments on either side draw the eye to the sentiment.

Our peek-through panel from the inside card panel also uses a sheet of the Floral Delight paper and is mounted on a quarter sheet of Cloud Cover to bring together the outside and inside color palettes.

This fun “fold” looks a little complicated but is super easy to put together. You can download the free tutorial here.

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Fun Folds · Tutorials

Birthday Explosion

This week is all about fun folds. I have to admit that I was pretty intimidated by fun folds at first, but once you’re brave enough to try your first one, there’s really no going back! Now, there’s nothing more exciting than adding another fun fold to my arsenal, especially when it’s an easy one that looks hard. *wink*

Today, we’re trying out a fun fold that I learned from my Luv2Stamp team leader Patty Bennett called the Explosion Pop-Up. And there are tons of variations of this fold out there that really dress it up and dress it down. I went with a pretty simple version for my first go.

We get started with a standard A2-sized card base of Pool Party cardstock. The two-panel focal panel starts with a backdrop of Pretty in Pink plaid from the Wildflower Birthdays paper pack that is diecut using the largest Textured Notes rectangle die. Then we cut a circle from the Pool Party and gold sheet using the Spotlight on Nature dies. To help set off the center of our focal panel, I mounted the circle panel atop a faux bow of gold striped mesh ribbon. Our focal image is from the ephemera sheet included in the Wildflower Birthday pack and mounted with dimensionals. A few gold drusy embellishments on either side set things off nicely and really bring the eye in.

The inside pop-up panel is a 6×6 sheet of the striped paper from the Wildflower Birthdays pack. I used more ephemera to decorate the left side. The sentiment panel is a small square of white cardstock that is stamped with a sentiment from The Right Words set in Pool Party ink. A few drusy embellishments on either end of the gold banner tie the design together nicely.

It takes just a minute to get the hang of folding the pop-up panel correctly. But other than that, this is a really simple fun fold that packs so much visual fun. Wanna give it a try? You can snag the free tutorial for today’s card here.

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Fun Folds · Gifting

Hats Off for the Grad

Happy Monday, everyone! Our summer is flying by in a flash as we begin the last two weeks of summer break here in N. Texas. It’s hard to believe that school is just around the corner. And I don’t know about you, but that brings about a lot of anxious preparation as we begin gathering new school supplies and shopping for new clothes with a preteen (not for the faint of heart!).

It also means that we’re beginning a new week of fun crafty designs. And this week we’re going to be working through a stash of fun folds that I’ve been dying to try. And first up comes a design of necessity as my oldest nephew is headed off to college in a few short weeks. I might be just a teensy bit behind in honoring his graduation, but there’s always the last-minute items to buy right? *wink* Today, I’m trying my hand at a super cute cap & tassel fun fold that I saw over at Beth’s Paper Cuts.

For a giftie like this one, I try to coordinate the color palette with the graduate’s school colors. In this case, I need to work with a palette of royal blue, white, and black. Finding just the right shade of blue proved a little tricky since I was out of Blueberry Bushel. BUT I happened to still have a supply of Pacific Point in my retired stash, so here we go.

I decided to have the royal blue serve as the predominant color in the design and then I used white and silver as accent colors. I used white baker’s twine to tie the tassel and happened to have some silver thread on hand that I used to bind the tassel together. I liked having this silver detail tie together with the sentiment. I used the recently-retired die set called Wanted to Say to cut the sentiment. Silver trim and drusy embellishments give us nice pops of festive shimmer around the sentiment.

As I was putting my card together, I got a little ahead of myself and ended up adhering the panel that was intended to be the gift pocket, which meant I had to improvise a solution. I cut an extra square of silver specialty paper to serve as the money pocket and placed it in the center of the folding section. It works, but it wasn’t exactly how envisioned this coming out. I’ll fix it on the next go-around. *grin*

I chose to use the top-inside panel to include a hand-written note, so it is not strongly affixed in this short demo. But I still wanted to show how this adorable fun fold opens and where that message panel will eventually be situated. I haven’t had time to make the how-to video for this design yet, but I did take the time to create a PDF tutorial which is free to download here.

Products used in today’s fun fold:
Pacific Point (retired), Basic White cardstock
Brushed metallic silver specialty paper
Wanted to Say dies (retired)
Silver trim
White baker’s twine
Drusy embellishments
Brad
Dimensionals

florals · Florals in Bloom

Birthday Blooms

We’re wrapping up our week(ish) of designs featuring the Florals in Bloom products by Stampin’ Up! I love the vibrant colors in the papers and the versatility of the stamps and dies. I decided to round out the design series with a card that really allows this suite to shine. Helping us out for this card are the Country Woods paper and More Messages stamps and die.

To keep the color palette lighter and brighter, we get started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. I’m not sure I’ve talked too much about the new In Colors, but this is probably one of my favorites of the bunch. Cloud Cover is the perfect combination of grey and blue that allows you to transform the mood of the card easily with just a few changes in your helper colors. In this case, I chose the moody blue of the Secret Sea hashed-pattern sheet from the Florals in Bloom paper pack. Our focal panel is broken into three interwoven sections. The opposing corners are a piece of the cheery hyacinth patterned paper from Florals in Bloom that is matted with some Brushed Silver to help give some definition between the two busy patterns. The center portion of the focal panel is where all of the action takes place. A sheet of the Pool Party woodgrain from the Country Woods pack – also matted in Brushed Silver – serves as our stage. It rests atop a bow of Petunia Pop iridescent ribbon. Our purple-hued flowers take center stage with the sentiment tucked quietly underneath. A few Petunia Pop shimmer dots add a touch of twinkle to the center of our floral bunch, while the silver drusy embellishments on opposing corners give the eye a path to follow down and across.

I hope you’ve enjoyed getting a closer look at this beautiful product suite. Next week, our design series is all about fun folds. I have a stash of them in my gotta-try-it folder that we’re going to take for a test drive! I hope you’ll come along for the ride.

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florals · Florals in Bloom

Anything Florals

Well, yesterday saw a very exciting and emotionally-draining end to the day. Just as I was turning into our section of the neighborhood, I caught a strange sight out of the corner of my eye. And I realized that the gentleman I was seeing on the ground on the curb by his mailbox was not picking weeds but was, instead, in great distress as he sank down and face-planted into the grass as I made the corner and threw the car into park. I had hung up on the hubby to jump out and rush across the street, but it didn’t take hubby long to track my location and appear on scene. When all was said and done, several neighbors also came to aid and we managed to get the gentleman up into his garage and out of the sun as the ambulance arrived to check him out. We bid adieu and headed for home after his son-in-law arrived to serve as translator for the paramedics. So needless to say, I didn’t really have any emotional energy left to design once I got home and finally settled down after the rush of adrenaline.

But I’m back at it today. This week, we’ve been using the Florals in Bloom suite to create our designs. And today we’re pairing up the dies in this suite with the Plaster Painting embossing folder and More Messages stamps & dies to create this lovely encouragement card.

We start with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. The background panel is a quarter sheet of Secret Sea that has been machine embossed with the Plaster Painting embossing folder, and then I used some silver metallic ink to bring out the details in the embossed panel. The focal section consists of florals cut using the Pretty Florals dies and a combination of Strawberry Slush, Pretty in Pink, Pool Party, and Pretty Peacock cardstocks. To add some extra shimmer to the flowers, I cover the Strawberry Slush blooms with Wink of Stella before adhering the detail Pretty in Pink pieces on top. The floral centers are a cluster of the Strawberry Slush gems. The sentiment from More Messages is stamped on Smoky Slate cardstock in Gray Granite ink and then diecut with the coordinating More Messages die. I adhered a twist of silver trim behind the sentiment before adhering it to the side of the blooms off-center on the card front. We finish things off with some silver drusy embellishments to tie everything together and draw the eye across the design.

I designed this particular card with our office intern in mind and I can’t wait for her to receive the card on the farewell day of her summer internship!

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florals · Florals in Bloom · Free Shipping

Lovely

Lovely certain seems a fair way to describe this Wednesday. Would you like to know why?

It’s that time of year…where Stampin’ Up! is offering FREE shipping on any order of $75 and above. I’ve had some items hanging out in my cart for a little while now, and I used this opportunity to save big on shipping since quite a bit of it was paper and other weighty items. Now is the perfect time to buy that paper or anything else in your shopping cart because you’ll save BIG on shipping. But better act fast because this deal won’t last long – July 23 through July 25! Check out my online store to learn more!

And that brings us to our card design for today. This week, we’ve been giving the Florals in Bloom suite a bit more attention and pairing it with other items in the crafty stash. Today’s combo includes the Country Woods patterned paper and brushed silver specialty paper. Let’s check it out.

We get started with a base the new In Color cardstock called Cloud Cover. The background panel is a piece of the lovely Florals in Bloom paper that is matted on brushed silver and adhered directly to the card front. I cut a piece of the blue woodgrain pattern from the Country Woods paper pack using the Everyday Arches dies and adhered this focal panel to background panel. Using the Pretty Florals dies, I cut stems and florets from a combination of Shaded Spruce, Pretty in Pink, and Strawberry Slush cardstock. The flowers are assembled with glue dots and each is adhered to the focal panel with dimensionals of varying heights. Using the Sweet Blooms dies, I cut the sentiment from a combination of brushed silver and a piece of pink shimmer paper from my retired stash bin. You could easily get the same shimmery effect by cutting from any shade of pink and then covering with Wink of Stella. I used my glue pen to adhere the two parts of the sentiment together. The sentiment is adhered over the flowers with extra dimensionals to be sure it stands above. We finish things off with the pink gems across the card front.

What do you think of this pretty simple design?

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florals · Florals in Bloom

Floral Thoughts

This week, we’re giving the elements in the Florals in Bloom suite a bit more love and combining them with other fun products in the stash. Today, we’re pairing up the Pretty Florals stamp set with the Thoughtful Designs specialty paper and Country Corners dies.

Our card begins with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. A sheet of the blue Thoughtful Designs specialty paper serves as the dramatic backdrop for our focal panel. I love the intricate foiled detailing in this paper. I chose the darker end of the blue ombre sheet for the contrasting drama that it adds to this happy garden scene. Our focal panel begins with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock that is cut with the largest Country Corners die. A small stand of wildflowers stamped with the Pretty Florals stamps set adorn the panel in shades of pink, purple, and yellow. The sentiment from The Right Words stamp set is stamped in Secret Sea onto white cardstock and then cut with a combination of paper trimmer and paper snips to create a banner. I tied a length of white diagonal trim around the top of the panel and then adhered the sentiment panel over it with dimensionals. A bow of silver & white sheer ribbon over the center of the white trim adds the perfect touch of sparkle, along with a little Wink of Stella on the cone flowers, some gold foil gems over the purple flowers, and drusy embellishments scattered across the front.

Even cards that take a more serious tone can have touches of sparkle here and there to help invoke feelings of genuine care and heartfelt wishes.

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Botanicals · Florals in Bloom

Coming Up Flowers

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks around here in Song Sparrow land. Between completely redecorating my son’s room (minus the paint – that’s still on the to-do list!) and then prepping to go on vacation, let’s just say I was chasing my tail and had zero brain cells left for creative work!

But in the end, the kiddo was over the moon with his new room setup and we had a fabulous time on vacation. The vacation was, of course, the highlight for the adults because we traveled to a place we’ve been to many times (and love) that provides oodles of things for the kiddos to do without a screen. And for people who love to be outside fishing and enjoying the great outdoors, it was heaven! So all in all, I would call the hiatus from designing a win.

I don’t really feel like I did the last design theme a lot of justice with only 3 designs using the Florals in Bloom suite. So this week, we’re going to continue creating with this beautiful combination of products. And to spice things up, because you know that’s how I roll, we’ll be bringing in other sets as we go to keep it all interesting. For today’s design, we’re pairing the Florals in Bloom paper with The Right Words stamp set and the Beautiful Butterflies and Everyday Arches die sets.

We get started with a base of Highland Heather cardstock. The background panel is a combination of the small purple floral pattern from the Florals in Bloom paper pack and a mat of Highland Heather glimmer paper that I’m fortunate enough to still have in my stash. I tied a bit of Petunia Pop iridescent ribbon around the bottom of the background panel to help bring out the subtle shades of pink and lighter shades of purple. The background panel is adhered to the card front with dimensionals. The focal panel is cut from white cardstock using the Everyday Arches dies and turned on its side. I’ve then stamped the sentiment from The Right Words set in Gorgeous Grape on the side up and adhered the panel against the far edge of the background panel. A beautiful, dainty butterfly cut from pastel ombre and silver foil paper using the Beautiful Butterflies dies adds the perfect pop of sparkle and bit of visual interest that draws the eye directly to our focal panel. It’s adhered to our focal panel with a double-dose of dimensionals for an extra boost. A few purple sequins scattered about the card front in strategic places give the bits of sparkly interest so your eye moves across the design.

This design is clean and simple and comes together in a snap but lacks nothing in the drama department – which is just my style!

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