scene building

Peaceful Sunrise

Welcome to the midweek. I can’t decide if this week is moving slowly or swiftly. What about you? In some ways it’s hard to believe it’s Wednesday but then again I feel like it should be Friday already. Today’s card seems awfully fitting under those circumstances!

This week, we’re pulling out all the critters in our crafty stash. And today I just couldn’t resist the mom and fawn from the Autumn Trees die set. I’ve paired them up with the new Aspen Grove stamp set to create this peaceful scene with lots of layers of beautiful color.

We get started with a nice neutral base of Crumb Cake cardstock. To pull out all of the subtle colors in the pre-dawn sky, I chose a sheet of the Pool Party glimmer paper from the pastel shimmer paper pack as the mat for the focal panel. To build the scene on our focal panel, we start with the Aspen Grove stamp set. The aspen tree trunks are stamped in several different colors, including Early Espresso, Gray Granite, and Smoky Slate, to create the shading you often see if those trunks. To keep the leaves a truer green, I opted to shade the sky in the background next. Using small blending brushes, I applied a combination of Cloud Cover, Daffodil Delight, Timid Tiger, Strawberry Slush, and Fresh Freesia to create the beautiful colors of a pre-dawn sky — just before the sun peeks over the horizon. Then we stamp our canopy of leaves so that those greens stay nice and crisp over the sky. A combination of Soft Sea Foam and Old Olive worked well. Our doe and fawn images are cut from a scrap of Crumb Cake and tucked in the opening in the trees using dimensionals. The sentiment from the Prayers & Promises stamp set is stamped in Cloud Cover on white cardstock and then cut out with the Traditional Labels dies. The sentiment is tucked in the top-right corner and adhered over a twist of the brand new Berry Burst shiny ribbon that will release next week. Several layers of dimensionals help the sentiment panel stand tall above the ribbon and really catch your eye in the scene. A few opal rounds finish things off with a subtle twinkle.

Tomorrow is the Luv 2 Stamp Group Instahop day, and I can’t wait to show you a brand new and absolutely adorable critter bundle. I hope you’ll drop in and see!

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Easter

Bunny Hunt

Welcome back, crafty friends, on this sunny Tuesday here in North Texas. I know that some of you may find yourselves under a significant snowfall and maybe aren’t seeing the sun just yet. And if that’s you, I’m wishing you some sunny days ahead really soon!

This week, we’re designing around the critters in our crafty stash. And today’s card is a no-stamp, no-sentiment design. We’re pairing up the super cute Easter Joy paper with the Easter Time ephemera.

We get started with a base of Pretty in Pink cardstock. Our focal panel starts with one of the ready-made scenes from the Easter Joy paper pack that has been cut down to size using the Textured Notes dies and adhered to our card front panel with dimensionals. We build our bunny hunting eggs scene using the Easter Time ephemera pack — a combination of bunny, flowers, and decorated egg. These are all adhered to the scene with dimensionals to give depth and interest to the scene. We finish things off with some Garden epoxy dots, which are NEW and will be releasing next week, and some of the pink foiled gems.

What do you think of this super simple card? It comes together in just minutes, which is nice when you’re in a hurry. But I’m always a little leery of designing one without a sentiment, even when the theme is obvious. What are your thoughts on that?

I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow to see where our critter theme takes us next!

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Masculine Designs

My Person

Happy new week, everybody! How was your weekend? We had grand plans to work in the yard because the forecast called for some unseasonably unwintery weather. But Texas weather had another idea and gave us temps in the 60s and gusty winds, which made it quite cool. So we switched gears and did some inside things instead.

This week, we’re on to a new design series that is all about the critters. And we’re getting started with a few of my favorite critters from the crafty stash — foxes! We’re putting the Autumn Toile paper front & center in this super simple layout that also pairs the Country Woods & Unbounded Love stamps.

We get started with a base of Cajun Craze cardstock. Our card front combines three different specialty papers — the Country Woods & Autumn Toile patterned papers and the Earthen Toned metallic specialty paper. The copper-hued foil and dark woodgrain provide a nice base for the focal panel of fox toile. The focal panel has been cut with the Textured Notes dies and is adhered toward the top-right of the panel with dimensionals. The sentiment from the Unbounded Love stamp set is stamped in Early Espresso on white cardstock before being cut with the Sentimental Framing dies. The sentiment is adhered in the bottom-right corner with dimensionals over a bow of Gray Granite ribbon. Copper & gold foil dots carry our eye across and over the key elements in our card design.

I hope you’ll pop by tomorrow to see what critter is up next!

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St Patty's

Just Plaid Lucky

We’re playing with the lucky design theme this week. And after looking for some mojo — a/k/a design inspiration — I ran across a card that used plaid patterned paper. And that got the wheels turning. So we’re pairing up the Forever Plaid embossing folder with the Unbounded Love stamp set to create this clean & simple 5- minute card.

We get started with a base of Shy Shamrock cardstock. I machine embossed just the front panel using the Forever Plaid embossing folder. To really bring out the embossing and add a pop of gold, I used my finger and some gold ink to give the front a distressed look. It really makes our embossed plaid stand out. The sentiment from the Unbounded Love stamp set is stamped tone-on-tone on Shy Shamrock and then cut with one of the Spotlight on Nature dies. I used a combination of vellum and gold foil as the mat for the sentiment and cut those out with a circle one size larger from the same die set. I added some Wink of Stella to the vellum for a bit of twinkle. The sentiment is adhered to the card front over a double twist of white & gold baker’s twine. Some white with gold ribbon is tied around the length of the card against the fold. And we finish things off with some gold sequins around the sentiment.

Next week is all about the critters. I hope you’ll drop in and see all of the cute new furry friends Stampin’ Up! has in store.

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St Patty's

Luck for You

Happy Saturday, everyone! It’s been a busy one around here since Wednesday. And I just haven’t had any crafty mojo. I had some ideas this morning but I’ve had a super hard time getting those ideas down in paper. Ever have that problem? We all do. And you know what, it’s okay to take little breaks.

This week’s lucky design theme has been a little harder to bring to life than I expected. I kept reaching for all the same things. But I wanted to bring fresh ideas each day — hence the mojo problem. Today we’re frolicking in the clover as we pair up the Sweet Jar stamps with the Everyday Arches dies to create this window scene.

We get started with a base of Summer Splash cardstock. I really love the slight color variation between the backdrop and focal elements. We build our picture window with a gold foil base that is cut with the Everyday Arches die. The front portion of the card base is machine embossed with the Beautiful Patterns embossing folder to give a bit of texture to our backdrop. The base of our focal panel scene is a sheet of Cloud Cover cardstock that is cut with an arch die just one size smaller than the gold mat. I used a scrap of Shy Shamrock cardstock to create the hill of clover, which uses a combination of the Scene Adventure die to create the grass and the clover stamp from the Sweet Jar stamps to give us our field of clovers. The sentiment from the Sweet Jar set is stamped in Shy Shamrock toward the top of the arch. Some white & gold baker’s twine is tied around the panel immediately underneath the sentiment. The two-toned butterfly is created with a combination of vellum and Shy Shamrock glimmer paper. The detailed portion of the butterfly uses the small butterfly die from this year’s Advent Calendar. To give the vellum wings the look of shimmery gold, I drudged my Wink of Stella brush through gold embossing powder before coloring over the vellum. We finish things off with some pops of twinkly gold sequins and shimmery green pearls.

I’ll be bringing you another clean & simple design in just a bit. Stay tuned!

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St Patty's

Sending Luck

Happy Fat Tuesday, everyone! For me, today was a struggle. It was a super early and super busy day at work. And then Tuesday are rehearsal nights, so that always makes the day long. I’m definitely ready to hit the hay here pretty quick!

This week, we’re playing our luck at some pretty cute designs. And I decided to dig through the stash of recently retired goodies for most of today’s card. But I thought you might have some similar things on-hand to pull off this super cute clover design yourself as we pair up the Wildflower Birthday paper with the 2024-26 In Color glimmer paper and heart punch.

This cutie starts with a base of Summer Splash cardstock. We use a sheet of the retired Wildflower Birthday paper to serve as our backdrop. The gold accents were fitting for our lucky sentiment. We build our focal section by beginning with our four-leaf clover. I used my retired heart punch and punched four hearts from some Shy Shamrock glimmer paper and then I hand-cut a stem shape. I pointed all of the ends of the hearts toward the center to make the clover shape and adhered them to the backdrop with dimensionals. The stem is tucked under to give the illusion that it’s floating on the wind. The sentiment and center of our clover is stamped tone-on-tone on Shy Shamrock cardstock using the Sweet Jar stamps and then cut with one of the smaller Spotlight on Nature circle dies. It’s adhered in the center with dimensionals. I tied some Summer Splash ribbon around the stem. And we finish things off with some pops of gold using the Traditional Sparkling Sequins.

It’s easy peasy and oh so cute! You don’t have to a lot of pieces or a complicated design to create super cute cards. I’ll be taking a little break tomorrow for Ash Wednesday. But I plan to be back on Thursday to bring you some more luck. I hope you’ll drop by and see!

Products used in this card:
Summer Splash, Shy Shamrock cardstock
Wildflower Birthday, In Color glimmer (both retired)
Sweet Jar stamps
Spotlight on Nature dies
Heart punch (retired)
Summer Splash bordered ribbon (retired)
Traditional sparkling sequins
Dimensionals

sketches · St Patty's

Best of Luck

Howdy, friends, and welcome in on this fantastic Monday. We’re super thrilled to all be home together today for a work & school holiday. And it just so happens to be a gloriously sunny day here in North Texas. It’s supposed to be near 80-degrees today — crazy for February! We’ve already gotten in our bowling for the day and the boys have headed out to see if the fish are biting. Do you have today off? What are you getting up to?

As we start this new week, we’re also beginning a new theme for the week. It’s all about the luck this week. And today we’re pairing up some of the new specialty papers from Stampin’ Up! — Pleasant Patterns & Easter Joy — with the Sweet Jar stamp & punch bundle to create today’s lucky design.

We’re using a sketch from the gals over at Global Design Project for this card. We get started with a base of white cardstock, which provides the backbones on which we build our design. A sheet of the plaid Easter Joy paper covers the full card front and gives us the backdrop for our design. Textured gold specialty paper serves as the vertical strip down the left side, while a sheet of green striped paper from the Pleasant Patterns paper pack sits front & center. The center striped panel is wrapped in Shy Shamrock bordered ribbon before it’s adhered to the card front with dimensionals.

Now we build our focal point, which is a combination of image and sentiment. The jar image from the Sweet Jar stamp set is stamped in Smoky Slate on white cardstock and then filled with all the luck in the form of oodles of shamrocks from the Sweet Jar stamp set stamped in Shy Shamrock ink. We’re keeping all the luck in the jar with a gold lid and an extra bit of white & gold baker’s twine tied around the top. Our jar o’ luck is adhered with dimensionals to a circle of vellum that has been cut with the Spotlight on Nature dies. The sentiment from the Unbounded Love stamp set is stamped in Shy Shamrock also on a smaller circle of white cardstock cut with the Spotlight on Nature dies. A few extra shamrocks are stamped tone-on-tone on Shy Shamrock cardstock and fussy cut with paper snips and then adhered with dimensionals to form a visual triangle. We finish things off with some In Color pearls for a splash of extra color and sheen.

I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow to see where we find our luck next!

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Valentines

Extra Special Grove

Welcome back, friends! It’s Monday and my tail is dragging. What about yours? After getting a little crafty time on Saturday morning, the hubby & I set about tackling our to-do list for the day. Late in the afternoon, I got a headache that eventually morphed into a migraine. So my grand plan for rewarding myself for conquering our to-do list by playing in the craft room again was replaced by retiring to bed early and sleeping with a pillow over my head. Womp-womp.

So here we are at Monday again and time for a new design challenge. This week, we’re thinking about the upcoming Valentine holiday, if we want to call it that. It’s actually a perfect time to let your friends know you’re thinking of them — and that special someone too, of course! So we’re starting off with one for the fellas since they didn’t really get their due last week. And we’re combining the new Aspen Grove stamp set with the Country Woods paper and a sentiment from the 2025 Advent Calendar.

We get started with a base of Smoky Slate cardstock. A sheet of the grey woodgrain from the Country Woods paper pack serves as our focal backdrop. I arranged the Aspen Grove stamps on a large block and stamped the row of trunks in black ink onto white cardstock. I layered several shades of green leaves up top to create the treetop canopy. To give some realistic depth to the tree trunks, we use Crumb Cake and Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blends down the left side of each one, which gives a shadow effect. I filled in a touch of blue in the background with Cloud Cover ink, but you could easily skip this shading (and next time, I think I will!). The focal panel is downsized using the Textured Notes die and then adhered to the woodgrain backdrop. The full panel is wrapped in black & gold bakers twine that is tied in a knot on the left side before the focal panel is adhered to the card front with dimensionals. The sentiment panel is cut from Cloud Cover cardstock with the Stylish Shapes circle die and then the sentiment from the 12 Days of Christmas Advent calendar is stamped in black in the center and then adhered over the twine with dimensionals. I added a few of the lighter Shades of Green Hexagons on either side of the sentiment to draw the eye in and add a bit of colorful eye candy.

This design is 100% inspired by one of the samples from the January Mini catalog. Much like using a sketch, you can take a design and make it your own with a substitution here & there. It’s another great trick when you’re either short on time or lacking a little inspiration — or both!

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see another Valentine-inspired design.

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Masculine Designs

Great Explorer

Happy Thursday, everyone! Whew — it’s been a rough week as we have all transitioned back to normal life after the Winter Storm Fern. Work and school and all of the things are back in full swing, and I guess I just wasn’t ready. Hopefully next week will go a little more smoothly.

But all that aside, I’m back with some more tips & tricks for those masculine cards. This week, we’re looking for those shortcuts to make cards for the fellas come together a little quicker. We started by using a sketch with geometric patterns. Today, we’re focusing on color palette as we take our cues from the new Nature Walk paper released by Stampin’ Up! This gorgeous paper combines hues of blue and brown and green to create perfect subtle patterns. We’re pairing it up with the newer Outdoor Adventure stamp & die set to make our adventure-themed card.

We get started with a base of Secret Sea cardstock and then add a sheet of the Nature Walk patterned paper as our backdrop. We cut an accent piece from a sheet of Timeless Plaid using the Textured Notes rectangle dies and adhered on the left side of our card. I stamped a stand of trees on white cardstock in a combination of Mossy Meadow, Old Olive, and Soft Sea Foam using the Outdoor Adventure stamp and then cut it out with one of the smaller Spotlight on Nature dies. It’s adhered over a bow of Secret Sea cardstock with dimensionals. Our wolf is stamped in Smoky Slate on Cloud Cover cardstock and then cut with the coordinating die from the Outdoor Adventure die set. It’s adhered at the bottom of our tree panel with several layers of dimensionals for some extra depth in the scene. I stamped the sentiment from the Outdoor Adventure set onto vellum with Versamark and then heat embossed with silver embossing powder. It’s cut out with the banner die from the Stylish Shapes set using the extension method to make it long enough to capture the full sentiment. The sentiment banner is adhered at the top of our focal panel using glue dots on either end to make it look like the banner is rippling in the wind. We finish things off with some Mossy Meadow and Secret Sea embellishments from the Moody Palette and Sparkle dot sets.

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see a clean and simple design that comes together in minutes.

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Masculine Designs

Amazing Nature

Howdy, friends. Can you believe it’s Monday already? There was lots on the to-do list this weekend which meant that the weekend flew by, but it felt good to get most of what we had on the list all done. We bid adieu to the Christmas decorations (am I the only one who waits until February to take it down?) and put the house back together.

This week we’re beginning a new design series that’s all about the fellas. It can sometimes be hard to make cards that feel more masculine, but we’re going to explore our crafty stash together and find some shortcuts to masculine designs. And today’s shortcut begins with a sketch. I’ve found that a geometric feel to a card layout can lend itself to feeling more masculine. With a more neutral color palette and some earthy patterns in the Autumn Toile and Nature Walk papers, we have the perfect recipe for a card fit for a dear dude. (Did you catch my play on words there? *wink*)

We get started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. I used a sheet of the Mossy Meadow Nature Walk patterned paper to serve as the backdrop for the design. Our three repeating shapes are from the Nested Essentials die set and are cut from a sheet of the Autumn Toile patterned paper. I really love how you can still make out the original scene as you look down the three shapes and how the deer repeat in each panel in a perfect triangle.

The sentiment panel finishes our visual triangle and is punched from vanilla cardstock with the To the Point label punch. The sentiment from the Words of Beauty stamp set is stamped in Early Espresso. We cut some oak leaves and acorns from Cajun Craze and Early Espresso cardstocks and adhere them behind the sentiment panel, along with a twist of white & gold baker’s twine. The whole panel is then adhered to the card front with dimensionals. And we finish everything off with some gold drusy embellishments for the perfect pop of sparkle.

Today’s sketch is from the current Atlantic Hearts Sketch Challenge and also happens to be our current Luv 2 Stamp team challenge sketch. What do you think about using a sketch to inspire your masculine cards?

I hope you’ll drop by tomorrow to see what other tips we can use to make creating masculine cards a little less challenging!

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