Did you catch this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video? This week’s episode we looked at all the ways we can use the Merriest Trees bundle to create beautiful holiday cards, including pairing it with some of Stampin’ Up!’s popular designer series paper packs.
Today’s card is one of the designs we made during the Terrific Tuesdays video. I really love how the One Horse Open Sleigh paper provides the perfect backdrop for a single stamped image of the largest evergreen tree from the Merriest Trees stamp set. The coordinating set of dies makes it super easy to cut out the tree image. Pretty Peacock is currently one of my favorite shades of blue-green in the Stampin’ Up! color palette, and it takes center stage in this design.
Wanna know more about how this card came together? Do you want to see what other designs we made using the Merriest Trees bundle? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video to learn more!
Products used for today’s card design: Pretty Peacock, Basic White cardstock One Horse Open Sleigh DSP Merriest trees bundle Faceted gems trio Dimensionals Adhesives
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Happy Thursday, crafty friends! I hope your week has been going well. For me, things are really gearing up in the singing department, so I’ve been busy rehearsing while working in the craft room. Do you ever multi-task during your crafting time?
Today, we’re taking a look at more of the detailed elements of the Merriest Trees bundle. The combination of stamps and dies allows you so much versatility and variety in your designs. This card design highlights yet another way you can build a beautiful scene with this bundle of products.
The base of today’s card is Cherry Cobbler cardstock. And in the spirit of this musical week, I also incorporated some Merry Melody in today’s card design by using the embossing folder for the top portion of the focal panel. I finished the focal panel with the fun argyle print from the Shining Christmas designer series paper pack, which is very sadly sold out. The four-panel tree is diecut from Mossy Meadow and adorned with gold trim and a star cut from Distressed Gold and sparkly ornaments cut from glitter paper. The packages under the tree are diecut from gold shimmer paper with the bows diecut from Distressed Gold and then the bow stamped in Early Espresso to give the details. The sentiment from Merriest Trees is stamped in gold and then heat embossed in gold on top of a Nested Essentials banner. The silver and gold trim in the center helps merry the two sections with a cohesive sparkle. I just love how Merriest Trees allows you to incorporate so much detail into a design without much effort.
A few tips from today’s card design:
Using an adhesive sheet on the back of your paper when cutting the finer elements, like the tree trim and star, allow for very easy application of your diecut element onto your tree.
Mini dimensionals are perfect for popping up the ornaments. Half of a mini dimensional is just right for the long, narrow ornament.
For a richer color when embossing metallics, try stamping tone-on-tone metallic ink instead of Versamark. For example, here I used Tsukineko Galaxy Gold ink under the layer of SU! gold embossing powder.
Wanna know the other ways we learned to use the Merriest Trees bundle? Check out this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays!
Products used for today’s card design: Cherry Cobbler, Mossy Meadow cardstock Shining Christmas, Distressed Gold DSP Glitter and shimmer paper Merriest Trees stamps and dies Nested Essentials dies Merry Melody embossing folder Gold embossing powder Gold & silver trim Dimensionals Adhesives
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Wonderful Wednesday, everyone! We’re beginning to have the chill of winter weather in the air here in North Texas and many mornings of heavy frost. Is it beginning to feel more like winter in your area?
And speaking of winter, today’s card tips the hat to winter birthdays AND shows yet another way that you can use the Merriest Trees bundle to create beautiful projects. Today, I wanted to share how you can layer the tree dies to give realistic depth and dimension to the trees on your projects.
In this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video, we spoke briefly about the various sizes of trees in the suite of dies. Not only does this make it quick and easy to cut trees of all sizes, but it also allows you to create beautiful layers on single tree for a more realistic look. This card design shows you both.
The base of this card is a sheet of Night of Navy cardstock. The background panel is the ombre night sky patterned sheet from the O Holy Night designer series paper pack. I decided on a trio of trees as the focal scene with the center tree as the focal image. I stuck with shades of blue and blue-green for a more visually unified scene. I used vellum as the backdrop for the trees. The smallest tree in the background is diecut from Pretty Peacock using the two-panel tree die. The medium-sized tree closer to the foreground is embossed with an older snowflake embossing folder (you could easily substitute the Snowflake Sky EF) and then diecut from Lost Lagoon using the three-panel tree. The base of the focal tree in the foreground is Night of Navy and is diecut using the four-panel tree die. I used several different sheets of the Shining Brightly designer series paper as the layers for the focal image, which are adhered to the tree base. Each tree layer is cut using a different sized tree die from the suite, which makes for very quick and easy layering without any fussy cutting. The edges of each of the layers is curled up for a realistic look of fluffy layers in the tree. Isn’t this a stunning effect? I finished off the scene with some snowflakes diecut from white cardstock and a sentiment. While the snowflake dies I used are from a retired set, there are beautiful snowflakes in a number of sets in the Holiday Mini Catalog, including Merriest Trees, Stars at Night (on sale), and Wishes All Around (on sale).
Wanna know the other ways we learned to use the Merriest Trees bundle? Check out this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays!
Products used for today’s card design: Night of Navy, Basic White cardstock Vellum O Holy Night (sold out), Shining Brightly (sold out) DSP Merriest Trees, Autumn Leaves, Twinkling Lights (retired) dies Winter Snow (retired) embossing folder Circle Sayings stamps Silver embossing powder Glitter sequins Dimensionals Adhesives
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One of the fun things about the art of papercrafting is that it is so much more than just cards or scrapbooks or gift packaging. You can also create beautiful 3D projects using the supplies you already have in your crafting stash. Today’s designs are just 2 of the most recent projects I’ve created with current Stampin’ Up! products.
I love a good opportunity to get out of my comfort zone, and sometimes all you need is a little prompting to get the wheels turning. For me, that came in the form of a team event. I needed an ornament and a 3D project for our team Bingo event, so I got to work looking for inspiration on Pinterest.
After seeing a lot of different ornament designs where circles were layered to created an ornament, that got me thinking about the dies I had in my stash that could be layered in the same way. On the left is a super fun Christmas ornament I put together using the Joy of Christmas designer series paper and the Merriest Trees die set. I used a repeating pattern of 2 different patterns from the Joy of Christmas paper pack. I really liked the look of the green plaid with the sheet of evergreen branches. I used a combination of red festive pearls and green iridescent discs as ornaments. The star tree topper is diecut from Crumb Cake cardstock.
For my 3D project, I knew that I had an upcoming Advent Tea for which I volunteered to create table decorations. I knew I wanted the design to be elegant to fit the occasion. The lantern I created was inspired by a small votive box ornament that our team made together during a recent craft-together. I decided a tabletop lantern would be more appropriate for my tea, and I was able to find a tutorial created by Rick Adkins. This beautiful lantern was created with the O Holy Night suite of dies. I substituted current products from my stash to meet the theme of the tea. The lantern and window elements are constructed of Early Espresso cardstock, and a layer of vellum in each window provides the backdrop for the ethereal glow of the tealight. Don’t you just love it?!
What do you have coming up that could be accomplished with your craft stash rather than a trip to the store? I would love to see what you create!
Products used for today’s projects:
Christmas ornament Joy of Christmas DSP Crumb Cake cardstock Merriest Trees dies Festive pearls Iridescent discs Gold trim Adhesives
Christmas lantern Early Espresso, distressed gold cardstock Gold shimmer paper Vellum Night Divine, Stars at Night dies Dimensionals Adhesives
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Happy Thursday, everyone! And more importantly for us here in the U.S., happy Thanksgiving! My family will be gathering today to celebrate but, more importantly, we will be together to laugh and spend time together. I am blessed to have a close-knit family who gathers together often, not just for holidays. We share in joys and sorrows and tough circumstances together. And when we have friends who are far away from their families for the holidays, we wrap them right into ours!
I hope you have reasons to offer thanksgiving today. And if you are far away from family, I hope God sends you friends who will love you like family. And it’s the idea of being part of a community that inspired this week’s card design. Let’s take a look!
The new Meandering Meadows designer series paper currently available in Online Exclusives is simply stunning, and each of the scenic sides of these papers lend themselves to beautiful cards with very little else needed outside of the gorgeous paper. There are a whole host of fun folds that allow us to retain large sections of paper while still providing variety of design and, of course, gorgeous cards.
Today’s card design is based on a fun fold, known as a Split Panel, that I learned from fellow demonstrator Jackie Bolhuis with Klompen Stampers. This fold came by its name because the front and back panels are split apart and held together by a Z-fold in the center. I chose the portrait orientation, but you could easily turn the design landscape.
The two panels of the base of this design are Pretty Peacock cardstock. I wanted to draw out the beautiful pinks in the clouds and flowers in the sheet of Meandering Meadow DSP I selected, so I chose to mat the sheet with Moody Mauve. I used the Deckled Rectangles dies to cut both the mat and DSP panel. I tied a piece of silver and white sheer ribbon around the bottom of the panel before adhering to the card front with dimensionals. A few pink tinsel gems in opposing corners add a little sparkle and allow the eye to move across the focal panel. Although difficult to see in these photos, I highlighted the pinks in the clouds and across the mountain front by going over them with Wink of Stella. It’s a truly stunning effect in person! I stamped the sentiment, from the Softly Said stamp set, in the center of the inside fold-out. The message panel is framed on one side by a scrap of the DSP I cut for the card front.
I made this card with a particular friend in mind. Life has thrown my friend a lot of difficult things lately, and I wanted to offer a word of support. You know, I think we should do more of that these days. Life is hard for so many people, and some feel like the whole world is against them and they have no one who cares about them. A simple word of support or encouragement can make all the difference in whether that person carries on. Food for thought as so many of us are blessed to celebrate Thanksgiving with family and friends today.
Products used: Pretty Peacock, Moody Mauve, Basic White cardstock Meandering Meadows DSP Deckled Rectangles dies Silver and white sheer ribbon Tinsel gems Dimensionals Adhesives
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Did you catch yesterday’s Terrific Tuesdays video? This week’s episode is all about gift card holders and was inspired by today’s card design! I love finding fun ways to give gift cards. I recently ran across this super fun gift card holder shared by fellow demonstrator Heidi Collins. I knew this would be the perfect design for an upcoming family member’s birthday as this young man is all things outdoors.
The gift card holder is built on a standard single-panel base of Night of Navy cardstock. The patterned papers are all from the Let’s Go Fishing designer series paper pack. The fold-out gift card holder portion in the center is built on a piece of Basic Gray cardstock, which is scored into thirds. For the front-facing panel, I decided to add a little interest to the navy mat by embossing it using the 3D Rope embossing folder. The sentiment panel is stamped on Smoky Slate cardstock with a border stamp from the Heartfelt Hexagon set and a sentiment from the So Sincere stamp set and then punched with the coordinating hexagon punch. The gift card pocket is made with a piece of Let’s Go Fishing DSP with the notch created by the hexagon punch. The cute vellum sentiment panel on the gift card pocket has a heat embossed sentiment from the Gone Fishing stamp set and is diecut using the Nested Essentials dies. There are a few bobbers and some line underneath the vellum panel to carry the theme through and for a bit of visual interest. The message panel is a simple piece of white paper with a strip of Night of Navy diecut and embossed using the Gone Fishing dies.
This gift card holder was super easy to put together! And with several more upcoming birthdays and the Christmas holidays just around the corner, as well, I love having a cute way to give gift cards that can easily be tailored to each individual recipient and occasion.
Wanna know more? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video to learn how this design was adapted for holiday gift-giving!
Products used for today’s design: Night of Navy, Basic Gray, Smoky Slate, Cherry Cobbler, Basic White, vellum cardstock Let’s Go Fishing DSP Gone Fishing stamps & dies Heartfelt Hexagon stamps & punch Faceted gems trio Linen thread Silver embossing powder Dimensionals Adhesives
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The leaves are really putting on a show in our area now. We have a beautiful Ash tree in our front yard that is covered in beautiful shades of yellow right now. And the drive up the main parkway in our neighborhood is beginning to look like it’s lined by fire. I just LOVE this time of year!
Today’s card is inspired by all of the beautiful foliage of fall. The card base is Pretty Peacock cardstock, and although hues of blue are not necessarily traditional for leaves, it certainly works to complement the lovely shades of foliage we traditionally see this time of year. I used a beautiful vanilla foiled pattern from the All About Autumn designer paper pack to help the leaves really pop. The different colored leaves are diecut from Oxidized Copper and All About Autumn using the Autumn Leaves die collection. The sentiment, from the Circle Sayings stamp set, is heat embossed in copper atop a layer of Early Espresso that has been diecut using the Nested Essentials dies. A scattering of brown sequins adds some dazzle and moves the eye across the design.
I love how an everyday thing, like a leaf, can be used to create a beautiful and versatile card design.
Products used: Pretty Peacock, Early Espresso cardstock All About Autumn (sold out), Oxidized Copper DSP Nested Essentials, Autumn Leaves dies Copper embossing powder Adhesive-backed sequins Dimensionals Adhesives
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Do you love learning new things? I’m learning new fun folds to add interest to my card designs, and I really love this one that I learned from fellow demonstrator Jacki Bolhuis with Klompen Stampers. She calls it the Split Front Fold, but I like to think of it as the Cut and Twist because you cut out the center of the front panel and twist it up to make it a focal panel. What I really love about this fun fold is that you can get stellar results whether you dress up the front focal panel or leave it as a stand-alone, like I did here. So many possibilities!
For this card, we begin with a base of Early Espresso and a single sheet of the leaf pattern from the All About Autumn designer paper pack. The base is is a standard size but scored at the top rather than on the side. To achieve the cut and flip, with the long edge up, you cut 1 1/2-inches from one side and then make a second cut of 2 1/2-inches. This leaves a 1 1/2-inch strip just beyond the center fold, along with the two pieces that were cut. The larger piece gets twisted up vertically to serve as the focal panel on the card front and also holds the smaller pieces of the card front together. I chose the leaf pattern of All About Autumn to serve as the star of the vertical focal panel. The foiled pattern on the back side of the leaf sheet serves as the two decorative strips at the top and bottom. A little twist of linen thread gives a little punch to the focal panel. To allow the beautiful patterned paper to really shine, the sentiment is stamped on the card base so that it shows through the peek-through window in the card front.
What do you think of this new Cut and Twist method? I’m excited to try some other designer papers with this unique fun fold!
Products used: Early Espresso cardstock All About Autumn DSP Linen thread Adhesives
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Sometimes I find myself a little stumped with design ideas for beautiful designer papers because the thought of cutting them up gives me pause. But I’ve learned that there are a whole host of fun folds that afford an inspired design while sparing gorgeous designer papers.
I recently ran across a small modification to the Z-fold that gives even more space for designer paper. As you look at the closed card, you may be thinking that the design looks oddly familiar. That’s because this fun fold is a combination of both a Z-fold and peek-through, but rather than cutting the one-inch strip from the card front, the card front is scored at the one-inch mark. Then this small flap is folded back toward the card front.
This card design begins with a base of Crushed Curry card stock. It is cut to a standard size of 4 1/4 x 5 1/2-inches with the 1-inch panel scored and folded back on the front panel. Two sheets of a single pattern of Meandering Meadow designer paper are needed for this design — one for the card front and flap and the other for the inside panel and inside base. I chose the beautiful fields of yellow daisies for this card because it perfectly represents the cheerful sentiment. The smaller strips of patterned paper are the reverse side of the sunny daisy paper. The focal sentiment panel is comprised of a vellum banner diecut using the Nested Essentials dies and a smaller sentiment panel diecut from Crumb Cake cardstock using the Autumn Leaves dies. The sentiment is from the So Sincere stamp set. To add a pop of additional color to the sentiment, a few sprigs of greenery cut from Pretty Peacock using the Bold Bouquet dies is tucked in the center. A scattering of sparkle gems add visual interest and move the eye across the design.
I really love this new fun fold variation and am looking forward to putting it to use with a few of my other favorite designer papers. What do you think of this fun fold variation? Interested in giving it a try? Check out the PDF tutorial here.
For today’s card design, I challenged myself to use paper scraps for as many elements as I could. I had accumulated a number of scraps of All About Autumn after completing projects for a team event. So those scraps set the color palette for this card design.
We begin with a base of Early Espresso cardstock. A 1-inch peek-through panel is cut in the card front. The predominantly vanilla mosaic foil from All About Autumn serves as the decorative base for the card front. Scraps of Mossy Meadow and copper foil serve as the peek-through elements on the base panel. A scrap of Moody Mauve foil is mounted askew on the mosaic foil to add visual interest and a color base for the vellum sentiment panel. The mauve also helps to bring out the copper metallic of the leaves and sentiment. The leaves are diecut from Oxidized Copper designer paper using the Autumn Leaves dies. The veining of the larger leaf is diecut from Crumb Cake cardstock to add a little definition without detracting from the overall design. The sentiment is stamped using the Pansy Patch set and heat embossed in copper atop a vellum panel that is diecut using a Deckled Rectangle die. The vellum sentiment panel and leaves are layered using dimensionals. The brushed metallic dots draw the eye to the sentiment panel in the center.
Do you save your paper scraps? If so, do you have success in using up your accumulated scraps? I’m a scrap saver and pretty efficient at being able to use them. I do periodically purge my scraps since the smaller pieces can sometimes take over. I love how these scraps worked together for this design!
Products used: Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, vellum cardstock All About Autumn (retired), Oxidized Copper DSP Pansy Patch stamps Autumn Leaves, Deckled Rectangles dies Copper embossing powder Brushed metallic dots Dimensionals Adhesives
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Song Sparrow Papercrafts 