Masculine Designs

Sweet Dreams

Happy Saturday, everyone! My crazy week at the office ended with a crazy long day that seems to have followed me into the weekend. Sometimes that’s just the life of a public servant. While I have lots of things on the to-do list, I’m not feeling very motivated to get any of them done. So into the craft room we shall retreat. *grin*

This week, we’re looking at shortcuts for creating masculine designs. I don’t know about you, but sometimes it’s just plain difficult to create a masculine card. One way we can shortcut the process is using a more geometric card sketch. Another way is to choose a more masculine-inspired color scheme. And along those veins, today we’re combining the idea of layout and color scheme with a monochromatic, geometric look.

Today’s design gets started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. The background of our focal panel is a quarter sheet of Cloud Cover that has been machine embossed with the Forever Plaid embossing folder, and I chose to do so on the diagonal for that geometric visual interest. This embossed panel is adhered to the card front with dimensionals. Our sentiment panel begins with a strip of the blue Country Woods woodgrain patterned paper that is adhered on the diagonal across our card front. To keep with the monochromatic color palette, I chose the words sweet dreams from the Unforgettable Times ephemera pack. The sentiment is adhered to the woodgrain panel with a glue pen and then I covered the letters and star with Wink of Stella for the added drama of a little shimmer. We finish things off with some blue Rainbow Adhesive Dots on either side of the sentiment and a few Cloud Cover sequins in opposing corners.

I created this card for my kiddo for Valentine’s Day. He has a basketball tournament that day, so it will be fun to use the play on words of sweet dreams to share some chocolate and encouragement to reach for his dreams. A little later today we’re going to talk about how we can shortcut a masculine design with our stamps. I hope you’ll drop back in and check it out.

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Winter

Warm Hello

Welcome back, friends. I got a little side-tracked during my afternoon crafting session and suddenly realized I hadn’t gotten my project posted. This card is inspired by a cute card made by fellow demo Bree Renwick over at Craft-somnia. It’s always fun to start with an inspiration and see where the variations take you. I paired the Outdoor Adventure bundle with the Soft Waves embossing folder to create this snowy scene. And I recycled some scraps of glimmer paper from another project using the Lovely Arrangements dies — can you spot them?

We get started with a base of Secret Sea. I think it’s the perfect blend of black and navy and certainly sets the scene nicely here. Our scene is built on a base of Cloud Cover, which peeks out at the top to create our snowy-looking sky. Next up is our stand of evergreens created using Soft Sea Foam as the base and then we use the Outdoor Adventure stamps to create the tree line with Soft Sea Foam, Old Olive, and Mossy Meadow inks. I fussy cut around them and adhered them to a strip of white cardstock. To create our snow in the foreground, I embossed a piece of vellum with the Soft Waves embossing folder and adhered it over a scrap of white cardstock. This is adhered over the bottom of our tree panel with dimensionals to create the look of the snow being in the foreground. Our elk is stamped in Crumb Cake on Crumb Cake cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. I fussy cut a little closer to the elk image and then adhered it over the snow with glue dots. The whole panel is wrapped in Secret Sea bordered ribbon tied in a knot and then it’s adhered to the card front with tear-and-tape. The sentiment panel is cut from vellum using one of the sentiment dies from the Lovely Arrangements die set and then the sentiment from the Snowy Delights stamp set is stamped in Secret Sea. I used my heat gun to speed up the ink drying process so the sentiment panel could be adhered to the card front with glue dots. I pulled the Secret Sea sparkly diamonds from my scrap pile and adhered them with glue dots.

Schools are officially closed in our area for the next two days, so all of us working folks have to figure out how to “work” from home productively the next couple of days. Here’s hoping! *wink* And speaking of days like this, we’re going to be working with the Days Like This Memories & More pack this coming week. I hope you’ll drop in and see all of the fun projects you can create with this set of cards.

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Snowy Delights · Winter

Winter Wish

Welcome back, friends, for a bonus post on this snowy day in North Texas. Winter Storm Fern is living up to all the hype here for sure as temperatures are frigid and mixed precipitation continues to fall. The streets are covered and roads are slippery, so needless to say, we’re staying home where it’s safe & warm.

And that’s giving me the opportunity to make up for the crafting time I didn’t get earlier in the week. I thought it would be fun to have a few bonus posts that give an ode to the current weather here. So today I’m inking up a stamp set I’ve had for a while that has *eek* made its way to the Last Chance list — Snowy Delights. Time to get it inky! And it just so happens to pair up perfectly with the new Nature Walk paper.

We get started with a base of Night of Navy cardstock. The background pattern is from the Nature Walk paper pack and I machine embossed it with the Soft Waves embossing folder to give a snowdrift effect. The embossed panel is wrapped in a combination of Cloud Cover and Misty Moonlight & silver ribbons before it’s adhered to the card front. Our focal image from the Snowy Delights stamp set is stamped in Versamark and then heat embossed in silver before being diecut with the coordinating outline die. I added some of the white frosted iridescent dots to the center of the snowflake for some extra detail and a bit of sparkle. The snowflake is adhered over the ribbon with dimensionals. The sentiment from the Snowy Delights set is embossed on vellum in silver before being cut out with the banner die from the Stylish Shapes set. It’s adhered over the snowflake with glue dots so the adhesive isn’t visible. A few extra iridescent frosted dots finish things off.

What do you think of this super simple tribute to Winter Storm Fern? I think it’s pretty perfect. I hope you’re staying & safe and warm in your neck of the woods. It’s the perfect evening to curl up with some soup and a good movie and that’s just what we plan to do!

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Botanicals · January Mini Catalog

Birthday Blossoms

TGIF, everybody! We made it thru the first full work week since the holidays. How did it go for you? It was pretty busy here. I’m glad I had worked ahead in the craft room last weekend!

This week, we’ve been working with the new Lovely Blossoms suite that just released in the store this week. Today, we’re combining all of the suite elements to create this lovely birthday card.

We get started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock, which provides a nice contrast with our focal panel background of Secret Sea. A sheet of the small white floral pattern from the Lovely Blossoms paper pack provides our backdrop for the focal panel. Our focal panel has lots of layers. We start with a piece of vellum machine embossed with the Lovely Stripes embossing folder included in the suite. This provides a subtle relief from our background and provides a soft landing for our bold focal backdrop of Secret Sea glimmer paper that has been cut using the Lovely Arrangements circle backdrop die. The floral elements use the coordinating Lovely Arrangements stamps and dies. The flowers are stamped in Cloud Cover on white and then cut with the coordinating die. We adhere them to our backdrop with dimensionals. The leaves are cut from Soft Sea Foam using the leaf die from the Delicate Pines die set and are tucked behind over flowers in opposing corners for balance. The sentiment from Lovely Arrangements is stamped in Secret Sea on white and then diecut with the small sentiment strip die from the coordinating die set. The sentiment sits atop a strip of the Cloud Cover broad ribbon placed in the center of our foliage. We finish things off with some Cloud Cover dots in opposing corners for just a flash of color and reflective sparkle.

I really love how this one came out. So soft and elegant. I’ll be taking a little break tomorrow as we travel out of town for a family funeral. But I’ll be back next week with some new products,

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Coming Soon

Great Friend

Happy Friday, everybody! What’s on your weekend to-do list? For us, a lot is going to depend on the weather. But we definitely have some outside work to do while we’re having more springlike weather. And it’s time to swap out the holiday decor, which means making some trips to & from the storage unit.

This week, I’m having fun getting some of my new crafty goodies out. We’ve been working closely with the new On Display bundle. And now we’re weaving in the Gliding Garden Swing bundle, as well. These two sets pair beautifully thanks to similar scaling with the images, which allows easy scene-building cards. Today we’re also getting a sneak peek at the new Lovely Stripes embossing folder. Both the swing bundle and embossing folder will launch in my online store on January 6th.

Today, we’re having some tea on grandma’s porch. I used my Granny’s porch as inspiration for the setup. So we get started with a base of white cardstock and emboss half of it with the new Lovely Stripes embossing folder. The focal panel starts with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock cut with the largest Textured Notes die. I used the fence die from the Notes & Totes die set to build the porch. We start with the floor, which is planks of Crumb Cake cardstock. Then we cut white cardstock planks to build the porch railing. Both the flooring and railing are adhered directly to the focal panel so they are clearly at the back of our scene. Next up, we build our swing by stamping the swing image on white cardstock with Gray Granite ink and then diecut with the coordinating die from the Gliding Garden Swing set. I also cut just the seat portion from white woodgrain paper from the Country Woods paper pack. The swing is adhered with dimensionals. We add some pillows and our comfy cat to our swing. The pillows are cut from Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon, and Cloud Cover cardstock using a combination of dies from the On Display and Gliding Garden Swing die sets. The center pillow uses the upside-down cookie jar from the On Display set to add some variety to our pillow collection. Our kitty is stamped in Gray Granite and Crumb Cake and cut with the coordinating On Display die. These are all adhered onto our swing using a variety of heights of dimensionals to give lots of depth here. Our little garden table is cut from silver foil and we add a pitcher and glass of tea on top which are cut from vellum to give a more realistic see-through look. And no porch is complete without some potted plants. The pots are cut from Cajun Craze using the swing dies and then filled with foliage cut using a combination of the leaf bunches and purple flowers from the swing die set and the large-leaf plant from On Display. I used the smallest rectangle from the Textured Notes dies to cut the sentiment panel and stamped the sentiment from the Words of Beauty set in Blackberry Bliss ink. I used a leftover flower to the end to tie things together. And we finish things off with a dab of shimmer with the frosted iridescent gems.

Do you want to sit a spell on this porch and enjoy a nice cup of sweet tea? I know I sure do! Brings back fond memories, for sure! We’re going to be wrapping things up tomorrow in our little On Display-Gliding Garden Swing mini series. I hope you’ll drop by and see what images appear together next.

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Coming Soon · On Display

Swinging Smiles

Happy New Year, everyone! Did you stay up until midnight? These days, I don’t ever make it to the new year in my own time zone, but I always make it for Europe. *snicker* We enjoyed a day full of family fun yesterday and I was just plain tired. But it was a great day and the perfect way to finish off the year. We’ve done much the same today, so I would call that winning as far as a fresh start!

This week, we’re playing around with some new crafty goodies that arrived in my studio over the last couple of weeks that I hadn’t had time (or felt well enough) to play with. We’ve been taking a close look at the new On Display stamp & die set and today I’m starting a little mini series to show you how well this bundle pairs with the *brand new* Gliding Garden Swing stamp & die bundle. In fact, today’s card gives you a sneak peek at the new swing set, some new ribbon, and another new stamp set! All of these goodies will drop on January 6th!

When all was said and done, I decided to make this a monochromatic backdrop rather than mixing in some patterned paper because, quite frankly, I didn’t find a small enough pattern that I liked well enough to pair up with the focal panel. That is, until I remembered the gorgeous new Beautiful Pattern embossing folder had just the pattern I had pictured and realized I could just make my own patterned paper by embossing!

So we get started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock and emboss just the card front with the Beautiful Pattern embossing folder. To help the pattern pop a bit more, I went over it lightly with a blending brush and Cloud Cover ink to give the pattern a bit more definition. The focal panel background is also Cloud Cover cardstock and we start building our scene right on top. The tree trunk is cut from Country Woods woodgrain using the new Gliding Garden Swing dies and adhered to the focal panel with a glue pen. I cut it to size by removing the overlapping portions with my paper snips. The leaves are stamped in Garden Green on Garden Green cardstock and then cut with the coordinating Gliding Garden Swing die. I cut apart the larger foliage piece to allow layering that looked more realistic. Dimensionals are just the ticket to give good depth of scene. The bits of branches are filled in with a Light Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blend. The swing is stamped on Crumb Cake cardstock with Gray Granite ink and then filled in with a Light Crumb Cake blend. I also cut the coordinating swing from Country Woods and used the coordinating die for the swing seat for a more realistic look. The seat is adhered with a glue pen directly to the diecut swing. The pillows are cut from Peaceful Garden and adhered to the swing seat with dimensionals. The sweet grey kitty is stamped in Smoky Slate on Smoky Slate cardstock and then cut with the coordinating On Display die. The sentiment from the new Lovely Arrangements stamp set is stamped on vellum that has been cut with the Stylish Shapes banner die and adhered with glue dots so it looks like it’s just floating at the top of our scene. Our focal panel is then adhered to the card front with dimensionals and then we tie a beautiful twist of brand new Cloud Cover linen ribbon right over the far-left side. We finish off with a touch of sparkle using the Cloud Cover flat pearls.

Today’s card keeps the pairing uber simple with just a single image from On Display, but I’ll show you tomorrow how you can really put both sets together to build beautiful scenes. Because tomorrow we’re going to have some tea on Granny’s porch! I hope you’ll drop in and sit a spell.

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Christmas · No Stamp Design

Joy of Christmas

Happy Saturday, everyone! Who all is frantically trying to get all of those last-minute Christmas list items done this weekend? *raising hand* It’s been a busy one today as we’ve squeezed in all sorts of things, including (finally) getting our outdoor decor set up. And now I’m frantically working in the craft room working on gifties for friends, coworkers, and loved ones and still whittling away at the Christmas card stash in hopes that I might at least get them in the mail by Christmas Eve……

So this week we’re working through the crafty stash to put together some (mostly) simple holiday cards. Today’s design is by far the most detailed design so far, but I would still say it only took about 15 min to put together once I got everything situated. We’re pairing up the new Beautiful Pattern embossing folder with the Delicate Pines dies to create this lovely card full of joy!

I was inspired by a card I saw over at Stampin’ Fancy Friday, and I just ran with it from there. We get started with a base of Real Red cardstock. Our focal panel is a quarter sheet of red that is machine embossed with the Beautiful Pattern embossing folder. I went over the embossed panel lightly with some metallic ink to really make the embossing pop. You could easily use paper with a white core, but I like the sheen & sparkle from the metallic ink rub myself. Our sentiment panel takes center stage here with lots of detailed elements and pops of holiday color. The joy sentiment is from the Greetings for You ephemera pack and is mounted on a panel of Traditions of Christmas plaid paper diecut with one of the smaller Traditional Labels dies. We mount the sentiment panel with dimensionals on top of a bow of Real Red shiny ribbon, along with winter evergreens cut from Shaded Spruce and Mossy Meadow cardstock and pinecones cut from Crumb Cake and Pecan Pie cardstock using the Delicate Pines dies. We finish it all off with a scattering of gold glitter dots.

With the template done, this card will come together much more quickly each time since you can cut lots of greenery pieces, pinecones, and sentiment panels all at once. I really love how this turned out and can already think of some variations that I plan to do for my personal stash.

I hope you’ll join me next week. I’ll still be in full-on Christmas mode as I work to finish the card stash and continue making gifts and gift tags.

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12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar

Advent Thinking of You

Welcome to another day in our week with the SU! 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar, where each day we’re opening two boxes together and then creating a fun project with the goodies we found inside. Thus far, we’ve scored a set of dies that coordinate with the Advent Calendar stamp set, some patterned paper, some glitter shaker elements, and a set of foiled diecut elements. Today, we’re opening boxes 5 & 6. Let’s see what’s inside!

Alrighty, so today we have a set of decorative masks and some fluffy felt stickers. I’m not gonna lie, I was initially pretty stumped on what to do with our new goodies. But I started looking through the rest of the Advent Calendar goodies for some inspiration and decided that continuing with the floral theme would work best, especially since I wanted to incorporate the new items in today’s design. After stacking the decorative masks and getting a sense for the scene they would create, I pulled a sheet of patterned paper that would coordinate and went to town.

We get started with a backdrop of Cloud Cover cardstock. A quarter sheet of Cloud Cover is machine embossed with the *new* Beautiful Pattern embossing folder, which releases next week. I used a strip of the coordinating Advent Calendar patterned paper on the left of the panel. The focal panel floral scene is created with today’s decorative masks, blending brushes, and a combination of inks — Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Pretty in Pink, Strawberry Slush, Cloud Cover, Misty Moonlight, Garden Green, and Shaded Spruce. The panel is cut with the largest circle in the Spotlight on Nature die set and then adhered with dimensionals. The sentiment from the Advent Calendar stamp set is heat embossed in black on vellum and then diecut with one of the smaller circles from the Stylish Shapes set. The panel is adhered over Balmy Blue sheer ribbon with dimensionals and a pink bow from the new fluffy felt sticker set finishes off the sentiment panel. A fluffy felt flower and a few of the Hues of Blue Flowers in the corner finish off our floral theme.

Isn’t this fun? Every day we’re stretching our creativity! Can’t wait to see what our Advent Calendar brings us tomorrow!

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12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar

Advent Birthday Wishes

Happy Monday, everybody! Have you missed seeing crafty inspiration because I’ve certainly missed having time for it! Sometimes we just have to know when to make a little space for other things — like coordinating major work programs and family time, all of which were time well spent.

But we’re back at it this week with 12 days of crafty Christmas! Each day we’re going to be opening 2 slots in the Stampin’ Up! 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar. Each calendar comes with a box of crafty surprises, as well as a coordinating stamp set. Let’s see what we have in store today!

So isn’t that fun — today we’ll be working with the coordinating dies and 6×6 patterned paper for the Advent Calendar stamp set. The first thing I wanted to do was put everything side-by-side to decide on a theme and color palette for a card design.

The pink floral pattern stood out to me in the selection of papers, so from there I looked for a simple design that would allow me to use the stamps & dies. I pulled out the Holiday Mini catalog and turned to the sketches on page 14 and was drawn to the very first one — clean and simple & a perfect way to coordinate the paper, stamps & dies.

So we have a sketch, our 2 Advent Calendar boxes, and the stamps. We pull coordinating papers together — Strawberry Slush, Pretty in Pink, Mossy Meadow, and white — to get started. To add a pop of interest, I decided to add some texture to the background panel using a *NEW* embossing folder that releases in just a few weeks.

We get started with a base of Strawberry Slush cardstock. The background panel is a quarter sheet of Strawberry Slush that I machine embossed with the new Beautiful Pattern embossing folder, which releases in just a few weeks! The sheet of pink florals is cut and then wrapped with Strawberry Slush ribbon before being adhered to the embossed background panel. Using the Advent Calendar stamp set, we stamp the large and smaller flowers on Pretty in Pink in both Strawberry Slush & Pretty in Pink ink. The center is stamped in Timid Tiger. The flowers are then diecut with the new coordinating dies we opened today, along with coordinating leaves from Mossy Meadow. Our flower is adhered over the ribbon on the left — substituting for the circle in our sketch. The sentiment from the Advent Calendar stamp set is stamped in Strawberry Slush on white cardstock and cut with the banner from the Mixed Labels die set and adhered over our flower element and just under the ribbon. A few Strawberry Slush & Pretty in Pink gems finish things off with pops of twinkle across the card front.

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see what our next 2 boxes will reveal. I know I can’t wait!

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Autumn

Gather Decor

We’re rounding out this week’s design series with some home decor. I have a craft show in a couple of weeks, and I’m still working feverishly to prepare all of the things I have on my display wish list. Last year was the first year I offered home decor items, and they generated a lot of interest.

Today’s design is inspired by a recent post on the Stampin’ Up! official Instagram page. I, of course, put my own twist on it. And isn’t that the best thing about inspiration?! So let’s dig in and see how this comes together.

This is a 6×6 frame I found on Amazon. So we get started with a 6×6 card base. HINT: Before you fully commit to your layout, be sure that it shows through the frame as you intend. I neglected this step this time so my Cajun Craze base – that was supposed to be a small border around the focal panel – doesn’t show at all. *womp-womp*

The focal panel base is a sheet of the gold foil hashed patterned paper from the Nature’s Sweetness paper pack. I decided to use the retired Changing Leaves embossing folder to create the background texture because I wanted the pattern to more closely tie with the image theme. The focal image is an image rub using blending brushes.

I decided to create a mask and negative that I could use more than once using some of the acetate sheets I had saved in my stash. When I unpack my acrylic stamps, I always save the thicker acetate sheet to use for shakers and window cards later on. It’s the perfect thickness for a mask and negative too! I used the larger leaf from the Gathering Moments dies to cut through the acetate. I used both pieces to create my focal image. The negative creates the center image, which is rubbed in Mossy Meadow, and then the shape is used to create the highlight around the leaf image, which is rubbed in Flirty Flamingo.

The sentiment panel has several layers. The backdrop is a banner created from two strips of the Gathering Together patterned paper. The sentiment from the Gathering Moments set is stamped in Versamark on Cajun Craze and then heat embossed in gold. I cut around the sentiment using paper snips. The fall foliage arrangement on the left is created using the Gathering Moments images and dies. We finish up with a bow of gold striped iridescent ribbon and some Cajun Craze & gold dots.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s series. I’ll be in and out over the next two weeks as I prepare for the big educational program at the office and then head off to the woods for a little family fall break get-away. But I have new goodies arriving that I hope to be able to show you so don’t go too far!

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