Tag: embossing folders

Botanicals · Clean and Simple

Garden Prayers

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Ever since I can remember, I’ve had an interest in plants and insects. I’d like to think that I got that from my grandparents, who both loved to garden and my grandfather was a beekeeper. As the seasons change, I love going to the local nursery and buying new seasonal annuals. I love the challenge of finding plants that will do well despite the scorching summer heat. And I definitely have my favorites. Right now, I’m enjoying the new spring plantings and the lovely pops of color they bring to the barely-green landscapes. So naturally, I love crafting products that incorporate flowers and plants.

This week, we’re looking at some of the current products that Stampin’ Up! offers that feature plants of all sorts. Today’s card pairs stamps and an embossing folder.

We start with a base of Moody Mauve for this design. For this soft color palette, I embossed white cardstock with the Elegant Eucalyptus embossing folder and then matted the entire panel with Pool Party. I stamped the focal image separately using the Planted Paradise and Botanical Layers stamp sets. I cut them out with paper snips and then mounted to the embossed base with dimensionals. The sentiment from the So Sincere set is stamped on white cardstock and diecut using the Thoughtful Expressions dies. I added some Pool Party fine sparkle gems to finish things off.

Tomorrow I’ll be showing you a sneak peek of a brand new background stamp. Hope you’ll come check it out!

Products used in today’s design:
Moody Mauve, Pool Party, Basic White cardstock
Botanical Layers, Planted Paradise, So Sincere stamps
Thoughtful Expressions dies
Fine sparkle gems (retired)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Terrific Tuesdays

Cloudy Days Are Better With Friends

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One of the many things I love about Stampin’ Up! products is that they’re made to go together. This week, we’ve been using the Bright Skies stamps and dies to create super cute cards. We’ve seen how well this set pairs with other sets. And today’s design is keeping it simple but with plenty of pizzazz.

Everyone needs a friend who makes a dreary day better. Someone who makes you want to throw down the umbrella and just jump in the puddles. And that’s the inspiration behind today’s design.

This super cute card sits on a base of Pool Party cardstock. The focal panel is also a sheet of Pool Party that has been diecut with the largest Deckled Rectangles die and then embossed using the Raindrops embossing folder. To give just a little definition to the panel without adding dimensionals, I chose to ink the three exposed edges with Pool Party ink. I fussy cut the three clouds from a sheet of the Sunny Days designer paper, taking advantage of the clouds that were on the corners of the sheet of paper. The bunny and fox are stamped on white cardstock and colored with Stampin’ Blends. After diecutting each of them, I did a little fussy cutting around each to narrow the white outlines. The puddles are stamped on Pool Party and diecut using the Playing in the Rain dies. I colored in the centers with Wink of Stella to mimic reflections. A few adhesive hearts finish everything off nicely.

Looking for more inspiration using the Bright Skies stamps and dies? Check out this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode for some design inspiration.

Products used in today’s featured design:
Pool Party, Basic White cardstock
Sunny Days DSP
Bright Skies, Playing in the Rain stamps
Bright Skies, Playing in the Rain dies
Raindrops embossing folder
Wink of Stella
Adhesive hearts
Stampin’ Blends
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Terrific Tuesdays

Heart Tied to Yours

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We’re exploring all the ways we can use the Painted Lavender bundle to make stunning card designs. One of things I love about this bundle is how it coordinates with so many Stampin’ Up! products. Today’s card design is a perfect example of how you can pull a whole host of products together into a cohesive design.

This card design sits atop a base of Gorgeous Grape cardstock. The backdrop for the focal section is tone-on-tone, but to make it stand apart, this panel is machine embossed using the beautiful Elegant Eucalyptus embossing folder. I love how the shape of the eucalyptus fronds perfectly coordinate with the lavender stems in the strip of Perennial Lavender designer series paper. To ensure that this strip of designer paper didn’t get lost in the background, it’s matted with a strip of Bubble Bath soft shimmer paper. This adds the perfect amount of eye relief and sparkle for the focal section. The sentiment is from the Wonderful Thoughts stamp set and stamped on a vellum panel diecut using the Thoughtful Expressions dies. A few sprigs of lavender stems are diecut from Lost Lagoon cardstock using the Painted Lavender dies and tied together with some linen thread. A scattering of purple sparkle gems really draw the eye to the sentiment.

You can see a variety of other ways we used the Painted Lavender stamps and dies in this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video.

Products used in today’s featured design:
Gorgeous Grape, Lost Lagoon, vellum, Bubble Bath soft shimmer paper
Perennial Lavender DSP
Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Painted Lavender, Thoughtful Expressions dies
Linen thread
Fine shimmer gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Thankful for Friendship

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This week, we’ve been exploring all of the fun designs we can make with the new Perennial Postage bundle. This bundle includes a set of cling stamps and dies that cut shapes that resemble postage stamps, and the stamps nestle perfectly within a coordinating die. 

Our Luv to Stamp Group team challenge for the month is to use designated Color Buddies. For today’s design, I thought it would be great to choose a buddy group to work with. I chose a neutral color palette with Crumb Cake, Pecan Pie, and Early Espresso.

Today’s card design also uses a new technique known as dry embossing. Dry embossing involves using your regular dies to emboss rather than cut. One very valuable tip I can pass along is that the way you build your “sandwich” on your die cutting machine absolutely matters to your results. I found a terrific article that discusses a whole host of die cutting machines and what order works best for dry embossing with each. And I wish I had found it before I made this card!

This card begins with a base of Early Espresso, which serves to frame the whole design. A piece of Crumb Cake serves as the mat for our focal panel and is embossed using the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder (currently available in the Sale-a-Bration catalog) to help soften the look and add a bit of interest. This layer is thinly matted with Pecan Pie, which helps to draw out the lighter elements of the stamped images in the focal panel. The focal panel is diecut from Basic White using one of the largest of the Perennial Postage dies. I wanted this panel to resemble a partial book of stamps. Using three of the smaller dies, I made impressions to create stamp windows in the white panel. The Planted Paradise stamps serve as the images for each of the stamps. I was careful to mask the edges of each of the stamp frames to ensure the stamp look really shone through. The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso atop a strip of Crumb Cake and then cut into a thin strip with each end snipped at an angle. To ensure the sentiment stood out, I diecut a small Deckled Rectangle from Early Espresso to serve as the sentiment backdrop. A few iridescent foil gems add a little sparkle and help draw the eye across the design. I stamped a coordinating image and sentiment in the inside of the card to tie everything together.

Interested in seeing all of the designs we made this week with the Perennial Postage bundle? Check out Episode 8 of Terrific Tuesdays to see the 3 projects we made from start to finish!

Products used in today’s design:
Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Pecan Pie, Basic White cardstock
Perennial Postage, Planted Paradise stamps
Perennial Postage, Deckled Rectangles dies
Softly Sophisticated embossing folder
Iridescent foil gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Terrific Tuesdays

Loved to Pieces

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This week, we’re exploring a myriad of ways that we can using the Perennial Postage bundle to make fun projects. Today’s design is based on a card layout I sketched in my idea book. When you run across a card layout you love, how do you save it? Sometimes I sketch it in my idea book, sometimes I save a screenshot in an inspiration folder, and other times I’ll pin it in Pinterest. Or maybe even all three if I really like it!

Today’s card is set atop a white base. I embossed an entire quarter sheet of white cardstock with the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder and then adhered it to my card front. The focal panel is built on a narrow sheet of plain white cardstock. 

The Luv 2 Stamp team is currently participating in a month-long color challenge to use pre-selected color combinations to make projects to share with the group. For this card, I chose a group of colors that I typically avoid—Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, Petal Pink. Why would I do this? Well, sometimes you avoid colors because you DON’T use them, so I wanted to get out of my comfort zone.

A majority of the shapes on the focal panel are within this color palette. I supplemented with a few neutrals from the Stippled Roses paper pack and the More Dazzled specialty paper. The Petal Pink ribbon helps build that visual triangle around the sentiment and provides overall balance to the design. The sentiment is stamped in Cajun Craze on white cardstock that is diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies. White and pink sequins are scattered across the focal panel for sparkle and to draw the eye across the busy design. Although these are not my favorite colors, I had a lot of fun designing around them!

Are you looking for some more inspiration for the Perennial Postage bundle? Check out this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays for 3 great designs!

Products used in today’s featured design:
Basic White, Calypso Coral, Petal Pink, Cajun Craze cardstock
Stippled Roses, More Dazzle DSP
Perennial Postage stamps
Perennial Postage, Autumn Leaves dies
Softly Sophisticated embossing folder
Sequins trio, pastel sequins
Petal Pink ribbon duo
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Terrific Tuesdays

Tiled Winter Wishes

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This week, we’re looking at all of the wonderful projects that we can make when we combine the Heartfelt Hexagon bundle and more masculine color palettes. Today’s card is a monochromatic design and I’m in love with how it turned out!

I’ve recently seen quite a few card designs that use this tiled layout with the Heartfelt Hexagon bundle, and I just knew I had to give it a try. I’ve seen it with designer paper, embossed cardstock, and all sorts of variations in between. I have a new pack of shimmer paper that I wanted to break open, and that’s where this design got started.

The base of this card is a sheet of Lost Lagoon cardstock. After cutting the card base, I halved the remaining portion to use in creating the hexagon pattern on the card front. I stamped the more decorative hexagon frame from the Heartfelt Hexagon set and the sentiment from the Magical Meadow set using Pretty Peacock ink to give a bit more contrast. The remainder of the panel was embossed with the Winter Snow embossing folder and then punched with the hexagon punch. I cut a strip of the Lost Lagoon shimmer paper and punched a few hexagons from that, as well. Because they’re just adding a little sparkle to the design, only a few will be needed.

To build the tiled background, I began by placing the sentiment panel first. To give it more prominence, I added dimensionals and then adhered into place on the card front. I filled in the sentiment row with embossed hexagons and then worked my way down and then up the card design from there. I laid out everything before adhering to get the placement just right. When cutting the portions that hang over the edges, be sure to retain those scraps as they’re used to fill in smaller gaps along the edges across the design.

While I’m not a huge fan of fussy cutting, this card came together quickly and easily with the scraps which meant no scraps leftover!

Would you like to see the projects featured in this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode? Hop on over to my YouTube channel and check it out by clicking on the link below:

Products used in today’s design:
Lost Lagoon, soft shimmer cardstock
Heartfelt Hexagon stamps and punch
Winter Snow embossing folder (retired)
Magical Meadow stamps
Fine sparkle gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Terrific Tuesdays

Thankful Curtain Fold

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Stampin’ Up! has so many wonderful holiday designer series paper packs to choose from, and each one offers a whole world of possibility for card designs. On this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays, we’ve walked through several ways to make beautiful holiday thank you cards. And today, I want to show you another fun way to show off your stunning DSPs.

Today’s card features a new-to-me fun fold called a curtain fold. At first glance, it looks a little complicated, but it’s a very straight forward set of folds that make a beautiful pleated paper pattern as the focal point. I chose a sheet of Mossy Meadow as the base for this card and a sheet of Joyful designer series paper is the mat for the focal point. I used a sheet of A Walk in the Forest for the pleated fold portion. The sentiment is diecut from white cardstock using the Nested Essentials dies. The sentiment from the So Sincere stamp set is stamped in Pretty Peacock. A banner diecut from Distressed Gold cardstock is diecut using the banner die from the Nested Essentials die set. This card is finished off with a gold & very vanilla ribbon bow and a few sequins.

I love how the look of the card changes as you switch up the designer papers that you pair together. There are just so many possibilities. The first thing that pops to mind for me are wedding cards, but really this fold will be great for so many different occasions! Check out these two variations:

You can see all of the other fun fold designs that we made together in this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video by clicking below for the full video.

Tune in tomorrow for another fun fold you can create using Stampin’ Up! holiday designer series papers.

Products used in today’s featured design:
Mossy Meadow, Basic White, Distressed Gold cardstock
Joyful, A Walk in the Forest DSP
Very Vanilla & Gold satin-edged ribbon
Neutrals sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Terrific Tuesdays

Wonderful Winter

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Have you seen this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays? We’re focusing on holiday thank you card designs using several of the wonderful designer series paper packs offered by Stampin’ Up! I really love the suite of holiday papers offered this year and will be sad to see so many of them go in a few weeks, which is all the more reason to put them to good use as we send our thanks or maybe even some belated holiday hellos.

Today’s card features a twist on a simple diagonal fun fold and doubles as a one sheet wonder to boot. This horizontal design is built on a Basic White cardstock base, and the front panel of the card is halved on the diagonal. A single sheet of Winter Meadow designer series paper will cover all of the required areas in this design, and I selected the Winter Meadow blue evergreen paper pattern with the grey haze on the reverse side. One panel of the DSP is cut just short of standard size to allow for a narrow border around the card edge. This panel is halved on the diagonal with half of the sheet adhered to the front card panel and the other portion adhered to the inside card base on the portion that is exposed when the card is closed. I chose to use the grey hazy side of the paper for these portions.

Next, we work with the fold-over panel by cutting a sheet of white cardstock and scoring in the center. A piece of Misty Moonlight cardstock covers the front of the smaller white notecard and serves as the mat for the blue tree pattern of the Winter Meadow DSP. The patterned sheet is divided into equal sections and narrowly separated to create a grout effect. Use ribbon to make a band around the panel. You can layer ribbons to create different effects, like I did here to create a sparkly border on either side of the Misty Moonlight trim. The sentiment is cut from white cardstock using the Nested Essentials die and the sentiment is stamped in Misty Moonlight using the Zany Zoo stamps. A few white sequins provide a little extra sparkle and draw the eye diagonally across the design. This is such a fun and easy fun fold and can easily be adapted to any patterned paper.

You can see all of the other fun designs that we made together in this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video by clicking below for the full video.

Tune in the rest of the week to see more projects you can create using Stampin’ Up! holiday designer series papers.

Products used in today’s design:
Basic White, Misty Moonlight cardstock
Winter Meadow DSP
Zany Zoo stamps
Nested Essentials dies
Silver & white sheer ribbon
Misty Moonlight cotton trim
Neutrals sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Terrific Tuesdays

Sprig of Kindness

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This week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays features holiday thank you card designs using several of the wonderful designer series paper packs offered by Stampin’ Up! These papers allow for so much creativity and variety in design, and we’ll be exploring more designs together throughout the week.

Today’s card uses an easy-to-miss sheet of paper in the Winter Meadow paper pack. At first glance, the sheet of grey haze is unimpressive, but it’s a terrific neutral with the interest of a varied pattern that affords you lots of design choices. Here, it serves as a backdrop that allows the focal elements of the card to pop. We start with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. The lovely grey hazy sheet of DSP is matted by a sheet of Shaded Spruce, which helps draw the eye to the focal elements which are set atop in the same color. The sentiment from the So Sincere stamp set is stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in white atop the banner cut from Shaded Spruce. The sentiment is adhered directly to the grey backdrop to allow the hand-tied sprigs of mistletoe to be the only three-dimensional elements on the focal panel. The mistletoe is diecut from Shaded Spruce using the Magical Meadow dies. The berries are dots of Frosted Lace Stickles, and the whole bunch is held together with a white iridescent ribbon.

I love the simplicity of the design and how lovely the green elements look against the hazy grey backdrop. What do you think about the combination?

You can see all of the other fun designs that we made together in this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video by clicking below for the full video.

Tune in the rest of the week to see more projects you can create using Stampin’ Up! holiday designer series papers.

Products used in today’s design:
Crumb Cake, Shaded Spruce cardstock
Winter Meadow DSP
So Sincere stamps
Iridescent ribbon
White embossing powder
Frosted Lace Stickles
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Terrific Tuesdays

Meadow Greenery

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We have been exploring all of the wonderful ways we can use the Winter Meadow suite this week. If you were able to watch this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays, you watched this design come together, but I didn’t give the backstory. Today’s card design is based on a fellow team member’s card design. I always love being reminded of ways to use our stamps, and in this case, my fellow demonstrator’s design reminded me of the age-old technique of making your own designer paper.

For today’s card, we begin with a base of Pretty Peacock. I created a patterned paper using the Magical Meadow stamps using various shades of blue-green and I mixed in some metallic silver ink for a bit of sparkle. The silver and white sheer ribbon serves as a shimmery base for the sentiment panel, while still allowing the stamped pattern to shine through. The sentiment, also from the Magical Meadow stamp set, is stamped on a shimmer white base that has been diecut using the Autumn Leaves die. I added a sparkly mat of Pretty Peacock fine shimmer paper diecut using the larger Autumn Leaves sentiment die. A bow of iridescent white ribbon at the top of the sentiment panel adds extra shine and draws the eye to the sentiment. I added a few glitter sequins on opposing corners of the sentiment panel to complete the visual triangle with the sparkly bow.

This card is even more stunning in person as all of the elements really catch the light. It’s the perfect combination of color and sparkle to be reminiscent of a magical wintery day.

Would you like to see all of the projects we made during this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode? Check out the full video here:

Tune in the rest of the week to see more projects you can create using this gorgeous suite of Stampin’ Up! products.

Products used in today’s design:
Pretty Peacock, Basic White, Pretty Peacock fine shimmer, shimmer white cardstock
Magical Meadow stamps
Autumn Leaves dies
Silver & white sheer ribbon
Iridescent white ribbon
Glitter sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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