florals

Butterfly Garden

We’re tiptoeing through the craft garden this week as we focus on our stash of floral Stampin’ Up! goodies. Today, we’re combining the Layers of Beauty bundle with Beautiful Butterflies to create this beautiful all-occasion card. I stepped out of my comfort zone a little bit as I played around with applying a light ink wash to my stamped panel using blending brushes and I even threw ink a little ink resist for grins.

We start today’s design with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. Using the Beautiful Butterflies embossing folder, I machine embossed just the front panel of the card base. The focal panel is a white panel stamped with a combination of the Layers of Beauty stamps to create a patterned paper. I used the coordinating decorative masks to lightly fill in the center rose image with a combination of Fresh Freesia, Blackberry Bliss, and Shy Shamrock inks. I added some smaller butterflies in three corners with white embossing powder. And then I set about applying a light application of Blackberry Bliss and Pretty Peacock wash to the edges of the panel, leaving the center image mostly uncovered. The focal panel is adhered to the card base with dimensionals. A paper butterfly approaching the roses completes the garden scene. I added a twist of metallic ribbons to the top — a combination of Pretty Peacock, Blackberry Bliss, and Gold striped mesh ribbon (set to release in May). Two tone sparkle gems and rhinestones add some sparkle and draw the eye across the card design.

I wasn’t sure if I was going to go through with this card design because I didn’t feel very confident with the color wash panel. But sometimes you just have to keep going until you get all of the right elements in place to make it all come together.

Tomorrow we’re going to be hopping with the Luv 2 Stamp Group. I hope you’ll drop in and see what garden goodness awaits!

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Holidays

Love Never Gives Up

Happy Good Friday! While that may seem like a strange thing to say, given the historical significance of this day in the Christian faith, this day is indeed good when all is said and done. Today is necessary for the ultimate victory over sin and death and our full reconciliation to God in eternity. Thank goodness “Love never gives up!”

This week, we’re using the Faith Collection bundle to create designs to honor this Holy Week holiday. And today we pair the dies with several patterned paper packs, including Everyday Skies and Country Woods, and the Unbounded Love stamps. I used fellow demo Jackie Bolhuis’ easy step fun fold to create this Good Friday scene.

We get started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I used a sheet of moody skies from the Everyday Skies paper pack as the backdrop for our scene. The illusion of hills is created with Thoughtful Journey papers and both of the Grove die collections. I cut three crosses from two different woodgrain patterns from the Country Woods papers using the Faith Collection dies. For Christ’s cross in the center, I used the extension method to make this cross taller than the rest. The hills are adhered to the backdrop with differing levels of dimensionals. The two darker crosses are tucked behind the grass on either side of Christ’s cross in the center. The center cross is adhered to the center panel with dimensionals so it stands above the others. The sentiment from Unbounded Love is heat embossed in black on a lighter woodgrain sheet and then diecut with the smaller banner from the Autumn Leaves dies. A few two tone sparkle gems around the crosses draw the eye across the scene and the twist of gold thread behind the panel draws the eye down to the sentiment.

We’ll be rounding out Holy Week with a design honor Resurrection Day. I hope you’ll stop in to check it out.

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Holidays

Golden Faith

This week’s design theme centers on the celebration of Holy Week, and in particular, I’m focusing on the new Faith Collection bundle that recently released as a Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusive.

Today’s design is based on Sketch #7 from the current Annual Catalog. This simple layout allows our focal image to sit front and center. And in the end, I decided it stands so well on its own that I chose not to include a sentiment on the card front. This opens up this design to not only the current Holy Week holiday, but also to a whole host of other religious celebrations throughout the year, including baptisms, weddings, and confirmation celebrations.

We get started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. The focal panel backdrop is a sheet of vanilla foiled Season of Elegance paper that is cut with the middle Textured Notes die. Our focal image is stamped in Shaded Spruce on white cardstock using the Faith Collection stamps and then diecut with the coordinating die. I stamped the lilies in Versamark and then heated embossed with gold to give a more realistic look of Easter lilies. They’re adhered around the cross on dimensionals. The cross is adhered to the focal panel with dimensionals. I added a few extra lilies to opposing corners of the focal panel background to tie all of the focal elements together. A few purple shimmer gems near the cross bring a touch of purple to the focal panel.

This super simple design lacks nothing in the wow factor department and really shows how a sentiment isn’t always needed to convey a message. I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see what other products can be paired with the Faith Collection bundle to create stunning designs.

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Online Exclusives · Pattern of Friendship

A Smile to My Face

This week, our featured design product is the Pattern of Friendship bundle by Stampin’ Up! This stamp and die bundle just released with the new Online Exclusive products. It’s not your typical stamp and die bundle though. The accompanying die is a full-size background die that leaves delicate lines of dots in your paper. What I love about this die is being able to create so many different looks with this one very simple die. Let’s check out today’s card to see what I mean.

This design was inspired by a card I saw made by fellow demo Mikaela Titheridge over at the Crafty O’ Ink Pen. We get started with a base of Balmy Blue cardstock. The focal panel has a mat of Misty Moonlight cardstock which serves to give some structure and stability to our focal panel and some depth to our color palette. The focal panel is a sheet of the blue Beautiful Bokeh that has been cut with the Pattern of Friendship die on the diagonal to create an argyle pattern. I love how this pattern gives the illusion of blowing rain. Using the Bright Skies dies, I cut several different sized clouds from white cardstock and adhered them in several different layers onto our focal panel. I stamped the sentiment from Pattern of Friendship in Versamark and then heat embossed with white embossing powder onto a sheet of the yellow Beautiful Bokeh paper and then cut a circle using the Spotlight on Nature dies to create the sun for the scene. I tucked the sun behind the clouds. I added some raindrops under the clouds using the blue tinsel gems and then added some bits of sparkly interest with the white and yellow starburst sequins.

Reimagining how to pair products in our crafty stash is what making a papercrafter so much fun. When I’m looking for a unique spin on an otherwise very traditional idea, I try to think of how I can use something from my stash differently. Like using the Pattern of Friendship background die to create the look of rain. How can you reimagine some of your favorites?

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see what else we can get up to with this week’s featured bundle!

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Coming Soon · January Mini Catalog

Thankful Trio

As it’s finally beginning to feel like winter here in North Texas, we’ve finally stopped seeing the last of the butterflies making their migration southward. But as we have warm days here and there, it does make me think of those last beauties who came flitting through just a few short weeks ago. And that’s the inspiration behind today’s card.

This week, we’re getting a closer look at the up-and-coming Stampin’ Up! mini catalog release that will go live on January 7th. In particular, this week, we’re focusing on the Beautiful Butterflies bundle. And today, we’re pairing up the butterflies with the gorgeous Everyday Skies patterned paper that will release at the same time.

For our design today, we get started with a base of Bashful Blue cardstock. I really love how that makes the blue sky pop here. Our background panel is a gorgeous sheet of the Everyday Skies paper pack, which is matted with a sheet of the Beautiful Bokeh paper. Together, these two papers really show off the setting sun reflecting off the clouds in our sky. Using a strip of another sheet of the Everyday Skies paper, I stamped the smaller half-butterfly and then heat embossed with gold before die cutting with the coordinating die from Beautiful Butterflies. The sentiment from Beautiful Butterflies is stamped in Flirty Flamingo on white cardstock and then cut with the smaller banner die from the Beautiful Butterflies die set. I cut a cloud from textured gold cardstock using the Bright Skies dies and used it as a backdrop for the sentiment panel. A strip of the Petal Pink diagonal striped trim really sets off the sentiment section nicely, and the gold thread (literally) ties everything together. A few low profile dots across the card front add a glimmer of sparkle that brings out the shimmery gold wings.

Tomorrow we’ll be finishing out our look at Beautiful Butterflies. I hope you’ll pop by and see how we finish things out this week.

Products used in today’s design:
Balmy Blue, Basic White cardstock
Everyday Skies (coming soon), Beautiful Bokeh (coming soon), Textured Metallic DSP
Beautiful Butterflies bundle (coming soon)
Bright Skies dies
Gold embossing powder
Low profile dots (coming soon)
Petal Pink diagonal trim, gold twisted thread
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Holidays · Winter

Bright & Beautiful Season

We’re taking a trek in the woods this week, and as much as I love all things autumn, I thought it would be nice to show how a few simple tweaks can yield beautiful winter designs. Today’s card is another clean and simple design, and we’re highlighting the Stampin’ Up! In the Grove dies and the Snowflake Sky embossing folder.

We get started with a card base of Smoky Slate cardstock. A piece of Graceful Greenery vellum serves as a soft base for our focal panel and is diecut using the Deckled Rectangles dies. Our focal panel combines a white background embossed with the Snowflake Sky embossing folder and the trees diecut from the grey woodgrain in the Country Woods patterned paper pack using the In the Grove die. The sentiment from the Peaceful Season stamp set is stamped in Smoky Slate on white cardstock and then diecut using the Radiating Stitches circle die and then matted with a silver foil circle diecut with the Everyday Details dies. A scattering of snowflakes and iridescent faceted gems give the snowy background the perfect amount of twinkle.

Tomorrow we’re going to be pairing our woodsy theme with a sketch from a SU! catalog. I hope you’ll pop in and check it out.

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Fall · Thankful

Amazing Leaves

Fall is my favorite season of the year. Thus far, Texas isn’t really cooperating. It’s unseasonably warm for November and the leaves have only just started to hint at changing color. I’m ready for sweater weather and a big pile of leaves in the yard!

This week, we’re working within the theme of thankfulness. Aside from this time of year lending itself to this type of reflection, it just really feels like we all need a little reminder to slow down and appreciate all of the little things. Even when we don’t have it all, there are so many small ways we are living in the overflow of God’s grace and goodness.

For today’s card design, I took inspiration from the usual color palette of fall foliage that we see in our area. I really love the combination of foliage color and texture in today’s design.

We get started with a base of Early Espresso cardstock. Our leaf patterned focal panel is matted with lots of shimmer between the Oxidized Copper specialty paper and the Old Olive glimmer paper. For the focal panel, I inked the Leaf Collection background stamp with a combination of Blackberry Bliss, Copper Clay, Cherry Cobbler, and Mossy Meadow ink and stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock. I then embossed with the Changing Leaves embossing folder. I used gold ink to bring out the embossing and add a sparkly sheen to the leaves. The sentiment from the Changing Leaves stamp set is heat embossed in gold on a piece of Early Espresso that was embossed with the Leaf Fall embossing folder and then diecut with the Nested Essentials dies. Another rub of some gold ink helps bring out the pattern in the sentiment panel and match the sheen of our focal panel. A twist of the Natural Tones linen thread and some gold Blooming Pearls add the final touches.

Next week we’re going to take a trek through the trees and see what we can find. Hope you will tag along.

Sketchy Fridays · Thankful

Sketchy Fridays: Tweet Thanks

We’ve made it to another Friday, and you know what that means? It’s time for another Sketchy Fridays!

Each week we’ll be using a card sketch to design our featured card. Right now, we’re working through a full series of designs using the card sketches found in current Stampin’ Up! catalogs.

This week’s card is based on Sketch #22 in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog and features a whole assortment of products. We’re pairing our sketch with the Thoughtful Journey and Nests of Winter papers, the Timber embossing folder, and Simply Said stamps along with our thankfulness theme to create today’s card.

Today, I used our sketch more as a guide than an absolute. That’s the best part about using sketches to design cards—they get you started but don’t have to box you in!

Our card starts with a base of Early Espresso cardstock. The focal panel combines a sheet of Gray Granite embossed with the Birch Wood embossing folder with a mat of Blackberry Bliss. Our two focal panels are cut from a sheet of Thoughtful Journey patterned paper using the Nested Essentials dies. I fussy cut the bird from a sheet of Nests of Winter paper and adhered over the focal panel with dimensionals. The sentiment from Simply Said is heat embossed with gold on a Blackberry Bliss panel diecut using the Peaceful Season dies. A few gold iridescent foil gems and Blackberry Bliss transparent dots finish things off with pops of interest.

We’ll be finishing out our thankfulness theme tomorrow. I hope you’ll pop in.

Products used in today’s card:
Early Espresso, Blackberry Bliss, Gray Granite cardstock
Thoughtful Journey, Nests of Winter DSP
Nested Essentials, Peaceful Season dies
Birch Wood embossing folder
Simply Said stamps
Gold embossing powder
Transparent dots, iridescent foil gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Christmas · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Bright & Beautiful Greenery

Welcome to a brand new week and the start of FALL! Have I mentioned that fall is my absolute favorite season? Unfortunately, Texas isn’t being very cooperative with me right now, and it doesn’t feel a bit like fall. Not one bit!! In fact, it’s still feeling like we’ve been thrown into the deep end of the frying pan. But we’re only a couple of good cold fronts away from fall officially being here to stay! *wink-wink*

This week, we’re going to be spending time with the Season of Green & Gold suite of products by Stampin’ Up! And we’re going to mix it up with some obvious holiday designs and some out-of-the-box fall designs. Today’s card is solidly in the holiday mood.

We get started with a base of Shaded Spruce cardstock. Our focal panel is a sheet of white cardstock that has been diecut using the Dotted Circles embossing folder and then the panel is matted with gold mercury vellum. Using the Golden Greenery dies, we cut a variety of greenery from the Season of Green & Gold patterned paper with coordinating shapes. These are then layered on the focal panel using dimensionals to create several different visual planes. Our sentiment from Peaceful Season is stamped white cardstock in Versamark and then heat embossed with gold embossing powder. We cut it out with the smallest circle from the Everyday Details die set. This is then mounted on a circle of white glimmer paper cut using the Spotlight on Nature dies and adhered over a twist of Cherry Cobbler & Gold satin ribbon in the center of our greenery. A few iridescent faceted gems finish things off with a nice sparkle.

Tune in tomorrow as we keep things in the holiday zone.

Products used in today’s card:
Shaded Spruce, Basic White cardstock
White glimmer, gold mercury vellum, Season of Green & Gold DSP
Dotted Circles embossing folder
Golden Greenery, Spotlight on Nature, Everyday Details dies
Peaceful Season stamps
Versamark
Gold embossing powder
Cherry Cobbler & gold satin ribbon
Iridescent faceted gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Autumn · Fall

Joy to My Heart

We’ve made it through the first week of September. I don’t know about you, but holiday weeks always feel longer, for some reason.

This week, we’ve been all about the autumn designs and looking at a variety of different ways to pair Stampin’ Up! products or to use techniques. Today, we’re revisiting the emboss resist technique with this card design which features the Leaf Collection background stamp. I recently saw a card posted by a fellow demonstrator that paired this stamp with a Blackberry Bliss and metallic gold color palette. It was super elegant and I wanted to give it a twist. So let’s see how it all comes together.

We get started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. The focal panel is also Blackberry Bliss that has been stamped with the Leaf Collection stamp and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder. To help the pattern pop, I went over the panel with metallic gold ink which gives the entire panel a subtle sheen and really makes the clear embossing twinkle. This panel is matted with Rose Gold textured specialty paper and then wrapped with Blackberry Bliss & Gold textured ribbon and tied with a bow. The sentiment from So Sincere is stamped on Blackberry Bliss cardstock and then heat embossed with gold before being diecut with the Greetings of the Season die using the extension method. The sentiment panel is adhered underneath the bow using several layers of dimensionals. I cut some sprigs of leaves from gold foil using the Changing Leaves die and adhered them with dimensionals around the bow to keep things cohesive. Drusy embellishments finish things off with lots of extra sparkle.

It’s been a lot of fun designing cards all about autumn, and I hope you’ve enjoyed the inspiration. Next week is all about Christmas as we get a better look at the new product from the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini Catalog. In the meantime, I hope you’ll tune in on the socials for a little bonus All About Autumn content this afternoon.

Products used in today’s card:
Blackberry Bliss cardstock
Gold foil, Rose Gold textured SP
Leaf Collection, So Sincere stamps
Greetings of the Season, Changing Leaves dies
Clear, gold embossing powder
Blackberry Bliss & Gold textured ribbon
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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