Relax & Enjoy Today

April 27, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to a brand new week! The weekend went by in a flash here. We had lots of stuff going on between all of the kiddo’s activities and the usual weekend around-the-house chores. What about you? What did your weekend look like?

This week, we’re off to a new design series — a NO theme week. As I’m prepping for a late spring craft show and looking ahead to both Mother’s Day and Father’s Day, we’re going to take a look at a very random assortment of projects. First up is some fun tabletop home decor using the new Rolling Waves stamps & dies.

This scene is built on a sheet of Pecan Pie 6×6 cardstock. I still have a stash of the Oh So Ombré 6×6 retired paper pack that had the perfect sheet of turquoise-colored paper fading to white that fit the bill perfectly for the ocean water in this scene. I used the Rolling Waves dies to cut the edge of the paper toward the light end and then cut the detailed portion of the wave from white cardstock and another die from the set. Once I knew where the water’s edge was going to be, I stamped the sand detailing in Crumb Cake and Gray Granite with the stamps from the Rolling Waves set. The water dies don’t quite reach across a 6×6 sheet, so I used the palm leaves to cover the exposed portion. The leaves are cut from Granny Apple Green cardstock and then layered with dimensionals. The umbrella is a combination of white and Cloud Cover with an opal dot as the knob on top. Some shells are scattered along the beach and are cut from Flirty Flamingo and white. The sentiment combines the Notes & Totes relax & enjoy stamp heat embossed in white with the today from the Time for Celebration ephemera pack that is covered with Wink of Stella. I added some yellow opal rounds on either side of the sentiment for a little hint of sunshine.

This turned out even cuter than I had hoped. I’m thinking it will be the perfect summertime gift that just might catch someone’s eye when they stroll through my booth. What do you think?

Easter

He is Risen! Alleluia!

April 5, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Sunday’s here; hope has arrived — Happy Easter! What a blessing to know that we serve a God who walks with us every step of the way — from the highest mountains to the lowest valleys. He knows every joy, every victory, every tragedy, every defeat. And when we don’t have the strength to take another step, God is there to carry us through.

We’re finishing up our Easter-inspired card series this week with another version of the cross fun fold honoring Easter Sunday. We’re pairing the Splendid Autumn paper with the new Easter Joy ephemera to create this stunning Easter sunrise celebration.

To add some detail to the cross, I used the recently retired Distressed Tiles embossing folder. The floral ephemera is layered behind the cross to create a beautiful spray of color. And the sentiment from the Faith Collection stamp set is stamped on a banner cut with the Words for the Season dies.

We’re headed into the great outdoors this week as we explore some nifty new goodies in the crafty stash. I hope you’ll drop in and see where we go on our outdoorsy adventure.

Product List

Very Vanilla 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166784]

$14.00

Highland Heather 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[146986]

$14.00

Splendid Autumn 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164173]

$12.50

Easter Time Mix & Match Ephemera Pack

[166984]

$7.00

Distressed Tile 3 D Embossing Folder

[162189]

$10.00

Words For The Season Dies (English)

[165797]

$32.00

Faith Collection Photopolymer Stamp Set (English)

[170531]

$19.00

Fresh Freesia Classic Stampin' Pad

[155611]

$9.00

Purple Fine Shimmer Gems

[162611]

$8.00

Pearlized Faceted Circles

[166978]

$8.00

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

[144108]

$4.25

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Add All to Cart

Easter

Hoppy Day

April 2, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

As we march our way toward Easter this week, we’re pulling out the crafty goodness to make some cute Easter-inspired cards. Today we’re using the Easter Joy foiled paper and Time for Celebration ephemera pack to create the springy encouragement card.

We get started with a base of Basic White cardstock. A sheet of the floral pattern from the Easter Joy paper pack serves as our backdrop for the springtime scene on our focal panel. Our focal panel starts with a mat of yellow shimmer paper from the Pastel Shimmer paper pack and then we layer on top the scenic panel from a sheet of the Easter Joy pack. Both are cut with Everyday Arches dies of graduating sizes. We use small flowers and the cute bunny from the Time for Celebration ephemera pack to finish our scene, using dimensionals to add some depth to a few of our ephemera pieces. The sentiment from the retired Heartfelt Hellos stamp set is stamped in Secret Sea and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder to help the wet ink set on the foiled paper and to add some glossy sparkle to catch the eye. The focal panel is adhered to the patterned backdrop over a twist of gold & white baker’s twine using dimensionals. And then we finish things off with some assorted opal rounds in opposing corners of the card and around the sentiment to help draw the eye across the full scene on our card front.

This is such a fun and easy card to pull together and is sure to bring a smile to the recipient, don’t you think? I’ll have a much more Easter-focused design trend going as we move forward this week. I hope you’ll drop in and check those out.

Product List

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Easter Joy 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[166939]

$16.50

Pastels Shimmer 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Paper

[167198]

$10.00

Time For Celebration Mix & Match Ephemera Pack

[165354]

$7.00

Everyday Arches Dies

[164629]

$29.00

Heartfelt Hellos Cling Stamp Set (English)

[162964]

$20.00

Secret Sea Classic Stampin' Pad

[165285]

$9.00

Basics Wow! Embossing Powder

[165679]

$21.00

Black & White & Gold Baker's Twine

[166005]

$8.50

Opal Rounds Assortment

[163298]

$8.50

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

[144108]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Easter

Hoppy Easter

March 30, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Monday, everyone! We survived our busy weekend of activities and birthday fun. The weather was beautiful and the company was superb. I would have loved a do-over. Anyone else?

But we’re back at it in this shiny new week, and it’s going to be a busy one in the life of this church musician. With rehearsals and services, Holy Week surpasses any other church holiday as the most time-consuming. But when you consider that Holy Week is the turning point of the Christian faith, then it truly makes sense.

So in honor of Holy Week this week, I’ll be bringing you some Easter-inspired designs in fits & spurts between rehearsals & services. Today we’re getting started with a super easy card using the Easter Joy paper and Easter Time ephemera.

We get started with a base of Berry Burst cardstock. I used one of the ready-made panels from the Easter Joy paper pack as the backdrop for our little Easter scene with the ephemera bunny and basket of colored eggs, which are colored with Wink of Stella and gold embossing powder. They’re adhered to the backdrop with dimensionals. The sentiment from the Saying Hey retired stamp set is a combination of two stamps from the set. I used Blackberry Bliss ink and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. We finish things off with a pink bow and some pink iridescent dots.

This one is so fun and so easy, making it a perfect design for a quick batch of Easter hello cards. I hope you’ll drop back by and see what else we get into this week.

Online Exclusives · Sketchy Fridays

Sketchy Fridays: Birthday Blossoms

March 6, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Friday! We have made it to the end of the week. And it was quite an exciting day for me. In the middle of a big work meeting today, we had a medical emergency. There’s nothing like someone crumpling in their chair to get the ol’ adrenaline pumping! Luckily, we could rouse the person and get them on their way for a medical evaluation pretty quickly. And on top of the excitement of the work day, it seems that the weather in our area is ramping up to make for an exciting evening. I hope it turns out to just be rain. I’m not sure my poor heart can handle anymore crazy adrenaline rushes today.

But on to our crafty fun for today. We are having another Sketchy Friday (even more appropriate than I originally intended!). For those of you who are new here, Sketchy Fridays is a weekly series where we use a card sketch to design our featured card.

This week’s card is based on the Freshly Made Sketches #722 sketch. A sketch like this one is the perfect way to use busy patterns and/or scraps. In our case, we’re doing both!

We get started on today’s card with a base of white cardstock. Since we’re using a lot of pattern, we want a nice neutral backdrop. A sheet of the Easter Joy pattern paper serves as our background. For the three diagonal corner strips, we combine the floral foil from the Pleasant Patterns pack, the pink sheet from Garden Textures, and the small floral foiled sheet from the Lovely & Beautiful pack. The two competing floral patterns are broken up with the solid textured sheet from Garden Textures. I wanted all of our fun patterns to show through, so the sentiment from the Fabulous Sayings set is stamped on vellum in Versamark and then heat embossed in gold. Before adhering our sentiment, we add a few floral bunches on either side from the Easter Time ephemera pack and then adhere the sentiment over them with glue dots. We finish things off with some pearlized faceted circles.

Product List

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Easter Joy 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[166939]

$16.50

Pleasant Patterns 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[166950]

$10.00

Lovely & Beautiful 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[166957]

$16.50

Garden Textures 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Foil Sheets

[167125]

$10.50

Vellum 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Paper

[167099]

$10.00

Fabulous Sayings Photopolymer Stamp Set (English)

[167972]

$5.00

Easter Time Mix & Match Ephemera Pack

[166984]

$7.00

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$9.50

Metallics Wow! Embossing Powder

[165678]

$21.00

Pearlized Faceted Circles

[166978]

$8.00

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Add All to Cart

Coming Soon · L2S Group Instahop · Online Exclusives

Purrrfect Day

February 26, 2026February 25, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Thursday, friends! We are almost through this week and on to the weekend. I’m super excited to bring you today’s card design because we’re getting sneak peeks at several new Stampin’ Up! goodies coming your way next week with the new Online Exclusives release. This week, our design theme is all about our favorite critters and there are some adorable critters coming your way! We’re pairing up the brand NEW Cutest Crew stamp & die bundle with the Easter Joy foil papers to bring together this adorably cheerful card. Let’s see how it all comes together!

We get started with a nice neutral base of Crumb Cake cardstock. It works well to bring out the pastels in the patterned papers without competing with them. (And trust me, I tried all kinds of colors as the base layer and the neutral worked the best!). Our background layer is a fun multicolor cross pattern from the Easter Joy foiled paper pack. There’s just enough peeking out around the edges to add some interest and pizzazz without taking away from the focal panel scene.

And speaking of our focal panel. We get started with the focal panel mat which is a brand new patterned foil paper coming your way next week in the Garden Textures foil pack. This panel is cut with the largest arch in the Everyday Arches die set. I chose the Blueberry Bushel sheet to help our focal panel stand out against our patterned background, and it also works to help the pastels in our scene pop. Our focal panel on which we’re building our scene is one of the ready-made panels in the Easter Joy paper pack. I used the next-smallest die in the Everyday Arches set to cut it out.

And then we get started with our cute kitties who are enjoying a romp on the grassy hill chasing butterflies. These adorable felines are part of the new Cutest Crew stamp set & die bundle releasing next week. I stamped the kittens on white cardstock and then used a combination of Stampin’ Blends to color them before using the coordinating dies and paper snips to cut them out. They adhered to the scene with a combination of glue dots and dimensionals to give lots of depth of scene. The butterflies are cut from Lemon Lolly pastel shimmer paper and adhered with glue dots. The sentiment from the Unforgettable Times ephemera pack is adhered over Secret Sea bordered ribbon using dimensionals. A double layer helps the sentiment to really stand above everything else and catch the eye. We finish things off with some flowers from the new garden epoxy dots pack and some pops of twinkle with the pearlized faeted circles.

Isn’t this super fun? We’re going to get a peek at a few more critters tomorrow as we return to the lazy days of breezy summers. I hope you’ll drop in and see what cutie critters are up next!

Today’s card is a part of the Luv 2 Stamp Group Instagram Hop, which goes live at 9 AM Pacific Time (PST). Click here to head over to my Instagram feed at 9 AM Pacific/11 AM Central and check out what the other demos in our L2S Group have created for you today!

Product List

Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[120953]

$14.00

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Easter Joy 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[166939]

$16.50

Pastels Shimmer 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Paper

[167198]

$10.00

Unforgettable Times Mix & Match Specialty Ephemera Pack (English)

[166987]

$8.50

Everyday Arches Dies

[164629]

$29.00

Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad

[101406]

$10.50

Crumb Cake Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154882]

$11.00

Basic Black Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154843]

$11.00

Pumpkin Pie Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154897]

$11.00

Calypso Coral Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154881]

$11.00

Smoky Slate Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154904]

$11.00

Pearlized Faceted Circles

[166978]

$8.00

Secret Sea 3/8" (1 Cm) Bordered Open Weave Ribbon

[166932]

$8.50

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

[144108]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Easter

Bunny Hunt

February 24, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

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!

Product List

Pretty In Pink 8 1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock

[163793]

$14.00

Easter Joy 12″ X 12″ (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[166939]

$16.50

Textured Notes Dies

[165555]

$31.00

Easter Time Mix & Match Ephemera Pack

[166984]

$7.00

Strawberry Slush & Pretty In Pink Gems

[165615]

$8.50

Stampin’ Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Valentines

Happy Valentine’s Day

February 14, 2026February 14, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome back to today’s Valentine posts. In case you missed it, earlier today I shared the simple gift bags I gave to my co-workers yesterday. Just a simple combo of SU! goodies from the crafty stash.

This afternoon, I’m using a lot of those same products — Most Adored DSP, Celebrate Love ephemera, and ribbon — to dress up the gifties I picked up for my two loves.

First up, sometimes you get things that are a little oddly-shaped for a gift bag or maybe you want a bit of the gift to show. So we’re using a belly band to dress up these first two. I chose the small heart sheet from the Most Adored paper pack and cut each belly band to size and adhered with tear-n-tape. The band is wrapped with some retired gingham ribbon. The tags are cut from the foiled heart patterned paper and cut with the To the Point label punch. The tags are dressed up with a punched heart and sentiments from the Celebrate Love ephemera pack adhered with dimensionals. A few gold sequin hearts are added for a little extra pop.

Next up, we’re still using the belly band technique but covering more of our chocolate bars here since their wraps didn’t really coordinate well with the color scheme. We’ve got two different heart patterns from the Most Adored paper pack and each is wrapped with ribbon — white iridescent and some Melon Mambo polka-dot. The tags are punch from a sheet of plaid and we add hearts and sentiments from the Celebrate Love ephemera pack with dimensionals. The tags are tie on with Sweet Sorbet metallic ribbon and some sequin hearts are added for a pop of gold twinkle.

It doesn’t to much to turn a gift into something special with just a few handmade elements. All it takes is some goodies from the stash and a few minutes of your time.

I hope you all feel loved today. Know that you are special to your Creator and that is the most importantly love anyone can have! Next week, we’re going to find some fun ways to share a little luck.

Products used:
Most Adored DSP, Celebrate Love ephemera, heart punch, Iridescent ribbon, Melon Mambo polka-dot ribbon, Sweet Sorbet metallic ribbon, Real Red & white gingham ribbon, heart sequins (retired)
To the Point label punch
Dimensionals

Masculine Designs

Sweet Dreams

February 7, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

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.

Product List

Cloud Cover 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[165621]

$14.00

Country Woods 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[163393]

$12.50

Forever Plaid 3 D Embossing Folder

[164049]

$12.00

Unforgettable Times Mix & Match Specialty Ephemera Pack (English)

[166987]

$8.50

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

$10.00

Rainbow Adhesive Backed Dots

[162758]

$9.00

Traditional Sparkling Sequins

[165875]

$8.00

Fine-Tip Glue Pen

[138309]

$7.25

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Fun Folds · January Mini Catalog

Grateful Forever

January 31, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome in, crafty friends, on this frigid Saturday! We had a brief warm-up yesterday with temps well above freezing and today we’re back down in the low 20s. We’re thankful for the brief period of time we had to thaw out from all of the ice and snow Winter Storm Fern left us. And we’re praying for all of those in the areas that are still in the midst of the freeze and are without power and basic utilities. Having been there during Winter Storm Uri back in 2021, we personally know all too well what that is like!

We’re continuing our design series using the new Days Like This Memories & More card pack from Stampin’ Up! I love having at least one set of Memories & More cards on hand for those times when I need to make a quick card for a specific occasion. Today we’re using the Beautiful Butterflies dies and Lovely & Beautiful paper to make a fun fold card. Our Memories & More cards are perfect for the finishing touches on the inside of our card. Let’s see how this one comes together.

We get started with a base of Lemon Lolly cardstock on a standard A2 card base. We’re using a sheet of the Lovely & Beautiful patterned paper as the backdrop for our card front. The front panel focal panel is a fold-over panel of Lemon Lolly shimmer paper cut using the Beautiful Butterflies dies. This fold-over panel is cut just large enough to give us our butterfly shape for the front with about a half-inch strip to adhere to the inside panel of our card. Our butterfly details are made from vellum and black cardstock cut with the Beautiful Butterflies dies. The vellum is colored with the black Stampin’ Blend and then a layer of Wink of Stella is added to both pieces for some nice subtle twinkle. The detail pieces are adhered to the butterfly panel with glue dots. The front-facing part of our sentiment is the word grateful from the Unforgettable Times ephemera pack and is adhered at the base of the fold-over butterfly panel with several layers of dimensionals. I added some clear opal rounds on either side of the butterfly panel to draw the eye in to our front focal section.

When you lift the butterfly panel, lots of extra detail is revealed, including the second portion of our sentiment. I used the hybrid embossing folder to cut a detail butterfly from the Lemon Lolly glimmer paper and adhered it to the back of the fold-over panel. I love this hidden detail and it makes the butterfly more realistic because there’s a front and back view to their wings, after all. I cut a smaller butterfly from the hybrid embossing folder panel and used gold foil to add the details to coordinate with the gold foil forever sentiment from the Unforgettable Times ephemera pack. A small bow tied from the black & gold baker’s twine ties the two sentiment panels together.

We open our card to reveal our sentiment panel — complete with additional butterfly detailing. Here we’re using our Memories & More cards to add the finishing touches to the inside of our card. A larger 4×6 card from the pack serves as the patterned panel for the left-hand side of the message panel. I had a scrap of one of the smaller 3×4 butterfly cards left in my stash, and I cut out one of the butterflies to add to the corner of the patterned sheet. We use half of the more subtle butterfly-patterned 3×4 card to decorate the message panel. A few Peach Pie pearls finish off the opposing corners of the inside panels.

I love how each of the panels of this card reveals a fun surprise. And while it looks like a super complicated design, it really comes together quickly thanks to beautiful paper and Memories & More cards. I have a super quick & easy bonus card to bring you this evening once I knock out today’s around-the-house to-do list. I hope you’ll drop back by to check it out.

Product List