Tag: ephemera

Basic Black 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Cardstock

Merry & Bright Plaid

September 2, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

I don’t know about you, but I have a love-hate relationship with holiday weeks. We all love a short work week, but it always feels to me like I’m just squeezing in a lot more work into a shorter time period. That was definitely the case today anyway!

And I’ve been SO off on my days as of late that I was thinking today was the new product release day when it’s actually tomorrow….womp-womp! But it doesn’t dampen my enthusiasm for you to see all of the new stuff. I’m just sad you have to wait one more day.

Anywho, this week we’re getting another peek at some of the cute holiday products that will be available tomorrow. Our design focus this week is clean and simple holiday cards using the Joyful Days Memories & More card pack, the Greetings for You ephemera, and the Christmas Tags & More patterned paper pack with ephemera sheets included. So much good stuff! Today we’re mixing in an embossing folder.

Today’s card starts with a base of Cherry Cobbler cardstock. I had a leftover strip of light brown patterned cardstock from one of the sheets in the Christmas Tags & More pack which served as the jumping-off spot for the color palette and design for the rest of the card. I paired it up with a piece of Pecan Pie machine embossed with the Birch Wood embossing folder to create the backdrop for the focal panel. The focal panel backdrop is a combination of one of the smaller cards of plaid from the Joyful Days card pack and a plaid tag from the sheet of tags in the Christmas Tags & More pack. I chose the Merry & Bright circle sentiment from the Greetings for You ephemera pack and matted it with a banner of gold foil specialty paper and adhered it to the focal panel with several layers of dimensionals to be sure it really catches the eye. I finished things off with some gold sparkly sequins from the Traditional Sparkling Sequins pack so your eye catches some sparkles all the way across the card front.

I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow to see another clean & simple holiday card design.

Products used in today’s card:
Cherry Cobbler, Pecan Pie cardstock
Gold foil, Christmas Tags & More DSP
Greetings for You ephemera
Joyful Days Memories & More card pack
Birch Wood embossing folder
Traditional sparkling sequins
Dimensionals

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Happy Season

September 1, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to a bright, shiny new week, everyone! We’re enjoying a day off and taking full advantage of not doing much! So that means plenty of time to play in the craft room with some new goodies and getting a start on making new gifties for an October craft show, which means playing around with goodies from the retired stash.

It’s hard to believe that a whole new batch of Online Exclusives AND the brand new Holiday Mini Catalog goodies are due to launch tomorrow! I’m so excited for you to see all of the new things. The last few releases have been a little underwhelming, in my opinion anyway, but this one is worth the wait. This release is jam-packed full of good, GOOD stuff!

This week, we’re taking an early tour of some holiday goodies as we play with the new Joyful Days Memories & More card pack, the Greetings for You ephemera, and the Christmas Tags & More patterned paper pack that includes coordinating ephemera.

For today’s card, we get started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. The background panel is a combination of patterns – a sheet of red Season of Elegance foiled paper and a sheet of the festive plaid from the Christmas Tags & More pack. The focal panel is one of the smaller tree scene cards from the Joyful Days card pack that is matted with some gold textured paper. Some new Real Red shiny ribbon is tied around the bottom third of the full panel. And tucked underneath on several layers of dimensionals is the foiled sentiment from the Greetings for You ephemera pack. I’ve finished things off with a touch of sparkle in opposing corners from the Traditional Sparkling Sequins.

I hope you’ll drop by tomorrow to see another holiday-inspired design.

Products used in today’s card:
Crumb Cake cardstock
Christmas Tags & More (launching tomorrow!), textured gold metallic, Season of Elegance DSP
Joyful Days Memories & More card pack (launching tomorrow!)
Greetings for You ephemera pack (launching tomorrow!)
Real Red shiny ribbon (launching tomorrow!)
Traditional sparkling sequins (launching tomorrow!)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Fun Folds · Tutorials

Trick or Treat Flap

August 1, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Friday, craft friends! We have made it to the end of the week and the weekend is fast approaching. What do you have on your weekend to-do list? We haven’t decided if this is going to be a productive weekend or not. Ever have those where you just decide to do fun stuff instead of the things on the to-do list? *wink*

This week, we’re having a good time going through my stash of “must try” fun folds. And today, we’re trying out the Flip Flap fun fold that I saw over at Stampin’ on the Back Porch. I thought it would be super fun to build an unfolding Halloween scene with the SU! Spooky Sweet paper pack. And it turned out sooooo cute, if I do say so myself! Of all the cards I’ve made recently, I dare say this one is the simplest as far as the supply list goes. And the fold itself? Also easy peasy?

We get started with a standard sized base of Basic Black cardstock. This design uses most of a full 8 1/2 x 11 sheet. Half is dedicated to the card base, while the other goes into making the two-sided flap. I chose the door scene from the scene sheet found in the Spooky Sweet paper pack. This scene panel is adhered directly to the card base. I made my flaps next so I could get the placement of the fold correct. And then I used a combination of ephemera characters and a few characters cut from a sheet of the Spooky Sweet paper to create the scenes for each layer. The fold-over flap hides the final scene on the card front. And it’s all about the layers to make these scenes come to life, which means we’re using my most favorite tool – dimensionals!

So what do you think? Is it eerily delightful? Or just plain frightful?

Love this card and wanna give it a whirl yourself? You can download the free PDF instructions here.

Product List

[166786]

$22.00

Spooky Sweet 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[166191]

$16.50

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

$9.00

Shimmer Star Foam Stickers

[166202]

$9.50

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

[144108]

$4.25

Mossy Meadow 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

Clean and Simple · Winter

Woodsy Thoughts

November 17, 2024 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

I don’t ordinarily post twice in one day or even on Sundays, for that matter. But sometimes our schedules get a little off-kilter and we have to make some quick adjustments. I returned to working full-time in September, and as things are beginning to pick up at work, maintaining a good balance has become a little challenging. So hopefully you guys will bear with me as I work to find that perfect balance between enjoying down time with the family and time doing things I love, like crafting.

This week, we’ve been designing around the theme of in the woods. And I wanted to finish off with a really simple design that combines paper, a die, and ephemera.

We get started with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock. Our focal panel has a sparkly backdrop of white glimmer paper with a panel of Garden Green diecut with the Winterly Treetops die and mounted with dimensionals to give us the look of peeking through the evergreens. Two reindeer from the Joyful Images ephemera pack are standing in the open glen as snow is softly falling (represented by the iridescent faceted gems). Our sentiment comes from the Joyful Sayings ephemera pack and is matted with a textured gold banner. I just love how simple and elegant this design turned out.

This next week will be a little hit and miss with card designs as I have to fly out of town midweek for some training. Our new design theme will be stopping by on a snowy evening. I hope to give you some fun ideas for working with this theme with some unexpected product combinations.

Product List

[133676]

$11.50

Garden Green 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[102584]

$11.50

Textured Metallic 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Paper

[163772]

$8.50

Berry Burst, Old Olive & White 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Glimmer Specialty Paper

[163769]

$6.00

[164110]

$9.50

Winterly Tree Tops Dies

[164065]

$36.00

[164109]

$9.50

Iridescent Faceted Gems

[163368]

$8.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Pretty Peacock 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

Sketchy Fridays

Sketchy Fridays: Thanks

November 17, 2024November 17, 2024 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Well, the last several days have been far busier than I anticipated and so we’re playing a little catch-up here on the ol’ blog. I recently returned to a full-time job, and I’m finding it a little challenging to balance family time and my most favorite side gigs. I’m sure there are many of you who understand, especially when your family time includes sports activities that your kiddos have chosen to play.

Although a couple of days late this week, we’re marching on with our Sketchy Fridays, where each week we’re 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 #7 in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini Catalog and features a fun assortment of products, including designer series paper, dies, and holiday ephemera.

If you’ve followed along for a little while, you’ve heard me talk about how sketches are such a great way to get started with a card design. And you don’t always have to follow a sketch to a T. This week, I’ve rotated the sketch but have otherwise stuck to the layout pretty closely. So let’s take a closer look at all of the elements that are working together here.

We get started with a base of Pretty Peacock cardstock. I used a piece of Tartan Foil patterned paper as the base for our focal panel. And then a piece of the Winer Meadow designer paper serves as our focal panel. I pulled the reindeer from the Joyful Images ephemera to serve as our focal image in the bottom corner. I added a smaller tree diecut from Pretty Peacock using the Merriest Trees dies to anchor the bottom corner of our focal panel. The sentiment pieces and greenery are also from the Joyful Images ephemera and sit nicely over a faux bow of Pretty Peacock & Gold metallic trim. A foil silver circle diecut with the Everyday Details dies serves as the top corner anchor and adds that nice pop of metallic sparkle to compliment the Wink of Stella on the opposing anchor tree. A few Pretty Peacock foiled dots finish things off nicely and draw the eye to the sentiment.

I’m rounding out this week’s woodsy card designs with a peek through the trees. Hope you’ll come check it out.

Product List

[150880]

$11.50

Tartan Foil 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[162332]

$10.00

Winter Meadow 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[162133]

$12.50

Silver Foil Sheets

[132178]

$5.00

Pretty Peacock & Gold 3/8" (1 Cm) Metallic Ribbon

[164110]

$9.50

Merriest Trees Dies

[162047]

$37.00

Everyday Details Dies

[162864]

$34.00

[162588]

$8.50

Petal Pink & Pretty Peacock Foiled Gems

[162587]

$8.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

$9.00

Pretty Peacock 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock

Christmas · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Peace & Wonder

September 21, 2024September 20, 2024 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

It’s hard to believe that we’re already to the end of another card series. I don’t know about you, but it seems like the closer we get to the end of a year the faster the time goes!

This week, we’ve been using the Joyful ephemera packs from Stampin’ Up! to create simple yet beautiful card designs. If you find yourself short on time, the full line of ephemera packs that SU! offers allow you to continue making beautiful cards. With or without any extras, ephemera cards are just as stunning.

Today, we’re mixing things up with a whole combination of elements from the crafting stash. I have a box of pre-cut card bases and typically have at least one or two pre-cut focal panel bases on hand, as well. And both were go-to items for creating this lovely card in a jiffy.

We get started with a base of Pretty Peacock cardstock. Our focal panel base is a sheet of the Season of Elegance designer series paper. I cut a circle from white glimmer paper using the Spotlight on Nature dies that is just a bit larger than the snowy cabin circle image from the Joyful Images ephemera pack. These are adhered with dimensionals over a twist of the Pretty Peacock & Gold metallic ribbon. The sentiment from Joyful Sayings is also adhered with dimensionals and just a bit higher than our image panel. Things are finished off with a few gold snowflakes with rhinestone centers for a bit of added twinkle.

Are you interested in learning how you can get started on your Christmas cards? Check out my upcoming card classes for both virtual and in-person options!

Next week, we’ll be using Season of Green & Gold to create our cards. I hope you’ll stop by and check it all out.

Products used in today’s card:
Pretty Peacock cardstock
Season of Elegance, white glimmer DSP
Spotlight on Nature dies
Joyful ephemera
Snowflake assortment, rhinestone jewels
Pretty Peacock & gold metallic ribbon
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List

[150880]

$11.50

Season Of Elegance 12″ X 12″ (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[164144]

$16.50

Berry Burst, Old Olive & White 12″ X 12″ (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Glimmer Specialty Paper

[163769]

$6.00

Spotlight On Nature Dies

[163580]

$35.00

[164110]

$9.50

Pretty Peacock & Gold 3/8″ (1 Cm) Metallic Ribbon

[164109]

$9.50

[162588]

$8.50

Adhesive Backed Snowflake Assortment

[162129]

$8.00

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

[144220]

$6.00

Stampin’ Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Tear & Tape Adhesive

[154031]

$7.00

Gold Dipped Mix & Match Specialty Cards & Envelopes

Christmas · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

‘Tis the Season

September 19, 2024September 18, 2024 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Are you looking for a way to make beautiful cards but are short on time? The ephemera packs by Stampin’ Up! are the perfect answer! The images and sentiments are beautifully detailed and make it a snap to create beautiful cards, especially if you’re short on time.

Today, we’re pairing the Joyful ephemera packs with a few extra elements to create this beautiful holiday card.

We get started with a green Gold Dipped card base. Our focal panel base is a piece of gold mercury vellum that has been diecut with the Spotlight on Nature dies. We then layer our drums and greenery from the Joyful Images ephemera pack on our focal panel using varying heights of dimensionals and then hang our sentiment from the Joyful Sayings pack above. For a pop of seasonal color, we add a twist of Cherry Cobbler & Gold satin ribbon behind our panel and red iridescent discs around.

Tomorrow, we’ll be pairing our ephemera with a sketch. I hope you’ll tune in for another installment in the Sketchy Fridays series!

Products used in today’s card:
Gold Dipped cards & envelopes
Joyful Images ephemera
Joyful Sayings ephemera
Gold mercury vellum
Spotlight on Nature dies
Cherry Cobbler & Gold satin ribbon
Iridescent discs
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List

[164108]

$12.00

Gold Mercury Vellum 12″ X 12″ (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[164142]

$10.00

Spotlight On Nature Dies

[163580]

$35.00

[164110]

$9.50

Cherry Cobbler & Gold 1/2” (1.3 Cm) Metallic Ribbon

[164109]

$9.50

[156312]

$8.00

Iridescent Adhesive Backed Discs

[161954]

$7.00

Stampin’ Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Tear & Tape Adhesive

[154031]

$7.00

Gold Dipped Mix & Match Specialty Cards & Envelopes

Christmas · Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

Happy Holidays

September 18, 2024September 17, 2024 susanfoxbowen2 Comments

This week, we’re exploring all of the ways we can use the new Joyful ephemera packs in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog. The ephemera packs provide both images and sentiments for super quick and simple cards. You can use the ephemera all on its own or dress up your card designs with additional elements.

Today, our clean and simple design includes one simple additional diecut piece that really packs a lot of design punch and completely transforms the look of this card.

We get started with a blue Gold Dipped card base. Our focal image panel base is a circle cut from white glimmer specialty paper using the Spotlight on Nature dies, and then we layer the set of skates and a blue bow from the Joyful Images ephemera pack on top using dimensionals. We break up our sentiment above and below the image panel and adhere both directly to our card base. A few snowflakes finish things off with an additional gold twinkle in the center of our design.

Beautiful cards do not have to take a lot of time. And when you’re short on time, I highly recommend giving the Stampin’ Up! ephemera packs a try!

Products used in today’s card:
Gold Dipped card & envelope
Joyful Images ephemera
Joyful Sayings ephemera
White glimmer paper
Spotlight on Nature dies
Snowflake assortment
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List

[164108]

$12.00

Berry Burst, Old Olive & White 12″ X 12″ (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Glimmer Specialty Paper

[163769]

$6.00

Spotlight On Nature Dies

[163580]

$35.00

[164110]

$9.50

Adhesive Backed Snowflake Assortment

[164109]

$9.50

[162129]

$8.00

Stampin’ Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Gold Dipped Mix & Match Specialty Cards & Envelopes

Christmas · Holidays · Terrific Tuesdays

Season’s Greetings

September 17, 2024 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

This week, we’re taking a closer look at the new Joyful ephemera packs available in the current Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog. Although ephemera packs have been available for some time, I’ve been hesitant to purchase them because I didn’t think I would like working with them. But let me tell you, these are a lifesaver if you’re wanting to create a card but are crunched for time!

We’re going to be using the Joyful ephemera packs this week in a number of different ways. You can use ephemera all on its own to create beautiful cards, just like I did yesterday with the Christmas mantle design. Or you can add additional elements to dress up your designs and add a bit more complexity, like we’re doing with today’s card.

This card begins with a green Gold Dipped card base. We’re using the reinker watercoloring technique I first introduced to you on Saturday to create a sheet of custom paper to cut our tree from using the Merriest Trees dies. Each of the tree layers is separated by dimensionals on the bottom edge to give it a more realistic look, and the bottom layer of the tree is adhered directly to the card front. Our bear and packages from the Joyful Images ephemera pack sit directly in front of the tree. The packages are adhered to the card front and the bear is adhered with dimensionals to have it appear to be oriented in front of our packages. I added a gold star to the top of the tree for a festive finish. The sentiment from the Joyful Sayings ephemera pack is adhered directly to the top layer of our tree. A few drusy embellishments add some sparkle and draw our eye across our card design.

Would you like to learn how to create your own watercolor paper and see this card come together from start to finish? Check out today’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays to watch the magic happen!

Products used in today’s card:
Gold dipped card & envelope
Joyful Images ephemera
Joyful Sayings ephemera
Watercolor paper
Water painter
Pretty Peacock, Old Olive ink
Merriest Trees dies
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Product List

[164108]

$12.00

[164110]

$9.50