It’s Friday…Sunday’s Comin’

April 3, 2026 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Good Friday, friends! While today is one of the hardest days in the Christian calendar, it’s pivotal in the journey to our eternal destination. As a church musician, it happens to be one of my favorite services to sing. The music just pierces the soul.

We’re continuing our Easter-inspired card series. And today, I decided to try the cross-covered z-fold, combining the beautiful retired Everyday Skies paper with the Faith Collection and Prayers & Promises stamps.

We get started with a base of black cardstock and score to crest our z-fold front panel and a portion of the cross. Panels of the Everyday Skies dark & cloudy patterned paper cover the front and inside of the card to create the backdrop for the cross.We use a sheet of the Country Woods woodgrain pattern to form our cross. The front sentiment from the Faith Collection set is stamped in the center of the cross and heat embossed in black.

The cross is wrapped in retired Blackberry Bliss ribbon and affixed it with glue dots. We stamp the inside sentiment panel with the Prayers & Promises sentiment is heat embossed in black. We finish off the card front with some metallic dots to serve as nails and a few moody palette dots for a subtle pop of additional color in the sky.

It may seem like all is dark and hope is lost, but remember this, Sunday’s coming. And Sunday changes everything. The Light will shine, the birds will sing, and the tomb will be empty — our victory forever won! Tune in tomorrow to see how we’ll celebrate.

Retiring

Blue Skies Friend

April 13, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

We’re closing out this week’s series of card designs using some of my favorite products from the Stampin’ Up! Last Chance list with this clean and simple design. We’re pairing up the Saying Hey stamp set with the Friends for Life dies to create this friendly hello.

We get started with a base of Azure Afternoon cardstock. The focal panel is a sheet of the Everyday Skies patterned paper matted with Pretty in Pink. A strip of Pretty in Pink bordered ribbon is tied around the bottom of the panel before it’s affixed to the card base. The sentiment panel is a piece of white cardstock punched with the Heartfelt Hexagon punch. The sentiment from Saying Hey is stamped in a combination of Balmy Blue and Blueberry Bushel so that there’s a small shadow effect. A combination of Everyday Skies and pastel ombre glimmer paper are cut with the Friends for Life dies to create the second portion of our Hey Friend sentiment. Dimensionals are used to give height and dimension to both portions of the sentiment so they stand proud above the ribbon. The dragonfly is cut from a combination of purple silver foil and pastel ombre glimmer paper and adhered with a dimensional above the sentiment panel. I love how the small dragonfly breaks up the sky and really draws the eye down to the sentiment. A scattering of pink sequins from the sequins trio give us some subtle twinkle across the clouds.

Last Chance items are quickly disappearing from the shelves. Did you see any sets this week that need to be in your stash? Don’t delay or you might miss them for good!

Next week, we’re going to be looking toward Easter with our card designs. I hope you’ll hop along!

Product List

Azure Afternoon 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[161719]

$11.50

Pretty In Pink 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[163793]

$11.50

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Everyday Skies 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164622]

$12.50

Pastel Ombre Glimmer 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Paper

[164851]

$12.00

Silver Foil 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Pack

[163096]

$10.00

Saying Hey Photopolymer Stamp Set (English)

[163697]

$17.00

Balmy Blue Classic Stampin' Pad

[147105]

$9.00

Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin' Pad

[147138]

$9.00

Heartfelt Hexagon Punch

[162888]

$23.00

Friends For Life Dies (English)

[163364]

$34.00

Inspiring Snapdragons Dies

[163673]

$32.00

Pretty In Pink 3/8" (1 Cm) Bordered Ribbon

[163784]

$7.50

Adhesive Backed Sequins Trio

[161206]

$8.00

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Fine-Tip Glue Pen

[138309]

$7.25

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

No Stamp Design

Holy Week Scripture

April 12, 2025April 12, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

If you’ve followed me for any amount of time, you may remember me mentioning our daily family prayer. Our daily family prayer is a selected scripture that is appropriate for the season on the church calendar or even just the time of year. I rotate these scriptures periodically, in particular as we enter different seasons in the church (liturgical) calendar. What I love most about this is that we ultimately memorize the scripture because we’ve said it each day. So as I’m choosing scriptures, I try to bear that in mind and choose scriptures that I think are important for us to take with us each day.

As we enter Holy Week, it’s time for a new family prayer and that means a new layout for our prayer frame. The 6×6 frame is from Amazon.

For the Holy Week prayer, I chose a darker backdrop that felt most appropriate for the significance of this upcoming week. This happens to be a sheet of the Everyday Skies paper. I printed the scripture on a quarter sheet of white cardstock and then cut it out using one of the Countryside Corners dies. I trimmed it slightly to reduce the white space on top and bottom. I then used the same die to cut the mat from a sheet of the purple Silver Foil specialty paper using the die extension method. I wrapped some Blackberry Bliss & gold metallic ribbon and linen thread around one end of the mat before adhering the sentiment on top with dimensionals. I used dimensionals to adhere the sentiment panel to the patterned paper and then added a few two tone sparkle gems for just a touch of moody sparkle.

Do you do anything special to mark the seasons?

Product List

Everyday Skies 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164622]

$12.50

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[166780]

$14.00

Silver Foil 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Pack

[163096]

$10.00

Countryside Corners Dies

[161471]

$28.00

Blackberry Bliss & Gold 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Textured Ribbon

[164039]

$10.00

Linen Thread

[104199]

$5.00

Two Tone Sparkle Gems

[164633]

$9.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Retiring

Brighter Skies on the Way

April 5, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Saturday, crafty friends! It’s a rainy (and cold) day here in North Texas, and I’m playing catchup after a very busy end to the week. And with the weather as dreary as it is, I have my head in the clouds — the rain clouds, that is — and that works perfectly into this week’s design theme of all about nature.

This design is a combination of some of my favorite patterned paper — Everyday Skies — with two of my favorite pick-me-up stamp bundles — Playing in the Rain and Bright Skies. Both of these stamp bundles are on the current Last Chance list, so if you love them as much as I do, now is the time to swipe them for your stash! For today’s design, we’re keeping it pretty simple because these three products work super well together.

We get started with a base of Copper Clay cardstock. I really love how this pulled out the darker elements in the Everyday Skies paper but in a way that lends itself to our encouraging message. To add a touch of whimsy to the card to pair with our cute fox from the Playing in the Rain set, I chose to stamp the larger cloud from the Bright Skies stamp set onto black cardstock and then heat emboss in black before diecutting with the coordinating die. I add some rain in the area underneath where I intended to affix my cloud by heat embossing the stamped raindrops in clear powder and then affixed my cloud with dimensionals.

Next up, I worked on my focal character — the cute fox from the Playing in the Rain set. I stamped him in black onto Calypso Coral so that the space around the image would blend into the backdrop. I colored the fox with Stampin’ Blends before diecutting with the coordinating die. To ensure that the end of his tail had nice contrast, I used my Versamark pen to heat emboss the tip of the tail with white embossing powder. I used a couple of the ombre matte dots for buttons. I stamped the sentiment from Bright Skies in Blackberry Bliss ink and then affixed the fox to the right of the sentiment and used two layers of dimensionals so our character really stood front and center in the scene. I added a few two tone sparkle gems in the clouds for just a little added sparkly drama.

I really love the challenge of pairing products in my stash and I think this one turned out smashingly well. We’re going to continue our nature tour by using a sketch. I hope you’ll drop back by later to check it out.

Product List

Copper Clay 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[161721]

$11.50

Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[121045]

$11.50

Everyday Skies 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164622]

$12.50

Bright Skies Bundle (English)

[162794]

$48.50

Playing In The Rain Bundle (English)

[160551]

$54.75

Jet Black Stāzon Ink Pad

[101406]

$10.50

Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad

[147092]

$9.00

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$9.50

Basics Wow! Embossing Powder

[165679]

$21.00

Calypso Coral Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154881]

$11.00

Night Of Navy Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154891]

$11.00

Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154880]

$11.00

Daffodil Delight Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154883]

$11.00

Shaded Spruce Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

[154903]

$11.00

Pretty Peacock Stampin’ Blends Combo Pack

[161676]

$11.00

Ombre Matte Decorative Dots

[161448]

$8.00

Two Tone Sparkle Gems

[164633]

$9.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Everyday Skies

Starry Thoughts

March 1, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Whew, today turned out to be just as busy as I thought it might be, but it was a successful day nonetheless. The kiddo scored an “excellent” on his euphonium solo and bowled above his average for his league games today. We took advantage of the glorious sunshine and perfect temps here in North Texas and rode our bikes around the park and played ball outside. And to top it all off, I got to steal a few moments in the craft room to bring you our last card of our Everyday Skies design series for this week.

We’re keeping things simple with a clean layout using the reverse sides of the Everyday Skies paper, which we have paired with the ever-lovely With You in Mind stamp set. And as a bonus, we’re getting a sneak peek of the new Textured Notes dies that will release next week. If you’re like me, you were crushed when Stampin’ Up! retired the Deckled Rectangles dies and wondered what you would ever do without them. Well, we’re all in luck as this lovely set of textured-edge dies hits the shelves in just a few days!

We get started with a base of Night of Navy cardstock. I chose the navy starry night pattern from the Everyday Skies paper pack and used the Textured Notes dies to cut our panel. I stamped the sentiment from With You in Mind in Misty Moonlight on a coordinating sheet of a lighter blue patterned sheet from the paper pack. I wrapped one end with some Misty Moonlight natural tones linen thread and tied a small bow and affixed the panel to our focal panel before adhering everything to the card base with dimensionals. I added a few silver stars just above and on one end of the sentiment panel. The stars are cut from silver foil using the two small dies from the Merriest Trees stamp set. A few rhinestones add that last little bit of twinkle.

This clean and simple layout is very versatile and allows you to make a whole variety of cards for a number of different occasions in no time. And as you can see, the patterns in the Everyday Skies paper pack allow for a lot of versatility, as well.

Next week, we start a new design series using the brand new Thankful Garden suite. You’re going to love it!

Product List

Night Of Navy 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[100867]

$11.50

Everyday Skies 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164622]

$12.50

Silver Foil Sheets

[132178]

$5.00

With You In Mind Photopolymer Stamp Set (English)

[164747]

$20.00

Misty Moonlight Classic Stampin' Pad

[153118]

$9.00

Merriest Trees Dies

[162047]

$37.00

Natural Tones Linen Thread

[164071]

$9.00

Rhinestone Basic Jewels

[144220]

$6.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Add All to Cart

Everyday Skies · Sketchy Fridays

Sketchy Fridays: Family You Choose

February 28, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Friday, everyone. It was a very busy but productive week around here. And the weekend is shaping up to be pretty busy too with the kiddo’s various activities. But we’re excited for some nice weather in store for tomorrow before the rainy spring(ish) season kicks in here in North Texas.

But let’s go down to the real business – Sketchy Fridays! For those of you who are new here, Sketchy Fridays is a weekly series where 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 #11 from the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. Today, we’re pairing up the Everyday Skies patterned paper with the new Online Exclusive stamp set called Pattern of Friendship (that releases next week!).

I just love this sentiment from the new Pattern of Friendship stamp set. It truly resonates with me because we certainly couldn’t have made it through the difficulties we faced in 2024 without our circle of friends who stepped in and helped our family!

This card gets started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I used Fresh Freesia as the background for our focal panel which is made up of scraps of the reverse side patterns of the Everyday Skies papers. I stamped the sentiment from Pattern of Friendship in Blackberry Bliss on a striped sheet of Everyday Skies and adhered it on a strip with a swallow pattern. Blackberry Bliss transparent dots give us some pops of interest to draw our eye to the center sentiment. This is a very clean & simple design that literally came together in 5 minutes (once I picked my papers, that is).

We’ll be closing out our design series using Everyday Skies tomorrow. And we’ll be using the patterns on the backsides to create another quick, clean & simple card. I hope you’ll pop in.

Product List

Blackberry Bliss 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[133675]

$11.50

Fresh Freesia 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[155613]

$11.50

Everyday Skies 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164622]

$12.50

Transparent Adhesive Backed Dots

[163432]

$8.00

Blackberry Bliss Classic Stampin' Pad

[147092]

$9.00

Add All to Cart

Fun Folds · L2S Group Instahop

Up & Away Birthday

February 27, 2025February 26, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

This week, we’re working with the Everyday Skies designer series paper that is currently available as a Stampin’ Up! Online Exclusive. We’re pairing it up with the Hot Air Balloon bundle to make this super fun birthday fun fold. I’m using the Accordion Z-Fold by fellow demo Jackie Bolhuis.

Our card starts with a base of Azure Afternoon cardstock, which also serves as the z-fold base. I used several sheets of the blue skies sheets from the Everyday Skies paper pack to build the background. I made sure that all of my panels fit together to build the scene without any odd junctions between pieces and adhered them according to Jackie’s instructions. I cut a variety of balloons from several patterns from the Bright & Beautiful paper pack using the Hot Air Balloon dies. I outlined each balloon with a black marker to give some defined shape to each balloon. The balloon baskets are cut from several different paper scraps, including Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, and gold foil. The sentiment from the Hot Air Balloon stamp set is stamped in Night of Navy ink on white cardstock and then diecut with the banner die from the Hot Air Balloon set. The banner edges are pieces of silver foil for a little festive sparkle on the sentiment panel. The sentiment banner is adhered directly to the balloon. The balloons are all adhered to the card panel with dimensionals of varying heights and in such a way that when the card is closed they overlap so that only the small front panel scene is visible. The clouds are cut from the white spotted sheet of vellum from the Graceful Greenery vellum pack using both the Bright Skies and Hot Air Balloon dies. I used glue dots to affix the clouds in our scene. The largest cloud holds our inside sentiment which is from the Pattern of Friendship stamp set, which is set to release in the newest batch of Online Exclusives next week. This sentiment is heat embossed with white embossing powder. We finish things off with a scattering of white transparent dots.

It’s always fun to build scene cards, and this fun fold is a terrific way to combine this beautiful Everyday Skies paper with the Hot Air Balloon bundle. I love how you’ll be writing your message in the sky when leaving a note for the recipient!

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

Azure Afternoon 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[161719]

$11.50

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[159276]

$13.00

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

[120953]

$11.50

Early Espresso 12" X 12" Card Stock

[124276]

$5.95

Everyday Skies 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164622]

$12.50

Bright & Beautiful 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[161449]

$12.50

Silver Foil Sheets

[132178]

$5.00

Gold Foil Sheets

[132622]

$5.00

Graceful Greenery Vellum 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Specialty Designer Series Paper

[164118]

$10.00

Hot Air Balloon Bundle (English)

[162755]

$45.00

Bright Skies Dies

[162793]

$34.00

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$9.50

Basics Wow! Embossing Powder

[165679]

$21.00

Basic Black Stampin' Write Marker

[100082]

$3.00

Transparent Adhesive Backed Dots

[163432]

$8.00

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Mini Stampin' Dimensionals

[144108]

$4.25

Mini Glue Dots

[103683]

$7.25

Add All to Cart

Everyday Skies

Shining Light

February 26, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to the midpoint of this week! Our design focus this week is on the gorgeous Everyday Skies designer series paper by Stampin’ Up!, where just about every beautiful sky is represented. And today we turn to the night sky for our card design. This is a clean and simple card that you can make in 5 minutes or less.

We start with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I chose a retired piece of specialty paper from a silver foil pack that really brings out the lighter purples in our night sky background panel. I loved the light shimmer of this sheet of metallic paper, but you could easily substitute the Fresh Freesia glimmer paper from the current Three Color Glimmer pack. I decided to stamp the sentiment from You Are Beautiful directly onto the focal panel. I used silver embossing powder to bring out the twinkling stars in our background paper and tied a simple knot of silver trim above the heat embossed sentiment. The two tone sparkle gems are the perfect sparkly addition here with their combination of blue and purple glimmer.

I love having clean and simple card designs with a wow factor in the stash, and the Everyday Skies paper makes it super easy to do just that! Tomorrow we’re Instahopping with the Luv 2 Stamp Group crew, and I can’t wait to show you the super cool fun fold I’ve created with the Hot Air Balloon bundle. I hope you’ll float by and check it out!

Product List

Blackberry Bliss 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[133675]

$11.50

Everyday Skies 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164622]

$12.50

You Are Beautiful Cling Stamp Set (English)

[163704]

$24.00

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$9.50

Metallics Wow! Embossing Powder

[165678]

$21.00

Gold & Silver 1/8" (3.2 Mm) Trim Combo Pack

[161633]

$9.00

Two Tone Sparkle Gems

[164633]

$9.50

Add All to Cart

Everyday Skies

Brighter Skies

February 25, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

This week we’re highlighting the lovely Everyday Skies paper in our designs. Each of the skies featured in this paper pack is like a work of art all on its own. Today’s design is using one of the more ominous skies to create an encouragement card using the Bright Skies stamps and dies.

We begin with a base of Basic Black cardstock. The Everyday Skies pattern serves as the backdrop and main focal panel. I wrapped a combination of Blackberry Bliss & Gold ribbon and Petal Pink diagonal trim around the bottom of the panel before adhering to the card base. Using the Brighter Skies dies, I cut two smaller clouds from Blackberry Bliss and a larger cloud from black. I heat embossed the sentiment from Bright Skies in black. The clouds are adhered to the focal panel with varying layers of dimensionals to give lots of depth to our scene. I added some Blackberry Bliss foil dots and two tone sparkle gems to draw the eye to our sentiment.

When you have wonderful product at hand, it doesn’t take much to make a lovely card. And the Everyday Skies paper certainly does the heavy lifting in today’s design! Tune in tomorrow for a clean and simple design.

Product List

Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[121045]

$11.50

Blackberry Bliss 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[133675]

$11.50

Everyday Skies 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[164622]

$12.50

Bright Skies Bundle (English)

[162794]

$48.50

Versamark Pad

[102283]

$9.50

Basics Wow! Embossing Powder

[165679]

$21.00

Petal Pink & White 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Diagonal Trim Combo Pack

[163417]

$10.00

Blackberry Bliss & Gold 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Textured Ribbon

[164039]

$10.00

Regal Foiled Adhesive Backed Dots

[164038]

$8.50

Two Tone Sparkle Gems

[164633]

$9.50

Stampin' Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.25

Tear & Tape Adhesive

[154031]

$7.00

Add All to Cart

Everyday Skies

Hi in the Sky

February 24, 2025 susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Here we are, finding ourselves at another Monday — another week of opportunities to spread some joy and handmade kindness! This week, our product focus is the lovely Everyday Skies paper by Stampin’ Up!

I love how this paper captures so many different beautiful skies — from sunrise to moonrise and everything in between. And this week, I’ll be highlighting many of these lovely skies by pairing this paper pack with some current SU! products. And we won’t forget the gorgeous backsides of this paper either!

Let’s get our new design series started with the Adventurous Sky stamp & die bundle.

Our card gets started with a base is Balmy Blue cardstock. I chose a sunny day high in the clouds as the sky background here. The plane consists of two pieces cut with the Adventurous Sky dies — I used red festive glimmer paper and silver foil to give a more realistic metallic look to the plane’s exterior. I also cut propellers from silver foil and a disc of vellum with the Spotlight in Nature die to give the look of spinning propeller blades. An industrial trinket serves as the propeller hub in the center. I colored a few of the smaller iridescent faceted gems with my black Stampin’ Blend to serve as the hubcaps on the wheels. The plane is adhered to the sky background with dimensionals. I stamped the sentiment from the Adventurous Sky set in Balmy Blue in the upper left corner. I wanted the plane to look like it’s flying in between banks of clouds and so I cut another sheet of the background, going around just the clouds on the left. I adhered this layer with double dimensionals on top so that this cloud layer is on top. I added a few of the white sequins from the sequins trio pack as little glimmers in the clouds.

This card is so fun and whimsical — definitely sure to bring a small to a recipient’s face! Tomorrow we’re going to be making a pick-me-up with Bright Skies. I hope you’ll drop in and check it out.

Product List