Botanicals · January Mini Catalog

Hope & Comfort

Happy Saturday, friends! As expected, the office move stole my crafting time yesterday, so I’m stealing a little time in the craft room this morning before I head to the new office to unpack and work to get things settled so we’re ready to roll next week.

This week, we’re using the new Prayers & Promises sentiment stamp set to create our card designs. I’ve been pairing up this stamp set with a whole host of products in the stash — most of them new goodies. And today we’re using the January Product of the Month True Blue Florals paper, the new Lovely Arrangements dies, and the new laser cut Covered In Flowers accents. (FYI — the January POTM is still available with any qualifying order while supplies last!)

I used a layout by fellow demo Heidi Collins over at On Y Go! Stamping as the inspiration for this card design. We get started with a base of Night of Navy cardstock. A sheet of the large floral-patterned paper from the True Blue Florals pack serves as both the backdrop for our card front, as well as the accent design panel behind the focal point. I used the Lovely Arrangements die to create that strip of circles on the right that really helps our focal point pop. The sentiment from Prayers & Promises is stamped in Secret Sea on white cardstock and then cut out with the Stylish Shapes circle die. This panel is adhered over a twist of the white & gold baker’s twine with dimensionals. A spray of florals is colored with Wink of Stella and then placed to the side of sentiment panel and held in place with dimensionals. We finish things off with a combination of the moody palette dots & charming shimmer faceted dots.

I love the contrast of light and dark in this design and how it really draws our eye to the encouraging sentiment. I hope to get a little time this evening to bring you one last project using the Prayers & Promises sentiment set. Fingers crossed I’m not completely wiped out from a day of unpacking and setup at the office!

Product List
Botanicals · January Mini Catalog

Peace I Leave You

Hi there, friends! I can’t believe it’s already Thursday. Has this week been on fast forward for anyone else? It’s been a busy week at the office, especially as we prepare to pack up and move to a new space this weekend. So as much as I love to think about Friday approaching, I’ll be busy this weekend getting the office put back together! Womp-womp.

This week, we’re playing with some of the new products from the latest release. In particular, I’m using the new Prayers & Promises sentiment set for each design as we pair it up with other fun sets. Today, I’m using a less conventional color palette for a soft and comforting vibe with the plants from the On Display and Gliding Garden Swing sets.

We get started with a base of Balmy Blue cardstock and then place our background pattern from the True Blue Florals paper pack (still available until it’s gone!) on top. Our focal panel backdrop consists of a trio of circles cut with the Spotlight on Nature dies from a combination of the Pleasant Patterns foiled paper and the pink shimmer paper from the new Pastels Shimmer pack. The pink shimmer circle in the center serves as our sentiment panel. The sentiment from Prayers & Promises is stamped right on the circle panel in a combination of Versamark and Lost Lagoon and then heat embossed with clear embossing powder to be sure it pops. We surround our sentiment panel with some potted greenery cut from Lost Lagoon and Cajun Craze using a combination of the On Display stamps & dies and the Gliding Garden Swing dies. Layers of dimensionals give us the depth of scene. A few Sparkle Dot Essentials finish things off with our twinkle of pink accents.

As I was working out this design in my head, I wanted to show that simple designs and unconventional color palettes can give just as much wow factor as the cards with all the layers and fancy techniques. And I think that’s one of the many things that I love about papercrafts — the multitude of ways to make beautiful things!

I hope to bring you another design tomorrow, assuming the office pack-up runs smoothly and I’m able to get home at a reasonable time. We will keep our fingers crossed!

Product List
Botanicals · January Mini Catalog

Blossoms of Smiles

Howdy, friends, and welcome back! This week is coasting along. And all I can think about is all of the things I have to do before we head out of town this weekend for a family funeral — get the kitties situated, tidy up the house, last-minute laundry, packing. Ack! So many things. But somehow I know it will all get done and things will be fine. We’re fortunate to have friends who are willing to let their teenager taking on the pet sitter gig, so we know our guys will be in good hands!

This week, we’re getting an in-depth look at the brand new suite called Lovely Blossoms. It just launched in the online store. Have you checked out all of the new goodies that dropped in the store this week? I’m really loving this suite because you can create so many different looks based on the products you combine. And today we’re letting our stamps and dies take center stage. I actually borrowed the inspiration for today’s card design from one of the samples in the online store. Maybe you can figure out which one?

Today’s card is actually pretty simple and comes together relatively easily. We get started with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. I used a quarter panel as the backdrop and punched it up by die cutting the eyelet pattern on the diagonal across it using the Lovely Arrangements die. The panel is then adhered to the card front with dimensionals to really give that eyelet pattern more prominence. Our focal section is the florals. I stamped a collection of both the large and small flowers from the Lovely Arrangements stamp set in Secret Sea on white paper and cut with the coordinating dies. The images are filled in with an assortment of Stampin’ Blends, using the darks from each pair for the centers and the lighter blends for the flower petals and edges. Nothing too precise — just swipes across the images. I really love this simple shading method and the look you get. I also stamped a couple of the leaf bunches in Garden Green on Soft Sea Foam paper and cut them with the coordinating die. And then we start arranging the flowers and leaves to get the layers of color and shapes that are most pleasing to the eye before sticking everything down. Glue dots adhere the elements that are in the background, while varying layers of dimensionals give us the depth and layers in the flowers. The sentiment sits on a banner of vellum cut with the Words of Beauty die. The sentiment from the Lovely Arrangements stamp set is stamped in Versamark on vellum and then heat embossed with gold and is adhered over a twist of the gold striped mesh ribbon with glue dots. A few traditional sparkling sequins finish things off with a pop of Pool Party.

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow as we continue our Lovely Blossoms design series with a closer look at the dies.

Product List
florals

So Lucky

We’re rounding out our walk through the garden this week with a trip to the country. Today’s card design features the Country Flowers set by Stampin’ Up!, which is currently on the Last Chance list, and a card layout I spotted in a recent post shared over at Stampin’ Through the Catalog. I adapted the layout and color palette to fit the products I wanted to use.

We get started with a base of Gray Granite cardstock. I also cut a quarter panel and then ran it through the embossing machine with the Distressed Tiles embossing folder before cutting it down to a smaller size for the focal panel backdrop. This small embossed strip is matted with a piece of gold textured paper to help it stand out against the tone-on-tone card base. I layered a piece of the Nature’s Sweetness foiled paper on top. For the focal panel, I cut a piece of Misty Moonlight with one of the middle circles from the Spotlight on Nature die set and then heat embossed the sentiment from Country Flowers in white. The teapot from Country Flowers is stamped in Gray Granite onto the lighter woodgrain pattern from the Country Woods paper pack, while the flowers are stamped on white and then colored with a combination of Stampin’ Blends before cutting out the floral bunch with the coordinating Country Flowers die. The teapot and flowers adhered to the focal panel with dimensionals and the focal panel is then adhered to the center of card front with dimensionals, as well. I added some gold ribbon on the teapot and someiridescent faceted gems to the floral centers to finish off the arrangement. Some drusy embellishments finish things off with the perfect touch of sparkly goodness.

I hope you’ll tune in this week as we get a look at some of the new goodies that are set to launch in a little over a week!

Product List
florals

Too Kind

Were you able to check out all of the crafty goodness that the Luv 2 Stamp Group brought during our Instahop on Thursday? It’s totally worth checking out! Link in my post from Thursday. Meanwhile, it’s been a busy couple of days here and that has totally cramped my crafty time, as you may have noticed by my absence yesterday. But sometimes we just have to roll with the punches and go with the flow. And that’s okay.

This week, we’re making our way through the garden and today we’re stopping to enjoy the spring wildflowers. We’re keeping it super simple with today’s card design by using the Mixed Media Florals Memories & More pack. Here in Texas, the strips of grass along a lot of the major highways are beginning to be covered in wildflowers. This is all thanks to Ladybird Johnson’s wildflower project back in the 1970s, and I must say that I just love her for it! And I love that the State has worked hard to maintain all of the wildflower seedlings from year to year with their carefully timed mowing (or lack thereof, as appropriate) to ensure that the flowers reseed. So if you’ve ever wondered why Texas has some of the prettiest right-of-ways in the country, you can tip your hat to Ladybird!

Our design today starts with a base of Basic Black cardstock. The focal panel is one of the notecards from the Mixed Media Florals Memories & More. I wrapped some natural tones linen thread and Daffodil Delight satin ribbon around the top to bring out the greens and yellows in our focal panel. The sentiment is from the Wanted To Say die set and is cut from black cardstock and red glimmer paper from the Festive pack. I added a ladybug from the sticker sheet and a few yellow and white Starburst sequins to complete our scene and tie all of the colors in the design together.

Tomorrow we’re going to wrap up our garden series with a trip to the country and I hope you’ll come along!

Product List
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!

Product List
florals

You Mean So Much

This week we’re tiptoeing through the garden as we use beautiful floral products from the Stampin’ Up! lineup. Today we’re featuring part of the Lovely Garden suite using the diamond fun fold. I love this particular fold because it gives lots of opportunity to showcase beautiful patterned paper.

We get started with a base of Crushed Curry cardstock. I used two different patterns from the Lovely Garden paper pack as the backdrops for the inside and outside card panels. The diamond panel is a combination of textured gold specialty paper and a sheet of foiled paper from the Nature’s Sweetness paper pack. The focal image from the Thankful Garden stamp set is stamped in black on white cardstock and then colored using the decorative masks and a combination of Shy Shamrock and Daffodil Delight inks before being diecut with the coordinating die. For a little added visual interest, I stamped, colored, and diecut the smaller flower a second time and then popped it up on the full floral stem. The stem is adhered to the diamond panel with dimensionals. The sentiment from the Enduring Beauty set is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut with the smaller sentiment die from the Mixed Labels set. I tucked a twist of gold thread behind the sentiment panel before adhering it at the bottom of the diamond panel with dimensionals. A few gold textured dots serve as floral centers and eye-catching sparkle in opposing corners.

Tomorrow we’ll be stopping to smell the roses. I hope you’ll plan to come by and sit a spell.

Product List
florals

Truly Deeply Grateful

Welcome to Monday! I hope everyone enjoyed a blessed and restful Easter weekend. While Holy Week is always busy in the life of a church singer, it’s still one of my favorite times of the liturgical year.

This week, we’re starting a brand new design series. We are all about the flowers this week. I don’t know about your area, but here in North Texas, the spring showers are certainly perking up all of the flowers that have been planted.

We’re starting off our design series this week with the Enduring Beauty bundle by Stampin’ Up! This bundle includes coordinating stamps, dies, and decorative masks. If you’ve been around a minute, you’ve heard me talk about decorative masks before. But for those of you who are new, I was a total decorative mask hater in the very beginning — just straight up refused to buy them or even try them. And in hindsight, I can’t give you a single good reason why (other than just plain stubbornness) because decorative masks make it SO easy to create beautiful colored images with terrific detail every single time.

Today our card gets started with a base of white cardstock. I’m using a sheet of the retired designer series paper from the Regal Winter pack as the backdrop for our focal panel. I tied some gold stripe ribbon (coming soon!) around the bottom before adhering to the card base. The focal panel gets started with a circle base of Nature’s Sweetness paper diecut using one of the largest Spotlight on Nature dies. I stamped the focal image from the Enduring Beauty set in black on white cardstock . I also stamped the center portion of the florals a second time to be able to cut out a flower and pop it up for some realistic dimension to the flowers. I used the decorative masks to color the images with a combination of Real Red and Shaded Spruce. Hint: you don’t have to use different shades to create the darker detailed areas; use the same color for all of the subsequent layers of color and it will have the same effect as using a different shade. I cut out the full image with the coordinating die from the Enduring Beauty set and then used my paper snips to cut out the single flower that I adhered on top with dimensionals. I added gold textured dots as the flower centers. The full image is then adhered to the circle panel with dimensionals. The sentiment from the Hope You Know stamp set is stamped in black on white cardstock and then diecut with the Something Fancy angled banner die and adhered under the ribbon. I added a few rhinestones in between the words of the sentiment and some gold low profile dots around to draw the eye.

We’re going to continue our tiptoe through the garden tomorrow with one of the new Online Exclusive bundles. I hope you’ll drop by and check it out.

Product List
Botanicals · Country Flowers · Fun Folds

Country Flowers Sympathy

Welcome back, everyone! This week, we’re taking a tour of the country — Country Flowers, that is. We’re making an assortment of cards using products from the Stampin’ Up! Country Woods suite. Today’s card is a fun fold that features the Country Woods paper and Country Flowers bundle.

I really love the Barn Fold and once I discovered a little modification where your designer paper covers the center fold so the card front background looks totally cohesive once closed, I was even more sold on this fun fold! The Country Woods designer paper pack includes a whole host of woodgrain patterns and they come in any number of colors and textures. When I ran across the sheet of Petal Pink woodgrain, I knew it would be perfect for today’s card.

We get started with a card base of Petal Pink cardstock that is cut to open front and center, literally. The sheet of Petal Pink woodgrain serves as our backdrop for the front panel. The focal panel in the center has a base of white woodgrain, also from the Country Woods pack, that is diecut using the Spotlight on Nature set. The sentiment panel is diecut from Petal Pink cardstock with the Autumn Leaves die using the extension method. (You can watch a Terrific Tuesdays video tutorial on the extension method here.) The sentiment from Country Flowers is heat embossed in copper. Behind the sentiment panel are layers of iridescent striped ribbon and Petal Pink diagonal trim. And then nestled behind and around the sentiment are flowers and greenery that have been stamped or diecut using the Country Flowers bundle. I used Stampin’ Blends to color the flower bunches, and the greenery is diecut from Soft Sea Foam cardstock. Layers of dimensionals give the center focal panel lots of depth. The design is finished off with Petal Pink foiled gems scattered across the card front to draw the eye up and across the design.

With a simple sentiment substitution, you could easily make this a birthday or wedding design, or even a thinking of you. The possibilities are only limited by what’s in your stash!

Tomorrow, how about some tea? Stop in and join me for a cuppa — with some flowers, of course!

Products used in today’s card:
Petal Pink, Soft Sea Foam, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Spotlight on Nature dies
Copper embossing powder
Stampin’ Blends
Iridescent striped ribbon, Petal Pink diagonal trim
Petal Pink foiled gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Botanicals · Country Flowers · sketches

Buckets of Birthday Flowers

This week, we’re using portions of the Stampin’ Up! Country Woods suite to make all sorts of lovely card designs. We’re also using inspiration from fellow crafters as a jumpstart for our designs. Today, we’re taking a sketch from my sketchbook as inspiration for our layout.

When I see card layouts I really love, I try to make a quick sketch or save a photo of the inspiration card. There are many times that I love a card and immediately think of stamps and dies in my own stash that will work with that layout. Great layouts are like that — they can be used over and over and give you completely different looks based on the products you use.

For today’s card, we get started with a card base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. The background panel consists of two layers. The mat is Pretty in Pink and the foreground is a piece of Moody Mauve that has been machine embossed using the Eyelet embossing folder. The focal panel base is a piece of the lighter grey woodgrain pattern from the Country Woods designer paper pack that has been diecut using one of the larger Spotlight on Nature circles. The milk tin and floral bunches from Country Flowers have been stamped on white cardstock and then colored with Stampin’ Blends. The tin and flowers are adhered to the focal panel with dimensionals with the florals just a smidge higher than the tin they are resting in. A bow of striped iridescent ribbon sits just underneath the flowers at the top of the tin. The sentiment from Something Fancy is heat embossed in white on black cardstock and then cut into a thin strip with the paper trimmer. A few Berry Burst sequins from the sequins trio are placed to draw the eye across the design.

Pop in tomorrow to see what else we do with the Country Flowers.

Products used in today’s design:
Blackberry Bliss, Pretty in Pink, Moody Mauve, Basic Black, Basic White cardstock
Country Woods DSP
Country Flowers stamps & dies
Spotlight on Nature dies
Something Fancy stamps
Embossing powder
Striped iridescent ribbon
Sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives