Clean and Simple

Just for You

One of my favorite times of year is right now — spring! I love to admire all of the beautiful flowers, including the ones that I plant myself! Some of my favorites include zinnias, morning glory, dianthus, and salvia, to name just a few. Stampin’ Up! has some really wonderful botanical stamp sets, and this week we’ll be exploring a number of them.

Today we have a super clean and simple card. This card is built on a base of Pretty Peacock. The backdrop for our focal section is a strip of Hello, Irresistible designer series paper and quarter-sheet of white cardstock embossed with the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder, which was a most recent Sale-a-Bration item. For the image panel, I diecut a piece of white using the Nested Essentials dies and a lovely floral arrangement is stamped in the center. This lovely stem of flowers is stamped using the Softly Sophisticated stamp set, also a most recent Sale-a-Bration set. The pottery bowl is stamped on Very Vanilla using the Planted Paradise stamp set. Our sentiment is stamped on vellum and diecut using the Nested Essentials dies, along with the nesting banner die cut from Berry Burst shimmer paper.

We’ll be using the Planted Paradise set for tomorrow’s card and I can’t wait for you to see it!

Products used:
Pretty Peacock, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla cardstock
Hello, Irresistible; shimmer, vellum DSP
Softly Sophisticated, Planted Paradise stamps
Softly Sophisticated embossing folder
Nested Essentials dies
Tinsel gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Card Sets · Fun Folds · Hello Irresistible

Irresistible Birthday Happiness

Today I’m sharing another design in the Irresistible Birthday card pack that will be available in the Etsy shoppe at the end of the week. I had a lot of fun learning this new fun fold that my mom shared with me (originally shared by Dawn Griffith). The original design is a square card, and I like to keep all of my designs a standard size that doesn’t require special envelopes or additional postage. So I resized the original to be a standard-sized vertical card. Because I didn’t want to make any mistakes with my “good paper,” I worked on getting all of the measurements and folds just right by using paper from our shredding bin. And now I have a workable template where I scribbled all of the measurements as I went. Do you ever make templates? It helps me to keep all of the instructions I scribble down straight with what they actually make!

I am really loving the versatility of this designer paper. The first design in the Irresistible Birthday card pack really lent itself to being more masculine, but this card is definitely softer and more feminine. It’s the perfect combination of pale pinks and soft, rosey oranges. And I think the fun fold design really adds some fun to this card!

Would you like to know how I made this card? Hop on over to my Instagram feed and check it out! Link over on the right ➡️➡️.

Products used:
Petal Pink, Basic White cardstock
Hello, Irresistible DSP
Vellum
Calypso Coral ink
Pansy Petal, Bold Bouquet stamps
Bold Bouquet, All That, Nested Essentials dies
Wink of Stella
Adhesive-backed sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Download the tutorial here!

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Card Sets · Hello Irresistible

Irresistible Birthday

Howdy, everyone! It’s been a busy week in the studio. I’ve been taking a social media class and practicing what I’m learning. So there is lots of new content, exciting features, and new designs headed your way!

Today we’re taking a look at the first design in a new birthday pack called Irresistible Birthday that will be hitting the Etsy shoppe next week.

This set of designs is based on the SU! designer paper series called Hello Irresistible. The designs in this paper pack are divine! A mix of florals and hippie vibes but nothing too feminine, as you can see here with this more masculine design.

This card came together pretty quickly. As I mentioned earlier this week, “practice makes progress” and I’m certainly getting faster at pairing patterned papers. Filming the making of this card so I could show you the design process in an Instagram reel is what took the longest. (See, I’m putting my training to work!) I’m still getting the hang of how to set things up and working through how to have the right supplies at hand so filming goes smoothly .

Wanna see what it takes to put this card together? Head over to my Insta feed! (Link on the right ➡️)

Products used:
Pool Party, Basic White cardstock
Hello, Irresistible DSP
Bold Bouquet stamps & dies
All That dies
Adhesive-backed sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Card Sets

Inked Botanicals Set

I’ve always found working with patterned paper to be a bit challenging, particularly when working to use multiple patterns in one design. So I decided to challenge myself by creating a pack of cards using multiple patterns on each design. As I tell my son when he encounters a challenge, “practice makes progress.” And naturally, practice also allows us to feel more comfortable within a particular challenge.

I received the SU! Inked Botanicals designer series paper as part of one of my most recent supply orders. I was really drawn to the cheery designs included in this paper pack and how they could lend themselves to all types of occasions. I was also a little surprised to discover that using floral patterns does not necessarily equate to a feminine design. My biggest take-away while designing this card pack is that working with several patterns is easier when you focus on combining smaller and larger patterns into one design. This way, the patterns compliment one another rather than competing for attention.

This lovely card pack is now up in the Etsy shoppe and available for purchase.

Products used:
Basic White, Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon, Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, Shimmer White cardstock
Inked Botanicals DSP
Gold shimmer vellum (retired)
Zany Zoo, Pansy Patch, Bold Bouquet stamps
Deckled Rectangles, Zany Zoo, All That, Bold Bouquet, Stitched Nested Labels (retired) dies
Gold trim, Flirty Flamingo, Petal Pink ribbon
Adhesive-backed pearls & sequins
Adhesives
Dimensionals

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Bold Bouquet · Dies · Wink of Stella

Birthday Bouquet

I have lots of new things to share in the days ahead after getting a few new goodies delivered yesterday. Today’s design features the SU! Bold Bouquet stamps and dies.

This sunny design would be perfect for any recipient, even the guys in your life. The plaid design in the Inked Botanicals designer paper bundle provides the perfect neutral backdrop for this gorgeous bouquet, which sits atop glimmer vellum diecut using the Deckled Rectangle set. The sentiment is nestled in the bouquet. For a little extra sparkle, the larger roses have centers accentuated with the Wink of Stella glitter brush. This design has the perfect amount of sparkle in person and is sure to bring a smile to its recipient!

Products used:
Daffodil Delight, Basic White cardstock
Inked Botanicals DSP
Glimmer vellum (retired)
Lost Lagoon, Pretty Peacock, Shaded Spruce, Crushed Curry, Basic Black ink
Bold Bouquet stamps & dies
Pansy Patch stamps (sentiment)
Deckled Rectangles dies
Stitched Nested Labels dies (retired)
Pastel adhesive-backed sequins
Wink of Stella
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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Dies · Pansy Patch · Shop the catalog

Pansy Paper Piecing

As promised, today’s design features the Pansy Patch dies. The focal image of this card is 100% diecut from cardstock. I wanted to create a realistic focal image and selected a pansy variety that had pink, purple, and yellow hues and used the inspiration photo to guide my color cardstock selections.

Although the paper pieces are on the larger side, the width of the detailed pieces is narrow enough to make traditional adhesive runners a less than ideal choice for adhering the layers together. In cases such as these, I turn to one of two adhesives—the fine-tip glue pen or adhesive sheets. In this case, I elected to use the glue pen and it worked beautifully!

Products Used (current):
Pansy Dies
Cardstock—Daffodil Delight
Adhesive-backed gems
Adhesive-backed pearls
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Products Used (retired):
Cardstock—Almost Amethyst, Pale Plum, Lavender Lace, Handsome Hunter, Certainly Celery
Delicate Dots DSP
Butterfly Punch
Love & Sympathy sentiment

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Pansy Patch · Shop the catalog

Patch of Pansies

The long-awaited first batch of new SU! product arrived late this afternoon, and I’m just getting the opportunity to sit down and have a little crafting time. Knowing that I had two sympathy cards in the queue, I decided to start with the Pansy Patch stamps and dies. The stamps layer beautifully to create realistic-looking blossoms, and the dies cut snugly around each stamped image for a fussy-cut-free design. The die set also includes dies that paper piece blossoms and stems. Check back tomorrow to see the result!

Products used (current):
Pansy Patch stamps and dies
Adhesives
Dimensionals

Products used (retired):
Almost Amethyst cardstock
Delicate Dots DSP
Ribbon Originals rickrack
Stitched Nested Labels dies
Love & Sympathy sentiment

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Inspiration

Finding Inspiration

Every project we undertake has an underlying inspiration — a photo, a magazine article, an object, nature…the list of inspiration is endless. Personally, I find that a lot of my craft designs are inspired by nature.

I love to garden, and this time of year there is so much inspiration to be found in the garden. We really love to grow plants that attract pollinators — the bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. Our year-to-year favorites are morning glories, pentas, petunias, milkweed, zinnias, alyssum, and lantana. But I think my favorite is the morning glory, and this year we added a new variety that is just so lovely in its details.

I’ve found that the stunning details in our favorite garden flowers often provide inspiration for project color palettes and focal images. And I often study our backyard garden flowers in order to create more realistic designs on my projects. I have a number of floral images in my stamp library. I especially love one called Morning by Morning by Papertrey Ink and a retired set called Touch of Ink by Stampin’ Up!.

I’m really looking forward to the arrival of a new SU! floral set in the coming weeks, and I will share some of my new designs here once it arrives. Where do you typically turn for your design inspiration?