Fun Folds · January Mini Catalog

Grateful Forever

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.

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Fun Folds · January Mini Catalog · Online Exclusives

All Good Things

Howdy, friends, and welcome back on this bright & shiny Tuesday. We’re still frozen in under a pretty thick layer of ice here in North Texas, and it’s Day 2 of no school. That may sound a little strange to anyone who lives in a colder climate, but we don’t get very many days of ice or snow in winter so we’re not prepared to handle it. And we have a blanket of solid ice without any associated traction, so roads are a mess at best. But the goodness is that we’re finally expected to get above freezing this afternoon and should experience some thawing. Will it be enough to get us all back to work & school tomorrow? Well, that remains to be seen. But for now, I’m enjoying a beautiful sunrise out my craft room window.

This week, we’re using the new Days Like This Memories & More cards to create our projects. This pack contains a combination of 3×4 and 4×6 decorative cards that could be used for scrapbook pages or for cards and other projects. And today we’re using the smaller cards to create a double Z fun fold card.

I’m using a standard A2 card base (4.25 x 5.5-inch card front) for today’s card because I prefer to keep things sized so they’re easy to mail, but you might decide to size up to have the scale of the smaller Z-panel be more in line with the overall card size. We’re getting started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. We’re going to score as usual in the center to create a standard card base and then score again in the center of the front panel to create our base Z-fold. I used a scrap of Lovely Blossoms patterned paper to create the two 2-inch panels for the smaller front Z-flap and inside peek-through panel.

Then we start working on our focal Z-panel, which is a little smaller. I sized the Cloud Cover base so that none of the small cards from the Days Like This card pack had to be cut down. I wanted to preserve all of the pretty details of each of the patterns selected — the front sentiment panel, middle pattern, and inside butterflies. Caveat: this does impact how much you’re able to open the card — it will not lie flat when open. (Side note: I need to work on some kind of sliding mechanism for the next one I make like this.) To preserve all of the pretty card details means that our message panel — a blank card with tiny butterfly detail on the bottom — is a hidden, pull-out element. I used a piece of the Secret Sea bordered ribbon and stabled it in place to serve as the pull-out tab for the message panel. Some Wink of Stella on the smaller butterflies in each of the panels adds some twinkly interest, along with the Cloud Cover baker’s twine from the 2025 Advent Calendar and a few iridescent foil gems.

Today’s design is definitely a craft on the fly design, and there are a few things that I would change if I had taken more time. But sometimes the fun part of the creative process is just following an idea all the way through and seeing how it turns out. Do you ever just let yourself run with idea?

I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow for another look at the Days Like This Memories & More cards.

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Botanicals · January Mini Catalog

You Can Do Anything

Happy Saturday, crafty friends! It’s a cold and icy day here in North Texas, just as the weathermen predicted. The kiddo has had fun sliding down the steep driveway, and I’ve puttered around sweeping off the porch and setting up makeshift shelters for the cat food bowls and temporary potty box so our (very spoiled) outside cats don’t have to leave the back porch. Hubby made us all a big breakfast and we’ve been enjoying loafing around since, which leaves me time to play in the craft room!

I got a brand new box of goodies earlier this week that I’ve been dying to take out and make some projects. Today, I decided to make another project with the new Lovely & Beautiful patterned paper pack and Fabulous Sentiments Product of the Month stamp set. I flipped through my trusty fun fold template book put together by fellow demo Jackie Bolhuis over at Klompen Stampers to source the card layout.

So this design gets started with a quarter panel of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I love the contrast that this small panel provides and the stability it lends to the overall card design. Our folding panel is a sheet of Fresh Freesia that is scored to give us a tick-smaller standard quarter panel in the center section. The top and bottom flaps of our folded section then open to reveal the inside message panel of our card. I chose a sheet of the smaller foiled floral pattern paper from the Lovely & Beautiful paper pack as the patterned sheet for the card front panels. The top fold is just slightly larger than the bottom so that it overlaps slightly, and so we build our overhanging focal panel on the top panel. Our focal section gets started with a scrap of Blackberry Bliss cut with the Nested Essentials die. The sentiment from the January Product of the Month Fabulous Sayings stamp set is stamped in Fresh Freesia on white cardstock and then cut with paper snips. The sentiment is adhered over a bow of white & gold ribbon with dimensionals onto the Blackberry Bliss panel. This panel is adhered to the bottom of the top flap with dimensionals. A flower and leaves from the Covered in Flowers accents serve as our floral accents, and they’re colored with small blending brushes using Fresh Freesia and Mossy Meadow before being covered with Wink of Stella. They’re tucked behind the sentiment and adhered with a combination of dimensionals and glue dots. I added a gold drusy embellishment as the flower center to coordinate with the foiled paper and added a group of In Color pearls on the sentiment panel for a pop of twinkly color contrast to draw the eye to the sentiment.

I’m planning to bring you some more designs this weekend. I hope you’ll drop back by and see what I have in store for you!

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Fun Folds · January Mini Catalog

Because You’re Amazing

Welcome back and welcome to the midweek! With most of us going back to work and kiddos returning to school, this is either the first full week for some or simply feels like the longest short week ever for others. *wink*

But how about some new product inspiration to give a little bright spot in this week for you?! Did you know that a whole bunch of new stuff hit the online store yesterday? Yep — there are 3 new kits, a whole new batch of online exclusives, PLUS all of the products in the new January Mini catalog. Soooooo many goodies. And this week, we’re getting a good look at the brand new Lovely Blossoms suite that includes paper, ribbon, embellishments, stamps, dies, and an embossing folder.

Today’s featured fun fold card puts another one of the ready-made card panels on display. The new Lovely Blossoms paper pack includes a full sheet of these panels of varying sizes. Today’s panel is a little smaller, which lets some of the other cool goodies in this suite get a chance at the spotlight. Let’s take a closer look.

Our card front starts with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. For this fun fold, we’re using a standard A2-sized base. The backdrop for our front focal panel is a combination of two patterned papers. The mat is from the Traditions of Christmas pack and our floral panel is from the new Lovely Blossoms pack. Our focal panel base is white cardstock that is embossed with the new Lovely Stripes embossing folder. This folder gives a nice, deep impression in the paper making the details really pop. I used my paper snips to cut closely around the focal image from the ready-made panel I cut from the Lovely Blossoms paper. The little detail of the overhanging leaves just added a nice soft touch to the card front. The because sentiment is from the Words of Beauty set and is stamped on vellum with Secret Sea ink and then set with clear embossing powder before being diecut with the coordinating outline die. It’s adhered to the focal panel with glue dots to keep the adhesive invisible. The focal panel is adhered to our embossed panel with dimensionals over a twist of the new Cloud Burst ribbon and we finish off our focal panel with a dash of subtle twinkle with the new Moody Palette glossy dots.

When we open our small front focal panel, we reveal the other portion of our sentiment I think you’re amazing from the Words of Beauty set. Our sentiment panel sits atop a beautiful backdrop of some of the smaller ready-made panels from the Lovely Blossoms paper. We add some interest to our backdrop using the Stylish Shapes dies and the set of postage stamp dies in the 2025 Advent Calendar.

The sentiment is stamped on vellum in Secret Sea and heat set with clear embossing powder before being cut with a smaller banner die from the Stylish Shapes die set. It’s adhered over a faux bow of Cloud Cover baker’s twine from the 2025 Advent Calendar. And we finish off our sentiment panel with a little pop of twinkle with some Secret Sea Moody Palette glossy dots. The card opens up to a blank white message panel which covers the anchor portion of our smaller front focal panel.

Tomorrow we’re going to let the stamps & dies from the Lovely Blossoms bundle take center stage. I hope you’ll drop in and see.

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Botanicals · Fun Folds · January Mini Catalog

Thankful Blossoms

Welcome in, friends! I hope your week is off to a good start. This is the first full week I will have had since the flu and the holidays. And I’m still not sure what day it is! *snicker* All of the kiddos in our area are returning to school today so the roads are back to being busy.

This week, I’m playing with some of my new January Mini Catalog goodies with an up-close look at the new Lovely Blossoms bundle by Stampin’ Up! This terrific bundle includes it all — stamps, dies, embossing folder, paper, embellishments…the works! And one of my favorite things about the paper in this set is the sheet of ready-made card elements. With a pretty tight schedule these days, it’s nice to have ways to still make handmade smiles without hours in the craft room.

Today’s fun fold card starts with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. I’m using the barn fold here which places the flaps opening squarely in the center of the card front. But I used an overly large overlay panel to give the look of a traditional cohesive card front. Isn’t that such a fun twist on this barn fold?! I used one of the largest ready-made panels from the Lovely Blossoms sheet and cut it down just a smidge with the largest Textured Notes die. The panel is then matted with Secret Sea glimmer paper and the full panel is adhered just to the left flap of our barn fold. The sentiment from the Lovely Arrangements stamp set is stamped in Secret Sea on white cardstock and then diecut with the Words of Beauty middle-sized sentiment panel die. The sentiment is adhered over a twist of the new white with gold ribbon in the bottom corner of our front focal panel. And we add bits of sparkle with some of the brand new Secret Sea sparkle dot essentials.

Now comes the fun part — the inside of our card. The message panel has a flower image from the Lovely Arrangments set stamped in the bottom corner. Each of the flaps is covered with a coordinating lighter floral and vine patterned sheet from the Lovely Blossoms set. And then we cover the exposed part of our front card panel with a coordinating Secret Sea patterned sheet from the Lovely Blossoms paper pack.

I just love how this one comes together. You could even add an inside sentiment on the left inside panel. That would be a really nice variation actually. *making note to self* Tomorrow we’re going to be making another fun fold with this suite and getting a sneak peek at a few more new products. I hope you’ll drop in and see!

Products used:
Secret Sea, Basic White cardstock
Lovely Blossoms, Peaceful Garden glimmer DSP
Textured Notes, Words of Beauty dies
Lovely Arrangements stamps
Secret Sea ink
White with gold ribbon
Sparkle dot essentials
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Christmas · Gifting

Festive Treats

Happy Monday, everyone! We’re on the downhill slide to Christmas which means we’re all in the last-minute scramble to gather all the things and make all the treats.

Speaking of which, this week we’re going to be exploring all of the ways we can use our crafty stash to create unique gifts and goodies for our friends and neighbors and family. We’re getting started with a fun little treat box that I learned from The Paper Pixie. If you don’t follow her, you totally should. She makes the best 3D crafty items and provides spot-on, easy-to-follow instructions.

For the particular batch of boxes shown, I pulled out some of my retired stash of holiday papers. I’ve found that treat boxes are often a great way to use up leftover paper. For the box itself, you’ll need one sheet of 8.5×11-inch cardstock. I typically coordinate the box color with the selected patterned paper I’m going to use to decorate it. Here I’ve used Pool Party and Shaded Spruce for these two boxes. I cut three pieces of patterned paper to cover the front flaps and back of the box. I chose not to cover the inside flaps, but you definitely could if you so chose. I used one of the small Velcro dots to fasten the box closed. The front is decorated with some retired ephemera. I’ve filled the current batch of boxes with Ghiradelli squares, but these boxes easily fit other treats too.

I’m making a bunch of these this year — for coworkers, for my choir members, for the mailman, and anyone else who I think just needs a little holiday pick-me-up. They make great stocking stuffers too! I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see the next giftie item on the list.

EDITED TO ADD: You can download the PDF tutorial here.

Thankful

Thanks Abounds

Happy Monday, everyone! I hope you enjoyed your weekend. Although we were on the go most of the weekend doing the usual errands and chores, we got to enjoy some beautiful weather and time together. And sometimes that makes the most mundane of tasks a lot more enjoyable.

We’re on to a new design series this week, and it seems apropos to do some thankful reflection as Thanksgiving is quickly upon us. I don’t know about you, but outside of personal reflection on thankfulness this time of year, I also try to express words of thanks to others — be it friends, family, coworkers, or someone else who just deserves a word of thanks. So we’re getting started today with a lovely book binding fold that combines the Gathering Together paper with the Label Me Grateful dies and With You in Mind sentiment.

This lovely card comes together in a jiffy thanks to a layout that does all the work. We get started with a base of Early Espresso cardstock. Two different patterns from the Gathering Together paper pack serve as our card front and the inspiration for our sentiment panel. The sentiment panel base is a circle of vellum cut using the Spotlight on Nature dies. A variety of foliage is cut with the Label Me Grateful dies using an assortment of cardstock and specialty paper — Cajun Craze, Earthen Toned Metallic, and Country Woods. The sentiment from With You in Mind is heat embossed in copper on Very Vanilla cardstock and then hand cut with paper snips. The foliage and sentiments are layered on dimensionals over a twist of Mossy Meadow & gold trim. And we finish things off with a few green sparkling sequins.

What a perfect little card to tell someone they’re appreciated! I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see where our gratitude takes us for tomorrow’s crafty adventures!

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Autumn · Autumn Trees · L2S Group Instahop

Autumn Window

So glad you’re back, friends! You probably noticed that my day shaped up as I expected and I didn’t have the opportunity to post yesterday. But never fear, the card design I had in mind is about halfway finished and coming your way tomorrow!

But today, we’re hopping along with the Luv 2 Stamp Group over on Instagram. And our card today continues our design series using the Autumn Trees bundle by Stampin’ Up! I thought it would be fun to do a variation of last month’s window card design by making it a double flap card to make room for a nice note section on the inside panel. Let’s take a look!

We get started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock and cut a window using the largest Everyday Arches die. To make the shaker section, we cut a window frame from a sheet of Country Woods patterned paper using the largest and third largest dies to make the frame wide enough for our two-sided tape to adhere the window sheet. The front window frame is adhered directly to the card front. The second frame and window sheet is assembled and then we use adhesive foam strips to create the box in which the shaker elements will move about inside our window. Before adhering this window frame, we add our shaker bits to the back of the outside window sheet and then seal everything up with the inside window frame. I used the new shaker bits that I scored from my SU! 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar.

Now we move on to our inside fold-out panel where we build a fall scene using the Autumn Leaves bundle and a sheet of Thoughtful Journey patterned paper. The base is a quarter sheet that is cut a half-inch wider to allow for the small fold-over flap that is adhered to the inside card base under the message panel. We get started by building our background scene. The mountain is cut directly from our patterned paper using the Scenic Adventure dies. The top piece of the sky is cut down to size and then adhered at the top of our panel and then the mountain section is adhered over it with dimensionals. I added Wink of Stella to the portion resembling a lake, giving it time to dry while we work on the forefront of our scene.

From another sheet of Thoughtful Journey, we cut a small section of trees using the Light & Wonder die set and adhered at the water’s edge and just under the mountain ridge. Using a small scrap of black cardstock, we use the deer die from the Autumn Trees set to cut the doe and fawn. They’re adhered directly to the background. Next up, I stamped the tree image from Autumn Trees in Early Espresso on the slightly smaller quarter sheet of Crumb Cake and shaded the trunk with blending brushes and Crumb Cake ink. We cut leaves in several different colors. I especially love the look of the red and green leaves from the Season of Elegance paper. Each set of colored leaves is adhered on top of the other with dimensionals and slightly askew of one another to create lots of depth. The tree is then adhered at the base of our scenic panel along the edge using dimensionals. We finish things off with some grass in the foreground that is cut from the other sheet of Thoughtful Journey using the Scenic Adventure die. This panel is then adhered to our inside panel with tear-n-tape along the small fold-over flap. The inside message panel has a small buck in the bottom corner and the sentiment from With You in Mind at the top.

This card is even prettier in person. And I thought you might enjoy seeing it in action to get an idea. *grin*

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! 

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Autumn

Grateful Heart

Although the weatherman tells us it’s fall here in North Texas, in usual Texas fashion, summer refuses to go out quietly. While it’s certainly not August, we’re not quite into the glorious chill of fall mornings or altogether pleasant days either.

But that won’t stop us from continuing this week’s design series – all about fall. And today we’re revisiting the beautiful Splendid Autumn patterned paper and pairing it up with the Label Me Grateful stamps to create a super easy fun fold card. When you have paper as pretty as this, finding a design that takes full advantage is a must! And the simple z-fold design allows you to use the full sheet of paper.

I chose Granny Apple Green as the card base. It really allows all of the colors of the leaves and flowering grasses in our patterned paper to shine. The Splendid Autumn sheet features a winding path through a small grove of fall trees. And as you open the fold, you see the full scene. The sentiment panel is facing front when the card is closed. The sentiment from the Label Me Grateful stamp set is stamped in Timid Tiger ink on white cardstock and then cut out with the Traditional Labels dies. A few In Color flat pearls add the perfect finishing touch to the sentiment panel. It’s adhered over a bow of Timid Tiger and Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon using dimensionals. We add some green hexagons in opposing corners of the card front. I chose the lightest color so they’re more sparkle than they are a pop of color.

What do you think of this clean & simple design? I hope you’ll tune in for tomorrow’s Sketchy Fridays to see what else we can pull together with our crafty stash of fall-inspired products.

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Christmas · Fun Folds · Holidays

Christmas Slider

Welcome to a new week, everybody! It was a relatively busy weekend for us with lots of bowling for the kiddo, but we spent it together and that sure made it fun! We capped off the weekend by bringing our feral momma kitty and her five precious week-old babies inside in preparation from exterior housework we’re having done this week that would have upended her cozy hiding spot. So we scooped up her little birthing hut (thank goodness she used it this time!) and brought her and the crew inside where they’ll all stay until babies are big enough to go to the local rescue group for adoption and mom is recovered enough to (finally) get fixed. I’ll have to share some precious baby photos once I can get momma to let me take some good ones.

This week we’re on to a new design theme — all that glitters is gold. With so many beautiful gold foiled and glittery products in the Stampin’ Up! lineup, it should be a week of shiny goodness! We get started with some goodies from the new suite called Traditions of Christmas and pair them up with a few oldies, like gold foil sheets, Regal Distressed Patterns paper, and a few die sets.

You might recognize this gift card layout and think that it looks familiar. And you would be exactly right! We’re flipping our new slider fun fold on its side to create today’s beautiful gift card design. I’m currently working on the tutorial and hope to have that up on the site later this week!

We get started with a base of Cherry Cobbler cardstock and score it to create the off-center barn fold look with the right panel serving as the pocket for our slider section. A sheet of the beautiful Traditions of Christmas paper serves as the backdrop for our card front. The overlapping focal panel backdrop is a combination of gold foil cut with the Perennial Postage dies and a sheet of the Regal Distressed Patterns paper cut with the Textured Notes dies. We use a combination of the Christmas Greenery dies and paper snips to cut the floral elements from another sheet of the Traditions of Christmas paper. The larger spray of florals is the focal image for the front panel, while the smaller fussy-cut elements serve as the cover for the slider pocket of the gift card panel. The front floral spray is adhered over a twist of the Real Red shiny ribbon using several layers of dimensionals. We finish everything off with a scattering of the Traditional Sparkling sequins across the front panel and add just a few on the gift card panel.

When adhering the florals on the sliding panel, ensure that they are flat for a fully unobstructed open/close of the inside slider gift card panel.

I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see what we have glittering next!

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