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.

Product List
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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birthday · Fun Folds

Birthday Surprise

Welcome in, crafty friends, and welcome to the weekend! After a busy morning, we are enjoying some family downtime this afternoon before we hit some projects while the weather is nice. What do you have on the weekend agenda?

We’re rounding out our series this week where we’ve been restocking the birthday card stash, and there’s nothing better than a fun fold gift card holder to close things out for this series! I found the cutest (and easiest) pop-up gift card holder over at Klompen Stampers and just had to give it a try. I combined this cool fun fold with a picture-in-picture design using the Splendid Autumn paper and Layered Thoughts stamps. And I can’t wait to try this again with a scene building set!

We get started with a base of Cajun Craze cardstock, which serves as both the card base and the inside gift card panel. The front picture-in-picture panel starts with the background sheet from the Splendid Autumn paper pack that is matted with gold foil specialty paper. The window section is a second sheet of the same Splendid Autumn pattern that is cut using the Everyday Arches dies and matted with a larger-sized arch of Basic White. I used the negatives from the grass die from the Mixed Florals set cut from a sheet of the cream Season of Elegance paper and tucked the grass behind the panel inset to make it look like grass is waving outside the window. The sentiment is from the Layered Thoughts stamp set and the first portion of our birthday greeting is stamped on white cardstock, heat embossed in gold, and then cut with the largest banner from the Stylish Shapes die set. The sentiment panel is mounted over a bow of gold trim on dimensionals. The front panel is finished with a scattering of gold drusy embellishments.

The inside of our card is our pop-up gift card panel which is cut from Cajun Craze cardstock. It tucks behind the bottom panel of the card front to create the gift card movement when the card opens and closes. The second portion of our birthday greeting is on the bottom panel of the gift card section. It’s stamped on Cajun Craze cardstock, heat embossed in gold, and then cut with the largest Stylish Shapes banner die using the extension method. It’s a tight fit, but it works. This panel is adhered to the gift card panel with the dimensionals.

Here’s a quick look at this gift card in action.

My newest batch of Holiday Mini catalog and Online Exclusives have arrived, so I’m looking forward to bringing you a closer look at those as we explore the theme all that glitters is gold. I hope you’ll drop in and see what that’s all about!

Product List
Beautiful Pumpkins · Coming Soon · L2S Group Instahop · Online Exclusives

Small Things

This week, we’re getting a closer look at the new Online Exclusive suite called Gathering Together that will release next week. Aside from being a combination of beautiful products that stand just fine all by themselves, they also pair up beautifully with other products in the SU! lineup. And today we’re getting a second sneak peek as we pair up Gathering Together with the new OE bundle called Beautiful Pumpkins.

I think I mentioned yesterday that I’m really in love with the foiled paper in the Gathering Together patterned paper pack. Today I’m showing you one of the non-foiled, reverse-side patterns which serves as the backdrop for this design. But I couldn’t just abandon the sheen of the foiled paper altogether. I used a sheet of the vanilla Season of Elegance foiled paper to stamp and diecut all of my focal panel images. I just love the look! One tip: let the ink dry before diecutting or you’ll end up with ink in interesting places! *wink and ugh* To speed things up, I used my heat gun.

We get started with a base of Basic Black cardstock. This pulls out the small black pinstriping in the background panel quite nicely. I tied some Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon around the bottom of the panel before adhering to the card front. Our focal panel is a sheet of the foiled Gathering Together paper and is cut using the Nested Essentials dies. Using the Beautiful Pumpkins stamps, I stamped the pumpkins and acorns on the vanilla sheet of Season of Elegance paper, and I made sure to include some of the foiling in each of the stamped images. I used the coordinating dies to cut them out. I cut the pumpkin stems from Crumb Cake cardstock and the pumpkin leaves from a sheet of the Old Olive Season of Elegance paper. They’re all adhered to the pinstriped backdrop using different layers of dimensionals to create lots of depth in the scene. The sentiment from the Beautiful Pumpkins set is stamped on a strip of white cardstock, and I snipped the ends to create a banner. It’s adhered under the focal panel with dimensionals. I added some gold drusy embellishments in opposing corners to draw the eye across the panel.

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! 

Products used in today’s card:
Basic Black, Basic White, Crumb Cake cardstock
Gathering Together (coming next week) , Season of Elegance DSP
Beautiful Pumpkins stamps & dies (coming next week)
Nested Essentials dies
Mossy Meadow & gold ribbon
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Gathering Together · Online Exclusives

Gathering of Thanks

We’re already halfway through this wonderful week and quickly headed for our long weekend. Do you have any special plans for the Labor Day holiday weekend? I’m hoping that the first significant cold front makes its way in as promised because I have some yardwork I’d really like to get done.

And speaking of yards, once fall arrives, they’ll be adorned with beautiful fall foliage. And this week is all about the foliage as we get an in-depth sneak peek at the upcoming Online Exclusive release called Gathering Together. Today we’re using more of the beautiful paper and the stamp set included in this suite to create a clean and simple Z-fold card. You guys, I’m just in love with this foiled patterned paper. Not into anything sparkly on your patterned paper? The back of each sheet is sans foiling so you get the best of both worlds in this pack of beautiful patterns!

Today’s fun fold gets started with a base of Cajun Craze cardstock, which creates our Z-shaped base. I chose a sheet of the Gathering Together patterned paper with a more subtle background to serve as the background on each of the panels. A sheet of the foiled fall foliage with berries and mushrooms is the backdrop of our focal panel which is cut using the Textured Notes dies. To pull out the lovely shades of yellow amongst the foliage, I chose Crushed Curry as the mat for this panel. The sentiment from Gathering Moments is stamped on Very Vanilla and I also stamped a few acorns in the background for some visual interest and to make the sentiment panel and background panel feel more cohesive. The sentiment is diecut using the Traditional Labels banner die and then adhered over some gold linen thread using dimensionals. I finished things off with a touch of extra sparkle with some Cajun Craze & gold dots in opposing corners.

Of all the fun folds, I really love Z-folds because they pack an amazing punch with very little extra work! And this particular layout with the larger overlapping front panel is a terrific way to show off beautiful patterned paper.

Tune in tomorrow for another fabulous fall-themed sneak peek. We’re going to be pairing up the Gathering Together suite with another new release product. You don’t want to miss this one!

Products used in today’s card:
Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry, Very Vanilla cardstock
Gathering Together DSP (coming next week)
Gathering Moments stamps (coming next week)
Traditional Labels (coming next week), Textured Notes dies
Gold thread (retired)
Cajun Craze & gold dots (coming next week)
Dimensionals
Adhesives