Autumn Trees · Fall

Means the World

Here we are at the start of another week. Did you enjoy last week’s series as we worked our way through the Stampin’ Up! 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar? I had a lot of fun coming up with things to make from each day’s new crafting goodies.

Well, this week, we’re turning back to autumn. I just got the new Autumn Trees bundle in a recent order, and I’ve been dying to get crafty with this awesome new set. The stamps and dies are so detailed and there are so many ways to really punch things up with this set. Today, the beautiful oak tree is taking center stage, along with our doe & fawn. Let’s see how this all comes together.

We get started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. This provides a nice neutral base that plays along with our nature-themed design. I used several different patterns from the Gathering Together patterned paper pack to create the backdrop for our focal images. The contrast from dark to light really let the beautiful tree and its foliage shine. The base image of our tree from the Autumn Tree set is stamped in Early Espresso on Copper Clay cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. (While this color is retired, you could just as easily substitute the Cajun Craze — it will simply be a bit brighter and I was going for a little more subdued.) The tree is adhered to the card front with glue dots. To really give some depth and realism to our beautiful fall foliage, I used the detailed leaves die from the die set and cut both Copper Clay and Oxidized Copper leaves and layered them a bit offset and affixed with dimensionals. I just love how the oxidized copper catches the light. The doe & fawn are the perfect addition to this serene scene. They’re cut from the woodgrain patterned sheet in the Gathering Together paper pack. The sentiment panel needed to be soft to allow our autumn scene to shine so I opted for some vellum. The sentiment from Gathering Moments is heat embossed in copper on the vellum and then diecut with the medium-sized banner in the Stylish Shapes set. It’s mounted over some Mossy Meadow & gold ribbon. And we finish things off with a touch of copper & gold in our Cajun Craze & Gold dots.

Tune in tomorrow as we take a stroll through the autumn meadow.

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Autumn

Celebrate Fall

This week, we’re exploring our fall-themed crafty stash as we create our projects. And today, the Gathering Together suite is taking center stage. Because I’m a little pressed for time today, I decided to make things a lot simpler by using a sketch to get started. So I’m using Sketch #5 from the recent SU! Craft-a-Long, which takes the cards on page 42 of the Holiday Mini Catalog and turns them into versatile sketches.

Screenshot

Sketch #5 is the perfect way to use a few scraps of patterned paper and allows for an easy diecut focal point. Here we start with a base of white cardstock, which isn’t visible on the card front itself. A sheet of the white woodgrain pattern from the Country Woods paper pack. A sheet of the lovely Gathering Together paper serves as the backdrop for all of our focal elements. The Cajun Craze leaf pattern is the background panel, while the plaid and foliage strips provide the grounding for the focal leaf element. The leaf is cut from a combination of Gathering Together and Country Woods papers using the Gathering Moments die. To help the pattern leaf stand out against the busy background, I used a darker woodgrain-patterned leaf to provide the shadowing, which really brings out the brown details of the pattern nicely. The sentiment from the Simply Said stamp set is heat embossed in copper and then adhered over gold cording with dimensionals. Some Cajun Craze & Gold dots are scattered around the card front to provide the perfect pops of twinkly color.

Tune in tomorrow to see some more autumn inspiration!

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Botanicals

Golden Sentiment

Happy midweek, friends! This week we’re exploring a fun design theme – all that glitters is gold. And we’re using all kinds of golden crafty goodies, new and old, to create our projects. Today’s clean and simple design uses a die negative as the star of the show and combines some Gathering Together products with the Sentimental Framing stamps.

We get started with a neutral base of Very Vanilla cardstock. Our focal panel is the backdrop of our card front and combines a sheet of the Gathering Moments paper pack with some gold textured metallic paper. The largest leaf die from the Gathering Moments die set provides our negative that allows that beautiful gold focal image to take center stage. Our sentiment from the Sentimental Framing stamp set is stamped in Early Espresso and then cut out with the Stylish Shapes banner die using the extension method. I really love the play on words with this sentiment and the negative space of this card design – it really couldn’t have worked out more perfectly! The sentiment is adhered at the bottom-third of the card with dimensionals over a double twist of Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon. We finish things off with some green Traditional Sparkling sequins – a perfect way to tie it all together.

I’ll be bringing you some more shiny goodness tomorrow. I hope you’ll drop in and check it out!

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birthday

Cheers to Birthdays!

So sorry to disappear on you yesterday. By the time our day wound down and I got yesterday’s card finished, it was far too dark to take a photo that would do the project any justice.

This week, we’re restocking the birthday card stash by using a variety of products in the crafty stash. We’re pairing up the Label Me Grateful and Gathering Moments dies for today’s card. This design is inspired by a card that I saw on The Crafty O ink Pen over on Insta. And I must say that one of my favorite things about using inspiration is seeing how much or how little you can see the inspiration behind the design once it’s finished. And just for funsies, today I’m gonna show the two side-by-side and you tell me. Can you see it?

What drew me to the inspiration design to start with is our Luv 2 Stamp monthly team challenge bingo card – with one square being to design a fall card. And I figured what better way to kill two birds with one stone than to adapt this super beautiful fall inspiration design to fit the birthday design theme for this week. And one of the first obstacles I had to face was the color palette because I was completely out of my preferred base color of Crushed Curry and had to search for a suitable substitute that would work with the vision I had for the end result. I must admit that the new In Color Darling Duckling is NOT a favorite of mine. And if I’m being completely honest, I pretty much hate it because it has too much green and reminds me of … well, I’ll just say that I prefer not to say and let your mind wander. BUT I decided to give it a try here because I figured this would be the best context in which I ever could potentially use the few sheets of Darling Duckling I have in the stash. And from there, I worked to choose colors and elements that tamed the duck and let thoughts of fall shine.

So we get started with a base of Darling Duckling. I cut an extra quarter panel for the focal panel backdrop and cut it down using the largest Textured Notes die and then machine embossed it with the Forever Plaid embossing folder. This panel is matted with Peach Pie glimmer paper from the In Color pack. We move on to cutting our smaller detail elements with the Label Me Grateful dies using a combination of Cajun Craze, Crumb Cake, and the peach end of a sheet of Pastel Ombre glimmer paper. To really hit home with the fall theme, the center sentiment is matted by a large oak leaf cut from Peach Pie glimmer paper using the Gathering Moments die. It’s adhered a little askew in the center of the card and then the smaller fall foliage elements are tucked around on each side in opposing corners and held with strips of tear-n-tape. The sentiment is broken into two distinct but complimentary sections. The first part of the sentiment is from the Scenic Adventure set and is stamped in Early Espresso on white and then cut with the smallest banner die from the Stylish Shapes set. Birthday is stamped on a scrap of white, also in espresso, and then hand cut with paper snips. Both portions are affixed to the center of the card over some gold striped ribbon using several layers of dimensionals. We finish things off with a scattering of Cajun Craze dots and gold drusy embellishments.

This card is one big, fun, fall celebration. I just couldn’t be more pleased with how this morphed into one big sparkly birthday party in an envelope! I hope you’ll drop by tomorrow to see what other fun goodies we can pair together.

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birthday

Falling for Birthdays

After a long day at the office, I alllllllmost pulled a skip for today. But I found some inspiration over at The Crafty Carrot that pulled me out of my dog-tired slump and I managed to pull together this super cute variation of the inspo card.

This week, we’re working on restocking the birthday card stash by pulling together goodies from the stash. Today we’re using another combination of new and old with the Gathering Together products and With You in Mind stamp set.

We get started with a base of Mossy Meadow cardstock. Two patterns from the Gathering Together patterned paper pack work together to create our backdrop. I chose the large birthday sentiment from the With You in Mind stamp set and cut a circle from Whisper White cardstock using the Spotlight on Nature dies to create the panel. The largest leaf from the Gathering Moments stamp set is stamped on either side of the sentiment. The panel is adhered in the center of the card with dimensionals. And then a collection of leaves from the stamp set is stamped onto white using a combination of Mossy Meadow and Old Olive inks and then diecut with the coordinating Gathering Moments dies. A few acorns are stamped on Crumb Cake and then diecut with the coordinating die. The leaves and acorns are tucked around the sentiment panel. A festive bow of gold striped mesh ribbon is placed at the top to hug the birthday sentiment. We finish things off with a few Cajun Craze & Gold dots for a pop of eye-catching color.

This design is super easy to replicate and would be great for a guy or gal in your life. I love having neutral designs like this in the stash to make it easy to grab one, write a note, and drop it in the mail on the fly. Tune in tomorrow to see what combination we’ll be using next!

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Holiday Mini Catalog · Holidays

From Our House

It’s hard to believe that we’re already quickly approaching the weekend. It’s been a super busy week, so it’s really just flying by. I’m gonna need two weekends just to recover. *ha!* So have you gotten to check out all the new goodies that launched yesterday? Which ones are your must-haves? I’m looking forward to playing around more with my faves from the new Holiday Mini catalog & the new Online Exclusives. And since it’s craft show season, I’ll have even more reasons to be in the craft room creating fun new projects!

This week, we’re getting a look at some of the must-haves that I got from the new release. And we’re using the new products to create clean & simple holiday cards. Today’s card combines the Joyful Days Memories & More cards with the Christmas Greenery Dies and the Gathering Together patterned paper to create a design that extends well beyond the traditional Christmas holidays. With the more masculine, neutral color palette, you can easily use this design from fall through winter. And that’s a design I can get behind!

We start with a base of Cherry Cobbler cardstock to tie with the subtle striping in our focal panel plain backdrop. I chose a sheet of the striped foiled Old Olive paper from the Gathering Together paper pack as the full-panel backdrop. It coordinates perfectly with the Joyful Days card that serves as our focal panel background. The evergreen branches are cut from gold foil specialty paper using the Christmas Greenery dies and are tied together with some (now retired) Cherry Cobbler & Gold satin ribbon. The sentiment is from the Greetings for You ephemera pack and is mounted on a small panel of gold & white foiled grid paper from the Nature’s Sweetness paper pack and cut using the Traditional Labels dies. I added some dimensionals behind the sentiment and then behind the full panel when adhering over the greenery to be sure they catch the eye. Some extra sparkle from the traditional sparkling sequins add the perfect coordinating gold finish.

Tomorrow we’re headed to the trees … the Christmas trees. I hope you’ll drop by and check out O Tannenbaum!

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Coming Soon · Gathering Together · Online Exclusives

Give Thanks

Happy rainy Saturday, crafty friends. Here in N. Texas, it’s the perfect day to spend in the craft room as we sit and enjoy a cup of tea while listening to the pitter-patter of the raindrops falling and soft (or not-so-soft) rumbles of thunder.

We’re rounding out our design series this week which has featured sneak peeks of upcoming Online Exclusive releases of Gathering Together and Beautiful Pumpkins that will be live in my shop on Tuesday! Today, we’re using the Gathering Together suite to create a lovely home decor project. If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you have maybe seen a post or two here and there about our family table prayers. And today’s featured project is a fall refresh for our framed prayer.

I’m continuing to use the 6×6 tabletop frame I bought off Amazon. I used a sheet of the Gathering Together patterned paper as the backdrop and cut it down to 6×6 to fit in the frame. Everything gets started with the selected scripture we’re using as the prayer. I used my computer to type it up and print it onto Crumb Cake cardstock and then cut it out using the Spotlight on Nature dies. It’s adhered in the center with dimensionals. Using the Gathering Moments stamps, I stamped both large and small leaves in a variety of colors onto Very Vanilla cardstock and then used the coordinating dies to cut them out. I also stamped some fronds of greenery and acorns onto Crumb Cake cardstock then diecut them with the coordinating dies from Gathering Moments set. I arranged these around the circular sentiment panel to create a wreath and adhered them all at varying heights with a combination of tear-n-tape and dimensionals. For some pops of sparkle, I cut some leafy fronds from gold foil paper and Old Olive glimmer paper using the Peace on Earth dies (another Tuesday release) and tucked them in and around the fall foliage wreath. I added a small bow of Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon at the top and finished things off with a few Cajun Craze foil dots.

What do you think? All in all, this comes together really quickly. It’s really striking in person, and I’m super pleased with how this turned out. I think I’m going to make a few more to display in my booth at an upcoming craft show.

Next week, we’re going to jump ahead just a little and have a Christmas sneak peek as I show you some fabulous goodies that will be available to you in Tuesday’s release. I hope you’ll drop in and see what’s in store!

Products used in today’s project:
6×6 frame
Very Vanilla, Crumb Cake cardstock
Gathering Together (coming Tues), Old Olive glimmer (retired), gold foil DSP
Gathering Moments stamps & dies (coming Tues)
Peace on Earth (coming Tues), Spotlight on Nature dies
Mossy Meadow & gold ribbon
Cajun Craze foil dots (coming Tues)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Beautiful Pumpkins · Coming Soon · Gathering Together · Online Exclusives

Height of Friendship

Happy Friday, everybody! I’m super excited to be (legitimately) wearing long sleeves & pants today as we’ve had our first major cool front of the season push through here in N. Texas. We’re not expected to get out of the 80s today. And if you’re at all familiar with Texas in August, well, this is quite a treat!

It’s definitely feeling like fall here which makes this week’s card theme all the more apropos. We’re working with the new Online Exclusive suite by Stampin’ Up! called Gathering Together. And once again, we’re pairing it up with the new Beautiful Pumpkins bundle to create a fun fall card design. All of the new products are set to drop on Tuesday, and everything is really and truly a must see!

Today’s card gets started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. I chose a sheet of the woodgrain pattern from the Gathering Together paper pack as the background for this design. The Beautiful Pumpkins stamps and dies create our focal image section. The pumpkins are stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock and cut with the coordinating dies. I decided to the use the Season of Elegance sheet for the vines and leaves because I loved the little touch of shimmery gold peeking out between the stacked pumpkins. The stem is cut from Crumb Cake and a lovely bow of gold trim sits atop the heap of gourds. Just for funsies, I added a mushroom from the Gathering Moments bundle that I had leftover from earlier this week to add a fun and whimsical detail at the bottom of the tower. The sentiment from Beautiful Pumpkins is stamped on Crumb Cake and diecut with the Mixed Labels die using the extension method. It sits atop some Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon, which helps tie all of our focal elements together. We finish things off with some Shades of Green hexagons.

Tomorrow we’ll be finishing off this week’s series of sneak peeks at the upcoming fall products release. I hope you’ll drop in and see how we finish things off….it’s sure to be a showstopper!

Products used in today’s card:
Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla cardstock
Gathering Together (coming Tues), Season of Elegance DSP
Beautiful Pumpkins bundle (coming Tues)
Gathering Moments bundle (coming Tues)
Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon, gold trim
Shades of Green hexagons
Dimensionals
Adhesives

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