Tag: Stampin' Up

Coming Soon · Gathering Together · Online Exclusives

Heartfelt Gratitude

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It’s another bright & shiny week. Are you ready for it? We enjoyed a nice weekend of family time. It’s always a great start to the week coming off a solid family-togetherness weekend. And with a teenager in the house, I’ll take as many of those as I’m given! *wink*

We’re starting a new design series this week and another week of Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini catalog sneak peeks. This week, we’ll be working with a new Online Exclusive suite called Gathering Together. The suite includes some beautiful foiled fall-inspired paper, coordinating stamps & dies, an embossing folder, linen twine, and embellishments. I personally chose products from this suite because they pair beautifully with other current products, like the Season of Elegance paper pack and Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon.

I used a clean and simple card sketch to turn out this beauty. We get started with a base of Early Espresso cardstock. I cut a piece of the foiled leaf paper from the Gathering Together paper pack to serve as the backdrop for the focal panel in the center. The sentiment from the Gathering Moments stamp set serves as our focal point and is stamped in Cajun Craze on a piece of Very Vanilla cardstock that is diecut with the Traditional Labels dies. I cut a second panel from gold specialty paper, cut it in half, and mounted it behind the sentiment panel as a mat. The two leaves from Gathering Moments are stamped in Cajun Craze & Mossy Meadow on two different sheets of Season of Elegance paper and then cut with the coordinating Gathering Moments die and mounted on opposing corners of the sentiment panel using dimensionals. Cajun Craze & Gold dots on either side of sentiment bring the eye in to the center. The sentiment panel is mounted on dimensionals over a bow of Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon in the center of the card. We finish things off with a few Drusy embellishments for a bit of extra sparkle.

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see some cool features of the gorgeous dies in this set.

Products used in today’s card:
Early Espresso, Very Vanilla cardstock
Gathering Together (coming next week), Season of Elegance, gold foil DSP;
Gathering Moments stamps & dies (coming next week)
Cajun Craze & Gold dots (coming next week), drusy embellishments
Mossy Meadow & Gold ribbon
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Lights of Aurora

Year of Magic

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Welcome to the weekend, everyone! I don’t know about you, but I had the Monday-ist Friday everrrrrrrr. So needless to say, by the time work was over and I was home, I had zero energy or creativity left for getting crafty. But I’m hoping to make up for it today as we close out our design series using the new SU! Lights of Aurora suite set to launch in a little over a week.

Today we’re pairing up the Lights of Aurora paper and dies to create this stunning fun fold scene. I’m calling this the Dutch Door fold because it reminds me of the divided swinging doors. What do you think?

Our card gets started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. I have to say that I think this might be my new favorite neutral background starter! I chose a sheet of blue paper from the Lights of Aurora paper pack that reminded me of the sky, which happens to look bright & blue just like this in our area today. The card front is cut into three sections to create the center section and then spanning section over the top. The Light & Wonder dies help us create the mountains and trees that span the front of the card. A small lake created with the pastel ombre paper peeks out from the glad in the middle of the trees. The sentiment from the Light & Wonder stamp set is stamped on the center panel and heat embossed in black. When the connected panel is lifted to reveal the center section of the card front, you can see that I’ve used the Light & Wonder dies to recreate a portion of the larger scene – a lot like a picture-in-picture effect. A scattering of some frosted iridescent dots finish things off with a little twinkle.

I think the Dutch Fold would work perfectly with similar die sets that create a cut that spans a longer distance. Think tree lines, mountains, or something similar. Would you like to try your hand at this fold? You can download the free PDF tutorial here.

Products used in today’s card:
Cloud Cover, Blackberry Bliss, Mossy Meadow, Basic White cardstock
Lights of Aurora (coming in Sept), pastel ombre glimmer DSP
Light & Wonder stamps & dies (coming in Sept)
Black embossing powder
Frosted iridescent dots (coming in Sept)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Lights of Aurora

Do Anything

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As we work our way toward the release of the SU! Holiday Mini catalog, we’re getting sneak peeks of some of the things that I just had to have in the crafty stash. This week, we’re working with the Lights of Aurora suite that will launch in the Holiday Mini. Aside from the fact that the paper and embellishments are stunning, one of the things I love about this suite is its scene building potential.

And today, we’re using the Light & Wonder dies to create a stunning sunrise scene. And this design is actually inspired by the pictures of the dies in the catalog. In particular, I was drawn to which dies that had placed next to each other and my brain just started painting a complete picture that I had to try to bring to life.

We get started with a base of Cloud Burst cardstock. It provides a nice neutral that lends itself well to the sunrise. I chose a sheet of the pink-hued Lights of Aurora paper to serve as the backdrop for the rest of the scene. The larger tree die in the Light & Wonder die set makes the perfect line of trees in the background. Can’t you just picture a towering stand of cypress back there? I also used the smaller line of trees to help give realistic layers to our scene. Both lines of trees are cut from the green-hued sheet of Lights of Aurora paper. I wanted to give the illusion of a large lake with a smaller inlet in between the trees. So I used two different shades of blue glimmer paper to give the effect of different depths of water. The deeper water is a sheet of Pretty Peacock glimmer paper (sadly retired but still in my stash of faves), while the shallow inlet is a sheet of blue pastel ombre paper. I used the Light & Wonder dies to cut both bodies of water. Dimensionals give some depth to the scene by raising the elements in the foreground. The sentiment from More Messages is stamped in black on white cardstock and adhered over a faux bow of iridescent striped ribbon using dimensionals. The clouds are diecut from vellum and tucked high in the sky behind the trees. A few frosted iridescent dots give the twinkle of the last remaining stars in the dawning sky.

We’ll be working with a fun fold tomorrow. I hope you’ll pop by and check it out.

Products used in today’s card:
Cloud Burst, Basic White cardstock
Lights of Aurora (coming in Sept), Pretty Peacock glimmer (retired), pastel ombre glimmer DSP
Vellum
Light & Wonder dies
More Messages stamp & die
Iridescent striped ribbon (retired)
Frosted iridescent dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Lights of Aurora

Embrace Magic

susanfoxbowen2 Comments

One of my favorite childhood memories is the summer nights that we would spend laying on the trampoline watching the meteor showers. Now that we live in the ‘burbs, it’s a little harder to see the stars on the regular. But our summer family trips always involve going somewhere where the night sky shines brightly. I love getting to share some of that with my city kid.

And speaking of beautiful night skies, the up-and-coming suite called Lights of Aurora by Stampin’ Up! celebrates the beautiful aurora borealis. And the gorgeous dies allow you to build scenes that really bring it to life. I’m giving a little tip of the hat to my childhood in today’s card design. Do you see it?

We get started with a base of Basic Black cardstock. I used both sides of the sheet from the Lights of Aurora paper pack – I used part of a sheet for the sky and the bottom portion is the reverse side to create the nighttime tree line at the base of the mountains using the Light & Wonder dies. The mountains in the distance are cut from Blackberry Bliss. Dimensionals help the mountains stand out against the night sky. Using the dies and paper scraps from the Aurora sheets, the clouds are cut and then adhered in the night sky. The sentiment from the Light & Wonder stamps set is heat embossed in black at the bottom of card front and a few frosted iridescent gems bring the eye down to the sentiment. A little Wink of Stella and a frosted gem create the shooting star in the center of the sky.

Tomorrow we’re going to get a different look at the Lights of Aurora paper as we work more with the Light & Wonder dies. I hope you’ll drop in and check it out.

Products used in this card:
Basic Black, Blackberry Bliss cardstock
Lights of Aurora DSP (coming in Sept)
Light & Wonder stamps & dies (coming in Sept)
Black embossing powder
Frosted iridescent dots (coming in Sept)
Wink of Stella
Dimensionals

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Lights of Aurora

Filled with Light

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Welcome back on this Tuesday. I’m super excited to be bringing you some more sneak peeks at products from the upcoming Holiday Mini catalog due to release the first week of September. This week, we’re working with Lights of Aurora. Today’s card is super simple with just the combination of patterned paper and a sentiment, which comes to live thanks to the simple z-fold.

We get started with a base of Blackberry Bliss cardstock and a standard A2 card base, except you will score the left side of the card in half again to create the z-fold. I chose a ribbon aurora patterned sheet from the Lights of Aurora paper pack and divided it between the small front folded panel and the full inside panel. I matted both in the pink to purple ombre sheet from the pastel ombre glimmer paper pack. The sentiment from the Light & Wonder stamp set is stamped in Blackberry Bliss and Strawberry Slush and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I cut the sentiment from white cardstock using the new Traditional Labels dies. The sentiment is mounted over Balmy Blue & Petunia Pop ribbons using dimensionals. Some frosted iridescent dots on either side pull the eye in and give some extra twinkle.

Tomorrow we’re going to be working some more with the dies from this suite. I hope you’ll drop by!

Products used in this card:
Blackberry Bliss, Basic White cardstock
Lights of Aurora (coming in Sept), pastel ombre glimmer DSP
Light & Wonder stamps (coming in Sept)
Traditional Labels dies (coming in Sept)
Versamark
Clear embossing powder
Frosted iridescent dots (coming in Sept)
Balmy Blue sheer ribbon (coming in Sept), Petunia Pop iridescent ribbon
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Lights of Aurora

Inspiring Strength

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Happy Monday, one and all. We’re getting started with a bright, shiny new week. What’s on your plate this week? Things are starting to ramp up for the kiddo with the second week of school getting underway, and it’s set to be a busy one at the office for me. But what I’m most looking forward to? Showing you a stunning new suite of products headed your way the first week of September!

This week, we’re going to be working with the Lights of Aurora suite, which includes paper, stamps, dies, ribbon, and embellishments. And it’s ever bit as beautiful as the natural wonder that inspired it! And if you’re a scene builder, then you’re most definitely going to love this coordinating suite. Today we’re getting started with a simple scene that really lets the lights shine.

We start with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. I chose a sheet of the full sky, wavy aurora from the Lights of Aurora 6×6 paper pack. I cut the sheet in half – and since it’s only the top portion of the aurora that shows for this scene, it allows you to make two cards and not just one! I then moved to cutting all of the pieces for the bottom portion of the scene, starting with the mountain range in the background. I cut the range using the die from the Light & Wonder die set from a sheet of Blackberry Bliss cardstock. This portion is the base on which the remainder of the scene is built so it will cover the bottom portion of the card base. I cut a shadowy treeline from Basic Black using the die from the Light & Wonder set. To add some depth & detail to the mountain range, I used the detail mountain range die and cut it from the remaining portion of my Blackberry Bliss cardstock. I broke it into pieces and adhered portions of the treeline behind each piece using dimensionals. To add a little mystical sparkle I cut some water from a sheet of the blue pastel ombre glimmer paper and adhered it at the bottom so that it gives the appearance of an inlet in the center. The sentiment from Light & Wonder is heat embossed in silver just above the mountains. I adhered the mountain details with treelines just above the water and below the larger mountains in the back. I finished things off by adding some sparkly details to the mountain peaks using Wink of Stella and added frosted iridescent dots around the sentiment to draw the eye.

I can’t wait to show you more of what this suite has to offer. I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to catch another peek!

Products used in today’s card:
Cloud Cover, Blackberry Bliss, Basic Black cardstock
Lights of Aurora (coming in Sept), pastel ombre glimmer DSP
Light & Wonder stamps & dies (coming in Sept)
Silver embossing powder
Versamark
Wink of Stella
Frosted iridescent dots (coming in Sept)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Fun Folds · Holiday Mini Catalog · Peaceful Garden

Peaceful Thoughts

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to the weekend! How is yours going so far? It’s been a busy one here just catching up on all of the things you don’t have time to deal with during the school week. But, of course, there’s always a little time for crafting too! *wink*

This week, we’ve been using the products in the SU! Peaceful Garden suite that will release in a few short weeks with all of the products in the new Holiday Mini catalog. Today we’re pairing up the paper with the With You in Mind stamp set and a cool fun fold I learned from fellow demo Patti Dolan called the Arrow Fun Fold.

We get started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. One sheet of patterned paper from the Peaceful Garden pack serves as the show-stopping focal elements in this card. The sentiment from With You in Mind is stamped in Secret Sea on white cardstock. I used paper snips to cut around the sentiment. It’s adhered to the arrow portion using dimensionals. I finished things off with some Misty Moonlight silver edged ribbon, Hues of Blue flowers, and charming shimmer gems.

Would you like to give this fun fold a try? It’s really pretty simple, and you can download the PDF tutorial here.

Next week, we’re going to a stroll through another suite of products that will be releasing in September. And I can’t wait to show it to you!

Products used in today’s card:
Cloud Cover, Basic White cardstock
Peaceful Garden DSP (coming in Sept)
With You in Mind stamps
Misty Moonlight silver edged trim (coming in Sept)
Hues of Blue flowers (coming in Sept), charming shimmer faceted dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Peaceful Garden · Sketchy Fridays

Sketchy Fridays: Peace, Love, & Joy!

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Happy Sketchy Fridays, everyone, and welcome to the weekend! Around here, we’ve survived our first week of school and now we’re sailing into the weekend ready for the R&R for sure. I’m super stoked because I just got my box of pre-order goodies for the new Holiday Mini catalog. Anyone know what I plan to be doing this weekend? *grin*

We’ve taken a little break from Sketchy Fridays for the last little bit, but I thought it would be fun to get back to it. Because who doesn’t love being able to push the easy button on getting a card started?! *wink* For those of you who are new here, Sketchy Fridays is a weekly series where we use a card sketch to design our featured card.

This week’s card is based on our Luv 2 Stamp Group’s monthly sketch challenge using the Atlantic Hearts Sketch #640. Today’s design features the new Peaceful Garden suite that will release in Holiday Mini catalog in September.

We get started with a base of Cloud Cover cardstock. The background panel is a nice neutral pattern from the Peaceful Garden paper pack. The focal panel backdrop is a floral pattern and cross-hatch sheet from the pack. The sentiment from Peace on Earth is stamped in Misty Moonlight on white cardstock and then cut to a simple banner. The sentiment panel is adhered over a bow of Misty Moonlight & silver edged ribbon with dimensionals. I finished things off with some Hues of Blue flowers. Super simple and super elegant!

We’ll be wrapping up our Peaceful Garden card series tomorrow with a fun fold. I hope you’ll drop in!

Products used in today’s card:
Cloud Cover, Basic White cardstock
Peaceful Garden DSP (coming in Sept)
Peace on Earth stamps (coming in Sept)
Misty Moonlight & silver edged ribbon (coming in Sept)
Hues of Blue flowers (coming in Sept)
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Peaceful Garden

Monochromatic Peace

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

We’re winding down this week, and I don’t know about you but I’m ready for the weekend ahead. The first week of school is always a rough transition as we work to find the school year rhythm again. Poor fella had a rough day yesterday after leaving some important papers and his school computer at home. Learning personal responsibility is tough!

This week, we’ve been working with a brand new suite of products that is due to release in September in the SU! Holiday Mini catalog. Peaceful Garden lends itself to a whole host of different styles and seasons. Today I thought it would be fun to work in a monochromatic color palette and with just a few simple elements from the suite. So our featured color is one of the new In Colors called Secret Sea and we’re letting the lovely Peaceful Greenery embossing folder do all of the heavy lifting for our design.

We start with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. Our Secret Sea focal panel is machine embossed with the Peaceful Greenery embossing folder and then matted with Secret Sea glimmer paper. One thing I love about the Peaceful Greenery embossing folder and Peace on Earth dies is that the decorative panels are made to inlay in the center of the debossed portion of the embossing folder. So I used the largest die to cut out the debossed section. And then I used the smaller die to cut down the cutout piece and create a smaller panel for the sentiment. The sentiment from Peace on Earth is stamped in Versamark and heat embossed with clear embossing powder. I cut some of the smaller greenery elements from a scrap of Secret Sea glimmer paper and adhered them on opposing corners of the sentiment panel before adhering the sentiment panel to the center of the card front with dimensionals. A few shimmer dots finish things off perfectly.

Tomorrow we’ll be using a sketch to create our card. I hope you’ll drop in and see what’s in store!

Products used in today’s card:
Secret Sea cardstock
Peaceful Garden glimmer SP (coming in Sept)
Peace on Earth stamp & die bundle (coming in Sept)
Peaceful Greenery embossing folder (coming in Sept)
Clear embossing powder
Charming shimmer faceted dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

Coming Soon · Holiday Mini Catalog · Peaceful Garden

Peaceful Greenery

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Welcome to the midway point of the week. The first week of school is always a whirlwind as we get back into the groove of the schoolyear schedule, and this year is no exception. Hopefully we’ll start finding our groove a little better next week, but for now we’re just flying by the seats of our pants! *grin*

This week, all of our designs feature the Stampin’ Up! Peaceful Garden suite which is due to release in September in the new Holiday Mini catalog. Today, I wanted to give a look at the Peaceful Greenery embossing folder.

We get started with a base of Night of Navy cardstock. The backdrop for our focal panel is a sheet of vine pattern from the Peaceful Garden paper pack. This panel is machine embossed with the Peaceful Greenery embossing folder. To ensure that the embossed pattern stood out against the complimentary patterned background, I used my finger to “shade” the embossing with platinum ink from my metallic ink stash. The embossed image has a perfect shaped portion in the center where the stacked dies from the Peace on Earth set fit. The sentiment from Peace on Earth is stamped in Misty Moonlight on white and then cut with the smallest die. The panel is then matted with Secret Sea glimmer paper from the Peaceful Garden pack that has been cut with the larger die. The full panel is adhered to the card front with dimensionals. I cut two of the larger twigs from the die set from silver glimmer paper and held them together with some of the Misty Moonlight silver edged ribbon. Drusy embellishments draw the eye down and across the design so that the eye takes in all the details.

I hope you’ll drop by tomorrow to see what else this lovely embossing folder can do!

Products used in today’s card:
Night of Navy, Basic White cardstock
Peaceful Garden DSP, Peaceful Garden glimmer (coming in September!)
Peace on Earth stamp & die bundle (coming in September!)
Peaceful Greenery embossing folder (coming in September!)
Misty Moonlight silver edged ribbon (coming in September!)
Drusy embellishments
Dimensionals
Adhesives