Tag: stamping

Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Butterfly Thoughts

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

We’re wrapping up our week of Painted Lavender designs with this stunning center step fun fold card. If you’ve been following me for a little while, you may remember that I learned this fun fold from fellow Luv 2 Stamp team member Patti Dolan.

This time, I tried a little something different with the assembly and decided to cut one solid portion for the center and narrow bottom panel, which gives you a t-shaped panel. While getting the measurements down and everything cut correctly was a little tricky, I do like the look of having that continuous panel. And speaking of tricky, can anyone spot my cutting mistake? 😉

The base of this card is a sheet of Pretty Peacock cardstock. The designer series paper is all from the Perennial Lavender pack. I chose two different patterns for both the front and inside sections of the card. The sentiment is from the Wonderful Thoughts stamp set and stamped on vellum diecut using the Autumn Leaves die. The sentiment is matted by a Blackberry Bliss circle panel diecut using the Everyday Essentials dies. The sprig of lavender on the small step up panel is cut from Lost Lagoon and Blackberry Bliss cardstock using the Painted Lavender dies. A large paper butterfly serves as the focal image on the center panel and really draws the eye down to the sentiment.

Interested in seeing all of the designs we made this week using the Painted Lavender bundle? Check out Episode 9 of Terrific Tuesdays to see them all from start to finish!

Products used in today’s design:
Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon, Blackberry Bliss, vellum cardstock
Perennial Lavender DSP
Wonderful Thoughts stamps
Painted Lavender, Everyday Essentials, Autumn Leaves dies
Paper butterfly accents
Opaque faceted gems
Silver trim
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress.  Song Sparrow Papercrafts is not responsible for ad content.

Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Thankful for Friendship

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

This week, we’ve been exploring all of the fun designs we can make with the new Perennial Postage bundle. This bundle includes a set of cling stamps and dies that cut shapes that resemble postage stamps, and the stamps nestle perfectly within a coordinating die. 

Our Luv to Stamp Group team challenge for the month is to use designated Color Buddies. For today’s design, I thought it would be great to choose a buddy group to work with. I chose a neutral color palette with Crumb Cake, Pecan Pie, and Early Espresso.

Today’s card design also uses a new technique known as dry embossing. Dry embossing involves using your regular dies to emboss rather than cut. One very valuable tip I can pass along is that the way you build your “sandwich” on your die cutting machine absolutely matters to your results. I found a terrific article that discusses a whole host of die cutting machines and what order works best for dry embossing with each. And I wish I had found it before I made this card!

This card begins with a base of Early Espresso, which serves to frame the whole design. A piece of Crumb Cake serves as the mat for our focal panel and is embossed using the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder (currently available in the Sale-a-Bration catalog) to help soften the look and add a bit of interest. This layer is thinly matted with Pecan Pie, which helps to draw out the lighter elements of the stamped images in the focal panel. The focal panel is diecut from Basic White using one of the largest of the Perennial Postage dies. I wanted this panel to resemble a partial book of stamps. Using three of the smaller dies, I made impressions to create stamp windows in the white panel. The Planted Paradise stamps serve as the images for each of the stamps. I was careful to mask the edges of each of the stamp frames to ensure the stamp look really shone through. The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso atop a strip of Crumb Cake and then cut into a thin strip with each end snipped at an angle. To ensure the sentiment stood out, I diecut a small Deckled Rectangle from Early Espresso to serve as the sentiment backdrop. A few iridescent foil gems add a little sparkle and help draw the eye across the design. I stamped a coordinating image and sentiment in the inside of the card to tie everything together.

Interested in seeing all of the designs we made this week with the Perennial Postage bundle? Check out Episode 8 of Terrific Tuesdays to see the 3 projects we made from start to finish!

Products used in today’s design:
Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Pecan Pie, Basic White cardstock
Perennial Postage, Planted Paradise stamps
Perennial Postage, Deckled Rectangles dies
Softly Sophisticated embossing folder
Iridescent foil gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress.  Song Sparrow Papercrafts is not responsible for ad content.

Terrific Tuesdays

Beyond Measure

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

I often find that starting the design process with a particular layout in mind helps things come together faster. For me, that often means turning to my collection of sketches. I keep sketches in a few different places based on whether I saved it digitally or it’s hand-drawn.

Today’s card design began with a sketch that I recently saved in my digital sketch file. This sketch is from the lovely folks over at Freshly Made Sketches. If you’re ever looking for a great repository of sketch inspiration, you should check them out!

So this card begins with a base of Blackberry Bliss. I really love how it pulls out the subtle purples in the sheet of Delightfully Eclectic designer series paper that is the backdrop for this card. The little images are supposed to resemble a mini picture wall. The mats for each image are diecut using the Perennial Postage dies. A strip of rose gold and white striped ribbon provides a little grounding for the small image panels amongst the busy-ness of the floral patterned background. The focal sentiment is fussy cut to accentuate the word “loved” in the sentiment. Some fine shimmer gems are scattered across the card front to draw the eye across the design.

You can see this design come together in its entirety in this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video.

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress.  Song Sparrow Papercrafts is not responsible for ad content.

Terrific Tuesdays

Thank You Curtain Fold

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Today we’re revisiting a relatively new-to-me fun fold. One of our Luv to 2 Stamp team members shared this Curtain Fold with the group during the holidays, and I wanted to give it another try. The beauty of this fun fold is that it shows off both sides of a sheet of designer series paper, and for today’s card, I chose a sheet with a foil side for a little extra pizzazz.

A sheet of Pretty Peacock cardstock serves as the base for this card. The backdrop for the beautiful pleated fold is a sheet of the Tartan Foil paper, which is still available in my online store as an Online Exclusive. I love the pairing of the Lost Lagoon Tartan Foil with the Pretty Peacock because the tartan pattern really shows through with this color palette. The pleated fold is made with a sheet of the Nature’s Sweetness designer series paper and was actually the other portion of the sheet that I used for one of the Terrific Tuesday designs. The sentiment from Perennial Postage is stamped in Pretty Peacock and diecut with the coordinating Perennial Postage die. The sentiment panel is matted with a Pretty Peacock banner that is diecut using the Nested Essentials die with the extension method. A twist of gold trim and a scattering of Pretty Peacock and gold sequins add a touch of sparkle to draw the eye to the center fold and sentiment.

Interested in seeing the other designs we made together during this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode? You can tune in here to catch it all.

Products used in today’s featured design:
Pretty Peacock, Basic White cardstock
Tartan Foil, Nature’s Sweetness DSP
Perennial Postage stamps & dies
Nested Essentials dies
Gold trim
Neutrals sequins, sequins trio
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress.  Song Sparrow Papercrafts is not responsible for ad content.

Terrific Tuesdays

Loved to Pieces

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

This week, we’re exploring a myriad of ways that we can using the Perennial Postage bundle to make fun projects. Today’s design is based on a card layout I sketched in my idea book. When you run across a card layout you love, how do you save it? Sometimes I sketch it in my idea book, sometimes I save a screenshot in an inspiration folder, and other times I’ll pin it in Pinterest. Or maybe even all three if I really like it!

Today’s card is set atop a white base. I embossed an entire quarter sheet of white cardstock with the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder and then adhered it to my card front. The focal panel is built on a narrow sheet of plain white cardstock. 

The Luv 2 Stamp team is currently participating in a month-long color challenge to use pre-selected color combinations to make projects to share with the group. For this card, I chose a group of colors that I typically avoid—Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, Petal Pink. Why would I do this? Well, sometimes you avoid colors because you DON’T use them, so I wanted to get out of my comfort zone.

A majority of the shapes on the focal panel are within this color palette. I supplemented with a few neutrals from the Stippled Roses paper pack and the More Dazzled specialty paper. The Petal Pink ribbon helps build that visual triangle around the sentiment and provides overall balance to the design. The sentiment is stamped in Cajun Craze on white cardstock that is diecut using the Autumn Leaves dies. White and pink sequins are scattered across the focal panel for sparkle and to draw the eye across the busy design. Although these are not my favorite colors, I had a lot of fun designing around them!

Are you looking for some more inspiration for the Perennial Postage bundle? Check out this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays for 3 great designs!

Products used in today’s featured design:
Basic White, Calypso Coral, Petal Pink, Cajun Craze cardstock
Stippled Roses, More Dazzle DSP
Perennial Postage stamps
Perennial Postage, Autumn Leaves dies
Softly Sophisticated embossing folder
Sequins trio, pastel sequins
Petal Pink ribbon duo
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress.  Song Sparrow Papercrafts is not responsible for ad content.

Luv 2 Stamp Artisan Design Team · Terrific Tuesdays

Heartfelt Hexagon Sympathy

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

While masculine card designs can be, in and of themselves, quite challenging, designing sympathy cards for the guys in your life can seem daunting. In this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays, we made a sympathy card together. A friend recently lost his wife, and since I needed a more masculine sympathy card myself, I felt it would be a good opportunity to share my process for designing cards for those hard times.

Today’s card design began with a pattern idea and a color palette. As I was making a project to-do list for this week, I knew that I wanted to make patterned paper using the Heartfelt Hexagon stamps and was inspired by the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder in the newly-released Sale-a-Bration catalog. As I was thinking about a color palette for a sympathy card that would appropriately convey both comfort and hope, I was drawn to the combination of Basic Gray, Night of Navy, and Copper Clay. 

So today’s card is built on a base of Basic Gray cardstock, while Night of Navy and Copper Clay luster cardstock serve as the mats for the main image panel. The single-framed hexagon from Heartfelt Hexagon is stamped in Smoky Slate in a repeating pattern that mimics the pattern of the Softly Sophisticated embossing folder. I liked the look of the larger stamped pattern rather than the smaller pattern for this particular occasion. The sentiment from Heartfelt Hexagon is stamped in Night of Navy on Basic Gray and then punched with the coordinating hexagon punch. The Night of Navy and gold glittered ribbon — a carry-over from the Holiday Mini catalog — adds a soft touch and ties the blue elements together, while a few brushed metallic dots tie together the sheen of the luster paper and sparkle of the glitter ribbon and add an additional layer of warmth.

As we’re wrapping up our week of masculine card designs, I hope you’ve been inspired by all of the possibilities there are to make gorgeous masculine cards for any occasion. In case you missed this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays, you can still catch it over on YouTube to find even more inspiration.

Products used in today’s design:
Night of Navy, Basic Grey, Copper Clay luster cardstock
Heartfelt Sympathy stamps & punch
Night of Navy & gold glittered ribbon
Brushed metallic dots
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress.  Song Sparrow Papercrafts is not responsible for ad content.

Terrific Tuesdays

Tiled Winter Wishes

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

This week, we’re looking at all of the wonderful projects that we can make when we combine the Heartfelt Hexagon bundle and more masculine color palettes. Today’s card is a monochromatic design and I’m in love with how it turned out!

I’ve recently seen quite a few card designs that use this tiled layout with the Heartfelt Hexagon bundle, and I just knew I had to give it a try. I’ve seen it with designer paper, embossed cardstock, and all sorts of variations in between. I have a new pack of shimmer paper that I wanted to break open, and that’s where this design got started.

The base of this card is a sheet of Lost Lagoon cardstock. After cutting the card base, I halved the remaining portion to use in creating the hexagon pattern on the card front. I stamped the more decorative hexagon frame from the Heartfelt Hexagon set and the sentiment from the Magical Meadow set using Pretty Peacock ink to give a bit more contrast. The remainder of the panel was embossed with the Winter Snow embossing folder and then punched with the hexagon punch. I cut a strip of the Lost Lagoon shimmer paper and punched a few hexagons from that, as well. Because they’re just adding a little sparkle to the design, only a few will be needed.

To build the tiled background, I began by placing the sentiment panel first. To give it more prominence, I added dimensionals and then adhered into place on the card front. I filled in the sentiment row with embossed hexagons and then worked my way down and then up the card design from there. I laid out everything before adhering to get the placement just right. When cutting the portions that hang over the edges, be sure to retain those scraps as they’re used to fill in smaller gaps along the edges across the design.

While I’m not a huge fan of fussy cutting, this card came together quickly and easily with the scraps which meant no scraps leftover!

Would you like to see the projects featured in this week’s Terrific Tuesdays episode? Hop on over to my YouTube channel and check it out by clicking on the link below:

Products used in today’s design:
Lost Lagoon, soft shimmer cardstock
Heartfelt Hexagon stamps and punch
Winter Snow embossing folder (retired)
Magical Meadow stamps
Fine sparkle gems
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress.  Song Sparrow Papercrafts is not responsible for ad content.

Terrific Tuesdays

Thankful Curtain Fold

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Stampin’ Up! has so many wonderful holiday designer series paper packs to choose from, and each one offers a whole world of possibility for card designs. On this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays, we’ve walked through several ways to make beautiful holiday thank you cards. And today, I want to show you another fun way to show off your stunning DSPs.

Today’s card features a new-to-me fun fold called a curtain fold. At first glance, it looks a little complicated, but it’s a very straight forward set of folds that make a beautiful pleated paper pattern as the focal point. I chose a sheet of Mossy Meadow as the base for this card and a sheet of Joyful designer series paper is the mat for the focal point. I used a sheet of A Walk in the Forest for the pleated fold portion. The sentiment is diecut from white cardstock using the Nested Essentials dies. The sentiment from the So Sincere stamp set is stamped in Pretty Peacock. A banner diecut from Distressed Gold cardstock is diecut using the banner die from the Nested Essentials die set. This card is finished off with a gold & very vanilla ribbon bow and a few sequins.

I love how the look of the card changes as you switch up the designer papers that you pair together. There are just so many possibilities. The first thing that pops to mind for me are wedding cards, but really this fold will be great for so many different occasions! Check out these two variations:

You can see all of the other fun fold designs that we made together in this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video by clicking below for the full video.

Tune in tomorrow for another fun fold you can create using Stampin’ Up! holiday designer series papers.

Products used in today’s featured design:
Mossy Meadow, Basic White, Distressed Gold cardstock
Joyful, A Walk in the Forest DSP
Very Vanilla & Gold satin-edged ribbon
Neutrals sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress.  Song Sparrow Papercrafts is not responsible for ad content.

Terrific Tuesdays

Wonderful Winter

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

Have you seen this week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays? We’re focusing on holiday thank you card designs using several of the wonderful designer series paper packs offered by Stampin’ Up! I really love the suite of holiday papers offered this year and will be sad to see so many of them go in a few weeks, which is all the more reason to put them to good use as we send our thanks or maybe even some belated holiday hellos.

Today’s card features a twist on a simple diagonal fun fold and doubles as a one sheet wonder to boot. This horizontal design is built on a Basic White cardstock base, and the front panel of the card is halved on the diagonal. A single sheet of Winter Meadow designer series paper will cover all of the required areas in this design, and I selected the Winter Meadow blue evergreen paper pattern with the grey haze on the reverse side. One panel of the DSP is cut just short of standard size to allow for a narrow border around the card edge. This panel is halved on the diagonal with half of the sheet adhered to the front card panel and the other portion adhered to the inside card base on the portion that is exposed when the card is closed. I chose to use the grey hazy side of the paper for these portions.

Next, we work with the fold-over panel by cutting a sheet of white cardstock and scoring in the center. A piece of Misty Moonlight cardstock covers the front of the smaller white notecard and serves as the mat for the blue tree pattern of the Winter Meadow DSP. The patterned sheet is divided into equal sections and narrowly separated to create a grout effect. Use ribbon to make a band around the panel. You can layer ribbons to create different effects, like I did here to create a sparkly border on either side of the Misty Moonlight trim. The sentiment is cut from white cardstock using the Nested Essentials die and the sentiment is stamped in Misty Moonlight using the Zany Zoo stamps. A few white sequins provide a little extra sparkle and draw the eye diagonally across the design. This is such a fun and easy fun fold and can easily be adapted to any patterned paper.

You can see all of the other fun designs that we made together in this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video by clicking below for the full video.

Tune in the rest of the week to see more projects you can create using Stampin’ Up! holiday designer series papers.

Products used in today’s design:
Basic White, Misty Moonlight cardstock
Winter Meadow DSP
Zany Zoo stamps
Nested Essentials dies
Silver & white sheer ribbon
Misty Moonlight cotton trim
Neutrals sequins
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress.  Song Sparrow Papercrafts is not responsible for ad content.

Terrific Tuesdays

Sprig of Kindness

susanfoxbowenLeave a comment

This week’s episode of Terrific Tuesdays features holiday thank you card designs using several of the wonderful designer series paper packs offered by Stampin’ Up! These papers allow for so much creativity and variety in design, and we’ll be exploring more designs together throughout the week.

Today’s card uses an easy-to-miss sheet of paper in the Winter Meadow paper pack. At first glance, the sheet of grey haze is unimpressive, but it’s a terrific neutral with the interest of a varied pattern that affords you lots of design choices. Here, it serves as a backdrop that allows the focal elements of the card to pop. We start with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. The lovely grey hazy sheet of DSP is matted by a sheet of Shaded Spruce, which helps draw the eye to the focal elements which are set atop in the same color. The sentiment from the So Sincere stamp set is stamped in Versamark and heat embossed in white atop the banner cut from Shaded Spruce. The sentiment is adhered directly to the grey backdrop to allow the hand-tied sprigs of mistletoe to be the only three-dimensional elements on the focal panel. The mistletoe is diecut from Shaded Spruce using the Magical Meadow dies. The berries are dots of Frosted Lace Stickles, and the whole bunch is held together with a white iridescent ribbon.

I love the simplicity of the design and how lovely the green elements look against the hazy grey backdrop. What do you think about the combination?

You can see all of the other fun designs that we made together in this week’s Terrific Tuesdays video by clicking below for the full video.

Tune in the rest of the week to see more projects you can create using Stampin’ Up! holiday designer series papers.

Products used in today’s design:
Crumb Cake, Shaded Spruce cardstock
Winter Meadow DSP
So Sincere stamps
Iridescent ribbon
White embossing powder
Frosted Lace Stickles
Dimensionals
Adhesives

All ads on this site are posted by WordPress.  Song Sparrow Papercrafts is not responsible for ad content.