Christmas · No Stamp Design

No Stamp Merry Merry

Well, how do you do? Isn’t that the appropriate thing to say when you’re meeting a stranger….. I kinda feel like a stranger at this point. I just need a little break because I was feeling overwhelmed trying to keep all of the balls in the air. Do you ever feel that way? It’s perfectly normal. And knowing what you need to recenter is key. I knew I needed to put a few balls back in the basket for a little bit.

Now that life is a little more manageable, I’m diving back in. And I am SO excited because it’s time to gear up and make my Christmas cards. Although I’ve taken a break from social media for the last month, I haven’t been away from the craft room. And I learned some nifty new tricks as I was prepping for a big Christmas craft faire and look forward to sharing the new giftie fun folds I have in the repertoire! But this week we’re keeping things simple.

Today we’re getting started with a no-stamp holiday card design because y’all, I’m behind on my own Christmas cards! EEK! So I need some designs that I can turn out quickly. And today’s card combines some of my current faves in the holiday-ish crafty stash — with SU!’s Traditions of Christmas and Season of Elegance paired up with ephemera and pops of gold foil for support. You’re going to love how easy this is!

We get started with a nice neutral background of white cardstock. A sheet of the beautiful Real Red Season of Elegance gold foiled paper serves as our background. The focal section is a combination of what I like to call and artsy panel element and a sentiment. The artsy panel has a background of the white and gold foiled graph pattern from the Regal Distressed Patterns paper pack, a mat of gold foil, and the pièce de résistance — the poinsettia & mixed greenery patterned sheet from the Traditions of Christmas paper pack. This whole panel is elevated with dimensionals to really give it that piece-of-art feeling. I chose a simple sentiment — the round merry & bright panel — from the Greetings for You ephemera pack as the compliment and placed it in the bottom-left corner of the artsy panel, putting it just a tick above our patterned panel. We finish things off with a box of Real Red shiny ribbon & some of the Pool Party Traditional Sparkling sequins.

Isn’t this just a stunner? Super easy and oh-so elegant! I hope you’ll pop in this week to see what other quick & easy holiday cards I come up with!

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Thankful

Gratefulness Knocking

Howdy, everyone, and Happy Veterans’ Day to all who serve or have served in the US Armed Forces. We are ever so thankful for your faithful and dedicated service to this great nation. It is so easy for us to sit in the comfort of our daily lives, forgetting those who make it all possible and who serve without asking anything in return. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you!

And that brings us to this week’s design theme — gratitude. We’re using our crafty goodies to create designs that allow us to express our thanks and gratitude. Today’s clean and simple design combines the Country Woods paper and some of the foliage dies, like Label Me Grateful and Gathering Moments, to create our door of gratitude.

Our design gets start with a simple and neutral background of white cardstock. A panel of the white woodgrain pattern from the Country Woods paper pack serves as the wall in which our door is affixed. We create our door from a nice woodgrain from the Country Woods pack using one of the larger dies from the Everyday Arches set. The door is affixed to our background panel with dimensionals to give a sense of realism. We create our fall foliage spray using a combination of foliage dies and images, including Label Me Grateful and Gathering Moments, and cut them from fall colors of Cajun Craze and copper specialty paper. We tie our spray together with some Timid Tiger ribbon. The small sentiment under the spray is a portion of a sentiment in the Sentimental Framing set stamped in Early Espresso on Crumb Cake and then diecut with the smallest Traditional Labels die. A few Cajun Craze & gold dots finish things off with a spot of colorful twinkle.

As we make our designs together this week, do you have folks in mind to receive your gratitude cards? I have a few folks who immediately jump to mind and plan to put some happy mail in the box. I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see what products might get put together next for the special recipient I have in mind.

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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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Online Exclusives · Words of Beauty

Appreciate You

Happy Saturday, friends! It’s been a busy day here as we’ve made preparations for our first deep cold snap of the season. And in true Texas fashion, that means that today was hot and sunny! *snicker*

Today we’re rounding out our trekking through the outdoors series. And what a fun opportunity to make another card combining old and new with Nests of Winter, Elegant Pine Snowflakes, and Words of Beauty.

We start with a sheet of Pretty Peacock as our card base. A sheet of the Elegant Pine Snowflakes is the perfect backdrop for our tufted titmouse pair from the Nests of Winter paper pack. Circles of Regal Distressed Patterns and Earthen Tone Metallic help our feathered friends really shine. The circles are cut with the Spotlight on Nature dies and then the birds are adhered on top with dimensionals. The sentiment from Words of Beauty are heat embossed in copper on white paper and then cut with the banner die from the coordinating die set. The sentiment panel is adhered over Pretty Peacock and gold ribbon with dimensionals. And we finish things off with a touch of copper sparkle with the drusy embellishments across the front.

Next we’re going to be in thankful mode before turning our thoughts to the Christmas holidays. I hope you’ll drop by and see all the ways you can share thankfulness next week!

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Words of Beauty

Great Friend

Happy Friday, everyone! This felt like both the longest and shortest week on record. I’m not quite sure how that happens, but that’s where we are. Needless to say, I’m ready for the weekend and an opportunity to unwind.

Today is clean & simple Friday as we continue our trek through our crafting stash to create outdoorsy designs. And today’s card comes together in a jiffy with the help of the new Words of Beauty stamp set and the Nests of Winter patterned paper. Let’s check it out.

Today’s clean and simple card gets started with a base of Pretty Peacock cardstock. I cut down the one sheet wonder from Nests of Winter into panels and used one of the panels for the focal panel on this card. The strip cut to make it fit the A2 card front is used as the sentiment panel. The sentiment from the new Words of Beauty stamp set is stamped in Early Espresso on the patterned strip and then adhered at the top of the focal panel with dimensionals. A few snowflakes add a realistic look to the light snowfall in our panel and then the adhesive gold hearts reinforce the theme of our sentiment.

Card designs don’t have to be complicated to convey a strong message. And I love how this card hits you in the feels! Tune in tomorrow to see how we wrap up our series this week.

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Outdoor Adventure

Great Adventure

There is no greater appropriate post title than today’s. Wouldn’t you agree?! Life is truly a great adventure. And every day is a surprise. Will it go as planned or will something off-the-wall come up? Adventure indeed!

Speaking of adventures, this week we’re taking a trek through our crafty stash to create outdoorsy-themed projects. And today we’re getting a better look at the brand new stamp and die bundle that released this week called Outdoor Adventure. We have another clean and simple design today — just combining our new bundle with ink and paper to create this fun design.

We get started with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. I had a small mountain panel leftover from a card-making session several weeks ago using the Light & Wonder dies that works perfectly with the design I had in mind today and it just so happened to be the perfect size to serve as the focal panel. We stamp some stands of evergreen trees using the new Outdoor Adventure stamps. They’re stamped in Pretty Peacock on Lost Lagoon and then cut with the coordinating die from the Outdoor Adventure die set. Next we stamp our focal point — the wolf — with Gray Granite ink on Smoky Slate cardstock and then diecut with the coordinating die. I arranged the sentiment from Outdoor Adventure on a single block and stamped all at once in Secret Sea in the bottom-left corner of the focal panel. And then we set to work assembling. I alternated the trees behind and in front of the focal panel and adhered the panel to the card front with dimensionals. The wolf is positioned below the center set of trees and above the sentiment, giving the look that our majestic wolf is strolling across the flat at the base of the rise of the mountain. A few iridescent frosted dots finish things off perfectly with an ethereal twinkle in the opposing corners.

What do you think of this clean & simple design? I was tickled when my scrap turned out to be an even better element in the design than I thought it might be! I hope you’ll drop in tomorrow to see where else we might go on our woodland trek this week.

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Online Exclusives · Outdoor Adventure

Let’s Explore

Howdy, friends, and welcome in! Today is an exciting day. It’s new product release day! Have you checked out all of the new Online Exclusive items in my store? So much good stuff there!

As we continue our trek through the woods this week, we’re getting another peek at a *new* bundle of products — the Outdoor Adventure stamps & dies. We’re pairing up this new set of products with the Timeless Plaid paper to create a fun masculine design.

We get started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. Our backdrop is a sheet of the Timeless Plaid paper cut with the largest Perennial Postage die. The focal panel is a sheet of the Gathering Together paper cut with the Textured Notes dies. The two panels are adhered to our card base with dimensionals. We create our trekking footprints with Crumb Cake cardstock and the Outdoor Adventure footprint dies. They’re adhered to our focal panel with glue dots. The sentiment panel is a sheet of Cajun Craze on which we stamp our sentiment from the Outdoor Adventure stamp set in Cajun Craze ink and then diecut with the Textured Notes dies before adhering over our footprints with dimensionals. I used a twist of Cajun Craze linen thread to create a bundle of climbing rope that is adhered in the bottom-right corner of our focal panel. The sign post is created with a combination of Crumb Cake and Country Woods papers using the Outdoor Adventure dies and then adhered to our focal panel with dimensionals. A few Cajun Craze & gold dots finish things off with a touch of sparkly interest.

I hope you’ll pop in tomorrow to see what else some of the new SU! Online Exclusives can lend to our trek through the woods!

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Coming Soon · Online Exclusives · Winter

On My Mind

Happy Monday, crafty friends! It was a busy weekend here in the studio as I worked furiously all weekend to make Christmas-themed product for an upcoming craft show. While I made a lot of progress, I still have quite a ways to go to be fully prepared for a Christmas market. Eeek!

But I digress. This week, we’re on to a new design theme, and I thought we would continue to hang out in the woods this week. The fun thing about a general theme is that we get a lot of freedom to pull all kinds of things from our crafty stash. *grin* And I’ll be sneaking in some of the new Online Exclusives that I snagged in my preorder.

So today we’re getting started with a sketch. When I saw the Freshly Made Sketches #709, I knew exactly what I wanted to pair together — the new Winter Scenes stamp set, the Elegant Pine Snowflakes paper, and the brand new Words of Beauty stamp set (releasing tomorrow!).

I kept things super simple with today’s color palette. We get started with a base of Basic White cardstock. The sheet of white snowflakes from the Elegant Pine Snowflakes pack serves as our backdrop. Our focal panel starts with the mountain scene from the Winter Scenes stamp set on a postage stamp of white cardstock cut with the smaller square from the Perennial Postage die set. I did some light shading with Stampin’ Blends to add a touch of color to the scene and covered the scene with Wink of Stella for the perfect snowy twinkle. This scene is matted with some silver brushed silver and a square of Lost Lagoon cut with one of the smaller squares from the Stylish Shapes die set. The sentiment panel is a smaller banner cut from white cardstock using the Stylish Shapes dies. The sentiment from the *new* Words of Beauty stamp set is stamped in Pretty Peacock and then flanked with some silver drusy embellishments before being adhered on the back of the winter mountain scene panel. The full panel is adhered in the bottom-left corner with dimensionals.

Super simple but oh-so stunning, don’t you think? I hope you’ll tune in tomorrow to see where our trek in the woods takes us!

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Autumn · Autumn Trees

I’m Here

Welcome in on this beautiful Saturday, friends! It’s a stunning day here in North Texas as we’re getting our first real taste of fall weather this weekend. The sun is shining, the air is crisp, the leaves are just beginning to turn. It’s my time of year!

And speaking of fall, we’re closing out this week’s design series where we’ve been using the new Autumn Trees bundle by Stampin’ Up! to create this week’s projects. Today’s super clean & simple card design is inspired by all of the silhouette cards I’ve been seeing lately. It’s such a simple design technique, but it really does pack a punch!

So our design gets started today with a base of Secret Sea cardstock. This is the perfect blend of a blackish-blue that really brings out the moodiness in our beautiful backdrop from the Everyday Skies paper pack. We often see both sunrises and sunsets a lot like this scene, where it’s bright & beautiful and casts the perfect light for silhouettes. And here, our mighty oak and pair of deer are silhouetted by our beautiful sunset on the open prairie. To create this effect, we use the Autumn Trees dies to cut the shapes from black cardstock and then adhere them to our backdrop with dimensionals. I love how this accentuates the shadowing in our scene. The sentiment from the Beautiful Butterflies stamp set is heat embossed in black in top-right corner of our card and we flank the sentiment with some Secret Sea faceted shimmer dots as a finishing touch.

What do you think of this super easy design? I’m going to have to remember the silhouette technique more often with beautiful scene-building sets like this one! I hope you’ve enjoyed this week’s series. I look forward to spending a little more time in the woods next week as we feature some of the new sets that will go live on Tuesday!

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Autumn · Autumn Trees

Autumn Birthday Wishes

Happy Friday, friends! I don’t know about you but I can’t believe that we’re already at the end of October. The last part of the year always feels like it’s on fast forward.

We are continuing our design series for this week using the new Autumn Trees bundle by Stampin’ Up! And today we’re really letting the stamps take center stage in this beautiful masculine design, where we’re pairing our featured bundle with designer series paper and several die sets.

We get started with a base of Crumb Cake cardstock. A sheet of the neutral dot-patterned paper from the Gathering Together paper pack serves as our focal panel backdrop. I stamped the focal panel scene on white cardstock before diecutting it with the largest die from the Branching Out set. I used most of the stamps from the Autumn Trees stamp set to create our tranquil scene and then shaded everything with ink and blending brushes. I love the soft look that this lends. Our deer is stamped on Crumb Cake and then diecut with the coordinating die from the Autumn Trees set and adhered with dimensionals to give some depth to our scene. The sentiment from the 12 Days of Crafting Advent Calendar is stamped on Crumb Cake and then diecut with the Stylish Shapes banner die using the extension method to get the perfect length. The sentiment is adhered with dimensionals over linen thread that is wrapped around the focal panel. And we finish things of with gold iridescent foil dots in opposing corners for a touch of twinkle.

We’ll be wrapping up our autumn series tomorrow. I hope you’ll drop in and see what’s in store!

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