Designer Series Paper – ConstantlyCreating.Me

Made with Love and Sale-a-Bration Papers for Stamp with Amy K’s Tuesday Team Blog Hop

A quick-and-easy card using stamps, ink, paper, and a Sale-a-Bration item…all about love and friendship.

Hello at long last, readers! I haven’t been able to join the last several team blog hops because of an increase in the busyness of my schedule (which means I’m overbooked), but I really wanted to get back to participating, so here I am regardless. 🙂 It’s nice to be back! I’ve definitely been missing my cardmaking (and I’m still surprised by that, being a scrapbooker first and foremost…for years. LOL).

Our blog hop today is all about the theme of love. When I started looking at the “new things” I could share with you, I pulled out my Sale-a-Bration Designer Series Papers and just couldn’t put them away! I do love me some good paper. 🙂 So I came up with something quick and easy to showcase the lovely paper designs and specialty papers that Stampin’ Up gave us. Of course, I couldn’t use them all, so I’ll have to post about those later. 😉

For my card today, I’m using two new stamp sets, Garden Wishes (154408) and Punch Party (155300); two patterns of DSP from one sheet of Paper Blooms SAB DDP papers (155222); and one color of the Hydrangea Hill Mercury Glass Designer Acetate (154574). I used the largest cards in the Assorted Memories and More Cards and Envelopes pack (149710) as my card base. It uses the retired Whisper White color. (If you haven’t yet heard, the mill that made our Whisper White had to close down because of Covid, so we had to find a supplier who could make something similar. Our new white color is called Basic White…but I don’t have any of it yet myself. Supposedly it is a brighter white than the retired one.)

Did you know that you can use either side of the Mercury glass acetate? The back side is silver, and that’s what ended up going onto my card, since I deviated a little from my original plan. (Be sure to take off the plastic protective covering from the Mercury glass sheets after you order yours!) I cut the pink color of the Hydrangea Hill Mercury Glass for the left side block and later flipped it. I also started out with a 2” strip but ended up trimming off a half inch before I was done, for better proportions on the card.

I had also originally chosen two different papers from the same paper pack, but a friend and I decided that we liked the pink stripes better rather than both flowers on the card front (that’s why I flipped the Mercury glass to silver—-too much pink!). I cut and placed the stripes 2/3 of the way down the base and then fitted the top floral piece next to the other two already in place.

Side note here. I had intending on entering the hashtag simplestamping, as their current monthly challenge only allows for stamps, ink, paper, and any item from Sale-a-bration; therefore, I did not add a ribbon across the middle or dies for the sentiment (although I was sorely tempted to. I’ll save that challenge for later since I used one of the adorable Heart Charms (154282) inside my Seaside Spray cardstock heart for this card.

After affixing my three strips of paper or acetate onto my card, I then stamped the open heart from the Punch Party Host set in Night of Navy ink onto the Seaside Spray cardstock and fussy-cut around its edges, using the border as my guide. Then I glued one of the silver Heart Charms onto the middle. (By the way, these charms make great shamrocks and general flowers when several points are positioned toward the center).

For the banner, I stamped the “Made with Love for a True Friend” sentiment from Garden Wishes onto a piece of Whisper White in Night of Navy ink. Then I took my little Stampin’ Up guillotine cutter (something only demos and new recruits could get at the time) and sliced off the edges toward the sentiment until the space was about even on both sides above and below the sentiment. Then I cut up toward the middle and angled inward from the sides to make a long, narrow flag. Sometimes I like that style. It seemed to fit this card. After that, using my fingers, I just curled the banner a couple of different ways to give it a flowing, waving look. I tucked one end under the heart that I hadn’t glued down yet and added a little glue under the part of the banner resting on the card.

That’s it! Quick, easy, simple. I had planned on breaking up that same sentiment to fit inside the open heart, but I had trouble getting everything lined up and straight—twice. I decided that that process certainly would not be a quick and easy card. (Aren’t you lucky?) 😆 I’ll continue to work on that and see if time #3 will finally be the one that works out.

Thanks for stopping by my blog today! Be sure to visit my other team members below for their awesome cards! You can use either the Previous and Next buttons or click on the individual links themselves. I’ll try not to be too scarce again. 🙂

Karen Ksenzakovic: https://wp.me/paaNf4-3OO
Tara Carpenter: https://tarabethstamps.blogspot.com/2021/01/stampin-up-floating-fluttering-happy.html
Jaimie Babarczy: https://wp.me/p79UhD-4E3
Mary Deatherage: https://wp.me/p5snyt-gmE
Sue Prather: https://wp.me/p5yitZ-2mX
Leslie Larkin: https://leslielarkin.com/lots-of-heart-bundle/
Connie Troyer: https://wp.me/p8xvI6-zg
Donna Leonard: http://stampdabbles.com/?p=3890
Karen Finkle: https://karenscardkorner.blogspot.com/2021/01/stampin-up-forever-blossoms.html
Akiko Sudano: https://wp.me/paOv8E-2gS
Jillian Good: http://dyedwith.love/?p=54
Amy Koenders: https://wp.me/p2SFwf-lQ8

You’re So Cool Card (Stampin’ Up DSP)

This fun summertime card uses some retired Stampin’ Up DSP—Tasty Treats and Cupcakes & Carousels—along with an unnamed stamp set (a different maker) featuring puns (I used the sentiment and the small popsicle here). I even incorporated a large popsicle from an adult coloring book. I colored the small popsicle with Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers (Balmy Blue, Light Calypso Coral, and Light BlackBerry Bliss) and I used Tuxedo Black Memento Ink for the sentiment and small popsicle. The Decorative Label Punch was used around the sentiment (which I then inked the edges of with a Crumb Cake Stampin’ Write Marker).

www.facebook.com/339078276585787/posts/617132958780316

Red Foxes in Winter Special Birthday Card

Back in the summer, I was asked to make a special birthday card for a special friend’s son who has a fondness for foxes—all shades and types. She gave me free creative rein and said she didn’t care what I did with the idea, but that he might like a red one. I considered several different fox stamps and stickers but finally chose a particular stamp that shows foxes in a wintry scene since his birthday was in February (“300-16 Red Foxes and Birches,” Stampa Rosa).

I’ve never really thought much about foxes in my life, other than thinking they’re beautiful animals in general, so I had no idea how to shade one. Coloring is something I’m still not comfortable with, because I feel like the concept of shading is one I haven’t begun to learn. Luckily for me, the wooden stamp I was using had a colored picture on the front that I just had to attempt to recreate! 🙂

First I had to choose the right paper, though, which evidently was not the bumpy watercolor paper I tried to stamp on first (twice). I knew that, but I was thinking of using my water-filled Aqua Painter on it and felt the paper would handle it. I liked the textured look of the watercolor paper too, but the image was too detailed to stamp cleanly with the bumps in the paper. Then I remembered Stampin’ Up’s Shimmery White cardstock, a must-have in my collection. It’s not any thicker than the rest of their cardstock (other than the aptly named “Thick” cardstock in the line), but it’s smooth and somehow holds up great with watercoloring–and it’s sparkly to boot (hence the “Shimmery” part of the name). Bonus for me was that the paper helped my snow scene sparkle.

Once I had the paper figured out and the stamp stamped correctly, I took my watercolor pencils and tried to emulate what I saw on the wooden stamp block. I had to mix a few shades to get that red fox coat color with the darker spots. After using the watercolor pencils, I took my Aqua Painter to it as planned and went back and forth between the two tools a few times until it felt right (because I have no idea what I’m doing, really. I’m assuming I’ll get better as I learn by trial and error).

After I was satisfied with the colors and the paper had basically dried, I went over the snow and snow-covered branches with my Clear Wink of Stella brush marker to bring back the sparkle to the snow that I’d ended up coloring over with the white pencil. (The sparkle shows through the color a little, but I really wanted the snow to glimmer.) Then I set aside the piece to dry while I figured out the rest of the card.

My favorite crafty thing to use these days are metal cutting dies. They’re simple, quick to use, and make things prettier or more elegant than I could come up with on my own. (They’re also faster for me than my Cricut.) I hang most of them on my wall and the back of my door on large magnetic sheets or vent covers so that I can easily walk over and try different sizes and shapes with whatever I’m wanting to cut out, rather than taking time to flip through a box and take die sets out of envelopes.

For this card, I looked at a bunch of large shapes, trying to decide whether to cut it into a type of oval or a fancy square or a rectangle. I ended up using one of my new sets from Spellbinders that hadn’t yet made it to my wall (Art Nouveau Designer Series “Water Lilies Decorative Element”), because it fit the image perfectly without making me cut it down too much (after all that hard work in coloring, I hated to do that!).

I debated whether to use a SU Cajun Craze cardstock base or a white base and which color to set off where. I ended up cutting several different colors of cardstock with the frame die to test them and see what worked. The card finally fell together color-wise when I brought in the darker wood-grain paper (SU “Country Lane” DSP) as a background to echo the dark shading in the picture. The dark complements the darker orangish-brown Cajun Craze well enough while keeping the same tones. With the white base, there was too much contrast and the frame jumped out at me rather than letting me focus on the colored image. So I ended up using a Cajun Craze base but covering the entire front with the wood grain and using a Cajun Craze frame on top and beneath the white colored image. (It’s a solid piece that gives a mat to whatever is inserted into the sides.)

This particular frame die acts like a gift card holder where the center flowers are, gently opening up and holding whatever is placed in the solid middle. That took some thinking, trying to measure and cut down the colored image so that it fit into that space under the flowers just right. The opening/middle rectangle is much larger than a gift card, but it’s the same idea…though this is only one way to use it.

The one thing I forgot to do to the test pieces was to make sure they were embossed well also. (One reason I love Spellbinders is because they have awesome sections of the dies that are intended to be embossed to give it a little something extra. I miss that feature when I use other brands.) So the embossing could have been done a little better in parts here, because I forgot to take that step to make it pop. I didn’t remember it until I’d mailed the card and noticed it in the pictures. In the photos above, perhaps you can see that the center flower pieces are more deeply etched than the corners above and below them. Next time…I shall remember next time. 🙂

My customer wasn’t picky about what to say on the inside either, other than asking me to write his name and theirs in it and mail it straight to him. So I had to dream up something based on other things she had said to me. After adding fox washi tape to the bottom of a white piece and then matting the paper onto a different kind of wood-grain patterned paper from a 6×6 pad (can’t remember which one now), I used three different stamp sets and another die to make the sentiment section. “A little expression of love” is from SU’s “Painter’s Palette,” “just for you” is from SU’s “From the Herd,” and “Happy birthday” is from MFT’s “LJD For the Boys” (part of the “Happy Birthday, Handsome” stamp). The die is among those in a retired nested set from SU called “Deco Labels.”

I used my stamping platform and its grid to line up the sentiments on the die-cut and stamp out a couple of test pieces in Cajun Craze ink to make sure they sat where I wanted them. (I had tried stamping right on the matted liner paper but I accidentally got ink where I shouldn’t have, so at that point I just had to cover it up because it was already adhered.)

After the sentiment box was stamped, I edged around the die-cut with my Cajun Craze Stampin’ Write Marker so it would stand out against the white paper. And, once again too late, I saw that the double fox spot on the washi piece. I didn’t create that intentionally; it’s just how it came off the roll. I wish I had seen it sooner; it bothers the part of me that prefers symmetry. 🙂 I also added two gold glitter hearts from MME (“Niche/On Trend Foam Stickers”) in the white space of the sentiment box.

I like how this one turned out even though it tested me at times and there are a couple of things I wish I could do differently. It’s always easier to make a similar card a second time. Maybe I’ll try to do one for the local gift shop. After all, I’m not completely convinced that winter is over with where I live.

Some of the Stampin’ Up items I used on this card are retired, but you can purchase the ink, cardstocks, and other current items through my online store if you want to try them (please use code 6WPHJ2MC at checkout unless your order is over $150). The thumbnails below will take you right there…and this is an awesome time to get them since Sale-a-bration is still going through the end of March. For every $50+ order before tax and shipping, you get to pick an item out of a select group of almost two dozen items and Stampin’ Up will send it to you for free with your order! Plus you’ll also get a free gift from me. 🙂 Please contact me if you have questions.

Thanks for visiting my blog! I truly appreciate my readers. ❤️ Have a lovely day! #neverstopmaking #mftstamps

Product List

Shimmery White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock

[101910]

$9.00

Cajun Craze 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock

[119684]

$8.50

Cajun Craze Classic Stampin’ Pad

[147085]

$7.50

Cajun Craze Combo Pack Stampin’ Blends

[147931]

$9.00

Wood Textures Designer Series Paper Stack

[144177]

$11.00

Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush

[141897]

$8.00

Watercolor Pencils

[141709]

$16.00

Aqua Painters

[103954]

$17.00

Blender Pens

[102845]

$12.00

You’re Not Old…You’re Retro! (“Free Cake” Birthday Stamp Set from Stampin’ Up)

Hopping with Amy’s Inkin’ Krew for a Birthday Theme!

Hello again! It’s “birthday month” for Amy’s February blog hop! 🙂 I’ve made a card using the “Free Cake” stamp set to show you this time.

I all too often create on a quick timeline, but I had to fly at double speed that night so I could first listen in on our team meeting (while driving home…shh!) and then get my blog link up to the group before the deadline. And I had to create the card, or at least know where I was going with it, before I could do the link. What that means is that I made a REALLY SIMPLE CARD that any of you can recreate. 🙂 #simplestamping for the win.

I guess I have a wacky sense of humor. I like puns and sarcasm and slapping-my-knee funny and maybe slightly snarky stuff. I have several stamp sets in my possession that reflect this. And I recently acquired another one—the “Free Cake” set. It is current in the 2018-2019 Annual Stampin’ Up Catalog (page 70, to be precise). I was a little torn about which combination of stamps to use, so I just had to pick one and start. The good thing about owning the stamp set is that I can make the other card percolating in my brain at any time. 😉

I’m actually making this one for our team swap, which requires me to use current products in case the receiving demonstrator wants to use it on display. This is a big one for me to remember, because I have lots of retired products at my fingertips that I still love to use too. I use things up sparingly. 😉 And I confess that the one I’m sending for the swap is actually my second attempt. I didn’t like how I forgot to turn one of the radios when I was stamping, so I redid it since it may be used for demonstration. Not that it really matters. Either card is fine. I’m merely fighting my perfectionistic streak. 🙂 (And it was such a quick card that I had time to make a second!)

I’ve used the 2018-20 In-Colors (Lovely Lipstick, Grapefruit Grove, Pineapple Punch, Call Me Clover, and Blueberry Bushel) for inks, as well as our Archival Basic Black. I’m just now realizing that the Archival pad retired. I should have used the Memento Tuxedo Black ink. Oops. 😦 I also used the fantastic Thick Whisper White cardstock for my card base.

I’m a child of the ’80s…mostly. So I remember the big boomboxes and all the other fun things we grew up with. It is unfathomable to me how I could be so OLD already—like, practically middle-aged. Ugh. I don’t even like typing that. But I do love the big transistor radio featured in the stamp set probably because of it. I stamped with the radio rather randomly (with a bit of placement 😉 ) in most of the In-Colors mentioned above. I saved the Pineapple Punch for the stars around the radios on the swap card (though the first card has both). If I make it again, I think I’ll stamp the stars while I’m stamping the radios. It was a bit tricky to place the stars afterward. Sometimes I wiped off part of the stamp so I could work around the radios and not be stamping so many stars at once. (You should see my inky fingers!) I did also use a bit of Lovely Lipstick Stampin’ Write Marker to one of the radios on the initial card when I didn’t get it inky enough the first time, though that card is pictured at the end.

I had already decided to split the matching sentiments between the front and the back, so I knew I was going to put “You’re not old…” on the front and “you’re RETRO!” on the inside. That meant I could keep the front simple and place the opening phrase underneath the featured black radio, which I then stamped on a separate piece of paper, matted with a scrap of Classic Garage Designer Series Paper (the oil/gas can sheet), and popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. I chose this DSP because it reminded me of the ’80s stonewashed look up close and was also black, meaning I wasn’t featuring one color over another.

Before I glued the stamped black radio to the DSP, I distressed the white edges with my scissors first. I love the distressed look and don’t always remember to do it. But since this is a gender-neutral card and could go to men, it seemed appropriate. Truthfully, it was also because I need to change the blade on my trimmer, so I was either going to have to trim off the leftover fuzzies with my scissors or make them worse intentionally. 😂

Stampin’ Up has been asking us to create simple cards anyone can make with just a few supplies and to hashtag it with #simplestamping…so this is my first try at that. This month they, too, are focusing on birthday cards and suggested that we use only ink, paper, stamps, and some DSP…so I intentionally didn’t embellish the card further. The front was done.

For the inside, I had to add the “you’re RETRO” saying, but I didn’t want to put only the words, and I also wanted to vary how I do the insides of cards. I tend to default to a fancy-edged die-cut with the words inside and DSP scraps. To change it up a bit, I chose one of the IC inks, Lovely Lipstick, and stamped off on scrap paper first to lighten it up before stamping it straight onto the card (skewed). Then I used my stamping platform to line up the “retro” sentiment and added the “Happy Birthday” from the same set as well. I stamped the words in the Archival Basic Black again and then stamped two star bunches to frame the entirety. (For the inside of the first card, which was now being made simultaneously with the swap card, I used Grapefruit Grove ink without stamping off, and that actually turned out better because it’s a lighter color than the stamped-off Lovely Lipstick.)

I attempted to pretty up the blank envelopes as my team members do. The front turned out great with a Lovely Lipstick tilted radio and two bunches of stars near it, but the flaps–nothing but stars–gave me some trouble. They’ll pass, but I’d redo them if they were more important.

As far as that other card goes, it is not spoken for yet…though I’m tempted to give it to my also-aging brother when his day comes around. What are siblings for, right? 😂😜

The products I used for these cards will be at the bottom of the post. If I can help you order or if you need a Stampin’ Up demonstrator, please feel free to comment or email. I’d love to be of assistance. Sale-a-Bration is the best time of the year to shop because you earn free products with every $50 spent. New choices hit the website on February 15, too. 😁 You can shop with my direct store link in the sidebar.

Thanks for joining me on the blog hop today! To continue “hopping” with our birthday blog group, click the Previous button to go visit Karen Finkle…or click Next to see what Sue Prather created. Links are below as well. Happy crafting!

Karen Ksenzakovic – https://wp.me/paaNf4-nC
Jaimie Babarczy – https://wp.me/p79UhD-2xd
Karen Finkle – https://karenscardkorner.blogspot.com/2019/02/stampin-up-high-tide-for-amys-inkin.html
Connie Troyer (you are here!) – https://wp.me/p8xvI6-gY
Sue Prather – https://wp.me/p5yitZ-10K
Mary Deatherage – https://wp.me/p5snyt-7lk
Shirley Gentry – https://stampinwithshirleyg.com/?p=3927
Amy Koenders – https://wp.me/p2SFwf-dpz

Product List

Whisper White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Thick Cardstock

[140272]

$7.75

Free Cake Clear-Mount Stamp Set

[146440]

$19.00

Free Cake Wood-Mount Stamp Set

[146437]

$27.00

Classic Garage 6″ X 6″ (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[148482]

$11.00

Classic Stampin’ Pad Assortment In Color 2018-2020

[147153]

$33.75

In Color 2018–2020 Stampin’ Write Markers

[147159]

$15.00

Coastal Cabana & Lovely Lipstick Stampin’ Write Markers

[147526]

$6.00

Lovely Lipstick Classic Stampin’ Pad

[147140]

$7.50

Pineapple Punch Classic Stampin’ Pad

[147141]

$7.50

Grapefruit Grove Classic Stampin’ Pad

[147142]

$7.50

Blueberry Bushel Classic Stampin’ Pad

[147138]

$7.50

Call Me Clover Stampin’ Pad

[147139]

$7.50

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

[132708]

$6.00

Paper Snips Scissors

[103579]

$10.00

Stampin’ Dimensionals

[104430]

$4.00

Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals

[144108]

$4.00

Petal Promenade and Mossy Meadow Custom Sympathy

I was recently commissioned to create a custom sympathy card for a woman’s special friend who lost her daughter. My customer and I texted about various options and decided to go with a green theme, the gold-foil “Sending Love & Sympathy” square sentiment by Anna Griffin that you see here, and the cream-backed embossed rose image on the left of the card.

Initially, the rose image was entirely cream-colored, but it just wasn’t showing up well once I backed it with the Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper from Stampin’ Up. It faded away in the background instead, which wasn’t good for a focal piece. So I brought out my retired Stampin’ Up chalks and lightly spread some corresponding chalk colors over the raised areas on the rose (hoping I wouldn’t get too heavy with it, as I only had one of it!). I used a couple of the chalk applicators that comes with the set, but I have also used Q-tips in the past. I think the rose was a scrap from a mass-produced card. I decided to upcycle it. 🙂

Technically, I created everything else first before I started coloring the rose. I got a piece of Mossy Meadow cardstock, measured what I would need for a 5×7 card, sliced off the excess, and scored it where needed. When I was looking for Mossy Meadow DSP (of which I do not have a lot) so I could match the card base, I found this grid paper in the retired Going Places pack from last year. I thought it would work perfectly for a subtle pattern with some movement, yet not be a plain solid and still work with a busier pattern on top of it.

The grid paper was the perfect paper once I spotted the current Petal Promenade DSP. I simply adore that paper pack. The different kinds of flowers in it are SO beautiful and realistic. My challenge for this card was to show some of the gorgeous paper but not overshadow the focal piece of the solitary rose.

Since I accidentally cut the rose piece a little shorter than necessary (initially thinking I’d be going with an A2-sized card), I then had to rethink how to do the Petal Promenade DSP. But showing a little more at the top and bottom did give a better idea as to what the paper looked like. I just decided to go with it and see where I ended up. I took the rose piece and moved it all around the edges of the 12×12 piece until I found which section of paper suited me best. I didn’t want the large ranunculus blooms to be right beside the rose bloom, and I was trying to precisely place the greens as well, so that pinks and purples showed also.

I also tied a scrap of 1/8″ velvet Blackberry Bliss ribbon around the stem section of the rose and kept the knot in place with a Bling Zot. Then I matted the gold-foil sentiment from Anna Griffin with a plain piece of SU Mossy Meadow cardstock so that the piece would show up better against the DSP and match the card base.

When “sketching” out the card in my head at the start, I “saw” the strip of paper and rose at the left and the block sentiment down on the lower right. After I made the card a 5×7, that empty space of just grid DSP seemed rather empty. I wanted something there to fill the space, but stamping was going to be difficult to accomplish with the paper being so dark. I decided to riffle through my doilies and other embellishments to see what I could put there to take up space, and I had some retired gold SU doilies that were just the right sizes. I chose two so I could extend the largest one out far enough to feel balanced in the space and then layered the smaller one atop it. Then I added a half of a small one underneath the sentiment as well.

I accented with Gold Faceted Gems from Stampin’ Up, which are current. There are a lot in the pack, so I’m in no danger of using them up yet, even though I’ve used several each time I craft with them. 🙂 The gems bring out the subtle gold foil in the sentiment.

On the inside of the card, I placed a random pink glitter paper strip I had been moving around my desk (it might be from a Martha Stewart 12×12 paper pack), and then, more intentionally, I cut out a blank, flowered sentiment square also from the Petal Promenade DSP pack. My customer and I had decided to use the Sylvana Rossetti quote from the retired SU Love and Sympathy stamp set, and it fit perfectly inside the square. I used Mossy Meadow for the ink color. I was thankful to have used my stamp platform so that I could reink it if I needed to (and I did).

Some of my Stampin’ Up team members like to decorate their envelopes. I do it once in a while, but I generally forget to by the time I create and am ready to photograph and move the card on its way. This time I really wanted to show more of that beautiful Petal Promenade paper and make the card really feel special and coordinating with its envelope, so I took the time to measure and cut a section for the flap. The paper is simply too pretty to hide, and this way it won’t cost extra at the post office, as doodads on the front of the card will (unless they are flat like images stamped onto it).

Thanks for stopping in to see my work! Below are some things that can be used to create a similar card.

Remember that for every $50 purchased from Stampin’ Up until March 31, you can get one free Sale-a-bration item! They have some fantastic choices for us, too. In addition, for every $50 spent, you also get a free item from me – your choice up to $10 worth. Please use my code JJBCPS4W when you order. It’s the best time of year for Stampin’ Up. You don’t want to miss this. 🙂

Happy crafting to you!

Suggested Products

Petal Promenade Designer Series Paper

[146913]

$11.00

Petal Promenade 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock Pack

[146908]

$8.50

Gold Faceted Gems

[144141]

$5.00

Faceted Dots

[146910]

$6.00

Mossy Meadow 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock

[133676]

$8.50

Mossy Meadow Classic Stampin’ Pad

[147111]

$7.50

Metallic Pearls

[146282]

$7.00

Rich Razzleberry 1/4″ (6.4 Mm) Velvet Ribbon

[147016]

$8.00

Pearlized Doilies

[146936]

$4.50

Colored Doilies

[146935]

$4.50

Dear Doily Cling Bundle

[150616]

$51.25

Dear Doily Cling Stamp Set

[148690]

$24.00

Doily Builder Thinlits Dies

[148553]

$33.00

Gold Foil Sheets

[132622]

$4.00

Copper Foil Sheets

[142020]

$4.00

Silver Foil Sheets

[132178]

$4.00

Champagne Foil Sheets

[144748]

$4.00

Share What You Love Embellishment Kit

[146928]

$11.00

Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper

[146926]

$27.00

Share What You Love 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock Pack

[146345]

$8.50

Tea Room Specialty Designer Series Paper

[146894]

$14.00

Tea Room 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock Pack

[146895]

$8.50

Rose Glimmer Paper

[146959]

$5.00

Gold Glimmer Paper

[146958]

$5.00

Silver Glimmer Paper

[146960]

$5.00

Sparkle Glimmer Paper

[146957]

$5.00

Medium Whisper White Envelopes

[107301]

$7.00

Medium Very Vanilla Envelopes

[107300]

$7.00

Yes, Another Sympathy (a Decoupage One This Time)

A dry decoupage sympathy card using Stampin’ Up for everything but the main image (at last!).

The hits keep coming. Two more sympathies on my to-do list, along with a celebration theme for a blog hop. For these two, at least it’s a celebration of sorts, though sad now. Still, I feel muddled. My heart aches for them, so I went looking for something that spoke to me and seemed to reflect the people I’m thinking of. My “card toppers” bin bailed me out for the one I’m blogging about today. (The other, yet unmade, will focus on Stampin’ Up’s Graceful Glass vellum DSP and alcohol markers, so stay tuned for that.)

My mother used to say that I was “an accident waiting to happen.” She’d probably still say that, given the chance. That phrase came to me as I wrestled with this card. I began to feel like it was one accident after another. I love how it turned out in the end, but my goodness, the process! (This means there’s hope for me, right?) Another case of “when things don’t go well.” Please tell me you’d never know. 😉

One of my husband’s coworkers lost her dear husband last week, and it’s been such a sad thing. I wanted to make a beautiful card – part masculine in remembrance and part feminine for her – but had no idea where to start. Since I often clean or organize when I have a problem to mull over, that’s what I ended up doing, which led me to the main cross piece seen on the front of the card today.

Finding a brown card base to match the topper was easy; Stampin’ Up’s Baked Brown Sugar, a retired color, matched the foiled copper/silver/gold/burgundy/blue cross the best. I only have so many browns, and I usually use SU for my card bases since I like how the 80-lb weight cardstock stands. (I grab premade bases only if I start with the base first rather than the main image. It’s just easier to match it that way rather than working in reverse.)

During my cleaning spree, I was also looking at and putting away some new SU Designer Series Paper. So when I tried to find paper the cross could match, the blue piece was fresh in my mind and looked prettier than any other neutrals I put next to it. The blue paper is from the Tranquil Textures DSP pack in the current Annual Catalog from Stampin’ Up. It’s not a solid blue, but it it hard to tell that with the dry embossing I put on top of it to give the card some texture. I used the “Oxford” Cuttlebug folder for the textured design. I wanted something light and barely textured like Stampin’ Up’s Subtle embossing folder, but I don’t own that particular one yet.

Here’s where things got tricky. The card is a 5×7 because the cross is so tall. But because it’s narrow, there was a lot of “white space” around it. I don’t like white space (even if it’s blue). So I started to wonder what I could do or put next to the cross to take up the width. A sentiment would only be so big, as well as being awkward to work with around the 3D leaf layers toward the bottom, so I wasn’t sure that was the answer. I thought maybe I could make a decorative edge to the card front at the right instead. I could see it in my mind but wasn’t sure how to achieve it (story of my crafting life, btw). That seemed to be the best thing to try…but all my dies were too small to stretch across 7 inches. Nothing felt right. So that night I went to bed frustrated, having made only the card base and embossing the paper.

The next night I attempted to keep going on the card while I was on the phone. I should have known better. I spotted a long Spellbinders die on my die wall and got all excited because it would fit lengthwise. I didn’t think about the fact that ALL of the edges of the die does indeed cut…until I wrapped a card base around a Cuttlebug plate (so that I didn’t cut through the second layer), positioned the die, and wondered why an inch of the card base separated from itself after I ran it through the machine. (*insert facepalm here*) To my defense, I was still on the phone. LOL

So suddenly I had a card base with one side shorter than the other. That was not what was supposed to happen. Not to mention, the magnetic plate dinged up the middle of the card base, and the B plate left marks on the back side of the base, making it warped and weak. Sigh. Time to rethink. Maybe I needed to make a new card base.

I tried to process where to go next. The decorative edge thing hadn’t worked and I couldn’t think how to make it work other than an edge punch – if I made a new base. I’ve never tried the popsicle sticks I’ve heard about, to keep part of it from cutting, so I wasn’t sure how to do that either (again, on a new base). But I hated to destroy the one I’d just cut. What I did manage to do after thinking was flip the card base around (even though I’d folded it correctly after scoring the first time). That would give me a chance to add paper atop the marked-up part to hide it and also add some stability with the extra paper layers. I hoped. I also took my bone folder and tried to work out the middle bumps and crease it sharply.

Once the base was salvaged, I decided to play with the pieces and arrange them just to see what I could do. I ended up liking a little bit of breathing room between the die cut and the now-shorter edge of the card base, rather than placing the die cut right up against the piece it had just been cut from. And obviously if there’s a peekaboo die, something needed to peek through it underneath. I grabbed more blue DSP and left it as is on the inside of the card rather than embossing it for texture like the front.

I also realized that I needed to run the textured piece through the Cuttlebug again, as one side has trouble with a piece of paper I got stuck in the roller years ago. Part of the paper was hardly embossed, so I realigned it in the folder, flipped it around to the other side that impresses better, and ran it through again. Came out perfectly that time.

The trouble was that when I left that breathing room space between the die cut and the base, it was not centered once the card was opened. I didn’t like that. But it looked like I had enough room to add 1/8″ of ribbon or something else. I chose SU’s gold and white ribbon to match the cross and the browns and loved how it looked.

But then I couldn’t get it adhered. The ribbon is thin enough that the line of Art Glitter liquid glue I laid down soaked right into the ribbon. I wasn’t confident it wouldn’t end up slightly sticking to the inside of the card once it had been closed for a while. But as I told a friend last night, when a person has too much product in her house, she will find a way. I decided to use my Cosmo Cricket Glubers Adhesive Strips. I rarely use them, but sometimes they’re just the best option. They are 1/4″ strips, though, so I took my nonstick microscissors from CutterBee and cut right down one of the strips, eyeballing it to just under 1/8″. And then I placed it with my tweezers and stuck a new piece of ribbon to it. I was much happier with the inside then.

I decided not to stamp a sentiment on the inside yet. I needed to finish up and get to bed and I wanted to really look through my stamps to figure out what I wanted to say on the card. I will probably go back and add one later, but right now it’s blank.

I’ve spoken about dry decoupage in past blog posts. A reader had asked me to do a tutorial on how to do it, and I am working on that currently. I hope to post one soon. For now, here are a couple of closeups to be able to see the decoupage layers that make up the cross. I should have trimmed off the little perforation bumps more as I was making the topper, but it’s probably too late to fix it now.

The cross has several layers of dimension to it in the squares as well as the leaves, which made it interesting to put together. And the leaves are the top layer.

Thanks again for coming to visit my blog! I appreciate your readership!

With Deepest Sympathy, Yellow Flowers and Butterflies

Thanks for visiting my blog today. Unfortunately (of sorts), I’m back with another sympathy card today. They just are not ending! It’s a good thing cards are beautiful. There has to be something redeeming about this season.

I consider this card to have two recipients. It was first intended to go to a dear friend who lost her grandmother – but in my hit-and-miss-mostly-miss craft room time as of late, I’d managed to lay it out but not glue it together before seeing her at an event. So I showed her a picture. She seemed to love it and then told me to mark sending it off my to-do list. Best news ever! …And then a couple of days later I heard about the passing of a longtime church member. 😦 I sadly trudged back up to the craft room and glued it together (being very thankful I was that far along considering my utter lack of time), and I mailed it off this week to his widow. Sigh. So many people to lose lately. I don’t like it one bit. But I hope I can bring some comfort and a bit of beauty by remembering and praying for those left behind.

The card mechanics are pretty simple. White A2 card base with scraps of Stampin’ Up’s Always Artichoke (dark green) behind some leftover SU Designer Series Paper (DSP). I don’t remember the name of the pack it came out of; I just saw this decently sized piece and thought it was pretty enough to use as a focal point. Initially it was a complete rectangle, but I had thought to echo the cut-out corners in the sentiment. Alas, I grabbed the wrong punch…and then forgot to “highlight” the corner with a pearl or gem, though I did sprinkle a few pearls elsewhere. Oh well. You wouldn’t have known, right?

The two butterflies came from generous RAKs (Random Acts of Kindness) from crafty acquaintances I’ve never actually met (but I love how Facebook brings us together…), so I can’t tell you what designers or machines they are from. They are stunning, though. The big yellow one came already assembled, and I have two more like it in other colors to use at a later date. I topped the littlest butterfly with two tiny pearls as well.

The “With Deepest Sympathy” tag came from a pack of sentiments that I’ve now used the last of. (*cheer*) I got it years ago at JoAnn Fabrics in one of those premade card sections like David Tutera or somebody. Pretty easy.

The inside was stamped in Stampin’ Up’s Mellow Moss ink (retired). There are a few favorite colors that I just love and continue to use. This one matches a lot of things I create with and has a good muted, vintage vibe to it.

The stamp on the left came from a retired Stampin’ Up set called Words of Wisdom. It has a lot of great Bible verses and sayings.

The stamps on the right are both from a favorite polyclear Hero Arts sympathy stamp set. I go to it often, but it was my first time using that flower. It stamped beautifully and I will be returning to it in future cards.

So that’s it for this one, a classic, beautiful card made with randomness that pulled together well in the end – despite my missing corner. 🙂 I hope it brings some comfort to the recipient to be thought of since I couldn’t make it to the services. ❤️

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In Stampin’ Up news, we’re gearing up for the November 1 release of the suite called Snowflake Showcase. These products will all be sold separately – no bundle – and will be available for sale for ONE MONTH ONLY in November. There are two stamp sets, a gorgeous die set, little metal snowflake trinkets that are a little flatter than ones they’ve had in the past (which makes them perfect for mailing on a card or including in a scrapbook), and flocked white “velvet” paper. I personally can’t wait to use that paper. 🙂 A similar treatment is used in the Santa’s Workshop DSP and Memories and More Card Pack for highlighted little bits like candy canes and Santa’s hat, and it feels amazing! Just so pretty and a fun detail to touchable cards. Below are pictures of the upcoming release. Once items sell out, that’s it! So be sure you get them sooner rather later if you’re interested.

If I can help you order, you can find my Stampin’ Up shop link in my sidebar or at https://www.stampinup.com/ecweb/default.aspx. I’m happy to be your demonstrator and get you awesome products so you can create special things. 🙂 Thanks for considering me!

A Quick-and-Easy Thank-You Card for Amy’s Inkin’ Krew

For my second time “hopping” with Amy’s Inkin’ Krew on Tuesdays, I chose a simple thank-you card that anyone can make.

Hello! It’s time (somehow) for my second team blog hop with Amy’s Inkin’ Krew! This month’s theme is “Giving Thanks,” so I have a simple thank-you card to share today. It didn’t take much time at all, and it’s one anybody can make!

I’ve remarked in past posts how difficult thank-you cards seem to be for me to get out on time. I found a new way to help speed up the process. This kind of card always brings out the scrapbooker in me. First, there is no stamping on it at all. And second, I used a front piece that is part of a 12″x12″ piece of decorative paper from American Crafts (item # 320490) that I picked up at JoAnn Fabrics in the open-stock paper section some months back. The paper included twelve different “seed packets” that said various things. All show flowers or a type of plant. You can see another example of one here. I merely cut them apart with my trimmer and sorted them by type before filing them for later. They weren’t all about gratitude, but I did set those aside so I could reach them quickly in an effort to get them onto cards and out the door faster. 🙂

So since I knew what main piece I was using, I just built the rest of the card from there, using the colors I saw. I had a retired piece of Stampin’ Up 80-lb cardstock (possibly Bashful Blue) that I cut into two bases, using one for this card and saving the other for later. I chose it because of the tiny little circle flowers behind the orange poppies (if they are poppies). I had to try out several versions of patterned paper for other layers between them to see what looked best. The little orange-and-yellow flowered patterned piece directly underneath is from a pack of retired Designer Series Paper from Stampin’ Up. I had always wondered what I was going to use that scrap piece for. It fit just right. 🙂 The neutral chevrons are from an Art-C Ephemera Pack. It was the only cardstock in the pack and I just wanted to use it up so I didn’t have to keep awkwardly storing it in the package. A bonus was that it toned down the orange flowers and grounded everything with its “neutralness.”

It was actually hardest to figure out the arrangement of the pieces after I knew what matched. I was not following a sketch, instead just making it up as I went along. I rearranged things several times and eventually decided that it was too plain as is – no embellishments?? – so I wanted to add the Pool Party Thick Baker’s Twine (the closest color I had to the blue base)…but I didn’t like any place I put it overtop the seed packet design. And the layers were a little too boring for me just one after another. (Though, granted, that would have been even easier and faster to make!) So I placed the seed packet piece above the chevrons and left a large space for the baker’s twine to go across as a decorative detail. Thankfully I thought ahead a little bit, because I realized before I glued it down that the baker’s twine (rightfully called “Thick”) is difficult to place underneath patterned paper without gaining a large bump in the paper and awkward gluing. That’s where the foam pop-up dots come in.

I used my ATG tape gun to adhere the seed packet to the chevron piece, leaving the top portion unglued, so that it essentially became one piece instead of two. Then I put pop-up dots on the back side of both papers regardless of where they overlapped. Before taking off the backing paper of the pop-up dots, I fed the twine under the chevron layer and arranged where I wanted it to lay in the end. Then I carefully took up the unattached background and pulled off the pop-up dots before placing it down just as carefully (and hopefully straight). I tied the ends of the twine into a bow and moved on.

To bring a little more detail to the card, I wanted to bring out the little dots in the centers of the orange flowers (Merriam Webster tells me those things are called “anthers,” so I learned something tonight). My first thought was to use my liquid Ranger’s Inkssentials Enamel Accents bottle of black, which dries nicely with a bit of a 3D idea off the paper; however, I didn’t have a lot of time and I would have had to move other things to get to it. I had a bottle of Ranger’s Adirondack Dimensional Pearls in the Espresso color nearby that I hoped was dark enough to get the look I wanted without being too off-color. It is more like a lovely chocolate brown, but it seemed to dry a little darker, and since there wasn’t much of it on the card anyway, it worked out well. So well that at first I thought I had used the Enamel Accents after all, when I started writing this post. 🙂 I just slowly worked a little out of the bottle and dabbed the tip near or to the so-called anthers, before putting it aside and letting it dry overnight. They still dried a little “puffy” like I had wanted for texture.

With the inside, I knew I would be writing a long note, because it was also going to be a “catching up on life since I haven’t called” kind of card. So I just used the smallest scrap of chevron paper and glued it horizontally on the bottom of the inside. (And then I ended up writing on it anyway, so I probably should have just left it off.)

So that’s it. To recreate the card, just find one of those 12″x12″ sheets (I’ve seen several kinds now since I bought the first one), cut it apart, and find paper and string to match it. And decorate otherwise if you wish. Easy-peasy. 🙂

Thanks for joining me today! To continue “hopping” with the Krew, you can click the “Next” (forward) button to view Shirley Gentry’s card or the “Previous” (backward) button to view Linda Richenberg’s takes on “Giving Thanks.” I have such amazing team members who do wonderful work. Please be sure to check them out. 🙂 See you next time!

If you get lost or want to hop around the participants, here is the lineup of Krew members: