Shadow Blocked Sunset - Stampin' Up!® Sunset Coast

 Have I got a card for you if you're the kind of paper crafter that has a hard time tossing small scraps!  Using just 1 inch squares of DSP and a coordinating cardstock you can create this lovely panel to be used for a background for other elements or use it as the focal along with a sentiment!  A stamping friend showed me a panel she had made and I of course took a photo so that I could give it go myself.

 After searching around for the name of this technique I came up with Shadow Blocking but it may go by other names.  I thought it was perfect for the Scenic Coast DSP.  I had some scraps left from another project that worked perfectly for the 12 1 inch squares.  The background is a piece of Scenic Coast DSP on the B side for a water look.  The lighter color works well to contrast with the Secret Sea cardstock which creates the shadow effect.

  Once I cut the paper I adhered the squares together leaving the edge of the Secret Sea peeking out, then arranged them on the card base to figure out the alignment and spacing before committing to glue.

 Using the colors in the DSP I stamped a water scene using the Sunset Coast stamp set on a Basic White Spotlight on Nature circle die cut.  I popped the circle on dimensionals and then added 2 clouds.  The birthday sentiment is from the Balloon Festoon stamp set.

 The sun is colored over with clear Wink of Stella and a few Sunset Sparkle sequins add a bit more shine in the lower righthand corner for a finishing touch.

  I hope you give this look a try, it's really easy and you'll be proud of yourself for using up some of those scraps you've been hoarding!

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All the current products used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Sunset Coast, Balloon Festoon

Ink: Secret Sea, Blueberry Bushel, Balmy Blue, Timid Tiger, Strawberry Slush

Paper: Secret Sea, Basic White, Scenic Coast DSP

Accessories: Spotlight on Nature dies, dimensionals, Wink of Stella, Sunset Sparkle sequins

  

Quilt Block Thank You - Stampin' Up!® Stitched Stocking

 I was playing around with the Stampin' Up!® Stitched Stocking bundle the other day trying out different ideas for a class and I wasn't really feeling 'Christmas' at that moment so I made just a regular quilt block just to see.  I poked around quilting Pinterest (they are as crazy for their hobby as we paper crafters are lol!) to find a block that I could build out with the dies in the bundle.  It's amazing what triangles and geometry can do!  Once I found a pattern I just played with different colors and DSPs and ended up with this pinwheel-esque square.

 

  I pulled my colors from the Stitched Season DSP and used the Peaceful Pine plaid design as well as the floral pattern.  I used a Peaceful Pine card base and a panel of Secret Sea for the quilt block to be adhered to.  The sentiment panel is the cuff die cut from the stocking and it just the right size for the Banner Sayings stamp set.  To continue the quilting theme I used the stitching stamp to add "stitching" around the sentiment.  If you take your time it's pretty easy to line up.

    Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current supplies used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Stitched Stocking (Online Exclusive), Banner Sayings

Ink: Secret Sea, Peaceful Pine

Paper: Secret Sea, Peaceful Pine, Basic White, A Stitched Season DSP

Accessories: Stitched Stocking Dies (Online Exclusive), dimensionals, Peaceful Pine bordered ribbon, Dewdrop Embellishments

Woodland Christmas - Stampin' Up!® Woodland Wishes

   If you like adorable woodland animals and coloring have I got the stamp set for you to get started on your Christmas cards!  The Woodland Wishes stamp set is just adorable with all of your favorites; bears, foxes, squirrels, deer, birds and more!  You can make the full tree or use the single animal stamps to make you own groupings.

  So adorable right??  I had a crafting day with some some friends last week and I decided to make a stack of this design to add to my Christmas card stash.  I don't watercolor very often as I feel that I don't do the images justice most of the time and I'm also a bit impatient to get cards finished and the drying time for watercoloring doesn't fit with my self-imposed schedules lol! But I think the time was worth it here!

  I started with a Crumb Cake card base then topped it with another piece of Crumb Cake embossed with the new Textured Tree Ring embossing folder.  I know this folder will come in handy heading into fall and of course for all of my rustic vibe Christmas cards.

  All of these animals put my neutrals to the test and I watercolored using drops of reinker and water painters.  Some of the small areas were challenging to get the color just where I wanted it but I'm happy with the final look.    

  After it was colored I fussy cut the tree shape and popped it with dimensionals over a piece of Peaceful Pine bordered ribbon and the stamped sentiment also in Peaceful Pine.  I had a bunch of retired Traditional Sparkling Sequins left so I added a few of the red ones for a tiny bit of sparkle.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current products used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Woodland Wishes (Online Exclusive)

Ink: SU Hybrid Basic Black, Real Red, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Cajun Craze, Pecan Pie, Pool Party, Peaceful Pine, Smoky Slate, Gray Granite

Paper: Crumb Cake, Basic White, watercolor paper

Accessories: Textured Tree Ring embossing folder (Online Exclusive), dimensionals, water painter, Peaceful Pine Bordered Ribbon, Traditional Sparkling Sequins (retired)

Shimmer Butterflies - Stampin' Up!® Butterfly Flight Hot Foil Dies

   I've not been sharing much lately but I have been creating!  I haven't gotten into a good routine this summer so it seems blogging has fallen off a bit but I've been designing for class and some other projects so the stamp room hasn't been neglected if you were worried about that!

  The Hot Foil system has been playing a part in a lot of my projects lately as I get used to this new technique and incorporate it into my crafting.  I was looking for inspiration yesterday and saw the Tic Tac Toe challenge and when I saw "butterflies" as one of the board choices I knew where my card was going!

   I decided to play the top row of the board so along with Butterflies I'm doing "sparkle" and "ribbon/twine".  So I went all in on the sparkle element by hot foiling the Butterfly Flight hot foil die onto a piece of Barely Blush Shimmer Vellum.  I wasn't sure it would work as I hadn't foiled vellum yet and honestly have not paid much attention if others had already tried it.  If it didn't work then I would have moved on to plan B but let me tell you how cool it looks!  The sparkle is beautiful on the vellum and the gold butterflies are just so elegant.

  Look at that!!  And it's even prettier in person!  So really the only hard part of this card was finding enough spots to add my adhesive to get the vellum to adhere to the Basic White thick card front.  I knew I would have space under the sentiment label but other than that there really isn't any place beside the backside of the butterfly bodies.  It worked ok and I just very lightly dotted glue on those spots.  The corners were a bit of a problem so again I lightly dotted a bit of glue there and thankfully it worked and you can't see it at all.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current products used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Prayers & Promises

Ink: Basic Gray

Paper: Basic White thick, Basic White, Sunset Shimmer Specialty Paper

Hot Foil: gold foil, Butterfly Flight dies

Accessories: Filled With Sweetness dies, dimensionals, white & gold baker's twine (retired), Iridescent Faceted rhinestones (retired)

Hot Foil Summer - Stampin' Up!® Summer Happiness

  Need a bright, fun summer card?  I've got just thing today!  I'm having a lot of fun with the Summer Happiness bundle with all of it's cute images and many possibilities and I used it to design this card for a recent shoebox swap event with my downline. We enjoyed a few hours of chatting and card making and I got to show them the new Hot Foiling system.  I used them as guinea pigs to see how hot foiling would work in a class setting and they were happy to help!

 I was inspired by this card by fellow demonstrator Melissa Faust.  I loved the stamped strips showing off the images.  I changed out the colors using a set from the Paper Players challenge from last week. And added the hot foil sentiment using the Classic Greetings hot foil dies.

 The foil is really a fun accent and I can see lots of possibilities, the hard part is choosing which foil color to use!

  Thanks for looking! Did you stamp today?

All of the supplies used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Summer Happiness (Online Exclusive)

Ink: Calypso Coral, Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green

Paper: Calypso Coral, Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, Granny Apple Green, Azure Afternoon, Basic White

Hot Foil: Classic Greetings hot foil dies, gold foil

Accessories: Summer Happiness dies (Online Exclusive), dimensionals

Stitched Plaid Birthday - Stampin' Up!® Stitched Stocking

   The super talented CAS Colours & Sketches Design Team is back today with another great clean and simple challenge!  Our colors are courtesy of Joanne and she has a winner with this trio!  

  Petal Pink, Calypso Coral and Lost Lagoon!   I had a bunch of ideas right away but landed on a simple what I like to call a "4 square" layout.  I think I pull this basic sketch out at least once every six months.  I find it perfect for small images.  I decided to use the new Stitched Stocking bundle and threw in a bit of the new hot foiling as well.

  Keeping it clean and simple with a Basic White thick card base, then a layer of Basic White tied with a bit of retired Lost Lagoon Soft Cording.

  A Stitched Shape square die cut is the base for the 3 little stamped squares in our colors.  I stamped each one with the little windowpane plaid stamp from the Stitched Stocking stamp set (yes it's a Christmas set but I love making these seasonal sets good for more than just one season!).  I die cut each square with the coordinating die and added a little detail by running my scoring stylus around the inside of the die before removing the cardstock.  It gives the die cut a little bit of puffy detail. Subtle details like this are a wonderful way to elevate a clean and simple design without adding more layers.

  The sentiment is from the Cutest Crew stamp set and it the perfect size for my 4th square.  It's embossed in gold.  And check out that hot foiled butterfly!  I've made a few cards using the new Stampin' Up!® hot foiling system but I hadn't used the Butterfly Flight bundle yet.  The smallest butterfly was the perfect size this this design. 

  So perfectly shiny!  I used the coordinating masks to get the challenge colors in just the right spots.  Once it was die cut I folded the wings up just a bit and adhered it with mini dimensionals. I found the little butterfly is the perfect way to use up smaller scraps of foil because you know I can't throw out something that could come in handy someday!  I don't want to waste a bit of that shiny goodness!

  I can't wait to see what you do with these colors so be sure to share your creation in our challenge gallery.  Remember to keep it clean and simple; lots of open space and uncluttered.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current supplies used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Stitched Stocking (Online Exclusive), Cutest Crew (Online Exclusive)

Ink: Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, Lost Lagoon, Versamark

Paper: Basic White thick, Basic White, Petal Pink, Calypso Coral, Lost Lagoon

Accessories: Stitched Stocking dies (Online Exclusive), Stitched Shapes dies, Butterfly Flight Hot Foil bundle, gold foil, dimensionals, Lost Lagoon soft cording (retired), gold embossing powder

Flourished Fern - Stampin' Up! Fern & Flora Dies

 I was cleaning up my stamping desk and found a piece of Moonlit Flora DSP that seemed like it needed to be used on a card right away.  I hadn't used the Hot Foil Flourish & Frames dies yet so I wanted to try them out.  I wanted to see how the hot foil would look on the DSP.

  I started with a Mossy Meadow card base, then a layer of Berry Burst.  I used the largest frame hot foil die to add a gold frame in the center of the DSP.  I didn't quite it centered but was able to hide it a bit by adding the die cut fern and the sentiment label.  

  The gold frame is really an elegant way to accent the DSP isn't it?  The repeating shape in the die cut label is perfect for the sentiment from the Sending Salutations set.

 The little bitty flowers are added to the fern and edge of the label for a final touch.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current products used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Sending Salutations

Ink: Peaceful Pine

Paper: Mossy Meadow, Berry Burst, Moonlit Flora DSP, Basic White, Peaceful Pine

Hot Foil: Frames & Flourishes Hot Foil dies, Gold foil

Accessories: Fern & Flora dies, dimensionals

Stitched Christmas - Stampin' Up!® Stitched Stocking Dies

 Now that I've got my hands on some new Stampin' Up!® Christmas products I've been thinking a bit more about my seasonal cards.  I haven't done much with the Stitched Stocking bundle....yet.  I see a lot of possibilities with this fun bundle and the I think it will be a big hit with some quilters I know.  For my card today I used some of the dies to create a stack of 3 Christmas images.

  It was a tight squeeze but I fit them all!  I started with a Peaceful Pine card base.  I think this green is a great one for Christmas and I definitely plan to pair it more with Cherry Cobbler.  I embossed a piece of Basic White with the retired Beautiful Pattern embossing folder for a great quilt-like texture. 

  Next I die cut the tree, star and gift and then cut the accent pieces mixing the colors so that each finished square had 2 different colors. The "ornaments" on the tree are the little holly berries and the ribbon on the package is just trimmed from a second die cut in Golden Glow and adhered on.

  The berries/ornaments are colored in clear Wink of Stella, I added a Peaceful Pine In Color dot to the star and the ribbon on the gift is covered with Golden Glow shimmer brush.

  I partially inked up the sentiment leaving off the smaller writing on the Merry Christmas greeting and stamped it on the rounded rectangle that is the cuff of the stocking.  It's popped up on dimensionals over a piece of Peaceful Pine Bordered Ribbon.  The new mini Christmas buttons are super cute and I used one of the white ones here then topped it with a Cherry Cobbler bakers twine bow.

  Thanks for looking!  Did you stamp today?

All of the current products used to make this card can be purchased in my ONLINE STORE.

Stamps: Stitched Stocking (Online Exclusive)

Ink: Peaceful Pine

Paper: Basic White, Peaceful Pine, Golden Glow, Cherry Cobbler

Accessories: Stitched Stocking dies (Online Exclusive),  Beautiful Pattern embossing folder (retired), dimensionals, Wink of Stella, Peaceful Pine Bordered Ribbon, Golden Glow Shimmer Brush, Mini Christmas Buttons, 2026-2028 In Color Dots