In the Pines

One of the amazing things about where I live, Edmonton, Alberta is how close to the Rocky Mountains I am and all of the beautiful forests. As soon as I saw this stamp set, In the Pines, in the catalogue I knew it needed to be on my first order! It reminds me of an Albertan Winter!

I used Misty Moonlight as my base and first layer. I stamped the little ‘dots’, which could be snow, around the perimeter of the card base layer. Notice the embossing folder? LOVE! It is called the Evergreen Forest 3D Embossing folder. It’s actually tucked away in the Handmade for You catty, so make sure you don’t miss it on page 35. It works perfectly with this bundle.

I decided to mix stamping and die cutting on this card. The stamped tree is in Just Jade, with the filler layer stamped off to achieve a slightly lighter tone of the ink. The wider of the two trees is cut out of Shaded Spruce card stock using the Pine Wood Dies. Shaded Spruce and Just Jade look so so good together. Its definitely a color combo I will be leaning into this holiday season! The smaller tree is cut with another die from Just Jade card stock.

The sentiment is stamped in Early Espresso on Crumb Cake and cut out with the Timeless Label punch—its looks different than its original form because the paper is only wide enough for the curved section of the punch! I love to use punches in a unique way!

The Night of Navy ribbon is from the Playing with Patterns Ribbon Combo Pack and was the perfect width and texture for this card.

You could easily turn this into a Christmas card by using the other phrase in the stamp set ‘Seasons Greetings’

Create with Connie and Mary--Favourite NEW In Color!

Since Stampin’ Up! released the 5 new In Colors—Cinnamon Cider, Just Jade, Bumblee Bee, Magenta Madness and Misty Moonlight, my FAVOURITE of the 5 colors has changed almost every week as I discover new things I love about each one. So this weeks creative theme of your favourite color was a tough one!

As you can see from my bright and colourful cards, I have chosen Magenta Madness of my favourite new color du jour! I actually had a great time making these cards as they use a One Sheet Wonder template that I found on Pinterest that was originally shared by Kelly Kent, a demonstrator in Australia. I had to make one small adjustment as our card sizes/bases are a little smaller than what she was using.

If you are in North America and want to follow this template, just trim Panel A to 5 1/2—easy adjustment! Cut the DSP starting with Panel A and set off to the side. You can then cut Panel B and divide it into Panel C. That should leave you with a final strip which is Panel D.

Once I had selected Magenta Madness as my favourite color to work with this week, I new pairing it with the Flowers for Every Season DSP was a perfect choice as it has such a fun cheery color palette. Once I selected this super floral pattern, I new I could take these cards to the Avid level by accentuating them with the All Things Fabulous Bundle!

With each of the cards I did some background Tone on Tone stamping with the Magenta Madness ink and some marker flicking. The pink flowers are stamped in three pink colors—Blushing Bride, Magenta Madness and Melon Mambo in that order. If you have a Stamp-a-ratus, I would definitely pull it out to use with this bundle!

I love how perfectly this stamp set worked to create these cards. I was able to use a different sentiment from the set on each card, making it a really easy class option!

The yellow flowers are stamped in Daffodil Delight, Bumblebee and Crushed Curry in that order. I stamped the leaves in Just Jade to pull out the green on the DSP. Some of the leaves are stamped on Mint Macaron and some on Whisper White.

I addd in Blushing Bride as some mats for the DSP and its was the perfect compliment to Magenta Madness. I decided to keep all of the sentiment stamping in black ink as to not compete with all of the bright colours in the DSP.

I hope you enjoy our Blog Hop today! You should be full of In Color Inspiration for sure once you travel around to all of our blogs. You can go back to visit Melissa or next to see what Connie has created! Please feel free leave a comment as well. Happy Saturday!

Happy Anniversary--soft and sweet!

I wanted to share an anniversary card that I recently created for a swap card in one of my groups. When I went to create this card, I realized that Anniversary sentiments are ones that I severely lacking in my giant stamp collection! The only ‘Happy Anniversary’ that I could find came from the Itty Bitty Greetings stamp set. It is actually a set that I refer to beginner stampers because it has a little bit of everything in it. The sentiments are nice size can fit in many of our punches. This is important to our newer customers because we have not had a die cutting machine to offer them for the past year. So stamp sets that have many punch options are a go to for me!

I am really loving the simplicity and impact that a white card and base can make. Keeping this white gave this card a touch of elegance, especially with the gold and bronze accents used on this card.

I ran the front panel of this card through the Tasteful Textile 3D folder, it really should be a must have in your craft room! I then cut a 2 inch circle out so that when I placed this layer on the card front it would make the embossing folder stand out even more by seeing the contrast of solid paper behind the window.

I once again reached for the Forever Fern bundle to embellish this card. I cut one of the larger ferns out of the Bronze Foil sheets and stamped two of the images, both in Just Jade ink, one on Whisper White and one on Just Jade card stock.

Happy Anniversary is embossed in gold and I added in a few of the Gold Glitter Dots. The twine is from some long ago kit that I found laying around! I will admit, I am a scraps of this and that hoarder! This was the perfect find for this card!

You could easily swap this sentiment out for Happy Birthday, Thinking of You, Hello or anything really! The card design is timeless.

Create with Connie and Mary--Tropical Feelings!

Hello my friends! I am definitely having Tropical Feelings this week as I was scheduled to be in Maui on the Stampin’ Up! Incentive trip. And while I am not there, I am still counting my blessing and feeling thankful for all the people that continually support me so I can earn and achieve these trips each year! This past year, 40 Canadian Demonstrators stamped their way to Maui and to be a part of such a wonderful group (our biggest yet) is truly an honour. I love what I do and have had the support of so many people over the years to truly “LOVE WHAT I DO”.

Our weekly Saturday Blog Hop is channelling those ‘Tropical Feelings’ and I pictured myself on a beach drinking yummy cocktails while being fanned by my husband (well maybe not the last part but a girl can dream!) So I leaned into the Nothings Better Than stamp set as a jump start for some fun cocktail cards!

What is really awesome about this stamp set (pg 91) is the variety of words and sentiments in the stamp set. It actually makes creating custom phrases so easy and fun which is what I did here with these cards.

Using the Playing with Patterns DSP was also a no brainer in creating these cards! I love the color palette and being able to mix and match the patterns made these cards come together so easily. The featured colors are Calypso Coral, Crushed Curry, Coastal Cabana, Night of Navy and Purple Posy. I swapped out the Night of Navy for Misty Moonlight and added Blushing Bride in as well for the 6 card bases.

The cocktails are stamped in Momento ink and then colored with Stampin’ Blends in the coordinating colors. I used a water painter to flick coordinating ink over top of the first card stock layer, focusing mainly on the edges (as that is all you see once the white layer goes on top). I added a couple of the Playing with Patterns Resin Dots to each card for the perfect finishing touch!

I just love the added texture the water painter can add to a background! This is a technique I definitely use A LOT!

As usual you can go back to see what Tropical Creation Melissa is sharing with us or continue going forward (NEXT) to see what Connie has designed!

Christmas in July--Joy of Sets Style!

It is Christmas in July over here! Stampin’ Up! is adjusting their catalogue release dates which means that the new Holiday Catalogue Demonstrator pre-order period began July 1st! Just in time for me to create some fun cards for this Joy of Sets Blog Hop!

I had so much fun designing and creating these cards once I got into the Christmas mindset!

I used a new stamp set called Tag Buffet. It is actually the complimentary stamp set to create the Tag Buffet project kit. I thought it was a unique set to use for this blog theme.

To create this first card I started with a new Designer Series Paper called ‘Tis the Season. It is a 6x6 medley that features the colors Cherry Cobbler, Garden Green, Real Red and Shaded Spruce. I decided to add our new In Color, Just Jade into the mix as it looks SO GOOD with Shaded Spruce.

All of the elements on the 3 cards I designed were cut by hand, yes OLD SCHOOL, as there are no dies or punches that coordinate with this stamp set. I also used our Stampin’ Blends in Just Jade and Cherry Cobbler to color the stocking and ornament.

In the card above I stamped the sentiment in Cherry Cobbler and then flicked my marker over top to take away the white. I added a small strip of Shaded Spruce card stock that had been run through the Tasteful Textile 3D folder. And the gems I used on all 3 of the cards are, surprise, Blue Adhesive Backed Gems! There are two tones in this embellishment and one had a green feeling to me so I decided to add them in!

To create the second card I used Just Jade as the base and added a panel of Shaded Spruce card stock with some coordinating DSP from the ‘Tis the Season medley. I stamped some of the sprigs behind and used my water painter in the Just Jade ink to add a spray of color. I stamped two ‘leaves’ on Just Jade paper and used one of the blends to give them a bit more detail before cutting them out. The sentiment is also a part of the stamp set and is stamped in Cherry Cobbler with a spray of Just Jade ink. And once again I added in some of those Blue Adhesive Backed Gems.

The 3rd and final card in this cute little trio features a plaid DSP option from the ‘Tis the Season medley. I flicked a water painted across the Shaded Spruce card base and stamped a couple of leaves in the same ink color. I thought the little ornament was so cute and I decided to cut apart one of the larger phrases in the stamp set to be the greeting on the card.

I hope you love this trio of Christmas Cards, I am thrilled with how they turned out and can’t wait to offer them as a class when it gets a little closer to holiday season!

The next stop on our Christmas in July blog hop is with Libby Fens! I know you will love her creations and I hope our hop inspires you with projects and ideas!