Color Fusers--March 2023

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Hello friends—welcome to the Color Fusers Blog Hop! I am so excited about this month as I absolutely LOVE this color combo that we are creating with this month—Blushing Bride, Mint Macaron and Soft Seafoam!

I love the soft feel of these colors—they feel like spring and Easter and I thought they were absolutely perfect for a scrapbook page featuring one of our new Online Exclusive stamp sets—Irresistible Blooms.

The base of my page is Blushing Bride and then I layered Basic White on top. I anchored most of the design on the top right of the page for something that feels a bit different but you could easily center everything in the middle of the page if you prefer that look.

I used a 6x6 piece of Mint Macaron DSP from the Country Gingham collection to act as my large photo mat and to ground the picture. I decided to add gold accents to my design so along with a Mint Macaron photo mat, I added a layer of the Fine Shimmer Paper. If you have not ordered this paper yet—you NEED to #addtocart! Its absolutely AMAZING!

 

I knew I wanted to use the new Irresistible Blooms bundle on my page so I decided to stamp the 2 blooms from the stamp set with Whisper White ink and embossing powder. I then used my Blending Brushes to add Blushing Bride ink to the flowers for an emboss resist technique.

I did the same technique with the leaves using both Soft Seafoam and Mint Macaron.

I also pulled out an old favorite die, Scallop Contours, for the amazing stitched scallop border die. I thought it was a the perfect accent piece to run underneath the DSP layer.

 

You can actually create quite a bit of depth and tones of ink by just using an ink pad and Blending Brush!

One of the best parts of the Irresistible Blooms dies is the dotted circle wreath (for a lack of what else to call this). When you die cut it on a square of paper it is actually still connected to the paper, but with a few snips with my Paper Snips I was able to free it to add a really fun wreath accent to my design. For my page, I wanted this to blend softly into the design so I decided to cut it out with Vellum.

This picture was taken when me and the kids went to see Reese play in a soccer tournament. These moments together are even more special since he went away to school 8 hours away.

There are two sentiments on my page—one is from Irresistible Blooms—I Like You and the other is from Happy Labels and I added some Gold Shimmer Ribbon underneath. The sequins are the Pastel Adhesive Backed Sequins and have been one of my favorite embellishments from the Occasions Catalogue.

I hope this project inspires you to create something amazing with this color palette! I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Color Fusers team has created this month. I am always inspired by them!

Next up on the Hop is Bonnie O’Neill— I know she has something amazing to share! You can go all the way through by visiting Bonnie next or go in reverse by clicking on Previous. This will take you to the talented Sue Vine!

If my scrapbook page has inspired you to #addtocart you can click on any image to shop my online store. Thank you in advance!

Be Inspired--February Blog Hop!

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Hello friends! Welcome to the Be Inspired Blog Hop! I recently joined this Blog Hop back in November and then had a couple month hiatus! But I am back crafting with them again! This months theme is “Brights” and I took this to mean two things—incorporating some colors from the Brights family and making a bright project!

As you can see I chose Poppy Parade and Granny Apple Green (my two favorite Brights colors) as the focus of my page and then added in some other supporting colors from other color families. In my opinion I think this is the way Stampin’ Up! intended our colors to work together. Supporting and uplifting each other. AND there is the rumoured color refresh happening so I am so excited and curious to see how the color families are going to change!

Normally I always add a picture to my layouts but in this case I wanted to share one without a photo to really help you focus in on the design.

I cut six swatches of DSP from the host stack of DSP Flowers & More in the brightest patterns I could find (I also used some from the retired stack from last years annual catalogue). Sometimes it is intimidating to know how to craft with these bright colors and patterns. So paring them down to smaller segments I find often works best. All of these panels are 3 x 4 so you can also get a lot out of one sheet of DSP.

I decided to use three stamp sets to add to my page design, Happy Labels and Love for You. This was my first time crafting with the Brushed Bouquet bundle and I really love the shape and design of the flowers. I always love when a stamp set has multiple sizes of flowers.

The multi stripped piece of DSP was the anchor for my page design as it let me bring in all the different colors. It is very bright and fun! I wanted to add it to the top left of my page to create a little vignette and having this pattern in the bottom right corner helps your eye look around the page.

I stamped out 3 different flowers and use the leaf dies to embellish the sentiment. The sentiment is cut using the new Happy Labels Pick a Punch. I love how you can use one punch to create multiple looks.

 

The bright bold patterns of this page are definitely softened by the Basic White base. I think it really helps the colors pop off of the page, especially the bold So Much Love which is stamped in Poppy Parade and die cut with the Stylish Shapes Dies.

I added tons of blooms and leaves to frame the sentiment. Placing it on the right helps to balance the layout.

I really love how this page turned out and I can’t wait to add a photo to it! I think it is a great page for February, the month of Galentine’s and love, friendship and family. These are all the things I think of for February. I love mixing and matching colors but anchoring many of the details with Poppy Parade and Granny Apple Green to create a bright fun layout with wild patterns! I used up some retired products too (the Pale Papaya ribbon and gems) with brand new products to encourage all my fellow crafters to #useyourstash which is my new personal goal for 2023. I think all crafters tend to hoard a teeny bit, don’t we? Hahaha!

I can’t wait to see what Janneke Dijkstra - de Jong has designed for us this month. You can click on the NEXT button to see what Janneke has created but make sure that you follow all through the Hop to see all the fabulous creations featuring ‘Brights’!

If my design has influenced you, please consider shopping my online store. This allows me to continue to love what I do! You can click any image to go directly to my store! AND if you are local to YEG and are interested in attending one of my many scrapbook page classes please reach out! I would love to share my passion with you!

Artisan Design Team--Recency Park Suite Project

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Hello friends! I cannot express how excited and happy I am to be on the Artisan Design Team again for 2023. This really is a dream opportunity and I love the creative challenges each month.

 

The Artisan Team is split up into 4 groups and we are each given different assignments to create some truly awesome projects with to share with the Stampin’ community throughout each month.

My group is myself, Heather Thomas, Karine Lison, Sandra Herzog and Tammy Wilson!

Our assignment this month was to create with the Regency Park Suite and I could not love it more if I tried! The Petal Park punch bundle and the Sentimental Park die bundle are so fantastic and compliment each other so well. And all the add ons like the Textured Shimmer Paper and Recency Park 6x6 Paper are top notch!

I knew that I wanted to create a scrapbook page featuring my sons grade 12 grad because our family pictures were the perfect color palette for this suite. It honestly came together so easily using Night of Nave 12x12 for the background and then layering on some DSP and a big awesome photo mat of the Textured Shimmer Paper.

I used a 6x12 piece of Basic White card stock to tone down the blue a bit and to help all of the amazing flowers and the sentiment pop. I kept to the color palette of the DSP—Balmy Blue, Mango Melody, Petal Pink and Shaded Spruce. I did lots of stamping off so that the filler portion of the flowers was always a shade lighter.

This picture really shows off the Textured Shimmer paper and some of the gorgeous little flower dies from the Sentimental Park Dies. You can also see that I added some of the Adhesive-Backed Milky Dots as well to my project.

 

One of the best tips I learned from Tammy Wilson when we were on the team together is 2021 was to cut your ribbon in half (creates a thinner ribbon and releases some frays for that chabbier look) and how to tie a #tammybow

Tammy really is the queen of bows as you can see from her stunning projects.

I added one here underneath my sentiment which was created by combining 2 of the stamps from the Recency Park stamp set.

Along with my scrapbook page I also created some 3x3 cards and I forget how much fun they are!

 

I have also forgotten how much fun Mango Melody is—I think this color is having a moment along with Balmy Blue!

I used the new Cane Weave embossing folder on the base of my 3x3 card along with some coordinating DSP from the Regency Park 6x6 stack—and made a cute matching envelope!

The images on this card are from the Sentimental Park bundle! It is amazing!

This little mini card is made with a Balmy Blue base and I added a little strip of the Textured Shimmer Paper behind the first layer. The tag on the front is from the Sentimental Park dies and I just trimmed it down to fit this little card. I also hand cut out the words ‘YOU’ instead of just stamping it to the tag, just to add some interest and height. The Milky Dots are a great embellishment add on along with flowers from Petal Park.

 

I think of the 3 mini cards this one is my favorite. But I am partial to Petal Pink. It looks so good with the Night of Navy Bordered Ribbon (this ribbon is top notch).

I used another one of the labels from Sentimental Park and dressed it up with some images from both stamp sets and the DSP—you can see a Mango Melody flower at the bottom—I trimmed it right from the Recency Park paper. And I based everything on a panel of Petal Pink ran through the Cane Weave folder.

I love this whole suite! So much so that I am featuring it at my Spring Stamp Camp with my border buddy Hattie Nelson from Honeybee Stampers!

Our event is virtual on zoom—saturday, feb 25th. It includes a full package of the regency park dsp, 1/2 pkg of the textured 12x12 shimmer paper, milky dots and the full roll of ribbon—plus projects and demonstrations!

Hattie and I would love to have you at our event! I can ship kits anywhere in Canada! The event registration is $75 (plus extra if you need your kit shipped) and all the fun is shared in a private Facebook group! Try clicking this form to register! (I say try because this is something new!)

or you can touch base with me at stampsandstretchypants@gmail.com

Thank you so much!

I hope you enjoyed all of the projects shared by the team this first month of January! The Artisan Design Team is so excited to share in creativity with you all throughout 2023! Please come back every month to my blog and check Instagram to see all of the awesome projects we are sharing!

Conversation Bubbles Creative Project

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Hello friends! One of my fun jobs as a member of the Artisan Design Team is something known as the Creative Project! It is a project that we get to do a couple times a year with anything we like! That sounds exciting but sometimes it is really hard to decide was to do or what products to use because we have SO MANY awesome things!

However, my favorite new bundle of the Occasions Catalogue is the Conversation Bubbles Bundle. I just love how much fun the dies are and the unlimited potential of what you can do with them!

I decided to lean into the color palette of the Country Gingham DSP—I just love the color combo of Petal Pink, Sweet Sorbet, Balmy Blue and Mint Macaron in this DSP. And who doesn’t LOVE a gingham print?

The base of my page is Sweet Sorbet and I added two 3x6 inch strips of the DSP over top to fool you into thinking its 12x12. A 1 inch strip of the new Textured Shimmer Paper adds to this illusion!

I matted my 5x7 picture on Mint Macaron and added a little more Sweet Sorbet DSP to the side.

 

The best part of my page is the custom stencilling done on the background.

I used 4 different dies from Conversation Bubbles cut on a Window Sheet. I then used the stencils with Petal Pink ink and my new mini Blending Brush to create the fun word bubbles right on my scrapbook page!

If you look closely, you can see some hearts literally DOODLED on top using my Petal Pink Stampin’ Blend Marker! Why not use your markers to make custom designs on our projects!

The best part about using the stencils created with Window Sheets (versus cutting the shape from card stock) is you can see right through them for perfect placement AND you can flip them over to change the direction of the stencil. Not to mention you can use them again and again!

 

You can see the 4 custom stencils that I created using the dies. Think of all the fun you can have with the variety of dies that Stampin’ Up! sells!

I really hope this idea inspires you to try some stencilling and doodling on your own projects!

Happy 14th birthday summer! She requested a family cake recipe from my mother in law and i attempted a naked cake!

I stamped out a variety of the words from Conversation Bubbles and use the various coordinating dies with them. I really love how you can layer up the different words to bring your scrapbook page to life. The dies also have little hearts and stars which are perfect little accents along with the new Pastel Adhesive Backed Sequins and a bit of the Gold Shimmer Ribbon.

If you are not already following the 2023 Artisan Design Team Members—please do! I have a few posts on my Instagram account that lists everyone!

Happy stamping! Make sure to check out Stampin’ Up!’s Facebook and Instagram account for lots of inspiration!

Hooray for the New Year!

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Don’t you love when you find inspiration for a project? Especially if it comes from something you have already designed? I frequently get scrapbook page inspiration from cards that I have made and I have said several times that I look at a scrapbook page as a larger card canvas!

 

I made this super fun New Years card to mail out and I just LOVED the color combination of Petal Pink with Pool Party, Coastal Cabana etc.

I have this card sitting in my craft room and it inspired me to scrapbook some pictures we took shortly in the New Year with my son who was home from college.

This card uses the new Alphabet A La Mode dies which I really love and the Big Hooray stamp set!

I kept the color palette of the card the same for my scrapbook page and I think its such a fun color combo to celebrate kicking off a new year!

I started with a base of Whisper White 12x12 card stock and then added a piece of DSP from the Favored Flowers Sale a bration option. I really love the backside of the DSP in this collection. It is a lot less bold and this print was unassuming enough I could use it as a background layer for my scrapbook page.

My two pictures are on Coastal Cabana—on 2 occasions we were celebrating with my son! It was his 18th birthday back in November and my birthday at the start of January, we went out for a couple of dinners to celebrate.

I decided to keep the ‘Hooray’ a solid color (Bermuday Bay) versus the ombre effect I had on my card. I hand trimmed around it and used it to kick off the phrase I wanted to run across my page. You can find the ‘January’ stamp set in the Days to Remember stamp set—which everyone should own. In all the years I have been stamping, dating/date recording stamp sets, come around very infrequently so I keep them all in my permanent stamp collection. Its also cut out with a very old punch, one that I will also never ever part with.

2023 is die cut with the Alphabet A la Mode dies using Gold Foil Paper and the Foam Adhesive Sheets. I just love using these foam sheets with alphabet dies to pop them up off of the page.

 

The rest of the sentiments are from a previous Sale a bration set which I will also keep for all of its amazing potential! Some sets just make my permanent shelf!

I also added a few Stitched Star die cut shapes as I LOVE stars! These dies are some that I also will probably never part with! And I decided to keep the accents gold as well so I added in some Elegant Twine, Gold Shimmer Ribbon and new Pastel Adhesive Backed Sequins.

I hope this page inspires you to look at your cards in a new way and realize how they can spark an idea for a scrapbook page.

Wishing everyone all the #goodstuff2023