Be Inspired Blog Hop--Stamping with Red & Green!

/

Hello friends! It has been awhile! It isn’t that I haven’t been crafting, trust me I have! I have just been sharing more over on Instagram lately. However, I was very honored to be invited to join this amazing group of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators who make up the Be Inspired Design Team! I am so happy to be participating in this blog hop—this hop runs the last Wednesday of each month, so I hope you will come back again to visit!

The theme for this month Red & Green—pretty easy for Christmas crafting, especially when we have the amazing Sweetest Christmas Designer Series Paper to work with! Sweet Sorbet is my favorite holiday red this year and you simply cannot go wrong with Garden Green. It has been in the SU family of colors for quite some time, the whole 16 years that I have been crafting!

I just love cute candy canes, don’t you?

This is one of my favorite ‘fun folds’ that isn’t too complicated to create or remember how to create! I simply start with your standard card base, 4 1/4 x 5 1/2, and layered two 3/4 x 5 1/2 inch strips of the striped pattern from the DSP along the edges. I like to leave a little bit of the Sweet Sorbet card stock showing on either edge as well.

Next I cut a white layer (or whatever color you choose) for the ‘card’ aspect to open and close. It is 3 1/5 x 11, scored at 5 1/2. Easy peasy! I decided to run the top flap of the card through the Wintery 3D folder for a little textural interest. And if you look close, its actually the indented side of the folder showing on the front for even more of a twist.

 

I really love to use embossing folders in my designs. It is such an easy way to add interest to the background of your cards.

I decided to pair up 2 of the stamps from Framed & Festive —Falala and Merry Christmas to create one sentiment block and I die cut it using the Seasonal Label Dies.

The candy canes are of course stamped from the Sweet Candy Canes stamp set in Sweet Sorbet. You can add a bit of Wink of Stella to the larger section of the candy canes too if you want a bit of sparkle.

The greenery is die cut from the Candy Cane dies and the Christmas Banner dies and are just tucked in and behind the sentiment. A little bit of Sweet Sorbet twine and In Color Enamel Dots and I felt this card was complete.

 

The best part of using an embossing folder on the folded card is that when you flip it open you still get to enjoy a bit of design on the inside of the card too!

I am making this card with some of my stampin’ friends in an upcoming class and I am so happy to share it with you here as well. I hope you will give this fun fold a try in your own paper crafting too!

Next up on the hop we have my creative friend Janneke Dijkstra - de Jong! You can click on the button to go directly to her blog!

On Stage Vienna Presentation

/

Hello friends! I wanted to share some of the super fun projects that I was able to design and share in a video that was streamed in Vienna at our On Stage Conference earlier this month! I was so excited when Stampin’ Up! reached out to me as an extension of my role on the Artisan Design Team. I am just finishing my second term on the team and I was blessed to asked to return for another year in 2023. I have loved every creative challenge and opportunity that has came my way with my role as an Artisan Team Member.

 

It was really excited to get to create with a NEW upcoming bundle called Conversation Bubbles. It is so whimsical and fun! The dies are spectacular!

I was asked to create a variety of projects with this bundle and the new Alphabet a la Mode dies that are also coming out in the January-April Mini Catalogue!

This is my cute bestie Hawkins—where I go, he goes

My first project was a scrapbook page and this is not only because I love scrapbooking (if you follow me on Instagram @stampwithbrenda or my Artisan journey) you know I create a lot of memory pages. So this was actually the basis for my presentation—how to create a scrapbook page from a card design or vice versa!

I used a fun technique on the back ground where I cut a stencil with one of the dies from our Window Sheets. I used a Blending Brush in Pool Party ink to create some ‘thought' bubbles on my page. I then used a Pool Party Stampin’ Blend to DOODLE on top of the designs. Yes DOODLE!!! Doesn’t that take you back to sitting in class, doodling away! You can see I used a variety of stamps and dies from this bundle on this page!

This card was the result of the inspiration provided by my scrapbook page. You can see how many of the same elements carried over. This project is so fun as I love the mixing and matching of stamped images, dies and the negative die opportunity!

TOP TIP: When you #addtocart the Alphabet a la Mode Dies (as I know you all will) please make sure to add the Adhesive Sheets. They will keep your project mess and glue free as essentially you will be creating a ‘sticker’ out of the die cut letters. Trust me, you won’t be sorry to add this to your order!

My favorite project that I made for this presentation was this adorable shaker card. I love me a good shaker card and this one is relatively easy to create! Its a square card with a large circle cut and covered with a Window Sheet. I used the same stencilling technique on the base in Blushing Bride ink and this time and I added ‘YAY’ right to the top of the Window Sheet. I used some of the little hearts and stars from the dies plus a pinch of sequins for the ‘shaker’ aspect of the card.

Then I embellished the front with more stamps, dies and some Iridescent Pearls. Who wouldn’t LOVE to get this in the mail?

Who does’t love a good slimline card! this card is perfect with the little speech bubble at the bottom

Have you been noticing the ADORABLE Designer Series Paper used on my projects—spoiler alert—you can get it for FREE during Sale a bration as a Level 2 Reward. Yep, you know it! It is called the Dandy Designs 12x 12 DSP. Make note!

This slimline card is just the best to showcase how much fun you will have with the Conversation Bubbles Bundle. You can layer and mix and match the sentiments and dies to create a variety of catchy fun phrases. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the color palette of my projects—all driven by the DSP!

 

And as my final project, I knew I needed to make an adorable little treat holder using the Mini Pocket Envelope Die. Clearly we need to utilize a stamp that says YUM and what is better than tucking a cute chocolate or take ou gift card inside this treat holder?

I cannot wait util this bundle is available for you to all order! I had so much fun creating with it and I know you will too! Bookmark this post so you can come back to it in January!

Make sure to visit my blog on Thursday as I am starting a 12 Days of Christmas project share with my friend @melsinkyfingers!

Around the World on Wednesday--Just Sketch It!

/

Hello friends! It has been so so so long since I have been able to participate in the Around the World on Wednesday Blog Hop! I am so excited that I was able to prioritize the time to create something and participate in this fabulous blog hop!

This month the theme was a sketch—our fabulous hop organizer, Angie, gave us a few to choose from. Once I selected mine, I knew right away I wanted to use it to help design a scrapbook page!

This is the sketch that I selected. I liked the idea of using strips of paper—either card stock or Designer Series Paper.

And I interpreted the 3 shapes to represent a photo mat and supportive shapes to tell the story of my scrapbook page.

 

I started with a base of Smoky Slate card stock and decided to make it feel a little grungy to go with the spooky theme of Halloween. I used my Blending Brush on the edges and then flicked my Basic Black Stampin’ Blend over top.

I cut 6 strips of DSP—all except the pumpkin pattern are from the Black & White Designs collection. The pumpkins are from the Celebrate Everything hostess stack. I added the DSP strips and wonky angles as it also felt like the spirit of Halloween.

I decided to play up the stars from the DSP by added them to my design using a retired die set. Some sets though I just can’t part with as I find I do still reach for them. I cut them out using the Silver Foil Specialty Pack.

My two photo mats are cut to 4 1/4 x 4 1/4 which are perfect for adding 4x4 photos. I also wanted to get two pictures on this layout and this size works really well when you want to stack pictures. I felt that adding two pictures didn’t take away from the page design too much.

I cut a stitched circle from the Stylish Shapes Dies and then gave it a little yellow hue using my Crushed Curry ink pad and Blending Brush. The Scary Silhouette Dies were perfect for this page. I love the spooky little house, moon and bats die shapes.

Both of the sentiments on this page are from the Scary Cute stamp set and are die cut with the Stylish Shapes Dies. I added some of the Parakeet Party Ribbon and frayed the edges a bit too. A few of the Classic Matte Dots added to the design as well.

This sketch was perfect for coming up with this scrapbook page. You could switch out the elements to do a Christmas page, birthday page, a summer holiday page. There are so many options with this sketch. I hope you will give it a try!

 

Click the NEXT BLOG button to see what Tricia Butts from the USA has created to share with us this month. And hopefully you can go all the way around the world with us as we share creativity and inspiration from around the world!

If my project has inspired you in any way and you find yourself needing some supplies, please shop my online store by clicking any of the product images or by visiting my store!

Color Fusers--October Blog Hop!

/

Hello my lovely friends! Thank you so much for joining us on our ‘color inspiration’ hop—that is what I like to think of our monthly color challenge. And to be frank, this month’s 4 color combo was a challenge for me!

I really wanted to make a scrapbook page of our last family photo—not last as in forever, but for a while as in September we moved my son into Millar College of the Bible— 8 hours away! So this picture of the 5 of us has some special meaning to me.

I also felt like these colors had a bit of a fall vibe and September is the start of fall after all!

This was such an exciting day for my son! He was so happy to be getting settled in to Bible College that his eyes were just sparkling and you could just feel the happiness coming off of him. I am so proud of him for making such a big decision to leave home!

I actually laid my photo out on all 4 of the colors to see which one suited it the best and I landed on Early Espresso. I cut out a photo mat of the same color and then the real hunt began as I wanted to incorporate some current designer series paper into my design. I finally found this fun pattern from the Celebrate Everything DSP stack that you can get as a host reward in the JJ catty! I absolutely LOVE this DSP stack! So I added a nice wide piece of it to my design to brighten up the base of the page!

To add some texture and interest to the base of the page, I decided to stamp one of the splotch images from the Perched in a Tree stamp set in the same color ink, Early Espresso. I stamped this on a diagonal axis as well so that your eye follows a natural path across the page.

I then die cut a bunch of leaves from the Aspen Tree Dies. I love that these dies cut and dry emboss the veining of the leaves! It really makes them feel more realistic!

The sentiment can be found in the Honeybee Home stamp set and I used one of the dies from the Seasonal Labels Dies to cut it out. Then I just trimmed the right edge to be straight instead of decorative. I added some gold and white twine that I had laying around on my desk—I don’t even know where it originated from!

 

Sometimes when you are working on such a dark canvas it can be hard to make it have interest. So I decided to cut some flowers and sprigs out in Early Espresso to play off the tone on tone look.

The little sprigs are from the Christmas Banner Dies and they look great die cut in Early Espresso, Bermuda Bay and Mango Melody.

The sentiment “Best of Luck” is also from Honeybee Home and I thought it was sort of fitting as we left my son behind! I know he will work hard but I do wish him the best of luck trying to learn time management and new responsibilities—hello laundry!! haha!

Truthfully, once I got going this page didn’t take too long to put together. Not every event you want to capture needs to be a massive process to complete. Otherwise, you will never get those memories scrapbooked! I also think that this is a “Go To” layout design of mine. It incorporates everything, card stock, DSP, background stamping, and die cuts. You could easily swap out the elements for any occasion—flowers for summer, snowflakes for winter, greenery for Christmas and so forth. If you do use this page for inspiration, please let me know, I would love to see what you create!

Please make sure you go all the way around the Hop and see what the other creatives in the group have shared this month!

NEXT on the hop is my amazing friend Melanie! We often share texts and stampin’ inspiration with each other and I always look forward to her designs!

If you would like to go in reverse and go BACK you will be taken to my fellow Artisan Tami Hewlett. Tami is an absolute gem and such a kind and giving soul. She is a true master and creating water color backgrounds and elements and I am always in awe of her creations!

Thank you so much for popping by the Blog today and checking out our Hop! I really look forward to this each month as these color combinations do get me thinking outside of the box. I hope they leave you feeling inspired as well.

If you want to shop with me in Canada you can click on the button below or any of the product images to shop my online store. Thank you in advance!

Color Fusers--September Blog Hop!

/

Hello friends! I am so thankful you are checking in today and I apologize for being MIA over the summer! I just don’t know where the days have gone! Life has been busy and now its September and back into the routine of school and all that fun stuff.

I can’t tell you how much I love this color combo! And it is one that I don’t think I have ever put together myself. I think its because Blackberry Bliss is not one of my go to colors, but paired with Fresh Freesia and Pale Papaya it just shines on this project!

This month Stampin’ Up! has a fun promotion on called Perfect Partners and one of my FAVORITE stamp sets, Fresh Cut Flowers, from the Annual Catalogue now has coordinating dies available this month only! Go check out my Instagram feed (@stampwithbrenda) to see how many times I have shared this stamp set!

These new dies to accompany the Fresh Cut Flowers stamp set are called the Fresh Cut Stems Dies!

I decided to use Blackberry Bliss as the base for this card and use a layer of Fresh Freesia to compliment it. I love the unique edge die included in this new set. I added a bit of Designer Series Paper from the Butterfly Kisses collection along the left side and stamped the large floral image in Fresh Freesia ink along the side as the base image.

 

I stamped the image again in Momento ink on some Basic White and then used the “Lazy Watercoloring” technique to color in the flowers in Blackberry Bliss and Pale Papaya. The key to this look is to not color all the way to the edges and layer on the color.

I then trimmed by hand all of the flowers and use them to decorate behind and around the sentiment.

The sentiment is from the Hello Harvest stamp set and cut with the coordinating Rustic Pumpkin Dies. What I love about the Fresh Cut Flowers stamp set is that it doesn’t include any sentiments. So the sky is the limit with what you can pair up with this stamp set.

I also did a little lazy watercoloring on the banner too with Pale Papaya. I love the soft wash of color.

The Fresh Cut Stems dies also include fun little sprigs and little florals that I added to the card to create a soft little bouquet. I added a few of the In Color Opal rounds as you always need something sparkly right?

Now because this card is on such a dark base, I felt like I also needed to stamp the inside as well so that it makes writing your greeting so much easier.

 

I stamped one of the smaller images from the stamp set on the right of the inside base, which is just Basic White. After I colored them with Blackberry Bliss and Pale Papaya, I flicked my Water Painter across the base.

I love to stamp the inside because its an unexpected surprise!

I hope you are as thrilled as I am with this card. I loved it so much I decided my monthly Stamping groups are going to make it too and practice their hand at lazy watercoloring!

I am so excited to see what the rest of the Color Fusers Team has created this month, I am always so amazed at the creativity and variety of the blog hop—-so please make sure you hop all the way around! Please comment or go give my project a like on Instagram (@stampwithbrenda).

Up NEXT on the Hop is the infectious Bonnie O’ Neill and if you want to be a rebel and go backwards, then you will be going to back to see Tami Hewlett. Tami is one of my fellow Artisan Design Team members, we have been on the team for 2 terms together and she is beyond talented!

If you are interested in details regarding my monthly Stamping Group or wish to support my love of stamping you can message me or click on any image below to shop directly with my store! I appreciate all of your support!