Around the World on Wednesday--Sketch Challenge!

Hello friends and welcome to Around the World on Wednesday, a fun Blog Hop with amazing Stampin’ Up! creators from ‘Around the World’! I am so proud to be in a Hop with so many amazing designers!

This month, we have a sketch challenge! I always love a sketch challenge to see how people interpret the sketch!

I will admit, I did stick pretty true to the original sketch and I focused on the Joy of Christmas suite with a twist on the DSP!

I decided to use the new DSP which is an Online Exclusive called Shining Christmas, instead of the DSP included in the suite. One side of the DSP has a glossy appearance and the other side is more matte.

The two primary colors in the DSP are Cherry Cobbler and Mossy Meadow, so I decided to focus on Mossy Meadow as my base and first layer. I did some background stamping with the large image from the Joy of Noel stamp set in Mossy Meadow ink.

I added a side strip of the holly leaves pattern from the Shining Christmas DSP and used a retired die to add a scallop strip in Cherry Cobbler as an accent.

Instead of 4 separate squares (as shown in the sketch) I chose to just cut one larger piece of DSP in a Cherry Cobbler X pattern. I used this as the base to add all of my other elements.

I stamped out the same image as the background in Momento ink and used my Stampin’ Blends in Mossy Meadow, Old Olive and Cherry Cobbler to color the image. I added some Wink of Stella to the berries as well.

One of my favorite dies sets is the Christmas Classics —I LOVE the label die with the greenery! You can easily snip the greenery separate from the label tot use as accents pieces, which I have done here on my card in Old Olive. I tucked it behind my colored image.

Happy Holidays is stamped from the Christmas Classics stamp set with a little bit of the Black & Very Vanilla Large Check Ribbon.

TOP TIP: If the ribbon feels to big or wide for your project—cut it in half! By doing so on this card, it felt more on scale with the sentiment.

I wanted a little bling so I took some Basic Rhinestones and gave them a quick wash of color with the Mossy Meadow Stampin’ Blend so they would have the perfect color.

I can’t wait to see what the other members of the Team have designed using this sketch! Please make sure to hop all the way around so you don’t miss any fabulous ideas!

Next up on the Hop is Theresa McEntee from the United States, I know you will love what she has made!

 
 
 

Color Fusers--October!

HI friends and Happy Fall Y’all! It is officially here and so beautiful. I love everything about it, and in the words of Anne of Green Gables, “I’m so glad I live in a world where there are Octobers”.

This month the Team is crafting with three amazing colors—Wild Wheat, Pecan Pie and Cajun Craze.

This color combination definitely feels like fall for me and I was thinking about the beautiful trees in our river valley and Banff, all the gorgeous places nearby me. The Forever Forest Bundle felt like a perfect pairing with this months color combo.

I started with a base of Wild Wheat and added a first layer with a bit of speckle stamping from the stamp set. I then die cut half of a Decked Circle Die (can you believe there are 14 dies in this set!!) and I ran this through one of the 3D Basics Embossing Folders.

HOT TIP: Have you been shopping the Online Exclusives? There are tons of amazing things over there including these MUST HAVE embossing folders!

You can see the amazing detail in the die, as it has that torn edge, and the embossing folder.

My trio of trees is created using Blending Brushes and the 3 feature colors—Wild Wheat, Pecan Pie and Cajun Craze. I layered the colors on with my brushes to give the illusion of trees changing colors. I think they turned our really well.

I die cut two other trees from the die set in Cajun Craze and Pecan Pie and did a little blending with my brushes around the edges of the trees for some dimension.

I nestled them all together to feel like a forest and added the sentiment “For a Fabulous Friend” over top. The sentiment is from the Beautiful Bouquet stamp set. A bit of torn Pecan Pie card stock layered underneath felt like it tied in the torn look of the Deckled Circle.

Next up our awesome team hop is the amazing Sue Vine! I know you will love what she has created!

You can always go backwards from this point as well, you will heading over to my awesome friend Melanie Hockins page!

Thank you so much for stopping by today! If you are not, please feel free to follow me on Facebook and Instagram @stampwithbrenda and if I have inspired you in any way, please shop my online store! I would love to be able to keep doing what I love!

Be Inspired Blog Hop--Fun with Embossing Folders!

Hello my crafty friends! Welcome to the Be Inspired Blog Hop! This month (can you believe its the end of September already?) we are focusing on Embossing Folders. We have so many fantastic ones to choose from so I thought, why not use as many as possible!

I used a total of 8 different embossing Folders to create this page! I am so happy with how it turned out. I love how the fall colors jump off the crisp Basic White background as well.

The Folders I used were:

  1. 2 folders from the Online Exclusive Basics 3D Embossing Folders

  2. Cane Weave

  3. Exposed 3D Brick

  4. Painted Texture

  5. Timeworn Type

  6. Twisted Rope

  7. Distressed Tile

I cut each Basic White square or panel to 3 7/8 x 3 7/8 so that they can fit on your 12 x 12 and look like a bit of a grid. They give such an amazing texture!

You can find the words ‘to’ and ‘you’ in the Sending Cheer stamp set.

 

I used the large 2 3/8 punch to create a circle that was turned into an easy tag with the Black & Very Vanilla Large Check Ribbon and some black bakers twine.

I stamped the background with the star cluster from the Tricks & Treats stamp set and used the ghost and ‘boo’ from the coordinating dies.

The Pick of the Patch stamp set has been a craft room favorite these past couple of weeks so there was no doubt I was going to use it to add some fun pumpkins! I turned one into a jack o lantern and added some little leaves that were stamped in Pebbled Path.

On this little vignette I added ‘Happy Halloween’ and another little pumpkin patch!

The photos are on a double photo mat—Basic Black and Smoky Slate to really help them pop about the white textured background. A few of the In Color Enamel Dots added to my layout!

Thank you to the Edmonton corn maze for the great photo opps!

I am really excited to see what the rest of the team has created focusing on Embossing Folders. There really are so many different techniques and ways to use these. They are definitely a craft room staple item in my opinion! I hope this page gives you some inspiration on how you could even incorporate mini squares on a card front using a variety of folders.

Next up on the hop is Janneke and I always love her projects and design style! Click on the link below to visit her blog! And as always, please feel free to leave any comments. I love to get your feedback!

If I have inspired you and you need to #addtocart, please click any image to shop my store! Thank you for helping me continue to ‘Love What I Do!’

Around the World on Wednesday--Let's Take a Walk

Hello friends! I have been a little bit absent from this Blog Hop but after meeting, in person, some of the other gals from ‘Around the World’ at our Backstage Leadership conference in Las Vegas, I have become motivated again!

The theme for this month is ‘Let’s Take a Walk’ which I found really intriguing! I immediately began to think of some of the places that I have been fortunate enough to walk in, and the most recent one was a trip to London that I took my youngest son, Shepard on this past spring.

Whenever I travel I like to snap pictures of our feet with cool things underneath and I decided to scrapbook two pictures from our recent trip together!

The first picture on the left side of my scrapbook page is taken just outside of the London Tower and the second is in the Notting Hill area (no I did not run into Julia Roberts or Hugh Grant, but wouldn’t that have been amazing?).

I started with a base 12x12 DSP from the Fresh as a Daisy collection. I love how this collection of DSP features all of the new In Colors. I added a layer of Copper Clay card stock over top and I did some background stamping using Quiet Meadow stamp set and a bit of flicking with my Copper Clay Stampin’ Blend.

Because I was creating this page solely for myself, not a class or scrapbook group meeting, I took liberty to use retired stamp set En Route. I love any of our stamp sets that have to do with travel or adventure. I rarely part with them and used it for the 2 sentiments on my page.

I though the sentiment “You’re Going Places” worked well with our theme of taking a walk—it probably is the most common way to get places isn’t it? I also find it intriguing to be in another county, one with so much history like Britain, and ponder the thought of how many people in the course of history have stood right here? Have walked this same path. It makes you feel very small in the scheme of things.

I love the dies from the Quiet Meadow and I hadn’t use them in a while so I decided to incorporate them into this layout. It was May when I visited so I few florals felt necessary with the moody colors of Copper Clay and Pebbled Path (the photo mat card stock color). These colors remind me of London, old brick and concrete and metal.

also…notice my fresh white shoes? they did not look like this at the end of this trip!

Now let me share a product you didn’t know you need—the Delightful Doilies Hybrid Embossing Folder and Die Bundle—particularly the DOILY DIE. Now who has been around long enough to remember when we sold doilies? I still have some. I greedily hoard them. I don’t need to anymore because now I can cut my OWN and make them ANY COLOR I want!

See, I told you!! You just discovered that you need this bundle!

It is so easy to color your Basic White card stock with our Blending Brushes. I trimmed the doily in half (why waste, you are only seeing a partial of it anyway) and I will keep the rest for another project.

I used one of my favorite punches of all time, the Washi label punch, for the sentiment “Adventure Awaits”…truly, it always does. Even in our every day lives! I added some of the Copper Clay twine that I unravelled and did a little spray of Smoky Slate marker over top of the sentiment.

I added a few Copper Clay embellishments and my page was complete. This actually didn’t take me too long to put together either! I hope this Blog Hop inspires you!

Thanks for stopping by today and make sure to go and visit all of the amazing designers from around the world on our hop! I am so excited to see how everyone thought of this challenge.

 

Next up on the Blog Hop is Tricia Butts in the United States!

Please feel free to leave me a comment, I would love to know what you think of my page!

Here are all the participants in our Blog Hop this month!

Jan Clothier - AU

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Cheryll Miller - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Mikaela Titheridge - UK

Annette Ball - CA

Angie McKenzie - US

Kelly Taranto - US

Shel Anderson - CA

Sharon Hashimoto Burkert - US

Chris Smith - US

Brenda Nelson - CA

Tricia Butts - US

Theresa McEntee - US

Bree Renwick - US

Lori Willcox - CA

Teri West - US


Color Fusers--September--Hello fall!

Hi friends! Welcome back to another Color Fusers Blog Hop! I am happy to be back after taking a little hiatus last month! Sometimes we just need to recharge our creative batteries! I am happy to be back crafting, especially this month, afterall, I do love fall most of all!

NOTE; I have made a boo boo and created a project using the August colors (the month I had skipped) so everyone else in the hop is creating with LOST LAGOON, BLACKBERRY BLISS AND BERRY BURST! You will love what they have made, I am just the odd one out this month!

The team this month is creating with Pebble Path, Boho Blue and Misty Moonlight and while these are gorgeous colors with 2 of 3 being from our new In Color Collection 2023/25— they are probably not conventional ‘fall’ colors. However, that didn’t stop me from creating a scrapbook page!

I new I wanted to start with Pebbled Path as my base. I really really love this color and I am already sad knowing it will only be here for another 18 months! In my opinion it could replace Grey Granite in the Neutrals!

The Let’s Go Fishing DSP was another natural choice for this layout as I knew it had some coordinating patterns that would work well for my layout. I used a stripped piece featuring Pebbled Path and they layered my card stock over top. I added a photo mat and the letters ‘FALL’ using a wood grain pattern in Misty Moonlight. The letters are from the Alphabet A La Mode dies—a definite #addtocart item if you have not already! I also used the Foam Adhesive Sheets so that my letters are raised up on my scrapbook page.

It was a happy coincident that we happen to take some family pictures a few years back that happen to coordinate with this months color palette. Our photo shoot was in October as well so everything lined up well to design a fall themed page

There are also only 2 sets of legs that haven’t grown in height either since this picture was taken! hahaha!

I used the new Autumn Leaves Bundle as the main focus of this page. I love this big bold maple leaf image and how nicely it stamped onto the background of my page. I used my Blending Brush with some Pebbled Path ink around the edges of my page and flicked my dark Stampin’ Blend over top of the stamped leaves.

I used 2 of the smaller leaf dies from the set to cut out leaves in Boho Blue, Misty Moonlight and Pebbled Path. I ran half through the new Distressed Tile 3D folder to give them a bunch of texture.

You can find the sentiment ‘A Harvest of Blessings’ in the Pick of the Patch stamp set. I thought it was the perfect addition to this page especially with a little bit of the Pebbled Path Textured Ribbon underneath.

TOP TIP: If the ribbon is to wide, simply cut it in half to fit your project!

You can find ‘October’ in the Days to Remember stamp set—every memory keeper needs this set as a permanent addition to their repetoire!

Lastly I added some of the In Color Dots in Pebbled Path and Boho Blue onto my page. They are a great finishing touch. I am really really pleased with how this page turned out and I hope it inspires you to think outside the box with your designs.

 

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Color Fusers Team has created! I know you will be amazed at the variety of things you can create with THREE colors! Next up on the hop is my amazing friend and former Artisan teammate Tami Hewlett. I am always blown away by what she creates!

If you would prefer to go in reverse or we experience a broken link you can go back to Stacy Marsh—another uber talented demo!