Stamps & Stretchy Pants

Recently a dear friend of mine lost her beloved dog after many years of being a beloved family member. She asked me to create a scrapbook page in his memory.

She asked me to use the Playing with Patterns Designer Series paper and the new Playful Pets stamp set. I decided to add in a retired set, Happy Tails, into the design too because it has some really special elements. I also borrowed the phrase “We’re the Best of friends” from the Bird Ballad stamp set.

I chose the color palette of Misty Moonlight, Seaside Spray, and Crushed Curry but you could easily reproduce this page with more feminine colors using the same 6x6 stack (Purple Posy and Calypso Coral).

I cut a large heart using the Stitched Be Mine dies to be the focal point of where Jake’s name was to go. This could also be customizable too. I added lots of stamped hearts and paw prints. This page is an eclectic mix of new products, older favourites and retired stamp sets. Some sets you just can’t part with!

A few different ribbons helped create this focal area. I used the Bumblebee Gingham ribbon, the blue from the Playing with Patterns Ribbon Combo pack and some silver twine I had laying around.

I really loved the sentiment “ A Best Friend” and it worked perfectly right above the Seaside Spray heart.

I actually loved how this turned out so much that I decided to turn it into a card too. Do you ever do that? I often do when I create something I love.

To create the card, I kept many of the same elements as the scrapbook page, but decided to stamp and color with Stampin’ Blends the cute dog from the Pampered Pets stamp set in Smoky Slate with a Crushed Curry collar to coordinate. I kept the ribbons and added in a couple embellshments from the Frosted & Clear Epoxy Droplets collection.

I hope both of these projects inspire you today and I am blessed my friend asked me to create such a meaningful memento.

This week our creative theme is Cute Critters and if you have looked through the catalogue at all you know, there are quite a few options? So how could I pick just one. I decided to make ONE card template and FOUR critter cards from it! I think this shows how versatile a great card design can be!

What is also worth noting is that on each of the four cards, they only use ONE stamp set per card! This is also important to our customers because it shows the value and potential in a single stamp set.

This little zebra is just too cute for words! You can find him and two other zebra friends in the Zany Zebra stamp set. I added a bit of extra color to his stripes with my light Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blend and Magenta Madness Stampin’ Write Marker.

I absolutely could not choose just one stamp set to use as all of these sets have so much potential and are all ‘cute critters’, even the whale by my definition!

I started with a Coastal Cabana base and layer. I chose one sentiment out of each set to stamp in the background and then I used my Water Painter brush with the matching ink to create a splatter effect in the background. Each card has a strip of DSP from the Flowers for All Season 6x6 collection in a Just Jade polkadot pattern. I love how Just Jade and Coastal Cabana look together, they pair up perfectly! I wanted a little punch of color so I decided to add in Magenta Madness as an accent color. I cut little strips of the woodgrain pattern from the In Color 6x6 collection to add behind the critter on each card along with some Just Jade ribbon. The Playful Patterns Resin dots in Coastal Cabana were the perfect finishing touch!

Each critter is on a white stitched circle and I found one little stamp in each set to add to the circle in Magenta Madness! It could not have worked out better to choose these four stamp sets and this is going to make the perfect class in September!

This little cutie is from the Pampered Pets Bundle and is coloured with the Smoky Slate Stampin Blends!

This was actually my first play with the Hippo Happiness Bundle. What I really love about this bundle are the Hippo & Friends dies. There are 25 dies in this set including 3 different types of labels. It really is a tremendous value!

And finally Mr. Whale as I have nicknamed him from the Whale Done bundle. I love that he is a punch and you can stamp him and punch him out or create him using punch art!

I hope this card collection inspires you to take one design and create different projects from it! Now you can go back on our hop to see what Melissa created or you can keep going forward to see what Connie has designed! Either way, I know you will be inspired! Have a wonderful Saturday! And if you want to shop my store for any of these projects, please do and use the August Host Code! Thank you!