Monday, June 24, 2024

LET'S MEANDER THROUGH THE MEADOW

Welcome to HODGEPODGE WEEK!  I have decided to try something a little different one week per month.  Rather than featuring a certain stamp set or bundle, I'm going to use a variety of products to show how well so many of Stampin' Up!'s products can be mixed and matched.  At this point the plan is to make the last full week of each month "hodgepodge week".

Today's card uses the Unbounded Love and Painted Lavender Bundles, but the real star of the card is the Meandering Meadows Designer Series Paper (DSP).

Do you ever struggle choosing a "side" when you go to use your DSP?  Sometimes both sides are so pretty that you just want to show them both off.


This super simple card does just that.  Meandering Meadows DSP is a collection of 6" x 6" beautiful landscape scenes and most have gorgeous watercolor designs on the reverse side. 

For this card I trimmed off 3/4" from the bottom of the DSP and then scored the 6" side at 2" from the left edge.  That 2" scored section was then just folded over to create a partial flap which shows off the beautiful opposite side of the paper!

The two die cuts on the 2" flap were made with a Perennial Lavender die and the sentiments were created with the Unbounded Love Bundle.  I love how several of the sentiments in this bundle are coordinated to be used together.


When you open the front flap, you can see the extension of the landscape scene.  A narrow piece of Basic White cardstock provides a place to sign your name and add a little hand-written note.


The Blackberry Bliss stem was stamped with a Perennial Lavender stamp.

What do you think?  Isn't this a simple, but beautiful card?

To download a free PDF tutorial, use this link.

A list of the currently available products that I used are shown below.  The Night of Navy Ribbon is retired but use any ribbon you have.  There are so many colors in this DSP that the ribbon color choices are numerous.

Product List

Friday, June 21, 2024

HEART FULL OF LIFE

For today's card I used a few more of the dies that come with the Friends for Life Bundle as well as additional patterns from the Full of Life Designer Series Paper (DSP).


The heart die was used to die cut the heart in Basic White cardstock and then a piece of the Full of Life DSP was adhered directly behind the open cut-work pattern in the heart.  I added some black outline doodles around the rectangles in another strip of DSP that was adhered below the heart.

These black outline doodles, like those used on Wednesday's card add a bit of "pop" to the design.

The leaf and swoosh were die cut from Lemon Lime Twist cardstock.

The "LOVE YOU" sentiment from the Friends for Life stamp set was stamped with Tuxedo Black Memento ink and a piece of Black Bakers twine was tied around the stem of the leaf before both were adhered to the card front.


Calypso Coral and Lemon Lime Twist embellishments were added in pairs to the card front for a bit of sparkle.  


The envelope flap and the inside of the card were decorated with the same DSP as was used for the strip on the front.  I didn't doodle on these, but I could have.


Products used are listed below.  Click on any image to learn more about that product.


Product List

Wednesday, June 19, 2024

DOTS ARE FULL OF LIFE

I have become obsessed with the Full of Life Designer Series Paper (DSP).  It is so colorful and fun!  These dots on today's card just make me smile!  This paper is from the Full of Life Suite which I am featuring this week, but today I only focused on this awesome DSP!


I saw this little "trick" on Laura's Creative Pages and Cards to outline the colored shapes with a black fine-tip marker.  Laura is a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator in Australia and I love her idea!  The fine black outlines add a bit of pop to the colored shapes.  She also is an expert doodler and she has created some amazing cards with this paper.  So creative!

I didn't want to detract from the paper so I added the simple Happy Birthday sentiment using the dies from Just Wanted to Say Dies.  These dies are a two part die.  You can layer the script sentiment on the "bubble" background or use it without, but I added my Basic Black script to a Basic White bubble.

Another tip I learned from Laura is to add some highlights with a white gel pen to the black script.  It adds just a touch of dimension.  Can you see the highlight I drew on the Happy Birthday?  It's so simple, but as Mom would have said, "It just does something to it!"


This Full of Life Designer Series Paper (DSP) comes in 6" x 6" sheets, so before I started cutting it to size for my card I doodled around the circles on a complete sheet of DSP.  Then I used my trimmed "leftovers" to decorate the bottom of the inside of the card and to cover the flap on my envelope.  The nice thing about these doodled circles is you don't have to worry about making them nice and round.  They can be squiggly.  In fact, I think they look better squiggly.  And squiggly is so much easier and faster!

Use this link to download a free PDF Tutorial.

It's a short list of products for this card, but sometimes that is a good thing right?  This card is all about the DSP.  Use whatever you have for the rest of the card!

Product List

Monday, June 17, 2024

LET'S BE FRIENDS FOR LIFE

It's Monday and time for a new featured bundle of the week.  This week I will be using the Full of Life Product Suite which includes the Friends for Life stamp and die bundle.

Remember, during June 2024 you can get an additional 10% off on stamp & die bundles!

The card I'm sharing today was one of the cards I showed in my Learning with Friends video on June 13, 2023.  This card uses that Masking Tape Technique, which is a fun and easy technique using, duh, Masking Tape.

If you missed the video showing how to do this technique you can watch the replay below.


Today's card uses the standard method for the masking tape technique (no water) but adds a bit of a twist from what you normally see by adding "tape applied" colors in multiple directions and different lengths.

The colors I used for the background are Real Red, Pumpkin Pie and Crushed Curry.  To me, this card has a bit of a retro feel, but "back in the day" we would never have combined orange and red together!  Obviously color trends have changed and now pretty much anything goes when it comes to mixing and matching colors.  If you like it -- go for it!


After I created the Masking Tape background, I used the new Dotted Circles embossing folder to emboss it.  This is one of my favorite new embossing folders in the Annual Catalog.  It also has a bit of a retro feel, so I thought it added a nice bit of texture to my "retro" card.

I love the large two-layer friend die that is part of the Friends for Life Bundle.  The stamp set has several other sentiments in it that can be combined with the large friend die or they can be used on their own.

What do you think?  Are you a red, orange and yellow fan?  Or a "retro" fan?   I know just who I'm going to send this card to.  She is my longest-time friend (we don't say "oldest friend") and I hope she likes her happy mail when it arrives.


After making the background and trimming it to size, I had a narrow strip left that I used to add a bit of color to the inside of the card.  Adding a matted decorative strip is a simple way to dress up the inside of a card so it doesn't feel forgotten.  When it is a leftover "scrap" that's even better!

Use this link to download a copy of the tutorial for today's card.  The tutorial also includes the link to the video, so if you need to refer back to it in the future, it will be easy to find.

A list of the Stampin' Up! Products I used on the card are shown below.  For the technique you can use any type of masking tape you have.


Product List