Sweet Stockings Designer Series Paper projects

 

Do you love cats and dogs as much as I do? If so you won’t want to miss the beautiful Sweet Stockings Suite from Stampin’ Up!®. For my October kit of the month I used the Sweet Stockings Designer Series Paper and put together a selection of coordinating products. These are a really economical way to get your hands on everything you need to make fully coordinated projects and are idea if you find you don’t always manage to get through full packs.

Everyone who buys the kit from me gets access to an exclusive PDF of project ideas, with measurements, for them to copy or take inspiration from. I love that some of my customers then get together on Zoom to make the projects while they chat. 

 

These are some of the projects I shared with them this month. This is a Kraft Gift Box decorated with a fun tag made using the Seasonal Labels Dies and beautiful Pool Party striped ribbon. 

 

Isn’t that dog cute? And there are plenty more where that came from. To stamp the greeting, I used the little set that comes with the Christmas Whimsy Card Kit. It’s so useful.

 

 

Here are some more of the cut animals cut out from the Sweet Stockings Designer Series Paper. I love how grumpy the cat looks with his seasonal antlers on. All the greetings for the rest of the projects came from the Christmas to Remember stamp set – I particularly love this ’Tis the Season stamp as it gives you white on a colour without the hassle of embossing.

 

 

Behind the bottom edge of the Designer Series Paper layer, I have pleated the ribbon, which is one of my favourite ribbon techniques. Simply lay a strip of double-sided tape along the edge of the paper or cardstock then pleat the ribbon onto it, and lay a second strip of tape on top to hold it in place.

 

 When using double-sided table, always stick to the firmer surface first. So if you are using paper and cardstock, stick it to the cardstock. If using ribbon, stick to the paper or cardstock, then add the ribbon on top. Otherwise you’ll be there all day trying to peel off the backing.

 

 

This card uses the lovely Kraft cardstock which is something I have longed to see back in the catalogue for many years. It makes a beautiful warm neutral backdrop for this festive dog with his wreath collar. 

 

November’s Kit By Mail uses the brand new Eden’s Garden products – I am only taking orders for this kit until midnight on 31st October so I can order first thing on 1st November when these products go live to customers. This is because the Designer Series Paper, speciality cotton paper and Garden Gems are all only available while supplies last, and I would hate for anyone to miss out. 

 

  

Please click here to order your kit today – I can post them out to anywhere in the UK.

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website

Christmas season gift box, ornament and tags

 

It was so good to be back with a group of crafty ladies again at the weekend, for my first major craft event in 19 months.

It was a Christmas-themed event and everyone received the Christmas Season stamp set from Stampin’ Up!® as part of their kit. 

We made several cards, which I’ll show you in a future post, plus this lovely Mini Paper Pumpkin box to hold an ornament and some tags.

You may have noticed that I have a bit of a thing for pine cones and woodland themes. The Christmas Season stamp set feeds into this obsession quite nicely so it was my first choice for this all-day event.

I have always loved the Mini Paper Pumpkin boxes; they’re such a great size for lots of gifts, although not so great for posting as the depth of them bumps up the postage to small parcel rate here in the UK.

I’d saved a load of Designer Series Paper from Sale-a-Bration for the projects, so the guests could have half a pack each to work with. This silver birch design makes an ideal backdrop for the pine cones and berries on the Mini Paper Pumpkin box.

The stamped images are enhanced with a piece of ribbon made to look like a fir branch. We did this using the Evening Evergreen Chevron Weave ribbon. I sliced off one side seam, then frayed it to create the fringe you can just see below the greeting label. The strands I removed to create the fringe where then folded in half to create this fan of threads to resemble a branch of a fir tree. I can’t believe I thought of that all by myself!

 

Inside the box we made a little tray to separate the tags from the ornament, although guests had the option to leave this off if they wanted to use the box for something else.

They could also choose how they made their tags. I knew some would be fed up of die-cutting by this point so they had the option to punch these using a Tag Topper punch. We used Shimmery White cardstock for a touch of subtle glimmer. 

But those who were still up for some die-cutting could use the coordinating Seasonal Label dies to make pretty gift tags. 

All were stamped using the Christmas Season stamp set with added greetings. I used the lovely little word stamps from the Christmas Whimsy Card Kit which everyone is loving so much at the moment. (Hint: don't delay if you want this! While it’s still available in the Europe market, the French version has sold out and the English version is selling fast!)

The ornament – oh how I love a log slice ornament – is another fun way to show off these lovely pine cones and berries from the Christmas Season bundle. Again we used some threads from the Evening Evergreen Chevron Weave ribbon to create a fir sprig effect. Some ladies chose to stamp a greeting on the reverse, while others repeated the stamped and die-cut design so it looked the same from both sides.

A lovely day was had by all, and it felt so wonderful to be crafting together again. 

 

 

Want to craft with beautiful projects like these? If you’re in the UK, please head on over to my store to shop. If you use the host code ZKTV7U4Z before the end of October, I will send you a thank you gift next month. 

 

To make it easy for you, please shop using this link 

 

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website 

 

Pretty cards with Whimsy & Wonder Designer Series Paper

We are well into October so no apology needed for Christmas cards now. I have been creating with Stampin’ Up!'s Whimsy & Wonder Designer Series Paper for my monthly Crafty Friday class.

As these events are still partially on Zoom (I offer limited in-person places with the rest working remotely), we are sticking with the challenges of cutting out images from Designer Series Paper. Fortunately this Whimsy & Wonder Designer Series Paper has some perfect designs for doing this, so I was able to offer the ladies a choice of two cards to make with their kit. 

Version one really taps into the pink theme of the Whimsy & Wonder Suite, with a snowflake background covering the entire front of the card. The main focal point is a stack of presents, all cut out of the Whimsy & Wonder Designer Series Paper and overlaid onto one of the Wonderful Snowflakes. 

 

These snowflake elements are excellent, especially if you don’t have a die-cutting machine or simply want to save time when making your Christmas cards. The beautiful iridescent snowflakes come pre-cut, ready to be popped out of their backing paper. I attached them to the project using a single Glue Dot in the centre.

I’ve mounted the presents onto a panel cut with the Stitched So Sweetly Dies, which has a hint of Polished Pink peeping out behind it, as well as a hint of Be Dazzling Speciality Paper which I had left over from Sale-a-Bration.

For the alternative version, I used some strips of Whimsy & Wonder Designer Series Paper to create a panel mounted onto some Mint Macaron cardstock. Then the basic design is roughly the same, with a Christmas tree instead of a stack of presents. 

 

 

As I seem to have found myself short of greetings, both of these come from the new Christmas Whimsy Card Kit, which is excellent value, a great introduction to cardmaking and also ideal for seasoned crafters who want a relaxed and productive session. What these kits are also excellent for is building up your greeting stamps collection – these are both really useful sentiments which appeal to our understated British tastes and a nice neat size, too.

If you are in the UK and would like to order any of these products, please visit my store and, if you use the October host code ZKTV7U4Z, I’ll send you a thank you gift next month. To make it easy, please shop using this link

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website 

 

Kraft gift box with Peaceful Cabin bundle

Do you like to escape to the wop-wops? I learned this wonderful new word the other week, courtesy of New Zealand demonstrator Julie Burt, who commented on my previous Peaceful Cabin projects and explained that it means "the middle of nowhere".

The Peaceful Cabin bundle from Stampin' Up!® Mini Catalogue is one of my favourites – I know, big surprise, eh? You may have gathered from the pine cones that appear in all of my photos that I love woodlands and escaping to the wop-wops in general, although these days a café and a toilet nearby are always welcomed.

 

I also love the look of Kraft cardstock – which again appeals to my love of all things natural – so these Kraft gift boxes went straight onto my order from the Mini Catalogue. They are food safe so good for biscuits or cookies, and could also be used for a couple of pairs of socks, some jewellery, chocolate or other small gifts. 

 

The window aperture allows you to see the contents but I liked the idea of creating a window onto the woods, so stamped this serene scene using the Peaceful Cabin stamp set and the coordinating Cabin Dies. 

I began by embossing a piece of Old Olive cardstock with the Evergreen Forest 3D Embossing Folder, then swiping over the trees with a Whisper White ink pad. 

 

I coloured the cabin using Stampin’ Blends, giving the wood a greenish hue using a mix of brown and green markers, and a bright red roof. This reminds me of a lovely cottage I saw in Nethy Bridge in the Cairngorms in Scotland. There’s a Scandinavian vibe to parts of the village and I wanted to echo this in my project. I mounted the die-cut cabin onto the embossed Old Olive panel and positioned them behind the window.

Whisper White ink is craft ink, so sits on the surface of the cardstock instead of soaking in which allows the white to show up but also means it takes a while to dry. Therefore, I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to distance it from the window sheet and minimise the chance of it rubbing off onto the acetate. 

 

Around the window I stamped some tiny snowflakes in Whisper White, using a sticky note as a mask. On the top, on the outside of the window panel, I stuck some die-cut trees, which I swiped with white ink.

To finish off I tied up the box using some gold Simply Elegant Trim and a small greeting label stamped in Real Red. This label is created with the Rectangular Postage stamp punch. To make it smaller, I simply mounted my punched rectangle onto a sticky note to make it big enough to handle, then punched again to fit the greeting.

What do you think? Do you want to escape to the wop-wops in a cabin like this?

 

 

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the October host code ZKTV7U4Z, I’ll send you a thank you gift next month. To make it easy, please shop using this link

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website 

 

Scrappy strip technique - and mosaic technique

 

Have you heard of the Scrappy Strips technique developed by Aussie Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators Kylie and Bruno Bertucci? It’s brilliant for using up little scraps of cardstock and DSP and you can mix and match to your heart’s content.

It’s a simple 4-step technique:

1. Cut a panel to fit your card (I make my 5mm smaller than my card front, so if you’re using A4 cardstock that’s 10cm x 14.3cm)
2. Prepare four pieces of cardstock or Designer Series Paper – I cut these to 10.5cm x 14.8cm, so a quarter sheet of A4.
3. Cut these into 2cm wide (or 1") strips (along the length or width, it doesn’t matter), then cut each strip on the diagonal, roughly, without measuring.
4. Assemble these strips onto your panel and trim off the excess.

That’s it. You now have a fun panel to add to your card front and finish off with a greeting label. 

 

Oh and best of all, if you start off with four different colours/designs on the equivalent of four card fronts, you should have enough strips to create four cards as I did here. 

 

I used a subtle colour combination of Highland Heather, Mint Macaron and Fresh Freesia against striking Basic Black, because I don’t do well with pale colours normally. I like the idea of including a metallic finish in the design, although this lovely Be Dazzling Speciality Paper from the Sale-a-Bration collection is quite thick, so make sure you stick it down firmly and be careful when you cut it up. 

Remember, Sale-a-Bration ends on Thursday so if you want Be Dazzling paper or any of the free items, or want to join my team and get yourself a free bundle, please act VERY fast. Don’t leave it until Thursday evening as the SU office will be closed so no tech help will be available. 

 

I have used this technique a few times without thinking much about its origin but last week I saw a card which took it to the next level and discovered that it had been developed by a demonstrator called Linda Driggs and again showcased by Kylie Bertucci.

This turns your scrappy strips into a wonderful mosaic pattern. What you do is complete steps 1-4 as above, then cut your finished panel up again into further strips. I learned after making my version that simple strips would suffice, but I went off-piste and cut my strips on the diagonal again. This results in a slightly eye-boggling finished card but I still quite like it. 

I mounted my panels onto black cardstock as I think that makes them extra striking, and finished off with an embossed greeting in white on black. However, I’m afraid I’ve broken my own rule here and used a retired greeting; Just a Note comes from the retired Simply Citrus Card Kit, but it’s such a useful sentiment and size of stamp that I hung onto it. I didn’t realise my error until I was taking photos of the projects. Oops.

Have you tried the scrappy strip technique? Why not give it a go this week? Honestly, if you get hooked on this technique you will never throw any scraps of cardstock of DSP away again. 

 If you are in the UK and would like to order, please To order these or any other current Stampin’ Up!® products from my store, please shop using this link

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website 

 

Peaceful Cabin with (largely) monochromatic Misty Moonlight

Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators are a fabulous source of inspiration and for some of today’s Peaceful Cabin projects I have been inspired by two US demonstrators; Candy Rattray and Anna Helman.

What I love about finding inspiration from other Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators is that it gives you the opportunity either to CASE (copy and share everything) something using products you have or, as in this case, to adapt projects to suit your own supplies.

I have been crafting with the gorgeous Peaceful Cabin bundle for my first in-person Stampin’ Up!® party for many, many months.

In these times of online shopping and growing offspring who don’t want big presents any more, the gift wallet has really come into its own.  

Candy Rattray’s beautiful wedding gift wallet.

Inside Candy’s gift wallet.

I found this fabulous design on Candy’s blog but I’m not one for measurements and I knew I’d have to convert them to fit our A4 cardstock anyway so just winged it.

My own version is made from:

• Outer cardstock: 14.8cm x 26cm
• Scored at 6cm and 16.5cm

The inner is just a smaller card with a lip to hold money, a gift card or gift certificate, so I would make this to fit the contents instead of winging it, as I did. 

 
I stuck to a monochromatic colour palette of Misty Moonlight and white, with a hint of Pool Party on the black gingham ribbon as it was the only blue I have in Stampin’ Blends and I was too impatient to colour it in any other way. 

You can colour your ribbons in various ways, including Stampin’ Write (water-based) markers or sponging ink from an ink pad onto the ribbon. These both take quite a while to dry and if you don’t wait long enough the ink will transfer onto your project. It’s quicker to use Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers which dry quickly, although they can make your ribbon a little stiff. Weigh up the options and prepare ahead if necessary!

I found more inspiration on Anna’s blog for this simple circle aperture card. Anna’s project 
is actually a paper lantern which was inspired by the July Paper Pumpkin Kit which was available in the North American market. We occasionally get a global Paper Pumpkin Kit and I really wish we’d had this one as I love the colours and theme.

Anna Helman’s paper lantern, which was the inspiration for my card.

I tried to emulate the colours using Granny Apple Green. Well, I confess I just used what was on a dirty Blending Brush from an earlier craft session but I’m confident it was Granny Apple Green! I’m experimenting with not washing my brushes to see how that goes as they do take a long time to dry.

I used the cute fox stamp and dies from the Peaceful Cabin Bundle and some Misty Moonlight die-cut trees from the same set of Cabin Dies. I love that this could be a Christmas card or just a generic card for any occasion. 

 

My Peaceful Cabin mojo was by now well and truly active so I carried on to create more projects, including this white scene (the photo has turned it grey) with an Evergreen embossed background. 

I am so happy we still have this Embossing Folder in the catalogue as it’s perfect for Christmas and for my favourite themes of woodlands.

Finally I made this very simple card for the Make & Take for a Stampin’ Up!® party on Saturday. I used the tree die from Cabin Dies to create a simple stencil, which I then brushed around using Blending Brushes. It’s a really quick and easy way to make a stunning background for the die-cut cabin, and makes a Christmas card that isn’t too time-consuming to reproduce in bulk.

I hope you are inspired by my Peaceful Cabin projects and that you, too, will find inspiration from Candy and Anna’s blogs. I love to hear what you think, so please leave a comment below if you can.

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please To order these or any other current Stampin’ Up!® products from my store, please shop using this link

Does your wish list come to more than £99? Please get in touch and I will help you get more for your money and unlock discounts all year round.  

 

Please message me via my website