Sneak peek: Five cards with the Rainbow of Happiness bundle

Do you love rainbows? Come on, who doesn’t? Well, how about a sneak peek today? Do you want to take a look at one of the fabulous new bundles coming up in the Stampin’ Up!® January-June 2022 Mini Catalogue?

The Rainbow of Happiness bundle features the beautiful and versatile Rainbow of Happiness stamp set and the coordinating Brilliant Rainbow dies.

Rainbows can mean many things to many different people. They have spiritual significance for people of various religions and cultures, they can be a sign of good luck to those searching for a pot of gold at the end and they are a sign of equality for the LGBTQ+ community. They are also pretty amazing to see on a wet day, as I did when out walking in the Derbyshire countryside on Saturday.

Whatever your reason for loving rainbows, the new Rainbow of Happiness stamp set will enable you to add more than a splash of colour to your craft projects and I made a batch of cards using this fun new set, to mark a number of celebrations. 

First of all I wanted to celebrate two of my team members who were recognised by Stampin’ Up!® for their achievements during 2020-2021. I used the Pattern Party Designer Series Paper which is only available if you host a qualifying party but had just the right colourful vibe to go with these projects. 

For the first card, picking the colours from this paper, I used Poppy Parade, Pumpkin Pie, Granny Apple Green and Pool Party to stamp my rainbow to match the Designer Series Paper behind. 

 

I added interest to the white panel with a polka dot design created using the Checks & Dots Embossing Folders and a subtle greeting from the Sweet as a Peach stamp set.

For the second team card, I needed make the card a little more masculine so stamped in shades of blue/green. I used Pool Party, Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay and, after trying several blues and not finding the right one, finally settled on Shaded Spruce. 

I used a spotty piece of Designer Series Paper from the same Pattern Party pack, so this time used the checked embossing folder. These are narrow embossing folders which means you can use them in the Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine – but you can also used them with a larger piece of cardstock if you run them through twice as I did, carefully positioning the cardstock so the pattern repeats. 

Next up was a congratulations card to celebrate the birth of a baby girl. I don’t currently have much call for baby cards so I was struggling for a stamp set, but then saw this beautiful card created by Canadian Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator Tina Zinck and used that as the basis for my own version.

I used Shimmery White cardstock to add some sparkle (which doesn’t really show up in the photos) and gave one piece a wash of Pool Party ink to look a little like the sky. This was die-cut using the must-have Stitched So Sweetly Dies.

On top of this I created a pink rainbow and clouds using Brilliant Rainbow dies, and added a penguin stamped using Count on Me and fussy cut. 

Finally I wanted to make a card to support a friend who is transgender and has been receiving lots of hateful messages online purely for being her true self. I began by researching the colours of the trans flag, which is pink, white and blue – not colours I would normally use. I ended up making two cards as I couldn’t really decide where I was going with it. 

This one – the one I sent – is based on a card demonstrated by Emma Parkin-Wilson at OnStage@Home, an event for Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators. Emma’s card used Designer Series Papers behind the white rainbows but I was limited to Balmy Blue and Blushing Bride so stamped them to create my own pattern. As the stamps I used were tiny, this was quite the task!

The greeting is cut out using Tasteful Labels Dies. I keep spare labels die-cut in Basic White to hand so I can finish projects without having to pull out lots of different die sets. The card is finished off with a hint of silver in the cord and rhinestones. The result was that this really did brighten my friend’s day. 

And finally, the one that got away, which I didn’t send in the end. The rainbow is stamped in Balmy Blue and Blushing Bride with the greeting fitting perfectly in the centre. The cute border comes from the Brilliant Rainbow dies, and I still had the Checks & Dots Embossing Folders out from the earlier projects.

I hope you enjoyed these projects and will maybe consider adding this bundle to your wish list for when the Stampin’ Up!® January-June 2022 Mini Catalogue goes live in January. I have to say this is not my usual stamp set style but I thoroughly enjoyed using it and plan to make many more cards to brighten people’s days. 

Meanwhile, there are lots of fabulous products which are due to retire very soon, with some of them reduced by up to 50%. You can check them all out in my online store and, if you use the current host code TFBG2JJB, I’ll send you a thank you gift in January.

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 

 

Don’t miss these Last Chance products from the July-December Mini Catalogue

Can you believe our lovely July-December Stampin’ Up!® Mini Catalogue is coming to an end? It seems like only a few weeks ago that it was launched and we were all excited about new autumn and winter products.

From tomorrow (Wed) we enter the retirement period for this catalogue, which means it is your last chance to order your favourite items. 

 

See the list of products which are retiring here

If you click on the second sheet on that document you will also see a list of items which are  carrying over to of 2022 and will be available during the remainder of the Annual Catalogue period (until the end of April), plus those which are going into storage and will return in July 2022 for the Jul-Dec Mini Catalogue. Hopefully this will help you plan your festive projects.

Today, therefore, I would like to show you some of the gorgeous stamp sets which are on the retiring list. Some of these are heavily reduced so would make a fantastic bargain if you want to get a head start for Christmas 2022. 

 

 

Whimsy & Wonder Suite

From this suite, the Whimsical Trees stamp set is retiring, along with the Christmas Trees Dies, the Whimsy & Wonder Designer Series Paper and the Blushing Bride Frayed Grosgrain Ribbon. Only the Wonderful Snowflakes (die-cut elements) survive – and they won’t be available again until the July-December 2022 Mini Catalogue.

My projects at the top of this post are made with the Whimsical Trees bundle, while the one above is from the catalogue uses the bundle, the Whimsy & Wonder Designer Series Paper and, from elsewhere, the Gold Holly Leaves, which are also going into retirement until July. 

 

Arctic Bears

The Arctic Bears bundle is gorgeous and, while I do have it and have used it, I haven’t managed to photograph my projects yet, so enjoy this one from the Mini catalogue. Both the Arctic Bears stamp set and coordinating Polar Bears dies are retiring – and in the UK both are heavily reduced so are a chance to grab a bargain. 

 

  

Holly Jolly Wishes

The Holly Jolly Wishes stamp set is a standalone set and well worth adding to your craft stash, especially from tomorrow when it becomes an amazing half-price bargain at just £10. It features lots of festive greetings, from the fun to the more elegant and serious. 

 

Sweet Stockings Suite

This entire suite is retiring, and some of the items are reduced in the UK. This includes the Sweet Little Stockings Bundle, the individual elements of Sweet Little Stockings stamp set and Stockings Dies, the Matte Decorative Dots, Jolly Felt and, for year-round crafting, Pool Party Striped Grosgrain Ribbon. A must-have set whether you love cats, dogs, guinea pigs or just the stockings shown here. 

 

Snow Wonder

Both the Snow Wonder stamp set and the Snow Time dies are retiring, along with the bundle (stamps and dies). If you like more tradiational, elegant images, this is definitely one for you. 

 

Here are some more picks from the retiring list – I’ve chosen 10 stamp sets you can grab for a tenner each, and five products which are under a fiver!

 

 

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the December host code TFBG2JJB, I’ll send you a thank you gift in January.

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 

 

Painted Season gift projects – with FREE tutorials

Some of you are way more organised than me and already have your Christmas cards made – and perhaps even written them. Therefore, your thoughts will be turning to gift packaging. 

I made these gift wrap ideas using the beautiful Painted Christmas Designer Series Paper from Stampin’ Up!®. 

 

As you may guess from the fact that pine cones feature in all of my project photos, this Suite is absolutely right up my street – the designs, the colours, everything. Finally, those pine cones make sense!

 

The large bag is a great design which I borrowed from UK Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator Julie Kettlewell at The Paper Haven. 

 

 

 

It requires two full sheets of 12x12 Designer Series Paper but produces a bag which is big enough for a book or box of chocolates. Hopefully the recipient will like the bag enough to use it again next year, too.

Download a free tutorial here

 

I decorated the bag with a gift tag made using the Christmas Season bundle. 

The tag can be as simple or as detailed as you like. I love the pine cones (obviously) so stamped these onto Crumb Cake cardstock to really make them stand out.

 

The half-cracker gift box is a brilliant little design which can be used as novelty gift packaging or as table crackers which can be used year after year. 

 

 

Regular readers with good memories will recall I made this half cracker gift box last year, too but it’s such a good little box that I wanted to repeat it at an event this year using this gorgeous Painted Christmas Designer Series Paper... after first checking that none of this year’s ladies had attended last year, of course!

 

Download the cracker tutorial here

 

Again, I made a gift tag using the Christmas Season stamp set and Seasonal Labels dies, which are available as a bundle. This time I used a smaller label die and the smaller of the two pine cones from the set.

I had two packs of this beautiful Painted Christmas Designer Series Paper which enabled me to create a matching cracker box to go with each bag. But if you mix and match they look beautiful, too. 

 

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the November 2021 host code P6VRQPMJ, I’ll send you a thank you gift in the following 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 

 

Four cards in one using Christmas Season

 

Today I have some cards to show you which use the Christmas Season stamp set from the Stampin’ Up!® Jul-Dec Mini Catalogue. I love this stamp set and made these projects at my all-day Christmas workshop last month, when we also made these projects. In fact I will be making the ornament and these cards again tonight in a Zoom version of the event for those  who couldn’t make it. 

Before I begin I must tell you that from today until Thursday (16th-18th November) we have a special Seasonal Sale when you can make savings on lots of crafting staples. 

During the Seasonal Sale you can save:

• 10% on cardstock
• 15% on Classic Stampin’ Pads
• 20% on dies featured in the Annual Catalogue

Plus, if you join Stampin’ Up! before the end of November, you can get up to £130 of craft supplies for just £75. And guess what? There’s absolutely nothing to stop you stocking your bespoke Starter Kit with discounted products! 

 

Please get in touch via my website if you would like to find out more about this bargain of the year.

 

Now onto the cards. These can be as simple or as complicated as you like – keep them simple to churn out the Christmas cards on a very speedy production line!

 

You begin with a piece of standard white cardstock and draw pencil lines along the centre axes, so if you use A4 that will be at 10.5cm and 14.8cm. It doesn’t even have to be pencil; a pen will do as you won’t need to rub it out.

Using various leaves, berries etc and different shades of green, red and brown (for berry stalks), stamp along the two lines. It’s a bit like a one-sheet wonder, you just don’t fill in the whole sheet.

 

 When stamping along your lines, keep it simple as you can always add to it later. This will give you more options when it comes to making your finished cards. 

 

You’ll end up with something like this (this was an earlier experimental piece not the one I used in the end) which you cut into quarters, along the lines. The resulting four pieces will form the basis of your four cards as you can trim them down to suit. 

 

 

This is a really simple card, with the quarter trimmed down and laid onto some Designer Series Paper. This paper was from Sale-a-Bration, which I’d hoarded for my class, but you could use anything in red or green, or even just a layer of cardstock. 

If you prefer, you can step it up with some die-cut (or fussy-cut) pine cones and sprigs, and a piece of gold ribbon. 

 

 

This version adds a cardstock layer and a label as well as the cut-out pine cones. A strip of Evening Evergreen Chevron Weave Ribbon adds texture.

The final variation on the theme uses a trimmed-down piece to show more of the Designer Series Paper and is finished off with die-cut pine cones and a bow tied in the beautiful Evening Evergreen Open Weave Ribbon. The thicker Chevron Weave ribbon would be too bulky here. 

I hope you like these four festive cards using Christmas Season, one of my favourite sets from the Jul-Dec Mini Catalogue. If you want to save on cardstock and inks to make these cards, you can see which colours I used here. 

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current host code P6VRQPMJ, I’ll send you a thank you gift in the following 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 

 

Eden’s Garden projects – getting the most mileage out of this beautiful collection

There’s a new collection of craft products from Stampin’ Up!® in town – and there’s a lot to love here. The collection is called Eden’s Garden and it features stamps, dies, Designer Series Paper and more.

Now bear with me here because it’s not totally straightforward:

⭐️ Eden’s Garden stamp set and Eden Dies
These are an early release from the upcoming Jan-June Mini Catalogue, so will carry over to next year. They are available separately, as a bundle or as part of the full Eden’s Garden Collection.

⭐️ Ever Eden Speciality Designer Series Paper
⭐️ Ever Eden Cotton Paper
⭐️ Garden Gems
These are all exclusive products available now but only while supplies last. They will not carry over into the Mini Catalogue next year. They are available to purchase separately, or as part of the full Eden’s Garden Collection.

What I love about this collection – and the Ever Eden Speciality Designer Series Paper in particular – is that it can be used for year-round projects, or for Christmas as it features sumptuous greens and gold.

It can also be used with other products and I used the paper here to make a birthday card for my Mum, with an image from Nature’s Harvest.

The cotton paper has a lovely feel to it and I added more texture using the Timeworn Type 3D embossing folder, which comes in a mixed pack of Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen. I then mounted it onto a Soft Succulent card base. 

I then decorated it with some of the gorgeous Ever Eden Speciality Designer Series Paper and added some gold ribbon and a Nature’s Harvest arrangement of flowers and grasses. This is one of my favourite stamp sets so I’m delighted to have more Designer Series Paper to use with it and give it a fresh new look. 

 

For my second project using this gorgeous Designer Series Paper, I made a little book-style box which happily holds one four-finger KitKat or two two-finger bars (other chocolate bars are available and I am sure will fit). 

Everyone who purchased my Kit By Mail this month will receive instructions to make this cute little box. I added to the décor of mine using Forever Flourishing Dies – these and the Forever Fern stamps are yet more products which go well with the Eden’s Garden Designer Series Paper.

To decorate the top of the box I used some Ever Eden Cotton Paper in Evening Evergreen. I took a quarter sheet, measuring 6”x6”, then folded it into thirds along both edges, to create nine squares. I then cut a rough circle, freehand, using scissors.

 

I shuffled the nine circles a little so they weren’t sitting perfectly on top of each other and stapled them in the centre. Then I simply ruffled up the paper to create this pretty flower. The paper is soft and very thin but retains its shape when you do this, which is quite magical. 

I hope you like my Eden’s Garden projects. Now please take a look at some of the other projects you could make with this lovely collection…

This beautiful card uses a strip of Ever Eden Cotton Paper to create a ribbon effect – which is ideal if you are trying to avoid adding bulk to your project.

 

This is a cute tag which introduces Cherry Cobbler and Kraft into the mix. This could be used for Christmas or any other occasion. 

 

By die-cutting the Eden’s Garden Designer Series Paper using Delicate Baubles Dies, with another cut from cardstock underneath, this becomes a fabulously festive tag. A touch of Brushed Metallic Cardstock keeps the bling levels subtle and classy. 

By cutting out the centre of a die-cut image with the Delicate Baubles Dies, there’s a useful and versatile “Merry & Bright” to top this card – instantly transforming it into a Christmas card. 

 

Here the Ever Eden Cotton Paper really comes into its own. I have to say that, spectacular though it is, I don’t think I’d have the patience to make this beautiful bow.

If you like the look of the Eden’s Garden Collection or any other products you see here, please consider shopping at my store if you are in the UK. If you use the current host code P6VRQPMJ, I’ll send you a thank you gift in the following 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