Three card ideas using Happy Forest Friends

I tried to resist the Happy Forest Friends Suite in the Stampin’ Up!® Annual Catalogue but it was inevitable that I would give in sooner or later. Bears, foxes, owls, trees and toadstools... this suite is very much ‘on brand’ for All Things Stampy!

I have been enjoying crafting with the Happier than Happy stamp set and coordinating Happy Forest Friends Designer Series Paper and have a few projects to show you today. 

 

This first card shows just how fabulous this gorgeous Happy Forest Friends Designer Series Paper really is. All I have done here is mount a panel of DSP onto some Old Olive cardstock and add a greeting flag and cute wooden Textural Element which I have inked with Calypso Coral ink.

When the Designer Series Paper is this beautifully detailed, it seems a shame to cover it up so I kept this card really simple. 

 

For my second card, I used the new Kraft Note Cards & Envelopes (which I LOVE – I do love Kraft) and some strips of the smaller patterns of Happy Forest Friends Designer Series Paper mounted onto some Soft Suede cardstock. 

 

 

To create a focal point, I fussy-cut a bear, a tiny toadstool and bird from the paper and mounted these onto a die-cut label.

I love this Natural Finish ribbon – it’s very wide (2.2cm) so to avoid a big chunky bow, I simply tied a piece of linen thread around to add interst. 

 

 

Both of these cards can be made using my All the Trimmings Kit for July, which gives you a taste of lots of different coordinating products to tie in with the Happy Forest Friends Designer Series Paper. you get half a pack of paper (each sheet cut into 6"x12" pieces for easier mailing), plus coordinating cardstock, some of these Kraft Note Cards & Envelopes, ribbon and linen thread.

To purchase full packs of everything included in the kit would cost you over £100 but you can get a generous taste of each product for just £20, including postage to anywhere in the UK.

Please click here for more information and to reserve your kit.

 

Finally, I made a card using the beautiful Happier Than Happy stamp set. There are so many possibilities with this set but I really wanted to focus on the owls.

I began by stamping the background with a semi-regular pattern of trees in Pear Pizzazz. What is a semi-regular pattern? It’s a pattern which I wanted to be regular but couldn’t be bothered to measure, so I just went with the flow. 

 

 

On top of these I have placed a whole parliament of owls. These are stamped on to separate white cardstock and cut out. “But what about those fiddly legs?” I hear you cry. This brings me to my Stamping Tip...

If you want to cut out images with really fine details such as spindly legs or whiskers, stamp the image twice. I stamped each of these owls directly onto the tree-covered background. To avoid the trees showing through, I then stamped the owls again onto another piece of cardstock, cut them out and stuck them on top, or popped them up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I hope you like my Happy Forest Friends projects and will consider adding some of these products to your craft stash. If you would like to order this month’s kit, I am only taking requests until 4th July so please follow this link to reserve yours now. Remember they are only available in the UK.

And if you would like to order the Happier Than Happy Bundle of stamps and dies, do so during July or August as you will qualify for a free Sale-a-Bration item because SAB starts again on Friday 1st July and runs for two months.

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current host code KKM7NVNM, 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 

 

Cup of Tea and Tea Boutique projects

 

 

The Tea Boutique Suite from Stampin’ Up!® is a fantastic showcase for our new In Colors, so everyone who attended my Craft-Tea Day Out event earlier this month received some of these beautiful Tea Boutique Cards & Envelopes.

I’d asked those who had one to bring their Stamparatus so each table could set themselves up to make these five fun cards quickly and efficiently using their Cup of Tea bundles. I love the bright pops of colour from the cups, the flowers and the cards themselves. 

This Sweet Sorbet card has a lovely polka dot design. I’ve combined it here with the sharp acid tone of Parakeet Party, with a pop of yellow for the lemon. 

Starry Sky is the darkest of the new In Colors and I love this patterned card; this pattern is also found in the Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper. I’ve stamped the cup for this card in Sweet Sorbet and coloured it in using ink from my ink pad and a Water Painter.

Parakeet Party is the brightest new In Color and I love it! But even I felt the need to tone it down with some Starry Sky. I love how these two colours work so well together. 

Tahitian Tide is the only new In Color I can’t really warm to – but I do really like this pattern on the card base. The slice of bright yellow lemon (Crushed Curry if I remember correctly) breaks up the monotone.

Orchid Oasis is everyone’s favourite new In Color, if my sales are anything to go by. It’s a beautiful gentle blue with shades of lilac and it’s gorgeous. I love the vintage-style pattern on this Orchid Oasis card base. 

Another project at my Craft-Tea Day Out was a pair of slimline cards – same shape but very different in style. This first one uses new In Colors so echoes the five thank you cards above. I found and adapted this from a design by Canadian demonstrator Allison Okamitsu and, as everyone at the event had their own Designer Series Paper to work with, they could choose the colours they liked best.

In the top of each cup is a vellum leaf, from the Vellum Layering Designs pack. This was left over from their notebook, which I shared here last week. 

The second slimline card echoes the vintage vibes of that notebook, using delicately coloured and vintage floral patterned cups. This really shows just how versatile the Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper pack is – from bright punchy patterns to delicate florals, simply by flipping over the sheets. 

 

I hope you have enjoyed my Craft-Tea Day Out projects using the Cup of Tea bundle and Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper.

I am hoping to hold another all-day craft event before the end of the summer so if you can get to Derbyshire, you’d be more than welcome to join us.

Meanwhile, if you need any products to recreate any of these projects and are in the UK, please visit my store and, if you use the June 2022 host code KKM7NVNM, I’ll 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 

 

Vintage-inspired Tea Boutique projects

Stampin’ Up!® products are not just for cardmaking and my customers had asked if they could decorate a notebook at our all-day Craft-Tea Day Out on Saturday.

I aim to please so came up with this lovely vintage-inspired design using the Cup of Tea Bundle and Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper. I wanted to show the versatility of the Tea Boutique paper by highlighting the more subtle designs on the reverse.

I cut six cups from Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper, cutting some of them on the reverse so the handles weren’t all on the same side. If you do this, the slightly raised edges caused by the die will be on the front but you can easily flatten these down by smoothing with a bone folder.

All the cups are gently aged around the edges using a Blending Brush and some Crumb Cake ink.

They are mounted onto some vellum printed with fine text in white – this is from the Layering Designs pack which is gorgeous and extremely versatile.

I often use vellum on top of Designer Series Paper to soften the design. Here I have used it to add a little interest to the background without adding bulk.

The leaves are stamped using the Cup of Tea stamp set and Pear Pizzazz ink, although any pale green would work well, or even a different colour such as pale blue.

 

The vellum is mounted onto Petal Pink cardstock, which is also aged around the edges using Crumb Cake ink, and then onto Orchid Oasis, to provide a pop of a darker colour to frame it all and pick up the cups of the same colour. 

 

 

Around the front panel I wrapped some Petal Pink ribbon, joining at the back as I really don’t like to see ribbon stuck down. I doubled up the In Color Baker’s Twine to tie a bow around this. Using twine allowed me to add a bow without too much bulk. If a notebook is to be carried around, you don’t want a lot of bulky elements on the front as they can easily become dislodged. 

 

 

The little teabag tag, stamped with the Cup of Tea stamp set, is supposed to be tucked into one of the cups. Unfortunately, I forgot and stuck the cups down all the way round – but I always say “I make the mistakes so you don’t have to” and I was able to warn the ladies not to do the same as me. 

 

 

Finally, the project is embellished with flowers die-cut from Tea Boutique Designer Series Papers and pearls. Elements like this can enable you to echo a colour used elsewhere, providing much-needed balance. For instance, I have used a yellow flower at the bottom to pick up the yellow cup at the top. The Orchid Oasis, flower towards the top echoes the Orchid Oasis cups, and the Fresh Freesia flower picks up the cup of the same colour.

 

 

Staying with a vintage theme, we also made this little box for teabags. These Delicate Details Treat boxes are beautiful and so easy to make; they even come with their own adhesive.

I used a strip of Orchid Oasis cardstock and the same Petal Pink ribbon as on the notebook, topped with another cup die-cut from Tea Boutique Designer Series Papers using the Teacup Dies and aged with Crumb Cake ink. This time I remembered not to apply adhesive all the way round so I could tuck in the teabag. 

 

The Sweet Sorbet flowers were deliberately used to pick up the colour of the teabags themselves. The laser-cut Delicate Details Treat boxes will show your contents and I wanted to pick up the hint of red that showed through. However, I have lined the bottom half of the inside of the front using Pear Pizzazz cardstock, which is echoed in the Pear Pizzazz leaves. Only the front panel is laser-cut so you don’t have to worry about the other panels. 

 

I hope you like these vintage-inspired projects made with the Cup of Tea bundle and Tea Boutique Designer Series Paper. 

 

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current June 2022 host code KKM7NVNM, I’ll 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 

 

Tea Boutique card ideas – and a hat fit for a queen!

I am in full Tea Boutique mode, preparing for an all-day in-person craft event this weekend.

I won’t show you those projects just yet as I know some of the ladies like them to be a surprise, but here are some Tea Boutique projects which I have been making recently. 

 

The Tea Boutique Suite features in the new 2022-23 Annual Catalogue from Stampin’ Up!® and I was instantly drawn to it as it’s a bit different to my usual style of stamping.

I have used it for lots of projects recently, even to decorate a hat!

But first here is simple note card which uses strips of Designer Series Paper and a die-cut teacup from the Cup of Tea bundle. 

This is a great design for using scraps of any Designer Series Paper, although I have stayed within the Suite and used Tea Boutique here. I love the bright cheery colours and bold patterns... as well as the fact that there are some subtle pastel patterns in there too. 

 

I stamped the teacup in Orchid Oasis, one of our lovely new In Colors™️, and the leaves in Garden Green. The hearts are made using Teacup Dies and some of the lovely Designer Series paper in Sweet Sorbet (another new In Color) from the Tea Boutique pack. 

 

The second card does not use the Cup of Tea bundle but showcases the Tea Boutique Designer Series paper. This is a fun rolled-back design which is very popular at the moment. Again this is a great way to use scraps of Designer Series Paper as you hardly need any behind that torn white panel. 

 

To make this cool card, simply tear two strips in a white cardstock panel, then remove most of the centre piece to reduce bulk. Roll back the remaining piece as tightly as you can and stick firmly in place with strong adhesive, ideally which bonds immediately, such as double-sided tape or Seal+.

Then you simply add your piece of Designer Series Paper behind the white and layer up your card as usual.

The stamp set I've used here is Charming Sentiments, which has some really lovely saying in it.

Finally I have something a little different to show you; a hat! I made lots of rosettes and die-cut teacups to decorate this hat for my Mum to wear at the Platinum Jubilee celebrations over this past weekend. I hot glued everything to a strip of scrap paper and simply allowed gravity to hold it in place. All Mum had to do was stay out of the rain!

 

 

 

Here’s how to make the rosettes I’ve used on the hat. Score at 1cm or half-inch intervals. No other measuring – just remember whatever width of cardstock you use, your finished rosette will be twice as wide.

 

I hope you like my Tea Boutique projects. If you are in the UK and would like to order any of this Suite, or any other current Stampin’ Up!® products, please visit my store and, if you use the currently May 2022 host code YN9XZVTS, 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 

 

Fun fold wedding cards using Cup of Tea bundle

 

Floral cards for special occasions are not my forte so when I happened upon this fabulous fun fold card idea from fellow Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator Terri Gaines, it was just what I needed for several special occasions. I fiddled around with her template and converted it for A4 cardstock and C6 envelopes – please read on for measurements, and an alternative version.

 

I began by making a ruby wedding card for our neighbours. They love gardening and were holding a tea party so I filled a cup with red flowers. I used the Cup of Tea bundle for the cup and Quiet Meadow for the flowers. 

 

I stamped the flowers in Stazon and coloured them using ink and water painters. The vellum leaves are stamped in Whisper White craft ink and left to dry for several minutes. The Garden Green leaves are stamped and die cut using the Cup of Tea bundle and the gold leaf just happened to be on the desk left over from another project so I stuck it in!

This fun fold card idea has lots of space for messaging, or to add different decorated panels. On the front I stamped Congratulations using my new Charming Sentiments stamp set. 

 

On the Charming Sentiments stamp set, the images on the front of the pack are slightly smaller than the actual stamps; this is something which tripped me up when designing this card, and I had to create a bigger panel than originally planned.

 

For the centre panel, I was glad I had held on to my Playful Alphabet Dies (now retired) as they were ideal to create the 40. I die-cut each number out four times and layered them on top of each other to give them a little depth.

The word Anniversary is stamped using the set which comes with For the Guys cardmaking kit (buy one get one half price in June!), as does “th” which I carefully inked using a Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker on the Birthday stamp.

The third panel uses a beautiful sentiment, again from the Charming Sentiments stamp set. This panel is also decorated with a Let’s Celebrate Embossing Folder. There are two mini folders in this pack – designed for the Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine – but if you position them carefully and use the standard Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine, you can emboss a larger panel as I have done here. 

 

Finally, I embellished the card using tiny red hearts from the Teacup Dies set. Another tip coming up...

If you have ever bought a kit you will have seen those sheets of tiny glue dots. Honestly, they’re a bit fiddly so I don’t use them for my kits. However, as I am against waste, I do save them and use them for sticking very tiny elements such as these hearts, when a standard Mini Glue Dot is too big.

I hope you like this Ruby wedding card. Now for an actual wedding card – and it seemed crazy not to use the same design while I had all my supplies on hand...

 

This is for a demonstrator friend who loves Pool Party (if I remember correctly). The plan was to turn those little black hearts into musical notes as she and her new husband are very musical. However, I confess I bottled out as I couldn’t make them look convincing on my scrap paper.

The card follows the same design, but I added some spatters using Quiet Meadow and this time I used some retired Designer Series Paper as I didn’t have anything new which was suitable. I did think the black and white stripes were reminiscent of a piano keyboard but maybe this is too subtle? 

 

All the sentiments on this card some from Charming Sentiments, and all the flowers and leaves come from Cup of Tea. I hope they like it!

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the new May 2022 host code YN9XZVTS, I’ll 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