Thursday 29 April 2021

50 new Stampin’ Up!® In Color colour combinations


They’re here! By popular demand, I have created 50 new colour combinations using Stampin’ Up!®'s brand new 2021-23 In Colors™️. That’s 10 new combinations each for Soft Succulent, Evening Evergreen, Pale Papaya, Fresh Freesia and Polished Pink. These colours will remain current for two years, retiring in 2023.

On the whole I try to match the new colours with our existing colours, rather than within the new collection. This means you can match them with your current cardstock and ink pads, even if you only purchase one or two of the new colours. 
 
Please feel free to use these colour combinations in your projects; I would appreciate a link back to this page, or at least a credit.

Scroll down past the colour combinations to see how the new colours compare to our existing and past shades. Often people will point out that a new colour is very similar to an old one; if this ever happens, I advise them that this is a fabulous opportunity to dig out their old ink pads and use them with the new cardstock, ribbon and embellishments. I cannot stand waste so, if you’re not a demonstrator, there’s absolutely no need to replace those old pads if they still have life in them. 

Want to get your hands on these colours? Please click here for my 2021 In Color Shares 

 Stampin Up In Colors 2021 colour combinations Evening Evergreen

Stampin Up In Colors 2021 colour combinations Fresh Freesia

Stampin Up In Colors 2021 colour combinations Pale Papaya

Stampin Up In Colors 2021 colour combinations Polished Pink

Stampin Up In Colors 2021 colour combinations Soft Succulent

Please click here to see colour combinations from previous years

Stampin Up In Colors 2021 colour comparisons Evening Evergreen

 
Stampin Up In Colors 2021 colour comparisons Pale Papaya

Stampin Up In Colors 2021 colour comparisons Polished Pink

Stampin Up In Colors 2021 colour comparisons Soft Succulent

Want to get your hands on these colours?
Please click here for my 2021 In Color Shares

Stampin Up In Colors Product Shares

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.  
 
 


Monday 26 April 2021

Sneak peek: Hand-Penned Petals with Stampin’ Up!®'s new 2021-23 In Colors

Stampin Up In Colors 2021 Hand Penned Petals sneak peek

My Stampin’ Up!® pre-order goodies finally arrived... just before I went away for the week, so I have hardly had any chance to play with them but I did crack open the new In Colors and the Hand-Penned Petals stamp set to make these five simple cards.

Hand-Penned Petals is a lovely two-step stamp set. A note for my regular ladies here: the solid images are not supposed to fit the outlines perfectly. I repeat: they are NOT supposed to fit perfectly! I know this will freak some of you out, but trust me, they are supposed to look like that. It’s artistic, dontcha know?
 
I stamped each outline image and the greeting in Memento Tuxedo Black, using the Stamparatus for speed and precision. I used the Stamparatus again for the flowers, but switched to a block to add the leaves because you use the same leaf stamp three times. 
 
 
The large leaf stamp is not stamped the same way round each time. Simply turn it around to fit the image in the best way and remember: it’s not supposed to fit perfectly!
 

Stampin Up Polished Pink In Colors 2021 Hand Penned Petals

Polished Pink

This card showcases Polished Pink, which is going to be the hardest new colour for me to love as I'm not a pink person at all. But I know lots of people are so it's going to be popular, I'm sure!
 
Stampin Up Polished Pink In Colors 2021

It’s quite close to Magenta Madness, but a little softer so, in my view, that makes it easier on the eye. The ribbon co-ordinates perfectly with Magenta Madness, too. 
 
The leaves on this first card, and most of the cards here, are stamped in Soft Succulent...
 
Soft Succulent In Colors 2021 Hand Penned Petals
 

Soft Succulent

This is LOVELY. It’s like the big brother of Mint Macaron which means the ribbon co-ordinates perfectly with Mint Macaron, too. Soft and gentle but with a bit more bite. 
 
Stampin Up Soft Succulent In Colors 2021

 I’ve stamped the flowers on this second card in Fresh Freesia... 

Stampin Up card made with Fresh Freesia In Colors 2021 Hand Penned Petals

Fresh Freesia

You’ll love this because it’s like nothing we have already, at least not for years. It’s reminiscent of the old colour Orchid Opulence from times past but softer and gentler. Even if it doesn’t float your boat on its own, stick it with Blackberry Bliss and it will definitely capture your heart. 
 
Stampin Up Fresh Freesia In Colors 2021
 
Stampin Up card made with Pale Papaya In Colors 2021 Hand Penned Petals

Pale Papaya

This is very subtle, a little like Grapefruit Grove from a few years ago but again, gentler. 
 
Stampin Up Pale Papaya In Colors 2021
 

Soft and gentle is the theme of most of this collection, until we come to...

Stampin Up card made with Evening Evergreen  In Colors 2021 Hand Penned Petals

Evening Evergreen

This is by far my favourite. It's so deep and rich and lovely. I always love the greens, as some of you know, but this one surprises me as it's almost bottle green which used to made me shudder as it was the colour of my school uniform! It's a darker shade of Shaded Spruce, so they will work well together. 
 
Stampin Up Evening Evergreen In Colors 2021


 
 
Love colour? Please come back on Thursday for my new In Color colour combinations!


If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the April host code TRPKSXWR, I’ll send you a thank you gift in May!


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.  
 
 

Monday 19 April 2021

Seashells Embossing folder thank you cards

Seashells Embossing Folder Stampin Up

I had a splashy fun time creating these cards as customer thank yous. Pretty much everything was covered in speckles of ink by the time I'd finished.

These are just a few of the cards I made; I rashly packed up the others before I remembered to take any pix. Oops - thankfully I remembered just in time. 

Thank you gift host code All Things Stampy Stampin Up

I sent these out to everyone who shopped with me in March. Those who used the host code also received a thank you gift of a retiring stamp set, Parcels & Petals. This is SUCH a bargain set that I couldn't resist ordering one for everyone. Well, not quite everyone; the lady who already had one received something different. Yes, I really did go through them all to check.

I used the Seashells 3D Embossing Folder, which is a relatively new addition to my craft stash. It goes perfectly with the Friends Are Like Seashells Bundle but I haven’t had chance to use them together yet.

Seashells Embossing Folder Stampin Up

For these relatively quick and easy cards, I simply speckled some pieces of Basic White cardstock using a wet paintbrush to pink up ink from the ink pad lid and then spatter it across the paper.


Seashells Embossing Folder Stampin Up
The wetter your brush, the bigger and paler the splashes you'll get. Keep the water to a minimum and you'll get smaller, darker speckles.

 
Seashells Embossing Folder Stampin Up
 
I used three outgoing In Colors; Pretty Peacock, Terracotta Tile and Seaside Spray, and took the opportunity to use up as much retiring stash as possible before it goes forever.

The card bases are Terracotta Tile, with a Pretty Peacock Layer. This lovely scalloped ribbon is retiring and is now reduced to £4.50, while the Classic Label Punch has already sold out in Europe.

Carrying over into the new catalogue, you'll be pleased to know, are the Linen Thread and the Seashells Embossing Folder. 
 
Seashells Embossing Folder Stampin Up

There are still lots of bargains to be found on the Last Chance list and on the Clearance Rack. If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the March host code TRPKSXWR, I’ll send you a thank you gift in May!
 

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.  
 
 
Seashells Embossing Folder Stampin Up
 
 

Monday 12 April 2021

Enjoy the Moment - five card ideas with one stamp set

Enjoy the Moment Stampin Up card ideas

One of the things I love about papercrafting and Stampin’ Up!® projects is the versatility. You can take one design and reuse it with different products – which is why our catalogue used to be called an Idea Book & Catalogue. SU actually dropped the name because nobody bothered to say it all – we just called it the catalogue. 

Enjoy the Moment Stampin Up stamp set

This stamp set, Enjoy the Moment, is actually one of my favourites from the January-June Mini Catalogue, but I confess I haven't used it as much as I should. Fortunately, it’s carrying over into the new Annual Catalogue, which comes out in May so I will have plenty more chances to create with it. 

What I did do was spend time attempting to recreate some of the designs from my Dandy Garden Day using Enjoy the Moment instead.

Happily, many of the projects were easily adapted. This is exactly the principle of CASEin (Copy And Share Everything). You don't have to copy something exactly; you can always take inspiration from a project even if you don’t own the same stamp set, or paper, or colours. 

 Enjoy the Moment Stampin Up card ideas

This card is very similar to the original which you can see here. I just changed the images and moved the braided linen thread to a different position. The ‘hello’ is actually from Garden Wishes and because it’s so small, I’ve stamped it three times, and I’ve coloured around the main image using the Light Pool Party Stampin’ Blends marker.

Enjoy the Moment Stampin Up card ideas

Enjoy the Moment Stampin Up card ideas

This, too, is a version of a card from the Dandy Garden Day. I created the background in the same way, using Blending Brushes and spatters of diluted ink, loosely followed the same card design but omitted the ribbon, changed the greeting panel and of course the images.
 

Enjoy the Moment Stampin Up card ideas

I love creating ‘messy’ backgrounds like this as they give your images extra depth and are of course very fun to do!

Enjoy the Moment Stampin Up card ideas

I strayed into new territory for the rest of the cards, including this note card. As you can probably see, I had begun colouring around the image in Pool Party but decided I wasn’t keen so went for the Blending Brushes instead, using much darker shades of Old Olive, Mossy Meadow and Soft Suede. 

Enjoy the Moment Stampin Up card ideas

It was a little blotchy (it looks worse in the photo, I promise!) so I attempted to disguise this with some stamping and finally by running it through the Subtle Embossing Folder (retiring soon!). It’s all set at an angle on some Dandy Garden Designer Series Paper.

Don’t give up on a project if it doesn’t go to plan. Keep sponging, blending, ageing, embossing, stamping... whatever floats your boat. Worst case scenario will see you throwing it in the recycling after all. The best case scenario will see you creating something wonderful!

Enjoy the Moment Stampin Up card ideas

This is another fun background technique. Lots of blending with the Blending Brushes to create a dark, moody background. This has a vague ombré effect, with darker ink at the bottom of the card. On top of this I have stamped ‘Happy Birthday’ repeatedly without reinking, overlapping the words over and over again, to create an interesting effect. This really helps the seed heads to stand out; of course it also helps that I popped them up on Stampin’ Dimensionals. 

Enjoy the Moment Stampin Up card ideas

Finally I created this simple Thinking of You card using the large greeting from Rooted In Nature. I masked a vertical line and applied Misty Moonlight ink using a Blending Brush, then stamped the images on top, popping up a couple to add interest. I kept it fairly simple because I feel that cards of this type shouldn’t be brash, as their purpose is to convey sympathy rather than show off our skills!

The Enjoy the Moment stamp set is available in the January-June Mini Catalogue. If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the April host code TRPKSXWR, I’ll send you a thank you gift in May!


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.  
 
 

Monday 5 April 2021

Hydrangea Hill Kit By Mail

Hydrangea Hill Kit by mail order crafts

I really love hydrangeas. I remember seeing them everywhere when we used to visit Brittany in northern France, and we have one outside our front door. What I particularly like is the way they fade so beautifully. They’re beautiful in bloom, but as they dry to a crisp, they remain just as beautiful in my view, and look lovely dried.

The stunning Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper is a celebration of hydrangeas and the star of the show both in these projects and in my Kit of the Month for April.

I am currently offering monthly kits of hand-selected products, which co-ordinate with each other to save you time and money, as you can get part packs instead of investing in full packs which you may not manage to use. My kits are one-time purchases; no subscription required, so you can just hop in and out as the mood takes you.

For April, I couldn’t resist Hydrangea Hill because I know how many people love our gorgeous purples. I have made some projects with the kit to show you what you could do if you simply add Basic White Cardstock and your own greeting stamps.
 
Hydrangea Hill Kit by mail order crafts
 
This is a simple M-Fold card which looks much harder than it really is. I have a tutorial for this fancy fold here.

Hydrangea Hill Kit by mail order crafts

For the main image here I have cut out some flowers from the Designer Series Paper; it’s a bit fiddly but if you don’t have the stamps, it works pretty well. If you’d rather stamp, the Hydrangea Haven stamp set coordinates perfectly. Alternatively, you could use the retiring stamp set, Beautiful Friendship, which also features a gorgeous hydrangea stamp. 
 
Hydrangea Hill Kit by mail order crafts

To show the versatility of the kit, I made a 3D project, too. Each month I try to include something which can be used for gift packaging and this month it will be one of the retiring Mini Pizza Boxes
 
Hydrangea Hill Kit by mail order crafts

I’ve covered the sides with Mercury Glass Acetate Sheets, and the top with the Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper. It’s a really simple project, but looks effective because all the colours go together so beautifully. 
 
Hydrangea Hill Kit by mail order crafts
 
These are just two of the projects I’ve made with the kit. Everyone who purchases this kit from me will receive access to an exclusive PDF of more projects to copy or simply use as inspiration. Last month, a group of ladies who purchased my March Kit By Mail got together on Zoom to make their projects and, by all accounts, had a wonderful crafty time!

Hydrangea Hill Kit by mail order crafts

In the April Kit By Mail you will receive

- Half a pack of Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper, cut down to 6"x12"
- Quarter pack of Hydrangea Hill Mercury Glass Designer Acetate (one of each design, cut down to 6"x6")
- Half a pack of Pastel Pearls (not shown in pic)- 2 metres of Gorgeous Grape 3/8" (1cm) Sheer Ribbon
- 2 metres of 3/8" (1cm) Fine Art Ribbon
- 3 sheets of Gorgeous Grape A4 cardstock
- 3 sheets of Highland Heather A4 cardstock
- 3 sheets of Old Olive A4 cardstock
- 1 Mini Pizza Box
- Plus some retiring ribbon scraps in co-ordinating colours.

The price is £20 which includes postage to anywhere in the UK. Sadly I cannot ship outside of the UK. If you'd like to order one of these, please click here – registration for this kit ends at 10pm on Wednesday 7th April. If you have any questions...
 
 
Hydrangea Hill Kit by mail order crafts
 

The small print

This is my personal blog and my sole responsibility as an Independent Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. All images are © Stampin' Up!® All content including photographs, projects and text are © Helen Read, unless otherwise stated. Please feel free to copy my ideas for your personal use and inspiration - if you are a SU demonstrator you may use these ideas for your events but please give credit where it is due. Please do not use my ideas for monetary gain, competitions or publication. The images on this blog - including blog buttons - should not be copied and used elsewhere on the internet or on CDs.