Five projects with the Simply Succulents bundle

 

I’m a day late with this blog post but you know what? I think I am going to switch to Tuesdays as it will give me my weekends back. It’s obvious when you think about it really.

Anyway, I’ve had a really busy weekend with my BOGOF sale for customers and an actual outing to meet friends for a socially distanced dog walk and picnic, which was lovely. This is why I’m a day behind, but now I am here, I want to show you this gorgeous Simply Succulents bundle, which is very enticing – I keep seeing more and more gorgeous projects with them.

They are in the Jan-June Mini Catalogue from Stampin' Up!® but I'm pleased to say that both elements carry over into the new Annual Catalogue. 

 

 

However, I must warn you that they are only available as a bundle for the duration of the Mini catalogue so hurry along if you want to save 10% by buying them together. 

 

 

This card uses a fun technique which gets extra mileage out of your dies. Die-cut the large pattern using any cardstock, then use it as a mask for embossing paste. Remove the mask and allow the paste to dry to create this interesting textured effect. 

The foliage behind the greeting label is created with dies, too – they are coloured with watercolour pencils to make them stand out. The greeting is stamped and embossed in white onto Bumblebee cardstock (one of my favourite colours!).

 

This project, too, uses white embossing for this stunning watercolour effect. Begin by embossing the image with white embossing powder, then heat set. Now it can be coloured using ink and Water Painters (or a wet paintbrush); just make sure you allow each colour to dry before switching to the next one. This is coloured using Old Olive, Mint Macaron, Highland Heather and Pool Party. 

 

 

This treat bag is decorated with a cut-out image of succulents and tied with Baker’s Twine. The image is stamped in Memento Black and coloured with Stampin’ Blends in Calypso Coral, Soft Sea Foam, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive and Smoky Slate. 

 

 

This is a much simpler project, but no less effective. It uses a rich Cinnamon Cider card base stamped on top using Gorgeous Grape ink, which sounds radical but works really well. 

 

See that cool striped Designer Series Paper behind the greeting? That’s just a piece of Mint Macaron cardstock with some hand-drawn lines using a Dark Just Jade Stampin’ Blends Marker. Be brave and you too can make hand-drawn patterned paper for your projects!

 

Sticking with the same colour scheme, this is a Mint Macaron card base with the image stamped in Gorgeous Grape and coloured with Light and Dark Just Jade Stampin’ Blends. You can use Stampin’ Blends with any water-based ink pad, so they are ideal for colouring images stamped in any of our core colours.

Does your wish list come to more than £99? 

 

There’s a fabulous deal at the moment which gets you LOTS of lovely craft supplies of your choice. 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 

 

Sand & Sea Designer Series Paper cards

Last Friday was my Crafty Friday event; a monthly class which I have managed to keep running throughout the pandemic thanks to the miracle of Zoom.

We used gorgeous Sand & Sea Designer Series Paper from the Stampin’ Up!® Jan-June Mini Catalogue, alongside some retiring cardstock (Rococo Rose and Seaside Spray), partly because it coordinates so beautifully and partly to use it up!

Our first card was this fun W-fold which is a great way to show off your lovely Designer Series Papers. For our images, we cut out the large shells from the Sand & Sea Designer Series Paper as not everyone had the stamp set, and we used our own greetings. I used Happiest of Birthdays for these samples – this is probably my most-used set of all at the moment, although I suspect it’s going to be overtaken by Biggest Wish very soon. 

 

The W-fold card uses the sea urchin design, with lots of cut-out shells on top. If you prefer, you could stamp the shells and cut them out or use the coordinating Seaside Seashells Dies. The main greeting is stamped onto a shape cut with the Stitched So Sweetly Dies, which is my new favourite set as it’s so versatile.

Inside the card I’ve left the two white panels fairly blank for a message, but you could stamp more greetings here, too if you liked.

Our second card was just a simple design. This version uses a So Saffron base and a Flirty Flamingo cardstock layer – the colours used in the Designer Series Paper – but I quickly realised I didn’t have enough of either colour for my class kits!

For this version of the card, the one we made in the class, I switched to Rococo Rose, which isn’t actually the colour used in the Sand & Sea DSP but I think it coordinates pretty well, if not better. 

I’ve started covering my card fronts with Designer Series Paper right up to the edge, as Ive done on the card on the right, below. This gives it a completely different look compared to leaving a narrow border as I usually do. Which one do you think works best?

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the May host code RMSS4YFY, I’ll send you a thank you gift in June.

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 

 

A passion for purples with the Hand-Penned Suite

My regular customers and I have rediscovered a penchant for purples lately, which was the inspiration for this card using Stampin’ Up!’s new Hand-Penned Suite.

It's a busy card for the ‘avid’ crafter, using the new Hand-Penned Petals bundle and Hand-Penned Designer Series Paper. This is such a pretty, delicate suite which reminiscent of the hugely popular Cath Kidston designs.

Hand-Penned Petals is a two-step stamp set, which means you can colour the images instantly by stamping on top. And no, they’re not supposed to fill right to the edges! If you want a full image with no gaps, you can colour them with Stampin’ Blends or one of our other many options. 

 

Hand-Penned 12x12 Designer Series Paper

The Hand-Penned Designer Series Paper features lots of colours, giving you many choices for your project's colour scheme. For this card, in keeping with our purple passion, I’ve concentrated on the Highland Heather and Mint Macaron, which are both found in there. 

 

I’ve used a piece of the Blushing Bride patterned paper as my background as it’s subtle enough to allow the die-cut flowers to stand out. Slicing a section off and flipping it over gives you this beautiful floral design which features Highland Heather flowers. 

The main image is stamped in Memento Tuxedo Black and then on top with Highland Heather and Mint Macaron. I’ve left the base of the flower blank as there isn’t a stamp for this, but you could colour it in if you preferred.

The pink and green flowers around it are stamped and die-cut with the lovely dies. I’ve stamped in Blushing Bride and Mint Macaron. 

 

If you like precision, stamp the stem first, then die-cut this shape before adding the seed heads. That way you can get the heads within the die-cut image – which you can do easily as the set is photopolymer.

Behind the stamped flowers is a die-cut flower cluster in Gorgeous Grape, created using the Penned Flowers dies from the bundle. The smaller flowers are also from this set and, handily, you get two larger ones and three small ones in the set, so you can create multiples in one go. 

 

I’ve finished off with some Gorgeous Grape ribbon and some Pastel Pearls, which conveniently come in all the colours used on the card. I haven’t added a greeting to this card as I think it stands alone – I can always add one later if I change my mind. Lots of my crafty friends do this an I think it’s an excellent idea.

Is this set on your wish list? I’d be very surprised if it isn’t!

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the May host code RMSS4YFY, I’ll send you a thank you gift in June!

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 

 

 

May Kit By Mail: Pansy Petals

It's time for another Kit By Mail – and this month I am focusing on Stampin’ Up!'s new Pansy Petals Designer Series Paper. I’ve chosen this one for several reasons, not least because it has some excellent images which are perfect for cutting out, so it can be used on its own, or combined with the Pansy Patch stamp set and/or the Pansy Dies.

It also coordinates with lots of different colours, making it extremely versatile – and I know lots of you love your purples! And, of course, it’s lovely – otherwise why would I have picked it?

As well as some of the brand new Pansy Petals Designer Series Paper, I’ve designed this kit to feature some gorgeous co-ordinating cardstock colours, along with just a hint of shimmer. 

 

The kit contains:

• half a pack of Pansy Petals Designer Series Paper (cut to 6"x12")
• half a pack of Pearlescent Speciality Paper (cut to 6"x12")
• half a pack of Bumblebee Trinkets
• 2m Blackberry Bliss Striped ribbon
• 2m Evening Evergreen Chevron weave ribbon (not shown in pic)
  
• 3 sheets Fresh Freesia A4 cardstock
• 3 sheets Soft Succulent A4 cardstock
• 2 sheets Blackberry Bliss A4 cardstock
• 2 sheets Bumblebee A4 cardstock
• 1 sheet Shimmery White cardstock
• 1 C6 Acetate box

Check out these samples I have made using the kit (although the ribbon hasn’t arrived yet so I haven’t been able to use that). Everyone who purchases the kit will also receive access to a PDF of more project ideas, including cards, at least one 3D project and a scrapbook page – and these WILL use the ribbons.

 

I only had a tiny scrap of this Blackberry Bliss striped ribbon left so cunningly cut it into two pieces to use behind the greeting panel. It goes beautifully with the new Fresh Freesia colour, which is one of our new In Colors for 2021 to 2023. This is the colour of the gorgeous gingham Designer Series Paper – who doesn’t love a bit of gingham?

The card base and the stamped greeting are in another new colour; Soft Succulent, a lovely soft green which is a darker shade of Mint Macaron. On top of this I have used some cut-out pansies and leaves. These are very easy to fussy-cut, although I have to say, after a year of fussy-cutting for remote classes, I’m a little bit scissor-weary!

This card shows off two more of the Designer Series Paper designs. One is a subtle Bumblebee (colour, not insect) pattern, while the other features actual bees, as well as some pretty pansies and foliage. This card design was inspired by one I saw by Cindy Brumbaugh.

The words this time are stamped in Blackberry Bliss, and sentiments for both cards are from Sweet Strawberry.  Don’t you just love that little gold bee? I do; I’ve always loved bee images.

If you’d like to order one of these kits, the price of £20 includes postage to anywhere in the UK. 

 

Please reserve your kit here

I am only taking orders for this Kit until Friday 7th May, so please don't delay if you would like to join in.