Sneak Peek: Blackberry Beauty Suite

Oh my! The new Blackberry Beauty Suite in the latest Stampin’ Up!® Mini Catalogue is going to Blow. Your. Mind. It’s SO rich and gorgeous, with some lovely shiny autumnal elements, too.

I love the combination of Rich Razzleberry, Blackberry Bliss and Cinnamon Cider – that’s a combination I would never have come up with but it works so well. And, I have to admit it, I quite like Polished Pink in this context too – it provides a splash of brightness that really lifts the projects. 

Customers cannot order these products until 3rd August but I will be using this Suite for my August Kit of the Month, which I just know is going to be hugely popular. I had a lovely day playing with the elements of this kit, which I have hand selected for perfect coordination. 

Take a look at some of the projects I made using. My kits don’t include any stamp sets (although there is the option to add them) so I added my own greeting stamps from my existing stash. All the main images you see are from the Blackberry Beauty Ephemera Pack, which features 40 pre-cut elements to make crafting really easy. 

 

This gorgeous owl is my favourite piece from the Ephemera Pack and I took inspiration for this card from the sample you can find on page 44 of the new Stampin’ Up!® Mini Catalogue. 

 

 

 

The Stampin’ Up!® artist has made a simple tag, so I’ve recreated this tag (more or less) and turned it into a card instead. This gave me chance to show off more of the lovely Designer Series Paper. 

 

 

I’ve used Polished Pink Open Weave Ribbon, as this will be part of my kit of the month, and it picks up the colour from the Designer Series Paper nicely, too. My Best Wishes stamp is from the Artistically Inked stamp set.

I took inspiration from the July-December Mini Catalogue for this card, too, creating a card based on the “I’m here for you” card on page 44, using a thank you stamp from Timeless Tropical instead. I can never have enough thank you cards. I’ve always been a sucker for a seed head image, so this sheet of Designer Series Paper is a favourite of mine from the pack. 

 

Here you can see the lovely new Gold Shimmer Ribbon clearly; in the kit pic below I used the wrong one! This one, from the new Stampin’ Up!® Jul-Dec Mini Catalogue, is even more shimmery and ideal for both autumnal and festive projects.

 

My third card is a celebration of Cinnamon Cider, using one of the Ephemera Pack frames, popped up over a piece of white cardstock stamped using the Timeless Tropical stamp set. It shows just how well the rich purples of Rich Razzleberry and Blackberry Bliss go with Cinnamon Cider.

You can also see a hint of Gold Shimmer Vellum; another new product which is part of this spectacular suite. The flower image is another pre-cut piece from the Ephemera Pack; you get loads in this pack – two of everything which makes it easy for me to split them for the kits. 

 

My final project for today uses the stunning oak and acorns piece from the Ephemera Pack as its main image. I’ve popped this onto a shiny frame, with a piece of coordinating Blackberry Beauty Designer Series Paper inside. Happy Birthday is stamped using the Artistically Inked stamp set, in Cinnamon Cider. 

 

When I first opened this gorgeous pack of patterned paper, I thought I’d never use the “boring backs” with the less glamorous designs, but this zig-zag pattern provides the perfect semi-neutral background for the more vibrant design and oak leaf. Even with the Blackberry Bliss in there and the glitzy bow, I think this card could fall into the masculine category. I would send it to a man, anyway! 

 

Here’s the contents of the kit spread out so you can see what you get (more or less; remember I used the wrong ribbon for the pic!).

Everyone who orders this kit from me will also receive a PDF of projects with measurements, so they can make their own at home, or simply use them as inspiration. The kit costs just £20 delivered to anywhere in the UK. There’s no limit to the number of kits I can make but I am only taking orders for this kit until Tuesday 3rd August when the new Mini catalogue goes live. Please don’t miss it as I know you’ll love it.

 If you are in the UK and would like to order this gorgeous kit, please click/tap here

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.  

 

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In The Wild Suite - three very different looks

 

I have some more wild projects for you today, featuring one of my favourite suites in the Stampin’ Up!® Annual Catalogue, In The Wild. I had a lovely afternoon playing with this Suite, using stamped images and those cut out from the Designer Series Paper. The result was three very different projects.

The first one is one for the avid crafters, with lots of products to create a time-heavy card. Fun to make and, I hope, fun to receive.

I cut the cats out from the In The Wild Designer Series Paper – the sitting tiger was done by hand, but there’s a die for the standing cat. But wait... the die is the wrong way round!

 

 

 

If your die fits but the image is reversed, simply hold up the paper to a window or other light source and tape the die in place using washi or masking tape.

 

The tigers are set against a Soft Succulent background which I have embossed using one of the Greenery Embossing Folders. I ran the cardstock through twice to get the foliage in different areas – if you look closely you’ll see a faint line from the edge of the embossing folder. But I work on the theory that if anyone looks that closely at a handmade card, they don’t deserve a card!

The tigers are framed by the very wonderful Diorama Dies. These are brilliant and, while they instantly conjure up seascapes, they provide an unusual frame for all kinds of images. There’s just a hint of Evening Evergreen showing to give it depth, then the top layer was created using the In Good Taste Designer Series Paper, a favourite of mine as it has lots of really useful neutral designs. Psst, it’s also 15% until 2nd August!

I’ve even used the smallest Diorama Die to create an unusual layer for the sentiment – you don’t just have to use the outer piece, the inners are useful, too. 

 

My second card is much simpler and showcases one of my favourite sheets of In The Wild Designer Series Paper (also 15% off until 2nd August!). I’ve used the Stitched Rectangle Dies to create a frame, although if you don’t have anything similar you could cut a Very Vanilla layer and lay it on top of the Designer Series Paper instead. 

 

The tiger is stamped in Crushed Curry and Cinnamon Cider; it’s very easy to line up. Then the foliage is stamped and/or die-cut from Soft Succulent and Evening Evergreen, two of my favourite new In Colors. 

 

 

Finally I wanted to try something very different and wondered if I could create a snow leopard using this amazing Wild Cats stamp set. For the body of the cat, I used Smoky Slate, but soon discovered that I would have to stamp off (onto scrap paper first) not once but twice to get the pale image I was looking for. On top of that I stamped in Gray Granite. 

 

I used the lovely Tasteful Label dies for my greeting, which I stamped using Biggest Wish.

The strips are created using the Animal Print embossing folder; I just ran it through once and sliced it into three. Alternatively, you could cut your strips then run them all through at the same time, as they fit in the embossing folder. 

 

I hope you love the In The Wild Suite as much as I do and, even if you don’t, I hope these projects have warmed you to it a little. Which one is your favourite? I had lots of fun creating them and hope to have time to play with again sometime soon... although my new pre-order products beckon!

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store.

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.  

 

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Flowers or peaches? Versatile projects with the You’re a Peach Suite

 

It’s a sign of my age that while making these projects I was humming Peaches by The Stranglers and not the entirely different song of the same name by Justin Bieber. (In fact, I'm only aware of the latter because I Googled the former to check I had my facts straight.)

We had a peachy old time at my Crafty Friday class last week, once again held over Zoom. Some of my customers had expressed doubts about Stampin’ Up!'s You're a Peach Suite and Designer Series Paper but I pointed out that only four of the designs actually feature peaches, so they were won over. 

 

And it was with this in mind that I decided to show different versions of the same two cards, using peaches and flowers cut out of the Designer Series Paper to provide options.

 

 

Then on the day itself, while they were busy fussy-cutting their images, I decided to stamp mine using the Sweet As a Peach stamp set, cutting them out using the Peach Dies. 

 

I ended up with three sets of cards, showing the versatility of this fabulous Suite. They show just how different the same design can look if you change the Designer Series Paper.

 

 

 

I love these Genial Gems from the Hand-Penned Suite and they go well with other suites, too. For instance, the Pale Papaya gems are perfect for this peachy project. The Mint Macaron is pale enough to work ok but why compromise when the solution is staring you in the face? 

 

I coloured the Mint Macaron gems with a Dark Old Olive Stampin’ Blend marker and achieved perfect coordination. I tried the Light but it wasn’t as effective. If you have Stampin’ Blends (alcohol markers not water-based), you can always use them to match your embellishments to your projects perfectly. 

 

 

Here are the floral cards – without the cheesy peachy sentiment, you’d never know that these came from the You’re a Peach Suite. I’ve fussy-cut all those flowers out of the Designer Series Paper; I will be so glad to get back to in-person classes where we can ditch the fussy cutting!

 

 

These cards use exactly the same pack of paper but I’ve chosen to cut out peach images instead. They’re much easier to cut out than the flowers!

 

These cards were made using the Sweet As a Peach bundle (stamps and Peach dies) to create the images; this makes it even easier, and I love the shades of Pale Papaya and Calypso Coral on the stamped peaches. 

 

The stamps are cleverly designed to give you different shades, with pale/white patches to give a more realistic image. To add even more shading to your peaches, ink first in Pale Papaya, then before stamping, add some Calypso Coral ink around the edges using a Sponge Dauber. 

 

As for the fancy fold, it’s a double Z-fold and far easier to make than it looks. Basically you just repeat the fold of the outer card and stick it on the inside in the same formation. That’s a rubbish description, so feel free to download the class instructions from here. 

  

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current host code DQPJEQF9, 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 

 

Versatile designs using versatile Designer Series Paper in the July sale

July is a gift to all your lovers of pretty papers. Selected Designer Series Papers are available at a 15% discount, making it a great time to stock up. 

One of the things I love about Designer Series Paper is its versatility. And that’s something I love about this card design too. I CASEd (Copy And Share Everything) it from Julie at The Paper Haven and quickly realised it would work with ANY papers.

Beginning with a standard card base (A4 cut in half and folded at 10.5cm), these are the measurements you will need:

• Cardstock 1 = 10cm x 14.3cm
• Cardstock 2 = 8cm x 12cm
• DSP 1 = 9.5cm x 13.8cm
• DSP 2 = 7.5cm x 11.5cm

Then all you need is some ribbon, any shape label (I've used Stitched So Sweetly) and stamps, die-cuts or cut-out images from your Designer Series Paper to embellish. 

 

 

For this card I have used Hand-Penned Designer Series Paper, which is so beautiful that I expect it to become part of everybody’s craft stash over the course of the catalogue year. It’s very versatile, too, as it has so many colours in it. For this one I picked up the Mint Macaron, Pale Papaya and Misty Moonlight, embellishing the card using the Penned Flowers Dies and Pale Papaya Open Weave Ribbon.

 

Pale Papaya has been a big surprise to me; I really love it and have had to reorder cardstock and ribbon this week. I don’t usually fall for the paler shades but this one is lovely. 

 

 

Here it is with slightly different papers, no die-cuts and with some stamping instead. Subtle changes like this can make your projects look different and, in this case, speed it up. Most importantly, it allows you to adapt to the supplies you have, instead of being deterred from making something because you lack a vital tool or stamp. 

 

 

 

Just look how different the card looks using other packs of Designer Series Paper. The card on the left uses In The Wild, which I love for its rich colours and wild cat designs. I’ve stamped using the Wild Cats stamp set, keeping it subtle by stamping off onto scrap paper first. And I’ve finished off with Open Weave Ribbon in Evening Evergreen. 

 

On the right I have used You’re a Peach, which has lovely peachy colours and some gorgeous peach designs. However, several of my customers aren’t keen on the peach imagery so I have pointed out that peaches only appear on four of the designs; they can always turn them over to enjoy the lovely colours, floral designs and patterns instead.  

 

This was the card from Julie which started me off on this route and mine is almost identical to hers, although I switched one of the papers as I was trying to preserve a particular design for another project. Forgive the rubbish bow – in Pale Papaya – and concentrate on that lovely big peach in the centre of the label. These really are fun stamps and I hope my ladies can overcome their peach phobias! 

 

The card looks different again when you return to Hand-Penned DSP but focus on the purples. I’ve used a Blushing Bride card base, with Gorgeous Grape layers and picked out the Highland Heather designs from the pack, finishing off with Gorgeous Grape sheer ribbon. Instead of the die-cuts, I have simply stamped some Blushing Bride images onto the greeting label. 

 

This design is a great way to show off any of the papers in the July offer and all of the papers I’ve used here are included in the promotion. Until 2nd August you can purchase any of the below at a 15 discount. If you are in the UK, please get in touch via my website to order or shop online using the host code DQPJEQF9

To make it easier, please shop using this link

 

 

Take a look at the designs included in the offer – which one(s) will you choose? I’ve just realised there are only two in this list that I don’t have! That’s a little bit embarrassing, isn’t it?

 

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current host code DQPJEQF9, 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