Spruced Up Stampin' Up card ideas

I’m a relative latecomer to the Spruced Up bundle from Stampin’ Up!® but then I’m a relative latecomer to Christmas cardmaking this year.

But after being seduced by all the gorgeous samples on Instagram, I was excited to receive my stamps and dies last week and got to crafting immediately.

The most amazing thing about the Spruced Up Outline dies in this bundle is that many of the dies – both trees, the parcel, baubles and snowflake – not only cut out the shape but create an outline too. 

 

 

You can see this in action on my first project, which is CASEd (Copy and Share Everything) from the catalogue. The Parakeet Party tree and outline were both cut with the same die at the same time. 

 

 

Copying a catalogue sample is always always a good place to start as it gets you crafting without too much thought. All I did was change the background paper to this cheery red design from the Celebrate Everything Designer Series Pack, which is exclusive to hosts or those who place a qualifying order.

I was also inspired by Aussie demonstrator Claire Daly’s version using the black and white trees paper from the Celebrate Everything Designer Series Paper pack so made another version. This time I added a splash of Polished Pink on the front tree, picking up this colour in the greeting too. 

 

 

Let’s talk about this greeting for a moment. You get several sentiment stamps in the Spruced Up set, including “Whatever brings you happiness...” and “May it be yours this Holiday Season”. Now if you’re in the UK like me you will know that we just don’t say holiday season. To us, the holiday season is probably August when the children are off school.

So I was brave and too my scissors to the stamp, carefully trimming away the words “Holiday season” to create two separate stamps. 

Now I can easily stamp “Whatever brings you happiness... may it be yours this Christmas”, which will be much more useful to me and more relatable to the recipients of my handmade Christmas cards.

Don’t be afraid to cut up your Stampin’ Up!® stamps! If you know you will use them more with the words separated, just go for it. The beauty of unmounted stamps is that if you ever do want to put them back together, you can do this simply but mounting them on the same clear stamping block.

The outline feature of the Spruced Up Outlines dies is also shown off here in this Christmas tree card. I use the die twice – once on Granny Apple Green cardstock and once on Shaded Spruce. This meant I could give my Granny Apple Green tree a Shaded Spruce outline.

There are stamps which coordinate with the dies and fit the shapes perfectly but for this card I wanted to mix things up a little, so used another stamp from the set to give my tree a striped pattern.

For this project I used a lovely cheerful Christmas design from the Celebrate Everything Designer Series Pack. This paper really does celebrate everything, with Christmas, birthday and Halloween Designs, as well as lots of generic patterns which can be used for any occasion. If you hit that £150 mark as a happy shopper, or host a party and qualify for Stampin’ Rewards, I highly recommend that you get this pack of versatile paper. 

 

 

For a change on this card, I laid the Designer Series Paper flat against the Shaded Spruce layer, and popped up the white panel. On this I have stamped Happy Christmas (which does come as two separate stamps) in Shaded Spruce and Polished Pink. 

 

Who would’ve thought I’d willingly be using Polished Pink? My least favourite colour! But when the Designer Series Paper demands it, and toned down with all those lovely rich greens, I can just about stomach it!

If you are in the UK and would like to order this bundle or indeed any current Stampin’ Up!® proeucts, please visit my store and, if you use the September 2022 host code BS9X4R4N, I’ll send you a thank you gift next month.

To make it easy for you, please shop using this link

Are you in Ireland? The good news is that Stampin’ Up!® is launching there on 4th October. Please message me via my website for more info.

 

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