In the Pines stamped onto DSP

In The Pines is not just for Christmas! I used it recently to make a batch of cards for a variety of occasions.

The small cards are to thank customers who ordered from me at a party I held for a long-time customer, Mandy. Mandy has stuck with me for many years, for which I’m truly grateful. 

So how did I make them? The small cards are simply a standard card base cut in half. I stamped them using the Stamparatus for speed and accuracy, in Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight ink. The “Thanks” comes from Waterfront – a must-have set which has been around a few years but remains as versatile and useful as ever – and the gorgeous Misty Moonlight twine is from the Flowers for Every Season Combo Pack.

The spattering is done with a paintbrush. I wet the brush and then picked up some Balmy Blue ink from the ink pad lid, then tapped the brush on top to spatter the ink across the project. Very simple but very effective.

For the standard-sized cards, I stamped directly on to In Good Taste Designer Series Paper, which gives the card a look of texture without the bulk. Then I stamped as before, with larger stamps, using the Stamparatus and the same colours. I used various greetings; some from Beautiful Autumn and the congratulations sentiment is from Beautiful Friendship. 

The BIG celebration was my downline Sue, who celebrated her 10th anniversary as a Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. This is an amazing achievement but of course, she wouldn't have stuck around if it hadn’t been so much fun! 

On these cards, I spattered ink in both colours; Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight. The water dilutes the colour for a soft effect.

I really enjoyed making these projects and it made a change from Christmas cards! I love how the trees look in blue and it just shows how In The Pines – which at appears at first glance to be a Christmas stamp set – offers so many more possibilities.

If you’d like to order this set – or anything else – please follow the link below and use the November 2020 host code RMK743TS if you’re spending less than £150. If you’re spending more than £150, please talk to me first and I will help you get the best value. 

 

New home card using Snow Front, Beautiful Friendship & more...

 

I’ve become the official card provider to my family. It helps us all; I get to offload my old samples and they aren’t tempted to go to the shops during lockdown.

But the latest request threw me as it was for a new home card for my nephew and his girlfriend (you can move into a new home if it’s vacant and social distancing is maintained, in case you were worried). The problem is, both Mum and I need to send them a card, so they need to be different – and I don’t have any new home stamp sets.

This is roughly how the conversation went:

Me: "I don't have any new home stamps but I can do one with a lighthouse, a dog kennel or a beehive."
Mum: "I'm sure you have a house stamp."
Me: "No I really don't."
Mum: "I could have sworn I saw a little house."
Me: "No, it must be an old one you’re thinking of."
Mum: "I definitely saw a little house."
etc...

Turns out she was right! How come she knows the contents of my craft room better than I do? She hasn't stepped inside my house (or anyone else’s) for at least seven weeks!

In the end, I used no fewer than four stamp sets on this project: Snow Front, Water Front, Beautiful Friendship and Peaceful Moments. Well if you’ve got it, use it!

I used just the tips of the flowers and flower centre stamps from Beautiful Friendship to create a floral foreground. Without this, I felt the image still had a wintry, Christmassy vibe.

Sneak peek: Painted Poppies with You Always Deliver

Are YOU excited about the new catalogue? We demonstrators can order from it now and a HUGE box of goodies arrived for me last week.

The first stamp set to see ink was Painted Poppies, which you can see here in the background. It's a beautiful set which you'll be seeing a lot as it's sure it be incredibly popular.

I've used it with Beautiful Friendship for the greeting and the little dog from You Always Deliver to create a birthday card for a friend. Look out for more sneak peeks soon because, quite frankly, I’ve had enough of Christmas projects now!

The Designer Series Paper frame is popped up on this card. To get the poppies in the perfect position, you can either use the Stamparatus to stamp directly onto the card base, or do what I did here and stamp it on a separate piece of Whisper White cardstock. That way I could position it after stamping and get it nicely centred.
 

Beautiful Friendship thank you cards

It’s Friendship Day on Sunday, apparently, and this Beautiful Friendship stamp set just keeps coming into its own. I love the hydrangeas stamped in Highland Heather, combined with the Seaside Spray. I've used the small stamp set, Magnolia Blooms for the words, as I needed a thank you stamp and this one fits the bill perfectly.

The images are stamped around the left edge and bottom of the white layer to draw the eye into that area. This uses the “rule of thirds” concept to create a simple but pleasing design. 

Beautiful Friendship flowerpot pocket card

It's all happening with the fancy cards this week, isn't it? Here's a flowerpot pocket card using Beautiful Friendship. 

The last time I made one of these was in June 2001 - a full decade ago! Check it out here – there's even a tutorial. For a tutorial for this specific card, please follow this link

If you prefer your card to be free-standing, simply invert the card base. Instead of folding over the flower pot rim, cut these flaps off and set to one side. Shape your card so the widest part is at the fold, then cut a slit along the fold to allow the pocket section to be inserted.

"Wow" card - Beautiful Friendship floral pop-up card

I don't often tackle fancy folds but I loved the idea of making a pop-up card using the Beautiful Friendship stamp set. What's so lovely about pop-up cards is the element of surprise – it looks like a perfectly nice but simple card on the front, then you open it and bam! You're hit by an explosion of flowers.

 Here’s a better picture but I took it before adding the greeting...

For instructions to make this card, please click here

While assembling the inner floral section, keep closing the card to check your flowers don’t spill out over the edges. Not only would this spoil the element of surprise, it would prevent your card from fitting in the envelope! 

Beautiful Friendship swap cards

I’m going to spend this week celebrating Beautiful Friendship, an oft-missed stamp set hiding on page 123 of the catalogue.  I've been using this gorgeous stamp set in all my events this month, so it was the obvious choice to use for a swap, too.

Swapping isn't usually for me but I thought I'd give it a go so I could show my customers a greater variety of project. The brief was to use at least two new In Colors, so I turned once again to Rococo Rose, Seaside Spray and Pretty Peacock and the Beautiful Friendship stamp set. 

When you need to make several of the same card, the Stamparatus really comes into its own. I set it up to stamp the background and the greeting on the stitched ovals, but stamped the foliage on the ovals freehand. 

Simple, Casual, Avid... a Beautiful Friendship card for every type of crafter

One design, three stages of crafting. A single-layer card for the time-strapped crafter, a casual crafter project with the addition of a punch and some embellishments, and one for the avid crafter who is definitely not short of supplies! Which one are you?

The same basic design can be adapted to suit your supplies. If you're just starting out, the #simplestamping project just needs a pack of Note Cards & Envelopes, one stamp set and some ink pads. But #simplestamping projects are just as useful for crafters in a hurry. If you need a big batch of these, you can stamp them using the Stamparatus and get them done in a fraction of the time it would take to stamp them by hand.  
 

Beautiful Friendship with muted Pretty Peacock

The muted, vintage shades of Rococo Rose and Seaside Spray, from our new In Color collection, are perfect for this new stamp set, Beautiful Friendship. Here I've fussy cut flowers stamped in these new colours and overlaid them onto some of our new Pretty Peacock Designer Series Paper. 

Look at that ribbon! Isn’t it gorgeous?

The Pretty Peacock Designer Series Paper was the colour I had in mind but was a bit overpowering in this context, so I muted it by adding a layer of vellum. This is just one of many ways you can use vellum in your projects – and I avoided the potential issue of glue showing through by applying it where I knew the flowers would hide it. 
 

Beautiful Friendship in subtle shades

 

As regular readers will know, I don’t get on with floral stamps but something drew me to Beautiful Friendship and think it's going to turn out to be a favourite. This card is a vague copy of the card on page 123 of the catalogue... but I made so many changes in the end that you probably wouldn't notice.
  

To get a border around the Pretty Label Punch, punch twice from a piece of coloured cardstock and stagger them behind the Whisper White. You won't see the join!

Beautiful Friendship with the new In Colors

I don't know why I’m not so keen on flower stamps. I love flowers in real life and I love receiving cards with flowers on. But floral stamp sets generally leave me pretty cold.

And then came Beautiful Friendship with one magical ingredient: a hydrangea stamp. I love hydrangeas... both in bloom and when they've gone past the first flush of youth to become faded and papery.

But still, I struggle with flower sets so began my travels with this stamp set by taking inspiration from the catalogue. That's what it's there for, after all!

Naturally, once I got started I went quite off-piste, but I think you can still see the resemblance.

Although hydrangeas come in many colours, Seaside Spray is the perfect place to start as it has that beautiful faded quality you're looking for.

If you position your main Whisper White layer carefully, you get a fun "dotted" border from the gingham checked Designer Series Paper in the new In Color packs.