Woodland-themed projects with FREE Rings of Love paper, and Ringed With Nature stamp set

Do you love free products? Even after nearly 15 years as a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator, I still get excited to earn free cardmaking products.

The free product I want to show you today is Rings of Love Designer Series Paper, which is FREE with a £45 purchase during Sale-a-Bration in July and August 2022.

Do the Impossible: mix it up!

I was proud to celebrate a good friend’s running achievement with this card. I never thought I’d team the Do The Impossible stamp with Memories & More cards from the Come Sail Away Suite!

The blue background is a Memories & More card which I brayered with Pool Party to make it more match the shorts, while another forms the brown layer, sponged this in Soft Suede to tone down the nautical imagery! I wanted the vintage look but not the nautical feel.

I’ve said this before but it bears repeating: don't be afraid to mix things up! A nautical product on a card to celebrate a runner isn’t an obvious choice, but it's amazing what you can put together with a bit of altering. 

Retiring product focus: Brick Wall embossing folder (cracked glass technique)

Crafty Friday back at the beginning of the month was a chance to show the ladies the cracked glass technique. We were a small group but that worked out well as I’d forgotten just how many layers of clear embossing you need to get it thick enough to crack! We all made slightly different cards...

... And I’m pleased to say that retiring products on here are minimal. The only things which are going are the Brick Wall Embossing Folder (shame – it’s one of my faves!), Hearts & Stars Elements, the Natural Trim and the Crushed Curry Chevron Ribbon.

Lift Me Up and Wood Words (which we used for the greeting) are both carrying over.

Moon cat

Cat punch time again! I can't get enough of this punch - it's sooooo versatile and, as you may have noticed, I haven't made a single Halloween project (I never do).

This was from my Caturday Live class and is a simple folded card with a piece of Brick Wall embossed cardstock to hold it all together, tucked under the cat for stability. The stars are embossed in white and there's just a hint of the gorgeous stitched Cherry Cobbler ribbon because it's too nice to share!

Happy Birthday Thinlits graffiti card

I never thought I’d have so much fun with this Happy Birthday die. I was only borrowing it from my friend Kelly, but now it’s on my list of must-haves.

I particularly like watercolouring a background and then cutting it out to create a multi-coloured greeting. Here I ’ve used Lemon Lime Twist and Emerald Envy.

It tops a graffiti-style card inspired by Julie Kettlewell.  I’ve used a bunch of stamp sets... In The City, Marquee Messages and Five For All. I wish I could say the card was appreciated but, as it was for a teenage boy, I think the money inside may have been of more interest!

Mix It Up Monday - 2015-17 finale and new catty sneak peek

It’s the last project of this round of Mix It Up Monday today, as I come to the end of the 2016-18 set of In Color charts. And, at the risk of putting my neck out, I’m patting myself on the back for making a project with all 50 colour colour combinations… even the horrible ones!

For this project, I finally have my pre-order so am introducing a stamp set I know you’re going to love because it will speak to us all. It’s called Crafting Forever and features these paintbrushes, some scissors (they even look like our paper snips!), a rubber stamp of course, some pens and fun sayings. As the mother of an artist and friend of many writers, as well as crafters of course, I can see this set getting a lot of use in this house!

The brick wall was an afterthought, as you can probably tell. So I made myself a smaller “plate” from thick chipboard, so I could emboss just part of the image. I impress myself sometimes. 

Colour-wise, I’m not a big fan of this combo – it seems a little dated to me. But I’m not going to let it get to me because now I can move on to the next set of In Color charts, which I will be publishing on my blog next Monday. Exciting times, eh?

Copper Leaflets CAS Telford OnStage swap

Now there’s a snappy title! Yes, this is my swap for Stampin’ Up!’s OnStage Local event in Telford this weekend. It’s not a great photo because I took it at night – waited all day yesterday for it to get light and it didn’t really happen.

Anyway, I’ve made about 40 of these little devils, although when we demonstrators make swaps,  we only do card fronts, to save on supplies... because what we’re really swapping is the idea.

This is an idea I CASEd from what I think is a non-SU project that I saw on Pinterest. I struggled to get the lovely embossed effect just by using the Versmark pad so I hit upon the brilliant idea (if I say so myself) of using Timeless Textures, stamped repeatedly to build up the ink towards the tip of the leaf. 

Although I love the Clean and Simple (CAS) look, it did feel a little bare, so I embossed the background with the brick wall... remembering just in time to stamp the greeting first. I do hope people like my swaps – I can’t wait to see what I get in return! I’ll report back next week.

Leaflets Framelits Dies [138283] £22.00	Timeless Textures Clear-Mount Stamp Set [140517] £18.00	Birthday Blossoms Clear-Mount Stamp Set [139471] £17.00	Brick Wall Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [138288] £7.75	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] £8.25
Dapper Denim A4 Cardstock [141419] £7.25	Dapper Denim Classic Stampin' Pad [141394] £6.00	Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder [141636] £4.50	Linen Thread [104199] £4.25	Versamark Pad [102283] £7.75

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Mix It Up Monday: Jar of Love

I had a lovely crafty session with a couple of stamping friends recently and had the opportunity to play with the Jar of Love bundle. These sessions can turn out to be expensive! I hadn’t paid any attention to this set at all but inevitably I loved it.

What I particularly liked was that SU have thought of everything. I cut out the jar, but was wishing I could make it transparent... then discovered that there’s a die to cut out the middle of the jar, too, so I could!

I used this colour combination, based on the ink pads that just happened to be on the table, and when I returned home, I realised it just happened to be a Mix It Up Monday combo, using a colour combination from my latest set of In Color charts! Well, it is if you discount the Soft Sky, which I am going to do as it’s very subtle behind the vellum. 

Jar Of Love Photopolymer Bundle [142342] £48.50	Brick Wall Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [138288] £7.75	Peekaboo Peach A4 Cardstock [141422] £7.25	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] £8.25	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490] £6.50
White Vellum A4 Card Stock [106584] £6.00	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] £5.50	Mint Macaron Classic Stampin' Pad [138326] £6.00	Peekaboo Peach Classic Stampin' Pad [141398] £6.00	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975] £6.00
Watermelon Wonder Classic Stampin' Pad [138323] £6.00	Soft Sky Classic Stampin' Pad [131181] £6.00	Linen Thread [104199] £4.25

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Marquee Messages - It's Your Birthday

I had chance to play with the rather wonderful Marquee Messages at the weekend. I love the retro styling of this stamp set but wasn’t sure I’d make full use of all the words so have resisted getting it so far. Not sure I’ll be able to resist much longer as it’s a really fun set although, as I found, it does lean towards paper piecing… and I’m not a fan of fussy cutting. 

As my starting point, I Googled ‘retro Americana sign’ and came up with a fantastic array of signs which gave me the inspiration for the colour combination. Next I checked out what other people have been making with this stamp set and then CASEd the idea of the distressed brick wall from US demonstrator Amy Koenders.  To create this look, I inked up the raised sections of the embossing folder before adding the cardstock and running it through the Big Shot. This inked up the cracks in the wall (as well as a bit extra, giving it a nicely distressed look).

I coloured the lights and greeting using my chalk marker, added a little distressing using a Crumb Cake ink pad and then popped it all up on the wall. I do love it – and I kind of want to emboss the whole thing so it looks like metal. Maybe the next one…

Marquee Messages Photopolymer Stamp Set [141727] £19.00	Brick Wall Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [138288] £7.75	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] £5.50	Cherry Cobbler A4 Card Stock [121681] £7.25	Mint Macaron A4 Cardstock [138344] £7.25
Delightful Dijon A4 Cardstock [138345] £7.25	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549] £8.25	Whisper White A4 Thick Cardstock [140490] £6.50	Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad [126975] £6.00	White Stampin Chalk Marker [132133] £3.25

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Mix It Up Monday: Festive Fireplace birthday card

It’s Mix It Up Monday again and today I have a birthday card for my friend and downline, Donna. Like me, Donna loves cats so when I was stamping with her recently, I sneakily stamped out a few of these cats for her birthday card. They were ably coloured by my daughter, who also added the bow; there’s no way I could have drawn that. 

The concept in my head was cats sitting on a brick wall but I hadn’t accounted for the scale issues; the bricks from the embossing folder are way too big for these little cats. So I tried rolling it through the Big Shot twice, offsetting the folder the second time to create the effect of smaller bricks/stones. This almost had the desired effect, but the first embossed lines were flattened by the second rolling. Nothing ventured…

The colour combination - which, of course, comes from my In Color charts - is a good one but I did bend the rules slightly with the cotton paper, which is actually Crushed Curry. Ah well, my blog: my rules to bend. I finished the flowers off with just a small scribbled of black marker in the centre.

Festive Fireplace Photopolymer Stamp Set [139754]	Tin Of Cards Photopolymer Stamp Set [138946]	Brick Wall Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [138288]	Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack [133787]	Pool Party A4 Card Stock [124391]
So Saffron A4 Card Stock [108611]	Tip Top Taupe A4 Cardstock [138343]	Whisper White A4 Card Stock [106549]	Project Life Journaling Pens [135304]	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708]
Cherry On Top Cotton Paper Assortment [138308]	2015-2017 In Color Stampin' Write Markers [138333]	Subtles Stampin' Write Markers [131263]

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com