Sparkly rainbows using Rainbow of Happiness bundle

We all need more rainbows and glitz in our lives, don’t we? And I love the addition of this Summer Shimmer paper to create these subtle yet glamorous rainbows using the Rainbow of Happiness bundle from Stampin’ Up!®

In the Moment meets Waves of the Ocean for International Women’s Day

When you planned to use the In the Moment stamp set to celebrate International Women’s Day but you also want to show off your new Waves of the Ocean Designer Series Paper... THIS is what you come up with. 

 

I love the marble patterns of this gorgeous paper in its rich blues on one side and tropical pastels on the reverse. Naturally, as someone who frequently shuns pastel shades, I am drawn to the richer colours so used this stunning green and blue piece as the background to this card. 

 

Rich Blue Foils (another new product only available while supplies last) add some shine to the horizontal strip and the image is cut out using Layering Circle Dies to break up the hard lines. 

I’ve coloured the image using a combination of Stampin’ Blends, including some of our new Natural Tones, and paper piecing. This is a simple technique which means you stamp the image again on to Designer Series Paper and cut out the shapes. Here I’ve cut out the shape of the dress and overlaid it onto the first stamped image; I love how this gives the dress a really natural look of printed fabric.

This is one of three images of women in relaxed poses in the beautiful In The Moment stamp set, available to Stampin' Up!® UK customers in the current Jan-June Mini Catalogue, is perfect for creating cards for all the fabulous women in your life. 

 

 

Waves of the Ocean is a new pack of Designer Series Paper which is only available while supplies last. The designs were created by Stampin’ Up!® artists who look like they’re having lots of fun in this video. This beautiful patterned paper is designed to coordinate with our new Waves of Inspiration stamp set and die bundle which is an early release ahead of the upcoming Stampin’ Up!® Annual Catalogue. However, it is versatile enough to work well with lots of other stamp sets, such as In the Moment as I’ve used here. 

 

  

For my second card I used the image from In the Moment of the lady sitting on the window seat enjoying a cuppa and a look at the view. I’ve cut this one out using Stitched So Sweetly Dies, which left the perfect space for this sentiment from the Rainbow of Happiness stamp set.  

To show off as several designs of patterned paper from Waves of the Ocean, I cut strips and overlapped them at jaunty angles. I finished off with some silver Metallic Mesh Ribbon and Rhinestone Waves Basic Jewels (trust me, there’s nothing basic about these!). 

 

I’ve used the paper piecing technique again here, adding pattern to the T-shirt and cushions to link the main image to the background designs. 

If you want to know where all those tiny pieces of Waves of the Ocean Designer Series Paper came from for the paper piecing, take a look at this card, which goes in a very different direction...

It’s a variation on the card on the Stampin’ Up!® website, which looks like this:

 

 

My version uses the same paper pattern, with the blending brush behind, but I don’t have the Waves of Inspiration bundle so I compromised by using Seasonal Labels dies and the small clouds from the Brilliant Rainbow dies. The greeting comes from In The Moment.  

The starburst pattern is created by making a starburst mask (or drawing lightly in pencil directly onto your patterned paper if you’re feeling brave). I explain how to do this in this blog post. 

This created lots of scraps of paper which I retained for the paper piecing you see above, to reduce waste. 

I hope you like my In the Moment/Waves of the Ocean cards for International Women’s Day and are inspired to create your own. If you are a crafter in the UK and would like to order any of the products you see here, you can order at any time, day or night, via my Stampin’ Up! store. If you do this and use the March host code UDVDUXFH I will send you a thank you gift next month. Plus I will donate 10% of the purchase price (excluding shipping) to the British Red Cross Ukrainian Crisis Fund.

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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Sneak peek: Five cards with the Rainbow of Happiness bundle

Do you love rainbows? Come on, who doesn’t? Well, how about a sneak peek today? Do you want to take a look at one of the fabulous new bundles coming up in the Stampin’ Up!® January-June 2022 Mini Catalogue?

The Rainbow of Happiness bundle features the beautiful and versatile Rainbow of Happiness stamp set and the coordinating Brilliant Rainbow dies.

Rainbows can mean many things to many different people. They have spiritual significance for people of various religions and cultures, they can be a sign of good luck to those searching for a pot of gold at the end and they are a sign of equality for the LGBTQ+ community. They are also pretty amazing to see on a wet day, as I did when out walking in the Derbyshire countryside on Saturday.

Whatever your reason for loving rainbows, the new Rainbow of Happiness stamp set will enable you to add more than a splash of colour to your craft projects and I made a batch of cards using this fun new set, to mark a number of celebrations. 

First of all I wanted to celebrate two of my team members who were recognised by Stampin’ Up!® for their achievements during 2020-2021. I used the Pattern Party Designer Series Paper which is only available if you host a qualifying party but had just the right colourful vibe to go with these projects. 

For the first card, picking the colours from this paper, I used Poppy Parade, Pumpkin Pie, Granny Apple Green and Pool Party to stamp my rainbow to match the Designer Series Paper behind. 

 

I added interest to the white panel with a polka dot design created using the Checks & Dots Embossing Folders and a subtle greeting from the Sweet as a Peach stamp set.

For the second team card, I needed make the card a little more masculine so stamped in shades of blue/green. I used Pool Party, Coastal Cabana, Bermuda Bay and, after trying several blues and not finding the right one, finally settled on Shaded Spruce. 

I used a spotty piece of Designer Series Paper from the same Pattern Party pack, so this time used the checked embossing folder. These are narrow embossing folders which means you can use them in the Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine – but you can also used them with a larger piece of cardstock if you run them through twice as I did, carefully positioning the cardstock so the pattern repeats. 

Next up was a congratulations card to celebrate the birth of a baby girl. I don’t currently have much call for baby cards so I was struggling for a stamp set, but then saw this beautiful card created by Canadian Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator Tina Zinck and used that as the basis for my own version.

I used Shimmery White cardstock to add some sparkle (which doesn’t really show up in the photos) and gave one piece a wash of Pool Party ink to look a little like the sky. This was die-cut using the must-have Stitched So Sweetly Dies.

On top of this I created a pink rainbow and clouds using Brilliant Rainbow dies, and added a penguin stamped using Count on Me and fussy cut. 

Finally I wanted to make a card to support a friend who is transgender and has been receiving lots of hateful messages online purely for being her true self. I began by researching the colours of the trans flag, which is pink, white and blue – not colours I would normally use. I ended up making two cards as I couldn’t really decide where I was going with it. 

This one – the one I sent – is based on a card demonstrated by Emma Parkin-Wilson at OnStage@Home, an event for Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators. Emma’s card used Designer Series Papers behind the white rainbows but I was limited to Balmy Blue and Blushing Bride so stamped them to create my own pattern. As the stamps I used were tiny, this was quite the task!

The greeting is cut out using Tasteful Labels Dies. I keep spare labels die-cut in Basic White to hand so I can finish projects without having to pull out lots of different die sets. The card is finished off with a hint of silver in the cord and rhinestones. The result was that this really did brighten my friend’s day. 

And finally, the one that got away, which I didn’t send in the end. The rainbow is stamped in Balmy Blue and Blushing Bride with the greeting fitting perfectly in the centre. The cute border comes from the Brilliant Rainbow dies, and I still had the Checks & Dots Embossing Folders out from the earlier projects.

I hope you enjoyed these projects and will maybe consider adding this bundle to your wish list for when the Stampin’ Up!® January-June 2022 Mini Catalogue goes live in January. I have to say this is not my usual stamp set style but I thoroughly enjoyed using it and plan to make many more cards to brighten people’s days. 

Meanwhile, there are lots of fabulous products which are due to retire very soon, with some of them reduced by up to 50%. You can check them all out in my online store and, if you use the current host code TFBG2JJB, I’ll send you a thank you gift in January.

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