Dandy Garden Suite: Garden Wishes or Dragonfly Garden - Part Two

 

Part two of my Dandy Garden Day projects features this little box of notecards. This set above shows the box and cards made using the Dragonfly Wishes bundle. 

However, once again I made samples using both the Garden Wishes and Dragonfly Garden bundles, and again guests could use the Designer Series Paper to add their dragonflies or bees, if their stamp set didn't feature the one they wanted. As you can see from the image above, I cut out the bee from Dandy Garden Designer Series Paper, even though there is one featured in the stamp set. 

We used Dandy Garden DSP to cover the box, just applying paper to the top, front and back. 

 

Wet adhesive such as Tombow is best when covering these Mini Paper Pumpkin Boxes as it gives you that all-important “wiggle room”. If you apply the DSP all while the box is flat, the paper will stretch so assemble the box first then apply adhesive to the top only, leaving DSP hanging over the front to cover the flap with about 5mm (3/16”) on each side and the bottom edge. 

 

Only when the top is stuck should you add adhesive to the front and back panels, then carefully smooth the paper around to adhere.

 

The first of our cards to go inside was arguably the most complex, although even this is not too fiddly. We stamped our tallest image on a white panel, popped this up onto the note card, showing a strip of co-ordinating DSP to the right. Then it's finished off with a dragonfly (stamped or cut from the paper), a greeting and a ladybird. 

 

The Ladybug Trinkets are hollow so the best way to stick them down is using Mini Glue Dots. Don’t have any Mini Glue Dots? (Why not, they’re amazing!) You could use a small piece of double-sided tape, but it will be fiddly!

This Designer Series Paper is too beautiful to hide so these cards show it off by making it a feature of both the cards and the envelopes.

Covering the envelope flap is really easy but be warned: 6x6" DSP is only wide enough to cover the flaps of a notecard envelope, not our standard C6. 

 Simply apply adhesive all over the envelope flap then, making sure you have the pattern the right way up (if that matters with your chosen design), stick the full piece of DSP to the flap, butting it up neatly to the fold. Then turn it over and cut it out freehand, using scissors. 

These cards are scaled right back but are no less striking for their simplicity. The card on the left features dandelions stamped onto separate cardstock and cut out with the dies. ‘Hello’ looked a bit lost on its own so I stamped it three times. 

The card on the right has its flowers stamped directly onto the notecard, with a popped up dragonfly cut out from the DSP. 

 

Even simpler are these two note cards, with no colouring, just the image stamped in a colour directly onto the card. In both cases, the inset is cut out from the DSP. Did you know the bee from the Dandy Wishes dies fits the DSP perfectly? So you can stamp and cut or just cut them out of the paper if you prefer.

Similarly, the Dragonflies Punch fits both the stamp set and the DSP. You can punch both the largest and medium dragonflies from the paper although not at the same time. You will need to rough cut them out first to avoid spoiling the surrounding dragonflies. 

Since the ladies shared their projects in our private customer group at the weekend, orders for one or both of these amazing bundles have been flooding in. If you would like to order any of the products you see here, remember the best time to do so is before the end of the month, as orders over £45 will qualify for a free Sale-a-Bration item. You can either contact me and I will place the order for you – if you are local you an even hop on to my order and save shipping costs – or shop via my store. If you use February host code D6PKN76U, I’ll send you a thank you gift in March!

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

 

Please do check you are shopping with me at the store, as if you leave and return, it may default to a different demonstrator and/or lose the host code.

 

And if you have any questions about ordering, or would like to know more about maximising the value by purchasing the Starter Kit, please message me using the details on my website.

 

Dandy Garden Suite: Garden Wishes or Dragonfly Garden?

The Dandy Garden Suite is ‘my’ suite. I love everything about it. Many Suites are lovely but none has spoken to me like this one has. But which stamp set is best? 

 

Garden Wishes?

Or Dragonfly Garden? 

I couldn’t decide so had to have both. In fact, I think I ordered the entire Suite Collection. 

To justify my investment, I decided to hold a big event. Normally I would hold an all-day event at this time of year, hire a local hall and get together with customers for a fun day of crafting. We may not be able to meet in person but I wasn’t going to let lockdown stop me from holding my event. So, just as I have been doing since last spring, I held it on Zoom.

This was a day of choices. I realised that not everyone would want to spend an entire day Zooming so offered the opportunity to book just for the morning or the afternoon. Turns out everyone was quite happy to spend the whole day on Zoom after all!

I couldn’t decide whether to run it with the Dragonfly Garden or the Garden Wishes stamp set... so I gave the guests a choice. Of course, this meant I had to make double the samples but it did show off the versatility of the sets beautifully. 

Both sets feature a tall flower stamp. Both feature a beautiful insect. And both co-ordinate with the Dandy Garden Designer Series Paper. Everyone received half a pack of this, giving them lots of options – and it also meant everyone who chose the Dragonfly Garden stamp set could cut out bees from the DSP, and everyone who chose the Garden Wishes stamp set could cut out dragonflies, just as you can see in the cards above. The top card has a dragonfly cut from the Designer Series Paper, while the bottom one is stamped and lightly coloured in.

We made so many projects that I am going to split them across two blog posts. Please come back on Thursday to see the second batch.

 

Half of the day was spent making these four cards. This one is probably my favourite, using gorgeous Blackberry Bliss. I blended some ink around the bottom of the white cardstock using Blending Brushes. Those who don’t yet have these amazing brushes could use a sponge instead. 

To get the spatter effect, squeeze your ink pad to create a pool of ink in the lid. Using a wet (but not too wet) paintbrush, pick up some of this ink and splash this across the card. I do this by holding the paintbrush horizontally and tapping the top.
NB: The wetter your paint brush, the bigger and paler the spatters will be.

 

 

I made these Bumblebee cards deliberately different, to showcase the versatility of the DSP. They look so different with the bold designs on the right, or the subtle Bumblebee designs on the left, but which do you prefer? I can’t really decide. 

When attaching strips of DSP in a design like this, start with the two outer edge pieces, then finish off with the centre. That way you retain an even border around the outside edges of the card. 

 

This card again shows the versatility of the Dandy Garden Designer Series Paper. The card on the left uses a bumblebee cut out of the DSP, while the one on the right is stamped from the Garden Wishes stamp set. The images in the DSP meant nobody had to miss out, regardless of the stamp set they had chosen for their kit.

If you love these products as much as I do, I would urge you to act fast. No, they’re not going anywhere but if you order before the end of February, you can take advantage of Sale-a-Bration. 

 

Order both of the above and you can of course choose TWO Sale-a-Bration items or one Level 2 SAB item.  If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the February host code D6PKN76U, I’ll send you a thank you gift in March!

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

However, for the best value of all, I would recommend the Starter Kit, which gives you £130 of craft supplies of your choice, plus five packs of Designer Series Paper worth £53.75. It’s shipped to you free of charge and entitles you to discounts and sneak peeks. Please do message me via my website to find out more or click here to get started. 

Please message me via my website

 

Best Suite ever? Dandy Garden featuring Dragonfly Garden and Garden Wishes

When I say the Dandy Garden Suite is my favourite of all time, I do not use those words lightly. I have been a Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator for 13 years now and this is honestly the most gorgeous suite I have ever seen. I’ve liked plenty of suites in the past and loved many of them a lot... but none has spoken to me like this one.

Last week I held my annual Twixmas Party, albeit this time on Zoom. In fact, the Zoom format worked so well for this event that I think this one will definitely remain on Zoom in the future, even when we are allowed to meet again. Nobody had to worry about the weather, and guests could celebrate with a glass of fizz if they wished.

We had games, prizes and demonstrations. For this demo I used the Zoom polling feature so the guests could choose what I made. This was the winning design; guests voted for the Dragonfly Garden stamp set, the Blackberry Bliss colourway and finally to embellish with a die-cut bee from the Dandy Wishes Dies set rather than a dragonfly using the new Dragonfly Punch. Of course, I had some variations to show them afterwards, too, so everybody got to see their choices in the end, even if they didn’t cast a winning vote.

I took the opportunity to demonstrate the gorgeous new Blending Brushes which feature in the new January-June Mini Catalogue (p70, £11.25 for three). These are SO luscious and so easy to use. Even my 20-year-old son – who normally shows zero interest in craft supplies – picked one up and said “why are these so nice?”

  

They look like sponges in the catalogue photo but are actually very dense brushes with the softest bristles. You can rinse them under the tap when you’ve finished and because they are synthetic, they dry very quickly, although having three in a pack means you can switch between colours without risking getting water on your project.

It was also the first public outing for my Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine, nicknamed Little Roland. This fits the Greenery Embossing Folders perfectly and is more than adequate for the vast majority of our dies, including the Stitched Nested Labels Dies I’ve used here.

Little Roland and the Dandy Garden Suite all go live tomorrow with the launch of the January-June Mini Catalogue, which is when Sale-a-Bration goes live, too!

Here are some tips for shopping wisely:

The Blending Brushes give you a soft, natural-looking background which offsets these images perfectly. The wildflower image requires very little colouring, so giving it a hint of a background allows the image to stand out.

Sneak Peek Friday: Darling Donkeys

Want a sneak peek of what’s to come in January? Of COURSE you do!

This gorgeous stamp set is called Darling Donkeys and I predict it’s going to be this Sale-a-Brations BIG hit. You get three cute donkeys (one isn’t shown here) and a selection of greetings and they’re just perfect for colouring in and creating fun cards for children and the young at heart. Lots of potential for creating your own amusing greetings using alphabet sets or dies, too!

Check out what I’ve been making...

This one uses the gorgeous Flower & Field Designer Series Paper, which is also a SAB item. I’ve already warned my ladies that they’re really going to have to manage their SAB choices carefully this year as there are so many great things to choose from and only two months to earn them this time!

 

Yes, if you haven’t already heard, Sale-a-Bration is only running during January and February but stop! This is GOOD news for two reasons:

1. It only features stamps and Designer Series Paper, which don’t have any supply issues as they’re sourced in the UK (so no delays caused by Chinese New Year).

2. There will be ANOTHER Sale-a-Bration in July and August - yay! So you actually get a whole month extra of SAB. (We demonstrators get two whole months extra as SAB has started already for us – so if that’s a benefit you want to enjoy, please contact me via the email address in the side panel or click here if you are on a mobile and can’t see it.

This cheery yellow card uses the Dandy Garden Designer Series Paper which I know you’re going to love. Delicate dandelion clocks provide a subtle background to this sitting donkey.

And this card is an almost copy of a sample in the Sale-a-Bration brochure. It uses the Cinnamon Cider In Color DSP but I’d run out of Bumblebee DSP so made my hay bales using the Stacked Stone background stamp instead.

What do you think? Are the donkeys going to be on your SAB hit list?

 

Sneak Peek: 10 cards using the Dandy Garden Suite

 

During December we demonstrators get the privilege of ordering from the new Jun-Jul Mini Catalogue - this is one of my favourite perks! Another perk was if we attended OnStage@Home we could order EVEN EARLIER from a smaller selection of products so I quickly snapped up a whole bunch from the Dandy Garden Suite.

This is a new mega-suite of products and, if you love the natural world as much as I do, you will LOVE it. So as a special end-of-week treat, here are not one but TEN projects using this fabulous Suite!

Indulge me while I wax lyrical about this gorgeous Suite for a moment. There are TWO gorgeous stamp sets – one with a co-ordinating dragonfly punch and one with co-ordinating dies.

There is an absolutely stunning pack of 6"x"6" Designer Series Paper packed with deep, rich colours, bold floral designs as well as delicate detailed monochrome sheets.

There’s a pack of fine laser-cut paper, including detailed dragonflies, intricate seed heads and delicate leaves. There are tiny bronze-effect ladybirds. And remember that beautiful woven linen thread we had before? It's back - but in Mossy Meadow.

I'm so excited about this suite that I'm sharing everything I've made with it so far. Some are adaptations of projects from the Stamp & Share section of OnStage@Home and others are actually completely from my own head (I know, right!).

Take a look at what I’ve been making...

These were some of the most fun to make as I got to use a new tool. We have some new blending brushes which are so pleasing to use and so effective – they give you a much smoother effect than blending with sponges.

I stamped my main images in Mossy Meadow, coloured them with Stampin’ Blends, then blended ink with the new brushes around the edges of the cardstock. Inspired by Stampin' Up!® concept artist Melody Hyde, I then stamped around the images with a greeting stamp, repeatedly and by stamping off onto scrap paper first. I really liked this effect when Melody demonstrated it at OnStage@Home.

I LOVE these dies, they are JUST what I've been craving. And don't they go perfectly with the Dandelions Embossing Folder which I've had for months but – gasp! –hadn’t used until I made this card. 

This Suite is perfect for the monochrome look. There are several sheets of DSP which are monochrome;in Misty Moonlight (as shown here), Blackberry Bliss (yum!), Bumblebee and Calypso Coral. Shall I tell you a secret about this card? It was supposed to have a folding back front, but I used the cutting blade instead of the scorer! Oops.



A splash of Bumble Bee goes so well with Misty Moonlight – this is one of our OnStage@Home Stamp and Share projects which we made during the event. 

This last card was a Northern Lights background which hadn’t gone quite to plan. It wasn’t working for the Christmas card I had planned but I think it looks great behind this Dandy Laser-Cut Paper and combined with some much-maligned Purple Posy.

I hope you love this Suite as much as I do as I will be holding a Big Event with it in February. Watch this space or my website for details. 

And if you can’t wait that long and want to get your hands on these fabulous products NOW, please get in touch about purchasing the Starter Kit. I would love to have you in my team so I can help you get the best value out of your Stampin’ Up!® crafting. Please get in touch via my website here.