Stampin Up Apple Harvest spotlight technique card ideas

 

Preparations are afoot for my big Beary Christmas Stampin’ Up!® craft day in November, but I don’t want to reveal any of those projects just yet. 

 

So, delving into the archive, I found these projects which I haven’t got round to showing you. They use the fabulous Stampin’ Up!® stamp set, Apple Harvest, and an interesting technique called the spotlight technique.

MORE Spruced Up Stampin' Up card ideas

 

 

This week I am returning to the Spruced Up bundle from Stampin’ Up!® for some more bright and funky Christmas cards.

But first I am happy to tell you it’s a really BIG day at Stampin’ Up!® today (Tues 4th Oct) with lots happening to get excited about.

🇮🇪 The biggest news for us in the UK is that Stampin’ Up!® is launching in Ireland! We are so happy that our neighbours on the Emerald Isle can finally enjoy Stampin’ Up!® products and I am looking forward to helping Irish crafters find what they need and maybe even join my team.

To coincide with the launch in Ireland (and in Belgium), there are TWO amazing offers, whether you want to shop or join. 

Fun with Hey Birthday Chick stamps and dies

I am totally hen-amoured with our Hey Chick and Hey Birthday Chick bundles. I loved Hey Chick back in 2017 when it was our most popular Sale-a-Bration stamp set, and I still love it today. Everyone who has kept their Hey Chick Sale-a-Bration stamp set since then will be delighted with the fun dies which are now available. 

 

I love Hey Birthday Chick in the new Stampin’ Up!® January-June Mini Catalogue, too, and that also now has dies available. What fun bundles they both are!

 

 

In this rather busy card, I’ve attempted to hen-capsulate the sheer joy and silliness of Hey Birthday Chick. But once you’ve stamped and die-cut these hen-gaging hens, you just can’t stop colouring them. And once they’re coloured in, you may as well use them, which is how I ended up with this totally bonkers birthday card. 

How to avoid die-cutting fatigue

 

As is so often the case, the Stamparatus is your friend here. 

Here’s how you can die-cut multiple chickens (or any shape) quickly and accurately:

• Place your cardstock in the corner of the Stamparatus and position all your chickens on the plate with some space around them to allow for the dies. 
  
• Stamp all your chickens in one go.
• Leave the cardstock and stamps in the same position on the Stamparatus (that’s really important!).
• Die-cut the chickens as normal, being extra careful to do so accurately.
• Now you can die-cut a pile of chickens from blank cardstock which means a) you don't have to worry about positioning and b) you can maximise use of cardstock as you don’t have to leave space around them.
• Now just slot the chickens into your cardstock template and stamp for perfect positioning every time.

Can you use the template again? Yes... but only for as long as you leave the stamps on the Stamparatus plate. If you remove the stamps from the plate, you can try placing the stamps into the template and picking them up with the plate and you might get away with it. This would be easier with photopolymer stamps but with red rubber you may find you have start the process again and create a new one.

That was a long tip, wasn't it? Back to more Hey Birthday Chick cards... 

 

I made a batch of these for my customer thank yous for their January orders – chickens are for life, not just for birthdays! 

 

I used the sentiment “Good things are worth waiting for” from Enjoy the Moment to acknowledge the fact that their January orders have taken so long to arrive due to Brexit-related customs delays. I share their pain and have been tracking their parcels with them.

I did something really rash with my brand new Enjoy the Moment stamp set. I actually cut this stamp up so I could stamp it on two lines easily. The joy of unmounted stamps is that you can put them back together on the block if you want to. The rash bit was doing this AFTER I’d added the label... and my label positioning wasn’t perfect so now it just looks like a dog’s dinner. A fully functional dog’s dinner but it’s still a little galling.

I used Shimmery White cardstock for the main panel here and watercoloured the background with a big brush and some Granny Apple Green and Coastal Cabana ink picked it up from the lid in the time-honoured fashion. I find Shimmery White is a bit more tolerant of watercolouring than Whisper White. I haven’t had chance to try it on our new Basic White just yet because, you know, Customs...

I had fun colouring these cheeky chickens with my Stampin’ Blends and experimented with a few colours. Which one do you like the best?

 

How I coloured the chickens

 

 

This one is simply done in Daffodil Delight, light and dark, with a Pumpkin Pie beak and a Poppy Parade comb. The chick is the same, but with an Ivory eggshell. 

For this chicken I used Granny Apple Green, light and dark, with some Daffodil Delight light and dark for the belly, wings and tail. Do you like the little picket fence? I love it. The new Birthday Chick Dies have lots of fun little elements like this, as do the Hey Chick Dies, as you can see above. 

This one is a bit more high maintenance. I began with a strip of dark Rich Razzleberry around the base and up towards the tail, then switched to light Rich Razzleberry to start blending upwards and a little all the way round. Then, as I don't have any paler purples or dark pinks, I switched to light Calypso Coral for the paler areas, finishing off with a light Petal Pink towards the belly. Yes, four markers for one chicken... six if you count the Poppy Parade comb and Pumpkin Pie beak!

Chick out the whole Hey Chick range in my store here (opens in new window)

 

The Hey Chick promotion runs until the end of June, although bear in mind products will switch to ‘while supplies last’ towards the ened of this period.  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

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.

NB: Please note orders are currently taking quite a bit longer than usual to arrive, due to a combination of extra paperwork required following Brexit, lower staffing levels due to the pandemic, and an influx of orders as a result of both lockdown and Sale-a-Bration. Please ask if you require more information.

 

Tutorials: Double Dutch Door Fold and Desk Calendar

Our first Crafty Friday of the year saw us use this gorgeous Flower & Field DSP from the Sale-a-Bration brochure. This beautiful paper is free with a £45 order during January and February.

 

 

During the morning, we made two projects using just two 6x6 pieces of paper (cut from 12x12 sheets). A I only had one pack to play with, not everybody received the same designs, which is quite nice as we get to see lots of variations on the different projects. 

 

We began with this fun Double Dutch Door Fold. And question of the day was “what is a double Dutch door?” Turns out a Dutch door is what we in the UK know as a stable door... and suddenly the card design makes sense!

 

I don’t do complicated fancy folds so this one was right up my street. You begin by cutting a standard piece of cardstock (A4 in most countries) and cutting it in half lengthways to create a card base. Slice off a section of the front then create the bottom doors from a separate, wrap-around piece.

 

Tell you what, why not download the tutorial here

As this was a remote class, guests were using their own greeting stamps to complete the card. Therefore I sent them a selection of die-cut and punched pieces for decoration. I used Nature’s Roots Dies to create these pretty Granny Apple Green leaves and the Small Bloom Punch for some Bumblebee flowers. The mini flower accents are created using the Confetti Flowers Border Punch. I have to say, punching lots of flowers is easier than die-cutting lots of leaves!

 

Use the piece you slice off the front of the card to create a layer for your main greeting/image panel. Waste not, want not.

 

 

Our second project was this cute desk calendar. I have to thank my downline Tracey for the inspiration for this as she made one for me for Christmas. 

 

Again this starts with a simple card base, created by cutting a sheet of cardstock in half lengthways. A second piece of cardstock creates a supporting piece and a third creates a simple box on the front for a sticky note pad and pen or pencil. You could decorate it further if you wish, but I like to let the DSP do all the hard work here. 

 

Download the desk calendar tutorial here

This side view shows how the supporting piece works. Simple but effective, and stops the weight of the pad making the card fall open. 

You can earn this gorgeous Designer Series Paper FREE during Sale-a-Bration, which runs to the end of Feburary. This is one of your choices when you place a £45 order. If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the host code YK2NNMYW, I’ll send you a little thank you gift in February!

To make it easy for you, please shop using this link (opens in new window)

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.

 

NB: Please note orders are currently taking longer than usual to arrive, due to a combination of extra paperwork required following Brexit, lower staffing levels due to the pandemic, and an influx of orders as a result of both lockdown and Sale-a-Bration. Please ask if you require more information.  

 

Sale-a-Bration 2021: Darling Donkeys and Flower & Field Designer Series Paper

Sale-a-Bration is now well under way and, as predicted, this Darling Donkeys stamp set is proving to be a winner. Who could resist these cute images? And you know me, I don’t normally fall for cute stamp images. 

I showed off this project at my Twixmas Party in an interactive demonstration. Guests could vote via the Zoom polling feature on which image I should stamp, which DSP I should use and which cardstock. The above card was the result, with a Bumblebee cardstock layer and a frame created with the Layering Circles Dies. 

However, I had this one ready made to show them how the card could have looked if they had made different choices, such as a Granny Apple Green cardstock layer. This image fits better in the Layering Ovals Dies, which I had cut in advance. Yes, I guessed what they’d choose and made the opposite – seems that I do know them quite well!

I can’t lay claim to the project idea, which was originally created by Diana Gibbs. It's such a lovely design that I just had to CASE (Copy And Share Everything) it. I particularly I love the use of the In Good Taste DSP with the Flower & Field DSP.

I coloured the images using Stampin’ Blends after falling in love with these all over again recently. Crumb Cake for the body, Smoky Slate for the hooves, Granny Apple Green for the grass and Pool Party for the sky.

The “hee haw” greeting is hand cut from cardstock, simply following the lines of the curvy image. 

The Darling Donkeys stamp set is one of six stamp sets you can choose as your FREE Sale-a-Bration item when you place a qualifying order during January and February 2021. Darling Donkeys can be earned with a £45 order.

The Flower & Field Designer Series Paper is one of four packs of paper in the brochure and that, too, can be earned with a £45 order. I love the bright colours on the dark backgrounds; some of them remind me a little of traditional canal art, while others remind me of mille-fleurs tapestries.

It’s gorgeous paper and I will be using it at my Crafty Friday Zoom class this week, when we make a fancy fold card and a mini desk calendar.

Want to earn your own Darling Donkeys stamp set or Flower & Field Designer Series Paper? Or do you have your eye on something else from the Sale-a-Bration brochure? Please head on over to my store and, if you use the host code YK2NNMYW, I’ll send you a little thank you gift in February!

To make it easy for you, please shop using this link (opens in new window)

 

Sneak peek Friday - Berry Blessings Sale-a-Bration stamp set

I had a berry nice time (sorry) creating these cards using the brand new Berry Blessings Sale-a-Bration stamp set and the Sweet Strawberry set from the Jan-June Mini Catalogue.

This set is part of a larger bundle which includes some fabulous Designer Series Paper. Sadly, I couldn’t bring myself to cut this up for these projects so just stuck to the stamps for now.

Each of the images has a background and a foreground so you can use the much-loved ‘two-step stamping’ method, stamp the outline and colour in, or simply stamp with the bold images. 

 

For the blueberry card, I got so carried away with my stamping that I ended up with enough for two. I stamped in Granny Apple Green and Pacific Point, then immediately regretted it as I couldn’t find any ribbon in my stash to match! But I think this Seaside Spray and Linen Thread goes pretty well, don’t you?

A variation on the blueberry card uses just blueberries in the background, with a few cut-out leaves and blueberries on top of the greeting, which is die-cut with the ever-popular Tasteful Labels dies. 

For the raspberry card, I played around with a few colour combos before settling on Melon Mambo for the background images and Rich Razzleberry for the outline on top. Again, this left me with a ribbon issue, but I compromised with some Magenta Madness and linen thred. It was a little bright so I toned the card down with a Blackberry Bliss base and greeting (which is taken from the co-ordinating Sweet Strawberry stamp set from the Mini). 

What do you think? Will these be on your wish list for January and February? I think they provide a welcome splash of summery colour for the dark winter days. 

Did you know? Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators get an extra month of Sale-a-Bration, when we can earn free DSB stamp sets and Designer Series Paper on our December orders. This is just one of many perks of being a demonstrator. You don’t have to run a business; it’s all about getting the best value for your money, so why not get in touch using the info at the top of the page, or via my website, and I can answer any questions you may have.

10 simple cards using the Whale of a Time Suite

How fabulous is the Whale of a Time Suite? I bought the whole suite collection, which is not something I’d done until this year. Now I’m all over it as a concept as it’s so easy!

Public service announcement

 If you’re shopping online and the suite is showing as unavailable or on backorder, do check the individual items. It may be that just one item is temporarily out of stock which puts the whole suite on backorder. But you can still order the individual items separately.

Ok, onto the projects! Above are all of the projects were are currently making in this month’s remote workshops. Guests have had the choice of attending every Tuesday at 1pm, or coming to the Saturday morning class which was this past weekend. They could even attend both if they wished – and one lady turned up “just to watch and heckle”. 😂

Each week the ladies make two simple cards using the Whale of a Time Designer Series Paper, adding their own greeting stamps or using the Whale Done stamp set if they chose it as an optional extra. For eight of the cards we used Whisper White Notecards and Envelopes, with two shaker cards on a standard Pool Party card base.

We began with a double whale week and, thanks Stampin’ Up!®'s fabulous co-ordination, you can punch out the large whales from the DSP. Those who hadn’t upgraded to include the Whale Punch could fussy cut them instead. We set aside one of the whale patterned pieces to use just for this purpose. 

I love this Pool Party Sheer Ribbon, too – it’s so soft and shimmery.

 Onto Week 2... which was turtle week and another opportunity to show off the gorgeous DSP...

To provide a cute focal point for the projects, we fussy cut the turtles from the DSP. Again, we set aside the piece with the turtles on to use for this. 

The Whale of a Time Sequins make great accents when stuck down with a Glue Dot. I love these tiny translucent shells. 

I had die-cut a series of labels using the Tasteful Labels Dies and Stitched Rectangles Dies. All different, so I could cut them all for each person in one go.

I did throw in a couple of shaker cards to mix things up a little, which meant some preparation time using the Snow Globes Scenes Dies but worth it I think as they look so fab with the sequins behind.

This was the first one; it’s hard to photograph a shaker card but you may just be able to see a cut-out turtle within the Snow Globe Shaker Dome.

This was accompanied by another turtle card; both show off the absolutely gorgeous Whale of a Time Designer Series Paper. 

This Tuesday we will be making another shaker card, this time with a sponged and embossed surround. Yes, more work for me die-cutting and embossing in advance but I really wanted to show off this gorgeous Seabed 3D Embossing Folder. 

We’ll also be making this fab little notecard. I LOVE this piece of Designer Series Paper, it's so lovely. Guests at this series of classes received a quarter of a pack of the DSP; of course, if you have a whole pack, you get four pieces of this, so can make lots of lovely projects. 

To finish off, we will be making these cards – I left these to the end because they can be adapted to suit any leftover scraps. This is a great way of using up scraps of any Designer Series paper.

So are you inspired by this Suite? My customers have been loving it. If you’re inspired enough to buy it and are in the UK, you can shop the Suite here.