Grassy Grove bundle cards with Expressions in Ink DSP

 

You know how every time a new Stampin’ Up!® catalogue comes out, there’s usually one stamp set or bundle which you absolutely MUST have? In the January-June Mini Catalogue, for me it was the Grassy Grove bundle. 

 

I’ve always loved the look of intricate laser-cut and paper-cutting designs but would never attempt them myself as I just know I would end up cutting my finger. Honestly, I have previously cut myself on a guillotine which was described as “impossible to cut yourself”, a Stampin’ Up!® ink pad and even some ribbon. Yes, ribbon. 

 

So when I saw this Grassy Grove bundle it tapped into both my love of intricate paper-cut designs and my love of wildlife. In the January-June Mini Stampin’ Up!® Catalogue, these gorgeous dies are used with New Horizons Designer Series Paper but due to global shipping issues, this product has not yet arrived in the European warehouse. I believe it’s due in next week. 

 

However, I had almost a full pack of Expressions in Ink Designer Series Paper which I love but haven’t really used much yet. This proved ideal for serene sunset/sunrise backgrounds like this one...

 

 

For this card I have also stamped some of the beautiful detailed grasses onto the Expressions in Ink Designer Series Paper. By flipping the deer around, you can mix up the scene. I haven’t added a greeting to this one as I didn’t want to detract from the scene but may add a small happy birthday later as I am very low on birthday cards. 

 

With these dies you can create stunning cards very quickly – these cards I have made are really simple, but I love the look of the amazing backgrounds behind the stark black silhouettes.

This card uses a different and more intense piece of Expressions in Ink Designer Series Paper to create a lovely orange sky. Again I have stamped with the grasses directly onto the paper to add further interest. 

In this version (how many did I make? I think I’ve lost count!), I added a small thank you banner on a die-cut panel using Tasteful Labels Dies, plus some coordinating Pale Papaya ribbon. 

For a gorgeous enchanted woodland effect, there is this piece in the Expressions in Ink DSP pack, with its dreamy greens and threads of gold. For this card, I have added an extra die-cut piece behind the main trees. This die cuts out a stamped image of a grassy mound, but I think it works well on its own too. 

 

I love that you can create such very different looks with just Basic Black cardstock and simply by changing the background. You could also leave the background plain, stamp it, ink it, watercolour it, blend it with our fabulous Blending Brushes or use any number of fun background techniques. 

I love this bundle so much that it will be the focus of my All-Day Craft Event in March. This will take place on Zoom, to give us all an element of certainty. 

The price will include the Grassy Grove bundle (Grassy Grove stamp set and Grove dies), as well as a full pack of Simply Marbleous Designer Series Paper from the Sale-a-Bration brochure. There is also the option to swap to a different SAB item if you already own this paper or have something which would work just as well. 

 

As the event will be held on Zoom, it is open to anyone in the UK. If you are unable to attend the event you can still register to receive the kit and instructions to complete the projects at your leisure.

For more information and registration, please click here

 

 

Alternatively, if you would just like to order the bundle, or anything else from Stampin’ Up!®, I would love it if you used my store. If you use the current host code RNU3JCR9, I’ll send you a thank you gift in the following month.

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 

 

Jan-June Mini Catalogue Blog Hop - masculine card with Wildlife Wonder

 

It’s been a long while since I took part in a blog hop but January always brigs with it good intentions so here I am. Today I invite you to hop around the world to see some amazing projects featuring brand new Stampin’ Up!® products from the January-June Mini Catalogue.

I have a project to show you today which uses the lovely Wildlife Wonder stamp set. We love bears, wolves and owls in this family, so I couldn’t resist adding this set to my order. Bears top that list so my first card with this set uses the lovely bear image. 

 

 

This is a Distinktive stamp set, which means you don’t have to do anything clever to get that amazing shaded image on the bear. Just ink it up in a colour of your choice – I used Early Espresso – and stamp. 

 

 

After fussy cutting the bear, I stamped a simple scene in Old Olive ink using the stamps in the set. There's a “splodge” which is useful to create a base for the bear to stand on, and a simple grassy sprig which can be used at different heights and angles to create a scene. 

 

 

I covered the whole of the front of the card base with some woodgrain paper from the Beauty of the Earth Designer Series Paper pack. This whole pack of paper from the Annual Catalogue is perfect to go with the animal images from this Wildlife Wonder stamp set. 

 

The moody sky was created using the fabulous Blending Brushes and some Daffodil Delight ink, blended into a little Old Olive at the base. These brushes are a delight to use and really raise your projects to the next level. 

 

 

The Wildlife Wonder set is a really great set for making masculine cards. I know a lot of people struggle to make cards for men but this will make it easy. I have to say though, as someone who loves bears, wolves and owls, I’d be more than happy to receive a card made with this set, too!

 

 

Have you had a good look at the Stampin’ Up!® January-June Mini Catalogue yet? Please visit the blogs in this hop to see lots more inspiration for stamp sets from this fab new collection. 

Is the Wildlife Wonder stamp set on your wish list? If you are in the UK, you can shop for any Stampin’ Up!® products at my online store and, if you use the current host code RNU3JCR9, I’ll send you a thank you next month. 

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 

 

In The Moment cards coloured with Stampin’ Blends

It’s new Stampin’ Up!® Mini catalogue time! And I have a beautiful stamp set from the new Jan-June Mini Catalogue to show you today. The set is called In The Moment and is in the same style as other popular sets we’ve had such as Beautiful Moments and Beautiful You. It’s a very popular style with good reason – the images are beautiful and so satisfying to colour in. 

Browse the new Jan-June Mini Catalogue here

There are three images in the set but so far I have only used the lady reading her book in bed with her canine companion, probably because that matches my winter mood!

I made this slimline card for my lovely friend Mrs B, whose birthday was yesterday. She loves reading and has a beautiful whippet but this pup is the nearest I could find. I made this card to fit one of our gorgeous new slimline envelopes, and decorated it with a panel of Hand-Penned Designer Series Paper to match the Pale Papaya background. 

The image is coloured using Stampin’ Blends, which I don’t use often enough, and the gold elements are from the Expressions in Ink Ephemera Pack... including the scalloped strip which I cut from the leftover pieces using the new Brilliant Rainbow Dies. 

 

The standard-sized cards were inspired by US Stampin’ Up!® demonstrator Chelsey Christensen, who demoed a similar card at a demo event towards the end of last year. I made mine as part of my demonstration at my annual Twixmas Party last week. This was held on Zoom and guests could vote on various elements to help me create the card. 

To begin with they voted to use the image of the lady reading her book... which is another reason all my projects are made with this design! I was glad they did though, as it gave me the opportunity to show them how fab it looks with the paper piecing technique. 

I stamped the image once on the Very Vanilla circle and again directly onto this Pale Papaya piece of Designer Series Paper with its delicate polka dot pattern. The DSP image was cut out and pieced on top of the Very Vanilla circle so the duvet cover and pillows could feature this pretty dotted design.

After I’d coloured the image and stuck the DSP down, I went around the edges with a Blending Brush and some Pale Papaya ink.

This Designer Series Paper is from our fabulous new Sale-a-Bration collection and is called Daffodil Afternoon; it features bold floral illustrations on one side of the papers, with more subtle designs on the reverse. 

 

 

Browse the Sale-a-Bration brochure here

For the torn rectangular panel, I gave guests a choice of the dark green side with its lush foliage, or the reverse pattern of delicate green hearts. They chose the little hearts, as I suspected they would, so I had already created a version using the darker side to show them, too.

 

Underneath this is a panel of new vellum called Layering Designs. This features black and white printed designs, including this fine print which I’ve used in white across the base of the card, and in black as a tiny element beneath the greeting. 

 

On this version of the card, I coloured some silver Simply Elegant Trim using a dark Calypso Coral Stampin’ Blend. To be honest, while this works well, I don’t think it did my marker much good so I would only use this technique in small doses – and be very gentle if you do try it.

This version of the card uses linen thread because I didn’t want to go down the colouring route again and, frankly, linen thread goes with everything.

The final poll I held with my party guests was to choose the embellishments and unsurprisingly they chose these new Brushed Brass Butterflies to finish off the card.

I love this In The Moment stamp set from Stampin’ Up!® and think it’s going to be one of our biggest sellers in the first half of this year. I hope you love it, too!

If you are in the UK and would like to order, please visit my store and, if you use the current host code RNU3JCR9, I’ll send you a thank you gift in the following month.

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 

 

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