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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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)

 

Spotlight on the Nothing's Better Than bundle

What’s your secret (or not so secret) vice? Coffee? Cocktails? Cookies? Chocolate? This set covers all of those addictions and I really love the retro colours and imagery on these projects. 

My vice is definitely chocolate, so the Nothing's Better Than stamp set definitely speaks to me!

Have you spotted it yet? It's on Page 91 of the Annual Catalogue and features a great range of images and greetings to create fun cards like this. There’s the Nothing’s Better Than photopolymer stamp set... and, even better, the bundle features all these great dies, too, so you can cut out your words and shapes. 

Check out these fabulous samples...

Chocolate? Yes please! But it has to be milk and good quality – for some bizarre reason people think I like dark chocolate but I don’t; that goes straight into the baking cupboard.

Coffee? No thanks! I’d much rather have a nice cup of tea. Well I AM British, after all!

Cookies? Yes please! Chocolate chip, of course! I just love the clever creation of a plate using the Layering Circle Dies in this project.

Snow Globe Scenes dies money wallet

Gifts of money or vouchers don’t have to be boring; you can give them a bespoke, handcrafted twist by making a simple wallet like this one.

This is made to fit in a standard C6 envelope, but you will only get one wallet from a sheet of A4 cardstock. Cut it down to 14.8cm x 26cm, then score at 10cm and 20.5cm. The belly band – mine is made from Silver Foil cardstock – is 2.5cm wide and 22.5cm long and embossed using the Tin Tile embossing folder.

The sponged panel is flicked with water to soak up some of the ink and give it a snowy sky effect. I used the Snow Globe dies to create the little scene – love it! In fact, I used three different die sets for this one project but it IS Christmas!

When creating a belly band to go around a project, I find that I can never get the scoring in the right place, so prefer to mould it around the card. When using cardstock (rather than Designer Series Paper), this can result in ugly creases. 

However, embossing the strip first can break down the fibres and make it more malleable. We used the Tin Tile embossing folder; one of my favourites and also easy to line up because you will need to emboss the strip twice; once from each end.

Cute triangle treat boxes with Christmastime is Here

 

I saw this cute project on Facebook and just had to have a go. It's by UK demonstrator Gez Carpenter, who has helpfully provided a tutorial here. 

I skipped the diagonal scorelines as I didn't find them necessary and they still turned out ok. Cute, aren’t they? I filled them with tiny chocolate Santas (from Lidl) but I stupidly forgot to include those in the photo. I say “filled”... you can only fit about three in but that’s ok because it meant there were some left for me to test!

The body of the box is made from Christmastime is Here Designer Series Paper and slides out of the Old Olive Sleeve. Again, I don’t have a photo of that - what I can I say? I can only apologise and and say, in my defence, I have been poorly!

This tip could be life-changing... when I bought the Christmastime is Here Designer Series Paper, I confess it didn’t “wow” me. It just wasn’t for me. However, I soon realised that this meant I had no qualms about cutting it up and have now used nearly the whole pack! So from now on, I may just start buying the DSP that I don’t love, because then I will be more inclined to use it!

Want a more practical tip? Ok... don’t make the outer sleeve too tight or it it will be difficult to slide the inner box in and out.

Beautiful boats in the Come Sail Away Suite

There are so many possibilities with the new Come Sail Away Suite, which is why I've bought the whole suite - unheard of for me!

I loved this card by French demonstrator Sandrine Greusard and couldn't resist making my own version. The lifebelt is inspired - although quite fiddly! I made two matching circles using Layering Circle Dies, then attached them together lightly, white on top, before snipping away sections to reveal the Blueberry Bushel beneath. I didn't have the Baker's Twine (I've ordered it now!) so used linen thread to wrap around the joins. 

You can purchase this beautiful suite from 4th June - it’s definitely one you won’t want to miss.