Crafting with friends... and the Share What You Love DSP

Don’t miss out on the Share What You Love Designer Series Paper, as it’s really gorgeous – you get twice as many sheets as in a standard pack, so why not share with a friend?
  Crafting is always better with friends and I spent a lovely weekend with some crafty friends recently, where we each provided a project... not all cardmaking and not all Stampin' Up!® This, however, was a Stampin’ Up!® card project using beautiful products, some of which are retiring very soon.

I’ve used a variety of stamp sets – recognise any of them?

Simple Stamping with Love What You Do

I have started new Cuppa & Card sessions at Bugs Tucker Cafe in Borrowash, near Derby. These are the cards we made at our first session. They use a lovely, spring-like colour palette, with blender pens to colour in the images.

Sneak peek: Peaceful Noel

This stamp set from the upcoming Autumn/Winter catalogue is called Peaceful Noel but I think it's versatile enough to use for much more than Christmas projects. 

Here I've stamped in Lovely Lipstick to make an everyday card with a greeting from Love What You Do. Not sure I've quite pulled off the non-Christmas effect, but it was fun trying!

Sneak peek: Detailed Deer Thinlits

Another sneak peek for you... this time some stunning new dies which will appeal to your wild side!

They're called Detailed Deer Thinlits Dies and there is, of course, a co-ordinating stamp set which I have resisted... so far. I love the white on white look but felt this needed something to make the deer stand out a little - can you guess which stamp set I’ve used?

The pearls are coloured with a Pool Party Stampin' Blends alcohol marker. Takes seconds and makes your pearls co-ordinate with any project.

Botanical Tags silhouette card

I do love a silhouette image, and although I completely overlooked the Botanical Bliss stamp set initally, I was instantly drawn to the co-ordinating Botanical Tags dies.

When I realised I could earn both for free thanks to my sales during Sale-a-Bration (ask me about this – it’s fab!), I decided to go for it and challenge myself. The blue background is stamped in Balmy Blue using the big “splodgy” image from Love What You Do - quick, easy and effective.

I may not have challenged myself with the stamps just yet – there are still too many stamps to get through! – I have had a play with the dies and this is my first project. I hope you like it!

I’ve used the Subtle Embossing Folder on the white layer. After running it through the Big Shot the first time, I turned the cardstock 90º and did it again, to get this lovely linen look. Hope you can see it; the folder is called Subtle for a reason!

One simple kit: three different cards

A bit of a stamping mash-up today, from a play session using Love What You Do, the absolutely stunning Share What You Love Designer Series Paper and the Vertical Greetings stamp set.

These three cards just show how the same simple kit – Poppy Parade card blank, Whisper White layer and a strip of DSP – can make such a variety of projects. The only limit is your imagination!

Dragonfly Dreams - busy bees and the rubber band technique

Here’s another example of the rubber band technique. I love the bright cheeriness of this project, and the fact that, despite using the exact same ink pads as for Monday’s project, this is a completely different effect. 

The only difference of this effect is that we masked just the bottom of the card, which allows you to create this lovely grassy effect. It’s definitely a technique I will be revisiting again and again.

The bees are simply stamped and coloured in – we were running out of time at our class, so we skipped the embossing this time. The flowers are from the Love What You Do stamp set... I’m way too pedantic to allow the bees to fly around the grass without some flowers to attract them.

Love What You Do with gorgeous Grapefruit Grove

I made this card a while ago but it seems to have slipped through the net. I CASEd and adapted it from Amy Koenders and the perfectionists among you will notice the slight mis-stamp on one of the green sprigs. Normally this sort of thing bothers me and I would stamp it again, but I decided to let it go – nothing in nature is perfect, after all.

Don’t you just love the colour combination? I’m a massive fan of the new Grapefruit Grove. And yes, I know it’s peach and I have not held back in my disdain for the thankfully now retired Pêche Fraiche, but this is a MUCH nicer peach which is a lot easier on the eye. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Lilypad Lake rubber band technique

This was a super-fun and effective technique demonstrated by my friend and downline Tricia on a crafty weekend away last month, and I must get round to trying it again – a fun one for a Crafty Friday I think!

We began by masking the strip with sticky notes.

To create the “reeds”, we wrapped elastic bands around a clear block in a random fashion, then pressed it into an ink pad before spritzing lightly with water and stamping onto the masked off area. Repeat without reinking, then reink when necessary. We used Sahara Sand and Garden Green here, then sponged over the top (when dry) with Coastal Cabana. I love it!

Finally, we all added our herons/cranes? and greetings to suit. I kept mine very simple as I didn’t want to distract from the clever technique.

Love What You Do, Lovely Lipstick... and lovely weather

Flower cards are difficult for me for some reason; I’ve always struggled. But this card came pretty easily to me. Perhaps I was inspired by the gorgeous new Love What You Do stamp set ... or maybe I took my inspiration from by the weather, because it really was a Beautiful Day when I made this project, and I took advantage by sitting crafting on the patio in the sunshine.

As you can see, I had to spread my supplies onto a chair (I can’t be the only one who does that!) because I was sharing the table with my daughter, who was working on her university project. If you like mid-century retro, bold colours and space themes, you can check her out on Instagram here.

This colour combination uses the new In Color™ Lovely Lipstick, as well as returning Coastal Cabana (the hottest spot north of Havana). If you’re looking for LOTS of colour combinations, please do keep an eye on this blog as I am squirrelling away behind the scenes to bring you some fantastic combos for ALL the new and returning colours. As you can imagine, this is a considerably bigger job than usual due to the upcoming Colour Revamp. Not complaining – I LOVE colour combos!

Love What You Do - NEW stamp set

A mix of old and new today... outgoing colours Soft Sky (sob!) and Sweet Sugarplum and a brand new stamp set called Love What You Do.

It’s a gorgeous set and I fear I haven’t done it justice here. It’s coming up in the new catalogue next month but you can order it NOW in a special bundle just for May. Ask me for details!