Cuppa & Card with Poppies Elements

Today was supposed to be my Cuppa & Card session but I’ve had to postpone as the kits were delayed in an over-stretched postal service! So if you’re booked to join me and don’t want spoilers, look away now!

We’ll be making these two projects via Zoom. All kits have been posted out and I've learned the hard way that all that die-cutting and embossing is too much work when you have to do it all by yourself!

We’re using the Poppies Elements, which I confess I had overlooked, but they are perfect for this situation. These elements are already coloured, but there are vellum and watercolour paper elements in the packs, too, and we’ll be using those at Crafty Friday in May.

Black and white makes a really striking colour combination when you add just a splash of colour. I love how the poppies really stand out here.

Painted Poppies Week: Monochromatic Poppies

It’s the last day of Painted Poppies Week here at All Things Stampy but I’m sure this won’t be the last you see of this lovely stamp set!

These four fun cards were quick and easy to make – and I love how you can tailor the design to almost any of our lovely colours.

I borrowed the idea from Lynn Dunn, but simplified her design slightly to use Label Me Bold instead of embossing – I really have to be in the mood for embossing!

My colours are Crushed Curry, Gorgeous Grape (but with Highland Heather stamping), Flirty Flamingo and Coastal Cabana. Which one is your favourite?

Some colours will swamp your poppy heads, which is why I used Highland Heather instead of Gorgeous Grape. If you don't have a paler ink, you can stamp off onto scrap paper first, then this will give you a lighter shade.

Painted Poppies Week: Lovely landscape

Real Red, Pear Pizzazz and Call Me Clover really make the poppies stand out on this #simplestamping project. I took inspiration from a talented stamper out there in the stampiverse but I'm afraid I can't find the original so I cannot credit her. If you know, please comment and I'll amend this post to give her credit.

You could make this project even simpler by stamping straight onto the notecard, but that cane be a little daunting for new stampers, so I prefer to give them a separate piece of cardstock so they have the option of turning it over if they're not happy with their first attempt.  

Painted Poppies Week: Simple to Stepped-up

I haven't posted a #simplestamping project for a while, so here you are... with a stepped-up calendar version thrown in for good measure.

This calendar card was one of my Cuppa & Card projects in January. It was a rash decision to make something so time-consuming within our one-hour session, but I had some calendar tabs to use up.

However, just in case I had more people turn up than calendar tabs, I had the second #simplestamping card ready to go. Same design as the calendar, just stuck onto a notecard instead. Cunning, eh?

Get the trendy white-on-black look of embossing without the tools, the faff and the time by using the new Label Me Bold stamp set. I love it!

Painted Poppies Week... starring Blackberry Bliss

I hope you enjoyed Sale-a-Bration week last week. This week it's Painted Poppies Week! In celebration of this beautiful stamp set which is on page 26 of the Spring/Summer catalogue and part of the stunning Peaceful Poppies Suite.

To kick things off, here is one of my Stampy Buffet projects, which uses Blackberry Bliss and Poppy Parade: who would have thought this would be a match made in heaven? But I love how it makes the poppies really pop. 

Colour the poppies using ink pads and blender pens, then stamp some splatters around the heads, making sure to stamp off onto some scrap paper first, so that they are not swamped by bright colour. 

Peaceful Poppies desk calendar

 

We all love a no-waste project, don't we? And this pretty desk calendar gives you two projects in one.

Inspired by Susan Itell, who has detailed instructions here, (https://simplestampin.com/2017/12/super-practical-oh-easy.html), I made this for my purple-loving host, using Peaceful Poppies Designer Series Paper. It's hard to cover the gorgeous flower images but this Blackberry Bliss side is beautiful, too.

Because the project is made from half a sheet of 12"x12' cardstock, from which you cut a 3"x6" piece, you get to make a sweet little 3"x3" card with the leftovers. Very easy, very cute and a great January project.

Colour your leaves from Peaceful Poppies simply by stamping on top with the large splatter stamp from the same set. No faff, and you can do two or more at a time!

A patch of purple poppies

 

Who says poppies have to be red? They absolutely don't and I love the colourful Californian poppies which sometimes spring up unexpectedly in the garden.

Purple poppies are beautiful, too, and I've just this minute learned that they are symbol of remembrance for all those animals which served in wartime, such as the military working dogs, horses and ponies which didn’t ask to get involved in human conflicts.

On a brighter note, here are two cards I made along very similar lines, using the lovely and oft-neglected Purple Posy cardstock. 

I love the version with the bold flowers and on-trend white embossing on a black die-cut label but knew this wouldn't be practical in a home party situation so made the one with the flower border and Story Label punch, too. But which do you prefer?

We may not be able to order Purple Posy ink but we can get the look with Highland Heather by stamping off onto scrap paper first. You can also get the look with Versamark and, of course, our Stampin’ Write Marker and Stampin’ Blends Alcohol Marker.

Painted Poppies notebooks

 
My team is growing fast this Sale-a-Bration and I decided to welcome the first new members with a handy little notebook so they can write down everything they need to know about being a Stampin' Up!® demonstrator... or perhaps their stamping shopping lists!

These note books have a plastic sleeve front and back which makes them really easy to cover. I’ve had them for a long time but think I bought them in Home Bargains. Seems very probable.

 

The Painted Poppies stamp set is designed so you can colour the black outline of your poppy with just one stamp in red ink. But if you like a really intense colour – or your ink pad is getting ready for a refresh – simply ink and restamp a few times. It doesn’t matter if you go over the lines because you’re cutting out the image and it doesn’t matter if the ink is darker in places... in fact it looks more natural. 

Peaceful Poppies Suite - three-way split

I’ve reused this three-way split design but unfortunately I think the flowers get lost and now wish I'd added a white circle element behind to help them stand out. But these lovely papers are almost too beautiful to cover up!

When placing your three pieces of Designer Series Paper on your card front, start with the top and bottom pieces to get them evenly spaced from the edges. Then you can add the centre piece, trimming down slightly if necessary. 

Painted Poppies simple desk calendar

A simple calendar which fits inside a standard envelope so you can post it as a card. Perfect for those January birthdays.

It’s simply half a sheet of A4, cut lengthways, with a bracket inside. There are no set measurements, really. I think this one was 10cm wide (just needs to be slightly narrower than the card itself) and about 8cm, scored at the 4cm point, then again at 1cm from each side. Fold it into a W shape and attach the narrowed strips to the inside of the card using double-sided tape.

I made a card on the same theme, too...

To colour the leaves, take the small splatter stamp inked in Old Olive and, starting at the base of the leaf, stamp repeatedly towards the tip of the leaf, without reinking. This gives you a lovely graduated effect.

Sneak peek: Peaceful Poppies bundle

It’s Boxing Day here in the UK but I’m ready to move on to 2020, so do you fancy a sneak peek? You'll love the Peaceful Poppies Suite from the new Spring/Summer catalogue, which goes live on 3rd January.

The suite includes the Painted Poppies Bundle which I've used to create the greeting frame and to stamp the inside. But the star of the show here is the Peaceful Poppies Designer Series Paper. This sheet is perfect for the crafter in a hurry as it has this wide floral border down both edges so you can cut it into six 6x4 pieces and then trim them to fit your card fronts.

Mixing and matching allows you to get more from your products. I was still waiting for my coordinating Peaceful Moments stamp set when I made these cards so I stamped the greetings with another new set – Timeless Tropical – instead, which works just as well. The ribbon and twine are from the Magnolia Lane Suite in the Annual Catalogue.

Sneak peek: Painted Poppies with You Always Deliver

Are YOU excited about the new catalogue? We demonstrators can order from it now and a HUGE box of goodies arrived for me last week.

The first stamp set to see ink was Painted Poppies, which you can see here in the background. It's a beautiful set which you'll be seeing a lot as it's sure it be incredibly popular.

I've used it with Beautiful Friendship for the greeting and the little dog from You Always Deliver to create a birthday card for a friend. Look out for more sneak peeks soon because, quite frankly, I’ve had enough of Christmas projects now!

The Designer Series Paper frame is popped up on this card. To get the poppies in the perfect position, you can either use the Stamparatus to stamp directly onto the card base, or do what I did here and stamp it on a separate piece of Whisper White cardstock. That way I could position it after stamping and get it nicely centred.