Friendly Seagulls Valentine Cards

January 13, 2025January 13, 20251 Comment

Now is the time to plan and create your Valentine cards, and since it’s Sale-a-Bration time at Stampin’ Up!, I knew you would enjoy using one of the products you could get FREE (with a qualifying order before Feb. 28th). The Friendly Seagull stamp set was the first thing I chose, because it’s so stinkin’ cute!

This card was speedy to put together because I followed the TGIF Sketch #tgifc507

A bit of diagonal embossing keeps the background clean and simple, but adds texture, while the seagull’s favorite snack becomes the added embellishment!

But if you dislike fussy cutting, I get it. When I don’t feel like trimming around an image, I reach for a punch to do the work, like the Heartfelt Hexagon. It made both the Simple and Stepped Up version of this card easy to create:

For the Stepped-Up version, I added dimension with the light Pool Party Stampin’ Blends marker and embossed the sentiments:

TIP: Order early in January to select Stampin’ Up! Sale-a-Bration items you love (like the Friendly Seagull stamp set), so you can order AGAIN in February for MORE FREEBIES! There are products to choose with each $60 you order, and some that are options at $120 orders:

Watch the tutorial for both cards here, plus get a sneak peek of a card I’ll be sharing later this week, then add the supplies to your cart below and start stamping your own:

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While the little heart patterned paper I used was leftover from the Bee My Valentine Paper from last year, there IS a re-colored version of the same paper just released in the January Scrapbooking brochure and it’s called “Cute as Can Bee”. You could mix up the colors and create a Petunia Pop/Bubble Bath version of these cards! The heart design is in the lower right corner:

Ready for MORE Valentines? Join me in Southern Utah this Thursday for the Love, Hugs & Valentine’s Class! RSVP TODAY!

Friendly Seagulls (SAB Sneak Peek)

December 13, 2024December 14, 2024Leave a comment

While Christmas is just around the corner, Sale-a-Bration is right on it’s heels!

Stampin’ Up! Sale-a-Bration is the best time of the year because when you SHOP or JOIN, there are extra products to choose as a bonus. Let’s take a first look at one of the stamp sets you could choose free with a qualifying purchase: Friendly Seagulls

This card was inspired by the #tgifc503 sketch challenge:

Rather than coloring the seagulls, I colored AROUND them with Stampin’ Blends markers, creating a seaside sunrise (or sunset?) background. I fussy-cut around two of the birds to set them in front.

The set comes with a few different sentiments than what I used here. For this card, I added words from the “Saying Hey” stamp set from the annual catalog.

If you have ordered from me in the last year, you should receive a January-April mini catalog AND Sale-a-Bration brochure in the mail this month! If you don’t yet have a demonstrator serving you in the U.S., I’d be happy to send you both, simply shoot me a message!

Like this card? It makes me happy to hear if it makes you smile~ scroll back to the top of the post and leave me a comment!

Ultimate Shabby Chic: Torn Paper

November 27, 2024Leave a comment

Celebrating the 500th TGIF Challenge with a birthday card I made for a dear friend, and my longest team member. Ann, if you see this, just act surprised when you open your mail!

Tearing – or ripping – paper was one of the first techniques I remember being taught at an EARLY crafting convention I attended. It’s so simple, and adds terrific texture, and while many things have changed in paper crafting styles, this technique has just grown more sophisticated.

To be honest, there were a few times I almost threw out this card to begin again, but I persevered, and surprisingly, I think the end result is “tres shabby chic”!

With a whopping 6 (or more) layers of card stock, Designer Series Paper, ribbon, and the birds (also die cut from the patterned paper, so I didn’t have to color them), this was much more detailed than I usually do, but the card needed all the fussy stuff, and Ann deserves a very special card.

Luckily, most of the elements came from the Nests of Winter Suite, so all I had to add was the pretty pompom ribbon. These items can also be ordered individually, which I will include in the supply list below.

Added a few more torn patterns to the inside of the card and the envelope!

Next time you are crafting, give Torn Paper a try. #tgifc500

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Fall Bird Card for a color challenge, Winterly Tree Tops by Stampin' Up!

Flowers & Feathers

October 3, 2024Leave a comment

Another sleepless night as I dreamed of creating this card 🥱 … trying to decide if creativity is a blessing or a curse!

The idea came from the #tgifc492 Inspiration challenge:

Think of it like a mashup of two songs, but two stamp sets: Enduring Beauty for the flowers and Winterly Tree Tops for the birds.

I wanted to give it a fall vibe, so picked a palette of Pecan Pie, Very Vanilla, Peach Pie, and Mossy Meadow (almost sounds like a recipe!). With a lot of layers and texture, it feels vintage and the sprinkle of three Drusy Embellishments adds a bit of glittery elegance.

TRIVIA TIME: “DRUSY” is an adjective that means “covered in minute crystals” and can describe the inside of a rock cavity that is lined with tiny crystals. These embellishments are truly gorgeous, but not easily mailable, as they do make the card quite bumpy. It needs a padded envelope if you are mailing it!

Peek inside the card:

Winterly Tree Tops is a part of the larger Nests of Winter Suite and features the beautiful birds. You may be interested in the coordinating craft kit called Nests of Christmas that is part of our crafting subscription service (Paper Pumpkin). It’s only available if you subscribe by October 10th, and if you use promo code HOLIDAY40 as a first-time subscriber, you’ll get your first kit at 40% off!

Now that the card is finished and shared with you, I’m looking forward to a nap!

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Stampin' Up! Attention Shoppers, Pop Up Gift Card Sunburst card

Let’s Go Shopping

August 30, 2024Leave a comment

The theme for the TGIF Challenge #tgifc488 is retail therapy: What could make you feel better than new crafting supplies?

Did I throw you off by showing the inside of the card first? It’s one of my favorite gift card holders, and pops out to present a card or gift certificate. Did you know I offer gift certificates of any amount? My gift certificates are good for products OR classes/events!

Moving on to the FRONT of the card…

A sunburst is a terrific way to use up scraps of Designer Series Paper, and I know I’m always on the lookout for ways to bust my stash of scraps!

The shopping cart die cut with silver foil sheets just feels like the real experience of being on the hunt for the perfect item in store. I was going to fill it with little die cuts from the Crafting With You dies, but apparently it’s loaned out to a friend…the goodies in the Attention Shoppers bundle work just as well to give you the gist.

Here’s to filling your cart with a gift certificate to delight a friend, or all the supplies needed to make this card your own:

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Keepin’ It Cool with Pink Ice Cream

August 3, 2024Leave a comment

When we take the grandkids for Ice Cream, COLOR is always the biggest factor in choosing which flavor to get! According to their thinking, the brighter the color, the better it tastes?

For a hand-stamped birthday card today, the colors were chosen by the weekly TGIF Challenge, #tgifc484

I’m a big fan of images that pop out of the frame, and that concept works well here.

A quick swipe of the White Craft ink pad over the eyelet-embossed Daffodil Delight background allowed me to emboss it with white embossing powder – if double scoops of ice cream are better, so is double embossing!

Top if off with some sprinkles (Iridescent discs sparkle and catch the light, and they are flat for mailing as an added bonus) and you’ve served up a cute birthday cone!

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Remember to redeem any Bonus Days Coupons you earned in July this month (August)!

So Very Merry Gingerbread House Christmas Card

Sweet Treat Challenge + New Online Exclusives

July 3, 2024Leave a comment

The Sweet Treats theme for the TGIF Challenge this week got me dreaming of sugar plums…

We’ll call it “Christmas in July”!

This was the #tgifc479 challenge to start our creative cogs turning:

The So Very Merry stamp set is not in the catalog, but *IS* still in the Online Exclusive section of my Stampin’ Store, and I embossed the gingerbread house on a banner cut from the Nested Essentials dies, then colored it with watercolor pencils and added Wink of Stella to the candy for sparkle (all supplies listed below). Though it’s hard to see in a photo, trust me that the treats glisten in the light!

Speaking of Online Exclusives, there are NEW ADDITIONS to that section of my store, and you’ll have a hard time choosing between the frightfully fun Halloween, the elegant Autumn or the gorgeous Holiday offerings. You have my permission to choose all of them! And there is MORE than just these shown.

Back to my gingerbread house card, the supplies I used are below and feel free to use the idea for your holiday mail, if you love it!

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Anticipating Autumn

June 14, 2024July 3, 2024Leave a comment

By nature, I enjoy the season I’m currently living in. However, I can affirmatively claim that FALL is my favorite!

The new “Changing Leaves” bundle was sitting on my craft desk (freshly upacked from a pre-order for new Online Exclusives coming July 2nd) when I saw the TGIF Sketch Challenge – so here we are:

The simplicity of this sketch allows the details of the stamped image and the hybrid embossing folder to take center stage:

These are the colors I chose for my card:

Clever crafters may be asking, “Does Stampin’ Up! have Mossy Meadow ribbon? Or Blackberry Bliss jute twine?” and the answer is NO! But you CAN color the Basic Beige ribbon with the dark Mossy Meadow Stampin’ Blend Marker and the Moody Mauve jute trim with the Blackberry Bliss Stampin’ Blend Marker! Because the blends markers are alcohol-based, it doesn’t take long for the trims to dry before adding them to your paper creations.

Being able to order new products EARLY is one of the perks of being a demonstrator! Don’t suffer from FOMO…you can join my Sprinkled Ink team of demonstrators whenever you are ready.

POST UPDATED JULY 3, 2024: Changing Leaves Bundle NOW AVAILABLE!

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Farewell Friday: Good Feelings & Rays of Light

March 29, 20241 Comment

As we near the end of a Stampin’ Up! catalog year, it’s time to spotlight some of my favorite retiring products. These products are available while supplies last or until April 30, 2024 (download full retiring product list at end of this post).

Since the TGIF Bonus Challenge #tgifc466 was to create a “simple gift set” of cards, it gave me the opportunity to stretch outside my comfort zone of bright colors, and use some of the black & white designs from the Delightfully Eclectic Designer Series Paper. But you can’t take ALL the color out of my life, so I added Calypso Coral, which also shows up on some of the paper designs.

These cards use the paper, PLUS the Good Feelings stamp set and Rays of Light background stamp, all of which will NOT be returning to the new catalog premiering in May. The Rays of Light background is the one I will grieve over losing the most!

This simple fun-fold card style is strategically planned to make the most of your patterned paper! If you score a full 8.5″ x 11″ sheet of card stock along the long edge at 4.25″ and 9.75″…THEN cut it in half at 4.25″, you’ll have two 11″ x 4.25″ cards ready to fold, meeting on the front of the card,

Use a 4″ x 4″ piece of DSP on one side and a 4″ x 1″ piece on the smaller fold. This pattern can be used in landscape or portrait orientation.

Now, HOW should we “gift” all these simple co-ordinating cards?

A quick folio made from a 12″ tall x 10″ wide piece of the Designer Series Paper is just the thing, and can hold all the cards plus envelopes!

Score it at 4.75″ and 5.25″ to give a center binding back, then add a ribbon to tie closed:

What else is retiring? Click banners to download the lists of items from the ’23-’24 Annual Catalog AND the January-April Mini Catalog which will be retiring.

>>> NOTE THAT THE LAST CHANCE SALE STARTS APRIL 9th <<<

These are the supplies I used for my simple set of cards and the folio to gift them in. I appreciate your orders so much and will mail you a thank you card! THANK YOU.

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Good Feelings Cling Stamp Set (English)

$24.00

Rays Of Light Cling Stamp Set

$18.00

Delightfully Eclectic 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper

$30.00

Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$10.00

Basic White 8 1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$10.50

Calypso Coral 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

$10.00

Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad

$6.50

Calypso Coral Classic Stampin' Pad

$9.00

Calypso Coral Stampin' Blends Combo Pack

$10.00

Black & White 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Gingham Ribbon

$7.00

Bee Builder Punch

$22.00

Paper Trimmer

$26.00

Stampin' Seal+

$12.00

Birthday: Game On!

March 8, 20241 Comment

Our family loves to play games together- from board games to video games! A few of our favorites are:

Killer Uno (card game)
Perpetual Commotion (some call it Nertz)
Splendor (strategy)
Anything Mario (video)
Overcooked (video)

Seeing the “Level Complete” stamp set on my shelf reminded me that my son (an avid gamer) is adding an extra (year to his) life this month, so that’s where my imagination went when I saw today’s #tgifc463 Sketch Challenge.

I turned the sketch sideways and used the game controllers as the focal point:

The black & white designs on the Rock & Roll Designer Series Paper are truly awesome whenever you need a masculine background!

A black card is striking with Daffodil Delight and Tahitian Tide, just remember to add a white layer on the inside to write on.

While we are the subject of Tahitian Tide (a 2022-2024 In Color), remember that it’s one of these bright hues retiring at the end of April, 2024, and we don’t really have any bright turquoise to replace it right now, so order an ink refill for your ink pads and card stock of the same color for coordination!

Does your family have a favorite game to play together? Tell me!

To re-create this card, you can click on the supplies listed and order from my Stampin’ Store- that helps me so I can continue to bring you great ideas you are welcome to copy. or spark your own imagination!

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