Gift Wrapped Bundle with Blender Pen Technique

 Hi Stampin' Friends,

I finally got back to some stamping yesterday and tried an old technique that worked perfectly with a new bundle! Have you seen the "Gift Wrapped" stamps and coordinating punch on page 12 of the Aug-Dec Mini Catalog?  It's a charming stamp set of bows with a coordinating punch that is perfect for Holiday cards and much more! The bow is perfectly tied, unlike many of mine in real life, haha! When I saw the stamps, I knew I wanted to try a blender pen technique that involves letting the stamped ink color bleed into the white space.  I'll show you what I mean!

This is a really sparkly card showing off some pretty bows!  I stamped the bows on our Shimmery White card stock in Shaded Spruce, Cherry Cobbler and Smoky Slate inks. I then used a blender pen to color the red and green bows by going over the inked lines and letting the colors bleed. Our ink is dye based ink that reacts to water, in other words, once water is applied to the ink, the color runs. Normally that would freak me out but for this technique, it's exactly what you want!  Isn't it pretty?  By moving the blender pen back and forth, you can get a shaded look that is really pretty.  I left the white bow alone and only added some Wink of Stella to make it shine a bit.   Here's a not-too-long video to show you exactly how I did this!

It's fun to make these live videos and demonstrate the "how to" part. Most of us our visual learners and that's how we catch on the quickest to something we'd like to know how to do.  In this video, you'll see the first sneak peek of the new Mini Stampin' Cut & Emboss machine too!  Demonstrators were able to preorder these for the first time on December 1st and the customer order date is coming up January 5th with the launch of a new catalog, the Jan-June Mini Catalog! As always, more fun is on the horizon.

Back to the bundle.... I also knew the bow stamps and punch would be fun on a non holiday card so I grabbed my go-to paper, "Wrapped in Plaid" and made a birthday card. I used some Melon Mambo card stock to cut some ribbon and stamped a bow on the Melon Mambo card stock as well. This is a new favorite design for me!

There are so many possibilities with color and occasion for this bundle. It is retiring however and if you want to get one, you should head straight to the online store and check out the close out sale going on now. The sale started yesterday and is going on through January 4th! Yes, it's time for the Giant Year-End Closeout sale from the Aug-Dec mini catalog! This includes almost all the products, except a lucky few that are being carried over into 2021. There's still time to place and order and have it ship before Christmas, barring any unexpected shipping delays. The list is long and consider even shopping from the list for yourself OR your gift giving to your crafting and stamping friends! It's amazing!  What could be better? Well, Stampin'Up! also refreshed the Clearance Rack just in time for Christmas so you can pick up some amazing bargains on past products including Designer Series Paper, dies, embellishments and more!

Here's the link to the online store. There are tabs for both sales under the "Sales & Specials" heading at the top.

Stampin'Up! Online store

Christmas is sneaking up on us sooner than we think but there's still time to make some personal gifts or cards for your family and friends. If you need some ideas you can search for a stamp set or bundle on this blog and look at previous posts with oodles of ideas. You can also check out my designs on Pinterest at this link:

Big Sky Stampin' on Pinterest

I would be so grateful if you would follow me/subscribe on any of my social media channels. It's so encouraging to know someone is out there, checking out my creations!

I'm hoping to spend some more fun time stamping this week and hope to be back soon with more samples and fun. Stay healthy and stamp on!

Sarah