Beauty of Friendship Bundle

 Happy Monday Stampers!

We are coming off of 3 days of snow, sleet, rain and yuck here in SW Montana so I am really looking forward to getting May back on track - hopefully! It's hard to be perky and positive and excited about spring when there's 8" of snow in your yard and you can't see the mountains for days because the clouds are low and dark. 

Enough gloom and doom. Hey, let's celebrate the abundant beauty in creation and I can think of no better way than the new "Beauty of the Earth" suite and "Beauty of the Earth" Bundle! I'm going to do a future blog showing lots if ideas but today I want to feature one of my favorite creations so far with this bundle. Have a look:

If you like trees, there is a lot to love with this card! The stamped trees and trunks were made with the stamps and dies from the "Beauty of Friendship" bundle. The tree stamps are a triple punch of color with being the uniquely carved red rubber "Distinktive" stamps AND a second overlay stamp for two step stamping. You get lots of fun shading between those two processes. I used two of the new 2021-2023 In Colors, Evening Evergreen and Soft Succulent. I couldn't resist embossing my Very Vanilla background with the Evergreen Forest 3D Embossing Folder, a customer favorite. I then used one of the dies from the "Curvy Dies", available until the end of June in the Jan-June Mini Catalog. I love using various shades of a color so I used strips of Evening Evergreen, Soft Succulent and Mint Macaron for my rolling hills. The little stitched detail just adds some extra interest and texture, doesn't it?! I love this card and I love this bundle!

Here's a look at the bundle - lots of dies and stamps to play with.

If you love trees or love to create beautiful projects with trees, you'll want this bundle in your stash! All the products used are listed below and you can click on any of them to take you to the online store. 

I've made lots of fun projects with this bundle so stay tuned for more ideas and inspiration! I can't wait to show you more!

C'mon back May - we are sorry the snow scared you away but we are ready for you now!

Happy Stampin'!

Sarah

Bloom Where You're Planted Suite

Hey Stampers and Wanna Be Stampers! 

We are enjoying a wonderful spring day and I feel summer creeping up ever so soon... can't wait! In other parts of the country, I'm sure your flowers and trees are blooming like crazy. Here, not so much yet! We are starting to get leaves on our trees but I think the flowers, lilacs and more are still sleeping off winter. I'm hopeful!

Are you a plant person? I am a "wanna be" plant person. I have had a love/hate relationship with indoor plants. At one time, I had a bunch and they were a ton of work and I didn't like the pressure of keeping them alive. For most of the past 15 years, I've had only one plant, a pathetic thing that I don't even know the name of. I got this in 1981 and it refuses to die. I give it water when I think of it, which is barely 1-2 times a month. It doesn't grow and it doesn't die. It just stays steady and alive for all these years. I recently was gifted another plant that is somewhat tropical and seems to be "needy". We will see how this goes as I'm not talented at all in this area.

If you are a plant person or even a "wanna be" like me, perhaps you will love the suite I want to feature today. It's called "Bloom Where You're Planted" and is on page 80-81 of the new Annual Catalog. It's a darling suite containing stamps, dies, Designer Series Paper and lattice sheets, all with a plant theme. There are plants, pots and even a macrame hanger. Remember macrame from the 70's and 80's. Wow! I played with this set yesterday and also did a video featuring the products and some ideas with them. Here are some card ideas:

First, you have to know the coordinating Designer Series Paper is amazing! One side of each sheet is plant-themed and the other side is a monochromatic design of brick, wood, stone or plant themed. They work so well together. I also love the color palette of Evening Evergreen, Garden Green, Just Jade, Cinnamon Cider, Cajun Craze and Gray Granite. The card above features some of the plant stamps and many of the die cuts including the planters and macrame plant hanger. This is such a warm and inviting card to me, mostly because of the color scheme.

This card was actually the first one I made, trying out the different plant and planter stamps. They are "Distinktive" stamps so they have a shading effect achieved by stamping, due to the way the stamp is manufactured. Your color saturation won't be as dark but the shading makes it interesting and perhaps more realistic. The Cinnamon Cider brick background is one of my favorites of the DSP pack, I think because the scale is small and perfect for a card sized project. 

I had the fun idea of using the paper lattice as a mask (stencil) and with my blender brush, inked up a background for this card and then removed the lattice. This card features more of the DSP including full plants/planters that are easy to fussy cut or cut with dies. I used some retired oval dies and a larger die from the Tasteful Labels dies. 

I stared at this piece of DSP for quite a few minutes, wondering what to do with it. It was just the plants, no planters. Then, I got the idea of cutting out some of the planters, making my own with the dies and putting them on dimensionals at the bottom of the plants. I love how this turned out! This stamp set also includes some great sentiments with wonderful fonts. 

And, here's my "how-to" video! I go through the products and show the cards up close and also demonstrate how I used the blender brush and lattice as a mask.

Aren't these amazing! For more inspiration, check out the catalog samples and see all the creative ways they combine the stamps and dies with the designer series paper. It will give you ideas galore! I've posted a list of supplies I used below and a click on any of them will take you to the online store. Please reach out if you have questions or need help with an order. I'm here to help!

And, in case you want to see a 40 year old plant that is happy to be ignored, check this out!

I have another newly purchased suite sitting in my stamp room that will be my focus today so I'll be back soon with more!

Happy Stampin'!

Sarah

Happiest of Birthdays with Stampin'Write marker inking technique

Hey Stampin' friends!

Back for another week of creative fun and merriment. Have you checked out the new 2021-2022 Annual Catalog yet? What are your favorite new products that you can't wait to get?! I have another order today and am closing monitoring UPS on the "where's my truck live delivery" app haha! I try not to creep the guy out with my over-the-top exuberance when an order comes!

I have a card today featuring the new 2021-2023 In Colors and a favorite inking technique. Did you know you can apply ink to any stamp with our Stampin'Write markers? That technique allows you to use several different colors on a stamp which is a fun way to stamp. The card below uses this technique on a background stamp called "Drybrush". 

Isn't this pretty? I love how easy it is and how randomly creative it looks with brushstrokes of color on the background and a nice bold birthday sentiment.  I used Basic Gray as my card base and sentiment ink color as I thought it would stand out nicely and compliment all the In Colors. We also have some very sweet In Color gems which I added for just a little pizzazz. I'm doing more videos to demonstrate how I make my cards and what techniques and tips I use so take a look:

You will get the best results if you use the "brush" end of the marker as opposed to the "writing" tip end.   This was fun to do and as I said in the video, you could probably make a hundred of these in an afternoon!!

Thanks for stopping by! You can subscribe to my YouTube channel or become a "follower" of my blog so you don't miss the latest posts. I also welcome direct inquiries with questions or order help. You can contact me via the info on the blog, to the right or even leave a comment!

Back to stamp room for me - in between checking the UPS app for that delivery of new goodies! Hope you have a marvelous day.

Happy Stampin'!

Sarah

My top Ten list from the new Annual Catalog!

 

Hey Stampin' Friends!

I've been shouting from the rooftop that the new 2021-2022 Annual Catalog launched yesterday! I hope you've had a chance to look it over and maybe start a wish list of your "must haves"! I thought today I'd share some of my top favorites from the new catalog. It's too hard to actually put them in a ranking order so this is completely random!

#1    New In Color inks and card stock - Woohoo! pg 123

#2    Basic Border dies - pg 162

#3    Hand-Penned Petals Bundle - pg 105

#4    Hand-Penned Designer Series Paper - pg 131

#5    Beauty of the Earth Designer Series Paper - pg 130

#6    Quiet Meadow Bundle - pg 110

#7    What's Cookin' Bundle - pg 34

#8    Create with Friends stamp set - pg 36

#9    Bark 3D Embossing Folder - pg 154

#10    Soft Pastels Assortment colors - pg 126

I have already ordered some of these and the rest will be in my next order! What are some of your faves? I would love to have you comment below and share your excitement!

Thanks to those of you who could come to my launch party! It was fun to share some of my samples and let you play with some of the new products.  You can order any of these things or more at the online store. Just click on the "shop" link to the right ====>>>> - it's easy peasy!

Please contact me if you have questions or need advice on an order. Sometimes you aren't sure what you need or what you need first and I can help talk you through that! Thanks for your friendship and orders and helping me keep my little business going! I truly appreciate it!

Happy Stampin'!

Sarah

New Annual Catalog starts TODAY!

 Hey Stampin' Friends! 

There are certain days I really look forward to and anticipate with bottled up enthusiasm - like today! The new 2021-2022 Annual Catalog starts today and you can shop, browse and drool all you want!

If you haven't seen the new catalog yet, click on the image to the right ===>>> and you'll have access to a complete PDF copy of it. You can then download it to your device and scroll to your heart's content.

If you have already compiled your wish list and even refined it down to your shopping list, have at it here!

2021-2022 Annual Catalog - new Arrivals!

I'm hosting an open house today featuring some of the products I was able to purchase during the preorder and lots of samples that I've made with them. I hope you can stop by! It's from 3 to 7 p.m. at my home. contact me for location details if needed!

Have fun with everything new at Stampin'Up!

Are you ready for some color? How about some new In Colors? Tomorrow they launch!!!

 Hey Stampers!

I'll bet one of the things you most love about Stampin'Up! is the colorful way their products are presented and coordinate with each other! Our base color families include 40 colors plus black, ivory and white and at any given time, we have 10 extra colors that are referred to as "In Colors". These colors are chosen for the trends they represent as well as the holes the fill in our base color palette. Each year, with the start of the new Annual Catalog, five colors retire and five new ones come in! I recently spent some time creating a cute display of each of these new colors featuring the ink, card stock, Designer Series Paper and ribbons that all coordinate! It's amazing and I want to share them with you today! Here they are:

Evening Evergreen:

Polished Pink:

Soft Succulent:

Pale Papaya:

Fresh Freesia:

Aren't they pretty?  They go together very nicely and play well with all the other colors as well. I'm so excited to have them added to the lineup and can't wait to explore more color variations and combinations. 

I'll add a link right here that will direct you to the online store so you can see all the various products these new In Colors come in! 

2021-2023 In Color Products

Until then, one more sleep until the new Annual Catalog Launches!

Who's excited?!!  I sure am....

Happy Stampin',

Sarah

P.S. Don't forget my new Annual Catalog Launch party and Open House tomorrow, May 4th at 3 - 7 p.m.! All invited! Free and fun for everyone!