Monthly Archives: August 2022

Tea Boutique Sending Smiles Card

ea-Boutique-Sending-Smiles-Card

It’s so funny that the Tea Boutique Suite of products did not appeal to me when the newest Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog came out. Once I saw some samples made with the stamp set and designer paper, I couldn’t resist! I love a lot of the patterns in the Tea Boutique 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper and they go with all the new In Colors so it is a lot of fun to make cards with this Suite. I actually forgot this designer series paper was the 6″ x 6″ size! I kept looking and looking through my 12″ x 12″ designer paper trying to find it until I remembered it was in a different spot with the other 6″ x 6″ paper!

This is really a simple card. The card base is Sweet Sorbet, but I could have used any other new In Colors. I cut a 3″ x 3″ piece of the Tea Boutique DSP and layered it on another piece of the designer paper. This pattern worked out well because of the four teapots that display so well. It fits perfectly on this card.

For the greeting, I used the Sending Dies to cut out the word “Sending” from Crushed Curry Cardstock. Then I stamped one of the many sentiments in the Sending Smiles Stamp Set in Sweet Sorbet ink on a thin strip of Basic White Cardstock. I could have planned a little better to not cover up part of the sentiment with the tail of the die-cut word! Or I could have chosen a different, shorter sentiment.

And when will I ever remember to use Adhesive Sheets before die-cutting something very thin and delicate like the word “Sending”! These are sheets that you adhere the piece of cardstock to that you are going to cut out. Then, after you cut out the cardstock, you simply peel off the backing and you don’t have to apply any bit of glue or adhesive. It’s as if you made your own sticker with the Adhesive Sheets. Put them on your next order and then try them out! But if you forget to use them, use teeny tiny dots of Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the back of tiny, thin pieces and that will work if you are careful and have a steady hand!

On the inside of the card, I added a layer of Basic White cardstock for additional stamping or a written personal message. On one of my scraps of the same designer paper, I cut out one of the teapots and adhered that in the lower right corner on the Basic White cardstock for an extra little touch inside the card.

The Tea Boutique Suite contains the Cup of Tea Stamp Set and the Teacup Dies, which you can buy together in the Cup of Tea Bundle and save 10% if you do not want the entire Suite. Also in the Suite is the Tea Boutique 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper which I have told you has lots of really cute patterns in it, especially if you are a tea lover! Even the generic designs that don’t have tea cups or teapots are cute and very usable. You might miss the Tea Boutique Cards & Envelopes in the Suite which are super cute and give you a head start with a card base that you can decorate with stamps, dies, and paper. The envelopes are also printed with flowers and In Colors. You will enjoy decorating these cards and then sending them off in the printed colorful envelopes!

If you are a tea lover, a teacup collector, or a teapot collector like my sister-in-law (and me to a certain extent!) you will enjoy any and all parts of this Tea Boutique Suite!

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Join My Stamping With Karen Mailing List!

I’d like to invite you to join my Stamping With Karen Mailing List to keep up with news from Stampin’ Up! and to be inspired with new stamping projects, tips, techniques, and more from me! There is always something new with Stampin’ Up! from products to catalogs and early releases of new products and I know you’ll want to know all about it.

I send out a newsletter every Tuesday with at least one free project idea, tip, or technique plus the latest Stampin’ Up! news and updates. Stampin’ Up! usually posts updates to Demonstrators every Tuesday morning so a newsletter on Tuesday from me has the news “hot off the press”!

Stampin’ Up! puts out an Annual Catalog once a year, plus two “Mini” catalogs a year {that aren’t so “mini”) plus the big promotion called Sale-A-Bration. These catalogs give you lots of products you will be excited about, want to learn about, and want to see all the ideas for cards and projects possible! Get on my Mailing LIst to keep up with these exciting events and know what to expect. If you’re one of my purchasing customers I’ll send you these catalogs free of charge when they come out.

Keep up with news about the new Paper Pumpkin Kit every month and subscribe if you want to join in the fun of having a project already planned and prepped for you in the cute Paper Pumpkin box! Always sign up or skip a month if you want by the 10th of any month.

As a special gift to my Mailing List subscribers, every year before the holidays I send out my “12 Weeks of Christmas” newsletters, with one new holiday project each week leading up to Christmas. These are ONLY for my subscribers and you won’t find them on my blog or anywhere else

If you are on my blog, you will see a red sign-up box in the top right corner where you can simply put your name (or first name) and best email. If you are on your phone, you probably need to scroll way down to get to the sidebar things. OR you can go to my sign-up page HERE.

When you do sign up, you will receive an email with a link to a free gift from me!

I hope you will enjoy the card and project ideas I send out in my weekly newsletter. Even if you never make the project, maybe just seeing ideas will do your crafty heart good! I know it does mine! I’m all about the ideas!!

Let’s stay connected and in touch with each other over our favorite thing to talk about…..stamping with Stampin’ Up!

Stylish Sketches Duck Card

Stylish Sketches Duck Card

I’m not sure if these are ducks or geese on this Stylish Sketches Duck Card so you can think of them as whatever you like! I thought they were geese, then I saw several stampers calling them ducks! Whatever they are, you can get this Stylish Sketches stamp set FREE during Stampin’ Up! Sale-A-Bration! With every $50 purchase of Stampin’ Up! products, you can choose a free Sale-A-Bration product. Not only do we have some remaining ones in the Sale-A-Bration brochure, but now we have some extra annual catalog products we can choose from!

This card is made with a card base of Soft Suede cardstock and is layered with another Sale-A-Bration free product with a $50 purchase. It’s the Silver & Gold 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper. There are 24 sheets, 12 each of 2 designs. Half have silver foil in stripes or polka dots and the other half have gold. My paper is the gold stripe but I added some Stampin’ Blends stripes! I used Pool Party, Granny Apple Green, and Soft Suede. I drew them in just very casually and not carefully! Stampin’ Up! had a video showing ways to add more to this paper.

The ducks/geese were stamped in Memento Black on Basic White and colored in with Stampin’ Blends. Then it was die cut with one of the circles in the Stylish Shapes Dies. I also cut out a Soft Suede circle to be a layer underneath. This piece is popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals. The greeting is stamped in Soft Suede ink from the Lovely You Stamp Set. This is layered on the smallest scalloped rectangle die from the Scalloped Contours Dies. This would make a good masculine birthday card or Father’s Day.

Here are the extra current Sale-A-Bration Choices, while supplies last!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE SALE-A-BRATION CHOICES IN THE ONLINE STORE!

Back-To-School Tax Holiday Info for Certain States This Weekend!

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Butterfly Kisses Trio Thank You Card

Butterfly Kisses Trio Thank You Card

Sometimes you just want to make a quick and simple card and that’s how this Butterfly Kisses Trio Thank You Card came about. The basic card design is quick and simple. Just add a layer of designer paper to a card base, add some ribbon and a greeting, and the card is done. With this particular card, there was some fussy-cutting and die-cutting involved so some might not call that so quick and simple! But it was fun to create!

I hadn’t used the Butterfly Kisses 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper in a while. I always worry that we forget about the great products and ideas in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog as soon as the new mini catalog comes out, whether Holiday or Spring. It’s still summer (don’t remind me!) so butterflies are still very much in style!

The card base is Fresh Freesia and I chose this happy print in the Butterfly Kisses DSP to be the background. I wrapped around a piece of Fresh Freesia 3/8″ Open Weave Ribbon before adhering the designer paper to the card base. I tied a separate bow and adhered it with Mini Glue Dots. This is an easy way to tie a good bow and not have it be crooked.

If you have the Best Butterflies Bundle or the Build a Butterfly Dies you can stamp and die-cut or die-cut certain butterflies from the designer paper. Otherwise, you can fussy-cut any of the butterflies you like from the many designer papers in the package. That’s what I did because I don’t own the dies. The butterflies are fairly easy to cut out. Some people don’t like fussy cutting, but while you concentrate on cutting out the image, it takes your mind off everything else and that is good!

The greeting is from the Celebrate You Stamp Set. I needed something small like we used to have in the retired “Itty Bitty” stamp sets! Then I die cut two banners in the Stylish Shapes Dies, one in Basic White with the greeting, and one in Fresh Freesia. I trimmed down the Basic White piece, cutting off the stitched edges so I could layer it on the Fresh Freesia banner. For a finishing touch, I added two Iridescent Rhinestones Basic Jewels to each end of the greeting.

Here is another card I made using the Butterfly Kisses Designer Series Paper.

So there you have a relatively quick and simple card to make if you don’t mind a little die-cutting or fussy cutting! I think this Butterfly Kisses Trio Thank You Card is a happy card with its pretty colors to brighten someone’s day.

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Butterfly Kisses Trio Thank You Card Closeup

Rustic Harvest Colored Leaves Card

Rustic Harvest Colored Leaves Card

I was thinking I saw this black and white leaves designer paper in the Perfectly Penciled Designer Series Paper in the Annual Catalog but it turns out it is in the Rustic Harvest beautiful pack of designer paper! When I found it I colored in the leaves and made this Rustic Harvest Colored Leaves Card! If you don’t really like coloring in papers like this, this is the technique for you! I should have timed myself but I know it probably only took me two minutes at most to color in all these leaves, even with multiple colors! So fun!

The card base is Mossy Meadow cardstock with a layer of Crushed Curry. Those are coordinating colors for the Rustic Harvest DSP. I simply used the Sponge Daubers to apply ink to the leaves…and with no worry about staying in the lines since the background is black. It would be impossible to stay within the lines with Sponge Daubers anyway, unless you were really careful. And I didn’t worry if every single area was colored. You can see some tiny white areas or places where not as much ink got applied.

Rustic Harvest Colored Leaves Card Coloring Technique

I just chose several ink colors for fall leaves and I think they worked well together. I used Mossy Meadow, Granny Apple Green, Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, and a touch of Mint Macaron. I wanted some yellow and orange for my fall leaves. Sponge Daubers are easy to use. Either just hold them or stick your finger inside to use them. You can just wash out the ink after rubbing off the excess on scrap or Grid Paper. I labeled a lot of mine but you wouldn’t have to have one for each color as long as you get off as much ink (or pastels) as you can.

I used the green ribbon in the Real Red & Garden Green 3/8″ Ribbon Combo Pack. Even though it wasn’t one of the greens I used, I liked it just fine on this card. I wrapped a piece around to the back and adhered it, then used another piece of ribbon to tie on the bow. You can use a Mini Glue Dot to hold the ribbon and bow in place. After the ribbon was adhered, I adhered that piece to the card.

The greeting is stamped in Mossy Meadow on Basic White and originally cut out with the label die in the Meadow Dies. I love that scalloped label die! Since I wanted to layer it on a colored piece, I cut it by hand to make it fit on the die-cut Crushed Curry. Then as I looked through my embellishments, I chose two of the small black dots in the Classic Matte Dots to go with the black background. But I think I wish I’d picked something else! But these are fine!

I have to say after I colored the leaves on this card, I was thrilled with how they turned out!! Try it and see how it goes! Or use your Stampin’ Blends, Watercolor Pencils, ink and Blender Pen, whatever you like! So many ways to color!

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New Kit in the Kits Collection! Cozy & Bright!

Cozy & Bright Kit square ad

Today you will find a new kit in the Stampin’ Up! Kits Collection – the Cozy & Bright Kit! Celebrate the season with a card kit that has everything you need to wish those you love a Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year. Don’t let the holidays overwhelm you–get your all-inclusive kit and make quick multiples everyone will love!

Cozy and Bright Kit in Kits Collection

DETAILS
Kit Includes:

  • Cozy & Bright Photopolymer Stamp Set
  • Acrylic Stamp Block
  • Classic Stampin’ Spot: Poppy Parade
  • Predesigned projects 
  • Step-by-step instructions
  • Precut pieces (No prep work! Get right to crafting). Including printed die-cut sheets: sticker adhesive sheets & non-adhesive sheets
  • Makes 12 cards of 1 design
  • Gold foil accents
  • Folded card size: 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″ (14 x 10.8 cm)
  • 12 preprinted envelopes
  • Enough adhesive to complete projects
  • Linen thread
  • A 9-7/8″ x 6-1/2″ x 2-3/4″ (25.1 x 16.5 x 7 cm) printed designer box for storage or crafting on the go

Product colors: Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Evening Evergreen, Garden Green, Poppy Parade, Pumpkin Pie 

Cozy & Bright Kit #160338  $23 USD   $32 CAD

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New Sale-A-Bration Choices For You!

Click Photo Above to View!

August is the second and final month of Sale-A-Bration and Stampin’ Up! has added these additional products you can choose with a $50 or more purchase! You may know that some of the items in the Sale-A-Bration brochure have sold out but here are some catalog items to give you additional choices for your FREE Sale-A-Bration item. Notice that some are at the $50 Level and some at the $100 Level.

CLICK HERE TO VIEW FLYER!

ALSO:

These two Sale-A-Bration products are BACK IN STOCK!!

RINGS OF LOVE DESIGNER SERIES PAPER

WONDERFUL WORLD BUNDLE

SHOP SALE-A-BRATION HERE!

$50 Level Products

$100 Level Products

Stylish Sketches Fox Card

Stylish Sketches Fox Card

Happy August! August means one more month of Sale-A-Bration at Stampin’ Up! so I thought I would post this Stylish Sketches Fox Card made with a FREE Sale-A-Bration stamp set. There are a few things sold out in Sale-A-Bration choices but I expect to hear something about that today or tomorrow so stay tuned.

I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this fox, but I know my son likes foxes so I’m sure I can send this card to him! I initially thought there isn’t much to this Stylish Sketches Stamp Set, so maybe I should make the stamped area a little smaller. This stamp set has “sketches” of the fox, two geese, leaves, and if you happen to notice, some tiny dots that are good for texture for the ground, perhaps.

The card base is Cajun Craze and after working on the card for a while, and noticing those tiny dots, I decided to stamp those around the border on the card base. The front of the card is stamped on Basic White and layered on Granny Apple Green cardstock.

The Basic White piece is 4 1/4″ x 3″. The Granny Apple Green layer is 4 1/2″ x 3 1/4″. That makes for a smaller stamped area for the fox and a wider border on the card base. The fox is stamped in Memento ink and colored in with Light and Dark Cajun Craze Stampin’ Blends. The grass on the stamp plus the area underneath is all colored with Light and Dark Granny Apple Green Blends, plus stamped with those little dots in green also. I colored around the fox with Light Pool Party Blend marker to resemble the sky. There is nothing artistic about it, I just scribbled back and forth! It matches the “sketchiness” of the way the fox was drawn! I felt it still needed something, so I stamped the bundle of leaves in Granny Apple Green ink and colored it very lightly with ink and a Blender pen. I wanted the leaves up there in the corner to add a little something to the picture but be very subtle.

For a greeting, I decided to tie around a piece of Linen Thread underneath the fox, two times around the Basic White piece, and tied on a greeting. Obviously, I needed a small greeting and I found one in the Cup of Tea Stamp Set. I stamped the little tag shape and the greeting, then just cut around the tag rather than diecut it. I put a Stampin’ Dimensional underneath it to hold it in place and face up.

Sale-A-Bration runs through the end of August! With every $50 purchase, you can choose a FREE Sale-A-Bration item and with a $100 purchase, you can choose two $50 level items or one $100 level item. With a $150 order, you can choose Stampin’ Rewards of 10% PLUS Sale-A-Bration items!

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