Even here in Houston we might be getting a taste of fall in a day or two with slightly lower temperatures so this fallish designer paper and sunflower from the Painted Autumn Suite of products in the Holiday Catalog is perfect for the season.

I have to say, once you get the hang of stamping these flowers from the Painted Harvest Stamp Set, it’s almost impossible to stop! The flower on this card is stamped with Crushed Curry and the Pumpkin Pie ink and even stamped a third time with the Crushed Curry ink one more time for extra fullness. After stamping the flower center with Soft Suede ink, I used the Clear WInk of Stella to blend the brown into the flower more and add a bit of glimmer. For this card, I just cut out my stamped flower with my Paper Snips. It’s not as hard as you might think!

The card base is Garden Green and the designer paper layer is from the Painted Autumn Designer Series Paper.  I think this is some of the prettiest paper Stampin’ Up! has had. So many pretty patterns to choose from!

The greeting is from the Lots of Love Stamp Set.  I love the big bold greeting and the sentiment expressed. It was perfect for this card. I stamped it in Early Espresso, a very dark brown ink, on a piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock over a piece of Pumpkin Pie Cardstock because the flower had that color in it. I also wrapped a piece of Pumpkin Pie 1/4″ Stitched-Edge Ribbon around the greeting.  The ribbon is white and the cardstock is vanilla so while not a perfect match, this is when I stand back and say ,”The person receiving this is not going to say ‘Oh my! Why didn’t she use a different ribbon!'”  And the flower covers part of it anyway.  This ribbon is so nice and soft, you have to try it to see for yourself!

If you want to see another type of card using the “Sending Lots of Love” greeting, click HERE.

I bet the Painted Autumn Suite of products in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog will be one of the most popular products.  It certainly seems to be a favorite among Demonstrators! If you need a Holiday Catalog, email me with your contact information.

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You might think that I’ve been sitting around stamping a bunch during Hurricane Harvey here in Houston, but that just didn’t happen until last night. I thought this Painted Harvest Stamp Set might be a good one to make a bright card with since we have not seen the sun in days. This is a new set you will love in the Holiday Catalog coming September 1st. Surprisingly, that is just days away!!  You will be able to view the Holiday Catalog online on that date and start ordering. I hope my customers have received catalogs that I ordered for you.  I know there were some problems with addresses and sometimes the catalogs just do not arrive for whatever reason. If you haven’t gotten yours, let me know or if you do not have a Demonstrator and would like a Holiday Catalog send me your contact information if you are interested in Stampin’ Up! products. If you are new to me, let me know if you would also like the Annual Stampin’ Up! Catalog.

Just a reminder, please periodically check your online account and make sure you have your best address in there. Even if I know you moved, I can’t go into your account unless I have ordered online for you, but that is still separate from your account.

We have been absolutely fine in our home and neighborhood during Harvey which means we are VERY lucky indeed. No flooding and no loss of power.  The storm is beginning to move off to the east although plenty of people are still affected and being rescued and in shelters and evacuating, etc. etc. It is unbelievable! Equally as unbelievable is how many people have come with boats, or even BOUGHT boats to come and help and get people out of flooded homes and helped in many other ways. It is actually still raining at our house but very lightly. Some places south and east are still getting heavy rain as the storm moves off to Louisiana. We think we have had 35″ of rain where we live but areas east of us that got bigger and heavier bands of rain from Harvey Saturday night got at least 10 more inches and some places will record more than 50″.  These kinds of storms are so unpredictable as they are approaching, that all you can do is prepare as best you can and hope that the path changes or that it is not as intense as predicted. This one moved so slowly and then backed up, which is unusual. Our worst storm had been Tropical Storm Allison but Harvey is breaking all those records.

But back to stamping! It’s hard to tear yourself away from all the TV news and updates and trying to keep friends and family updated about our safety, but it’s good to have something like stamping to take you away for a little while!  This Painted Autumn Stamp Set is going to be so fun for you to play with, try out various color combinations and ways of stamping the flowers.

You might want to just practice on scrap cardstock to see what you like. It’s really two-step stamping so you can stamp off the first color, then stamp with that full color, or use a different color, or even stamp a third time with another color.  You just have to play!  The photopolymer pattern on these stamps is the watercolor look so it doesn’t stamp a “full” image all around. There’s nothing wrong with the stamp, it’s the way it is made for this look.

My card base is Old Olive and that is the ink I used to stamp the leaves.  The ribbon on the card is the cool 1/4″ Copper Trim. I stamped my flowers with Daffodil Delight first and then Crushed Curry.  I didn’t get too adventurous!  In my practice page I also used Cajun Craze as the third color. You could use oranges, too and even unusual colors like blues and purples.

REMEMBER to use your BONUS COUPONS from July if you earned them!  August 31 will be the last day!  If you are waiting to order from the Holiday Catalog but you have these coupons and want to use them, you could at least order basics like adhesive, cardstock, ink pads, ribbon and then you can order holiday products starting Sept. 1st.  Just a suggestion! And if you want something “holiday” you can get the Carols of Christmas Bundle, available now, while you wait for the Holiday Catalog

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Today is the total solar eclipse of the sun!  Finally, the day is here!  I thought I would commemorate the eclipse by trying to make some sort of card. Thankfully we now have Glossy Cardstock back at Stampin’ Up! because this was the perfect paper to use for my eclipse card!

The card base is Basic Black with a layer of Gold Foil. On the Glossy White Cardstock piece, I sponged on ink of various colors with pieces of a Stamping Sponge.  For the sun, I used the new Starburst Punch.  I actually punched a piece of a sticky note with the Starburst Punch when I started making the card and stuck it down on the clean sheet of glossy, then did all the sky colors around it.  That way the sun itself would not be colored. Next I took off that mask, and placed the negative of the sticky note over the Starburst shape on the card, carefully lining it up, and sponged in the sun with Crushed Curry ink.

For the moon covering the sun, I punched a 2″ Circle in another sticky note and used the negative over the sun for the mask and sponged on Memento Black Ink in the center of the sun inside that outline of the 2″ Punch.

The adirondack chair die cut is from the Seasonal Layers Thinlits Dies.  The little greeting is from the Eastern Beauty Photopolymer Stamp Set. I die cut that and the gold foil layer with the Layering Circle Framelits Dies.

My son is off camping in Oregon on a ranch to experience the solar eclipse of 2017 in totality, so we are partly more interested in the eclipse because of that, but we would be interested anyway!  Just hoping for no clouds at the time of the eclipse today!

Hope you enjoy your eclipse experience!  Just be sure NOT to look at the sun for even a second! You can look online for many ways to safely experience the eclipse.

HAPPY ECLIPSE DAY!

This really is a quick and easy card with the Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper. And if necessary, you can make one even quicker and easier probably than this one! Sometimes we need something simple and that can suit the occasion on a moment’s notice, and this card can do that just by the greeting that you add to it!

I started with a card base using the Thick Whisper White Cardstock, which is just a little heavier weight than the regular Whisper White Cardstock. The regular is okay, the Thick is just a little bit nicer to use on a simple card, a little sturdier.  You can make the card base however you like, but for this card I cut the paper 4 1/4″ x 11″ with the fold at the top at 5 1/2″. You could even cut it like this but turn it sideways so the fold is on the left, but it would be wider than a regular card and not as tall.  Just a slightly different look if you are in the mood for change!

The Fresh Floral Designer Series Paper is beautiful and comes in all the new In Colors.  This pattern is Fresh Fig. To jazz it up, I used the Decorative Ribbon Border Punch.  If you don’t have this punch yet, just use strips of Fresh Fig Cardstock down the sides.  But this punch really does make a pretty accent along an edge so I do like it.

Now if I had the Fresh Fig 1/2″ Finely Woven Ribbon, I would have used that, but since I didn’t, I just used a strip of cardstock behind the greeting. You wouldn’t have to do this.

The greeting is made with the Label Me Pretty Bundle, a combination of the Label Me Pretty Stamp Set and the Pretty Label Punch. You can buy them separately, but the Bundle will save you 10%. To help the label stand out a little more against the designer paper, I just punched another label out of the Fresh Fig Cardstock and cut it in half from side to side, then glued it underneath the label for a layer.  That leaves a tiny bit on the sides open, which wouldn’t have showed against the cardstock strip I had underneath, but I did punch another label and just cut off the sides and glued those under the sides of the label for a layer on each end. Tiny detail, but you can do it if you want!  And why not add a couple of Rhinestone Jewels on the label as well?!

Here’s another very similar card I made with the Fresh Florals Designer Series Paper, this one in Powder Pink. Click HERE to see this card.

A couple reminders:

• Don’t forget to use your Bonus Coupons from July if you earned any!  They will be in an email!
• Several states are having back-to-school sales tax holidays beginning this weekend and certain Stampin’ Up! products are eligible for this tax holiday! Check the chart here!

I do think the dates for Texas are incorrect on this chart, sales tax holiday in Texas is NEXT weekend, August 11-13, so make sure the dates for your state are correct and that you are not charged sales tax on your order for those particular items.

Don’t forget to just make simple cards sometimes, like this Quick and Easy Card With Fresh Florals Paper. Have some designer paper and stamp sets on hand that will do for multiple occasions!  You can add extra embellishments, but you can also keep it simple!

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