Category Archives: Cards

Save Tax During Sales Tax Holiday!

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SU Sales Tax Holiday 2021
Click on Chart to Read!

It’s that time of year again when some states have Sales Tax Holidays on school supplies in time for Back to School! Once your kids are grown and out of school, you won’t know when school starts or ends or what is happening! And certainly this past year, I didn’t know if kids here in Houston were IN school or doing virtual school or half and half or what was going on. But at least we can ALL benefit a little bit, even with our stamping supplies, if they are listed on the chart above because they really can be classified as school supplies! And you know that is true if your kids have come to you with a school project and asked if they could use your markers or glue or something else!

Eleven states will be offering a sales tax holiday for school supplies during the months of July or August. Products that are eligible according to the statute include “items normally used by students in a standard classroom for educational purposes.” To see the names of participating states, products exempted from tax, and sales tax holiday dates, click here.

Please note that you must place your order with Stampin’ Up! during the tax holiday period in order to receive these items tax-free (which is midnight on the first day to midnight on the last day of the tax holiday). Also, keep in mind that this is a state sales tax holiday; the state statute may not apply to county, city, and special jurisdiction taxes.

Note: Georgia, Louisiana, and Wisconsin have suspended the sales tax holiday for this year.

Look over the list of products that qualify and if you were going to order anyway, this will save you a few pennies, depending on your sales tax rate! Remember, the July-December 2021 Mini Catalog (Holiday Mini) and Sale-A-Bration both begin August 3, if that helps your planning!

Be sure to read at the top of the chart about the exemptions and details for your state and what the dates are.

For the clearest copy, click here: Sale Tax Holiday PDF

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Quick & Easy Whimsy & Wonder Christmas Card

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Quick & Easy Whimsy & Wonder Christmas Card

If you are looking for a simple card to make for the holidays, look no further than this Quick & Easy Whimsy & Wonder Christmas Card. It probably only took a couple of minutes to make! The paper is so pretty you don’t really need much other than a greeting.

This card starts with a base of Polished Pink, although there are many colors in the packages on the paper that you could also choose. If you were making several cards with this designer paper, you could make each one with a different color card base!

The designer paper is the Whimsy & Wonder Specialty Paper in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog, coming August 3rd! That’s not far off anymore! When I saw this paper being shown in some videos, it sold me on the whole Suite! Just looking at the catalog online, I completely dismissed this Suite! This paper has beautiful foil accents and is very Christmasy except with non-traditional colors. But I think it might be good to break out of our box and change things up a little. I still will make some red and green cards, the traditional colors of Christmas. This paper is SO pretty that I think it will be a hit as more people see it in person! This paper might even remind some people of the silver aluminum Christmas trees of years ago. I think they’ve even made a nostalgic comeback in recent years. Since you couldn’t put lights on these trees, some people had a multi-colored light that turned to give the tree different colors. Anyway, the silver in this paper reminds me of those vintage trees!

I used the In Color Polished Pink 3/8″ Open Weave Ribbon on the card. Originally, I planned to have it go vertically on the left side of the card with a bow. But after stamping the greeting from the Whimsical Trees Stamp Set in Polished Pink Ink and cutting it out with one of the new Tailor Made Tag Dies, I decided to pull the ribbon through the tag, tie a bow and secure it underneath the designer paper layer. I wish I would have popped up the greeting with Stampin’ Dimensionals, but I just adhered it flat to the card.

If you want a quick and easy card to make in multiples for Christmas, use this very basic card design of designer paper on a card base, a greeting, and a piece of ribbon and a bow for embellishment. You could add a little sparkle and bling, but really the paper with its foil accents can stand on its own. When your Holiday Mini Catalog comes in the mail, give a good look at the Whimsy & Wonder Suite.

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE!

Stampin’ Up! Joins Back to School Bash For the James Storehouse Organization

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The other day Sara Douglass, CEO of Stampin’ Up!, did a Facebook Live video as a part of Jamie Albanese’s Heart of Stampin’ Up! Award Project along with Stacy DeWitt, Executive Director of the James Storehouse organization. Jamie is a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator who said she was a foster child herself so she understands this situation. The James Storehouse organization is located in the Los Angeles, CA area (the area with the most foster children) and provides resources to children in foster care and those aging-out of foster care. 

Stampin’ Up! will donate backpacks and school supplies and we invite demonstrators and customers to join the fun! There are two ways to support Jamie’s project for James Storehouse. First, you can check out the Amazon Wishlists to donate backpacks or school supplies for foster children of all ages. The backpack wishlist can be found here and the wishlist for school supplies can be found here. Or second, you can send cards to add inside the filled backpacks. Please include a short, encouraging note and sign with your first name only. Send finished cards to: 

JAMES STOREHOUSE
3543 Old Conejo Road #105
Newbury Park, CA 91320
USA

The deadline for donation purchases and cards is 30 July 2021. 

I encourage you to watch the Facebook Live video Sara did, whether or not you want to make a donation. It will warm your heart that there are people out there trying to help these children, young and older, even into college age. The basic message is these foster children sometimes leave their home or school with only the clothes on their back, sometimes are moved around a lot, and all they want is to know that something belongs to them, hence the backpack. The organization will fill each backpack with school supplies, surprisingly the same items for all ages because that is what they have found kids of all ages need to do school projects. That was amazing to me.

If you want to do a little something, just mail a card you have made. Just write a brief, uplifting, encouraging, happy message. They said don’t mention their circumstances or anything like that. If you watch the video, they give some examples. Just sign your first name. No envelope, please, because obviously, they will go through the cards to make sure they are appropriate before putting them in the backpacks. I think they would rather have someone send just a single card or a few cards, not a whole box full of cards like some of us might have stored away. They aren’t equipped to handle quantities like that.

We all know the joy even we feel when we get a card in the mail or we have heard how much it means to others to receive a card we send. Imagine children in very difficult circumstances find a card or two in their new backpack wishing them well! Watch the video to understand what Stampin’ Up! is helping with and to bring joy to your heart!

Whimsy & Wonder Christmas Trees Holiday Card

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There is a new Suite in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Mini Catalog called the Whimsy & Wonder Suite which I totally passed over the first time I looked through the catalog online. When I saw some videos of the package of the designer paper and the pink color scheme for the holidays I fell in love with it although the first card I made, this Whimsy & Wonder Christmas Trees Holiday Card, doesn’t even have those colors! Go figure! But this is what I came up with at the time!

The Whimsy & Wonderful Designer Series Paper is so stunning! If you don’t mind using some non-traditional colors for Christmas, even for a few cards and projects, I think you will love the designs and colors on this paper! All the sheets have foil accents on one side of the paper. Along with the pinks, blues, light greens, and images it is beautiful! It’s probably my favorite in the Holiday Catalog and I’m usually pretty traditional.

This card starts with a Mossy Meadow Cardstock base. Then I chose the dark green side of one paper with white dots, like snowflakes. I simply turned the paper over and saw the diagonal silver foil stripes on the other side and used that for the bottom portion of the card layer.

Some of the whimsical trees on another sheet of designer paper can be cut out with the dies in the Christmas Trees Dies. Of course, you can’t run the whole 12″ x 12″ sheet of paper through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine, so you need to cut out portions of the paper to die-cut. You want to leave a generous enough margin around the tree so the die can cut it correctly without ruining too much of the rest of the paper! On my card, the middle tree in the background was actually at the bottom of the page, not the full image, but I was able to die cut what was there and still use it! Some of my trees were glued directly to the card front and some are popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals®. Most of the trees have foil accents in tiny dots or garlands.

The greeting is in the Frosted Gingerbread Stamp Set. I either didn’t have space for this card or didn’t care for the greetings in the Whimsical Trees Stamp Set. After looking through all my dies and judging the space on my card, I finally had to just stamp the greeting on a narrow strip of Basic White Cardstock and layered it on Mint Macaron Cardstock which matches the ink color. I used the silver pieces in the Silver & Clear Epoxy Essentials on each end of the greeting.

Maybe I should have stopped myself, but I added some Subtle Shimmer Sequins on page 37 in the Holiday Catalog in the upper background of the card. I couldn’t help myself even though with the accents on the trees and the stripes on the bottom paper, there is pretty much sparkle on the card already. But can we really have too much sparkle??!

The Holiday Catalog will come out on August 3rd! The online catalog will go live on that day for you to view. August is not too soon to begin your holiday cardmaking and crafting! Then you’ll be able to start making Christmas and holiday cards like this Whimsy & Wonder Christmas Trees Holiday Card.

Here’s the New August Paper Pumpkin Kit!

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Paper Pumpkin Aug 2021 Hope Box Banner Shelli dates

Here’s the new Paper Pumpkin Kit for August 2021 and for a big surprise, Shelli Gardner, the cofounder of Stampin’ Up! helped design and create this kit!. For those of us who have been around Stampin’ Up! for awhile, Shelli has been the face of Stampin’ Up! and someone we have loved and been inspired by. If you are new to Stampin’ Up! then you are more familiar, probably, with Shelli’s daughter, Sara Douglass who is the CEO now. Besides the products, the Gardner family is one of the reasons we all love Stampin’ Up! So if Shelli had a hand in designing something, you can believe it will be something special! If I were you, I would sign up for this kit today! Maybe order two – one to keep and one to give away!

Paper Pumpkin is a papercrafting kit that comes to you in the mail, mid-month with a surprise project inside. We get clues about the kit, but it’s still a surprise to actually see the kit when we get it. Inside you will find all the supplies to make the cards or different project, instructions, an exclusive stamp set, an ink spot, and information on a video to watch if you like to see how it goes together. You can make the kit as designed or you can change it up or add your own extra cardstock or embellishments to make your own creations. It’s your kit when it shows up in your mailbox and you can play with it however you like!

The Hope Box is designed to be a keepsake box—keep mementos of cherished memories or reminders of what’s yet to come. Collect treats and trinkets that represent what hope means to you in your Hope Box and look inside for inspiration or share it with a friend who could use some uplifting!

What will you put in your Hope Box? Letters, song lyrics, inspiring quotes, and photographs are powerful reminders of hope and connection—and great additions to a Hope Box. For more inspiration on how to build your Hope Box, watch Shelli herself put one together in this video.

This month’s Paper Pumpkin kit includes supplies to create nine encouraging cards and coordinating envelopes in an inspiring color palette, and a specially designed Hope Box!

Coordinating colors are Bermuda Bay, Blackberry Bliss, Bumblebee, Melon Mambo, Petal Pink, Pool Party, and Poppy Parade. Sounds lovely!

If you would like to find this treat in your mailbox in August, just click the link below to go to my personalized Paper Pumpkin page. You won’t have to look up my name. OR if you are putting in a Stampin’ Up! order, particularly if you are or trying to earn Stampin’ Rewards, maybe a Paper Pumpkin subscription on your order would earn you some rewards. This is called a Prepaid Subscription and just goes on your Stampin’ Up! order like any other product. You can choose various lengths, even if you are already paying a monthly subscription. Stampin’ Up! will send you a code to set up your account. No risk or obligation to continue for any length of time. You can even skip a month if you don’t have time or aren’t attracted to that particular kit. Then resume your subscription when the next month’s kit comes out.

JOIN PAPER PUMPKIN TODAY AND GET SHELLI’S KIT!

Gingerbread & Peppermint Christmas Ornament Card

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Gingerbread & Peppermint Christmas Ornament Card

Here is my first Christmas card of the season, the Gingerbread & Peppermint Christmas Ornament Card! It doesn’t seem like it should be time to be thinking about Christmas cards, but the Holiday Catalog will be coming out in August so the fall and holiday craft season is beginning! You can see it already in the craft stores! There is no summer!

One of the sets of products I think a lot of people are going to love in the Holiday Catalog is the Gingerbread & Peppermint Suite. There are a lot of products in this grouping! You can choose stamps, dies, designer paper, ribbon, pillow box dies, Memories & More cards and envelopes, and more! This card doesn’t use all those things!

The card base is Real Red Cardstock with a layer of the Gingerbread & Peppermint 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper. This green design with white lines and red dots is actually the reverse side of the ornaments! I wanted a Real Red background for the ornaments I would die-cut, but I also made a layer underneath of Old Olive to help the Real Red stamp out a little more.

I used the Gingerbread Dies to cut out the ornaments, although you could do it with Paper Snips pretty easily. I popped them up with Stampin’ Dimensionals® and tied a little bow with Linen Thread on top of each ornament. You could use whatever twine or narrow ribbon you have. I might have used silver if I had some handy!

The greeting is one in the Frosted Gingerbread Stamp Set. I stamped the entire greeting a couple of times and tried different dies and ideas, but it was just a little too large for the space I had on my card. I thought about only stamping it on the inside of the card and not having any greeting on the front of the card. In the end, I used my Stampin’ Write Real Red Marker to color just the “Merry Christmas” portion of the stamp and used a small die in the Ornate Frames Dies. It just fit!

Then for a little bling, I tried out the new Subtle Shimmer Sequins on page 37 of the Holiday Catalog (when you get one!). They don’t have holes in the center so the glue doesn’t squish out when you adhere them! They come in two sizes and four colors: Matte Silver, Matte White, Metallic Silver, and Pearl White. I just used three Metallic Silver ones. I think it’s perfect!

Once you make a Christmas card design you like, make several more cards exactly the same….five, ten, whatever number depending on how many you think you will send out. That way you can have fun making cards of several different designs. That’s what I like to do. When you have the design figured out, the supplies out, you might as well make a batch of cards! Do it assembly-line style – cut everything, stamp everything, assemble everything, etc.

The July-December Mini Catalog (delayed a month due to shipping issues) will begin August 3 so get ready! It will also be Sale-A-Bration (yes, a second one this year!!) so as you purchase holiday items, you will earn free product with every $50 purchase! Something to look forward to during this hot summer!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

Expressions In Ink Hello Card

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One day I made another card similar to this Expressions In Ink Hello Card and thought I might as well make another one while I had all this pretty paper out! I decided to pretty much copy the card on the front of the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog except I changed the paper out to this gorgeous one with the gold foil accents!

This card starts with a base of Polished Pink Cardstock. Then I added a layer of the Expressions In Ink Specialty Designer Series Paper, one with lots of pink and Pale Papaya flowers on it with some leaves, flower centers, and small blossoms in gold foil. It’s just beautiful paper!

I die cut the long leafy piece from the Artistic Dies and colored it with different shades of green ink applied with Blending Brushes. This die-cut piece went down first on the card to go underneath all the other extra pieces. As I have said before if only I had remembered to use Adhesive Sheets when I die cut this piece so I could just pull off the backing and I’d be all set with adhesive! I never think of it ahead of time, though, so I had to use teeny tiny drops of Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

I stamped the flower in the Artistically Inked Stamp Set and die-cut it, as well as the solid leaves. Also stamped is the word “hello” and popped up over a strip of the Pale Papaya & White 1/2″ Ribbon. After that, the flower and leaves are popped up over the end of the greeting. I added extra little gold pieces from some retired product, but when it is available again, you could use something in the Expressions In Ink Ephemera Pack.

This Expressions In Ink Designer Paper is so gorgeous you almost don’t need very much else on the card. Here’s another card I made with one of the other sheets of the paper. I hope you feel very artistic when you use this lovely paper making cards of your own possibly similar to my Expressions In Ink Hello Card.

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

Beauty of the Earth Friendship Card

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Beauty of the Earth Friendship Card

Another beautiful paper on the Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper Sale is the Beauty of the Earth Paper as you see in this Beauty of the Earth Friendship Card. You have nine select papers to choose from in this sale, all 15% off! One of the packages is the In Good Taste DSP which has 24 sheets in it! There are two each of twelve designs, all great designs for texture and background for cardmaking and scrapbooking. The rest of the papers are the usual size, 12 sheets, two each of six designs.

For this card, I copied the design I saw on Instagram from an Artisan Design Team member where she used horizontal strips of designer paper for the card front. I used a different paper and greeting, but used the same strip method. This is a great way to use up scraps of designer paper or you can even use regular cardstock too. You can stamp the cardstock first and cut it into strips. Lots of possibilities

I used the Beauty of the Earth Designer Paper, on sale now, for my strips. To match, I used Mossy Meadow Cardstock for the card base and then a layer of Cajun Craze. I tried out several different colors but I liked these the best at the time. I didn’t have measurements for the card so I just played around until I got something that worked. If you want wider strips, just use five strips or even four. Here is a card I made using three vertical panels of designer paper.

My designer paper strips on this card are 3/4″ x 3 3/4″. If you only had the card base, then you might make the length of the strip 4″ wide. I just eyeballed the placement of the strips, no measuring! You could also place them touching each other, not with a space in between. Do what you like!

The greeting is in the Beauty of Friendship Stamp Set. I think it’s a great sentiment and certainly true! I stamped it in Mossy Meadow Ink and die cut with a die in the Tasteful Labels Dies. Then I played around with various dies in the same set and colors of cardstock, finally settling on Mossy Meadow diecut with one of the long dies to go behind the greeting to help it stand out. And a couple of Gilded Gems on each end for a little pizzazz!

Try your hand at this paper technique! It’s fun and easy! Just eyeball everything and make minor adjustments if needed. Have fun!

Bloom Where You’re Planted Happy Birthday Card

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Bloom Where You're Planted Happy Birthday Card

If you would like to make this Bloom Where You’re Planted Happy Birthday Card, you can buy the paper with the plants and the paper with the background both on sale in the Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper Sale! There are nine select papers on sale right now through August 2 so you can stock up or try out new ones at a 15% discount!

To make this card, I used two of the papers on sale now – In Good Taste for the background and Bloom Where You’re Planted for the plants! In Good Taste is a giant package of paper, 24 sheets of paper, 2 papers each of 12 different designs. You are sure to find patterns for every creation in this package! Each sheet has photographic images of wood, tile, stone, and other elements to add visual textures to all kinds of projects. These would be great backgrounds for scrapbook pages as well.

For the card base, I used Early Espresso Cardstock. Since this paper is so dark, you will want to add a Basic White or lighter color layer inside the card on which to stamp or write your message. You might even stamp or add a cutout image of one of the plants to this inside layer for a fun surprise.

For the plants, I just went through the Bloom Where You’re Planted Designer Paper and chose some plants I wanted to cut out. This paper has sheets of separate plants and pots, leafy backgrounds as well as various generic backgrounds to look like walls where you might place a plant. If you have the Perfect Plant Dies, you can cut out certain pots and plants on separate papers by running them through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine. I just used my Paper Snips to cut out one separate pot and separate plant and the other two were the full pot and plant on another sheet.

The largest plant on the left is popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals® and the other two are adhered right down on the background paper. I found a retired spool of twine and used that to tie a little bow and adhered it to the middle pot with a Mini Glue Dot.

The greeting was already die-cut in a little pile on my table from the Many Messages Stamp Set and Messages Die. This is an amazing concept! It’s like a large background stamp filled with greetings that is best to stamp with the Stamparatus so you make sure every inch is stamped fully. Then die cut with the one large die, making sure it is lined up properly, and it cuts out all the greetings in one fell swoop! You used to be able to buy both the stamp set and die in a Bundle, but that retired now so you have to buy them separately. However, they added a new stamp set, the Many Happenings Stamp Set, for even more greetings to be stamped and die-cut in the same way! If you stamp and cut out these greetings maybe in a couple of colors of ink or on different colors of cardstock, then store them in a little box or bag, you will have a whole bunch of greetings ready to go when you don’t have time to look for a specific stamp set to use!

In this previous post, you can see how I used the Stamparatus to stamp all these greetings!

Check out all the papers on sale, if you haven’t already! Maybe you have purchased one of the patterns already but used a lot of it. Now is the time to stock up on more at a discount! Every little bit helps! My Bloom Where You’re Planted Happy Birthday Card was fun to make!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! TODAY!

Sign Up For Paper Pumpkin by July 10th!

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Paper Pumpkin Kit July 2021

Here it is! A peek at the July Paper Pumpkin Kit, coming mid-July is you sign up by Saturday, July 10th! It looks fun and perfect as we enter summer adventures and travel.

“Life is full of big adventures that are best experienced together! This month’s The Adventure Begins Paper Pumpkin Kit helps you celebrate those exciting new chapters in the most creative of ways with enough supplies to create twelve motivating cards—plus coordinating envelopes—all featuring the exciting colors of nature.

Like the still moments before a great adventure, the kit’s designs contain a quiet energy that hint at all the grand possibilities of what is yet to come. Share this kit and cards with your family and friends about to embark on a new journey and make connections while you explore and discover new levels of your creativity!”

Details about this Kit:

  • Contains enough supplies to create twelve cards and coordinating envelopes.
  • Card size: 4-1/4” x 5-1/2” (10.8 x 14cm)
  • Envelope size: 4-1/2” x 5-3/4” (11.4 x 14.6 cm)
  • Comes with a Stampin’ Spot plus an exclusive Stamp Set.
  • Includes inspirational sentiments and adventure-themed imagery featuring these nature-inspired coordinating colors: Basic Black, Basic White, Bermuda Bay, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso, Flirty Flamingo, Garden Green, Granny Apple Green, Mango Melody, Night of Navy.

Paper Pumpkin is a themed kit that comes to you in the mail once a month! All supplies you need are included, plus instructions and a website where you can watch a video. All you have to do is open the box and see what is inside! Follow the directions exactly, or if you feel like branching out and creating something different, you can do that too! No risk or obligation because you can subscribe and skip a month if you need to or even cancel if Paper Pumpkin isn’t for you. I call it a gift I give myself to get a papercrafting kit in my mailbox once a month! You deserve one, too!

You can purchase a Prepaid Kit if you are ordering other Stampin’ Up! products.

For a monthly subscription, just click the link below!

SIGN UP FOR PAPER PUMPKIN TODAY!

4th of July Fireworks USA Birthday Card

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4th of July Fireworks USA Birthday Card

This 4th of July Fireworks USA Birthday Card was made in a rather odd way! The other day I was trying to think what stamp set or dies could be made to look like fireworks on a card for the 4th of July. Then I saw an idea online to use one of the seed pods or whatever it is in the Enjoy The Moment Stamp Set! I got out a piece of scrap paper and experimented! I thought it would work along with some smaller stamps in other stamp sets! And I ended up with a fireworks card for the 4th of July that was fun to make!

The card base is Real Red Cardstock with a Basic White layer. The “balls” on the card are the seed pod. There are two together on the stamp so I colored the stamp with Real Red on one, Pacific Point blue on another, and sometimes Daffodil Delight. I used my Stampin’ Write Markers to do this. Then I found some little flowers on one stamp in the Artistically Inked Stamp Set. Since they have that kind of watercolor look to them, I thought they didn’t necessarily look like flowers, they could look like little fireworks! I colored those with red, blue, and yellow markers.

After I had all the fireworks stamped, I used the tiny dots in the Artistically Inked Stamp Set to stamp on top of the stamped fireworks and even just randomly in the background with Versamark Ink. Next, I dumped on some Heat & Stick Powder and shook off the excess, then heated with my Heat Tool. After that, I dumped the stamped piece into the Gilded Leafing. It had been a while since I had used this technique so I wasn’t sure I remembered how to do it. I rubbed off the excess leafing with my hands and then with a piece of sponge, although I think before I had used an old stencil brush. Whatever is gentle on the leafing that works for you is okay. That gave my fireworks some gold glimmer!

4th of July Fireworks USA Birthday Card Closeup

Here is another card I made using some kind of snowflake stamps to look like fireworks! Look through your stamps, old and new, and see what you can use. Don’t forget stars – stars are great for any celebration!

The greeting is in the Blossoms In Bloom Stamp Set. I used Real Red for the diecut from the Ornate Frames Dies as a layer under the greeting. I originally planned to use the Playful Alphabet Dies to spell out USA but I ran out of room. I just used a Pacific Point Stampin’ Write Marker and wrote in USA at the bottom of the greeting plus added some little blue stars! And for extra bling, besides the Gilded Leafing, I added some In Color Jewels randomly on the card.

I won’t be sending this card since the 4th is tomorrow, but I will set it out somewhere with some 4th of July decorations! I like my little fireworks with the Gilded Leafing to spiff it up!

Have a Happy 4th of July tomorrow and this weekend to celebrate our wonderful country! Hope you get to see some fireworks or stamp your own on a card like my 4th of July Fireworks USA Birthday Card.

Check Out the Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper Sale!

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Yesterday, July 1st, was the first day of the Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper Sale! Have you checked out the nine select papers yet that are on sale? This is a great time to choose some papers that you haven’t purchased yet from the new Annual Catalog or ones that you put off but now you can get them at a 15% discount! Maybe you need to “stock up” on the papers you like the best so you don’t run out if you actually use some of the paper! Don’t we all like to hoard our beautiful paper “just in case”?!

Here are the papers that are discounted this month, through August 2.

These papers selling for $11.50 will be priced at $9.78 and the one large package of In Good Taste Designer Series Paper at the regular price of $21.00 will be on sale for $17.85.

There is no limit to how many packages of Designer Series Paper may be purchased during this promotion.

  • Orders must be placed—and closed—during the promotion period for the 15% discount to apply.
  • Designer Series Paper ordered as part of a Starter Kit or with Stampin’ Rewards qualify for the 15% discount.
  • This will be a great time at 15% off to choose some papers that you hadn’t bought yet or hadn’t really noticed before.

Remember, any paper that you choose will be even more gorgeous in person than you think from the photos!

Sweet Ice Cream 4th of July Bars

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Sweet Ice Cream 4th of July Bars

Finally, I got to play with the Sweet Ice Cream Stamp Set and since it’s so close to the holiday, I made them into Sweet Ice Cream 4th of July Bars! I got the idea from a t-shirt design I saw online! You never know where inspiration will come from! As I played around with stamping the ice cream bars, I ended up with five of them and by golly, I was determined to use all five on this card!

The card base is Pacific Point Cardstock. You could certainly use another color of blue. The layer is, of course, Real Red. The ice cream bars were stamped on Basic White and then cut out by hand and adhered to the top Basic White layer of the card.

The Sweet Ice Cream Stamp Set comes with ice cream bar shapes, ice cream cones, and scoops of ice cream, sprinkles, and wonderful greetings to use for many occasions. The ice cream bars have a kind of a textured look to the stamp and are actually two-step stamping as you put the top and bottom of the ice cream bar (or popsicle) together. I tried to leave some white area on the bars so I would have red, white, and blue. Even on these bars, it was good to put a few sprinkles with red or blue for some added interest.

To ink up these stamps, I used regular ink pads and sometimes also Stampin’ Write Markers in Real Red and Pacific Point. These markers are good for coloring right on the stamp however you like to put the color where you want it. I even colored on my own stripes using these markers, just drawing them in after I stamped the ice cream bar. The little popsicle sticks are stamped by coloring the edge with the Crumb Cake Stampin’ Write Marker and then coloring in with the same color. I just glued the sticks to the back of the ice cream with a dot of Multipurpose Liquid Glue.

The three background ice cream bars are adhered right to the card. The two front ice cream bars are popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals. The greeting is in the stamp set and is stamped in Real Red Ink. I love the greeting on this card!

And that’s it! Now you have a patriotic card in red, white, and blue for the 4th of July holiday! Here’s another card I made YEARS AGO for July 4th!

Remember, the Designer Series Paper Sale begins today and runs through July until August 2 on select papers at 15% off!

If you have the Sweet Ice Cream Stamp Set, you can make a patriotic card for the 4th of July with red, white, and blue ice cream like this card with Sweet Ice Cream 4th of July Bars!

Sunflowers In the Neighborhood

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Celebrate Sunflowers Card

One evening my husband and I were out for a walk and I noticed a yard from the side along the sidewalk that had a bunch of blooming sunflowers peeking out over the top of the wood fence. These wooden privacy fences are everywhere here in Houston. Sometimes I think it would be better not to have them and see our neighbors, but they are standard it seems like. Since we have the Celebrate Sunflowers Stamp Set, I felt I should make a card inspired by the sunflowers we saw!

Sunflowers

For my sunflower card, I started with Daffodil Delight Cardstock for the card base. For the look of the wood fence, I used a wood pattern from the In Good Taste Designer Series Paper. Although the top of my fence doesn’t show very much, I notched the top of the planks with the point of the Tailored Tag Punch and then drew in black lines to make the paper look like fence boards with a marker.

The sunflowers are the smaller ones in the stamp set, stamped in Memento Ink and colored with Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers. I used Daffodil Delight for the flowers, Soft Suede for the centers, and Granny Apple Green for the leaves, both the light and dark colors. I stamped a couple of flowers, the smaller ones, on the Basic White for the background and stamped three on scrap cardstock and then die-cut those. In the background for the look of sky I simply scribbled with the Light Balmy Blue and Light Pool Party Stampin’ Blends in the background.

The fence is popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals® as are the die-cut sunflowers. I also die-cut some greenery with the same Sunflowers Dies and placed it here and there. The greeting is included in the stamp set although I only inked up the words you see to shorten it a little to fit on the card. I used Early Espresso Ink and die cut with the Ornate Frames Die. To help it stand out a little, I used my Dark Daffodil Delight Stampin’ Blend to just run around the edge of the die cut.

Here is a blog post from last year where I also stamped these smaller sunflowers in the set to make a card.

My card today certainly is a very summery card with the sunflowers! I really enjoyed seeing the real sunflowers in the neighbor’s yard! Remember, tomorrow is the first day of select designer papers being on sale for 15% off, and the In Good Taste Designer Paper is one of them! This is a very large package of paper with many images of backgrounds and textures you can use for cards and projects. Wait until tomorrow, July 1, to start your order so that the sale prices show up. This sale will run through August 2.

Sunflowers are one of the things that just say “Summer” so if you are ready to celebrate summer like this Sunflowers In the Neighborhood card, pick up the Celebrate Sunflowers Stamp Set on your next order plus some designer paper on sale!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!