Category Archives: Cards

Ornate Style Birthday Card

I think this card might be a little too bright for me even though I think I like Granny Apple Green Cardstock just fine! But today it looks very bright! But it certainly is an Ornate Style Birthday Card with all the colors, stamping, embossing, and diecutting! I just looked through the catalog to see what stamp sets I have that are retiring and which ones I want to showcase again before they are gone!

To make this card, I started by stamping the large bouquet in the Ornate Style Stamp Set, retiring May 3. I stamped it with Memento Ink and colored in with Stampin’ Blends. Just choose whatever colors you like for the flowers and leaves. Then I cut it out with Paper Snips, although I first took it to my Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine thinking there was a die to cut out this bouquet! No such luck!

I did use the coordinating dies, the Ornate Layers Dies, to cut out the fancy frame to layer underneath the bouquet out of Calypso Coral Cardstock. If you want to save 10%, you can purchase the Ornate Style Stamp Set and Ornate Layers Dies together in the Ornate Style Bundle. The dies are not retiring. They will be in the new catalog!

Before I layered the cut out bouquet on the Calypso Coral die cut piece, I put some ribbon behind it winding back and forth. This ribbon now is on the Clearance Rack! It’s the All the Trimmings Combo Pack, the Old Olive ribbon with a gold edge. The bouquet is popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals.

To decorate the card front, I embossed it with the Ornate Floral 3D Embossing Folder. This folder is so pretty with all the tiny flowers and leaves to provide a nice, textured background. This folder is being carried over to the new catalog so it will not be retiring like the stamp set.

For a greeting, I chose the “Birthday Wishes” from the retiring Itty Bitty Birthdays Stamp Set. I hate that all the “Itty Bitty” stamp sets are leaving us! I could always find a greeting to use for any occasion in one of the stamp sets. But rest assured, there are a lot of greeting stamps in the new catalog as well!

Here’s another card I made with the Ornate Style Stamp Set. I just stamped and colored in the bouquet and added some sequins for some bling!

Only about another two weeks to go until the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog goes live on May 4th! Enjoy your current stamp sets and be sure to show them some love before all you want to use are your new sets!

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Don’t Miss the Lovely You Bundle!

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The separate pieces of this Lovely You Bundle are not retiring but don’t miss getting the Bundle and saving 10% while you can! I think this is one of those stamp sets that we kind of take for granted – nothing flashy about it but it has some good, basic stamps in it and lovely greetings that you can use in many ways. You can often do more with the smaller stamp images than the big dramatic ones. Of course we love them all!

Right now you can purchase the stamp set and coordinating punch for the greetings together in the Lovely You Bundle at a discount of 10%. From May 4th on you will be able to purchase the Lovely You Stamp Set and the Lovely Labels Pick a Punch separately in the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog but they will have to be purchased separately at full price.

The greetings can be used on many cards in their lovely font and the small images can be used on simple card designs, stamped randomly as a background on a card (which I think is really fun to do!) or just added to fill in some space when you need just a little something. I have used the punch many times for greetings when I wanted not a plain edge but a little bit of a design. The punch can handle different widths of cardstock giving you a little variation.

Here’s a card I made almost a year ago. I love stamping a background like this! You can see even small images can be used in many ways!

Lovely You Floral Stamped Card For a Friend

Be sure to check your stash and see if you “need” the Lovely You Bundle before the Bundle itself retires on May 3. Might as well save 10% on the price of both the stamp set and the punch if you can!

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Forever Fern Hello Card

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I think that Forever Fern was the most popular stamp set in the current Stampin’ Up! Catalog and fortunately, it is carrying over to the next catalog coming out May 4th! The dies are also carrying over, but will be sold separately. Therefore, if you don’t have the stamp set and dies, be sure to purchase them by May 3rd so you can get the Forever Fern Bundle Price and save 10%!

Sadly, the beautiful Forever Greenery Designer Series Paper is retiring on May 3rd along with the Gold Hoops. I have loved this paper and hate to see it go, but most designer paper is only around for one season in the catalog. I haven’t even gotten enough use out of the Gold Hoops and hate to see them go, too!

To make this card, I began with a card base of Just Jade, one of the “new” In Colors from last year! We’ll have to stop calling those colors “new” as soon as we have the “really new” In Colors, coming in the next catalog! Out of all the pretty paper in the Forever Greenery package, I chose this striped pattern for my card. I stamped all these images from the Forever Fern Stamp Set on Basic White Cardstock and die-cut with the Forever Flourishing Dies.

To design the card, I placed the Gold Hoop where I thought I wanted it and placed the fern pieces around it. You kind of want to plan where you want to put your die-cut pieces, yet, then you usually have to move them to put adhesive on them so it gets messed up anyway! To adhere the Gold Hoop, I used Mini Glue Dots but placed them where I thought they would be covered by the die-cut pieces. Then I just placed the fern pieces where I thought they looked good and either used Stampin’ Dimensionals to pop them up or just Stampin’ Snail to adhere directly to the card.

For some extra embellishment and to hide the stems a little bit, I tied a bow with Just Jade Ribbon and adhered it to the card with a Mini Glue Dot. The greeting is in the stamp set and I stamped it in Just Jade Ink. Overall a pretty easy card and the colors in the designer paper give you lots of design options. And I’m not even a big fan of “green”!

You will still be able to find this stamp set and paper in the next catalog but if you want the Forever Greenery Designer Series Paper or Gold Hoops, you need to purchase those in the Last Chance Sale! Don’t forget to check the Clearance Rack too!

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A Little Christmas in April With the Tag Buffet Project Kit!

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How about a little Christmas in April using the Tag Buffet Kit?! While things are kind of quiet holiday-wise, think about getting this Christmas tag kit at a discount and make some tags for Christmas gifts ahead of time! I know I have had to go to the store at the last minute to buy more tags for Christmas gifts. Or you can even make these tags or parts of them and stick them on Christmas cards! Get a head start!

This Tag Buffet Project Kit is on the Stampin’ Up! Clearance Rack right now. The Tag Buffet Stamp Set is no longer available but you can use any stamp set that has Christmas greetings with these tags. There is no stamping involved except for the greeting, so really you could skip any stamping and just use the images. I really think this tag kit is beautiful and I enjoyed making my Christmas tags when the kit came out in the past Holiday Catalog 2020.

The kit comes in a cute holiday box. All you have to do is layer the kit contents to make the tag and thread the string through the top. Or use the pieces to make Christmas cards or any other project!

Also on the Clearance Rack are these little Jingle Bells! You can get these for only $3.00 and add them to your Christmas tags! Or add them to any other holiday packaging when the time comes! Order a bunch and make a jingle bracelet for the holidays!

If you want any more details, read my blog post when I made my Tag Buffet Project Kit HERE.

You will also find other Christmas ribbons and even the Plush Poinsettia Specialty Papers on the Clearance Rack right now! Be sure you check it out while you are shopping! I already have my extra Tag Buffet Project Kit! If you don’t use all the designed pieces on each tag, you can probably use some of your own supplies and expand the number of tags you can make! Last year I enclosed a tag in a few Christmas cards that I sent out just for a little surprise gift inside my card. Remember, anything can sell out at any moment, but since now the big rush of the first day is over, I think you have a moment to look around on the Clearance Rack, not to mention the Last Chance Products and pick up some bargains for your stash!

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Beauty of Friendship Trees Thinking of You Card

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This is a sneak peek of one of the new stamp sets coming in the next Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog in May. I made it a simple card because I was really just experimenting with the stamps. I think this set has tremendous potential as we get ideas for stamping the different style trees with different colors of ink for many seasons, occasions, and different looks.

This is the new Beauty of Friendship Stamp Set that will come in a Suite called the Beauty of the Earth. It includes the stamp set of trees and greetings, a set of dies, beautiful watercolor-look designer paper with which to create trees and enhance our cards and projects, and an embossing folder.

For my card, I used two of the new In Colors, Evening Evergreen for the layer and Pale Papaya for the card base. The trees were stamped on Basic White Cardstock using Early Espresso Ink on one tree trunk and Soft Suede on the other two. Then I just chose the leaf stamps for the tree tops, stamping in Granny Apple Green since it is spring. On one I overstamped with a different tree top stamp in Pear Pizzazz. I think you will find the look of these stamps very interesting and fun to experiment with to see what looks you can get. And when fall comes and you want colored leaves, oh my! You will be able to use various techniques for all those fall colors!

The three trees looked a little barren just stamped there so I added some grass for them to be growing in. I simply used one of the tree tops to stamp little blobs of green ink along the bottom edge of the card. Being as they are irregular in shape, I thought this technique worked fine to represent grass without looking like tree tops.

To fill in the background a little to look like sky, I used my new Blending Brush and Balmy Blue Ink to very lightly and softly add some blue color to the background. I love the feel of the Blending Brush. Our Stamping Sponges are retiring so grab some of those if you like (at a little discount!) and/or pick up some of the Blending Brushes (which are currently unavailable until they are back in stock as I write this). These are washable so you can use them over and over again with different colors. After you purchase the first three you can see if you are going to use them so much that you want more to be able to use them without waiting for them to dry between washings. If you begin with lighter colors you may be able to go on with darker colors without washing in between.

The greeting is in the stamp set and actually would fit in one of the dies included in the Suite. I didn’t have my new dies for this set out yet so I just used one of the Rectangle Stitched Dies to cut out the greeting.

Here is a photo of the new style of stamp case you will see. The cover of the stamp set, which is slipped inside the plastic cover over the stamp case now has, on the inside, the images of the stamps printed on it. So when you open the stamp case, you will find the photopolymer stamps still encased in two pieces of plastic as we are used to now, but you will also see all the stamp images over on the right side of the case. Therefore, you can take the stamps off the plastic pieces (as you see on the left of my photo) and place them right over the images printed on the right (as you see I have done with some of the stamps).

Those of us who have been around Stampin’ Up! for more than a few years recall the love we have had for the Lovely As a Tree Stamp Set. See THIS CARD for an example. When it retired, we thought nothing could replace it. This Beauty of Friendship Stamp Set just might come close, maybe a little more dramatic with its designer paper, but I am guessing this will become a popular stamp set and Suite in the new catalog.

This Suite and its components will be available May 4th in the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog so you will be able to play with the trees and stamping as I did on this Beauty of Friendship Trees Thinking of You Card.

Floral Essence Flower Card

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This Floral Essence Flower Card is one that I so enjoyed making on the spur of the moment with no plan! I had paged through the Stampin’ Up! catalog to refresh my memory on what stamp sets were retiring. When I came to this one, I thought maybe I owned it but I wasn’t sure! That’s likely a sign you haven’t used a stamp set very much! When I checked my stamp sets, sure enough, it was there along with the coordinating punch!

I stamped this card with the Floral Essence Stamp Set. I think it has been around since at least a year before this current year’s catalog. I feel like I must have seen someone’s stamped card that inspired me to buy the stamp set because I’m not sure that on its own I felt that inclined to buy it

As it turned out, as soon as I got it out, even though I didn’t have any idea for making a card, I just chose the largest flower and started stamping on Basic White. I did choose Melon Mambo for the card base because I like it, so I chose Melon Mambo Ink. I could have made different colors of flowers but I stuck with the Melon Mambo. I stamped the three flowers and stamped the flower centers in Daffodil Delight.

I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do next and the stamp with the stem and trio of leaves didn’t fit right to look like they were attached to the flowers. So just stamped them around the blank space in Granny Apple Green Ink, not attaching them to the flowers! Have some scrap paper underneath your cardstock so that you can stamp off the edge of your cardstock as I did so that you fill up the space better but don’t get ink all over your table!

The flowers still seemed to be floating in space without leaves, so I stamped the little leaf outline stamp around the flowers in Memento Ink. To color them in, I just used a Blender Pen to pick up the Granny Apple Green Ink. I should have really used Stazon ink if I was going to use our water-based ink but I colored carefully and lightly and it worked out fine.

For the greeting, I just chose one in the stamp set and simply stamped it right in the corner of the card! If I had messed up, I could have covered it up with a die-cut greeting, but thankfully it worked out fine!

There is something I can’t describe about the feeling of only doing stamping on a card, especially in a somewhat random pattern like I did on this Floral Essence card. The block and the stamp just feel good in my hand and every time I lift up the stamp and see the image I just stamped, it is almost magical! I do love all the dies and punches and embellishments, but I think the magic is in the actual stamping! It just feels good! Do some basic stamping and see if you agree with me!

While you are shopping in the next couple of weeks in the current catalog, don’t forget to check out the Clearance Rack. As of right now, there still are quite a few products left so you just might find a bargain you can’t live without! And of course, the Last Chance Sale is going on with the retiring stamps and other products. Some of those are real bargains, too!

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Pansy Petals Thank You Card

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I couldn’t delay showing you this card any longer! This Pansy Petals Thank You Card is a simple card made with one of the designer papers coming soon in the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. I just wanted to make an easy card to showcase this beautiful designer paper. If you like pansies, this paper, and the whole Suite is for you!

The card base is one of the new In Colors, Evening Evergreen. It’s a very dark green, different than anything we’ve had before through the years. The card front layer is from the Pansy Petals Designer Series Paper. Every paper is pretty in this package! At least one of the papers, you can use the coordinating dies to die-cut some of the printed pansies on the paper! The “other side” of the paper has gingham checks, dots, and stripes! Also, very pretty and easy to use for our cards and projects.

Pansy Petals Designer Series Paper other side

For the greeting on this card, I chose the “Thank You” in the Pansy Patch Stamp Set. It’s such a pretty font! This is stamped on Basic White Cardstock and then layered on a die-cut of Evening Evergreen Cardstock from the Scalloped Contours Dies. These are not the dies that coordinate with the Pansy Patch Stamp Set, but goes with a cute stamp set, Color & Contour.

For a little bling, I added some of the new 2021-2023 In Color Jewels in Pale Papaya scattered around on the card front. And for the finishing touch, I added a Bumblebee Trinket to the corner of the greeting! The bee trinket matches the little bees printed on the designer paper!

The new catalog begins May 4th, which will be here before we know it! In the meantime, check out the Last-Chance Product Sale and whatever is still available on the Clearance Rack, just refreshed yesterday!

Beautiful Friendship Happy to Know You Card

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Crazy how I picked out the colors for this Beautiful Friendship Happy to Know You Card! I decided I would make a card with this stamp set but had no idea what colors I wanted to use. I thought maybe yellow flowers and grabbed the Daffodil Delight Cardstock and the Poppy Parade practically jumped out at me off the shelf! I wondered if the card would be too bright, but I don’t think it turned out to be! It’s a bright, happy card!

This Beautiful Friendship Stamp Set is on the retiring list for May 3. I think it’s one of those stamp sets that no one makes a big fuss over, yet it is so pretty with greetings in a beautiful font. Just a great stamp set to have on hand for making pretty cards! Here is a card I made with the stamp set last year after going on the annual Azalea Trail. That was when we were hearing a little about the virus and stocking up on toilet paper but had no idea what was headed our way.

As I said, I used Poppy Parade for the card base and a layer of Daffodil Delight to go with the yellow flowers. I essentially copied a sample card in the outgoing Stampin’ Up! catalog on page 115.

The large flowers are stamped in Daffodil Delight with some of the smaller accents stamped in Poppy Parade, Granny Apple Green, and Rich Razzleberry (because it was in the wrong slot on my ink pad stand!). I was choosing other Brights colors.

The greeting is stamped in Poppy Parade and die cut with this long die in the Tasteful Labels Dies. I popped it up with Stampin’ Dimensionals but ran a piece of 3/8″ Fine Art Ribbon with its gold threads underneath. The card could use a few sequins or gems of some kind if you wanted to do that! Or you can keep it simple!

We only have about three weeks left of this Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog! Keep checking the Last-Chance List in the Online Store so you can see what is still actually available. If it says “backordered” you can go ahead and order the item and Stampin’ Up! will ship it to you automatically as soon as they have it back in stock. Check the Clearance Rack tomorrow morning. I “think” there might be new items added but we’ll have to see!

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Good Morning Magnolia Soft Subtles Thinking of You Card

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The other day I had another blog post about the Good Morning Magnolia Stamp Set and that I was surprised it was retiring because the magnolia stamp is so striking and dramatic in its size and beauty as you can see on this card, Good Morning Magnolia Soft Subtles Thinking of You Card. You don’t really need much else when you have this beautiful magnolia on the front of a card!

The card base is Soft Sea Foam, a color I haven’t really used that much. It is a very soft, light green, and perfect for this card. The magnolia in the Good Morning Magnolia Stamp Set is stamped in Memento Ink and colored with the Petal Pink Stampin’ Blends Combo. I left some areas whitish on the petals so it wasn’t all colored in solid. The leaves are colored with Soft Sea Foam Stampin’ Blends with a tiny bit of yellow thrown in.

The greeting is stamped in Petal Pink and die cut with a die from the Ornate Frames Dies. For a little layer underneath, I cut another die from the same set, but since it is small, I cut it in half so an end could stick out from each side of the greeting. The stamped layer of the card, instead of just layering on a pink cardstock, is layered on a pinkish pattern in the Peony Garden Designer Series Paper. Actually, on this card I made recently, you can see the same designer paper that I used behind the Basic White stamped layer, used as a layer behind the die-cut magnolia.

For a little pizzazz and sparkle on my card, I used the Elegant Faceted Gems, three in the smallest size and two in the larger size. I think they add a little extra to a very pastel card.

The Good Morning Magnolia Stamp Set and Magnolia Memory Dies are retiring on May 3. The Dies are SERIOUSLY reduced in price! They were originally $35.00 and are now discounted to $8.75!! If you already have the stamp set, it would be a good time to pick up the dies! They weren’t sold in a Bundle, just separately, so check that out!

SHOP LAST-CHANCE RETIRING PRODUCTS HERE!

True Love Sympathy Card

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If there is one card we all hate to make, it is a sympathy card such as this True Love Sympathy Card although at the same time we hope it expresses our feelings and sends comfort to the family. I’m pretty sure I got the idea for this card from someone else but I don’t remember where I found it and haven’t been able to find it again. I do think I changed it up at least a little bit. I didn’t originally plan to post it but I came across it in my photos and I think it is a pretty card. Just change the greeting and you can use the same card design for almost anything else.

The card base is Blushing Bride with several layers on top. Let’s start with the flowers. The flowers are from the True Love Designer Series Paper in the Spring Mini Catalog. All the papers are black and white, but if you want to, you can color in the flowers and cut them out. That’s what I did here with the Stampin’ Blends, my favorite way to color. Behind the flowers for an embellishment is a loop of the 3/8″ Fine Art Ribbon, which is a natural-colored ribbon with gold in it. It’s very pretty!

The flowers are layered on a diecut from the Ornate Layers Dies to make a frame. Underneath the frame is another Basic White layer that is edged in the new Gilded Leafing. I applied Tear & Tape on all four sides of the white cardstock and then applied the Gilded Leafing. That stuff is so fun! Then this piece is layered on Basic Black Cardstock to help the gold leafing stand out plus to go with the black and white of the True Love Flowers. And finally all this is on a layer of Basic White adhered to the Blushing Bride pink card base.

The greeting is in the Prized Peony Stamp Set. It is die cut with a circle in the Tasteful Labels Dies. It really didn’t need any layer underneath it on this card.

I think just the True Love Designer Series Paper will be retiring when the Spring Mini retires as usually most designer papers retire, but I think most of the rest of the supplies I used will be sticking around in the new catalog.

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Don’t Miss Out on the April Paper Pumpkin Kit!

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Paper Pumpkin Square Ad April 2021 PP Dates

Paper Pumpkin is the papercrafting kit that comes to you in the mail once a month! I like to say it’s a present you give yourself! Or you can give it as a gift!

This kit is a little extra-special! It was designed with children in mind! Something to spark their imagination and creativity and introduce them to our wonderful papercrafting hobby! But it doesn’t have to only be for kids! Once you get a glimpse of this kit, you will want it for yourself whether you have little ones around to share it with or not!

The So Cool Paper Pumpkin Kit is a little taste of summer fun, with enough supplies to make 12 colorful, shaped cards with coordinating envelopes. Six card bases are popsicle-shaped, the other six are semicircles: three watermelons and three rainbows. All of the cards are splashed with cheerful, vivid watercolor images. The kit also includes two full-size, matching sticker sheets, die-cut accents, fun embellishments, and more.

The kit’s exclusive So Cool Stamp Set is versatile, offering sentiments that can be used for multiple occasions such as birthdays, congrats, cheer, and more! It’s a great addition to any crafter’s collection.

Watch the video below to get a feel for the So Cool Paper Pumpkin Kit and then sign up to make sure you are on the list when April 10th rolls around so your kit will be shipped out to you!

SIGN UP FOR PAPER PUMPKIN TODAY! LAST DAY SATURDAY, APRIL 10th!

Terracotta Tile Fine Art Floral Thank You Card

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I’ve discovered that sometimes we don’t fully appreciate the Stampin’ Up! In Colors until they are going to retire, such as when I made this Terracotta Tile Fine Art Floral Thank You Card and realized that Terracotta Tile was one of the colors in one of my favorite papers. Honestly, I haven’t been a fan of the outgoing In Colors (although I think I am really going to like the new In Colors!) but when I wanted to use some of this ribbon, I discovered it goes with this paper!

This card is made with a card base of Terracotta Tile Cardstock. When I noticed that Terracotta Tile was one of the coordinating colors of the Fine Art Floral Designer Series Paper, I really was surprised because I hadn’t thought about it before, even though I wrote a list of all the colors on the back cardboard of designer papers because the Stampin’ Up! printing is too small to read easily. You can even see the beauty of this paper in my photos, the image of the texture of the paint that the Stampin’ Up! artist used in designing this paper! It almost looks like the front of this card is the actual painted canvas! So I was surprised to find that some of the patterns of paper in this Fine Art Floral pack had Terracotta Tile in them.

I used the Terracotta Tile 1/2″ Scalloped Linen Ribbon (retiring soon!) to embellish the card. I just adhered a strip of the ribbon around on the back of the designer paper and made a separate bow out of the ribbon and adhered it with Mini Glue Dots. Then the designer paper is adhered to the Terracotta Tile card base.

The greeting is stamped from the Many Mates Stamp Set (retiring soon!) and then die cut with a die in the Ornate Frames Dies. While I had everything out, I cut more of the designer paper trying to get the most Terracotta Tile color into the layer and stamped some more greetings, and die cut them with various dies. I popped up this greeting with Stampin’ Dimensionals. If you think of it, particularly when you are making rather easy, basic card designs, it is a good idea to make several cards while you have everything out and then you have extras to grab when you need a card!

Although the Spring Mini Catalog is not retiring until the end of June, you might consider that most, if not all, designer papers usually retire so that they can bring in new papers, so I would imagine that the Fine Art Flora Designer Series Paper will retire at that time, but not now!

The Terracotta Tile ribbon that I used is retiring May 3 so if you haven’t paid too much attention to the In Colors even after two years, maybe you want to take another look!

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Good Morning Magnolia Enjoy Today Card

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This Good Morning Magnolia Enjoy Today Card is one I had to make before this beautiful stamp set retires soon! I can’t believe they are taking away this beautiful, dramatic flower, but I think it has been around for two years. However, I haven’t had enough opportunity to play with it!

The Good Morning Magnolia Stamp Set is on the Last-Chance List for the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. It is easiest to see what is retiring and still available by going to the Stampin‘ Up! Store. There are also coordinating dies, the Magnolia Memory Dies, that are retiring along with the stamp set. You can get these dies for the low, low, ridiculously low price of $8.75!! Be sure to check these out!

To make this card, I started with a card base of Petal Pink. I stamped the large magnolia using my Stamparatus because with a very large stamp like this one, it could be that one area of the stamp might not stamp as well. If you are using the Stamparatus, you can simply reink the stamp, still attached to the Stamparatus, and stamp again focusing on the area that needs more pressure or more ink. The Stamparatus is so great for things like this! The Stamparatus even has its own Craft & Carry Stamparatus Bag that is on sale for only $11.60 after being reduced from $29.00. This is a great bag, actually, even if you don’t own a Stamparatus. Even if you do, you can use the bag for other things. There are nice pockets inside for holding all kinds of things, crafting or otherwise.

After stamping the magnolia on Basic White Cardstock, I colored it with Stampin’ Blends. You can use various methods of coloring but I love using the Stampin’ Blends. I used the Petal Pink Combo on the flower and then for some crazy reason added tiny bits of Melon Mambo. It really was a strong color on the flower and I figured I had ruined it! BUT, I kept blending with my Petal Pink colors and I think it all worked out! I die cut it with the Magnolia Memory die. As I got ready to layer the flower on the card, I saw a piece of designer paper from the Peony Garden Designer Series Paper and thought this Petal Pink pattern would look good behind the flower. (Honestly, I had looked all over for the Magnolia DSP I thought I had and had loved, but I guess that was from the year before!)

Because the die cut had a bit of white showing on it, I decided to put a layer of Basic White with a very narrow margin underneath the pink designer paper, which helped it stand out a little from the Petal Pink cardstock base. The magnolia is popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals®. I chose a greeting in the stamp set and stamped it in Petal Pink Ink and die cut it with a frame in the Ornate Frames Dies. To finish off the card, I added two Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels to the Ornate Frame.

Here is a similar card I made with the Good Morning Magnolia Stamp Set and the designer paper almost two years ago. Really, this Good Morning Magnolia Enjoy Today Card is an easy card to make so check out the stamp set and dies if you don’t already own them on the Stampin’ Up! Retiring List.

Hydrangea Hill Butterflies

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Make some pretty butterflies using pretty designer paper and a punch, like these Hydrangea Hill Butterflies on this card. It’s springtime so it’s time for butterflies and Stampin’ Up! has an assortment of butterflies to choose from. Some are retiring soon and some are new. But paper and a punch help you make a pretty simple, elegant card.

The card base is Highland Heather Cardstock. I started off planning to make a white on white card, but I changed my mind! It’s allowed! The top layer has wider margins than normal. Instead of cutting the layer 5 1/4″ x 4″, I cut it at 5″ x 3 3/4″. I ran the Basic White paper through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine embossing it with the Subtles Embossing Folder. This folder is difficult to see in a photo but it just puts a “subtle” pattern of lines on the paper so you have some texture but just barely. It’s perfect for when you want something but not a lot. This embossing folder is retiring soon so check it out if you are interested!

I added a narrow strip of Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper along the side of the Basic White embossed layer. I used the Butterfly Duet Punch to punch out several butterflies out of another pattern of the same paper. I chose a pattern that had the little floral pattern all over the paper so it would definitely show up inside the punch. Otherwise, you might have to be careful to get a colorful enough pattern inside the punch area. This punch punches out a small and large butterfly so it is very handy. But it is retiring by May 3, so if you don’t have it yet, you might want to see if you need it in your stash! I just drew on the little antennae on each butterfly with a fine tip black marker.

The greeting is from another retiring item, the Itty Bitty Greetings Stamp Set. All the “Itty Bitty” stamp sets are retiring which really makes me sad. I have used all of them a lot. On some cards, you don’t necessarily want the greeting to be the focal point or there just isn’t enough room for larger greetings, so the Itty Bitty series always came in handy! These Itty Bitty Sets are all retiring – Itty Bitty Greetings. Itty Bitty Christmas, and Itty Bitty Birthdays. Check them out. I used the Lovely You Punch for both the Highland Heather layer and the greeting.

The two large butterflies are popped up with Mini Stampin’ Dimensionals and the wings are folded up a little bit to add some dimension. For a little bling, I added some Artistry Blooms Adhesive-Backed Sequins scattered around and on the greeting. These are Coastal Cabana in color but go fine with the blues in the designer paper.

This is an easy card to make and easy to change up according to what supplies and punches you have. You could also punch out flowers and make the card in the same design. Try making a card with what you have today similar to this Hydrangea Hill Butterflies card and see what you come up with!