The January-June 2021 Mini Catalog is coming to an end! I like to call it the Spring Mini Catalog! It’s always a joy to start ordering from the spring catalog right after the holidays to see and use fresh new products to start the new year! But as all good things must come to an end, this catalog’s last day will be tomorrow, Wednesday, June 30. It’s the last day to order from the January-June 2021 Mini Catalog!! Some of the products carried over to the new Annual Catalog and some products are already sold out. If a product doesn’t come up in the Online Store, then it probably is sold out. If you search for a product and it doesn’t come up, put the item number in the search box, just in case the search terms aren’t working, or use the drop-down list on the left of the store website under Shop Products.
I came across this photo of this Expressions in Ink Pale Papaya Thank You Card on my phone and I don’t think I ever posted it. I may have copied it from someone but since it was back in May, I don’t really remember! If I find it, I will add it.
This whole Expressions In Ink Suite Collection has been one of the prettiest groups of products ever, in my opinion. And proof of that is that various components have been out of stock, but the Expressions In Ink Designer Series Paper should be back in stock this week, as I write this.
There’s a lot going on with this card, but it starts with a Pale Papaya card base. Then the layer of designer paper with Pale Papaya flowers is cut into three strips and adhered to the card base. Next comes the floral die-cut in the Artistic Dies. The tiny little pink flowers are also stamped and die-cut.
The word “thanks” is stamped on Basic White and then die cut with a die in the Tasteful Labels Dies. It overlays a piece of gold foil striped designer paper in the Expressions In Ink Designer Paper. Underneath the whole greeting is a piece of Gold 1/4″ Shimmer Ribbon. There’s even a couple of pieces of gold foil leaves, found in the Expressions In Ink Ephemera Pack. And no fancy card would be finished without a few sequins, right?!
Just watch the Stampin’ Up! Online Store. If any of these products are “Unorderable” because of a long backorder, they won’t come up until they are available again, but just check back or ask me if there is a date. Right now the Expressions in Ink Specialty Designer Series Paper should be back in stock this week but the entire Suite will not be available until mid-July. But it’s almost July!
The post office didn’t seem to hang on to my Paper Pumpkin Kit this month like it normally seems like they do, so I got it in a reasonable time to make these Paper Pumpkin June 2021 Cards. Some of the these are designed how the kit instructions say and some I did something different. That’s the great thing about Paper Pumpkin Kits! The project is already designed for you so you don’t need any “mojo” to come up with your own design, but if you want to, you can use the supplies in the kit to change the design however you like or make absolutely anything! You can cut the card bases apart, even into little pieces and use them for a scrapbook page or for adding your own cardstock and making many more similar cards. You can do anything!
In this photo, the top card, the middle card, and the yellow card to the right are all made according to the directions (except for not noticing the stamping I should have done on the green card first!) in the kit. There is always also a video to watch if that is helpful for you. I always watch them just for fun!
This kit coordinated with the “in the catalog” Expressions in Ink Suite, especially the printed designs on the card base. Then there were vellum pieces (words and a background) to use, plus pretty iridescent sequins, and some Evening Evergreen twine.
For an alternate card to make with the kit materials, I used the floral vellum piece. The die in the Artistic Dies in the Suite actually matches the floral vellum piece! Isn’t that cool? I turned that vellum piece over to the backside and used my Stampin’ Blends to color in the flowers and leaves. That gives a soft look on the front and is really easy to do. You can check on the front to see how the colors are looking but you don’t really have to be exact because of the printed white lines on the vellum.
To make this card, I used the Bumblebee yellow card base that came in the kit, but I also put a piece of Basic White cardstock behind the leafy vellum layer. This gave a more interesting background than just the plain white behind the colored vellum. Then I stamped a greeting from the kit but altered the tag a little bit. And of course the sequins add so much to a card!
The colorful flower and leaf die-cut pieces that come in the kit can be used whole as is or on my alternate cards, I cut them into smaller pieces so I could just stick a few behind a greeting. For the rest of the cards, I just played around making alternate designs with the supplies in the kit! And that’s what you can do, too!
Be sure to sign up by July 10th for the July Kit if you are interested! Each month is a surprise although Stampin’ Up! has started giving some basic clues about the kit so people have an idea of what they are getting. It’s a no-risk subscription because you can skip a month now and then if you want to or cancel any time. It’s always a treat to get the kit in your mailbox! I always say it’s a treat I give myself! And who doesn’t need a treat for themselves or others every month these days?!
If you are working on your Paper Pumpkin Kit, just remember you can change anything up or add pieces from your own craft supplies! Just have fun with it as I did with these Paper Pumpkin June 2021 Cards.
If you like to hoard, I mean, stock up on the beautiful designer series papers that Stampin’ Up! sells, get excited because the Designer Series Paper Sale is coming July 1 through August 2! Select papers will be 15% off. You can see the patterns that will be available during the sale below.
The sale prices will show up in the Online Store when you shop starting July 1. These papers selling for $11.50 will be price 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.
Only select Designer Series Papers are available at a 15% discount 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. The sale starts Thursday, July 1st, but you can start looking at the choices today! Don’t add them to your order until July 1st to make sure you get the sale price. Remember, any paper that you choose will be even more gorgeous in person than you think from the photos!
Somewhere recently I saw a card made with the colors blue and yellow or maybe it was blue and orange. I don’t remember, but it popped up in my head when I went to make this Encircled in Friendship Birthday Card. After looking through my designer papers, I chose this Misty Moonlight blue print in the Pattern Party Host Designer Series Paper. I also knew I wanted to use the Encircled in Friendship Bundle with its beautiful dies!
I chose Bumblebee Cardstock, one of last year’s In Colors, for the card base. I could have used another yellow but I’ve been on a Bumblebee kick recently. I used a couple of the dies in the Encircled in Beauty Dies to cut out a large Bumblebee outer die, which also produced the circle I used under the stamped image. I also die cut the white layer and die cut a Basic White circle with the Layering Circles Dies. For my design inspiration (and help!) I was copying my own card from a little while ago whichyou can see here.
On the white circle, I stamped the flowers in the Encircled in Friendship Stamp Set with Memento Black Ink. It would have been better to stamp first, then die cut, but I got lucky and got the stamp placed just fine! The flowers just barely fit. Then I colored them with Stampin’ Blends. Since we don’t have a Bumblebee color, I used Daffodil Delight for the flowers and Granny Apple Green for the leaves. Even though it is not an exact color match, it is close enough and maybe the Daffodil Delight even provides a little brighter color to the card.
I intended to wrap the Bumblebee Gingham Ribbon around the Misty Moonlight piece of designer paper, but I forgot and glued down the paper to the Bumblebee card base first! It happens! For the greeting, I chose one I had already stamped and die-cut with the Many Messages Bundle. To add some ribbon for embellishment, I just cut a strip and adhered it underneath the greeting, and snipped the ends. Very quick and easy!
The die cut sort of doily-like layers would be easier to adhere to the card if you remembered to use Adhesive Sheets first but I seldom remember! However, I can usually make teeny tiny dots work (and I mean teeny tiny!) of Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the biggest spaces I can find and even the smaller ones on the back of the die-cuts. Just be very careful and squirt out some glue on a piece of scrap paper to avoid an explosion of a blob on your tiny die-cut area!
Don’t forget! Tomorrow, June 24th is FREE SHIPPING at Stampin’ Up! so if you would like this Encircled in Friendship Bundle to make a card like this one, you can save the money you would normally spend on shipping! You must have a $50 order to be eligible for free shipping, and don’t start putting in your order until tomorrow so the computer will take it. Double-check to make sure you don’t get charged for shipping.
Time to stock up and save on your favorite products from Stampin’ Up!
ONE DAY ONLY, Thursday, June 24th (this Thursday!!) with an order of $50 or more in merchandise, you will get FREE SHIPPING!! This is a rare occurrence so enjoy it while you can!
(If you happen to be using a coupon, that will subtract from your total so you still need to reach $50.)
If you already have all the new products you want in the new Annual Catalog (ha! ha! ha!), maybe you want to stock up on basics like adhesive and cardstock. And get everything you want from the January-June Mini Catalog that is retiring this month!
Get whatever you want, it’s all FREE SHIPPING! But only on Thursday!! All day!! June 24th!! With a $50 or more order!
I didn’t have much mojo left when it was time to make a card so I knew I had to come up with something simple, and when you’re in that situation, sometimes a monochromatic card makes it all easy! This Hand-Penned Petals Monochromatic Bumblebee Card was just the perfect card to make after a busy day and evening.
The card base is Bumblebee Cardstock. Have you ever thought about how this color name is the only one that is just one word? Just “Bumblebee”. I looked through some of my designer paper for inspiration even though I was thinking about a monochromatic card. When I saw this Bumblebee-colored designer paper in the Pansy Petals Designer Series Paper, I knew what I was going to do.
I could have had just a layer of the designer paper on the card front, but I thought a bit of white underneath would help it stand out a little. For the front of the card, I stamped the floral bouquet from the Hand-Penned Petals Stamp Set in Bumblebee Ink on Basic White Cardstock, then cut it out with the Scalloped Contours Dies. These are some of the best dies we’ve ever had, in my current opinion! I love them! For an embellishment, I tied a bow out of the Bumblebee 1/4″ Gingham Ribbon. I planned to stamp a greeting on the card, but we don’t ALWAYS have to have a greeting on the front of the card! Sometimes it can just be plain and you can stamp something inside or write a note. Or add a greeting when you are ready to send the card, if you are just making cards for fun, and then decide which greeting would be appropriate.
I also thought about putting some jewel embellishments on the card to look like they matched the yellow of the Bumblebee, but I just said to myself, “Stop!” The card was fine as it was, simple but nice enough, with a small bow for an embellishment, not to mention the very nice scalloped rectangle die complete with the stitched look. It was fine and sometimes you just have to know when to stop!
The days are winding down for the January-June 2021 Mini Catalog so be sure you are looking through the catalog another few times and getting everything you want. Some things carried over to the new Annual Catalog so we don’t have to say goodbye to those products! And some retiring products are reduced in price for the Last Chance Sale so see if you can find any bargains you “need”.
Don’t think you are on the wrong year on my blog! It IS 2021! But this paper is not! I was going through my stash of retired Stampin’ Up! designer series paper recently and came across this single sheet! I’m sure there was another sheet just like this but I don’t know how I used it. I guess I made tags, but I don’t remember. I don’t know the name of this paper or what year it is from. All I know is that when I came across it, instead of sticking it back in the pile, I just thought I should keep it out and actually make some gift tags out of it right away!
Of course, all that really had to be done was cut the squares apart! Then I chose the matching colors of Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green and cut those for the back layer of the tags. The tags mostly don’t have a good place to put the “To:” and “From” so they needed to be layered on cardstock. The opposite side of the paper was a diagonal stripe in Christmas colors so no place to write and the paper needed a cardstock layer anyway.
As it turned out, I found a To & From in the Snowman Season Stamp Set so I used that and mostly stamped somewhere right on the front of the tag. For the tags with no good place to stamp it, I used a retired Square Punch and punched out several white squares and stamped on those, then glued to the back of the tag.
With a hole punch, I punched a hole in the corner of the tag and tied on some retired ribbon to match. That’s all there was to it! They will just be tags for our own gifts so they don’t need to be fancy. And having these on hand just might save a last minute trip to the store for more gift tags at Christmas time!
It is so hot here that I figured having a day of making cute, easy Christmas tags would cool me off! You might like looking through your old designer papers and see what you can find to make on a hot summer day!
When you need a big wish for someone, use the Biggest Wish Stamp Set and make something like this Biggest Wish Hello Card For a Friend. This will be a fun stamp set to play with since there are so many possibilities and something a little bit different.
To make this card, I just did random stamping by hand. I didn’t use the Stamparatus, just hoped I lined things up reasonably straight and in a decent place! This is my first attempt and I made others, but eventually decided this stamped card front was the best of the bunch!
I wanted to add the word “friend” at the bottom but found that stamping it on a tag or label did not fit very well on the card. It could be done but you probably need to start stamping at the very tip-top of the card. Or start stamping a little lower down and don’t stamp near the bottom of the card. I just stamped it at the bottom right on the card front, and it fit just fine there.
I used all the new In Colors on this card. The card base is Polished Pink. I used four of the In Colors on the “Hello” and then used Evening Evergreen for the word “friend”. The extra little tiny stamped images are also in the In Colors. If I had stamped the word “friend” before adding the little “pluses”, I wouldn’t have had to stamp over those! For some extra embellishment, I added some of the 2021-23 In Color Jewels. They sold out for a while but are back in stock now!
Use the Biggest Wish Stamp Set when you want to send a Big Wish! There are big words of Thanks, Birthday, Happy, and Friend plus Hello, of course, and then smaller cursive words the same words plus the little “pluses” images. You will have fun making projects with this stamp set!
I hate to tempt you with these Kangaroo Just For You Cards because the Kangaroo & Company Stamp Set is sold out. But I loved making these even though I was a little late to the party with ordering the stamp set and dies and even later in using them. I’m sure you have seen plenty of samples of the Kangaroo cards. There are so many cute ideas out there!
If you already have the Kangaroo & Company Stamp Set, but you don’t own the Kangaroo Dies, I would encourage you to order them now! They are on the Last Chance List for the January-June 2021 Mini Catalog and are HALF-PRICE! Sometimes dies are just an extra expense when we want so many things, but for this price, I would get them.
Kangaroo Dies #154334
Just search for “Kangaroo” or else the item number #154334 for them to come up.
Here is another card I made a little while back. This stamp set and dies can be used for birthday cards, baby cards, general “thinking of you” cards, all kinds of fun occasions! As I said, the stamp set seems to be sold out, but if you already have it, you might want to get the dies at half-price.
Sometimes when I make cards, I like to make several at one time while I have all the supplies out and mainly the idea for the design! For this set of cards, I just chose several colors of cardstock and started stamping and die-cutting! If you make cards assembly-line style, stamp all the kangaroos, stamp all the flowers, stamp all the card bases, do all the die-cutting of each thing, etc. it goes pretty fast. You develop sort of a muscle memory while you are doing it! This is especially useful for Christmas cards!
Check out the Last Chance products, some discounted, before the end of June if there are any retiring products you want from the Spring Mini!
Today, Monday, June 14th, is the LAST DAY to take advantage of an additional $25 in Stampin’ Rewards with a $250 order! You may place your individual order if you want to go in with friends, you can do that.
With the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog out, if you haven’t ordered yet, you just might be able to hit that total! And if you do, you not only earn the usual Stampin’ Rewards of 10% at $250, but you receive an additional $25. That’s free merchandise!
If you are a little bit short, maybe a friend would like to select some ribbon or notecards or some other products to add in. Or think ahead to some gifts you may be needing and see if there is some gift packaging you’d like to pick up or a kit with which to make a group of cards to give someone or our wonderful Paper Snips scissors! Look through the catalog and you will find things you can use as gifts to others! Add a few months of a prepaid Paper Pumpkin subscription for you or someone else! This is when those Prepaid subscriptions come in handy, even if you are already subscribed month to month. You can still purchase a Prepaid subscription and enter the code in your account and use that up before reverting back automatically to your regular monthly subscription.
This special offer ends Monday, June 14th! Start shopping!
One of the products I hate to see retire in the January-June 2021 Mini Catalog is this black and white paper which is so fun to play with! You can leave it as is for a black and white card or you can color in the designs as I did on this True Love Colored Daisies Card. Just do whatever strikes your fancy!
This is the True Love Designer Series Paper on page 11 in the Love You Always Suite. There are large flowers in the designs which are fun to color in with Blends or color in the space around the flowers. This time I came across this paper with these tiny daisies and decided to do something with this.
I thought it would be fun to make the paper colorful, but of course, I didn’t want to color each flower! I got out my Sponge Daubers and some ink pads and just picked up some ink, rubbed the Dauber over several areas of the paper, and then added another color. I used Flirty Flamingo, Daffodil Delight, Gorgeous Grape, and Granny Apple Green. I felt like I should add a touch of green in there for the leaves, not that I could color in the leaves themselves. Gorgeous Grape was too dark unless I rubbed some off on scrap paper before. I ruined my first attempt with dark blobs of purple on my card!
When I was finished coloring the flowers with my Sponge Daubers, I chose a greeting stamped and die-cut with the Messages Die. I almost adhered the greeting to the card without any ribbon as an embellishment. It was pretty enough, the white greeting with black ink on the busy background. But I did add some Whisper White 1/4″ Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon just for a little something and also adhered a bow I tied with Glue Dots.
Here is another card I made with the larger flowers in the True Love Designer Series Paper, colored with Stampin’ Blends, and then cut out and added to a card. It’s one of my favorites because I love red and I loved the red with the black and white.
Before this paper is gone, be sure to check it out, especially if you like to color! Some of the pages are generic designs like dots or stripes so you can use those as backgrounds on cards or other ways.
The January-June Mini Catalog will end on June 30. Some products are discounted. Last Chance products are only available while supplies last!
Here it is! A peek at the new July Paper Pumpkin Kit! 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 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!”
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.
If you always want more greetings and sentiments for your cards and projects, you should consider the Many Messages Bundle which is going away when the January-June Mini Catalog ends on June 30. The stamp set and dies aren’t really going away, though. You will find them in the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog on page 42, but they are being sold separately rather than in the Bundle since most Bundles “retire” with a new catalog. If you want to save 10% with both the Many Messages Stamp Set and the Messages Dies, then buy the Bundle now before the Spring Mini Catalog retires.
Also, there is a new stamp set on the order of Many Messages called Many Happenings in the Annual Catalog on the same page 42. If you want to be awash in greetings, get this stamp set, too, along with the Many Messages Bundle before it retires and you will have a complete set with the die and two stamp sets of sentiments!
The main idea is that you stamp all these greetings at one time and then die cut them all at one time. Then you can save the greetings in a little bag or box and you can just choose one when you make a card! If you have the Stamparatus, this is a great time to use it with this large stamp. Make sure your ink pad is pretty juicy with ink, ink up your stamp, then use the Stamparatus to stamp your cardstock. You could make quite a collection by stamping these greetings in different colors or on different colors of cardstock and have a ton of greetings ready to go! The beauty of the Stamparatus is that if part of the stamp doesn’t stamp well, you can reink, even just that area, and stamp again with the Stamparatus since the cardstock has remained in the same place. Give a good push each time evenly over the surface to get the best results.
In the photo above, you can see the large stamp with all the greetings, the paper in the Stamparatus that has been stamped, and on the right, the one large Messages Die that will cut out all the greetings at one time with the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine.
On the photo above, you can see how the greetings have been die-cut in different shapes, some with stitching around the edge and some plain. The tiny little stars and hearts on the stamp are to help line up the die on the stamped paper. I found that my very well-used cutting plates that are slightly warped made it difficult to keep the die lined up perfectly, but I keep some rolls of old washi tape by my Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine to tape down a die if need be. (You might want to get some of the washi tape stickiness off by sticking it on and off your clothing a couple of times and being careful where you place it so it doesn’t tear the paper if it is too sticky.) But it was pretty easy to line everything up with the stamped words.
Now I am finally ready to have these greetings on hand to make it quicker and easier to use on cards and other projects! I also stamped the Many Happenings set so I have lots to choose from!
Remember, if you buy the Many Messages Bundle now before it retires, you will save 10% and then you can also order the Many Happenings Stamp to use with the Messages Die in the Bundle. If you own the Stamparatus, all the better, and if not, just add one to your order as well!
If you want an easy way to make cards that look like you put a lot of effort into, check out the Meadow Dies. The dies look like wildflowers with many different blossoms. You can use them many different ways, and the way I used them on these cards is probaby the easiest way.
These dies come in the Quiet Meadow Bundle, which includes the Quiet Meadow Stamp Set. If you look at both, you will see that while the stamp set is very pretty with very useful sentiments, the dies do not match any of the stamps.
While I should be trying to convince you to buy both, if you have tons of things on your Wish List, you can do what I did and just buy the dies and use them in different ways. But if you think you might ever want the stamp set, you might as well buy them together in the Bundle and save 10%! If you get both, you can stamp on the card and add or overlay one or more of the dies for extra texture and interest.
Both of my cards use the Pattern Party Designer Series Paper, available in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog as a Stampin’ Reward with an order of $150 or more. I simply cut out all the wildflower die cuts out of Basic White Cardstock so I could play with all of them! After trying out several patterns of the designer paper because I needed the white wildflower silhouettes to show up well on the card front, I chose the Granny Apple Green pattern and also the black with tiny white dots pattern, just because I had to many wildflowers to use!
It would be good to remember to use the Adhesive Sheets as you cut out the wildflowers so that they already had adhesive on their skinny stems and leaves. I was able to use teeny tiny dots of Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the backs of the dies to adhere to the card, but this can get messy! Be sure to squeeze out some glue onto scrap paper to make sure you don’t get a big blob on your skinny die cut! These die-cuts would also be pretty popped up on Dimensionals if you could do it without them being on the back of the stems!
On the green card, I just used two die-cuts and added a greeting, die cut from the Ornate Frames Dies. It’s perfect. The greeting is in the Pansy Patch Stamp Set. I used Crushed Curry for the card base, a color I rarely use, but I like it on this card. For some embellishment, I used three of the Clear Epoxy Essentials which I loved because you can see through the clear and see the color underneath.
On the second card, I used Polished Pink for the card base. I used three of the wildflowers and also adhered a Polished Pink Open Weave Ribbon bow to the stems. I didn’t even add a greeting because I liked the card as it was.
I think the way you can use these dies provide a different look to our cards, using these die-cuts as silhouettes. You could also color the die-cuts and I will try that another time! Just remember or notice that the dies do not match the stamp set but you can use them together beautifully.
