Category Archives: Cards

Beauty of Friendship Trees Thinking of You Card

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Beauty of Friendship Trees Thinking of You Card

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).

Stamp Case Inside

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!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

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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Beautiful Friendship Happy to Know You Card

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!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

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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True Love Sympathy Card

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.

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

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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Terracotta Tile Fine Art Floral Thank You Card

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!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

Good Morning Magnolia Enjoy Today Card

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Good Morning Magnolia Enjoy Today Card

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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Hydrangea Hill Butterflies

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!

Last Minute Easter Ideas

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Three Easy Paper Easter Baskets

Make An Easy Easter Basket

Cute and easy to make and decorate!

Easy Easter Folded Candy Holders

Easy Easter Folded Candy Holders

These are so fun and easy to make for a piece of candy or a tea bag or treat!

Candy Basket For Easter With Candy Chicks

An Easy Candy Basket For Easter With Candy Chicks

I have this little basket out for an Easter decoration this year! Looks complicated but it is NOT!

Easter Bunny Tiny Treat Box For Candy

Easter Bunny Tiny Treat Box For Candy

Love this little punch art or die-cut bunny! Make one to put on the front of a card or for a treat!

Easter Card with Bunny and Eggs

The Easter Bunny is Hiding Some Easter Eggs!

Just punch or cut out a bunch of oval “eggs” of different sizes from designer paper and cardstock plus bunny shapes for an easy card!

Happy Easter!

Springtime Joy Spring Card

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Springtime Joy Spring Card

I can’t resist playing with this bunny and other cute stamps in this set so the result is this Springtime Joy Spring Card. This card has a “Welcome Spring!” greeting, but it could also be an Easter card, of course, or it could be a “Welcome Baby!” card! Bunnies and little chicks are perfect for baby cards as well.

This card uses the Springtime Joy Stamp Set in the January-June 2021 Mini Catalog (Spring Mini). This Spring Mini Catalog goes through June, but eventually it will end and many products in it will retire so you might want to get this stamp set and any others before the rush sets in during June! Just in case!

To make this card a little different and a little more fun, I punched three holes for the bunnies and chick to peek out of! I made the card base of Blushing Bride Cardstock with a layer of Basic White. I randomly used the 1 1/2″ Circle Punch (retiring!). (I had a hard time finding this punch by searching for the name, so just look under “Punches” under Products and scroll through until you find it.) I just punched three holes in the card for the two bunnies and the chick.

On scrap paper I had stamped the bunnies and chick and colored them in with Stampin’ Blends. Then you can punch or cut out the images with plenty of space around them and see how you can place them on the card base with the punched white layer over the top. It is just a matter of a little fiddling to get them placed correctly. I lifted up the white layer leaving the stamped images in place. While holding those in place, I carefully lifted up one side and then the other, sneaking some adhesive underneath so I wasn’t moving the images out of place. I got lucky and it went well!

Before adhering the white layer, I stamped some tulips from the same Spring Joy Stamp Set in Blushing Bride Ink. I wish I would have also stamped the butterflies, but that was an afterthought! I stamped the butterflies later on scraps, colored them in and cut out. I could have popped those up but just adhered them flat t the card and drew in their antennae with a black pen.

The Basic White layer is popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals®. I used pretty many on the underside of the white since I had the punched holes and wanted the card front to be sturdy. The greeting is in the stamp set and I just stamped it on a scrap strip of Basic White, made one end flat against the right side since there wasn’t a lot of space for a greeting on this card and made a flagged end on the other side.

If you aren’t convinced at how adorable the Springtime Joy Stamp Set is, take a look at the cute lamb, also in this set, as you see on THIS CARD.

This Springtime Joy Spring Card is sweet for this Easter weekend or just as a spring card or add another greeting for birthday or thinking of you!

Hydrangea Hill Happy Easter Card

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Hydrangea Hill Happy Easter Card

Easter is coming in just a few days, so if you wanted to have a few Easter cards to mail or hand out, this Hydrangea Hill Happy Easter Card is a super simple one to make! You can see it is just a basic, easy card design and one you can change up with different paper and greeting.

The Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper is a beautiful paper on it’s own so it works well with a simple card like this one. You wouldn’t want a lot of other embellishments or fancy greetings and die cuts that would take away from the beauty of the paper as it is.

The card base of Gorgeous Grape Cardstock is one of the coordinating colors with the Hydrangea Hill Paper. A lighter shade of purple would be Highland Heather. I just cut a piece of the designer paper to the usual layer size of 4″ x 5 1/4″. When you have a design like this, with the larger hydrangea flowers, you might want to try to strategically cut the paper to get the best view of the flowers. On this particular paper, you can see how there is one hydrangea that is kind of the focal point because all of it is on the card. You might not have a choice depending on if you have already cut up your paper for other projects, but I still had enough of this paper to cut a 4″ wide strip the length of the paper. Then I could go back in and cut out just the portion that showed off the flower well. You might end up with not one full flower on your card front but it would likely still be pretty because that would just be a different look of all the colors of the various flowers.

Before adhering the designer paper to the card front, I added some Blackberry Bliss 3/8″ Striped Ribbon. Actually, I originally thought it was Gorgeous Grape but it still matches just fine! The sheerness and the pretty stripes of this ribbon are beautiful on this card. I tied the bow on separately.

The greeting is from the Arrange A Wreath Stamp Set and is stamped in Gorgeous Grape. I cut it out with one of the Layering Circles Dies and layered it on a pretty decorative circle in the Painted Labels Dies. You can see that you could put a birthday greeting, anniversary, thinking of you, sympathy, even a wedding sentiment on this same card and it would be perfect. I could have added some pretty sequins or rhinestones around on the card as well. But as I said, the paper is so pretty, you almost don’t want to add much because you want the recipient to focus on the beautiful paper design.

This Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper is in the January-June 2021 Mini Catalog so is not in danger of retiring right away as the Annual Catalog products are. However, usually all designer paper retires eventually to bring in new, so enjoy your hydrangea paper while we have it! The Arrange a Wreath Stamp Set is retiring from the Annual Catalog along with the Wreath Dies by May 3.

Here is another basic card design using the Hydrangea Hill Designer Paper, with a less busy design, but you could change it out using this floral pattern.

Finish up your Easter cards and projects, but you can also make this Hydrangea Hill Happy Easter Card card for any other occasion.

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

Love You Always Happy Easter Card

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Love You Always Happy Easter Card

Can you use Valentine paper to make an Easter card? Sure, with the Love You Always Specialty Designer Series Paper with its beautiful foil floral design on three different colors of papers. Of course, it is not officially Valentine paper. It is just presented in the January – June 2021 Mini Catalog in “sort of” the Valentine section of the catalog, in the Love You Always Suite. It is actually beautiful paper that you can use for many occasions. Since two of the three sheets of paper are pink (Blushing Bride and Rococo Rose) and since the suite contains hearts, we perceive it as Valentine’s Day paper. But if it would have been added to a floral suite, we wouldn’t consider it Valentine paper! All this to say, you can use this Love You Always Paper to make almost any pretty cards that you want!

This easy Easter card starts with a Blushing Bride Cardstock card base. The layer is the Love You Always Paper in Blushing Bride. I wanted to keep the card simple so I didn’t try for anything fancy. I stamped the greeting with stamps from two different stamp sets. First, stamped the Easter greeting from the Arrange a Wreath Stamp Set (retiring from the Annual Catalog!) and then for a little extra, I remembered the tulip in the Springtime Joy Stamp Set which I thought would sort of match the designer paper. I stamped just one tulip but decided on one on each side of the greeting.

Next, to cut out the greeting, I looked through my dies and finally decided on a large one in the Tasteful Labels Dies. Then I tried various things to make a layer of Blushing Bride Cardstock under the greeting, usually by cutting another die in half so it would just show out to the sides of the greeting. Nothing seemed to add anything to the card.

I thought I would try ribbon, so I used the Blushing Bride 3/8″ Metallic Ribbon. I’ve been using this ribbon pretty often. It’s very pretty with its one satin side and one metallic side. I wrapped this ribbon horizontally around the designer paper and added a bow separately. This seemed to enhance the card without interfering with the large die-cut greeting.

The greeting is popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals®. For a little bling, I added a few of the smallest Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels, which I really liked on this card!

If you were to copy this card, you would find it very quick and easy to make because you wouldn’t have to figure out which elements to use! So if you need a quick and easy Easter card, try this card design! You can change it up however you like, but at least you will have a quick and easy idea to go by if you need to make some Easter cards and get them in the mail today! This Love You Always Happy Easter Card is really a basic card design so you can make a card like this for Easter.

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Arrange a Wreath Easter Card

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Arrange a Wreath Easter Card

This Arrange A Wreath Easter Card uses several products, unfortunately, from the Stampin’ Up! Last-Chance List. Every year we go through this with a bit of excitement and a bit of nostalgia. We wonder what will be retiring and then we groan when our favorites are on the list! It’s really kind of funny after you have been through it many times! And then when the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog comes out we’re all excited about the new products and almost forget about what retired! Yet there are always those products that we each must have in our stash, whether they have been around for awhile or maybe only a year or two.

Easter is coming next weekend so be sure you are ready for the Easter Bunny! Make some Easter cards to send and get them in the mail! If you already have the Arrange a Wreath Bundle, you can make some very pretty cards for Spring and Easter. This Bundle is good for all seasons, actually. I really wish it was not retiring yet! However, on this card, I just used the Wreath Builder Dies. The stamp set, dies, and Bundle are all backordered as I write this. Hopefully, they will be back in stock soon!

Another product retiring, that I just purchased, is the Playing With Patterns Designer Series Paper. These are 6″ x 6″ papers with such colorful and happy colors and patterns! I can’t believe I didn’t have it before now. There were several papers that I could have used for a background for this Easter card, but I chose this Calypso Coral paper with white dots and layered it on top of Basic White cardstock to brighten it up. The card base is Calypso Coral.

The wreath is one of two choices in leafy wreaths in the die set. And then you get all kinds of dies to add elements to your wreath. I chose the wreath with the small sprigs of leaves and decorated it with colored die-cut eggs and flowers along with the die-cut bow in the Wreath Builder Dies. For flower centers, I used the Gold Glitter Enamel Dots. I have used these a lot because Gold Glitter goes with a lot of things especially since they come in different sizes of dots. These dots are also retiring soon so get them while you can!

I actually forgot about the matching Arrange a Wreath Stamp Set, so I used the Easter greeting in the Itty Bitty Greetings Stamp Set. ALL the Itty Bitty Stamp sets are retiring, which really upsets me because I used all the Itty Bitty stamp sets a lot. You can find just about any greeting you could need in one of these sets! If you don’t have them, be sure to check them out in case you “need” them! The greeting is stamped in Calypso Coral Ink and punched out with the Classic Label Punch. Can we really live without this basic punch??! It was just perfect with the Itty Bitty greetings and many others.

Check out the Last-Chance Products List and Sale. The Classic Label Punch is even on sale, but is backordered. All of these products are available while supplies last.

The easiest way to see what is still available is just to go to the Stampin’ Up! Online Store and shop there. If you already have the Arrange a Wreath Bundle or dies, make a card for a friend or neighbor for Easter like this Arrange A Wreath Easter Card. You can even add a bunny if you want!

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!