The Blended Bloom single stamp is a new one in the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog and has mostly been used to color in with the new upcoming Blendabilities alcohol markers (hopefully they will be available around the end of June or early July). But I thought I would just stamp the flower in one color and not color it in at all. And as usually happens, I changed it up a little more, stamping two more blooms and cutting out a couple of layers to make the flower more dimensional. I added a strip of the Lullaby Designer Series Paper. Don’t be fooled by the “Lullaby” paper, because there is not one image on it that will make you think it is “baby paper”. I was going to tie a piece of white Organza ribbon around the designer paper, but then I changed my mind and pulled off three threads from the Burlap Ribbon and tied that around the strip of designer paper.  The greeting is stamped in Blackberry Bliss ink with a stamp from the Four You stamp set. The card stock I used is Blackberry Bliss and Hello Honey, two of the new 2014-16 In Colors.

Check out the beautiful new In Colors in the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog! Blackberry Bliss is one of the favorites, so far, but we’ll all get acquainted more and more with these new colors!

Find what you need in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE!  Remember, today, June 4th, is the last day to order any retired products that are still available.

This card is stamped with the Work of Art Stamp Set and will be available in the NEW STAMPIN’ UP! CATALOG later today!!!  You have to sit on your hands all morning, but at Noon Stampin’ Up! Time (Mountain Time) (1:00 pm Central Time) the catalog should go live! Keep your fingers crossed that all goes smoothly with technology today as thousands of Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators and customers want to get online and place their first orders as quickly as possible! Those internet wires are going to be humming and soon the UPS truck wheels will be rolling delivering those much anticipated Stampn’ Up! boxes!!

This Work of Art Stamp Set is one you will probably want to put on your list!  It has proven very popular already as demonstrators received it at the Catalog Premiere event and it was a set we were allowed to preorder.  Mine was backordered for awhile. It’s just going to be a fun stamp set to work with!

Why are there two hearts at the bottom?  Well, because “There are no mistakes in stamping!” And I had a mistake on my beautiful card – a little ink from an edge of the stamp! There were a couple of ways I could have fixed it – added more little lines like squiggles around the heart with a marker, or put a rhinestone at one end of the wayward line as if it was supposed to be there, but I decided to play with the hearts some more and cut some out to cover up the line. It worked, I think.

Get your Wish List ready and start the countdown to the new Stampin’ Up! catalog today!! And be sure the Work of Art stamp set is on it!

Shop at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE starting this afternoon!  Let me know if you have any questions!

Stampin’ Up! asked on their Facebook page the other day what we thought the top-selling stamp set was in the 2013-14 Annual Catalog. It turns out, in spite of lots of guesses for Lovely As a Tree, that the top seller was Mosaic Madness! It’s an interesting set and definitely trendy, but I wouldn’t have guessed that stamp set! Of course it does have a matching punch, the Mosaic Punch and you can buy the stamp set and punch in a bundle if you prefer. It was fun making this card with the Quatrefancy Specialty Designer Series Paper and punching out the stamped images.  The greeting is from Four You, also in the new catalog!

TODAY, SUNDAY JUNE 1st: Last day to order from the Occasions Catalog (that’s my understanding now!)

June 4th:  Last day to order retiring products (while supplies last). You’ll have a couple days overlap (that’s my understanding now!)

***Important Note: Online Ordering will be down on Monday, June 2, from midnight to noon (MDT) while we transition the system to the new 2014-2015 annual catalog. During this time, no orders can be placed in Online Ordering. We look forward to taking your orders from the new catalog beginning Monday at noon (Mountain Time)!

Monday, June 2:  Weekly Deals for week of May 26 Last Day!

Be sure to order at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store or contact me and I can put it in for you.

Are you making out your Wish List for the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog??!

Be sure to look at the Watercolor Wonder Designer Note Cards and Envelopes in the Stampin’ Up! Occasions Catalog before they are gone. You get a nice variety, plus envelopes, and you can do a little or a lot to decorate the front of the cards! They are printed on watercolor paper and coordinate with all the other items in the Watercolor Wonder Suite in the Occasions Catalog. On this card, I stamped the vine with the the flourish in the Everything Eleanor stamp set. Then the really easy and fun part – I punched the flowers out with the Petite Petals Punch from the Watercolor Wonder Designer Series Paper! If you poke the flowers in the middle on a foam pad, such as the Stampin’ Pierce Mat with the opposite end of the Paper-Piercing Tool, it will make the petals of the flower pop up, making them 3-D.  It’s very cute and just adds a little something than just being glued down flat. Add a Candy Dot to the center.

Here are some of the other cards I made for fun! Just use various stamp sets with greetings or images.

This card was almost a loss, I thought!  I dropped the stem stamp on the edge of the card which I thought ruined it.  But no!  I decided to stamp LOTS of stems so the wayward stems would not be obvious. It worked out well, especially stamping off and stamping the lighter stems just for them all to blend in together. The stems and flowers are from the Too Kind Stamp Set.

Such a cute border on this card, already printed for you! I added a banner stamped from the Perfect Pennants Stamp Set as well as the heart.

This card was so easy to make, yet so beautiful!  The flowers are already printed on the card and I just stamped the greeting from Four You and added a small rhinestone jewel to the end of the word.

You will find the Watercolor Wonder Designer Note Cards at this link and the entire Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE.

Sympathy cards are a fact of life and we all need to send them eventually. This card is rather monochromatic with Wisteria Wonder card stock and Wisteria Wonder stamped flowers from the Flower Shop Stamp Set. The Wisteria Wonder background is embossed with the Fancy Fan Embossing Folder. The Whisper White strip across the bottom of the card is embossed with the Delicate Designs Embossing Folder.  My favorite ribbon is across the front, the Whisper White 5/8″ Organza Ribbon. It is not tied in a bow – a strip of ribbon is placed across the front and adhere to the back of the card layer and then a separate bow is tied and adhered to the top of the ribbon with a few Mini Glue Dots.

The Flower Shop flowers are stamped with Wisteria Wonder ink on Whisper White card stock and then punched out with the coordinating Pansy Punch. In fact, you can purchase a Bundle of the Flower Shop stamp set, in wood-mount or clear-mount Bundle and the Pansy Punch and save 15%. But you have to do it while the bundle is still available because the Bundle is on the retirement list. However, the stamp set and punch are both available separately in the new catalog. Yeah!

The sympathy greeting is from one of my favorite stamp sets, Teeny Tiny Wishes. You can find almost any greeting you need in this stamp set, and then you can easily punch it out with the Word Window Punch or others. I recommend getting the wood-mount in this stamp set because all of the greetings are rather small and I think easier to handle in the wood.  There is a similar new set in the new catalog and that will definitely be on my list!

I love the Flower Shop flowers and the Pansy Punch. You can make lots of pretty cards with this stamp set.

If you are interested in this Flower Shop Bundle, be sure to order it in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store before June 4th.

Here’s another card we made at my stamp camp on Sunday with the Petite Petals Punch and the new In Colors 2014-16. It was a last minute creation and my mojo wasn’t working. But then – in the end it came together and I think everyone liked the card! It’s just a simple Whisper White card base with the top wrapped in Gold Baker’s Twine three times and tied. The flowers are punched with the Petite Petals Punch in all the new In Colors:  Mossy Meadow, Hello Honey, Lost Lagoon, Tangelo Twist, and Blackberry Bliss. The center of the flower is Crumb Cake punched with the new Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack, a set of three small punches of the flower, a star and a heart! And for an embellishment I used some Candy Dots in the center of each flower.  LOVE THOSE CANDY DOTS!!!

Here’s a flower tip:  To make little punched flowers like this look a little 3D, poke them in the center with something like the Paper Piercing Tool or a Bone Folder or a pencil eraser or whatever you have. It will make the petals stand up just a bit.

The little greeting “hello” is stamped in the beautiful new ink color Blackberry Bliss with the stamp set A Dozen Thoughts. We all found we loved the new Blackberry Bliss ink! The color is beautiful!

I know May has sped by, but it still seems like the debut of the new catalog is eons away on June 2nd. But it will get here! If you don’t have a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator that you work with and are interested in Stampin’ Up! products, please email me and I can send you the new catalog that is coming soon! It will be available online starting June 2 at Noon MT, but most people like having the hard copy in their hands!  I know I do! Just email me at Karen@KarenStamps.com if you have an interest.