Tag Archives: stamping

It’s May Day! And New Catalog Day!

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Stampin' Up! Annual Catalog Cover 2024

Happy May Day! The Farmers Almanac says that May Day celebrates the return of Spring, and Maypole dances and traditions celebrate agriculture such as the newly planted fields sprouting and cattle returning to pasture. We’ve all heard of Maypole dances and May Day baskets of flowers or treats being hung on neighbors’ doors. Today we celebrate May Day 2024 with a brand-new Stampin’ Up! Catalog!!! Maybe we all need to get together and sit around a Maypole reading our new catalogs to celebrate!

If you are one of my regular customers you should have received a catalog I ordered for you in the mail. Sometimes there are delays in the mail or glitches with the ordering system so if you didn’t get one, let me know. If you are new and interested in Stampin’ Up! products and want a hard copy of the catalog, send me your contact information and I can send you a catalog.

This new catalog has a different look and layout. If you are looking for themed projects with clear instructions and everything you need in one box you’ll find them in the Step-by-Step crafting section (pages 4-11). If you want a mix of products, check out the Quick & Easy options (pages 12-29). And if you are ready for innovative techniques, coordinating products and helpful tools, visit the Creativity Your Way section (pages 30-91).

Stampin’ Up! says, “Never underestimate how you can create, inspire, and connect with something as simple as a handmade card from the heart.” 

Today everyone can see inside the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog!!

CLICK HERE to VIEW THE CATALOG ONLINE!

SHOP HERE TO SEE ALL THE PRODUCTS IN THE ONLINE STORE!

(You will see products that you notice don’t seem like Stampin’ Up! These are products added for the Close To My Heart Makers and customers already signed up with their CTMH account. More will come out later about Stampin’ Up! incorporating the CTMH people and some products after that company has closed. A note will come up if you click on one of those products.)

Remember, the Stampin’ Up! website could be very busy at times today so exercise patience if that little thing just spins around and goes nowhere! Hopefully, all will work perfectly and I can assure you it all works much better than it did many years ago when I was a newer Demonstrator! But computers are computers! If you have difficulty, just wait a couple of minutes and try again. Also, I would advise getting your very favorite products as soon as you can because you know how some products sell out pretty quickly.

Notice the new Core color, Basic Beige! It will be an interesting neutral. You’ll find an ink pad (#163806), reinker (#163815), cardstock (#164511), and ribbon (#163788)! You’ll want to stamp with Basic Beige and then try the No-LIne Watercoloring!

Watch this video and besides hearing about the new catalog, enjoy seeing the inside of the Stampin’ Up! Home Office in Riverton, Utah!

Lots more to talk about but go enjoy the new catalog!

Make Your Own Stamped Gift Wrap

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Cottage Wreath Stamped Gift Wrapped Package

It’s that time of year! Time for wrapping presents! But what if you run out of store-bought wrapping paper? Or do you only have Christmas wrapping paper and you need to wrap a birthday gift? Just stamp your own paper! Now, this may only work for small gifts, although if you have some of that brown paper they use inside boxes to protect something being mailed you might be able to use that for larger packages. Anyway, keep this idea in mind for someday when you might need it!

I just used a sheet of computer paper to make the beautiful Cottage Wreath gift wrap in the photo above. You could also use cardstock, but it would be heavier and possibly not as easy to wrap around something. This is actually a fun thing to do because random stamping is fun!

I just stamped one of the wreaths in the Cottage Wreaths Stamp Set randomly on the computer paper. I happened to use three different colors of green ink for fun – Granny Apple Green, Soft Succulent, and Pear Pizzazz. Then I stamped the bows on the wreaths in different colors, too – Real Red, Gorgeous Grape, Bermuda Bay, and Daffodil Delight. For the finishing touch, I stamped the “Merry Christmas” greeting in the stamp set in between some of the wreaths. I think it turned out pretty cute! You could make your own gift wrap with almost any of your stamp sets, even words, actually.

I was going to wrap an empty box just to show what my new wrapping paper looked like, but then I thought, I have a ton of family gifts to wrap, I should wrap a REAL gift! So this is a real gift going to my daughter with my homemade gift wrap. I tied on some Real Red Ribbon in a bow and now I have one gift wrapped! I could actually make a tag out of a stamped or diecut wreath that would be cute also.

Cottage Wreath Stamped Gift Wrapped Package

Whether or not you need wrapping paper, just for fun stamp a sheet of your own gift wrap! It’s good for the soul! Make it for Christmas, a birthday, or something crazy! It’s a good way to get even more uses out of your stamps!

True Beauty Stamped Card

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True Beauty Stamped Card

This True Beauty Stamped Card is not at all what I had in mind when I started to make a card! So you never know what you will end up creating, no matter what idea you have in your mind! And it’s okay if you don’t even have an idea in your mind, you will still create something.

I already had this True Beauty Stamp Set out as I used it on another project and some of the ink colors as well. I had some diecut flowers as well on my table, but in the moment I decided to stamp the flowers directly on the Basic White Cardstock. These flowers are a little large for a card front so it was difficult not to overlap them. But I decided that was okay! I still liked the way it looked and continued on with more flowers and leaves stamped in the spaces without getting too overdone!

The card base is Pool Party Cardstock with the Basic White stamped layer. I thought about putting an extra layer, either Basic White or Daffodil Delight under the stamped layer, but I liked it as it was. The stamped layer is a little smaller so the margins of the Pool Party show better. The Basic White layer is 5″ x 3 3/4″. The flowers are stamped in Calypso Coral, Daffodil Delight, and Pool Party inks with the leaves done in Granny Apple Green ink.

I chose a greeting from the same True Beauty Stamp Set, stamped it in Pool Party ink, and die cut it with one of the Tailor Made Tag Dies. I thought a Daffodil Delight ribbon would be good, but I changed my mind to Pool Party and colored the White Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon with a Dark Pool Party Stampin’ Blend Marker. I popped up the tag with Stampin’ Dimensionals®. Since I saw some ink smudges on the tag (oops!) and added some Champagne Rhinestones Basic Jewels on the tag and around the card. It’s hard to stop!! There are a lot of other “bling” choices I could have used so use what you have.

Here is another card using the True Beauty Stamp Set with the flowers diecut and then adhered to the card front.

That’s all there is to this easy card. It’s fun to do some real stamping all over the page instead of doing a lot of diecuts and designer paper. In fact, if you wanted to make several cards at once, you could stamp randomly all over a piece of 8 1/2″ x 11″ cardstock and then cut it down for individual cards. Then you have made your own background and designer paper for your card! It feels good to stamp and stamp and stamp! Try it! I hope this True Beauty Stamped Card gives you an idea for a simple card using basic stamping!

Shop Stampin’ Up! Online Here! Don’t Forget the Last Chance Products!

You Are Invited to Join My Stamping With Karen Mailing List!

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Email Yellow envelope

You are invited to join my Stamping With Karen Mailing List so you will keep up with any news or special offers from Stampin’ Up! in a weekly email, get ideas for cards and projects, learn new techniques and stamping tips, and…..coming sooner than you can imagine……receive my annual “12 Weeks of Christmas” emails with a new holiday project each week leading up to Christmas!

Every Tuesday Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators get updates from Stampin’ Up! about any news or special offers and then I pass anything of interest on to my customers and email subscribers in my weekly email. I feel like this is a personal note to each subscriber to keep in touch and hopefully help you with your stamping and papercrafting.

In October I will begin sending out my annual 12 Weeks of Christmas emails each week with one exclusive holiday project so you can get ideas for cards, gifts, and then bags, tags, and wraps as we get close to the holiday. It’s really fun and people seem to enjoy getting these bonus emails, available only to my email subscribers.

Don’t miss another week! Join my Stamping With Karen Mailing List TODAY plus get a FREE GIFT, creative ideas for gift wrapping to save you a last-minute trip to the store! Click the link below OR find the red sign-up box on the top right side of my blog!

SIGN UP HERE! GET A FREE GIFT!

Monochromatic Fable Friends Bunny Easter Card

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Monochromatic Fable Friends Bunny Easter Card

Even though this Botanical Butterfly Designer Paper is no longer available since Sale-A-Bration ended, but I’ve had this Monochromatic Fable Friends Bunny Easter Card in my mind for a awhile and I imagine a lot of you have this paper from your Sale-A-Bration order.

Easter is only a week away, so if you are pressed for time to make some cards and get them sent out, you might want to make something easy like this card.

The card base is Highland Heather Cardstock, one of the new colors from the current catalog. This is one of the coordinating colors of the Botanical Butterflies paper and we have a whole sheet of this floral Highland Heather all in one color. It was a paper that I could use with the bunny from the Fable Friends Stamp Set. I just trimmed about a 1 1/4″ strip of the floral paper and a layer of Whisper White and adhered the paper to the Whisper White. I tied a ribbon and bow around the strip with the Whisper White 1/8″ Sheer Ribbon. The bunny is stamped in Highland Heather Ink on the Whisper White as is the greeting in the same stamp set of Fable Friends.

Not one to leave things alone, I risked messing up the whole card by coloring in the bunny’s jacket with a Blender Pen and a tiny bit of Highland Heather Ink. I just touched the Blender Pen to the ink pad, wiped it a little bit on my Grid Paper to make it lighter and then colored in the jacket. I even added a bit of the color to the inside of his ears. I think it helps set off the bunny a little bit.

If you really like to color, I would highly recommend coloring in the bunny with whatever method you like…..but if you want to make a super easy, quick card try this monochromatic method. It also works well on the smaller Notecards & Envelopes.

For a quick card, try making something that you can just stamp in one ink color with maybe a coordinating piece of designer paper or ribbon like this Monochromatic Fable Friends Bunny Easter Card.

PS: Remember! The Stampin’ Up! Retiring List comes out tomorrow afternoon, April 15, at 1:00 PM (MT). Also, the Stampin’ Up! OnStage events were held over the weekend so if you look around online, you will find photos of the new catalog cover and some of the new stamp sets, new In Colors, and more!