party alphabet birthday card

party alphabet birthday card

33 years ago today I was in the hospital becoming a Mama. That beautiful baby boy now lives far away and a special card went in the mail this week to let him know how special he is! Handmade cards will do that – they let the receiver know that they are special enough that you sat down and made a card especially for them – designed just for them! It is a wonderful way to show people that you care and only ONE of the many reasons why I LOVE WHAT I DO!

Measurements:
BASE: Golden Glow CS: 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″ scraps for
sentiment
Cajun Craze CS: 4″ x 5 1/4″
Early Espresso CS: 4″ x 5 1/4″
Glow of Harvest Specialty DSP: strips of
2 1/2″ x 12″

Die cut the word happy out of the Early Espresso and different strips of the August Product of the month.
Adhere the Early Espresso letters to the backs of the DSP Party Alphabet letters with them offset just a little.
Embos the 4″ x 5 1/4″ Cajun Craze layer with the Textured Tree Rings 3D embossing folder using the Stampin’ Cut and Emboss machine with the #1 BASE Plate and the Embossing Plate #4.
I used A Family Celebration Online Exclusive stamp set and used an omitting technique.

Have you ever wanted to use just a portion of a sentiment? This technique is an easy way to omit a portion of the stamp. In this set there is a
HAPPY
BIRTHDAY
TO MY

stamp sentiment and I only wanted to use the block lettered birthday word and not the HAPPY or the TO MY so I placed scotch tape carefully over the words I wanted to omit.

Stamped the sentiment in the Early Espresso ink and then removed the tape – now only the word birthday is inked!
Stamp the BIRTHDAY word onto Golden Glow CS scrap and then stamp the “a very” in Early Espresso ink onto another scrap strip of Golden Glow CS.

Adhere the “a very” sentiment in the top elft-hand corner of the embossed layer.

Position the letters for HAPPY on the card front and start to adhere down deciding which letters to raise on Dimensionals and which to adhere down directly.

Finish adhering the letters to make the word HAPPY on the card front.
Pop up the Birthday sentiment piece over the Y in the HAPPY.
I adhered the new Gold Adhesive-backed Dots to the card and they work so well with the pearlized shimmer of the Glow of Harvest Specialty DSP!

This is a sweet and special Fall card for my first born Lehigh son in his school colors and a a great Fall theme for a September birthday!

Now it’s your turn to make a special birthday card – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’

Natalie

more color mondays – pecan pie, mossy meadow and early espresso

more color mondays – pecan pie, mossy meadow and early espresso

Today’s More Color Mondays color challenge card is a gorgeous masculine Christmas card made from the Frosted Pinecones bundle and these dies are just stunning! They do all the work on this card!

Pecan Pie, Mossy Meadow and Early Espresso pair well together for an elegant card that anyone would love to receive! This card follows my Card Sketch #133 also!

Measurements:
BASE: Mossy Meadow CS: 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″, scrap for the sentiment die
and pine needle foliage dies
Basic White CS” (2) 4″ x 5 1/4″
Pecan Pie CS: scraps for dies
Early Espresso CS: scraps for dies

Run one of the Basic White CS layers through the Stampin’ Cut and Emboss machine with the Textured Tree Ring 3D embossing folder in between the BASE #1 plate and the Embossing Plate #4.

Adhere to the Mossy Meadow Cardstock base.

Adhere the second Basic White CS layer to the inside of the card.

Die cut the large and small pinecone mattes out of the Pecan Pie CS scraps.

Die cut the detailed pinecone dies out of the Early Espresso CS.

Die cut the pine needles and the sentiment piece out of the Mossy Meadow CS scraps.

Adhere the Early Espresso detailed Pinecone dies atop the Pecan Pie mattes and then stamp the sentiment onto the Mossy Meadow label in Mossy Meadow ink.
Pop up the sentiment piece and the larger pinecone on Stampin’ Dimensionals and then adhere the smaller pinecone in the center leaving the edges without glue so you can tuck the pine needle dies under all of the pinecones dies and sentiment.
Tuck the pine needle dies under both of the pinecones and sentiment and adhere them down with a little bit of multi-purpose glue.
Adhere the green Glossy Garden Dots to bring some coordinating shimmer to this awesome seasonal card!

I love this seasonal card – it is just perfect for so many things – my guy friends, my friends that celebrate the upcoming seasons a little differently than me and the ones that do celebrate Christmas as well! I love this card and the way it turned out! Hope you like it too and that it inspires you because now it’s your turn to create some artwork of your very own – one stamp at a time!

Need a NEW September to December catalog – let me know or pick one up at the next class!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie

more color mondays – pretty peacock, shaded spruce and azure afternoon

more color mondays – pretty peacock, shaded spruce and azure afternoon

Today’s More Color Monday is a SNEAK PEAK of the upcoming holiday catalog starting September 1st – the September through December 2026 catalog – it is packed full of Fall and Holiday sets as well as other fun sets and items – I cannot wait for you to get your hands on it! They will be available at my Open House next month and also to pick or mail!

This Dreamy Snowflakes bundle is delightful with a hybrid embossing folder and delicate snowflake dies the possibilities are endless.

Today’s More Color Monday color challenge features a set of two cool tone cards using Pretty peacock, Shaded Spruce and Azure Afternoon! I also used the upcoming Designer Series Paper Whispering Woods which is our annual GIVE BACK promotion – Small choices can make a BIG difference. With every purchase of Our Whispering Woods DSP Stampin’ Up! will donate $3 to organizations that help spread Holiday cheer! An extra reason to feel great about your crafting!

Measurements:
BASE: Azure Afternoon CS: 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 1 1/4″ and 5 1/2″ then flip it 180
degrees so the small tab is on the right-hand
side
Basic White CS: (2) 4″ x 5 1/4″, 2 3/4″ x 5 1/4″
and a scrap piece
DSP: 1″ x 5 1/4″

Blend the three colors with blending brushes on one of the 4″ x 5 1/4″ pieces of Basic White CS. Then splatter by flicking the ink from the brush tip side of the Dark Azure Afternoon Stampin’ Blends marker onto the blended paper.
For the first card I cut out all of the delicate snowflake dies and for the second card I stamped the trio of snowflakes in Pretty Peacock ink over the blended background and cut them out.
Score the base card at 1 1/4″ and 5 1/2″ and then turn 180 degrees so that the smaller tab is on the right-hand side.

Using the other 4″ x 5 1/4″ Basic White layer stamp the snowflake border at the bottom of the layer in Pretty Peacock ink.

Stamp the six sided border in Azure Afternoon ink and then stamp the sentiment inside that.
Blend the surface with the three inks and die cut.
Emboss the surface with the hybrid embossing folder. Adhere to the center of the border stamped layer.
Cut one of the extra snowflakes and adhere to the lower edge.

Adhere to the inside center panel of the card base.

Adhere the Whispering Woods watercolor wash pattern to the outside of the smaller panel.
emboss the 2 3/4″ x 5 1/4″ Basic White CS layer in the hybrid Dreamy Snowflakes embossing folder and adhere to the outside left-hand side panel.
Adhere the snowflake die border to the left-hand side of the embossed layer.
Did you know that if you take a small dab of our “green glue” (Multi-Purpose glue) and allow it to dry it will become tacky to the touch and be a semi permanent glue that you can use as a fastening tool!

Here I added it to the tip of the sentiment banner to allow it to be the fastener to close the card!

Adhere and pop up the rest of the delicate snowflake dies on over the embossed layer.

Stamp the Merry Christmas sentiment in the banner die and adhere over the gate fold edge.

The second card used the stamped and die cut snowflakes for a totally different look!
This is one of my favorite bundles in the new catalog – let me know if you would like a catalog!

Now it’s your turn to start thinking about what you will be making for Christmas for your friends, neighbors and family! Go and create – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin”
Natalie

Remember these are SNEAK PEAK Products and will not be available in the photo links below until they are available to the public!

I realized that I did not add bling – that’s a sin in this studio LOL so I added Basic Rhinestone Jewels to both cards and rephotographed them!
creativity now alternate cards and pages

creativity now alternate cards and pages

During Covid, Stampin’ Up! like most companies pivoted to online events for demonstrator education instead of in person…

Creativity Now was born from that necessity and has been a well attended online seminar for the last few years…now that the world is relatively back to normal they announced that this year’s Creativity Now would be the last one.

We were sad to hear that but with the introduction of Online card classes and Virtual card and Album Retreats the event has become redundant…So join me today to see the creative inspiration from our last Creativity Now event and the alternative projects I created!

Creativity Now used a pre-order upcoming Online Exclusive Suite that was definitely a different style for me called the Painted Collage Suite with the Notes of Collage bundle and Painted Collage DSP. But like most times I start to play with the products and fall in love with the designs!

These first projects are two of the projects I did from the instructions for projects A and B.

A is a card using water coloring techniques on our watercolor paper and a matching envelope made from our Designer Series Paper!

Project B is a card on card design for a gift card holder – the blank center portion of the smaller Cajun Craze tri-fold card on card is where the gift card would be attached and this uses the smaller vingnettes from one of the DSP pages.
It also uses the cross hatch die pattern as a cool background under the tri-fold card!
Project C was a two page scrapbooking spread for an 8 X 10 album and since I scrapbook in 8.5 x 11 or 12 x 12 I converted the layout elements into 8.5 x 11 scrapbooking pages.

The first three photos are from the elements of the 8″ x 10″ scrapbooking spread converted to 8.5″ x 11″.

Project D was a very cool banner which I had no immediate use for so I also took the elements and created more scrapbooking pages!

These next photos are using the banner elements for scrapbooking background elements instead of the banner!

I created a single page spread with the last banner image shown below.
and one last page using more scraps and elements from the unused projects!
When I was preparing and pre-cutting all of the elements for the Creativity Now virtual retreat projects I saved all the negative die cuts and extra Designer Series paper and created some alternate projects and wanted to show you these as well.

This first alternate used the larger leaf die image negative. I backed it with a watercolor Lost Lagoon and Secret Sea DSP pattern.
I blended Secret Sea ink on a 4″ x 5 1/4″ Basic White layer and splattered it with a Secret Sea Stampin’ Blends marker. I adhered the negative die to the right-hand side of the blended layer and adhered both to a Lost Lagoon base.
Added a banner sentiment piece and Dewdrop embellishments to finish off the card with a coordinated look!

This next alternate I used a Golden Glow card base, a 3″ x 5 1/2″ piece of DSP and several left over dies to create this card. I blended the sentiment piece like the last card with Secret Sea ink on a blending brush and splatters with the Secret Sea Stampin’ Blends marker.
This Cajun Craze alternate card uses a blended background with Cajun Craze and Petal Pink inks. Then I stamped the circle image from the Notes of Collage set (SNEAK PEAK this will be available to customers in the next Online Exclusive release) in Petal Pink ink and the rain or teardrop image in Cajun Craze ink in collaged pattern as a background and then splattered the surface with the Cajun Craze Stampin’ Blends marker. I stamped the finer leaf stem on the right-hand side of the layer in Cajun Craze ink and popped up the negative die layer over it on Stampin’ Dimensionals. I adhered this to the Cajun Craze base and added Metallic Gems and a sentiment to finish off this card!
For this next alternate, I blended the background with Secret Sea and Petal Pink inks and blending brushes. Stamped the larger leaf image from the Notes of Collage stamp set in Secret Sea ink on the right-hand side. Added splatter from the Secret Sea Stampin’ Blends marker and the added the negative die over the image. I added an extra die cut that I had and a sentiment and adhered that layer to a Cajun Craze base card and finished it off with Copper Metallic Gems!
My last alternate card I blended a background of Lost Lagoon, Golden Glow and Petal Pink with Splatters and added the last negative die I created. I concentrated the Golden Glow where the negative die openings would be – it looks like a hot mess but when it is covered by the negative die it works! I splattered the entire card with Secret Sea marker and added Secret Sea stamped circles from the Notes of Collage to the negative Golden Glow die piece prior to adhering it to the blended layer. I finished by adhering it to the Golden Glow base and adding gold metallic gems to finish off this lovely alternate card!
Hope these inspired you with some fun and easy techniques.

You can use all of the bits and pieces!

Now it is your turn to go and create some artwork of your very own – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie

PS: Reminder as always ALL SNEAK PEAK items are not available yet so I cannot add then to the photo links below.

let the dsp do all the work

let the dsp do all the work

When you have Designer Series Paper this gorgeous and dies this awesome – just let them do all the work for a fabulous card!

Measurements:
BASE: Azure Afternoon CS: 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″, 3 1/4″ x 3 3/4″
DSP: 4″ x 5 1/4″

This simple card will dazzle!

Die cut the sailboat die out of the Sunset Coast bundle in the same color cardstock as the base card. Cut to 3 1/4″ x 3 3/4″.

Stamp in Hybrid Black ink one of the long sentiments across the top of the die layer.

Adhere the 4″ x 5 1/4″ DSP to the card base.
Pop up the die layer on Stampin’ Dimensionals and place on the DSP so the sunset shows through the circle opening of the die.
Adhere sunset Sparkle Sequins to finish off the card!
Changing the background paper can totally change the look of the card!
And changing the base and cardstock layers can compliment the DSP and add to the card!

Try your scenic papers and these awesome dies and see what you can create – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie

more color mondays – pretty peacock, lost lagoon and pool party

more color mondays – pretty peacock, lost lagoon and pool party

I have been on a little monochromatic tear recently but I love these three color blues together and thought they would be pretty cool used with the new Butterfly Flight masks!

I am loving our new Stampin’ Hot Foil System – it is so amazing and I love the elevated effect it gives your cards and projects!

Check out today’s More Color Mondays color challenge with Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon and Pool Party accented with the gold foil!

Measurements:
BASE: Pool Party CS: 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″
DSP: 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″, 3″ x 4″
Basic White CS: piece large enough to cover
the Butterfly Flight hot foil die
Pretty Peacock CS: piece large enough to cover
the Sweetly Sentimental hot foil die

I used three of the Butterfly Flight hot foil butterfly dies from my first card introducing the new Stampin’ Hot Foil System in last Friday’s blog post.

I placed the die cuts back into the negative die spaces to hold them in place for the mask coloring.

Check out Friday’s post if you want to see the Stampin’ Hot Foil System in action and the details of how to make the Butterfl;y Flight Hot Foil Dies.

I placed mask #1 over the paper with the three butterfly dies in it and drew a pen line around the notch in the plastic mask (I also placed a line down the left hand side of the edge so that each subsequent mask will line up in the same place.)
Using a blending brush and the Pool Party ink brush through the mask openings until all the open spots are inked.

Remove Mask #1 and replace with Mask #2

Using Mask #2 and the Pretty Peacock ink – blend through the holes over the three butterfly dies until desired color is reached.
Lastly remove Mask #2 and place Mask #3 over the three hot foil butterfly dies. Brush through the openings until you are satisfied with the coloring.
Remove the mask.
The end result is stunning and so easy to professionally color these!
Using the same set up and directions as in Friday’s blog post set up the Sweetly Sentimental Hot Foil dies and create a lot of great sentiments for this and future projects!
I love the options with the Beautiful Ordinary Life DSP gorgeous, colorful watercolor washes on one side and black and white on the other.

Adhere the 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″ DSP layer to the card base – I choose the black and white side for the larger layer and the colorful side for the smaller layer. (you could reverse them for a totally different look!)

adhere the 3″ x 4″ DSP colored. side up a llittle askew over the black and white DSP layer.

Pop up the butterflies with Stampin’ Dimensionals and choose your sentiment and pop that up with Foam Adhesive Strips in the center of the card.

Adhere Sunset Sparkle Sequins to the card and you have completed an easy DSP card for a special birthday!

Let me know if you would like to know more about the Stampin’ Hot Foil System and now it’s your turn to create some artwork of your very own -one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie