graceful evergreen deer hot foil card

graceful evergreen deer hot foil card

The Graceful Evergreen Deer Hot Foil Bundle caught my eye during the pre-release and I just knew it would make beautiful and elegant Christmas cards! I combined it with Silver and Red foil and the Magical Christmas Hot Foil dies and created this easy Christmas card!

Measurements:
BASE: Basic White CS: 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″, scraps for hot foiling

Let me take you through the Hot Foil System Instructions first.

Plug in the machine and press the White Button – the platform takes a while to heat up – so be patient and wait for the first beep!

When the platform beeps press the white button and play the hot foil dies on the platform.
The platform will beep a last time and the lights will all be lit – when the green light is on you are ready!

Place the foil cut off the rolls sized enough to cover the dies shiny side down over the dies.

Then add the paper over the foil.

Then cover with the Hot Foil Shim and the Hot Foil Spacer in that order.

Unplug the system and roll through the Stampin’ Cut and Emboss machine VERY SLOWLY. You want ample time for the foil to contact with the paper and transfer!
Remove from the machine I roll through forwards and backwards and then remove the foil from the paper and die cut your beautiful deer out using the Stampin’ Cut and Emboss machine with the BASE plate #1, the Small die adaptor p[late #2 and sandwich the paper and the cutting dies inbetween 2 Cutting Plates #3s.

I also placed the Shining Stars smallest star dies on the paper after cutting the deer for absolutely NO FOIL went to waste!

I also plugged the Hot Foil System back in and redid the steps with the reverse Hot Foil Plate. Because this is such a large plate to heat up I deviate from the original instructions here and place the Reverse Hot Foil Plate on the platform immediately after plugging it in to give it extra time to heat up all that metal!
When the platform beeps press the white button and the yellow button will start blinking allow this extra time to heat up the die.

Press the white button after the second beep and the lights will all be on red-yellow and green and start to build your sandwich, Foil shiny side down, cardstock, shim and spacer!

Now I had plenty of Hot Foil Dies to build my Christmas cards both the regular and reverse images! Regular images photographed on the left and reverse images are on the right side!
Now to build an easy Christmas card background for my hot foil dies to shine!

I used the stamps from this bundle and made two masks by stamping directly on my grid paper and cutting them out close to the stamped images.

I stamped two smaller trees in Granny Apple Green ink on the card front.
Covered one of the trees with a mask.
I stamped the larger trees in Shaded Spruce ink both full strength and stamping off to create some color variation and depth.
I added my word Hot Foil Dies from the Magical Christmas Hot Foil Dies.
Added red foil stars from the Magical Christmas Hot Foil dies and Shining Stars dies.
Added the gorgeous deer die.
And finished the card off with the awesome Christmas embellishments Real Red and White Adhesive-backed Peppermints!

Such a fun Christmas card and the Hot Foil dies make it so elegant!

Try your hand at making some Christmas cards out of your stash today – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie

shining stars card – october product of the month

shining stars card – october product of the month

WELL I THOUGHT I WAS EXCITED ABOUT THE OCTOBER PRODUCT OF THE MONTH BUT…

Now that I have it in my hot little hands it is so much better than I expected!!!!! TWENTY-THREE STARS and oh do I have plans for this $5 die set!!!

This is the first of many things you will see with this AWESOME incentive! Fabulous for both card making and scrapbooking too!

This is a simple rainbow color card using the embedded die technique so simple and so stunning!

Measurements:
BASE: Basic White CS: 4 1/4″ x 11″
scored at 5 1/2″, 4″ x 5 1/4″
Gorgeous Grape CS: 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″, scraps for
star dies
Azure Afternoon CS: scraps for star dies
Granny Apple Green CS: scraps for star dies
Daffodil Delight CS: scraps for star dies
Pumpkin Pie CS: scraps for star dies
Real Red CS: scraps for star dies

I die cut five of the smallest stars out of each cardstock color so easy to do as there are 12 of that size!

Adhere the first row of 5 starts to the top of the 4″ x 5 1/4″ Basic White CS layer.
Adhere the Pumpkin Pie stars below the Real Red star dies.

Adhere four Daffodil Delight stars leaving the middle one out and stamp the “I’M LUCKY TO HAVE A” sentiment from the upcoming Friend Like You November Online Exclusive stamp set.

Stamp the Friend in the center of the layer below the Daffodil Delight stars and adhere a Granny Apple Green star on either side of the word.
Stamp “LIKE YOU” on the right hand side below friend and then adhere a line of Azure Afternoon stars below that.
Finish with a row of Gorgeous Grape stars to finish off this layer.
Run the star studded layer through the Stampin’ Cut and emboss machine in the Softly Woven 3D embossing folder!
Adhere this layer to a Gorgeous Grape 4 1/8″ x 5 3/8″ layer.
Adhere the Gorgeous Grape layer to the card front and attach Basic Rhinestone Jewels around the sentiment to finish off this sweet friendship card!

I am so excited about this Product of the Month – BEST ONE YET!!! This will not last long so if this appeals to you too – make sure to get an order together and follow along for all the fun things we are going to make together with this $5 incentive!

Now it’s your turn to create some artwork of your very own – one stamp – one star! at a time!

Happy Stampin’,
Natalie

The Friend Like You stamp set is a pre-order right now so as a reminder it is not available to customers until November and will not be listed in the photo links below.

sneak peak – poetic petals

sneak peak – poetic petals

We are just days away from a new catalog and a new Online Exclusives product release – SOOOOO EXCITING!

Today’s card is a SNEAK PEAK at a upcoming 3D embossing folder from the 2026 September to December catalog available September 1st and an Online Exclusive Bundle called Poetic Petals that has a unique set of floral dies that are going to be so fun to create with!

Measurements:
BASE: Granny Apple Green CS: 4 1/4″ x 11″
scored at 5 1/2″
Basic White CS: 4″ x 5 1/4″, (2) sheets of
2 1/2″ x 11 strips for die cutting, scrap for
sentiment piece

I made a sketch and turned it on it’s side to create this card! Join me in creating something with Sketch #132!

Emboss the 4″ x 5 1/4″ layer with the upcoming Rustic Check 3D embossing folder.
Adhere the embossed layer to the Granny Apple Green CS base.
Using the two Basic White CS strips cut out the poetic petal dies first each square on it’s own and then the floral inside with a square outside around it.
Color each plain square with blending brushes and Poppy Parade ink, Melon Mambo ink, and Granny Apple Green ink.
Glue the floral Poetic Petals overlay to the color blended squares.

Layer the three squares on the Rustic Check embossed background and position where you like.

I popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals the top left and bottom Left squares and tucked the right-hand square and sentiment piece under those two squares.
I added five Sunset Sparkle Sequins to finish off this fun card sketch with this upcoming Online Exclusive bundle available September 1st!

Remember the SNEAK PEAK items will not be in the photo links below until blog posts after the release date!

Now it’s your turn to create something fun – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie

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.

card sketch #131 – sweet old friends

card sketch #131 – sweet old friends

As a demonstrator, Stampin’ Up! supports us in many wonderful ways – one of those is a lovely online newsletter called Succeed Weekly.

This week they announced the new SU Creative Challenge and I made this card to play along!

Here is the sample and card sketch that they gave us!

I decided to use the adorable Silly Old Bear Suite.

Measurements:
BASE: Golden Glow CS: 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″, scrap for sentiment die
Hydrangea Hue CS: 4″ x 5 1/4″, scrap for
sentiment matte die
DSP: 3 3/4″ x 5″

Adhere the Hydrangea Hue CS layer to the Golden Glow Card base.
Die cut opposite corners of the DSP layer with one of the circle dies from the Spotlight on Nature die set.

Die cut the smallest sentiment die from the Sweet words and Labels die set in Golden Glow CS and the next die size up in Hydrangea Hue CS.

Stamp the sentiment in Hydrangea Hue ink on the Smaller Golden Glow CS die.

Adhere the sentiment die to the Hydrangea Hue matte.

Adhere the DSP without the die cuts to the Hydrangea Hue layer on the card base with an even border.
Pop up the Die cut partial circles with Stampin’ Dimensionals in place so that the DSP images line up.
Adhere the sentiment strips to the card – I placed mine partially over the popped up circle at the top left so I added dimensionals on the right side and Stampin’ Seal tape on the left side so it would lay evenly!
I added a small Hydrangea Hue Butterfly embellishment onto Pooh’s nose as he is looking up at the sentiment and two other butterfly embellishments above and below the sentiment strips to finish off the card with a little Hundred Acre whimsy!

I LOVE this Suite it is so sentimental and fun, the paper is sweet and so versatile for children’s cards and adults like us that raised our children in the Winnie the Pooh era!

I hope your day is filled with wonder and that you are able to carve out a little time to craft and create – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie

creativity now sneak peak card

creativity now sneak peak card

One of the coolest things about being a demonstrator is the friendships we make not only with new friends and customers but with other demonstrators!

On August 8th, demonstrators have the opportunity to gather virtually for a day of learning and papercrafting. We also were able to pre-order an upcoming November Online Exclusive suite called Painted Collage.

It is a fun whimsical collage style set with very fun and different Designer Series Paper with Painted images and drawn lines. it is modern and funky and different from anything in our current inventory and I was excited to try and create with the Notes of Collage Bundle.

I made two cards today for you:

Measurements:

Card #1:
BASE: Lemon Lime Twist CS: 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″
Basic White CS: 4″ x 5 1/4″, 1/2″ and 3/4″ strips,
scraps for die

Card #2
BASE: Lemon Lime Twist CS: 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″
scored at 4 1/4″, scraps for die
Basic White CS: 4″ x 5 1/4″, 1/2″ and 3/4″ strips,
scraps for die

For card #1 base I stamped the irregular whimsical circle image in Lemon Lime Twist ink all over the card front.
I used the 4″ x 5 1/4″ Basic white layer and stamped the large leafy sprig in Lemon Lime Twist ink twice (one for each card) and die cut them out.
On July 2nd I posted a card that had a sentiment piece that was blended with a blending brush and Lemon Lime Twist ink and then water splattered with a water painter and tapped against a bone folder to spray water droplets over the surface of the paper. The water droplets “lift” the ink off the paper and make lighter spots everywhere the water touches the card stock.

I used all of the extra paper from those cards and cut strips from the die negative pieces.

I placed them long edge to long edge and stamped the artistic flourish in Hybrid Black ink. Keep them in order and eventually adhere them to the card front.

Die cut the leaf sprig from the Notes of Collage die set in Basic WhIte cardstock and adhere to the left-hand side of the card front.
I adhered the black inked flourish image alternating height: top strip adhered directly to the card and then the next strip underneath the top one adhere with Stampin’ Dimensionals – continuing to alternate every other strip – flat and popped up.
Take an extra strip and stamp a sentiment from the Notes of Collage stamp set in Hybrid Black ink and pop it up with STampin’ Dimensionals on the top left-hand side of the card front.

Adhere embellishments and this first card is complete!

For card #2 I embossed the 4″ x 5 1/4″ Basic White layer with the 3D Fern & Flora embossing folder.

Adhere to the card front of card #2.

Adhere the leaf stamped die to the bottom right-hand side of the embossed layer and the strips to the upper left-hand corner.

Stamp a sentiment onto one of the extra strips and pop up on the bottom of the card.

Embellish and complete!

Reminder this is a SNEAK PEAK of the Painted Collage Suite which will not be available until the November Online Exclusives release so it will not appear below in the photo links!

Now it’s your turn to create some artwork of your very own – one stamp at a time!

Happy Stampin’
Natalie