Category Archives: Birthday

Blessings of Home Birthday Card

This weekend we Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators got to enjoy attending the OnStage Stampin’ Up! event….virtually! If we wanted to, we could preorder a few products so we could stamp along during the event presentations. This Blessings of Home Birthday Card uses some of those new products that will be coming in January in the January-June 2022 Mini Catalog! We got to view the new catalog plus the Sale-A-Bration Brochure also coming in January 2022! If you would like to be a Demonstrator and get in on some of this fun, consider joining now during the special Starter Kit offer during November!

This card uses the new Blessings of Home Stamp Set along with the new Heart & Home Designer Series Paper. I started with a card base of Cinnamon Cider and layered that with a piece of Pale Papaya cardstock. I chose this pattern with the foliage and bumblebees on it and layered that on the Pale Papaya.

The flower bouquet is stamped in Cinnamon Cider ink on Basic White cardstock. I wanted to make it kind of a monochromatic card although it’s not really that. It kind of has the look, though! I only stamped the flowers, I didn’t try to color anything in. This stamp set has a lot of details already designed into the stamp. I die cut the flowers with the die in the Flowers of Home Dies.

The greeting is stamped in Cinnamon Cider Ink on really a scrap of Pale Papaya that happened to be laying there! This sentiment is also in the Blessings of Home Stamp Set. I flagged the ends using the Tailored Tag Punch. This punch is so useful for punching into those ends of cardstock to cut out that little notch to make it look like a banner or flag!

The flower die-cut piece is popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals onto a Pale Papaya scalloped rectangle in the Scalloped Contours Dies. The birthday greeting is laid across the stem with a Dimensional on each end of the strip so that it fits over the popped up flower.

For some bling, I added three of the new Classic Matte Dots in white. Then I remembered the Bumblebee Trinkets that we already have and just had to add one bumblebee to the card! If I hadn’t already popped up the flower, I could have adhered the bumblebee right on the flower bouquet instead of off to the side, but if you get too many layers popped up the embellishments might not make it through the mail! I think the Bumblebee Trinkets will be really cute with this paper!

That’s it! Pretty easy card to make and certainly lots of fun ahead with this new paper and stamping with the new floral stamps! We have to get through the holidays first, but once January hits, you know we will be ready for some fresh new products!

Don’t forget the Seasonal Sale starting Tuesday, Nov. 16 for three days only, through Thursday, Nov. 18!

Don’t miss it!

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Counting Sheep Birthday Card

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If you like sheep, I hope you are able to get this cute stamp set and dies to make a card like this Counting Sheep Birthday Card. I really had fun making this card and coloring the sheep and the background of the card. I think it’s the party hats and balloon that made me so happy! Who can’t be happy when you have party hats??!

The card base is Old Olive and the top layer is Basic White, but I colored it with ink. For the grassy area, I used Granny Apple Green ink and applied it with the Blending Brush. For the sky, I used Coastal Cabana ink. The fences are cut with the Sheep Dies. When I was going through some retired stuff in my stash, I found these wood sheets that Stampin’ Up! sold several years ago. It’s so thin it’s meant to be used like paper almost. So I die cut the fences using the wood sheets rather than paper! I also thought about using the Cork Paper! You can use any card stock you like.

The sheep were stamped on Basic White Cardstock with Memento ink and I colored them in with various Stampin’ Blends. The party hats were also stamped and colored with Blends and then everything was die cut with the Sheep Dies. The stamp set for everything is the Counting Sheep Stamp Set. After I had everything planned where I wanted it placed, I stamped the greeting at the top, which is in the same stamp set. I stamped the “You’re Amazing” on the inside of the card as well.

You can earn the Counting Sheep Stamp Set or the Sheep Dies during Sale-A-Bration with a $50 purchase. If you want both the stamps and the dies, you would need a $100 order. Sale-a-Bration ends Thursday, September 30 so don’t let it pass you by! It’s the biggest promotion of the Stampin’ Up! year and this year we had TWO Sale-A-Brations so that was pretty special…and historic! Check HERE under Sales & Specials in the Online Store to see what is currently available during Sale-A-Bration. Right now the only thing that is gone is the Be Dazzling Designer Paper.

I hope you are having as much fun as these sheep are on this Counting Sheep Birthday Card celebrating someone’s birthday!

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Hand-Penned Gatefold Birthday Card

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Bet you can’t make a card with this Hand-Penned Designer Series Paper, like this Hand-Penned Gatefold Birthday Card, without feeling happy afterward! It’s not about making the card, it’s that designer paper that just is so pleasing to me!

Just to make things a little more interesting, I made this into a gatefold card. Instead of folding the card the normal way, you fold in both sides. The center greeting is just glued on the left side so that it can be opened!

The card base is Basic White. Cut the cardstock in half like usual – 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″. But don’t score and fold in the middle! Score each end at 2 1/8″. The math is that you want the center of the card to be 5 1/2″ x 4 1/4″. So you divide 4 1/4″ in half, so each side “gate” will fold in to cover the center of the card. That gives you 2 1/8″ on each end. Mine somehow didn’t quite meet in the middle. Maybe I should have folded the sides in from the opposite side. You can try both ways!

For this card, I cut a Highland Heather piece of cardstock to go on the inside of the card. I made it the usual layer size, 5 1/4″ x 4″. I stamped a greeting on the inside before I adhered it to the center of the card. This greeting is from the Inspired Thoughts Stamp Set.

On the front of the card, I cut a layer of Highland Heather to go behind the Hand-Penned Designer Series Paper. Since the gate-fold panel is already pretty narrow, you have to cut the other layers pretty narrow. The Highland Heather layer is 5 3/8″ x 2″ on each gatefold panel. The designer paper is 5 1/4″ x 1 7/8″.

Now as I was putting glue on the back of this pretty floral designer paper, I also liked the Highland Heather color print on the other side. So I added that side of the designer paper to the inside panels of the card!

Hand-Penned Gatefold Birthday Card Inside

For the greeting on the front of the card, you could use a variety of shapes – circles, rectangles, squares, ovals. Use whatever you like or fits the greeting. I used these two die cuts from the Stitched So Sweetly Dies. The Happy Birthday greeting is from the Peaceful Moments Stamp Set. I stamped that in Highland Heather Ink and also stamped a few flowers and leaves in the Hand-Penned Petals Stamp Set. Layer the Basic White stamped piece on top of the Highland Heather piece. Be sure to only apply adhesive to the left side of the greeting from the middle over to the left side. Check the inside to make sure no glue is showing on the inside or it will stick to the other side of the card. I added two Elegant Faceted Gems to each side of the Highland Heather die cut.

Here is a fairly recent card I made in the gatefold style using the Expressions In Ink Designer Series Paper.

This is an easy card but the gatefold gives it a little extra pizzazz. Try your hand at making something like this Hand-Penned Gatefold Birthday Card.

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Bloom Where You’re Planted Happy Birthday Card

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If you would like to make this Bloom Where You’re Planted Happy Birthday Card, you can buy the paper with the plants and the paper with the background both on sale in the Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper Sale! There are nine select papers on sale right now through August 2 so you can stock up or try out new ones at a 15% discount!

To make this card, I used two of the papers on sale now – In Good Taste for the background and Bloom Where You’re Planted for the plants! In Good Taste is a giant package of paper, 24 sheets of paper, 2 papers each of 12 different designs. You are sure to find patterns for every creation in this package! Each sheet has photographic images of wood, tile, stone, and other elements to add visual textures to all kinds of projects. These would be great backgrounds for scrapbook pages as well.

For the card base, I used Early Espresso Cardstock. Since this paper is so dark, you will want to add a Basic White or lighter color layer inside the card on which to stamp or write your message. You might even stamp or add a cutout image of one of the plants to this inside layer for a fun surprise.

For the plants, I just went through the Bloom Where You’re Planted Designer Paper and chose some plants I wanted to cut out. This paper has sheets of separate plants and pots, leafy backgrounds as well as various generic backgrounds to look like walls where you might place a plant. If you have the Perfect Plant Dies, you can cut out certain pots and plants on separate papers by running them through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine. I just used my Paper Snips to cut out one separate pot and separate plant and the other two were the full pot and plant on another sheet.

The largest plant on the left is popped up on Stampin’ Dimensionals® and the other two are adhered right down on the background paper. I found a retired spool of twine and used that to tie a little bow and adhered it to the middle pot with a Mini Glue Dot.

The greeting was already die-cut in a little pile on my table from the Many Messages Stamp Set and Messages Die. This is an amazing concept! It’s like a large background stamp filled with greetings that is best to stamp with the Stamparatus so you make sure every inch is stamped fully. Then die cut with the one large die, making sure it is lined up properly, and it cuts out all the greetings in one fell swoop! You used to be able to buy both the stamp set and die in a Bundle, but that retired now so you have to buy them separately. However, they added a new stamp set, the Many Happenings Stamp Set, for even more greetings to be stamped and die-cut in the same way! If you stamp and cut out these greetings maybe in a couple of colors of ink or on different colors of cardstock, then store them in a little box or bag, you will have a whole bunch of greetings ready to go when you don’t have time to look for a specific stamp set to use!

In this previous post, you can see how I used the Stamparatus to stamp all these greetings!

Check out all the papers on sale, if you haven’t already! Maybe you have purchased one of the patterns already but used a lot of it. Now is the time to stock up on more at a discount! Every little bit helps! My Bloom Where You’re Planted Happy Birthday Card was fun to make!

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Pattern Party 2-4-6-8 Birthday Gift Bag

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If you are able to get this Pattern Party Designer Series Paper, I think you will really enjoy using it as I did making this Pattern Party 2-4-6-8 Birthday Gift Bag! I thought this festive diagonal stripe would make a fun gift bag, at least for a small gift or treat, and certainly a 2-4-6-8 gift bag (or box) is easy enough to make!

The Pattern Party Designer Series Paper is an item you can choose as one of your Stampin’ Rewards with an order of $150 or more. That’s a big order but maybe some friends would like to go in on the order with you and you could divide up the paper because it’s a big package! Twelve different designs and four pages of each!

We’ve made this bag a bunch of times before but even I have to go back and review the directions. It is very easy though! Once you know how to do it, you can vary the size by using a larger or smaller piece of paper. Always be sure the pattern of the paper is going in the direction you want it to go in so you don’t end up with upside down flowers or animals or a stripe going sideways when you wanted it to go up and down.

For this gift bag, I started with a piece of paper 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″. I just scored it at 2″, 4″, 6″ and 8″ going across the paper. Then I turned it and scored at 1 1/2″ for the bottom tabs of the bag. Trim off the little 1/2″ bottom piece and cut on the 2″, 4″, 6″, and 8″ score lines for the bottom flaps up to the 1 1/2″ score line. Difficult to see in the photo below but you can get the idea.

Pattern Party Small 2-4-6-8 Birthday Gift Bag scoring

Assemble the box, putting adhesive on that 1/2″ piece on the side. You can just fold over the other side of the bag with it laying flat on the table. You don’t have to try to maneuver it in your hands! Apply adhesive to the bottom flaps, first doing a “test” to see which way you want the flaps to go in before you glue. Then pay attention to where the seam is and try to have that face the back. Fold in the bottom flaps, trying to make the front of the bag look nice.

To decorate this bag, I stamped “Happy Birthday” in the Pansy Patch Stamp Set in Pale Papaya Ink. Then I die cut it with one of the Layering Circles Dies and layered it on a scalloped circle die in Pale Papaya Cardstock. It’s perfect fit! I needed something big enough to fit the greeting but not too big for the bag! I popped that up with two Stampin’ Dimensionals.

For the top of the bag, you can leave it open, or kind of squeeze in the sides and pinch the top together. Punch or poke some holes in the top for ribbon. I used the Pale Papaya 3/8″ Open Weave Ribbon to tie the top closed in a bow. Have I said how much I love that ribbon?! Then for a little extra, I added some of the Genial Gems on the greeting and on the bag. These come in two colors, Pale Papaya and Mint Macaron but I think you can use them even without matching colors.

Knowing how to make a 2-4-6-8 bag is something you should know how to do as a papercrafter! They are fun to make, not to mention useful when you need some cute packaging for a small gift or treat! Here’s a very similar one made for Valentine’s Day. Being able to make an easy gift bag just might save you a trip to the store!

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Expressions in Ink Birthday Card With Gold Foil

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THIS PAPER!!! Expressions in Ink Specialty Designer Series Paper (155464) Order it!

Okay, that’s really all that needs to be said for this blog post! But since you probably want to know more about the card and the paper, I’ll continue.

When I first saw a Stampin’ Up! video giving us Demonstrators a sneak peek at some of the new Annual Catalog products, I fell in love with this Expressions in Ink Suite! And when I saw it online in the catalog I wanted to order it right away. But it was not on our Demonstrator pre-order so I had to wait just like everyone else. My order just came and I have to say, when I opened this package of paper and looked at the sheets, I just gasped! It is beautiful and striking with the gold foil accents on one side of the sheets. You must have it!

Here are closeups of some of the sheets of paper, but even these do not do it justice!

For the card, I started out copying the catalog sample on page 96 in the upper right of the samples. It turned out not exactly the same. I dared to cut into one of the papers, trying to match the pattern I could see on the catalog page. Then I stamped the large and small flowers from the Artistically Inked Stamp Set plus the small individual leaves. The large flower is stamped in Polished Pink Ink and the small flower in Pale Papaya. The leaves are stamped in Just Jade Ink since the card base will be Just Jade. You can choose from lots of coordinating colors!

Now when I stamped these flowers and leaves, I didn’t give a lot of thought ahead of time to that gold foil piece placed over the top on the sample. In the Ephemera Pack, I was thinking that there would be individual foil cutout flowers, leaves, etc. to place over my stamped images, but there were not! The pack will still be fun to play with, it just didn’t have what I was expecting. Then I realized, I just needed to die-cut a gold foil piece from the Artistic Dies. While my flowers and leaves lined up pretty well with the die-cut, and while it doesn’t and shouldn’t be perfect because this is a watercolor look, I did add another stamped leaf and then got my foil to line up pretty well.

I highly recommend using Adhesive Sheets on the back of the Gold Foil Sheets before die-cutting this intricate design, which I always forget, but I did manage to use teeny tiny dots of the Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the back. The greeting comes in the stamp set and I stamped that in Polished Pink Ink and placed it in a lower position than on the catalog sample. For a little extra, I used a strip of the Just Jade & Gold 3/8″ Braided Ribbon, a little frayed on the ends, and adhered just below the greeting a tiny bit. And for a little more bling, I wanted to try out the little adhesive-backed iridescent sequins in the Ephemera Pack. You can see about five of those placed around the card.

This is a relatively easy card to make, using both stamping and designer paper, or rather stamping ON the designer paper, plus the die-cut Gold Foil accent and other embellishments. I suggest you order this paper, or the whole Suite of products sooner rather than later because once word gets out about how beautiful this Suite is, it could be backordered by the time you decide to get it. Hopefully, Stampin’ Up! anticipated how popular this Suite would be and ordered plenty!

You might also consider the June Paper Pumpkin Kit which will coordinate with this Suite! Even if you subscribed before and dropped, you may want to come back just for this kit at least if you like the style of the Expressions In Ink Suite of products!

Here’s another view of my card without so much glare from the foil! I hope you are as attracted to this Suite as I am!

Expressions In Ink Birthday Card With Gold Foil Closeup

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Gingham Pansy Petals Birthday Card

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I got this Gingham Pansy Petals Birthday Card idea from a sample in the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog, coming May 4. I changed it up a little bit as often happens even when you think you are going to copy a card exactly! I’ve been seeing so many pansies around the neighborhood recently and I think of this beautiful new Pansy Petals Suite coming soon!

I love this Pansy Petals Designer Series Paper, not only for the pansies, but for the designs on the non-floral sides, like this gingham pattern. The sample in the catalog uses this pattern of the tiny pansies all close together and then uses the opposite yellow side for a layer underneath. I chose this Fresh Freesia gingham pattern on another sheet and layered it on a card base of Fresh Freesia. Fresh Freesia is one of the incoming In Colors 2021-23 so be sure to look for those!

I left a wide margin, about 1/2″ of the gingham showing, which them always makes the top layer look very small. In reality, it all fits just fine. I added a piece of the Fresh Freesia 3/8″ Open Weave Ribbon around the pansy paper and tied a bow separately and adhered it with a Mini Glue Dot.

The greeting is stamped with “Happy Birthday” in a pretty font in the Pansy Patch Stamp Set. I didn’t want too small of a die-cut but nothing too big and I think this one in the Stitched So Sweetly Dies is just right. These dies are in the current catalog and thankfully are carrying over to the new catalog! They’re very versatile.

I couldn’t resist adding some of the new In Color Jewels that are so pretty! Be sure you put a package or two of those on your first order! They are beautiful colors for a little embellishment.

The Pansy Petals Suite Collection comes with the Pansy Patch Bundle (stamp set and dies), the Pansy Petals Designer Series Paper, plus the cute little Bumblebee Trinkets. If you like this Gingham Pansy Petals Birthday Card, I hope you will take a look at the Pansy Petals Suite because it will make pretty cards for you!

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Fine Art Floral Birthday Card

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If you want to make a very quick and easy card, this Fine Art Floral Birthday Card is it! After hours of designing this card….I mean, when I pulled out the package of designer paper and saw this already cut strip of floral paper, I thought it would make a beautiful card! That’s how easy it is sometimes! Maybe sometimes you can spend hours working on one card, but it really isn’t necessary!

One of the many coordinating colors of the Fine Art Floral Designer Series Paper is Flirty Flamingo so I chose that color for the card base. I almost just glued on the designer paper, but I decided to try some strips of another color on each side. Old Olive won.

And as luck would have it, there was already a die-cut scalloped oval in the bag of cardstock so I just used that for the greeting. I stamped the birthday greeting from the Art Gallery Stamp Set on Basic White and die cut that with a plain oval in the Layering Oval Dies. I popped up the greeting with Stampin’ Dimensionals. As usual, I couldn’t resist adding a few Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewels for some bling!

You could put an Easter greeting on this card and it would be beautiful to send, also! You just can’t go wrong with this beautiful Fine Art Floral Designer Series Paper for birthday cards or any other cards as well.

Hey Chick and Hey Birthday Chick Coming Soon!

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Maybe you noticed the Hey Birthday Chick Stamp Set in the new January-June 2021 Mini Catalog on page 52 and maybe you thought it looked familiar. If you were a Stampin’ Up! customer back in 2017 during Sale-A-Bration, you may have chosen the Hey Chick Stamp Set as one of your free Sale-A-Bration products!

Apparently, it was such a popular stamp set back then that Stampin’ Up! is bringing it back in February! If you already own this stamp set, you are ahead of the game! And if you don’t, you will get a chance to own it beginning February 2. And get the new Chick Dies, too! Just look at those cute images and imagine what you could make with them!

Maybe you have already purchased the Hey Birthday Chick Stamp Set in the Mini Catalog. On February 2, you can also get a set of dies to go with it or purchase both the stamp set and dies in a Bundle.

These Chick stamps and dies will be available February 2 through the end of June! If you like cute chickens, these are the stamps and dies for you!

Less than 2 weeks!!

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Art Gallery Floral With Gilded Frame Card

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I couldn’t wait to play with the new Gilded Leafing again but I wanted to try something different and I came up with this Art Gallery Floral With Gilded Frame Card.

I’ve loved the little floral stamp in the Art Gallery Stamp Set in the Fine Art Floral Suite. I got the idea to stamp the flower and then make a gilded frame around it. Instead of using Versamark Ink and Heat & Stick Powder before applying the Gilded Leafing, as I did on this card, I simply made the frame with strips of Tear & Tape Adhesive! You can either pick up pieces of the gold leaf and stick it onto the adhesive, which I started doing. But then I just plunged the piece into my container, pulled it out but still held it over the container, and simply rubbed most of the excess off with my fingers. The Gilded Leafing is so soft, you almost want to stick your hands in it! When I had most of it off, I used a soft brush I had from years ago to brush off the last little bits. You can also use one of the Stamping Sponges.

The card base is Night of Navy, and I chose that because on another card I made with the Dandy Garden DSP I really liked the yellow flowers and dark blue background of that paper. I started off coloring the stamp with Stampin’ Write Markers but since it was new and I hadn’t prepared the stamp first, the ink from the markers just beaded up. I decided to just skip to a regular ink pad, Mango Melody. I tried to mostly get it on the flowers but I knew that even if I got it on the leaves, that’s okay because they would be covered with green ink. On these I did use the Mossy Meadow Stampin’ Write Marker because it was the darkest green and it would look lighter stamped. What you see on the card is my first attempt, so it worked out great! I layered this on a piece of Mango Melody Cardstock and then added the Gilded Leafing around the sides.

Since I had used the Mango Melody under the flower piece, I decided to use it as a thin layer on top of the Night of Navy card base. The top layer is a piece of the Fine Art Floral Designer Series Paper. Instead of using the floral side, of course, I turned it over and used this light blue with a pattern on it that looks like it was painted with a paint brush! To add to that texture, I embossed the paper with the Painted Texture 3D Embossing Folder.

I adhered the floral piece to the card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals®. For the greeting, I stamped a birthday sentiment from the Art Gallery Stamp Set in Mossy Meadow Ink and then die-cut it with a die in the Floral Gallery dies. I think all of these main products are in the Fine Art Floral Suite! I’m sure it will be one of the most popular Suites in the Spring Mini Catalog! Everything in that Suite is lovely!

If it isn’t on your shopping list yet, be sure to put it on there, at least if you like florals. The paper is gorgeous. The Gilded Leafing is fun and elegant. The Fine Art Ribbon is beautiful and soft. You will want everything!

Remember, with every $50 increment you purchase, you earn a free Sale-A-Bration product! If you spend $100 or more, you can choose one of the special Level 2 products, unless you want two Level 1 products at the $50 level.

Art Gallery Floral With Gilded Frame Closeup

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It’s Time For “Curvy Celebrations”!

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Not only is today Election Day but you can purchase an early-release group of products called Curvy Celebrations! Celebrate with curvy stamps, dies, and more! Designed for a variety of special occasions, so you can get a lot of use out of it.

This set will be in the upcoming January-June 2021 Mini Catalog but you can purchase it now! If you purchase the entire group, the Quite Curvy Variety Bundle (158396), you will save 10%! The Christmas items in this Bundle are only available until January 4, 2021. The rest will be in the Mini Catalog in January. The last “safe” day to order before Christmas is December 10th, according to Stampin’ Up! but I’d order as soon as possible. Click on the images below.

The best value is the Quite Curvy Variety Bundle. You get these items:

Quite Curvy Stamp Set
Curvy Dies
Curvy Christmas Stamp Set
Classic Christmas 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper

Quite Curvy Variety Bundle Image — https://su-media.s3.amazonaws.com/media/Promotions/2020/Q4_OOP/flyer/10.27.20_DEMO_FLYER2_Q4_OOP_NA.pdf

Check it all out in the Stampin’ Up! Online Store TODAY!

If you click on the three horizontal bars on the top left of the Home Page of the Store and click on the “What’s New” category, you will see the Quite Curvy Variety Bundle listed. Or use the link above to directly to my page.

Have fun looking over this new group of products designed to give you additional options for your holiday projects and cards!

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Many Layered Blossoms Birthday Card

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This die-cut piece was already laying on my table and I was in a “red” mood so I was pleased how this Many Layered Blossoms Birthday Card came together. Real Red is one of my favorite Stampin’ Up! colors!

You won’t believe how simple this card is to make and yet it will look like you make an elegant, fancy card! That’s what die-cuts can do for you!

The card base is Shimmery White Cardstock, one of my favorite papers! It just barely has a glimmer to it, very subtle, but it is there and makes the paper look rich. It’s a must-have in your stash in my opinion! Then I added a layer of Real Red underneath another piece of Shimmery White.

I had previously used the Many Layered Blossoms Die to cut out this piece or Real Red. I think I was trying out my new Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine to see how it would handle a large and intricate die. So I had this stack of die cuts on my table! I just used the teeniest dots of Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the back of the blossoms and adhered it to the front of the card.

The greeting is from the Blossoms in Bloom Stamp Set. You can buy both the stamp set and the Many Layered Blossoms Dies. Then you will have it all!

I stamped the greeting in Real Red Ink on a strip of Shimmery White and snipped the banner in with the pointy part of the Tailored Tag Punch. Then I layered this on a piece of Real Red.

That’s all there is to this card! If you want a change from Halloween or holiday cards, go back to this popular stamp set and die and make a card like this Many Layered Blossoms Birthday Card.

Arrange a Wreath Happy Birthday Card

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I got several very nice cards for my birthday a couple of weeks ago and this Arrange a Wreath Happy Birthday Card was made by my dear, long-time friend who got me into Stampin’ Up! in the first place!

I still remember stopping by her house when we were in town to go to a wedding shower and her taking just a few minutes to show me some projects she had made at a party by this company called Stampin’ Up! that I had never heard of. I barely knew anything about rubber stamping and had not been successful in my stamping attempts with stamps from the craft store, but her projects were so cute!! She had just received her Starter Kit but hadn’t opened it yet and we didn’t have time that day anyway. When I went back later in the summer for our friend’s wedding, I got to spend time stamping with her and fell in love with it! I didn’t really want to go anywhere else or do anything else, just stay at her house and stamp or look at the cards and things she had made. A few months later, I think, I signed up to be a Demonstrator.

This card was made with the Arrange a Wreath Stamp Set and Wreath Builder Dies. You can purchase both together in a Bundle and save 10%. I have seen some really cute cards made with this Bundle so I just might have to purchase it myself someday!

The card base is Sahara Sand with a layer of designer paper. You could choose something from the In Good Taste Designer Series Paper that might look similar. The wreath is die cut with the Wreath Builder Die out of Old Olive Cardstock. Then you can diecut some flowers from the set in any colors you like to decorate the wreath She used some enamel dots for the flower centers. I think the little Happy Birthday sign hanging from he wreath is so cute!

Obviously you can use this wreath for LOTS of occasions and all the seasons of the year, making this a very versatile stamp set. I love this card!

The latest reports about Hurricane Laura are that Houston is “out of the cone” so we should just have minimal effects, maybe some bands of rain and some gusty winds. The storm will go in around the Texas-Louisiana border which is certainly bad for those people. I just hope our power stays on! We’ve been lucky through many storms but you never know when your power might go out seemingly for no reason! We were making hurricane preparations anyway when it looked like it was coming directly here, so we have batteries and candles and lanterns and a ton of chocolate chip cookies I baked last night!

Take a look at the Arrange a Wreath Bundle for your next Stampin’ Up! order. You’ll find it in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog on page 127 with the dies on page 173. Don’t forget to use your Bonus Coupons from July by August 31 when they expire.

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Masculine Plaid Tidings Birthday Card

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The plaid paper on this Masculine Plaid Tidings Birthday Card is coming soon in the August-December 2020 Mini Catalog on August 4th. Now when I first saw it in the holiday catalog, I wasn’t too thrilled and might have passed it up. I did notice it could be used for Christmas, fall, or Halloween and probably other things but I wasn’t that excited about it. But I did order it and when I opened the package, I just loved the paper!!

The Plaid Tidings 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper package has all kinds of plaids in it. There is a long list of coordinating colors! Although we might think of it as holiday paper, whether for Christmas or the oranges for Halloween, Fall, or Thanksgiving, I decided to use a sheet for a birthday card. While it could be for anyone, the plaid gives it a masculine look in this case and we’re always looking for things that work well for masculine cards for the men in our lives. The red on this paper is Cherry Cobbler and the green might be Shaded Spruce or Mossy Meadow. I wasn’t sure!

The card base is Cherry Cobbler and the red and green plaid paper is adhered to that. The greeting is from the Many Mates Stamp Set. It is stamped in black Memento Ink. It’s an outline stamp and you can leave it as is or in this case I colored in the letters. I used my Cherry Cobbler and Mossy Meadow Stampin’ Blends markers.

I stamped the greeting on Whisper White and die cut it with the Stitched Nested Labels Dies . Then I made layers with the same dies out of Cherry Cobbler and Mossy Meadow.

Due to not having the right colors of ribbon, I decided to just use some 1/4″ strips of cardstock scraps for tails hanging from the bottom of the greeting panel. I even cut the little bitty flagged ends with my Paper Snips. You could use more or less strips. I started thinking three would be good and ended up with five! After adhering the strips on the back of the layers with our new Stampin’ Seal Adhesive, I popped the whole thing up on Stampin’ Dimensionals®. Even then I wanted another little something, so I used two gold Metallic Pearls.

This is actually a pretty easy card to make! If you didn’t have the particular dies, you could use rectangles or ovals or circles or even just cut rectangle layers. Just stamp a greeting and choose your favorite plaid paper for the occasion!

You’ll find the Plaid Tidings Designer Paper in the Holiday Catalog, now known as the August-December 2020 Mini Catalog on page 57. I think you will be surprised how much you like this paper and how often you can use it for your projects, like this Masculine Plaid Tidings Birthday Card.

Banner Blooms Colored Flowers Birthday Card

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This Banner Blooms Colored Flowers Birthday Card is another example of how I did something different than I planned to! I originally thought I would color this die-cut by sponging on some color, maybe in a very soft look. But when I went to actually color on the die-cut, I grabbed my Stampin’ Blends markers instead and went to town!

When I stamp, I am always, always, always using Grid Paper on my table. It is handy for lining things up and especially for measuring quickly and easily. When I took a decorative painting class years ago, the teacher had us put down a towel on the table and after that, I couldn’t paint unless I had a towel underneath my project! Now you can even choose from several kinds of Grid Paper from Stampin’ Up!, even colorful ones! For coloring these die-cut flowers, I needed a plain white paper underneath (and you always need a paper underneath when coloring with Stampin’ Blends because they do bleed through the paper) so I could see the die-cut well. I simply turned my Grid Paper over to the other side.

This card uses Melon Mambo Cardstock for the card base. I chose it after coloring the flowers. I used Shimmery White Cardstock, my favorite, for the die-cut and also for the card layer, because it is good to color on and it has a very subtle shimmer to it. The paper is very pretty all on its own!

I die cut the flower bouquet with the Banner Blooms Dies. This die is really different from the ones we have had. I found that it works best placing the die cutting side up with the paper on top rather than face down on the paper. I don’t know why, but it does! I also ran it through my machine three times and after that, almost all the pieces popped out on their own and the few that were left I used the Take Your Pick Die Brush Tip to roll over the die cut piece and also over the die to get out just a few pieces of paper that remain in the die.

As I said, I planned to use maybe Sponge Daubers to lightly sponge on ink colors on the flowers and leaves over the die, not really being precise, just adding color. But then I grabbed my Stampin’ Blends Markers and had fun coloring the whole thing! I didn’t try to be absolutely perfect but used mostly the brush tips of the markers to quickly color in the different areas. On the really narrow areas, I used the tip ends of the markers. I usually started with the Light color and also added the Dark for a tiny bit of shading. Since I LOVE coloring with these markers I didn’t find the coloring tedious.

To make the banners going across the bouquet, just stamp the greeting in the Hand-Drawn Blooms Stamp Set on a scrap piece of paper. Then line the die up over the stamped greeting (but you don’t need a full piece of paper or you’ll be wasting it). You will end up with the portion with the stamped banners. Then just trim these off the rest of the bouquet and adhere to the bouquet you have just colored. The greetings in the stamp set are doubled-up to fit perfectly on the banner areas. You could also cut out the banners and use stamps from other sets that would fit.

The banners are stamped in Melon Mambo ink. I popped them up on Stampin’ Dimensionals®. I added two Magenta Madness 2020-22 In Color Enamel Dots to the banners.

The whole bouquet is adhered to the card with lots of teeny tiny dots of Multipurpose Liquid Glue. I placed the bouquet on the Silicone Craft Sheet which held it steady and it didn’t matter if a little glue got on the craft sheet.

A good thing to use for delicate die-cuts like this is the Adhesive Sheets which you adhere to the paper before die-cutting and it turns the die-cut into a sticker when you remove the backing paper. I just never think ahead to use it!

Here is another card I made with the Banner Blooms Die using Rainbow Glimmer Paper, another great option if you don’t want to color in!

Remember, we only have about a week left of Bonus Days! When you spend $50 on any order, you will receive via email a $5 Bonus Coupon to use on an order in August. No limit to how many coupons you can earn with every $50 you spend! Bonus Days ends on July 31.

SHOP STAMPIN’ UP! ONLINE HERE!

Stamping With Karen

Having Fun With Paper, Ink, and Stamps

Category Archives: Birthday

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Banner Blooms Colored Flowers Birthday Card