I got in quite a bit of stamping yesterday, and out of nowhere (as in not any ideas I had of making these cards!), I came up with this Trio of Broadway Bound Easy Square Birthday Cards.  I was in one of those “idea modes” of looking at stamping ideas online, starting to make one of the ideas, then deciding to make another idea I saw and so on!  These cards came about while wanting to make a card with one of these Broadway Bound Specialty Designer Series Papers but wanting to be able to possibly use it for a class and have enough. If you cut 12″ x 12″ designer paper into 4″ x 4″ pieces, you can get 9 pieces out of one sheet of paper. So these cards are 4 1/4″ x 4 1/4″ square! And each one is embellished a different way!

Each side of the Broadway Bound papers is beautiful!  Either you get a birthday or designer print on one side and a foil accented design on the other side. It’s beautiful paper!

This card uses the gold foil-accented side with birthday candles. Of course the black, white and gold color scheme is so elegant and striking!  The greeting is from the Detailed With Love Stamp Set and accented with the Gold Mini Sequin Trim and the Gold Metallic Pearls.  I just used circle punches for the greeting and layering of black and gold foil.

This card is made with the balloon print in the Broadway Bound Suite papers layered on Lovely Lipstick Cardstock.  The greeting is also from the Detailed With Love Stamp Set and I accented it with Rhinestones on the stamped dots.  The ribbon is the 1/8″ Lovely Lipstick Grosgrain Ribbon.

I admit for this card I purposely cut the paper so that the tier cake would be in the center and not partially cut off! The greeting is the same as on the candle card but it looks different because it is die cut with an oval shape and layered on a scalloped oval. The card base is Lemon Lime Twist and the ribbon is the Lemon Lime Twist 1/4″ Ombre Ribbon. I added a layer of Lovely Lipstick Cardstock so the paper is cut down another 1/4″ to 3 3/4″ x 3 3/4″.

On the inside of each card, I adhered a piece of Whisper White with a scrap piece of designer paper, about 1″ x 4″, on the bottom of the white to decorate the inside a bit and have the white paper on which to stamp or write a note.

It would be fun to make multiples of any of these cards or all of them and give an assortment as a gift to someone or keep them on hand for your own use. Maybe even make smaller versions to fit into the Mini Pizza Boxes.

As I said, these cards were not planned at all, even though I had all kinds of other ideas for cards and projects going on. These cards just popped into my head as I worked and as I thought of how I wanted to use the designer paper to have many pieces. So even if you think you don’t know what to stamp, just get out some supplies and start cutting paper and stamping some things and see what you come up with! The more you stamp the more ideas you will get!

Here’s another card I made with the birthday candles paper. It’s made in a slightly different way so be sure to click and check it out!

Just have fun stamping and playing with your supplies! Take advantage of the Designer Series Paper Sale going on now until July 31 with select papers Buy 3 Get 1 Free! The Broadway Bound paper is not on the list but you’ll find great choices on the sale!

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One of the most interesting and beautiful products in the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog has to be this Graceful Glass Designer Vellum with which I made this Stained Glass Coloring Birthday Card. It’s a stack of 6″ x 6″ vellum printed with stained glass images that you can then color in various ways.  You get 2 each of 12 different designs.  I have seen so many pretty cards made with this paper.

For my first attempt, I simply colored on the top side of the paper with the Stampin’ Blends markers.  I had no plan, really, just colored in as I went along.  Even the “dark” Stampin’ Blends markers color pretty lightly on this vellum, so you can go back over it if you want to make it darker.  If you adhere a piece of Whisper White cardstock behind the vellum, it will brighten up the colors of the markers.  You can also experiment with other colors of cardstock to put behind the stained glass for different effects.  You can also color with the Stampin’ Write markers but you might want to color on the back side of the vellum so the colors will not be too strong.  Just experiment and see.

I debated which green I wanted to use for the card base but settled on the Lemon Lime Twist Cardstock to just go ahead and make a bright card!  After adhering the vellum to a piece of Whisper White the same size for a backing, I layered that on a piece of Daffodil Delight.  But then I thought maybe it could use a layer of Basic Black so I added that.

In order to adhere the vellum to anything, make a small puddle of Multipurpose Liquid Glue either on the Silicone Craft Sheet or a piece of plastic or wax paper, and sponge the glue onto the paper, lightly.  This will not show through the vellum like almost any other adhesive will do.

The greeting is from the coordinating stamp set, Painted Glass Stamp Set. The stamps have that old style that goes with the stained glass look!  There are also Stained Glass Thinlits Dies if you would like to add that dimension.

I can’t wait to do a little more coloring with the various papers in the Graceful Glass Vellum package!

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I wanted to make a special birthday card for my daughter, and I had seen pretty cards like this design, but I didn’t know what they were called. After some sleuthing, I found out this card design is called a Bridge Card.  With the new, beautiful Share What You Love Designer Series Paper, I was able to come up with this Bridge Card Technique For a Birthday Card.  It’s very easy, really!

This card is really just half a sheet of cardstock, some scoring, and a strip that goes across the front.  It even folds flat for mailing and fits in our Medium Envelopes. Amazing!

Start with a piece of cardstock for the card base that is 8″ x 4 1/4″.  Score at 1 1/4″, 2 1/2″, 5 1/2″ and 6 3/4″ on the long size of the cardstock. Fold and crease the score lines so that the card would stand up as you see in the photo.

Cut strips of designer paper to fit each of the panels. I used the new Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper.  You’ll need four strips that are 1″ x 4″. They can all be the same pattern or two different ones as I did on this card. For the wider center panel, cut either a piece of Whisper White or Very Vanilla Cardstock or, as I did, designer paper at 2 3/4″ x 4″.

For the “bridge” part of the card, cut a strip 1 1/4″ x 5 1/2″ of cardstock. Add a strip of designer paper if you like, 1″ x 5 1/4″.  Adhere all the designer paper on the panels and then get ready to do the bridge piece.  You can adhere it so it is all the way at the bottom of the card or up a little higher.  It just depends on the design you want. To assemble, adhere the left side of the bridge piece to the left edge of top folded panel. Then, if you open up the right side of the card, flat on the table, you can adhere the right end of the bridge piece to the right side edge of the card.  Make sure you only have adhesive on the parts of the bridge piece that will cover the left front panel and the right front panel. Now you card should be able to open up and stand!

Embellish your card however you like.  I added birthday greetings and some flowers that I cut out of the designer paper.   I used the Happy Birthday Gorgeous Stamp Set for the greetings. If you would like an area to write a note or sign your name, make a panel to fit on the back side of the card and you will have plenty of room.

Once you try making one, you will easily see how it all goes together!  It seems amazing that it folds flat for mailing.  Speaking of mailing, if you want to decorate the envelope flap, cut a piece of designer paper that would completely cover the flap and adhere it to the flap.  Then take your scissors and trim off the excess around the flap! Now it’s your turn to try the Bridge Card Technique for a Birthday Card!

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You can make this Easy to Stamp All-Occasion Dahlia Card in just minutes and add whatever appropriate greeting you want! This Definitely Dahlia Stamp Set is just one large background stamp, and sadly, it is on the Last Chance List of retiring products.

If you love this big beautiful flower, it is time to order it! I also made these two cards with other products that are retiring the end of May……the 2016-2018 In Colors.  Particularly if you want these colors in cardstock, ink pads, or ink refills plus any accessories with these colors, you will want to put these on your order!  The colors I chose to use are Peekaboo Peach and Flirty Flamingo.

Now the funny thing is, with the Stampin’ Up! Color Revamp, one color that is “retiring” with the In Colors is actually coming back as one of the Brights Core Colors!  That color is Flirty Flamingo.  Read about the Color Revamp HERE in my recent blog post.

I have always particularly like these background stamps on the wood blocks. However, now with the Stamparatus, if you plan on purchasing this tool, I might recommend the Clear-mount version of Definitely Dahlia so that you can stamp with the Stamparatus. That way if you do not get a good impression the first time, you can reink the stamp, leaving it in place on the Stamparatus, and stamp again to fill in the image. But either stamp is good!  I still love the wood blocks too!

Sometimes we get wrapped up into the latest stamping idea, which is great, but sometimes we need to remember we can stamp quick and easy, simple cards like this Easy to Stamp All-Occasion Dahlia Card.

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I was actually struggling to make a card with the striped side of this designer paper and one of the cakes I’d cut out by hand, when I flipped the paper over and made this Sweet Soiree Fancy Cake Birthday Card. As soon as I turned the paper over, the cake designs layered over the pretty Powder Pink card base, looked beautiful and perfect. There was no point in trying to force a card that wasn’t working when all I had to do was flip the paper over and make a simple card out of it! The Sweet Soiree Paper is so pretty!

To embellish the card, I adhered a strip of the Powder Pink 3/8″ Shimmer Ribbon across the bottom of the card.  It’s a real shame to cover up ANY part of a paper pattern as pretty as this one! Then I tied the bow separately to adhere on top of the ribbon.  Luckily I held off until I had the greeting ready.

I finally found a pretty small “Happy Birthday” stamp in the Beautiful Bouquet Photopolymer Stamp Set. I could punch it out with the 1 3/8″ Circle Punch after I stamped the birthday greeting using Powder Pink Ink and Whisper White cardstock and layered it on a small silver foil doily in the Metallic Foil Doilies package.

I played around with where to put this greeting on the card, when finally I figured out the best place was on the ribbon with the bow on the bottom of the greeting since there was some empty space there anyway!

This Sweet Soiree Fancy Cake Birthday Card is a very easy card to make since the paper is so pretty by itself.  How can it be retiring??!

Be sure to check out the retiring Stampin’ Up! products in the Online Store.

My mojo kicked into high gear thinking about the probable retiring 2016-18 In Colors, and these Easy Cards Designed With 2016-2018 In Colors are the result!  I wanted to make a card with each of the 2016-18 In Colors, which we all assume will be on the upcoming Stampin’ Up! retiring list, scheduled to be released this afternoon.

If you have any of these In Color ink pads and don’t have the ink refills, I would be ready to pounce on your order as soon as you see the retirement list today, if not sooner!  No one can predict, but in the past, the ink refills have sold out pretty quickly, and you don’t want to pay some higher price on an auction site later on!  Chances are, the ribbons and papers that have any of these In Colors in them will also retire.  To make these easy cards I chose designer papers that had these colors in them.  You can look at the back of your designer paper package for the list of coordinating colors (I always write them in marker, larger, on the back, so I can read them at a glance!  If you are under 40, you might not need to do this step!!) See how I do it in this post HERE. (It’s a very old post but the advice is the same!)

• The card with the balloons is on Sweet Sugarplum Card Stock with Birthday Memories Designer Series Paper. The additional layers are Rich Razzleberry and a piece of Blushing Bride, all coordinating colors with the designer paper.  The greeting is from Birthday Delivery.
• The card with the candles is on Peekabook Peach Card Stock using a pattern from the Picture Perfect Party Paper, embellished with some Peekaboo Peach 5/8″ Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon.  The birthday greeting is just stamped across the top of the card with an image from the Beautiful Bouquet Stamp Set.
• The card with the gemstones is made with a card base of Emerald Envy. The coordinating designer paper is Naturally Eclectic.  The card is embellished with the Lemon Lime Twist Woven Ribbon and a die cut gold foil gem with the Eclectic Layers Thinlits Dies and a greeting from the Oh So Eclectic Stamp Set.
• The butterfly card base is Dapper Denim and uses a piece of Color Theory Designer Paper as a layer (which is layered on Whisper White just to help it stand out a bit). I grabbed a Copper Foil butterfly, one of my extra die cuts from the other day using the Butterflies Thinlits Dies and layered the butterfly on a pretty Delicate White Doily.  The greeting is from the Beautiful Day Stamp Set.
• The last card with the Sweet Soiree Designer Paper layer, is on a card base of Flirty Flamingo.  The ribbon is Berry Burst 3/8″ Metallic-Edge Ribbon and the greeting is from the Flourishing Phrases Stamp Set.

These easy to make cards use each of the retiring In Colors from 2016-2018. If you like them, stock up!

Check back around 1 PM MT and I will get up the Stampin’ Up! Retiring List and information as soon as I can! Assuming my computer is compliant!

My Stampin’ Up! newsletter will come out tomorrow with all the retirement information plus whatever other updates Stampin’ Up! has, so be sure you are on my Mailing List.  Sign up HERE.

Make easy cards designed with the 2016-18 In Colors getting inspiration from the ideas I posted above!

Shop Retiring Products from the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog and also the Occasions Catalog in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store TODAY after 1:00 PM Mountain Time (2:00 PM Central Time).