Around the World on Wednesday--April Showers Bring May Flowers!

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Hello and welcome friends! April is the 4 year anniversary of the Around the World on Wednesday Blog Hop! This was one of the first Blog Hops I ever joined and it was created by the amazing Angie Mackenzie. While as of late I haven’t been contributing each month (there are girls in the Hop that have NEVER missed a month which is amazing) I had to participate this month to celebrate!

Our theme is for this month is anything that makes us think of SPRING—so I created a soft and subtle scrapbook page with a picture of my family from a few years back!

My scrapbook page contains a little bit of everything—current, retired, retiring and Online Exclusive products!

I started with a base of So Saffron which is a soon to be retiring color, I am actually quite sad about this because our new yellow, is NOT the same, so I will miss having a pastel yellow to create with. I added a second layer of Basic White and then a nice big 4 x 12 strip of DSP from the Sale a bration paper Favored Flowers.

I added some stamping straight to the Basic White with the Irresistible Blooms (an Online Exclusive stamp set) in Mossy Meadow. The photo mat is Crumb Cake and adds a neutral anchor to my page.

I used the emboss resist technique on all of the flowers—White Craft ink embossed with White Embossing powder and then using the Blending Brushes add Petal Pink and So Saffron Ink. You can buff the stamped image with a tissue afterwards to brighten up the embossing. The Irresistible Blooms dies were used to cut out all of the flowers and the leaf dies that are added as accents.

The sentiment “You are Amazing” is from the Sentimental Park stamp set and punched with an ancient punch that I believe was called Word Window. I will NEVER part with it!

I added a few Rusted Metallic Adhesive Dots as accents along with some Linen Thread.

What is completely NEW on this page are the Nested Essentials Dies—there are 3 shapes with 4 of each size in this new die set and they have a double stitched detail which is beautiful. I die cut the largest shape with DSP from the SAB Favored Flowers and then added a solid Mossy Meadow die cut.

The sentiment “Nothing Fancy Just Love” is from the Something Fancy stamp set. This set is carrying over which is awesome! Behind the sentiment I added some vanilla Bakers Twine.

One of my favorite things is to cut using Vellum the circle die accent piece from the Irresistible Blooms dies and layer it behind flowers and tags as a subtle accent. It is a different way to think about using this die.

I love how this page came together, it feels nice and soft which is how I think of spring. I am looking forward to seeing some green and flowers over the next few weeks as the snow melts and the new growth emerges.

Make sure you visit everyone on the hop and please feel free to comment! I would LOVE to hear from you! You can also check out my Scrapbook Gallery if you are looking for more inspiration and follow me on Instagram @stampwithbrenda if you are not already!

Up next on the hop is….Tricia Butts from the United States! Click on NEXT BLOG to see what she has created!

 

If I have inspired you in any way, please help me continue to do what I love by shopping my online store! You can click any image below or the SHOP WITH ME button!

Artisan Design Team--Recency Park Suite Project

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Hello friends! I cannot express how excited and happy I am to be on the Artisan Design Team again for 2023. This really is a dream opportunity and I love the creative challenges each month.

 

The Artisan Team is split up into 4 groups and we are each given different assignments to create some truly awesome projects with to share with the Stampin’ community throughout each month.

My group is myself, Heather Thomas, Karine Lison, Sandra Herzog and Tammy Wilson!

Our assignment this month was to create with the Regency Park Suite and I could not love it more if I tried! The Petal Park punch bundle and the Sentimental Park die bundle are so fantastic and compliment each other so well. And all the add ons like the Textured Shimmer Paper and Recency Park 6x6 Paper are top notch!

I knew that I wanted to create a scrapbook page featuring my sons grade 12 grad because our family pictures were the perfect color palette for this suite. It honestly came together so easily using Night of Nave 12x12 for the background and then layering on some DSP and a big awesome photo mat of the Textured Shimmer Paper.

I used a 6x12 piece of Basic White card stock to tone down the blue a bit and to help all of the amazing flowers and the sentiment pop. I kept to the color palette of the DSP—Balmy Blue, Mango Melody, Petal Pink and Shaded Spruce. I did lots of stamping off so that the filler portion of the flowers was always a shade lighter.

This picture really shows off the Textured Shimmer paper and some of the gorgeous little flower dies from the Sentimental Park Dies. You can also see that I added some of the Adhesive-Backed Milky Dots as well to my project.

 

One of the best tips I learned from Tammy Wilson when we were on the team together is 2021 was to cut your ribbon in half (creates a thinner ribbon and releases some frays for that chabbier look) and how to tie a #tammybow

Tammy really is the queen of bows as you can see from her stunning projects.

I added one here underneath my sentiment which was created by combining 2 of the stamps from the Recency Park stamp set.

Along with my scrapbook page I also created some 3x3 cards and I forget how much fun they are!

 

I have also forgotten how much fun Mango Melody is—I think this color is having a moment along with Balmy Blue!

I used the new Cane Weave embossing folder on the base of my 3x3 card along with some coordinating DSP from the Regency Park 6x6 stack—and made a cute matching envelope!

The images on this card are from the Sentimental Park bundle! It is amazing!

This little mini card is made with a Balmy Blue base and I added a little strip of the Textured Shimmer Paper behind the first layer. The tag on the front is from the Sentimental Park dies and I just trimmed it down to fit this little card. I also hand cut out the words ‘YOU’ instead of just stamping it to the tag, just to add some interest and height. The Milky Dots are a great embellishment add on along with flowers from Petal Park.

 

I think of the 3 mini cards this one is my favorite. But I am partial to Petal Pink. It looks so good with the Night of Navy Bordered Ribbon (this ribbon is top notch).

I used another one of the labels from Sentimental Park and dressed it up with some images from both stamp sets and the DSP—you can see a Mango Melody flower at the bottom—I trimmed it right from the Recency Park paper. And I based everything on a panel of Petal Pink ran through the Cane Weave folder.

I love this whole suite! So much so that I am featuring it at my Spring Stamp Camp with my border buddy Hattie Nelson from Honeybee Stampers!

Our event is virtual on zoom—saturday, feb 25th. It includes a full package of the regency park dsp, 1/2 pkg of the textured 12x12 shimmer paper, milky dots and the full roll of ribbon—plus projects and demonstrations!

Hattie and I would love to have you at our event! I can ship kits anywhere in Canada! The event registration is $75 (plus extra if you need your kit shipped) and all the fun is shared in a private Facebook group! Try clicking this form to register! (I say try because this is something new!)

or you can touch base with me at stampsandstretchypants@gmail.com

Thank you so much!

I hope you enjoyed all of the projects shared by the team this first month of January! The Artisan Design Team is so excited to share in creativity with you all throughout 2023! Please come back every month to my blog and check Instagram to see all of the awesome projects we are sharing!

Color Fusers--December Blog Hop!

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Hello my crafty friends! Thank you so much for coming by to see what the Color Fusers Design Team is up to this month! We are creating projects with a very unique color combo for December!

What do you think? I bet Basic Black, Merry Merlot and Smoky Slate were NOT what you were thinking when you think “Holiday Colors”…but that doesn’t mean we are all creating holiday projects! Guess you will have to go through the Hop to see how many of us did!

As you can see I decided NOT to create a holiday card with this challenge. I could NOT resist the temptation to play with brand new stuff!

I decided to go with Smoky Slate as the base and added a second layer that I ran through the new Cane 3D embossing folder. I LOVE this new folder! I added a piece of Basic White as my top layer and decided to incorporate Merry Merlot in a water color wash behind where I planned the sentiment to be. I went over it twice so it would have a little bit more depth. Let the first layer dry and then run your water painter over it a second time. I finished the background off with a flick of my Merry Merlot marker.

I love how the sentiments in sentimental park can work together to create a variety of captions

I used two new bundles to create this card, they are both from the same suite—Regency Park. All of this will be available in the new upcoming Occasions catalogue in January. Its an absolutely gorgeous suite with a stamp/punch combo and stamp/die bundle. I used BOTH to create this card.

The flowers are from Petal Park bundle. I stamped them with Versamark ink on Basic Black card stock and then embossed them with Basic Black embossing powder. They do look quite awesome in person (hard to capture in a photo). The stamp and punch work together so that 3 flowers are created at once. Love that!

The sentiment is from the Sentimental Park stamp set and is cut with a coordinating die from the set. I did trim off some of the detail from this die as it had some little white flowers attached.

 

I really like these new dies as they cut out stamped images as well as some flower shapes. I cut some out in Smoky Slate to tie the background of the card into the design.

I also added some Smoky Slate bakers twine as well and some grey Classic Matte Dots.

I also distressed the edges of the Basic White layer to add a little extra texture to the card. I am so pleased with how this project turned out and I hope it has inspired you to consider these new bundles when they come out in the new year!

My crafty friend Melanie is next on the Color Fusers Blog Hop—make sure to check out what she has designed! I am so curious to see if any of my fellow teammates created a holiday card with this combo!

You can always go backwards too if you like by clicking on Previous—you will be taken to Tami’s blog—Swimming in Stamps!