Backstage Presents for my People

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Hi friends! I really hope you enjoyed my Creative Convention last week while I was in Vegas at Backstage. I had so much fun creating those projects for you!

Backstage was so much fun, my cup and heart are full. I am so excited about this upcoming holiday season and all the fun we are going to have crafting together! I love to have people here in my Home Studio in the YEG area and I host lots of stuff on zoom/facebook! So if you haven’t crafted with me before maybe this will be an opportunity for us!

One of the fun things of getting together at any Stampin’ Up! event, whether is company hosted, or hosted by demonstrators, is the PEOPLE! We know this right? So of course I had to take some gifts to my ‘people’!

 

The absolute HIGHLIGHT of Backstage for me was getting to me some fellow members of the Artisan Design Team, both current and past! My friends Heather @songbirdstamper was coming over from the UK so of course I had to give her a gift of Canadian maple syrup and some maple Sweet Georgia Browns from a Canadian chocolatier company, Purdy’s.

 

I thought this little tin was cute to share with my roomie and best stamping buddy, Tammy Nelson @stampandscraptammy—We met a few years back on the Alaskan incentive trip and have been having fun together ever since. I thought after enjoying all of the maple truffles inside she could pop this tin up in her craft room aa a little reminder of me!

These tags were inspired by a card that my fellow Canadian Teammate Verena @simple_stamper shared a couple weeks back! I thought the design was easy and perfect to convert into tags! The maple leaf is stamped in Real Red ink on coordinating card stock. Once you cut your tag to size, use the maple leaf die cut to create a negative image. You can then pop your stamped image in behind.

For the Starbucks mugs, I wrapped strips of Real Red card stock around the boxes that I stamped with the large maple leaf stamp in the Autumn Leaves stamp set. The sentiments ‘For You Friend’ are from the Best Family Ever stamp set!

I did a MUG SWAP with Kurstan @stampwithkurstan_ which was so much fun! Now I have a San Francisco mug to add to my collection! She also filled it with chocolates which caused my carry-on suitcase to get inspected at security! I guess they looked suspicious in there!

I took an Alberta mug as a surprise to my friend Melanie @melsinkyfingers—you may remember last holiday season we did a 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop and I am so happy we are going to offer that to you again starting on November 1st! We are working out the details on an event as well, so stay tuned!

Of course I had to pick myself up a Las Vegas mug for my collection and this itty bitty Nevada mini mug! Isn’t it so cute! Its a perfect little decor item for my stamp room!

I will be sharing alot more fun stuff—pictures and reels on my Instagram so make sure you are following me along there!

Creative Convention--Day 4!

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Hello friends! Today I decided to share something that is NOT a card with you because I am really excited about these new Nested Treat Boxes that are coming out in the Holiday Catalogue! Welcome back for my 4th share of my Creative Convention—my week long blogging extravaganza while I am away at Backstage!

These Nested Boxes felt like a natural pairing with the Sending Cheer stamp set. This set is a part of a bundle and was one of my choices when planning my pre-order. While I do love traditional Christmas, I also love fun whimsical Christmas too and this bundle definitely fits the bill!

These Nested Treat Boxes are 2 1/2 x 2 1/2 wide so they can fit a variety of awesome surprises inside!

Instead of using this bundle to make a card, I thought it would be fun to use it to decorate the Nested Treat Boxes. I used squares of DSP from the Garden Walk 6x6 paper to cover the sides of the box and wrapped a length of the Natural Ribbon around the box.

The boxes come in two pieces—the outside and the inside and the inside box has a little notch out so you can get your finger in there to pull it free. You can take a 1 inch circle punch or die and snip out a section of the DSP so that it matches the box!

I love that this box glues itself together! It is a definite perk and makes assembly so easy!

 

The box was screaming for a mini bow so I made one using strips of DSP from the In Color 2022/24 collection in Sweet Sorbet. Sweet Sorbet is one of my favorite holiday reds! It plays so well with pink so it was a perfect fit to match this DSP! I reversed the patterns on each layer of the bow as well so you see both stripes and dots!

I cut a tag from the Sending Cheer Dies in Crumb Cake card stock and ran it through the polka dot embossing folder that is part of the Online Exclusive embossing folders.

I found Pecan Pie was the perfect color for a Gingerbread Man—you can add his face and fill in his heart buttons with 2 additional stamps in the set. There is a die for him too that is actually a tag, so just snip it off. Easy peasy!

I hope this cut little project inspires you to #addtocart the Nested Treat Boxes when they become available. I think they will make some fun holiday decor, are great for birthdays and little gifts that you want to give!

Artisan Design Team Project--Marigold Moments Bundle

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Hello friends! This month my Artisan Group consisting of Tammy Wilson, Heather Thomas, Sandra Herzog, Karine Lison and myself where given the Marigold Moments bundle to design with. I actually quite enjoyed this bundle as it has some really amazing elements!

I am really going to miss these embossed treat bags! they were so easy to create with!

I decided to make a card and coordinating treat bag for my projects this month. You can give these together or individually! Let’s start with the Embossed Treat Bag—I used my Blending Brush in Blushing Bride to give a bit of color to the right side of the bag and then I flicked my Stampin’ Write marker over top as I do love the splatter look.

I cut a large scallop circle from the Layering Circle Dies and then a circle of DSP from the Regency Park DSP to go on top. The marigold cluster was stamped in Blushing Bride and Mango Melody ink and die cut. All of the greenery is either stamped or die cut from Soft Seafoam ink.

I actually LOVED this color combination and am sad to see both Blushing Bride and Mango Melody retire. I had alot of fun creating with them over the years.

The sentiment “You have a Heart of Gold” is absolutely AWESOME and one that I don’t recall ever seeing in any other stamp sets before. I added a double bow behind it in the Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon, another LOVE that is retiring. And lastly to play off of the sentiment I added some gold sequins from the Adhesive Backed Pastel Sequins.

To all of the moms out there…you are killin’ it. have an awesome mother’s day!

This card is quite fun as its a shakerless shaker card, hahaha! I cut a window out of my first layer of Basic White card stock using the Stitched Rectangle Dies and after I stamped the cluster of marigold flowers on the card base in Blushing Bride, I added this window layer with the Adhesive Strips.

TOP TIP: Use Adhesive Strips instead of Dimensionals to get a little more lift. They are thicker and so easy to run around the edges of your shape as you can cut them to any length you like!

The Marigold Moments Dies have a really awesome border die that cuts out the scallop that I tucked along the inside bottom of the card and the reverse image underneath the sentiment. I love that this stamp set includes a Happy Mother’s Day stamp,

There are two dies used to create one of these marigold flowers and one for the stem. For the base of the flowers I die cut the solid back in Mango Melody and Blushing Bride. The top die cut layer and the stamps are cut out of Basic White and then I used my Blending Brushes to add some color. I love this look because it adds so much texture and depth. The idea is NOT to make the Basic White base look like card stock but to allow for color variation. I added a few extra flowers tucked in and behind my main blooms to help give the illusion of a bouquet.

And of course I had to add some gold sequins. Every project needs a little bling right?

I hope these projects inspire you and please make sure to check out what the rest of my group has created on either the Stampin’ Up! Official Instagram page or their individual pages:

Tammy @stampspaperscissors

Sandra @herzerlskreativecke

Heather @thesongbirdstamper

Karine @karinelison73choupinette

Thanks friends and see you again soon!

Here is a supply list of what was used to create these projects. If they have inspired you, please consider shopping with me so I can continue to do what I love!

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!

12 Days of Christmas--Day 12

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For my final 12 Days of Christmas project I want to share a mini album with you. The cover of this mini album was actually one of my Artisan Design Team projects shared a couple months back. I decided to complete this album and offer it as a class! It is a pretty simple album idea that I have used repeatedly for different seasons and events!

The base of this album is an 8 1/2 x 11, cut in two pieces. I used 2 sheets to create this album and after it was all decorated I added two binder rings (found at any office supply store) with a variety of ribbons tied around the top ring. I have made several versions of this album, either designed to be horizontal (like this one) or vertical (to stand up on a shelf or table).

The base of this album is Smoky Slate which I thought was a nice neutral to pair up with the Santa Express Designer Series Paper.

I added a mix of patterns on the left side of the album along with a strip of Poppy Parade card stock to define an edge.

On the right side I stamped ‘Ho Ho Ho’ in Smoky Slate and added a DSP tag from the Santa Express paper along with the sentiments from the Santa’s Delivery stamp set. A bit of Iridescent Trim through the top completed the look of the tag. I used some of the Adhesive Backed Stars as a fun accent embellishment on the front as well.

This page is the inside of the cover. Now, do you ever have a boo boo? I do, I dropped an ink pad in the top left of this page and since I had already completed the front cover and didn’t want to start again, I just covered it with some DSP, hahaha! Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do!

This album is pretty simple because I knew that I wanted kids in my studio to make it and my youngest stamper was 6! She did an amazing job. You can step up these pages if you like, but if not I think this is an all ages project.

Merry Christmas is cut from a retired punch and I added some Sweet Sorbet Bakers Twine and a Wonderful Snowflake behind it as an accent. The Mint Macaron scalloped border is from the Hand Penned Dies. I actually never put this die away, it just lives permanently on my magnet board beside my Stamp Cut & Emboss Machine.

I love the Joyful Flurry stamp set, especially when you can mount several stamps on a large block and stamp all at once, which is what I did for the boarder. I added a couple die cut snowflakes from the dies and the “let is snow” sentiment.

The next two pages feature the Spruced Up Dies and snowflakes once again. “Snowflake Wishes…” is a sentiment from the retired Snowflake Wishes stamp set/bundle. I will never part with it as I absolutely LOVE this sentiment!

And finally the last two pages in this easy mini album. Behind the “Falala" which is from the Framed & Festive stamp set, I added the other part of the trees from the Spruced Up Dies. I love how you get 2 trees cut at once with this set. Such a time saver and brilliant. I added more DSP and some Adhesive Backed Stars as well.

The “Ho Ho Ho” page is the last page in the book and the sentiment is from the Santa’s Delivery stamp set. I added some Basic White Bakers Twine behind the sentiment and on top of another Wonderful Snowflake.

I hope this quick and easy album inspires you to create your own! I have made them for all seasons and they are suitable for any age group!

I can’t wait to see what Melanie’s final project is today! THANK YOU SO MUCH for hopping along with us as we shared 12 Days of Christmas projects. I covered cards, treats, scrapbooking and a mini album within my 12 Days so I hope you enjoyed the variety—its the spice of life after all!