Around the World on Wednesday --Changing Seasons

The changing of seasons really is my favorite time of year! I love all of the colors that nature blesses us with, not to mention the gorgeous projects we can complete with all of our Stampin’ Up! products! For this month Around the World on Wednesday Hop, our theme is ‘changing seasons’. I created this fabulous scrapbook layout with some of my favorite things!

I hope you enjoy this hop as you visit some amazing talented crafters from around the world. I love how everyone interprets our monthly themes! I know you will be inspired!

I love to scrapbook, especially anything to do with fall. When the leaves start to turn its absolutely gorgeous in Alberta as in many places in the world. These pictures are from 3 years ago already! I can’t believe how much my kids have changed in that time frame! Which is why I am so blessed to be able to capture our memories in a more permanent way.

I started with a base of Rich Razzleberry and added some depth with my Blending Brushes and Blackberry Bliss ink. I also flicked my dark Black Stampin’ Blend marker over the blended area for another bit of texture. This is the easiest way to add interest to your backgrounds!

I focused on two die sets for this layout—Harvest Dies and the Beautiful Leaves Dies. Both of these dies have amazing images or shapes that don’t require any stamping! You can just simply cut them out to add as embellishments to your design.

The Blackberry Beauty DSP was the color inspiration for my page as I used both Rich Razzleberry and Blackberry Bliss, Cinnamon Cider, Kraft paper, Gold Shimmer Vellum and Very Vanilla as my colors, with the sentiments all stamped in Soft Suede.

For the left hand side of my scrapbook page (yes, I actually design left to right!) I added two strips of the amazing Blackberry Beauty DSP—this specialty paper has gold foil inlaid in the design. It is so rich and luscious! My photo matte is Very Vanilla and I love to have the strips and my photo offset. Nothing is square!

I cut the large leaf shape from the Beautiful Leaves Dies out of Blackberry cardstock and then cut it vertically in half. This allowed me to use some on top left and bottom right corner of my photomat. Because our eyes move left to right I tend to have a little vignette at the top of the left and at the bottom of the right on this page of my double spread.

The two thistle shapes are cut from the Kraft 6x6 stack and the wheat is cut from the Gold Shimmer Vellum! I love to layer all of these shapes together to form a bouquet of sorts!

The sentiment “Enjoy the Little Things” Is from a retired stamp set, but its the perfect phrase and size so it is one that I still keep hanging around! The other phrase on this page, “Love is What Makes us Family” is from Lovely You. I love the mix of fonts in this stamp set!

On the right hand side of my scrapbook layout, I wanted to be able to include two 4x6 photos. The photo mats are Soft Suede and once again nothing is square. These pages are actually two pages that my Scrapbook Group members made this month as well. I find be eliminating things being perfect, hence adding things on an angle, it takes away the stress of having to have everything perfectly aligned! Because my eye was just on the bottom right corner of my previous page, it kept the eye moving across to this page by having a vignette in the bottom left and then naturally up at the top right. These are aspects I consider when designing my scrapbook pages. I hope this is a helpful tip!

Many of the same elements are also carried through on this page, however I did add a couple small individual leaves from the Beautiful Leaves Die cut from the Kraft paper. Both pages have some Champagne Rhinestones, they coordinate so beautifully with this suite!

“You make the ordinary extraordinary” is from the Simply Succulents stamp set and “Love You More” is from Measure of Love.

I love how these pages turned out! If you live in Canada and are interested in scrapbooking, please reach out to me!

Now onto the HOP! You can keep hoping to Tricia Butts an amazing crafter from the United States!

Color Fusers--September Blog Hop

Well hello there! It has been a hot minute…and I am happy to say that I am back! I took a little blog siesta to enjoy the summer and work on some other things! So I am happy to be back especially with the Color Fusers as I absolutely LOVE this monthly creative challenge. I am always excited to try and created with different color combos as I find I do tend to get stuck in a rut sometime. This month our challenge was to use Basic White, Basic Black and a color of our choice…immediately I thought of Halloween! How can you not? It is the best holiday ever!

Are you someone who gives crafty gifts at Halloween? I love a good reason to give candy and my kids teachers definitely have been spoiled over the years with some fun gifts! What I am loving this season—these Kraft Gift Boxes!

So I may have cheated a little bit by using this Kraft Gift Box for my project…but really, its a non color? Haha, and I really focused on Basic Black for that spooky Halloween feel. I left my Basic White minimal and only added in some Pumpkin Pie cardstock to die cut my pumpkin.

If you haven’t assembled a Kraft Gift Box yet, it does come with some pre-sticky tabs, however I always want to keep a box reusable in a sense. By creating a belly band for your box it means you don’t have to add any permanent adhesive to your project. And who can resist a sparkly belly band!

I cut a 2 x 12 inch strip of the Black 12x12 Glitter Paper and shaped it around the box. I also don’t want this to be permanently glued to the Kraft Gift Box so I cut a long length of the Crinkled Seam Binding Ribbon. Using my Black Stampin’ Blend I colored the ribbon. I honestly hope this ribbon never retires as it really like having access to all of our colors as you can customize it using our Stampin’ Blends, a Stampin’ Write Marker or even with a Blending Brush and an ink pad! Its fabulous!

I die cut two black wreaths using the Seasonal Swirls Dies and off set them from each other using Glue Dots. The pumpkin is die cut from the Detailed Pumpkins Die and added on with a Dimensional. The sentiment is from the Sparkle of the Season stamp set but is cut with a label die from the Frightful Tags Dies.

I am absolutely loving the Frightful Tags Dies, in fact, I don’t even bother putting them away as I keep reaching for them! The spider web is the perfect Halloween image and I have been using it on so many things already! In this case I decided to cut one in half and use each half to peek out at the top and the bottom of the project. I thought it was a really fun edition to this!

Now here is the real question…who actually eats Candy Corn? I mean, enough people must that they keep making it every year! Haha! I thought it was a fun filler for this Kraft Gift Box AND it matched my color scheme!

I am super curious to see how the rest of the team used this color combo! I am always so inspired by what everyone makes!

September Class to Go Kit!

Hello friends! Wow, what a summer right? Its officially fall, Pumpkin Spice season, sweater weather, and my favorite time of year for crafting! I don’t know why, but I just love the colors of fall, they feel cozy and like home. I grew up on the prairies and fall is absolutely gorgeous. I got married in September and the leaves had started turning but the weather was still warm!

I think all of these things helped to inspire this September Class to Go Kit featuring the Harvest Meadow Bundle found on page 54-55 of the Holiday JJ 2021 Catalogue. This gorgeous Thank You card project features fantastic embellishments such as vellum, Gold Foil paper and Metallic Dots. It is a perfect gift to give or to have waiting at your Thanksgiving table!

Historically my Class to Go Kits have only included a written tutorial with photos, however, in the spirit of trying something NEW I am going to make a video of how to assemble these gorgeous projects as well! SO you will get both options with all 3 registration options. Only 3 ink pad colors are required to make these amazing cards—Calypso Coral, Bumblebee and Soft Suede!

Option 1: Stamp Set Only $39. This option includes the Nature’s Harvest stamp set and supplies to create 2 of each card shown, for a total of 6 cards. You will receive all of the die cut pieces and embellishments

Option 2: Bundle (stamp set and Harvest Dies) for $82. You will receive all of the card making supplies PLUS the Kraft Gift Box and products to make the belly band! This is an amazing add on value!

Option 3: Kit Only $25. This option includes only the materials you will need to create the cards and the Kraft Gift Box.

As you can see this is a gorgeous Thank You card project. The design of the cards provides you with inspiration for further crafting projects and the Kraft Gift Box has become one of my favorite projects as you will see over the month with some other projects being shared on my social channels!

I can ship this kit for a nominal expense anywhere in Canada or you can partake in local pick up! Please bear with me as I am working to get my website more order efficient. In the meantime, leave me a comment or click on SIGN UP NOW and I will reach out to you with payment arrangements. You can message me on Instagram @stampwithbrenda or by email at bsparkles@me.com as well!

Color Fusers--July 2021 Blog Hop

Hello friends! I really appreciate you taking the time to pop by and enjoy our Color Fusers Blog Hop! I love color challenges as they help stretch my creativity! This month’s color challenge is amazing and I am so excited with the project I designed using Basic White, Basic Black, Petal Pink and Gold!

When I was mentally toying around with this color palette, I had the idea to create something with stripes. I ended up including them but on the diagonal to create a focal point for my scrapbook page!

I also chose this particular picture because my mom and daughter are wearing black and white and call me crazy, but my photos have to coordinate somewhat with my page designs. In fact I hardly EVER create a page without my pictures first. I can make exceptions for specific holidays, like Father’s or Mother’s Day, but typically I always chose my picture first!

I decided to start off with a Basic White background for my scrapbook page and I added a spray of black using my Stampin’ Blends marker. I flicked the Blend across my page where I was intending to add in some flowers.

The flowers are from the Blossoms in Bloom stamp set and are stamped in Petal PInk. I pinched up the edges to give them a little more interest and depth. This page is quite minimalist for me but I am so happy with how it turned out!

The best part of this whole page is this 4 x 10 diagonal panel that I created to bring in the Basic Black, Petal Pink and Gold colors of this challenge. I cut a separate piece of Basic White card stock to 4 x 10. I then covered it with Tombow Glue—I think this is key, because there is wiggle time with this glue to get things perfect unlike Stampin’ Seal. I added in my strips which are 1 1/4 wide. Once I had them in place, I flipped over the Basic White and trimmed off the excess to create this fun panel.

The sentiment “Love is What Makes Us Family” is from the stamp set Lovely You.

I also added in a few Gilded Gems for a little extra pop of gold.

The sentiment “I like you a lot” is from the Blossoms in Bloom stamp set.

I cannot wait to see what the others in the Hop create with this color combo. If I am your first stop make sure you Hop all the way around and leave a comment! If you live in Canada you can shop with me using my Hostess Code or visiting my online store :)

You can go back to see what amazing project Melanie has created by clicking below,

To see what my fellow Artisan Design Team member Tami has designed please click below

Thank you so much and hope you all have an amazing JULY! Happy Stamping!

Create with Connie and Mary--Pastel Techniques

Hello friends! I am really excited to share a pastel technique with you today. As well this is my final blog post as a Designer for the Create with Connie and Mary Blog Hop. I have really enjoyed participating in these weekly challenges for the past year + and have learned so much! I have appreciated the comments and encouragement along the way. I will be continuing to share here and on my Instagram so I hope you will continue to follow along with me on my creative journey!

Have you played with our new Stampin’ Pastels yet? I have made so many fun things with them! I have been stamping long enough that I remember way way back when Stampin’ Up! had them in the annual catalogue. So I was able to draw on a few of those long forgotten techniques plus play around and experiment with some new ones as these pastels are different than what we offered in the past.

TOP TIP: In order to get the ‘chalk’ off of the pastel, use the scraper tool attachment of the Pick a Tool to scrape the coating from the outside of the pastel. If you were to open your package and rub your finger over the chalk, you would notice nothing would be on your finger. However, after you scrape the chalk it will easily rub off on your finger!

Along with using the new pastels I wanted to use another new product we have which are the Plenty of Patterns Decorative Masks. I love masks because you can use them with so many other products we sell. Embossing Paste, Blending Brushes, Finger Daubers, Spritzers and the list can go on!

I started by selecting my Decorative Mask and pastel color. For this project I used the pastel that looks like Coastal Cabana.

I placed my mask over top of my Basic White card stock and simply rubbed my chalk over top of the mask.

The ridges from the mask will help shave or release the chalk from the stick.

I removed the mask and with gentle pressure you can remove the excess chalk with your Blending Brush. You do not want to press too hard to lose the design from the Decorative Mask.

I really love this technique as its quite simple but creates a really wonderful background for your project.

To embellish and decorate the rest of my card I used the Flowers of Friendship Bundle. I stamped the flowers with Momento Black Ink and then I colored them with a Water Painter. I applied the tip of my Water Painter DIRECT to my pastel and colored! It is another fun way to use this product. And using a Water Painter gives the finished look a ‘watercolor’ feel which I love!

I hope you will add the Pastels to your next order as they are inexpensive and so fun to experiment with! I will continue to share projects with the Pastels over the summer so keep checking back in!

To continue on with the Hop you can go BACK to see what Melissa made this week or NEXT to see what Connie has designed. Please feel free to leave a comment or use my Host Code if you are inspired and live in Canada!