Prized Peony Perfection

Have you been stamping and creating with the Prized Peony Bundle? I actually love it as Peony’s are one of the few flowers I can actually keep alive from year to year, although I do wish they had a longer life span! I love how in the Peony die collection you get dies that cut out the stamped images and you get dies that cut out and layer together to create a beautiful peony flower. It is a really unique die set.

I recently created this page to share with my stampers at our monthly scrapbook group. If you live in the Edmonton area and are interested in scrapbooking, this is an example of what we make at each of our monthly meetings. Please reach out to me if you are interested. I would love to share my love of memory keeping with you!

I chose the colors for this page based on the colors in my sons tee shirts! This is all apart of my creative process as I do like things to have coordination and its often helps me get my color palette figured out.

If I could have one wish granted it would be that Stampin’ Up! would offer all of our amazing colors in 12x12 sheets. However, it is not the reality, but I did feel that a crisp white background would help the peonies pop off the page. I also knew that I wanted to use embossing paste on the background as it is a fun and easy technique. It is really easy to do in a class setting. I just have all of the participants do the embossing paste step one after another and then I rinse the stencil and palette knife in warm water when they are done. So don’t be afraid to try its with a group!

I used the Basic Patterns Decorative Mask with White embossing paste too create this subtle background. You can find both items and the Palette Knives on page 146 of the Annual Catalogue. If you look close you can see I also added in some of the Elegant Faceted Gems near the top of the page.

This page has quite an elegant feel to it which is kind of funny, as my kids were at our local zoo! This page would look amazing with wedding or anniversary photos too!

The Peony images are stamped in Moments Black Ink and coloured with the Old Olive, Calypso Coral and Balmy Blue Stampin’ Blends. The sentiments are stamped in Grey Granite ink on coordinating card stock and are cut with the Tasteful Labels dies and are from the Tasteful Touches stamp set. I think this whole bundle is a must have! I added a few pieces of the Peony Garden DSP to bring in that grey tone.

On each page I used two vertical 4x6 pictures that I butted up to each other, you could use one larger horizontal photo on the Balmy Blue photo mat as well. I like to give my group members options when selecting their photos. And my favourite die in the Peony set might be the long scallop border as its cuts and embosses and is just the perfect finishing piece.

If you would like any of the supplies to create this create this scrapbook page please click on the link below to shop with me in Canada!

Create with Connie and Mary--Back to School!

Typically around this time of year I find myself thinking, wow, its time to start getting ready for school to start! And then I procrastinate on actually buying school supplies and getting anything organized. I mean, it’s not like my kids are even thinking about back to school, they are in summer mode. Even though its been a 5 month summer because of Covid!

So I was excited when this week’s theme was shared as ‘Back to School’ as putting my project together helped remind me I really need to get organized this year! I knew that I had some pictures of my kids that I had not scrapbooked yet as I never follow any kind of order when I decide what pictures to use. I am however, someone that regularly prints pictures—I have bins and bins of them that I have somewhat categorized and labelled. I am someone that almost always needs a photo to get my creative juices going!

The Harvest Hellos and Apple Builder punch were my go to craft supplies to create this page! I have no idea why apples feel like back to school but they just do! I also knew that I wanted to incorporate the Plaid Tidings DSP as well as plaid feels like fall to me too.

This page actually didn’t require too many supplies like some of my scrapbook pages! I kept all of the phrases from the Bundle which I do find helps my stampin’ customers feel inspired to make a purchase, knowing they can make a page with one stamp set.

I coloured the apples in with my Stampin’ Blends using the Poppy Parade and Granny Apple Green. I also decided to use one of the gold hoops to create a little focal area on the left of the page. Because I was using three pictures, I made sure that each picture had a ‘phrase’ attached to it as well to help draw the eye across each photo. And a little background stampin’ and maker flicking helped fill in the right side of the page!

I added a little extra greenery from the Forever Fern bundle on the hoop and a little bit of Real Red ribbon

Thanks for hoping along with all of us again this week! And if you are new to our blog hop, we share a project every Saturday! So mark us on your calendar!

You can click BACK to see what Melissa has created and NEXT to see what Connie has crafted for us! She mentioned she was really excited about her project this week so I can’t wait to see it myself!

Around the World on Wednesday--We Are Shaking Things Up!

Happy Wednesday! Thank you for travelling around the world on this virtual blog hop! I love how we have so many people participating from the many corners of the crafting world! So thank you for hopping along with us! I live in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada!

This month, our theme was SHAKE THINGS UP—-I took this literally, haha! To create a shaker card! Its actually been a while since I have played with this fun card style.

I actually wanted to create a ‘simple’ shaker card and the easiest way to do this is to use our clear envelopes. You can find these in the catty with our medium envelopes on page 153. I use them for card pieces (my stampers have lovingly referred to these bags as their Brenda Bag!), as a glossy surface for water colouring techniques and to create shaker cards!

I took one of these clear envelopes and stuffed it with a piece of Whisper White card stock that was run through the NEW Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine with the Tasteful Textile 3D embossing folder. Ok, let’s stop right there! The NEW machine is a dream, its like butter! Even my stampers commented how smoothly things run through and how easy it is to use with all of the plaforms being labelled! So well done, SU, well done!

Now I knew I needed some filler for my shaker card and I ended up using the Detailed Hearts Die on some Gold Foil paper. I was thinking convenience people, haha! I knew this die would cut out a ton of hearts and would leave me with a fun piece I could use on a future project! I dropped all of my hearts into the clear envelope, folded it in half and sealed it shut. Seriously, this could NOT be easier and is such a fun way to create a shaker card, especially for new stampers!

I really wanted to play with some new stamps so I decided to embellish the front of my card with the Love of Leaves Bundle and the Plaid Tidings DSP. The little ‘hello’ is stamped and embossed in gold and is then cut out using the itty bitty tag that is a part of the Gift Bow Builder punch. Its literally too cute for words!

I love all of the texture you get with the Love of Leaves stamp set. The dies are fabulous as you can use them to add a stitched detail to your leaves if you choose or just to cut out the image! You can use my Hostess Code if you want to add them to an order!

Next up on your virtual world tour is to visit Tricia Butts from the United States. I can’ wait to see what she has created for us, I know you will be inspired! Just click on the Next Blog and it will take you there! Have a wonderful day!

Flowers for Every Season

I recently had a creative swap challenge with my Team, we needed to pick a suite from the catalogue and create a card project using the elements in that suite. I chose the Flowers for All Seasons Suite (pg 10-11 of Annual Catty) to create with because sadly, I have had all of these supplies and had not used them since I got them in May/June. Who can relate?

I will admit, when a new catalogue is released I go a little crazy ordering everything that inspires me! But there are only so many hours in the day to craft, so sometimes awesome stuff like this product suite sit on my shelf not getting any love!

I did add in a few elements from outside of this suite, the sentiment and the die to cut it out. The sentiment is from Lovely You (pg 22) and the dies are the Tasteful Labels dies (pg 179). I also used the Tasteful Textile 3D embossing folder on the white card front layer.

I actually chose a bit of a softer color palette as well for my card than what is showcased in the catalogue as well. I wanted something that felt peaceful and relaxing unlike the bold colors of the suite. I started by choosing the flower collection I liked in the Jar of Flowers stamp set. There are 4 options and I liked this one because it felt the fullest. I chose to color it with some soft Stampin’ Blends in Purple Posy, Highland Heather, Pink Pirouette (retired I know, sad face), Pool Party, Mango Melody and Granny Apple Green. There are no dies with this stamp set, just the cutest jar punch! So you will have to hand cut any of the bloom images.

Creating the ‘shaker’ part of this card took a few steps. After I ran the Whisper White card stock through the Tasteful Textiles embossing folder I used the jar punch to create the shaker space. I added in the Mason Jar Shaker Dome (pg 158). I dropped a few of the Flowers for Every Season gems inside the dome. I wanted it to look like there was water in the shaker dome so I used my Water Painter brush and Pool Party ink to swipe some color on scrap white card stock. I then stamped the stems and coloured them with the Granny Apple Green Stampin’ Blends. I punched this out with the Jar Punch and added it into the space created by the dome. Now this will not seal this shaker dome up, you will need to use another piece of scrap paper (3 x 2.5 should do it) to seal this up after you take off the adhesive strip around the shaker dome.

I decided to add a few white sprigs from the Sunflowers dies as it helped fill in the flower arrangement. I also had to double stack my Dimensionals on the back of the flowers to get them to sit up high enough to match the Mason Jar dome. The rim of the jar is stamped in Grey Granite and hand cut. I added it on with Glue Dots.

I really really love how these cards turned out, especially because I had to make 14 of them! It was actually a relaxing way to spend my weekend, colouring and fussy cutting!

Joy of Sets--That's FONT-astic!

Thank you so much for hopping along with The Joy of Sets team this month! If I am your first stop, welcome, and have fun seeing all the creative ways we are using FONTS!

A big thank you Joy of Sets team for such a unique Blog Hop Theme! I had a lot of fun creating my project featuring FONTS and how they can help bring your projects alive. I wanted to create a scrapbook page as it gives you the space to use a variety of FONTS on your project.

On this page I used 5 different fonts, 4 from stamp sets and one from the Playful Alphabet dies! I love the unexpected combo of fonts!

I used the Peony Garden DSP as my color palette and then decided to add in some soft purples to pull in the color from the lilac bush in our picture. I always look at some angle to get my photo to coordinate with the colors of my scrapbooking.

Always is stamped in Smoky Slate using the Field of Flowers stamp set from the Annual Catalogue. Smile is cut in Blushing Bride and is lifted using the Adhesive Sheets. Quite possibly my FAVORITE accessory in the new catalogue, at the moment at least!

I Like You A Lot is also stamped with Smoky Slate ink on Highland Heather card stock. You can find this phrase in the Blossoms in Bloom stamp set. I used a retired scallop boarder punch (gasp, yes, I don’t sell everything! Somethings I love too much to get rid of, even if they are retired!) to highlight the sentiment and paired it on top of the of Label Me Lovely punch that I trimmed down.

The embellishments in the corner are the new Elegant Faceted Gems. Now when you look at them in the catalogue on pg 157, it looks like you get a light green gem, you DON’T—its actually the clear gem appearing that way because of the background it was photographed on. I wanted to point out because I don’t using ‘read’ stuff, I am a visual person!

I decided this page was taking on an elegant feel and it needed something to fill the white space but not be distracting at the same time. I ended up using the Basic Patterns Decorative Masks with the Shimmery White embossing paste. I love the feel and texture it gave the page. I added in a small strip a DSP in a Purple Posy pattern to keep the purple flowing down the page. It is from the Playing With Patterns DSP.

Happy Day is from the much overlooked, in my opinion, stamp set called Friend Like You in the annual catalogue. And the accompanying sentiment is from the Forever Blossoms stamp set. This set holds a special place in my heart as it was one of the stamp sets I used when I presented at On Stage in November of 2019.

The Highland Heather die cut flowers are from the Many Layered Blossoms dies in the Annual Catalogue.

I really love how soft and lovely this page turned out and how using a variety of fonts really show cased the photo!

I hope the next time you sit down to do some memory keeping you consider how mixing up the fonts on your page can add a little twist!

Enjoy making your way around to all 16 Blogs this month! Next up is Alejandra Gomez, I can’ wait to see what she has created for us.