Bountiful Blessings--Create with Connie and Mary!

Welcome to another Saturday edition of Create with Connie and Mary! This week our theme is Bountiful Blessings so I reached for a ‘tried and true’ stamp set from my collection, Country Home. Sometimes it is easy to get caught up in the ‘new’ stamp sets we have because they are fresh and feel exciting, but we still have fabulous returning favorites in our annual catalogue!

You can make these sets feel ‘fresh and new’ by pairing them up with new colors, embellishments and designer series papers like I have done here.

And sharing items from both of our catalogue publications is key to making sure people know about all of the fabulous products we offer!

I love to color and this set totally fills that need! I used a color palette of Cinnamon Cider, Mint Macaron, Pumpkin Pie, Mango Melody and Old Olive to color and develop this card.

The Mint Macaron layer has the tile image from the stamp set stamped in the coordinating ink color so you just get a glimpse. The main layer of the card is from the In Good Taste DSP collection. LOVE IT!

I wanted to fill out the milk jug a bit with extra foliage so I reached for the Forever Flourishing Dies (pg 110) to add in the little sprigs, they are the perfect itty bitty size to keep in scale with the stamped image!

I wanted to add some gold accents to this card, as gold feels like a fall color to me. I used the Gilded Gems and some Gold Foil paper that I cut with a border die from the Autumn Essentials Die set. I really love die sets that have border options as I find I use them a lot to help highlight a sentiment or photo. And borders with a unique shape can be a great way to add in a subtle pop of color too!

A little Linen Thread bow finishes off the milk jug perfectly!

I really love the color palette of this card so you might see it in an upcoming scrapbook page too!

I hope everyone is soaking up the last few days of September! It went by so fast and now we are into a new month with my favorite holiday! Unless my own birthday can count as a holiday! hahaha!

Make sure you either hop forward to Connie’s blog (NEXT) or backwards to Melissa’s blog (BACK) to see what amazing creations they are sharing with us this week! And if this is your first time joining us, feel free to go back through my blog and see what we have been creating!

Coffee Carriers--not just for coffee!

The very first suite I ordered from the Handmade for You catalogue was the Heartwarming Hugs suite. Once I saw those mini coffee cups and that carrier I was SOLD! Hahaha! I have been crafting with them all month long in preparation for a display I was putting together and let me tell you, they are for so much more than coffee!

This cute little project is home to a little coffee bean plant! Isn’t that fun? I went to a local greenhouse and they told me it would maybe grow a bean in like a decade! hahaha! Keeping it alive for that long is actually more of a challenge!

To create the DSP wrap I sacrificed one of the cups by gently dismantling it. I then traced it onto the Heartwarming Hugs DSP so that the shape would be exactly the same to wrap around a cup. I used Tombow to keep things glued down. I love the color palette of this DSP as it allows you to bring in several brown and green tones and the patterns are so versatile and easy to mix together! I wrapped this carrier in DSP. I want to mention that you cannot wrap one strip of 12x12 around the carrier. It isn’t long enough so you need to cut individual pieces for the 4 sides. I wrapped it with the Real Red Braided Trim which is also a part of this suite.

I decided to add in a couple mini cards alongside my mini plant. I cut them to 2 1/2 inches wide so they could slip in the other side.

The Heartwarming Hugs Suite includes two stamp sets, Warm Hugs and Wrapped in Christmas. I used the Wrapped in Christmas set to make these mini cards and accented them with images from the Warm Hugs set.

The suite also includes two slim embossing folders which are great for adding in some texture like in this card shown.

Don’t all these patterns look awesome together? I love the Mossy Meadow Diagonal Stripe ribbon and the Glitter Star Ornaments in this suite. They help make the perfect tag! You can also see on this tag how fabulous the Warm Wraps Dies are as they have shapes that layer on top of each other! I always love when that is a component of a die set.

I actually ended up giving away both of these carriers as gifts so I wish the recipients luck in keeping these little coffee bean plants alive! hahaha! I also hope they are able to put the mini cards to good use and find themselves inspired.

I will be posting more coffee carrier projects so keep checking back so you don’t miss out! And if you need any supplies to make these projects, please shop my online store!

Hot Pink House!

Who would not love to live in a hot pink house? I mean its just beyond cute! I bet if I searched there are people on the east coast of Canada living in a hot pink house as it seems to be an east coast thing! Sadly on the prairies we are pretty boring! When I was a kid I would see images like this and imagine the life I would be living inside, did you ever do that? I can safely say I didn’t see myself designing cards as a living but I am so blessed to be doing so!

This is a card I shared with my Christmas Card group the other night and I couldn’t keep it to myself. It uses the Trimming the Town Suite from the Handmade for You catalogue. This suite is extra special because proceeds of the stamp set or bundle go towards charities devoted to adoption, infertility and foster care. Three things that I have a connection too so this suite has a bit of extra meaning to me.

I am not exactly sure what inspired this unique color combo but it is Magenta Madness, Granny Apple Green and Seaside Spray! And I could not love it more. I stamped the ‘Be Merry’ in Seaside Spray across the background and flicked it with the coordinating Stampin’ Write marker. The sentiment is from the Banner Year stamp set in the catalogue. It is a perfect set to recommend to new stampers because it has imagery and sentiments for fall, halloween, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day so they can get quite a bit of mileage out of it.

I cut the snow bank using the Home Together dies and used Shimmery White card stock so it was one or two tones different than the background. The hot pink house (sounds so fun) and the trees are all coloured with our Stampin’ Blends.

This is a card you can recreate in a million different color combos! I hope you are inspired and if you need any of the supplies, please feel free to order from my online store!

Create with Connie and Mary--Welcome Fall!

I believe the first official day of fall is September 21st, so we are almost there officially! Unofficially, I think as soon as September ONE hits we are bringing out blanket scarves, drinking our Pumpkin Spice Lattes and crafting with all things fall colors and pumpkins! At least that is what I am doing as there has been a definite chill in the air, especially on those early morning school drop offs!

That is why this weeks theme is Welcome Fall! I hope you don’t mind but I am on a scrapbooking ROLL so be prepared to see another page layout this week from me!

Out of all the seasons, crafting and home decorating for Fall and Halloween, are my absolute favourites! I especially love making layouts because there are just so many awesome ways to stamp and cut out leaves. This page looks so crisp with the white background and the medley of leaves, pumpkins. leaves and wheat sheaves.

For the color palette I cut or stamped leaves out in Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Old Olive with Mossy Meadow edges, Cajun Craze with Merry Merlot edges, Crushed Curry with Merry Merlot edges, Terracotta Tile and of course, Pumpkin Pie.

We have so many fantastic options for fall creating! I used the Love of Leaves Bundle, Gather Together Bundle and the Autumn Essentials dies from the Handmade for You catalogue. I did sneak in one retired leaf too as I just can’t part with it…can you see it?

Notice that big leaf on the left? I cut it from the Festive Felt and then spritzed it with a mix of Crushed Curry and rubbing alcohol. I quick blast with my heat tool and it was dry.

I wanted to create sort of a fun boarder running underneath my pictures with all my favourite fall images, leaves, pumpkins and wheat sheaves. When I was mixing two colors together, like on the green leaves, I stamped in Old Olive first and then used a finger dauber in Mossy Meadow around the edges. I used the same technique with the Cajun Craze, Crushed Curry and Merry Merlot leaves. And I want to give a shout out to Merry Merlot, its definitely getting a good work out in my craft room as it is perfect leaf tone!

I added in a little splatter with Crushed Curry ink and my Water Painter across the background of both pages. I love the feel it gave, softening up the crisp white a bit.

This page had so many highlights with the leaves and pumpkins that I found it didn’t need much in the way of embellishments. I bit of Bumblebee Gingham ribbon and some Gilded Gems were all I added to this page.

I like to create little focal points on my pages, I often say “Its all in the details”, which is reflected here with the ‘friendship’ and ‘So glad to have you in my life’ areas. I used the same maple leaf on each, with a gem, and twine to create continuity between the pages.

I hope you have enjoyed my fall pages! I will probably have more to share with you over the coming weeks so make sure you check back! And if you are in Canada and need to shop for any supplies you can follow the link on the side bar to my store!

If you are starting here on our blog hop you can go BACK to see what Melissa has designed for us this week and NEXT to see what Connie has created for us! Thank you for hopping by!

Create with Connie and Mary--Fall Flowers

Hello my friends! So happy to see you again this Saturday, welcome back! And if this is your first time joining in on this weekly hop, please feel free to go back through my blog and see all of my weekly creations!

This week our theme is Fall Flowers and I knew right away I wanted to use the Autumn Greetings Bundle from the Handmade for You catalogue. What really sold me on this bundle was the Autumn Essentials Dies. I love the pumpkins and the wheat sheaves dies.

I decided to use my Stampin’ Blends to color the large image from the Autumn Greetings stamp set as we have so many beautiful fall colours that we can use.

I used the following Stampin’ Blends colors—Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Mango Melody, Rich Razzleberry, Cherry Cobbler and Cinnamon Cider.

I also added in a bit of Designer Series Paper from the Plaid Tidings collection which has definitely been a fan favourite! The pumpkins are created using two dies from the set in Pumpkin Pie and Terracotta Tile and the wheat sheaves are cut in Bumblebee, Crushed Curry and Mango Melody to get a range of golden tones.

I started my page on an Early Espresso base and added in a photo mat of Cinnamon Cider. Adding in the Bumblebee tone brought out the fall leaves in my photo and added a brightness to the page. And I found the Champagne Rhinestones were the perfect tone of bling to add to the page. I love that I created this whole scrapbooking page using ONE bundle!

Remember how popular these were? Don’t forget about them, they are the perfect fall embellishment and will take you back to the Annual Catalogue!

I can’t wait to see what the other gals have created this week! You can go NEXT to visit Connie and BACK to visit Melissa! Enjoy your day and please feel free to leave a comment!

If I have inspired you with my page and you want to order any of these amazing products, please click on the Shop Now button to head directly to my store in Canada!