October 05, 2026

Color Fusers--October

October 05, 2026/ Brenda Nelson

Hi friends!
I am so happy you are here! I was really excited about this month’s Color Fusers color combo—Golden Glow, Early Espresso and Mossy Meadow are perfect for fall crafting and I had an immediate idea for a scrapbook page!

I love all of the options we have for fall crafting! My favorite Designer Series Paper paper right now is the Painted Patch collection—particularly the two awesome plaid patterns—one which has this awesome Golden Glow leaf design on the reverse sign. Sometimes it is so hard to choose which side to use! However, this leaf pattern was the beginning of my scrapbook page.

The base of the page is Early Espresso and to me the DSP strip influenced the rest of my design by focusing on the leaf pattern and bringing it to life with the dies from the Autumn Fields Bundle. Die cutting them and popping them up with dimensionals makes the background so interesting. It adds texture and interest keeping them tone on tone.

I also used the Gingham Gallery DSP in Golden Glow to die cut the scallop section at the top of the page. I trimmed off the top (which also a smaller scallop) to give this a straight edge to butt up along the top of my page.

I thought this was a nice way to build another sentiment into the page. This sentiment is from the Winnie the Pooh Sweet Word & Labels set. I layered a flower and Mossy Meadow leaf behind with some Linen Thread. Adding a brush of the Golden Glow Shimmer Pen on the flowers gave them a really nice finish.

The same scallop die makes a smaller scallop option that I decided to use under the sentiment “We Are Family”. This sentiment is created by blending two stamps together. Another great aspect of the Autumn Fields stamp set.

I used the new Mossy Meadow Gingham ribbon (trimmed in half) to add some interest to the sentiment. Honestly, I rarely make a scrapbook page without ribbon or thread of some kind.

The stamp set also includes an image that looks like a sheaf of wheat. So I decided to add that on my oversized photo mat. This photo mat is designed to give you space to decorate. It is 8 1/2 by 4 3/4 and holds a 4x6 photo on the left. Adding some of the Golden Glow dots from the Painted Patch Adhesive Backed Dots was the perfect finishing touch.

I really love the combination of stamped and coloured flowers and leaves (using Golden Glow Blends, Shimmer Pen and Mossy Meadows Blends) and die cut leaves.

I really hope this page inspires you to create your own fall scrapbook page. Mine is waiting for the perfect memory—it’s a good way to motivate me to be outside!

Next up on the swap is Heather from the Songbird Stamper. You can see what she has designed by copying this link into your browser:

Or go in reverse and see what Melissa created first!

If you have enjoyed my project, please consider following me on Instagram as I shared a lot more over on that platform. I have also been sharing my 50 Things to Do When I am 50 List on the Lifestyle portion of my blog—feel free to check out what I have been up to. And if you are in Canada and need any crafting supplies, consider shopping with me so I can keep doing what I love!

July 06, 2026

Color Fusers--July!

July 06, 2026/ Brenda Nelson

Hi friends! Welcome to July—as a teacher, this is an exciting month. I think I live for not setting my alarm clock! And I now have time for more crafting, which is everyone’s dream!

This month the Color Fusers are creating with Cloud Cover, Crisp Cantaloupe (a new In Color but a returning color) and Poppy Parade. I decided to use this combo to create a scrapbook layout.

Isn’t my dog so adorable! I love that he wanted to join me for this picture!

I started my page with Cloud Cover Two Tone card stock on the original color side. I used the Fragrant Layers stamp set (one of my current favourites) as the main stamp for my page.

The new Gingham In Color DSP is at the top of my DSP list at the moment. I wish we had it for every color family as you cannot go wrong with gingham! I used a section in the small gingham in Crisp Cantaloupe under my photo. My last day of school picture is mounted on Cloud Cover card stock with some Crumb Cake Bakers Twine wrapped around.

The sentiment is from the Fragrant Layers stamp set and is accentuated by a little scallop border detail in Poppy Parade. This was cut using the Bordered in Beauty Dies.

I also added a die cut flower and leaf from the Heirloom Boutique Die set.

The flowers on my page are coloured using the lazy watercoloring technique and the leaves are coloured with a Cloud Cover Stampin’ Blend. I used a Golden Glow dark Stampin’ Blend for the flower centers.

I use one of my larger blocks to press my ink pad to it to create a palette. Then I used a water painter to lightly color the image. The trick is to really dilute the ink for your first pass or wash of color. Then you can go back and add shading.

I am also really enjoying our new Shimmer Pens and I added some Crisp Canataloupe over top of this flowers for a little bit of sparkle!

I also used a tiny leaf from the Extraordinary Life die set and some pearls from the Pearlized Faceted Circles on my page. Some background stamping with the same floral image also creates interest in the foreground of the page.

I really enjoyed crafting with this color combo as Crisp Cantaloupe and Poppy Parade both have a bit of orange undertone to them so they do buddy up really well.

I can’t wait to see what the rest of the team has designed this month! Next on the hop is the amazing Tami, who has such a fantastic style of stamping. I know you will be inspired!

If the hop gets broken, you can go in reverse from here to see what the talented Lou Kitzelman has designed for us this month!

Either way, please see what the Color Fusers team has designed! Feel free to leave me a comment or shop with me if you are in Canada! Every order helps me keep loving what I do!

November 12, 2025

12 Days of Christmas--Last day! Day 12!

November 12, 2025/ Brenda Nelson

Can you believe we are wrapping up 12 Days of Christmas already? I hope you have enjoyed all the ideas that Melanie and I have shared with you again this year. I really look forward to this experience with her and for crafting up special projects just to share as a part of this blog hop!

My final project needed to be another scrapbook page as that is my favorite things to spend my creative time on and I love how this page turned out.

A few Christmases ago I had gone on a Target road trip prior to the holidays and found this Target store themed gingerbread house kit. Summer and I had so much fun putting it together and I can promise you it looked better than the one on the box cover. In fact, we felt that we had ‘nailed it’—hahaha!

I started with a White Willow 12x12 as my base and I added two 1/2x12 strips of this really old random red & white striped DSP (the back is the same pattern but Garden Green). I knew I had hung onto it for a reason, and the reason was this page! Hoarding of crafty supplies is a real thing!

The other DSP on this page is from the Christmas Tags & More 6x6 stack. I like this paper because its my favorite color combo for the holidays. And of course I had to add in some Pool Party and Coastal Cabana elements. The strip of Pool Party DSP is from the Floral Impressions collection.

The little clip above my photo is from the Just a Note Dies and they are a keeper. Adding the sentiment “Baking Spirits Bright” with some Real Red & White striped bakers twine behind was perfect for this little corner of my page with a cute mini gingerbread man and candy cane.

Once again combining both of our featured bundles!

I made my own oversized tag to buddy up beside my gingerbread person. My character is stamped on Crumb Cake paper and embossed in white. I enjoyed how the stamp set provided different expressions to add to your gingerbread. I punched out mini circles to add to my tag for texture and interest and ran some of the new Real Red Shiny ribbon through the top with a bit more twine.

The sentiment Its Beginning to Taste like Christmas is double stacked on two circles (from the retired Layering Circles Framelits). And once again I fussy cut out the word ‘taste’ in Garden Green and elevated it with mini dimensionals. I love this little trick to highlight a word in a larger sentiment.

The gingerbread man popping out of the oven mit might be my fav thing on this page!

I hope you have been inspired by the two scrapbooking pages, the cards and treat giving ideas shared by. myself over our annual blog hop. I know I enjoyed curating them for all of you!

Make sure to finish off the hop by visiting Melanie today and go back and catch up on anything you may have missed!

And if you need to place an order to make any of these fabulous projects and you are in Canada, please consider shopping with me so I can continue to do what I love!

See below for a complete list of supplies used to make this page!

HNailed It Scrapbook Page Supplies

Product List

Gingerbread Man Bundle (English)

[165785]

Homemade Treats Bundle (English)

[166017]

Just A Note Dies

[166101]

Christmas Tags & More 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Mix & Match Specialty Designer Series Paper

[165907]

Floral Impressions 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper

[165603]

White Willow 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Cardstock

[166703]

White Stampin' Emboss Powder

[109132]

Rainbow Adhesive Backed Dots

[162758]

Real Red 1/2" (1.3 Cm) Shiny Ribbon

[165876]

Real Red & White Baker's Twine

[164051]

1/2" (1.3 Cm) Circle Punch

[119869]

Bee Builder Punch

[162553]

Coastal Cabana 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[131297]

Real Red 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[102482]

Pool Party 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[122924]

Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[120953]

Garden Green 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock

[102584]

Real Red Classic Stampin' Pad

[147084]

Garden Green Classic Stampin' Pad

[147089]

Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad

[147116]

Fancy some sunshine and crafting! Join Melanie and I in July/August of 2026 for a caribbean getaway!

July 08, 2025

Memories in Bloom!

July 08, 2025/ Brenda Nelson

Hey friends—its been a while. Its been the worst two years of my life. I was not really prepared for the direction my life was taking but now that I am here I am grateful for the things that God was lining up for me before I knew what was happening. It was not an accident, it was a plan designed to save me.

I am thankful for my crafting community, especially those who were in the nitty gritty with me as I cried through teaching classes or needed to vent, who kindly offered me reassurance that I would not be stuck in that space for long. Because that is the thing right—we are never actually in that space for long. No matter what we are always moving forward. For a long time I was coasting along on the tide of life into an ocean where I did not want to be. But now I have the chance to bring myself and my kids into a space where we are meant to be.

I want to get back to share my creativity with others and focusing on creating life long memories with my kids and friends, and capturing these in a paper legacy! I look foward to sharing with you in this space. Including recipes and just general life stuff. One day my kids can look back on this too :)

I hadn’t been to disney since before Covid…its the same nostalgic feeling!

In May I spent a week in Disney with Reese. It was a amazing. Every mom should be so lucky to spend time on a vacation with their son, and in a place as fun as Disneyworld. I could not have asked for a better travel companion! Our first stop in the Magic Kingdom was for a Starbucks and a picture in front of the castle.

I created this page as part of a series for my Scrapbook the Day event that I have been hosting every few months in my Home Studio. Its been fun to take our kits and turn them into other designs, treat people to a homemade lunch and dessert and have happy energy in my crafting studio.

I used the Memories in Bloom kit as the backdrop for this page. Personally I feel like you can use flowers for almost anything. I really loved the colors of the kit and the fact that there was a matching bundle to incorporate. The Pretty Florals bundle was a great add on to bring dimension into my design as I am not prone to just using the pop out images from our kits. My personal style is for things to be more dynamic.

However, I did pull in a lot of other supplies as well to complete my page. I am loving the new Party Banners Dies and the Celebrate Together stamp set is an #addtocart moment if you have not already. I have used the ‘A Day to Remember’ so many times already! It’s a perfect scrapbooking or memory keeping stamp set. Storybook Life is another fantastic memory keeping stamp set and that is where ‘Big Smiles’ is found.

My sentiments are stamped in Secret Sea ink which is such a great alternative to Memento ink.

TOP TIPS:

Combining pop out pieces with stamping and die cuts is a great way to use a kit and bring a design to life. I like my pages to have texture and interest.

Balancing out a busy pattern by layering a solid card stock over top is a great tip when you do not know how to use those busy pattern.

I used one of the large flowers from the Thankful Garden stamp set to fill in some space on the Petunia Paper base (stamping tone on tone). A combination of different embellishments is also fun (use up those random sequins or gems that you have left, it’s a crime they get abandoned!)

I hope this page sparks some new ideas in your own memory keeping!

If you are just starting your memory keeping journey—check out my gallery for a bunch of inspiration and follow me on instagram @stampwithbrenda if you are not already!

And wish me luck on my new journey—as I have been saying Brenda2.0 has just launched! If you are inspired to create this page please consider shopping with me in Canada—this helps me to keep loving what I do!

May 11, 2025

Happy Spring!

May 11, 2025/ Brenda Nelson

Happy Spring everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying family or friendship time together. The sun is shining here and its a beautiful day.

I wanted to share a scrapbook page that I made with some pictures I took with my kids last spring. We went to Banff National Park and even though there is still snow, it was spring and a fun way to spend Mother’s Day weekend.

This picture is actually in Lake Louise and minutes after we took it, an avalanche happened across the Lake. It was amazing to witness.

I started with a White Willow 12 x 12 base and used the color palette of Fresh Freesia, Petunia Pop, Soft Seafoam and Lost Lagoon for my hexagons and flowers.

I used some current, soon to be retiring and retired DSP for the hexagons, which are cut with the Meant to Be Dies. They are the only dies I have used from this set if I am being honest. And I love them. They are an #addtocart moment, trust me!

My current obsession has been the Thankful Garden stamp set. I just cannot stop using it (take a peek at my Instagram @stampwithbrenda) and you will see what I mean!

I love that the concept artist designed this bloom so that it can be cut apart and you can use just the blooms without the stem if you desire.

I colored the main full bloom in Fresh Freesia with a Soft Seafoam stem and then the individual blooms are colored in Fresh Freesia and Petunia Pop. If you creatively arrange them, you can’t tell they were not individually stamped flowers.

The butterfly is from the Beautiful Butterflies stamp set and I colored one in green and one in purples to maintain the color scheme.