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 with Brenda & Melanie

November 12, 2025/ Brenda Nelson

Hi friends welcome back to our annual 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop! This year Mel and I are going to feature a variety of projects using the Homemade Treats and the Gingerbread Man bundles! Today we will each share a project and then we will alternate days and on the 12 day each share a project! So over the course of the next 12 days you will get piles of inspiration using these bundles!

For my first project I wanted to share a scrapbook page as I love scrapbooking and I wanted to share a fun idea with how you can use this fun bundle to create a scrapbook page.

I started with a base of Pecan Pie Two Tone card stock and used the light side. The reason for this was so that when I die cut the gingerbread men out of the card stock you would see a contrast in the shapes. I love how it turned out!

I dug out an older picture of Summer where she is putting together a Gingerbread House as its a fun memory I want to keep. This is a reminder that we are never caught up in our memory keeping—its not a linear hobby!

The photo mat is Coastal Cabana and this color lends itself so well to this general color combination of Real Red, Garden Green and Pretty in Pink.

As mentioned Melanie and I are going to be using both the Homemade Treats and Gingerbread Man bundles over our 12 Days of Christmas Shares so I wanted to design this page to showcase how to use both on this project.

I absolutely. LOVE the dies from the Gingerbread Man Bundle —especially the candy cane. I cut it out to have both a red and white candy cane and a Pretty in Pink candy cane.

TOP TIP: This is easy to do with the dies as you just flip the paper over to the backside to have the candy canes going in opposite directions.

The sentiment Sugar & Spice is from the Gingerbread Man stamp set and the ‘tis the Season for Baking’ can be found in the Homemade Treats stamp set.

I had fun adding in the little gingerbread man and gumdrops to act like embellishments on this page.

I wanted the oven mitt to act like a stocking in a sense with things popping out of the top of it and falling down the side of the photo.

Adding the wrapped candy, rolling pin and the Peppermint Embellishments made this little section so fun. The Garden Green and White Chevron ribbon is a sneak peek of a new ribbon coming out this month with our newest Online Exclusive release. It’s a perfect ribbon to add to this page along with the Real Red Shiny Ribbon at the top.

I hope this page inspires you to use these bundles together as they really are perfect partners! You can now head on over to Melanie’s blog—Mels Inky Fingers to see what she is sharing today. Click on the image below to go straight to her blog.

Then check back with her tomorrow as she is going to share on even days and I will share again on the odd days (so Nov 3rd) and we will each share on day 12!

If you are inspired and live in Canada, please consider shopping with me so I can continue to love what I do!

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And if you didn’t hear the fun news we are hosting a crafting cruise in 2026 and would love you to join us! Our blog hop will give you an idea of our crafting styles plus you can check out our social channels as well! If you would like to join our Craftin’ Fun in the Sun Facebook group, please let me know or search it to join!

You can follow me on Instagram @stampwithbrenda

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.

I hope this page inspires you to scrapbook with our many amazing products or use the idea to create a fun card!

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March 26, 2025

Yay! Happy Birthday to Me!

March 26, 2025/ Brenda Nelson

Hey everyone! Wow, its been a hot minute since I have shared a blog post! Life has been really busy, I started a new job this past year as the Learning Support Teacher at a high school (a job I love and its perfectly suited to my skill sets), I still work at lululemon because I love my work friends and the product and YES—I am still stamping! Keeping up with my monthly groups, classes and events!

I miss sharing on here and I am going to try to be more committed to sharing on this platform because I do like to share projects that I am passionate about, especially scrapbooking. I make a lot of pages a month and I find they do not get the same kind of love over on Instagram (I hope you are following me there @stampwithbrenda).

This is me and some of my favorite people celebrating my birthday this year!

I wanted to share this fun page I made for a page class I teach as I am so happy with how it turned out. You know when you have a ‘vision’ and it comes to life? That is how I felt about this page!

I started with a base of Whisper White (as you know we can only order White Willow from this point on) and I cut myself a stencil using a Window Sheet and the Around it All dies. Using Blending Brushes and ink pads in Pretty in Pink, Coastal Cabana, Peach Pie and Lemon Lime Twist, I created a fun pattern along the side making sure to overlap the ‘bubbles’ so they felt connected.

The benefit of a window sheet is you can see through it, which makes placement a breeze—plus you can wipe it off to use over and over again! And don’t throw out the pieces or shapes that cut out—save them to use on another project as a fun element!

I used another die from the set in a slightly smaller size to stamp my sentiment ‘Make a Wish’ from the Birthday Celebrations stamp set. I absolutely LOVE this bundle and it will stay in my ‘keep me’ pile, especially because of the number dies included in the bundle.

I used the banner shape from the Mixed Labels die set to add behind my sentiment with some banners from the Lily Pond Lane DSP and some Linen Thread. The little tiny heart is from the Humble Home Builder Punch that was out during holiday season.

Adding some tone on tone embellishments also makes this a fun little area on my scrapbook page.

I stamped out ‘hooray’ from the Birthday Celebrations stamp set in Lemon Lime Twist to add overtop of that bubble—just like how I used the embellishments. As you can see on the page, anything added over top of the bubble coordinates with the bubble color—like the Peach Pie heart from the Hearts of Elegance Dies (a MUST HAVE—seriously #addtocart).

The remaining sentiments on this page are from the Wildflower Celebrations stamp set, which can be found in the Scrapbooking Brochure. I fussy cut them out and added them with a Pretty in Pink 49 to celebrate this birthday. Last one in my 40’s!

If you are inspired by this page, please help me keep loving what I do by shopping with me! I would be sincerely grateful—and if you are interested in joining my Making Memories Membership Program to learn how to scrapbook—get in touch!

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