Flowering Zinnia friendship card

I have to admit that when I first saw this DSP pack called Flowering Zinnia….I thought…yikes, BRIGHT...perhaps a bit too bright for me...??  This was at the beginning of March in the depths of gloomy and dark rainy days in the Pacific Northwest! But I bought a pack of the DSP anyhow. And wow, I opened it and LOVE IT so! Yes, it’s got some bold and assertive coloring going on but how cheery and fun! I needed 3 thank you cards for an upcoming class and I came up with this design.

Flowering Zinnia DSP cards

Sadly I gave away the cards before jotting down the measurements of each piece!! The zinnia DSP panel is approximately 2.5” x 5”. And to save DSP, I used two thin purple panels instead of one larger one since it just got layered behind the focal panel. Those measure approximately 4x1” and 4x1.5”. The tougher part of aligning the two so that it LOOKED straight (like it was one piece of printed paper). I aligned it on my a sheet from the Stampin'UP! grid paper and that made it so much easier! The green  striped background  panel is 4x5.25”. And last but not least, and it’s punched out using the Hexagon punch.

And here’s a closeup of the card again:

Oh almost forgot: the wonderful sentiment is from the retired Grace's Garden set. So perfect for a floral card...

Definitely a cheery feel good card! Hope this easy card inspired you today to create...thanks for stopping by.

Mountain Fold Fun Fold cards - Awash in Beauty DSP - Birthday & Sending Hugs/Friendship

 On a roll with these mountain fold cards. When I made my very first one, I thought “this is too complicated”. But I LOVED IT so…I made a second, and a third and by the end of the evening, I had made 8 of them! I ran out of DSP so I didn’t get to finish them all (I was out of town and crafting in a hotel room in the evenings). So some were finished at home a week later. These are the ones made with the Awash in Beauty DSP:

 I kept forgetting however that the card base is 8”! But by the end of the evening,  I had that down. Here’s a super rough diagram of the cutting and scoring dimensions (click on any photo to zoom in):

The belly band is 1” x 9” strip, scored at 2” and 6.25”. I glued the edges where they overlap in front and adhered my sentiment on top, hiding the seam. And that’s it for today. Hope this has inspired you to create something and have some fun. Thanks for stopping by!

Dainty Flowers friendship card Salebration freebie with purchase

Stampin'UP! has a sale called Salebration every year where they offer freebies with every $50 purchase. This year the sale runs from Jan 5th until Feb 28th, 2023. There are several wonderful choices but the favorite pick has surely been the 12x12 printed paper pack called Dainty Flowers. One of the six designs in this paper pack has 6 wonderful oval wreaths of dainty watercolored flowers. Very little needs to be done with this beautiful paper to make a gorgeous card and here is my first card made with one of the 6 beautiful watercolor designs:

The card base is Mint Macaron card stock, with a mat layer of Rich Razzleberry. The center sentiment is from the Flowers of Friendship stamp set and is stamped in Rich Razzleberry. I then die cut it using one of the labels in the Painted Labels Dies set and then adhered it slightly offset and also raised with dimensionals. The lacy edge is also from the Painted Labels Dies. A strip of retired ribbon and a few pearls finish off this card. 

This free paper pack with a $50 purchase has sold out however I will have sampler card kits available on my Etsy shop hopefully starting in early March. My sampler card kits have 6x6” of each double sided design in the paper pack (a total of 6), coordinating 5.5x4.25” card stock, ribbon and embossed panels so that you can start creating cards immediately. 

Thanks for stopping by…hope it’s inspired you to create something to share today.

Hand Penned Friend card

Hand Penned is a stamp set with coordinating dies from the current 2022-23 Stampin’Up! catalog. The DSP paper pack retired but the stamp set is still available and there are more and more pins with cards featuring it every day! I absolutely love this set and have used it many times. I recently found the set of card bases and matching envelopes so I created the following using some of my last pieces of the DSP pack:

The "friend" sentiment is from the "Happiness Abounds" stamp set, which is also another fave! (I can't believe I haven't posted any pics of cards made with this set or the beautiful paper pack...except that I haven't posted many cards at all period.)

The butterfly die is from my stash and creates a nice focal. Tiny pearls add a touch of elegance, but oh so subtly.  I’ll be adding these cards to my Etsy shop soon. Please visit at KikumiDesigns.Etsy.com if you’re curious. 

Thanks for stopping by! Have an amazing day! 

Bouquet in a Bottle

Yes you can put a message in a bottle but I prefer some pretty flowers! I made this cute card at a friend’s card making event (back in June) using the Bottled Happiness stamp set and coordinating Vintage Bottle Punch to introduce the new incolors for 2022-24. It uses Tahitian Tide, Sweet Sorbet, and Parakeet Party. The flowers and leaves are part of a “two step” set…one stamp includes the flowers and a second stamp has all the leaves and supporting stems! Because it’s a clear stamp, you can see through it and position the stamp perfectly!

Here’s a close up of the sentiment and a great way to add a background to a die cut - and it works with almost any punch or die cut! All I've done here is to punch out a second piece of the same shape, cut it in half then reattach it so that it looks like a border around the top and bottom of the sentiment piece. Works like a charm without having to use another punch or die cut and looks neat!

Have a Peachy Day

Don’t the peaches on this card remind you of warm summer days? Maybe some peach cobbler baking in the oven though it’s so hot outside?? YUM!! (Ice cream too please!)

 

This is my favorite print from the You’re a Peach Designer Series Paper (DSP) pack. I added the scallop edge (from the Peony Dies set) then a bit of the striped DSP also from the You’re a Peach DSP pack. 

 

The sentiment is inked with craft white on Calypso Coral and is from the coordinating Sweet as a Peach set. The fun really begins inside and on the envelope though…

I inked the peach stamp using Pale Papaya. Then I added some dimension by using a sponge dauber and some Calypso Coral ink. I tapped the sponge dauber onto the ink pad lightly, then tapped the sponge dauber directly on my stamp, right on top of the Pale Papaya ink along one edge of the stamp. Then I stamped the image onto some Basic White. Wow, what fun! Then I repeated the steps and stamped the back of the envelope too. I perhaps could have used a darker color instead or in addition to Calypso Coral to get more depth and definition, but I was quite happy with the results. 

 

Hope you've enjoyed this post and that it inspires you to be creative! Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful day. 

Bamboo Beauty Friendship Card

Happy Saturday! Hope you’re enjoying your weekend. Today I’m sharing another simple card design that I made multiples of recently to donate to a card sale fundraiser for a local senior lunch program. 

I first used a blending brush and Pacific Point ink on a panel of Basic White card stock to create a light blue background. I then used two stamps from the Bamboo Beauty set and Garden Green ink to stamp the bamboo and leaves. Next I stamped the “friendship” kanji in Poppy Parade ink. I matted the focal panel on Basic Black then stamped the sentiment on a scrap piece of Basic White using Basic Gray ink and punched it out using the Timeless Label punch (now retired). I punched a  second label in Poppy Parade card stock and adhered it behind the sentiment to create a bottom/side border that matched the ink used for the “friendship” kanji. The sentiment label was adhered using foam dimensionals to raise it off the card base. Last but not least, I added a pearl from the Pearl Basic Jewels package.

 I used my Stamparatus tool to make it easy to stamp multiples of this card front for donation.

These are some quick directions, if you’d like more detailed steps, please contact me using the form on the right margin. You can also purchase supplies and tools to make this card from my Stampin’UP! shop at https://PaperFunTogether.stampinup.net

Thanks for stopping by!