Inspiring Imperfections bundle /Kintsugi Inspirations Suite / Kintsugi Inspirations SDSP

Soooo excited that Stampin’UP! has finally released an Asian influenced stamp sets after a hiatus of several years! This is the first card that I’ve made from this stamp and die bundle, Joined Together 3D Embossing Folder and Specialty Designer Series Paper. I realize that I forgot to add the flower accent embellishments to this card, but it was sent to a male so I usually don’t add bling to guys’ cards! (Phew!)

Here’s the card:

Before I get into the detail of the card, let me explain what Kintsugi is. “Kin” means gold and “tsugi” means to join or mend. Hence the term is used to describe the Japanese art of mending broken pottery with veins of gold between the broken pieces. Each break adds to the history of the vessel and so, this sentiment is most appropriate!

The recipient of this card is the one person I often chat family history with. So rather than a “happy birthday” on the front as a sentiment, I used one of the stamps in the bundle since it was absolutely fitting our friendship.

I only stamped twice for this card: the sentiment and the chrysanthemum. The flower was stamped in Memento Black and colored in using watercolor pencils in Pacific Point and Garden Green (my watercolor pencils predate the recent Color Refresh). The vase is fussy cut from the Specialty DSP and I sponged it with Gorgeous Grape and Misty Moonlight. 

Can you see the gold “crack”? It was die cut in gold foil and added to the vase after. I used the frame from the Framed Scenes Dies to emphasize the new 3D embossing folder design:

Then I did something different by layering it on a mat of Misty Moonlight and then onto a 5.5x11” piece of the specialty DSP that was scored at 4.25” like the typical card base. It was lighter in weight than Basic White card stock so I added a panel on the inside plus a strip of the DSP.

I loved playing with this set and can’t wait to work with it some more. But first, I need to get a birthday card for a very special young lady of 6 years mailed…June has been a busy month for personalized birthday cards…hoping to post them all here on the blog as time permits…

Thanks for stopping by…have a wonderful day!

Happy Spring Lily card Paper Pumpkin March 2023 Ten Years Of Growth

I hope I got the Paper Pumpkin edition correct...it's been a while! Lilies do bloom during the summer too but in the spring, they are the bright happy sign of warmer sun and bluer skies! If you’re lucky enough to live in an area with the most sunshine days, perhaps this has less meaning but in the Pacific Northwest where the skies are gray and it’s rainy most days of the late fall, winter and early/mid spring…blossoms are so cheery and a welcome sign of spring!

I’m not much of a coloring in person but I’ve been trying to get over that! Alcohol markers are so popular so I’ve been buying a few at a time to have enough colors to be practical. Thought these turned out okay! LOL. The sentiment is a combinations of separate word stamps, the top and bottom ones are from the Birthday Wishes set - one of the very first photo polymer stamp sets I bought! The Spring sentiment is from the same March 2023 Paper Pumpkin kit stamp set.

The label for the sentiment is from the Mixed Labels Dies -- love the dot and dash design along the label's edge! And the embossed mat is one of the embossing folders from the Meadow Moments folder set (it came with 2 embossing folders). 

Thanks for stopping by...hope this inspired to you create something today too!

Kayak birthday card - Adventurous Journey

Sometimes I buy a stamp set that’s so unique that I need to get it. But then the need to use it doesn't happen for a while. LOL That is this set called Adventurous Journey! And then the need for a special birthday card came up and ... the perfect match!

The Adventurous Journey stamp set includes a kayak, row boat, paddle, lily pads & a fish, and rings of dispersion from a water drop (like when you paddle and water drops from your oar). 

So the birthday card was for a kayaker so this was the PERFECT occasion to use this set! And this is what the card looked like:

I used a blending brush to add some soft color to the water under the kayak and Azure Afternoon ink for the water rings. I actually stamped the kayak on scrap paper, used alcohol markers to color it, and then cut it out. I also (amazingly) had the perfect sentiment for the front of the card, which came from a set called Etched In Nature. 

As an additional dimensional element, I glued one edge of the kayak onto the card front then used Dimensionals (foam stickers) to lift the other side, as if the kayak was leaning over (as it would when paddling). Here’s a closer look at the angled dimensional effect:

And here you can see the shadow under the paddle at the top of the card:

Here’s a close up  of the waterlily pads and fish:

And last but not least, I use the Bark 3D Embossing Folder to create the look of ripples on the water’s surface:

The “ it’s your day enjoy it!” sentiment is from the Happiest of Birthdays stamp set. And the Happy Birthday (note the different fonts and font sizes) are both from the Adventurous Journey stamp set.

And that about sums up this card. I hemmed and hawed about starting it but once I started, it came together really quickly.

Cocktails card for a 21st birthday

I had a special order of a card for a 21st birthday…the celebration was going to include *responsible* drinking with a chauffeured limousine. (I was quite relieved to hear that of course!) With black and pink as the fave colors, I knew that I wanted to use the “Nothing’s Better Than” stamp set and the corresponding “Love You More Than” dies. I love the silly but oh so much fun drink umbrellas,  so of course I had to use the stamp of the cocktail glass with them…And here’s the final product:

I double cut the word “Cocktails” in black then mounted the pink on top to create a shadowed effect. And for the background, I simply stamped the same cocktail glass randomly everywhere on the background.

And I LOVED how the sentiments in this set worked so well with the theme….being awesome and celebrating a birthday! Here’s the inside: 

And the last detail was to stamp the envelope:

Since this would be hand delivered, I didn’t have to worry about the stamped image on the front of the envelope being problematic with the post office, but I think it would have been fine anyhow.

Thanks for stopping by & (as the card said)…have an awesome day !

Jungle Pals standing fun fold birthday card

Salebration…it’s the two month promo period (Jan-Feb) when Stampin’UP! offers a special selection of free stamps, dies, dry embossing folders, and printed paper packs free with purchase. And this year (2024), I picked the Jungle Pals stamp set and dies for two of my freebies. Here’s the card I CASED from my friend Laura Seki, with her permission. CASEing a card means to “copy and share everything” where you use what has been shared, and make a change that makes the card our own! 

I stamped the sloth from the stamp set and added a toucan to Laura’s design (also from the same stamp set). I used the corresponding dies to cut them out. Then I die cut the tree twice, adhering  the second die cut over the first but flipped (look at the branches for a clue!). I added some leaves and a panel as the background from the Daisy Designer Series Paper pack that looked lush and “tropical”. I wanted a custom greeting for a special 4 year old….so I printed this out using my computer and die cut it using the banner die from the Stylish Shapes die set (#159183).

The card design is a fun fold that includes a “pillar” (where the tree is adhered to) so the card actually stands upright. And the pillar folds up so that the card fits into a standard A2 envelope. (Sorry that I didn’t take a photo of it folded up!)

Here’s a close up of the sloth: 

And a closeup of the toucan. I also used dimensionals to pop the leaves up in front of it. 

On the back, I added another sloth and a vine: 

For this sloth, I stamped it on Crumb Cake cardstock before die cutting it. Hoping the special birthday boy liked his card! Would you if you were 4??

Thanks for stopping by…have a wonderful day!

Mountain View Fun Fold - Dainty Delight Birthday Card

I love making special fun folds for special birthdays and this one is no exception. I found a wonderful tutorial on Pinterest by France Martin (“Mountain View Fun Fold” dated Jan 9, 2023). Her examples didn’t include the paper I was using though and I changed it up a little inside as well.

Inside, I added some panels of embossed card stock and since I was traveling when I finished off the card, I was missing a stamp for “and”, so I had to draw that in using a blending pen and ink spot. Not happy with the way that turned out but, this is a handmade card after all and no one can dispute that! LOL Here’s the inside:

Please check out France Martin’s blog at  Frenchiestamps.com (search for “Mountain View Fun Fold”) to get the directions making this fun fold. It’s easier than it looks!

Thanks for stopping by…have a creative day!

Dainty Delights and Paper Florist trellis/fence cards

I had a ton of fun a few months ago with a new-to-me card design called a fence card and I recently revisited this card design! It’s the PERFECT use of my stash of 1/2” strips of card stock and I had enough of these strips to make several cards… The perfect stash buster of strips for sure! 

I started with the Paper Florist Dies. For the first card, I chose pastel colors including Balmy Blue, Fresh Freesia and the retired Mint Macaron. For all of my fence cards, I added a layer under the card front so that any writing inside the card would not show through the slats! The softness of the color scheme suggested that a get well message might be well suited for this card:

And similar to this one, I created one in Petal Pink and Balmy Blue, and added a bit of background texture using one of then designs in the Foursquare Decorative Masks set and a blending brush with Balmy Blue ink. And some edging color using Sponge Daubers on the petals before I curled the petal edges slightly.

Here’s a closeup of the mask:

Still with the Paper Florist Dies but choosing a different, BOLD color scheme, I chose red! Poppy Parade to be exact. Between the red and the Garden Green leaves, it initially looked very Christmasy, which wasn’t the look I was going for. So I added a die cut in dotted black on top, and under the fencing, I added some paper from my stash that had irregularly drawn black stripes. And to get more depth and a shadow effect, I die cut the leaves in Garden Green, then topped them slightly offset in Mint Macaron. (I really miss that color…). To prevent the black twine from slipping off the edge of the sentiment piece, I clipped a tiny half-hole punched and wound my twine in the depression to keep it put.

For the next two cards, I used the Dainty Delights bundle of stamps and dies. I stamped, colored and die cut two of the stamp images, and added a die cut of the angled stem underneath them. I used another one of the stencils in the Foursquare Masks set for a bit of background color and texture. I added a little more color this time compared to the blue in the Paper Florist card.

And then I created a card using only die cuts from the Dainty Delights set and cut them using Daffodil Delight card stock. I used the same green angled stem but cut it in two to create two shorter stems. I then decorated the stems adding the cheery little daisy like flowers (brown eyed Susans?). And I used yet another of the Foursquare Decorative Masks (there are 4 in the set):

Oh, the inside of this card is stamped: …You’d be better already!

Time to get on with the day…I’ve loved making these fence cards and I can imagine that when my stack of 1/2” scraps pile up again, I’ll be stash busting and making a bunch of these! Hope you enjoyed this post…have a wonderful day!

Zany Zoo/Zoo Crew Thank you to a knitter

There’s a super fun DSP (Designer Series Paper) paper pack called Zoo Crew which is part of the Zany Zoo Suite with stamps and corresponding dies.  Recently, I created a thank you card for a special knitter friend. The knitting llama was just perfect! I decided on a bridge card and here’s the final card:

If you’re not familiar with a “bridge” fun fold card, this is a top view of it, which makes the “bridge” and design of the card clearer: 

I used several products, retired and current for this card! First and foremost is the seated llama who is knitting. It’s from the Zoo Crew DSP pack and yes I had to fussy cut it out with my paper snips.  But it’s so worth the time and effort to fussy cut! 

The card base is Balmy Blue card stock 8 x 4.25” and I’ve used two patterns from the Bright and Beautiful DSP pack as the back ground of this card.  The “bridge” is made from one of the Nested Essential Dies and cut from Petal Pink cardstock. 

The sentiment is from the Flowering Flowers cling stamp set (stamped in Poppy Parade ink) and the heart is punched from the Bee Builder punch. 

The card needed something more for a  back drop behind the knitting llama so I used the window die from the Welcoming Window bundle and the tree/scenery from the Happy Home set from many years back! Here’s a close up of the window:

And a close up of how it looks with the window “behind” the llama:

And because there was no space to even sign this card on the front, I added a Basic White panel on the back side.

I had a ton of fun pulling in various sets that I have to make this card. I hope you enjoyed my run down of how it was made. The various items used to create this card (much older items excluded) are listed below. Thanks for stopping by. Have a wonderful day!

Supplies & Tools used:

-Zoo Crew 12”x12” DSP #161304 

-Balmy Blue cardstock 8.5x11” #146982

-Petal Pink cardstock 8.5x11” #146985

-Nested Essential Dies #161597

-Poppy Parade Classic Stampin’ Pad

-Bright and Beautiful 6x6 DSP #161449

-Welcoming Window dies (retired)

-Flowing Flowers cling stamp set (retired)

--Happy Home cling stamp set (retired)

Cherry Blossom cards - softly watercolored with pencils

I remember this stamp set each year around this time in spring, but I often don’t get around to using it. I love it and can’t get rid of it but…actually use it?? Hmmm….LOL I don’t even remember the name of the set anymore as I just kept the stamp!! But I love the way the cards turned out and am so happy to have used the set again and so, I am sharing it here.

On the left, I did the cards in coral (Calypso Coral to be exact!)  using the Stampin’UP! watercolor pencils and brushed over the color with a water painter brush. When I was done with coloring, I embossed the panel using the Textured Textile Embossing Folder in the Cut & Emboss machine. I love the subtle texture that this embossing folder imparts, without becoming too overwhelming with the rest of the card. The punch used for the sentiments is the Double Oval and the Thinking of You sentiment came from the Paper Pumpkin kit Pick of the Crop from June 2022. I added jewel-like sequins to the card to complete the cards. Here’s a close up of the coral card design:

After I finished the coral cards, I decided that I needed to make some in a soft pink, which is more the typical cherry blossom color. So I used the Melon Mambo watercolor pencil fairly lightly and matched it with Bubble Gum card stock and a soft pink ribbon as embellishment. Tiny faceted rhinestones completed these cards:

 

And I forgot to photograph the insides and the envelopes separately but I stamped the lower bottom insert in the card with a cluster of  buds. And you can see the envelopes peeking out from behind the card also have the flower branch stamped on it.

If you like coloring with pencils and/or the softer watercolor look, try the watercolor pencils and a bit of water on a brush. See the supply list at the end of this post. Thanks for stopping by.

Supplies used for this card include:

-Basic White card stock 8.5x11”  #159276

-Calypso Coral cardstock 8.5x11” #122925

-Bubble Gum cardstock 8.5x11” #161718

-Watercolor pencils assortment 1 #161700 & assortment 2 #149014

-Double Oval Punch #154242

-Water Painters #151298

-Paper Trimmer #152392

-Cut & Emboss machine #149653

-Calypso Coral Classic Stampin’ Pad #147101

-Stamp set: retired (name unknown)

-Ribbon: white or pink organza ribbon (from my stash) 

Quick Christmas cards with Classic Christmas Dies

I made the most holiday cards for the 2023 holiday season than perhaps ever!  But I didn't have the time to post them all. So over the next few days, I'll try to catch up and post at least some of them. Here are the ones created with the Classic Christmas Dies:

The DSP strip is from the Christmas Joy DSP pack and if you were wondering, I just used my standard paper hole punch for the berries...that was much easier! 

I misplaced my heat tool when we moved years ago and found it again earlier in 2023. But you know how it is when you "lose" a tool then find it again years later, you completely forget to use it! So I decided to heat emboss the greetings...love the look!

And these (below) were some really quick simple cards I created at the end of the season. You know how it is when you need just a few more cards to either send out or in your stash, in case...LOL:

The glimmer background in silvery blue and pink from the Supple Shimmer specialty card stock pack from a year or two back. The bottom two background DSPs are from the retired Heartwarming Hugs DSP pack. The greeting is from the Festive and Framed stamp set. 

Thanks for dropping by...have a wonderful day!

Quick holiday cards with the Beary Christmas Memories & More

 I was curious about the Memories & More Card Pack (#162027) and the Cards & Envelope Pack (#162028) for the Beary Christmas set. The idea of quick holiday cards is so appealing and the card bases and envelopes that matched the cards seemed to make a quick project of making lots of holiday cards! It took me a while to pull everything out and see what I wanted to match with what, but here are just a few of the designs that I easily made combining the different elements:

There were 20 card bases and matching envelopes (10 red, 10 blue) and I used them all! And I still had extra supplies remaining with which I could create more. If you want to make some quick cards with snowy scenes and adorable bears (and friends)...grab them before they sell out. Contact me if you need help...you can reach me using the "contact form" in the right margin here.

Thanks for stopping by,  have a wonderful day!

Hallowe’en cards: Scary Silhouettes Pop up Card

I created these Hallowe’en cards for my great nieces and nephew, all of whom live on the eastern half of the continent! I usually try to make an interactive card of some kind to entertain the little ones but I hope they liked the dimensional aspect of this one. The main dies used are from the Scary Silhouettes Dies set:

For the side panels, I used some ombre papers from a Salebration freebie from a couple of years ago. To recreate the gathering night time sky, I used blending brushes and Pacific Point and Highland Heather inks. And the bats were stamped using craft white ink. Here’s a closeup of both cards:

No room on front to write anything but there is a panel on the back:

Here’s a top view of the card so you can see how dimensional it is: 

And of course these cards fold flat for mailing like this (it kept wanting to pop up again but I think you can get the idea…)

Thanks for stopping by. Hope your Halloween was fun!