Handmade Blue Christmas Cards

When I’m looking at cards for the holidays, I always love blue Christmas cards! I know lots of people love the combination of read and green for Christmas cards. And while I do love that combination too, there’s just something about blue that gets me. So when I saw these cards from my recent team swap I had to share them with you.

This first one was made by one of my best friends, who is also my upline, Stephanie Nash. I love adding bling to my cards so of course this is one of my favourites! The swirl of Balmy Blue glimmer paper using the Painted Labels dies looks really pretty and hides the phrase on the inside of this Z-fold card. I also love the Blue Adhesive-Backed Gems.

Blue Christmas Glimmer

The next card, made by Sandra Paul, uses of my favourite new In Colours… Misty Moonlight. I didn’t really notice the In the Pines stamp set until I saw this card. Just by stamping the same tree image on the Whisper White cardstock three times without reinking, she was able to create some depth. I also never would have thought to use the Birds & Branches dies to create a frame for one of the trees from the Pine Woods dies. This is why I love doing card swaps with my team… it gives me the chance to see things I wouldn’t have noticed on my own.

Blue Christmas Trees

The last blue Christmas card I want to share with you is this one made by Laura Seki. This one is also a Z-fold, but the fold is tucked inside a regular card base. The stamp set she used, Poinsettia Petals, is one of my favourites from the Augsut-December Mini catalogue. I’ve been having a lot of fun creating with it! Here’s one I did using silver embossing like Laura did with her card. I also really like how she “splattered” some silver embossing powder on the card front.

Blue Christmas Poinsettia

I still have a few more cards from my team swap that I plan on sharing so stay tuned. And if you like these projects and want to get a jump on the upcoming holidays make sure to sign up for my weekly email newsletter! I’m kicking off my 12 Weeks of Christmas later this week.

I hope you enjoyed these handmade blue Christmas cards as much as I do!

Home Decor with Harvest Hello

Fall is officially here and so I’ve been decorating the house to reflect the new season. I’ve also been seeing lots of great projects and so thought I’d try and make some home decor with Harvest Hello. This is a fun stamp set to use because it lends itself so well to colouring and fall is ALL about colours! Plus I love the depth of colour I get when I use Stampin’ Blends.

Over the years I’ve seen many different coloured and shaped pumpkins, so for this project I thought it would be fun to use different colours with the pumpkin stamp. I went with Pumpkin Pie, of course, Old Olive and Daffodil Delight (Crushed Curry would have worked for a deeper yellow) Stampin’ Blends. Then I punched them out with the Apple Builder Punch.

For the background I decided to do a watercolour wash using Pumpkin Pie. The Water Painters made this super easy and to try and keep it flat while it was drying I put it under my wedding album (nice and heavy!).

I also added in some Cherry Cobbler when I was colouring the leaves and stamped the vines with Crumb Cake. Then to add a little something more I stamped the ink splatter image from the Beauty Abounds stamp set with Cajun Craze.

The frame came from a local Michael’s and I think it goes really well with the fall theme. I still felt like there was something missing though, so I went digging to see what else I could find that would work.

In the end I used a phrase from the retired Paisleys & Posies stamp set. I miss this stamp set and so I’m glad whenever I get the chance to create with it. I stamped the phrase with Cajun Craze it definitely added that something I had been looking for.

I’d love to know which one you prefer… with or without the phrase?

If you like this project you’ll probably want to join my weekly email newsletter… especially since next week I’m kicking off my 12 Weeks of Christmas! Each week you’ll get an exclusive holiday themed PDF tutorial featuring different cards, tags, gift ideas and more. You won’t find these projects any where else so make sure to fill in the form… inkspirationcards.com/contactme

The 12 Weeks of Christmas

It’s that time of year again… time for me to kick of my 12 Weeks of Christmas! Every year around this time I put together exclusive holiday themed projects for those of you on my weekly email newsletter list.

Each week starting at the beginning of October I’ll feature a PDF tutorial of holiday themed cards, tags, gift ideas and more to help you get ready for the upcoming holidays. These tutorials come complete with a list of all the rubber stamping and paper crafting supplies you’ll need for each project as well as step by step instructions AND you won’t find these projects anywhere else!

Here’s one of the cards that I featured during last year’s 12 Weeks of Christmas…

I always have a lot of fun creating projects for the upcoming holidays and every year I wish I would have started sooner. I’m hoping with my 12 Weeks of Christmas projects that you’ll be able to get a head start on your preparations and be able to enjoy the holidays that much more!

To sign up for my weekly email newsletter and the 12 Weeks of Christmas just fill in the form below and if you have any questions send me an email (inkspirationcards.com/contactme). I’m happy to answer any questions you have.

The 12 Weeks of Christmas kicks off next week so don’t miss out!

Blending with Harvest Hello

While next week Fall officially starts, this weekend is the start of the Jewish new year and so we’re getting different things together to celebrate. That’s also where the inkspiration for this card came from… apples are a big part of the celebrations and so I thought I would do some blending with Harvest Hello. This is a fun set for this time of year, plus it works great for teacher gifts, and so I’ve got a few more project ideas floating around in my head using this bundle.

Once I decided on using the Harvest Hello stamp set I had to pick my colour combination. There’s a few options… Granny Apple Green, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Real Red to name a few. I ended up going with Old Olive and Real Red for the colours of my apples, so I used Old Olive for my card base (the Real Red was just for an extra splash of colour). I love the depth of colour you get when you colour with Stampin’ Blends and the Apple Builder Punch made this super easy!

I also wanted to add in some other fall/nature themed elements, so I used the Pinewood Planks 3D embossing folder. Then I used the Stitched Rectangles dies to create a frame with some Crumb Cake cardstock. Inside the frame I used Crumb Cake and Old Olive ink to stamp some leaves and then popped up the frame using some Stampin’ Dimensionals.

On the inside of the card I stamped an apple slice with Old Olive ink and then coloured it in with the Crumb Cake and Old Olive light Stampin’ Blends.

This was a fun card to make. I always love when I get to colour whether it’s with the Watercolour Pencils or blending with the Stampin’ Blends. Here’s the finished card…

I hope you like my blending with Harvest Hello. If you do you’ll want to make sure to sign up for my weekly email newsletter where you’ll receive PDF tutorials, stamping tips and more. Plus if you sign up before the beginning of October you’ll get my full 12 Weeks of Christmas; exclusive Christmas themes cards, tags, gifts and more that you won’t find anywhere else. So sign up here… inkspirationcards.comcontactme/

Snowflake Splendor

I finally got all the cards from my large team card swap using products from the August-December Mini Catalogue! Over the next little while I’ll share some of my favourites with you… first up are some cards using the Snowflake Splendor suite of products. I love this suite and I love to use blues when I’m making holiday cards which is a big reason why these are some of my favourites.

This first card uses Seaside Spray and Whisper White for the colour palette and was made by Pam Struwing. The phrase comes from the Snowflake Wishes stamp set and you’ll see this same phrase on the other cards too. She also used the Winter Snow embossing folder and the So Many Snowflake dies from the Snowflake Splendor suite.

The next card uses many of the same elements as the first card, but Cathy went with Misty Moonlight, Seaside Spray and Whisper White for her colour palette. She also added some Wink of Stella and some Snowflake Splendor ribbon which she coloured with the Seaside Spray (I think) Stampin’ Blends.

This last card is from our leader, Jenn Tinline. For her colour palette she went with Purple Posy, Misty Moonlight and some Shimmery White cardstock. I love this colour combination and definitely will be using this combo in the future! Most of this card is simply stamped, but she did use one of the So Many Snowflake dies to cut out a snowflake with the Balmy Blue Glimmer Paper and then added a Blue Adhesive Backed Gem to the centre.

I love all 3 of these cards and can’t pick a favourite from them. I hope you liked these cards too.

If you do like these cards then make sure to sign up for my weekly email newsletter because at the beginning of next month I’ll be kicking my 12 Weeks of Christmas. Each week starting at the beginning of October you’ll receive an exclusive holiday themed project sent right to your inbox! There will be cards, tags and even some gift giving ideas. So make sure to sign up soon so you don’t miss out! inkspirationcards.com/contactme/

#simplestamping for the Holidays

This month Stampin’ Up! challenged us to do some #simplestamping for the upcoming holidays. So what that means is we’re only allowed to use stamps, ink and paper to create a holiday-themed card, plus for this month’s challenge we were also allowed to use a punch. It’s been a while since I’ve done a #simplestamping challenge and so I jumped at the chance to create something for this one.

The inkspiration for this card came from a Facebook post by another demonstrator. I loved the idea of using strips of cardstock on a card and thought that it would look really cool popping through a punched out image. The punch I used was the Pine Tree punch and so from there I decided to use Shaded Spruce and Granny Apple Green for my cardstock strips and Whisper White for my card base.

I used Shaded Spruce ink to stamp the “Merry Christmas” from the Snowman Season stamp set and since I couldn’t use Stampin’ Dimensionals to pop up the phrase I stamped some ink splotches from the Beauty Abounds cling stamp set using Granny Apple Green ink to help it stand out.

While I love doing #simplestamping I find it hard to not add something as simple as dimensionals or one of my favourite go-tos like some Rhinestone Basic Jewels or Linen Thread sometimes. Even without any of that though I really like how this card turned out. Here it is…

To step this card up a notch or two I would definitely add some Stampin’ Dimensionals to pop up both the tree and the phrase. I would also use some strips from the Forever Greenery or Heartwarming Hugs Designer Series Paper packs instead of cardstock. And last but definitely not least are a couple of Rhinestone Basic Jewels on either side of the “Merry Christmas”.

If you like this card check out some of my other #simplestamping creations… inkspirationcards/simplestamping-just-because, inkspirationcards.com/simplestamping-with-the2020-2022-incolours/ or inkspirationcards.com/simple-stamping-with-so-inviting/

And also make sure to sign up for my weekly email newsletter… in just a couple of weeks I’ll be kicking off my 12 Weeks of Christmas which will show off a different holiday themed card/project every week complete with a list of supplies and step by step instructions. You won’t find these projects anywhere else so sign up here; inkspirationcards.com/contactme

Get It & Go!

If you’ve been thinking about joining the Stampin’ Up! family this month is a great time to take the plunge! As always you get to choose $165 worth of Stampin’ Up! products for only $135 (taxes and shipping included) along with catalogues and business supplies, plus for this month only Stampin’ Up! is also offering the Get It & Go kit which is $75 worth of extra products for you to use in your very first class… the cardstock is even pre-cut for you! Here’s a peek…

With the Get It & Go kit not only do you get the cardstock, but you also get two stamp sets and a package of Rhinestone Basic Jewels which are one of my favourite go tos when I’m creating. And I love the designs that Stampin’ Up! provides. I still have days when it takes me a while to figure out what designs I’m going to use for my classes, so this is great when you’re just starting out because it’s all taken care of for you. Plus with all the catalogues and business supplies you get with your Starter kit you are all set! I wish this would have been around when I joined just over 8 years ago.

Since I joined I’ve had so much fun creating, learning and building friendships and connections. Even though I don’t get to see my team very often, especially right now, it’s always great to get together with them and it feels like no time passes in between. I love my teams! Here are a couple of pics of my larger team and my smaller more direct team at a couple of different OnStage events.

It’s also been lots of fun meeting other demonstrators from other countries/areas at Stampin’ Up! events like OnStage, plus you make projects, learn new techniques AND Stampin’ Up! gives you free products at these events too.

If your interest has been peaked and you still have questions just send me an email at inkspirationwithteresa@gmail.com. I’d be happy to help you out!

And for those of you who are already sold on the $165 + $75 worth of Stampin’ Up! product for only $135 CDN (taxes and shipping included) here’s a little something to help you start to figure out how to spend your $165 dollars.

And here’s my website for more… http://inkspirationcards.stampinup.net/join_now

Fall with Flowers for Every Season

September is here… school is starting soon and fall is just around the corner! I’m looking forward to the changing of the leaves and while I’m slowly getting into the holiday spirit, I’m definitely enjoying creating cards using fall colours. Lately I’ve been crafting with the Flowers for Every Season Designer Series Paper and having a lot of fun and that’s where the inkspiration came from for this card.

Some of the designs in the DSP pack are full of different colours, flowers, etc. and some of them are very simple. I liked the idea of using one of the simpler designs for my card mat and then adding a banner or strip of one of the other designs so that the colours from that piece would really pop. So with fall in mind I thought the simple design using Cinnamon Cider and the sunflowers would work really well. From there I used Bumblebee for my card base and ink colour.

The “thanks” came from one of my favourite stamp sets, Beauty Abounds, which I popped up with a couple of Stampin’ Dimensionals. I also added some of the Faux Linen Whisper White ribbon from the Flowers for Every Season ribbon combo pack.

For another recent project I cut up one of the other sheets from this pack of 6×6 DSP. Now I have a whole bunch of sunflowers so I decided to add one on the inside of this card.

This was a fun, simple card to make and I really like how it turned out. Here’s the full card…

I’m definitely looking forward to making more fall themed cards and more cards using the Flowers for Every Season DSP.

If you like this project you should sign up for my weekly email newsletter! Each week you’ll get an exclusive PDF tutorial, stamping tips and other goodies I don’t share anywhere else. Plus in just a few weeks I’ll be kicking off my 12 Weeks of Christmas. So make sure to fill in the form… inkspirationcards.com/contactme

August-December Mini Catalogue Swap

So with the August-December mini catalogue that launched last month I joined two card swaps. One with my smaller more direct team and another with my larger team. I always love joining card swaps because the cards are really nice and it lets me see what people are doing with other stamp sets, etc. I’m still waiting on a few more cards from my larger team swap so in the meantime I thought I would share the two cards I got from my smaller team.

The rules for both swaps are the same… you can only use stamps and embellishments from the August-December mini catalogue. For my card I used the Poinsettia Petals stamp set; you can check it out here – Embossing with Poinsettia Petals. Both cards that I got back are fall themed.

This first card is a simple thank you card using the Beautiful Autumn bundle with one of the Acorn Trinkets and some of the Brushed Metallic cardstock. It came from one of my best friends who also happens to be my upline, Stephanie Nash.

The other card from this August-December mini catalogue card swap is a Halloween card. I’m not much for making cards for Halloween so I really like when I get them in card swaps. This one was made by Elicia Zebroski.

I love all the Magic in this Night Designer Series Paper and how she used it for the card. It kind of reminds me of the Scrappy Strip Technique that I’ve done before. What I love even more is that she embossed the DSP with the Cobwebs 3D embossing folder. Here’s a closer look…

I love these cards and love my team! They’re such a great group of women. Stay tuned for future posts with some of my favourites from my big team August-December mini catalogue card swap. I’m still waiting for a few more and I’m waiting til I get them all to open them. It’s starting to get to me though…. it’s getting harder to not sneak peeks at what I already have.

Also make sure to sign up for my weekly email newsletter! I’ll be kicking off my 12 Weeks of Christmas soon and these projects will only be available to my email subscribers, plus there’s stamping tips and other goodies that you won’t see anywhere else. Sign up here; inkspirationcards.com/contactme

Poinsettia Easel-style Card

I’m slowly getting into the Christmas projects with all the projects out there it’s definitely getting me into the spirit. That’s actually where the inkspiration came from for this card. As I was scrolling through my Facebook feed I saw a gorgeous card by another demonstrator, Gail Ellis, and just loved the style and so here we are. I’m not sure what you would actually call this style of card, but it kind of reminds me of an easel card so that’s what I’m calling it. If you know the name definitely let me know.

For my card I used Mossy Meadow as my card base and the Heartwarming Hugs Designer Series Paper. I also used the Poinsettia Petals stamp set to create a back drop for the Very Vanilla poinsettia I made using the coordinating dies.

I wanted to add a bit more Real Red to help make the berries pop so I added some of the Real Red Sheer ribbon and to help make the Very Vanilla poinsettia pop I sponged the edges with Mossy Meadow.

To add a little more texture to the card I embossed the back drop using the Subtle 3D Embossing folder and cut it out with the Stitched Rectangles dies before I mounted it on another piece of Mossy Meadow cardstock to connect the two pieces of the card base. I originally thought of adding the “Merry Christmas” to the card from the Poinsettia Petals stamp set, but it didn’t quite work so I decided to leave it off.

At some point I may to decide to add a phrase to the card, but in the meantime I really like how this turned out. I really like this style of card and will definitely be using this to make other cards in the future.

Did you know that I have a weekly email newsletter? In just a few weeks I will be kicking off my 12 Weeks of Christmas and this is only for my newsletter subscribers, so make sure to sign up! inkspirationcards.com/contactme

Fancy Fold Design Team – Star Fold

It’s time for another Fancy Fold Design Team blog hop and this month we’re doing the Star Fold card. I have to say that I love this card and especially now that the August-December mini catalogue is here there are lots of options to choose from. I’ve created a simple instruction sheet for you to download if you’d like to make your own, so make sure to scroll down to the end. Also here’s a video to help you through the steps… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZj9cpSoUto&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR0viPr-W2yICmuFKqyT5S8r6H7VLDK9JBH9FeMcFAIOfkmpjegWDYwuMQ4

For me as soon as I found out we would be making this fancy fold I knew that I wanted to use the Brightly Gleaming Designer Series Paper that’s made a come back from last year’s Holiday catalogue. From there it was pretty easy… I used Night of Navy for the card stock base pulling from the colours in the DSP.

In the centre of the card I put a piece of Whisper White cardstock after I had stamped a phrase from the Poinsettia Petals stamp set using Night of Navy ink. I also used the two smallest poinsettia dies to add a Night of Navy poinsettia to the inside of the Star fold card.

I didn’t need to add much bling to this card with all the foil accents from the Brightly Gleaming DSP, but I still added a Pearl Basic Jewel to the centre of the poinsettia.

While this Fancy Fold was a bit fussy and more involved than past projects, I still love how it turned out.

Make sure you grab the instruction sheet and to keep going on this month’s Star Fold blog hop check out Aube’s blog next… https://missscrap.com/2020/08/21/star-fold/?fbclid=IwAR1B5AnTI2ngClicSS3uaX2wS8TcN2ME4e10T4FTrQ7mKoOssA-7ayDfkvY

Card Display Board

I’ve been looking for ways to display my cards in my office/craft space for a long time. I’ve had this idea in my head of being able to hang them, but I haven’t been able to find anything that I really liked… until recently. I was at a local Winner’s looking around and happened upon a grey frame that had some grey clothes pins. While I liked it, I wasn’t a big fan of the colour and so while I wandered the store I debated if I could spruce it up. I figured if I could switch out the clothes pins and tone down the grey frame that it could work nicely.

I picked up some colourful clothes pins from the local Dollarama and used some white paint on the frame. I liked the wood grain of the frame so I didn’t want the white paint to be too thick.

Once I pulled off the grey clothes pins I used a hot glue gun to attach some of the ones I got at Dollarama.

Every once in a while I debated about changing the fabric background, but in the end I decided to keep it the same. I did end up adding a little something that I picked up at the OnStage Local from last November. It was part of the table centrepieces, I used another part to decorate the shelf that hangs on my wall and holds my inkpads, etc.

I think it turned out really well. Now to find a nice big bulletin board for the same space.

Embossing with Poinsettia Petals

With the new August-December Mini catalogue here I’m slowly starting to dip my toes into crafting for the upcoming holidays. I know for some people it can never come too early, but I’m still enjoying summer and so I’m not quite ready to start thinking about snow just yet. In the meantime I’ve got two team card swaps on the go using products from the new catalogue so that’s definitely helping me get into the spirit. This card is for my smaller team swap, so you’ll have to stay tuned to see what I have in store for my larger team card swap.

I’m absolutely loving the Poinsettia Petals stamp set from the new catalogue and so that was where I started for this card. Next I decided to add in some of the Feels Like Frost 6×6 Designer Series Paper that’s made a come back and that’s where the idea to heat emboss my cards came in. I loved the idea of the silver embossed poinsettias playing off of the DSP.

I also enjoy using less than conventional holiday colours with my projects, although blue I don’t think would be considered that unconventional. I picked Seaside Spray for the card base, ink colour for my phrase and of course the metallic ribbon (another of my favourites that Stampin’ Up! carried over).

The Seaside Spray and silver from the heat embossing and DSP look so great together! Metallics are a great way to add another colour to a project when you’re not sure what to use. Neutral colours are nice like that.

Here’s the full card…

Once I’ve got all my swaps I’ll be sure to share some of my favourites here. So make sure to keep checking back in!

Camping with Paper Pumpkin

This past weekend I went camping with my family. We’ve been doing this with the munchkins for a few years now and they love it. They’ve actually been saying that they want to camp longer and so this summer both of our trips will be a few extra days. On the last couple of camping trips we’ve taken I’ve brought along some supplies to do some stamping. My husband totally looks at me like I’m crazy, but I don’t care!!

For this camping trip I decided to bring some Paper Pumpkin kits with me. (For those of you that don’t know what Paper Pumpkin is it’s a monthly subscription from Stampin’ Up! that includes all the supplies you need to create cards and other projects)

I brought along the July Summer Nights kit as well as a few kits that I hadn’t finished off yet. Of course I also needed to bring a few extra things with me like ink pads, scissors, a couple of blocks and my Stampin’ Scrub, although the Simply Shammy would work really well too, which other than the scrub will easily fit into the Paper Pumpkin box.

It was nice to be able to relax and do some stamping before we got dinner and our campfire going. I was just about to get stamping when my munchkins saw what I was up to and decided that they needed to join in too. They had a lot of fun using stamps and pieces from different kits to make their cards!

Here are the cards that they made…

As for mine, I stuck with an original design from the February 2020 Paper Pumpkin kit Lovely Day while the others were alternatives to the July kit. Here are my designs…

When we go camping again in a couple of weeks I definitely think I’ll be bringing along some Paper Pumpkin kits!

And here’s a sneak peek at September’s kit…

The deadline to sign up for this kit is September 10th and will get you everything you need to create 20 cracker box treat packages that you can use for Halloween, Thanksgiving or just Fall in general. If you live in Canada and want to sign up just click on the picture and it will take you where you need to go.

Flowers for Every Season

I recently saw another demonstrator create a card with a kind of jigsaw puzzle design to it. I just loved the idea so I created a version with stamped cardstock for a recent Paper Pumpkin online class and then of course I had to make one using Designer Series Paper.

Since we’re still in the middle of summer I went with the Flowers for Every Season Designer Series Paper. I picked 3 different sheets and cut them all the same way. If you’re not so sure about the measurements you can use a ruler and pencil to mark the lines. I definitely found that helpful to get as close as I could to have all the pieces fit together when I mixed them all up.

I also went with this Designer Series Paper to give myself a chance to use some more of this year’s new In Colours. For the card base I used Bumble Bee and for the card mat I used Cinnamon Cider which is a colour that I have used yet. I also added some of the Faux Linen ribbon from the Flowers for Every Season Ribbon combo pack.

For the phrase I used one from the Strong & Beautiful cling stamp set which I then cut out using one of the circle dies from the Stitched Shapes dies. I also popped up the phrase using a few Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I’ve definitely been having fun creating these jigsaw puzzle type cards and will be putting something together using some of the products from the new August-December Mini catalogue that just launched this past Tuesday.

If you live in Canada and would like to get your very own copy of the new August-December Mini catalogue send me an email at inkspirationwithteresa@gmail.com. I’d be happy to send one your way and I’ll even add a card sample for you to see some of the new products in real life!