I have always loved to colour! Crayons and pencil crayons have been my go tos for decades, with markers only being used on occasion. That was of course before I started using Stampin’ Blends! My favourite is still pencil crayons, especially Stampin’ Up!s Watercolour Pencils, but the more I use the blends the more I love them… the colours are so vivid and you can create so much depth with them!

So with a class coming up featuring these great alcohol-based markers I’ve got a bunch of ideas floating around in my head. This card is not one for my class, but just one of those ideas.

The images come from the Forever Blossoms cling stamp set which I stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock using Tuxedo Black Memento ink. Once the ink dried I pulled out my Daffodil Delight and Old Olive Stampin’ Blends to colour the blossoms and leaves. The darker blends help give the “shadows” on the images.

The phrase came from the Beautiful You cling stamp set and I used the Stitched Nested Labels dies to cut that out as well as the layer beneath it. I then popped that up using Stampin’ Dimensionals and added one of the larger Rhinestone Basic Jewels to add a bit of bling.

I love how simple and beautiful this card is and I can’t wait to create more for my upcoming class.

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I can’t believe that March Break and the first day of Spring is next week! My munchkins of course are counting down the days til they’re off from school and so am I a little bit. I’m looking forward to taking some time off, but in the meantime I’m busy getting ready for the Spring is in the Air craft show that’s taking place at the Milton Sports Centre this coming Saturday.

One of the things that I’ve been busy making for the craft show are these cute little baskets filled with chocolates to celebrate Spring and Easter, which is a month away.

I originally saw this basket in a demonstrator group on Facebook and more recently made a similar version at my team meeting. These baskets are so cute and so easy to make and so I had to share them with you!

The measurements I used for my baskets are as follows:

• 2 3/4″ x 2 3/4″ for the base of the basket
  • score all sides at 3/4″
  • cut two of the score lines on two sides that are opposite each other
• 1/2″ x 5 1/2″ for the strap

For all of the baskets I used the Timeless Tulip bundle. I stamped the large tulip first, then used the punch and adhered the tulips to the basket using the Tear & Tape Adhesive Then I stamped either “Happy Spring” or “Happy Easter” on a piece of Whisper White cardstock which I cut out with my Paper Snips and adhered with some Mini Dimensionals.

The green and blue baskets were made with Granny Apple Green and Bermuda Bay cardstock and inks along with the Bermuda Bay Mini Stripped Ribbon for the bow. For the other baskets I used Calypso Coral cardstock and ink with Lemon Lime Twist cardstock, ink and ribbon.

I love how these little baskets turned out and I’m hoping they’re a hit at this weekend’s craft show. Wish me luck!

If you like this project make sure to follow my blog so you’ll get notified whenever I post. I also share projects like this as well as cards in my weekly newsletter which you can sign up for here.

It looks like I’ve got embossing on the brain or something this week as there have been a few projects that have involved heat embossing! This project actually was sparked by one of the alternative cards I made from the February Paper Pumpkin kit – Lovely Day.

This one though features the blooms from the Magnolia Blooms stamp set from the Beginner’s Brochure and while I was initially thinking of just embossing one large bloom, I ended up embossing them all.

I wanted to keep the colours for this card neutral to really help the embossed blooms stand out. So for the card base I used Basic Black cardstock, Crumb Cake for the card mat and then Whisper White for all the stamping.

So for the blooms I started by wiping the whole large piece of Whisper White cardstock with the Embossing Buddy (I DO NOT emboss without this anymore… it really helps keep your embossing contained to where you want it). Then of course I stamped the blooms and leaves using Versamark ink, sprinkled on the Gold Stampin’ Emboss Powder and set it using my Heat Tool.

The “Congratulations” for this card came from the First Frost stamp set. I liked this font much better and felt like it went more with the blooms than the font from the Magnolia Blooms stamp set. This was simply stamped on a small piece of Whisper White cardstock using Tuxedo Black Memento ink, framed by a slighter larger piece of Basic Black cardstock and then popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I debated about adding a piece of metallic edged ribbon, but I ended up just adding a few Rhinestone Basic Jewels right under the word for a little extra bling.

I love how simple and pretty this card is!

If you like this card make sure to follow my blog so that you’ll get notified whenever I post or if you’d like project ideas and tips sent right to your inbox then sign up for my weekly newsletter!

I think I’m finally done with winter and it probably doesn’t help that I have a Spring craft show coming up in a couple of weeks. Needless to say I’m creating a lot with the Timeless Tulips bundle right now and so I wasn’t surprised when this design popped in my head for this week’s Paper Craft Crew Challenge (PCC372).

Here’s this week’s sketch…

I used Crumb Cake cardstock for my card base as well as for the little strip of cardstock behind the tulips. Pear Pizzazz was for the card mat as well as the mat behind the tulips.

For the words I used Crumb Cake ink and for the tulips I used Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral.

I also punched out the large tulip in front, to give an additional layer, and a few Pear Pizzazz leaves using the coordinating punch from the bundle.

To finish it off I added Wink of Stella to the tulips, popped up the “frame” using Stampin’ Dimensionals and then added a few Rhinestone Basic Jewels to add even more bling to the card.

Here’s the link to check out all the cards for this week’s Paper Craft Crew Challenge.

And if you liked this card make sure to follow my blog so that you’ll be notified whenever I post!

This past week has been one of those weeks where my creativity is running a bit low. I think after all my crafting for Valentine’s Day and a recent craft show my brain has needed a bit of a break! So instead of a project, I thought that I would share the measurements that I use whenever I’m creating a card.

Over the years I’ve been asked this question a few times and so I know it’s a question that lots of you are wondering about, especially those of you that are just starting out.

For the most part I generally use the same measurements for my cards; each layer is 1/4″ smaller than the layer before. It makes it quick and easy since I don’t really have to think about it anymore, plus it gives a nice border and some nice layers to the cards.

• Card base: 8 1/2″ x 5 1/2″
• Card mat: 4″ x 5 1/4″
• Card front: 3 3/4″ x 5″
• For a layer on the inside of the card I use the card mat measurements.

I also use this 1/4″ measurement whenever I need a layer behind a word/phrase or an image. It really helps pull in the different colours of the project, but isn’t too overwhelming.

There have also been times when I’ve wanted an even smaller border than this, to just give a hint of a border, and have used an 1/8″ as the difference between my layers. Here’s one example…

For something larger like a scrapbook page layout, I’m more likely to use a 1/2″ to create my layers/borders. Mainly this is because the area that I’m working with is much bigger than my cards and I don’t want the layers/border to get lost on the page. Also becasue when I’m using specialty or designer series paper I want to really see the colours and patterns of the paper.

I hope that this has been helpful!

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It’s been a hectic couple of weeks for me and it seems to have caught up with me this week. Originally I was hoping to pull this project together for a sketch challenge earlier this week, but life/the universe had other ideas.

Initially I considered using Pigment Sprinkles for this project, but decided I would do something a little simpler and easier to control instead. I also decided to stamp some images and then use my Aqua Painter to blur/blend them so there was still a certain amount of form to the ink splotches.

I really wanted to highlight the colours for the background so I kept everything else neutral; Whisper White and Basic Black. I even White Heat Embossed the word “celebrate” to keep with the neutral theme.

For the ink colours I went with Flirty Flamingo, Bermuda Bay and Gorgeous Grape and I love how these pop against the white of the Watercolour Paper and Whisper White cardstock.

To create the ink splotches/splatter I started by stamping images from the Beautiful You and Beauty Abounds stamp sets; the small bubbles and splatter from Beauty Abounds and the smaller squiggle from Beautiful You.

I did one colour at a time so I could very quickly use my Aqua Painter to blur/blend the images. If you wait too long the ink will start to dry and then you may not get as much smudging of the images as you’d like.

I also flicked the tip of the Aqua Painter with the lid to add some random ink splatter in the different colours.

For the central image I wanted something that went with the bright colours of the background, so I chose the dancing woman from the Beautiful You stamp set and cut it out using the largest circle from the Stitched Shapes Dies.

To finish it off I popped up the woman using Stampin’ Dimensionals (to adhere the embossed word I just used snail) and then added a few Rhinestone Basic Jewels for some bling.

I really love how this card turned out and if you like this card make sure to follow my blog so that you’ll get notified whenever I post!

I’ve taken the plunge and joined a blog hop!

Over the last year now I guess (wow, time flies!) I’ve been really enjoying participating in different sketch and stamping challenges and so I’d started digging around looking to possibly join a monthly blog hop. Not too long after I started my search one of my best friends, and also my upline, was telling me about a Fancy Fold blog hop that she was a part of. I asked if there was room for one more and here I am!

This month’s Fancy Fold is the Joy Fold. Chris Twina has a great YouTube video on how to do it and after watching it it didn’t seem nearly as intimidating (which is sometimes how it goes for me… seems complicated, but in fact it’s not).

Here’s mine…

I started first with the idea of using a butterfly to keep the card closed because I just LOVE butterflies. Next came the Designer Series Paper and I went with the Lily Impressions DSP, which comes from this year’s Sale-a-bration catalogue, because I liked the idea of having a simple design on the smaller flap and then something with a bit more colour and design for the larger piece inside the card.

From there I got my colours and went with Pretty Peacock for the card base and for the phrase and images that I wanted to have stand out. I also liked the idea that Chris used in her card of having a subtle design in the background and then having the phrase stand out on top.

I ended up using 3 different stamp sets for this card. The Strong & Beautiful cling stamp set gave me the phrase, I used Beauty Abounds for the design behind the phrase as well as the butterflies around it and the one on the inside of the card (which was all stamped with Pool Party to give a bit of contrast to the darker Pretty Peacock) and then for the two butterflies on the smaller flap I used Butterfly Wishes.

To top it all off I added one of the large Rhinestone Basic Jewels right next to the phrase. I always like to add a bit of bling to my cards and I thought it fit so well with the phrase.

I really love how there are so many layers to this card and how you can see all the layers! Now I did end up tweaking Chris’ measurements a bit. For the Designer Series Paper I used 4 1/4″ x 2 3/4″ for the smaller piece and 4 1/4″ x 5 1/4″ for the larger piece. The rest was the same; 8 1/2″ x 4 1/2″ (scored at 5 1/2″) for the large card base, 8″ x 3″ for the smaller “card base” and the two pieces of Whisper White were 2 3/4″ x 3 3/4″.

If you like today’s card make sure to follow my blog so you’ll be notified whenever I post! Also make sure to check out Mary Ann Rossiter’s card from the Fancy Fold blog hop as well as the others! I know I will be!

Another month means that there’s another #simplestamping challenge from Stampin’ Up! This month the challenge is to create a card using the theme “just because” and there’s no extras allowed this time; just stamps, ink and paper.

I’ve been having a lot of fun with these challenges and some of them have turned out really nicely! While I love looking at the more elaborate card designs out there, I’ve always tended to be a bit more simple and straight forward with my designs. Even with that though sometimes it’s been challenging ONLY being able to use stamps, ink and paper. I’ve had to stop myself on a couple of occasions from adding a few Rhinestone Basic Jewels which is a go to for me because I LOVE adding a bit of bling to my cards!

For this #simplestamping project I was able to resist the urge to add extras this time by using the Butterfly Wishes cling stamp set. This stamp set is a distINKtive stamp set which means your stamped images will come out with more depth and detail.

Here it is…

For the colour combination I went with Seaside Spray, Crumb Cake and Whisper White. (I’ve been creating a lot lately using pinks and reds for Valentine’s Day, so while I love pink I definitely needed a bit of a change!)

I also love to create a next level up card when I participate in these #simplestamping challenges and this month is no different. I think I was actually planning out this design as I was planning and creating the original.

The colour combination and the foundation is the same, but to kick it up a knotch I added a strip of the Seaside Spray 1/4″ Metallic Ribbon (I’m so glad that they decided to carry this ribbon over!), a Rhinestone Basic Jewel (of course) and popped up the smaller square using some Stampin’ Dimensionals.

You can also see that I switched up one of the images for this card and I did this because I wanted to use the coordinating Butterfly Duet Punch. I got this for Christmas and I have been dying to use it!

What you can’t see though is that I also added some Wink of Stella to the two larger butterflies as well as to the smaller punched out butterfly. It’s such a great way to add some sparkle to your projects without having it end up absolutely everywhere!

If you enjoyed these cards make sure to follow my blog so that you get notified whenever I post. And if you’d like to get ideas like this plus exclusive project sheets and stamping tips sign up for my email newsletter!

In just a few more days Valentine’s Day will be here. In our house we don’t do big and elaborate, but we do a little bit of something (thankfully I’m pretty much ready). For the most part it’s helping my munchkins get their Valentines ready for school. This year though will be the first year that my oldest doesn’t make Valentines for her classmates. (Apparently once you hit grade 4/5 it’s just not that big a deal anymore) She did decide to make some for family though and is going to make one for her teacher.

My littlest guy is just in grade one so he still likes making and receiving Valentine’s Day cards, but when he saw what his older sister was doing he, of course, re-purposed the Valentines he had already stamped for his classmates to give to family.

For the past few years we’ve used a combination of the January Paper Pumpkin kit (because it usually has a love/Valentine’s Day theme) and my other stamps, ink and paper. This year will be a bit different… the Valentines for our family were all done using this year’s January Paper Pumpkin kit (I’ll Bee Yours) and for my little munchkin’s classmates it will be Valentine’s from the local Dollarama (once he had stamped his Valentines for our family he decided that he was done with stamping).

The cards on the left are my oldest’s and the ones on the right are my youngest’s creations.

It actually worked out well that my littlest munchkin decided not to use more of the Paper Pumpkin supplies because that meant that I could use them!! (I’ve actually gotten attitude from my munchkins when they found out that I used some of the Paper Pumpkin supplies, it’s like I’m not allowed or something!)

Anyway… here are the projects I created following the Paper Pumpkin kit instructions…

I also made a few alternative projects mainly using the supplies from the kit, but I also used different cardstock, some of the stamps and one of the punches from the Heartfelt bundle which coordinates with the I’ll Bee Yours kit. Here are my 3 favourites…

I had a lot of fun using the January Paper Pumpkin kit as well as the Heartfelt bundle to get ready for Valentine’s Day this year.

If you like these projects then make sure to follow my blog so that you get notified whenever I post. Also if you’re curious about Paper Pumpkin feel free to send me an email at inkspirationwithteresa@gmail.com or you can sign up for next month’s kit here.

Tomorrow’s the big Love is in the Air craft show at the Milton Sports Centre (come say hi if you’re in the neighbourhood) and next Friday is Valentine’s Day, so there’s definitely been a lot of creating lately using all kinds of hearts and Valentine colours. Some of my projects have used the conventional Valentine colour combination (red and pink), while others have been more unconventional (blue and purple). This card is a bit of a cross-over…

For this card I went with Petal Pink, a more conventional colour, and Mint Macaron, a not so conventional colour. The card base is Mint Macaron cardstock and the card mat is Petal Pink cardstock with Very Vanilla cardstock for the rest.

I’ve been having a lot of fun creating with the Heartfelt bundle and used it for this project as well. I did some tone on tone stamping with the lacey heart on the Petal Pink card mat and then used Mint Macaron to stamp the smaller hearts on the Very Vanilla cardstock.

For the heart in the centre of the card I first stamped the dotted outline using Crumb Cake ink and the phrase using Petal Pink ink. Then I punched it out using the simple heart punch from the bundle.

To finish it all off I put some Rose Metallic Thread behind the heart which I popped up with some Stampin’ Dimensionals and then I added a few Rhinestone Basic Jewels.

I hope you like this card! If you did make sure to follow my blog so that you’ll get notified whenever I post.

It’s been about 7 1/2 years since I joined the Stampin’ Up! family as a demonstrator… WOW how time flies when you’re having fun! And it really has been a lot of fun! I mean how can you not have fun when you get to stamp and create whenever the inkspiration strikes?!

Of course there’s the obvious reasons why I love Stampin’ Up!… like the 20-25% discount on great quality products that coordinate so well that it makes stamping and creating so much easier, the early access and FREE products you get and the fact that you can turn this into a business or not… no pressure!

Aside from that though, I do use the word “family” on purpose. The demonstrators that I have met over the years are so friendly, fun and nice, but I can’t say enough about my team!

Here’s those of us that could make it to the recent OnStage Local that was in Toronto this past November.

We don’t get to see each other face to face very often, but whenever we do it’s like no time has passed! Just like with certain family members. These awesome and creative women are so funny and helpful and supportive and there whenever you need them!! And I can say the same of my smaller direct team too. It’s so great to be a part of something like this!

The other thing I want to mention about why I love Stampin’ Up! are the awesome creative ideas you see from the other demonstrators and within this community, or family, we are all happy to share our ideas and have no problem when others want to copy, or C.A.S.E. (Copy and Share Everything), an idea.

Here are just a few projects that were shared at OnStage in November…

There are so many reasons to love Stampin’ Up! and these are just the ones that stand out for me, they’re a little different for everyone who joins. So just in case I’ve peaked your interest here’s a little more info….

For $135 you get catalogues and a ton of business supplies if you decide you want to turn this into a business and you will get to choose $165 worth of Stampin’ Up! products from any of the current catalogues! (Taxes and shipping are included as well)

Plus right now, until March 31st, you will also get to choose an additional stamp set of your choice and you’ll get a cute little paper cutter and a 6×6 sampling of almost all of the newest Designer Series Paper.

If you have any questions about joining or what to choose or anything just send me an email (inkspirationwithteresa@gmail.com). I’m happy to help out it any way that I can! There’s also more information and the link to join the Stampin’ Up! family on my website.

This project was originally inkspired by a card created by fellow Canadian demonstrator, Tracy Elsom, using the Thoughtful Blooms stamp set from this year’s Sale-a-bration catalogue. As soon as I saw it the idea for this card popped right into my head! (I love it when that happens)

Since I don’t have the Thoughtful Blooms stamp set I decided to use the Forever Blooms cling stamp set. I had a lot of fun doing some Collage Stamping with the Timeless Tropical cling stamp set recently and so I was glad to do some more.

For the card base and smaller border piece I used Purple Posy cardstock and all the stamping was done on Whisper White cardstock. For the images I used the large cherry blossom branch, the small blossom, the bud as well as both the single and double leaves.

The large blossom branch and buds were stamped using the Purple Posy Stampin’ Write Marker by simply using the brush tip to “colour” the stamps. The small blossom was stamped using Seaside Spray and the leaves were stamped with Mint Macaron.

On the smaller piece of Whisper White cardstock I stamped the phrase first, using Purple Posy and Seaside Spray, and then stamped images around it.

I cut out the phrase as well as the Purple Posy border using the Stitched Rectangle Dies. The piece of Vellum cardstock behind the phrase was also cut with the Stitched Rectangle Dies.

To finish it off I popped up the phrase using some Stampin’ Dimensionals and added a few Rhinestone Basic Jewels to add some bling.

I really like how this turned out and while I made it a Valentine’s Day card, you could really choose any phrase to make a Mother’s Day card, birthday card or even a wedding/anniversary card.

If you like this card make sure to follow my blog so that you’ll get notified whenever I post!

Last week I got to spend some time with my smaller Stampin’ Up! team and as always we talked shop for a while and had a lot of fun. As part of our meeting we also make a card and so with Valentine’s Day less than a month away (crazy right?! are you ready? cause I’m not!) the card we made was of course a Valentine’s Day card.

There are so many reason why I LOVE this card… how the colours pop off of the Basic Black card mat… the embellishments (the From my Heart Faceted Gems and the Real Red 3/8″ Double-Stitched Satin Ribbon)… the embossing… it also uses the Heartfelt Bundle which I’ve been having a lot of fun creating with lately!

My favourite part of making this card though was learning Inset De-Embossing. It’s so simple and it looks amazing!

To start we used the scalloped heart punch from the bundle on 3 different colours of cardstock; Real Red, Flirty Flamingo and Melon Mambo. These 3 hearts were adhered to the top of the Basic Black card mat just with SNAIL Adhesive. Then they were run through a die cutting machine with the Parisian Flourish 3D Embossing Folder and to create the de-embossing effect you insert the cardstock into the folder the opposite way that you usually would; with the raised side of the folder on the top of your sandwich.

So instead of having the swirls, etc. popping out at you they’re sunk into the cardstock and doing it this way also gives the effect of the hearts being part of the black cardstock instead of an additional layer on top; hence the name Inset De-Embossing.

I also learned with this card that you can use the Watercolour Pencils to colour on white heat embossed phrases and images. It does take a couple of layers so I would not recommend this on large images, unless you’ve got a lot of time to do it, but this is definitely something that I will keep in mind for future projects!

Here’s the card…

There’s always something new to learn which is why I enjoy these meetings and being a part of the Stampin’ Up! family.

If you like this card and enjoyed learning about this cool technique then make sure to follow my blog so that you’ll get notified whenever I post.

Also if you’d like to learn more about how to join my team and these meetings send me an email at inkspirtaionwithteresa@gmail.com or check out the amazing offer that Stampin’ Up! is offering right now for those who join between now and March 31st. You can also head over to my website to join!

I think I sparked a creative bug when I created a project last week using the Timeless Tropical cling stamp set, as I’ve got a few ideas floating around my head now. For this project I decided I would do some Collage Stamping, which I learned about at OnStage Local back in November.

We’ve all created a collage at some point in our lives. I totally remember sitting surrounding by magazines and other forms of media digging around for different images to glue to my page. Collage Stamping is a similar idea in that you’re looking to fill the page, or in this case the cardstock, with a number of different images. Colour and size don’t matter as much as the theme or idea that your trying to create with the images. You also don’t have to worry about properly spacing out your images, it’s totally fine if they overlap.

For this card I thought that it would be fun to create a tropical/island theme and so the Timeless Tropical stamp set was perfect. Next came the decision for colours….

I chose Crumb Cake cardstock for the card base because I thought it was a nice neutral colour, plus it reminds me a bit of the beach! Then for the card front I used Very Vanilla cardstock. To help make the phrase and flowers pop I used Bermuda Bay cardstock.

For the images I chose the pineapple, the leaf and the smaller flower from the set as they were different sizes and all went with the tropical theme. The pineapple I stamped in Crumb Cake, the flower in Bermuda Bay and the leaf in Old Olive. (I also stamped the phrase using Old Olive ink.)

It was fun not having to worry so much about where I stamped the images and as I stamped more images I simply kept filling in the spaces with more images. The card front ended up looking like a piece of Designer Series Paper almost which I think is kind of cool.

In addition to the Bermuda Bay cardstock to make the phrase stand out I also used some Stampin’ Dimensionals to literally have the words pop out. I also added some of the Crumb Cake twine from the Nature’s Twine pack of thick twine to add a little something more and draw out the Crumb Cake from the pineapples and card base.

When I was finished I felt like the card still needed a little something more. I wished that I had the Tropical Oasis Trinkets to add to this card, unfortunately no such luck 🙁   So I dug around for my Gingham Gala Adhesive-Backed Sequins and added a few of the Daffodil Delight flowers.

I really like what the flower sequins do for the card, but I’m still not sure which one I like better. I’d love to hear which one you prefer, so post your choice in the comments… flowers or no flowers?

And… if you liked these projects make sure to follow my blog so that you get notified whenever I post!

I was stamping and scrapbooking years before I became a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and so I’ve had some of my ink pads for a LONG time! Some I don’t use as often as others, but recently I had to re-ink one of my ink pads.

I was noticing that when I was trying to stamp an image with this particular ink pad that the colour was not coming out the way that it used to, often coming out lighter. For a while I was able to get around this by inking my stamps using the edges of my ink pad instead of just trying to ink up in the centre, but I finally decided that it was time to re-ink.

If you’ve never re-inked an ink pad before, it’s very easy! All you need is your ink pad, the ink refill for that particular ink pad and a plastic spoon.

Simply squeeze about a half a dozen drops of the ink pad’s refill in and around the centre of the ink pad. I ended up with a few extra drops when I re-inked this ink pad, but don’t worry if that ends up happening to you too.

Use a plastic spoon (or tool of choice, just make sure it couldn’t potentially damage the foam of the ink pad) to spread the refill drops around the ink pad.

The ink pad will look a little darker after you’ve spread the ink around, but it will even out. I used this ink pad right after I re-inked it and the first couple of images seemed a bit darker but that didn’t last long and it wasn’t that much darker that it was an issue.

I hope you find this helpful and if you’d like more tips and project ideas make sure to follow my blog so you’ll get notified whenever I post.