dragonfly garden Archives - Inkspiration Cards

OnStage Card Swap

Posted on November 11, 2022November 11, 2022 by inkspirationwithteresa

As you read this I’ll be on my way to Montreal! This weekend is the first OnStage event I’ve been able to attend in person since the pandemic started. I’m really excited to go and knew I wanted to join in the unofficial OnStage card swap! This is one of my many favourite things about OnStage. There’s also the sneak peeks, the free products and meeting demonstrators from all over! To name just a few.

At just about every Stampin’ Up! event there are demonstrators that make cards and other projects just to swap with one another. Card swaps are a great way to get inkspiration and to see how other demonstrators design their cards. I enjoy doing card swaps with my team and so it’s really nice to get cards from people outside of my team! Plus it gives me the chance to meet other demonstrators that I wouldn’t see otherwise.

For my card design I kept it simple. I used some of the Sunprints Designer Series Paper for my card mat on a Gray Granite card base. Then I layered a few things on top. Running across the bottom is a piece of Silver Metallic Edge Cotton ribbon. On top of that is a phrase from the Bottled Happiness stamp set that I framed using the Layering Circles dies and popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. And last but not least, I silver heat embossed a dragonfly from the Dragonfly Garden stamp set and punched it out with the coordinating punch.

I hope the other demonstrators like my OnStage card swap! I’ll post some of my favourites here next week so stay tuned. In the meantime you can check out the card I made for my team’s most recent card swap here.

And you can always stock up on stamping supplies in my online shop!

#SimpleStamping with Artfully Composed

Posted on June 14, 2022June 14, 2022 by inkspirationwithteresa

This month’s #SimpleStamping challenge from Stampin’ Up! is to make a “just because” card using stamps, ink, paper and an extra bonus this month…. Designer Series Paper. So for my card I decided to do some #SimpleStamping with Artfully Composed DSP. This pack of patterned paper is retiring soon. I still have a few sheets left so I thought this would be a great chance to use it.

For my card base I used Evening Evergreen. It’s a colour that’s in a lot of the different designs in this pack. And it’s nice and dark so it’s almost like a neutral colour and it helps the other colours from the patterned paper really pop. I added a piece of Basic White cardstock behind the DSP. This makes it easier to create the jigsaw puzzle type layout. I really like this kind of card design when I’m using DSP. It’s such a great way to show it off. And it’s especially helpful when you can’t decide which design you want to use. So I chose a few different designs and cut them into different shapes and sizes.

On top of the different DSP designs I added a fussy cut leaf that I had left over from another project using the Artfully Composed DSP. And I used a phrase from the Dragonfly Garden stamp set, which I’m glad to say is not retiring. I popped these up with some Stampin’ Dimensionals to add a bit more depth to the card.

While I love how my card using #SimpleStamping with Artfully Composed DSP turned out, I was tempted to add a little something more. If you want to level this card up you can simply add a few of the Faux Sea Glass Shapes. Or even use one of the smaller Stitched Rectangles dies to cut out the phrase.

That said I enjoy doing #SimpleStamping. Check out my last #SimpleStamping card here. And you can check out the Artfully Compsed DSP as well as all the other retiring products in my online shop.

Monochromatic Cards

Posted on June 11, 2021June 11, 2021 by inkspirationwithteresa

While I usually enjoy using different colour combinations for my designs, I do love making monochromatic cards too. This week I’m showing off the retiring Dandy Garden 6×6 Designer Series Paper and the Ladybug Trinkets. I have to admit that this DSP was not my favourite. Some of the designs were nice, but I did love that I could use the Dragonfly punch to cut out the dragonflies instead of fussy cutting.

For this card I choose the sheet using Blackberry Bliss. Blackberry Bliss is one of my favourite colours. And I was so happy when Stampin’ Up! decided to bring it back. Other than the DSP and Blackberry Bliss, I used Basic White cardstock. It’s always good to keep it simple, and neutral, when you’re making this kind of a card.

I simply stamped the tall flower image from the Dragonfly Garden stamp set at different heights for the top of the card. Then the DSP went underneath. To overlap the two pieces I stamped a dragonfly and used one of the Layering Circles dies to cut it out. For the wings I stamped off first so that the colour was a little bit lighter than the wings.

The phrase also came from the Dragonfly Garden stamp set. For this card I just cut the cardstock, but you can also use the Stitched Rectangles dies. I popped up the phrase, and the dragonfly, with Stampin’ Dimensionals. Then instead of my usual bling, I decided to add a lady bug.

Monochromatic cards can be so nice. Sometimes it’s nice to just keep things simple. This is one that I shared on my YouTube channel, which you can check out here.

Check out last week’s card featuring the True Love Designer Series Paper and Blushing Bride Metallic ribbon here. And you can find everything that’s retiring from the January-June Mini catalogue in my online shop here.

Step it up with Heat Embossing

Posted on May 14, 2021May 14, 2021 by inkspirationwithteresa

For the most part my card designs are fairly simple. While I enjoy looking at other cards with multiple layers, etc. I always come back to simple with just a little bit of something to step it up. This time around I decided to step it up with heat embossing. Heat embossing was one of the very first techniques that I learned and it’s so much fun. I love using it because it’s such an easy way to add something more to your projects. All you need is some Versamark ink, some embossing powder and a heat tool. Although I would also recommend keeping a pair of tweezers with your heat embossing supplies. Your fingers can get pretty toasty while you’re waiting for the embossing powder to set!

Lately I’ve been having a lot of fun creating with the Dragonfly Garden stamp set. Dragonfly wings are always so shiny and shimmery and so the idea for this design popped up pretty easily. I wanted to do a combination of stamped and embossed dragonflies. Silver is my favourite when heat embossing and so I thought Misty Moonlight would be a nice complimentary colour. Plus there’s some silver mixed in with the Misty Moonlight twine from the Forever Greenery Ribbon Combo pack. So this was an easy colour combination choice.

In the Dragonfly Garden stamp set there are 2 different dragonflies. One with the body simply outlined and the other with the body coloured in. For the stamped dragonflies in the background I used the one with the outlined body. This way I could use the other dragonfly for my embossed dragonflies. Then I framed the embossed dragonflies with a bit of Misty Moonlight cardstock and popped it up with some Stampin’ Dimensionals.

The “thank you” down in the corner comes from the Free as a Bird stamp set. And I kept with the Misty Moonlight ink to match the dragonflies on that piece of cardstock.

To step this card up even more, you could cut out the smaller rectangle(s) with the Stitched Rectangles dies. For whatever reason I decided not to. But I like the simple step it up with heat embossing technique. Check out one of my other projects using this simple stamping technique here.

Surprise Window Card

Posted on December 31, 2020December 31, 2020 by inkspirationwithteresa

It’s the last Fancy Fold Design Team Blog Hop of 2020! I’ve been having a lot of fun creating different fancy folds since joining the hop earlier this year. This month we’re making a Surprise Window Card. It’s a really simple card to make and looks really neat. Here’s a video showing a few examples. I’ve created a basic project sheet with measurements and instructions if you want to make your own, so make sure to scroll to the end!

I bounced around a few different ideas for my card. Initially I thought of using the Sweet Ice Cream stamp set from the upcoming new catalogue. But instead I went with the Dragonfly Garden stamp set, which is also from the new catalogue. I really like this stamp set, but for whatever reason I haven’t crafted much with it since I got it for OnStage back in November. I’m hoping that will change over the next little bit.

I also wanted to use the Dandy Garden 6×6 Designer Series Paper for this project so that helped me figure out my colour combination. It started with a piece of Blackberry Bliss DSP and so I went with Mossy Meadow for my other colour. From there I added in a few dragonflies that I punched out from another piece of DSP using the Dragonflies punch. I also stamped a few small ones in the background using some Crumb Cake ink. Here’s that flap of my card…

For the other inner most flap I just stamped a phrase from the Dragonfly Garden stamp set using Blackberry Bliss ink. Here it is to give you a sense of the card fully opened…

So for the front of the card I used that piece of Blackberry Bliss DSP. Then to create my window I used one of the Stitched Nested Labels dies. I initially thought of embossing the front of the card as well and kind of wish I had (next time). I popped up my “for you” from the Beauty Abounds stamp set with some Stampin’ Dimensionals. And then added a few of the Ladybug Trinkets. To adhere those to the card front I just cut a Mini Dimensional in half and squished it inside.

I really like how my Surprise Window card turned out. Those cute little ladybugs add a nice touch! I’m definitely going to have fun using those guys. To check out the next stop on this month’s blog hop check out Nadine Schweda’s project. And don’t forget to grab the project sheet below!

2020-Surprise-Window-Card-Project-Sheet Download