Mystery Fun Fold

I found a picture of this mystery fun fold on Pinterest. It’s nice and simple! And I haven’t tried it before so I thought I’d give it a go. Plus it’s a fun way to show off some of the By the Bay Specialty Designer Series Paper that’s retiring very soon.

To figure out my colour combination I started with picking my DSP design. I love the main design I used for this card because it has a few different colours and I love all the seashells. When I was younger I loved exploring beaches looking for seashells.

For the card base I used Pool Party. I also used Pool Party ink for some tone on tone stamping. I wanted a little something behind the strip of Sahara Sand DSP. On top of the strip of DSP I stamped a sentiment from Friends are like Seashells in Petal Pink. Then I die cut the sentiment with one of the Something Fancy dies and popped it up with some Stampin’ Dimensionals. To finish it off I added a few of the Pastel Adhesive Backed Gems.

Mystery Fun Fold

If anyone knows the name of this mystery fun fold please let me know. And I’d love to see your versions if you give it a try.

Sadly the By the Bay DSP and Friends are like Seashells stamp set are retiring. To find out more about how the last chance sale works check out my post here. And the best place to see what’s still available is my online shop. Don’t wait! Things have been selling out fast! It’s been hard to keep up this time around.

Goodbye Fresh Freesia

Stampin’ Up! shared how they’re freshening up their colours for the upcoming catalogue with demonstrators this week. I’m sad and excited about what’s to come and I think you will be too! With the new Annual Catalogue coming in just a few weeks I’ve been taking some time to share projects with the 2021-2023 In Colours. As part of this I’ve been sharing projects this week to say goodbye Fresh Freesia. So imagine my surprise when I find out that I don’t have to!

Fresh Freesia is one of my favourites of the 2021-2023 In Colours. So I decided to use it to craft my card for my team’s monthly sketch challenge. Here’s the sketch we’re working with…

goodbye fresh freesia

For my design I’m using the Happiness Abounds bundle (which sadly is retiring) to create a pretty bouquet of flowers. Fresh Freesia is the main colour, of course, but I’m also using Pale Papaya and Pear Pizzazz. I did a little bit of tone on tone stamping with Pear Pizzazz for the leaves. And then I used Fresh Freesia and Pale Papaya for the different kinds of flowers.

Behind the flowers I added a strip of Burlap ribbon from the Real Red & Burlap ribbon combo pack. Then popped up the centre, larger flower with some Stampin’ Dimensionals. The sentiment comes from the Friends are like Seashells stamp set. And I stamped that with Fresh Freesia ink and then used the Layering Circles dies. To have it on the same level as the centre flower I added a few more Dimensionals. Then finally to finish it off I added a few Brushed Brass Butterflies.

Goodbye Fresh Freesia

I’m so glad I don’t have to say goodbye Fresh Freesia! Sadly we do have to say goodbye to Pale Papaya. Check out one of the projects I featured last week using that colour here.

And if you want a sneak peek at some of the new colours, check out this YouTube video from Stampin’ Up!

By the Bay

At the beginning of this month I put out a sketch challenge for my direct team. Just something fun and to spark some creativity! I often use sketches when I’m stuck for an idea or as a starting point for a design. But this one I stuck with because it’s a great one for showing off patterned paper. And goodness knows there’s a lot of great patterned paper right now in the Sale-a-bration and Janaury-April Mini catalogues! For this design I’m using the By the Bay 6″ x 6″ Specialty Designer Series Paper. It has so many beautiful designs and I love the gold foil!

With the sketch I already had the layout/design for my card. And I knew I what DSP I was using. So all that was left was to choose my colour combination and stamp set. I pulled my colours from the DSP of course. Originally I thought I’d be using more blues. But it turned into a Petal Pink and Sahara Sand card.

Since I ended up going for a summer/seaside themed card, I decided to use the Friends are like Seashells stamp set. I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again… I love how versatile this stamp set is! I framed the seashells and sentiment with some Sahara Sand cardstock. Then I popped them both up on top of the patterned paper using Stampin’ Dimensionals. And instead of adding some pearls or jewels to add a bit more bling, I added some Wink of Stella to the seashells. Too bad it doesn’t really come through in the picture.

By the Bay

I had a lot of fun with this first team sketch challenge! And I hope my team did too!

Check out another card I made using the By the Bay Designer Series Paper here.

You can get this great pack of patterned paper along with some beautiful and FREE patterned paper until Tuesday! That’s the last day of Sale-a-bration. Don’t miss out! Check it all out in my online shop.

Beach Themed Handmade Card

Even though it’s still very wintery outside I decided to make a beach themed handmade card. While I enjoy winter I think I’m eager for the warmer weather to arrive! The design for this card comes from a sketch challenge with my larger team. And I decided to work with the gorgeous By the Bay 6″ x 6″ Specialty Designer Series Paper this week for my projects.

I switched up my card design a little from the original sketch. Instead of a full card base, I decided to only have half a card front. I thought it would look really neat if the 3 diamonds hung off the card front so to speak. My card base is Sahara Sand which is one of the colours from the By the Bay DSP. I also used Sahara Sand cardstock to frame my diamonds.

For my ink colour I pulled another colour from the DSP, Petal Pink. And I stamped a phrase from the Friends are like Seashells stamp set on a piece of Very Vanilla for the inside of my card.

Just behind the diamonds is another one of the designs from this pretty pack of patterned paper. I love the iridescent shimmer it gives off! Then I popped up the centre diamond with some Stampin’ Dimensionals and added a few of the Flat Adhesive-Backed Pearls to add even more shimmer.

Beach Themed Handmade Card

When I decided to craft with the By the Bay DSP this week I was totally not thinking I would be crafting a beach themed handmade card! It just goes to show that things can totally take a different turn once you start creating.

Looking for some more summer-themed cards? Check out my post using the Friends are like Seashells stamp set here.

Want to join in on all the creative fun on my teams? There’s never been a better time to join! Send me an email or you can sign up here.

Fall Watercolour Background

It’s the Thanksgiving long weekend here! Which means Halloween and Christmas are right around the corner. But before I dive deep into my holiday crafting I wanted to share this idea I had for a Fall watercolour background card. I’m not sure where this idea came from, but I just love it! Maybe it’s because I wanted an excuse to do some watercolouring, who knows?!

The card itself is very simple. I used my Water Painters to add Crushed Curry and Calypso Coral to some Fluid 100 Watercolour Paper. And with the one sheet I was able create the background and some leaves. To make the watercolours pop I wanted a fairly dark card base. Mossy Meadow worked perfectly… not too dark like Basic Black.

Over top of the larger piece I used the Aspen dies on a piece of Basic White cardstock to create my forest. This is such a great set of dies, with or without the coordinating stamp set Perched in a Tree. I also used the leaves from this set of dies to create my watercoloured leaves. But not before I embossed the paper using the Timber 3D embossing folder to add a little more texture.

I laid the die cut trees right on top of the watercoloured paper so that I could pop up the leaves and the phrase using Stampin’ Dimensionals. Surprisingly enough the phrase comes from the Friends are like Seashells stamp set! I just love the phrases and fonts of this stamp set! So even though it might be more of a summer stamp set, it really is versatile. Then to finish it off I added a few Brushed Metallic Adhesive Backed Dots.

Fall Watercolour Background

The Fall watercolour background turned out really nicely I think. And I just love the look of it so much I want to make another one using more “wintery” colours.

Check out another card I created using watercolouring here. And you can find the Aspen dies in my online shop.

Fun with #SimpleStamping

A new month, means a new challenge! I have a lot of fun with #SimpleStamping. Sometimes it’s trickier than others, especially when it’s only stamps, ink and paper. But it does help when we’re able to add a little something more to our designs. This month’s challenge is to use stamps, ink, paper and an embellishment to make any kind of card we want.

When I saw “embellishment”, one of my first ideas was to pair the Faux Sea Glass Shapes with the Friends are like Seashells stamp set. I love this stamp set because of the gorgeous images, but also the phrases. Plus you can easily layer the images which comes in handy when you’re doing #SimpleStamping.

From here I picked my colours. I wanted to use the more blue sea glass pieces, so I picked Coastal Cabana. It’s such a pretty blue and the name goes so well with the theme of my card! The other colour I chose was Crumb Cake. It’s a nice light brown and I think makes a nice beach/sand colour.

For the images I started with the largest ones first and then worked to fill in the spaces with the smaller images. The specs of sand was the last stamp I used. Then to highlight the phrase I framed it with some Coastal Cabana cardstock and popped it up with some Stampin’ Dimensionals. And then of course I added a few Faux Sea Glass Shapes. There were still a few gaps, so this worked great to fill in the space, but not overwhelm the design.

Fun with #SimpleStamping

I’m not exactly sure who I’m going to give this card to, but I love how it turned out! I do always have fun with #SimpleStamping… even when it’s a little trickier. It’s nice to do something different… something outside your comfort zone every once in a while.

Check out my most recent #SimpleStamping challenge cards here. And don’t forget you can grab the supplies to make a card of your own in my online shop.

Gatefold Card

Summer is here! School is done and the hot sunny weather has arrived. So I thought I would share one of my cards from last month’s Stamp & Jammies online card class that featured Friends are like Seashells. This is such a fun stamp set! Plus all the phrases in it make it very versatile. This design is a gatefold card. It’s an easy fold to do and helps switch things up every once in a while. I’ve used it before for my daughter’s Harry Potter themed birthday party.

I wanted to use the Blue Adhesive Backed Gems so I went with Bermuda Bay as one of my colours. I used that for my card base and the gate part of the fold. For my other colour I used Crumb Cake. It’s a nice neutral, beachy colour. It also works great for the sea star and sand dollar stamps from the set.

On the inside I stamped a small seashell in Crumb Cake to have both colours on the inside as well as the outside. Then on the front 3 panels I used a combination of Crumb Cake and Bermuda Bay ink for the seashells and seaweed.

Gatefold Card

I framed the square shaped panel with some Bermuda Bay cardstock and adhered it with a couple of Stampin’ Dimensionals on one side. You definitely don’t want to accidentally lock your gate! Then to top it all off I added a few of those Blue Adhesive Backed Gems.

Gatefold Card

The gatefold card is so simple to make and looks really nice! Check out my YouTube channel for the step by step video for this card. I’ve really enjoyed stamping with the Friends are like Seashells stamp set. So be sure to check out all those videos. Join my next Stamp & Jammies online card class in September using Quiet Meadow here.

Friends are like Seashells

Summer is just around the corner and so I’ve been crafting with the Friends are like Seashells stamp set lately. I fell in love with this stamp as soon as I saw it! The images are beautiful and the phrases make is so versatile. The holidays got in the way for a while, but I’m so glad I came back to it.

For this card I wanted to use a different colour combination with this stamp set. So far I’ve used Crumb Cake along with Pool Party or Petal Pink. But this time I decided to go with Smoky Slate and Mint Macaron. I’ve used this colour combination before. And I know it may not be an obvious colour combination for seashells, but I think it really works well.

Friends are like Seashells

I also wanted to show off some of the large seashell images. Unfortunately I don’t have the coordinating dies (yet), so I fussy cut them which wasn’t too bad. For my background I decided to use the stamps that would typically be used to “colour in” the seashell stamps. I’ve done a seashell background before so I wanted to switch it up a bit. I’ve also used the seashells as a foreground which you can check out here.

I left the phrase as is. But if you want it would look nice cut out with the Stitched Rectangles dies too. I popped up the seashells and the phrase with some Stampin’ Dimensionals. And then I added some bling… For the seashells I used the Wink of Stella Glitterbrush and I added a couple of Opal Rounds on either side of the phrase.

Friends are like Seashells

Looking at my background now I’m going to have to try some DIY Designer Series Paper with the Friends are like Seashells stamp set. Check out the stamp set and coordinating dies in my online shop.

Fun with Seashells

Even though I’ve had the Friends are like Seashells stamp set for a while, I haven’t crafted with it very much. And that’s why I thought it would be nice to have some fun with seashells. I also wanted to keep my card fairly simple. So no fancy Designer Series Paper. And no embossing.

For my colour combination I went with Petal Pink and Crumb Cake. I wanted to pull in the beach and pink is often seen in seashells. So I thought it would make a nice combo. And it did.

The fanciest things I did with this card was use the Blending Brushes. I used Basic White for my card base and then used the Blending Brushes to add some Crumb Cake ink on one half. I also stamped the spotted image from the stamp set with more Crumb Cake on top to create a bit of a beach-looking background. Even though using the Blending Brushes sounds fancy, it’s very easy to do. It’s a similar technique to when you’re sponging. Check out my YouTube video on sponging here.

Fun with Seashells

I used a piece of Petal Pink cardstock to frame the stamped piece of Basic White. For the seashells I used a combination of Crumb Cake and Petal Pink ink. Crumb Cake, of course, for the sand dollars and star fish. And Petal Pink for the rest. Then I popped it all up with some Stampin’ Dimensionals.

To keep with the ‘simple’ idea for the card I just stamped the phrase on a simple piece of Basic White cardstock. And then layered it on with a bit of Stampin’ SEAL and a Dimensional. To finish it off, and add a bit of bling to the card, I added a few of the Opal Rounds in the bottom corner. If you want to add even more bling, you can also add some Wink of Stella to the stamped seashells.

Fun with Seashells

I really love how this card turned out! I’m excited to have some more fun with seashells and make some more summer themed projects. Check out one of my other projects using the Blending Brushes here. This one uses the Tasteful Touches stamp set.