Category Archives: Stampin’ Up!

2023 wrap up

I have a few more cards from the year to quickly share before 2023 is over. First is a CAS graduation card with a Darice embossing folder, some large Numbers Dies, and a simple die cut word from SnSS’s Script Sentiments Stamp & Die Bundle.

The next two CAS cards use My Father’s House stamp set. The first card was for a pastoral ordination and the second card was for some churches that were being prayed for. The church image was stamped directly onto patterned papers and only needed a sentiment added.

Tim Holtz’ Chilly & Freezy dies from SSS 2022 Diecember were used on this card. I made it back in February to thank a friend for sharing the dies with me. Distress inks were applied to the background and then spritzed with water for the snowy sky. The sentiment is from my own set, Snowy Hello.

I love to personalize cards, but don’t do it often enough! Here’s a notecard that I made and personalized with the recipient’s name. The flowers are SU!, the alphabet, sentiment, and stencil are SnSS, and the frame and border are Sizzix.

The next two cards use SU! Peaceful Cabin. The second one is an altered Paper Pumpkin kit which I made a pocket inside for a gift card.

I loved this Paper Pumpkin kit just the way it was designed…no alterations here!

I needed several last-minute money holder cards and didn’t find any in the store. I made a quick slimline sample with an optional belly band and took some photos of it when done. I used different patterned papers but forgot to take photos until I was going to seal the last one. lol. This card uses a Tim Holtz stamp and Hobby Lobby patterned paper.

Have a safe & happy New Year!

birthday bunch

Happy Friday! Today I am catching up with nine of my favorites from the past year that were hanging out in my files…a bunch of birthday cards! These cards were not made for a company design team and just hadn’t been shared yet. It’s another photo heavy post today!

My first card was for a dinosaur-loving girl who turned 7. I used MFT‘s A-roar-able Friends and Lawn Fawn’s Platform Pop-Up Dies. The platform card folds flat for placing into an envelope. Strips of clear acetate were used to attach a few of the elements.

For the mini slim birthday cake card, I used… Spellbinders Stitched Fringe Cake Dies, Taylored Expressions Happy Birthday Banner and Skinny Mini Party Borders Dies, Sizzix Bold Flora Dies, and SU! Scattered Sequins embossing folder. Each cake layer was stitched by hand with white thread.

My next two cards were made in the same style, with the top half of the card front cut away. (Cut the top of the card front @ 2 3/4″) This piece is then turned 1/4 turn and adhered to the bottom front. So, for the center front layers on the first card… the black is 2 3/4 x 4 1/4, the green is 2 1/2 x 4, and the white is 2 1/4 x 3 3/4. The inside white layer is 2 1/2 x 4. Add additional cardstock and patterned paper layers as desired. Here I used SU! Artistically Inked Bundle, and Expressions in Ink dsp and Ephemera (gold foliage), plus a gold bee charm.

The masculine version was made the same way, using SU! Seaside Bay and coordinating papers.

A beautiful paper napkin was applied to the following card front for a pretty floral background. Then I used Lawn Fawn’s Pop-Up Bee Dies and You’re a Keeper stamp set to create this sweet pop-up card. LOVE the bee dies!! This card is so cute in person. I only wish I had made those wings sparkly!

Another masculine card, this one’s for a sushi lover. I used Lawn Fawn’s Let’s Roll and Sizzix Tropicool Slider Card Dies. The Sushi pops up and reveals the greeting inside as the top is pulled.

How cute are these two from the MFT Sweater Weather- In the Woods set? I kept this card CAS and spot-lighted them with some plaid circles. I followed the MFTWSC498 sketch.

Pink & Main has some terrific stamps…this is from the Beach Unicorn set. I also used the Waves Border Dies. You can see some of the glitter sparkle in the second photo.

And last for today, I was asked to make a strawberry themed birthday card for a little girl turning one. I used the Altenew Mega Number 1 die and SU! Sweet Strawberry bundle.

Have a great weekend!

2023 Stamp & Swap projects

Last month we had our 8th annual NEPA (Northeast PA) Stamp & Swap and today I’m finally sharing the projects that I made for it. Be sure to read all the way to the end for a really cool project we did!

The first one I made was for our 6×6 Recipe Swap. I used Angie Blom’s Coolest Chicks Ever digital images, which are also available as physical stamps through Unity Stamp Co.

For the ATC swap, I wanted to create a shaped ATC. This retired MFT Milk Carton Die was the perfect size. I also used Lawn Fawn’s Cerealsly Awesome set & Dies, which was a cerealsly awesome gift from a friend! 🙂 How cute! I couldn’t decide what color to make the bowl, so I did several and let the participants choose.

Several weeks prior, I found the event theme in a sentiment set of scrabble tile letters at Hobby Lobby. They already had an adhesive backing, so I just formed them in the shape of a tree and added brads for the trunk & star. I embossed the background and added a frame and ribbon.

The Mini Slimline Swap was one of the most popular. I made mine a gatefold card using my favorite Christmas plaid paper from Hobby Lobby and SU! Snow Wonder Bundle. My base is 3 x 12, scored @ 3 and 9.

For my shoebox card, I used the retired Spellbinders Sharyn Sowell Winter Friends die set, Simon Says Stamp Pine Landscape embossing folder and die set, and SnSS Christmas Sentiments. The large bunny and sentiment circle are popped up with foam tape.

A new swap that I came up with for this year’s event was a Sketch & Card Front Swap. I used the SU! Penguin Place Bundle and coordinating papers on the card here. Below is my sketch that I started with. Participants swapped both of these together…the card front & it’s coordinating sketch.

The last project that I’m sharing is the favor that we made for everyone who attended the swap. We decided this year to make the tools to use on the MISTI or other stamping platforms, but to also PERSONALIZE them. Someone from our committee (I can’t remember who) named them our NEPA tool. 🙂

We purchased mini candles from the Dollar Tree and used the glass tops, making sure to pick out the ones with a large clear space in the center of the lid. My friend, Lou Ann, and I had several hours LOL trying to get our swap words in a circle with each name inside but when we were finished, it was so worth the effort (Don’t ask me how we did it lol)! They were then printed onto colored copy papers and punched out with a circle punch. Lou Ann’s husband cut wood circles for us to place on the bottom of the glass for stability, and then we covered the base with felt. So, there’s the glass candle lid (with a plastic covering on the bottom of it), then a wood circle which we painted white, and two layers of felt circles. Each attendee was asked their favorite colors without knowing what we were making.

We used several glues and adhesives with trial & error until we figured out the right combination! Lou Ann used her Xyron sticker maker with the punched circles, so they had adhesive on top. Then I carefully adhered them in place inside the lid using tweezers to get them inside. Our committee got together and working quickly, Mod Podge was applied inside the entire lid and chunky glitter was dumped inside. Next, a fine glitter was added to fill in the empty spaces. It’s hard to capture the glitter in the photos below! When dry, E6000 glue was used to adhere the wood circle to the candle lid. Again, they were left to sit as the glue dries. Aleene’s Felt and Foam Tacky Glue worked great to adhere two felt die cut circles to the base. We finished them off by adding some ribbons with Scor-Tape. Whew! It was a lot of work but so fun!

Thanks for reading all the way through! LOL. Have a great day!

special delivery treats

I made some last-minute Christmas treats for friends using the SU! Trucking Along Bundle. Last year, my friend Michele shared some treats with this design/fold and left a bunch of the cute, dotted bags with me. I wanted to be sure to use the bags this year to make some treats of my own to share. 🙂

I followed the measurements on her treats to cut and score. The base is 3 1/2 x 7, scored @ 1 1/2, 5, and 6. The patterned papers are 3 1/4 x 3 1/4, and 1 1/4 x 3 1/4.

Have a relaxing after-Christmas week!

autumn birthdays

I have quite a few photos from the past few months that I haven’t shared, so I will try to catch up with them before the end of the year. Here’s a few fall birthday cards that I made. The first two used a pretty patterned paper from Hobby Lobby. I also used the SU! Soft Seedlings & Birthday Banners on the first card. The second card has Crafty Secrets Wizard of Oz (a set from 2010).

Here’s the sketch that I used for those cards. I started with a 4 1/2 x 2 3/4 piece of patterned paper before cutting it into strips.

Next, I used the Taylored Expressions Create in Quads- Word Party to make some masculine cards. I only used one section of the stencils. The leaves are Spellbinders Mini Fall Blooms and the small sentiment is from SNSS Birthday Wordfetti.

Have a great day!

baseball cards and one H.P.

I finally got around to putting together the May 2021 Paper Pumpkin kit which has a baseball theme. I did one card by the directions and for the rest I created alternates. On the first card, I cut a strip off the card front and glued it to the inside. Then I added some stars.

The second card is another Spanner Panel Card. I turned the card horizontally and made two cuts on the front, then attached a strip to the sides. I added some more stars to this one.

The third card was made according to the directions.

I didn’t really care for the design of the last card, so I changed it completely. The red & yellow paper reminded me of Harry Potter, so I went with that theme! The stamp and dies are from Gina Marie.

Have a great weekend!

bird’s nest treat box

Hello! I have a sweet treat box favor to share today. I saw two versions of this bird’s nest treat box made with the Stampin’ Up! Sweet Songbird Bundle but was unable to find/credit the original designer. I altered mine a bit, but these were inspired by Loni Spendlove’s Sweet Songbird Nest Treat Favors.

I started with a 3 x 1 3/4″ piece of Soft Suede cardstock for the box. This was slightly larger than Loni’s so it would fit the Hershey eggs. Score @ 1/4″ along both long sides and then score the 3″ length @ 1″ and 2″. The nest image is stamped twice for each one on scraps of Soft Suede cardstock with Soft Suede ink. Loni has a video in the link above for assembling the treats. I cut the tines off the bottom of some flat appetizer picks (slightly larger than a toothpick) for my signs. The “board” was stamped with Soft Suede ink onto Crumb Cake cardstock. The words are from the SU! set called A Touch of Ink. Mini glue dots were used to make the signs and attach them to the nests. I used some old dsp to punch the birds but thought they seemed a bit flimsy, so I also punched them from coordinating cardstock and layered them together for strength.

Note: My CVS store still had a few bags of Hershey eggs left from Easter candy…on sale!

Have a great day!

Spanner Panel Card

Good morning! I’m back with another fun fold today. I always enjoy making these!

This card is very similar to one that we made years ago except the two sides on the front are not cut away, but instead are linked together with a sentiment strip. I used an older SU! set for the flowers- Inspiring Iris, Shaded Summer + Friends Are like Seashells (sentiments), Painted Posies embossing folder, and Elegant & Bitty Butterfly punches.

Start with a 5 1/2 x 8 1/2 card base, scored at 4 1/4. Then cut in both sides of the card front @ 1 1/4″, down to the scored line (fold). The sentiment strip is 3/4 x 5 1/2, with a white layer of 1/2 x 5 1/2. Be careful where you add the glue so each flap will open. Only add glue to the ends of the sentiment strip! The white embossed middle is 2 3/4 x 4 and the dsp sides are 1 x 4. There are two flaps to open to get to the inside greeting…

Have a great weekend!

legendary ride

Recently I made a few masculine cards with the SU! Legendary Ride Bundle. I made two birthday cards and one retirement, inspired by some cards that I had seen. These are both fun folds and I’ll link below to the videos.

The first card is a Diamond Flip Fun Fold.

As you open the card, the diamond shape on the front flips out.

The other two cards are a simple Fun Fold. Just a cut and a few scores are needed. I also used an image from SU! Beautiful World on the first one. The second card also uses SNSS Retirement Sentiments.

I used the color of the recipient’s bike on this one…

Have a great weekend!

Stamp & Swap 2022

Today I am sharing the projects that I made for our annual Stamp & Swap, an all-day stamping event. Our theme this year was Gnome for the Holidays.

I had a bunch of Christmas Gnomes patterned paper from Hobby Lobby to use on some of my projects. The first one is a 6×6 recipe card. The gnome with mixer is a digital image by Last Minute Manda that I colored to coordinate with the background paper. The faint snowflakes were stamped with Sweet ‘n Sassy’s Cheerful Snowmen set.

We try to keep our shoebox cards simple so everyone can either complete them or make a kit to complete at home. The left side of my shoebox card with the plaid paper is glued shut and only the right portion with the gnomes opens. The sentiment is from Sweet ‘n Sassy’s Christmas Gnomes.

I made a simple interactive card for my ATC trade using a Unity itty bitty stamp set called Change is a Good Thing. This mini card has a top portion that is glued shut and the bottom opens up. 🙂

Next, I made a mini slim card with a tent topper using Stampin’ Up Hand-Penned Petals, Pierced Blooms Dies, and Friendly Hello. The paper is Colorbok- Beach House.

My last project was for a gift swap. I found a Pioneer Woman Christmas frame (first photo) on clearance last year at Walmart. The second photo shows how I decorated it with ribbons, gnomes, felt snowflakes, and Aleene’s True Snow. The gnomes are from Simon Says Stamp dies- Gnome, Pocket Gnome, and Li’l Gnome. As you can see in the last photo… it lights up!

Have a great week!