Craft for a Cause

Last post, I mentioned that the Sentimental Christmas Designer Series Paper (DSP) was the Product Giveback for Stampin' Up! this year.

I have loved using this paper, and have held a Card Buffet which featured use of this paper heavily in the cards that could be made.

Below is a very small selection of what was on offer in my Card Buffet class.

This very simple card uses an image from the DSP, cut out with a tag die from the Greetings of the Season dies. With the addition of a dry embossed background and a heat embossed sentiment on another piece of the DSP, a little ribbon and layer of coordinating cardstock and the card is done!

The next card is a very similar in design, this time die cutting an image directly from the DSP (with the coordinating Sentimental Wishes dies) and adding a couple of die cut little branches. It once again has a sentiment that is heat embossed and this time a larger piece of DSP as the background layer.

Grab yourself a pack (or two) of the Sentimental Christmas 12" x 12" (30.5 x 30.5 cm) Designer Series Paper to Craft & Give Back this Christmas season.

Quick Christmas Cards

Did you know that each year, Stampin' Up! donates a portion of sales from a specific product to global cause? This is called the Product Give Back. You can "Craft for a Cause" and know that you are helping towards this cause.

This year, the Product is Sentimental Christmas Designer Series Paper (DSP).

It's easy to make a stack of quick Christmas cards with the designs of this paper.

Here is just one example.

The Reindeer image is simply fussy cut straight from a page of the paper.

Add some ribbon, bling, a sentiment, and one of the other designed in the paper pack, and you have this card! I have put this on a card base of Pretty Peacock, as I think it sets it all off in the best way.

What do you think?

A special card for an 80th Birthday

A couple of months ago, we celebrated my Mum's 80th birthday.

In all that was happening at the time, I don't think I even took a photo of the card I made for her!

Now my neighbours Mum is turning 80 this month, and I have taken my time to make a special card for her (my neighbour) to give.

I had a lot of fun making this card. It features the Layers of Beauty Bundle. This bundle includes Stamps, Dies and Stencils - which make colouring the large stamped image a breeze!!

Using watercolour paper, I stamped the large image in Crumb Cake ink.

Then using the stencils and blending brushes, I coloured the image with Petal Pink and Flirty Flamingo on the flowers and Old Olive and Mossy Meadow for the leaves.

That got me to this stage..

This had been my first play with this bundle, and this image sat on my desk for a time before I actually decided to use it for this card.

From there, I did some water colouring with blue ink (which I already had in a water painter with water) all around the image.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out - what do you think of the finished results??

Since this wasn't a standard size card, I also needed to make an envelope for it (obviously 😆).

I stamped the large flower image again and used the stencils on it as well. I then used a blending brush to add a little colour around the image again - to match the card.

Let me know what you think or if you have any questions.

Do you Copy & Share?

Have you heard of the term CASEd? This term has long been used by the Stampin' Up! community and stands for Copy And Share Everything.

More recently, I've also seen this term used as Copy And Selectively Edit.

What does that mean?

For us crafters, as not everyone feels creative all the time (or some of us may never feel that way), we look to find inspiration from other crafters and other sources! 

We are so often inspired by samples in the catalogues, as well as what others make, that it's easy just to recreate a card, scrapbook page, or other project that we've seen elsewhere.

And, there is nothing wrong with that. 

In fact, Stampin' Up! uses CASEd for exactly this purpose!

They encourage us to use the catalogue, online images and more to recreate projects.

As demonstrator, we even have access to a "Sample Recipes" sheet that lists all products used in the catalogue samples and Online Exclusives or other specials etc.

Here is a card I made, inspired by a sample in the 2024-2025 Annual Catalogue (page 40).

The sample in the catalogue is actually a Scalloped Gift Box. I edited this design ever so slightly to create a card instead.

What do you think? Personally, I'm happy with how it turned out!

Products used include:

• Basic White cardstock
• Crumb Cake cardstock
• Wildly Flowering 12" x 12" Designer Series Paper
• 2023-2025 In Colour Jute Trim
• Iridescent Foil Gems
• Greetings of the Season Dies
• Ice Cream Swirl Stamp Set
• Early Espresso Classic Stampin' Pad

Simple Birthday Card

Stampin' Up! recently had a release of more Online Exclusive products.

These are products that are in addition to Catalogue release products, and come throughout the year.

With Christmas time heading our way faster than I'd like, I purchased the Greetings of the Season bundle as a starting point. This bundle includes dies that can be "tags" or "labels" or used as a sentiment layer on a card.

Since I wasn't quite ready to make Christmas cards yet, I used the dies and made a simple (but pretty) birthday card.

As you can see, I've used the biggest tag die as a "layer" with some of the Country Lace DSP (which is currently on Sale), and then used the Oval Tag shape for the sentiment. Did you notice that I've omitted the hole from the Oval tag?

I accomplished this by only running the die through halfway (from the "non hole" end), then turning it around and running it through the other half. You could do this for most of the other tags in the set too.

The sentiment if from the Friends for Life Stamp Set.

And finally, the small image stamped repeatedly in the background in from the Country Flowers stamp set and is easily missed due to it's size!

This card was part of my Cards to Go kit last month which can be purchased (if you're in Australia) to have all the supplies to make 4 cards at home in your own time. Full instructions are emailed after the kits go out. Interested? Contact me for more information.