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This blog is for sharing a love of paper crafting. I love paper crafting -
and Stampin' Up! products in particular -
so much so, that I became an independent Stampin' Up!®™ demonstrator earlier this year!
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Enjoy browsing my blog, and I'd love to hear from you.
It is what helps make the time I put into this blog feel worthwhile, and always brightens my day.

NOTE: All Stampin' Up! Images © 1990–2025 Stampin’ Up!®

Friday, August 22, 2025

Playing with a Sketch

 

Today I thought I'd play around with a sketch from this year's Stampin' Up!s Sept - Dec Mini Catalog.  They have several sketches on page 14 of that catalog, and I've chosen to play with the one you see above.  I've made a variety of cards - some simple - some less so, but all were designed to demonstrate something about ways to use a sketch.  

All papers and cardstock used were from Stampin' Up!, but some are discontinued designs that I need to use up.  Most of these were made using paper from the discontinued pack called Regal Winter.  If the patterned paper is from a different paper pack, I'll point that out in the description. I invite you to do your own experimenting with whatever paper you have on hand!  

Also assume all stamps/dies/etc that were used were from Stampin' Up! unless I say differently.  Note that some of the embellishments I used - sequins, etc - have been discontinued (I need to use them up), but there's always something similar you can find here.

Inks used include: Cherry Cobbler, Pretty Peacock, Shaded Spruce, (or you can get all 3 colors as a part of the Regals Stamp Pad Bundle) and VersaMark.  The pineapple card also used Pecan Pie and Crumb Cake.

Cardstock used includes: Pebbled Path (discontinued - try Gray Granite), Cherry Cobbler, Pretty PeacockBasic White, and Basic White Thick.

Most circles created with one of the following Stampin' Up! punches: 1 3/4" punch, 2" punch, 2 3/8" punch.  I occasionally also used a couple of scalloped punches I had in my stash.

Below is a look at the 11 cards I made as variations on this sketch. 

Saturday, August 16, 2025

KCC #18 Set 1

I DID do one KCC19 in July, but hadn't had time to do up several of the previous KCC before now.   So, I pulled some Stampin' Up! papers and used them with KCC18.  Here are the papers I used:

 

I started with two papers from the Beautiful Bokeh 6x6 that I've been working with for the butterfly cards.  I decided to look through my discontinued papers to find others to coordinate.  I chose one from Bright & Beautiful 6x6, one from Subtles DSP and one from Neutrals DSP (both from 2024-2025 annual catalog) and a 6x6 piece of paper from the 12x12 Flowering Fields).  After cutting these up as per the KCC18 directions, I used several coordinating cardstocks, inks, Stampin' Blends, and Stampin' Write Markers to go with them as I made up the 18 cards from the sketches.  Colors I used were: Pretty Peacock, Lost Lagoon, Fresh Freesia, Highland HeatherBerry Burst, Blackberry Bliss and White. In addition, for some of the cards I used flowers and leaves cut from the Extraordinary Flora Washi Tape cut using the Extraordinary Flora cutting die.  Here's a picture of the 18 cards made from this set of papers:

The last four were all from the same sketch - but, of course, I couldn't do them all the same!  Next up is a close up look at all eighteen cards.

Sunday, August 10, 2025

Pretty Jungle Papers - Part 2

Part 2 continues the use of papers from an 8 x 8 paper pack I was given last year - don't remember who made it.  My previous post showed the first 9 cards, here are 8 more.

Pretty Jungle Papers - Part 1

Today I have a bunch of cards made using papers from an 8 x 8 paper pack I was given last year - don't remember who made it.  I had planned to use it to create more cards using a Kendra's Card Challenge cut/sketch set.  However, I realized that nearly all the papers were directional and KCC's cutting diagrams never are for more than one or two sheets.  So, I cut it up myself thinking about the pattern in the paper and the size of the cards.  Now to figure out how to use these pieces!

It's pretty paper, but it has reminded me how much I wish I had realized the value of Stampin' Up! papers and cardstock years ago - especially their cardstock!  Prior to that realization, I bought cardstock packs of mixed colors - quite a few of them because it seemed I never had the colors I needed!  Now that I have Stampin' Up! cardstock, I always know what colors to try - even if I'm using it with papers from other companies.  Unfortunately, I still have a LOT of that old mixed color cardstock to use up, so when working with paper that didn't come from Stampin' Up!, I try to use up the old cardstock as well.  Going through all my different sets of cardstock takes SO long to find the color I need!  I'll be glad when it's all gone and I can focus on just using Stampin' Up! cardstock!  I DID find I had to use cream colored cardstock for some of the card bases - but I didn't have the right color of cream in my old stash, so I used Stampin' Up!s Very Vanilla cardstock.

Below is a quick look at the first 9 cards I made this way.