Get Creativity Started With A Crafty Kit

Get creativity started with one or a bunch of kits! Stampin’ Up! offers both subscription and non-subscription crafting kits that let you get right to creating. For example, Paper Pumpkin is a kit that can be purchased either as a monthly subscription or as a prepaid option. When you prepay, you can choose 1, 3, 6 or 12 months and you’ll receive a kit code. Then you choose which months to use your prepaid kit code. Order before the 10th of the month when you want a kit shipped to you. Receive a kit each month until your prepaid kits are finished….

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#simplestamping Stampin’ Up! Challenge

#simplestamping is the hashtag for you if you love quick and easy, simple cards. Maybe you’re new to cardmaking or are simply overwhelmed by ALL THE STUFF. Or perhaps your life is jam-packed and you don’t have a lot of time for creativity. Whatever the case, #simplestamping projects get back to the basics. Each month Stampin’ Up! challenges demonstrators to create cute handmade cards easy enough for new stampers. For the November Stampin’ Up! Challenge, the theme is Thank You. The supplies are just stamps, ink and paper. We’ll be using the Timeless Tropical stamp set today. It’s perfect because…

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2021 Seasonal Sale

Stampin’ Up! 2021 Seasonal Sale – Paper, Ink and Dies, Oh My! There’s a sale brewing just in time for all your holiday crafting projects! First stock up on basics like ink and cardstock. Then grab that die set or two that you’ve been eyeing. When all your goodies arrive, head straight to the craft room and start creating! Stamping Basics and More! Fold, snip, layer, and stamp! Build up your collection of crafting basics—and prepare for another year of top-tier projects—with a steal of a deal on papercrafting products! 2021 Seasonal Sale Details 2021 Seasonal Sale Flyer Download the…

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Frightfully Cute Shaker Card

A Frightfully Cute Shaker Card is fun to make and even more fun to shake! Use the orange shades in Sequins for Everything to fill this shaker. They are perfect for our Halloween card! Then add a touch of gold with some Gold Shimmer Ribbon to accent the sparkly sequins. For some spooky texture, die cut the spider web with Snowy White Velvet paper. Don’t forget to stamp the bats and spider too! Frightfully Cute Shaker Card Recipe Begin creating the shaker card by cutting Night of Navy cardstock for a standard card base, 8-1/2″ x 5-1/2″. Score at 4-1/4″…

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Repurposing Christmas Cards

Repurposing Christmas cards by making them into new cards is one of the most popular ways to keep them from cluttering your home. While you could just recycle them, why not give card-making a try? You’ll create a fresh original Christmas card with your own special touches! For this craft, start by simply cutting your favorite elements from the old cards. For example, cut a scene, a greeting, or a cute picture. Perhaps there is a sentiment set you haven’ t used much (or at all!) yet. Look through your old cards to see if you have images that would…

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October 2021 Paper Pumpkin Kit

Peaceful Christmas The October 2021 Paper Pumpkin Kit – Peaceful Christmas is the perfect project kit for girlfriend or family get-togethers! Because these craft kits are all-inclusive, it’s so easy to craft while you snack and chat. When you picture a peaceful Christmas, what comes to mind? Do you see snow softly swirling outside your window? A tree trimmed with tinsel? Or perhaps a fire crackling nearby? Can you catch a whiff of Christmas cookies wafting through the air? Whatever you think about when Christmas comes to town, picture a peaceful Christmas with the Peaceful Christmas Paper Pumpkin Kit! This…

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It’s Not Too Late for True Love

It's Not Too Late for True Love Friend card. Features the True Love Designer Series Paper colored with ink pads and Stampin' Blends.

It’s not too late for True Love, but your last chance is here today! At 1PM MT this afternoon, the Stampin’ Up! Last Chance Product Sale begins. True Love is one of the Designer Series Papers from the January – June 2021 Mini Catalog that will be gone soon. It features black and white designs, perfect for coloring, like on these Color of True Love cards. Several other favorite papers and bundles are also retiring, including the Hydrangea Hill and Sand & Sea papers, and the Kangaroo & Company bundle. Click here to download the entire list of Last Chance…

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May 2021 Paper Pumpkin Kit

The May 2021 Paper Pumpkin Kit, called Batter Up!, will help you knock it out of the park! With the Batter Up! Paper Pumpkin Kit, it’s your turn to go to bat for all the people who’ve gone to bat for you. This month’s timeless kit with a “throwback” theme contains enough grand slam supplies to create nine cards—and coordinating envelopes—featuring classic colors, pinwheel and pinstripe patterns, and vintage-washed paper pieces. There’s no “batter” way to root, root, root for your home team and honor the all-stars in your life! While this month’s kit is perfect for creating masculine cards,…

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April 2021 Paper Pumpkin Kit

The April 2021 Paper Pumpkin Kit, called So Cool, is designed to engage kids. Spark their imagination while introducing them to papercrafting! This kit provides a perfect opportunity to craft with your children or grandchildren by creating summer-inspired cards! The So Cool Paper Pumpkin Kit provides enough supplies to create twelve cards and matching envelopes. This kit includes fun-shaped card bases, 2 sticker sheets. The stamp set is versatile enough that you can continue to create cards with the sentiments throughout the year! Don’t miss out on the creativity and spirit-raising fun! Subscribe to the April 2021 Paper Pumpkin Kit…

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Clean-Up Project for Your Craft Room

Those of you who know me can guess that a clean-up project for my craft room begins like all my other clean-up projects. Cleaning the liquor cabinet involves drinking the leftover blackberry brandy. Emptying the refrigerator means eating the rhubarb crisp. Tidying up the freezer requires cooking the last three turkey burgers, and so on. So my craft room clean-up project starts with using up the many bits on my table left over from other activities. Clean Up Project Birthday Card I challenge you to use the Label Me Pretty stamp set and coordinating Pretty Label punch, along with your…

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Crafting or Housework?

Scissors background created with the Crafting Forever stamp set by Stampin' Up!. Color the

What will you craft today? Which will it be today, crafting or housework? If you’re like me, crafting is at the top of your list! So go ahead and proudly declare it! The Crafting Forever stamp set has the perfect sentiment for this declaration, as well as several other crafty sentiments, such as We are Cut Out to Be Friends. In addition, this stamp set includes the Stampin’ Up! copyright image for compliance with their Angel Policy. Today’s card features the scissors image from this set. After all, what self-proclaimed crafter doesn’t have scissors? Here are all of the stamp…

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Enjoy Life in your Craft Room!

Enjoy Life bicycle card using sponge daubers, Circle Tab punch, and multiple ink colors.Each year I look forward to June! School’s out, concerts, festivals and BBQ season are in full swing, and birthday season begins in our family. (Of course, we celebrate birthdays almost every month of the year, but we’re especially blessed with summer birthdays galore!) Summer means time to relax, spend more time outdoors, root for our favorite ball players and teams, wear sandals and flip flops, and sip cool, refreshing beverages! It’s a great time to enjoy life!

So, to start the summer season off, we used the Enjoy Life stamp set in the 2019-20 Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog (shown below) for our card! This set was designed by million-dollar sales achiever Connie Fitzgerald with her family in mind. It has both great sentiments and images that can be used to celebrate lots of occasions. One of my favorites is “Wake up. Kick butt. Repeat.”  As usual, my stampers are able to use any of our featured stamp set sentiments and images so that they can make cards suitable for upcoming occasions. Here are the options available in the Enjoy Life stamp set.

Images and sentiments in the Enjoy Life stamp set include a bird, butterfly and bicycle, Thank You kindly, and Wake Up. Kick butt. Repeat.

Enjoy Life stamp set

For the Enjoy Life class, I designed several cards using this set with sponge daubers and some of the gorgeous Stampin’ Up! colors! The designs vary from easy to more challenging. We often choose to do the most challenging card first, because after a long day, we’re freshest and most attentive at the beginning of the evening. However, two of the cards for this class used sponge daubers, which were new for some of the stampers, so we did the easier of the two cards first.

Wake Up. Kick Butt. Repeat. Sentiment from Enjoy Life stamp set by Stampin' Up!

Wake Up. Kick Butt. Repeat – Enjoy Life!

Colors:

  • Granny Apple Green
  • Mango Melody
  • Flirty Flamingo
  • Balmy Blue
  • Basic Gray
  • Basic Black Archival

Crafting Tips:

  • Stamp the grass from Enjoy Life at the bottom of the Whisper White piece.
  • Use the sponge daubers, beginning with Mango Melody, then Flirty Flamingo, and finally, Balmy Blue ink in a circular motion to create the sunrise.
  • Finally, with a well-inked stamp, stamp the person and sentiment in Basic Black archival ink. If you have the Stamparatus, or other similar tool, you can use it to make sure you get a good solid black stamped image.
  • Use the Hardwood stamp to create the small strip on the left, or use a piece of patterned paper. about 1/4″ wide.

Additional Enjoy Life Cards

For the other two cards use a similar technique with sponge daubers or aqua painters to create the background, then stamp images or sentiments from the Enjoy Life set in Archival Black ink on top.

Precious Privilege sentiment from Stampin' Up! Enjoy Life stamp set. This handmade encouragement card also features the Layered Leaves embossing folder.

All of the card bases are Balmy Blue, 8-1/2 x 11″, folded in half. In addition to the Whisper White layer (2″ x 4″), the card above uses the Layered Leaves embossing folder for the Basic Gray layer, which measures 3-1/2″ x 4-9/16″.

Enjoy Life bicycle card using sponge daubers, Circle Tab punch, and multiple ink colors.

For the bicycle card use an Aqua Painter and overlap the ink colors slightly. Create a background using the Hardwood stamp in Basic Gray ink on Whisper White card stock. Punch Silver Foil with the Circle Tab punch and use the Tabs for Everything (retired) or other stamp set and a 3/4″ circle punch for the “To Do” sentiment. The Hardwood layer is 3-3/4″ x 5″. The Whisper White layer is 2-1/4″ x 4″. The Basic Gray layer frame is 2-3/8″ x 4-1/8″.

Enjoy Life in your stamping space, and be sure to let me know if you have questions about any of these designs!

If you need any supplies, visit my online store. I’d love to be your crafty coach! If you’d like more stamping news and inspiration, sign up for email updates.

Those Who Inspire Us

Using the Crafting Forever and Part of My Story stamp sets together for those who inspire us every day.

Who inspires you? Is it an artist, a decorator, or a writer? Those who inspire us need to hear from us! Whether you like their creations on Facebook and Instagram, pin their pins on Pinterest or follow their blog, they love to get your feedback! How about letting them know you appreciate them by sending a card? The card I’m sharing today will go in the mail to one of the many people who inspire me! Crafting Forever is Part of My Story! How long have you been crafting? For me, it’s as long as I can remember! So, crafting…

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Gatefold Birthday Cards

A birthday gatefold card with a square die cut. Made using Stampin' Up! Berry Burst cardstock and Naturally Eclectic paper.

Easy Card Fold Alternative – a Gatefold What is a Gatefold Card? A Gatefold card is a simple alternative to a standard card fold. It is a great choice for an invitation, or anytime you want to keep the contents of the card a surprise! Your card base is cut to 5-1/2″ x 8-1/2″, just like a standard card base. However, instead of scoring it on the long edge at 4-1/4″, you’ll score it at 2-1/8″ and 6-3/8″, as shown below: Then the side flaps are folded inward on the score lines, so that they meet in the center to…

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Drapery Fold Flowering Fields

Experiment with Card Folds Every once in a while, it’s good to shake up your card-making routine by using a different technique. This card features an easy fold that allows you to see both sides of your pretty Designer Series Paper. It is called a Drapery Fold or Pleat Fold, and you can find some videos on how it’s done on YouTube. Try it with your favorite paper! This sample shows the Autumn Traditions DSP, which is a retired Stampin’ Up! paper from the 2009-2010 Annual Catalog, a card base in Tip Top Taupe, and a Whisper White layer. Whichever…

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