Simple Stamping with the Retiring Slice of Happiness

This blogpost is Plan B. Plan A was an unboxing of my new 2020/21 Annual Catalogue Preorder, but as of the time I write this, it still hasn't been delivered. I haven't yet received a notice that the delivery date has changed, like I have for the past 3 days!!! UPS is SUCH a tease! But it's far too late in the evening to tape a video so that will have to wait for a new day. I've never received an order this late at night before, so I'm not holding out much hope that it will arrive today either, but I suppose stranger things have happened and I know UPS is busier than at Christmas right now and short of drivers!

So, back to Plan B. I decided to do some #simplestamping! Stampin' Up! has had a focus on that for the last year, at least! I'm not good at simple stamping. I don't know when to stop to make something simple, so I thought that this would be quick, easy and good practise when I'm short on time. I wanted to use a retiring set, and I focused on Slice of Happiness. This poor set really hasn't had a ton of use this year and I'm sad to see it go. It's ideal for simple stamping because it's a distINKtive stamp set, which means that the images are very realistic. And because this is one of the best working distINKtive sets I've ever used, it is perfect for a beginner's card, because it gives them a striking result just using paper, stamps and ink!

• I've paired up this stamp set with the See a Silhouette Designer Series Paper, which is also retiring and on sale now for $11.81. The mix of Mossy Meadow, Night of Navy and Old Olive on the paper and the Granny Apple Green of the grapes work well together.
• Isn't amazing the many shades of green you get with the distINKtive stamp using only one colour of ink - Granny Apple Green. It gives the image such depth!
• If I was doing a beginner class with this design, I would have the panels for the grapes and the sentiment pre-cut, the former using the Stitched Shapes dies.
• The sentiment is from the same stamp set - Slice of Happiness, a cling set. The card base is a Notecard, from a pack of 20 Notecards & Envelopes, a great suggestion for a beginner to buy to get started.

• The background paper in this one is also from the See a Silhouette DSP. It has tones of Real Red, Mango Melody, Crushed Curry and a little Rich Razzleberry, I think.
• The pomegranates were stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink, but look at all the tones the stamp creates! Awesome!
• The sentiment is stamped in Granny Apple Green.
• The image panel is die cut with the Stitched Rectangles dies. As before, I would have done that before the class, so it's not something that the beginner stamper would have to worry about.

• The final image is of a Kiwi fruit, stamped here in Old Olive ink. The image panel is popped up on dimensionals on a panel of retiring Tropical Oasis Designer Series Paper and both are added to more See a Silhouette paper mounted on the front of a Notecard. 
• The sentiment, also from the same stamp set, is stamped in Cherry Cobbler ink and punched using the Timeless Label punch.

If you live in Canada, and don't have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the right side bar at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in Canada by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the top menu or clicking on any of products below from my Online Store.

Product List

*Slice Of Happiness Cling Stamp Set [149289] $29.00	Whisper White Note Cards & Envelopes [131527] $9.50	*See A Silhouette Designer Series Paper [149443] $15.75 $11.81	*Tropical Oasis Designer Series Paper [151252] $15.75	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [100730] $13.25
Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [147083] $10.25	Old Olive Classic Stampin' Pad [147090] $10.25	Granny Apple Green Stampin' Pad [147095] $10.25	Timeless Label Punch [149516] $24.00	Stitched Shapes Dies [152323] $41.00
Stitched Rectangle Dies [148551] $48.00	Multipurpose Liquid Glue [110755] $5.50	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50

*Retiring Products - available while supplies last, until June 2, 2020.

Poppy Moment Layering Dies - At Last

One thing I have been waiting for from Stampin' Up! is those beautiful layering dies, especially the floral ones, and I was so excited to finally see them in the Jan/Jun Mini Catalogue, with the new *Poppy Moments Dies. They are bundled with a sentiment set called *Peaceful Moments, which I haven't purchased yet, but they really need no stamp set to go with them. They create beautiful images all on their own.

It is a little confusing because there is another poppy stamp set called *Painted Poppies, but it has its own coordinating set of dies called *Painted Labels Dies.

*These products are from the upcoming 2020 Stampin' Up! Jan. - Jun. Mini Catalogue and won't be available for customer purchase until Jan. 3/20.

Anyway, each flower has a background, an outline layer and a center, and the leaves also have two layers. You can see it better in the close up:

• For the background on these poppies, it may look like I've sponged or smooshed, or used the Pigment Sprinkles, but it was really much easier than that. I used the See a Silhouette Designer Series Paper. Two of the designs have perfect colours for the poppies.
• The outlines for the flowers are Real Red and Poppy Parade. The leaves are Old Olive for the background and Mossy Meadow for the shadows.
• The white background was die cut with the Stitched Rectangles Dies.
• The sentiment came from the *Forever Blossoms stamp set that is part of the *Parisian Blossoms Suite. I kept everything else very simple because the flowers and foliage are so bold and detailed.

*These products are from the upcoming 2020 Stampin' Up! Jan. - Jun. Mini Catalogue and won't be available for customer purchase until Jan. 3/20.

I hope you are getting good and excited about the products that will be available to you in only 11 days! I have only scratched the surface here and I'm overflowing with ideas for them! And with Sale-A-Bration as well, it's enough fun to get us through the dreary winter months ahead.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.   

Product List

*Forever Blossoms Cling Stamp Set (English) [151457] $31.00	*Forever Blossoms Bundle (English) [153781] $72.00	See A Silhouette Designer Series Paper [149443] $15.75	Mossy Meadow 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [133676] $12.00	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [100730] $13.25
Real Red 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [102482] $12.00	Poppy Parade 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [119793] $12.00	Old Olive 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [100702] $12.00	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [121045] $12.00	Stitched Rectangle Dies [148551] $48.00
*Poppy Moments Dies [151594] $50.00	Multipurpose Liquid Glue [110755] $5.50	Mini Glue Dots [103683] $7.25	Mini Stampin' Dimensionals [144108] $5.50

*These products are from the upcoming 2020 Stampin' Up! Jan. - Jun. Mini Catalogue and won't be available for customer purchase until Jan. 3/20.

Simple Silhouette Scenes

I love how Stampin' Up! is really taking the case of the beginner stamper to heart in its newest catalogues. There are so many ways to create classy but simple cards, so that everyone, no matter their level of skill can be successful and make beautiful greeting cards with their Stampin' Up! supplies.

The card I am showing you today is a very simple card, but I think it's very effective and looks artistic. I'm using the Silhouette Scenes stamp set and pairing it with the See a Silhouette Designer Series paper as well as the Sweet Silhouette dies, and in a few short steps, I will have great results.

• The design from the See a Silhouette Designer Series Paper I used gives a water colour effect, even like that of using the Pigment Sprinkles, but there's no muss, no fuss involved. Just cut the panel and glue onto the Basic Black card base.
• The tree is die cut using one of the dies from the Sweet Silhouette Die set, and arranging it on the DSP so that it fits best, but still gives room for the swinging girl image underneath and the sentiment on the top right.
• The swinging girl image and the Keep Dreaming sentiment from the Silhouette Scenes stamp set were heat embossed using Black Stampin' Emboss Powder right onto the DSP, so it looks like the swing is attached to one of the low tree branches.

Give this one a try, it's so easy. And there are many other combinations of paper, stamps and dies between these sets that would make other great simple cards!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Silhouette Scenes Cling Stamp Set [149223] $31.00	Silhouette Scenes Bundle [151058] $71.00	See A Silhouette Designer Series Paper [149443] $15.75	Basic Black 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock [121045] $12.00	Versamark Pad [102283] $13.00
Black Stampin' Emboss Powder [146956] $6.75	Embossing Buddy [103083] $8.25	Heat Tool (Us And Canada) [129053] $41.00	Sweet Silhouettes Dies [149541] $48.00	Multipurpose Liquid Glue [110755] $5.50

New Wonders for Retirement!

I'm going to a retirement party today for 3 of my former colleagues who are finally pulling the plug on their careers in exchange for a well-earned life of leisure - well, at least a different, less stressful career of their own choosing, if they choose to keep working in some way. I showed you one card I made a while back HERE. But for another fun-loving and free spirited coworker, I chose New Wonders as the stamp set for her retirement card. It's got a great image of a little fairy turning a page to a new experience that is perfect for retirement!

• I looked around for some suitable Designer Series Paper to use and the See a Silhouette series offered me a couple of choices with a vibrant look of Pigment Sprinkles in the background. The design I settled on was varying tones of Poppy Parade, so I decided to pair it with a Crumb Cake base and a little Pool Party and Old Olive as accents.
Poppy Parade
Crumb Cake
Old Olive
Pool Party
• A smaller panel of Crumb Cake was embossed using the new Scripty 3D Embossing Folder. I love the raised letters you get with this folder. The letters are so fine, much finer than I expected they would be. I sponged over them with Crumb Cake ink so they would show up better.
• The image from New Wonders was stamped with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on a panel of Whisper White and coloured in using the Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Markers Combo, along with the Pool Party and Old Olive Stampin' Blends Combos. I also used the Ivory Skin Tone Blends marker and the Stampin' Blends Colour Lifter to complete colouring the image.
• The image was die cut with the Rectangle Stitched dies and mounted on the card front, with the embossed panel and this one each stuck on a little askew from each other. 
• As for the sentiments, they are both from the New Wonders stamp set, which is a Host Set and only available if you are the host of a party, or earn rewards from an order of $200 or more before tax and shipping. If you are interested in getting more frequent Stampin' Rewards, I offer a Stamp Club that you can join and pick one month as your Host Month and you earn rewards on all the orders placed in that month's stamp club order. In return, you commit to spending a minimum $20 a month for 12 months so that the other members of the club can earn rewards in their Host Months. I currently have 2 or 3 spots open in my club, so first come first served, in terms of picking their host month.         
• The separate sentiment at the bottom is stamped in Poppy Parade on Whisper White and die cut with one of the labels from the Perfect Parcel dies. I die cut a second label in Poppy Parade, cut it in half vertically and adhered a half on either end of the sentiment label to create some contrast. 

• I don't know if you can tell with this photo, but I also added some Wink of Stella to the front as well as a few small rhinestones coloured with the Light Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Marker.

I'm madly preparing for my big 2019 - 2020 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue Launch coming up this Saturday, June 22 from 1 - 3 pm. I hope you can make it to drop by and see what's new in the catalogue, play with some of the new products, shop my gobs of newly retired products and get money to purchase some of the exciting new items, play games and win prizes, and join my Stamp Club! Oh, yeah and eat treats! Please RSVP by Thursday if you can make it! 

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

New Wonders Cling Stamp Set [149426] $18.50	See A Silhouette Designer Series Paper [149443] $15.75	Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [120953] $12.00	Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $13.25	Poppy Parade 8-1/2" x 11"" Card Stock" [119793] $12.00
Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $8.25	Poppy Parade Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [147275] $12.00	Old Olive Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144597] $12.00	Pool Party Stampin' Blends Markers Combo Pack [144605] $12.00	Ivory Stampin' Blends Marker [144606] $6.00
Stampin' Blends Color Lifter [144608] $6.00	Light Flirty Flamingo Stampin' Blends Marker [147031] $6.00	Clear Wink Of Stella Glitter Brush [141897] $11.00	Rhinestone Basic Jewels [144220] $6.75	Rectangle Stitched Framelits Dies [148551] $48.00
Perfect Parcel Dies [149627] $48.00	Scripty 3D Embossing Folder [149634] $14.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.50	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50