For the Love of Paper

All the lights and decorations make this time of year so special. I have been known to keep up my Christmas lights well into March, in order to combat the darkness. Stampin’ Up! Hit the nail on the head for me with this suite of paper, embellishments, stamps, and dies. I have been on a kick for fun-folded cards, with this design being one of my favorites. I really wanted to show off the Lights Aglow designer series paper with the Festive Foil paper. The beautiful tree, sentiments, and labels are from the Christmas Lights & Brightest Glow stamp set & coordinating dies. I needed just a few more cards and was stumped. As usual, when I am stuck, I turn to card challenges for inspiration. The Color Throwdown #722 colors Red, Green, Black, and Gold, got me back on track! SUO Challenges is “Christmas” all month long. I also entered the card in the Jingle Bells “Wrapping Up” challenge since I am literally wrapping up Christmas cards. Now onto snowy Happy New Year cards!

The Leaf Fall Embossing folder has quickly become a favorite. As soon as the folder was in my hands, this was the card I had to make! After embossing the paper with the leaves, I sponged lightly over the raised leaves with Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler, and Soft Suede. SUO Challenges #314 Grateful/Thankful reminded me this year has been amazing and I really have a lot that I am beyond grateful for. The sentiment is from my favorite Charming Sentiments SU! stamp set. Those two little words just express exactly how I feel.

It is great to have a reason to make a thank you card! First and foremost, I would like to give thanks for the opportunity to be a Guest Stamper at the Color Throwdown challenge this week! I am so thankful for the organizers of the challenge and all their hard-work! The colors for the Color Throwdown #719 challenge are red, orange, brown, yellow. I would also like to give thanks to the amazing Michigan fall weather we have been enjoying. I tried other ideas, but I could only see the beautiful fall leaves! I used Stampin’ Up! Cherry Cobbler, Crushed Curry, Soft Suede, Pumpkin Pie. The colors were sponged onto the stamp of the large tree of the Amazing Silhouette stamp set. I fussy cut the tree out to mount on the Cherry Cobbler cardstock with leaves embossed with the Leaf Fall 3D embossing folder. The sentiment is from the Amazing Thanks dies that coordinate with the Amazing Silhouette stamp set.

When I need some focused inspiration, I look for color challenges. This week’s Color Throwdown challenge #717 with mustard yellow, pink, and green inspired this adorable camping card. I have fallen in love with the “Canned Ham” type vintage trailers, so when this Tree Lot Dies was available during Stampin’ Ups! July-August Sale-a-Bration, I had to have it. Dies with all the little pieces like this can be overwhelming, but really once the pieces are cut, it comes together quickly. Definitely need to use adhesive sheets on the detailed die cuts to keep your hands (and card!) from becoming a gooey glue mess! Mossy Meadow & Garden Green make the trees. Crushed Curry for the lights. Blushing Bride added just the right pink accent to the little trailer. When I make cards just because (not for a specific person’s birthday, or thinking of you for someone specific), I never know what kind of sentiment to use. I used Charming Sentiments for a neutral “hey, there!” sentiment. I just love the script for the words in that stamp set.

Making masculine cards is so hard for me. Looking for inspiration, I turned to a few card making challenges that I enjoy playing along occasionally when I have time. I had been thinking the current Seize the Birthday challenge #250 with toppings “Halloween colors” when I came across the Paper Players PP615 Tic-Tac-Toe challenge with “metallic”, “masculine”, and “orange/yellow” in the same row. Hmmmmm…..I just knew I had seen some metallic orange paper somewhere in my stash…..hmmmm…. Oh YES! In the Metallic & Shimmer speciality paper pack by Stampin’ Up. When I first opened this paper pack, I had no idea how I would use the metallic orange sheets. But the card was starting to come together in my head! The sheet I used is Cajun Craze and Pumpkin Pie. I had looked at this sheet for Halloween cards because it is the perfect pumpkin color combination, but I didn’t have any Halloween pumpkin stamps (need to fix that next Halloween season!). This festive paper certainly has a “birthday” feel to it! This card is for my husband, and I am so happy to have my his card done weeks before his birthday (versus on the eve of his birthday!). The stamp set Charming Sentiments and coordinating dies are a new favorite of mine (SU!). I love how the dies cut the words out and the candle dies are too cute! I used Mango Melody for the yellow flame. I used the Deckled Rectangles dies for the two smallest rectangles. I have been trying to make cards in multiples to build up my stash, so I made the Beyond Grateful card with the same items. I just used a small scrap of Cajun Craze behind the sentiment.

Free time to play with my crafts! Yes please! I am always looking at clean and simple type card challenges to find inspiration. Due to my obsession and hoarding of designer series paper, I have a hard time NOT layering pretty paper onto a card base with a simple sentiment. I am on a bit of a designer paper overload, so I really wanted to take some time to focus on “stamps, ink, paper”. As I was sipping my coffee and thinking about SIP cards, I perused a few clean and simple card challenges. Two card challenges that inspired my clean and simple card are Less is More and Addicted to CAS. These sites are great for inspiration. I just admire the beautiful “clean and simple cards” all the talented card makers out there can make (and boy, do they make it look easy!).

Less is More #476 “Use a Stencil”

Addicted to CAS #232 card challenge “Sympathy”

The big hurdle for me was that clean and simple cards really take WAY more time to create the initial design than my “slap on some pretty paper and go” cards. I had purchased some Stampin’ Up stencils “Butterflies & Flowers” and after staring at the stencils for 6 months, this card design popped in my head. I used retired Perfect Plum and Blushing Bride for the flowers. Always Artichoke (retired) just seemed like the right green for the leaves and sympathy sentiment. The sentiment is from SU! Peaceful Moments stamp set, one of my favorites.

Having some time to craft, I found myself in need of inspiration. I have been busy so my craft area has gotten a little “overgrown” and was overwhelming me. To help me focus, I turned to different card making challenge blogs I like to follow. Perusing different challenges, I found a spark of creativity from the Global Design Project #GDP366 sketch. I have such a hard time covering up beautiful patterned paper and I have vowed to work on my paper stash this month, so this sketch just clicked for me!!! I had just a few sheets of Stampin’ Up retired “Flowers for Every Season” paper to use up that were the Christmas season patterns. I used Forever Fern stamp set/coordinating dies to have some little leafy elements to decorate the sentiment. I colored some pearl embellishments with my Just Jade blends for something extra. I always plan to be the person who starts making holiday cards during the summer, but I just can’t even think about Christmas until the weather gets a little cooler here in Michigan. Every time I’m in my craft area, I tell myself “Time to make Christmas cards!”. But then I remember a birthday that I need a card for or find some paper I want to use up, and I get distracted. Atlas, this paper pack is one that I have been using up this week, and the weather is finally “cool”, so today really was the time to make Christmas cards!

Stampin’ Up! products allow me to be an easy artist! I put this card together in about 5 minutes flat. The Expressions in Ink designer series paper adds the artistic element I wanted for this card without having to dabble in alcohol inking! This paper is stunning, it was hard to cover it up with the flower and die cut words from the Art Gallery stamp set & dies. Magenta Madness swirls on the dsp with gold is so beautiful . The flower is stamped in Polished Pink and then Magenta Madness. The words and leaves are brushed gold paper from the Gold & Rose Gold Metallic speciality paper. Inspiration came from the design team over at Just Add Ink #597 for the Chose 2 Flower-Paper-Pattern challenge. My two favorite elements, paper and flowers.

Spring time makes me look for butterflies! I have not seen any yet in Michigan, so I made some appear in my craft room. Butterfly Gala and the coordinating SU! Punch have been retired for a few years now. I love the pretty patterns, which I simply colored with watercolor pencils. The colors are Granny Apple Green, Gorgeous Grape, Crushed Curry, Melon Mambo. I love how the butterflies look like they are flitting by in the breeze on the second and third card. I was inspired to make these cards with 2 challenges. Paper Craft Crew Horizontal Sketch Challenge PCC464 and Retro Rubber Challenge 179 Groovy Baby! 60’s colors Bright Pink, Bright Green, Bright Purple, Bright Yellow.