I have been working through much of my designer series paper hoard. This designer series paper is Flowers for Every Season, a retired Stampin’ Up! 6×6 paper pack. I find the 6×6 papers harder to use than the 12×12 papers. I never know what to do with the weird little pieces that are left over after using a 5” x 3.75” piece. So here is my attempt with some of the scrap pieces!
I saw the Alphabet Challenge Blog “I is for insect” and just had to use the now retired Honey Bee bundle. Pinwheel cards are all the rage right now, so I jumped on board with that design! I have a sweet friend that will appreciate this card. She has cultivated flowers and flowers to benefit honey bees and her yard is “a buzz” with them! The second card is a CASE from the last Sale-a-Bration brochure in Jan-Feb 2021.
Second card that is a CASE from the SU! Sale-a-Bration brochure.
I have a hard time usually with sketch challenges, but this weeks Freshly Made Sketches #498 challenge had me seeing shaker cards for some reason! I had a bunch of retired SU! Sequins to use up in my stash. The first card uses Positive Thoughts stamp set with the pretty butterfly. The 2nd and 3rd cards use the Stitched Stars, which I have not used enough!!!
That sounds nice, a birthday vacation away from home! I have not planned an away vacation from home in a long time! I was inspired by the Seize the Birthday Challenge to think about traveling. This card was my first attempt at a “pinwheel” card that is all the rage right now. I got the first spoke of the pinwheel going the wrong way, so this became a pop up card.🤣 I am trying to use up some Memories and More card packs, so this card is a little shorter at 4 inches.
Go for the ……Gold?! The Green!? BOTH??!! I saw the Alphabet Challenge blog for G=Gold or Green. Those colors go so well together, so I started out there! I love the gold hoops Stampin’ Up had (now retired). The next two bonus Green cards were my attempt at being quick and just combining the few items I had at my fingertips (made in less than 5 minutes each).
I remember buying vinyl albums and cassette tapes that had a hit song single on it, 1 song on the A-side. I was always excited about what song was on the B-side. I usually liked that B-side track song better than the hit single! With DSP, I have been gravitating towards the showy, flashy, A-side of the paper. The foil side, the flowered side, the side with all the colors. When there is a non-foiled or monochromic design, I hardly pay any attention to it. When I saw the Freshly Made Sketches challenge #492, I instantly thought of the B-side toned down Pansy Petals DSP and a small row of pansies. I turned the sketch on its side for the first card and scooted the DSP over a little bit to be able to stamp the sentiment on the solid cardstock. The others were my prototypes that were pretty much copied from one of the blogs designer team members, Amy O’Neill. I really wanted to create a card (or few cards) in 30 minutes or less, so I went with die cutting the pansies from the DSP instead of stamping the flowers out and die cutting all the pieces. The Pansy Dies make this card fast and easy!!! The sentiment is the from the coordinating Pansy Patch stamp set. I couldn’t resist a quick photo shoot in my very own potted pansies!
Disclaimer: No cards were injuries (i.e. soiled, made dirty with soil from the pots) in the taking of these photos. HAHAHA!
I was not feeling particularly focused, other than I knew I needed a birthday card. Once I saw the SUO challenge #270, “Sky High-Anything that flies”, I knew I wanted to use the Butterfly Brilliance stamp set & dies that I just got. To help narrow down colors, I found the Color Throwdown challenge #ctd632, yellow, coral, green. I used Stampin’ Up! Colors Bumblebee, Calypso Coral, Just Jade. After stamping the butterflies, I did sprinkle clear sparkle heat embossing powered on the butterflies and heat set the powder. The pictures don’t show the sparkles on the butterflies very well. The stamp in the Butterfly Brilliance is one big stamp, so I inked it 3 times, once with each color. That gave me enough butterflies for 3 cards. There would be more cards if I didn’t want some butterflies flying off the edges of the card. I love the details on the butterflies! There are so many dies to play with, I’ll have to make some more butterfly cards!
I have so many little pieces and big pieces of designer series paper. I am sure I am not the only one! While looking through different card challenges this week, I came across the Freshly Made Sketches #475. I saw a way to use up some scraps! I will be making some more simple cards like this to keep using up paper this week.
Below are some more cards I made with the retired Picture Perfect Party designer series paper, trying to use up some scraps!
It’s the time of the year for red and pink hearts! I was so busy last year, I didn’t get around to using my Stampin’ Up! Valentine’s day paper last year. So I used it this year! The polka sorted paper is red foil, so awesome! SU! makes the best designer series paper.
Entered in SUO Challenges #267 It’s a Love Thing
We are having a usual cold, winter day here in Michigan. This time of year, it is easy to get used to the blue-grey-brown hues of winter. To stay grounded in colors, I have been focused on using up DSP that I have been hoarding for a while. Talk about colors, I love the SU! DSP! I was looking for inspiration to make some cards without DSP. While looking at challenges, I started being inspired by embossing challenges (heat or dry) The Flower Challenge and a CAS (clean and simple). I love The Flower Challenge because I love flowers on my cards!! I didn’t link the CAS one here as the card below I think fails CAS. That is the hardest style for me! Maybe before the two butterflies it would have passed. But I had ink on my fingers and touched the cardstock, so I needed to cover the blob (hence the butterflies). That is the worst, when you are admiring your card when you are done, and as you pick it up, BLOB of ink from a finger ends up on it! AHHHH!
All products are Stampin’ Up. Garden Green cardstock. The flowers are punched with the small bloom punch, punched from shimmer white cardstock watercolored with Poppy Parade ink. The butterflies are punch with the Butterfly Duet punch from shimmer white cardstock watercolored with Highland Heather ink. The pearls are years retired SU! Pearls that used to come as a small string of pearls. I just cut them apart and placed them as the flower middles. The embossing folder used is from the Greenery embossing folder set. The leaves are cut from Pear Pizzazz paper, with a retired leaf punch and Poppy Moments Dies. Sentiments are from Peaceful Moments stamp set, one of my most used stamp sets.
For the Love of Paper 