Author: mbpapercrafts

I am dreamin’ of travel today! I dream of visiting a beach and staring at the water. I would prefer something on the southern coast of California or Caribbean, but really anywhere warm with a coast would be acceptable. 🙂 My obsession with water doesn’t just end with travel! Coastal Cabana is my all time favorite color. It reminds me of the tranquil water of the Caribbean. I was beyond excited when it was brought back into the permanent color line up for Stampin’ Up. In my personal quest to use my DSP stash and use stamps I have had for years and not touched (yikes!), I found this Coastal Cabana DSP. I had forgotten how amazing the How Sweet It Is paper and Sweetest Thing stamps & coordinating are! The bright colors of the paper are make me sad I didn’t buy more of it before it retired! I’ll have to keep my eye on the SU! Clearance rack! Thanks to the Allsorts Challenge for challenging projects made with “your favorite color”.

CAS (clean and simple) challenges are the hardest for me. To expand my crafting skill set, I look for CAS challenges. Addicted to CAS challenged crafters to CAS “embossing, heat or dry”. I really wanted to CAS with dry embossing, using an embossing folder. For this card I used the Greenery embossing folders and sponged a little green on the leaves. A “thank you” sentiment from Peaceful Moments, mount on Pear Pizzazz, and DONE! The card base is 6.25 in x 5.5 in, folded in half and the white cardstock is 2.5 inches x 6 in.

The above card is sponged with Pear Pizzazz and Garden Green around the leaves on the edges. The card below has a lot more Garden Green sponged with the Pear Pizzazz.

I haven’t been buying the craft supplies recently like I have in the past. Mostly because I have enough (really, is there ever enough?). I have been so busy focusing on using my current supplies, I did not at first purchase much from the new Stampin’ Up AC 2020-2021 catalog. Just recently I purchased some DSP 6×6 color family packs, Daisy Lane stamp set + small daisy flower punch, Happiest of Birthdays stamp set and won Pallet Thoughts stamp set. I pulled out the DSP pack for the 2020-2022 In Colors since I haven’t done much with them. The first two cards are made with Misty Moonlight colored DSP and ink. The “Happy Birthday” sentiment is from the Pallet Thoughts. The leaves and trees are from an oldie but a goodie stamp set, Rooted in Nature. I don’t use that set enough and frankly had forgotten about it. I have been trying to find ways to show off both sides of the DSP, so I have been playing with folding it different ways. Inspired to play with new stuff and incorporate old stash items by Shopping Our Stash #436. All Stampin’ Up products.

The card below gave me lots of troubles! I really wanted to use the trees in the Rooted in Nature stamp set, as I love the detailed branched. I first used 3 trees, the top tree and the bottom two that are connected. They looked weird and lonely. I added the 3 trees in the middle, and now I have a forest on the front of the card. The more I look at it, the more okay it is becoming. But I didn’t like it at first and really had to hold back the desire to just rip up the card and toss it! At first, the card screamed to me “Happy Birthday, Go hang out in a forest!”. I know, I am thinking way more about it than any guy I will give this card too!

The inside sentiment for both cards is from the Happiest of Birthdays stamp set.

I am working through much of my stash that I have had for a while, and limiting buying new stuff (oh, it is sooooooo hard!). For this card, I used Magenta Madness, Bumblebee, Just Jade 2020-2022 In Colors, Daisy Lane stamp set +coordinating daisy small & large punches, retired Seriously the Best stamp set for the sentiment, leaf punch that coordinates with the Floral Essence stamp set. Not having done too much with the daisy punch (even though the larger one was in the last year catalog), I didn’t realize that layering the petal layers would make them look more like a full daisy. I will have to play more that that punch! See what I mean, I have supplies I haven’t even learned everything about yet! All Stampin’ Up products.

Christmas cards-Shaded Spruce was my go to this year for my holiday cards. Here with Cherry Cobbler, using the Celebration Tidings stamp set and Celebration Labels coordinating dies. I CASEd this card from the SU! holiday catalog. Bells are from Cherish the Season. The little branches, which look like spruce tree branches to me, are from the Celebration Labels die set.

Soft green Mint Macaroon is not in your usual fall palette. But it is so pretty and I always make traditional “fall color” cards for fall birthdays. Now, the second card is certainly more of a traditional fall color, Cajun Craze. The leaves are punched out from the dsp with the little leaves and acorn punches. I did fussy cut out the smallest leaf. And dsp with foil, my favorite! I just love it!

I can’t stop, won’t stop, using the paper with foil on it! When there is designer series paper (dsp) with foil on it, I usually can not use the other side of it, but I did here, I am so proud of myself! I wanted to use lots of dsp, so using all the dsp with foil for all the layers seemed a bit much on one card. I heat embossed the Happy Birthday sentiment on the brushed foil paper and punched out leaves from it as well. Inspired by SUOC#260-Birthdays and Seize the Birthday #202 anything goes with the topping of “texture”. The basket weave and metallic ribbons are not the usual cotton texture and the designer series paper with the foil (smaller pieces at the bottom and in the middle) have texture to it with the foil lines running through it and foil leaves & acorns. Guilded Autumn Suite & dsp, Beautiful Autumn stamp set, Autumn Lunch pack, Basket Weave & Metallic Ribbon, Acorn Trinket, all Stampin’ Up

I have a lot of October and November birthdays, so here is a second card I made since I was making cards!

The Poppy Moments dies do all the work on these cards. These perfect dies are certainly among my favorites Stampin’ Up has ever had! I had so much fun trying different color combinations and cutting the pieces out. I decided on two cards dividing the pieces between two cards. I adhered all the flowers to a skinny, long piece of cardstock and then cut that piece in half. Then I adhered each side to the edge of the card base. There was a lot of layers of pieces to cut through, so the edge isn’t perfect, but it works!

These 3 cards took about 2 minutes to make. Who doesn’t need some quick cards that still look good! Flipping through the Whale of a Time designer series paper, I realized a few of the designs had perfect spaces for stamping a sentiment. Really, the only difficult thing with these cards was decided what part of the 6×6 paper to cut off!

Paper and stamps all Stampin’ Up.

Punched out a whale from the dsp with the whale punch. The whale looks small compared to the foreground, so I’ll just say it is way off in the distance (of very clear water, that is why you can see it so well)!🤣

Misty Moonlight is a perfect addition to my favorite blues! I am so happy it is a new SU! In color! I was inspired by the CASology “Dry” challenge with dry embossing the snowflake folder. The card base is 1 layer, with a small strip of dsp with ribbon around it.