For the Love of Paper

I was so bummed out when I went to order the Stampin’ Up! Blackberry Beauty suite and it was unavailable. I was only able to order the designer series paper as the Beauty of Tomorrow stamp set & dies were on back order. The paper is simply stunning with the gold foil running through it, so I was very excited with that. And to be fair, the designer series paper really is my favorite anyway. I’m sure I can order the stamp set & dies soon anyway. I really like to CAS(E) the catalog, so I was having a hard time using the paper without the stamp set. Looking for inspiration from card challenges, I saw the sketch challenge at Freshly Made Sketches #505 and I saw sunflowers from the Celebrate Sunflowers stamp set (SU!) for the circles. As the wheels turned, I saw dark reddish sunflowers, at first thinking of Merry Merlot (I grew sunflowers that color this year). I wasn’t finding any Merry Merlot dsp that was striking my fancy for the background. I had an ah-ha moment when I came across the Blackberry Beauty dsp with Rich Razzleberry and Blackberry Bliss colors. Not sure I have seen purple sunflowers yet, but I’m sure they will be available someday soon if they aren’t already! The flower petals are colored with Blackberry Bliss and Rich Razzleberry blends. The leaves I colored with Mossy Meadow blends, the seeds in the middle are Cinnamon Cider. I stamped the flower outlines in Early Expresso. The card base is Rich Razzleberry. Now I’m on the hunt for purple sunflower seeds for next summer!

I love the colors Fall brings us here in Michigan! The SU! Beauty of the Earth designer series paper shows off rich fall colors-Merry Merlot, Cinnamon Cider, Bumblebee, Old Olive, Mossy Meadow and Misty Moonlight. I swear this time of year, the sky is exactly the Misty Moonlight color! I paired the paper with Blackberry Bliss, as that is another rich color plentiful in Michigan during the fall. I wanted this card to look like a forest. The sentiments in the Beauty of Friendship stamp set are so encouraging for anyone going through a tough challenge. I needed a “I Believe in You” card for someone close to me who truly needs to make some big life changes that are very difficult. I hope this card is a little piece of motivation to keep them encouraged with the changes they need to make. I was looking at card challenges on Bloglovin’ and came across the Alphabet Challenge Blog “M is for Motivational/Encouraging Sentiment”. I was truly inspired with this challenge and will be making a bunch of encouraging cards today!

Scrolling through Bloglovin’, I came across the 52 Christmas Card Throwdown challenge sketch (sketch image below). I need holiday cards, so I sat staring at all my new holiday stamp sets and designer series paper. I really wanted to use designer series paper for the smaller squares, and I didn’t want dsp that was too busy. The Peaceful Place designer series paper was just what I needed for this card. I ended up getting the Peaceful Place suite because the other suites I wanted were sold out when I went to place an order with SU!. It is not a suite that grabbed my eye at first. But I am very happy I “got stuck” with it! I bet I’m not the only person that has had that happen! The paper is amazing, with silver foil on it. I picked the papers that had silver foil stars and snowflakes on them. The foil stars/snowflakes do not sure up in the pictures at all, sorry. Basic Greg and Smoky Slate are definitely underused colors in my collection. The card base is Basic Grey 4.25” x 4.25”. I would have liked to use the “May you enjoy the peace of this beautiful season” on the outside, but that was just too big of a sentiment for the outside of the card. So inside the card it went, with a simple “Wishing you the best” on the outside. The sentiments have beautiful scripting. I really am taken by the simple beauty of these cards. Makes me want to find a friend with a cabin that I can visit this winter! 😉

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).

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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!