Stampin' Up! Another Side to Best Year Ever!

In the past few days I've shown a couple of cards with one sheet of paper from the Best Year Ever package, available as a FREE ITEM when your Stampin' Up! order reaches $50 (before tax & shipping).

Today I'm excited to show you the reverse side of this paper used to create two easy cards. Here's the first one:

This card is very quick and I love the bokeh effect on this paper! 

• Cut an 8-1/2" x 11" sheet of Coastal Cabana card stock into two 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" card bases. We'll use one for this card, and one for the card below.
• Cut a 3" x 4" piece of Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper and adhere to the card base near the center. 
  
• Next punch a scalloped circle from Crushed Curry card stock using the 2-3/8" scallop circle punch. 
• Stamp the 'You light up my life" sentiment from the One Tag Fits All stamp set in Crumb Cake ink on Whisper White card stock and punch it out with the 2" circle punch.
• Attach the circle you just punched to the Crushed Curry scalloped circle, then use Stampin' Dimensionals to attach the scalloped circle to your card to give it a little height.
• If desired, add Dazzling Details to the lights to make them sparkle and shine!!

 Here's another quick and easy card using the same paper:

• Use the other Coastal Cabana card base that you cut in the first step above. 
• Cut a piece of Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper (DSP) to 3-3/4" x 5". Then turn this piece and cut it in half diagonally. You'll only need one of the two pieces for this card. Adhere it to your card base, leaving the diagonal edge unattached for now.
• Stamp 5 pennants with the Playful Pennants stamp set in Bermuda Bay ink on Whisper White card stock and punch them out with the Petite Pennants Builder punch.
• Space the pennants evenly across the diagonal edge of the DSP, sliding them just slightly under the edge of the paper. Then adhere the DSP across the diagonal with your bone folder.
• Punch 5 stars from Silver Glimmer Paper using the star punch from the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack and adhere them to the pennants with Mini Glue Dots.
• For your sentiment, stamp the Happy Birthday sentiment, also from the Playful Pennants stamp set, in Bermuda Bay ink on Whisper White card stock.
• Punch out the sentiment with the Extra Large Oval punch, then sponge the edges with Bermuda Bay ink, and attach the oval to the card base with Stampin' Dimensionals .

If you need any of these supplies to complete your card, just click on the link in the directions and it will take you to my online store, where you can purchase any of the items you need. You can also find color-coordinated accessories simply by entering the name of the color in the search box of the online store. Here's an example of coordinating products for 'Bermuda Bay':

I hope you enjoyed these cute and quick cards and that you have some time to stamp today!

Be sure to check out all the awesome new items available in the 2015 Occasions catalog too!

Versatile Best Year Ever Paper

Tonight is a frigid night here in Wisconsin, so I'm at home playing!
As promised in my last post, I have two more samples using the 3"x 3" squares that we cut from a 3"x 12" piece of the Best Year Ever Designer Series Paper.

Happy Birthday Card:

• Cut a 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" card base from Crushed Curry cardstock
• Cut a 5-1/4" x 4" piece of Whisper White cardstock
• Cut a 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" piece of Soft Suede cardstock
• Adhere the whisper white piece to the card base with Snail, or your favorite adhesive.
• Adhere the Best Ever DSP 3" x 3" piece to the Soft Suede piece, then adhere the square to the whisper white cardstock.
• Stamp the Happy Birthday greeting from the Playful Pennants stamp set in Soft Suede ink (and there's a coordinating punch so you can bundle them to save a little money), 

That's it - easy and cheery!

The colors in the Best Year Ever paper are Calypso Coral, Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry, Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, and Whisper White. So you have lots of choices for color combinations!

Happily Ever After card:

• Cut a 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" card base from Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock
• Cut a 3-1/2" x 3-1/2" piece of Sahara Sand paper from the retired Neutrals Pack, but you could substitute a plain piece of Sahara Sand cardstock, or one subtly stamped with a background so that it doesn't compete with the DSP pattern.
• Adhere the Best Year Ever DSP 3" x 3" piece to the Sahara Sand square, then adhere the square to the Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock.
• Stamp the Happily Ever After sentiment from the Big News stamp set in Versamark ink and emboss it with White embossing powder.
• Stamp the hearts from the Big News stamp set in Calypso Coral ink, and you have a pretty card for the happy couple.

See how versatile this paper is! We've made a baby card, a birthday card and a wedding card so far.

Tomorrow I'll show some additional ideas for using your pretty DSP.

Just by varying the card base color, and using the 3" x 3" DSP alone, or backed with a dark color and 1/8" border all the way around, or backed with a lighter color 1/4" border, you can change the personality of your card.

Don't forget that you get one free product from the Sale-a-Bration flyer for every $50 you spend (before tax and shipping).

This pretty paper is one of your options, but there are lots more options for free product.

See them here.

Happy Stamping!

Note Tag Punch Sale

Great deal on the Note Tag Punch This week in the Weekly Deals, while supplies last - Only $12.71
See all the weekly deals here.

Note Tag Punch -135860
Price: $16.95 $12.71
Top off that treat with a trendy tag that coordinates with a variety of stamps. Punched image size: 1-1/2" x 2-3/16".

This punch coordinates with the One Tag Fits All stamp set in the new 2015 Occasions catalog, making it super easy to create small tags. See more items from the new catalog here

 

It would be a great alternative to the Extra Large Oval Punch that I used to stamp out the Happy New Baby sentiment in yesterday's post.

 

 

Happy Stamping!

CASEing is FUN!

If you think you're not very creative, I'm here to tell you that's OK! Don't let that stop you from making something beautiful.

To CASE, means to Copy And Share Everything! Stampin' Up! makes that really easy by providing catalogs (also called Idea Books) full of samples you can recreate exactly as shown, or you can personalize them by changing one or more elements.

The GOOD NEWS: Today Stampin' Up! released the 2015 Occasions catalog, full of fresh ideas for many spring occasions: Valentine's Day (well, OK - maybe that's not really a SPRING occasion in WI), Easter, Mother's Day and more!

You are encouraged to CASE them. Some projects, like the Valentine treat boxes on page 4, list all the items you'll need. You can also find videos filled with product information and inspiration HERE.

To sweeten the new catalog release even more, for a limited time, for every $50 order (excl. shipping & tax) you'll earn a free product from the Sale-a-Bration catalog, which was also released today.

By choosing products that go together, you can maximize your crafting dollars.

To get you started, I've created some simple samples. I'll give you the first peek today, then show more samples throughout the week. You can also see many of my cards in My Card Gallery on this blog or on Pinterest. There's an additional Pinterest board for samples from the Occasions catalog too!

CARD SAMPLES

• Start by cutting a 3" x 12" piece of your favorite pretty paper into four 3" x 3" squares. Here I used the beautiful paper from the Best Year Ever DSP - one of your free item options in the Sale-a-bration catalog (p4). 
  
• Today's card is for baby, so I chose a 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" piece of Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock for the card base.
• If desired, cut a piece of coordinating ribbon and attach to the 3" x 3" square. I used some retired Crisp Cantaloupe ribbon, but you could leave it off, substitute another color, or even use a 1/4" wide piece of cardstock instead.
• Adhere the square to the card base with Snail or your favorite adhesive, leaving about 1/4" of space below it.
• Stamp Happy New Baby from the One Tag Fits All set in Soft Suede ink on Crushed Currry cardstock.
• Punch out the stamped sentiment with the Extra Large Oval punch and adhere it to the 3" x 3" square with Stampin' Dimensionals to pop it up.
• Finish off the card by stamping 'Congratulations' from the Big News stamp set in Bermuda Bay ink above the square.

Here's a sample order to create this card and earn a free item from the Sale-a-Bration catalog:

$6.95 - Crisp Cantaloupe cardstock 131298 - 24 sheets; enough for 48 cards!

$5.95 - Soft Suede ink pad 126978

$5.95 - Bermuda Bay ink pad 131171

$31.95(Clear) - Big News stamp set; this set has birthday, wedding, thank you, congratulations, baby, and more - 11 stamps in all!

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Total that up and you're at $50.80 in product - enough to pick a free item from the Sale-a-Bration catalog!

If you like this Best Year Ever DSP I used in this project, you can get it FREE - what a great deal! One pack of paper goes a long way, and it's very versatile. I'll be showing more samples with this pretty paper later this week. Another great option is the Best Year Ever Accessory Pack, which has 3 colors of coordinating buttons and ribbon:

Why not get both? Just make sure your order totals $100 before shipping and tax and you'll earn 2 free Sale-a-Bration items that can be used to create cards for many occasions this spring. 

Add the:
$17.95 One Tag Fits All stamp set Clear 138583
$6.95 Crushed Curry Cardstock 131199
$16.95 Extra Large Oval Punch 119859, a clear block (F-$16.95 would be a good choice for the large Big News stamps, but E might work), maybe some Stampin' Dimensionals 104430 ($3.95), and Snail 104332 ($6.95). Don't forget to check the Clearance Rack  and Weekly Deals for other great bargains.

I'm looking forward to sharing more stamping inspiration with you. If you have samples to share, I'd love to see them as well!

Happy stamping!

Year End Stampin' Up! Sale Almost Over

Going, Going, and Almost Gone!
Today is the last day for these year-end deals!

Stampin' Up! is having a great sale starting today! 

There are many items on sale while supplies last, including some Christmas items.

Sale dates: December 5, 2014 - January 5, 2015

If you need a few (or a lot of) inexpensive goodies, shop now! You can order directly from my online store, even in your jammies 'til midnight.