Sneak Peek 👀 #2

I’m back with another sneak peek from my cart! This time it’s the Christmas Word collage hybrid Embossing folder. You can never have enough sentiments! 

This folder is a 6” x 61/4” in size allowing you to cut down to a size that you desire based on which words you want to focus on in your design.

I also love that you can use this folder as both a background layer to add texture to your design but then also cut out the various sentiments to make them pop! 

You can cut with foils for an added pop!

You can ink the embossing folder to add a pop of colour to the raised words. Or use the two tone cardstock and a sanding block to highlight the words. The possibilities are as endless as ones imagina

Are you an embossing folder junkie? What’s your favourite way to use embossing folders?

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Monochromatic Coneflower Celebrations

 

 

A huge thank you to this months Scrapbooking Global blog hop host!

 

I am excited to be joining in, for my first time, with the Scrapbooking Global Facebook group Monthly blog hop. I hope I do all the linky things right. 

 

Augusts hop is to be inspired with the Monochromatic colour palette and Sharon has shared this awesome Color Coach graphic to help. 

 

I have chosen to play with a pink palette using both Berry Blast and Pretty in Pink papers, ink pads and blends. I have been really wanting to get my new Coneflower Celebrations bundle from Stampin' Up! inky so this was the perfect match for this challenge. For my sentiment I have chosen the Celebrate You retired Stampin' Up! die set from my stash.

 

 

I got my creative juices going by using the Scrap a Sketch Facebook group's Sketch #175 for my layout inspiration. I loved the stripes and thought the Coneflowers would be perfect focal accents in place of the circles!

  

I hope that you love how everything came together as much as I do. This was such a fun challenge and it feels great to be back in my craft room getting inky after a far too long hiatus. 

The Celebrate sentiment just pops on the Berry Blast paper and is going to make this a perfect layout for my granddaughter's birthday memories. If it was a card I might layer a few cuts to really make it pop however I do not want to make my layout too fat for my scrapbook so have to reign myself in. 

The butterflies and coneflowers have been colored with my Berry Blast and Pretty in Pink blends from Stampin' Up! I love coloring it is so therapeutic at reducing stress and clearing the mind and the blends make it so easy to get awesome results. I have added Wink of Stella to the butterflies for an added bang of bling - for those who do not know me yet I LOVE my bling. My poor husband is constantly finding glitter on himself and his friends love to tease him for it. 

 

It is hard to pick up in the photo but I have used embossing folders on 2 of the strips in my design. 

The first strip is from the Bokeh DSP 6x6 pack of paper in the Berry Blast colour sheet - I do not know about you but I LOVE the Bokeh effect in art work so this paper was a must for me! 

 

The solid strip of Berry Blast embossed with the Dotted Circles 3D embossing folder. 

 

The Whisper White strip has been embossed with the Forever Plaid and than I dragged my Pretty in Pink pad across to make it pop more.  

 

I just love how the finished product comes together. I will make a second coordinating page for the birthday photos using a pocket page style! 

 

Thank you so much for stopping by I hope there was something in my design to inspire you in your crafty adventures.

 

If you are already a blog follower of mine and stopped by via an email update or a social media post please click here to go to the start of the Blog hop as I think I am the last stop in the hop. You will want to check out what other inspiration is to be found in the hop as there are some really amazing paper crafters in the line up.

 

Happy Stampin'

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

 

All Blog hop links

 

1. Sharon Dalton - CreativeMe68 (Australia)

2. Julia Quinn - Handmade by Julia Quinn (Australia)

3. Maz Wood – aMAZing Creations (Australia)

4. Margaret Workman - Crafty Chemist Designs (USA)

5. Michele Deschenes Michele's Craft Cottage (USA)

6. Cheryl Taylor - Stampin n crafting with Cheryldiana - UK

7. Margaret Totallyawake4-life - Coneflower Celebrations - you are here

 

Sneak Peek 👀

I’m so excited for the upcoming mini catalog from Stampin’ Up! It goes life on September 3rd however the early preorder perk is one of the things I love about being a hobby demo! My wish list is long! 

So far I have added the Snowflake Kisses die set to my preorder. Love the background die with the peekaboo circle for your sentiment! I can envision lots of great cards and scrapbook layouts using this die set.

The catalog sample photos are just adorable and helped seal the deal on my add to cart!. 

 

Have you had a chance to sneak peek anything else the catalog? What’s caught your eye?

Happy Stampin’

Margaret

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Change can be AWESOME!

Squeeeee!

I am not usually a fan of change but I know sometimes change can be AWESOME and EXCITING even if it also gives some anxiety for me. 

Stampin’ Up! has announced they are changing up their stamp packaging to make it smaller and allow for consistency in storage with the stamps and dies! New product released stamps will be coming in the similar packages dies have been coming in instead of the hard DVD cases AND both will have images added to the packages to make dies easier to identify which stamps they go to! 

Saying goodbye to the hard plastic cases will allow for your stamp sets to take up much less space in the crafting room! Just look how many are on the desktop!

Are you excited about this new change too?

I’m over here thinking how many more sets I can keep if I transition all my case sets to similar envelopes - think I might plant that seed in the Stampin’ Up! new product sandbox! They should sell empty envelopes like they do the cases so we can transfer old favourites into the newer packaging. 

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life 

Paper Players meets Paper Pumpkin

I was inspired to pull out an old Paper Pumpkin Kit thanks to a prompt from the Paper Players Clean and Simple Challenge #PP751 and a second inspiration from the Sweet Stampin with the same Animal prompt combined with my Stamp with Anne Sundae Social team event being a BTOK event - talk about the universe talking to you.

 

The February 2023 Kit was the one calling to me - as there is nothing cleaner or simpler than an amazing kit with everything you need to make adorable cards! Just look at all the adorable critters in this set. 

I love that Paper Pumpkin kits come with everything you need to get started including the design inspirations which can make for some quick cards in a pinch!

They come with a unique Paper Pumpkin stamp set and with our sons nickname being Toad this is a stamp set I know I will get lots of future use out of even though it took me a long time to get to playing with this kit! 

I made my first 3 cards as shown in the design inspiration. I typically than use the rest of my kit to make a scrapbook layout and alternate out of the box cards as well.

 

I just love this little duck with the rainbow pop pushing away the cloudy day!

 

The bunny flying the kite - too adorable! I also love the peek-a-boo die cut frames in this kits designs.

 

The Tortoise and the Frog cheering each other one despite the rain - too cute! 

 

For me all that was missing in this kit was an elephant - elephants are my favorite animal. 

 

What are your favorite critters?

 

Happy Stampin'

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life.

Welcome Baby

Today I am playing along with the Sunday stamps colour challenge SSC336

I’ve chosen the following 3 colours from my Stampin’ Blends collection: Summer Splash, Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie.

Combined the colour challenge with the CAS colours & sketches sketch challenge #556

As well as the CAS on a Friday Challenge #315 - Baby

I’ve chosen to use the Turtley Cute stamp set and dies and Full of Life 6x6 papers from Stampin’ Up! Along with a retired sentiment set We’ll Said.

Creating a cute little welcome card for an up coming baby shower for a coworker.

Happy Stampin’

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life

Colour INKspiration CI#193

 Loving this week’s colour inspiration from over at Colour INKspiration group on Facebook! Cloud Cover, Balmy Blue and Highland Heather … it’s just so delicious!

I decided to use this colour challenge to play with a new fun fold card I found from Susan Campfield’s YouTube channel called The Flying Finch for a card swap I signed up for in the Canadian Cardmaking group on Facebook. To go with the flying theme I paired it with the Beautiful Bokeh kit from Stampin’ Up! 

This bundle is SO stunning - came with the stamp set, coordinating dies, hybrid embossing folder, 6x6 Bokeh inspired paper pad and sparkly gems.

The Flying Finch fancy fold is aptly named because it looks like a flying bird when opened.

I coloured the focal butterfly with my colour palette coordinating Stampin’ Blends - so relaxing to colour with! Colouring is my craft therapy.

I used the Bokeh DSP for on top of the front panel and side strips. For one set of strips I embossed the white cards stock with the coordinating hybrid butterfly folder and then sponged with Balmy Blue to help the images pop.

To finish the assembly of the card I added some ribbon, sparkle gems and a Happy Birthday sentiment.

View from the top of the “flying wing” look.

This fold still fits into a regular envelope for mailing - although might need extra postage due to weight of layers.

Happy Stampin’ 

Margaret 

Live, Laugh, Love

Be Totallyawake4-life