it’s here!

June 1, 2018 By Mary Haugen

(Trumpet fanfare) It’s here! The new items in the 2018-19 Stampin’ Up! catalog are ready and waiting to be ordered. If you don’t currently have a demonstrator, I would love to help you shine a spotlight on your creativity. Let me know if you would like a catalog. It is bursting with great products. I can’t wait to get creating and put them center stage!

Let’s kick off this new catalog year with a sweet welcome card for a new little baby. Introducing the NEW Animal Outing stamp set!

I am smitten with that little rhino. He is so cute! I colored him in with an aqua painter and some NEW Gray Granite ink. What a great new color! The leaves are from the Petals & More Thinlits. I used a few strips of Wood Textures designer series paper. The ‘welcome’ is stamped in Balmy Blue, another NEW color. Coordinating Balmy Blue card stock was used for the Little One tag. It was punched out using the Classic Label punch. But wait, that punch is 2 1/4″ long. To get it smaller, you simply put line up one end back into the punch and punch again. Ta da – Smaller label!

The Animal Friends Thinlits coordinate with the Animal Outing set to give you even more creative options. Thanks for stopping by! Happy Stamping!

-Mary

curtain call

May 30, 2018 By Mary Haugen

As curtain is about to go down on the 2017-18 Stampin’ Up! catalog and 2018 Occasions catalog, how about one final bow for all of the great Stampin’ Up! sets and colors whose run has come to an end.

Bravi, Bravi, Bravissimi. (Sorry, I couldn’t help throwing in a little Phantom of the Opera quote there.) June 1 is curtains up on the NEW 2018-19 Stampin’ Up! catalog! I’m looking forward to it’s time on stage and sharing many more great creations with you. Thanks for stopping by! Happy Stamping!

-Mary

you’ve got this birthday

May 28, 2018 By Mary Haugen

I have loved working with the You’ve Got This stamp set. I love the flower and background stamp. Here is a fun birthday card featuring that glorious flower.

I love the clean look of this card. I heat embossed the flower with white embossing powder on Crumb Cake card stock. Next I watercolored the flower with Bermuda Bay and Always artichoke. I really like how it turned out. I popped up this panel an another layer of Crumb Cake and drew around it with a white watercolor pencil. It is on a Whisper White card base and the sentiment is embossed in white on a thin Bermuda Bay strip.

I love detailed cards, but sometimes it is fun to keep it simple and let the art work of a stamped image really take center stage. Thanks for stopping by! Happy Stamping!

-Mary

inky friends – dc 6

May 25, 2018 By Mary Haugen

It’s time for another Inky Friends design challenge. We picked a color combo from page 63 of the 2017-18 Stampin’ Up! annual catalog. This is a great color scheme, perfect to get in the mood for summer. The colors are very bold, so I chose to use them in moderation to let them shine.

I used the NEW Varied Vases set (designed by Stampin’ Up! Million Sales Achiever, Mary Fish). I LOVE this set. It even has a coordinating punch! For this challenge, I decided to go a bit minimalist. I masked the center vase so it would look like it is in front. The fun scallop line makes a great shelf for the vases. A few enamel dots compliment the trio of vases. I stamped the Hardwood background stamp in Bermuda Bay. I stamped it off first to mute the color just a bit. The front panel is raised with Stampin’ Dimensionals for more depth.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will drop by the Inky Friends blog and play along with our color challenge. It’s more fun when others play along. Create a project using this color scheme and upload a link to it on the Inky Friends page. Happy Stamping!

-Mary

blooms for you

May 23, 2018 By Mary Haugen

Today I have a fun technique to share as we say good bye to the Blooms and Wishes set. This is a fun way to make colors really stand out on Crumb Cake or kraft card stock.

First, I stamped the various images with Whisper White ink on the Crumb Cake panel and let it dry. Next, I stamped the same images, but in color. I din’t worry about lining up the images perfectly. It gives some great shading if it is slightly off. I stamped the sentiment and heat embossed it with white embossing powder. The final touch was to take a white colored pencil and draw the border lines to tie things together. I adhered this panel to the card base with dimensionals. How much fun is that! I really love this effect.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Stamping!

-Mary

shelter from the storm

May 21, 2018 By Mary Haugen

Life is lumpy. Sometimes we all could use a little note of encouragement – like today’s card.

This card was made with the retiring Weather Together stamp set and coordinating framelits. I masked off the area under the umbrella, then sponged in around and stamped the raindrops to get my stormy background. The bright Peek-a-boo Peach umbrella is a fun pop of color. It is popped up with a dimensional for some depth.

Do you know of someone who could use some encouragement? Why not create a card and send it out today? It is amazing what a little happy mail can do. Happy Stamping!

-Mary

Sweet Treat

May 18, 2018 By Mary Haugen

Today’s card puts me in the mood for hot summer days. Cool Treats is a really fun set. I’m sad to see it retire, but I’m sure Stampin’ up! will come up with something just as great!

I like the word stamped repeatedly on the right side. I stamped the popsicle twice. I cut out one of them with the coordinating framelit. and layered it over the other image for some dimension. I added fun little details like the linen thread tied on the ends of the sentiment strip and the little rhinestone on the treat. A fun treat to wish someone Happy Birthday!

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Stamping!

-Mary

lovely inside and out

May 16, 2018 By Mary Haugen

My husband, Brett, and I will be celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary in June. (Wow, 25 years, where did the time go?) June is pretty busy for me as I run the YoungStars Children’s Theatre Workshop, so today we are departing on an amazing trip to celebrate early. We are heading to Europe for two weeks – London, then Amsterdam, Rome and finishing with a week long mediterranean cruise! We have been planning this trip for a long time. I can’t believe it is finally here! I will share some pics when I get back. I will share some on Instagram while I’m gone if you want to see what we are up to.

As I continue my farewell to some great stamp sets, I realized the my few projects have shared a Pool Party / Calypso Coral color combo. What can I say, when something works, it works!

I love the floral pattern peeking out from behind the die cut panel. I added the Pinewood Planks embossing folder and piercing for even more texture. What a fun stamp and die set! A great card to lift up a friend.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Stamping!

-Mary

all you need is chocolate

May 14, 2018 By Mary Haugen

In just a few weeks, the new Stampin’ Up! catalog will be out. While I am super excited about the fantastic new stamps and accessories coming (and the color revamp- Coastal Cabana is back, baby!), there are many that are leaving us that I will miss. You can find the retiring list HERE. I thought I would take some time to look back at some of my favorite projects from the 2017-18 catalog that will be retiring.

I think this card was my absolute favorite from this last year. It spotlights the More Than Chocolate stamp set and the Wood Textures designer series paper.

I love the delicate Pool Party scalloped circle peeking out from under the candies. The Pool Party twine and little Calypso Coral heart are fun details. I love chocolate, so this set was a must have for me. I also really like the fonts used on the sentiments.

Thanks for stopping by! Happy Stamping!

-Mary

inky friends: a fond farewell

May 11, 2018 By Mary Haugen

Welcome to the Inky Friends: A Fond Farewell blog hop. We are taking time to put some great retiring sets center stage one last time. If you are following the hop order, you have arrived here from Sarah’s Ink Spot. Weren’t her No Bones About It projects fun? I love those dinosaurs. Make sure to make your way through the entire hop and check out the other great projects. I am putting Sweet Cupcake in the spotlight. Mmmmm – cupcakes. These are some of my favorite projects that I created with this set. They look almost good enough to eat.

This is my absolute favorite card I ever created with the Sweet Cupcake set. I paired the set with the coordinating framelits. There are so many fun details on this one – the depth from the die cuts, the banners layered under the cupcake, the little flag. What a great birthday wish.

I chose to leave a lot of white space on this one to let that yummy cupcake pop. The shading the various layers of stamps give it is so cool. I did a light watercolor wash shadow underneath the cupcake to help ground the image.

I love polkadots. I used the three circles to play off the polkadot pattern paper. A simple thick bakers twine bow and a tiny rhinestone balance the delicate feel of this card. This is one set that is staying in my stamp collection!

Thanks for stopping by! I’m sending you over to Rhonda and her projects with Basket of Wishes. Enjoy your journey through the rest of the blog hop and bid a fond farewell to some great stamps sets.