Color Your Season – Limited Time Offer

August 8, 2018Leave a comment

It’s hard to believe that we are already in August! Where has this year gone. I know everyone says time flies, especially when we’re all having fun stamping 🙂

During August (while supplies last), you have the opportunity to purchase products from the Color Your Season promotion. Trust me – You will fall in love with the stamp set, framelits, and NEW watercolor pencils. Take a look below at some amazing samples of cards that were made with these products. The designs are so versatile that you’ll use the bundle to create cards for all occasions. And, the watercolor pencils are just amazing!

Images of the stamp set, framelits, and watercolor pencils are shown below. Aren’t they just gorgeous?

The Watercolor Pencils (Assortment 2) include the following colors: Balmy Blue, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Coastal Cabana, Crushed Curry, Flirty Flamingo, Garden Green, Gorgeous Grape, Granny Apple Green, and Night of Navy. These pencils are a wonderful addition to the first set of Watercolor Pencils that Stampin’ Up! offers.

Now, don’t delay! Make sure you place your order today. Just click on any picture below, and you’ll go to my on-line store.

Happy stamping!
Laurie

Blended Seasons Clear-Mount Bundle [149894] $64.75	Blended Seasons Wood-Mount Bundle [149893] $77.25
Blended Seasons Clear-Mount Stamp Set [149016] $39.00	Blended Seasons Wood-Mount Stamp Set [149019] $53.00
Stitched Seasons Framelits Dies [149013] $33.00	Watercolor Pencils Assortment 2 [149014] $12.50
Watercolor Pencils [141709] $16.00

NC Demos Blog Hop – Lakefront View

July 29, 2018July 29, 20188 Comments

Welcome to the July NC Demos Blog Hop! Our theme for this month is a celebration of summer. We all hope that, as you go through the blog hop, you are inspired and reminded of some of your summer favorites.

If you just came from Tracie’s post, I know you’ll agree with me that she is an amazingly talented stamper. I always enjoy seeing her projects! Thank you so much for continuing the blog hop and stopping by to see my card.

Our family is blessed to have a summer camp in Upstate New York on the Great Sacandaga Lake. The camp has become a gathering place for family and friends. It is a place to relax, reconnect, and rejuvenate.

My husband, Bruce, and I just returned from a two week vacation at the camp. This year, we had a very special visitor. My mom, Irma, spent about a week with us. She met some family members for the first time and had an absolute blast getting to know the area.

One of my mom’s favorite places at the camp is our front deck. From the pictures below, you’ll see that we have a fantastic view of the lake. It is a great vantage point to watch activity on the water, listen to the birds, get a little sun, or simply read a book.

Two members of our family, our youngest grandson (Johnny) and our son-in-law (Glenn) have birthdays at the end of July. I took inspiration from our view of the lake to make birthday cards for Johnny and Glenn. Since they both love spending time at the camp and being on the water, I hope they’ll enjoy the picture I tried to create for them. The cards truly remind me of summer and our camp.

The Waterfront stamp set is a unique set of stamps that allow you to create a very wide variety of scenes. I like to use the stamp set, an Aqua Painter, Watercolor Paper, a few ink spots, and a little imagination to “paint” scenes for projects. The best advice that I can give you for this type of project is just to dive in. Each “painting” will have its own characteristics. The more you play with the stamp set, ink, and Aqua Painter, the more comfortable you’ll be. If you would like to see a few step-by-step examples, please check out a few early posts that I have made. You can find the posts by clicking here and by clicking here. I followed the same steps to create the cards pictured above.

The hardest part for me is to cut the “painting” down to size for the card. As you can see from the pictures above, I decided to use Very Vanilla Note Cards for the birthday cards. That meant that I needed to cut the “paintings” to fit inside the mat Crumb Cake cardstock. I also decided to stamp “happy birthday” directly on the mat and use dimensionals to adhere the “painting”. This simple design really focuses the eye on the detail of the watercolor “painting”.

I hope you give this technique a try. You will be amazed at the images that you’ll be able to create.

Below are pictures of the main products that I used to create the birthday cards. If you click on any picture, you’ll go directly to my on-line store.

Be sure to continue on to Sue’s post. She always has great projects to share! All July NC Demos blog hoppers are also listed below. Enjoy!

Happy stamping!
Laurie

Waterfront Photopolymer Stamp Set [146386] $17.00	Watercolor Paper [122959] $5.00	Aqua Painters [103954] $17.00
Clear Block D [118485] $8.50	Stampin’ Dimensionals [104430] $4.00

This month’s NC Demos Blog Hoppers:

Laurie Meier <–YOU ARE HERE

Sue Root

Sue Stapp

Frances Wagner

Varied Vases Die Cut Window Card

July 23, 2018July 23, 2018Leave a comment

Before I share a fun design with the Varied Vases bundle, I would like to introduce you to my mom, Irma. Last week, Mom spent a week’s vacation with my husband, Bruce, and me in Upstate New York. We have a summer place on the Great Sacandaga Lake. We had an absolutely fantastic visit with my mom. The picture below is my mom and me with an incredibly beautiful scene of the lake behind us.

Okay… Now, on to the card. I really should say cards since there are two cards that I will share with you today. They are both centered around the Varied Vases bundle. If you don’t have the bundle in your stash, you may want to consider adding it. The stamps and punch are beautiful and very easy to use to create gorgeous projects.

Here are the basic directions for the cards. I hope you’ll use the design and make it your own!

Start with either Thick Very Vanilla or Thick Whisper White cardstock for the card base. I cut my card bases to 5 1/2″ x 8 1/2″, scored at 4 1/4″ on the 8 1/2″ side. I really like the thick cardstock for card bases. The paper is heavy and gives a very professional feel to my cards.
Next, get a piece of your favorite color cardstock. I used Rich Razzleberry cardstock since it has such a bold color and works well with the piece of DSP that I chose for my vase. Cut the color cardstock to 4″ x 5 1/4″. Use the largest oval framelit from the Stitched Shapes Framelits set to die cut an oval in the middle of the color cardstock. Be sure to save the die cut piece. You’ll use it later for the card!
Emboss the color cardstock with new Tufted Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. LOVE this EF!!!
Use scrap washi tape to lightly attached the embossed piece to the front of the card. Use the second largest oval from the Stitched Shapes Framelits set to die cut an oval in the middle of the oval die cut on the color cardstock piece. Again, be sure to save the die cut piece. You’ll use it later for the card!
Get a scrap piece of your favorite DSP that matches your choice of color cardstock. I used a piece of the amazing Share What You Love Specialty DSP. LOVE this DSP!!! Use the Vases Builder Punch to punch your choice of vase from your DSP. You can be very creative with many types of DSP. I liked having the stripes for the vases on a diagonal.
On the die cut piece from the card base, stamp your choice of flower from the Varied Vases stamp set. When you stamp the flower, don’t ink the entire stem. Use the punched out vase to figure out how much of the flower stem you need to stamp. I used Memento Tuxedo Black ink to stamp my flowers.
To color the flowers and stem, I chose to use Watercolor Pencils. There are great colors in this set. Other than Watercolor Pencils, there are many ways to color the pencils. Experiment to find out what type of coloring you like the best.
To add dimension to the punched vase, I punched another vase from Basic Black cardstock, cut the punched vase in half vertically, and glued the halves behind the vase with the black showing as an outline. The punched vase is then adhered to the flower piece.
Adhere the oval flower piece to the die cut color die cut piece. Adhere the die cut pieces inside the card to align with the die cut oval on the front of the card.
To finish the front of the card. Use your choice of sentiments from the new Itty Bitty Greetings stamp set to stamp your greeting onto a piece of thinly cut paper. You can use a piece of scrap color cardstock to match the color of your card or a piece to match your card base. You’ll see in the examples that I used two different colors to finish the card fronts.
Adhere the stamped sentiment strip to the front of your card. You’ll need to eyeball where you want the sentiment to be in relation to the inside design. You’ll see that one of my sentiments is above the vase rim, and the other is below the vase rim.
Adhere the embossed color cardstock on the front of your card.
Add embellishments, as you like. I thought a piece of gold twine, tied in a bow, would do the trick.

I really hope that you give this design a try. It is a great one to have in your portfolio since the card can be made for so many occasions.

Below are the main products that I used to create these cards. If you click on any picture, you’ll go to my on-line store.

Happy stamping!
Laurie

Varied Vases Photopolymer Bundle [148381] $39.50	Vases Builder Punch [147040] $18.00	Varied Vases Photopolymer Stamp Set [146644] $26.00
Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper [146926] $27.00	Rich Razzleberry 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [115316] $8.50	Whisper White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Thick Cardstock [140272] $7.75
Very Vanilla 8-1/2″ X 11″ Thick Cardstock [144237] $7.75	Basic Black 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [121045] $8.50	Tufted Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [146335] $9.00
Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies [145372] $30.00	Watercolor Pencils [141709] $16.00	Tuxedo Black Memento Ink Pad [132708] $6.00

Blooming Summer Savings – Paper Pumpkin

July 19, 2018Leave a comment

Through August 10, if you sign-up for Paper Pumpkin as a new subscriber, you’ll receive 50% off your August kit. You have nothing to lose giving Paper Pumpkin a try! If you don’t like the monthly subscription program, you can skip a month or cancel your subscription at any time.

Take a look at the video below to get a look at July’s kit.

Click on the picture below to go to sign-up for Paper Pumpkin. Be sure to use the Promocode BLOOM0818 when you enroll to get 50% off your August Paper Pumpkin kit.

Happy (Paper Pumpkin) Stamping!
Laurie

Stamp ‘N Hop – My Favorite New DSP

July 13, 2018July 12, 201813 Comments

Welcome to July’s Stamp ‘N Hop! We are a group of global stampaholics who love sharing ideas for cards and other stamping projects. This month, our projects feature our favorite new Designer Series Paper (DSP) collections from Stampin’ Up!’s new annual catalog. Since there are many gorgeous DSP collections, I am sure everyone in the hop had difficulty picking the favorites. I know I sure did!!

If you just came from Terry’s post, I’m sure you’ll agree that she is an amazing artist and had a great project to share. Thanks so much for stopping by to see my post. I hope I can give you some inspiration and tips for making a fun, step card that features the fabulous new Nature’s Poem DSP collection. This collection of DSP is pictured below. It is perfect to use for both feminine and masculine cards, and it has a wide range of gorgeous colors in the designs. And, best of all, the collection is one of ten DSP collections that are on sale this month only as a buy three and get one free deal. Click here for more information!

Okay… now onto the card. Usually, I use DSP as a background to a card. But, when I saw the Nature’s Poem collection, I decided that the DSP really should be the focal point of the card. A single side-step card seemed the perfect way to highlight the DSP design. Below are a few pictures of the card.

If you’ve never made a step card, trust me it’s a lot easier than you may think. Use the rather rough diagram below as your guide to the pattern. Please also check back on my blog. I’ll have more detailed step-by-step instructions posted in a few days.

The card base is a piece of Tranquil Tide cardstock. The leaves are stamped using the Rooted in Nature stamp set. The corresponding Nature’s Roots Framelits Dies were used to die cut the leaves. The stamp set and dies are available in a bundle. By the way, there are awesome embossing dies in the die set. Take a close look at the leaves made with Mango Melody cardstock. They have a fantastic leaf pattern that was created with the embossing dies.

The inks used for the card include Tranquil Tide, Cajun Craze, and Mint Macaron. The embellishments are simple pieces of twine tied around the bunched stems of the leaves.

The focal point of the card is a beautiful piece of the DSP that just stands on its own as far as a design. Don’t you think it’s gorgeous! The DSP is framed with a piece of Mango Melody cardstock. The final accent on the focal point is “be strong, be happy, be you”. The three pieces are one stamp from the stamp set which was stamped onto Whisper White cardstock with Tranquil Tide ink. The words were then cut apart and randomly glued to the card.

Please be sure to continue the blog hop and stop over at Laura’s project. She has a great design to share with you. All the participants in this month’s Stamp ‘N Hop blog hop are listed below.

Also pictured below are the main products that I used to make my project. If you click on any picture, you’ll go directly to my on-line store.

Happy stamping,
Laurie

Rooted In Nature Clear-Mount Bundle [148353] $72.75	Rooted In Nature Wood-Mount Bundle [148352] $84.50	Rooted In Nature Clear-Mount Stamp Set [146482] $42.00
Rooted In Nature Wood-Mount Stamp Set [146479] $55.00	Nature’s Roots Framelits Dies [146341] $39.00	Nature’s Poem Designer Series Paper [146338] $11.00
Tranquil Tide 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock [144246] $8.50	Whisper White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [100730] $9.75	Mango Melody 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock [146989] $8.50
Tranquil Tide Classic Stampin’ Pad [147146] $7.50	Cajun Craze Classic Stampin’ Pad [147085] $7.50	Mint Macaron Classic Stampin’ Pad [147106] $7.50