Meet Cucumber Crush (gift card holder)

Today is the day!! The new 2015-2016 Stampin' Up! Catalog is now LIVE and you can order all the new and fun products right now...no more waiting! Click HERE to start shopping from my online store!

Over at the Stylin' Stampin' INKspiration blog we have been counting down to the new catalog for the last 5 days bringing to you some inspiration using the five brand new in-colors. So far we have shared Watermelon Wonder, Mint Macaron, Tip Top Taupe, and Delightful Dijon. The final day of the countdown is today and we are sharing CUCUMBER CRUSH!


I used a tutorial for a gift card holder I had made around this same time last year and created it using colors and products from the new catalog. Because I was showcasing Cucumber Crush I used that as my card base. The sentiment (which comes from the new Sprinkles of Life stamp set) is stamped in another new in-color called Watermelon Wonder. The "band" (ribbon) is also new and can slip off and on fairly easily keeping the gift card holder closed. The DSP is a new favorite called Cherry on Top. It's a pack of 6x6 paper that comes with so many fun, fresh, and bright prints!

This is what the gift card holder looks like when it is closed and wrapped with the ribbon.

Getting ready to open the card completely. Notice all the fun prints?! These are all from the Cherry on Top DSP Paper Stack I mentioned about earlier.

This is what the card looks like completely open. On the right there is a slot for a gift card and in the middle is a place to write a message. I wanted to leave it blank because I actually created eight of these to give as a thank you for my stamp club gals. This gift card holder is something they could reuse to give to someone else and I wanted it to be versatile for whatever occasion!

Before I wrapped it up with the bow, I slipped in a card for $5 off their next Stampin' Up! purchase as a thank you for being in my club these last 8 months!

Come on over to the SSINK blog to check out more inspiration using this fun color...as well as the rest of the four new in-colors.

Control Freaks Tour - New In-Colors Birthday Card Set

You're in for a real treat because on today's Control Freaks Tour we are giving you a SNEAK PEEK from the new 2015-2016 Catalog! If you've already been hopping along then you just came from the inspiring Wendy's blog at Wickedly Wonderful Creations.

As a demonstrator we have the ability to pre-order some products from the new catalog including a select number of stamp sets, in-color inks, in-color accessories, and more! I definitely wanted to take advantage of getting a hold of all of the 2015-2017 In-Colors a little early and so that is what I focused on to share today. I created one layout and made five cards in each new in-color. Each card is a 4-1/4" square and will still fit perfectly into a regular sized envelope.

The stamp set I used is an upcoming host set called Happy Birthday, Everyone. You can earn this set with Stampin' Rewards by being a host. It comes with the beautiful "Happy Birthday" greeting you see here (love the font) and then 6 smaller greetings. The "confetti" on the top of each card are from the Dotty Angles stamp set and will be a carry-over item from the current catalog. Yay! I stamped off each color when I added the dots, so it is a lighter shade on each card. I really just wanted to keep each of the cards simple, so I only added a few pearl accents in different places for a little something extra.

{Introducing the new 2015-2017 In-Colors}

Tip Top Taupe

I am so glad to be back hopping with the Control Freaks after a break last month! My creative juices haven't been flowing as freely as I have wanted (and needed) them to, but hopefully with the change of weather (we're seeing sunny days here in Oregon!) I can turn my inspiration into production again while the bright light shines through my window! We are so excited to CELEBRATE with you all for this month's tour as we showcase cards and projects meant for celebrating...birthdays, graduation, Mother's Day, and m

 Mint Macaron

Watermelon Wonder

Cucumber Crush

Delightful Dijon

I haven't yet decided which in-color is my favorite, but right now I am leaning towards Watermelon Wonder. I actually really like the Tip Top Taupe/Watermelon Wonder combo. I'm sure it will change often as I continue to play with the colors together.

Now the question is...

WHICH NEW IN-COLOR IS YOUR FAVORITE?

Thank you so much for stopping by today! Next up to help get us excited about the new catalog is Deb Currier at Artfelt Impressions. All non-demonstrators can begin ordering on June 2nd. Do you have a list started yet?

control freaks tour - catalog preview

It has been an exciting last couple of months for me as I have been invited to be a part of a couple groups full of talented Stampin' Up! demonstrators. I am so thankful for these opportunities! Yesterday I shared with you the exciting journey I embarked upon with The Creation Station and today I get to share with you that I am now a member of the Control Freak Stampers! EEK! This group is full of some amazing paper artists. What a pleasure and honor it is for me to be a part of the fun! A couple of months ago I participated in my first swap with The Control Freaks (I'll share that card sometime this week!) and today I will be participating in my first "Tour De Freaks". I'm not gonna lie ~ I feel a little intimidated to be a part of this tour because there is SO MUCH TALENT on this hop!! But I am choosing to embrace it and be confident in my own clean and simple style. We all need to see a variety of ways to use Stampin' Up! products, right?

So, without further ado...if you are following the hop you have just come from Cindy's blog!

The theme for this month's tour is "Catalog Preview". As a demonstrator, we are given the opportunity to purchase select products made available to us a little sooner than our customers. I decided to place a small pre-order to get a few goodies early and I will be showcasing some of those today. Each of these cards uses the stamp set called Work of Art, a stamp set I am sure will be getting lots of ink on it! For each of the cards I will also be using some of the new 2014-2016 In-Colors.

Card #1: The card base is Blackberry Bliss. I was instantly drawn to this color for a couple of reasons; 1) purple is my favorite color, 2) Blackberry Bliss is pretty close to being my exact wedding color 10 years ago! I paired Blackberry Bliss with another new in-color, Hello Honey. The combo goes nicely together, especially when tied together using some of the paper from the new Moonlight DSP Stack. I tied a bow on the top of the card using Hello Honey 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon (available in all new in-colors). The background images are stamped in Hello Honey with one using the full color and then stamped again without re-inking. I stamped the two heart images on a separate piece of Whisper White and then hand cut the two hearts using my Paper Snips...then popped them up using Dimensionals. I added three rhinestones in the bottom left to fill in some of the blank white space.

Card #2: The card base for this card is Mossy Meadow, another 2014-2016 In-Color. I thought it would look pretty paired with Blackberry Bliss. I decided to wrap both colors of 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon around the card and tie with a bow at the top. The hearts are both stamped in Blackberry Bliss onto a separate sheet of Whisper White and then cut out with Paper Snips, but one was stamped again before re-inking. The heart on top is popped up with a Dimensional. This is the same technique I used with the chevron image. The bottom chevron image is with full Blackberry Bliss ink, then the second I used the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig to line them up and stamped again without re-inking the stamp. I did this a third time and still did not re-ink. This is how I got the three different shades of the Blackberry Bliss. 

Are you wondering where I got the green accents? 

 

I used my *NEW* Stampin' Blendabilities (alcohol-based marker) to color some of the pearls. This works perfectly as it won't rub off all over your fingers like a Stampin' Write Marker will. Although this particular marker is from the Old Olive Blendabilities Collection, I think it matches really well to the Mossy Meadow cardstock.

Card #3: I chose to pull out another sheet of the Moonlight DSP Stack, but wanted to use the Lost Lagoon in-color cardstock this time. It is paired with Hello Honey, as well as Basic Gray. I used the coordinating Circle Framelits for the layering of circles and stamped the image from Work of Art using Lost Lagoon and the sentiment is in Basic Gray. Again, I tied a bow with the Hello Honey 3/8" Stitched Satin Ribbon. I'm going to love this ribbon!

For a fun little accent, I added one of the itty bitty flowers from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack. Unfortunately this punch pack is retiring (but still available right now, #118309, $16.95), but I will say there will be a close replacement, so keep your eyes peeled when the new catalog arrives!

I hope you enjoyed my cards today!! I only missed one color from the new 2014-2016 In-Color. It is called Tangelo Twist. I'll plan to share more with that color coming up in the future, so come on back.

Please continue to hop along with the Tour de Freaks. Next time stop is the amazingly talented Connie Babbert at Inkspired Treasures. You're in for a real treat!!



If for some reason a link is broken or you get lost along the way, you can click on any of the links below!

Control Freaks Blog Hop List

1. Heidi Baks at Running with Scissors
2. Mindy Backes at Bada-Bing Crafting!
3. Debbie Henderson at Debbie's Designs
4. Melissa Davies at Rubberfunatics
5. Justin Krieger at JK Cards
6. Wendy Weixler at Wickedly Wonderful Creations
7. Cindy Elam at Heart's Delight Cards
8. Heidi Boos at Stuck on Stampin' (you are here!)
9. Connie Babbert at Inkspired Treasures
10. Judy DiScipio at Judy Stamps
11. Julie Davison at Julie's Stamping Spot

butterflies in-color

There must be something about butterflies lately because I have yet another butterfly card to share with you today! My friend celebrated a birthday yesterday and I wanted to send her a special card made just for her! Over the weekend, I sat down and waited for some inspiration. It didn't come right away, so I grabbed the nearest Papercrafts magazine and when I saw the picture on the front, I got to work! Isn't this card with the butterflies on the buttons beautiful? That was my inspiration!


Now I wanted a card that would mail easily (nothing too bulky!), so I went with no buttons, but kept with the tone on tone look. I decided the 2011-2013 In-Colors would do the trick!

I made the "birthday wishes" by stamping the word birthday and wishes separately using the Fabulous Phrases stamp set. I then punched them out using the Word Window punch, but also cropped it smaller on both ends, so the word window wasn't as long.

Using Dimensionals the butterflies seem to fly off the page!

Stamp Set: Fabulous Phrases (comes in both wood and clear mount)
Paper: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Wisteria Wonder, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party, Coral Calypso
Ink: Island Indigo, Lucky Limeade
Accessories: Dimensionals, Island Indigo Baker's Twine, Lucky Limeade Baker's Twine, Rhinestones Jewel Accents
Tools: Word Window punch, Adorning Accents Edgelits, 1-1/4" Circle punch, Beautiful Wings Embosslits Die, Big Shot

new in-colors found at Home Depot!

While in Home Depot last Friday night...
What with my eyes did I happen to see?

The new Stampin' Up! In-Colors staring back at me!

{The only one missing from the tub collection was Island Indigo.}

Which new In-Color is your favorite?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Hang in there with me...I know you haven't "seen" me much around here! I'm busy getting ready for my 1st Annual "Craft Cleanout" Sale this Friday at my home! I have 13 crafters who are looking to sell their unused crafting items in exchange for brand new Stampin' Up! catalog product. I think this event will be super fun and I look forward to hosting each year. Not only will it be a great way to "clean out" some crafting supplies I (and others) are not using, but I hope it will be a great business boost, too!

Cottage Garden & Sunny Garden = a quick set of cards!

On Wednesday, I had the highly unusual opportunity to spend a good 3 hours in my craft room while the kids napped. I had had a rough morning and so I prayed for God's strength in finding my "happy place" again! God definitely answered my prayer because my kids NEVER (and I mean NEVER) nap for 3 hours. I'm lucky if I get an hour and a half out of them. I knew there were plenty of "to dos" around the house, but I needed to find something that would make me smile and spending time doing what I love definitely helps me do that! The rest of the house chores could wait!

Recently, I purchased a new stamp set called Cottage Garden (in clear mount), as well as the Designer Series Paper, Sunny Garden, that actually matches this stamp set. I made 5 different card designs and I usually like to make 2 of each design, so I ended up making 10 cards yesterday!! I loved being able to use the same color scheme, stamp set, and paper for each of these cards. The process was so much quicker because I wasn't struggling to find different colors to match!

Cottage Garden Stamp Set
Clear Mount - $14.95
Wood Mount - $18.95

Sunny Garden Designer Series Paper
12 sheets - 2 each of 6 double-sided designs - $9.95

The Sunny Garden DSP (designer series paper) coordinates with this year's in-colors: Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, & Pear Pizazz. It also coordinates with the new color Daffodil Delight. You can buy a pack of the Assorted In-Colors for only $6.95.

So, now here's the big reveal of the cards I created!!

I pretty much CASED this card from here, but added some of my own personal touches, such as the orange rhinestone in the center of the flower, used a different sentiment, and rotated the image slightly (to be honest, I made a mistake with the sentiment being crooked and this is how I fixed it, but I liked it better this way!)

This is an "HB Original" and I used the pre-printed designs in the paper to pretty much complete the card. I used my new Butterfly Wings Embosslits die to add some butterfly dimensions to the card and the sentiment is from the Perfect Punches stamp set (in clear mount).

This is another card I came up with on my own. The Cottage Garden stamp set is a 2-step stamp set and I must tell you that if you are a perfectionist like me and want your images to overlap each other perfectly, you must order the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig (really, that's what they call it!). It helps you line up your images with a two-step stamp perfectly. To make the flowers I stamped the main flower image in Peach Parfait and then the outlined image is stamped in Poppy Parade. I do not own the in-colors stamp pads, but I do own the In-Colors Assorted Marker Set which are very convenient to have around because you can just use those as your "ink".

The size of this card is a 4.25" square. I love making these square cards because they make things so linear and that's really my style. The scallop circle image is "popped up" using Dimensionals and the sentiment is from the stamp set Teeny Tiny Wishes.

This card is a CASE, although I didn't do things exactly. The super-talented Andrea Walford shared a similar card and I really liked the layout. I used the butterfly image instead of the buttons, used a small strip of Daffodil Delight cardstock instead of the ribbon (didn't have it) and flip-flopped the DSP, so the flowered image is on the top. I also used a Texturz plate for the background on the Peach Parfait cardstock instead of using the Lattice Embossing Folder as Andrea did. I liked the more subtle look of the texture.

I hope you enjoyed these cards. I'm excited to use this set to make more. I would highly recommend purchasing the Sunny Garden DSP, Cottage Garden stamp set, and the In-Color cardstock and markers assortment (all for less than $50!) Just as I did, you can sit down and whip out so many cards at all at once because everything coordinates without really have to think about it...my kind of card making!! *wink*

Also, recently Stampin' Up! retired a similar kind of DSP using different colors called Cottage Wall (the print is pretty much the same as Sunny Garden). This has been my favorite paper to date (it couldn't be that my favorite color is purple, could it?!)...I'm so sad they got rid of it (due to some colors retiring for good). If I have some time today I am going to replicate each of these cards above using that retired paper. It will be so nice to whip out another 10 cards with not much thinking at all!


To place an online order, visit my website at heidiboos.stampinup.net and find where it says SHOP NOW! Please contact me with any questions you might have at heidilynneboos{at}hotmail{dot}com.