Best Suited Dad

I say this every time I showcased a masculine card – but they are difficult to design when you need one on the spot. I like to have a couple of card choices already made for when an occasion comes round celebrating a male in my life. Well Suited is the Designer Series Paper (DSP) that features in today’s card – of course – and I decided to layer different patterns together on the card front.

This layering technique was first introduced to me by Sam over at Pootles Papercraft, where you cut down 3 or 4 patterns from a pack of paper and layer them up to make a card front, finishing it off with a simple sentiment / ribbon / embellishment.

I always try to choose two more subtle patterns and then pair them with one a little more funky / bright, which in this collection isn’t too bright but is far more patterned than the others and the tiny sentiment on the white catches your eye. Ready to gift to a dad for any occasion.

Have you tried a layered DSP card?

Best Wishes,
Suzanne

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Simple Sunday #11 – In Bloom

Welcome to my new Sunday series, affectionately known as Simple Sunday! The aim of this series is to showcase projects using minimal supplies, ideal for the beginner crafter or someone new to Stampin’ Up! Each project is a white card base with a 3×3 panel decorated using a single stamp set or die set. This week’s project features a stamp and die bundle that you can purchase from the January to June 2021 Mini Catalogue.

My main focus of today’s project was the dies, they are absolutely gorgeous and the pierced detail on the flowers really adds a beautiful touch to your project. The dies contain varying leaf shapes, flowers of varying size plus their middles so you can really build up a bouquet or arrangement or any shape or size.

I stamped my sentiment to the 3×3 panel and then just die cut flowers and leaves in vary colours to build up the floral arrangement. I took my colour inspiration from the co-ordinating Designer Series Paper which you can earn for free with a qualifying £45 purchase.

How gorgeous is the finished card?

Best Wishes,
Suzanne

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Pastel Love

Sometimes I really struggle for inspiration and sometimes inspiration comes at the craziest of times. My daughter Mia is currently studying Art as part of the option set she chose for GCSE and their current material of choice is watercolour. It was one of her recent pieces of work that inspired this card and the colour choices.

Copyright: Mia Pickard

Whilst I didn’t do watercolour myself, I went with three similar colours to blend a background going for the more subtle pastel type shades. These were applied using the blending brushes from the Mini Catalogue, which allow you to blend onto card much more evenly that daubers or sponges do.

Mia decided to use a black outline for each focal point – the eye. However, I felt I didn’t need that due to the muted shades that I chose for my background. So simply punched out a Basic White heart and popped it up on dimensionals with a die cut sentiment.

My final touch was a few of the pearls from the Hydrangea Suite – gorgeous!

Where do you go when you need inspiration?

Best Wishes,
Suzanne

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Hydrangea Happy Pouch

Stampin’ Up! really do design and make some absolutely gorgeous suites and thanks to the colour families they have, the embellishments and ribbon etc are always the most divine colour ways. The Hydrangea Heaven suite has to be one of the best examples for this in my opinion – I’m a purple fan, so this really floats my boat!

The papers are beautiful designs featuring Hydrangeas, with this pattern in particular grabbing my attention for a more subtle project. Of course, I also included the Clever Clasps which if you don’t look carefully in the Mini Catalogue you may miss entirely!

Isn’t the paper just divine? And I’m so happy about Stampin’ Up! bringing a clasp / clip back into the catalogue. I miss the pegs / clips from previous years as they’re such an easy and quick way to close a bag without struggling to tie a bow.

Did you spot the Clever Clasps in the catalogue?

Best Wishes,
Suzanne

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Measurements:

  • Designer Series Paper = 91/2 x 63/4 inches
  • Basic White scrap

Scoring:

  • Long side = 11/2, 41/2, 6, 9 inches
  • Short side = 11/2 inches

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Plaid Daddy

Mixing and matching is a big part of the fun when crafting. Grabbing different colours, stamp sets, dies etc and bringing them together to create final project. This particular project is a great example of that – where originally I wanted to make a plaid top to sit on a box lid, but then somehow created a card front fit for a daddy’s birthday.

The Plaid Builder dies have been in my stash since the Annual Catalogue launched back in June, but have yet to be used on a project. They’re the perfect size for a card front, so when I realised the size, my plan quickly changed.

One of the dies as part of the Plaid Builder has cute little squares as off cuts, so I recycled these and paired them up with the Playful Alphabet dies to spell out ‘Daddy’ and then teamed it with the Baby Pull Toys and sets to really finish the project off. I love it!

Have you used the Plaid Builder dies? Perhaps you could join my Crafty Hullahbaloo Facebook group and share your makes?

Best Wishes,
Suzanne

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