"MEASURE OF LOVE"

 

Today's post features one of Stampin' Up!'s new stamp sets, and it's such a fun one!  It was love at first sight for me, although I still gave a lot of thought before buying it.  Normally, I would jump right in with the purchase, but I wanted to make sure that I "thought" I could get a lot of use from it.  There is no buyer's remorse here!  Best of all, I've already had sweet comments from those who received the cards I'm sharing today.  It all started with this one:

I needed a thank you card for a customer/friend, and I really wanted to play with Measure of Love.  That's when I decided that someone who has placed a Stampin' Up! order probably wouldn't care that their thank you card was more of an inspiring sample.  What's not to love about that?  The card base is 4" square and, of course, the layers are tilted a bit and extend past the top of the card.  That's okay because the card still fit perfectly in an A2 envelope.  Stampin' Blends were used to color the scale, and have I mentioned lately how much I enjoy coloring with the Blends???  They are fantastic!  So once this card was complete, I decided to play around with other color combos.

The scale on the above card was colored with Soft Succulent.  A piece of paper from In Good Taste was used to mimic a table to ground the scale.

The card above features Soft Sea Foam and Highland Heather cardstock, and the scale was colored with Highland Heather.  You might have noticed that a rhinestone jewel was placed at the base of each stamped pointer doohickey, but first I colored the rhinestones with the coordinating Blends marker.  My last scale color was Granny Apple Green, and it turned out pretty, too!  

I don't normally like fussy-cutting, but I really enjoyed the stamping and cutting required for these cards--it wasn't at all difficult!  Fortunately, I didn't have to cut the pointer doohickeys for the scale faces, and it was quite nice that I could stamp them to coordinate with the color of the scale.  

Is this a simple card?  You bet!  But . . . each of these cards were VERY well-received, and THAT makes a stamp set a winner for me!  My great-aunt (Betty) was so happy with her card, and she said that she knew she must really be special.  She is really special, but it melted my heart a little to hear in her voice just how much she appreciated her card.  

And now I look forward to trying other color combos with Measure of Love.

"SWEET AS A PEACH" BOXED CARD SET

 

For one of my mother's birthday gifts, I created (what I consider to be) a FANTASTIC set of assorted cards featuring Stampin' Up!'s Sweet as a Peach product bundle.  These products are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G and oh so fun to use.  I'm sure you just want to see the cards, so let's get to it:

The above design features Soft Sea Foam and Calypso Coral cardstock.  Stitched So Sweetly and Peach dies were used for the die-cut shapes.

All of the die-cut shapes in the above card were cut with the Peach dies except for the tag, which was cut with one of the Tailor Made Tags dies.  That cute cloud?  It is from the Give It a Whirl dies.

Dies featured on the cards directly above and below are:  Give It a Whirl, Stitched So Sweetly, Tailor Made Tags, Peach, and Pierced Blooms.  Embossing Folders are:  Brick & Mortar and Bark.

All of the peaches were given a pretty shimmer with a Wink of Stella Glitter Brush.

The card below features You're a Peach designer paper and Checks & Dots embossing folder.  Those embossed checks are the perfect amount of texture for the background!  Do you love the Balmy Blue tag?  I'm telling you . . . those Tailor Made Tags dies are something every card-maker should have!

Just look at all of the texture and dimension on this card:

Below is another of the crisp and clean designs featuring Stitched So Sweetly, Pierced Blooms, and Peach dies.  The embossing folder featured on this card is Parisian Floral.  Yes, it's gorgeous!

It was completely unnecessary but, since I was playing with peaches, I couldn't resist using the peach image from the retired Fresh Fruit stamp set.  I still love this stamp set, and I loved having the perfect opportunity to use it again.

The card below just screamed for a die-cut tag, don't you think?

The Wink of Stella Glitter Brush brought to life all of the peaches in this card set.

Want to see inside the box?

On the left interior, I placed a small pocket to hold postage stamps.  The box on the right side held all of the cards.

One last look at the front, which features Artistry Blooms sequins.

I liked this set of cards so much that I need to make a set for myself.  You just can't go wrong with peaches, and the most important thing was that I gave my mother a gift that I was quite proud of.

UPDATE:  I appreciate all of the views, comments, and compliments that this post has received.  This was an interesting and fun project to work on; however, creating the box was a progressive task.  Measurements that I mapped out ended up having to be tweaked, and I do not have a tutorial or exact dimensions at this time.  If I ever re-visit this project, I will be sure to make note of exact measurements and add them to this blog post.  Your understanding is appreciated.

CHEERY "PIERCED BLOOMS" BIRTHDAY CARD

Tomorrow is my mother's birthday, and I used Stampin' Up!'s G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S Pierced Blooms dies to create this bright and cheery card for her.  Don't just look once . . . look again at the beauty of the die-cut flowers and leaves!  We've all seen die-cut flowers before, but there's just something about the piercing that elevates these dies into a league of their own.  Stunning!

As you can see, I pretty much left all of the WOW up to the flowers and leaves.  Having them arranged on the wood-like designer paper was a striking enhancement, as was the heart-shaped doily and hemp twine bow with its tails swirling in various directions.  It's unfortunate that it's difficult to see the beautiful small envelope that I created from a cut of Expressions in Ink designer paper.  My intention was to arrange the flowers as if they were bursting from the envelope--and they are--but they spilled over to cover it.  

Can you imagine opening such a colorful card to find a plain, boring inside?  Me, either.

I may have been a wee bit late in deciding to purchase yet another set of flower dies, but I am so in love with these and have zero regrets.  One thing that makes certain dies a smart investment is the way they can go to work and literally carry the design "burden".  If you don't own these gorgeous dies, I encourage you to take a look and consider purchasing them.  Just look at all of the dies you get:

"GARDEN BIRDHOUSES"

 

Do you need a sweet little card?  

If so, then Stampin' Up!'s Garden Birdhouses stamp set is a great choice!  

My first time using this adorable stamp set was when I set out to make this card.  Of course, I had no design idea, so I started by stamping some of the images onto white cardstock.  My card base is 4.25" square, and the Pale Papaya layer was intentionally cut taller so it would extend above the top of the card base.  I think little design choices like that add an extra level of interest to a card, don't you?

A Blender Pen was used to color the images, and that is probably the quickest/easiest way to color.  I even found a brand new pack of Blender Pens that I didn't know I had because they'd fallen (or maybe got shoved) to the back of the drawer.  The color combo wasn't planned, but I really love it!  The colors are Pale Papaya, Soft Succulent, and Balmy Blue.  Notice that gorgeous tag?  I used the Tailor Made Tags dies to cut it, and I think I'm obsessed with these tag dies!  The flowers on the bottom of the tag were colored with Pilot Color Eno pencils that my son gave me for Mother's Day (they show up beautifully on colored cardstock), and I used a Gelly Roll 10 white gel pen in the center of each tiny flower.  The sweet lady who received this card had sent me a fantastic Amazon package that included a pack of the #10 white gel pens, an adorable (and oh so useful) ladybug vacuum, and a pack of Frixion pens that I especially love to use with sewing projects.  Pause and imagine how exciting it is to receive an Amazon package full of goodies that you weren't expecting.  Uh huh.  That makes you want to sit down and make a special thank you card, doesn't it?

GATEFOLD GRADUATION CARD

 

My great-niece graduates high school today!!!  It's so hard to believe that the wee little girl who used to enjoy creating with stamps and ink (and had her own supplies in my stamp room) is old enough to be moving on to the next big phase in life.  I'm so proud of her!  Not only is she beautiful, she is very smart.  I swear, the girl can do anything that she sets out to accomplish--and she'll do it very well!  And isn’t she gorgeous?!?!

The card that I made for Malena was a gatefold with an added "diamond" that I decorated with a handmade tassel and brad.  As you can see from the first photo, the card folded flat for mailing.  Following is a photo of the card in the opening phase and, yes, I used colors that most closely matched her school colors (Evening Evergreen and Daffodil Delight).  The sentiment that I chose is from the Beautiful Friendship stamp set.  Gold Glimmer paper was used to die-cut "2021" using Stampin' Up!'s retired Large Numbers dies.

On the interior gate panels, I created small pockets using the leftover Daffodil Delight cardstock triangles and, of course, they were perfect for holding a little cash.  

Although it took a while to decide what kind of card to make, I had so much fun with this one once it got underway!  Malena appreciated it so much that she called the day it arrived.  It just so happened that she was busy making thank you cards at the time.  [heart melts a little]