Wednesday, 19 March 2025

Textured Notes Dies for the New at SU! Beautiful Backgrounds Blog Hop

Hello and welcome to my blog. Today, I am participating in the New at SU! blog hop. We are a group of Stampin' Up!® demonstrators from around the world who are full of creative papercrafting ideas to share with you to get you crafting. This month we are creating projects with beautiful backgrounds. One of my favourite things to do is heat embossing. It was magical the first time I saw it (a LONG time ago) and I still adore the effect. So, heat embossing was always going to be part of my background!

Firstly, I die cut some rectangles from Basic White using the Textured Note Dies. Then, I arranged them in a patchwork fashion over the surface of a quarter sheet of Basic White. These dies are edged with an embossed decoration so they are pretty just as they are. For the Beautiful Backgrounds theme I decided to go one step further and add some white heat embossing for extra texture. I used the Elements of Text to add scripty detaill to the rectangles. Laying the dies out like a patchwork ensured that the text the right way round!

Once the heat embossing was done the rectangles were adhered to the Basic White sheet and the whole patchworked piece was die cut with one of the larger rectangles. This way, there is a decorative edge all around the perimeter too.

My focal image is the beautiful hydrangea from the Thankful Garden Bundle. The outline is stamped in Basic Gray then the image is coloured using blending brushes with the decorative masks and Blueberry Bushel and Garden Green inks. I love how the colour intensifies as more layers of ink are applied.

The embossed patchwork layer is framed with a layer of Blueberry Bushel card, wrapped with some Baker's Twine and mounted on a top folding, Thick White card base. I decided not to add a sentiment on the front of the card and to simply add a trio of transluscent Opal Rounds to complete it.

As I was pulling all the elements together I though of other ways to customise the background. Each of the patchwork elements could be textured using different embossing folders or coloured cardstock could be decorated using tone on tone stamping/heat embossing. I am sure there are many possibilities and variations! I will revisit this idea for sure.

I hope that you have been inspired by my project today. Continuing along the hop to the others will provide you with even more project ideas - you are currently with me, Furry Cat Designs by Karen Henderson - but before you hop on to the next post, please take a moment to leave a comment. We love reading your comments!

Do you need any of the products used on today's cards? If you live in the UK please take a look in my online Stampin' Up! shop. You can follow the link or click on the pictures below of the products I have used today.

Stay safe and as always, happy crafting,

If you would like to order any supplies, and you live in the UK, I would love to be your demonstrator. Use the current hostess code (March 2025 code: Q4RERBVK) to get some free product (it will follow in the post after the end of the month). If your order is over £150 do not use the code as you become the hostess and get the rewards. To place an order please visit my online shop HERE. The products I have used on today's project are linked from the images shown below.

All Star Video Class Bundles

The Video Class Bundles have 12 AMAZING video tutorials to inspire you each month. For March, we are featuring the Online Exclusive Mixed Media Florals Suite.

Click HERE to purchase.

FREE with a purchase from my online store

Click on the images of the products I have used today to purchase them in my online shop:

Rembember to use the current hostess code.

March 2025 code: Q4RERBVK

Saturday, 8 March 2025

Stamping Inkspirations Blog Hop - Technique Challenge

Hello and welcome to my blog! Today I am taking part in a blog hop with some fellow enthusiasts who love sharing their creative talents using their Stampin' Up!® products. This month in the Stamping Inkspirations Blog Hop we have a technique challenge for creating our projects.

Our challenge is to make a watercolour background for our projects. I have to admit that I usually shy away from watercoloured backgrounds because they are unpredicatable. There is trial and error involved, and even if I make one I really really like it can't be repeated. However, I am up for the challenge and I'm going to embrace the fact that each piece is unique and connot be replicated!

The Mixed Media Florals Suite is my current favourite - it hasn't left my desk for ages. My cards today are totally inspired by the Designer Series Paper - the colours are gorgeous together. I gathered together Fluid 100 Watercolor paper, an E block, Waterpainters and inkpads/reinkers/Stampin' Write Markers.

Before adding any colour to the paper I gave it a light misting of water on the front and back to help prevent warping and also to allow the colour to flow easily. Then I added a couple of drops of reinker to the block (I used Boho Blue), mixed some water in and applied it to the paper. I tried a few ways to do this - adding just drops of colour and allowing it to spread (which I concluded would be better if you were using multiple colours, so that they would blend); creating an all over wash and then trying stripes. After allowing the pieces to dry I added a second wash of colour to some of them to intensify the shade.

This is my array of background attempts. Some of them were trimmed or die cut to add to cards, but some will be disgarded and chalked up to experience!

For my focal point I stamped and heat embossed the floral images. Some are black heat embossed and some were stamped with Versamark followed by Basic Gray ink and clear powder to give a more subtle outline.

To colour the images I stuck with watercolouring, creating my own palette on a block using either the ink pad or Stampin' Write markers. On some scrap watercolour paper I made a swatch to help me fill in the images.

I couldn't stop at just one card! They all share similar design elements, but equally they are all different. I do have a favourite though! The background I liked the most was the stripes, but that didn't end up being my favourite card. The one shown below is my favourite.

Here, the inked background is altered by flicking water droplets on to it and removing some colour with a dry cloth to create a spattered pattern. After die cutting a rectangle I highlighted the edging by adding dashed detailing using a black, fineline marker. Each card has the same birthday sentiment from Simply Said - white heat embossed on black card and a bow tied with Linen Thread. The Neutral Matte Dots are the perfects accent for the cards.

Altogether I made three tulip cards and one daisy styled one.

So after my initial worries about this challenge, I had a wonderful morning creating backgrounds and transformong them into cards. Please continue along the hop to see what the others have created too...enjoy the projects! We would love to hear from youand so if you have been inspired, please leave a comment.

Leonie Stuart ● Danielle Kassing ● Angie McKenzie

Teri West ● Karen Henderson ● Mo Rootes

Annette Ball ● Marga Bultena ● Kim Fee