Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today I have two great cards from my Happy Mail in Holland contest that use the Prized Peony Bundle . The Prized Peony bundle is beautiful but can be overwhelming, so if you need inspiration, I have a fantastic tutorial for you! You can find it here.
Thanks to both Luba Balycz and Sharon Meyer for their lovely cards!
Luba’s Card
What makes Luba’s card so beautiful? First of all, she sponged the edges of all of her die cuts to create a great 3D effect. To enhance that look even further, she used mini dimensionals between the layers. I love the unexpected touch of the white branches above the green leaves and the yellow stamens barely popping out of the centre of the peony. Do you see her perfect little bow?! The background whisper white was embossed with the Subtles embossing folder. Peonies are so beautiful!
Rochester, New York
Luba comes from Rochester, New York. It was one of the first boom towns in the United States due to its flour mills. It played a significant role in both the Abolitionist movement and the Women’s Rights Movement.
Sharon Meyer’s Card
Sharon also made a beautiful card using the Prized Peony stamp set. Her card focuses on the stamp set rather than the dies. I love how she contrasted a soft, subtle background with a bold and vibrant peony. I love peonies!! The card base is Soft Sea Foam with a mat of Peony Garden paper. The peony was coloured with Magenta Madness Blends and Shaded Spruce Blends if my guess is accurate. Sharon’s use of stitched dies is also a very nice touch.
Farmington, New York
Isn’t it a coincidence that both of today’s artists come from New York State? If my memory serves me correctly, Sharon has participated in other Happy Mail in Holland contests. If you want to read more about Farmington and also some of Sharon’s other work, check out this blog post.
Some of you have wondered why I spend so much time in Holland. If you don’t know the story of Gerard and I, then you can see it in this post. You can also see another one of Sharon’s cards as well as read a bit more about her hometown.
Hattem, the Netherlands
A little while ago, on our way home from Zwolle, we stopped in Hattem, another Hanzestad. I wanted to go to the Anton Pieck museum as I was familiar with some of his work. He is quite iconic. I did not know that he was such a huge part in the creation of the Efteling theme park for children. I went there with Rachel when she was 8 years old! Another thing I learned there is that Anton was a twin and that both brothers were artists and they both used there skills in the Resistance during World War 2.
Anton and Henri Pieck
In the museum it was said that Anton was born with a pencil in his hand. When he was three his mother found him crying because he could not draw the rain! During World War 2 he used his skills to falsify identity cards and other important documents. His brother worked as a spy for Russia and ended up in a concentration camp for his efforts. Thankfully he survived, but while in Buchenwald he drew what he saw.
Thanks for joining me today! I hope you are enjoying traveling along with me. My blog posts are light on stamping and heavy on travel these days! No worries, by the end of August, the pendulum will once again shift the other way. Have a super day!
Hello stampers and happy Friday to you. Today I will be sharing with you a lovely Post It Note Holder. This was my contribution to the Demo Design Dream Team as our theme was 3D items. I wanted mine to be something practical, and I love sticky notes. Wait till you see the inside of mine! It has a very special kind of Post It Note or sticky notes. You need to be a Stampin’Up! demonstrator in order to have access to them. Let’s take a look.
Prized Peony Post It Note Holder
We may as well cut to the chase and see this beauty. If you agree with me that it is super cute, you may want to make it yourself. The step by step instructions are in the tutorial which you can get for free if you are on my team, if you are a part of my very affordable international training group OR if you place a $50 order in July.
Post It Note Holder AND Matching Pen
Did you know that you can get special RSVP pens that allow you to roll up a piece of pretty paper to get your pen to coordinate with your project? I got mine at Staples, an office supply store in Canada.
The Measurements
Here are a few quick photos to get you started. One key thing, you put your sticky notes on the 3 2/4″ side.
The Inside of the Post It Note Holder
Here comes the exclusive part. Stampin’Up! has this amazing collection of post it notes; two are regular sized, two are little banner ones for marking your pages in the catalogue and one is this beautiful long one with the 30th anniversary graphic. It is only available for demonstrators. Just another little reason to get that starter kit while there is such an amazing deal!
Thanks!
Thanks so much for joining me today. Maybe you can join me for my daily 3pm Facebook Live video. Today I will be unveiling the new Paper Pumpkin. If you liked this project please comment and/or pin it to Pinterest so that more people can enjoy it. Those little things make such a big difference for my business and I am so happy that you are willing to help me out in this way. If you live in Canada and want to purchase any of the products that I used, just click on the links below in the product list. I hope you have a super day and a lovely weekend. It’s Father’s Day!
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today I am participating in the New at SU Blog Hop featuring new flowers from the annual catalog. I decided to share another card made with the stunning Prized Peony bundle. Peonies are in bloom right now in southern Ontario and I love them!
Prized Peony
I love the embossing folder that is part of the Peony Garden Suite, so I thought I would run the full front panel of the card through this Dainty Diamonds Embossing Folder including the square vellum doily.
Square Vellum Doily Window
This card was born with the idea of using the square vellum doily as a window in the card. I cut out the square frame using the stitched shapes square dies. I just put a glue dot on each corner to secure the doily to the front of the card. After that I cut another scalloped square with petal pink and then used the stitched square die to cut out the centre of it. The resulting scalloped square frame was placed over the edge of the vellum doily to set it off nicely. When this was done I put the entire thing through the die cutting machine in the Dainty Diamonds embossing folder. The vellum looks so pretty embossed!
It’s All in the Details
Did you notice the saying? I used only part of the “love & thanks to a dear friend”. The flowers and the leaves were stamped in memento on shimmery white cardstock and coloured with Petal Pink Blends. The leaves were done in Old Olive and the centre in dark Daffodil Delight. I even finished the inside of the card!
If you want to see more cards made with this suite, check out this blog post.
One More Card
I just had to make one more card. You can see that it uses the same raw materials but instead of creating a window with the square vellum doily, I just created a focal point that I popped up with dimensionals on the pretty paper. Which one do you like better?
I used Stampin’ Write Markers to colour directly on the stamp using petal pink and old olive. I then used a Blender Pen to blend the colour on the leaves to give it a more vibrant look. The same technique was used on the flower but the petal pink did not blend as well as the old olive. Maybe it dries faster. Either way, I am pleased with the end result.
Hop On Through
I am excited to see what everyone else in this blog hop made and I hope you have fun hopping with us. Be sure to leave us comments because that makes it extra special. Just click on the button below to hop on over to the next blog. Here is a list of everyone on the blog hop so you have a quick overview.
If you click on the button above you will go to the talented Joyce Whitman for another Peony Garden card. I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us.
Thank You
Thanks for stopping by today, I’m so glad you did! I hope you have a super day and I’m looking forward to hearing which card you liked best in today’s blog post. Remember, this beautiful bundle can be yours as a free BONUS if you get the starter kit. Can you pass up such a great deal? If not, here is the link to get started but it will only work if you live in Canada. If you are from the States, you can sign up with Julie. Just click on the button on the right of this post.
Hello stampers and happy Friday to you. I am SO excited to share this beautiful new suite with you called Prized Peony. If you watch my daily Facebook live videos you will have seen the last two creations. Now you get to see them on my blog.
Prized Peony Perfection
One of the best things about Stampin’Up! is their coordination. This suite is no exception and it makes it so easy and so fun to create beautiful things. There is the stamp set with the coordinating dies, the matching paper, ribbon and gems. Wow! Such beautiful subtle colours that can be left muted or can be combined with other things for a dramatic pop of colour. You choose!
My Cards
This first card was made using a sketch challenge for a Canadian Direct Demonstrators meeting. I don’t often use sketches, but they are fun to do and it is always interesting to see what other people do with the same sketch.
Here is the sketch that I used so that you can see the measurements.
More Cards
During the video we had to choose which side of the patterned paper to use and the votes came in for petal pink. Of course I needed to now create a card with the other side too, just so that it wouldn’t feel badly! Here it is:
Just in case you are wondering where the framelit from the sentiment came from, it is in the Tasteful Touches bundle. The last card I am going to show you is my very favourite. I love jewel tones so I am glad that I still have my Lovely Lipstick blends. If you missed out, I happen to have two extra sets! I did create the card with Rococo Rose as well and it is pretty too.
I took a close up picture so you can see the sheen of the ribbon as well as the “cut” of the gems. They really are stunning and put your card up to the next level of awesomeness. Sympathy cards don’t have to be drab. The burst of colour represents the vibrancy and the love of the person who will be missed.
Rococo Rose Prized Peony
It would be unwise of me to only show you a card with a product that you can no longer get, so shove over Lovely Lipstick and make room for Rococo Rose. It turned out brighter than I expected and I am also curious if you could blend it with a little bit of real red for greater intensity.
Just in case you think you are seeing double, you are! For this picture I just laid my Rococo Rose peony on top of the Lovely Lipstick one. I didn’t feel like making another complete card.
My Video
Here is a video showing you how I made the first card. Just take a look at the first few minutes if you only want to see the paper and the coordinating items and not the actual making of the card. If you like it, please share so that others will follow my YouTube channel as well. Somehow this squirrel wants to get more views on YouTube. It remains a mystery to me that I have so many followers but so few views, so please help me!
Free Bundle Promotion
Yes, you can get this gorgeous Prized Peony bundle for free as a bonus when you get the starter kit. Here is the link to make it easy for you. It remains a mystery to me that not every single customer of mine would take me up on this offer. I would get another starter kit myself if I could! The savings are tremendous and it will feel like Christmas in June for you. Questions? Concerns? Don’t hesitate to message me and I will be happy to address them. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by and have a super day.
