SNEAK PEEK – Crafting Forever (Day Three)

I had so much fun playing with the Crafting Forever stamp set when preparing for my Stampin’ Up! OnStage presentation earlier this month.  I’m thrilled to share them with you, too – I’m spreading them out over several posts to make sure I can say everything I want about each project.  This Angel Policy stamp set is absolutely a must-have when the 2017 Annual Catalog is released on June 1.

If you missed the first two posts with this set, you can see them here:

• SNEAK PEEK – Crafting Forever (Day One)
• SNEAK PEEK – Crafting Forever (Day Two)

The progression of my projects follow the path of an artist – it started with school supplies, made its way through snips, stamps and twine and lands on a bucket of brushes (with a knife and pencil).  I loved this pot of brushes from the beginning and wanted to showcase it in a beautifully simple way.  Here’s my card:

Tips, Tricks and Reminders

• Sweet-and-Simple Layout.  While this beautiful pot of brushes is the headliner for this show, I gave the sentiment a starring role by positioning it on a Real Red oval and offsetting it in the bottom, right corner.  This sentiment is wonderful – perfect for all customers or team members (we all should do something creative every day).  There’s something I really like about this simple layout – the light stamping of Crumb Cake from the Touches of Texture is just a filler for all the “business” going on inside the focal square.
• A Second Project.  This card was designed as a perfect card to send to a wonderful customer or excelling team member.  What happens, though, when that customer or team member deserves something MORE than just a card – like, maybe, a gift?  I created a tag to coordinate with this card:  How sweet is that?!  While it’s mostly the same layout and idea as the card, can you tell that the shape is a little lop-sided (it’s not a perfect rectangle)?  I cropped the tag and coordinating layers with the Popcorn Thinlits Dies (cropping the ends to create one layer).  I tied the tag with a couple layers of Linen Thread that pairs perfectly with the warm colors in the tag.
• Color Palette.  I pulled the colors for this card – Crumb Cake, Real Red and Soft Suede from a two- or three-year-old Designer Series Paper from a past Holiday Catalog.  I loved the richness of these three together.  I stamped the brushes in Soft Suede and the background pattern in Crumb Cake – and , of course, the sentiment is displayed on a big, red oval.  If you are inspired by this color combination, please save this:

Stamp Sets:  Crafting Forever, Touches of Texture  Papers:  Real Red, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Whisper White  Inks:  Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, White Craft  Accessories:  Popcorn Box Thinlits Dies, White Stampin’ Emboss Powder, Linen Thread, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I think you’ll agree that this sweet set is at the top of your list, right?  There’s still one more post with this set – please come back tomorrow!

Thanks for stopping by today!

Brian

Retiring List.  Stampin’ Up!’s retiring list was announced this past week – you can see all the items that will soon go away here: