It’s time for another Be Inspired Design Team Blog Hop – what fun! The Be Inspired Design Team is a group of Stampin’ Up! demonstrators from all over the world who are excited to share our themed projects with you. I’m so honored to be a part of this group of talented stampers!
For today’s Be Inspired Blog Hop, we are sharing projects that showcase friendship. I thought this might be a difficult topic until I started flipping through the new catalog – there are SO MANY sentiments that feature friends and friendships. SO MANY. Still…I chose a project that doesn’t specifically mention friendship, but my project only gives a solid nod to the concept. We hope our projects inspire you and that you leave with lots of fun ideas! If you aren’t starting the hop here, then you probably just popped over from the amazing project shared by my talented, Canadian friend Carolynn Sander.
Let’s Create…Together
This past year has been hard on everyone. While trying to stay as safe and as isolated as possible, we missed hanging out with our friends and family. As restrictions are starting to lift, though, we are able to gather together with others to connect, eat or craft … together. This card celebrates the joys of friendship with our crafting pals:
Two of the starring elements on my card are pulled from the Expressions in Ink Suite, which includes one of my favorite bundles and one of my favorite Designer Series Papers in Stampin’ Up!’s 2021 Annual Catalog (if you want to see the other items that made my list, click here). The gorgeous flowers that cover the front of my card are from a single die in the Artistic Dies, part of the Artistically Inked Bundle. The striped panel along the side of my card comes from the Expressions in Ink Specialty Designer Series Paper. Here’s a look at this incredible bundle:
How incredible are the elements of this bundle?! The images in this stamp set and gorgeous dies perfectly coordinating with the beautiful Expressions in Ink Specialty Designer Series Paper – here’s a look at the colors and patterns in this pack of papers:
While there are so many gorgeous patterns in this pack of papers, I used the simple page of shiny stripes to accents my flowers and sentiment. I didn’t want anything to distract from the centerpiece of my card:
The sentiment on my card is what ties it to a friendship theme. I stamped “Create” with the Create with Friends stamp set, new in Stampin’ Up!’s 2021 Annual Catalog, and then nestled the “Let’s” in the space between the “C” and the “t”. I cropped that with one of the dies from the Tasteful Labels Dies. I stamped “together” (also from the Create with Friends stamp set) on a 1/2″ strip of Soft Sea Foam cardstock and attached it to the Tasteful Labels Die cutout at an angle. Here’s a look at the versatile Create with Friends stamp set:
How many combinations of these words can you use on your stamping projects? How useful is this incredible set?!
My card is layered and layered with luscious Shaded Spruce, sweet Soft Sea Foam and flashy gold foil with accents of white. Gold looks so great with this rich green – I was so happy with how they paired together. If you like this mix of Soft Sea Foam, Shaded Spruce and gold foil as much as I do, I hope you’ll save this for future reference:
Speaking of friendship – there are some great projects to be viewed by some wonderful friends of mine. I’m so glad you stopped by today, and I hope you’ll continue the Be Inspired Design Team Blog Hop to see more projects by my awesome friends – I’m sure you’ll love them. The next stop is my friend across the pond, Emma Goddard. Click on the banner below to continue through the hop:
I hope you’ll hop through the rest of the projects in this lineup. In case you get off-track at any point during the hop, here’s a listing of all the participants in this hop:
Thanks for stopping by today!
Brian
Here are the products I showcased in today’s post:
Stamp Sets: Create with Friends Papers: Expressions in Ink Specialty Designer Series Paper, Shaded Spruce, Soft Sea Foam, Thick Basic White Inks: Shaded Spruce Accessories: Artistic Dies, Tasteful Labels Dies, Stampin’ Dimensionals







Oh I love this Brian. And that sentiment is perfect
Thank you so much, Tanya! This hop is always fun for me – so glad you like my card. ♥
Love the gold and green combo here Brian! And I am also so excited to be able to craft and create with friends again one day soon. Hugs friend!
Thank you so much, Carolynn! As soon as I saw how beautifully this green and gold are paired in this Designer Series Paper, I knew I’d need to work with it. So glad you like it, my friend!
Beautiful card Brian
Which DSP is the striped gold paper from?
Thanks,Dawn
Hi Dawn! Thanks! The striped paper is from the Expressions in Ink Specialty Designer Series Paper. ♥
Gorgeous! I must break out the dies for this bundle! Artistically Inked DSP is one of my two very favorites this year!
It’s pretty amazing, Sue! You are going to LOVE working with these dies. They are pretty spectacular. ♥
Lovely in green and gold! Awesome way to do the sentiments! Thanks for the inspiration!
Thanks, Windy! I’ve not always been a fan of gold, but my love for it is coming back. I think it’s particularly beautiful with this rich green. ♥
Could this be any more amazing? The gold die cut is fantastic and is perfectly paired with the gold stripe! Well done!
Thank you so much, Mary! I really had fun playing with these “fancy elements.” I’m so glad you like it! ♥
Hi Brian
Sorry the stripes looked papaya on my phone but now I see they are gold when I looked at your DSP booklets 🙂 which are great to have & collect
Dawn
All good! ♥ I’m so glad you like the DSP books – they can be very handy. 🙂 Thanks, Dawn!
LOVELY card Brian. And next time you are in Tucson…..Let’s create together (LOVED the last time).
Absolutely on my bucket list, Kadie! Will keep you posted on the next time I decide to sit on a plane. ♥
Great card Brian and the flower in gold is fantastic. I bet this card was a fun one to make.
Thanks, Grace! This card came together over a couple of days. The elements really came together in a way I couldn’t have imagined when I first started making it. So happy you like it! ♥
Love this card! What a great color combination and the sentiment is just perfect. Wish we could get together to create!
Wouldn’t it be fun?! I’m so grateful we are able to tip-toe back into socializing. Thanks so much, my friend. ♥
Oh this is golden! I love the simple elegance!
Thank you, Linda! I don’t use gold a lot, but when I do… I’m so happy you like it. ♥
Absolutely gorgeous card Brian! Love it!
Thank you so much, Marylin! This die cut is just amazing and stands on its own pretty beautifully. So glad you like it! ♥
Stunning! I love your card and this stamp set.
Thanks, Liz! The die cut really made it easy to build this card. So glad you like it. ♥
Great card Brian and love your colour combination x
Thank you so much, Angela! I really love gold with this rich green. Such a great hop. ♥
Stunning! Simply stunning.
Stunning card Brian and I love the sentiment!