Cheers to Another Year!

Today is my sister's birthday, so I made this fun fold birthday card for her.

I used scraps from the Memories in Bloom Scrapbooking Workshop Kit paired with Lemon Lolly, Basic White, and Pretty in Pink cardstock.  I stamped the front with the Arched Wishes stamp set in Peach Pie, Lemon Lolly, and Black inks.  I fussy cut the balloon from Pretty in Pink cardstock and the cupcake with scraps from the scrapbooking workshop kit and some Lemon Lolly DSP.

The front panel and Peach Pie glimmer paper arches were cut with the Everyday Arches dies.

The Party Dots and Tinsel Gems embellishments add some fun!

How fun is the easel fold?  I stamped the inside sentiment from the With You in Mind stamp set in Peach Pie and added a few more Party Dots.  Both the stamped arched panel and the inside panel were raised with Dimensionals.  I really love this fun fold and how this card turned out!

On another note, earlier this week would have been my 26th anniversary with Close To My Heart!  I'm sharing here because some of you have been with me from the beginning.  I'm grateful for this chapter with Stampin' Up!  We have a great demonstrator join offer this month, so if you'd like to know more about the benefits of being a demonstrator, reach out please.

New Month, New Opportunities!

February has an awesome Stampin' Up! JOIN offer that begins today, plus you can now see/order the February Product of the Month.  

Two new kits also launch today!  Don't forget to redeem those Bonus Days coupons you earned last month!

Also, if you didn't get my newsletter (which also includes my class schedule), let me know so that I can email it to you.  Thanks!

Virtual Card Making Retreat ‘26: Card #2

The Virtual Card Making Retreat 2026 product bundle is still available, along with the instructional videos, and you will be amazed by how your creativity is stretched!  For the second card, we used the frame die in such a creative, unusual way!

We colored the flowers with Stampin' Blends alcohol markers (and were supposed to color the leaves that way also, but instead, I used the solid leaf stamp in Secret Sea).  If you look closely, you'll see "dew" drops created with the color lifter.

Do you enjoy coloring lined images?  If so, what is your favorite medium?  I am definitely still working on my Stampin' Blends (alcohol markers) techniques.

Elegant Congrats Card

Inspired by the Virtual Card Making Retreat card #3, I made this card on my Facebook Live recently using the Lovely & Beautiful DSP, the Virtual Card Making Retreat stamp set, and the Simply Beautiful and Beautifully Celebrated dies for my school's Teacher of the Year. Our school colors are purple and gold.

I heat embossed the sentiment in gold, and also added gold heat embossed accents to the flower centers.

Be sure to decorate the inside of your card and your envelope!

I think this is the first time I've added ribbon to the inside(-ish?) of a card, but I thought that flower blossom needed a little grounding.

If you'd like all the details, you can watch how I made this card on my Facebook page or on my YouTube channel.

Virtual Card Making Retreat ‘26: Card #3

This beautiful tri-fold card uses two pieces of DSP (designer series paper) and some Berry Burst Two-Tone cardstock.

It was fun to use a blending brush to color the flowers and stamps to "color" the leaves.  The white matte dots were colored with Darling Duckling Stampin' Blend to turn them yellow.

I love all the stamped flowers!  We even added little dots with the Darling Duckling Stampin' Blend.

I'll be showing you how to make a similar card on tonight's Live at 7:30 PM (EST) on my Inky Scrapper Facebook page!

Virtual Card Making Retreat ‘26: Card 1

The Stampin’ Up! Virtual Card Making Retreat was incredible! I was able to complete a few of the 15 cards this weekend, and I learned so many things. I can’t wait to share in upcoming classes and events! 

This card features the exclusive Virtual Card Making Retreat stamp set PLUS a sentiment and dies from the {sneak peek} March Online Exclusive Forever Florals bundle (stamp set and dies).

Can you believe that there was no coloring?  Coordinating stamps colored in the flower centers in Darling Duckling, the tiny flowers in Fresh Freesia, and the leaves in second generation Granny Apple Green and Old Olive.

It's important to remember to stamp the inside of your cards and your envelopes!  This card also uses Cloud Cover DSP and Secret Sea (ink and Two-Tone cardstock) plus some white embossing for the sentiment.

I'm looking forward to sharing the card designs and techniques I've learned at future stamping classes/events.  Did you know that the retreat bundle is still available and that the videos will also be available for at least a year?

Sentiments Make Great Backgrounds

Usually, we think of sentiment stamps as the focal image on a card, but they make really great backgrounds also! 

I made this card on my Thursday Facebook Live at 7:30 PM.  I love the January product of the month, Fabulous Sayings stamp set, and I paired with a piece of Nature Walk DSP and the lovely details of the Nature’s Symphony dies. This first card uses Shaded Spruce, Pretty Peacock, and Secret Sea.  

It is always fun to take a card design and reimagine it with different colors!  My second card uses Flirty Flamingo and Strawberry Slush.  I used the first and second generation stamping technique to get an ombre effect on the card.  Two-Tone Strawberry Slush cardstock also helped contribute to an ombre effect.

Who should I send these birthday cards to? Are you on my birthday card mailing list yet?

Elegant Rectangles Card

While the name isn't very creative, it sums up this card quite nicely in my opinion!  I made this on last week's Thursday 7:30 PM EST Facebook Live, complete with measurements, etc.  (My VIP customers also get typed instructions, so if you'd like to join us, just place an order of any size HERE.  Thank you!)

Products used:

• White Willow, Petal Pink, and Calypso Coral cardstock
• Lovely and Beautiful DSP
• Simply Beautiful dies 
• Damask embossing folder
• White with Gold ribbon

January Card Class #4: Flower Bouquet For You Card

This flower bouquet card was fun to design!  I used a Petal Pink cardstock card base and stamped the corner, also in Petal Pink, with the flower cluster from the 2026 Virtual Card Making Retreat bundle (still available)!

I matted the Lovely and Beautiful DSP with Crumb Cake cardstock.  To make the bouquet cone, I cut a 6.5" Cricut circle and then cut it half.  I folded the half circle into thirds and then filled it with the die cut flower bunches from the Virtual Card Making Retreat bundle (after coloring the leaves with Old Olive Stampin' Blends).

The sentiment and dies are from the Beautiful Butteflies bundle, available on last chance HERE!

Tropical Birthday Card

When I saw the SUOC #392 Sketch Challenge, I knew it would be perfect for my attempt at using the Simply Beautiful dies to make a tropical card.  Here's what I made, using the Beach Boardwalk suite as my color inspiration:

Here's the sketch:

I started with a 4" x 5 1/4" White Willow panel and began blending Lemon Lolly ink near the bottom.

Next, I added some Peach Pie (since I don't have Timid Tiger).

Above and blending into the Lemon Lolly area, I added Pool Party and then blended the top with Petunia Pop.

The last thing that I did (but it didn't photograph well) was to flick water onto this panel with a water painter to splatter the blending.

I used Granny Apple Green and Pool Party Two-Tone cardstock, plus Petunia Pop and Lemon Lolly cardstock.  The sentiment, stamped with Secret Sea, is from the LAST CHANCE Beautiful Butterflies stamp set.

I would love to know what you think of my take on this sketch and/or the color comb!  Does it give you tropical vibes?  Thanks for stopping by!

January Card Class #3: Easel Fun Fold Card

This easel fun fold card was, well, FUN to make at this month's card class!  We started with a standard A2 top-fold card of Petal Pink cardstock, then scored the center.  We added two pieces of Lovely and Beautiful DSP to accommodated the fold.  We made sure to only adhere the bottom of our large die cut flower (Simply Beautiful dies). 

We stamped the sentiment in Calypso Coral and the pretty outline floral from the upcoming Virtual Card Making Retreat bundle in Petal Pink.  That panel was raised with Dimensionals so that it would stand prettily on a desk.

A few Pearlized Faceted Circles (self-adhesive gems) finished off this pretty card.  I'm looking forward to sending it to someone special!

Speaking of someone special, would you like to come create and connect at one of my upcoming Sip & Stamp kit togethers?

January Card Class #2: Fresh Freesia Floral Card

At Sunday's card class, three of the four cards used the gorgeous Lovely and Beautiful suite.  (I LOVE that the front sides of each paper has gold foil accents!)  The first card we made with this collection used Fresh Freesia and Old Olive.

 It's hard to tell from the photo, but I blended Old Olive ink onto the card front and then flicked water from a water painter to give it an interesting texture.  The pretty flowers and leaves were die cut from the Simply Beautiful dies.  Adding Fresh Freesia ink with a blending brush adds such pretty dimension and texture!

I stamped the sentiment and the inside of the card with this pretty outline floral stamp from the exclusive Virtual Card Making Retreat stamp set in Fresh Freesia and added a skinny strip of Lovely and Beautiful DSP. 

Thank you to Kim McGillis for this pretty card sketch/idea!  If you attended card class and/or are a customer of mine, you will receive instructions including measurements to recreate this card design.  It is definitely one that I will be using again!  Please share if this card inspires you to create something!  Get inky, friends!