Hi, There, Stampers!
This week I’ve been playing with my new Stampin’ Up! Designer Series Paper sets. While I always have some kind of printed paper out on my work station, more time than not it’s a background or accent piece. This week, I’m going to make Designer Series Paper the star of the show. Just to keep that long phrase from taking over this article, I’m going to do something I try not ever to do: call the papers, “DSP.” That’s short for Designer Series Paper, and it’s the way most of us demonstrators refer to it.
The Different Sides of Awash With Beauty
This is the picture of this paper that you’ll see on the Stampin’ Up! website. As with most Stampin’ Up! papers, those in this set are double-sided. And you’ll note in the picture that the sides with the big flowers are considered the primary side and those that are either monochrome or very small prints are the “other” side. For today’s project, not only am I going to feature the DSP, I’m going to feature the “other” sides of several of these prints. The main reason that I’m doing that is that I’m using small pieces of the papers. And you’re just not going to see those gorgeous large flowers on a little piece of paper.
A Secondary Theme This Week: Strips
As I was studying the new Stampin’ Up! 2022-23 Annual Catalog for the last two weeks’ projects, I noticed that quite a few of the samples in the catalog used strips of various lengths and widths as the card fronts. In fact, my last article featured strips made out of a stamped image. But this week I’m going to use strips of DSP to show the papers off.
Choosing the Prints
For a card such as today’s card, a DSP set like Awash With Beauty is perfect. Not only does it have several monochrome prints in many different colors, it also has a design with a small print that has several of those same colors. So it was fairly easy to use the Pink/Green/Blue-on-white print as the background for the card. The Balmy Blue and Blushing Bride monochromes were a perfect match for the colors in the print. And the Granny Apple Green and Mossy Meadow both picked up some of the colors in the green leaves. So off I went with them.
And Then There Was the Layout
Once I chose the small print for the background, I decided I really wanted a lot of it to show, just because I think it’s so pretty. To make that happen, I needed a smaller central layer and smaller strips. That design didn’t happen right away. I created a background to hold the prints with the die-cut Old Olive cardstock. It’s a bit different from the two greens I was going to be using so set them off pretty well. Then I started with strips that were a bit wider and whose ends extended beyond the cardstock layer. After much trimming and rearranging I chose the short strips that you see here. But originally they were just rectangles. That just did not work for me. So off I went to get my Banners Pick a Punch and I finally had my design.
The Perfect Die Set and Stamp
Have you seen the new Limited Edition Stamp Set? I used it once back in the beginning of the month. It’s primarily the Stampin’ Up! “Angel Policy” stamp set in that it has a couple of versions of the Stampin’ Up! copyright stamp that those of us who sell our projects made with Stampin’ Up! products are required to use. BUT it also has some fun images and sentiments, and the “A Paper Hug From Me” stamp seemed perfect for something that ‘s showing off paper!
It also fit nicely on one of the smaller dies in the Scalloped Contours Dies set, the same set that I used for the background cardstock layer in the card. The die that you see has a border around it that has openings. Rather than just tie the finishing ribbon around the whole layer, I slipped it through those slits. I think that gives it a bit of a nice touch.
The Final Touch
Speaking of touches, when I called the card, “finished,” I still was not happy with all the white space left on the sentiment layer. So off I went looking for some embellishments. Almost immediately I found the Solid Faceted Gems set. The color on the label for the pick gems says, “Petal Pink.” But I think it goes wonderfully well with this card with all its Blushing Bride. I love the way Stampin’ Up! products coordinate in unexpected ways!
Later This Week – More Strips!
Remember to stop by later this week (I’m planning Wednesday and Friday) to check out the other cards that I made using strips. Definitely different from this one!
Happy Stamping!
