Hi, There, Stampers!
When I first started looking throug the new 2023-2024 Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog, I stopped immediately when I saw all the beautiful blues in the Countryside Inn Suite of Products. It took me a while to focus on the stamp set, dies, and embossing folder that are part of the suite. But I eventually decided that I needed to buy the whole suite just to see how many ways I could use those blues!
First Let’s Check Out the Suite
Of course I fell in love with the papers first. The paper set is called Countryside Inn and it consists of twelve different prints using four different colors – all blues! Those are: Balmy Blue, Misty Moonlight (a color returning to Stampin’ Up! after a couple of years off), Boho Blue (a brand new color) and Night of Navy.
The Countryside Corners Stamp Set is called a “set” even though there’s only one stamp in the box. Once you see all the pieces in the die set, you’re going to see how each of the octagonal-line designs can be an image in itself.
And here are the Countryside Corners Dies: There are five octagonal shapes, one rectangle (for the rectangle in the middle of the stamp), and a small die for a sentiment that you might place in the middle of a design. I used the smallest of the octagonal dies for the sampler card at the beginning of this article and the small rectangle for the sentiment (from the Go To Greetings Stamp Set).
Finally there’s the Countryside Blossoms Embossing Folder. You can see in the picture at the beginning of this article that I embossed a piece of Boho Blue Cardstock before I adhered it to the Night of Navy Cardstock card base.
Constructing the Card – The Strips
I love making cards with strips of paper. It’s even more fun when there’s a shape to use instead of just cutting rectangles out of paper, and this suite of products definiely makes it fun.
But I digress. I do have a process when I’m making a design that looks like I just haphazardly put strips onto a card front. I have a method. First I decide where I’m going to place whatever sentiment I’d like on the card front. For this card, I decided on the bottom center. So I had to make sure I placed my strips high enough on the card front to allow enough space for it.
Then I choose which prints/colors I want in which order. For this card, starting with the far left and right strips, I angled the left one slightly to the left and the right strips slightly to the right. I placed them so that the outside corners on the top and bottom were in the same position relative to their side of the card. Then I did something similar with the next two inside pieces, but angling them towards the center as they overlapped the two outside pieces.
Finally, I adhered the center piece straight up and down and overlapping the two inside angled pieces.
The Rest of The Card
I like to use ribbon on my card fronts. Sometimes I make bows, sometimes just knots, and sometimes I just lay them in some kind of design under one of the other elements on the card front. For this card, I cut a 24″ piece of the Boho Blue 3/8″ Textured Ribbon, which is just about enough to make a nice-sized box when tied across the width of the card.
For the sentiment, I embossed one of the stamps from the Go To Greetings Stamp Set. You’ll be seeing stamps from that set a lot over the next couple of months. I know that set by heart and it’s good for just about any card I send out to friends and family.
How To Buy Stampin’ Up! Products
The easiest way to buy the products that I’ve shared here is to click on one of the pictures or the bold-faced text, which will take you to my personal Stampin’ Up! store. Once you’re there to learn more about – and buy – the product you clicked, you can shop for the other products as well.
And A Bonus!
The Countryside Corners Stamp Set and Die Set can be bought as a bundle – and that saves you 10% of the total cost. Here’s a link to that bundle if you’re interested in getting that bit of savings!
