Hi, There, Stampers!
For today’s projects, I’m headed over to the Stampin’ Up! January – April 2023 Mini Catalog. I’m sure I’ll get back to some Sale-a-bration projects. But I’m going to play with the Mini Catalog for a bit.
Sometimes I just love to play with graphic designs when I’m making cards – or even constructing scrapbook pages. So you can imagine that the graphic designs in the Desert Details Stamp Set and Desert Details Dies are what first caught my eye.
The first thing that I wanted to do was to see how the two stamps that create strips of southwestern designs worked on a card with the die that cuts a similar design. After that, I’d see where that design took me.
Stamping Mirror Image Strips Top and Bottom
If you look at the background layer of this card, you can see that I stamped one of the strips using Pale Papaya Ink and one of them using Cajun Craze. Once those strips were down, I had to decide where the die-cut strips was going and what color it was going to be. Picking one of the colors from the Delicate Desert Suite of products, I chose Soft Succulent, and placed it next to the Papaya-colored strip.
Here’s a fun tip for creating a design like this where you want a stamped design on the top of a layer to be a mirror images of the design on the bottom (or even on the left and right). Use the Stamparatus! Arrange the cardstock in the middle of the magnetic base of the Stamparatus, noting carefully where the top of the cardstock lies. Arrange your stamp to end up where you want it on the top and stamp. Then turn your card so that the bottom is lying where the top was before. And stamp again. You can do this with as many strips as you’d like.
Finishing the Card
Once I had the stamped layer finished, I looked at the rest of the Delicate Desert Suite and chose one of the frame dies to create a layer. The monochrome Cajun Craze print from the Delicate Desert Designer Paper was perfect for this. Before I adhered it to the card front, I added a piece of the Pale Papaya Faux Velvet Trim to be behind it. I chose the Sunshine stamp for the sentiment and then added some of the desert flowers from the stamp set which I die-cut with the coordinating dies. For the final touch, I added three of the Gold Faceted Adhesive-Backed Sequins.
The Scraps From One Card Led to Another Card
When I was picking up after this project, I wondered what to do with the piece of Cajun Craze paper that had the hole in it from die-cutting the frame layer. Still curious about how some of the pieces in the die set were going to work, I started on another card. The first thing was to use the larger frame die to cut around the hole that the first frame left – and I had another frame. And then I went after the other dies. I was curious if the die with the Southwest style graphic would create pieces that fit together as in a jigsaw puzzle. It does! I decided I wanted some metallic accents to create this “puzzle.” While the Dry Brushed Metallic paper in the suite was OK, I chose to use two of the prints from the Texture Chic paper that’s in the Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. I love the gold accents. I created my puzzle on a 4-1/4” x 5-1/2” piece of Very Vanilla Cardstock. Once I was finished, I cut it down to fit behind the frame.
When I was about to adhere the framed piece to the Soft Succulent and Cajun Craze prints that I’d glued together, I realized I hadn’t tried out the little accent die that just cuts a design in a piece of paper. So off I went to cut it into the upper left and lower right of the glue-together sheets. I worked!
To finish the card, I added a notched piece of the Pale Papaya trim and a sentiment from the Go To Greetings Stamp Set. The last touch was three of the Gold Faceted Sequins.
I really had a lot of fun with this suite of products, and hope that you do, too!
