Aloha, all!
I just cannot believe it’s almost the end of April! It’s not just that it’s the end of the month. It’s April! How have four months of 2021 gone by already?
The good news is that today is a Wednesday – the last Wednesday of the month. And that means it’s time for Cheryl Hamilton and I to get together for our monthly Island Hopping blog posts. This month, of course, we’re both focusing on what’s coming in less than a week – a brand new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. By this time next week we’ll all be able to order just about anything that’s in the new catalog. But Cheryl and I, as Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators, have had access to a selection of products for the last month or so. Today we’re sharing pictures of what we’ve done with some of them.
My Favorite New Stamp Set
This past Monday I shared the first card that I made with my favorite new stamp set, Hand-Penned Petals. Today I’m excited to be sharing another couple of stamps from that same set. While I love coloring in stamps with line art, I really like what Stampin’ Up! has done with “fill” stamps in this stamp set. You have to know that these stamps, that you can use to fill color into the line art, are not intended to fill in the line art perfectly. There are some stamps where that is the case. But in this set, with its key phrase, “hand-penned,” the result art work is supposed to look as if someone hand drew and filled the images. I love this look. I especially love that I don’t have to try to be “perfect” in what I do with the set.
For the image I stamped today, I used a new Stampin’ Up! In Color, Polished Pink, to stamp the fill in the flowers, and another new color, Soft Succulent, to fill in the leaves. For the most part, I stamped color off of the stamp before I added the inked stamp to the image. In two cases, I added the ink fill at full strength, as in the left at the bottom right in this image. I love the look with the colors mixed!
And Fun New Papers
The background for this card is ALL Soft Succulent. My favorite part of this is that I used the new Stampin’ Up! 2021-2023 In Color Designer Series Paper Assortment for the notched strips behind the stamped layer. In this card you’ll see a sample of each of the 4 prints in the paper sets for all of the colors in Stampin’ Up!’s collection this year. The cardstock that’s the base layer in this card is also Soft Succulent which I’ve embossed using the Tasteful Texture Embossing Folder, a carry over from the current annual catalog.
You’ll also see a small piece of Polished Pink Cardstock on the right side of the card on which I stamped the “Thanks” sentiment from the Hand-Penned Stamp Set.
And Here’s the Old
As you may know, I’ve been producing some Tutorial Booklets that are for sale here on my blog. To help me with ideas for the new tutorials I’ve been researching projects that I’ve undertaken in the past. In getting ready to plan my June tutorial booklet, I came across this sketch that I created in May 2011. That’s almost exactly 10 years ago. But it caught my eye and off I went with the design to create today’s card. I hope you feel free to use it if the mood strikes you!
Are you curious what the card from 10 years ago looked like? So was I, and I went looking for it. I could not believe that green was the background theme of that card, too. Back then it was Wild Wasabi.
I have to tell you that, not only do I miss Wild Wasabi, I really miss that luscious satin ribbon that we had in so many colors back then. But just wait until you see all of the new ribbons in the 2021-2022 catalog!
Now Please Visit Cheryl’s Blog
Cheryl’s blog post can be reached by clicking here. But don’t forget to come back here and grab a copy of the sketch for this card. I’d love to see what you do with it. Seriously! In fact, I’ll feature every card that you make with this sketch on a future blog post if you’ll send it too me.
Happy Stamping!

Love your card sketch- and the way the white piece only extends to half of the card. Beautiful paper!
Robin, your card is beautiful. I think I may have to add this stamp set to my wish list.