September 13, 2023

Around the World on Wednesday--Let's Take a Walk

September 13, 2023/ Brenda Nelson

Hello friends! I have been a little bit absent from this Blog Hop but after meeting, in person, some of the other gals from ‘Around the World’ at our Backstage Leadership conference in Las Vegas, I have become motivated again!

The theme for this month is ‘Let’s Take a Walk’ which I found really intriguing! I immediately began to think of some of the places that I have been fortunate enough to walk in, and the most recent one was a trip to London that I took my youngest son, Shepard on this past spring.

Whenever I travel I like to snap pictures of our feet with cool things underneath and I decided to scrapbook two pictures from our recent trip together!

The first picture on the left side of my scrapbook page is taken just outside of the London Tower and the second is in the Notting Hill area (no I did not run into Julia Roberts or Hugh Grant, but wouldn’t that have been amazing?).

I started with a base 12x12 DSP from the Fresh as a Daisy collection. I love how this collection of DSP features all of the new In Colors. I added a layer of Copper Clay card stock over top and I did some background stamping using Quiet Meadow stamp set and a bit of flicking with my Copper Clay Stampin’ Blend.

Because I was creating this page solely for myself, not a class or scrapbook group meeting, I took liberty to use retired stamp set En Route. I love any of our stamp sets that have to do with travel or adventure. I rarely part with them and used it for the 2 sentiments on my page.

I though the sentiment “You’re Going Places” worked well with our theme of taking a walk—it probably is the most common way to get places isn’t it? I also find it intriguing to be in another county, one with so much history like Britain, and ponder the thought of how many people in the course of history have stood right here? Have walked this same path. It makes you feel very small in the scheme of things.

I love the dies from the Quiet Meadow and I hadn’t use them in a while so I decided to incorporate them into this layout. It was May when I visited so I few florals felt necessary with the moody colors of Copper Clay and Pebbled Path (the photo mat card stock color). These colors remind me of London, old brick and concrete and metal.

also…notice my fresh white shoes? they did not look like this at the end of this trip!

Now let me share a product you didn’t know you need—the Delightful Doilies Hybrid Embossing Folder and Die Bundle—particularly the DOILY DIE. Now who has been around long enough to remember when we sold doilies? I still have some. I greedily hoard them. I don’t need to anymore because now I can cut my OWN and make them ANY COLOR I want!

See, I told you!! You just discovered that you need this bundle!

It is so easy to color your Basic White card stock with our Blending Brushes. I trimmed the doily in half (why waste, you are only seeing a partial of it anyway) and I will keep the rest for another project.

I used one of my favorite punches of all time, the Washi label punch, for the sentiment “Adventure Awaits”…truly, it always does. Even in our every day lives! I added some of the Copper Clay twine that I unravelled and did a little spray of Smoky Slate marker over top of the sentiment.

I added a few Copper Clay embellishments and my page was complete. This actually didn’t take me too long to put together either! I hope this Blog Hop inspires you!

Thanks for stopping by today and make sure to go and visit all of the amazing designers from around the world on our hop! I am so excited to see how everyone thought of this challenge.

Next up on the Blog Hop is Tricia Butts in the United States!

Please feel free to leave me a comment, I would love to know what you think of my page!

Here are all the participants in our Blog Hop this month!

Jan Clothier - AU

Leonie Stuart - AU

Rochelle Laird-Smith - AU

Cheryll Miller - AU

Danielle Kassing - NL

Aurélie Fabre - FR

Mikaela Titheridge - UK

Annette Ball - CA

Angie McKenzie - US

Kelly Taranto - US

Shel Anderson - CA

Sharon Hashimoto Burkert - US

Chris Smith - US

Brenda Nelson - CA

Tricia Butts - US

Theresa McEntee - US

Bree Renwick - US

Lori Willcox - CA

Teri West - US

April 03, 2023

Color Fusers--April 2023

April 03, 2023/ Brenda Nelson

Hello April…I am so happy you are here as it is finally beginning to feel like spring! Our Color Fusers Hop this month is featuring one retiring color, Polished Pink, and two continuing colors—Coastal Cabana and Gorgeous Grape. Now I won’t lie…Gorgeous Grape is a fun color but not one that I reach for alot, so it was fun to incorporate it into my design!

I decided to use a bundle and a single stamp set that are being carried forward into our new Annual Catalogue that is officially live in May. I chose the Quiet Meadow Bundle and the Good Feelings Stamp set. I feel that using the Quiet Meadow Bundle with this bright color combo has breathed some new life into it. And I forgot how amazing these dies are, I am so glad I dusted them off!

I started with a 12x12 base of Basic White to help settle these bright colors down a bit. I added a 3x12 strip of Coastal Cabana DSP to the left edge and I found it in the recent Sale a bration paper stack Dandy Designs. I then used a smaller 1 inch strip of Polished Pink DSP from the In Color 6x6 stack and hid the seam of the two pieces behind my photo mat.

I blended a large area on my page base with my Blending Brush and Coastal Cabana ink pad and added some stamping from the Quiet Meadow stamp set. The set includes some distressed words and spots so I added them on top of my blending.

TOP TIP: Make sure to stamp images off on your Stampin’ placemat to get lighter and different tones

You can see how easy it is to create a custom background for your scrapbook page by layering ink and stamps!

I cut a variety of the wildflowers from the Meadow Dies in the three focus colors and layered them behind the sentiment “You’re on my Mind and in my Heart”. What I love about the Good Feelings stamp set is how big the sentiments are. Perfect for memory keeping!

And if you don’t recognize the die the sentiment is on, it can be found in the Online Exclusive section of the Stampin’ Up! website or my store. The Polished Pink and Coastal Cabana heart are also from this same die set—Radiating Stitches. I also had some Glossy Dots in my stash and they were perfect for this page along with some retired Gorgeous Grape ribbon. #useyourstash

I decided to carry some of the ribbon, wildflowers and the heart over to the top left of my page as well so that the opposing corners of my layout felt connected.

Honestly, this page came together pretty fast and it will definitely brighten up my craft room! I can’t wait to see what the rest of the Color Fusers Blog Hop has created this month!

You can check out what the awesome Bonnie O’Neill has created and make sure you visit everyone to get some inspiration on how you can use up your Polished Pink supplies!

If you would rather go backwards you can do that as well by hitting the Previous tab as it will take you to my fabulous friend Melanie Hockin!

Thank you so much for coming by and checking out all of our projects. It has been a while since I have shared a card as you know I love to scrapbook so I appreciate you letting me showcase my passion, even if you are more of a card lover! Luckily the other members of the hop typically make cards so you will always have inspiration!

Shop with me

May 22, 2021

Create with Connie and Mary--Favorite NEW Designer Series Paper

May 22, 2021/ Brenda Nelson

Okay, I supposed we are actually supposed to pick just ONE…but I can’t because what I love about our Designer Series Papers is how well they work TOGETHER! Have you noticed this? I love that several of the colors and tones are present in multiple papers. This is fabulous and makes way more sense to be able to create with several options! So I have a hybrid project that includes my ‘favorites’…plural!

See what I mean? How outstanding do these Designer Series papers look together? And will make you want all 3—-mission accomplished!

I have been a Stampin’ Up! demo for 15 years and I got into stamping from a scrapbookers lense. So I have always been a big fan or our DSP…and dare I say it, this may be my favorite year yet!! There are honestly so many gorgeous options and so much design potential!

I started with the base of Pale Papaya for my page. One of the best new In Colors we have had in a while (in my humble opinion because it’s a yellow and it’s an orange). And if you poke through the catalogue you will notice this color in more than one Designer Series Paper—WIN!

Typically I do not design pages with out photos first, I don’t know why, it is just how my brain works. But I wanted to create a beautiful Mother’s Day page so I had it ready to go for the day. And this way I was able to tell my husband I needed pictures snapped in both directions, hahaha! He is pretty well trained though!

I hope everyone had a lovely Mother’s Day!

This layout uses the Hand-Penned, Pansy Petals and the hostess paper Pattern Party! Isn’t that amazing? If I was forced to make a single selection of my favorite, I guess I would say Hand-Penned. I just love the line art soft style of the florals and I am always a sucker for polka dots, stripes and scallops so it checks all those boxes!

The smallest strip of DSP in Misty Moonlight is from the Pattern Party DSP stack. I can’t tell you how happy I am that Stampin’ Up! has included a DSP as a hostess reward option. Whoever decided that should get a raise!

The large floral strip of DSP is from the Hand-Penned collection, along with the Pale Papaya polka dot tag (cut with the Tailored Made Tags dies). Seriously, add them to your list right now!

The gingham piece is from the Pansy Petals DSP and I think it’s awesome that there are gingham options in 3 colors in this collection. So brilliant.

The photo mat is Garden Green. I really love how the concept artist wove this color into the Hand-Penned DSP.

Can we talk about the Meadow Dies for a minute? I am having a love affair with them. They are AMAZING and seriously look good with any project—cards, scrapbook pages, box toppers, I can go on and on but if you follow me on Instagram @stampwithbrenda you will come to see what I mean as I can’t even put them away!

The “Happy Mother’s Day” sentiment is from the Dressed to Impress samp set and is cut with a shape from the Meadow Dies. I then layered that on top of a shape from the Stitched So Sweetly Dies.

For this side I decided to focus on the Misty Moonlight design from the Pattern Party DSP by making it the largest section of DSP. I added the same design from the Hand-Penned over top and if you look close you will notice that the circle behind the “Love You More” is from the In Color 6x6 Designer Series Paper stack. The sentiment is from the Measured with Love stamp set.

The other sentiment on this page is from the Dragonfly Garden stamp set.

The dies really stand out on this layout, especially with the floral image stamped direct to the page from the Quiet Meadow stamp set and then softly stamped in the background of the larger sentiments.

I hope this layout helps you think about combining patterns and designs from multiple DSP collections. Like I said, I really could not pick just one so I hope you enjoy this blending together of my favorites! You can go BACK to see what Melissa has designed this week or you can go NEXT to see what Connie selected as her favorite DSP! Have a lovely Saturday and thank you for popping by! Please leave a comment and if you are in Canada and feel inspired by my layout, please chose to shop by online store! I am always happy to have a new stampin’ friend!

May 03, 2021

Color Fusers--May 2021 Blog Hop!

May 03, 2021/ Brenda Nelson

Hello friends and welcome to MAY the official month of spring! Things are starting to grow and poke through the dead that claims most of the year here in Edmonton where I live! The sun is shining for longer and longer every day. Its fantastic!
I love the Color Fusers Combo that we have for you this month! This combo is bright and happy and new I wanted to make a scrapbook page…wait, I ALWAYS want to make a scrapbook page! Cards come in second place!

I started my page with a base of Bumblebee—-it is such a gorgeous yellow! I decided on the theme of Mother’s Day and look at me, I am ahead of the game! Now I just have to pop a 5x7 photo onto my page and Mother’s Day 2021 will be in the books!

I love the bright colors on this page, they are so happy and work so well together!

I always want to play with new stuff so I pulled out the new Quiet Meadow Bundle to pair up with a returning stamp set Dressed to Impress and the new Days to Remember stamp set.

I stamped a few floral images in the background by my photo mat and added in three different die cut florals from the Meadows Dies. The Flirty Flamingo striped DSP strip ion the left side is from the new Hostess options and is called Pattern Party. I know it will be a hit! I love it!

Layered over the die cut flowers I added a tag from the new Tailor Made Tags Dies in Flirty Flamingo. The sentiment ‘Hello Fabulous’ is stamped in Pool Party ink. And really, aren’t all moms fabulous! I think so! Behind the sentiment I layered some Bumblebee Gingham Ribbon and Lined Thread.

A Gilded Gems acts as the perfect accent to this little area!

I love to create little areas of interest on my page such as this!

I punched a 2 inch circle out of the Hand Penned DSP and lined it up along the top right of my page. I trimmed a small portion off.

I added another stem from the Meadow Dies cut from Poppy Parade. I added ‘May’ over top from the Days to Remember stamp set with some Lined Thread and cut Bumblebee Trinket as accents.

‘Happy Mother’s Day’ is stamped in Flirty Flamingo ink and is die cut from the Meadows Die and then layered on top of a tag from the Tailor Made Tags Dies. I added some Linen Thread and Pool Party in between and tucked a couple more florals from the Meadow Dies underneath with a Gilded Gem.

I hope this page inspires you to make your own page in anticipation of Mother’s Day!

I can’t wait to see how the rest of the Design Team spins these 4 colors! If you joined the Hop here (welcome!) you can go back to see what Nicole has designed and if you hit Next you can see what Tami has created for this week! Please feel free to leave a comment, I would love to hear from you!