tropical chic – Artful Musings

Hello my crafty peeps! I’m happy to be here again this month as part of the Fun & Crafty blog hop. You should have arrived here from Jennifer Blomquist’s NW Stamper blog. If you didn’t, not to worry the complete list is below! This month’s theme is new catalog goodies! June and July are always full of excitement and renewed creativity, in part, due to the release of the new annual catalog from Stampin’ Up! This month a few of us participated in a new catalog card swap to get even more creative ideas to share with you!

For my creation I decided to use the new Tropical Escape suite, which includes the Tropical Chic stamps, Tropical Thinlits dies, Tropical Escape DSP, and the cutest Tropical Elements (little hibiscus flowers and leaves). This is currently my favorite set in the entire catalog. To see my top 10 goodies, visit this post. In the coming months I plan to use more of my favorites in projects and blog posts so stay tuned!

I started with a Shaded Spruce top-folding A2 card base and because it’s a dark color I decided to include a white insert for writing a message to that special someone, which meant more stamping inside! I began by cutting a piece of the Tropical Escape DSP to 4″ x 5.25″ for the front. Next, I stamped the hibiscus flower and the small and medium leaves on Whisper White card stock. I inked up the flower with Flirty Flamingo, and using a sponge dauber I added a little hint of Blushing Bride to the petal tips. I stamped the small leaf in Flirty Flamingo and the medium leaf in Granny Apple Green. Is anyone else loving the new ink pad design, ink formula, and the 16 new/returning colors as much as I am?!?

Then it was time to die cut the flowers and leaves. These dies are so versatile, each of the leaves has two dies, one cuts the outline and another cuts the interior, so you could cut leaves out of two different colors of card stock, or a combo of cars stock and DSP, or two different DSP patterns — like I said, versatile! I also cut two interior long, large leaf fronds out of Granny Apple Green card stock. Each card used one hibiscus, one small leaf, two medium leaves, and two large leaf interior die cuts. While I had the stamps and ink out I also stamped the sentiment, “With much love & thanks” in Blushing Bride on a strip of Whisper White card stock and stamped the leaf border on the inside panel using all three leaves (small in Blushing Bride, medium in Granny Apple Green, and large in Lemon Lime Twist). I adhered this panel to the inside of the card.

All that remained, was assembling the cards. I knew I wanted varying levels of dimension on the card front, which I achieved using a combination of adhesive, mini glue dots, and dimensionals. The upper medium leaf went down flat with Snail and the lower medium leaf I popped up using dimensionals. Next, using mini glue dots, I positioned the two large interior leaf die cuts. HINT: Adhering thin cuts can be challenging, one of my favorite tricks is rolling the mini glue dots. Using my craft pick I roll up the glue dots so they fit neatly behind even the thinnest things (see below). Next, I adhered the small leaf on top of the lower medium leaf using Snail and the hibiscus flower I popped up using dimensionals. Using one dimensional on each end, I positioned the sentiment over the leaf and flower cluster. For the final touch I used a rolled up mini glue dot to adhere a small linen thread bow to the flower and then attached the flower and leaf to the card, also using mini glue dots.

There is a ton of inspiration throughout this hop and I encourage you to grab your Stampin’ Up catalog and some post-it notes, and visit the other talented crafters listed below to see what they created and perhaps leave them some crafty love! Up next is the wonderful Tobe. Until next time, remember, creativity and imperfection live together in all we do. “Grace is the face love wears when it meets imperfection.”

~xoxo

Nicole — Inky Fingers Stamping
Jennifer — NW Stamper
Christine — Artful Musings (you are here)
Tobe — The Craft Sea

Supplies Used:
Tropical Chic Bundle (148399)
Tropical Escape DSP (146916)
Card Stock: Whisper White, Shaded Spruce, & Granny Apple Green
Ink: Granny Apple Green, Flirty Flamingo, Lemon Lime Twist, & Blushing Bride
Accessories: Tropical Elements (146919), Linen Thread, Dimensionals, Snail, & Glue Dots

Confession time: I’ve been a bad, bad girl! Last November I had every intention of continuing my monthly series, Innovation Station, as well as regular posts and blog hops. After all, crafting keeps me sane. Early in November a trip to On Stage in Salt Lake City took me out of town for nearly a week and then my best friend moved (and I had to help – that’s what it means to be best friends for nearly 30 years – you bury the bodies and you help move). Once that was all sorted it was Thanksgiving and then Christmas. So no blogging for two months. Okay, not so bad, right?

I promised myself I’d get going again in January, but as the early months of 2018 rolled by, it became clear that blogging (and even more disturbing) being creative were the casualties of life taking a sharp and unexpected turn in the middle of March. After nearly nine years, I was laid off from my job, which is scary enough on its own, but it also meant I had to move since my home was provided by my employer (yes, I was super fortunate). You would think being unemployed would leave lots of time for crafting, but aside from two weeks of binge-watching TV as I put off processing what it meant to be unemployed after nearly a decade, my life has been surprisingly busy. Busy getting ready to put most of my things in storage and take over my best friend’s spare bedroom, busy looking for a job, busy trying to figure out health insurance (not a simple task).

Once I got moved, I was able to begin picking up the threads of my old life, including being creative. My best friend kindly let me take over a big part of her living room for my crafty zone (a table and a small Origami unit that holds the few stamps, inks, paper, and dies I kept out of storage). Can I tell you how hard it was to fill two 66 quart totes and nothing more? Just today I realized that I forgot to keep out envelopes. Envelopes. I can’t believe it! I went to storage but didn’t have the energy to dig through all the totes to find the one with the envelopes so I’ll just have to buy another package. *sigh*

As a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator I always look forward to the new catalog but given that I was in full packing/purging mode, 5′ high in bins all around my house, for much of May, I really didn’t think too much about the fact that there were 241 pages of new and returning goodies to ‘oh and ah’ over! The one great thing about being settled (at least until August when the bestie moves to Endicott, NY) is I’ve been able to figure out what I’m most excited about from the new catalog.

So, without further ado, my top ten list (plus one honorable mention) of 2018 – 19 annual catalog goodies:

Tropical Escape Suite (p. 121)
Tufted Dynamic Embossing Folder (p. 223)
Stampin’ Blends (p. 205)
Share What You Love Suite (p. 177)
A Big Thank You (p. 122)
Stamparatus (p. 207)
Animal Expedition Suite (p. 27)
Garden Impressions Suite (p. 129)
Friendly Conversation (p. 117)
Artfully Folded (p. 228)
Honorable Mention: Simply Shammy (p. 206)

Wondering why I love these things? Well, give me a bit more of your time and I’ll tell you…

I initially ignored the Tropical Escape suite, but the more I looked at the stamps and the dies, the move in love I fell. The leaf dies have inner and outline dies, making them super versatile. The DSP and the Tropical Elements flowers and leaves are beautiful as well, making this suite a win-win! The Tufted embossing folder is so pretty and when paired with tiny pearls or rhinestones, takes the look to a whole new level. I like the simplicity of the Stampin’ Blends, who wouldn’t, alcohol markers, one light and one dark, designed to blend. My main complaint when they debuted last fall was the palette was very limited. Coming out with 11 new colors was a solid expansion of these markers. I’m in love with Granny Apple Green and Flirty Flamingo.

The Share What You Love suite was the early release this year, out to demos in April and customers in May. This suite has wonderful images and sentiments as well as a double pack of specialty DSP! The bundle A Big Thank You might be something you miss flipping through the catalog, but don’t – there are great sentiments as well as builder images in this set! I often forget that the Stamparatus is new to customers since I first learned about it at On Stage last November and had one in my hands in February. With its stair-step dual plate configuration, you may wonder how you ever got along without it! I didn’t go to On Stage in April, but those who did, kept raving about the Animal Outing bundle and I agree — it is super cute. The whole suite is full of wonderful goodies including leaf ribbon and unique dies that cut both the stamped images and images from the DSP!

I believe the Garden Impressions suite might be the sleeper suite of the catalog – I’ve seen one of the stamps used as giraffe or leopard print – these stamps are certainly flexible and the dies are intriguing since they can be used with the embossing mats, giving you so much flexibility with these intricate and beautiful dies. Pretty and vibrant DSP, the Metallic Ribbon Combo Pack, and Blooms Elements round out this beautiful suite! Friendly Conversation is an unusual set with just two, large sentiments, but they are interesting enough to be the focal image of a card! I don’t normally fall in love with hostess sets, but Artfully Folded, which is origami images is so fun and playful, what’s not to love?!? The Stamparatus makes this set loads of fun! The Simply Shammy comes along a while after other shammies but as usual, Stampin’ Up! looked at what was on the market and then innovated and the result is a very thick and resilient shammy that gets stamps (particularly photopolymer) as clean as a whistle! Bonus: it fits perfectly inside the standard SU stamp case and since it’s not airtight you don’t need to worry about mold or mildew!

Thanks for hanging out with me today and listening to what’s new with me! I hope to begin innovation station this month (next week). Until next time, remember, creativity and imperfection live together in all we do. “Grace is the face love wears when it meets imperfection.”

~xoxo

Tag: tropical chic

Fun-n-Crafty | Tropical Escape