Crafting with You Sampler

It’s another blog hop with Crafty Collaborations a worldwide group of demonstrators who love to inspire each other and you to be creative. Today’s theme is anything but a card. And, it’s also demonstrator preorder where demonstrators get to order products from the new catalog which premiers on May 2. Stampin’ Up! is also doing a color refresh with the new catalog. It has 5 new InColors, 7 returning colors (former InColors), and 4 brand-new colors. I am so excited about all this newness. So, I’m sharing a sampler with you that uses a new stamp set Crafting with You, and uses many of the colors in the refresh.

Today’s Project – Crafting with You

Let’s start by talking about the overall design. I’m using the frame from the Celebrate Today Magnet Board Kit. I chose that because I’m really bad at getting things straight. So, by putting magnets on the backs of my samples, I can move them and adjust them very easily! Plus the magnets pop them up to give them some dimension.

The letters are from the Alphabet A La Mode standalone die set that carried over from the January-April mini catalog. I love this set because the tall skinny letters are easier to use than fatter ones. It was a tough choice between black letters or the returning color Berry Burst. I love black & white because it’s so striking. But, Berry Burst was one of my favorite colors when it was around before. So, I decided to use both by using the black as a ‘shadow’ of the Berry Burst. In hindsight, I think I should have just picked one because it was a lot of work gluing those skinny letters together!

The black and white dot background is one of the papers in the new Zoo Crew DSP. We’ve had zoo themes before, but never like this! More on that later.

You will also notice that my samples are not all the same size or even a variation of that. When designing, I made the items the size that would look good with the image, matted them with a thin black frame, and then played around organizing them until I liked the layout. The magnets were perfect for this!

Crafting with You Sampler – Right Column

Here is another look from the left. Let’s start with the top right corner. I cut the embroidery frame from Berry Burst and the inside with Basic White and stamped the sentiment with Berry Burst. I popped up the sentiment using dimensionals. But, that looked weird because the frame was much lower than the sentiment. So, I cut 6 more frames from Berry Burst and glued them all together. Then the height was perfect!

The next square down has the scissors and ruler. Aren’t they just the cutest??? The ruler is another returning color, Lemon Lime Twist. I also loved this color when it was an InColor. Can you see the little markings on the ruler? Too, cute.

I cut the scissors from Basic Black and Silver Foil and glued them together. The dies in this set are just so realistic.

Finally, in the lower right corner is a flower that is included in the stamp set. I have to admit when I first used the set it was difficult to stamp with. My new pads were too juicy and I wasn’t getting crisp images. I tried stamping off and that didn’t work. And then I thought I’d try blending brushes. The small blending brushes were perfect and applied just the right amount of ink to let the details on the stamp show through. I did have one more thing to try, and that is to use a bone folder to scrape the ink from the middle to the sides and then ink the stamp. But I didn’t have to try it because the brushes worked.

Crafting with You Sampler – Middle Column

The top of the middle column features a Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine using Boho Blue ink which is a new InColor. And during the last Sale-a-bration, new demos could choose the mini version of it at a discounted price and current demos could also purchase it. I purchased one because the minis are great for traveling and unless you have a large die or embossing folder, you can cut most other dies with it.

The middle item is my absolute favorite die in the set. It’s a mini paper trimmer. And it has little blades and slits where the paper goes. It makes me smile every time I see it!

The bottom item is one of the four sentiments in this bundle. I stamped it using Azure Afternoon another brand new color that is a gorgeous bright blue.

Crafting With You Sampler – Left Column

For the top left column, I used another new color Pecan Pie to cut out the basket. You can’t see it well here but there is a lot of texture on the basked. Boho Blue is the perfect color for the yarn in the basket. And it does tie into the image on the bottom left.

The middle image is a basket of painting brushes. Again, I used the blending brushes to color the basket and the cute little flower before stamping with Blue Berry Bushel, Lemon Lime Twist, and Real Red ink. The paint brushes looked without having to use a blending brush.

The lower left image cracks me up! It’s also from the Zoo Crew DSP and was cut using the Zany Zoo dies. As I mentioned before we’ve had a lot of zoos sets over the years, but nothing like this! On this one sheet alone, there are mediating sloths, cooking goats, painting hedgehogs, and reading bears, And many of them have matching dies in the Zany Zoo dies set which is part of the Zany Zoo bundle. You’ll be seeing a few more posts with that bundle for sure. It makes me smile just thinking about it.

I hope you enjoyed my sampler and the sneak peek into some of the new goodies in the upcoming Annual Catalog especially the Crafting with You Bundle. I am very excited about the new stamps and colors and can’t wait to share more with you. And now it’s time to see what other have done with the Anything But a Card theme. So, grab a beverage, sit back and relax, and enjoy the hop!

No supply list yet because most of the products I used are not available yet. I will update this post with the supply list when they are available for purchase. Happy Stamping!