Hi there
One of my favourite places to look for inspiration is the Stampin’ Up! catalogue. The samples are created by incredibly talented designers and are full of ideas that can easily be adapted using your own colours and supplies. For a recent Facebook Live, I CASE’d (Copy And Share Everything, or Copy And Selectively Edit) the card on page 42 of the May–August Catalogue. CASE’ing is something we do regularly in papercrafting—it’s a wonderful way to spark creativity while putting your own personal touch on a design.
The card on the left is the one I created during the live. Afterwards, I created the card on the right with the leftover pieces. The Exciting Times Bundle, which includes the Exciting Times Stamp Set and the Rounded Rectangle Punch, makes this design so quick and easy to recreate.
To create the two-toned mat behind the sentiment, I stamped the large decorative image twice using Secret Sea ink—once onto Misty Moonlight cardstock and once onto Secret Sea cardstock. After cutting both stamped images in half, I paired one half from each colour to create a two-tone frame. The ribbon on the pink version and the banner on the blue version cleverly hide the join, giving the illusion that it was stamped as one piece.
The sentiment was stamped in Secret Sea onto Basic White, punched out with the Rounded Rectangle Punch, and popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals to add depth.
For the vertical background feature, I stamped the same decorative image in Barely Blush and Hydrangea Hue, then punched out the centres with the Rounded Rectangle Punch. The catalogue sample cuts the stamped image in half across the short side, but I decided to cut mine along the long side instead. It creates a lovely elongated background that works beautifully with the layout.
Sometimes all it takes is a simple change of colour, ribbon or embellishments to create a completely different look. I hope these cards inspire you to have a go at CASE’ing the catalogue yourself—you might even end up with two cards instead of one.
Until next time …
