Tag: Stampin’ Up!

Today I’m celebrating the Turtle-y Cute Collection and Designer Series Paper(DSP) with ideas and card making tips you can make work for many different kinds of characters.

This cute and kind of silly collection of turtles came out a little over a year ago and went on Stampin’ Up!’s Last Chance list this past April. I was first introduced to them at Onstage last March, when I attended an evening stamp party.

I did a post last year before the Typepad blogs ended and I am incorporated those cards plus a few more here to show a little of what you can do with this suite, particularly the DSP. As I write this the paper is discounted at $7.50 (US) for 12 sheets and the stamp and die bundle is also significantly discounted. The DSP pack alone will make many cards!

I suspect the paper will be gone by the time many read this but I hope you will find ideas that you can use for other character based papers and craft supplies that you might have or come across.

First off, a classic birthday card using one of my favorite DSP card sketches and techniques.

I love to create these cards with corner borders, especially when I have diagonal stripe or plaid. I’e also started keeping a stash of quarter front or slightly smaller pieces of card stock brushed slightly with a bit of blue, purple or green ink, whatever is ready to be cleaned from my brush. This simple little bit of background color can really make a fussy cut image seem a little more at home on the background.

This beachy turtle gets a background treated with a coordinating embossing folder.

Here’s how to get some extra mileage out of your DSP when making corners:

I start with a 12″ square piece of DSP but feel free to try this with another size.

Choose a width for your border. I’m using 3/4″ here but sometimes I use a half inch. Start your cut 3/4″ down from the top edge and 3/4″ in from the right edge. Cut until you reach 3/4″ in from the bottom edge of your DSP.

Lift up your ruler/cutting blade and turn your paper 1 quarter turn to the right so that the placed you finished the cut is now at the top.

Repeat until you have cut out a square with a frame. This works wonderfully with the Turtle-y cute DSP because you will have pieces to trim your card and lots of turtles and their accessories for your cards.

I did a video on You Tube (several years ago that allowed me to get 13-14 corner borders from one 12×12 sheet.

Some time ago I did a video for the frame cut out technique . For some reason I can’t link it here but it’s not hard to find on my little YouTube channel. It’s got a little snowman with another corner border.

And, those partial images on the edge of your DSP? There are lots of uses for them.

I did a trio of the Nature themed turtles along the side of this card. You could punch or die cut them or create windows for them to peek through as I did here.

There was a little more image available for this banjo picking turtle so I put him on a circle with the same blending brush background.

Sometimes a simple border is enough.

Or play around with word banners. This card makes use of the stamp set for the turtle and dies for the hat and banjo.

I colored this turtle with my travel coloring kit: some pale green and yellow Blends Markers plus the watercolor pencils (without using any water. I find using pencils quite relaxing and I have so much more control over the shading.

I also like to pull out other products I have. This card incorporates some dies from Charming Duck Pond, a retired product. Maybe you have something similar that you can use to build a unique setting for your characters.

Arch Trifold: Maybe you can recognize die cuts from Sweet Bug? I tried a few of the greens found in the DSP for this and them figured out that I liked the way the new 2026-2027 In Color, Peaceful Pine, brings the different greens of the turtles together. I inked the (coordinating but since retired) embossing folder with Peaceful Pine before embossing the card stock in order to emphasize the texture.

One more that I made with one of the turtles that I colored while on Onstage 2025.

Here are a few more turtles in one of my favorite fun fold cards. Some call it a tunnel card, others refer to it as a theater card. Regardless, I think it’s a great way to use the roughly 4″x6″ background scenes that you find in some DSP packs.

Often when I do these tunnel cards I keep the card front very simple like I did with just a little paper and a greeting from Banner Sayings:

Here’s another with the grilling turtle using greetings from Relaxing Waterside.

Basically, a tunnel card is two cards, one layered inside of the other. Cutting the inside layer smaller to leave a border is optional. The inside layer is scored to divide it into 4ths and a shape is die cut into the middle two sections. Any scene that you want to appear inside the tunnel is stamped or adhered before attaching the inside card to the outside card. It’s always a fun card to try anytime you have characters. More details than this probably requires another post.

This is a repost from my old Typepad blog. Please check the end for an updated version from 2025.

From: NOVEMBER 20, 2023

The Daisy Sketch

One of my favorite sketches to use over the past few months is one I refer to as the “Daisy Sketch”. I originally started using this in 2019 with the Daisy Lane Stamp Set along with a large and medium sized daisy punch. 

This is my initial “perfected” version, after playing with a few different colors, etc.

It basically has:

• a left border that is 1/2″ to 1″ or so wide with the remainder covered by DSP or a dry embossed piece.
• an approximately 1 3/4″ wide greeting panel on the lower 1/3 or so of the card. 
• 2 objects (daisies) on the left of the message and one on the lower right, extending off the card.
• embellish with leaves etc as desired or indicated by the occasion.

It was easy to adapt for a specific occasion request, for example these cards which were created n honor of November employment anniversaries for a couple of treasured church staff:

I shared this one earlier this fall (2023) with altered colors and objects but the same basic arrangement.

Last month, I brought it out again for when I hosted a color challenge:

This is one that I did on a Facebook Live video earlier this month. After the video I decided to add a tiny bit of Balmy Blue Blends brushed just outside the yellow centers, along with a few more leaves…

Here is the video.

from my ink pad with Chris Smith

A Favorite Card Sketch with Stampin’ Up!’s Cheerful Daisies.

2025 Update

Many of these products have retired since I first posted this almost two years ago but I think the sketch still works for many themes and seasons. Plus, I think they were really great products and would be so happy if you have them and pull them off your shelf for a little love! (And, I’m trying to learn how to bring forward some of my favorite old posts from my now discontinued Typepad blog.)

Here is a much more recent card I made with some of the Beautiful Gallery Suite products from Stampin’ Up!’s current catalog.

I used the Damask Designs embossing folder to add texture to the Beautiful Gallery DSP. By lightly sanding the raised areas I revealed the white core of the paper for a little extra contrast. I love the painterly look of this paper so much I feel like I’ve been hoarding it for months.

Here’s another I did – different sketch – with just the Beautiful Gallery papers, with a little help from Peaceful Days stamp set for the greeting.

Such a simple card, I almost forgot to pack it when we went away for our anniversary…

Thanks for stopping by. Please come back again to check what’s been on my crafting table!

Here we are. Day 2 on the new blogging site and it’s time for our Around the World on Wednesday blog hop. I’m delighted if everything worked and you found me here. For those who are new to me, I’m Chris Smith, from the Twin Cities in Minnesota, US.

This month we are continuing the celebration of our 5th year as a blog hop and taking inspiration from one of our Artisan members, Bree Renwick. Aside from that we have a theme of “Remember When”.

I fully expected to take full advantage of Bree’s inspiring scrapbook pages and ordered some of our latest scrapbook stamps and “stickers” to use for this month’s hop. But then, late last month I received notice that Typepad, the blogging platform I’ve used since early 2007, was ending the platform and my 999 blog posts plus galleries would disappear after September 30. Needless to say I’ve been preoccupied evaluating what to do about it AND looking back at the posts themselves to help inform my decision making. I will save my work and find ways to bring back what I think still has relevance. And, you know what? It has been fun looking back to Remember When I first started blogging about 18 years ago.

One of my first posts was a brief remembrance of my Grandma Edith:

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My original card used an old product called Iridescent Ice, a sparkly embossing powder. After substituting Petunia Pop Glimmer paper for the skinny borders, I realized this pretty paper has gone from Stampin’ Up!”s Last Chance List to also being discontinued. But it is pretty.

I used Fresh Freesia, Petunia Pop, a bit of Melon Mambo along with Old Olive and Crushed Curry.

The flower stem is stamped with Fresh Freesia on Fresh Freesia and colored with the Light Fresh Freesia, Petunia Pop and Melon Mambo Blends.

I blended Crushed Curry and Old Olive ink on a piece of white card stock embossed with the Damask Embossing Folder and trimmed to 3 3/4″ x 5″.

I thought the greeting from The Right Words stamp set followed the theme of the original greeting which I always loved: Memory is the power to gather roses in winter

I really like the skinny strip of glimmer at the edges. While I think Bree layered her piece I’m stingy with my (now unavailable) Glimmer paper and just used strips.

Before I sign off I have to share one more card inspired by Bree and I think it fits with Remember When. My husband and I will celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary in a few days and I wanted to see if I could make some white roses (my wedding bouquet) look a little masculine. We’ve grown a lot of white roses together over the past 40 years so I thought it could be appropriate. Here is Bree’s:

and here is mine:

I made this a top fold card with a Basic Beige base. Both the fussy cut roses and the brushstroke pecan Pie layer are from the Beautiful Gallery designer series paper. I kept the layering to a minimum. The greeting is from the Peaceful Days stamp set in Stampin’ Up!’s scrapbooking line. Perfect anniversary greeting!

Now you get to move on to Bree’s blog! I can’t wait to see how she did this month’s theme.

Jan Clothier – NZ
Leonie Stuart – AU
Rochelle Laird-Smith – AU
Cheryll Miller – AU
Danielle Kassing – NL
Marga Bultena – NL
Kelly Taranto – US
Chris Smith – US
Bree Renwick – US
Teri West – US
Cheryl Hamilton – US