Welcome to this month's Pretty Cards & Paper blog hop. We are sharing projects created using Stampin' Up!'s Painted Christmas designer series paper (shown below) to help inspire your creativity! To visit the other's blogs scroll down to after the video below to find a list of all the blogs.

Hello! Welcome to September's Colour Combo Blog Hop. Autumn is my favourite time of year. Doesn't this month's colour combo of Blushing Bride, Cinnamon Cider and Mango Melody give off fall-ish vibes? 

Hello and welcome to the next stop in August's Pretty Cards and Paper blog hop. My project uses the Peaceful Prints designer series paper. 

Isn't the tree design so pretty? Usually I start a scrapbook page with photos but this time I started with the designer series paper. If you're unsure of where to start with creating a layout Pinterest is a great place to start. Another option is to cut some paper and place it down, more items around a bit, or maybe walk away from the layout for an hour or two. 

Welcome to August's Global Stamping Friends Blog Hop with our theme of animals. From penguins, to polar bears and deer, the Stampin' Up!'s catalogues have some adorable and realistic images for us to use to create our cards and scrapbook pages.

Do you love to colour? The Beautifully Penned designer series paper is designed for you to add colour! Or you can leave it black and white. You're choice. On this card I've used a piece of the polka-dot design and coloured the whole piece using Pool Party ink and a Blending Brush. The striped piece across the center is from the same pack of designer series paper that I didn't colour in. If you would like to see how to create this card watch my Instagram Reel: https://www.instagram.com/reel/CSNrYRJH_b0/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link. I was going to try colouring it with Gorgeous Grape ink but thought the purple might be overpowering! What do you think, would the purple be a good addition or not?

You can find the Hand-Penned Petals bundle, the stamp set and dies used to create this card, in the Annual Catalogue on page 105 along with other items from the Hand-Penned Suite. While I do like the coordinating Hand-Penned designer series paper, I wanted to share that you can choose which designer series paper (DSP) you want to pair with any stamp set. Using DSP that is designed to work with a stamp set or bundle is an easy way to recreate project seen in the catalogue or create your own designs. But sometimes the DSP is either not in our favourite colours, design or perhaps there is already some DSP stashed in your crafting supplies? No, that last one cannot be the case! shhh, I won't tell. I have lots that I haven't used too!

Inside the Annual Catalogue you can find the Holidays Section starting on page 88. The Tidings of Christmas suite uses the traditional colours I like to use for Christmas: greens and red. There is a coordinating stamp set & die bundle that is designed to work with the Tidings of Christmas designer series paper. But you could use any Christmas or Holiday themed stamp set with it. I've used the Season's Blessing stamp set and now the Perfectly Plaid stamp set.

Welcome to July's Pretty Cards & Paper blog hop. The You're A Peach designer series paper is the focus of our projects this month. And bonus - it's on sale until August 2 for 15% off.

Do you like the colours in this pack of DSP? They are Balmy Blue, Bumblebee, Calypso Coral, Early Espresso, Mango Melody, Pale Papaya, Pear Pizzazz & Petal Pink. It's neat how the colours are used to colour in the peach - Bumblebee, Calypso Coral, Petal Pink and Mango Melody. The flowers on my card were coloured in using some of these colours with the Stampin' Blends.

This month some of my favourite designer series papers are on sale for 15% off. Although it's hard to choose just one that is my favourite! Although the new Annual Catalogue started in June I already have 5 of the 9 packs that are on sale this month. Don't have any designer series paper yet or not sure how to use it? Or maybe you love it SO much and can't bear to cut into it? If you need inspiration to use your DSP make sure to check out my posts using DSP here: http://www.fromwhereistamp.ca/search/label/Designer%20Series%20Paper

Welcome to July's Global Stamping Friends Blog Hop! Our theme is recipe and using the following to create our projects: use Crumb Cake as one of your colours and incorporate food into your project (recipe card, scrapbook page about food, or maybe food related stamp set used).

I had a hard time deciding which of the images would be stamped for this card. Decided to use the sentiment as my guide - dash = salt shaker & spoonful = spoon. Both of these images were stamped directly onto one piece of Basic White cardstock but you could stamp them and die cut them using the Cookin' Dies.

Canadian Stampin' Up! demonstrators gathered together a few weeks ago on Facebook. It was fun! We were given a mystery stamping challenge and this is the card I made using the pieces we were told to gather. My favourite part of this challenge was the designer series paper strip. Can you believe that all the DSP is from one strip measuring 2" x 12"? Even the brick design is from the same sheet. To create each of the layers cut from the strip of DSP on the long side, cut at 3", 4" and 5". The Evening Evergreen cardstock layers behind each pieces of DSP are 2.25" x 3.25", 2.25" x 4.25" & 2.25" x 5.25". Before gluing the pieces together layer them on your card front and arrange the layers in the design you like or copy what I've done with my card.

The January–June 2021 Mini Catalog will be retiring soon - on June 30! It’s always bittersweet to see a classic Stampin’ Up! catalog take a trip to retirement. Stock up on your favorite products before they’re gone for good! Save up to 50% on essential craft supplies. I'm looking forward to all the new products on their way and I look forward to sharing with you how to use them and projects we can make. I hope you are excited, too!

Free ship is coming for one day only - June 24! Any order placed that is $65 or more qualifies for free shipping. Use the following link to order on Thursday: https://www.stampinup.ca?hostcode=34VERA7X

Thank you for stopping by! ~ Amanda 

Sign up for my email list and receive the Flowers of Friendship Punched & Pieced Tutorial for free:  https://forms.aweber.com/form/47/1042252847.htm

On Saturday I participated in an online event where a fellow Canadian demonstrator hosted an online training and creative session. This was one of the cards she designed for us to create using stamps, dies and designer series paper from the Plentiful Plants suite. It's fun to gather with other demonstrators virtually or when there were in person events. The community that enjoys being creative and loves Stampin' Up! products is what I enjoy the most about events and meeting other demonstrators. It's one way I can feel connected and part of something bigger than me. Knowing that there is someone else out there that enjoys the same things I do is a great comfort. 

There can be a striking and bold impact when using only black and white. And it can be fun to create with limiting your colour choices. A great way to get started is to look for black and white designs in Stampin' Up!'s designer series papers. There are a few you could use, such as the True Love designer series paper from the Jan-Jun Mini Catalogue or use the Pattern Party designer series paper in the Annual Catalogue like I have for this card.