AWOW – Think Outside the Box with Stripes & Dots and Layered Thoughts

The Around the World on Wednesday (AWOW) team and I are hopping today — here on our blogs, and on Instagram (@thelatenightstamper). This month as we continue to celebrate the 5th year anniversary of our blog hop, we are CASEing team member Mikaela Titheridge. Mikaela is known for using stamps and dies in ways that most of us would never think of. So our challenge is to put on our “Mikaela hat” and attempt to use our current stash in a fun, unimaginable way! I’m using Stripes & Dots and Layered Thoughts stamp sets…and no DSP.

Before I go on, let me first introduce the AWOW Team–here’s who we are and where we are in the world:

Okay, let’s get into my project. As mentioned, we were told to channel our inner Mikaela and use our stash in innovative ways. First thing I did was go to Mikaela’s blog to get inspired. Then, I reached for the new Stripes & Dots and Layered Thoughts stamp sets because I was super inspired by how Mikaela uses tone-on-tone on cardstock and/or cardstock strips to add dimension and interest.

Here are a few of Mikaela’s projects that inspired me:

I love her clean and simple cards, and how she’s letting Stampin’ Up!’s gorgeous cardstock do most of the work, rather than DSP — like I usually grab.

Here are my cards:

I decided to use the Stripes & Dots stamp set, along with the Layered Thoughts stamp set – both new sets in the Annual Catalog:

Let’s take a closer look:

I seriously would have never thought to use simple strips of cardstock to make my background. Thanks Mikaela, and as a huge fan of The Crafty Oink Pen, I hope I did her justice.

Now let’s see what my friends around the world did with this challenge. Click the next button below to follow along to Chris Smith’s Blog, or follow along the hop using the Roll Call Below.

Happy Stamping! Kelly

Roll Call

Leonie Stuart – AU
Rochelle Laird-Smith – AU
Cheryll Miller – AU
Marga Bultena – NL
Kim Fee – UK
Annette Ball – CA
Kelly Taranto – US — You here here!
Chris Smith – US
Theresa McEntee – US
Teri West – US
Cheryl Hamilton – US

Shop the Supplies:

Add All to Cart

Stamping With Friends – Blogger’s Choice – Beautiful Gallery

Today I’m hopping with my Stamping With Friends group and our challenge is pretty simple – Blogger’s Choice! Since Stampin’ Up! has an awesome Suite Sale going on (check out my Online Store, and click on Suites!) where all suites and suite products are Buy One, Get One 50%, I decided to feature the Beautiful Gallery Suite.

As always with a Blog Hop, be sure to hop along with us by checking out the Roll Call at the bottom of this post so you can carry through and see the other creations of my talented stamping friends.

Beautiful Gallery Suite

Let’s first take a look at this double-bundle suite:

You guys. The ONLY reason I purchased this suite was because of the gorgeous projects we saw demonstrated live at OnStage in March. The photos in the catalog are very vintage-y, and a bit old-fashioned looking. While pretty, not really my style. Well. It doesn’t have to be that way. The products are gorgeous. I love the big flower in the Gallery Blooms stamp set, love all the dies, and LOVE LOVE the DSP. I decided to keep it pretty simple to showcase this gorgeous DSP for my projects today. Let’s take a look:

These cards and envelopes are using two sheets of DSP. The first circled sheet are what is decorating my envelopes, and the 2nd circle is one of my favorite pieces in the pack – these white and Cloud Cover florals:

I needed one wedding card, so decided to make TWO while I was at it! Let’s take a closer look at the cards.

Card #1:

Here is the outside and inside:

Card #2

Close up of outside and Inside:

Notice on Card #2 the embossing folder? Also part of the Suite! Notice the little sprigs of leaves – part of the dies. Love it…

Now let’s see what my friends chose to do for this month. Be sure to click through the Roll Call below to see all of my stamping friends’ creations!

Happy stamping! Kelly

Roll Call

Shop the Supplies

Add All to Cart

In-Color Sampler

Each year I usually join my fellow NC Demo friends for a 3 x 3 In-Color Square swap. This is a swap where we each pick an In-Color and make a monochromatic little project using one of the new In-Colors, and for 3 years I have taken the swap and framed it in a sampler and display the two current In-Color sets in my craft room. Well, because this year has been a bit stressful and overloaded, I missed the sign-up deadline this year. I was so incredibly bummed. I know I don’t have a lot of time for this hobby (I can’t even really call it a business anymore…) these days, but I really was mad at myself for missing the sign up for this swap.

Well, lemons were turned into lemonade yesterday. I was stamping with my mother and telling her about it, and she said “well, at least you get to make all 9 squares and make them exactly as you want!” True! I loved that my old samplers displayed my square but also the squared of talented fellow demo friends, but since I missed the boat this year, I was going to take advantage and create a 9 x 9 sampler that suited my fancy.

The In-Colors were introduced to you in my post last week, but here they are again:

Let’s take a look at my finished In-Color Sampler:

When I make samplers, I love to plan it out so your eye flows from corner to corner and throughout. I like the 9-square size too. For this one, all four corners are Secret Sea, and the four other colors are in the four places on the edges. The center is primarily Secret Sea, but all 5 colors can be found on the center square. Let’s take a color look:

I love how this turned out, and love that I was able to use all new Stampin’ Up! product that was just released in May, including the Beautiful Gallery Suite, Everyday Arches bundle, Celebratory Sips Suite, Storybook Patch bundle, and Layered Thoughts. I also used some returning favorites: Mixed Labels bundle and Grateful Blessings.

Here’s a photo of this year’s sampler with last year’s sample made from the NC Demo Swap:

Aren’t these great?

If you haven’t made a sampler before I highly encourage you do. They are quite addicting!

Happy Stamping! Kelly

NC Demos Hop – New 2025-2027 In-Colors

It’s the last Sunday of the month (again, how!?), which means it’s time to hop with my NC Demos group. You might have already stopped by Tracie Langley’s blog, but if you are just popping in our theme this month celebrates the new the 2025-2027 In Colors.

I’m still getting used to the new In-Colors. (I miss Wild Wheat!) Honestly, when I first saw them, I liked them but wasn’t really blown away by them. Except for Strawberry Slush — I loved that color when it was an In-Color years ago, and love it still! Well. Now that I’ve been playing with them, I am really liking them. I really like Secret Sea. It’s not quite black, not quite dark gray, not quite navy…LOVE! I also really love Cloud Cover. And, surprisingly, Darling Duckling is becoming a yellow I didn’t realize I needed in my collection! For someone that loves yellow (for the record, GREEN is my favorite color), and has yellow-gold polka dots as my signature logo, I am kind of picky about yellows. This one is great. It’s like a medium between Daffodil Delight and Crushed Curry. LOVE!

Okay, so since I’m still getting “used” to them, I decided to make the same card with each color. Let’s take a look:

I also wanted to use the DSP, yummy ribbon, and pearls too! Let’s take a closer look (in Strawberry Slush):

Here’s all five:

Note: Cloud Cover ink pad didn’t meet Stampin’ Up!’s standard, so it has been pulled from inventory and isn’t available. You can use the Stampin’ Write marker directly on your stamp. (I tried this, and and the flower image being so large and photopolymer, it didn’t really work. You could also buy a blank Stampin’ Spot and use the ink refill to make your own. The Stampin’ Spot has a fabric top and the ink seems to do better with that style ink pad than the foam ink pad. OR, do what I did here — I inked up the sentiment using the Secret Sea ink, stamped off once, and then stamped. Close enough match for me!

Be sure to see all the supplies used in the section at the bottom. Gallery Blooms and Beautiful Motif stamp sets are a must for your collection!

Now, let’s see what the others have done with new products! Visit the roll call below, or click the next arrow below to head over to Kristine Vicente’s Blog:

Happy Stamping! Kelly

Roll Call
Kristine Vicente
Tina Lesson
Jo Anne Hewins
Laurie Meier
Frances Wagner
Tracie Evans Langley – the Sassy Stamper
Kelly Taranto-the Late Night Stamper You are here!

Shop the Supplies

Add All to Cart

AWOW – Seasons, Celebrating Floral Impressions

The Around the World on Wednesday (AWOW) team and I are hopping today — here on our blogs, and on Instagram (@thelatenightstamper). This month we are celebrating the season we are in, based on our location. It is spring here in eastern North Carolina, and gorgeous weather with flowers starting to bloom. Also, as we continue to celebrate the 5th year anniversary of our blog hop, we are CASEing team member Cheryll Miller.

Before I go on, let me first introduce the AWOW Team–here’s who we are and where we are in the world:

Okay, let’s get into my project. As mentioned, we were to CASE (which stands for Copy And Share Everything or, my favorite, Copy And Slightly Edit) a Cheryll Miller project.

For my CASE, I chose this project from Cheryll’s blog:

My version:

As I mentioned, I’m using the Floral Impressions Suite, a new Online Exclusive and is GORGEOUS. I love all of the floral dies, and the DSP is so pretty. Let’s take a look at the suite.

First the Impressions Abloom Bundle:

Here’s a close-up of the DSP:

To stay close to Cheryll’s layout, I used the B side of the DSP and florals in Fresh Freesia and layers in Blackberry Bliss. Here’s a closer look:

The embellishments are called Pressed Flowers Motifs and are part of the new Beautiful Gallery Suite in the Annual Catalog.

Now let’s see what my friends around the world did with this challenge. Click the next button below to follow along to Chris Smith’s Blog, or follow along the hop using the Roll Call Below.

Happy Stamping! Kelly

Roll Call

Leonie Stuart – AU
Rochelle Laird-Smith – AU
Cheryll Miller – AU
Marga Bultena – DE
Aurélie Fabre – FR
Kelly Taranto – US You are here!
Chris Smith – US
Theresa McEntee – US
Lori Willcox – CA
Teri West – US
Cheryl Hamilton – US

Shop the Supplies:

Add All to Cart

NC Demos – It’s Hip to Be Square!

It’s the last Sunday of the month (again, how!?), which means it’s time to hop with my NC Demos group. Our core team of bloggers had the rare treat of being all in one place at the same time during Stampin’ Up!’ OnStage in March. You might have already stopped by Toni Campana’s Blog, but if you are just popping in this month our theme this month is inspired by our group photo:

It’s Hip to Be Square! We are challenged this hop to create a project that features squares.

I chose to use the new In-Color Strawberry Slush, as well as new products: the Celebratory Sips 12 x 12 DSP:

And, the Party Piggy Stamp set:

These products will be new Online Exclusives will be available to customers in early May.

Here’s my card:

Here’s a closer look at the “star square”:

The pitcher and drinks are from the DSP, and the background squares are also a pattern of the DSP. Just add a sentiment, and you are good to go — Quick and Easy!

I had some extra DSP squares left over, so made a 2nd card:

So much fun! Spring in a glass…

Now, let’s see what the others have done with new products! Visit the roll call below, or click the next arrow below to head over to Laurie Meier’s Blog:

Happy Stamping! Kelly

Roll Call

Tina Lesson
Jo Anne Hewins 
Toni Campana 
Kelly Taranto – the Late Night Stamper
Laurie Meier
Tracie Evans Langley – the Sassy Stamper

Frances Wagner

Last Chance – Filled with Fun!

Today I’m hopping with my Stamping With Friends group and our challenge is to make a project with a item (or items) on the Last Chance list. A new annual catalog is around the corner, so there are many items on the Last Chance list. I’m using the Filled with Fun stamp set and dies.

As always with a Blog Hop, be sure to hop along with us by checking out the Roll Call at the bottom of this post so you can carry through and see the other creations of my talented stamping friends.

Sadly, by the time I’m posting this, the Filled with Fun Stamp set is out of stock. This is the deal with Last Chance items — you have to grab it while you can because it’s only available while supplies last. Still available are the Filled with Fun Dies, and the Filled with Cheer stamp set!

And, they are a steal: the dies are $12.80 (!) and the stamp set is only $10. Wow! You can make endless projects with this cute wagon, and get a start on your holiday cards.

Back to my cards. I made three birthday cards using the same layout – just simple layers to let the die cut wagon do all the work to make these wow projects.

Let’s look at each one of these Filled with Fun cards:

For this card, I used the balloon die and added a simple sentiment — layered onto Misty Moonlight card base. This could be a cute boy birthday card.

Now, let’s look at a more girlie birthday card.

For the card above I used pinks and Berry Burst as the accent color. The vertical happy birthday sentiment is from a stamp set called So Sincere — that was also on the Last Chance list and is now discontinued. I’m telling you…you’ve gotta act fast!

Here’s the last of the three:

This one is my favorite. I love the little flowers and I love the yellow gingham. That DSP is from the Floral Delight designer series paper pack:

Hope you like my cards, and again, be sure to check out the Last Chance list in my online store!

Be sure to click through the Roll Call below to see all of my stamping friends’ creations!

Happy stamping! Kelly

Roll Call

AWOW – Celebrating 5 Years and CASEing Anne Marie

The Around the World on Wednesday (AWOW) team and I are hopping today — here on our blogs, and on Instagram (@thelatenightstamper). While I have only been a member of this group since 2023, but this group has been hopping together since 2020. They started April 8, 2020 and are celebrating 5 years. Our fearless leader Angie, was encouraged to start this group by her team member Anne Marie Hille. So our challenge this month is to CASE Anne Marie! You can find her amazing projects on Instagram (@stampin_anne) and on her blog (http://www.stampinanne.com/). Note: Anne Marie is battling cancer, so if you’re the praying type, please add her to your prayer list.

Before I go on, let me first introduce the AWOW Team–here’s who we are and where we are in the world:

Also, before we dive in, I wanted to share that I had the opportunity to meet some of these ladies in person at the US OnStage event Stampin’ Up! held in Raleigh in March.

What a treat…after seeing them online for two years, it was such a joy to meet in person. I know those across the pond (and the world) also were able to get together at their respective OnStage events too.

Okay, let’s get into my project. As mentioned, we were to CASE (which stands for Copy And Share Everything or, my favorite, Copy And Slightly Edit) an Anne Marie Hile project.

Let’s take a look.

Looking through Anne Marie’s blog, it was hard to choose a project. She is a very talented crafter, and I love all the bright colors throughout her blog! I chose this project from her February 2024 post.

Here is my project:

I just found out yesterday that my uncle is in the hospital for a triple bypass open heart surgery. I spoke to my cousin, and his surgery is today and he is expected to be okay. My cousin is a nurse and has worked in the cardiac unit. He said, “We’ve done older (my uncle is 77) and way sicker.” That said, please add Uncle Duane to your prayer list too!

Anyway, I wanted to make a card to send to him and my aunt. I am using the Layering Leaves stamp set and coordinating punch. I chose a more masculine color palette with Lost Lagoon and Crumb Cake, and am using a plaid designer series paper from the Timeless Plaid DSP pack. I also am using the Spotlight on Nature dies and Everyday Details Dies, and tucked some leaves from the Bough Punch.

Let’s take a look at the inside.

Here’s Anne Marie’s:

Here’s mine:

I liked how she added a stamped image behind the white layer, so I stamped some leaves tone-on-tone in the background before adhering the white layer.

Here’s my project one more time, and don’t forget to decorate your envelopes!

Now let’s see what my friends around the world did with this challenge. Click the next button below to follow along to Chris Smith’s Blog, or follow along the hop using the Roll Call Below.

Happy Stamping! Kelly

Roll Call

Jan Clothier – NZ
Leonie Stuart – AU
Rochelle Laird-Smith – AU
Cheryll Miller – AU
Danielle Kassing – NL
Marga Bultena – DE
Aurélie Fabre – FR
Kim Fee – UK
Annette Ball – CA
Kelly Taranto – US You are here!
Chris Smith – US
Theresa McEntee – US
Bree Renwick – US
Teri West – US
Cheryl Hamilton – US

Shop the Supplies

Add All to Cart

Stamping With Friends – Notecard Gift Set

Today I’m hopping with my Stamping With Friends group and our challenge is to make a notecard gift set (box included!) I am using product from the Annual Catalog from the Country Woods Suite.

As always with a Blog Hop, be sure to hop along with us by checking out the Roll Call at the bottom of this post so you can carry through and see the other creations of my talented stamping friends.

Let’s Take a Look!

BOX and BELLY BAND:

This notecard set and box is so quick and simple to make. You start out with Stampin’ Up!’s notecards, a few sheets of cardstock, one sheet of DSP and voila! Quick and easy gift. I make sets like this when I’ve been invited to someone’s home, as a hostess gift, as customer gifts, and gifts for coworkers.

NOTE CARDS:

Now You Make It!

Download the PDF Tutorial here:

NC Quarterly Project Directions – Gift Box and Cards -K.TarantoDownload

Note: the photos above show 5 cards, the tutorial is for 4 cards (this was for a class). To make 5 cards with the same materials, take card #4 and only use one corner of layered DSP. Use the other corner to make a 5th card. Just add a sentiment circle!

Be sure to click through the Roll Call below to see all of my stamping friends’ creations!

Happy stamping! Kelly

Roll Call

Shop the Supplies

Print Recipe
Product List
Country Flowers Photopolymer Stamp Set (English)
[163405]
$24.00
Spotlight On Nature Dies
[163580]
$35.00
Basic White Note Cards & Envelopes
[159232]
$10.00
Petal Pink 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
[146985]
$11.50
Crumb Cake 8-1/2" X 11" Cardstock
[120953]
$11.50
Country Woods 12" X 12" (30.5 X 30.5 Cm) Designer Series Paper
[163393]
$12.50
Watercolor Pencils Assortment 2
[149014]
$14.00
Night Of Navy Classic Stampin' Pad
[147110]
$9.00
Crumb Cake Classic Stampin' Pad
[147116]
$9.00
Linen Thread
[104199]
$5.00
Add All to Cart

AWOW – Monochromatic Meets Spotlight on Nature

The Around the World on Wednesday (AWOW) team and I are hopping today — here on our blogs, and on Instagram. For this month’s challenge we are making projects using a monochrome themed color challenge where we are getting creative with the Color Buddies within our Color Family Collections. Before I go on, let me first introduce the AWOW Team–here’s who we are and where we are in the world:

Now, let’s hop right in. So, first of all…I am not using the Spotlight on Nature bundle. Ha! I changed my mind after setting this post, so forgive me. I need to pull that bundle out someday! Anyway, I had the Storybook Moments Suite on my stamping desk and grabbed it without remembering I was going to use Spotlight on Nature. Whoops!

Because Monday is St Patrick’s Day, I chose green Color Buddies on the Color Wheel: Lemon Lime Twist, Granny Apple Green, and Old Olive. “Color buddies” are next to each other on the Color Wheel.

Again, I’m using the three greens (all but Mossy Meadow). Let’s take a look:

Funny story — I started with the card on the left. I asked my son what kind of animal this was with the umbrella (weasel?) and he said “By the way, that card is kind of blech.” I don’t disagree. I mean, kind of creepy and blah??

So, I tried again…this time with a sheep:

This card also uses the So Swirly embossing folder and I love these bright dots. I think this one is a little better, but the sheep is still a little creepy?? Alas, these animals had the right greens and were monochromatic-looking, so I went with it.

What do you think? Yay or nay??

Either way, I highly encourage you pick some color buddies and start crafting!

Now let’s see what my friends around the world did with this challenge. Click the next button below to follow along to Theresa’s Blog, or follow along the hop using the Roll Call Below.

Happy Stamping! Kelly

Roll Call

Leonie Stuart – AU
Rochelle Laird-Smith – AU
Cheryll Miller – AU
Danielle Kassing – NL
Kelly Taranto – US You are here!
Theresa McEntee – US
Lori Willcox – CA
Teri West – US
Cheryl Hamilton – US