Monday, August 10, 2026

introducing STAMPlorations perfect pairs

If you'd like to take the guesswork out of cardmaking, there's a new product over at STAMPlorations just for you. It has the perfect name - Perfect Pairs - and it makes creating a card super simple. Shery has paired a sentiment and small background stamp with some beautiful ephemera cuts and all you have to do is add them to a card.


This is the first card that I made with the Blooms and Sunshine pairing. I literally chose the two ephemera pieces that first caught my eye and squeezed the wonderful sentiment in between them. A piece of washi along the right edge and voila. Bet this card didn't even take me 4 minutes ;)

washi tape

Here's my second make. Took me more than 4 minutes cuz all I knew was I wanted to use this piece of  ephemera and some lilac cardstock. It took me a little bit to figure out exactly how.

Oval die
Frame die

There are so many beautiful pieces of ephemera included in this Perfect Pair collection. I'll be back with more makes soon. How fun is it to have pieces that go so well together right at your fingertips? Peruse the other fun collections here. I'm loving the holiday themed ones.

Don't forget about my STAMPlorations discount code STAMPGIRLMARIA for 20% off should you be ready to do some shopping ;) And a little bird told me all dies in the store are 15% off during August.

 

Saturday, August 8, 2026

i can make a card in 4 minutes (theoretically)

Just to be clear - it actually took me 8 minutes.


BUT... it should only have taken 4! About 4 of those 8 minutes were cuz I changed my mind halfway through. So... assuming you know what you want to do I bet you can make that card in 4 minutes! (Remember "I can name that song in 5 notes"? I don't remember the name of the TV show but I really enjoyed it. I digress.)

There is a new product over at STAMPlorations and it makes creating a card super simple. It's even named "Simple Expressions"!

Here's the formula. Sentiment stamp + card front = handmade card.

Wanna see how easy this is? This is the card that should have taken just 4 minutes, but in the process I decided to use a black cardbase rather than white and that cost me 4 extra minutes. Stamp the sentiment on the card front and adhere it to your base. Voila!


Here's my second make. Love this card front. Just spiced it up with an organic shaped die cut for my sentiment and some white gel pen marks.


And my third, using the solid stamp and an offcut black "frame".


Did I "inspire" you - maybe to add gel pen marks or scrap die cuts to your card fronts? Don't forget about my STAMPlorations discount code STAMPGIRLMARIA for 20% off should I have convinced you to do some shopping ;) 

Let's do the math. 4 minutes per card. 8 card fronts per pack. That's 8 cards for your stash in 30 minutes. Not too shabby. Right now over at the store if you order one Simple Expressions stamp ($5) you get a Paper Goods Pack 40% off!!  Check out the deets here. 




 

Friday, July 3, 2026

STAMPlorations 13th birthday - day 5

Welcome back for the last day of STAMPlorations 13th Birthday Celebration! Don`t forget to visit the STAMPlorations blog to see all of today's gorgeous team projects AND to leave a comment letting us know which of the new products we`ve been featuring this week - Sanna`s Stencils, Focal Fronts, Colorables, Pocket Backdrops, Clear Stickers, Ephemera Cutouts - is your absolute favorite. You might just win it!

Today`s projects feature the Ephemera Cutouts again.  There are so many pretty images to choose from. You can check out all the designs in the store.

I created a couple more all occasion tags to have on hand for little gifts. I fussy cut the Ephemera Cutouts images, die cut tags from complementary cardstock and then added a strip of washi and a mini tag with a Clear Sticker sentiment.


For the next note cards, I stenciled "hello" on the cardbase, attached a layer of vellum over it and then adhered an Ephemera Cutouts image on the vellum. Easy peasy.







That was quite a birthday celebration! Please head over to the STAMP blog to leave a comment for your chance to win. And it`s your last chance for FREE US SHIPPING on all orders $25 or more! Thanks for celebrating with us. I`d love to know if you`ve been inspired to pick up any of these new products and what you plan to do with them. You can use my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for 20% off if you`re placing an order.

Thursday, July 2, 2026

STAMPlorations 13th birthday - day 4

Welcome back to the STAMPlorations 13th Birthday Celebration! Don`t forget to visit the STAMPlorations blog to see all of today's gorgeous team projects AND to leave a comment letting us know which of the new featured products is your absolute favorite. You might just win it!  

More coffee coming at you in my post today. Yesterday I used the new Focal Fronts. Today I`ve used the Ephemera Cutout Sheets. They too make it easy to create cards. They are beautifully colored on 70# matt paper. You fussy cut the images using the nice white outline for guidance, then use them as you wish on cards, tags, journal pages, mixed media...

It was easy as 1,2,3 for my first card. Collage paper for the BG. Coffee and beans for the focal point. A clear sticker from the new All Thing Coffee stickers for the sentiment. Whew, that was fast!


Next I just love this image of a coffee cup on a stack of books so I went with it on a manila tag. Added a clear sticker sentiment from All Thing Coffee stickers  and a little stamping on the card front for interest. 

There´s soooo much going on with this birthday celebration. Please head over to the STAMP blog to leave a comment for your chance to win. And FREE US SHIPPING on all orders $25 or more - wowzers, what a deal! Thanks for celebrating with us. CU tomorrow (the last day of our celebration) with more. Hope you`re enjoying the new products and getting your creativity flowing on how you could put these products to use.

  

Wednesday, July 1, 2026

STAMPlorations 13th birthday - day 3

Welcome back to the STAMPlorations 13th Birthday Celebration! Don`t forget to visit the STAMPlorations blog to see all of today's gorgeous team projects AND to leave a comment letting us know which of the new featured products is your absolute favorite. You might just win it!  

Get ready for lots of eye candy. My projects introduce the new Focal Fronts. Boy do they make it easy to create cards. Already cut and colored, all you have to do is create a background. You can check out all the designs in the store.

I fell in love with the color palette on this first iced coffee so created a quick stenciled BG, stamped a sentiment on a little tab and voila!


Next I tore some strips of B/W PP to cover my card front and then chose a Focal Front that matched nicely. A stamped sentiment and voila!

For my next two projects (tags to have on hand for birthday or hostess gift bags) I chose a  Focal Front, die cut a complementary colored tag, added a strip of PP along the bottom and an oval sentiment up top. Ready to go.

also used Fluttery stamp


There´s soooo much going on with this birthday celebration. Please head over to the STAMP blog to leave a comment for your chance to win. And FREE US SHIPPING on all orders $25 or more - wowzers, what a deal! I`d love to know if you`ve been inspired to pick up any of these new products and what you plan to do with them. Remember to use my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for 20% off if you`re placing an order.

Thanks for celebrating with us. CU tomorrow with more.

 

Tuesday, June 30, 2026

STAMPlorations 13th birthday - day 2

Welcome back to the STAMPlorations 13th Birthday Celebration! Don`t forget to visit the STAMPlorations blog to see all of today's gorgeous team projects AND to leave a comment letting us know which of the new featured products is your absolute favorite. You might just win it!  

More sweets on the agenda for day 2 of the celebrations. I had some fun with the Big Cupcakes and Big Birthday Cake Colorables. Colorables are printed onto heavy cardstock and already cut out for you. You just add the color. They held up great to loads of water for my projects. You can check out all the designs in the pack in the store.

I pulled out some water-based markers and scribbling them onto an acrylic block watercolored with yellow, pink and blue tones. Don`t you love how when they mix you also get some orange, green and purple tones?


For the birthday cake I created a stenciled background and then stamped a frame for the cake using these great sentiment stamps.

also used Bubble Dance stencil
There´s soooo much going on with this birthday celebration. Please head over to the STAMP blog to leave a comment for your chance to win. And FREE US SHIPPING on all orders $25 or more - wowzers, what a deal! I`d love to know if you`ve been inspired to pick up any of these new products and what you plan to do with them. You can use my STAMPGIRLMARIA discount code for 20% off if you`re placing an order. Thanks for celebrating with us. CU tomorrow with more.

Monday, June 29, 2026

STAMPlorations 13th birthday - day 1

Welcome to the STAMPlorations 13th Birthday Celebration! Be sure to visit the STAMPlorations blog to see all of today's gorgeous team projects AND to leave a comment letting us know which of the new featured products is your absolute favorite. You might just win it!

What better way to start a birthday celebration than with a fun birthday card? How about a Comic Pop Pocket Backdrop paired with a Big Birthday Cake Colorable (now that´s a mouthful!) Both can be found in the store here. And although that birthday cake certainly can be colored, I chose to keep it B/W since that backdrop had all the colors going on.

also used XOXO die

Next up I had some stenciling fun with Sanna`s new Profile 1 stencil. I first stenciled the profile in yellow. Then I used the leftover yellow ink on my dauber to tone down the stark white in the positive space. I laid the next stencil over the girl and stenciled the sentiment in orange. The last step was to ink the little squares (over the girl stencil) with pink. And it`s still a one layer card!

There´s soooo much going on with this birthday celebration. Please head over to the STAMP blog to leave a comment for your chance to win. And FREE US SHIPPING on all orders $25 or more - wowzers, what a deal! Thanks for celebrating with us. CU tomorrow with more.