Mid week blog #198 - Using sketches to create.

Hello & welcome to my mid week blog.

My name is Alison & I live in beautiful Melbourne Australia & I am an independent Stampin' Up® demonstrator.

I love to create beautiful things to share with people that I love but I also sell me creations. I have been creating things in one way or another for most of my life - knitting, sewing, cooking, card making, gardening, scrap booking & hand made gifts & in 2020 after joining Stampin' Up® I decided to share my passion in a blog (craftedbyalison@blogspot.com).

In 2025 I retired & decided to spread my creative wings a little more by combining my blog, products that I had been selling on FaceBook & launching a newsletter. Some of these things I had already been doing but this time they are all in the one place.

And here we are!

You may have noticed that the title of this week's blog is Mid week # 198 & maybe wondered why the number was so high? It's because I have already posted 196 other mid week blogs at my previous blog site & one last week on this site but wanted to keep the continuity in numbers. If you would like to see what other topics have been covered in previous posts then feel free to pop on over to craftedbyalison@blogspot.com to see all of my previous posts & topics - there are 450 to choose from!

At the end of the post I will share some links to my online store at Stampin' Up® where you can purchase any supplies you think you need.

This week I am sharing a great way to create, especially if you find that you're in a creative funk. Stampin' Up® provide sketches & ideas in their catalogues to help with this & every so often I will use them or one of my own in my posts.

Today's sketch comes from the latest mini catalogue (Jan - Apr '26) & appears on page 17. I have drafted a copy of it for my records then used it to create what I think is a lovely, fresh card. I hope you like it.

Let's get started!

Here is the sketch...

And here is my finished project...

To create this card I started with a standard 14.85cm x 21cm Secret Sea card base & scored it in half.

I cut a another piece of Secret Sea measuring 14.85cm x 10.5cm.

I ran this through the embossing machine using the Beautiful Pattern embossing folder then dragged a White Craft inkpad across the raised finish to achieve a ghosted finish.

To create the different elements of the sketch I chose Cloud Cover 5/8" Textured ribbon for the side strip & cut 2 6cm x 6cm squares - one Basic White, the other from the Lovely Blossoms DSP pack. When attaching these to the base I used Tear 'n' tape as the squares needed a little more oomph to stick to the ink and the raised image.

The sentiment is from Lovely Arrangements, stamped in Secret Sea & diecut with the matching dies with the sentiment aligned more to the right hand side.

I added a floral accent to tie in with the DSP by stamping flowers from the Pretty Florals set in Cloud Cover but stamped offed to achieve a muted colour. The matching die creates the same marks on the leaves as the DSP & I just added some stamens in the centre with a Night of Navy Stampin' Blend. The leaves were diecut in Old Olive using the matching Pretty Florals dies

These were added to the side of the sentiment & then it was added the the card with dimensionals.

The final step was to add a little bling with some Holographic dots.

Viola! An easy way to create a lovely card with a little help from the Stampin' Up® catalogue.

That's all I have for you this week. I hope you enjoyed learning how to use sketches in your creations. You could also use the design (but obviously a lot bigger) in a scrapbook page if you wanted to.

My next post will be on Sunday when I will be spotlighting a stamp set. You'll have to come back to see which one.

The next mid week post will be looking at ways to use colours in your creations.

I hope you can join me for both of them.

Til next time, take care & keep creating.

XX Alison.

Here are some links to products used in today's project & some crafting essentials.

Stamps, Dies, Embossing folders & punches

• Pretty Florals stamp set

• Pretty Florals dies

• Pretty Florals bundle

• Lovely Arrangements stamp set

• Lovely Arrangements dies

• Lovely Arrangements bundle

• Beautiful Pattern embossing folder

Cardstock, DSP & paper goods

• Basic White Thick cardstock 

• Basic White cardstock

• Secret Sea cardstock

• Old Olive cardstock

• Lovely Blossoms DSP

Inks & Markers

• Secret Sea Classic Stampin' pad

• Cloud Cover Classic Stampin' pad

• White craft ink & inkpad

Embellishments

• Holographic resin dots

• Cloud Cover 5/8" Textured ribbon

Adhesives

• Multipurpose liquid glue

• Tear and tape

• Dimensionals

• Mini Dimensionals

Tools

• Paper Trimmer

• Take Your Pick tool

• Stampin' Cut & Emboss machine

• Clear stamping blocks collection