As demonstrators, we are able to preorder items from an future catalog one month prior to the launch of the that catalog. I could have ordered anything (& everything) from the 2018 Holiday catalog, but I decided to limit myself and order only two suites. One of the suites is Halloween, which I will feature in another post on another day. The suite I want to focus on today is the Country Lane Suite because it is striking and comforting at the same time. I will be the first to admit that “country” is not my style. However, this suite spoke to me immediately.
As many of you know, I am a gardener and this suite features galvanized steel jugs, paper and embellishments, which I love. I even have the exact vase from this stamp set in a distressed white. I will make a card featuring that vase and showcase them both in the near future. Just to show you how relevant and current Stampin’ Up! is, I took this photograph of items I found in T.J. Maxx earlier in August. Do you see the similarity? I bet you will find a lot of home decor featuring cotton, galvanized steel, jugs and similar floral arrangements this Fall. Now you can make your own cards, tags and memory pages featuring this trend by purchasing the items in the Country Lane Suite.
Since it is the end of summer and back to school time, I haven’t had a chance (yet) to create my own designs using this suite, so I decided to copy the ideas straight from the catalog. (Let me tell you a secret… Stampin’ Up! encourages us to copy their designs!). This first card is almost exactly the same as in the catalog, except I chose a different pattern paper from the same Country Lane Designer Series Paper pack. I thought the Blackberry Bliss pattern was a little more bold.
Do you love the “chicken wire” paper? It’s so much fun to use as an accent piece, brings shine and texture at the same time. I just cut strips from the sheet to get more use out of it.
Here’s a close up of my coloring. I used the Blends Markers, which are my all time favorite product to color with. Be sure to use Black Memento Ink, it’s the best ink to use with Blends Markers.
The coloring and texture is the exact same on this version, but the background paper is different. For the first card, I used Mint Macaron. But on this card, I used the new Galvanized Metallic Paper. It’s unbelievable! Left alone, the paper has a rough look to it, just like well used galvanized steel. Run it through your Big Shot with the new Tin Tile Impressions Folder and it transforms into a shiny tin ceiling. Absolutely beautiful and amazing! It has the same transformation effect as the Silver embossing powder that looks like liquid mercury (at least to me anyways). It’s a big WOW with very little work.
The Silver Chicken Wire Elements would have been lost on this background so I used a bit of the new 3/16″ Braided Linen Trim and it does the trick.
These cards are truly impressive with very little work. A little coloring and a run through of the Big Shot, that’s it. I did make the stamping a little easier by using my Stamparatus, the best stamp positioner tool around. Clear blocks will work just as well.
Here’s a close up of all the stamps in the Country Home stamp set. It is a photopolymer stamp set which makes lining up the florals into the jugs super easy. You will find you can use this set for so many reasons. And of course, it pairs beautifully with all of the coordinating products:
Be sure to order your own comforting and striking set of the Country Lane Suite of products. I just know there will be lots of samples in Pinterest, Instagram and the WWW. Do a search and then copy the many examples you find.
Have any questions, please send them my way so I can help you.
