Welcome to our monthly Casually Crafting Blog Hop! The theme for our hop this month is – New Beginnings using Hippo Happiness

So who are we? We are a group of Stampin’ Up demonstrators who just love to stamp when ever we can. We particularly love the type of cards that are simple and easy to make with just a few products. So would ideally suit beginner and casual crafter’s. However occasionally we will add a wow project that would suit a more avid crafter. We will be sharing our ideas on the 3rd Friday of each month and you can hop around the group and gather loads of inspiration. So grab yourself a cup of your favourite beverage, sit back & enjoy the hop!

Today’s blog hop is all about new beginnings. Be that a new baby, home, job, there are so many reasons to celebrate with a card. Plus with the new Annual Catalogue full of gorgeous new products there are are so many options to chose from.

Seriously, have you checked out the NEW Hippo Happiness Bundle (Page 49 AC)?  This adorable stamp set and die bundle is perfect for making simple cards to stepped up ones.  Keep it easy with just the stamps, or bring in the dies and have fun creating all sorts of design ideas.

Plus during June you could get the Hippo Happiness bundle worth £45 or any of the other current bundles absolutely FREE. Yep that’s right free! Check out the Pick a Free Bundle Bash at the bottom of this page. Woo hoo

As soon as I saw the set , I knew it was going to be right up there on my wish list. This particular set was designed by the uber talented Robyn Cardon as a part of her Million Dollar achiever rewards. Isn’t it just sooooo cute?

Celebrating dies with the Hippo Happiness Bundle

Keeping the card bases quite simple by using Whisper White as the base and a matt 10.0 cm by 14.3 cm for all the cards. It allowed me to let the stamp set and dies really shine. For my colour palette I chose:

I also really am loving all the new dies Stampin’ Up have added to the new Catalogue

Hippo Happiness – Simple Stamped Butterflies

For my first card I just couldn’t resist those cute butterflies and really went to town using all the sweet little elements to create a whole meadow. The butterflies have two separate stamps (three if you count the adorable little faces), so you can really add lots of details. The best part is because they are photo polymer, lining everything up is really simple!

To finish I sponged some Granny Apple Green along the bottom, added some splatters of Wink of Stella and once dry used the New Tasteful Textile 3D Embossing Folder.

Hippo Happiness – Stepped Up Thank You So Much

My next card is another simple card and makes use some of the coordinating dies.

This time I die cut the hearts using the Be Mine Stitched Framelits before adhering all the layers to the base.

The adorable sheep and sentiment were stamped in Basic grey and the then die cut using the coordinating dies, How lovely is that label shape?

To finish I die cut a number of flowers in Balmy Blue, Highland Heather and the NEW vibrant Magenta Madness. Thankfully Stampin’ Up included three of the flower dies in the set so they took no time at all. I scrunched them up a little before attaching with glue dot and adding pearls to the centres

Hippo Happiness – When In Doubt Be A Unicorn

For my third project I added a piece of silver foil card under the matt, which I embossed with the NEW Dainty Diamonds 3D Embossing Folder. This time I used the Stitched Stars to create the aperture and then sponged with front with Granny Apple Green, Daffodil Delight and Magenta Madness. Can you spy that sparkly frame just inside the aperture? Its the New rainbow Glimmer card which I absolutely love!

To finish I added a sentiment and the Unicorn, complete with a rainbow glimmer card horn!

Hippo Happiness – Hi Baby Shaker Card

For my final card (ish!) I really wanted to create a shaker card so die cut the triangles using the new Stitched triangles. How adorable are those tiny triangle edge dies?

I then added window sheet behind, edged each triangle with Foam adhesive strips and added the sprinkles. Can you spot where they came from? They are the bits created from the edge dies, I love it when you can use the left over bits created by our dies and these fit the bill perfectly!

Once adhered to the base I added the letters using the new Playful alphabet dies You can spot another of the new products, the NEW Foam Adhesive Sheets , which you can die cut and use to create height to any project. They are adhesive on both sides so really save you time. No more fiddling with tiny bits of dimensionals. Yay!

Finally I added some more butterflies in coordinating colours.

Hippo Happiness – Booboo Bonus birthday card

Now I have to confess, when I made the shaker card I forgot to add the window sheet before attaching the foam strips. Whoopsie! Well I could’t resist making another card using the stamp set’s namesake Hippo and some of the scraps from the projects.

This time I just lightly sponged around the stitched triangle shapes. and inserted them into the apertures. I added some more die cut letters, the stamped Mango melody hippo and an embossed sentiment. I just love a happy accident card. especially when it turns out as cute as this!

Voila!

I had great fun making these projects and I would love to know which one is your favourite? So please do leave me a comment.

If you would like to know more about any of these projects please do get in contact and I would be happy to help you

You may have arrive from Hilary’s blog or started here, but do go hop onto the next blog which is the uber talented Barry. Just click on the photo and it will take you straight there.

and the rest of the blog roll

Sadly Gillian has had to step off the blog this month, but we are looking forward to welcoming her back next month.

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Special Offers and Limited Time Deals

• It’s a bundle bash! With the launch of the NEW 2020-2021 Annual Catalogue, it’s the perfect time to join Stampin Up! and our happy group of happy stampers – The Hugs and Kisses.
• Get a Starter Kit with £130 / 175€ worth of products of your choice for only £99 / 129€
• Select any Stamp/Tool Bundle from the new 2020–2021 Annual Catalogue for FREE
• For more information CLICK HERE or join up RIGHT HERE

Thanks for looking

Stamping Hugs

Sara