Choosing to Surprise and Delight!

I have been a flannel wearing cozy crafter for the last 5 days. This is always a time when I reset my brain and energy for the New Year. I was introduced to the idea of choosing a OLW last year and spent 2025 with NAVIGATE as my focus word. It served me well through many decisions and situations. This year with I am going to continue navigating my life but am adding the OLW phrase SURPRISE & DELIGHT.

This week as I have been on holiday break from school I have indulged myself in lots of craft time in my studio. This is a sure fire way for me to recognize the surprises and delights that are waiting for me in my own studio! As always the delight depends on a certain amount of reorganization and tidying before I settle in to create with the surprises that turn up. I received my preorder of spring catalog stamps, dies and papers just after Thanksgiving and had been chomping at the bit to really play with them. Lovely Arrangements is a beautiful and versatile set that will be available on January 6 when the new spring lineup is live in my store. What a delight it is!

This set will be available as a bundle with coordinating dies, AND as a suite with designer series paper and embellishments! The die set offers a lozenge style label and a skinny label along with two mini cover plates…I loved the circles that left me with a pile of interesting diamond shapes to use on projects as a happy extra! The additional detailed leaf cut outs allow for lots of texture on projects! Whenever I invest in products I look for how versatile they will be and how well I will be able to use them with items in my stash…like these papers from 2019 that (Surprise!) I found when tidying up!

Colors. The colors in these retired papers from the All My Love Suite (2019) are Flirty Flamingo, Crumb Cake, Lovely Lipstick, Soft Sea Foam, Balmy Blue, and Real Red. I poked around in my stash and found some of the retired Lovely Lipstick yardstick to make some labels with, and the remainder of the colors are all still current. Working with color is one of my favorite parts of paper arts. I love that Stampin’ Up! does such a great job of coordinating the colors across product lines. I always find that the colors I loved a few years ago can be used with my current favorites. I love the look of current color Afternoon Azure with Flirty Flamingo in the sample above. I chose to try it because I wanted a stronger color than the lighter blue in the papers.

Images. I am also drawn to the same types of images over the years…look how well the upcoming Lovely Arrangements florals goes with the stylized florals in the retired papers! Not quite the same, but I think you will agree when paired with colors that coordinate the overall impact is wonderful! Here is a Book Binding Fold that shows what I am talking about:

If you would like to play with these papers on your own, I have a limited number of card kits with precut DSP and Card stock available! Send me an email at Heather@Northavenue.ink and I will invoice you for $15 plus shipping. If you are local, we can arrange a pickup! I will be focusing on this bundle during my Saturday afternoon live on January 17 at 1:00. If you are registered as one of my customers, I can send you the link by email. Until next time