Thinking Stamping: Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team Blog Hop Country Club and Mountain Air

Welcome to the April Stampin' Up! Artisan Design Team Blog Hop! This time we have the pleasure of sharing with you our ideas for using the Country Club Suite and the Mountain Air bundle.

If you have a golfer in your life (and I have more than one), you'll be delighted with what the Country Club suite has to offer: a golf stamp set, coordinating dies, golf-related and masculine-friendly DSP, the Absolutely Argyll embossing folder, a twine combo and wooden, golf-related embellishments. While it's got everything for a golfer, it also offers a lot for men in general, especially the reverses of the DSP and embossing folder.

The Mountain Air bundle is fabulous for anyone who loves being outdoors for anything, or just loves nature - golfers included. The photopolymer stamps are reversible so you have the ability to create shadowy, in-the-distance vistas with the smooth reverse and fine details with the fronts. There are also trees, a forest scene, clouds and a moon in the stamps. The matching dies also contain the most magnificent die cut trees, as you'll see in some of these projects. Best of all, as a bundle, you can save 10% off the individual prices.

I have three projects to share with you today: a card, a gift box and a gift bag.

1. The Card

I really enjoyed making this card. As the scene developed, it reminded me of going around the Millbrook golf course just outside of Queenstown in the South Island. I say 'going round' but I was merely in charge of the golf cart while my husband played but oh my... was the scenery spectacular!

I started with a tent fold card base made of window sheet. For the card inner, I stamped the mountain range in Smoky Slate and added in some Wink of Stella snow, which isn't really showing up in the photo but looks good in real life. The sky, I sponged using Night of Navy.

The forest/grassland scene was more complicated. I inked the stamp in Mint Macaron then daubed Garden Green onto the trees. After stamping it, I added in some shading on the trees using the Garden Green coloured pencil from Pencil Assortment 2. Adding in shading or highlights with pencils or blends is alway a good way to add dimension to any stamp.

For the front of the card, I did a partial die cut of the golfer, coloured him with Stampin' Blends and paper-pieced his shirt from the smallest argyll-patterned DSP, which I also used in the sentiment cluster and at the bottom of the inner.

I took one of the wooden embellishments from the Country Club Elements and coloured it with a Dark Poppy Parade Stampin' Blend. The tee and golf ball are from the Golf Club dies.

2. The Gift Bag

This little gift bag is a breeze to make because it starts off with one of the small cellophane gusseted bags. I filled it with a little shredded paper and added in a pair of golf balls, some tees and a pitch repairer and stapled it together.

Then I made the topper out of a piece of Whisper White card, embossed with the Absolutely Argyll embossing folder. The dimensions were easy: the width of the bag and twice the height of the design I wanted to put on it, score in the middle and fold it.

I've added a strip of DSP for some colour then two die cut golf clubs. The laurel leaves are die cuts also and I've stacked three of them together. To create the centre, I stamped the 'You're the Greatest Guy by Par' stamp in Basic Gray onto Whisper White then cut it out using the shield shaped die from the Golf Club dies. I stamped it again in Poppy Parade and used the small banner die to cut out only the 'Greatest Guy' part. Finally, I put them all together and attached the topper with some Tear and Tape.

3. The Gift Box

The final project was also fun to make but tested my mathematics a little as I worked out the dimensions of the box, which holds three golf balls.

As you can see, the box again uses the Absolutely Argyll embossing folder - can you tell it's becoming a favourite? 😀

It also uses those magnificent die cut trees from the Mountain Air bundle that I mentioned earlier.

I took one of the shield and rim shaped elements from the Country Club Elements. I took the centre out and stamped it with the centre part of the Father's Day stamp from the Clubhouse set. I took the outer rim and coloured it with the dark Poppy Parade Stampin' Blend, then I gave it three coats of clear embossing powder for a bit of shine.

Finally, I used the Poppy Parade and Garden Green twine from the Country Club Twine Combo to make a tie and frayed the ends to add to the rustic feel of it.

Both the Country Club Suite and the Mountain Air bundle are great for those who love the outdoors and/or golf.

Next up on the hop, is the amazing Lauren Alarid, aka The Crafty Peach. I know you'll be amazed at her take on these products.

If you get lost along the blog, here's a list of everyone and a link to their page.

Caroline van der Straaten, Emma Goddard, Helene den Breejen, Jan Clothier, Lauren Alarid, Leah Fedynak, Manuela Geiswinkler, Marine Wiplier, Martha Groger, Martin Stone, Narelle Farrugia, Nina Waldschmidt, Rochelle Blok, Stesha Bloodhart, Tammy Wilson, Zsuzsanna Balazs

If you live in New Zealand and don't have a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, I'd love to be yours. I can help you with ideas, get you catalogues and provide you with Stampin' Up products. You can leave a message in the comments or contact me using any of the methods listed in the Contact Me tab at the top of the page. You can shop with me from anywhere in New Zealand by clicking on the SHOP NOW button in the sidebar or clicking on any of products below.

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