Stamping Sunday Blog Hop -Fresh Starts & Creative Beginnings

Hello and welcome to the Stamping Sunday Blog Hop for January 2026. Our theme this month is “Fresh Starts & New Beginnings.” With this theme come exciting things, and we have some talented guests joining us this month from the Creation Station Team. We are preparing to unveil a merger with the Creation Station Team, complete with new name, so stick with us and we’ll unveil everything fully next month. This month, enjoy the added inspiration.

Our theme this month could include new products, new crafters, or even the New Year! I decided to focus on new products, because who doesn’t LOVE new products? I chose the Simply Beautiful Bundle for my project. In particular, I love the huge images to color! They’re so fun. For this one, I decided to go back to my roots and watercolor.

I stamped the images with Stazon ink on Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper. If you have trouble getting a good image on textured watercolor paper, I have a few tips. 1) Be sure your ink pad is well inked. I live in a very dry climate, so it’s important to add ink refill on a regular basis. Otherwise the ink pad sticks to the paper and even sometimes rips it! Also, for large images like these, I get the best results when I turn over my stamps and ink them upside down by pressing the pad onto the stamp. It helps to get an even image.

I used Flirty Flamingo and Melon Mambo ink for the flowers and Granny Apple Green and Garden Green ink for the leaves. Tips for watercoloring: Go slow and paint in small sections. I like to start with a light wash of the lightest color and then add more saturated color as the paper dries. This allows for beautiful ink bleeding and blending. I also use a paper towel to lighten the color occasionally. Finally, I find that less is more. I like my watercolors to have a translucent look, so it’s important to keep some colors very light for that pretty variegated look.

I die-cut the stamin pieces from Gold Foil and then cut them apart to form a shape I liked.

In the background, I used a sheet of Country Woods Designer Series Paper and layered a couple Everyday Arches Dies.

The final touches included some new embellishments: Pearlized Faceted Circles and Gold/White Ribbon. They’re both soooo pretty!

Be sure to continue on through the rest of the blog hop to see all the designers’ projects with this month’s theme:

Stamping Sunday Blog Hop Designers:

Have a wonderful day,

Purchase products from my online store to qualify to receive free exclusive project tutorials. This month’s PDF includes 12 creative tutorials designed by my demonstrator friends and I to inspire your paper crafting! The projects feature products from the 2025 Annual Catalog, Online Exclusives, and new January-April Mini Catalog. Enjoy!

In addition to the list below, I used #166965 Simply Beautiful Bundle, $166979 Gold/White Ribbon, and #166978 Pearlized Faceted Circles.

Product List