The Stamping Station – Make It Personal

Welcome to the Stamping Station Blog Hop for August 2026! We’re a group of worldwide demonstrators that get together on the third Sunday of each month to inspire your paper crafting. This month, our theme is “Make It Personal.” All our projects are personalized in one way or another, such as with a name or date, or even documenting personal experiences with a scrapbook/memory keeping page(s).

I have been meaning to get back into scrapbooking for ages! I used to make pages all the time when my kids were growing up. I told my daughter that for a special personalized wedding present, I wanted to create some scrapbooks for her documenting her engagement, showers, and wedding. So, this was my nudge to get started!!!

I started with my favorite engagement photo of my daughter and her fiancé taken last August in Crested Butte, Colorado. Their photographers, Dillon & Ellie (https://www.dillonandellie.com/) did an AMAGING job! (They’re the photographers for the wedding as well! I can’t wait!) This whole series of photos means so much to me that I was seriously intimidated to use them. I felt so much pressure to do a good job. I know that’s an internal thing; I put pressure on myself. So I just had to push through and start. Now that I’ve got one finished, I’m excited to continue!

I like to select colors based on the photo, so I focused on the gorgeous wildflowers and selected Hydrangea Hue, Highland Heather, Peaceful Pine, Old Olive, and Golden Glow. The nice thing about that combination is that three of those colors are current In Colors and are included in the Bloom Boutique Specialty Designer Series Paper and coordinating Heirloom Boutique Two-Tone Cardstock. My goal was to create something that enhanced the colors of the photo, but didn’t draw attention away from it. I also wanted to create a page that was soft and elegant. Therefore, I chose to watercolor the images and use two-tone cardstock.

I remembered a retired stamp set and coordinating dies called Pretty Florals with flowers very similar to the ones in the photo. To stamp the flowers, I inked up the stamp, stamped off twice on scratch paper to lighten the color, and then used a Sponge Dauber to add ink back onto the stamp from the bottom of the flower fading upward. Afterwards, I gave the stamp a generous spritz with water and stamped on Basic White Cardstock. For the leaves, I randomly watercolored two sheets of Fluid 100 Watercolor Paper, one with Peaceful Pine ink and the other with Old Olive ink. Then I used that paper to die-cut the various leaves. I also used the Life In Bloom Dies to die-cut some of the larger leaves and the dark side of Peaceful Pine Two-Tone Cardstock to cut some of the leaf shadows.

The title and sentiment are from the Heirloom Boutique Stamp Set. I thought they were perfect for the occasion. Then, I cut them out with the Life In Bloom Dies. (I’ve been collecting good scrapbooking stamp sets and dies in anticipation of this project.)

To add to the elegance factor, I embossed the title in gold and added a Gold Foil border to both the title and photo.

I learned a few tips about scrapbooking while watching recent Stampin’ Up!® videos on YouTube and the Demonstrator Facebook Page. Here are a few I consciously thought of while laying out the elements on this page: 1) Leave some white space so your eyes have a place to rest. 2) Place elements in a natural flow such as a diagonal. 3) Place pops of color (such as the Golden Glow on this page) in threes — the flowers on the photo, the sentiment, and the flowers above the title.

Be sure to continue through the rest of the Stamping Station Blog Hop for even more inspiration!

Stamping Station Blog Hop Designers:

Have a wonderful Sunday,

Purchase products from my online store to qualify to receive free exclusive project tutorials. This month’s PDF includes 11 fantastic tutorials designed by my demonstrator friends and I to inspire your paper crafting! The projects feature products from the September-December 2026 Catalog and current Online Exclusives. Enjoy!