Archive for August, 2009:
A Gray and Rainy Morning
Aloha, all!
Well, I do live in a rainforest here in East Hawaii. But today I awoke to a day that’s a lot rainier that normal, especially for this time of year. Yuck!! Except that the flowers will be even more glorious when the sun next comes out.
So I’m feeling kind of black and white and gray today, even with the very colorful Stamping 411 Challenge for the week. So out came the black and white papers, with a little silver (gray silver!) for an accent. A sympathy card!
Sympathy cards are always handy to have around. For one thing, once you know that a Sympathy Card is needed, it’s needed RIGHT NOW! I’ve always felt that a sympathy note was one that shouldn’t wait even for a day. So now I have one in my stash, and will be ready to send it when needed.
The flower is from the stamp set, Embrace Life. You haven’t seen this here before because I just got it! Everyone else has had it forever, and I finally broke down and ordered it last week. The main reason is to have for a watercolor class that I’m going to do for my FCE (Family and Community Education) group in a couple of weeks. I’ll be sharing that design with you–as soon as I design it!!
Other accessories are 5/8" Black Grosgrain Ribbon, topped off with Organza Ribbon, with the bow accented by a black Jumbo Grommet. The "With Sympathy" greeting is from the new stamp set, Teeny Tiny Wishes. I stamped the flower onto the background Whisper White card stock, and then again onto the smaller piece. I lined both pieces up with the lines on my work sheet–a fairly simple operation.
Now if it would just stop raining, maybe I could figure out how to make a more colorful card for this week’s challenge (see the sketch to the right).
Subscribe to the comments for this postStill Working on that Masculine Card!
Aloha, all!
Last time I posted here, I said I was going to work on a Masculine Get Well Card. But I have had a heck of a time figuring out a design that I really liked.
Inspiration came tonight in the form of a challenge on Split Coast Stampers in the Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator Only section. The challenge was a 3-D challenge to make a demonstratable project. This week the project was a Stationery Box. SOOOO, I got the stationery box done–still have to do the cards!!! I have some other projects on which to work tomorrow, but I should get some cards done to fill this box by early in the week.
I made this box using To The Nines Specialty Designer Series Paper. The "specialty" part of this paper is that it is card stock weight, and makes a heck of a great box!. Most of the papers you see here are from the set, even the piece on which I stamped one of the palm fronds from the Stamp Set, Paradise. Colors for this set of papers are Sage Shadow, Chocolate Chip, Always Artichoke and Saraha Sand. Love the Chocolate Chip Jumbo brads to set this all off! There is a piece of Sage Shadow snuck in there. But it sure looks like it belongs (well, it does!)
Now this is the hook with this project–I can’t send you to the link for the tutorial!!! It’s not mine, so I can’t give it away. BUT I CAN demonstrate it for you!!! I’d love to work with you on this project; all you have to do is let me know you’re interested, and I’ll be happy to present a class for you and your friends. Just call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me, and we can get something set up!!
Get Well Wishes
Aloha, all!
The only one I know at this very moment who is under the weather is my own dear husband. Hopefully it won’t be too many more weeks before we can find out what’s ailing him and get on the road to fixing it.
So it was DH of whom I was thinking when I made this card, though I’m not sure he’d appreciate the "feminine" look. He’s more the kind to enjoy a card made with "To The Nines" specialty paper. Maybe I’ll have to make him one of those tomorrow.
But for today, there was a challenge on the blog, "Diva’s Coffee Break Designs," to make a card using specific colors, not a specific sketch. The colors are Rose Red, Regal Rose, Chocolate Chip and Sage Shadow.
My card uses a set that’s a couple of years old, Fun and Fast Notes. It’s really a very versatile set–and yes, you can make fun cards with this set very fast. Each of 8 images comes with a greeting attached. For this set, I cut the greetings from the rubber before I mounted the stamps onto their blocks. I mounted the images as intended, but then mounted the greetings on the ends of the wood blocks. This way I can more easily stamp the image in one place and the greeting in the other. Or use different greetings for different images! In the case of this image, the greeting and image went together very nicely, thank you.
This also turned out to be a good challenge for me today because I needed some quiet "down" time. Just standing at my work table carefully coloring in the line art in the image, as well as placing the little dots of Regal Rose color at the intersection of each of the grids made with this Sizzix Texturz Plate, was very soothing.
So tomorrow I’ll try something a bit more masculine! Check back then!
A Tote Box with Gift Cards
Aloha, all!
What makes this gift box with note cards special is that it’s made with TWO boxes made from the Sizzix Box #2 Die to create a little tote. How cool is that? I learned this technique at one of the Late Night Stampers Pre-Convention Stamp Camps in Salt Lake City earlier this month. What a great idea for using this die!
Something else that makes it special is that I used Stampin’ Up!’s new Wood Sheets for the boxes. I bought a couple of packs of the wood sheets to try them with various Sizzix Dies just so I could answer your questions before you decide to order some. I’ll make some of my comments/findings at the end of this post.
For this tote, I cut two of the Box #2 shapes, and made all the folds EXCEPT the two for the top flap. I left those intact so they’d stand up nice and s
traight. After I put the two boxes together, I lined the inside of the tallest part with Designer Series Paper. (All the DSP in this project are from the Razzleberry Lemonade set of papers–gorgeous set!) Then I punched the top of one box with the Word Window Punch. At the Stamp Camp, we then put the boxes together and punched the word window punch through the second box. Can’t do that with the Wood Sheets because the two Wood Sheets glued together don’t fit into the punch. I found that out the hard way, so had to use a Craft Knife to cut the handle out of the second box. Won’t make that mistake again!
All the cards are 3" square gift cards. Four of them fit nicely into one side of the tote, and I put the envelopes in the other side of the tote.
Now for my comments about the wood sheets:
The good:
- They cover a whole Bigz XL Die, so there’s little chance you’ll cut one wrong.
- Our punches cut them nicely.
- They really do have a pretty wood grain.
The less good:
- They are textured wood on only one side. So, for a project where both sides will show–as in the above project–the other side is a white plastic-type paper. You may or may not be happy with that effect on your finished project.
- They fold nicely on the straight of the grain, but do not fold so nicely against the grain. I had to cut or file rough edges of wood grain off in several places even where the scores were very good.
- They are thick, and will not work well where you have lots of folds. For example, I could not use wood sheets for both the cover and inside of a Matchbox made from the Sizzix die.
- While you can stamp on them, the ink from my classic stampin’ pads did bleed a little into the wood grain.
- I understand from others that they do not do well with heat embossing. They’re too heavy and the wood grain is too fragile for dry embossing.
My bottom line: I made a nice, wood-grain looking card using Creamy Caramel Card Stock and the Woodgrain Background Stamp stamped in Chocolate Ship. Until I find another "a-ha" use for the wood sheets, I’ll just stick with what I’ve made from my test packages.
It’s Saturday and Another Challenge Card
Aloha, all!
You know, stamping sketch challenges really do force me to do things differently than I have been doing in the past. They also expose to me some of my shortcomings as a stamper and designer. That’s a good thing because now I’m spending more time focusing on my skills, and less time doing the same-old-same-old. I think that I already do challenge my customers and students a bit; but now I have someone to challenge me!
Today it took me quite awhile to get the focal point of this card stamped even to this point, which still leaves a bit of clarity to be desired. But this week, I’m going to use some of my solid stamps and really work at getting better coverage on them. One thing that I found is that my Perfect Plum stamp pad was badly in need of reinking. Bad news was that my reinker has been sitting around so long that it’s kind of gunky. But I think I finally have a relatively juicy stamp pad again. I’m going to have to because I really do like this year’s Halloween Designer Series Paper (DSP), Cast A Spell, which has Perfect Plum as one of its colors. A few years back, there was a set of paper called, "Halloween Night," in which the color scheme was similar, though I can’t remember if the purple color was Perfect Plum or Vintage Violet. But Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, and Basic Black – in this year’s DSP – were part of the old DSP also. I remember making lots and lots of Halloween cards that year, and I’m thinking the same will happen this year. Love the color combo!
OK–on to this card, and yet another sneak peek at the soon-to-be-published 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog! There is a stamp set in the catalog called Sweet Centers, and it’s made for the main stamped images to have a hole punched with the 1-3/4" Circle Punch and a treat cup to be inserted. It is SOOO cool! While Stampin’ Up! is selling padded envelopes to use to put these in the mail, I’m thinking that I’ll be using these for local parties and give-aways. I have two groups who will love to have these as treats at their meetings in October!
Oh, and the challenge. This is the Stamping 411 Operators’ Challenge for this Saturday (sketch at the right). If you’re interested in working on your skills or just having a fun challenge to get your creative juices flowing, you should stop over there! And if you’re thinking that you’d like to have some supplies to make any of the cards you see there, just let me know and I’ll help you order them!.jpg)
OK–A Few More Bears!
Aloha, all!
I just can’t stay away from the Build-A-Bear Workshop stuff that’s in the upcoming Stampin’ Up! 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog! But I promise: I’ll get to the holiday stuff really quickly! Enough of the bears (or not).
This lovely lady is stamped on Stampin’ Up! Watercolor paper using Jet Black Stazon ink, and watercolored using Ballet Blue (you haven’t seen that color here before, have you?!) and Creamy Caramel Classic Stampin Ink. I touched the flower in her hair with a bit of Pumpkin Pie ink. The card stock is Ballet Blue, Brilliant Blue and Pumpkin Pie, with some Pawsitively Prints Designer Series Paper (also from the 2009 Holiday Mini). I added a couple of Brilliant Blue brads for accent, and a greeting from the new set, Beary Nice Wishes. Cute, huh?
And they’ll get cuter as I see all the wonderful projects that Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators are going to be producing with these great new products!
You should be getting your mini Catalog in the mail any day now. If you haven’t received one, I have plenty of them, and will be happy to send you one if you call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me with a request.
Build-A-Bear Paper Dolls
Aloha, all!
I know, I know–they’re paper BEARS not paper dolls. But playing with these Build-A-Bear Workshop (BABW) bears and their clothes has reminded me so much of my childhood times playing with paper dolls.
Yesterday I shared one of the BABW Sizzix Bears that I had made up with some magnets to work with a Magnetic White Board. I realize as I’ve been playing (er, working?) with these, that there’s a fine line between too little magnetic force and too much. As I’ve been making up the magnet board, I’ve been trying to remember what it’s like to watch children play with their toys. And I’ve designed this board to be used by a 6-year old. Kids that age are just not as fussy as I am when it comes to things like this magnet board. So I’m just cutting the big pieces, and leaving the small things such as cuffs for the pants and blouse and pleats for the skirts out.
So here is the first scene for my BABW magnet board project. I’m probably going to laminate the background as well as the bears and their clothes to help them last a little bit longer than if they were left as just plain paper and cardstock. This, of course, makes everything a little bit heavier and just a teensy bit too heavy for the light magnetism of the Business Card magnets. But just a teensy bit. I think that the kids are going to love it just the way it is. After all, they’re more likely to be laying the magnet board on the table, and they might not even notice if there are no magnets at all!
Notice that I set one of the BABW Sizzix Bears up "backwards." In this case, the indentations for the ears, eyebrows and heart aren’t as pronounced. So I’ve helped them out by drawing a bit of Chocolate Chip marker on those lines.
The backdrop is made up of Stampin’ Up! Cardstock–Garden Green, Close to Cocoa, Blush Blossom and Rose Red. I punched two butterlfies using the Stampin’ Up! Butterfly Punch and some
Regal Rose and Summer Sun card stock. A cute scene for these VERY cute bears! I can hardly wait to start selling them in just two weeks! But, if you’re in East Hawaii, I’ll be glad to set up a time to show them off to you before that if you call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me.
Another Peek at Christmas Cocoa
Aloha, all!
After I posted yesterday, I went looking for another challenge card that I’d made last week, but hadn’t posted here. Darned if I hadn’t used the same Designer Series Paper – Christmas Cocoa Specialty – that I used in yesterday’s challenge card. This particular challenge was one that I did for the group, SUDSOL, during one of their online Chat & Challenge sessions. The sessions are a lot of fun. The host of the C&C (as they’re called) welcomes everyone and posts a challenge sketch or picture and then those of us out here in Internetland go try to come up with our own design to meet the challenge.
In yesterday’s card, I featured one of the sheets with snowflakes on it. This card uses the flocked paper that’s part of the set (the white on red on the bottom strip) and papers that coordinate with it. To set it off, I stamped an ornament from a set that you’ll be able to buy from the 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog, beginning September 1st. The set is Delightful Decorations, and there is a PUNCH TO MATCH!!! The punch is the Ornament Punch, and you’ll be able to buy it in September also. (And lest you think it has limited use, in the next week or two I’ll be demonstrating some other things that fellow Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators have been doing with it, and none of it Christmas related!) Oh, and I popped the ornament up a bit with Stampin’ Dimensionals.
Don’t have your Holiday Mini Catalog yet? Give me a call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me, and I’ll get one right out to you!
Are you an SU Demo who might like to join a great online group? Click on the blinking picture to the right and get a free two-week trial with Simply Unique Demonstrators Sharing OnLine (SUDSOL).
A Wednesday Afternoon to Play!
Aloha, all!
This morning I worked and this evening I have to work. But this afternoon was just to play. I went looking for some ideas about what to do and stumbled upon the Diva’s Coffee Break Design Challenge. OK, I’d already had my "coffee break" (that would have been the Diet Coke break I took in between chores on the road this morning). But I still felt like trying some of my new "stuff" out with the sketch they provided today.
What I used that’s new is the Christmas Cocoa Specialty Designer Series Paper and one of the Ribbon Originals that you’ll be able to buy from the 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog beginning September 1st. I matted the card with a bit of Real Red and Whisper White card stock, and added a Build-A-Brad in the center that uses one of the little snowflakes from the Designer Series Paper. The pewter color of the Build A Brad goes wonderfully with the Soft Suede in the Designer Series Paper.
Now I’m off to work. But I always have time to stop and drop off a mini catalog if you don’t have one! Work tonight is in Hawaiian Paradise Park, and tomorrow I’ll be making a trip into Hilo. But anywhere in East Hawaii is easy for me to get to! Just call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me, and I’ll be happy to stop by!
Oh! And here’s the original sketch from the design challenge!
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More Paper Dolls (er, Bears)
Aloha, all!
I mentioned earlier that I was going to be working to make a magnet board for my grandchildren to use for the Build-A-Bear-Workshop (BABW) bears and their clothes. I’ve finally go the magnet routine down, and thought I’d share it. I’m not sure when I’m going to get back to more of this project because, believe it or not, there’s more than BABW and the Sizzix Bears in the mini catalog that you’ll be seeing before long. TONS more!! And I’d like to whet your appetite for some of the holiday-relates projects that you can make with the wonderful new products in the mini.
Here’s my first magnetic bear with his magnetic clothes (or is a "her"? We have skirts for the girl bears, but I’d think a girl bear could wear slacks, too, huh?). I found it a bit tricky to get magnets working on all levels with the bear and the clothes. But I finally did figure out a fairly simple way of getting the job done, and I’ve included a tutorial on that here on my blog.
Stay tuned as tomorrow I’ll have the whole magnet board set up with bears and other Stampin’ Up! related "stuff."
