Archive for February, 2010:
Stampin’ Up! a Storm!
Aloha, all!
Well, it was a tsunami, not really a storm. And it had all of us here on Hawaii's Big Island transfixed as we watched the (thankfully!) light tsunami move water in and out of Hilo Bay. Finally we can breathe easily!
Despite the excitement, I had a stamp group scheduled for this afternoon – just a few of us getting together to test out a card and a few other designs I'm planning for some March classes. I got the idea for today's card from two other Stampin' Up! demonstrators, Connie Babbert and Tammy Fite, both of whom are members of an online group to which I belong called SUDSOL. The classes I'm going to be doing are made up of quite a few people who have never made anything with products such as those offered by Stampin' Up! So I had to keep it simple. But I also wanted it to be a nice-looking card, and one that uses some of the newest Stampin' Up! products.
This card fits the bill to a 't'! It uses three products that are in the current Occasions Mini Catalog – the stamp set, Vintage Vogue, the set of designer series papers called Sweet Pea, and a beautiful Pretty in Pink Epoxy Brad. I added in a scalloped edge using the Scallop Trim Border Punch that you can get FOR FREE! from the Sale-A-Bration Catalog if you spend at least $50 on a product order.
Here are the basic measurements for the sketch that I made for this card. Think of papers and stamps and embellishments that you have in YOUR CRAFT ROOM, and I'll bet you'll make a card that's ready to present at a workshop, too!
Subscribe to the comments for this postA Heartfelt Shamrock
Aloha, all!
This morning I was in the grocery store and I could not believe that I was seeing a bag of GREEN M&Ms! Oh, no! I had to have them for some kind of St. Patrick’s Day project! But I couldn’t see Stampin’ Up! coming up with a shamrock treat cup (although, if they did, I’d be first in line to buy them). What to do, what to do. Just about everyone who knows me knows that, while I can take someone else’s idea and jazz it up to make it my own, I managed not to be in line when they handed out the genetic make up for true creativity. So it took me awhile to figure out how I was going to make the Heart Treat Cups into a Shamrock. Believe me, there’s lots of scraps of various green card stock all over the craft room, most from failed efforts to punch hearts into shamrock submission.
Finally – voila! I had my Shamrock Treat Card! Not only that, I used THREE products that were meant to be either for Valentine’s Day or for something related to engagements/weddings. For this card, I used the Heart Treat Cup, the Stampin’ Up! Heart of Hearts Embosslit, and the Sweetheart Stamp Set that’s advertised in the Heart Treat Cups flyer. I used the Full Heart Punch to make the opening for the treat cup, and also to make the shamrock stem.
The small shamrock that I used for the background stamp is from the stamp set, Holiday Blitz, and the small greeting at the bottom right is from the set, All Holidays.
The colors I used for this project are Garden Green (for the darker background and Sweetheart stamp), and Green Galore.
The instructions for making the treat cup card are in (as always) a one-page tutorial!
Some More Simply Adorned Charms!
Aloha, all!
Earlier this month, I sent one of the Simply Adorned Charms and chain off to my sister-in-law, Deb, for her birthday gift. I didn’t want to share the pictures with you until now because she checks out my blog on occasion, and I didn’t want to spoil the suprise.
I sent the charm with the simple design from the stamp set, Charmed, inside it, then I added a Valentine Picture as well as a St. Patty’s Day picture so Deb could swap out the pictures to fit the holiday. I managed not to take a photo of the St. Patty’s Day charm, but here are the other two designs.
What fun to make such little designs and have them look like a million dollars when you’re wearing them!
Happy Birthday To Me!
Aloha, all!
Today I am celebrating a very special birthday. Actually, at my age, I figure ALL birthdays are special!
I waited until yesterday to open up my very own purchase of a Simply Adorned Pendant and work on a picture that I’ll wear for at least the next week or so. If you haven’t paid attention to this new line of products from Stampin’ Up!, now is the time to do it. Actually, any time is the time to do it! You can make a miniature picture to put in this lovely charm for every day of the year! And it’s got a glass window in the back for a second design if you’d like!
For now, it’s a birthday charm. I’ll be sharing some of the other designs I make for this pendant as I change them over the next few months.
And Happy Birthday to Me!
Thank You, Lucy!
Aloha, all!
Yesterday I posted about an address booklet I made for my friend, Lucy. When I stopped by her home this morning to deliver the little gift, she had a gift for me. A Valentine gift! It was a jar of freshly made Lilikoi-Guava Jam, all packaged up in a box made with the Sending Love Designer Series Paper, sealed with hearts punched with the Heart to Heart Punch. Whoa! The best part of all of it was that my husband felt like he had to taste the jam and made himself some toast. He’s been feeling so sick for the last few days that I was thrilled that he had an appetite for something with some flavor.
So a big "Thank You" to Lucy – and, of course, a Thank You card will be on its way with Tuesday’s mail pick up.
What better way to make a Thank You note for a Valentine’s Gift than with some of the same Sending Love designer series paper. And this fit right in with a challenge for one of my online Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator groups, SUDSOL. The challenge was to use Red, White and Blue in a design. The colors for this card are Real Red, Not Quite Navy (my favorite Stampin’ Up! blue) and Very Vanilla. The ribbon is one of the new 5/8" satin ribbons, and the stamp set is from the Sale-A-Bration catalog, Happy Moments.
Once again, I used the new Scallop Trim Border and Corner punches to make a border around the whole central motif. I can hardly wait for an excuse to use this punch set!
Fun With Sale-A-Bration Paper Pad
Aloha, all!
For the second year, Stampin’ Up! is offering a paper product as part of its Sale-A-Bration FREE PRODUCT OFFERING. This year the paper is in a 6" x 6" pad of 72 sheets – 3 sheets each of 24 different double-sided papers. While I was in 7th Heaven last year with all the So Saffron in the 12" x 12" papers offered (I’m definitely a "yellow" person), I was not very impressed with what I saw in this year’s paper offering. For one thing, there are lots of little house and tree designs that don’t come very close to what we have here in the Hawaiian Islands. Of course, there are some Victorian houses and gardens around. But, by and large, we’re tropical in both house and garden.
Now I have a different take on the Welcome Neighbor Designer Series Paper Pad that’s in the Sale-A-Bration Catalog. I went ahead and ordered it with my last $50 order just to try to find something in the non-house and non-tree/leaf patterns that might be interesting. Ho-hum. NOT!!
Today I wanted to make a little booklet for a friend. But I wasn’t sure what the theme of the booklet should be. As I looked around at my newest products, I saw that paper pad and had an "A-HA!" moment! An address book!!!
And here it is. I actually had Lucy’s address list on my computer as I had been helping her out a couple of weeks ago when her printer was in need of repair. All I had to do was figure out how to get her address list on a small-ish (less than 4" x 4") size paper. As manipulating text with computer software is my career of choice, no problem!
The booklet uses Stampin’ Up!’s chipboard as a base for the cover, and I glued papers from the Welcome Neighbor Pad on it, printing "Lucy’s Addresses" on one piece with my computer’s printer. I lined the inside front and back with another design from the DSP pad, too.
Finally, I bound the booklet with a Bind-it-all binding. This is not a Stampin’ Up! product, but Stampin’ Up! does not yet offer any kind of binding product. I have a comb binder, and am just fine binding booklets with ribbons. But this just seemed to demand a sturdier binding, so I dragged out the Bind-it-all. Actually, my local scrapbook store, Island Scrapbooking, had a class on how to use the Bind-it-all last week, which made me finally decide to get my year old machine out and try it. Good thing I did, because I think I’m going to be able to show off a lot more Stampin’ Up! products now that I can use it successfully!
Don’t Forget the Envelopes!
Aloha, all!
I just put that last card in the mail this morning (Uh, oh! Not only won’t it get there by Monday, it won’t get there until Tuesday because Monday is Presidents Day!).
But while I was licking the envelope, I was reminded that, while I keep sharing cards with you, I forget that I decorate the envelopes, too. Here’s one of the cards from earlier in the week showing the envelope I used for it. All it takes is one little rubber stamp to make that envelope stand out in the mail box crowd when it’s received at the other end! This stamp is from the new set, I {Heart} Hearts.
And Stampin’ Up! has a nice variety of envelopes to complement all your greeting cards. From the Medium (A2) sized Whisper White and Very Vanilla, to the Medium and Mini Squares, to the Note Cards and Small Open-End, these envelopes are among the best around for your precious art work!
Valentines for the Grandkids
Aloha, all!
After I finally got the craft room back in shape, I started tearing it apart again to make these cards for our grandchildren. The bears are from the Build A Bear Workshop set, Beary Best Friends (118052) and the greeting is from the set, Beary Nice Wishes (118050). While these sets were introduced in the 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog, which has expired, they're in the 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog, too! If it's in the Build a Bear collection, it's still current!
NOT ONLY THAT – THERE'S A SPECIAL DEAL RIGHT NOW! For any $20 you spend on the Stampin' Up! Build A Bear collection, you'll get a certificate for $5 off a $25 purchase at any product at a Build A Bear Workshop store.
Now back to my cards. I had so much fun cutting out the "paper doll" bears and the little girl bears' dresses that I felt like a little girl again myself!
Each of the dresses is made from a different one of the glittery papers from the Designer Series Paper set, Sending Love, and I used Crystal Effects to make their patent leather shoes and accent the heart in the "I {heart} You Beary Much." I stamped "Happy Valentine's Day" from Teeny Tiny Wishes inside each of the cards.
I used the new Scallop Trim Border and Scallop Trim Corner punches for the girl cards, and the Pinking Hearts Border and Corner punches for the boy cards. This is the first time that I used the Pinking Hearts to make a square, and I found it to be a lot easier than the Scallop Trim punches. But I think I've got the Scallop Trim punches down now, and I'm ready to write my own tutorial on it. I've read tutorials and still had to figure it out my own way. 
Another Valentine Challenge
Aloha, all!
Usually when I talk about "challenges," I’m talking about the kind that happens when someone on a website challenges crafters to make a card or scrapbook page or some other papercraft using a particular set of parameters, such as a sketch for a card or scrap page.
My challenge today, however, was of a different kind. You see, I’ve been in and out of my craft room all week trying to get a ton of different kinds of projects done for a variety of deadlines. On top of that, I’ve had some non-stamping business to attend to, and my husband has been out of town for two days so I’ve had to take on dog-walking duties and make sure I close up the house when I leave to take on such chores and grocery shopping. The result???
This.
And I had to get at least 5 more Valentine cards done this weekend!!! Have you ever SEEN such a mess???
The good news is that I have my craft room well enough organized that I knew where everything went. It just wasn’t there, and I figured I’d better get it there pronto!
Half an hour later, I was ready for the Valentine card project. Whew!
Tomorrow I’ll show off the cards that I was able to complete once I had things more under control.
Lots of Layers – and Happy Birthday, Deb!
Aloha, all!
Friday was my Sister-in-Law, Deb’s, birthday. She and I are both "of a certain age" and no need to talk about what certain means! Of course, as she is my Stampin’ Up! downline, I sent her lots of Stampin’ Up! goodies, one of which was this birthday card.
I made the card to play in a challenge last month, but didn’t want to show it off until Deb had it in her hot little hands. One part of the challenge was to have lots of layers. I can’t remember how MANY layers, but I can tell you that this card has a ton of them – 10 to be exact. I really enjoy cutting lots of layers for a card, as long as I only have to make one or two of the same card. I just love how a teensy layer, just showing off 1/16" of color all the way around the layer above it, can really make a design look so very finished.
And all of the layers in this card are 1/16" different from the layer above. To make that 1/16" difference, you just cut the next layer 1/8" narrower and shorter than the previous layer. Here is the sketch I made to follow when I’m making this card. I really like the layout, and you can use it to show off coordinating Designer Series Papers so nicely..jpg)
The papers for this card are from the Designer Series Paper Set, Cottage Wall, with some 5/8" Old Olive Satin Ribbon and a Whisper White Jumbo Grommet to set it all off. The stamps are from the Sale-A-Bration set, Happy Moments, a set YOU CAN GET FOR FREE with a $50 Stampin’ Up! purchase through the end of March.
