If you've looked through the Stampin' Up! 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog, then you know that one of Stampin' Up!'s newest offering is fabric.  The fabric isn't just there by itself.  You have to know that, if it's Stampin' Up!, it COORDINATES with something!  Absolutely true with this new product.  It coordinates with Designer Series Papers, with Card Stock, with Buttons, with Ribbons – in fact with all things colorful!  Of course, being in the Holiday Mini Catalog, you can expect that this first offering of fabric relates to the holidays. 

     Each of the two sets of fabrics in this first offering contains 3 fat quarters that are 28" x 18", larger than the typical fat quarter cut from 44/45" fabric.  Today I'm sharing some pictures of my very first project with this fabric.  I have to tell you that I've been tip-toeing around it for a month not wanting to cut into for fear I'd – what?  I don't know.  I just couldn't do it the fabric was so pretty.

     This project is called a Folded Fabric Star Ornament, and requires absolutely NO sewing!  I used to make them back in my cross-stitch days when I would make the central motif from a cross stitch pattern.  But that was two eons ago!  So this first one, using the Candy Cane Christmas Fabric Set, had a few glitches in it.  I'm back in form now, though, so the next one – using the more "vintage" flavor fabric should go a lot more smoothly.

     One of the glitches was using the striped fabric.  I'd highly recommend extreme care in using the striped fabric.  In order for this ornament to have a nice symmetrical look to it, the stripes should all be the same.  Of course I discovered this AFTER I'd cut all the squares.  So there I was laying them all out to try to find at least 4 that were pretty close in pattern to each other so they'd lie opposite each other on the ball. 

     Another glitch was that I discovered too late that, if I'm going to use 4 layers (as I did in this one to add the dark strip – not a Stampin' Up! fabric, by the way, but I wanted the accent), the center area needs to be kept much smaller.  There I was at the end trimming the edges because they overlapped – a real mess!  But even from the side, it still turned out pretty nice!  I topped it all off with a pouf of Whisper White, Pretty in Pink, and Real Red Taffeta Ribbon.

     After I finished this ornament off with a Circle Fire Rhinestone Brad I remembered that Stampin' Up! has buttons that coordinate with this fabric, and its sister Designer Series Paper, also called Candy Cane Christmas.   The Big Designer Buttons are also featured in the Holiday Mini Catalog.  So out came the rhinestone brad and on went a button.  I'm still cogitating about whether I like this particular button with this ornament.  All advice and critique is welcome!

     If you'd like to try one of these yourself, you can find basic instructions for the Folded Star Ornament here. 

     Have fun with it!

     As you can probably tell, I tend towards the kinds of designs that have clean lines and some symmetry.  I like to have neat edges and have papers and ribbons and such lying nice and flat on the card or scrapbook page.  But I've noticed in many of my craft magazines as well as in Stampin' Up!'s publications and samples, the "old," "vintage" look has become very popular.  I'm sure there's some psychology in that as we go through some economic and environmental hard times.  But regardless of the underlying cause, I'm really going to work to try to learn how to take what I'm most comfortable with and turn it into a more vintage look.

     Today's project is my first try at this in a side-by-side manner.  Let me back up a bit and say that I really like making covers for my 5" x 8" lined note pads and I've had instructions for making this posted here almost since I began my blog.  It just looks so, well, plain, to have the pads just sitting around with bare paper on them!  And my favorite theme to use for note pad covers is the musical "note."  For awhile, Stampin' Up! had a wheel with whimsical musical notes on it, and there was a great stamp that said, "Just A Note."  Perfect for that.  Well, this year, there's a new wheel with musical notes, but they've done themselves one better and have a great set of printed Designer Series Paper that has musical notes on it.  It's one of the sheets in the Newsprint Designer Series Paper set.  Hooray, I have my theme again!  And here are the two projects that I've made with this idea of trying out a Vintage Look when my first instinct is to make something with nice, neat, straight lines.

     My first try with the new papers is on the left, and the second one, with a bit of stepped up Vintage look, is on the right.  Both of these projects use basically the same products:  Newsprint Designer Paper, Lovely Letters Alphabet, Rich Razzleberry Patterns Paper, Rich Razzleberry Card Stock, a Border Punch, and some Stampin' Up! Ribbon.

     Here's my first try at this with my traditional clean-cut look.  Can you tell I took this photo during the sunset last night?  Love the lighting!  Anyway, I made some nice clean cuts here, and used plain Very Vanilla card stock on which to stamp the letters.  The border punch is the Scallop Edge Border Punch, and the letters are nicely lined up with some Stampin' Dimensionals popping them up over some 1/4" Rich Razzleberry Grosgrain Ribbon.  The letters are cut into 1-1/8" squares and I punched the mats with the 1-1/4" Square Punch. 

     Now let's check out the Vintage look:

     To begin, I roughed up the edges of both pieces of Designer Series paper – the Newsprint as well as the Rich Razzleberry Patterns.  Then I sponged Rich Razzleberry ink from a Classic Stampin' Pad all over both pieces of paper.  Instead of using the Scallop Edge Border Punch, I used the Eyelet Border Punch.  The letters are the same color and size as in the plain card, but I used some more of the Newsprint Designer Paper on which to stamp them.  Then, instead of some plain grosgrain ribbon (think clean lines) I used Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon which I first ruffled by pulling a center thread through it and then mussed up a bit by applying some Rich Razzleberry Ink with a sponge.  Finally I applied the letters NOT in a straight line (straight lines were not allowed in this project, well, except for the note pad itself).  Angled up a bit they seem to fit more with the vintage look.

     What do you think?  Which do you like?  If I get at least 10 comments about this post by July 24th, I'll pick one commenter who can choose one of these note pads for a gift!  Check back here next week to see who wins the note pad!

     While it may seem that advertising Saturday's Hilo Council FCE (Family and Community Education) Fair may not be related to stamping, it certainly is when I'm involved!  Believe it or not, there are several Stampin' Up! demonstrators and customers in this group, and there are many craft items for sale made from Stampin' Up! products.  Usually, I make greeting cards, including several Mother's Day cards, because the Fair is always the day before Mother's Day.

     This year, however, I branched out from all things Stampin' Up!  For one thing, I knew that this winter and spring I was going to be on lots of airline flights and would have lots of time when I had nothing to do, but was away from home.  So I focused on creating some crocheted coasters for my contribution to this year's fair.  From February to April, whenever I was sitting waiting for something, I had my crochet cotton at the ready!  I ended up with over 60 coasters ready for sale at our annual fundraiser.

     Today was the day for packing all those coasters up into packages for sale at the Fair.  That's where the Stampin' Up! products come in.  Believe me, no matter what craft you like to sell, for whatever reason, Stampin' Up! has something to help you make an absolutely spectacular presentation!  In the case of these coaster sets, I found Stampin' Up! colors and embellishments to (hopefully!) set these crafts off from the ordinary.

     There are quite a few Stampin' Up! products used in making the toppers for the coaster sets.  See how many you can spot in this photo:

Here they are: 

1. The Greenhouse Garden Stamp Set .  Love those Hibiscus flowers in that set!  I stamped them using the
2. Lovely Lilac Classic Stampin' Pad for the petals and the
3. Elegant Eggplant Classic Stampin' Pad for the accent colors in this 2-Step Stampin' Set.  All this was stamped on some
4. Whisper White Card Stock that was die cut with the
5. Stampin' Up! Exclusive Top Note Sizzix Die.  I layered that on top of some
6. Lovely Lilac Card Stock and a few sheets of
7. Lavender Lace Card Stock (depending on the color of the coasters).
8. I tied everything together with rick-rack from the Orchard Ribbon Originals Set (tied through holes punched with the Crop-a-dile, of course) and added a butterfly accent using the
9. Beautiful Wings Embosslits, exclusive from Stampin' Up!  Love that little butterfly!
10. Oh, and I added some texture to the background card stock using a Sizzix Texturz Plate from the Stampin' Up! Backgrounds I exclusive texture plate set.

     Now everything's ready for the Fair!  Here are many of the coaster sets all lined up and ready for purchase!  I can't imagine packaging these coasters up any better than I could have using my wonderful Stampin' Up! products!

     To purchase one of these elegantly-presented (if I say so myself!) sets, just come to the FCE Craft Fair on Saturday, May 8, 2010, at Aunty Sally's Luau Hale from 8 to noon.  Oh, and there are other clubs and items for sale, too.  Though I say that reluctantly, we are all great groups of people working to make East Hawaii – and the world – a better place.

     And a special "Thank You" to all of you who visited my blog during the 2010 Royal Blog Tour.  I have to confess that I didn't make it to all of the blogs.  But I'll be checking them out from time to time as the week goes on.  While most of us will have new blog posts going up right after the tour, most of those wonderful projects will still be around to share.

     Here are a couple of additional photos of the box that I made to hold the stationery set that I featured on my tour post, and here are the instructions for making it.  It's really very simple to make, despite the number of scores that have to be made on the box itself.  Haul out that Stampin' Up! Fiskars paper cutter, pop in the scoring blade and off you go!  As I promised, here are the instructions for making the box.  I did not include the embellishments because you'll be making your own to match your own card design.  It's really just like making the front of a greeting card, and that's always lots of fun!

     I wish I could say that this was my original design.  It's not, but I have no idea whose design it is!  I've hunted around the Internet and asked a few fellow demonstrators if they know, and so far I've learned nothing.  Once I do, I'll be sure to give her (him?) credit!  But the set of instructions is my own, and you should feel free to use it as much as you wish!

For this Spring's Royal Blog Tour, I chose the Stampin' Up! Stamp Set, Paradise because, after all, Robin's Craft Room really IS in Paradise, here on the Big Island of Hawaii.  Paradise, the stamp set, has some beautiful leaves like palms and monstera, and we have all of those right here in our own gorgeous garden.

     When I used to purchase note cards in shops, many of them had photographs as their central images.  With our luscious garden, I'm thrilled to show off a photo of it as the cover of a note card that I send to someone special.  The card that's featured in the front of the above display uses two of the images from the Paradise Stamp Set.  For the two leaves, I stamped Certainly Celery card stock with some Garden Green Ink and trimmed them very close to the inked image.  For the floral images (which look exactly like the flowers that bloom in bromeliads and ti), I stamped Really Rust Card Stock with Really Rust Ink. (Alert!  Really Rust is one of the Stampin' Up! colors that will retire at the end of June.  It goes so nicely with the Garden Green that you might want to stock up now before it goes away!)    I've layered two of the photos, which are 5" wide by 3-3/4" high, onto Really Rust Card Stock and two of them onto So Saffron Card Stock, all of which are layered on a card base of Garden Green Card Stock cut to 5-1/2" wide by 4-1/4" high, which is mounted on a folded card made of Confetti Cream Card Stock. 

     Next, I just had to make a box to hold these lovely cards.  This box not only holds these four greeting cards, it is also just large enough to hold four A2-sized envelopes, too. Rather than use a photograph for the cover of the box (save them for the cards!) I wanted to use Designer Series Paper.  I can't believe that I'd spent eight months of this Stampin' Up! year totally overlooking the paper set, Flock Together.  While I love bird-watching, the birds in that paper set didn't really reach out and grab me.  But once I started looking at the foliage in the set, I was sold.  There are three of the designs from Flocked Together on the front of the box, one of them stamped with palm leaves from Paradise, and all matted with some Really Rust card stock and tied together with some Certainly Celery 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.  A delightful repository for my cards!

     The final touches for any gift box of greeting cards are the envelopes.  In a commercial greeting card shop, you're liable to find just a plain old envelope to go with your greeting cards.  For this lovely handmade gift, though, there has to be something just a little special about the envelope.  The Paradise stamp set has perfect images for stamping in the lower left corner of an envelope.  For this set I used Very Vanilla Medium (A2) Envelopes.

     Here is the whole stationery set ready for me to give as a gift.  Someone who posted a comment on my blog during the Royal Blog Tour will receive this very gift!  I'll post the winner's name, next week.

     I have a page of directions for making this box and will post it here – also next week.  So stop by then to pick up your copy of the instructions!  

Those of you who know me well understand that jewelry is not "my thing."  I have four pieces of jewelry that I wear on a fairly regular basis, all of which were gifts from my husband – including my wedding ring!  So I was less than overwhelmed when Stampin' Up! introduced its line of jewelry, Simply Adorned, during the 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog campaign.  Ho-hum.

Uh, that was last fall.  This is now.  I already have two pieces of this jewelry and will definitely be purchasing more.  Why is this jewelry different?  Because it's not the jewelry itself that is the focus of attention – it's the artwork that's IN the jewelry that's what more interesting.

Last week I presented a Stampin' Up! Workshop, and I wore one of my Stampin' Up! branded shirts, which is the color of Brocade Blue.  What better "adornment" for that shirt than a piece of Stampin' Up! paper crafted art in the very same color.  And what better way to show it off than with the Simply Adorned 1-1/2" x 2" Rectangular Charm! 

I stamped the image from the Charming stamp set in Brocade Blue, then mounted it on a layer of Brocade Blue Card Stock.  I made the butterflies using the Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die and some Cameo Coral Card Stock.  I think it makes a lovely picture to show off!  Of course, the back of the Simply Adorned Charms are also glass, and I couldn't just leave it blank, could I?  I stamped another image from the Charming stamp set not only on the whisper white card stock but also on a scrap of Cameo Coral card stock.  I cut out the left and right swirls from the image on the Cameo Coral card stock and glued them on top of the image stamped on Whisper White.  Then I cut my initial R using the Sizzix Big Shot  and the Sizzlit Naturally Serif Die.  The final touch on the back was two small rhinestones that I removed from two Clear Rhinestone Brads. 

Who would have thought I'd be saying that I love some jewelry!?

Dana's workshop was a great success, even though we may have had a few logistical glitches.  The good news (for me) is that I didn't forget ANYTHING!  I'm amazed because there's usually something critical that I leave at home (SNAIL, snips, the stamp set we're using for the make and takes).

In preparing the kits for the make and takes, using that wonderful Sweet Pea Paper Stack, I found that I had been so eager to make sure that the projects were designed just perfectly that I didn't have enough of the paper I'd chosen for the Note Pad Cover left for all of the kits.  What to do, what to do.  Well, it is a paper STACK!  So there had to be something else in the stack that would still coordinate well with the Sweet Pea Stitched Felt and Flower Fusion embellishments that Dana and I had chosen to use.  And, of course, there was.  Here is the second of the two designs for this project.  Um, well, actually there were 3 designs because (gasp!) I ran out of Old Olive card stock.  How could that happen????  There weren't even some 12" x 12" pieces in the "greens" box in the craft room.  So the last couple of kits had to be made with Certainly Celery card stock.  Would you believe no one noticed???  Oh, and as I promised earlier in the month, here are the instructions for making this great gift project!

My friend, Dana, has asked me to do a Stampin' Up! workshop for her next week, and I've been having lots of fun coming up with the projects.  She almost swooned over the wonderful stitched felt pieces from the Sweet Pea set featured in the current 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog.  I've added in some felt pieces from Flower Fusion and pulled out some of the wonderful papers from the Sweet Pea Paper Stack (another Occasions Mini offering), and there's a kit all ready for a Make 'N Take for Friday night!

This is the project we'll be making, and here are the instructions for making it!  The two printed squares are from one sheet from the Sweet Pea Paper Stack, as is the Rose Red print paper.  The Pretty in Pink/Chocolate Chip flower and the little piece in the lower right square, are from the Sweet Pea Stitched Felt collection, and the other flower is from Felt Fusion.  The flowers are backed with squares of Take With Teal Card Stock to match the trees in the prints.  I ran a length of the Fast Flowers Wheel on the Old Olive Card Stock cover for the pad.  We're definitely going to have fun with this project!

When I said "accordion album" to three different people, they each described a different album to me – and I’ve made all three!  Today’s album is sometimes called an "explosion album."  Explosion albums can be large or small, and today’s is a very small album that I will demonstrate to a group of Mothers of Preschoolers (MOPS) later this month.  They each will have a kit of papers from the Patterns Pack III which is currently a Level 1 Hostess Set, along with some coordinating ribbons and punched card stock for decorations.  I’m going to encourage them to mix and match their kits if they’d like – more fun for everyone! 

But they have to have a sample so they can see the possibilities for this easy little album, and here’s what I’ve prepared.  I have my brand new pack of Tea Party Designer Series Paper and I’m having a blast with it already.  I’d used up most of the first couple of packs that I bought when it first came out, and now that it’s Spring, I need MORE!

Above is the cover of the album, made with light cardboard (the stuff that comes with those packs of wonderful Designer Series Paper!) covered with some of the Tea Party papers.  I punched a Scallop Circle topped with a circle punched with the 1-3/8" Circle Punch, all sealed together with one of the Pretty in Pink Corduroy Buttons featured in the current 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog.  The ribbon I used is a So Saffron Ribbon from the ribbon set Elementary.

Now for the inside of the album.  I made this one with three squares of 6" paper, and it holds 4 square photographs inside.  I decorated the triangles formed by the diagonal folds with punched imaged using the Boho Blossoms Punch and the Heart to Heart Punch, using So Saffron, Bashful Blue and Pretty In Pink Card Stock.  I cut the photos at 2-3/4" square, and the So Saffron Mats at 2-7/8" square.  

I also put two photographs on the outside of the album – after all, there are two blank square pages there – why waste them!?  Here’s the outside of the album.

Note that I "captured" the ribbon on the back cover of the album under a Pretty in Pink Scallop Circle Punch image, layered with a So Saffron Boho Blossom Punch image.  I actually used transparent ("Scotch") tape to anchor the ribbon, then I used Sticky Strip to adhere the Scallop Circle elements to make sure that the ribbon was safely in place.  Oh, and that tape was covered nicely by the punched elements, thank you!

Of course, I have one of my "One-Page Tutorials" for this project!  Click here for the latest version – updated from years ago when I first made this project.

Have fun with this – and, of course, if you need any of these fabulous papers, ribbons, punches or card stock, you know where you can order 24/7!  Right here!!!

You’ve all heard about my next door neighbor, Deme, who is the one who made that great quilted bag using the Sizzix Stampin’ Up! Scallop Square Die.

Now Deme is at it again, but this time with Switch Plates!  She is just so creative, and loves to try out all different kinds of crafts.  Today I’m featuring swtich plates that she made using Stampin’ Up! Wheels and Sculpey Polymer Clay.  I found some basic instructions for making the switch plates here. 

To make these switch plates, Deme used a pasta machine (as cheap as you can get one, she says) and set it to the thickest setting to make the best thickness for using the wheels.  She colored the basic clay a bit with Classic Ink Pads, then applied various colored inks to the wheels and ran them across the switch plates multiple times.  Finally, she sprinkled some Iridiscent Ice over everything and baked according to the product instructions.  Are these not wonderful?!  (Hmmm.  I’ve been using "wonderful" a lot lately.  I must be having a good time )

Here are the products for each of the switch plates shown here:

• On the left:  Fast Flower Wheel, More Mustard Stamp Pad (for the background), Really Rust and Taken With Teal for the wheel.
• On the right:  Retro Remix Wheel, Bravo Burgundy Stamp Pad (background), Taken With Teal and Ballet Blue.

I think I may try these myself!!  How about you? If you need any wheels, or some of that fabulous Iridiscent Ice embossing powder, just let me know.  Or you can order online 24/7 by clicking here and then the Shop Now button in the upper right.!