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The 1st Diva Color Challenge of 2011!

Aloha, all!

     As I write this on 1/11/11, it's 1/12/11 in much of the snow covered mainland.  When I first saw this Diva Coffee Break Design Team Color Challenge, my imagination went right to snow and snowflakes.  But I am so over snowy, wintery, designs that I had to banish that thought from my little creative brain.  Unfortunately, with the thought went the creativity.  So, as I usually do, I struggled with the color challenge. 

     This week the challenge colors are:  Night of Navy (can't you just see those white snowflakes against that dark blue sky?); Bashful Blue (ah, the hint of blue in the snow drifts); and Sahara Sand (now that sounds warm, but what I saw were the dead grasses of summer peeking up through the snow).  No, no, no!  No more snow!!!  But then – what?

     My first stop was at the Stampin' Up! 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog.  After all, it's new and I should be showing off some of the products that are in this fun little mini catalog.  But there was little Night of Navy to be seen, and not a trace of Bashful Blue or Sahara Sand.  But there were buttons!  And buttons come in all colors.  There was my solution!

     OK, so I got carried away.  There are even buttons on this card that you can't see, mostly because I was designing as I went along.  But all the required colors are there, and there are three 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog products right there for everyone to see.  To begin, there are the new 3-dimensional buttons made with the Sweet Buttons Embosslit (page 36 of the mini).  Then I stamped quite a few buttons from the Stamp Set, Button, Button.  I stamped both Bashful Blue and Sahara Sand Card Stock with several of the buttons that can be punched out cleanly with the 3/4" Circle Punch.

     Now where's that 3rd product from the mini?  It's the larger of the two circles – the new Stampin' Up! exclusive Sizzix 3" Circle Die.  The smaller circle is the 2-1/2" Punch.  Both of these are embedded into the top layer of the card using the Inlaid Embossing technique.  Special note:  I have a new one-page tutorial for the Inlaid Embossing technique.  BUT it's only available at this time to those who are on my eNewsletter mailing list!  If you'd like to have access to it, just sign up for my newsletter (there's a link over to the left) and I'll send a copy right out to you!  The project that I used to illustrate this tutorial is a fun Valentine card – well worth your time to try!

     As there's nothing at all complicated about this card, I'm not going to include a layout for it.  What would be fun for this kind of card is to punch your circles and then just slide them around your card until they're at a spot that appeals to you.  Then just glue them down and create from there!

     I hope you have fun with whatever you do today!

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The New Stampin’ Up! Mini Catalog is Here!

Aloha, all!

     I really miss the 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog – but to make me feel better, I have the brand new Stampin' Up! 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog!.  The "Occasions" in this mini are pretty much those events for which you can expect to be making projects from now until the end of April:  Valentine's Day, St. Patty's Day, Easter, and Mother's Day, not to mention a special place it the catalog's heart for just plain Spring and for other occasions of note such as Birthdays.  Lots in this mini!  Click on the picture of the mini over to the right to view an online copy of it.  If you'd like a real honest-to-goodness paper copy of the mini, just call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me and I'll get one right off to you!

     Now for yet another card that uses products from the mini, with today's card being my entry in this week's Diva Coffee Break Design Team Challenge.  It's a fun sketch challenge this week!

     You'll recognize the stamp set, Curly Cute, from the 2010-2011 Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog, which has products that will be available through the end of June of this year.  But the Glimmer Brads from the 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog have not gone away with the old mini – they're back in the new mini!  Hooray, because I really like them!  The papers are all from the brand new Designer Paper Set, Vintage Springtime.   This is the second card that I've made with a variety of papers from this paper set, and I'm finding so many different color themes that I didn't see right at the start.  Just putting these three pieces of the paper together really brings out the Crumb Cake (Kraft) and shows how well the other colors in the set work with it.  My card for the Diva Coffee Break Design Team blog last week was also made with papers from this set, and that card showed off more of the Rose Red and the two greens, Pear Pizzazz and Always Artichoke, even though two of the sheets of paper are in both cards.

    The final touch for this card is the bow made with a new shade of the 1/2" Seam Binding Ribbon, Rose Red, which coordinates so beautifully with this paper set.

    I'm not including a layout sketch for today's card because the Diva Coffee Break Design team has already published the sketch.  But one thing you might do is head on over to their blog and check out the various ways in which the Design Team members used the sketch.  They're obviously all from the same sketch idea, but there are so many variations!

    Whatever you end up doing creatively today, I hope you have fun with it!  And share some ideas with me sometime!!

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Countdown to Christmas! Using up that last bit of Christmas Paper!

Aloha, all!

     Well, for the 3rd time this month, I fibbed!  More about that in a minute.

     I went into the craft room today to make a card for The Diva Coffee Break Design Team, and found some last unused sheets of the Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Designer Paper Set, Deck the Halls.  I used up a lot of it this season, and that's a good thing because it won't be around NEXT Christmas!  But the page I hadn't used was the one with all kinds of beautifully colored elements, including this lovely poinsettia, next to some text of phrases of Christmas Carols.

     If the poinsettia looks a little 3-dimensional, that's because it is.  I had two sheets of this paper left, and I went and clipped the poinsettia from the second sheet and gave it a little texture before I adhered it to the piece I'd cut out from the first sheet.  Notice how I have the edges of the flowers on the base sheet trimmed – I didn't cut through them to get the piece for the top layer of the card.  After I cut the petals on the flower, I used the Stampin' Up! Fiskars paper trimmer to cut just up to the point where I started to trim the flowers, from both the top and bottom edge.  Then I mounted the Designer Printed Paper onto layers of Crumb Cake (formerly called Kraft) and Always Artichoke card stock.  I cut a piece of Cherry Cobbler card stock just 1/4" smaller both height and width and tied a piece of Always Artichoke Seam Binding around it before adhering the Designer Paper layers to the whole card.  All of it is mounted on a Crumb Cake Card.

     I used some of Stampin' Up!'s Basic Rhinestones to accent the center of the layered Poinsettia and the center of the motif to the right of the word, "Joy."

     So the fib?  I didn't use one of the layouts from my new book.  This paper wanted to be a particular size, and I wasn't going to force it into a layout of its own.  But now that I look at the whole layout, I may just have to take the time to add it to the book before formal publication in January!

     And don't forget that I'm giving out two free copies of the book to people who comment on my blog this month and tell me why they'd really like to have this! 

     While you're getting your last minute holiday chores done, don't forget to stop and craft awhile – and have fun with it!

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Countdown to Christmas – in Just 10 Days!

Aloha, all!

     As I mentioned I have been whisked away for a mini-vacation by my husband as my Christmas gift this year.  But despite the fact that we were madly packing for our little getaway, I just had to jump in and participate in this week's Diva Coffee Break Design Team challenge.  It was a sketch challenge, and you who check on me regularly know that I far prefer the sketch challenges to those that require a certain set of colors.  (And I have to tell you I haven't even peeked to see what next week's colors are.  I can always hope for some Christmas colors, can't I???)

     There are quite a few Stampin' Up! stamp sets that I could have used for this sketch challenge.  But I decided to focus on the Stampin' Up! 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog.  I found two great products that really help to make a fun Christmas card (as well as other projects):  the Sizzix Scallop Square Duo Die and the fun little (well, maybe not "little" with 24 stamps!) stamp set, Jolly Bingo Bits.  The idea with the stamp set is for us to make bingo cards for Christmas Play – and, yes, there is a Bingo Card to go with it!  I can only hope that there are Bingo Bits for other seasons!  But (as often happens), I digress.

     First I cut a piece of Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive Card stock using the Scallop Square Duo Die, then I ran them back through my Sizzix Big Shot with the Petals A Plenty embossing folder.  I layered them up according to the sketch challenge on a piece of striped paper from the Jolly Holiday Designer Paper set.  Remember that I already mentioned last week that this paper really isn't stuck in one season just because it has a "holiday" name to it!  I stamped the Poinsettia Stamp from the Jolly Bingo Bits set on some Very Vanilla Card Stock, then sponged a bit of Old Olive Classic Ink on the edges before adding a gold brad to the center of each.

     I stamped a strip of Very Vanilla 5/8" Satin Ribbon with a stamp from the set Many Merry Messages.  I've been wanting to use this stamp, and finally found the perfect place for it!  Just to add a bit more color, I added a strip of Old Olive 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon on top of the Very Vanilla Strip, mounted the whole card front onto a card of Old Olive Card Stock, and I was done!

     So now I have yet another Christmas card for my card writing session this coming weekend!  Fun!

     I'll be back in town later this week and will post another card using one of the layouts in my new book!  Don't forget that I'll be giving away two copies of the book to someone who posts a comment on my blog before Christmas letting me know that she or he would like to win the book!  It will be for sale after the first of the year, so don't lose a chance to get a copy for FREE!!

     Hope you're having a great week – and I'll share some photos with you when I get back!

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Countdown to Christmas! Day 7 – A Layout from My New Book!

Aloha, all!

     As I said in yesterday's blog post, I'm planning to use layouts from my new book in most of my cards for the rest of the month.  After I found out how easy it was today, I may be recycling those layouts for quite awhile to come!  There will be some cards, though, where I'll need to follow the instructions in a challenge, so I won't be using my book's layouts.  But, hey, I'll need some material pretty soon for NEXT year's book!

     Today I used the layout from my August 9, 2010, blog, but with different colors and embellishments.  I used a greeting from the same stamp set – Heard From the Heart – and the exact same measurements.  But that was about it.

     You may well wonder about the colors I chose for this Christmas card.  But if you follow my blog regularly, you'd quickly figure out that this is for a Wednesday posting, and it's time for a Divas Coffee Break Design Team color challenge.  Yup, colors that I would NEVER have thought to use in a Christmas card.  Have you heard this from me before?  Sure you have – the last time there was a color challenge by the Divas. 

     This week the colors were Elegant Eggplant, Melon Mambo and River Rock.  My, my, what devil is possessing the person who's selecting the colors!  At least we're down to three colors; who knows what the fourth color in this combo would have been!  Actually I may be getting used to this because there really isn't another color in the Stampin' Up! lineup that would scare me much with these colors.  There – that's the key!  I'm getting practice in using different colors together, and I may just be getting better at this!  Maybe you should try it out, too!  And you know that the Divas love to have entries for the challenges.  Pretty soon there will be some prizes for the winning "Featured Artist" over at the Divas, so why not try it out!

     It so happens that the stamp set that I used for this color challenge is the same one that I used for the challenge two weeks ago – Snow Swirled.  I really like the overall look of the snowflakes in that set as well as or better than any of the other snowflakes that are in the Stampin' Up! collection.  The punched snowflakes are cut from the Sizzlet Decorative Strip Die, Northern Frost.  I considered using the matching snowflake set, the Level 1 Hostess Set Northern Hearts to coordinate with the die cuts; but none of the snowflakes in that stamp set really fit as well as the one from Snow Swirled.

     It was so quick to make this card because I had the measurements all laid out in my book, and all I had to do was pull the colors and decide on a stamp set to use.  So easy and I had the card made in about 15 minutes, including the time to emboss the two Elegant Eggplant layers with the Petals A Plenty Embossing Folder.  Remember that you, too, could have a copy of my new book as a Christmas gift.  The information about how to go about this is in my earlier December 7, 2010, blog post.  I'd love to hear from you!

     I hope you have plenty of time as we're in the midst of the holidays to be creative in your own craft room – and have fun with it!

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Some More Challenging Colors

Aloha, all!

     Today is another challenge at the Diva Coffee Break Design Team website.  This time it's a color challenge and, as you probably know by now, color really is challenging for me.  Sure put Real Red and Garden Green together with a touch of More Mustard, hey, I can do that!  Marina Mist and Peach Parfait with a touch of Daffodil Delight  – delightful!  Hey, I can even do Rich Razzleberry and Pretty in Pink.  But add Early Espresso to that mix, and I was just stumped.  Do you have any idea how close in color Rich Razzleberry and Early Espresso are unless they're right next to each other???  

     But, hey, those are the colors I was dealt, so deal with it I did.  To begin, I retreated to the Patterns Paper Pack, hoping against hope that the Early Espresso papers would be just a tad bit lighter than the card stock of the same color.  Bingo!  But then I still had to figure out the layout and stamps I would use.  You might have read my newsletter where I've been talking about the book in which I've compiled all the various card layouts I've published here this year.  Well, there were a few samples with papers, stamps, and embellishments from last year's Stampin' Up! catalog.   So I started leafing through the book and found a layout badly in need of an updated sample.  Then I looked around to see which stamp sets were still out from my last stamping project, and they were all Christmas.  And I could go on ad nauseam about the process, but here is what I finally made.

     All the stamps used in this card are from the stamp set, Snow Swirled.  It was the tree that caught my eye, and I thought it would look pretty nice stamped in the Rich Razzleberry on the Pretty in Pink.  I used some Craft Ink for this and used Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder to heat emboss it.  It really shines in person.  I matted the pink layer with some Rich Razzleberry Card Stock, then layered that grouping up on some Very Vanilla, and matted that with Early Espresso Card Stock.  The final layer is one of the sheets from the Early Espresso Patterns papers.  To help all the layers tie in with the Christmas theme, I stamped the snowflakes on both the Patterns Paper and the Very Vanilla Card Stock.  For the Very Vanilla Layer, I inked the stamp, stamped it first on some scrap paper, then I stamped on the Very Vanilla, which created a more subtle pattern than if I'd used the fully inked stamps as I did on the Early Espresso Patterns layer.

     Here's the original layout from my collection (featured in my April 4, 2010 blog post).  I made two adjustments:  the first was that the layer with the tree stamped is 2-1/4" wide rather than 2-1/8" so that I could accommodate the whole tree image without it being right up against the edge of the paper.  The second was that I added a card stock layer behind the Patterns paper to give it a crisp edge.  So that layer is 4-1/8" wide x 5-3/8" high, letting just a sliver of the Very Vanilla card base show around the edges.  The lesson for the day here is that layouts are just suggestions to give us some ideas about how we might organize our thoughts on paper.

     Colors challenges, however, are a different matter.  But with a little bit of artful hunting for some lighter Early Espresso, I may have found a way to make those color challenges just a suggestion, too!

     Whatever your paper crafting challenge is this week, I hope you have a lot of fun with it!

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Thanksgiving is Getting Nearer!

Aloha, all!

     We're getting down to the wire when it comes to getting our Thanksgiving Cards ready to mail here on Hawaii's Big Island.  It takes an extra day for just about everything that gets mailed from here to get to anywhere on the U. S. mainland.  So I'm scrambling to try to get as many done as possible over the next couple of days.

     That's why I was happy to see that today's Divas Coffee Break Design Team challenge was a sketch challenge.  With a sketch, I can making a card of ANY theme!  And with the Autumn Spice Specialty Designer Papers right out in front of my on the craft room table, it was a given that it would serve as the basis for whatever I did today.

     I haven't used this particular sheet of paper (well, for this set, it's really card stock) much at all.  For one thing, it just contains Early Espresso, More Mustard, and Cajun Craze colors in it.  And I really like using some Old Olive with these fall colors.  But with the sketch with which I had to work, I could see the opportunity for adding some Old Olive in several places. 

     To begin, I stamped the Old Olive images on another piece of the card stock from this that just has the pale background color – almost a So Saffron, though perhaps closer to a Very Vanilla.  Whatever.  That's what I used.  The image is from the stamp set, Day of Gratitude, and it really stamped very well on this textured paper – I was pleasantly surprised!  After that, I punched some holes in the Cajun Craze strip in the middle of the design with the 1-1/4" Circle Punch, punched out the Old Olive stamped images with the 1" Circle Punch, and then put all the pieces together.  The Cajun Craze strip is layered up on a larger strip of Old Olive punched top and bottom with the Scallop Edge Punch, and I placed the 1" punched circles on the Old Olive layer with Stampin' Dimensionals.  But before I actually adhered them to the card stock, I decided I needed just a bit more texture for the circles, and added some Cajun Craze Brads.

     The final touch was the Happy Thanksgiving greeting from the Stamp Set, Teeny Tiny Wishes.  What a versatile stamp set!  I've been using it since it first came out and hardly ever put it away!  I made the layers for the greeting with a Word Window Punch (the stamped layer); the Modern Label Punch (the Old Olive Layer); and the coordinating die from the Sizzix Punch Windows set that goes with the Movers and Shapers die (the Cajun Craze Layer).

     Here's the sketch from the Divas!  If you'd like to try it out this week, be sure to upload a copy of your card on the Internet and then post a link to it on the Divas website!  We'd all love to see what you do.

     Have fun stamping for Thanksgiving!

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A Challenge to Help with Thank You Notes!

Aloha, all!

     We're finally back from a whirlwind trip to visit all our kids and grandkids (one set on the east coast, one on the west), two cousins (one for me, one for my darling husband), one great aunt (husband's), and several couples whom we've not seen in quite some time.  Whew!!! 

     Of course, with all the wonderful hospitality we were offered throughout our trip, there will be Thank You cards to be sent.  And, when you're a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, the cards must always be handmade.  Now that's not a chore – it's fun to get into my Craft Room and start playing around with paper and ink and ribbons and whatever else happens to catch my fancy on any particular day.

     Today, though, is also a Divas Coffee Break Design Team color challenge, so this first Thank You note was definitely going to be different from anything else I've ever made.  The color challenge included one brand new color (Concord Crush), one color that's kind of new, though not this year (Tangerine Tango), and one that's been around for awhile (Old Olive).  This is how it was presented to the design team:

     These colors really aren't too bad when it comes to colors I probably wouldn't have ever put together myself.  I especially liked having one of the colors – Tangerine Tango – be light enough on which to write a note.  So that became the color for the card base.  After that, I went looking in the closet to which I have banished all non-holiday stamp sets and came up with Eastern Blooms, and everything else fell nicely into place.

     This is a fairly quick layered card to make, as you can see in the sketch, below.  I added some interest by punching out one of the small flowers from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack and adding the flowers and some Old Olive Brads to the center of three of the flowers that I stamped using the Eastern Blooms Stamp Set.  Before I attached the small matted strip to the large piece of Concord Crush, I stamped the sentiment from the Heard from the Heart Stamp Set using Versamark and then embossing using White Stampin' Emboss Powder.  I punched the bottom edge of the Concord Crush layer with the Scallop Trim Border Punch, and texturized the front of the Tangerine Tango card using the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  The final touch was some Old Olive 5/8" Satin Ribbon. 

     OK – I'm still a bit jet-lagged.  But I'll be back later in the week and show off some more new projects, some of which will be from the class I'm holding tomorrow.  Hmmmm.  Hope I'm not too jet-lagged for that!!

     Oh, and here's the sketch for today's card.  Have fun with it!

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A Real “Challenge” with the Divas!

Aloha, all!

     I'm a bit early for this week's Divas Coffee Break Design Team challenge because tomorrow my blog is on a Blog Tour for another group (see more at the end of this post).  But I didn't want to miss out on this particular challenge – which really WAS a challenge for me.

     The challenge?  I was supposed to make a large oval motif in the center of the card, and I don't own the Scallop Frame Oval Sizzix die!  As far as I can tell, that would be the closest I could get to the required oval.  Sigh.

     But ingenuity struck and I dragged out my Sizzix Scallop Circle Die and made my OWN scallop oval!  After that, I just played around with my (current) favorite Stampin' Up Designer Series Paper Set, Deck the Halls.

     This is how I cut my scalloped oval:  I cut some Cherry Cobbler card stock with the Sizzix Scallop Circle Die.  Then I once again ran the same piece of Cherry Cobbler card stock through my Big Shot with it offset to the right.  I matched up the scallops that were just to the left of the tallest scallops on the top and bottom to get the oval shape.  Here's a picture of how I laid the card stock down the second time.  It's a bit hard to see the scallop edges on the die, but I traced over the ones that were "in play" during this exercise in white.

     I actually tried this several times, and it worked every time.  So don't be afraid to try it yourself.

     The other two ovals that are layered on top of the scallop oval are from the Sizzix Ovals Die – the two largest.  To make the ruffle of Very Vanilla Seam Binding behind the Always Artichoke layer, I placed some Sticky Strip around the back edge of the oval and just folded the seam binding back on itself all the way around, finishing with a bow on the bottom that I made separately and then attached to the card.

     The Stamp Set that I used is Bells and Boughs, which, with the Designer Series Paper set Deck the Halls that I used for some of the layers, is from the Stampin' Up! 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog.  I colored in the Holly and Berries using a Blender Pen and some Classic Ink.  For a final touch, I added just a small bit of Dazzling Diamonds on top of some Heat and Stick Powder.  Boy there are lots of Stampin' Up! products on this card!!!  But that's the way I like my cards!

     Now onto some fun projects over the next few days!

     To begin, tomorrow is the day of the SUDSOL Blog Tour!!!  If you're a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, please be sure to check out all the blogs on the tour.  Each and every one of them features a fantastic project that's very much like what we share in our group that's exclusively for demonstrators.  We share lots of great ideas that you can use on your blogs and for your workshops, classes, stamp camps – whatever it is that you feature in your hobby or business!  Even if you're NOT a demonstrator, you'll get lots of great ideas for your paper crafting hobby.

     Then on Friday, the long-awaited Royal Blog Tour begins.  It's a whole weekend of amazing blogs and amazing Stampin' Up! Demonstrators.  And there will be plenty of Blog Candy for everyone and an opportunity for you to win great Stampin' Up! prizes!!

     Have fun with them both!

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Challenged by the Divas!

Aloha, all!

     Once again it's Wednesday, and once again I was face with a Divas Coffee Break Design Team color challenge that left me seeing blanks!  Poppy Parade, So Saffron and Baja Breeze! 

     With my brain firmly locked in Christmas Mode, I was still not seeing Christmas in all three colors.   Any two of them, fine.  But all three???   What to do, what to do. 

     Well, get out of the Christmas mode, that's what, before I go crazy!  So here I am as November is upon us with a card that's pretty much for the every day occasion.  Of course, we do have every day occasions every day – even when it is the holiday season.  So I let the mood overtake me.

     I started with the flower from the Stamp Set, Flower Fancy.  It was still out on the Craft Room work table from another challenge project that I made a few days ago (there went my resolution to put things away when I was through with them!).  Then I went looking for Designer Series Paper Sets that had at least two of the required colors in them.  Aha!  Pawsitively Prints 2 fit that bill!  It has the So Saffron and Poppy Parade.  In fact, I'd been seeing some gingham prints around the blogosphere lately, and had briefly wondered where they came from.  Pawsitively Prints 2 is where!  OK, with gingham, I was thinking homespun, so I got out a little DMC Floss (#598) to stitch around the perimeter of the gingham layer.  I textured up some Poppy Parade with a Sizzix Texturz Plate, and found a sweet definition from from the Define Your Life stamp set, and I was off and running!  Oh, but there was that little problem that I still had not fit in the Baja Breeze. Oops!  I should have just made it a layer behind the gingham, huh? 

     OK – now that I'm looking at this card a bit more critically, perhaps I should have layered the gingham on the Baja Breeze, then stamped the flower on a layer of the So Saffron Print and colored it in with Poppy Parade and Baja Breeze.  Do you see how designs get made?  It's not like I always have these fun ideas and they just appear on card fronts!  In order to get what I finally end up with, a lot of the time there are other cards that have been made first that didn't quite "grab" me.  So, did I go make the card I just thought of?  Heck, no!  It's Christmas time and I want to get back to Christmas!

     If you're having problems coming up with a card design, just pull out papers and stamps and get started!  Your first effort might not be what you really want, but I'll bet that second card will be a doozy!  Here's the sketch for today's card.  Try making a card with it and see what YOU can come up with!

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