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Archive for the ‘Family and Garden’ Category:
Hello, Baby! Or is that “Aloha, Baby!
Aloha, all!
I may have mentioned that I'm going to become a Great Aunt to two babies this spring. Next month one nephew will be welcoming a baby boy, and in June – for the first time in decades! – my side of the family, courtesy of another nephew and his wife, will be welcoming a baby girl! My niece, Margie, who is a 30-something, has been the only girl baby in our family since the day she was born. She indicates that she is more than ready to give up that honor.
So I'd better start shifting into "pink" mode for some of my cards and projects! I have plenty of blue stuff in storage, and now I need to get cracking to welcome a baby girl. She may not want pink down the road a bit. But for now, this Great Aunt will be making pink!
The paper with those darling little birds is from the Designer Series Paper set, Nursery Nest. I cut it with the Circle Scissors Plus, and mounted it on a card made with the Scallop Circle Bigz Die. But before I did, I attached a piece of the Blushing Bride 3/8" Pleated Satin Ribbon behind it. This ribbon does so well going around corners! I love it for a lot of its characteristics, but I think this is my favorite.
To set off the greeting (from Teeny Tiny Wishes), I included a Scallop Circle punched with the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch, which I then embossed with the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder. And after I adhered everything together, I added some of the Twitterpated Designer Buttons. Both the Pleated Ribbon and the Twitterpated Designer Buttons are from the Stampin' Up! 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog, which will be around until the end of April. I'm thinking that these not only look like baby colors, they look like Easter colors! So I'm sure you'll be seeing them here again!
Whoever it is for whom you're creating something this week, I hope you have as much fun – and wear as big a smile – doing it as I had making this card!
Subscribe to the comments for this postBringing Back Memories
Aloha, all!
Do you ever start a crafting project and find that making it takes you back to something in your childhood? That's what happened to me with this card, and I thought I'd quickly take you through a few of those memories.
A good part of my childhood was spent at the home of my aunt who was also my Godmother. Aunt Agnes collected many things, and among them were her teacups. So I was immediately drawn to this stamp of an elegant teacup, though most of her teacups were white or cream with flowers painted on them. At some point, I think I'll try to stamp this cup with a lighter color embossed on a base of a darker color. But by the time I had this idea, I was way too far into this project and I really wanted to finish it.
A beautiful part of my aunt's household was an amazing collection of African Violets – of every color imaginable; but my favorite were the pale violet flowers that seemed to be (and probably were) so fragile that a touch would turn them into dust. I could almost see right through them! The little African Violets that adorn this teacup reminded me of those flowers, and that's why I decided to stamp the cup again in a lighter color and cut out the flowers to adorn this one.
And then there were the doilies! Doilies were EVERYWHERE around her house – on the tables, on the chairs, on the piano, on the bookcases. While the teacups and African Violets from her home are long since gone, I still have a few of her doilies – much more delicate than this doily made of paper, but this doily nonetheless reminded me of them.
When it came time to pick the sentiment for this card, how could I not choose, "A Cup of Thanks." Thanks to Aunt Agnes who meant so much to me – and for the wonderful memories she made for me.
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Back to the here and now and a quick reminder that much of what is on this card is from the Stampin' Up! 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog. And another reminder that there are going to be dozens of fabulous projects using these products – and many, many more! – in the Create with Connie and Mary Occasions Edition, which is now in preview. I hope you'll take the time to visit the Create With Connie and Mary blog to learn more about preview week, their early bird pricing AND the blog candy that will be available throughout the week – in various places around the blogosphere,
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An addendum. I just heard from my sister-in-law and downline, Deb, who said that she has some of Aunt Agnes' teacups and that my niece, Margie, will have them one day. Margie is my goddaughter, so it's wonderful that these will be passed from generation to generation – as will the memories of Aunt Agnes.
Happy 2012!
Hau'oli Makahiki Hou – or Happy New Year – All!
I just love living in Hawaii, but especially in the winter when I don't have to deal with the snow – and where I can actually remember the season's greetings in Hawaiian! Besides that, there are flowers everywhere, which is something I did not experience in January when I lived on the mainland. While I'll share my New Year's card with you in a moment, I just have to share a photo of this flower, which is blooming right now where I can see it from my kitchen window.
This lovely Bird of Paradise will be around for many days to come!
Also around for many days to come is the year 2012. I am ALWAYS needing a calendar. Figuring out that many of my friends and customers could also use a calendar, I decided to make them a New Year's card with a calendar built in. As I was running out of time for hand-crafted projects in 2011, I remembered that Stampin' Up!'s My Digital Studio now has a trifold card design that would be perfect for me to include a calendar! So back I came to my computer and this is the card that I ended up making!
I sent quite a few of these out this morning, and I actually had time to make a "real" bow out of the Sale-A-Bration ribbon set that inspired the design of this card. So this card is just a little bit hybrid – mostly digital, and a touch of "real." The flower stamps and the papers, as well as the beautifully thin ribbon, are all going to be part of the 2012 Sale-A-Bration catalog – and you can get them all for free with qualifying orders during the Sale-A-Bration sales period!
But back to the card. I found a digital image of the 2012 calendar and put that in the middle section of the card. I left a blank white space in the third section of the card for me to write a note when I send it out. I just love the colors – and the Stampin' Up! printing service does a gorgeous job matching Stampin' Up!'s colors!
Here is the back of the card. If you want, you can print just as much on the back as on the front. Fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Patty Bennett, used this format to include lots of pictures of her and her family along with journaling about their 2011 activities. Each panel is 3-1/2" high by 5" long, so plenty of space for that. I just wanted to show off the pretty papers that are going to be available!
So here we are in 2012! I hope that it's all that you want it to be – and that you'll have lots of time to have fun with paper crafting!
A Follow Up to the Dino Birthday Card!
Aloha, all!
I just had to share this photo of grandson, Jadon, when he opened the card that I featured in my last blog post. You just can't get a more delightful "Thank You" than that kind of a smile from a child when he opens one of your cards!
Happy Summertime Anniversary!
Aloha, all!
This week marks the second anniversary of my son and daughter-in-law's wedding. Their official marriage was June 30th, but they had a big formal wedding in Indonesia in December of their wedding year. I like to celebrate their official date as their anniversary. December has plenty of other stuff to celebrate (like Christmas!).
It just so happens that this week also features a challenge from the SU Only Challenge group to make a card for Summer Wedding Anniversaries. So guess for whom I designed my card for the week?!
I wanted the colors on this card to be bright and fun, and the colors in the brand new Stampin' Up! Hostess paper set, Cheerful Treat, seemed to be just the thing for it. I chose this sheet because I could use a larger print on a 5-1/4" square card. I can leave tinier prints for smaller pieces of paper on smaller cards. The colors on this page are Melon Mambo and Lucky Limeade, two of Stampin' Up!'s newest colors to be featured in the July 1st release of the 2011-2012 Idea Book and Catalog. That's also where you'll find the papers for the first time. The dark dot in the center of the Melon Mambo flowers is undoubtedly Concord Crush, which is a color in this set of papers. But as it's so small and you can't really tell, I made believe that it was Night of Navy so that I could use some retiring ribbon for an embellishment. While there will still be 1/8" Grosgrain Ribbon in the new catalog, the Night of Navy color is going to be retiring as of June 30th. I also used Night of Navy as the layer behind the scalloped layer and that behind the "Happy Anniversary" greeting (from the set, Teeny Tiny Wishes).
Making the hearts was the fun part of this project. In fact, I made them more than once because on the first go round I didn't have the light on in my craft room and made some beautiful Real Red and Lucky Limeade hearts. Not going to work with this paper in real daylight! Anyway, there are three layers for each heart. The bottom Melon Mambo layer was made by punching the heart with the Sizzix Movers and Shapers Die from the Punch Windows Set. The middle layer was made with Lucky Limeade and the Embosslit Scalloped Heart of Hearts. I just wanted that scalloped edge, and it worked out perfectly. The top Melon Mambo layer was punched with the Full Heart Punch, then embossed with the Finial Press Embossing Folder. It was not by accident that they all have the same design. I carefully lined up each punched heart to try to get it centered exactly on the design I'd chosen to use. This is not at all hard to do, and I think it's quite effective in a design such as this.
So there's my design for my son/daughter-in-law and for my SU Only Challenge group! I'll hope you'll visit the SUOC blog to see the fab projects submitted by the other members of the challenge team, and maybe even add one of your own by using the link tool at the bottom of the post!
This was not the first card that I made with this design.
I actually made the first card at the same time I was making my card for the last SUOC Wedding project challenge. So I was thinking white. Once I saw other anniversary cards, I thought maybe I'd do something a little more colorful. This works out because I need a Wedding card for a nephew later this summer, and this one might just be the perfect card! Besides the Whisper White, the card also includes one of my favorite colors, Marina Mist.
Here's the sketch for the layout. You might want to pay particular attention to the measurement of the scalloped layer. 4-3/4" is a perfect sized square for using the Scalloped Edge Border and Corner Punches! I hope you have fun with this punch and with the card design!
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Happy Birthday to my Husband!
Aloha, all!
Friday, June 3rd, was Harry's birthday. Oh my, what a different birthday celebration we had than we did for last year. Last year at 7 in the morning on June 3rd, he went into surgery and there truly was the possibility that he wouldn't come out of it. Ten hours later the doctor came to the waiting room to tell me that everything was just fine. The surgery he had expected to do did not have to be done because he didn't have cancer!!! Yes, there were still some things that had to be fixed, but it was just time consuming and not life-threatening.
So for us to be able to wake up Friday in our own home in rural East Hawaii rather than in a big city hundreds of miles away was truly wonderful. And the occasion required something of a birthday card that was totally different from what I usually make.
I have to tell you that I wasn't sure that there was something in my Stampin' Up! collection that had the elegant but simple greeting that I wanted for the best man in my life. I knew that I was going to use my Brushed Gold card stock (which has been gathering dust on the top shelf of my new closet because I save it for special occasions). But beyond that I wasn't sure. Then I found this perfect sentiment for him in some gorgeous lettering. It's in the Stampin' Up! Stamp Set, Bring on the Cake. It was in the 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog – AND – it's also going to be in the brand new 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog! I'm so happy to see this set carried forward into the year-long catalog because it is so versatile for birthday cards. Cute and funny and simple and, of course, elegant.
I stamped the greeting using Jet Black StazOn ink. It stays on (thus the name) that brushed gold card stock beautifully – no smearing, and a clean, crisp image. Both the oval on which the greeting is stamped as well as the Early Espresso Card Stock oval are cut from the Sizzix Ovals Die. I trimmed card stock to the size just a bit larger that each oval and cut just those oval shapes. I used the Crop-a-Dile to punch the holes on either side through which I ran some Early Espresso 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, which I adhered to the back of the Brushed Gold Card Stock.
For the background I ran a piece of Brushed Gold Card Stock through the Sizzix Embossing Folder, Framed Tulips. Lovely! Then I mounted the whole card front to a card made of Early Espresso Card Stock. I finished the card off by attaching some Basic Pearls on the central motif. EVERYTHING in this card will be in the new Idea Book & Catalog!
I hand-wrote a note on some Card Stock Vellum that I attached to the inside of the card. Don't be afraid to make your basic card out of a dark color. You can always write or stamp an inside greeting on a lighter piece of paper or card stock, or even on Card Stock or Paper Velum, as I did.
For me, this is definitely the start of a year for my husband that will be much more fun than the start of last year. He's back enjoying what makes him happy and I'm happily creating away in my craft room. I hope that you and yours are having your own kind of fun no matter what you do. Of course, I hope that you're having fun crafting with paper – Stampin' Up! paper for sure!!
So Lucky I Live Hawaii!
Aloha, all!
And, no, I didn't leave out a word in that blog post title! People around where I live talk all the time about how fortunate we are to "live Hawaii," not live IN Hawaii! But whether I live Hawaii or live in Hawaii, where I live brought me to today's stamp design.
One of the online groups to which I belong – the LNStampers – has a challenge every week. While I love to look at what everyone does with these challenges, this week's just perfectly met my need to get back into my craft room after several days away from home. The challenge was to make a card that represents the place where I live! Of course my craft room, being in Hawaii, looks out over luscious gardens. My husband has a spectacular garden – people take tours of it rather than spend $$$ to go to commercial gardens! – and the thought of making a card to reflect what I see from my craft room was very appealing!
The Stampin' Up! stamp set featured in this card is called Greenhouse Garden. No greenhouse on our property – but lots of garden, and lots of hibiscus, along with other flowers and palms and vireyas, and – well too numerous to mention. To construct this card, I decided I wanted some floral texture to the background layer. I immediately thought of the Island Floral Sizzix Die. I cut several of the smaller 5-petal flowers from that die and glued them together. Then I ran the Peach Parfait card stock through the Sizzix Big Shot with the stacked flowers acting as a texture plate – my own homemade texture plate! Then, rather than just use a plain old Garden Green brad, I decided I might as well carry the floral theme through and use the Flower Brads instead.
To stamp the flowers from the Greenhouse Garden Stamp Set is a 2-Step Stampin' operation. You first stamp the solid background (in the light color – Peach Parfait) and then stamp the darker lines using the darker color (in this case, Poppy Parade). I've found that, with this set, you really do need the Stamp-a-ma-jig to line up the second stamp with the first. I also used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the stems from the same set. I stamped and cut out another of the Hibiscus style flowers, as well as the smaller flower, again from the Greenhouse Garden set. I carried the Garden Green color from the stem onto the mats for both the smaller layered unit as well as the larger card front. The finish accent is some of the Poppy Parade 1/2" Stitched-Poly Ribbon featured in the Stampin' Up! catalog.
Here are some recent photos of some of the flowers blooming right now in our garden. The hibiscus was my theme for this card, but I just had to show off a Vireya (upper right) and one of our orchids (bottom right).
Here's the sketch for today's card, complete with the measurements that I used. Don't forget that all my blog posts from 2010 that included layout sketches (all WITH measurements!) are in my 2010 Card Layout eBook that is now for sale! For more information, click on the link at the top of the column to the right. It's really a fun book – I use it myself all the time (go figure).
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Maybe you can use this to make a card that shows off where YOU live! Join in the fun, but certainly have fun with whatever you do!!
OK, I Give Up! More Snow Stuff!
Aloha, all!
The last time I posted I said that I was so OVER snow. And I just sit and read about snow, I don't live in it. I can't imagine what you gals and guys who've been living with so much of it this winter are going through (well, yes, I've been there/done that – 50 inches the last winter we spent on the mainland).
But when there are grandchildren involved and their mother (a photographer) takes pictures of them, I have to give in.
Both of these scrap pages are made with Stampin' Up!'s My Digital Studio, and both feature photos of one grandchild each. The photo layout is one of the built-in layouts provided in the software package that comes with My Digital Studio. I modified it just a bit, added the background paper, some snowflakes from digital "stamp sets" and some journaling backgrounds made with digital "punches." All digital! Not a speck of paper wasted trying out different colors for the mats! And (best of all) no added clutter in the craft room! That's the real plus because it seems to be in a constant state of disarray as I am cleaning up after Christmas and getting the new Occasions Mini Catalog stuff set up.
If you have any questions about My Digital Studio, I'll be glad to help you with them! I've taken all of Stampin' Up!'s tutorials and have a lot of practice doing lots of fun pages (fun is my mantra for 2011!). There's also an online resource for everyone who uses My Digital Studio – MyDigitalStudio.net. Lots of great samples and discussions! If you're not quite sure you want to buy this software, go check that website out – you'll be hooked!
And whether you're making cards or scrapbook pages or anything else creative today, have fun with it!
Happy Halloween!
Aloha, all!
And a Happy Halloween to everyone! We're in North Carolina this Halloween playing at Trick or Treat with our lovely granddaughters. Here they both are holding the Stampin' Up! Greeting Cards we sent them before we left home to visit them. If you follow my blog, you'll recognize the card on the left, held by Kiara, as one I made for a swap earlier this month and posted here for you to enjoy. Morgan, on the right, is holding a card that I received back in the same swap. Fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Coleen Astalos, made that card and it was just perfect for Morgan with the greeting, "Witch Way is the Candy."
Last night was the neighborhood hay ride and there were well over 60 children and about half that many adults walking and riding around our daughter's neighborhood. Dirt roads and lots of fun Halloween decorations and haunted venues for all to enjoy on a star-studded black, black night. Grandma Robin got to stay at home with the candy to hand out when one of the three tractor/trailer rigs stopped to disgorge the hordes of costumed characters. Lots and lots of fun for all!
Tonight is the "real" trick or treat night for the gang. We'll all be dressing up and going to another neighborhood for some more trick or treat fun. I have to say that, in expectations of "junque" candy being given out, I stopped and picked up some good quality chocolate to nibble during the evening. Harry got to share it with me and all was well with the world!
Before I sign off of this quick blog post, I have to mention that card swap again. The group that sponsored the swap was SUDSOL, my favorite online group for Stampin' Up! demonstrators. Every time there's a new Stampin' Up! Catalog, SUDSOL sponsors a swap so we can all have lots of samples to share with our customers during the catalog's season. It's just one of the benefits of belonging to SUDSOL, and one that really helps me out as i certainly don't buy everything in every catalog. You'll meet quite a few of my fellow SUDSOL member on this week's SUDSOL BLOG TOUR ON NOVEMBER 3RD. Whether you're a Stampin' Up! demonstrator or not, be sure to stop by and enjoy the tour!
Oh, and the stamp sets used in the cards are all from this year's Stampin' Up! 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog.
And have fun with whatever you're doing on this fun spooky day!
Summer Mini Catalog Countdown – Part IV
Aloha, all!
Well, we're almost there – many great Stampin' Up! products are going to be unavailable for purchase as of close of business tomorrow, Tuesday, August 31, 2010. Sniff! I'll really miss them!
I made today's card with a set that I fell in love with at the beginning, but then didn't use nearly enough – Bouquet Bunch. It's so sweet! Maybe it's just because I haven't been in a "sweet" mood this summer with my husband's illness. But now that he's better and the "sweet" is back, the set is going away! I hope you don't let it get away from you if you've been eyeing it for yourself.
Can you look at that little bird on the potted tree and not just think, "Cute!"? You can't really see the little squirrel over there in the bottom right corner so I made a little photo just of him. He is definitely putting on a "Thinking of You" look – and wondering why I've been ignoring him. I really miss the little critters here in Hawaii, pain in the rear though they may be when you have birds to feed on the mainland. But (as is common) I digress! This set is made to order for those of us using clear mount rubber stamps. Nothing has to fit really close when you are putting all the elements of the stamp set together. So just having the clear mounts works well in making cards with this set If you purchase a wood mount set, you probably should use a Stamp-a-ma-jig to line them up.
There's another product that I first thought of when I started putting these colors together – that's the 5/8" Satin Ribbon in Chocolate Chip. Yes, it's in the Summer Mini Catalog, but it's NOT in the 2010-2011 "Big" catalog. So my assumption is that this is going to go away with the Summer Mini, too. I could have sworn that I bought some of the Chocolate Chip ribbon, but it's nowhere in the Craft Room to be found. And, while the Early Espresso ribbon is definitely brown, it's definitely a lot darker than Chocolate Chip. So another thing to consider if you're planning a last minute order from the Summer mini.
Here's what the Bouquet Bunch Stamp Stamp Set looks like. If you'd like to order it, you can do that 24/7 on my website. Or call me (808.854.6145) and I can place the order for you by Tuesday!
Oh, and I just had to let a bit more of our garden show as the card's backdrop. It just seemed to be made as a backdrop for this picture! Great view from the Craft Room!
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