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Happy Birthday Carson and Jadon!

Aloha, all!

     You know you are a lucky paper-crafting grandma when two of your grandsons with birthdays within weeks of each other are both really into the same childhood interest!  In my case, my grandsons Jadon and Carson are both REALLY into dinosaurs!  One lives on the west coast (Washington) and one on the East Coast (North Carolina) and they're 4 years apart in age.  But both are really going to like this special card that I made for them this year!

     The stamp set from which these happy looking guys came is called Dinoroar, and I think it is one of the cutest Stampin' Up! sets to come out for little boys in a long time.  I wish I could take credit for the color job on the two critters, but that credit has to go to fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Cindy Elam, one of my fellow design team members on the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge blog.  Not only did she reveal the colors that she used, but she also shared that she used Shimmery White Card Stock.  Wow does that card stock make it easy to blend in colors!

     I colored each of the dinosaurs using a different technique.  I wanted to see how it would work if I used the Stampin' Write Markers themselves to color them in as opposed to how Cindy did it using Blender Pens with classic ink pads.  The guy on the right is colored with the markers and the one on the left with the blender pens.  My conclusion is that you can use either, but using the markers is going to create a deeper image than using the blender pens.

     The colors that I used are the same colors that Cindy used.  The dinosaurs are Garden Green, with Peach Parfait accents.  I added a bit of So Saffron to blend in the Peach Parfait.  I painted their little toenails with the Peach Parfait, too (bet no real dino ever had a pedicure!).  The mouth of the dino on the right is colored in with Calypso Coral.  Nice touch that, Cindy!

     Cindy made her card with papers that are no longer available, and she had only one of the cute dinos on the front of her card.  So my sketch is a bit different from hers – but not so much that I can claim credit for that either!

     All that has to be known about this card is for Jadon and Carson to know that Grandma Robin made it!  I'm going to have fun giving them these cards in person this week (yes, we're traveling AGAIN!) along with a dinosaur gift for each.  A bit of grandmotherly heaven for me!  I can't imagine that you can have as good a week as I'm going to have!

     But just in case you'd like to try your hand at this card, here's the sketch I worked with:

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A Special Christmas Card

Aloha, all!

     This weekend's challenge at Create With Connie and Mary was a bit of a different kind of challenge.  We were to make a "one of a kind" card for someone special.  Hmmm.  One of a kind?  What in the world did that mean?  No hints out of Connie and Mary, though.  So I had to figure my own particular "one of a kind" out myself.

     As I looked around at all the Christmas products I've purchased from Stampin' Up!'s Holiday mini, I started to think about using some of the embellishments of which I'd purchased limited supplies.  Then I started to think about techniques that were very time consuming.  And of course, I considered color combinations that were a little bit "different" from those which I was most comfortable using for Christmas crafts.  Finally I had to decide who the special person was that would be the recipient of my card.  It had to be someone who would appreciate all the thought and work that went into the card. 

     Once I had that all figured out, the card started slowly coming into focus.

     All of these elements didn't pop into my mind in a neat sequence.  That would have been too easy!  But once I had them all out on my work table, they just all seemed to meld together perfectly into just what I wanted.

     There are two somewhat time-consuming techniques in this card.  Heat embossing required some planning – making sure that I close the window at my work table to make sure there is no embossing powder blowing all over the place (ask me how I know this happens!); having my Embossing Buddy and Powder Pals at the ready and making sure that the embossing gun is plugged in and ready to go.  That worked out really well – the Dove stamp from Comfort and Joy is a joy to emboss!  Then I wanted a sentiment with a bit of a fancier font than the "Peace on Earth" that came with Comfort and Joy, so I hunted down my Christmas Set, Four the Holidays (I knew it was around somewhere!).

     Then on to the Mini Jingle Bells.  I decided that the best way to attach them all around the central motif was to sew them to card stock.  That meant that I had to have some evenly-spaced holes around the edge, so I had to make sure that the size of that card stock fit with what I could do with the Paper Piercing Template in the Mat Pack.  I punched holes for my needle and thread around the perimeter of the Real Red card stock (layer 4 in the sketch below) and sewed a Jingle Bell on at every second space.  I love how they came out – and how good they sound when there are so many of them on one card!  But I used a good percentage of my supply of bells, so I won't be teaching this in a class any time soon!

     The Silver Glimmer Paper was the perfect finishing touch for this card.  It accents the silver embossing so very well.  I almost wish I could have made a larger card to fit more of Stampin' Up!'s silver products in it.  But I do like to keep my cards to sizes that fit into Stampin' Up! envelopes.  This 5-1/4" card fits beautifully into the Stampin' Up! Medium Square Envelope.  But I do have to tell you that, with all those bells, it weighs well over an ounce even without the envelope!  I probably won't be putting this card in the mail, though; at least not in an envelope.

     And who's going to get this special card?  I'm not telling because I think that there's a good chance that person reads my blog!  It's got to be a surprise!

     Oh, and don't forget that you can still sign up for the Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition!  There are tons of fabulous projects already published and more to come.  This is just the end of week 3!  And you'll have access to the full tutorials for every single project for a year after the subscription series is over!  I loved the Summer Edition and still go back and check out some of those projects (though I've downloaded most of the tutorials already).

     Here's the sketch for this card – would you believe SIX LAYERS besides the basic card!  That's something I don't do often, either!  No wonder this card weighs a ton!  But it was a lot of fun making it – and I'm sure you'd have a lot of fun trying something with the sketch, too!

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Falling Leaves

Aloha, all!

     This week's challenge from the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge blog was to have leaves as a main feature in our project.  I originally thought about using these leaves in my project for the Fall Colors challenge last time around.  But when I started to add them to that card, I decided that I'd rather use it for THIS card and do something else with the fall colors.  Still Fall colors here, though – for sure!  I just LOVE the colors of leaves in the Fall.  I also love that, here in Hawaii, I don't have to rake them after they turn brown and "fall" to the ground!

     The leaf for this card is a stamp in one of this year's Hostess sets called Faith in Nature. And the leaf, along with the other two images in the set, have words running through them that give them a sort of vintage look.  As I'm not too bad at reading French, I determined that the words SEEM to be in French, though some of the longer ones have their letters interrupted with the leaf lines.  But they sure do look nice, especially when you do as I do and sponge them up and wrinkle their edges a bit.  At first I considered just layering these stamps using a masking technique.  But once I started cutting into the first stamped image to make the mask, I realized how relaxing that effort was and I really like the end result.

     The colors in the leaves are More Mustard, Lucky Limeade, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler and Cajun Craze.  All Fall colors where I grew up on the east coast of the United States!  The card stock colors that I used as a backdrop for the leaves are Lucky Limeade, More Mustard and Cajun Craze.  I finished the card off with a variety of colors of brads – Cherry Cobbler, More Mustard and Old Olive.  The Old Olive seemed to match the Lucky Limeade well enough to carry that color combo off. 

     And, of course, "tying" it all together is some of the fun new Lucky Limeade 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon. 

     It's been awhile since I've had a sketch for you in one of my blog posts.  So I "leave" you today with this one!  Have fun with whatever you do with this sketch!

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My First Card with Holiday Mini Products!

Aloha, all!

     As I mentioned earlier, I'm going to be one of the Senior Designers in the Create With Connie and Mary Holiday Edition program.  So I'm hard at work on the projects that I'll be doing for the program.  That means that, at least for the next 4 weeks, all that will be out on the Craft Room work tables will be Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog products.

     My first project for the program will be my preview project, which I'll be featuring right here on Monday, September 12th.  So, when I found an online greeting card sketch challenge in which I wanted to participate yesterday, I selected one of the stamps that I'll be using in that preview project (it was out on the table!).  Believe me, this card is nothing like the Create With Connie and Mary preview project!  That definitely will not be a greeting card.  But you will see this stamp, and ALL the stamps from this set, Gift Givers, in the project.

     Isn't that Designer Series Paper luscious?!  I just love that Pool Party, one of Stampin' Up!'s 2011-2013 In Colors, is part of the paper set, Spice Cake.  (Yum, spice cake – may have to make some this weekend!  But I digress….) I also love this 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon – I find it so easy to tie a bow with it because loops and ends don't slip out of the way and the bow is almost painless.  The card stock elements are More Mustard, and Soft Suede, both of which, along with Pool Party, are colors in the Designer Series Paper.

     Mr. Turkey is stamped on Very Vanilla card stock, which makes the colors that I used to color him in look a bit different than if they were on Whisper White card stock.  So I added in some Peach Parfait and Daffodil Delight for the leaves and tail feathers.  I punched the stamped image with the Curly Label Punch, and matted it with some Pool Party card stock cut with the Curly Label Sizzix Die from the Movers and Shapers set.  EVERY STAMP in the set, Gift Givers, is made to go with one of Stampin' Up!'s punches.  On the other hand, those stamps don't HAVE to be used with punches.  That's what I'm going to show off in my Create With Connie and Mary Preview Project.

     Next time I make a card with this layout (and I will be as part of my Fall 2011 Card Layout eBook!) I plan to texturize the card stock elements to give the card a little more pizzazz.  But I was being timed on this challenge and didn't have time to go back and redo any of the pieces.

     You know, even when I'm making a card on a deadline (or a project – I definitely have a deadline for the Create with Connie and Mary projects!), I really do have fun coming up with ideas of colors and embellishments to use.  When you use today's sketch, imagine that you have a deadline to meet and just go have fun with whatever's out in your crafting area.  You may be pleasantly surprised at what you end up making!

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Masculine or Feminine?

Aloha, all!

     One of the groups to which I belong challenged us to use the same stamp set to make both a masculine and a feminine card.  Well, that felt just too easy to me, so I challenged myself a few steps further – use the same colors, paper and layout, too!   The stamp sets I chose – yes I chose TWO stamp sets – are new this year:  Perfectly Penned for the greeting and Raining Flowers for the floral stamps.

     You might be able to tell that I was kind of stuck on what kind of Designer Series Paper that's already in my stash had a prayer of being considered masculine.  I decided on one of the designs from the Well Worn set and then I set out to feminize it a bit.  I actually gave this card to a friend who needed a get well card this week, and when I wrote my note in it I felt the femininity in the lace and pearls, and a bit in the roughed-up edges.

     To make this a bit more masculine, I switched out the pearls for some Crumb Cake Brads and left off the lace.  I also just tied a plain knot; substituted Soft Suede for the Not Quite Navy Card Stock, Ribbon and Ink; and left the edges of the Designer Series Paper alone.

     So if you've got a limited selection of papers and stamps from which to choose, just a little bit of changing things around can turn a masculine card feminine or the other way around!

     The layout of this card is pretty simple.  It's a sketch that can work with so many different designs and is pretty stress-free.  It's good to be stress-free when you're supposed to be having fun making cards!

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Dating Myself?

Aloha, all!

     When I initiated a scheduled design challenge on one of my online Stampin' Up! Demonstrator websites recently, one of my fellow demonstrators, Maria Pobre, called me to task for showing my age.  I entitled the challenge, "Be There and Be Square," a slight deviation from the apparently really old saying, "Be There or Be Square."  After a bit of research on that, I did indeed date myself with that – except that the younger demonstrators would probably have not had a clue that it was an old saying!

     But then there was the whole point of the challenge – everything was supposed to be square!  I'll share the challenge sketch with you in a minute, but I'd first like to share why I decided on a square, and how I ended up using this Designer Series Paper for the card.

     One of the cards that I received in my 2011 Stampin' Up! Convention swaps was a standard shaped card (fits in an A2 envelope) with a piece of designer paper cut into 1" squares.  The paper was one of the florals from the Hostess Designer Paper Set, Cheerful Treat.  While it was a cute card, I wondered what the effect would be if I cut out a piece of designer paper that had a large image on it.  And then I wondered if the whole effect would be enhanced if the little squares were on a square card.  So, for this card, I ended up using a sheet from the paper set, Paisley Petals, and I really like the whole effect.  So did the people who participated in the challenge!

     To set off the print, I used card stock in three of the colors featured in this set:  Cajun Craze, Baja Breeze, and Always Artichoke.  I stamped the Thank You greeting (from the stamp set, Pretty Postage) using Always Artichoke ink on Baja Breeze Card Stock, matted with an Always Artichoke "stamp" punched with the Postage Stamp Punch from Stampin' Up!'s 2011 Summer Mini Catalog.

     One bit of warning about cutting up a piece of paper such as this one:  Keep the pieces lined up while you're cutting them or you're going to find yourself with a puzzle to be solved!  It took me 10 minutes to put these pieces back together in the right order.  And even then I managed to adhere one 90 degrees from the direction it should have been (fixed it before I took the photo, though).

     As I do like to do, I tied the whole design together with some ribbon, in this case Always Artichoke Seam Binding.  So easy to tie a bow using this ribbon!

     Here is today's sketch.  A card cut with these measurements will fit in the Stampin' Up! Medium Square Envelope.  One of my fellow demonstrators said this would be fun for a scrapbook page, and even fun using a photograph!  I hope you find something fun to do with it!!

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Finally some room to craft!

Aloha, all!

     I think it will be a long time before I leave home for a 3-week stint!  I can't believe it's taken me over a week to get my act back together, and I'm not sure I'm quite there yet.

     BUT, there is now room in my craft room to start being creative with my stamps and papers and stuff again, although Cholla, the cat, has decided that it's nice my crafting table is cleared off again so she has a place to curl up and sleep.  So I'm having to pull cat hairs off adhesive and pick up stuff she's pushed off so she can be comfortable.  If she wasn't such an old cat who may not be around that much longer, I'd just throw her out into the living room.  As it is, she's got me wrapped around her little paws.

     One of my online challenge teams this week has a challenge to use my favorite new stamp set from the 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog.  As I've not bought that many new stamp sets, you'd think I could say that one is my favorite.  But I've been waffling back and forth about that.  I think I've finally figured it out, though, and I'll be posting that card on Tuesday for the SUO (Stampin' Up! Only) challenge.

     For today, though, I'll share one of my other favorites.

     I'll bet that a lot of you who've looked through the new catalog haven't even noticed this one.  But I spotted it my first time through.  The stamp set is called, "Borderlines," and has three long and thin stamps that coordinate with the Hostess Designer Series Paper Set, Cheerful Treat.  The images on the stamps are 6" long, which makes them perfect for stamping just once on most greeting card sizes.  They're also great as a border for scrap layouts.

     For this card, I used two of the stamped images to accent the piece of the Cheerful Treat paper that I used for the top layer of the card.  The paper colors are Melon Mambo, Concord Crush, and Lucky Limeade.  I wanted to provide an accent for all three colors, so I stamped in both Lucky Limeade and Concord Crush and then added a bow using the brand new 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon in Melon Mambo.  I accented the card with some Melon Mambo and Concord Crush Card Stock, with a teeny "thank you" greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

     I hope that those of you who have a copy of the newest Stampin' Up! catalog have noticed that the whole Hostess Rewards program for Stampin' Up! has changed.  Now it's more in line with how many other direct sales companies operate their purchase rewards programs.  When you have a workshop – or even spend enough yourself to qualify for workshop rewards! – you can choose some products that are available ONLY to hostesses at a special price.  For example, while other Designer Series Paper sets sell for $10.95, if you have a $150 order, you qualify to use only $8 of your $25 hostess dollars for the set I used today !  And you'll still have 17 free $$$ left to spend, either on hostess products or on ANY OTHER PRODUCT IN THE CATALOG!  I am so in favor of this program because I tend to spend a bit myself on Stampin' Up! products (maybe you've noticed?).  By January or February of any other year I'd have all the hostess stamp sets and just have to get duplicates.  No more – and no more having to select a stamp set that's not really your style, either!

     OK – off the sales kick and back to what I like most – making designs for you to enjoy and, hopefully, copy!  Here's the layout for today's card.  It really is fun to make with all those horizontal shapes!  I hope you have fun with it, too!

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Get Well Wish!

Aloha, all!

     I hope that everyone who's reading this today is feeling just wonderful!  On the other hand, it seems that on any given day of the year there's someone I know who could use a little bit of a pick-me-up card, and quite of few of those could sure use Get Well Wishes.  I always try to have at least one Get Well Card around for just those occasions so I can send it out right away if I find that my friend is feeling bad.

     When I first started out to make this card, I decided that I wanted to do something that had a bit of a distressed look.  I have to tell you that this is not a design technique with which I have a lot of experience.  For one thing, I really do like clean cut designs with very clearly-defined edges.  So I sometimes try too hard when I try something new (for me) like this.  But I've seen so many beautiful distressed or vintage style cards lately that I decided this was a good time to try it out. 

     I spent a lot more time on this card that I usually do.  The first card that I made just had too much sponging and distressing.  So I tore it apart (all pieces can be used for other projects – just not all together!) and put a different combination of designs together into this card.  If I wasn't so pressed for time today, I would probably have kept fussing away at it.  Any and all comments and suggestion are welcome!

     The colors that I used for this card are Wisteria Wonder (one of Stampin' Up!'s newest and most luscious colors, IMHO!) and Certainly Celery (an oldie-but-goodie subtle color). I stamped the outline stamp from the Hostess Set, Simply Soft using Concord Crush, and I sponged the embossed design of the layer made with the Embossing Folder, Framed Tulips, as well as the edge of the card itself, with the same Concord Crush ink.  I used Wisteria Wonder card stock for the embossed layer and the Wisteria Wonder Classic Stampin' pad to stamp the light solid color of the flowers.

     The ribbon that ties this all together is Certainly Celery 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, one of the few ribbons I have left over from the last Stampin' Up! catalog that are still in the newest 2011-2012 Idea Book and Catalog.  (I still haven't placed an order from the new catalog because I've been so busy getting ready for and going on my July travels!)  I also used a thin mat of Certainly Celery card stock behind the stamped layer, and filled in some of the stems and little leaves on the stamped image with some Certainly Celery Stampin' Write Marker.

     The Get Well Soon Stamp is from the stamp set, Sincere Salutations, which is my go-to stamp set for so many greetings!  I punched it out with the Decorative Label Punch, the edge of which I sponged a bit, again with Concord Crush ink.

     Here's the sketch for this card.  While I'm not so sure how I like the finished card for this project, I definitely had fun working with it!  It feels very refreshing trying something new.  I hope that you're able to have this kind of fun with something new before long yourself!

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What’s Old Is New Again!

Aloha, all!

     I've been spending some time this Spring and Summer re-teaching myself some paper crafting techniques that I used to use years ago.  I haven't used them in a long time probably because there are so many other new and exciting techniques to try out!  But, to keep the older techniques going, one must practice with them to keep them fresh! 

     Today I'm going to share a recent project using the "Lattice Fold" technique.  In the case of this particular technique, to really make it fresh I decided that I no longer wished to use the original way I learned it, which was to use a paper pattern.  So I made this design just using some measurements easily made with a ruler! 

     The Lattice Fold design on the left side of this card shows off both sides of Stampin' Up!'s double-sided Designer Series Paper designs very nicely, and I particularly like the way the design from the paper used for the main element of the card is carried over into the lattice.  The whole card seems especially fresh because it uses so many new Stampin' Up! products: the papers ("Just Add Cake" Designer Series Paper from the 2011-2012 Catalog), stamp set ("Touch of Kindness" from the 2011 Summer Mini Catalog), and ribbon ("So Saffron" is a new color for the 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon used on this card) all combine to make this a really fun card!

     As I've mentioned in earlier posts, as this is being posted on my blog, I'm in Salt Lake City.  The Stampin' Up! annual Convention ended yesterday, for me with the chance to demonstrate this very lattice fold technique to a group called Late Night Stampers, who hosted a post-convention get together.  What fun that was – and so many people still in Salt Lake after the closing ceremonies! 

     To prepare for the demonstration, I wrote a tutorial for the group to put in a CD that featured all the presentations.  For now the tutorial is not in the format that I usually use for my tutorials; the group asked for a particular layout so that all the designs would be presented in the same way.  So there are two pages to this particular tutorial instead of the one I usually prepare. And it's available to you right here and now if you'd like to try this technique for yourself!

     Here's the sketch for the entire card.  That lattice fold design fits very nicely into the area at the left. Just slip the 3/8 uncut section on the right of the lattice folded paper and affix with adhesive or brads.  I hope you have fun trying this technique out!

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Quick and Easy!

Aloha, all!

     Earlier this week I needed something REALLY quick and easy when I decided that I would, after all, take some swap cards to the Stampin' Up! convention, which is going on as you read this.  What got me started (or re-started) on the swap kick was my receipt of the stamp set, "Button Buddies."  I'd received that free from Stampin' Up! as a result of my sales during this year's Sale-A-Bration catalog period.  Nice!  But I really wanted to do something with it, and swaps seemed to be the thing to do.

     But what to do?

     For one thing, I've not done a general order of some Stampin' Up! essentials in quite some time (waiting for the new catalog, of course!) so my stash of buttons is a bit on the sparse side.  And for the other, what did I have in my repertoire that was just, well, simple? 

     This is what I ended up with.  I actually had some ribbon and some Sizzix Die Cuts out on my work table.  But once I got this far with the card, I realized that it was nice just by itself.  Nice and simple, quick and easy!  Hard to argue with that!! 

     The catalog sample using this particular stamp from the Button Buddies set shows the use of 3 buttons, one on each flower.  Being low on buttons, I just left it to one in the center.  I actually think that this is more effective, making that one flower stand out and drawing our attention to it. 

     The colors of these cards are (front) Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight; (back) Marina Mist and Real Red.  Why did I pick these colors?  Because I also had some 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon in those colors (only!) and my original intent was to add ribbon and a knot.  As I write this I might still have some time to make some other cards, and I'll only be limited by the number of buttons that I have, not the number of ribbon colors, too!  The printed paper that I used for the cards is from the Patterns Stack of Designer Series Papers that come in each color family.  Marina Mist is in the Subtles Stack and the others are in the Brights Stack.  One note of caution about this design:  Make sure that you cut this paper straight so that the little polka dots are all in a straight line.  If you don't, no matter how straight you put the stamped layers on top of it, it's going to look crooked.  Guess how I know this??

     Here's the sketch for this card.  You'll be able to turn out a dozen in half an hour or less (depending on how much you get interrupted; you might well ask me how I know this, too!)

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