RobinsCraftRoom.com

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!

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Warmest of Wishes

Aloha, all!

     The title of this post is also the name of the Hostess Set in the Holiday Mini Catalog.  It features five stamps related to fall and winter and their holidays, four of which go perfectly with five of Stampin' Up!'s punches.  For today's card I used the one related to fall because there is a challenge at the online group called Stampin' Up! Late Night Stampers. 

     This is a "gatefold" card and I've used a technique for it that I've not used for awhile – making my own shapes for embossing with the Sizzix Big Shot.  I've been making lots of cards this week using fall colors, and this seems to be my favorite combination of the moment:  Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler, Lucky Limeade, More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie and Peach Parfait.  I colored in the wreath with those colors and punched some leaves for the corners with the Bird Builder Punch using four of the colors of card stock. 

     Punching the wreath takes a bit of practice, but I've written up some instructions for making that 1" Circle Punch centered in the wreath.  The instructions also include instructions for embossing card stock with punched shapes, not just with the texturz plates and embossing folders provided by Sizzix!  No, the instructions are not here.  But they are yours FREE if you subscribe to my newsletter.  There will be a new newsletter for my subscribers on October 3rd, featuring a great new offer by Stampin' Up! as well as an offer from me personally for those of you who place an order with me while I'm off on vacation – now through October 15th!  So don't miss out.  Getting my newsletter and the FREE tutorial doesn't cost a penny (well, if it did it wouldn't be free, would it!)

     And let me tell you a bit about the Late Night Stampers Group.  This is a group that's FOR EVERYONE who uses Stampin' Up! products – NOT just for demonstrators.  We have a Design Team and some group leaders who do a fantastic job making everyone welcome and providing hints for all kinds of Stampin' Up! products.  No matter whose customer you are, you're welcome there and no one's going to try to get you to buy Stampin' Up! products from them.  If you haven't tried them out, please do!  It would be fun having you there!

     No sketch today either – it's in that FREE TUTORIAL that you'll get with my newsletter on October 1st!  I hope you have fun with it when you get it!

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A Thought on 9/11

Aloha, all!

     I finally have a week where there’s more time for stamping than not. And what a week it is as everywhere around us there are reminders that this is the 10th Anniversary of the tragedy of 9/11/2001.

     I think we all remember where we were that day; I was in Washington, DC, taking care of some business for my mother, and I was supposed to come back home to New Mexico on the 12th. When I finally did get home, many days later, the emotion of where I had been and when was overwhelming. It was one of those moments when I was reminded that life is so very fragile, and that we should do our best to live it to its fullest.

     This sentiment from the stamp set, Inspired by Nature is the closest Stampin' Up! stamp that I could find to remind myself of that day. And it's pretty darned close to perfect.

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Fun and Quick Card to CASE!

Aloha, all!

     Today's challenge at the Late Night Stampers online group was to CASE (Copy and Share with Everyone is my phrase to go with this acronym!) a project from another member of the group.  I chose to CASE a card that fellow demonstrator, Tami Black, posted on her blog last week when she was sharing some cards made with retired stamp sets.  Since 99% of the stamps and 100% of the embellishments in my Craft Room are current Stampin' Up! products,I couldn't copy her completely.  But I was able to enjoy using some current products to make a card that makes me smile as much as hers did.

     I used the brand new stamp set, Simply Soft, which is a hostess set you can get for only 16 hostess dollars using Stampin' Up!'s new hostess benefits program.  This is one of the best bargains in the new catalog! 

     To create the image, I used Stampin' Write Markers to color the outline of the flowers with Rich Razzleberry and the stems and outlines of the leaves with Always Artichoke. The second stamp for the flowers using Stampin' Up!'s 2-Step Stampin' technique, is also Rich Razzleberry.  What I did to lighten it up was to ink it in Rich Razzleberry then stamp it once on a piece of scrap paper.  I stamped it the second time to fill in the flower image with a lighter version of Razzleberry.  I colored in the leaves with Lucky Limeade, one of Stampin' Up!'s newest colors. 

     I used the same Embossing Folder, Vintage Wallpaper, as Tami did, as well as the Scallop Trim Border Punch and paper piercing that she used for the top of the Lucky Limeade panel (Tamy used Old Olive as her panel).  You'll see in a second when I show you Tami's card that she used Rich Razzleberry 5/8" Stain Ribbon for her card.  But that's retired and I have no more of it.  So I cut a 5/8" piece of Razzleberry Card Stock and tied some Lucky Limeade 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon over it.

     And here's Tami's card that I CASEd!

     As this is definitely Tami's layout, I'll forgo sharing a sketch.  But the measurements for my card are easy:  The card is a standard 5-1/2"  x  4-1/4"  card, with the Whisper White layer 5" x 3-3/4" (1/4" mat all around) and the Razzleberry/Limeade layer 4-3/4" x 3-1/2" (1/8" mat all around).  The stamped layer is 3-1/4" h  x  2" w.  Simple!

     One of the fastest and easiest ways to come up with a great card to send to someone is to CASE the card of another stamper!  And it's so much fun to put a little of your own take on the whole design.  Try that sometime soon – and have fun with it!

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White on White Wedding Wishes!

Aloha, all!

     I am finally back from my marathon travels on the U. S. mainland – Portland to Salt Lake City to Phoenix to Minneapolis to Hibbing back to Minneapolis and Phoenix and finally back home two days ago.  Whew!  I'm tired just thinking about it, and still jet-lagged to prove I did it!

     As August goes on I'll share some of the wonderful experiences and ideas from the Stampin' Up! Convention (the Salt Lake City stop), as well as (finally) some projects using new products from the Stampin' Up! 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalog.  But for today, I'm showing off my last-minute entry in this week's Late Night Stampers Design Team Challenge – an all white card.  We were permitted to use a color for our sentiment or greeting.

     I made the flower with petals punched from the Blossoms Petal Building Punch.  I used 8 of the medium sized petals and embossed them using the Perfect Polka Dots embossing folder after I punched them.  I used 4 of the smaller petals to accent the center of the flower, and added a Whisper White Button from the Neutrals Designer Buttons collection, tied with White Baker's Twine.  I finally added some Whisper White 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon.  Uh-oh!  That's retired ribbon!  I'm not sure how I managed to let that stay in my active collection of ribbon, and I was too jet-lagged to recall what is current and what is not.  As I look at this, though, it occurs to me that the 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon would work just as well – maybe even better!  But no time to redo this card when there are so many other projects on which I'd like to work!

     The greeting is from a new stamp set called "Easy Events."  This stamp set is replacing the retired Fun and Fast Notes set in my collection – it's very versatile, with eight stamps, each including an image and greeting.  What I've done with the set is to cut the stamps apart so that the greetings can be used separately from the images, making the set even MORE versatile!  I stamped the greeting using Marina Mist Classic Ink.

     For the layers, I just cut a sheet of Whisper White card stock 1/4" smaller horizontally and vertically and used my Fiskars Cutter with the scoring blade inserted to add some texture to the edges.  (Ooooh, check back with me later this week as I tell you why I won't be using that much longer!!!)

     No layout today – it's pretty standard; hope not too boring!  I can already feel my creative juices recovering themselves so there will be more fun projects later this week!

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Inspiration from a Photo

Aloha, all!

     Here I am on a Monday again, and this Monday I'm already traveling on my way to the Stampin' Up! convention, which begins on Wednesday.  For now, though, I'm in the Portland, Oregon, area visiting my grandson and whichever of his relatives happen to be around while he's with me.  I'm sure you'll see some scrapbook page samples later this year with him in it!

     But Monday also always brings a challenge from the Late Night Stampers Stampin' Up! Yahoo group.  I don't always get it done on Monday, but I have a whole week to do it.  This week (and last), though, I planned well enough ahead to be right on time!

     For this week's challenge, our fearless leader gave us a photo and said, "Be inspired!"  Hmmm.  These are the tough ones.  Unless I, myself, look at a photo and think, "Ooooh, that reminds me of a Stampin' Up! design!" I usually draw a blank.  I did with this one for awhile, too.  Then, when I was working on last week's challenge, I decided to use the same layout to at least get started with this challenge.

     And here is the finished product!  The "live" color of this card is Certainly Celery, and matches the celery color in the photo pretty well.  Sunlight and flashes change colors a bit, and I'm a papercrafter, not a photographer.  So I'm leaving the picture of the card as it is!  For the accent colors I used two of Stampin' Up!'s newest colors, Island Indigo (the blue vase) and Calypso Coral (the flowers).  The other colors in play here are Whisper White, which you see a lot in the photo, and Daffodil Delight.

     Once I had the thought of flowers in a vase, I went to the Ornament Punch which is my favorite punch for making vases.  Just snip a bit of the bottom off, and you have a vase!  To make the Daffodil vase stand out a bit, I texturized it with the Finial Press Embossing Folder.  As I've done in the past, I arranged my punched piece in the embossing folder so that the design is centered on it as I wished.  It's a really easy technique!  For the flowers, I used the smallest flowers in the Boho Blossoms Punch.  To make sure I didn't waste card stock, I just cut a 3/4" strip of the card stock and stuck the end into the punch so that just that flower was punched.  As I punched each flower, I clipped the end clean and started over again.  It's a pretty quick operation, and you could even tear off the end pieces if you wanted.

     To get the flowers' little petals to stand up, I laid each on the soft Paper Piercing Pad and pushed the eraser of a pencil into the center of it until the petals came up to wrap around the earser.  I then laid the flowers where I wanted them, moved each vase a tiny bit, and marked the start and end of each stem with the very same pencil (who knew it was a doubled-ended tool!).  I sketched the stems between the pencil points with a Certainly Celery Stampin' Write Marker and adhered the vases and flowers to the card (the flowers with Mini Glue Dots and the Daffodil Vase with Stampin' Dimensionals. The finishing touch for this card are some Basic Pearls – just right the flower centers, and a nice finishing accent for the Indigo vase.

     You'll almost recognize this sketch from last Monday.  But the measurements for the rectangular layered element are slightly different.  Another difference with this sketch is that the 3 layers in the rectangular element are the same distance apart.  In last week's sketch, the top two layers are closer in measurement than the bottom layer.  Lots of ways to do this, and I'm going to cover this is a section of my new eBook, about which I'll tell you more at the end of the summer!

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Happy :) and Sad :(

Aloha, all!

     I have two good friends who live in East Hawai'i who have decided to move back to the mainland.  They both have everything in place.  One will be moving while I'm away for the Stampin' Up! Convention and a family vacation next month.  The other will not move until the end of the summer.  I am so happy for both of them that they are able to do what they want to do.  Yet I'm very sad for me because I'm going to miss them so much.

     What I'm trying to do is to look at this whole experience as something new!  It will be new for me as I will (eventually) have a new next door neighbor, and I will be working with a new president of a club to which the other friend and I belong, and of which she is now the president. 

     And it just so happens that the Late Night Stampers Yahoo Group design challenge for this week is, "New Beginnings."  What better way to help my friends celebrate their new beginnings that creating a card for them to use to announce their new addresses!  I have to tell you that, even though there's tons of new stamps in the new Stampin' Up! catalog, this oldie-but-goodie set is one of my favorites – and so versatile!  There are two sets of accessories for the basic stamp set, which has lots of accessories of their own. 

     The basic stamp set is Loads of Love, and the pickup truck itself is in that set.  The truckload full of furniture, the woman in the driver's seat, and the "just moved" greeting are in the set, Loads of Love Accessories.  So cute, and just perfect for today's card!

     At the time that I was making this card, I did not have any designer series paper that I really felt was right for the background for this card.  So I just took the "just moved" stamp and, using both the Bashful Blue and Calypso Coral colors, stamped all over the front of the basic card.  Then I added the various layered elements.  To give this whole card a bit more of the rustic look that goes with a pickup truck, I sponged the edges of the card itself and several of the layers with some Bashful Blue ink.  The paper that I used for the card and the stamped layer is Confetti White, and that adds nicely to the rustic look.

     The punches that I used for the circular element are the 1-1/4" Circle Punch for the stamped layer and the 1-3/8" Circle Punch for the Calypso Coral layer.  They are both layered on the 1-3/4" Scallop Circle Punch.  My final touch for this card are the Silver Flower Brads that serve as the hubcaps for the pickup.  Darling!

     Here is the sketch for this week's post.  If you read the post for NEXT Monday, you're going to see a similar sketch.  As I'm preparing for my next eBook that features all new sketches, I'm going to include measurements for this card layout for a number of stamp sets, including quite a few holiday designs.  More about that later this summer!

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Goodbye to My Favorite Stars!

Aloha, all!

     And, no, I'm not talking about movie or TV stars – I'm talking about my Stampin' Up! Star Punch and my Stampin' Around Wheel, Classic Stars.  I have really relied on them for my Fourth of July cards and decorations and I'm so very sorry to see them retiring.  As you know, my preference is to share only Stampin' Up! products that are in a current catalog; so I'll not be sharing these with you any more.  Sigh.

     But I'm sure glad to be sharing them with you today – and I would be remiss in not reminding you that you can still order these as long as you do it by 11:30 pm Mountain Time this coming Thursday, June 30th.  You can order them online until the last minute, too!

     The Stampin' Around wheels are so easy to use on a greeting card this size.  Just ink up the wheel by spinning and rolling the wheel on a Classic Stampin' Pad and then roll it along the paper you want stamped.  So quick and easy!  And the Star Punch makes a perfect layer for the largest of the stars on the wheeled image as you can see here.

     The colors that I used for this Red, White and Blue Card are Real Red, Whisper White, and Night of Navy.  I also tied this card together with a piece of Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon which is also retiring at the end of the month!.  Not only is the Real Red 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon retiring – ALL THE 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon is retiring!  I'm probably one of many Stampin' Up! Demonstrators and customers who found themselves using the 5/8" Satin Ribbon more than the grosgrain ribbon, so it's probably my fault along with that of many others who've ignored the grosgrain ribbon.  But that's that, at least for now.

     The final accents on this card are the Gold Brads and the Brushed Gold Card Stock that I used for the smaller star layered over the Night of Navy Star at the top of the card.  I punched the Brushed Gold Star using the Sizzix Stars #2 die – it's the second smallest of the four stars on that die.  I think that the gold accents give the card a bit of the military look that we frequently see in Fourth of July parades across the country.  Nice touch if I say so myself!

     One feature of this card that you may not be able to see all that well in this photo (and I tried several others, too) are the embossed stars on the Night of Navy background layer.  I punched several small stars using the Sizzix Stars #2 die and some chipboard.  Then I layered the chipboard just as I would any other texturizing shape and ran it through the Sizzix Big Shot.  It looks (and feels) especially nice in person!

     Here's the sketch for today's card!  I hope you enjoy it, and have fun making some Fourth of July – or any summer style – cards with it!

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Floral Delight

Aloha, all!

     Today was a busy day, but I still had some time for paper crafting.  Of course I had to use some of my free time to play with some of the products that you're going to see in the Stampin' Up! 2011 Summer Mini Catalog that will be open for everyone on May 1, 2011. 

     So where to start?  With the gorgeous Designer Series Paper Set, Beyond the Garden?  With the sentiment from the Stamp Set, Fabulous Florets?  Or with the Sizzix Embossing Folder, Flower Garden?  Don't they all go together beautifully?! 

     This is the second time I've shown off the stamp set and the embossing folder.  And I'll certainly be using them a LOT during the late spring and summer months this year.  But I can't believe that this pack of paper has been sitting around my Craft Room for a week and I haven't used it yet!  I'm sure that you're like me in that, with any pack of Designer Series Paper, there are designs that thrill me and those that, well, just sit there and don't call out to me at all.  In the case of this pack of paper, one of the latter sheets is the one that showed through the clear packaging when it arrived on my doorstep.  Nothing about that sheet shouted out, "Open Me Now!"  Now if THIS sheet had been on top, that paper would have been spread all over the craft room and on the front of several cards almost instantly.  Now that I've finally opened the pack, you can be sure you'll be seeing more of it over the next few weeks.

     The embossing folder is another story.  I couldn't wait to open that up and use it.  This time I used it on the right side of my "portrait" oriented card, and the first time I used it I put it on the left side of my "landscape" card.  It really is very flexible as long as you're using it on a cut sheet of paper and not on a whole card base.  So when you get this folder don't feel that you're locked into one place to use it.

     The colors in this card are Daffodil Delight and Pacific Point, both of which are among the colors featured in the Designer Paper.  The other colors that you can see in this sheet are Wild Wasabi and Tangerine Tango.  Melon Mambo is included in the set, and is actually on this sheet of paper, though the way I cut the paper there is no Mambo showing in it.  Maybe next time.

     Meanwhile, you might want to try out today's sketch even if you don't yet have all the materials that I used in this exact card.  After all, sketches are meant to inspire you to use what you already have, and they're certainly not meant to be followed exactly.  But you can if you'd like!  Whatever you do, whether you use this sketch or another or make up your own design, be sure to have fun with it!

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Garage Sale Finds

Aloha, all!

     I mentioned that last week I participated in a fund-raiser garage sale for my Family & Community Education (FCE) group.  I knew that, as soon as that was over, I'd have time to get back into my craft room.  And I could tell I was focusing on that as I kept seeing things for sale that gave me crafting ideas.  Take this little floral frame, for example.

     Of course those little ceramic roses on the frame reminded me of the Stampin' Up! Rosettes and Vintage Flower Adornments that are in the 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog.  And I do have a bunch (pun intended) of them still hanging around as we get close to the end of the catalog sales period.  While I hope that you might consider buying some, as a demonstrator I'll have to clear out my stash to make room for new products from the 2011 Summer Mini Catalog.

     Once I got home and started going through my supplies, I found that I had used up a lot of what I had purchased on various personal and class projects.  But I still had enough of a variety to create today's card.

     To make the frame, I cut an oval out of a Medium Window Sheet with the Sizzix Ovals Die, added some sticky strip all around the edges, and then placed the flowers on the sticky strip. Once I had my frame made, I had to decide what to put in it.  I started going through some family photos, but resizing and editing one of those was going to take some time, and I was anxious to see what the finished card would look like.  Then I remembered yet another Occasions Mini Catalog product, the Easter Blossoms Stamp Set.  And of course once that little girl's silhouette was in the frame, my creative brain jumped to the sheets of the Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper that I still have left! 

     To decorate a bit more, I added some leaves punched with the Two-Step Bird Punch, layered up some Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzazz and Always Artichoke Card Stock, texturized the Baja Breeze Layer with the Sizzix Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, added some Scallop Punched accents, and I was done!  Oh, and the greeting: The "Happy Easter" greeting is from the Stamp Set, Teeny Tiny Wishes. 

     The best part of making this card came while I was out on my lanai (porch) taking the photographs and my husband came out and said, "Wow, what a great card!" 

     So I'm having a happy day!  I hope you're able to get some crafting done and that someone close to you compliments your work, too!  And don't forget that you've got limited time to buy all these beautiful products from the 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog.  If you'd like me to help you out with some ideas, just give me a call (808.965.1391) or send me an e-mail!

     And here's the sketch for today's card.  For the Designer Series Paper layer, I just used a 5-1/4" wide x 2-1/2" h piece of Designer Series Paper and overlaid two 3/4" strips of card stock punched with the Scallop Edge Punch.  I offset the whole set of decorative layers up a bit to leave room for the greeting at the bottom.

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