RobinsCraftRoom.com

The Occasion is Valentine’s Day!

Aloha, all!

     And welcome to the SUDSOL Blog Tour!  SUDSOL is an online group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators to which I belong and it's one of the best groups for Stampin' Up! demonstrators on the web right now.  I don't have an active upline for my demonstratorship, and SUDSOL has become my 24/7 upline (one of their tag lines, and it's well deserved!)

     Today's Blog Tour features many, many members of SUDSOL, all of whom are showing off projects that we've made with products from Stampin' Up!'s 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog, which runs through April 30th of this year, or the Sale-A-Bration catalog, which runs through the end of March.  I really wish I could show off ALL of the products in these catalog because they're some of the best ever minis!  But instead, I'm going to focus on one of the "occasions" featured in the Occasions mini, and that's Valentine's Day.  In particular, I'm going to show off the Specialty Designer Series Paper set, Love Impressions, along with a few other items from the mini.

     Two of the projects I'm featuring today are mini photo albums, that can also be decorated and sent out in standard A2 size envelopes as Valentine Cards for someone special.  The patterns for both of these albums are available on the SUDSOL website, which is available only for SUDSOL members (or those who choose to sign up for a Two-Week FREE trial membership!). The third project is unabashedly a greeting card, and I had a lot of fun figuring out the design for it.

     Fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Ann Clemmer, demonstrated the first project as a presenter at a Stampin' Up! regional seminar.  It is a mini book that is so easy and so economical to make!  The inside of the book uses just one piece of card stock or designer paper, and you can decorate it with scraps from other projects – just as I did! 

I decorated the front of this little book with one of the designs from the Love Impressions Designer Paper Set, and layered on a stamped definition of Valentine that's found in the brand new stamp set, Valentine Defined (who would have figured that?!)  To give the front just a bit of pizzazz, I added Whisper White Brads, that are part of the Neutrals Brad set in the annual Stampin' Up! catalog.  The cover of the book is a piece of Textured Real Red Card Stock that was a scrap from an earlier project.  I NEVER throw any kind of leftovers away!  The book is tied closed with a piece of Real Red 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon.  I like how the white edge of this ribbon "ties" in with the rest of the decor.

     Inside there are enough pages to hold 6 photos and 6 pages of journaling – journaling is SO important in any kind of a memory book, no matter how small!

     The second project I'm sharing with you is also a photo album or greeting card, but it's a bit more labor intensive.  Nonetheless, it calls for only one piece of 12" square card stock and one piece of 12" square Designer Series Paper (guess which Designer Series Paper I used!)

Now I know it doesn't look much different on the front from the first album, except for the decorations.  But it's just slightly larger (this is a 4" square album, and the mini book is a 3" square album).  What's really different is what's inside.

But let's just take a quick look at the front before we look inside.  The heart in the center of the front is punched with Stampin' Up!'s Full Heart Punch, using the brand new Red Glimmer Paper from the Occasions Mini.  I matted it with a piece of Whisper White card stock cut with the Stampin' Up! exclusive Sizzix Embosslit, Scalloped Heart of Hearts.  What's really fun about this album front is the full border using the Scallop Trim Border and Scallop Trim Corner punches.  To find the right measurement to make the corner and border punches work perfectly together, I just headed for the SUDSOL files and there it was!  Oh, and that paper with the embossed hearts?  It's one of the "Specialty" papers in the designer series paper set!  Just gorgeous paper!  And everything's tied together with some Whisper White 5/8" Satin Ribbon.

     OK, now let's look at the inside of this album.

     Look at all those folds!  And you wouldn't believe how simple it is to make.  I know because I wrote my own version of the instructions for this album and then followed them and it took no time to get the basic album put together.  Now figuring out just the right paper for each page, and the right stamps for my journaling blocks – I did pray over that a bit.  But it was fun (I try not to do things that aren't fun!).  The stamps are also from the Valentine Defined Stamp Set, so you can see I've been making good use of that set!  And about that set of instructions – here it is! 

     And finally here's a greeting card using the other one of the "Specialty" sheets from the Love Impressions Specialty Designer Series Paper set.  The letters of the alphabet cover this sheet of paper, with the letters L, O, V, and E, highlighted in Whisper White on one side.  Unfortunately, you can't just cut that section out and put it on a 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" greeting card (portrait OR landscape).  But I really did want to use them on a card.  So I cut them out individually!  Here I punched them with the Small Tag Punch, matted them with some Pretty in Pink Card Stock, some of it punched with the Pinking Hearts Border Punch.  I "tied" the tags on with some Pretty in Pink 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon onto the other paper from the Love Impressions set, and tied the whole card front together with Pretty in Pink 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon.  The final touch was the "U" cut out of the designer paper.

     These were all SOOO much fun to make.  And I still have a big stack of paper left over from the Designer Series Paper Set!  More fun for February! If you don't have some of this fun paper, you can just order it online right now – and then go have some fun with it yourself!

     You can find these projects and many, many, many more in my very own gallery on the SUDSOL Website!  Just click here for a two-week FREE TRIAL!

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Countdown to Christmas! Day 12 – A Quick Christmas Album!

Aloha, all!

     While I promised that I would post every day between December 1st and Christmas Day, I am about to be the recipient of a surprise gift from my dear husband, who is whisking me off to the island of Kaua'i tomorrow.  I've known about this for over a week, but I really thought (in this busy season, no less!) that I'd have time to make projects and post them while I was gone.  Hah!  I can hear my dear late mother saying that as I say, "I've got another think coming!"

     So I will be absent from my craft room and my computer desk until Thursday.  I'm even probably going to miss the Diva Coffee Break Challenge this week, but I'm still not certain about that.  Depends on how quickly I can pack this evening.

     For today, though, I thought I'd share a new take on an old pattern, which some call an "explosion" album.  I'm not sure what's exploding, but it sounds fun!  I'd thought of it as an Accordion Album for a long time.  So now I've decided to call it an Accordion Explosion Album, and I've had the tutorial here on my blog for quite some time.  I even updated it a bit last spring. 

     For this week, I've used my quickly dwindling supply of the Candy Cane Lane Designer Paper set to make an album that will be cute to hold Christmas photos of my grandchildren (assuming I can pry them out of my children's cameras!)  There is space for six photos on this album, 4 on the inside folds and 2 on the outside.  With five grandchildren, I may even be able to squeeze in a photo of our pets if I can get them both in the same place at the same time (not that pets are the equivalent of grandchildren; but they do make cute pictures).

     I made the little bird on the cover with the Two-Step Bird Punch, even using the wing part of the punch to make the little santa hat that makes him look like the other little birdies printed on the paper.  The papers that I placed on the inside squares of the album (and the outside, but you can't see the back of the album) are the reverse of the same paper that I used on the cover.

     I really do like making a cover for these little albums, more than just folding the album and using it without a separate cover.  The light cardboard with which Designer Papers come packaged are great for this purpose – just cover them with some matching or coordinating paper, and you've got a project that seems a lot more elegant than the plain album.

     If you'd like to try one of these yourself, the one-page tutorial is right here!  Lots of fun to make and even to give as gifts!

     I hope you're going to have as much fun this week as I plan to have on our little mini-vacation!  I won't be doing much crafting, but I'll make up for it when I get back!  Have a great week!

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Countdown to Christmas! Day 11 – Give a Gift That Only You Can Give!

Aloha, all!

     Every Christmas season I read stories about children who make their own special Christmas gifts, among which are their own personal gift certificates that promise something special – like a night of babysitting, or taking a brother or sister's turn for doing the dishes.  Great gifts and the cost in terms of money is so small.

     Well, why not make gift certificates for something that YOU could do for someone special in your life!  With Stampin' Up! paper crafting products, you can make lovely gift certificates. 

     This gift coupon book is one of the projects that I demonstrated as part of last month's Royal Blog Tour.  As with all the projects in that blog post, it featured the stamp set, Punch Pals.  All of the stamps shown are from that set.  The paper that I used for this project is from the Designer Paper Set, Jolly Holiday.  Now, before I get into more information about the coupon book, I have to give you my insight to this Designer Paper Set.  It has 12 designs, all of which use various combinations of the colors Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive and Very Vanilla.  There are stripes and circles of various kinds, as well as some polka dot designs.  There is not a tree or ornament or Christmas design of any kind in this paper set.  So, if you're thinking that you might need some more paper for your Christmas projects, but aren't sure you could use a whole pack, THIS is the set to get – because you can use it for lots of projects AFTER Christmas.  Christmas does not have a lock on red and green color combinations!

     OK, so back to the project.  The frame and lines on the coupons themselves are not stamped.  I designed these using  Stampin' Up!'s graphic software program, My Digital Studio, AND I printed them on my own home printer.  I have two HP printers on my desk, and Very Vanilla Card Stock runs through those printers just fine.

     After I printed the coupons, I stamped some designs on them and punched the outside corners with the Ticket Corner Punch.  Then, before I adhered the coupons inside the coupon book cover, I used the Perforating Tool in the Stampin' Up! Cutter Kit to perforate them just to the left of the printed frame.

     Of course I have more detailed information for you about how to make this project!  It's right here in a one-page tutorial, that includes instructions on how to created the coupon design in My Digital Studio. 

     I hope you're having a great weekend as we get closer and closer to Christmas!  I had a fun day in the Craft Room on Saturday with a Christmas Card Stamp A Stack class and a few wonderful friends.  I hope whatever you're doing this weekend – and this week – that you'll have fun with it!

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Countdown to Christmas! Day 8 – A New Take on an Old Fold

Aloha, all!

     OK, for at least a day or two, I'm back on track to my once a day blog posting!  And for today, I have a brand new tutorial to share with you.  This one is a set of instructions for one of the projects that I showed off on last month's Royal Blog Tour – it's a Slimmed Down Diagonal Double Pocket Card.

     You'll recall that all of the projects from the Royal Blog Tour featured the stamp set, Punch Pals.  (As an aside, I've never been able to figure out why "Punch," when fewer than half the stamps in this set really work well with Stampin' Up!'s punches – but I digress!).  This project uses two of the stamps on two fun bookmarks to insert in the folds of the card, as well as part of one of the stamps for the greeting on the front of the card.

     What's really fun about this card is that it uses a 6" x 12" piece of Stampin' Up!'s Designer Paper so you can get two cards out of one piece of Designer Paper.  Not only that, the card can be folded AND layered on some coordinating card stock AND still fit in an envelope (Stampin' Up!'s Small Open End Envelope) that can be sent through the U. S. mail with no extra postage.  Nice bonus!

     For this card, I used a sheet from the Jolly Holiday set of Designer Papers – see how nicely the two sides of the same sheet complement each other so well?!   This card is mounted on two layers of card stock, one Old Olive and the other Cherry Cobbler, both of which coordinate with the colors in the Jolly Holiday set, as do the Old Olive 1/4" Grosgrain and 5/8" Satin Ribbons and the Cherry Cobbler 1/2" Seam Binding.  I used the Scallop Trim Border Punch on the Old Olive Layer to add just a bit of elegance to this cheerful little card.

     I know you're going to want to make quite a few cards with this fun fold, so here's the tutorial!  I hope you have fun with it!

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Countdown to Christmas! Day 6-1/2? OK – Blog Candy!

Aloha, all!

     Monday was just one of those days in Robin's Craft Room.  For one thing, it looks like a tornado hit it after the weekend craft fair that I did with my downline and a neighbor.  I know, we don't have tornados here on the island of Hawaii – technically.  In actuality, my room would witness otherwise.

     And now for my December announcement and some blog candy!  This is something that you're not going to get anywhere else at all – it's my 2010 compilation of greeting card layouts and tutorials from right here – from Robin's Craft Room!

     If you've been following my blog this year, you know that I've included in many of my blog posts the layout measurements for many of the cards that I've displayed.  Now you don't have to spend your time going back over a year's worth of blogs looking for the measurements for a particular layout – they're all in here.  And it's so easy to scroll through a .pdf file or a printed copy to find just the right layout for the card you want to make.  I've been doing it lately myself, and I've been so excited to be able to get right into making a card without figuring out a set of measurements that makes a card look, well, just right!  In fact, every card that I post this month will be made using one of these layouts – what a time saver!

     Also included in this book of over 100 pages are copies of all the tutorials currently online at Robin's Craft Room.  So no more searching through the layers of links to find that page you're looking for!  Finally, I've added in some basic instructions in how to cut papers to make the base for many different card sizes and orientations, as well as some "basic math for greeting card designs."  Disclaimer:  It's all in inches.  You who use the metric system don't have to fuss with all this 1/4" and 1/8" inch fraction stuff.  Lucky you!!  Oh, and there's a Table of Contents, too!

     Now you might want to know how you can get a copy of this book.  After the first of the year, it will be for sale and anyone can purchase it.  But for now, you can get a FREE copy in several different ways.  First of all, you can leave a comment on my blog about why you'd like to have this book.  Two of you who do this will receive a copy of the book on Christmas Day – think of your e-mail as your eStocking for Christmas Day!

     The others who will (and some have already!) receive FREE copies are those in my downline and my customers who purchase $100 or in Stampin' Up! products through my online store or through me personally in any given month.  There is no deadline on these freebies!

     So bring on the comments!  It really is a fantastic resource of a book!

     The technical stuff:  This is a 3+ MB .pdf file.  I will actually contact winners to see if her (his?) internet connection can handle a file of this size.  If not, I will send a CD by mail.  I'm not going to dump a 3 meg file in your mail box – especially not on Christmas Day! 

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Countdown to Christmas! Day 5: Sending Money? Quick Card!

Aloha, all!

     As my children and niece and nephews have grown up, I've been sending fewer and fewer gifts and more and more checks and cash for special occasions – like Christmas, of course!  And now I have grandchildren, all of whom live far away, and whose interests change quite a bit more often than I see them.  So money works for them now, too!

     But as I slip a check or some money inside one of my handmade cards, it seems as if I should be more creative than just folding a piece of paper up and putting it in a card.   I looked around and found some money holder cards that people have made.  But all of them either require folding the money anyway or are too large to fit in one of Stampin' Up!'s envelopes.  So I finally decided last week to make my own special money card.  It was a bit on the tricky side, but it's worked wonderfully. 

     The tricky part is one that I solved, so you won't have to struggle with it.  To keep this card short enough lengthwise to fit in a Stampin' Up! envelope, I had to use just a sliver of adhesive on either side of the slit where the bill/check fits in.  For the card shown, I cut a piece of Sticky Strip in half lengthwise. 

     The important thing is that this card, including its "belly band" closer, fits just perfectly inside one of Stampin' Up!'s Small Open End envelopes.  And that envelope meets the length and width requirements for mailing in the United States.  Important if you live in the U. S.!

     Of course I've written a one-page tutorial for this gem of a gift card and it's on my blog as of today!   I quickly whipped out a half dozen of these for a craft fair I did today, and they looked lovely on the display table.  The ones I have left will look even more lovely when someone in my family opens them on Christmas Day!

     I hope you enjoy making these as much as I do.  Whatever you end up doing this weekend, I hope you have a lot of fun with it!

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Countdown to Christmas! Day 4: A Stocking Stuffer

Aloha, all!

     Back around Halloween, a lot of my fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrators and I had a fun time making boxes to hold the purse-sized bottles of Bath and Body Works' seasonal hand sanitizers.  Well, I just could not wait until I could get my hands on some Christmas versions.   And I did – I ordered up 50 of the bottles, not having a clue about what I was going to do with them. 

     Then came the opportunity to participate in a local craft fair (which is today, by the way!).  But with 50 of them, I didn't want to make as large a box as I'd made for the very few Halloween bottles I'd bought.  So I fussed a bit with the original pattern that I shared in my Halloween tutorial and came up with the smaller version I needed.  The tutorial is right here for you to enjoy!

     I used stamps from the oh-so-much-fun Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set in the Stampin' Up! 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog.  Stampin' Up! has said that this stamp set is going to be around for awhile, and I can hardly wait to see what they do with stamps for other holidays!  But for now, I'm really enjoying using this set THIS holiday season.  And you'll be seeing some more of it over the next few days as I share more of what we did with the Craft Fair!  I also used the last of my dwindling supply of the Candy Cane Lane Designer Papers.  Boo – Stampin' Up! has run out of it!!  But I have enough for my Stampin-A-Stack session next weekend in Robin's Craft Room.  There's still room for 1 more person in the class (well, I might be able to squeeze one more in after that). So, if you're on the East Side of Hawaii's Big Island, and you'd like to come, just give me a call (808.854.6145) or send an e-mail and I'll sign you up!

     Whatever you're doing this weekend, have a LOT of fun with it!

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Countdown to Christmas! Day 3: A Promised Tutorial

Aloha, all!

     Early last month, I was featured in a blog tour sponsored by my Stampin' Up! Demonstrators group, SUDSOL (Simply Unique Demonstrators Sharing On.Line).  The project on my blog for the tour was a Greeting Card with an Attached Bookmark.  Just to remind you, here's one picture of the card I displayed on that tour.

      The flap at the right is a second fold in this card, and the fold has been perforated with the perforation tool in the Stampin' Up! Cutter Kit.  Once Christmas is over and cards are (at the best) put away for reminiscing later or (at worst) just tossed, part of it can remain around as a useful, hopefully, treasured bookmark!

     Since I really do like to share something new with each of my blog posts, I've made another card using the same template as the one above. 

     Here is what the card looks like, all folded up, from the front.  Notice how the knot in the Always Artichoke Seam Binding Ribbon almost looks like it's a continuation of the ribbon on the front of the card.  But it's not as you'll see in the next photo.

     It's the ribbon at the top of the bookmark!  All it takes is some careful positioning to get the ribbon in the bookmark lined up with the ribbon on the card front.  And instructions about how to do that are right here in a one-page tutorial for constructing the card.   I just know you are going to love having this new kind of folded card to give to a special person – and not just at Christmas!  Imagine a Birthday Bookmark that your friend can keep around all year! 

     I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the papers and stamp set that I used for this card.  The paper is from the Stampin' Up! 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog, and is called Deck the Halls.  The word, "Noel," is on one sheet, along with the holly beside it.  I just cut the paper to fit, but didn't cut through the holly, but cut around it.  I used the Stampin' Up! Fiskars Cutter and stopped the blade just before the holly and then started it up again just past the holly.  I think the result looks pretty cool!

    The stamp set is one that I've used a lot this year – Punch Pals.  It's so versatile.  It can make a cute card or one that's very elegant.  I'm really hoping it will be around for at least another year!

     I hope you have fun with this tutorial – or with whatever you're working on this Christmas season!

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An Addition to My Note Pad Covers

Aloha, all!

     Fellow Stampin' Up! Demonstrator, Melissa Stout, has a great new take on making covers for Note Pads (or Jr. Legal Pads as they are sometimes called).  I've been making covers for these note pads for years, and have shared some of them with you along the way.  The basic tutorial is here on my blog.

     What Melissa has added is a place to store a pen – what a great idea!  But one problem I've had with her pattern is that I end up with a 1/2" deep cover for a note pad that's only 1/4" deep.  Believe me I used up a LOT of retired card stock trying to modify her pattern so that it was only 1/4" deep.  But the pens that I'm using (and they're my favorite for this kind of project – more later) just wouldn't fit.  So I've taken a different approach to getting a pen attached – just add some ribbon loops to the open side of the note pad cover that I usually make!

     "Aha," you might well add!  "Where's the Christmas paper – we thought you were in Christmas mode these days!"  Well, indeed I am.  But I'm also greedily saving my Christmas papers and embellishments for projects that I KNOW will turn out all right.  I still wasn't sure about this one, so I went for papers that I wouldn't need for awhile – like Spring stuff!  And I absolutely copied the layout on one of Melissa's note pad covers – she's so talented! 

     Here's a picture that shows the ribbon loops more clearly.  I cut about 4-1/2" of ribbon, folded it in half, then let the loop end extend from the back of the note pad cover just shy of 3/4".  I adhered the ribbon with Sticky Strip inside the back cover BEFORE I attached the note pad itself.  This pen is an 'RSVP" pen by Pentel, from which you can remove the end and insert paper that matches the rest of your project!  Is that cool or what?  One adjustment that I may make in future versions of this is to make the bottom loop just a bit smaller.

     Oh, and the Spring colors that I used are Pear Pizzazz, Peach Parfait, Daffodil Delight, and Poppy Parade.  All of these colors are featured in the Designer Series Paper Set, Cottage Garden.  The flowers are stamped with two images from the Stamp Set, Sunny Garden.  Doesn't that all just shout, "Spring!!!"?  For sure.

     I'll be making an adjustment to the note pad cover tutorial when I return from some well-deserved vacation time!

     Meanwhile, have fun stamping!

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A Bow for the Folded Star Ornaments

Aloha, all!

     I've had a couple of questions about how I made the bows that topped off my Folded Star Ornaments.  Here's just a reminder of how one of the ornaments looked when I posted it, along with a close up of the bow on the top.

     This is a bow I learned to make back when these ornaments were the crafting rage 20 or so years ago.  It's perfect for finishing off with a straight pin down into the center of the Styrofoam ball!

     To answer the questions, I've written up a quick tutorial for you to use as you make your own bows.

     Have fun with it!

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