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Razzleberry Smooch
Aloha, all!
If you recall the boxes that we made in my class about which I posted this past Sunday, one of my ladies really wanted to focus on the Rich Razzleberry color that's in the Summer Smooches Product Suite. So I made up a sample with Rich Razzleberry Card Stock AND I was sure when I punched the squares for this layout that each of them had at least one floral motif in the Razzleberry color. Making that kind of effort can really make a difference in the overall look of a card.
While I could have done a bit more with layering this card, I really did want to try to keep it simple so that we'd have plenty of time to make at least four cards to go with the box and not end up with an all-day class! But to add just a bit of interest to the card, I added some complementary Tempting Turquoise Brads along the bottom left edge of the card. And didn't they pick up the Turquoise elements in the paper well?!
As with the card that I posted on Monday, one thing that makes constructing this card so simple is that all of the squares are either Designer Series Paper or card stock. And those squares are all PUNCHED!! The top layers made with the Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper are punched with the 1-1/4" Square Punch, and the Rich Razzleberry mats are all punched with the 1-3/8" Square Punch. Having all three of the squares lined up and going in the same direction is a very effective design, too, and I'm going to show you a layout with this design in one of my posts early next month.
Speaking of next month, "retiring" is going to be this blog's theme for most of the month, actually starting this weekend (which is still April)! Yesterday, Stampin' Up! released the list of Accessories that are going to retire. With that list, as well as with the list of retiring Stamp Sets that was released last week, I'm going to have a TON of stuff to show off before it goes away, and not nearly enough time to do it! But I do want you to see some samples of my favorite retiring stamp sets and accessories just in case you don't have them. I'm really hoping that you'll like the samples that I post well enough to want to purchase the retiring products before they go away for good!
There's a link posted up at the top right of my blog home page that will take you to the list of Retired Accessories.
With all that's going on, I still had time to record the sketch that I used for this card, and here it is. As with the first two cards and sketches, there are so many products that you can use – and you can use that Teeny Tiny Wishes Stamp Set (not retiring) to make a card that's perfect for any occasion whatsoever! I hope you take the time to enjoy making a card or other paper-crafted project for someone special today. It always makes me feel good, and I'm sure it will have the same effect on you!
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Subscribe to the comments for this postSmooches Just For You!
Aloha, all!
Today I'm sharing the second card that my class made as part of last week's card box project.
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As with the first card, the main color is Island Indigo, and the Designer Series Paper is part of the Summer Smooches Suite of Products.
The floral stamps are from the Stamp Set, Bright Blossoms, also a part of the Summer Smooches Suite. And, yes, there are two stamps in this image. The first is the vase with the leaves and the second is the flower. I inked both stamps up with Stampin' Write Markers (Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, and Tangerine Tango) and aligned them using the Stamp-a-ma-jig, which is a great stamp aligner. The "just for you" stamp is from the very versatile – and definitely NOT retiring! – Teeny Tiny Wishes.
(Reminder: Next Monday is the LAST day for you to order the preview of the Summer Smooches paper and other products. After Monday, you won't l be able to order the products shown here until after the new Idea Book and Catalog is published on June 1st.)
The layout for this card is also another simple layout, and those squares are made with the 1" Square Punch. So there's no trying to make 1" cuts all around – very tedious and I never was very successful at it!
The layout with which I started was a layout provided as a challenge on my online Stampin' Up! Demonstrator group, SUDSOL. For their sketch challenge, they did not provide the exact measurements; sketch challenges rarely, if ever, do provide exact measurements. The idea of a challenge is to make a project using the sketch provided as a guide, not to make a project using exact measurements. The reason I provide measurements is to help you have at least a starting point if you'd like to try it out.
But when I start a project, I like to have an idea about where I'm going, so I pretty much decide on the measurements up front. I started with the idea of a 2" square for the stamped layer for this card. But once I got my image stamped, I decided that I wanted the stamped layer to be just a scosh higher than 2". So the true sketch for the above card is shown below. But don't forget that you can alter measurements and still have a fantastic-looking card! Another change you might want to make is to have that very small layer behind the squares be just a scosh (or a tad, whichever you prefer) larger.
I hope you have as much fun with this as I did! And don't hesitate to ask any questions about any of my designs. I do frequently receive e-mails about my cards, and enjoy responding to all of them! Or, even better, write a comment below. I get notified pretty quickly about comments and can respond to them here. Who knows, maybe someone else has the same comment!!
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Thank You With a Smooch
Aloha, all!
I hope you enjoyed this past weekend's blog hop! It was just the right size for me – I got through it and made comments in under half an hour. And I'm so inspired to get out my scrapbooking materials and get started on some long overdue projects!
But today I'd like to share one of the greeting cards that were made to go into yesterday's box, this one made with the Island Indigo color scheme which Lucy particularly liked for her box – and, of course, with the Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper.
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This is such a simple design to make as all but one of the layers is cut from Designer Series Paper or card stock! The flower on the stamped layer is from the Stamp Set, Bright Blossoms, which is also a part of the Summer Smooches suite of products – available for purchase this month, then not again until June 1st with the 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog. The "vase" for these flowers is a piece of the Island Indigo Card Stock, punched with the 3/4" Circle Punch, with a bit of the end cut off to make the flat side. Or you could also (as I did for this card) slip your punch over the edge of the paper you're punching, but not all the way so the edge of the paper doesn't get punched.
And the circular layers are all punched, too! We used the 1-1/4 Circle Punch for the Designer Series Paper circles and the 1-3/8" Circle Punch for the Island Indigo Card Stock mats. So simple – and a fun project to make! I've even done up a sketch for you to use if you'd like to duplicate this card. And there are so many Designer Series Paper sets and coordinating stamps throughout Stampin' Up!'s catalog that I'm sure you'll find something in your stash to make a gorgeous card! Or, even better, order some of the Summer Smooches products from me – just click here, and then on the Summer Smooches display under the word, "Promotions."
I've had several people ask me about a pattern for the box in yesterday's post. This is a pattern that I found in a library of the online group, SUDSOL. SUDSOL is a website for Stampin' Up! Demonstrators only, and we are all able to use patterns we demonstrators have posted to the site. That's what I did with yesterday's project and for the ladies in my class on Friday – I used a pattern posted by Sandi McIver. If you're a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, it's easy to gain access to all the patterns – just join SUDSOL! There is a subscription fee, but there is also a 2-week FREE TRIAL available to all demonstrators. If you'd like to try it out, just click on the SUDSOL Link Here! And, once you get into your free trial, let me know if you have any questions about the group. If I don't have the answers, I can get them pretty quickly from Coleen or Patti, the SUDSOL "moms."
Spring Colors – Summer Smooches!
Aloha, all!
I originally created this post for a Blog Hop that had Spring Colors for a theme. For my project for the hop, chose some products from the Stampin' Up! Summer Smooches suite of products. Products from this suite are available to Stampin' Up! customers this month (April), and then not again until the 2012-2013 Idea Book and Catalog is published on June 1st. The button brads are ONLY available this month and will NOT be in the new catalog. So if you like them as much as I do, now's the time to snatch them up!
Today's project is a box for a half dozen or so cards I plan to make with the Summer Smooches Designer Series Papers and the Bright Blossoms Stamps. The original designer of this particular box is a fellow demonstrator, Sandy McIver. She is one talented lady, and I've made this box – as well as some boxes where I've modified the design a bit – many times. I like that it neatly holds six greeting cards and six A2 envelopes quite nicely.
Doesn't that whirlwind of fanciful flowers remind you of all the flowers that bloom in the Spring? I know the name is "Summer" Smooches, but it all feels like Spring to me! There are many colors in this paper, and I chose to focus on Tangerine Tango for my box. But I have two other boxes to share with you – made by two ladies in my class just this Friday morning!
Lucy made the box on the left, with another of the patterns in the Summer Smooches Paper Set, focusing on the Island Indigo color; and Gala made the box on the right with yet a third design from the set, highlighting the Rich Razzleberry color. (Other colors in the set are Lucky Limeade, Real Red and Daffodil Delight.) All of us used Lucky Limeade card stock for the leaves. We used two punches for the floral decorations – the Blossoms Punch from the 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog for the flowers (there are two layered up), and the Blossom Petals Building Punch, featured in the 2011-2012 Idea Book and Catalog, for the leaves.
All three of us chose to use one of the Summer Smooches Fabric Designer Brads for the centers of our flowers, which had been stamped with the Mixed Bunch Stamp Set, also from the Occasions Mini Catalog. The brads are so much fun to use, especially with the stamps from Mixed Bunch, and I'm really sorry they're no longer available! Oh, and I do hope that the Mixed Bunch stamp set is one that is carried over to the next big catalog!
If you stop back here now and then next week, I'll be showing off some of the cards that I made to go in my box. At least two of the cards will feature some of the stamps from the Bright Blossoms Stamp Set, which is also a part of the Summer Smooches Suite. And I'm already working on an updated video for making this box using the Stampin' Up! Simply Scored, including the diagonal plate that's now available for it. I'll be sharing this with people on my newsletter mailing list, so be sure to Subscribe to my list if you'd like to see the video! I'm traveling beginning next week, but I'll certainly have the video ready before the end of May.
Spring Colors!
Aloha, all!
As many of you know, last Sunday Stampin' Up announced over 200 stamp sets that will retire when the current Idea Book and Catalog expires at the end of next month! The good news is that the stamp set that I'm using on today's card will NOT retire! Hooray for that, as this is one of my favorite sets to color with markers and blender pens! But the paper that I'm using today WILL retire, so I enjoyed using it and its colors to make a card with a Spring feeling to it!
Oh, and there's the little issue of a challenge! Yes, this card is one I made for a Late Night Stampers Yahoo Group's color challenge. For this one, we were to use Pink, Green, and Yellow. Now, no one defined what "Pink" meant, so I took some liberties with the use of a pale version of Tangerine Tango, which is not actually a pink – more of a coral. But if I showed this to any of the men in my life and asked them what color it was, I can guarantee that a majority would say, "Pink"! My "out" for this is that the Melon Mambo in the center of the flowers really is a "pink."
The yellow – Daffodil Delight – and the green – Wild Wasabi – are definitely what the colors are supposed to be!
The stamp set for today is called Fabulous Florets, and it really is a fabulous stamp set to use! For this card, I stamped the flower on the left, and then "masked" it before stamping the second flower. To make the mask, I stamped the flower image on the top of a Post-It note and then very carefully cut it out before attaching it to the top of the first flower. Then I stamped the second flower. Then I said to myself, "Self, you'll certainly be masking this flower again, so why not put the mask away in the stamp set's box." I did that – and laid it right on top of another such mask that I'd made who knows how long ago! I have got to use my stamp sets more often!
The paper that I used for the yellow layer as well as the floral layer is Beyond the Garden. Yes, it has the same images as the stamp set, and you might wonder why Stampin' Up! would retire it and not the stamp set. One thing that's happened in the past is that we get the same design in a new set of papers but with different colors. Wouldn't that be great. Oh, I can hardly wait to see that new catalog!!!
Oh, and the ribbon – I'm always tying cards up with a bow! It's Daffodil Delight 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon, and I've had it since last summer's Stampin' Up! Convention. You'd think after I spent two years bemoaning the fact that Stampin' Up! didn't have enough yellow ribbon that I'd be on my third or fourth spool of this ribbon. But no; it's still spool number 1.
This uses a simple sketch, but I think it's really effective with the multiple mats of the Wild Wasabi! So I thought I'd share it with you and hope you can use it for something that YOU make!
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Just Two More Weeks for the Occasions Mini!
Aloha, all!
It seems like just last week that we greeted the 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog! But that was back in January, and here we are nearing the end of April and also the end of the Occasions Mini. Sniff! And many of us are hoping that some of the stamp sets and embellishments in this mini catalog are carried over into the new 2012-2013 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog. It's hard to predict, though, as Stampin' Up! introduces its new type of Annual Catalog as well as a new type of Mini Catalog later this summer.
So the Design Team at the Stampin' Up! Only Challenges blog decided to give one last shout of Hurrah! for this Mini Catalog by sharing some of their favorites products that may only be available for two more weeks! In my case, while I've considered the stamp set, Apothecary Art, a "favorite," I'm almost ashamed to say that I've been admiring it from afar. Until yesterday morning, I'd not even broken the rubber out of its pack!
But now it's all mounted and ready to use! Oh, I hope it stays in the new catalog (wish, wish, wish!) But even if it doesn't, it will remain a favorite. And I used another favorite Occasions Mini Stamp Set – Loving Thoughts – for a greeting to set off the Apothecary Art stamp.
Along with these Occasions Mini Stamp sets, I broke out my last few sheets of the Twitterpated Designer Series Paper (the Baja Breeze and Blushing Bride sheets are truly a favorite), some of the Large Basic Pearl Jewels, and a strip of the Riding Hood Red 3/8" Pleated Satin Ribbon. Oh, and I can't forget the Labels Collection Framelits!!! Surely they will stay in the catalog (wish, wish, wish!)
There are a couple of techniques that I used in my design of today's card. After I'd stamped and colored in the flowers on the Apothecary Art stamp, and then cut it out with the 3rd smallest size of the Labels Collection Framelits, I colored in the white space between the stamp and the cut edge with a Baja Breeze Stampin' Write Marker. I thought that this helped coordinate the stamped layer with the Baja Breeze Designer Series Paper Sheet. While I stamped the flower image using Basic Gray Classic Ink, I wanted the edge of the stamp to be a bit darker than the rest. So I used the small end of my Basic Gray Stampin' Write Marker to trace the edge – but after I colored with the Baja Breeze marker. I had no idea if there would be any bleeding. There wasn't, but I didn't want to chance it.
The green color used in the stamped image is Pear Pizzazz. Blushing Bride and Pear Pizzazz are colors that will retire this year from the Idea Book and Catalog, leaving space for more colors to be added as 2012-2014 "In Colors." Can hardly wait to see what they are!
I hope that you'll find something that you really love from the Occasions Mini to use on a project this week! If you're anything like me, look around to see if there's something you bought "way back when" and haven't yet used! And if there's something you still need from the Occasions Mini, well you have another two weeks to buy it!
Elegant Papers!
Aloha, all!
Every year, there are quite a few things that I do about which I scratch my head as we near the end of a Stampin' Up! catalog period. One of them is to treat some of my Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers as if they were treasures, and not products to be used and enjoyed by others. Every year! And this one has been no exception, although there's only one set that was pristinely unopened – up until this week. The set is Mocha Morning Specialty Paper. It's a "specialty" paper because two of its designs are flocked. Flocked! I couldn't believe when I opened the package how much I wanted just to run my fingers over the flocking again and again. Where has this been all year?!
So for sure I wanted to use this for a large project so the flocking would not be missed. Aha! I was responsible for our Family and Community Education (FCE) club's door prize for this month's meeting, and a composition book cover would be just the thing. I knew this because several of the club's members had bought my covered books at last year's fund-raiser fair and really liked them.
I covered the front and back covers with the lighter of the flocked papers, and then covered the spine with the black flocked paper. To enhance the elegant look of the papers, I punched the long edges of the spine cover with the Scallop Edge Punch. The finish touches are a piece of Basic Black 5/8" Satin Ribbon wrapped around the front cover and tied into a bow, and then an RSVP Pen which I "filled" with a piece of the lighter paper. Just gorgeous, if I do say so myself!
This is a really great project for craft fairs. In fact, I went to a craft fair today and there was one vendor who had the composition books covered with very cheap paper and she was selling them for $5 each. That's how I priced mine at our fund-raiser fair last year and people snatched them up! This one would sell for much more than that, I'm sure, especially as I covered the inside of the covers with coordinating (but not flocked!) Designer Series Papers.
A hint for those who might be considering something like this for next holiday season's craft fairs: Buy the composition books when they're dirt cheap at Back-to-School Sales in August and September!! I have a whole shelf of them for THIS year's fund-raiser next month. Fifty cents a piece, and I'll bet they're cheaper on the U. S. mainland!
It's a beautiful weekend here and I've enjoyed the craft fairs that are here for the Merrie Monarch Hula Festival. I hope you're able to do something that you really enjoy and have fun with this weekend, too!
Monochrome for a Sketch Challenge
Aloha, all!
Today I did some work with a sketch challenge from the online group, Stampin' Up! Late Night Stampers. Lots of history with that group's name, but suffice it to say that the group is made up of stampers who love Stampin' Up! products. It's not just for demonstrators, either. So, if you'd love to get some ideas – and share your own! – about using Stampin' Up! products, it's a pretty fun group to which to belong!
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I should show you the sketch first, so you'll know from where I started. And this is where I stopped, too! I am so not into blue and orange these days, so I had to get out some color quickly to erase this from my mind!
The color I chose was Melon Mambo. And the reason was that I had my Melon Mambo ribbon out because I had considered using it with my last project (cute dragon!). So I grabbed my Melon Mambo ink and started stamping teacups.
And boy did I get carried away with the Melon Mambo! As you can see, it's everywhere in this card. It started with the teacups from the stamp set, Tea Shoppe (in the current mini catalog, Occasions Mini), proceeded into the rectangular background and just kept going! And, yes, I finally did get to that ribbon – the Melon Mambo 1/2 Inch Scallop Dots Ribbon. In between I punched some vertical scallops with the Scallop Edge Border Punch and also used that punch to form the ends of the little strip on which I stamped today's sentiment (also from the Tea Shoppe stamp set). The Designer Series Paper that I used for this project came from the Hostess Designer Series Paper Set, Cheerful Treat. And I think that this card is, indeed, cheerful!
For the most part, I really like to use more than one color in a project. But I think that I might like doing some more projects with just one color. Hmmm.
But definitely NOT blue or orange!
As always, I had fun with this project, and I hope you're having fun with whatever you're doing today! And check out the Stampin' Up! Late Night Stampers Yahoo Group! It's free – and fun!
A Fun CASE for a Baby Card!
Aloha, all!
I had a blast yesterday with the project I'm showing off today. I'm a member of a Toastmasters club where one of our members is expecting a baby soon, and she made the point that this baby is going to be born in the Year of the Dragon, "the mightiest of the signs in the Chinese Zodiac!"
Well, a baby is hardly a "mighty" being, babies being more on the "cute" side. Nonetheless, the members of the club asked that I make a card for a party that they had today that somehow featured a dragon to go with the club's gift. Not being the punch-art creative type, I went off looking for a dragon to CASE. It didn't take long to find a video by Tami White and the cutest dragon you EVER saw! I knew immediately that this would be my inspiration, and all I had to do was figure out my colors and how to deal with a few punches that had retired since the video was made over a year ago.
When I was making the card, I had no idea (still don't have) whether the baby is a girl or a boy. I thought a combination of Pink and Blue would work just fine and started punching. You'll find the complete instructions on Tami's video, but I'll include some supplemental information about changes that I made.
The first change that I had to make was to use the Sizzix Stars #2 die (sold by Stampin' Up!) instead of the Star Punch (now retired) for the "horns" and back scales. Tami had used the smallest oval die (retired) for the teeth or fangs, and I substituted the smallest image from the Boho Blossoms Punch. Otherwise, I used her instructions. OK, so mine's not put together quite as perfectly as hers; but he's still "stinkin' cute."
The colors for this cute guy are Marina Mist and Regal Rose, along with some Basic Black accents. My card is also an unusual size – we needed plenty of room for lots of people to sign their best wishes, so I made a card that's 5-1/2" wide by 8-1/2" high. For the sentiment, I used a stamp from the stamp set, Curly Cute. Aha, there's that word – "cute"! I knew I'd find that in the Stampin' Up! product line somewhere!! I also used the last of my stash of Marina Mist Brads from the Subtles collection of brads.
And as I love to do, I tied everything together with some fab Stampin' Up! ribbon, this time the Marina Mist 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon.
I can't imagine that you could have as much fun with what you're doing as I did making this little guy. But be sure to try to have lots of fun anyway with whatever you're doing!
The Eighth Stamp!
Aloha, all!
Over the weekend, I mentioned that there was one of the eight stamps in the Stampin' Up! Stamp Set, Everybunny, that wasn't necessarily related to Easter. And here it is!
Are those little mushrooms cute or what? While I'm hoping that the Everybunny set will stick around in the new Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog (so I can use it NEXT Easter, too!), I'm going to try to make the most of it while I can – just in case….
For this card, I used the same set of Designer Series Papers – Just Add Cake – that I used for my personal Easter 2012 Stamp-a-Stack. I really like the colors in that set, and it's one of the zillion products that will likely be retiring with the 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog. The colors in this set include one of the 2010-2012 In Colors that will definitely be retiring, and I have absolutely no reason to believe that this set of papers won't retire, either. In fact, most of the Designer Series Paper sets do retire each year. There's one or two that have carried over from one year to the next, but that's all I can recall.
Oh, and the colors – I used Wild Wasabi (the card base and some ink), So Saffron, Peach Parfait (retiring this year), and Baja Breeze. And the stamp set – one of my all-time favorite stamp sets is Sincere Salutations, and most people are guessing that this is its last year on the Stampin' Up! stock shelves. It may also be one of the (very few) stamp sets that I keep around after they retire.
Of course now that I'm more at leisure to get things done, I've gone back to tying my card up with a ribbon! I love Stampin' Up!'s coordinating embellishments, and this So Saffron Taffeta Ribbon is just perfect for this card.
AND I have a sketch! Lots of 1-3/4" measurements in this one! I hope you enjoy it and have fun doing some paper crafting this week. I'm going to be relaxing for the week because Stampin' Up! will be shaking things up come April 15th. It may not be tax day this year, but it's the day that Stampin' Up! announces the stamp sets that are going to be retiring. Your last chance for some of those stamp sets you've been thinking about buying but haven't!
Have a great week!
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