RobinsCraftRoom.com

It’s April Already!!

Aloha, all!

Oh, my!  I can't believe that March slipped away from me as fast as it did!  I also can't believe that this week has flown by so quickly.  Our son and his family are here for Spring Break, and we have been going a mile a minute.  Today I was supposed to have some time for some scrapbooking with the boys (ages 7 and 9), but it looks like there will be outings again today.  Then they leave (sniff!).

But just before they arrived here, I had a chance to play around in the craft room.  I was supposed to be cleaning up – and actually I was!  Part of that was putting my stash of Designer Series Paper away.  I had four or five DSP packs out, and I couldn't find anything until I got all that 12" x 12" paper put away.  While I was in the process of collecting and organizing, I also had to make a design for a "Chat and Challenge" I was hosting for one of my demo groups (SUDSOL.org).  The light bulb went off and I started snipping strips of DSP to put into a quick design.  This first card is made with strips of papers from the Designer Series Paper Set, Cottage Wall.  I added a double bow of Whisper White and Old Olive 5/8" Satin Ribbon and "tied" it all up with a greeting from the very versatile stamp set, Teeny Tiny Wishes.

The next card I made with Razzleberry Lemonade Designer Series Paper.  I also punched a Scallop Circle and some smaller circles out of the paper to make the faux flower in the upper left corner.  I scrunched the paper up into tiny balls, reflattened them out, layered them up and put them together with a Rhinestone Brad in the center.  For this card, I moved the strips off to the left side a bit and added some more rhinestone brads (I had to put the brads away, too, so why not use them in the process!?

Here's a sketch you can use to make a card out of Designer Series Papers that you might have lying around!  I cut the strips in the following widths, from left to right:  3/4" – 3/4" – 1" – 3/4" – 1/2" – 1/2" – 3/4".  I like the variety of widths scatter among all of them for the visual interest.  The Cottage Wall card uses these measurements.  I varied it a bit for the Razzleberry Lemonade card.  Once you have your strips cut and arranged as you want them, use a small bit of transparent tape to anchor them together.  Then measure your final arrangement and make a layer 1/8" to 1/2" larger in both height and width to mat it.  The Cottage Wall card has a 1/2" larger mat, and the Razzleberry Lemonade has a 1/4" mat.

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Flowers and Butterflies and Cake, Oh My!

Aloha, all!

Next week is granddaughter, Kiara's, birthday.  Now she's just a little girl, and I usually try to make "cute" cards for the young kids.  But today, with the beautiful Hawaii sunshine and the garden just loving the recent rains, my inspiration ran more into flowers and butterflies than to bears and monkeys.

So flowers and butterflies it is!  The flowers are those beautiful orchid and white flowers on the sheet of  Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper.  The printed paper with the small dots is also from the Cottage Wall pack of paper.  I love every single piece of paper in this set!  The butterflies are all punched with the Stampin' Up! Exclusive Sizzix Embosslit, Beautiful Wings.  There are 5 butterflies in this one little die, and they are gorgeous.  There's a front and a back to each punched and embossed design and I think that both sides of each butterfly are equally lovely.  So basically you get 10 designs from this one die!  Great deal for sure. (QUICK NOTE!  The picture of the die in the Occasions Mini Catalog shows only 4 butterflies.  But the actual die that you'll get will have 5 butterflies.)

The cake with the "Happy Birthday" greeting looks just like a single stamp, doesn't it?  But it's not!  It's two separate stamps, but I stamped them both at one time.  Both are part of a set of stamps that don't get mounted on wood, but cling to clear acrylic blocks.  This is a great new Stampin' Up! stamp set design feature that combines the fabulous rubber stamp with the see-through features of a clear acrylic block.  Both of these stamps are from the set, Happy Moments that is part of this year's Sale-A-Bration offering of FREE STAMP SETS!!   Of course, you can still purchase any stamp set from Stampin' Up! mounted on wood blocks, too.  Lots of stampers really like that kind of stamp, and Stampin' Up! will keep all of you happy, too!  I, however, am so ready to get rid of all that wood that's taking up so much space in my craft room!  Bring on the clear mounts!!!!

The colors in this design are Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Orchid Opulence and Whisper White.  Great combination!

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Lots of Layers – and Happy Birthday, Deb!

Aloha, all!

Friday was my Sister-in-Law, Deb’s, birthday.  She and I are both "of a certain age" and no need to talk about what certain means!  Of course, as she is my Stampin’ Up! downline, I sent her lots of Stampin’ Up! goodies, one of which was this birthday card. 

I made the card to play in a challenge last month, but didn’t want to show it off until Deb had it in her hot little hands.  One part of the challenge was to have lots of layers.  I can’t remember how MANY layers, but I can tell you that this card has a ton of them – 10 to be exact.  I really enjoy cutting lots of layers for a card, as long as I only have to make one or two of the same card.  I just love how a teensy layer, just showing off 1/16" of color all the way around the layer above it, can really make a design look so very finished.

And all of the layers in this card are 1/16" different from the layer above.  To make that 1/16" difference, you just cut the next layer 1/8" narrower and shorter than the previous layer.  Here is the sketch I made to follow when I’m making this card.  I really like the layout, and you can use it to show off coordinating Designer Series Papers so nicely.

 The papers for this card are from the Designer Series Paper Set, Cottage Wall, with some 5/8" Old Olive Satin Ribbon and a Whisper White Jumbo Grommet to set it all off.  The stamps are from the Sale-A-Bration set, Happy Moments, a set YOU CAN GET FOR FREE with a $50 Stampin’ Up! purchase through the end of March.

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Happy Birthday, Jadon!

Aloha, Jadon!  And a very happy birthday–the first I’ve been able to celebrate with you!

For the rest of you, my son was married this summer to a wonderful woman who has a 6-year old (well, now 7-yeasr old) son, Jadon.  I’m off visiting them in the Pacific Northwest as I write this, and Saturday is Jadon’s Birthday Party.  When I heard that dinosaurs were his current main interest, I was so sorry that I never bought the stamp set, Prehistoric Pals.  Yes, I loved those palm trees, but never dreamed I’d need dinosaurs again!

So I started looking around for ideas and found a punch art Dino on the blog of fellow Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, Ros Davidson from Australia.  Don’t you just love how small the Internet has made this world?!  And what a creative gal she is!  This card is based on the punches that it looked like she used in her own creation.  So now I have a real original card for Jadon!

The body oval is punched with the Sizzix Ovals die, and the rest of the body parts are punched with Stampin’ Up! punches. The balloons and party hat are from the stamp sets Sock Monkey and Sock Monkey Accessories.  The papers for the balloons are scrap pieces of Designer Series Papers–Jackpot, Cottage Wall, and The Write Stuff Specialty papers.

In all due respect to Ros’ creation, my dinosaur has a bit more of an overbit than hers did.  But too late for me to correct it now

Back in town next week!  Keep watching for Stampin’ Up!’s weekly specials–a new one will be posted on Monday.

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Back in my Hawaiian Garden!

Aloha, all!

After 10 days away from Hawaii, I am SOOOO glad to be back and enjoying my husband’s gorgeous Hawaiian garden.  While the back woods of Northern Minnesota were definitely stimulating (had to be with 3 young grandchildren around!), there is just nothing like a garden in paradise, with all the bright and bold colors, not to mention all the varieties of green.

And, within an hour of my return, my favorite FedEx truck pulled into our driveway with my first box of new Stampin’ Up! catalog "stuff."  The good news is that my Craft Room looks out on two views of the garden; so I had the best of both worlds! 

But what to do with all these gorgeous new products!?  Well, after two days in airports and airplanes, I didn’t last long enough last night to get past that first question.  And then, this morning, the Stamping 411 gals came to my rescue with their Saturday Sketch Challenge!  Here is the challenge sketch.

My take on the challenge uses two brand new products from the Stampin’ Up! 2009-2010 Idea Book & Catalog:  The new Butterfly Punch, and one of the sheets from the Designer Series Paper, Cottage Wall.  A long time ago, one of my favorite Stampin’ Up! colors was Orchid Opulence.  With this new paper, I think it’s about to get back into the favorite category again.

To make the larger butterfly in the lower right corner, I first stamped an image from the Flight of the Butterfly stamp set on Orchid Opulence card stock using VersaMark.  I then embossed the image using White Stampin’ Emboss powder.  After I used the new Butterfly Punch to cut it out, I trimmed the image close to the stamped dots.  Then I punched a scrap of Old Olive cardstock with the Butterfly Punch, layered them together, and attached them to the card front with Stampin’ Dimensionals.  To add a bit more interest, I stamped another image from the Flight of Butterfly set using Orchid Opulence ink on Whisper White card stock, trimmed it up, and attached it near the center of the DSP.  The accent ribbon is Old Olive 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon.

Of course, I had to take the photo out on our lanai near the front garden.  It is SOOO good to be back!

I’ll be sharing more of my new goodies with you during the coming week.  I’m going to try to get as much done in the next few days as possible, because our new puppy (well, he’s a year old) arrives on Tuesday, and all bets are off for awhile after that .

Here’s a close up of today’s card.  Note that there’s just a 1/16" sliver of a mat of Old Olive cardstock between the Orchid Opulence card base and the Cottage Wall designer paper.  It’s a nice touch that the Stamping 411 challenge encouraged.

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