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A Bookmark for Our Book Club Leader!

Aloha, all!

     I am still showing off retiring Stampin' Up! products, and there's only one product in today's bookmark that's not retiring – and that's the Whisper White Card Stock on which some of the images are stamped.

     But first let me tell you about the book club to which I belong.  It is the best – and biggest! – book club to which I've ever belonged.  There are no rules – heck, you don't even have to read the book!  You just have to be an active, fun member of the group and suggest a book now and then.  I think that there were 15 or 16 people at last week's monthly meeting, and we had a great pot luck lunch at the Hilo Zoo and Rainforest Garden.  Was that a treat for all of us!!

     And I truly believe that the reason we are so successful is that my friend who started it is someone everyone likes and whose ideas people enjoy experiencing.  So when I noticed that Maureen had changed her e-mail tag line to the sentiment that was on one of the stamps in the Stamp Set, Flight of the Butterfly, I knew that I had to use this stamp in a project for her.  And what better project for a book club leader than a bookmark!

So – what's retiring?

• Flight of the Butterfly Stamp Set (available until the end of May)
• Butterfly Punch (available while supplies last)
• Concord Crush Classic Ink (available while supplies last)
• Concord Crush Card Stock (it's on the back of the bookmark – available while supplies last)
• Blushing Bride Classic Ink (available while supplies last)
• Blushing Bride Card Stock (available while supplies last)

What's not retiring?  Just the Whisper White Card Stock!

     Wow, have I enjoyed getting away from cards a bit more than usual these days!  This may become a habit – well, maybe not – but certainly I should do this more often!  I hope you're a bit better than I am at doing different kinds of projects – and I'll bet you have lots of fun doing it! 

(Fun note:  The book that's in the photo is one written by one of the members of our book club – "The Road to Hana Maui" by Lynn Nakkim.  Look it up sometime.  It's one of the book club books I've actually read!)

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Yes, I Still Use Bookmarks!

Aloha, all!

     Those who have been around the craft room lately know that one of my favorite possessions is my Kindle eBook reader.  With all the traveling that I'm doing this year, it's sure nice to have to "lug" only one little piece of equipment around with me yet still have at least a half dozen unread books in my purse!

     But that doesn't mean I don't need bookmarks.  For one thing, it's still a lot cheaper to borrow a book from the library.  Even though I can now borrow eBooks, sometimes I just like to go over to our little public library and browse around the shelves and pick up something by an author who is new to me.  For another thing, there are lots of books in my kitchen – cookbooks!  I can have a half dozen or more bookmarks in just one cookbook to mark my favorite recipes!

     So it was a natural for me to join a bookmark swap when one of my online groups organized one last month!

     When it came to designing my own bookmark, I went right for the Stampin' Up! Specialty Designer Series Paper, "First Edition."  The "specialty" part of this paper is that it's a lighter weight than most Designer Series Papers from Stampin' Up!  That doesn't mean that it's not of a high quality, though.  It's just good for projects and accents that require a lighter weight.  In this case, I did need to add a bit of weight to the bookmark, so I mounted a layer of the First Edition paper on either side of some lightweight cardboard (the kind that ships in a package of Designer Series Paper is perfect!). 

     The really fun part about this design was that I decided not to stamp on the bookmark, but to do a little bit of stenciling!  I really like using Stampin' Up!'s Decor Stencils for paper crafting, though you can use them for fabric and furnishings as well.  Once I positioned the stencil, from the Stencil Set, Vintage Ornaments, I inked up a Sponge Dauber with some of the new Island Indigo Classic Ink and sponged away.  I placed the stencil again and made a second image on each side of the bookmark.  I punched some of the Island Indigo Card Stock with the Decorative Label Punch and folded it on each end of the bookmark before punching a hole and added some Very Vanilla 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon at one end. 

     As I write this I'm getting ready to leave home to go to the Stampin' Up! convention in mid-month.  If I receive the other bookmarks back from the swap before I leave, I'll post them for you to see tomorrow!

     Your assignment for today is to go find some fun card stock and make a bookmark – and have fun with it!

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A Little Bit of Fun

Aloha, all!

     What a week this past one was, and the coming week will be just about the same – packed with non-crafting activities!  I was able to squeeze in enough time to make all the packets for my Stamp-A-Stack class on Saturday, and we all had a lot of crafting fun then.  But that was about it until tonight.  After a day out with my dh, I came home and said, "I just have to get my hand in some ink!"  The good news was that I had a practical excuse for doing just that. 

     At Christmas time, one of the handmade gifts I made for some friends were bookmarks made with 4" paperclips.  What fun I had using the Jolly Bingo Bits stamp set to make those bookmarks (and that set will be back with us come the 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog!).  Then last week one of those friends asked if it would be possible for me to make a few more for her to give to her friends.  In fact it was possible, because during the holidays I had mislaid one of the packs of paperclips – or else they would have been among the Christmas gifts!  But what stamp set would be a good one for a fun little bookmark without a holiday theme?

     It didn't take long before I touched my stamp set, For Everything.  It has just the cutest little motifs and I could do them up in a variety of colors.  So I made two each of the little bird (in Real Red and Pretty in Pink, with a Marina Mist Flower); the sunflower (or at least that's what I made it out to be with More Mustard and Chocolate Chip (including the brad), with a Pumpkin Pie accent color; and the 6-petal flower made with Marina Mist and a Pretty in Pink brad and accent color.

     This was fun, and just the kind of thing I needed to make after a busy weekend!  I hope to have a couple of hours to myself tomorrow for some crafting time, but that may be it until next Sunday night!  I'll be out of town (which where I live means I'll be hopping a plane to go to another island) for half of the week, and busy with some volunteer work most of the rest of the time.  But then I have to get ready for my Folded Album Class on the 29th.  I can hardly wait to share those projects with you!

     And however busy you are this week with work or other activities, I hope you have time to have a little bit of fun – and do something creative!

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Jolly Holiday Punch Pals!

Aloha, all!

     This blog post was originally a part of the November 2010 Royal Blog Tour.  If you missed this fall's tour, you'll definitely not want to miss the next one!  Stay tuned to my blog throughout the year for information about this fabulous tour!  But you can still enjoy the projects that I showed off during the 4 days of this fall's tour.

     Let me begin by introducing you to one of my all-time favorite stamp sets, Punch Pals, one of my favorite sets of Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper packs, Jolly Holiday, and the projects I'll be sharing with you today:

     Besides the stamp set and paper that these three projects all have in common, they also share a feature that I consider to be essential in Christmas Cards that I send to my family and friends:  They have to have some small gift as part of their design.  Besides that, I really do like to have something a bit unusual about my cards, whether it be the size or shape of the card, or the way it's folded (as long as it fits in a mailable envelope!).  So with that in mind, let's look at what I've created just for you!

     This first card is a Double Accordion Pocket Fold!  There are TWO accordion folded pieces of Jolly Holiday Designer Paper, each of which has its own folded pocket on the far inside of the card.  They're mounted together on a standard greeting card piece of card stock that fits an A2 envelope.  You just cannot believe how easy this card was to make!  I'll be sharing a step-by-step tutorial right here as part of my Countdown to Christmas posts beginning on December 1st!

     The gift for this card is a set of two bookmarks – they decorate the card for the holiday season, then help your friends and family mark their place in all those new books they received as Christmas gifts!  A fun reminder of the season for months to come.  I really like the way that the stamps in the Punch Pals are outlined, so I try not to doctor them up with too much color.  But this little penguin asked for a yellow beak and the tree really looked like it needed a yellow star.  So for these two bookmarks, I added just a touch of Daffodil Delight to the featured colors, Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive, and Very Vanilla.

     The front of the card is also decorated with two medallions made up of two of the stamps from Punch Pals, both heat embossed with White Stampin' Emboss Powder.  The medallion stamp and the small snowflake stamp are two of several of the stamps in Punch Pals that have matching punches – the 3/4" Circle Punch and the 1-3/4" Scallop Circle Punch.  I layered the two punched pieces together and matted them with the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch.  I think that makes a lovely combination for the front of the card, with plenty of space for the Very Vanilla 5/8" Satin Ribbon to tie the whole thing together.

     The next two projects are 6-1/2" x 3", and both fit into one of Stampin' Up!'s Small Open-End Envelopes, which, in the United States, require only the standard first class postage. So they're practical as well as just darling!

     You might recognize this as a variation of a Diagonal Double Pocket Card.  And it's just as easy to make!  I prefer these cards, with the pretty Designer Series Paper, not to have a cover on them.  What I did do to make this sturdier and a bit more festive was to mount it on first a layer of Cherry Cobbler Card Stock, then on a layer of Old Olive Card stock which I punched top and bottom with the Scallop Trim Border Punch.  I added a greeting from Punch Pals, tied on some Old Olive 5/8" Satin Ribbon and Cherry Cobbler 1/2" Seam Binding (from Stampin' Up!s 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog), and inserted yet another cut pair of decorated bookmarks.  That snowman makes me smile every time I see him!

     Finally, I've made up a card that contains not bookmarks but coupons!  Of course, once the giftee tears out the coupon (perforated with the Perforating Tool in the Stampin' Up! Cutter Kit), he or she could use it as a bookmark!  It might be more valuable as a coupon, though?  I made the coupons with My Digital Studio, enlarging one of the frames from Frames with a Flourish and adding in some of the lines from one of the Recipes by Design embellishments.  Too cool!

     I'll be sharing a tutorial for making both of these last two cards in my Countdown to Christmas blogs in December.  If you don't want to miss a thing here, you can either subscribe to my blog (through a reader or however you wish), my newsletter, or even join me on Facebook by clicking on the link to the left.  I'll be posting notices about the projects in my Countdown to Christmas posts on Facebook!

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It’s a Blue (and Very Vanilla) Christmas!

Aloha, all!

     That's "blue" as in that wonderful new Stampin' Up! color, Marina Mist, and the fantastic Designer Series Papers included with the Simply Scrappin' Kit, Christmas Cheer.   NOTE:  This post was originally part of the November 2010 SUDSOL blog tour.  For more information about this online group for Stampin' Up! demonstrators only, click here!

     One theme that you'll find in many of my 2010 Holiday Season greeting card projects is that I like them to have some kind of gift or keepsake as part of the project.  Part of today's card is a bookmark.  No, there's not a bookmark enclosed – a bookmark is actually part of the card!  Do you see that knot at the top of the ribbon?  It's "knot" tied to the card front – it's tied to the top of a third section of the card that can be detached and used as a bookmark!

     As with most of my projects like this, I have written a one-page tutorial to show you just how to cut, fold and perforate this card and get that ribbon positioned perfectly for both the card front and the bookmark.  BUT – this is a special blog post, and there are special ways to get this tutorial!  If you are a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, you can find the tutorial on the SUDSOL website by clicking here.  Even if you're not a member of SUDSOL, you can sign up for a free two-week membership that will give you plenty of time to learn all about us and starting enjoying our great group, as well as all the other patterns and projects on file in the SUDSOL Collection – including 245 of my own cards, gifts, sketches, scrap layouts and much much more!.  My other blog readers can receive a copy of this tutorial as part of my December Newsletter by subscribing to my e-mail Newsletter – just enter your e-mail address in the box just beneath the SUDSOL icon at the upper left. 

     Now a little about the colors and embellishments that are on this card.  I have to tell you that my focus is more on making cards and gifts than on making scrapbooks right now.  So I was reluctant to purchase the Simply Scrappin' Kit.  But that wonderful Marina Mist Designer Series Paper in the kit just kept calling to me.  So I gave in and bought the kit and used some of Marina Mist/ Very Vanilla sheet for this card.  Now that I see the other sheets in that set, I am so glad I bought it.  And of course there's plenty of beautiful textured 12" x 12" card stock:  Cherry Cobbler, Always Artichoke, Very Vanilla and Marina Mist.  The self-adhesive die cuts will also not go to waste as I will be taking them with me to a visit with my gorgeous little granddaughters – that's where we'll do some scrapbooking!

     The little snowflakes are new this season!  They are all from the Sizzix Decorative Strip Die Northern Frost from the Stampin' Up! 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog.  My first thought was to add Basic Pearls or Basic Rhinestones to them; but then I decided I really wanted to keep to the Marina Mist/Very Vanilla color theme.  The 5/16" Very Vanilla Jumbo Brads fit that bill perfectly!  The ribbon is the luscious Marina Mist 5/8" Satin Ribbon – it's really hard for me to keep my hands off that stuff!

     I decorated the bookmark itself as I did the card front.  But I tucked some of the edges of the little snowflakes behind the sentiment layer to protect them a bit.  I also used Sticky Strip on the bookmark layer throughout as I hope it will be getting a lot more use than the card!

     Have fun with your holiday paper crafting!

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Gifts for our Toastmasters Club

Aloha, all!

Of the many groups to which I belong, one in which I have the longest membership is Toastmasters International.  Right now, I’m a member of Hilo Toastmasters Club, which is one of the oldest in the world, with the low 3-digit number of 248.  My last Toastmasters Club – Albuquerque Toastmasters Club in New Mexico – also has a long history with the club number 122.  With more than 12,000 clubs in the world right now, you can imagine how high the club numbers go!

But I digress.  This week, Toastmasters is celebrating its 85th Anniversary, and the theme of our meeting yesterday was "Happy Birthday," with gifts and some cake.  The "gifts" for all our members were bookmarks, made by yours truly.  Every Toastmaster has at least two manuals in play at any given time, so we can always use bookmarks.

For this project I used the Designer Series Paper Set, Autumn Traditions.  Now I’m sure some of you may be wondering why I would buy some autumn papers when I live in Hawaii.  Well, many of my friends, family and business acquaintances–many of YOU!–live where there is a colorful autumn each year.  And I love to share projects that relate to fall with you.  The coordinating card stock colors for these bookmarks are Always Artichoke, Elegant Eggplant, and More Mustard, with appropriate coordinating 1/4" grosgrain ribbon.  (For those of you who are sticklers about such things, my apologies for sneaking in some retired More Mustard ribbon.  I just can’t imagine what Stampin’ Up! was thinking when they retired that color ribbon!!!  And I haven’t been able to talk myself into just putting it away where I won’t see it and use it by mistake.  But the bookmarks are done, so the ribbon’s staying!)

On the bottom of each bookmark is a stamped definition from the stamp set, Define Your Life.  I occasionally use one definition stamp from this set.  But this time I was able to use more than half of those in the set and still have the bookmarks be appropriate for Toastmasters. 

And I have to make a point here about My Digital Studio.  Remember when I mentioned the question about whether having My Digital Studio would mean no more paper and ink?  Well, you can’t make a bookmark like this with My Digital Studio.  In fact, there’s not a whole lot in the way of handmade papercrafted gifts that you can make with MDS besides photo albums, cards, calendars and multi-media digital projects.  So, no, I won’t be giving up paper and ink!

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Punch Art Santa

Aloha, all!

My Stamp Club had a great time last night with lots of Christmas projects.  We had so many we wanted to do that we’re going to have a follow-on meeting next week.  I have just so many great ideas that I’ve picked up around my Stampin’ Up! community, and I want to share them ALL!!  Unfortunately, some will have to wait for another time.  Sigh.

Here is one project that I had for the group, and I’m including the punching instructions for it also.  Once you get everything punched, it’s easy to see which punched paper goes where.  There are no secrets behind the scenes, as there are in some punch art.  On the other hand, if you’d like some one-on-one instructions, I’ll be happy to provide them.  Just call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me, and I’ll be glad to help!

And a special thanks to Sandy Hancock for originally posting this design idea on her blog!

Here is a quick list of the punches that I used for the Santa face.  I also used one of the pictures on the Old Saint Nick rub on package (112844) to finish off the bookmark itself, which is made with Glorious Green card stock and topped with Real Red 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon (109034). 

Punches:

• 5-Petal Flower (mustache)
• Word Window (hat brim)
• Scallop Circle (beard and hair)
• Boho Blossoms (top of hat)
• 1/4" Circle (eyes)
• 1/2" Circle (nose)
• 1-1/4" Circle (face)
• Scallop Square (hat)

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A Fluffy Felt Flake!

Aloha, all!

I have been having a blast working with the Sizzix Big Shot this week! 

As you might remember from last week, I played around with the Country Living Holiday Collection Stampin’ Kit and its die cut chipboard ornaments.  Yes, they are wonderful!  But playing with them made me want to go play with my very own Sizzix Big Shot machine and the fun "Originals" die, Snowflake #2 (which has the Stampin’ Up! order number 113460).

And play I did!!!  Just check out this fluffy felt snowflake on the diagonal double pocket card.

More about the Diagonal Double Pocket Card later.  For now, just check out that felt snowflake.  Yes, "Little Felt Flurries" are wonderful!  But Big Shot Felt Flakes are even MORE WONDERFUL!

I had fun making this diecut Snowflake, and you can, too!  All you have to do is buy the Sizzix Big Shot through Stampin’ Up!,(a great bundle product through the Holiday Mini Catalog–# 113481)  and add in the Snowflake #2 die (113460).

Stay tuned to Robin’s Craft Room for a video showing how I made this very Fluffy Felt Flake!

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