A Fun Way to Capture Letters to Santa

This post was originally part of a blog tour for the online Stampin' Up! Demonstrators group, SUDSOL. 
You may still participate in the tour using the links at the bottom of this post.  Lots of great holiday projects – and you don't have to be Demonstrator to enjoy it!

Aloha, all!

     There are so many wonderful products in this year's Stampin' Up! Holiday Mini Catalog that I haven't been able even to start to use them all.  One that I finally decided I had to use (because I have grandchildren who are young enough to still believe in Santa) was the stamp set, Dear Santa.  I actually bought the set because I just had to have the "To:  From", Holly, and Snowflake stamps in the set.  I wasn't so sure about the "Dear Santa," but now I've figured out how to put even that stamp to good use.

     These are two "Letters to Santa" books that I've made for two of my grandchildren (would you guess that their names are Morgan and Kiara?).  These books are made from the 5" x 5" On Board Journal sold by Stampin' Up!  I covered them with paper from the Designer Series Paper Set, Holly Berry Bouquet and decorated the front with the Dear Santa Stamp Set.  

     Inside each journal, I decorated pages on which the girls could write their letters to Santa – or this could be their Christmas Scrapbook!  Most of the pages are decorated with either the snowflake or the holly sprig from the Dear Santa Stamp Set.  But other pages I decorated with some of the stockings from the Stitched Stocking Stamp Set (also – you guessed it! – from the Holiday Mini Catalog!).

     I actually got the girls to help me out with this.  Last month, when I was visiting them, I asked if they'd each write a short letter to Santa so that I could use it when I was blogging about this project.  They jumped right into it – and they both wanted a puppy!  It was so touching, as they'd lost their last dog to an illness this summer, and you could tell right away that this was to be THE thing for this Christmas!

     For the very young people in your life, they wouldn't even have to write in the book!  Think about having them draw pictures of what they'd like, as Morgan drew a picture of the puppy she'd like.  Or have them cut or tear pictures out of catalogs and paste them onto the pages.  Hmmm, I might just have to cut some pictures out of the Stampin' Up! catalog to show Santa what I'D like this year!

     Finally, you could use the pages that are the journal as the basis for a Christmas Scrapbook.  You could make this into a fun 6" x 6" Scrapbook or even put the pages on a large 12" x 12" scrap layout.  This is a hybrid project – the background and lettering is done with My Digital Studio and the rest is the "real" stuff.  The stocking uses the Stocking Builder Punch and the candy cane is from the Sizzix Stocking Accents Die (both in the Holiday mini, of course!

     And as for that puppy that my granddaughters had asked for for Christmas this year?  It turns out that this year Christmas came two and a half months early.  Their new puppy arrived three weeks ago and the whole family is absolutely thrilled. 

          I hope you've enjoyed reading about my idea for the Dear Santa Stamp Set!  I had a lot of fun with it and I'm sure that you will, too. 

If you're a member of the SUDSOL online Stampin' Up! Demonstrators group, click here find in the patterns section of the website a set of instructions for you to use as a tutorial or class handout, including a template to use to cut the holes through which the binding wires go and the measurements for the paper to use for the cover.  Demonstrators who are NOT a member of SUDSOL can access the instructions, too – with a FREE two-week trial membership to the group!  Why not try it out TODAY!!

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Another Fun Challenge for the Holidays!

Aloha, all!

     Today is the last day I'll be posting a project from the Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition!  But don't forget – you can still subscribe to this fabulous series of 6 WEEKS OF PROJECTS!  I've been thinking that getting these projects all at once might be a lot of fun – and they're available to everyone who subscribes for ONE YEAR!

     Today's project was a challenge just for the Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition Design Team.  We were to make a bag or a box and a tag.  That sounds like Christmas to me!!  Well, it could be a birthday, or any other event that calls for a small gift.  And such a unique way to present a special gift! 

     A couple of years ago I made a lot of these "box in a bag" (or is it "bag in a box"?) containers, and I forgot how much I loved to make them – and how EASY they are!!  I looked around for a pattern and found quite a few.  But I kind of felt like "Goldilocks" when she was dealing with the Three Bears:  This one was too tall, this one was too wide, this one required retired products.  I wanted one that was "just right."  So I made my own pattern with my own measurements and found that "just right" size and set of products for this holiday season.  The base for the "box" bottom is 2" x 4" and the whole bag is 4-1/2" tall.  The closest existing pattern for the shape that I wanted is one posted by Andrea Walford back in 2008, and she in turn based her design on one by Diana Gibbs earlier the same year.  In the 3 years since, lots of people have made variations on the same design.  If you can't find a tutorial that you like for this project, just let me know in the comments on this blog post and I can point you to them.

     The card stock for this whole project is Wild Wasabi,(with a touch of Real Red on the tag) and the designer series paper is from the Holiday Mini set, Holly Berry Bouquet. I just love the little Holly and Berry overall pattern on this paper – I could almost use a whole pack of it all by itself!

     The stamp on the central motif on the front of the bag is from the Pines and Poinsettias stamp set (also in the Holiday Mini Catalog).  I used my Wild Wasabi, Cherry Cobbler and Real Red Stampin' Write Markers to color the stamp before I applied it to the Very Vanilla Card Stock. The card stock is a 2-1/2" square and it's mounted on Wild Wasabi that I cut with the Sizzix Scallop Squares Duo Die.  The gift tag is a 1-3/4" square (cut a piece of Very Vanilla Card Stock 3-1/2" x 1-3/4" and fold in half).

     I hope you've enjoyed everything that I've been sharing with you as I've participated in the Create with Connie and Mary Holiday Edition!  I've been kind of scarce here on my own blog because I've been busy with them.  But from now until the end of the year, I'll be back here in full swing, ready to show you what I've been creating in my Craft Room!

     I hope you're having a great weekend – and are having some time to get some of your holiday crafting done!  Have fun whatever you do!

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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 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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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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Quick and Easy Gift Card Holders!

Aloha, all!

     As some of you have already noticed, I've been trying to update my blog's tutorials to show off current Stampin' Up! products, including papers, stamps, embellishments, and even the tools that we have available.  I had all good intentions of getting them ALL done by now.  But November is right around the corner and I have hardly made a dent!

     One project that I have updated is the set of instructions for making a quick and easy gift card holder.  Really, cut a sheet of 8-1/2" x 11" card stock in half lengthwise, make three folds, adhere the middle sections together, use the Word Window Punch to make a slit, decorate as you want – and you're done!  I made a dozen of them yesterday afternoon, finishing all the decorations (well, I went overboard on a couple) and packaging them up with envelopes for a craft show later this season this morning.  I'm ready to make some more, but I have other projects for the craft fair, so I'll have to wait.

     The cards that I'm showing off today all use the Designer Series Specialty Paper set, Candy Cane Christmas.  One of the things that I really like about this paper set is that there is such a diversity of look and feel.  There are several sheets that can only be called cute (like the one in the middle above), some elegant papers including the one on the left above, which has a red strip that is so very glittery, and some fun all-occasions papers, like the multi-colored polka dot paper on the right. 

     I hope you'll enjoy the updated tutorial that I've posted under "Tutorials," above.  Have fun making your OWN gift card holders for the holidays – or for birthdays or any other gift-giving occasion!

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Stationery is a Great Holiday Gift!

Aloha, all!

I just finished completing an order for a customer who wishes to give one-of-a-kind, handmade gifts, but just doesn’t have the time to make them herself.  She wanted to give the gift of a Stationery Set.   I can’t believe how much fun I had selecting the papers and the stamps that I would use.  It took awhile because I had to consider some guidelines that the customer gave me as well as stock I had on hand (she wanted them as soon as possible).  Among the guidelines was that there had to be two of each card; there had to be a birthday card, a thank you card, and a general note card.  While she didn’t specifically say that they should be coordinated, I felt that I needed to make the cards look like a set and not like 3 different cards just haphazardly put together into a set.

This is what I came up with.  There is an interesting mix of colors.  The greens are either Old Olive or Kiwi Kiss; the reds are either Real Red or Robin Hood Red.  The pink is Pink Pirouette and the blue is Baja Breeze.  The striped ribbons are all "In Color" colors (Pink Pirouette, Kiwi Kiss, and Robin Hood Red).  The stripes in the papers made mixing and matching the various colors very, very easy!

Two of the papers are from the Level 3 Hostess Set, Holiday Happenings Bundle.  I may just have to see if I can put together another order this month to grab some more of that luscious paper!!  The other stripe is from the Ski Slope Designer Series Paper set (112994).  The stamp set throughout is Pocket Silhouettes (111672).  I used the Wide Oval and Large Oval Punches (112082 and 107305) for the cards

When the cards were finished, I realized that the folio that I had wanted to make to hold the cards wouldn’t work as I had that nice knot in the ribbons that took up a lot more space than the folio provided.

Canadian Demonstrator Extraordinaire, Andrea Walford, to the rescue!  Last Spring I had purchased a class planner from her, and the box for the stationery set in that planner was just the ticket!  So a big Mahalo (Thank You) to Andrea!    For decorating the box, I used the 1-3/8 Circle Punch (104401), Scallop Circle Punch (109043) and Scallop Edge Punch (112091), along with the stripe paper and some  Old Olive 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon (109054).   Hmmm.  Now that I look at the picture, I think I’m going to put a knot in that ribbon!.  That should tie it all together, don’t you think!

If you’d be interested in my making some gift cards for you, it’s not too late to get an order in!  I have most of my own Christmas Cards and gift already made (though I seem to keep making them up to Christmas Day itself!).  So my time could be yours!  Visit the "Cards" tab to download my Cards by Robin brochure.

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Christmas Gift Cards

Aloha, all!

Gift Cards are a great way to give a gift to someone when you don’t know specifically what he or she would like for a gift.  Think iTunes gift cards when your taste runs to classical and his taste runs to heavy metal.

Especially in this economy, when I need to buy a gift for someone who (1) wouldn’t necessarily appreciate a set of hand made stationery and (2) is not someone I know really well, I certainly don’t want to risk spending money on something that will not be used or, worse, thrown away! 

In this case, there are three elementary school students (5th and 6th graders) who serve with me and a half dozen other adults on our local school’s Community Council (a state-mandated group).  These three young ladies have been very conscientious about their attendance at and participation in the Council’s meetings.  (Note that, at their age, I would have been bored to tears and would probably have used the time to catch up on my sleep!)  So the adults on the Council have purchased gift cards to a store where they can stock up on school supplies.

Here are the cards that I made to hold the three gift cards. The cards can be made as simple or as fancy as you’d like.  For these, I used Glorious Green Card Stock as the base for the card, with Real Red Patterns Paper from the Level 1 Hostess set in the Fall/Winter 2008 Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Catalog.  I added Real Red 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon (109034) and a greeting from another Level 1 Hostess Set, Best Yet (can you tell I’ve been doing my job for the economy by buying lots of Stampin’ Up! supplies???).  The two ovals are punched using the Large Oval Punch (107305) and the Wide Oval Punch (112082).  

Here are the instructions for making the gift card holders, along with some ideas for decorating them.  I hope that you enjoy making and using them this Christmas!  And if you need some of the supplies for making and decorating them, you can order them from Stampin’ Up! any time, 24/7.  Just click on the"Shop Now" button!  Or call (808.854.6145) or e-mail and I’ll be glad to help you with ordering supplies or with making the Gift Card Holders!

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Personalize Your Gifts With Sizzix!

Aloha, all!

My favorite toy this weekend is the Sizzix Big Shot with the wonderful Serif Essentials alphabet (113464).

The first project was to make 2008 decorations for the wreath that my son, Gus, and grandson, Quin, started decorating last year.  For Quin’s decoration, I used the large Q (I’m probably one of the very few people who may actually wear out the Q in the alphabet set!).  I used some self-adhesive red felt and attached it to a piece of the cardboard that somes with Stampin’ Up!’s Designer Series Paper (never throw that stuff away–it’s free gold!).  I hand cut two pieces of Glorious Green card stock into the shape of holly leaves, and added a Circle Fire Rhinestone Brad (109110).  To finish it off, I mounted the decoration on Brushed Gold card stock, using Stampin’ Dimensionals to make it "pop" out a bit.

Tomorrow, the G!

Happy Stamping!

Robin

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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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