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Happy Easter, Everybunny!

Aloha, all!

     Once I started to work play with the Stampin' Up! stamp set, Everybunny, I just could not put it down – especially since it is nearly 90% an Easter stamp set!  That is, 7 of the 8 stamps in the set are bunnies and chicks with an Easter theme.  The 8th stamp – not entirely.  Now that I think about it, I may have to go make a card with the not-necessarily-Easter stamp for AFTER Easter!

     So on the day before Easter, I decided that some of my friends in the neighborhood "needed" some Easter cards, so off I went to find something fresh to do with the stamp set!

     The first card I made for a friend who has a favorite color.  Would you guess it was Purple!  As I went through my stash of Stampin' Up! Designer Series Papers, I decided I had to use a set that had some kind of purple in it.  Well, it just so happens that her mother, also a friend in the neighborhood, is very partial to Lime Green and Coral.  It did not take long for the Designer Series Paper set, Berry Blossoms, to jump up and say, "Me!!  I'm the right paper set!!"

     For this card, I used the Wisteria Wonder-colored paper in the set, along with a print that I used in the other two cards.  The nice thing about papers with a moderate sized set of images with different colors throughout is that I can find a piece with lots of the color that I want and cut the paper to get that color.  That's exactly what I did with all three of these cards!  So you see lots of the Wisteria Wonder color in the floral print showing on this card.  And I had to have a purple baloon, so I stamped the balloon image on a piece of the Wisteria Wonder print and cut out the sections that I wanted to be purple.  To finish it off, I added some Basic Rhinestones to be the dots on the balloon.

     The second card in this series of projects also has a lot of the Wisteria Wonder, with Wisteria Wonder Card Stock making up the mats behind all three rectangles, and forming the image of the egg in which the little bunny is sitting.  I added another of the prints from the Designer Series Paper set, making sure that I had some Wisteria Wonder from the print showing top and bottom.  To embellish this card a bit, I added a trio of Basic Pearls in the upper left corner.  Cute bunny!

     You'll recognize the little girl bunny in the last of the cards as one that I used for a card I sent out earlier in the week.  For this card, I focused on the Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral colors.  There's still a bit of the Wisteria Wonder showing, and I even colored one of the eggs in the little girl bunny's basket with my Wisteria Wonder Stampin' Write Marker.  I cut her dress out of the floral pattern, and it looks just like something my friend might wear!

     If you're celebrating Easter this weekend, I wish you the happiest of holidays!  I hope that these Easter Bunnies bring a smile to your face, and that you wear that smile all week!

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This Really was a Stamp-a-Stack!

Aloha, all!

     As I shared with you yesterday, I held a Stamp-a-Stack just for myself earlier this week in an effort to make AND send out a nice number of Easter Cards.  In a Stamp-a-Stack, at least the way I do them, I have two or three basic layouts and papers and card stock cut to the size of a sketch that I've made for myself.  Then I stamp and mix and match the colors of the papers and card stock with Stampin' Up! inks.

     Here are three of the ten cards that I made with today's layout.  All of them use stamps from the Stampin' Up! Stamp Set, Everybunny.  I just love this little bunny up in his Hot Egg Balloon throwing Easter flowers down to us all.  Fun image!  The basic idea for this layout came from a much more detailed and carefully constructed card by fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Mary Jo Price-Williams.  I would love to have CASEd her card completely, but I just didn't have the time – or the energy! – to get that detailed!

     As you can see, each card, though it has the same layout, has different colors highlighted.  The only thing that's the same throughout is the Poppy Parade that I used for the mats for all three of the layered sections.  The other colors are the same colors as I showed off in yesterday's card – Peach Parfait, So Saffron and Wild Wasabi.  And all of the Designer Series Papers are from the same paper set that I used yesterday, Just Add Cake.  The result of using different colors and papers for the same basic layout keeps the whole project from being too boring (and I get bored easily!).

     The only "embellishment" that I used for these cards is the texturizing with the Perfect Polka Dots Sizzix Embossing Folder.  These slip right into Stampin' Up!'s Medium Envelopes, and definitely require NO extra postage, as might a card with too many brads and ribbons.

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Cute Bunny for a Little Girl!

Aloha, all!

     I was bound and determined that Easter was not going to get by without my having made – AND SENT OUT! – Easter cards!  Yes, I made lots of Valentine and St. Patty's Day cards.  But most of them are still sitting in my stash of unsent greeting cards.  I am very pleased to say that every Easter card I made this year has been put into the mail!  Yay!!!!

     And, of course, most of my cards this Easter were made with the Stamp Set, Everybunny, and/or its companion Stampin' Around Wheel, Every Egg.  This little Girl Bunny is just one of the cards that I made this week, and it's on its way to one of my granddaughters in North Carolina.  I made another card with the same layout, and both of them used the Designer Series Paper set, Just Add Cake.  I love the colors in that set, and it's got some designs that are so flexible that you can use them for any brightly-colored card you might want to make.

     I colored in the little Girl Bunny with her Easter Basket using Poppy Parade, Wild Wasabi, Peach Parfait, and So Saffron Stampin' Write Markers.  For her dress, I stamped the image on some of the Just Add Cake paper and then cut out the dress – hey, paper dolls!!  Ooooh, I loved those when I was a little girl.  I guess I still do!

     Since I was on a mission to make a lot of cards AND get them mailed in a fairly short period of time, I basically set myself up for what we demonstrators call a "Stamp a Stack."  Lots of cards with the same materials and basic design.  Tomorrow I'll show off some of the others that I made. 

     And because this was such an easy card to make and since there are tons of Stampin' Up! rubber stamps that would fit in that little square, I've drawn the sketch out for you to use, too!  Have some fun with it!!

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Think Spring!

Aloha, all!

     I spent most of the early part of this week making cards that highlight Spring or Easter!  For these few days of blog posts, I'm going to focus on the cards that I made from the Easter Stamp Set, Everybunny.  It is SUCH a cute set, and I especially like it because it's one of those sets that I can play like I'm a child again and really try to color inside the lines!

     As soon as I saw that cute little egg popping up from the flower pot and pretending to be a spring flower, I just knew that I wanted a row of them across a landscape oriented card.  My intention was to color each of the eggs differently.  But in testing the colors out on scratch paper, I decided that I really like this version of the colors.  So they're all alike, little eggs in a row!

     The colors come from the Designer Series Paper set, Cheerful Treat, which is a hostess set of papers (only $8 for Stampin' Up! orders of $150 or more!).  I featured another card made with floral papers from this set yesterday.  But there's a delightful striped design in this set, too, and this seemed like a perfect card with which to use it!  There's a small sheet of one of the Melon Mambo single-color designs that forms the bottom mat for the front of this card.  I try whenever possible to use a couple of layers of Designer Series Papers – which is much lighter in weight than card stock -  when I'm making a multi-layered card to keep the card's weight down, especially when the card base is Whisper White (as is this one) or Very Vanilla.  That card stock is lighter in weight than the rest of Stampin' Up!s Card Stock, and I just don't like to weigh it down too much.

     Oh, and the colors in the eggs and their little flower pots are:  Melon Mambo, Pink Pirouette, Bashful Blue, and Lucky Limeade.  And, of course, I had to add in some ribbon to tie the card all together!  For this card, I used the Melon Mambo 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon and I think it's just the perfect accent for the cute little eggs, which have some Melon Mambo dots of their own!

     I smile every time I see cards that I'm making with this stamp set – Everybunny – and all the papers that I've pulled out to use with it.  I hope you're having the kind of week that makes you smile at all the projects on which you're working!

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My First Easter Card of the Year!

Aloha, all!

     Would you believe that my first Easter card of 2012 would be to enter a color challenge?  Moi, who is deathly afraid of color challenges?  Well, believe it.  The fact of the matter is that I've been having a week where I've just been piddling around trying to figure out what I'm going to do next.  Well, it's not been quite THAT bad.  This blog will be in a blog hop this weekend, and I've been getting ready for that.  But I really wanted just to make a card that was a design I created myself.  So, when I saw some e-mails about the Create with Connie and Mary color challenge this week, I popped on over there to see what was up.

     Aha!  Colors to which I could relate!  I quickly gathered together some papers and ink and just a bit more slowly decided on an Easter theme.

     Perhaps you can guess that the colors are Peach Parfait, Lucky Limeade and Pool Party.  These are some of the colors in the Stampin' Up! Sale-a-bration brochure this year, and do I have a stash of that paper!  For my stamped images, I started out thinking about the stamp set, Everybunny.  But then I remembered that I also purchased the Stampin' Around Wheel, Every Egg, that complements the stamp set.  I ended up making the wheel image the focus of the card, and relied on the stamp set just for the greeting.

     I didn't start out to make this a card that folds on the 4-1/4" side.  But, when I went looking for my Pool Party Card Stock, there was this piece lying on the top of the stack – left over from a cut I made for my Z-Fold card last week.  So the card's orientation just happened.  I like the way it turned out, though!

     All the printed paper is from the Sale-a-bration Designer Series Paper Set, Everyday Enchantment.  This is yours FREE for making a $50 purchase of Stampin' Up! products – but only until the end of this month – and the month's half over!  Perhaps you'd like a recommendation about the quality of this paper from someone other than myself?

     Cholla the Cat thought that she would help me today, so she kept the Designer Series Paper safe for me while my back was turned!  I've had other DSP out on my table the last few weeks, and this is the first time that she's decided she liked a set.  So there's your recommendation!

     I hope you have as much fun with your projects this week as Cholla and I have been having!
 

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Garage Sale Finds

Aloha, all!

     I mentioned that last week I participated in a fund-raiser garage sale for my Family & Community Education (FCE) group.  I knew that, as soon as that was over, I'd have time to get back into my craft room.  And I could tell I was focusing on that as I kept seeing things for sale that gave me crafting ideas.  Take this little floral frame, for example.

     Of course those little ceramic roses on the frame reminded me of the Stampin' Up! Rosettes and Vintage Flower Adornments that are in the 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog.  And I do have a bunch (pun intended) of them still hanging around as we get close to the end of the catalog sales period.  While I hope that you might consider buying some, as a demonstrator I'll have to clear out my stash to make room for new products from the 2011 Summer Mini Catalog.

     Once I got home and started going through my supplies, I found that I had used up a lot of what I had purchased on various personal and class projects.  But I still had enough of a variety to create today's card.

     To make the frame, I cut an oval out of a Medium Window Sheet with the Sizzix Ovals Die, added some sticky strip all around the edges, and then placed the flowers on the sticky strip. Once I had my frame made, I had to decide what to put in it.  I started going through some family photos, but resizing and editing one of those was going to take some time, and I was anxious to see what the finished card would look like.  Then I remembered yet another Occasions Mini Catalog product, the Easter Blossoms Stamp Set.  And of course once that little girl's silhouette was in the frame, my creative brain jumped to the sheets of the Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper that I still have left! 

     To decorate a bit more, I added some leaves punched with the Two-Step Bird Punch, layered up some Baja Breeze, Pear Pizzazz and Always Artichoke Card Stock, texturized the Baja Breeze Layer with the Sizzix Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder, added some Scallop Punched accents, and I was done!  Oh, and the greeting: The "Happy Easter" greeting is from the Stamp Set, Teeny Tiny Wishes. 

     The best part of making this card came while I was out on my lanai (porch) taking the photographs and my husband came out and said, "Wow, what a great card!" 

     So I'm having a happy day!  I hope you're able to get some crafting done and that someone close to you compliments your work, too!  And don't forget that you've got limited time to buy all these beautiful products from the 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog.  If you'd like me to help you out with some ideas, just give me a call (808.965.1391) or send me an e-mail!

     And here's the sketch for today's card.  For the Designer Series Paper layer, I just used a 5-1/4" wide x 2-1/2" h piece of Designer Series Paper and overlaid two 3/4" strips of card stock punched with the Scallop Edge Punch.  I offset the whole set of decorative layers up a bit to leave room for the greeting at the bottom.

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Easter Blossoms Once Again!

Aloha, all!

     Yesterday I shared a card made with the Stamp Set, Easter Blossoms.  It was a square card with square punched elements in each of the four corners of the card.  Today's card uses the same stamp set, designer series paper set (Springtime Vintage), and basic layout.  But it's a standard sized card that fits into an A2 size envelope. 

     While yesterday's card featured the Stampin' Up! Color Rose Red, today's card features another color in the Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper Set – Baja Breeze.  It's also convenient (and undoubtedly planned as they're all in the same mini catalog) that there is also a Baja Breeze Rose in the Vintage Flower Adornments.

     I also introduced another stamp set into the mix today – the grass from the Stamp Set, Inspired by Nature.  I could have used a bit more grass to hide these Easter Eggs, and you'll see in the second card below that I did just that the second time around.  To stamp the grass (which is a very large stamp!), you might want to use a Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the blades where you want them over your eggs.  After I stamped all the images on the front, I texturized that layer using the Sizzix Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder.

     There is a technique in this card that I've not shown off in a long while – Masking.  Of the three Easter Eggs shown, one is in the front and there is no ink from the two other eggs showing on it.  Here are the steps for doing that:

1. Stamp the image you want to be in the front on your card.
2. Stamp the image on a separate sheet of paper, cut it out, and place it over the stamped image on your card.
3. Stamp the other images overlapping the cut piece of paper.
4. Remove the piece of paper!

     I like to use the top part of a sticky note (such as a 3M Post-It Note) as my "separate sheet of paper" as it stays in place while I'm doing the overstamping.

     Here is the second card I made using the same layout.  To begin, it should be obvious that I used the wrong measurements for my central motif (the one with the stamped images and its mat).  But this still is a very nice card.  I mention this only to show that you don't have to be incredibly particular about your measurements – don't throw away a piece of card stock just because it's off 1/8" of an inch!  If it's really important for the current project to have an exact measurement (for example with a 3-D project that won't stay together if there's a wrong measurement) put it away for use in another project!

     The second card has a bit more of the grass covering the eggs than the first, and I've used the Vanilla Rosettes from the Stampin' Up! 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog instead of the Vintage Flower Adornments.  It's definitely mailable using a standard A2 envelope, though you might still consider adding the extra 20¢ postage because of the thickness the flowers create.

     Here is today's sketch.  I hope you're starting your own Easter or Springtime cards and projects by now.  Hopefully it won't be too long and snow will give way to some simple April Showers for those May Flowers!  Have fun whatever you're doing this week!

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If it’s April is it Easter Yet?

Aloha,all!

     Very few people have been impressed with my research about how late Easter is this year (see my last post) and some have suggested that I stick to stamping (none of you, though; those people would be in my family!).  So stick to stamping I shall!

     I almost didn't post this card today because I'd promised cutesy later in the month.  But even this little bunny, from the Stamp Set, Forest Friends, while cute still has a bit of "pretty" in her.  Oh, yes, my Easter Bunnies are all ladies!  I just try to imagine any of the men in my life "hopping down the bunny trail" and my brain shouts, "No!"

     So here is my little lady and a greeting from the Stamp Set, All Holidays, stamped in Perfect Plum, layered with some Old Olive and some more perfect plum.  I adhered this group to a layer of Blushing Bride prints from the Designer Series Paper Stack that is a hostess gift this year.  I haven't used this nearly enough, and I'm leaving the pack out on my work table to see if I can't start pulling some papers out of it to show you how lovely it is.  The card front is also layered on Perfect Plum, with a card base of Old Olive.

     I've also not been using my 1-1/4" Striped Grosgrain Ribbon enough, either.  My ribbons are always out on my work table, so I'm not sure what the excuse is for that.  Maybe their size just intimidates me?  The Old Olive Striped Ribbon I've used here certainly doesn't overwhelm this card, though my initial thought was that it would.  To "tie" the bow, I used Mary Brown's bow instructions, with one of the Whisper White 5/8" Jumbo Designer Brads to hold it together.  I tried a couple of different ways to decorate that brad, but ended up simply stamping the butterfly image from the Stamp Set, Itty Bitty Bits and punched it out using one of the punches from the Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack.  I then adhered it to the brad using a Mini Glue Dot.

     This feels like a nice and airy card that I'll be happy to send off as an Easter Greeting this year!  It felt good to make it, too, which means I'm probably recovering from whatever bug has been keeping me down a bit this week.  Nothing serious, just a few aches and pains and wanting to sleep all the time.  It's a good thing as my monthly paper crafting class is tomorrow and I've got to get ready! 

     I hope you're ready for a relaxing weekend and will have some fun stamping – maybe even getting some of those Easter cards made!

     Here's the sketch for today's card.

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Isn’t It Easter Yet?

Aloha, all!

     These years when Easter is really, really late really, really throw me off!  This year Easter is so late that I'll be making Easter Cards and Mother's Day Cards at the same tim!.  Somehow that doesn't seem right.  It would be kind of like having Thanksgiving just two weeks before Christmas.  Well, maybe not that extreme.  But still. 

     Just to put my mind at ease that it will be awhile before Easter is this late again, I did a bit of research.  Did you know – that the last time Easter was on April 24th was in 1859?  The latest that Easter can be in our calendar is April 25th, and the last time that happened was in 1943, with the next time sneaking up on us in 2038.  Hmmm, wonder if I'll still be around then?  I definitely won't be seeing another April 24th Easter in my life time – that doesn't happen again until 2095!

     Whenever Easter happens, though, it's bound to be an occasion for cards that are either very pretty or very cute.  This week and next I'll share a couple of the "pretty" variety.  I'll try out "cute" a bit later (and I have plenty of time! – Oh, have I beaten that one to death yet?). 

     All of the products that I used to decorate this card can be found in Stampin' Up!'s 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog. My current favorite is the Easter Blossoms Stamp Set, which has that lovely blossom spray.  I stamped it with Always Artichoke Classic Ink and then colored it in with some Blushing Bride Stampin' Write Marker.  The darker pink color throughout this card, including the ribbon, card stock, stamped greeting and brads, is Rose Red.  But the blossoms seemed to need a lighter color to make them seem more delicate.  Both sheets of printed paper are from the Designer Series Paper Set, Springtime Vintage, and the background card stock is Always Artichoke.  As I frequently do with my cards, I tied it all together with a bit of ribbon, in this case some of Stampin' Up!'s Seam Binding.

     Now that you have a bit of information about our late Easter this year, I hope you take advantage of the extra time to make some extra Easter or Springtime cards!  If you'd like to start off with this card, here's the layout, complete with measurements.  Whatever you do, have fun with it!

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It’s Easter Season – Part III: Back to Basics

Aloha, all!

When I joined Stampin’ Up! as a demonstrator, one of the sets that I was encouraged to feature is the one called, "Loads of Love."  OK–I could relate to that, as I’d recently lived in rural New Mexico where pickup trucks were the norm.  And I’d recently moved to rural Hawaii, where pickups are the norm.  So why not?  BUT I would rather have not, as I’ve never owned a pickup.  Nonetheless, this set, as well as "Loads of Love Accessories," has really grown on me.  For one thing, I love to do watercolors, and this set is definitely a watercolor fill-in type of set.

I’m not sure how much longer this set has as far as its Stampin’ Up! life.  But it’s definitely in the current catalog, and it definitely has an Easter accessory.  So here that pickup truck is again!!

This time I used Classic Stampin’ Pads and an aquapainter to color in the truck and accessories on Stampin’ Up! watercolor paper.  As always, I started with light colors and moved up to dark.  For the hubcaps of the tires, I used the new 3/16" Jumbo Brads, in the silver color.  And, of course, the driver is a read head, as am I! 

Big excitement is that I’m going to demo this very card at a workshop at the end of the month!  If you have any suggestions for how I could change the card to make it a bit more exciting, feel free to chime in!

Robin

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