RobinsCraftRoom.com

Fun and Quick!

Aloha, all!

     With all that I'm doing the next few weeks, I decided I had to take some time this morning to show off some of the products from the brand new Stampin' Up! 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog.  On the other hand, it had to be quick because I'm already behind on so many new year's projects and it's only the 4th!!!

     Believe me, this was quick – and it was fun on top of it!  The basic card design was one that was featured in this month's magazine for Stampin' Up! Demonstrators as something we could easily demonstrate at a workshop.  They were right, even though I had to think for a few minutes because I wanted the colors and design just a tad different from those in the magazine.

     What really makes this easy are the two brand new products from the Occasions Mini Catalog that I used:  the stamp set, Mixed Bunch, and the brand new punch made just for the stamp set (or is it the other way around??), the Blossom Punch.  There are three big flowers in the stamp set, and this shows off just one of them.  I'll be getting to the other two before long, I hope!

     The card base is Sahara Sand, and the colors that I used to stamp the flowers were (left to right) Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade, and Tangerine Tango.  I stamped the Peach Parfait and Tangerine Tango flowers on So Saffron Card Stock, and the Poppy Parade flower on Peach Parfait Card Stock.  The center image on each flower is also from the Mixed Bunch Stamp Set and cuts perfectly with the 1" Circle Punch. 

     To finish this quick and easy card off, I punched some Whisper White Card Stock with the Scallop Edge Border Punch, then quickly colored in some circles using Poppy Parade Stampin' Write Marker, the Paper Piercing Template from Stampin' Up!'s Mat Pack.  I trimmed the Whisper White Card stock and mounted it on a strip of Poppy Parade Card Stock.  The sentiment is from the stamp set, Petite Pairs, and I just had to punch it with the Postage Stamp Punch.  I've been dying to do that to a sentiment with the word, "Sending," in it!  I tied on a little bow with Linen Thread.

     The one thing that's not quite evident from the photo is that I made my card base 5-1/4" wide rather than 5-1/2" so that I could let the flowers hang off the edges a bit, yet still allow the card to fit in a standard A2 envelope (Stampin' Up!'s Medium Envelope). 

     OK – I've had my fun for the day, now back to work.  Hmmm.  Actually, my "work" IS fun!  How many people get to say that?  It's easy when you're a Stampin' Up! demonstrator!  Hope you're having fun today, too!

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Another Thank You Note!

Aloha, all!

     Earlier in the week, I shared a sample of a Thank You card that I'd made with all NEW products – from the 2012 Sale-a-Bration catalog.  But today I'm taking a hint from fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator (and my 2nd upline) Sandy Hancock, and using up some of my left over Christmas paper to make those Thank You notes!

     This was a quick card that I made last night with scraps from the Letters to Santa Designer Series Paper that is featured in the 2012 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog.  While you and I know it came from Christmas paper, there's no design that requires it to be used on a Christmas card (no santas or ornaments).  But sending it out this time of the year, with red and green as the main color, still feels holiday-ish to me!

     The red here is Riding Hood Red and the green is Old Olive.  The Taffeta Ribbon is also Riding Hood Red.  My first go round with this card had the background Riding Hood Red Card Stock looking awfully plain, so I pulled out the Snow Burst Textured Impressions Embossing Folder to give it a bit more interest.  Good News – this Embossing Folder will still be available after the Holiday Mini expires next week!

     Here is the sketch that I used for this card.  It's not a new sketch, but it's been awhile since I used it.  I just love having sketches around and this one was on page 43 of my 2010 Greeting Card Layout eBook, which is still available on a CD.  Just check over on the right for more information about both of my Card Layout eBooks!  Of course, the sketch in the eBook has all the measurements included!

     I hope you're having fun making your own Thank You cards after a fun holiday season!  I still have a couple more to make and hope to be able to share them before the year is out!

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It’s Time for Thank You Notes!

Aloha, all!

     Aaaaahhhh!  While I do love Christmas, it is SOOO good to have it over and be able to relax a bit.  Actually, I did a lot of relaxing over the weekend.  I put away the last of my Christmas Card making supplies and tools on Friday night, and did not touch a thing related to paper crafting until this morning.  In fact, I was so relaxed about everything that I forgot to give my husband the very special card I'd made for him weeks ago!  If I had gone into the craft room I would have seen it lying there.  But at least I remembered before Christmas Day was over.

     And of course now that Christmas is over, it's time for Thank You notes!  This is also the day for the bi-weekly Stampin' Up! Only Challenge, and this is the card I made for the challenge to make a punch the center of attraction on a project.  I looked at all those fancy punches that Stampin' Up! has been putting out lately, but then decided on a really simple one – the 2-3/8" Scallop Circle Punch. 

     Usually I have an item punched with that as the background for something else.  This time, though, I was inspired by the fan-style design in the new set of paper, EverydayEnchantment Designer Series Paper, that Stampin' Up! will be giving away as part of the 2012 Sale-a-Bration Event, which begins a month from now.  So, since that paper inspired me, I decided to use it, as well as the coordinating Everyday Enchantment Ribbon and Brad Pack.  I thought that the brad with the scallop shape on it was perfect for the center of the punch feature.  To help it stand out a bit more, I used a second punch, the Boho Blossoms Punch, to make the little flower behind the brad.

     The colors in the Designer Series Paper – and the colors of Card Stock that I used to accent it – are Lucky Limeade, Peach Parfait, and Pool Party.  Oh, and Very Vanilla is in there, too!

     To make the Scalloped Punch element, I drew lines on the back of all three colors that I punched out and then snipped along the lines from the indentations to the center point (where the lines all crossed).  To find the center of the Very Vanilla piece, I drew a couple of lines on the back of it, too, and used the Paper Piercer to punch through a pinpoint hole which is there the points of the cut pieces all met.  Once I glued on all the cut pieces, I enlarged the hole to allow the brad to fit through easily.

     The scallop circle in the background is a die-cut image from the Sizzix Scallop Circles #2 die, which I also texturized with the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder.

     The Thank You Stamp is also from the Sale-a-Bration catalog – one of the 6 stamps in the Outlined Occasions Stamp Set.  Love those outline-style designs that I can color in!  I wrapped each end of the greeting element with the ribbon from the ribbon pack.  I adhered both the greeting and the punched scallop to the card front with Stampin' Dimensionals to give the card just a bit more, well, dimension!

     I hope you had a lot of fun during your holiday celebrations!  And I hope you'll have as much fun as I'm having now that I'm back in my Craft Room again!

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A Fall Favorite!

Aloha, all!

     I love Fall!  Even here in Hawaii, the nights are cooler and there are changes in the way our garden looks.  But when we lived on the mainland, as the trees started changing colors and some leaves began to drop, my heart (and wallet!) turned to Fall Mums.  I really had to set a budget for myself before I headed to the local garden store to stock up on all the wonderfully-colored pots of mums.  More than anything that time of the year, I enjoyed bringing them home, getting out all my fun colored flower pots, and making arrangements at our front door. 

     So when the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge this week asked us to think "fall colors" for our entry, mums definitely came to mind.  OK, I have to confess – you know I'm the one who makes up the challenge themes, so you can probably guess that I was thinking mums when I came up with that one!

     I wasn't sure what I was going to do with that thought, though, until I started thumbing through the Stampin' Up! Idea Book & Catalog.  Yes, I came across the stamp set, Fabulous Florets.  But that was the set I'd had in mind all along.  What did catch my attention was the little graphic in the lower outside corner of every page in the catalog – a flower pot!  The pot changes with every new section of the catalog, from an empty pot at the beginning to one with flowers at the end.  But that pot reminded me of some of the pots that I used to use for my mums.  So a pot it was!

     I really liked cutting these flowers out.  My very first Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Maria, would be so surprised to hear that as she could never get me to do ANYthing by hand way back then.  It either got stamped or punched or it didn't appear in my work.  Now, though, I find that I can have some peaceful time just sitting down and working with those paper snips.  If I could have fit more flowers in this pot, I probably would have. 

     As for the pot, I've made a template for it and it's attached here. It's sized to fit as shown on a piece of cardstock that's 3-3/4" wide.  It's easiest to cut out if you cut a piece of card stock that's 3-3/4" wide x 3" high and trace the template onto it.  Don't worry about your pen or pencil marks – just turn the pot over!

     The Fall Colors that I've used here are Cajun Craze (for the card base, the pot and one of the flowers); Old Olive (for the first mat, the mat on the tag and the leaves); Pumpkin Pie (two flowers); Daffodil Delight (two flowers); More Mustard (the center flower and the second mat); and Cherry Cobbler (one flower).  I used to tie twine around some of my pots and the Linen Thread does that job nicely for this card.  I used one of the Backgrounds I Textures Plates to emboss the pot.  The greeting is from the new stamp set, Petite Pairs.

     I hope you're enjoying getting into fall and will enjoy using whatever colors make you think of Fall in your crafting this week!

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Dating Myself?

Aloha, all!

     When I initiated a scheduled design challenge on one of my online Stampin' Up! Demonstrator websites recently, one of my fellow demonstrators, Maria Pobre, called me to task for showing my age.  I entitled the challenge, "Be There and Be Square," a slight deviation from the apparently really old saying, "Be There or Be Square."  After a bit of research on that, I did indeed date myself with that – except that the younger demonstrators would probably have not had a clue that it was an old saying!

     But then there was the whole point of the challenge – everything was supposed to be square!  I'll share the challenge sketch with you in a minute, but I'd first like to share why I decided on a square, and how I ended up using this Designer Series Paper for the card.

     One of the cards that I received in my 2011 Stampin' Up! Convention swaps was a standard shaped card (fits in an A2 envelope) with a piece of designer paper cut into 1" squares.  The paper was one of the florals from the Hostess Designer Paper Set, Cheerful Treat.  While it was a cute card, I wondered what the effect would be if I cut out a piece of designer paper that had a large image on it.  And then I wondered if the whole effect would be enhanced if the little squares were on a square card.  So, for this card, I ended up using a sheet from the paper set, Paisley Petals, and I really like the whole effect.  So did the people who participated in the challenge!

     To set off the print, I used card stock in three of the colors featured in this set:  Cajun Craze, Baja Breeze, and Always Artichoke.  I stamped the Thank You greeting (from the stamp set, Pretty Postage) using Always Artichoke ink on Baja Breeze Card Stock, matted with an Always Artichoke "stamp" punched with the Postage Stamp Punch from Stampin' Up!'s 2011 Summer Mini Catalog.

     One bit of warning about cutting up a piece of paper such as this one:  Keep the pieces lined up while you're cutting them or you're going to find yourself with a puzzle to be solved!  It took me 10 minutes to put these pieces back together in the right order.  And even then I managed to adhere one 90 degrees from the direction it should have been (fixed it before I took the photo, though).

     As I do like to do, I tied the whole design together with some ribbon, in this case Always Artichoke Seam Binding.  So easy to tie a bow using this ribbon!

     Here is today's sketch.  A card cut with these measurements will fit in the Stampin' Up! Medium Square Envelope.  One of my fellow demonstrators said this would be fun for a scrapbook page, and even fun using a photograph!  I hope you find something fun to do with it!!

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Favorite New Stamp Set? Choices, choices!

Aloha, all!

     It's Tuesday morning here in Hawaii (already afternoon on the east coast!) and it's time for another biweekly edition of the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge blog!  Today's challenge is to make something with my favorite new stamp set.  Oh my, how do I choose?  I have over a dozen from which to make that choice, and believe me I wouldn't have bought any of them if I didn't just have to have them!  But I'm a member of the SU-Only Challenge Design Team, so I had to choose.

     Actually, I cheated.  There's not just one, but TWO new stamp sets featured in today's card:  Raining Flowers and Petite Pairs.  On top of that, there's a new color – Wisteria Wonder – and some new ribbon – 3/8" Ruffled Ribbon.

     Those of you who've been following my blog over the past few years know that Two-Step Stamping ismy favorite stamping technique.  Raining Flowers is just the latest of Stampin' Up!'s great two-step stamping sets, and it already has almost a permanent spot out on my craft table. 

     Two-Step Stamping works this way – for each image, there are two stamps.  One stamp is the outline of the image and the other is the filler or colored-in part of the image.  There are no rules about how to play with these two stamps, and you can use them effectively no matter how closely you align the two stamps.  In this card you'll notice that the flower on the right has the images almost perfectly aligned, so the image is completely colored in.  But the leaves off to the left have the outline offset from the filler stamp.  If I were a child, you'd say I colored outside the lines.  But what's wrong with that?  This is art, not real life!  It's not like I stamped one part at the top of the card and the other on the bottom!  (Hmmm, might have to try that some day.)  I just like the overall effect of the two-step no matter how perfectly it's done.

     There are a few other techniques in this card (can you believe "Ms. Measure-the-pieces-and-layer-them-up" has used the word technique more than once in a blog post???)  I added some texture to the two round flowers by stamping the larger stamp several times and cutting sections out of two of them, sponging around the cut part, and then adhering it to the middle of a larger flower with glue dots. I also added some visual interest to the layering by cutting the rectangle inside of my stamped image allowing the flower on the right and the leaf in the upper left corner to hang over the edge.  This is why I'll never give up my Fiskars Paper Cutter.  This is not something you can do with the Table Top Cutter.

     Quick tutorial:

1. Lay the edge that has the image you want to leave hanging over the edge over the cutting line on the Paper Cutter. 
2. While holding the paper/card stock firmly, fold the clear ruler down over it. 
3. Note the point on the ruler where you want the cutting blade to stop so you don't cut through the image.  If it's not exactly on a measurement line, you may want to adjust the placement of your paper so that it is.
4. Start cutting from the top of the paper, stopping when the arrow in the middle of the cutting blade reaches the mark you've chosen.  In this case, I wanted the cut to stop at the 3" mark.
5. Then note the ruler mark where you want to start cutting again.  Lift the clear ruler and slide the blade down until the arrow on the blade points to that mark. 
6. Lay the ruler down and continue cutting to the end of the paper.

7.  Once you've finished with the paper cutter, trim the part of the flower that's outside your cut.

As a final note, look at the stamped image that I used for this tutorial.  It's just ONE stamp that's part of this set.  Notice how it's been designed with the filler offset a bit from the outline.

     I'm finally back to having some fun in my craft room.  Lots of work still to do to catch up with what I didn't get done during my July travels.  BUT I'm now using card-making as an excuse to procrastinate.  Gotta love having fun!  I hope you'll have fun with some paper crafting today, too!

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Finally some room to craft!

Aloha, all!

     I think it will be a long time before I leave home for a 3-week stint!  I can't believe it's taken me over a week to get my act back together, and I'm not sure I'm quite there yet.

     BUT, there is now room in my craft room to start being creative with my stamps and papers and stuff again, although Cholla, the cat, has decided that it's nice my crafting table is cleared off again so she has a place to curl up and sleep.  So I'm having to pull cat hairs off adhesive and pick up stuff she's pushed off so she can be comfortable.  If she wasn't such an old cat who may not be around that much longer, I'd just throw her out into the living room.  As it is, she's got me wrapped around her little paws.

     One of my online challenge teams this week has a challenge to use my favorite new stamp set from the 2011-2012 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog.  As I've not bought that many new stamp sets, you'd think I could say that one is my favorite.  But I've been waffling back and forth about that.  I think I've finally figured it out, though, and I'll be posting that card on Tuesday for the SUO (Stampin' Up! Only) challenge.

     For today, though, I'll share one of my other favorites.

     I'll bet that a lot of you who've looked through the new catalog haven't even noticed this one.  But I spotted it my first time through.  The stamp set is called, "Borderlines," and has three long and thin stamps that coordinate with the Hostess Designer Series Paper Set, Cheerful Treat.  The images on the stamps are 6" long, which makes them perfect for stamping just once on most greeting card sizes.  They're also great as a border for scrap layouts.

     For this card, I used two of the stamped images to accent the piece of the Cheerful Treat paper that I used for the top layer of the card.  The paper colors are Melon Mambo, Concord Crush, and Lucky Limeade.  I wanted to provide an accent for all three colors, so I stamped in both Lucky Limeade and Concord Crush and then added a bow using the brand new 1/2" Scallop Dots Ribbon in Melon Mambo.  I accented the card with some Melon Mambo and Concord Crush Card Stock, with a teeny "thank you" greeting from Teeny Tiny Wishes.

     I hope that those of you who have a copy of the newest Stampin' Up! catalog have noticed that the whole Hostess Rewards program for Stampin' Up! has changed.  Now it's more in line with how many other direct sales companies operate their purchase rewards programs.  When you have a workshop – or even spend enough yourself to qualify for workshop rewards! – you can choose some products that are available ONLY to hostesses at a special price.  For example, while other Designer Series Paper sets sell for $10.95, if you have a $150 order, you qualify to use only $8 of your $25 hostess dollars for the set I used today !  And you'll still have 17 free $$$ left to spend, either on hostess products or on ANY OTHER PRODUCT IN THE CATALOG!  I am so in favor of this program because I tend to spend a bit myself on Stampin' Up! products (maybe you've noticed?).  By January or February of any other year I'd have all the hostess stamp sets and just have to get duplicates.  No more – and no more having to select a stamp set that's not really your style, either!

     OK – off the sales kick and back to what I like most – making designs for you to enjoy and, hopefully, copy!  Here's the layout for today's card.  It really is fun to make with all those horizontal shapes!  I hope you have fun with it, too!

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Quick and Easy!

Aloha, all!

     Earlier this week I needed something REALLY quick and easy when I decided that I would, after all, take some swap cards to the Stampin' Up! convention, which is going on as you read this.  What got me started (or re-started) on the swap kick was my receipt of the stamp set, "Button Buddies."  I'd received that free from Stampin' Up! as a result of my sales during this year's Sale-A-Bration catalog period.  Nice!  But I really wanted to do something with it, and swaps seemed to be the thing to do.

     But what to do?

     For one thing, I've not done a general order of some Stampin' Up! essentials in quite some time (waiting for the new catalog, of course!) so my stash of buttons is a bit on the sparse side.  And for the other, what did I have in my repertoire that was just, well, simple? 

     This is what I ended up with.  I actually had some ribbon and some Sizzix Die Cuts out on my work table.  But once I got this far with the card, I realized that it was nice just by itself.  Nice and simple, quick and easy!  Hard to argue with that!! 

     The catalog sample using this particular stamp from the Button Buddies set shows the use of 3 buttons, one on each flower.  Being low on buttons, I just left it to one in the center.  I actually think that this is more effective, making that one flower stand out and drawing our attention to it. 

     The colors of these cards are (front) Pumpkin Pie and Daffodil Delight; (back) Marina Mist and Real Red.  Why did I pick these colors?  Because I also had some 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon in those colors (only!) and my original intent was to add ribbon and a knot.  As I write this I might still have some time to make some other cards, and I'll only be limited by the number of buttons that I have, not the number of ribbon colors, too!  The printed paper that I used for the cards is from the Patterns Stack of Designer Series Papers that come in each color family.  Marina Mist is in the Subtles Stack and the others are in the Brights Stack.  One note of caution about this design:  Make sure that you cut this paper straight so that the little polka dots are all in a straight line.  If you don't, no matter how straight you put the stamped layers on top of it, it's going to look crooked.  Guess how I know this??

     Here's the sketch for this card.  You'll be able to turn out a dozen in half an hour or less (depending on how much you get interrupted; you might well ask me how I know this, too!)

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Card for a Special Person!

Aloha, all!

     It's only 10 more days until some of my favorite Stampin' Up! stamp sets will be retiring.  It's not that I use them all the time, it's just that I know that they're there in a pinch  They're so easy to use when I just can't think of how to use the newer or more popular sets to make a quick card.

     One of these sets is Tart and Tangy, a set with four images of fruit that are a lot of fun to use with different colors.  I have a friend to whom I wanted to give a "Thank You" card and I knew for sure that I wanted to use this sentiment from a set in this year's Summer Mini Catalog, Bold Blossom.  I had seen (and even made!) cards before where the same image was stamped in one color several times, then once in a different color to make it stand out.  Since I've been going through my retiring sets to get them all organized, Tart and Tangy came right to mind.

     I wasn't sure what the layout was going to be, but to get started I stamped the four apple slices arranged in a line to fit on a 5" high strip of Very Vanilla Card Stock.  Once I saw how they stacked up, I trimmed the strip to be 1-1/2" wide and the rest of the card design developed from there.  To get the apple slices lined up, I used my Stamp-a-ma-jig  and started by stamping the red apple slice so that the tippy top of the stem was at the 2-1/2" mark.  I then stamped one green slice above it, and then arranged the other green two slices about the same distance apart from the first two as the first two were from each other.  Those measurements aren't perfect, but the whole layout works well so that really doesn't matter.

     The colors that I used for this are Read Red and Wild Wasabi.  I texturized the Real Red layer with the Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder.  As I've mentioned before, I think that, in this case, the embossing acts as an embellishment by filling up all that empty space in the upper right quadrant of this card.  I didn't want to add anything there because I wanted the apple slices to be the focal point.

     This was the second card I made with this stamp set and layout and I think I like it even better.  For one thing, it's not obvious what those slices are.  Are they green oranges and the orange one is ripe and perfect?  Or are those lime slices and the orange stands out as the sweetest one of the group.  Either way, I love the sentiment with the design!  And the colors here are the Wild Wasabi (again) and Peach Parfait.

     Enough with the thought-y stuff!  I had fun making this card, and I hope that you can use this layout for a card for some special person in your life! 

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I {Heart} Sketch Challenges!

Aloha, all!

     It seems that a lot of cards and projects that are being made right now feature Stampin' Up! stamp sets that are retiring.  But today I found myself using two stamp sets and a Stampin' Wheel that are in the current Stampin' Up! catalog AND are going to be continued on into the new catalog that will be effective July 1st of this year. 

     The whole project all started as I've been studying the new catalog (available to my customers on June 20th) for samples that I could use to make card swaps that I'll be sharing with my stampin' friends at the Stampin' Up! Convention next month.  It ended with a fab card sketch challenge at Create with Connie and Mary (CCMC-SUM04).  I combined the idea I got from browsing the new catalog with the sketch and ended up with this fun card! 

     My objective with this card was to use lots of different types of Stampin' Up! products that we, as demonstrators, could show off at a workshop without there being too much hard work.  Of course, it also means that those of you who are NOT demonstrators can also make the same type of card easily, too!   Believe me, if this wasn't an easy project, I wouldn't be making FIFTY of them for swaps!

     The easy part about the scalloped circle and all but one of those hearts is that they're either stamped or punched (the large circle with a Sizzix Die using the Sizzix Big Shot).  How easy is that!?  The stamp sets are I {Heart} Hearts and Heard from the Heart (Stamped with Concord Crush Ink), and the Wheel is called Very Vintage (stamped with one of the new colors being introduced in the next catalog, Wisteria Wonder).  The card stock shades for this card are Confetti Cream, Regal Rose and the new colors Lucky Limeade and Wisteria Wonder.  The Regal Rose Designer Series Paper pattern is from the Brights Patterns Stack, which is in both the current and new catalogs.

     The Very Vintage Stampin' Wheel is one of the Jumbo Wheels, and I cut its piece of Confetti Cream card stock to be 1-7/8" wide which is just at either edge of the stamped image.  For the strip with the sentiment on it I started with a piece of card stock that was 4-1/4" wide x 1-1/4" high.  I first punched one long edge with the Eyelet Border Punch, then stamped just above the punched area, and finally trimmed the strip to just above the stamped sentiment.

     Here's the whole layout of the card, shown a little differently today so that you can see where I used all of the Stampin' Up! products that are in this project. 

     This week, whether you make a card with 2 or 3 products or with all 17 products that I used for this project, be sure to have fun doing it!

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