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The Occasion is Valentine’s Day!

Aloha, all!

     And welcome to the SUDSOL Blog Tour!  SUDSOL is an online group of Stampin' Up! demonstrators to which I belong and it's one of the best groups for Stampin' Up! demonstrators on the web right now.  I don't have an active upline for my demonstratorship, and SUDSOL has become my 24/7 upline (one of their tag lines, and it's well deserved!)

     Today's Blog Tour features many, many members of SUDSOL, all of whom are showing off projects that we've made with products from Stampin' Up!'s 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog, which runs through April 30th of this year, or the Sale-A-Bration catalog, which runs through the end of March.  I really wish I could show off ALL of the products in these catalog because they're some of the best ever minis!  But instead, I'm going to focus on one of the "occasions" featured in the Occasions mini, and that's Valentine's Day.  In particular, I'm going to show off the Specialty Designer Series Paper set, Love Impressions, along with a few other items from the mini.

     Two of the projects I'm featuring today are mini photo albums, that can also be decorated and sent out in standard A2 size envelopes as Valentine Cards for someone special.  The patterns for both of these albums are available on the SUDSOL website, which is available only for SUDSOL members (or those who choose to sign up for a Two-Week FREE trial membership!). The third project is unabashedly a greeting card, and I had a lot of fun figuring out the design for it.

     Fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Ann Clemmer, demonstrated the first project as a presenter at a Stampin' Up! regional seminar.  It is a mini book that is so easy and so economical to make!  The inside of the book uses just one piece of card stock or designer paper, and you can decorate it with scraps from other projects – just as I did! 

I decorated the front of this little book with one of the designs from the Love Impressions Designer Paper Set, and layered on a stamped definition of Valentine that's found in the brand new stamp set, Valentine Defined (who would have figured that?!)  To give the front just a bit of pizzazz, I added Whisper White Brads, that are part of the Neutrals Brad set in the annual Stampin' Up! catalog.  The cover of the book is a piece of Textured Real Red Card Stock that was a scrap from an earlier project.  I NEVER throw any kind of leftovers away!  The book is tied closed with a piece of Real Red 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon.  I like how the white edge of this ribbon "ties" in with the rest of the decor.

     Inside there are enough pages to hold 6 photos and 6 pages of journaling – journaling is SO important in any kind of a memory book, no matter how small!

     The second project I'm sharing with you is also a photo album or greeting card, but it's a bit more labor intensive.  Nonetheless, it calls for only one piece of 12" square card stock and one piece of 12" square Designer Series Paper (guess which Designer Series Paper I used!)

Now I know it doesn't look much different on the front from the first album, except for the decorations.  But it's just slightly larger (this is a 4" square album, and the mini book is a 3" square album).  What's really different is what's inside.

But let's just take a quick look at the front before we look inside.  The heart in the center of the front is punched with Stampin' Up!'s Full Heart Punch, using the brand new Red Glimmer Paper from the Occasions Mini.  I matted it with a piece of Whisper White card stock cut with the Stampin' Up! exclusive Sizzix Embosslit, Scalloped Heart of Hearts.  What's really fun about this album front is the full border using the Scallop Trim Border and Scallop Trim Corner punches.  To find the right measurement to make the corner and border punches work perfectly together, I just headed for the SUDSOL files and there it was!  Oh, and that paper with the embossed hearts?  It's one of the "Specialty" papers in the designer series paper set!  Just gorgeous paper!  And everything's tied together with some Whisper White 5/8" Satin Ribbon.

     OK, now let's look at the inside of this album.

     Look at all those folds!  And you wouldn't believe how simple it is to make.  I know because I wrote my own version of the instructions for this album and then followed them and it took no time to get the basic album put together.  Now figuring out just the right paper for each page, and the right stamps for my journaling blocks – I did pray over that a bit.  But it was fun (I try not to do things that aren't fun!).  The stamps are also from the Valentine Defined Stamp Set, so you can see I've been making good use of that set!  And about that set of instructions – here it is! 

     And finally here's a greeting card using the other one of the "Specialty" sheets from the Love Impressions Specialty Designer Series Paper set.  The letters of the alphabet cover this sheet of paper, with the letters L, O, V, and E, highlighted in Whisper White on one side.  Unfortunately, you can't just cut that section out and put it on a 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" greeting card (portrait OR landscape).  But I really did want to use them on a card.  So I cut them out individually!  Here I punched them with the Small Tag Punch, matted them with some Pretty in Pink Card Stock, some of it punched with the Pinking Hearts Border Punch.  I "tied" the tags on with some Pretty in Pink 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon onto the other paper from the Love Impressions set, and tied the whole card front together with Pretty in Pink 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon.  The final touch was the "U" cut out of the designer paper.

     These were all SOOO much fun to make.  And I still have a big stack of paper left over from the Designer Series Paper Set!  More fun for February! If you don't have some of this fun paper, you can just order it online right now – and then go have some fun with it yourself!

     You can find these projects and many, many, many more in my very own gallery on the SUDSOL Website!  Just click here for a two-week FREE TRIAL!

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Add a Little Glimmer to Your Valentines!

Aloha, all!

     One of my favorite products in the Stampin' Up! 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog is the Red Glimmer Paper.  Wow!  Glitter and nothing on my face, my clothes, my floor (well, maybe a few scraps – but nothing that sparkles).

     And the Glimmer Paper punches up beautifully!  I have to tell you that I was really surprised at how cleanly the Stampin' Up! Heart to Heart Punch punched these little glimmer hearts.  And I really, really like the way that the glimmer paper acts as a mat as it does in this card, between two layers of the Pretty in Pink Patterns Paper from the Subtles Patterns Paper Pack.  Did you miss buying the Patterns Paper that was bundled with the Filled With Love promotion that Stampin' Up! had earlier this month?  No worries (as they say here in Hawaii)!  All of the main Stampin' Up! colors are featured in one of the Designer Series Patterns Stacks that you can find on page 175 of the Stampin' Up! 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalog. 

     There are two more products from the 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog featured in the card, too.  One is the Framed Tulips Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (you can see it faintly around the larger of the Pretty in Pink Patterns layers) and the Definition Stamp from the Valentine Define Stamp Set.  Note that on the top Pretty in Pink layer I used the Heart to Heart Punch so that the Red Glimmer Paper shows through to complement the punched hearts in the lower left corner.  I layered all this up on a piece of the Real Red Patterns Paper and then tied it together with a bow made with Whisper White 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon before adhering it all to a Whisper White Greeting Card. 

     Pretty card, I think!  And I just know you'll want to try out this layout, especially if you have the Framed Tulip Embossing Folder!  That top layer with the stamped image is sized to fit perfectly just inside the embossing of that folder.  I hope you have fun with it!

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Another Class Project – a Valentine, of course!

Aloha, all!

     I mentioned my Stamp-A-Stack class in yesterday's blog post in which I showed off one of the projects.  Today's featured card was the other project. 

     This card is based on a design featured on Stampin' Up!'s website.  I really like Stampin' Up!'s design, but I wanted to have my group make a card that would be a bit easier to put together in a Stamp-A-Stack setting, and this seemed to fit the bill.

     What's really fun about this card is that all of the products featured in the Filled With Love Bundle promotion are included in this card.  The Real Red and Pretty in Pink Patterns Papers are in this bundle, as is the stamp set, Filled with Love and the Bitty Buttons set from which the little clear heart-shaped button comes.

     The stamping is a lot easier that it might look.  The large word, "Love," doesn't have any texture to it at all and it stamps up so evenly every time.  I didn't have one instance of stamping this where it didn't come out perfectly.  With that stamped in Real Red, then I stamped the heart flower, with its leaves, using Old Olive.  Again it stamps beautifully.  Then I punched out a heart using the same paper as the Real Red Patterns Paper that's used as the first layer on the card, and adhered it with a Mini Glue Dot to the top of the "flower."  Finally, I tied a piece of Linen Thread through the holes in the heart shaped button and adhered it on top of the punched heart, again with a Mini Glue Dot.

     The strip of Real Red card stock below the stamped layer is punched with the Scallop Edge Border Punch, and then that whole layer is tied together with some Old Olive 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon, tied in a knot and trimmed a bit. 

     Fun card, and here is the sketch – yet another one for next year's card layout eBook!  For this years Card Layout eBook, just click here for more information about it and how to buy it.

     I hope you're well on your way to making a TON of Valentine cards, and that you're having as much fun with this year's Stampin' Up! products as I am!

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Back in the Craft Room for a New Year!

Aloha, all, and Hau'oli Makahiki Hou (or Happy New Year in Hawaiian)!

     What a month I had in December!  From about the middle of the month on, I was hardly in my Craft Room at all.  But last week I got it all reorganized – most of my Christmas stamps are safely packed away with hopes that not too many of them retire with the July 2011 catalog.  Of course, most of those in the 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog that won't make it into the next big catalog.  So, if you've really wanted one of those sets, today is your last chance to buy it.  You can purchase anything in any current Stampin' Up! catalog from my website.  Just go there and click on "Shop Now" in the upper right corner.

     But now I'm back in my Craft Room, and I even made up several cards yesterday.  Hooray!  I feel like I'm back among the living. 

     The first card I made to be a part of my January Stamp-A-Stack class, and I needed it to be simple enough that we can get a bunch of them made in just a little bit of time.  But I also wanted it to be something that looked like it was fun to make and had a little bit of bling on it.  I spent quite a bit of time staring at the new papers in the Stampin' Up! 2011 Occasions Mini Catalog before I realized that the "XOXO Hugs & Kisses" motif on one of the sheets  in the Love Impressions Designer Series Paper Set could be cut out neatly.  The problem was that it was just a tad too large to fit on a standard 5-1/2" x 4-1/4" greeting card.  But it's just perfect for a 6" x 3" Greeting Card, and that size card fits beautifully into the Stampin' Up! Small Open End Envelope (which can also be mailed without extra postage in the U. S.).  The background paper is also from the Love Impressions set.  Gorgeous papers and I can hardly wait to show them all to you! 

     If you're interested in attending my Stamp-A-Stack on January 15 at 10 am, just click up to the left under the label, "Subscribe," and you'll get all the information you need about this class in my next newsletter.

     Today I'm off on a small trip across the island with my husband.  But I'll be back in my craft room tomorrow morning, and will share yet another card I've made that shows off some more papers that are on sale this month.

     Meanwhile, I hope that you're also back to crafting after the holidays and are having a great time getting ready for Spring Holidays!

     Here's the layout for today's card.  Later in the week I'll share the names of those who won a copy of my 2010 Card Layouts eBook and I hope to have that ready for sale before too very long.  Just some details to which I need to attend, and I've got to set aside the time to do them!

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An Oldie But Goodie – Stamp Set, That Is!

Aloha, all!

     Last Saturday I had some free time just to play in the craft room and the SUDSOL (my favorite online group for Stampin' Up! demonstrators) challenge team had a challenge to use some old stamp set that ended up not retiring this year and that we hadn't used in a long time.

     Well, it's been a long time since I've made a greeting card with the REALLY old stamp set, Simply Said.  I went through my stash of old Stampin' Up! Catalogs, and it looks like this stamp set was new in the 2006-2007 Stampin' Up! Idea Book and Catalog!  Now this is a stamp set that has STAYING POWER!

     So, how does it look today, four years later?  Very nice, I think.  I especially like the addition of one of Stampin' Up!'s newest products, the Basic Pearls.  They accent the flowers on the heart motif beautifully, and coordinate oh so nicely with the Perfect Polka Dots Sizzix Embossing Folder.  The colors are two of my favorite pinks, Regal Rose (the darker color) and Pink Pirouette (brought back this year to the Stampin' Up! permanent color collection).  Whisper White is always a nice accent in a monochromatic type of greeting card. 

     Simply Said is a 2-Step Stampin' stamp set.  For these older stamp sets, still sold only as wood mounted sets, you really need to use the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig to line up the stamps. When I first stamped the heart motif, I began by stamping the heart in Pink Pirouette; then stamping the floral inset using Regal Rose; and finally stamping the border, again using Regal Rose.  Once the card was all done, though, I thought it might be just a bit classier to have that heart "pop out" a bit.  So I 2-step stamped it again, cut it out, then adhered it over the original stamped image using Stampin' Dimensionals.  Nice touch, I think!

     Here is the layout for this card – there's one layer with a 1/16" increment to show just a hint of color around the edges of the stamped layer.  Have fun with this!

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Another Easy Valentine

Aloha, all!

We did, indeed, get all the valentine cards I’d planned for today’s class done – in record time!  What makes the stamping part so easy is those clear blocks and the labels on the clear mounted stamps that let you know exactly where you’re stamping.  There was not one stamp that had to be redone because something was crooked or off center.  I am so hooked on these!

The card I’m posting this evening is the second of the two cards for today’s class.  It uses the same wonderfully glittery paper, Sending Love Specialty Designer Series Paper.  We used the same stamp from the Well Scripted stamp set, stamping the greeting over a heart from the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set.  I just love the way the curve coming from the "v" wraps around the top left curve of the heart.  I got this idea from a sister demonstrator but (unfortunately) I can’t remember who it was.  If anyone can tell me, I’ll be sure to include here name here.  It’s a beautiful use of the two stamps.  Another CASEd idea is to put the two pieces of punched contrasting colors strips on the right and left side of the central Designer Series Paper section.  Maybe my brain will clear later tonight and I’ll remember who gave me the ideas that I ended up putting together for this card.

Colors are Very Vanilla, Real Red and Pretty in Pink.  Next week’s Valentine’s colors are going to be in the purple family.  But I’ve still got a few more ideas for the red and pink and will be showing them off between now and then.

Oh–and all of this is fron the 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog!  Just let me know if you need your very own copy!!

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