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A Hint for Making Sympathy Cards!

Aloha, all!

     One of the hardest kinds of cards to make is a Sympathy Card, especially if you've waited until you actually need one.  The absolutely best time to make a sympathy card is when there is no thought in your mind that you or one of your friends might need it any time soon.  This came to mind when I was going through my brand-new issue of Paper Crafts Magazine and I saw a card design that seemed to me would be perfect as a sympathy card.  And, since there is no one at the moment to whom I need to send one, I took my own advice and got to work CASEing the card in the magazine.

     What caught my eye about this card was that it looked like there was a layer on top of those flowers, but at the same time, it was obvious that there wasn't!  The card in the magazine was a very simple example of a beautifully effective no-layer card.  As I wanted to use the Stampin' Up! Whisper White Patterns paper for my card, and I knew that I'd probably need some brads to spiff things up, I needed to add in some layers.  But all those stamped flowers were actually on a single layer stamped on top of the sentiment!  What I did to make that possible was to mask the sentiment (and the lines above and below) with a piece of paper (plain copy paper, not card stock) all the way across the Patterns Paper.

     This is the order in which I stamped the images:

• I stamped the sentiment, from the stamp set Loving Thoughts, with Rich Razzleberry.
• I drew the lines at the top and bottom of the sentiment with the thick end of my Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Write Marker.

Then I masked what I'd already stamped (see below for a bit more information about the masking), before stamping the rest.

• I stamped the vines (this stamp and the flowers and leaf are from the stamp set, Vintage Vogue) with Old Olive.
• I stamped the small flowers with Regal Rose.
• I stamped the large flowers with Rich Razzleberry.
• I stamped the small leaves with Old Olive.

     The real key to this whole layout is the masking.  I cut the mask so that it came just short of covering the lines drawn with the marker.  Even when you're using plain copy paper as a mask, there's a little bit of unstamped space just beyond the edge of the masking paper.  Making the mask just a teensy bit smaller than the area bordered by the lines kept that from showing.

     Also, to make this layout work well, you should mask across the entire width of the layer.  The first time I tried this I only masked the center greeting area, and some of the flower and leaf images ended up on the side of the greeting.  The result was that I lost the whole effect of the flowers seeming to be behind the sentiment "layer."

     After I finished all the stamping, I adhered the stamped layer onto Rich Razzleberry Card Stock, and added two Pear Pizzazz Glimmer Brads (they really do look good with the Old Olive Ink!) and two of the larger pearls from the Basic Pearls embellishment pack.  Finally I adhered this all to a Regal Rose Card.

     Have you noticed that I've been doing a lot of "CASE"ing (Copy And Share Everything) lately?  Some of that has to do with my seeing something and really wanting to copy it, changing it a bit using the stamps and embellishments I have in stock.  But some of it also has to do with my having been away from my stamping for so long that I really need something to jump start me!  And it's working!  I'm really feeling like I'm back in the swing of things and I'm having a blast with all this paper crafting!

     I hope you're having fun with your paper crafting, too.  It really does do wonders for one's temperament!!

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Inspiration from a Photo

Aloha, all!

     Here I am on a Monday again, and this Monday I'm already traveling on my way to the Stampin' Up! convention, which begins on Wednesday.  For now, though, I'm in the Portland, Oregon, area visiting my grandson and whichever of his relatives happen to be around while he's with me.  I'm sure you'll see some scrapbook page samples later this year with him in it!

     But Monday also always brings a challenge from the Late Night Stampers Stampin' Up! Yahoo group.  I don't always get it done on Monday, but I have a whole week to do it.  This week (and last), though, I planned well enough ahead to be right on time!

     For this week's challenge, our fearless leader gave us a photo and said, "Be inspired!"  Hmmm.  These are the tough ones.  Unless I, myself, look at a photo and think, "Ooooh, that reminds me of a Stampin' Up! design!" I usually draw a blank.  I did with this one for awhile, too.  Then, when I was working on last week's challenge, I decided to use the same layout to at least get started with this challenge.

     And here is the finished product!  The "live" color of this card is Certainly Celery, and matches the celery color in the photo pretty well.  Sunlight and flashes change colors a bit, and I'm a papercrafter, not a photographer.  So I'm leaving the picture of the card as it is!  For the accent colors I used two of Stampin' Up!'s newest colors, Island Indigo (the blue vase) and Calypso Coral (the flowers).  The other colors in play here are Whisper White, which you see a lot in the photo, and Daffodil Delight.

     Once I had the thought of flowers in a vase, I went to the Ornament Punch which is my favorite punch for making vases.  Just snip a bit of the bottom off, and you have a vase!  To make the Daffodil vase stand out a bit, I texturized it with the Finial Press Embossing Folder.  As I've done in the past, I arranged my punched piece in the embossing folder so that the design is centered on it as I wished.  It's a really easy technique!  For the flowers, I used the smallest flowers in the Boho Blossoms Punch.  To make sure I didn't waste card stock, I just cut a 3/4" strip of the card stock and stuck the end into the punch so that just that flower was punched.  As I punched each flower, I clipped the end clean and started over again.  It's a pretty quick operation, and you could even tear off the end pieces if you wanted.

     To get the flowers' little petals to stand up, I laid each on the soft Paper Piercing Pad and pushed the eraser of a pencil into the center of it until the petals came up to wrap around the earser.  I then laid the flowers where I wanted them, moved each vase a tiny bit, and marked the start and end of each stem with the very same pencil (who knew it was a doubled-ended tool!).  I sketched the stems between the pencil points with a Certainly Celery Stampin' Write Marker and adhered the vases and flowers to the card (the flowers with Mini Glue Dots and the Daffodil Vase with Stampin' Dimensionals. The finishing touch for this card are some Basic Pearls – just right the flower centers, and a nice finishing accent for the Indigo vase.

     You'll almost recognize this sketch from last Monday.  But the measurements for the rectangular layered element are slightly different.  Another difference with this sketch is that the 3 layers in the rectangular element are the same distance apart.  In last week's sketch, the top two layers are closer in measurement than the bottom layer.  Lots of ways to do this, and I'm going to cover this is a section of my new eBook, about which I'll tell you more at the end of the summer!

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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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Aloha to a Good Friend!

Aloha, all – and especially to my friend, Asifa, who will be joining a Peace Corps group before too very long.

     I couldn't possibly let a good friend go away for well over two years without a special card. 

     The last time I posted, I referred to a Valentine Card I'd made as "elegant."  I think that this card fits that description also – at least I hope it does, as I wanted Asifa to have an elegant card.  Only appropriate for a very elegant lady.

     This card is really very simple to make once you have the design laid out (see the sketch below for specific measurements) and your colors chosen.  I chose Elegant (well, if that's not appropriate!) Eggplant and Garden Green as the basic colors for the card, and Very Vanilla as the paper for the top layer.  The stamp set is one that's been around for a little while and is called, Vintage Vogue (ooh, "vogue" sounds elegant, too!).  I first stamped the vanilla card stock with the F for Friends stamp and adhered the two squares that make up that layer together before embossing it with the Sizzix Finial Press Embossing Folder (a Stampin' Up! exclusive design).  I then added some of the leaves to that layer so that they would peek out from under the flower.

     The flower is made up of three layers – two of the larger flower in the stamp set and one of the smaller.  I stamped one of the large flowers in Elegant Eggplant with the stamp fully inked, and the other with the stamp inked, stamped off once on a piece of scrap paper, then stamped onto the Very Vanilla.  It made a lighter layer to put between the smaller flower (also stamped with the stamp fully inked) and the fully-inked larger flower.  The final touch for the flower was a Flower Brad in Garden Green.

     To "tie" everything together, I wrapped some Very Vanilla 1/8" taffeta ribbon around the central motif once horizontally and once vertically, and then adhered two strips to form the tails of the ribbon "ties."  I adhered the flower to the card using two Stampin' Dimensionals to make it stand up from the card a bit. 

     This card is 5-1/4" square, and fits very nicely into a Stampin' Up! Medium Square envelope, which is 5-1/2" square.  (Remember if you're going to mail a square envelope in the U. S., extra postage (currently 20 cents) is required.)

     Here is the sketch for this card.  It's only January, and I'm already getting a good start on my 2011 Greeting Card Layouts.  If you'd like to have a copy of all my 2010 Greeting Card layouts – along with lots of extra tips and tutorials to help you make great greeting cards – you're welcome to purchase a copy of my 2010 Greeting Card Layout eBook.  Just click on the picture at the top of the column on the right for more information.  I've had rave reviews about this eBook, and I know you'll enjoy it and use it a lot!

     I hope you have fun trying this sketch out! 

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A Bit of a Vintage Diversion

Aloha, all!

     No holiday cards today!  I need a break from the holidays and it's not even November yet.  What's with that? 

     But I did have a lot of fun with today's card.  It was one of the sketch challenges from the SUDSOL Stampin' Up! Demonstrators' group.  When I saw the sketch, I immediately wondered what I could do in the way of a Christmas or Thanksgiving Card.  That's when I decided I needed the break.  So I went to that new old stand-by stamp set, Vintage Vogue.  That smallest of flowers in the stamp set would fit perfectly in the small square on the central element of the card, and I could certainly use the longer stamp from the set for an edge for the vertical element.

     Once I had all that tough decision-making done, I needed to figure out the rest of the card.  Well, there's always texture as an embellishment (have you heard that from me before?).  And what better texture than something else that's "vintage" – Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder.  This is a Stampin' Up! exclusive Sizzix Embossing Folder, and it's the perfect complement to Vintage Vogue, as well as to many other stamp sets and papers that Stampin' Up! offers.  Once I selected the colors for this card (Cajun Craze and Always Artichoke, with a card made of River Rock) it was easy to see that I needed to do some serious sponging.  So not only did I sponge the edge of all the layers, I sponged the embossed areas of the card base.  I just love the look of this.  My how my tastes have changed over the last year.  I don't think you'd have seen a bit of sponged area in any of my cards a year ago (I'll have to go look one of these days!)

     One little side note – I thought that the stamped flower looked kind of lonely just stamped on that little square.  So I stamped it again, cut it out, and adhered it on top of the already stamped image.  That gave it just the right amount of texture, I think!

     Enjoy your stamping this weekend, whether it's scrapbooks or card making.  Have fun with it!

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Still Hanging in There!

Aloha, all!

     Oh, my, am I tired!  But today I managed to squeeze in enough time in the craft room to actually design and make a whole greeting card!  Where did I get my energy?  From reading the Stampin' Up! website and realizing that tomorrow is the brand new Stampin' Up! year.  And I've managed to lose the last two months of the last year.  I'm really hoping that it won't be too long and I'll be back in the craft room on a daily basis, especially as I'll have all kinds of new toys with which to play!

     Among the new toys are the new Designer Series Papers for which Stampin' Up! is deservedly famous.  We had a few from the new catalog that we were able to pre-order to show off as teasers.  Well, I sure haven't been showing off much.  But today I really needed a break and broke open the pack of paper called Newsprint.  There was a design challenge today that called for a project using some of the Stampin' Up! Decor Stencils.  Like many of you, I was a young homemaker when stenciling was all the rage.  We stenciled walls, dressers, cabinets, chairs – if it was in the house and didn't walk, it got stenciled!

     And now here I am stenciling cards.  Lots more fun and lots less work for sure.  "Vintage" is the word around Stampin' Up! these days, and this cards has lots of it.  The stencil is from the set, Vintage Ornaments I; the stamp set that accents the card is Vintage Vogue; and the old style Newsprint paper and the distressing all around contributes to the "vintage" look.  Oh, and one last thing:  I used the Color Spritzer Tool to blow a bit of Cherry Cobbler ink onto the Newsprint, also.

     The colors that I used for this card are both brand new colors:  the red is Cherry Cobbler, which is one of the newest colors in the Stampin' Up! permanent collection.  The other is Pear Pizzazz for just a touch of accent color.  This color is one of the newest In Colors for 2010-2012 (yes colors will last for two years from now on!).  I would love to have accented the Hodgepodge Hardware frame with some Cherry Cobbler brads.  But those won't be available for us to order until July 1st (oooh, that's tomorrow!)

     Overall, this is a very simple layout for a card.  It's great for highlighting Designer Series Papers of all kinds.  You may see it more as the summer goes on and I try out all the new papers from the 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalog!

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Stampin’ Up! a Storm!

Aloha, all!

Well, it was a tsunami, not really a storm.  And it had all of us here on Hawaii's Big Island transfixed as we watched the (thankfully!) light tsunami move water in and out of Hilo Bay.  Finally we can breathe easily!

Despite the excitement, I had a stamp group scheduled for this afternoon – just a few of us getting together to test out a card and a few other designs I'm planning for some March classes.  I got the idea for today's card from two other Stampin' Up! demonstrators, Connie Babbert and Tammy Fite, both of whom are members of an online group to which I belong called SUDSOL.  The classes I'm going to be doing are made up of quite a few people who have never made anything with products such as those offered by Stampin' Up!  So I had to keep it simple.  But I also wanted it to be a nice-looking card, and one that uses some of the newest Stampin' Up! products.

This card fits the bill to a 't'!  It uses three products that are in the current Occasions Mini Catalog – the stamp set, Vintage Vogue, the set of designer series papers called Sweet Pea, and a beautiful Pretty in Pink Epoxy Brad.  I added in a scalloped edge using the Scallop Trim Border Punch that you can get FOR FREE! from the Sale-A-Bration Catalog if you spend at least $50 on a product order.

Here are the basic measurements for the sketch that I made for this card.  Think of papers and stamps and embellishments that you have in YOUR CRAFT ROOM, and I'll bet you'll make a card that's ready to present at a workshop, too!

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