RobinsCraftRoom.com

Something New!

Aloha, all!

     One of my hobbies used to be painting with watercolors.  I took several years of lessons, but that was ages ago, and I probably have forgotten more about how to use watercolor than I remember.  Nonetheless, I have had the Stampin' Up! Watercolor Wonder Crayons in my craft room since back when you could buy all the colors at once in a big tin (awhile ago!).  And even though I hadn't used them in a long time, when the new Stampin' Up! color families came out in 2010, I went ahead and ordered the updated colors of the crayons.

     Yesterday, for the first time since I ordered them, I opened them up.  In fact, when I went to the drawer in which I keep the crayons and the Watercolor Pencils, I was surprised to have to remove the paper from the packaging and then find that there were only 3 or 4 crayons in the boxes I opened!  It took awhile to remember that that's how they came back when we were able just to purchase updates for our collections.  So I think that I'm comfortable with my Stampin' Up! Only Challenge entry for the week!  The challenge was to use a new technique – or one that you've not used in a long while.  Using Watercolor Wonder Crayons with an Aquapainter certainly meets that criterion!

     The stamp set that I used for my card is one that cries out to be watercolored!  It's the set, Bordering on Romance from the Stampin' Up! 2012 Occasions Mini Catalog, and its line art is perfect for this.  For my stamped image, I combined two of the stamps to make an L-shaped image and then went after the watercolors.  I started the pink flowers with Pretty in Pink and then started adding in a big of Riding Hood Red.  I let the Riding Hood Red bleed into the Pretty in Pink for the start, and then added just a bit more at the centers when the paint had dried.  For the leaves, I laid down a base of Wild Wasabi and then some darker accents with Always Artichoke.  For the blue, I started with Baja Breeze and, just in the larger flowers, accented that color with Night of Navy. 

     It's a lot of fun making card fronts with the new Sizzix Framelits with their wonderful curves and overall shapes!  For this card, I used two of the shapes from the Labels Collection Framelits.  They cut into the Watercolor Paper beautifully – just in case you were wondering!  I accented the card with the larger lable framelit and Riding Hood Red (nice touch to bring out the Riding Hood Red in the coloring). 

     I tied the whole thing together with ribbon (what a surprise), this time Riding Hood Red Taffeta Ribbon, and accented that with one of the Trinket Hearts, also from the Occasions Mini Catalog.

     Fun card!  I hope whatever you do with your crafting today, you have just as much fun!  And maybe you can even share a project with the Stampin' Up! Only Challenge Team!

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Fun with an “Old” Stamp Set

Aloha, all!

     This is the time of the year when I start looking at all my Stampin' Up! Designer Series Paper sets and try to get them all used up before Stampin' Up! retires them at the end of June.  Stampin' Up! also retires lots of stamp sets with each new annual catalog. They retire stamps based on business decisions unknown to most of us, which means that, just because a stamp set is "old" doesn't mean it's going to be retired.  Still, as we get closer to the end of the Stampin' Up! catalog year, I start to worry that some of my favorite old-timers might not be around after July 1st.  So I try to get them out and use them a lot – just in case!

     So when I saw this week's sketch challenge from Create with Connie and Mary, I was ready to use some of those papers and an older stamp set.  One set of Designer Series Papers of which I still have quite a few sheets is Pawsitively Prints II, which was made to go with the Build-A-Bear Workshop collection of dies and stamps.  I really like the prints, plaids and stripes in that set, so you may be seeing a bit more of them over the next 7 or 8 weeks.  The paper that I chose for today's challenge has flowers in Poppy Parade, So Saffron and  Tempting Turquoise.  Actually, the solid colored paper immediately behind the print is also part of the Designer Series Paper set, in a light shade of Poppy Parade. 

     Then I had to go looking for a stamp set.  I bypassed the fabulous new stamp sets from the Stampin' Up! 2011 Summer Mini Catalog and went rummaging through my stash of "old" stamp sets. It wasn't long before I happened upon the stamp set, Simply Said.  And don't those flowers in the heart shape look like they were just meant to go with that paper?!  I stamped them with Poppy Parade ink, then colored the flowers in with the three colors in the paper, along with some River Rock to fill in some of the smaller shapes (looks like that's what they did with the Designer Paper, too).

     For the final touches, I tied a bow with some Poppy Parade 1/2" Poly Stitched Ribbon over a strip of Tempting Turquoise Card Stock cut with the Tasteful Trim Sizzix Die.  It will be fun to write a note to a friend this weekend and enclose it in this card!  That's always a fun thing to do, and I hope you take the time to send off some of your own pretty cards to your friends and family – I certainly hope you're not one of those people who makes cards and then just stores them away to use "some day"!

     The sketch for today is based on the sketch from Create with Connie and Mary.  Both Connie and Mary are two of my very favorite Stampin' Up! artists and I hope you'll take the time to join in their challenge this week, too.  So here is the sketch from the Create with Connie and Mary blog, and another sketch with the measurements that I used for my own card based on their sketch.  Have fun with whatever you do with them!

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Countdown to Christmas – in Just 10 Days!

Aloha, all!

     As I mentioned I have been whisked away for a mini-vacation by my husband as my Christmas gift this year.  But despite the fact that we were madly packing for our little getaway, I just had to jump in and participate in this week's Diva Coffee Break Design Team challenge.  It was a sketch challenge, and you who check on me regularly know that I far prefer the sketch challenges to those that require a certain set of colors.  (And I have to tell you I haven't even peeked to see what next week's colors are.  I can always hope for some Christmas colors, can't I???)

     There are quite a few Stampin' Up! stamp sets that I could have used for this sketch challenge.  But I decided to focus on the Stampin' Up! 2010 Holiday Mini Catalog.  I found two great products that really help to make a fun Christmas card (as well as other projects):  the Sizzix Scallop Square Duo Die and the fun little (well, maybe not "little" with 24 stamps!) stamp set, Jolly Bingo Bits.  The idea with the stamp set is for us to make bingo cards for Christmas Play – and, yes, there is a Bingo Card to go with it!  I can only hope that there are Bingo Bits for other seasons!  But (as often happens), I digress.

     First I cut a piece of Cherry Cobbler and Old Olive Card stock using the Scallop Square Duo Die, then I ran them back through my Sizzix Big Shot with the Petals A Plenty embossing folder.  I layered them up according to the sketch challenge on a piece of striped paper from the Jolly Holiday Designer Paper set.  Remember that I already mentioned last week that this paper really isn't stuck in one season just because it has a "holiday" name to it!  I stamped the Poinsettia Stamp from the Jolly Bingo Bits set on some Very Vanilla Card Stock, then sponged a bit of Old Olive Classic Ink on the edges before adding a gold brad to the center of each.

     I stamped a strip of Very Vanilla 5/8" Satin Ribbon with a stamp from the set Many Merry Messages.  I've been wanting to use this stamp, and finally found the perfect place for it!  Just to add a bit more color, I added a strip of Old Olive 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon on top of the Very Vanilla Strip, mounted the whole card front onto a card of Old Olive Card Stock, and I was done!

     So now I have yet another Christmas card for my card writing session this coming weekend!  Fun!

     I'll be back in town later this week and will post another card using one of the layouts in my new book!  Don't forget that I'll be giving away two copies of the book to someone who posts a comment on my blog before Christmas letting me know that she or he would like to win the book!  It will be for sale after the first of the year, so don't lose a chance to get a copy for FREE!!

     Hope you're having a great week – and I'll share some photos with you when I get back!

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One More Flower Fancy Card

Aloha, all!

     You may recall that a couple of days ago I shared a card that I made for the Divas Coffee Break Design Team that used the stamp set Flower Fancy.  I was grumbling because I really wanted to be focusing on Christmas Cards.  Well, maybe not grumbling, but….

     Well, contrary to my recently made resolution to put everything back when I'm finished with a project, I left Flower Fancy sitting out on the Craft Room work table.  And there it was when I found a SUDSOL Chat & Challenge going on.  Guess what I used?  If you guessed a Christmas stamp set you'd be wrong of course.  Why take something else out when everything was still there!  OK, those who've crafted with me know that wouldn't usually make a difference to me either because I just take new stuff out of the drawers and pile it on top of the old.  But I firmly believe in breaking only one resolution at a time.

     This time, though, I wasn't limited to a set of colors.  But what DID limit me was a discussion going on in the chat room about using Stampin' Up! Watercolor Pencils.  You know when you hear a tune and you just can't get it out of your head?  Well that's what happened when they started talking about Watercolor Pencils.  So I just had to go pull them out, dust them off and USE them!  But I had limited time, so had to be quick about it.  So I stamped up the Flower Fancy flower in Jet Black StazOn, and picked up two red/pink pencils for the flower, a green one for the leaves, and a yellow one for the background.  Out came the Aqua Painter and presto, a watercolored flower! THEN I had to go find Stampin' Up! papers that matched.  The Real Red and Regal Rose fit the bill nicely, and off I went with the sketch provided.  I didn't have any second thoughts about this card – it's a nice Get Well Card, and I'll gladly send it to someone who's ailing!

     Here's the layout as I used it – it probably doesn't quite match the layout as provided by the challenge leader.  But I'm not noted for using sketches exactly either.

     If you'd like to learn more about Stampin' Up!'s Watercolor Pencils, give me a call (808.854.6145) or send me an e-mail.  I'll be glad to chat with you about them!

     Whatever you do with this sketch or colors, have fun with it!

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Windows Redux

Aloha, all!

     Back when I first started this blog – can you believe it's been TWO YEARS!!?? – I was making my very first swaps for the Stampin' Up! Convention. One swap was a "no-layer" card and I used a round punch to make windows in the card front so that an image from the inside showed through.  Ever since then, I've used different ways of punching shapes to provide "windows" through which to view pictures. 

     Recently I came across instructions for making a 4-pane window to frame an image.  The instructions used retired products (as many of my tutorials have ended up doing! – I'll try to fix that soon).  I really liked the idea, so I updated it using, um, fairly current products.  The "fairly" in that statement is that I am not yet replacing my entire collection of punches with Stampin' Up!'s new style of punches.  While I LOVE the new style – so much easier to store as well as to use – my checkbook is not yet supporting doing all the replacement that needs to be done.  And so the instructions for making the window for this card use the still useful "old" style 1-1/4" Square Punch.  As I use this punch for a lot of my projects, and likely a lot of my tutorials, I will probably purchase the new style sooner than later.  But for now, instructions for making the window for this card are here.

     Besides the 4-pane window, you might be interested to know about some of the other Stampin' Up! products and techniques that I used to make this card.  I originally thought I'd use my Watercolor Wonder Crayons for this card.  But I really wanted to capture the lovely new color, Marina Mist.  Unfotunately that color is not available in the Watercolor Wonder collection yet.  So I decided just to use my Stampin' Write Markers to try the watercolor look.  Wow, it sure worked wonderfully!  I colored the stamp from the set, Inspired by Nature with the markers (the other colors are Daffodil Delight and Garden Green) and then spritzed them a bit with Stampin' Mist Stamp Cleaner (it's the closest spray bottle to the craft room table!).  Nice look!

     I trimmed the window to 4-1/8" x 4-1/8", placed the stamped image behind it, then adhered it to a card made of Daffodil Delight, stamped with a sentiment from that old faithful stamp set, Sincere Salutations.  The butterflies are made with the Sizzix Embosslit Beautiful Wings, and the ribbon is Marina Mist 5/8" Satin Ribbon. 

     Before I layered everything up, I texturized the window layer using the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  I have a couple of notes about that.  If you texturize with an embossing folder AFTER you have made the windows, you'll skew the shape and width of everything a bit.  But it doesn't look too bad.  I tried a sample made by texturizing the card stock FIRST, and THEN punching the windows.  All in all, I think that I like the latter technique better.  Why don't you try it out and let me know what YOU think! 

     Have fun with the project!

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On a Sad Note…

…Aloha, all!

     While I'm very happy to say that I finally have some time just for me in my Craft Room, unfortunately a good friend just passed away this past weekend.  He and his wife were among a group of people with whom we were very close when we lived in New Mexico, and my husband had just spoken with him recently, and had actually had a chance to see him when we were on the mainland in April.  This is a very sad time for many of us.

     Of course, we wanted to get a note right off to our friend in sympathy for the loss of her husband.  At the same time, I had been wanting to try out some watercolor techniques as I get ready for the series of technique classes I plan to present this fall.  So there was my card.  I really like this soft look, and all I did was add "sympathy" sentiment on the front, and then wrote our note to her inside.

     To get the watercolor look for this card, made with the stamp set, Inspired by Nature, I used this solid style stamp and Stampin' Up!'s Watercolor Wonder crayons.  I first used an Aqua Painter to damped the entire area of the stamp.  Then I used the crayons to color in the images.  I kept the watercolor crayons wet throughout the process.  If the color on the stamp started looking to thick, I applied the Aqua Painter directly to that area of color.  Once everything was colored, I spritzed the entire stamp JUST ONCE! with the same solution that I use to clean my stamps, Stampin' Mist Stamp Cleaner.  I laid this large stamp rubber side up on my work table, then laid the Confetti Cream card stock onto the stamp and pressed firmly all over the stamped image.  It really came out nicely, I think.

     I added some butterflies from the Sizzix Embosslit, Beautiful Wings, and some 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon in the Daffodil Delight color, to bring out the color of the card stock that formed the card base.  I used a bit of Chocolate Chip card card stock to mat the picture and accent the large butterfly.

     As I said, I've been able to be in the Craft Room (finally!) this week, and I have many project to share with you over the next week!

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Just Hanging in There?

Aloha, all!

Oh, my, it’s been awhile since I’ve taken the time to sit and chat.  The problem has been in the sitting, as my back has really been giving me a hard time over the past couple of weeks.  So it’s been hard to keep my focus and do everything that I’m used to doing.  But I’ve been hanging in there.

For one thing, I’ve been able to spend some time in my craft room because I do most of my papercrafting standing up.  That has nothing to do with my back; it’s just the way I like to work.  I may have to analyze that one day.  But for today, I’m going to take some time to try to catch you all up on what I’ve been doing.

To begin, I have a friend – Marcia – who has also been under the weather.  So a get well card is definitely in order.  Getting that designed and made fit right into a watercolor class that I presented last week.  For that class, we used Stampin’ Up!’s Watercolor Pencils.  These are one of the hidden gems in the Stampin’ Up! catalog.  I’ve taken art lessons on and off for the last 20 years or so, and watercolor is the medium in which I work most of the time these days.  So taking a wet brush in hand is just a delight, especially when I can use Stampin’ Up! products.

There are quite a few Stampin’ Up! products in this card, some old and some brand new.  You’ll probably recognize the "old" stamp sets, Flower Fancy and Sincere Salutations.  It seems to be that I’ve been using these sets since I became a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator.  And I never time of them.  They’re comfortable old standby stamp sets that I can turn to for every need.

What I didn’t expect was how well they coordinated with one of Stampin’ Up!’s newest product lines, felt embellishments.  You may remember the Felt Flurries of Christmas 2008.  The newest felt line, Sweet Pea Stitched Felt, has so much more to offer!.  I have to tell you that I couldn’t quite get myself to but any when we available to preorder from the 2010 Occasions Mini Catalog.  But Stampin’ Up! gave me these free when I received my My Digital Studio certification.  Can’t have something lying around and not using it, can I?!

When I get myself back to where I’m comfortable staying in one position for any length of time, I’ll prepare some kind of a tutorial on the use of the watercolor pencils.  For now, I think I’ll take a break and go walk around a bit.

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OK–A Few More Bears!

Aloha, all!

I just can’t stay away from the Build-A-Bear Workshop stuff that’s in the upcoming Stampin’ Up! 2009 Holiday Mini Catalog!  But I promise:  I’ll get to the holiday stuff really quickly!  Enough of the bears (or not).

This lovely lady is stamped on Stampin’ Up! Watercolor paper using Jet Black Stazon ink, and watercolored using Ballet Blue (you haven’t seen that color here before, have you?!) and Creamy Caramel Classic Stampin Ink.  I touched the flower in her hair with a bit of Pumpkin Pie ink.  The card stock is Ballet Blue, Brilliant Blue and Pumpkin Pie, with some Pawsitively Prints Designer Series Paper (also from the 2009 Holiday Mini).  I added a couple of Brilliant Blue brads for accent, and a greeting from the new set, Beary Nice Wishes.  Cute, huh?

And they’ll get cuter as I see all the wonderful projects that Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators are going to be producing with these great new products! 

You should be getting your mini Catalog in the mail any day now.  If you haven’t received one, I have plenty of them, and will be happy to send you one if you call (808.854.6145) or e-mail me with a request.

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A Hawaiian Touch

Aloha, all!

One of my favorite flowers in my husbands spectacular garden is the Hibiscus.  We have at least half a dozen varieties, and they never cease to catch my eye when I happen upon them.

A stamp in one of Stampin’ Up!’s brand new stamp sets, Greenhouse Garden, is a 2-Step Stampin’ Hibiscus.

In 2-Step Stampin, you first stamp the background stamp in a light or medium range color.  Then you stamp the foreground stamp in a darker color.   In the first Hibiscus, I stamped the flower itself in More Mustard, then I inked the stamp that contains the stamen as well as accent lines for the petals, in Really Rust.  You really do need a Stamp-a-ma-jig for this particular stamp set.  Some 2-Step Stampin’ Sets have a very "loose" design, and, as long as you hit the paper in the vicinity of where the stamped image should be, you’ll have a nice looking picture.

After I stamped the first flower, I realized that the Hibiscus that we have in our garden have more variety in the coloring of their leaves.  The photograph at the right is a flower that blooms pretty regularly for us.  So my next try, in the photo at the left I did on Stampin’ Up! Watercolor Paper.  I stamped the petals in Summer Sun.  Then, while the stamped image was still wet, I used an Aquapainter and blended in some Really Rust, working from the center out.  Finally, I stamped the stamen in Really Rust.

Once I get everything done that I need to do for Convention (my gosh–it’s just 10 days away!!) I may try some flowers that are a bit more colorful!

Meanwhile, if you’d either like to buy some of the great Stampin’ Up! products I’ve been showing off; OR visit our garden, just give me a call (808.854.6145).

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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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