Die-cutting and Embossing

A Big “Thank You”!

April 6, 2021 by Robin Leave a Comment

This is the design of one the Thank You Notes that I’m sending to my customers who purchased either Stampin’ Up! products or my own personal tutorials in March. I am so grateful for everyone who helps me to be successful at what I do, but especially my Stampin’ Up! customers. Today I have some tips for designing and making multiples of a fun card.

Aloha, all!

There was a time when I considered myself fortunate to need one or two Thank You Cards. Then I saw how many I needed to make for last month. I thought that I was going to have to scale back to simpler cards. But what fun is that, especially when I’m so appreciative? I had to do something more than a basic single layer, stamped card.

Start With Some Patterned Paper

One thing that does not come naturally to me is choosing colors for a project. So one of the keys to choosing colors is to choose some patterned paper – and of course, I use Stampin’ Up!’s Designer Series Papers – and then go with combinations of some of the colors. For today’s project I chose some paper that’s going to be retiring, Ornate Garden Specialty Designer Series Paper.

Once I saw the colors in that paper, there was another retiring product in one of the colors that it featured. I’ve loved the Terracotta Tile color since Stampin’ Up! first introduced it two year ago. But, for the most part, those In Colors only stay in the catalog for two years. So Terracotta Tile became one of the colors I was going to use. Going through the other colors gave me the idea to do something with flowers for the card and make the leaves Old Olive.

Now that I had my colors, I went back to the Ornate Garden Papers and chose the Terracotta Tile Monochrome Print from the paper set. As I knew that the other color was going to be Old Olive, I chose that for the cardstock that would serve as a mat for the patterned paper.

Then I cut some simple layers of Basic White Thick Cardstock, Old Olive Cardstock, and the Ornate Garden print. Without gluing them together, I just studied the layout for a bit. That’s when I remembered that I’d just bought the Pierced Blooms Dies. I could use even more of the Terracotta Tile and not have to worry about stamping and cutting a lot of flowers. All I needed to do what to add another color. It wasn’t too long before I found Night of Navy Cardstock and my color palette was complete.

How I Made It Quickly – the Die Cutting

If you use the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss machine, you know how long it takes to run just one set of plates through the machine. Even though the result is worth the time and effort, I try not to have to make too many runs. But I wanted lots of flowers and I was going to be using three colors of cardstock. It didn’t take me long to realize that having the exact floral layout on each of the many cards that I as making would take a lot of time. But anyone who receives one of these cards is only going to see the one card I sent. How are they going to know what the other cards look like? (OK, they can read my blog post. But still.)

So I took every flowers in the die set and ran it through the machine four times. There! Lots of flowers both large and small. Same thing with the leaves, though I only needed the one color (Old Olive). This was really going to be quick!

Unfortunately, I couldn’t die-cut that rectangle from the Stitched So Sweetly Dies more than one at a time because I have only one die. The good news was that I only needed one per card.

How I made It Quickly – the Assembly Line

I think that a key to getting stuff done quickly is to do it as an assembly line, even though I’m the only assembler. First I die-cut the rectangles. Second, I mounted the “Thank You” stamp from the Free as a Bird Stamp Set onto a Stamparatus plate and whipped out the stamping in all the cards in short order. Then I glued together the two main layers and stamped rectangle, again for all of the cards. Then I cut and tied the bow, made of retiring Terracotta Tile Ribbon from the Ornate Garden Ribbon Combo. I glued the ribbon-tied layers to the card base and started in on the flowers. Oh, and by the way. That beautiful ribbon is going to be retiring, too.

Here’s another tip. Lay the flowers out just like you want them to look on the final card. Then take a quick cell-phone photo before you take them all off and start gluing. With this many elements, that picture really helps. After you get the first card done, you can delete the picture and just make the rest of the cards using the first one as an example.

The Bottom Line

First of all – wouldn’t you like to have one of my Thank You Cards? There are two ways to get one. One is to buy some Stampin’ Up! products from my very own Stampin’ Up! Store. Click here or on any of the icons in the slide show below. Another is to order one or more of my tutorials in my Tutorial Shop right here on my website. The extra benefit is that you’ll have new things to play with in your own studio!

Then there are all those retiring Stampin’ Up! products. Again, you can find all of them in my Stampin’ Up! store. There’s also a list of what’s retiring on May 3, 2021, right here.

Have a great time crafting this week!

Another Valentine Fun Fold!

January 29, 2021 by Robin

Easel Fold for Valentine’s Day

Aloha, all!

On Wednesday I showed you a fun variation on the traditional easel card. And, yes, if you haven’t seen a “traditional” easel card, I’ll be sharing one in a few days. Anyway, after I’d had so much fun making Wednesday’s Vertical Easel Card, I managed to come across yet another twist on the easel card idea. It’s a Diagonal Easel Card. I just saw the card and figured I could come up with a sample myself without instructions. And I did!

A Square Card That’s Simple to Make!

My vertical easel card started as a 5″ square card. I enjoyed looking at that square card so much that I decided to make today’s card square also. It’s another 5″ square, and that creates lots of room for decorating. Not only that, the diagonal design allows you to adhere the center element right onto the card front. There’s no need to create a base on which that element rests, which is what I had to do with the vertical easel.

Snail Mail – What Fun!

Do you see all the snails on this card?! I love that the snail stamp from the Snailed It Stamp Set is carrying an envelope with a heart – perfect for Valentine’s Day! There are even versions of that cute stamp printed on the Snail Mail Designer Series Paper set. I did managed to hide those two on this sheet of paper. But you can still see a bit of the heart-sealed envelopes in a couple of places.

I Couldn’t Resist Using Paper Pumpkin Elements

I have two thoughts when it comes to using Paper Pumpkin elements on projects I share here. One thought is, “Why share it when your readers can’t buy it?” That’s because, once a Paper Pumpkin kit is shipped, you can’t say, “Ooooh, I want this” and then go order it. It’s no longer for sale. The other thought is, “Maybe if they see how much fun these kits are they’ll subscribe!” It’s that thought I like best. I have been having so much fun with Paper Pumpkin kits lately, and I’d like you to have the same kind of fun. Of course occasionally I’ll see the promotional e-mails that all Paper Pumpkin subscribers get and think, “That’s not for me.” So I pause getting the kit for that month. I’ve only really regretted that move once.

There are three elements on this card that are from the January 2021 Paper Pumpkin kit. The first is the smaller of the snails on the heart. January’s Paper Pumpkin kit was Valentine Cards, and that snail was in the stamp set that shipped with the kit. So cute! She’s facing towards the right in the stamp, but I used a Silicone Craft Sheet to create a mirror image of the stamp.

The second element from the Paper Pumpkin kit is the “hi, valentine!” sentiment. I stamped that using Real Red Ink and then punched it out using the Classic Label Punch. Finally, I added some of the Blushing Bride Resin Hearts that I had left over from the kit. You can see one of them up in the right corner of this picture.

The Many Hearts Die Set

I’d loved the way that the hearts in my last easel card layered up to make a very nice center element. So back I went to the Many Hearts Dies set for this card as well. I die-cut the scalloped heart in Real Red Cardstock, and then added another print from the Snail Mail Designer Series Paper set. The snails were going to make the layer busy enough that I didn’t think I needed another layer.

I frequently forget to stamp the inside of my cards. By the time I finish a card front, I already have an idea for the next card and that’s where my attention goes. But, with the Easel-style cards, something has to go inside for the card front to rest against to keep it popped up, making an easel. So while I’m there, I might as well decorate.

For today’s card, I repeated the Heart-printed paper that’s in the background on the large center heart. But I wanted something a little bit frillier to go with this cute card. So back to the Many Hearts Die set I went. I cut out the very dainty string of outlined hearts to add to the printed paper. I found that the best way to attach the heart strip to the paper was to apply a strip of transparent tape to the bottom of the strip and then attach that to the back of the paper. The tape helps keep the heart strip steady as you’re attaching it. Then it keeps it in place on the paper – as transparent tape is supposed to do!

Finally the Stopper

You want something that’s solid and thick to act as a stopper for the easel card front. Those flimsy little hearts were not going to work. Then I found a little heart die in, yes, the Many Hearts Dies. It fit almost perfectly over one of the outline hearts. I added a Stampin’ Dimensional to the back of the heart and, voilà! A stopper that did the trick. Oh, and there’s another of those Paper Pumpkin resin hearts.

The Bottom Line

So much of what Stampin’ Up! makes for you to buy coordinates with other Stampin’ Up! products. Usually those products are all featured in a “suite” of products. But Paper Pumpkin is starting to do more and more to coordinate with current catalog products. In fact, the latest from the Paper Pumpkin creative crew is that they’re going to be doing more of this. It makes so much sense to me.

I was so excited to be able to use products from this month’s kit that went perfectly with a suite in the January – June Mini Catalog. Maybe you might think about signing up for a subscription. And don’t forget that the price of a subscription counts towards Sale-a-bration FREE products! I’ve added the various Paper Pumpkin Subscription kits in the slide show of products below. If you click a link it will take you right to my Stampin’ Up! store if you’re interested!

Happy Stamping!

Enjoy the Moment Stamp Set – Even Brighter!

January 25, 2021 by Robin

Aloha, all!

This will be just a quick update on a post from last week about the new Enjoy the Moment Stamp Set. At the time that I wrote that post I’d not yet received one of the cards I was supposed to have received from the swap a few friends and I did. Now I have it and I just had to share it.

The Colors Don’t Have to be Earth Tones!

Every single card that I’ve seen made with this set, including mine, have shown off Stampin’ Up!’s brown colors or at least earth tones – as in the greens I used in one of my cards. As the images in the set are all seed pods, which typically are brown, earth tones seemed to be the way to go. But that’s not what my friend, Shari did. She went full out the other way – to a pastel rainbow of sorts. There’s not the least bit of brown in this card!

What a Nice Job of Emboss Resist!

You probably haven’t read anything from me about emboss resist in years. In fact I can’t remember if I’ve ever shared an emboss resist sample in the dozen or more years that I’ve been been writing the Robin’s Craft Room blog. It’s a technique in which you stamp an image using VersaMark (colorless) ink, emboss the image using White or Clear Embossing Powder (usually), and then sponge color over the image. The color stays on the cardstock but does not stick to the embossed area. It’s such a cool technique, and Shari did a lovely job showing off all those seed pods.

And Why Don’t I Do This?

Emboss resist – in fact, emboss anything, is really easy. You may have to practice a time or two. But there’s not much of a learning curve. But even when I lived in our house and had a large craft room, I had a cat. So getting out a heat tool and embossing powder was a bit of a project in terms of paying attention to where the cat was. As the best view of our garden was from my craft room, that’s where she was. Now that I’m in a small apartment, with my cat over the Rainbow Bridge, it’s a project to get everything out and onto a work table. Something has to be put away for that to happen. But I’m going to have to do it sooner than later if I’m ever going to use the Gold Leaf that’s in the Stampin’ Up! January – June Mini Catalog! Then maybe when it’s out I’ll try some emboss resist before I put everything away. I’ll be sure to let you know.

The Bottom Line

Stamping is art work. Remember that there are 50 Stampin’ Up! colors. Any image can be any one of those colors. Take out one of your stamp sets and imagine it in a color it’s probably never seen before. Then go for it!

Happy Stamping!

The New Sand & Sea Suite from Stampin’ Up!

January 11, 2021 by Robin

Aloha, all!

Several posts ago I shared with you some cards I made using the new FREE Berry Blessings Bundle from this year’s Sale-a-bration Brochure. Two of those cards were fun fold pocket cards. At the time I promised that I would write a tutorial for both of the cards I demonstrated. And I finally have them done. Life has just gotten in the way, but things are settling down a bit. So now I can once again start using all those wonderful new products I’ve been neglecting. One of the product lines that’s getting my attention first is the Sand & Sea Suite from Stampin’ Up!’s new 2021 January to June Mini Catalog.

Stamps, Dies and an Embossing Folder – and all match!

It’s often the case that a Stamp Set has a set of Dies with shapes that cut out the stamps. But in the case of the Sand & Sea Suite, there’s an embossing folder – the Seashells 3D Embossing Folder – that matches the largest die. I made the card above using all three. And, no, I do NOT have to write a tutorial about how to make this. Here are the steps:

1. Die cut Basic White AND Soft Seafoam cardstock using the largest (full card-front size) die in the Seaside Seashells 3D Die Set. Set the Soft Seafoam die-cut aside.
2. Stamp the shell shapes on the Basic White die-cut using the stamps from the Friends Are Like Seashells Stamp Set. For this card, I used Flirty Flamingo, Balmy Blue, and So Saffron Ink.
3. Lay the stamped die-cut cardstock inside the front of the Seashells 3D Embossing Folder, lining up the shells with the embossing folder depressions. Close the embossing folder and run it through the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine.
4. Line up the Soft Seafoam die-cut in the embossing folder and emboss it with the Cut & Emboss Machine.
5. Cut around the seashells that have been stamped on the Basic White Cardstock wherever a seashell is connected to another image.
6. Using Multipurpose Liquid Glue, adhere each stamped/embossed seashell over the same image on the Soft Seafoam

That’s all there is to making the die-cut, stamped, and embossed image on the front of the card above!

Finishing This Card

To make this a complete card, all I had to do was to cut a piece of the Sand & Sea Designer Series Paper 4-1/4″ wide by 5-1/2″ high and adhere it to a Basic White Thick card base. I used Multipurpose Liquid Glue top adhere the finished image to the card front and added a sentiment from the same stamp set, stamped in Night of Navy Classic Ink.

And You Can use the Shells by Themselves!

Thinking back to the two pocket cards I showed off before I thought I’d try them out with the Sand & Sea Suite products. This is a remake of the Landscape Fold Pocket Card. I created the element on the front of the card using two seashells that I cut out of a completed die-cut/stamped/embossed piece. On the inside I simply stamped some shells. These are all Flirty Flamingo and Balmy Blue stamped.

The card on the right is the Double Triangle Pocket Card. I added a shell on the triangle on the left side, cut from the same piece as the shells on the other card. I still have a few shells left for yet another card (or two!).

The Bottom Line

I have to say that there really isn’t YET a bottom line for this suite of products. It has such endless possibilities, and today I’ve just scratched the surface. For many of you, there’s snow on the ground and seashells are not exactly on your mind right now. But once things warm up, you’re going to find a LOT of use for this beautiful set of products.

Happy Stamping!

It’s Assembly Line Time!

November 20, 2020 by Robin

Aloha, all!

Every year my husband and I send out about 100 Christmas Cards. We’ve been at this a long time, and really enjoy keeping up with friends that we’re lucky to see every two or three years in the best of times. This year, not really the best of times for most of us, I think it’s even more important to touch base with our friends, old and new.

I started making Christmas Cards back in August when I was first able to get my hands on some of Stampin’ Up!’s 2020 Holiday stamp sets and papers. And each card that I made was unique. Different designs, different colors, different products to make it. But Halloween came up, we had all too many sympathy cards to send this fall, and then there was Thanksgiving. Here it is the week before Thanksgiving, and I have only 64 cards made. I need another 36. (I always was good at math.) Twenty of those are going to be made with my November Paper Pumpkin kit materials. The other 15 are all going to be alike, but they’ve got to be as nice as all the others.

The Secret Is Setting Up An Assembly Line

Are you an avid cook? I am. And I definitely know how to make sure I’m not in the kitchen for hours on end chopping and dicing before I even get started on the cooking. The secret is to do the chopping and slicing and dicing earlier in the day – or even the day before – I’m planning a special meal.

It’s that way with a special card. The card-making session would get way too tiring, and I’d be way too grouchy, if I tried to make all those nice cards from start to finish all at once. Besides, I get tired of those cards pretty quickly. The key is doing the cutting and stamping and coloring over time, and definitely before the big day of card construction. The photo above shows where I am as I write this, preparing to put all those cards together this weekend.

Figuring Out the Papers

Cutting the Crumb Cake Cardstock for the card base was no problem. I always keep lots of extra Crumb Cake around. But when making 16 cards, especially a slimline card such as this card, it can get tricky trying to find all the right kinds of papers for any layer that requires Designer Series Paper. For this card there are two such layers. Yes, I could have bought enough sets of paper to make sure I had the identical papers for each card. But then what was I going to do with all the other sheets in that paper set? I’m not thinking of anything practical, that’s for sure.

But I did scrape around my paper stash and found some Real Red pieces for the background and Shaded Spruce pieces for the layer under the sentiment. The red mostly came from the Heartwarming Hugs paper set and the greens from the Tis The Season paper set.

The ribbon was a different matter. While I used the Real Red Braided Trim for the card I originally designed, it turned out that I had more of the Crumb Cake 3/8″ Linen Trim. So, for the mass-produced cards, Crumb Cake it is. It will go very nicely with the Crumb Cake Cardstock card base.

The Holly Elements Needed Some Cutting

I actually only bought the Joyful Holly Stamp Set because it looked like my Brother Scan ‘n Cut machine would be able to cut those designs out like a champ. Neither the stamp designs nor the Scan ‘n Cut disappointed me. The best part about the holly designs is that there’s an outline stamp and a fill stamp. Out came my Stamparatus and stamping the Just Jade Ink fill into the Shaded Spruce Ink outline was so slick! Even though the stamp set does have a stamp to fill in 3 holly berries at a time, I had decided to fill those using the Red Rhinestone Basic Jewels. There are 220 pieces in the pack of Rhinestones and 2 packs will be more than enough to make the bling for this card. All Christmas Cards should have some bling!

Stampin’ Up! Tools To the Rescue!

The tool that really came in handy for the last part of the card was the Stampin’ Cut and Emboss Machine. I ran both the Real Red Cardstock mat for the stamped element AND the Whisper White Cardstock for the stamped layer through the machine together. Those 16 runs through the machine went so fast with the smoothness of the new machine. Love it! Both of these dies come from the Ornate Frames Die set.

Not only did I used the Stamparatus for stamping the holly, I used it for stamping the sentiment on those little pieces of white cardstock. I simply put one of the cut-out negative pieces into the Stamparatus, lined up the stamp from the Christmas Gleaming Stamp Set and then stamped each of the 16 sentiment layers using Real Red Ink zip, zip, zip! Love my Stampin’ Up! tools!

The Bottom Line

It may seem like stamping 16 layered and embellished cards can be a real chore. Buttake a break from other activities every once in a while over a few days and just work on one section of your project. By the time you’re ready to set aside an hour or two for the construction of all those cards, the real work will have been done. You’ll feel good and creative while you’re making the card. And the card really will have been made with love. Those who get one of those cards will surely know that!

Now go get going on those Christmas Cards – and have fun with it!