Techniques

Make a Card for National Quilting Day!

March 19, 2021 by Robin

Card made with quilt block pattern — A Tulip Quilt Block Made with Stampin’ Up! Papers

What a great way to make a greeting card for a favorite quilter!

Aloha, all!

Several years ago, just on a lark, I decided I wanted to try to make a card front using a pattern based on a quilt block a friend was making. Every once in a while I see another pattern that I just have to try. I’ve now accumulated quite a few blocks and finally have written some tutorials so that you can easily create them, too!

The Tulip Block Card

No matter when I get the urge to try making quilt block cards again, the first pattern I come back to was that first one I tried – a Tulip Block. And isn’t Spring just the perfect time of the year to be creating that for a friend? For this card I chose to use a set of Stampin’ Up! patterned papers called Hydrangea Hill. It may be a few weeks get before Hydrangea begins to bloom. But some tulips should be thinking about blooming right about now.

Most of the blocks that I make with paper consist of little paper squares and triangles made from cutting those squares on the diagonal. But occasionally I’ll let a rectangle or two make their way into a design. The Tulip Block is one of those designs.

You may notice that I don’t have a sentiment on the front of this card. Sometimes when I make the quilt blocks, they just scream to have a bow attached. That was the case with the Tulip Block card. For this Spring-y card, I thought that a flighty double bow made with White Seam Binding Ribbon was just the thing. After that, I didn’t want to cover up any more of the pretty squares in the tulip design, as I would have done if I added a sentiment.

There’s A Quilt Block Tutorial For Sale!

The Tulip Block paper-pieced pattern is one of three quilt block patterns for cards in my tutorial booklet. Each of these tutorials includes a supply list as well as directions for putting the whole block as well as the greeting card together. While of course I love the papers I used for my samples, you can use whatever papers you like and the quilt blocks will be lovely.

Each block is sized so that it will fit on one or two layers over a 5″ square card base. This size card fits inside a standard A7 (5-1/4″ x 7-1/4″) envelope.

I usually sell this set of tutorials for $10. But today through Sunday, March 21st, it’s on sale for $5! Just click here (or on the picture on the right) for more details!

There Are Other Tutorials for Sale, Too!

At the moment I have four tutorial booklets for sale. You can see a list of each of them here. Just click on any of them to find out more about each. Going forward, I’ll be adding a new set of tutorials about once a month. The April tutorials are card layouts, and I’m loving all the samples I’m making to show them off!

So Happy National Quilting Day to all my Quilting friends – and all you Quilt lovers, too!

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!

Let the Paper Make the Card!

November 6, 2020 by Robin

Aloha, all!

Last month in my Tuesday’s Tips, I wrote blog posts about layering. Even in my Throwback Thursday posts, there was some layering. In fact, I would say that a good 75% (or more?) of cards that I design for myself involve layering in one form or another. Today’s post isn’t really a “throwback,” though it’s not current either. But I came across it on Pinterest the other day and I immediately wanted to make it again. Love the layering!

Bonus – for my Saturday post this week, I’ll be sharing another card made with the same basic layout. BUT it was inspired by a card that my sister-in-law, Deb, shared on Facebook earlier this week. You won’t even recognize it as the same layout, but it is!

A Designer Series Paper Sampler

To begin, here is the card that started my two late-week posts this week. I don’t believe I ever posted about this card on my blog, though I can’t imagine why not. This card has layer up on layer, and I love it! I also really like the way that I mixed up the three main colors – green, red and white.

But the star of this card is the Be Merry Designer Series Paper. The paper has those three main colors, with two prints having a white background and one each with red and green. I almost went right by it as a “throwback” as it’s just a bit of a toss back – only to 2017. But why not try that with 2020 paper?!

Updating My Project

This year Stampin’ Up! also has a set of papers that includes that green, red and white. Why not as it’s a classic Christmas combo.

The first thing that you might note is that the reds and greens are different. The original 2017 card is made with Cherry Cobbler and Garden Green Colors. The 2020 card, made with the ‘Tis the Season Designer Series Paper set, includes Real Red and Shaded Spruce colors. Red and green for sure, but I think with a different feel entirely.

Then you should certainly see that my measurements this year were different. I’ve been trying to make some cards with larger mats and spaces, which I think makes it easier for you and my other customers to follow along with a sketch that I might offer with the card. It’s a little late for me to be thinking about helping you out by making kits for Christmas. But Valentine’s Day is coming. I’d like to be offering you kits for making your cards. And kits without too much squeezing to get things lined up are a lot more fun that trying to find a 1/16″ border!

The Bottom Line

If you have some Christmas sentiments but don’t have an image stamp that works with the layout of the colors you’ve chosen, look at what printed papers you have in your stash. It doesn’t have to be a stamped image in those layered elements. Paper prints work, too!

The products that I mentioned above, as well as the other products I used in this project, are shown in the carousel below. The stamp is from the Christmas Gleaming Stamp Set, and the gold twine is from the Tag Buffet Kit which I showed off last week as a Card buffet. Be sure to click on any of the icons if you’d be interested in buying any of these products. My big recommendation today is that Tis the Season Designer Series Paper set. You can make amazing projects with it!

Happy Stamping whatever you’re making this weekend!

Curvy New Products!

November 3, 2020 by Robin

Aloha, all!

Today is the first day that my Stampin’ Up! customers can order a whole new line of Stampin’ Up! products. It’s called Curvy Celebrations. And it’s not just Christmas! This set of products includes a bundle that will be featured in the upcoming January – June 2021 Mini Catalog. And yes, you get a pre-order just as we do. What, you haven’t even finished with Christmas let alone started thinking about spring? Well, me neither. Which is why I’m focusing today on the OTHER part of Curvy Celebrations – the Christmas part!

The stamp set is Curvy Christmas, and it goes perfectly with part of the new bundle also being offered – the Curvy Dies.

Matching the Curves

One of the best features of a Photopolymer stamp is the ability to maneuver it into slightly different shapes. Today I’m going to share with you how I worked with the Curvy Christmas Stamp Set to make two of the linear stamps follow the curves that I wanted them to follow.

This is the card that I made using both the Curvy Christmas Stamp Set and the Curvy Dies.

And this is a picture of the Stamp Set. You can see that the curves on the card are a bit different from the curves in the stamp set picture. To make the stamps the shape that I want them, I die-cut the cardstock before I stamp.

The Stamparatus Is the Key

Here are the steps that I took to make the stamp set match the curves that I chose for my card.

Step 1: I measured the height of both the sentiment strip and the tree strip. I added those together and added the amount of space I wanted to be between the two stamped images. It ended up that I wanted the cutting edges of both dies to be about 1-5/8” to 1-3/4” apart.

Step 2: I placed the Whisper White Cardstock I was using on the Stampin’ Cut and Emboss Machine’s Magnetic Cutting Plate. But I also put a piece of plain copy paper underneath the cardstock.

Step 3: I arranged the two dies at the distance apart I wanted them and ran them and both the cardstock and plain paper through the Machine at the same time.

Step 4: I placed only the cardstock in a corner of the Stamparatus. Then I closed the plate of the Stamparatus and laid the plain paper shape directly over the cardstock shape and used transparent tape to tape the plain paper in place. The photo is at the left.

Step 5: I opened the plate and attached each of the stamps to the plate arranging them along the line of the curves. The photopolymer stamp will stick to the plate where you put it regardless of where its natural curve is. Make sure that stamp know YOU are in charge!

More About This Card

The Shaded Spruce and White Polka Dot paper and the Cherry Cobbler and White Stars paper are both from the Classic Christmas 6” x 6” Designer Series Paper set that is being offered with the Curvy-themed products. I stamped the images using Shaded Spruce Ink, and I embellished the card with stars and Gold Tinsel Trim from the Most Wonderful Time Product Medley (already in my collection and maybe yours).

What’s Being Offered as Part of Curvy Celebrations

There are four items that you may purchase, beginning Tuesday, November 3rd, as part of this Stampin’ Up! Promotion:

The Quite Curvy Bundle, a product featured in the next Mini Catalog. This includes the Quite Curvy Stamp Set and the Curvy Dies. Product # 156228, $41.25 USD/$55.75 CAD
The Christmas Curvy Photopolymer Stamp Set. Product # 155364, $21.00 USD/$29.00 CAD
The Classic Christmas 6” x 6” Designer Series Paper. Product # 155969, $11.50 USD/$15.75
The Quite Curvy Variety Bundle, all the above. Product # 158396, $70.50 USD/$96.00 CAD.

The stamp set that will be in the next Mini Catalog is just as beautiful as the Christmas Stamp Set. But I’m so busy getting ready for the holidays right now, that I think I’ll wait for a bit before I start thinking about Spring!

The Bottom Line

My personal opinion is that this is a promotion that can’t steer you wrong. For one thing, once you’ve mailed out your last Christmas card you may be SOOO ready for something new for the spring. Why not get a head start on that so you’re ready to start making friendship and birthday cards as soon as possible!

Happy Stamping!

Layering with Printed Papers!

October 29, 2020 by Robin

Aloha, all!

Since I managed to sneak a Throwback card into my Tuesday’s Tips Layering post earlier this week, I thought I’d sneak a Layering post into this week’s Throwback Thursday. Whenever I go looking for Throwback Thursday projects, I inevitably find layered cards – it’s something I’ve been doing since I started Stampin’ Up!

Layering with Designer Series Papers

Last week in one of my Tuesday’s Tips posts on layering, I used Designer Series Paper – Stampin’ Up!’s double-sided printer papers – for layering a few Halloween Cards. After I did that, I went looking for layering that I did with printed papers in the past. That’s why this layering post has ended up as my Throwback Thursday post.

This card, which I made in November 2009, has four different prints that form its background. The name of the Designer Series Paper set was Holiday Lounge, featuring the colors Taken With Teal and Ruby Red. Neither of these colors is in the Stampin’ Up! catalog these days. But the colors did make me think of green and red, and there are plenty of printed papers in 2020 that have that color combination.

Choosing a 2020 Set of Papers to Use

As we are quickly (two more days of October?) approaching November, I thought I should go through my stash of printed papers from the Stampin’ Up! August – January 2020 Mini Catalog. It’s very rare that any mini catalog papers carry forward, and I definitely don’t want to waste any. I actually found a set of papers that I do believe I’ve used only once so far this season – Trimming the Town Designer Series Paper.

I bought this set of papers for one reason only – the pretty monochrome prints that are on the “back” of the main designs. The main designs feature houses and other buildings, with images that complement them – wreaths, trees, and people are three. But the Real Red, Old Olive and Misty Moonlight sheets are what really appealed to me. One of those prints is the largest rectangle on this card. I do believe that’s what I did with the card with the same design back in 2009!

Figuring Out Which Designs to Use

The measurements for the four pieces of printed papers in the original card were very easy to figure out as I’d photographed that card straight on. I just digitally cut the card out and stretched it to 5-1/2″ wide by 4-1/4″ high. Then I created little rectangle shapes around the layers. So I was determined from the start to use those measurements. Darned if it didn’t work out just the way I wanted it to, though I do have to say my ruler got a work out trying to measure all those designs!

And Then There Were the Colors

My favorite monochrome design in this set of papers is the Misty Moolight design with white stars. While I really wanted to use it for this card, there just didn’t seem to be enough blue in the paper’s I’d chosen to make it work. Besides, I’d started with this project thinking green and red. So Real Red and Old Olive Cardstock it was, and the Real Red monochrome design took over the big spot.

The Finishing Touches

As you’ll see in Saturday’s post, one of the stamp sets that’s been out on my work table all week is the set called Tag Buffet. (Other projects have been done on top of this projects materials – what a mess!). And right there in front of me was a large “Merry Christmas” stamp that does a great job of mimicking the same sentiment from 11 years ago. So I stamped it using Real Red Classic Ink and matted it with Real Red Cardstock. And of course I wanted an embellishments in the corners as in the original. Out came the All The Trimmings Embellishments, from the same suite as the printed papers! So there are little Real Red dots in the four corners of the sentiment layer, and the card is finished!

The Bottom Line

As with just about any Throwback Thursday post, the bottom line is that, if you need some inspiration for a new project, you really only have to start going back over projects that you’ve made in the past. It doesn’t have to be as far back as 11 years ago. But it can be! Here’s the problem – you have to either have the card in your stash (after all that time????) or you have to have photographed it. Your projects are all wonderful enough to photograph – don’t forget that as you craft this season or any season!

Happy stamping – and take a picture of what you do!

Don’t forget – you can click on any of the icons below as they march across your screen to go directly to my Stampin’ Up! store to order them! You can even click the “Add All to Cart” link to buy them all! You can make a lot of cards with this set of products. All you need to add is some scissors and adhesive! If you do order from this post, I’ll e-mail you the layout for this project as well as some others to use with this set of papers!