Robin Messenheimer, Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

A Christmas Card for Friends Who Knit!

December 24, 2020 by Robin

Aloha, all!

On Tuesday I chatted about a gift that I made to give to my friends who knit warm hats and other items for people less fortunate than they are. Today I’d like to share the cards that I made to go with the gift.

Using the Retired Embossing Folder Again

As I mentioned on Tuesday, I used the retired “Winter Knit” 3D embossing folder for the tags I made for my friends. I originally thought of that embossing folder when I was considering what kind of a Christmas card I would make for them this year. So to go with the gift, out came the embossing folder again.

A Square Card?

One of the reasons that you rarely see me share a square card has two parts. The first is that I really do like my envelopes to fit my cards. The second is that, if I mail a square card in the United States and use an envelope that fits, I have to put more postage on it. That’s because the machines that the Postal Service uses reads addresses along the longer side of an envelope. If there is no longer side, the envelope cannot go through the automated system making the cost to process it higher. While I don’t mind the extra cost all that much, it’s a lot easier to use a stamp that you can buy anywhere.

On the other hand, if I don’t have to mail a card, why not make it square?! And, since I’m handing this gift over to my friends in person, I could do something a bit different just for them.

Choosing the Colors and Design

At this point in December, I don’t have much left in the way of holiday Designer Series Papers. Much of what I have left is from a set of papers that I neglected to use mostly because I didn’t care much for many of the designs. But I kept forgetting about the “other” side of those papers. So I chose two designs from the Trimming the Town Designer Series Paper set (already sold out – lots of people liked it!). That led me to the colors I chose for the cards: Misty Moonlight and Real Red.

The design of both cards is identical. I started with a 5-1/4″ square card, with a colored cardstock card base and built up from there. Speaking of retired products: if you happen still to have one of the Envelope Punch Boards sold by Stampin’ Up! several years ago, the size paper you’d need for an envelope would be 8-1/2″ x 8-1/2″ beginning with the first line at 4-1/4″.

And Then the Accents

I chose the sentiment that began “Warm Wishes” for this card as I thought that built on the knitting theme. After all, knitted stuff keeps you warm, right? To accent the Misty Moonlight sentiment layer, I added a strip of the Faux Linen Ribbon (white) under the piece that I punched with the Label Me Fancy Punch. For a bit more pizzazz, I tied on a piece of Misty Moonlight/Silver Baker’s Twine. Both the Faux Linen Ribbon and the Twine are included in the Flowers for Every Season Ribbon Combo Pack.

For the red card I used a strip of Real Red Double-Stitched Satin Ribbon tied with a piece of Whisper White Baker’s Twine. Is this yet another retired product I’m using here? NO!! Whisper White Baker’s Twine is making an appearance in the upcoming January-June Mini Catalog as part of a Baker’s Twine Combo Pack. More about that come January!

The Bottom Line

If you were fortunate enough to buy the Winter Knit 3D Embossing Folder when it was for sale last year, good for you. It’s definitely a keeper, and now you have yet another idea about how to use it! But if you did NOT buy it last year, this design will work nicely with lots of other embossing folders, including those that are for sale now. And it doesn’t matter if you are reading this in December 2020 or any other time. This is a fun, simple square card layout, with lots of possibilities!

Happy Stamping!

A One-of-a-Kind Gift!

December 22, 2020 by Robin

Aloha, all!

I am at a stage in my life where it’s rare that I either give or receive gifts at Christmas time. That’s not to say I’m neglected nor that I’m neglecting others. It’s just the way it is. That’s why my sharing a gift that I made for a friend is a rare occurrence. But it’s one of those times that I just knew that I could make the perfect gift for my friend. And, of course, I had to make a box to hold it.

First the Box

It would not surprise me if you haven’t seen this paper before. That’s because it’s brand new Stampin’ Up! Specialty Designer Series Paper that will be in their newest Mini Catalog. That catalog runs from January 4 – June 30, 2021. The paper set just has three prints, all of which are single-sided with metallic floral designs. There are 4 sheets of each print in Rococo Rose, Blushing Bride and Sahara Sand. And they are all gorgeous!

The box is a simple, standard design, made in a size that fits the gift that I made. It’s 2-1/4″ x 7″ x 1″. To make it, I used the Blushing Bride design with its Copper metallic accents.

The Belly Band is Next

There’s another element on this box you’ve not seen before, either. The Blushing Bride Metallic Ribbon is absolutely amazing. One side of the ribbon is a satin ribbon in the Blushing Bride color. The other is a weave of what looks like copper and some more Blushing Bride. While I love the colors, it does take some twisting and turning to make the bow have only one side of the ribbon showing off. But, hey, it’s fabric. It’s made to be manipulated!

To make the Belly Band around the box, I cut a 1″ strip of Copper Foil and then tied the ribbon around it. I placed some Mini Glue Dots under the ribbon at the bow and several placed around to the back of the Copper Foil. It slips off and onto the box beautifully.

And Finally the Gift Itself

My friend and her mother spend much of their spare time knitting gifts to be sent to shelters and other places that help those in need stay warm during the winter months. This year they sent out several boxes of hats and blankets and other items, even as far away as Alaska. And, while they did include a note in each box, none of the individual items had any tags. A tag can serve many purposes including the size of the item or even just a note saying, “Made with love.” We talked a bit about this last week and my friend thought a tag would be a good idea and I could see her brain working out the details of making tags in the future. So why shouldn’t I jump start the effort!?

I had already decided that I was going to use the retired 3D Embossing Folder, Winter Knit, to make Christmas cards for my friend and her mother. Why not use them to make tags!? And so I did.

Each of the tags is a 2″ square card. The embossing folder is 6″ square, so I was able to get seven 1-3/4″ squares for the tag front out of one embossed 6″ square piece of cardstock. I wanted the front of the tags with the star shape to have a full star, and there are only four full stars on one sheet. The striped pattern divided nicely into three pieces.

There are 10 each of Coastal Cabana, So Saffron and Calypso Coral tags. There’s a piece of white cardstock inside for writing a note. I punched a small hole in the corner of each using the side of the Label Me Fancy Punch that includes a small hole punch. That punch is strong as it went through 4 thicknesses of cardstock with no fuss!

The Bottom Line

The simple truth of this project is that I had a blast making it! I’ve developed the skills to design and put something like this together. And Stampin’ Up! papers and other products make it so very easy. The result if something that I’m proud to share with my friend – and with you!

Happy Stamping!

A VERY Busy Holiday Season!

December 17, 2020 by Robin

Aloha, all!

I am SOOOO glad to be back at my desk writing again. Even better, once I finish catching you up on what I’ve been doing the last couple of weeks, I’m actually going to be able to get some crafting done! Imagine that you have brand new products from a pre-order of Stampin’ Up!’s next Mini Catalog and you haven’t been able to touch them. Yikes! But that time is about over.

Finishing Up My Christmas Cards

You might remember one of my posts from last month where I showed off a card I was going to be making in multiples. For more about that, click HERE. Well, I finally did get all of those cards done. I ran out of the Real Red Braided Trim before I finished them all. But I have a good-sized stash of the Linen Braided Trim. That worked well especially with the Crumb Cake Cardstock that I used as a card base. I used my Brother Scan ‘n Cut machine to cut out all those sprigs of holly on the front of the cards. That made life easier. But about half way through adding 21 Red Rhinestones to each of the 16 cards, I was rethinking my decision to do that instead of stamping on the little holly berries. The Stamparatus would have made that a breeze!

The Holly Slimline Cards Weren’t the Only Assembly Line Project!

And then there was the set of cards I decided to make using the November 2020 Paper Pumpkin Kit, Jolly Gingerbread.

That kit was designed for making 15 gift card holders and envelopes in which to put them. But I wanted cards – and lots of them! So I ordered two kits and set out to make 30 cards. My first stumbling block was that the cards I designed required a layer of Cinnamon Cider Cardstock. Ever since we moved into our smallish apartment, I have avoided buying full packs of cardstock – I have nowhere to store them! Black, white, vanilla, red, green, crumb cake – sure I have full packs and more of those. But not all 50 colors! And not Cinnamon Cider. So I had to break down and order some, though I counted carefully how much I’d need and ordered assortment packs of the 2020-2022 In Color Cardstock. Now I have plenty of Just Jade for St. Patrick’s Day and Magenta Madness for Valentines. Ooooh, Bumblebee for spring… But I digress.

My original designs, which I showed off in my last post, had ribbons on them. But, while I loved the idea of the ribbons, it turned out that I did not have enough of the ribbon, either. After not too much thinking, I decided to forget about the ribbon. That turned out to be a great idea as that ribbon, especially the green ribbon, made bumps in those cards that were not going to play nice in the U.S. Postal Service machines. So, when it came time to start sending them out, I was glad not to have them.

Then There Were the Cards That I Forgot!

Do you remember my post about all the fun cards I made with the Tag Buffet Project Kit? Would you believe that, with all the last minute rush to get my cards in the mail, I forgot about them? What? The reason was that, once I counted all the card’s I’d made with the above two operations as well as those that I’ve made one by one since the summer, I had more than the 90 cards that I needed to send out? So, for the first time in years, I wasn’t in a panic 10 days before Christmas trying to make a bunch more cards and hating every minute of it. Well, maybe not hate. But not having that much fun. So the Tag Buffet Kit cards are now officially the first Christmas cards I’ve made for Christmas 2021!

The Bottom Line

As I always say, have fun making any cards you’re making. But, in my case, I’m adding on a new mantra: Keep track of what I make! I’ll have to add that to my mantra of keeping track of what I buy from Stampin’ Up! I’ve been doing much better at not ordering duplicates the past few years. But not always. I already have two rolls of the same ribbon from the upcoming Mini Catalog. So now everything’s marked.

Have fun getting ready for Christmas!

And December is Here!

December 1, 2020 by Robin

Aloha, all!

Yes, it’s the first day of December 2020. And on we go into the last month of 2020, a year that has definitely had its challenges.

But one challenge I have not had is having the time to do a lot of paper crafting that I would ordinarily not do. One crafting activity that I would let slide more often than not was opening my monthly Paper Pumpkin kit when it was NOT a straight up card-making kit. This year, though, I’ve had plenty of time even to get out the non-card kits – and make them into cards!

Expressing Creativity With Paper Pumpkin

I’ve heard some fellow Stampin’ Up! demonstrators say that they don’t care for Paper Pumpkin because they really like to be creative. OK, I can understand that. But I have two answers to that for myself. The first is easy. For card kits I can make a bunch of cards that look just fine and I didn’t have to do the designing, including figuring out the colors and embellishments and all that. My cards look nice because I’ve practiced smoothing out edges, lining up layers, stamping evenly and applying adhesives and embellishments.

The second answer to the creativity objection is that I can turn on the creative switch if I want. My personal creative switch is like a 3-way Bulb. I can do a little, just a bit more, or go all out and fuss with the colors. And when it comes to a kit that’s not a card, I have to flick the switch at least twice.

November 2020 Kit: Jolly Gingerbread

Last month’s kit was the second of two Christmas-themed kits for the year. And, despite the word, “Gingerbread,” in the title, there was not a Gingerbread Man in the kit, except in its promotional materials. So sad. On the other hand, the gingerbread house theme was a cutie, despite the fact that the project was a gift card holder – and 15 of them, at that. Every time we have given a gift card to anyone in the last 12 months (yes, including last Christmas) it was a printed flyer from the online source from which we bought the “card.” So a gift card holder is the very last thing that I need for the holidays.

BUT, the materials in the kit did a great job of lending themselves to being on the front of a standard greeting card. And there are three of them the photos at the beginning of this post. This is where creativity came into play.

First There Was Plan A.

Plan A in my mind was to take each of the front sections of the gift card holders and make them the central element on the front of my card. Then I was going to take the color of the door of each of the 3 designs and stamp that onto the next layer, which would be Whisper White Cardstock. Finally I would use that same color to mat the top layer before adding it all to a layer of Cinnamon Cider Cardstock and a Card Base of Thick Whisper White Cardstock.

That worked for the first card, where the primary color was Shaded Spruce. The door of the the ink, the mat for the front layer and the ribbon all worked to go beautifully with the Shaded Spruce door on the gingerbread house.

But then I got to the other house shapes with Daffodil Delight and Mint Macaron doors.

And Then Plan B.

Plan B was where I had to get a bit more creative. Neither Daffodil Delight nor Calypso Coral (the “red” in these cards) worked well on Whisper White cardstock as the top layer. The daffodil was washed out and the coral didn’t do too much better with that thick section of white on the roof. So I decided just to match the door itself with Daffodil cardstock and Coral ink. Out came some Daffodil Delight Ruched Ribbon and the Coral cardstock worked just fine with

Plan B continued to rule the day as I worked with the third gingerbread house with the Mint Macaron-colored door. In this case the Mint Macaron ink worked just fine. But the cardstock mat behind the top layer just washed out between the White and Cinnamon Cider cardstock. So, with the Coral border around the door and in the stamped sentiment, I pulled out the Coral cardstock. Perfect!

The Bottom Line

Paper Pumpkin kits aren’t meant to stifle creativity. The way that I see them they are a box of supplies that I get to use to make what I want. If it’s a card kit and I like the way the cards look, fine. I’ll make them. But whatever is in that lovely box that comes every month, I get to choose what I do with it all. I can hardly wait until this month’s kit arrives – with Teddy Bears!

Let me know if you’re interested in ordering it! And don’t forget all the other products that I used to make the cards with the November kit. They’re all shown below. Click on any of these and read more about them in my Stampin’ Up! store.

A Fun Fold Christmas Card!

November 25, 2020 by Robin

Aloha, all!

Welcome to November’s Island Stamping Mini Blog Hop! Each month, sister Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, Cheryl Hamilton from the Island of Maui, and I from the Big Island of Hawai’i, get together to share a themed blog post with you.

This month we’ve chosen to share Christmas-themed Fun Fold cards. As I write this I have no idea which Fold Cheryl will use. But you can bet it will be Fun for sure!

A Double Step Christmas Card

I definitely wanted to share a fold that I’ve not used in a while. That was easy for me as I’ve been madly working on getting my tutorials organized for a new book that I’ve been planning for almost two years now. As I went through my files yesterday, I came across this fold and it reached out and demanded that I use it for this post. That was easy.

It’s the Joyful Holly Stamp Set Again!

If you read about my assembly line Christmas Card project last week, you’ll remember that I used the holly stamps from the Joyful Holly Stamp Set for that card. When I saw this fold, and the way that I’d created the main layer by stamping all over it, those Holly Stamps came right to mind. I’m sure they thought that they were in for a rest after all that stamping last week. But I have a feeling I’ll be using them a lot more as the season goes on.

And I Love Red and Green for Christmas!

It’s always fun to see some “alternative” Christmas colors as I’m browsing ideas around the internet. But my heart is really with traditional red and green. The base for this card, as well as the extra step layer and the stamped sentiment is Real Red. It’s my go-to red color for Christmas (Cherry Cobbler is a close second). The greens, though, are a bit different this year.

I am so smitten with the Just Jade color and I think it makes a beautifully decorative holly color. OK, holly in real life is dark green. But these holly stamps have two parts – an outline and a fill. If I used Shaded Spruce for my holly fill, there’s no color that’s darker to show off the outline stamp. So Shaded Spruce is the outline and Just Jade is the fill.

What’s That Big Space For?

I stamped the sentiment, also from the Joyful Holly Stamp Set, at the top of the front step Whisper White layer to give me room for a little note or just to sign the card. I do add a decorated piece of Whisper White cardstock on the back to write a longer note. But it’s nice to think of the card sitting on a table or shelf where a quick note and signature can be seen.

Also notice that I didn’t stamp the sentiment TOO far up, though. I did want some space to add a bit of ribbon to finish off the card.

It Flattens to Fit an Envelope!

The best thing about this fold is that it flattens out beautifully to fit in a standard A2 card-sized envelope. OK, I did have to tuck that little bit of ribbon so that it went into the envelope straight. But it behaved itself.

The Bottom Line

The point of Island Hopping is to give you at least two ideas about how to make a card with the theme of the month. Click here to go to Cheryl Hamilton’s Blog to see which Fun Fold she’s sharing with us today! Oooh, and she has a video to go with it!

I do have a tutorial for this fold and have shared it in my newsletter this week. If you’d like to have a copy of it, just sign up over at the right and I’ll get a copy right off to you!

I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving and are able to get together with friends and family, at least virtually. And be safe!