East Hawaii

Happy Easter, Happy Spring!

March 26, 2021 by Robin

Easter is a great occasion for sending cards to friends and family. It’s also a time of the year when I really and truly switch from the darker colors of the fall and winter holidays to the light and cheery colors of Spring. Even if this card didn’t say it out loud, you have to know that it’s welcoming us to the delights of the season of new beginnings.

Aloha, all!

Even here in Hawai’i I’m enjoying Spring already. The temperatures are finally climbing in to the high 70s and the sun has been shining almost all week. I certainly can hope that the winter rainy season finally is abating and I can enjoy the outdoor pleasures of the tropics.

But I’m also very aware that, in the part of my world that involves my favorite Stampin’ Up! products, some things that I love are going away. Yes, the Stampin’ Up! list of retiring products has been released, and some of my favorites have already sold out. While I typically do not buy retiring products, it’s only because I really need to save space for wonderful new products that will be coming our way in the next few months. Otherwise, how am I going to let you know how wonderful it all is if I don’t have the room for it?

Introducing the Retirement List

But those of you who like to have it all – and have the room for it! – can get lots of retiring products right now at a “last chance” sale price. I’ve taken Stampin’ Up!’s list and simplified it a bit for all of you and have a link to it right here on my blog. I will update it every few days so that you can see what’s already sold out. As always, if you have any questions about what’s retiring and what’s sticking around, just call or e-mail me!

What’s Retiring in Today’s Card?

As you may know, I’ve been working hard at creating some greeting card tutorial booklets that are available right now for you to buy. And there are more on the way. I’d like the tutorials to be good at any time and for anyone, even if they don’t use Stampin’ Up! products. So the basic tutorial for every card design is very generic. But of course I have to share samples using my wonderful Stampin’ Up! products. That’s where today’s card comes into play.

This card is one of the samples in my tutorial booklet, “Drapery Fold Cards.” Now that I look at it more closely, I should probably have entitled this section, “What’s NOT Retiring in Today’s Card?” What’s not retiring is that fun Just Jade gingham ribbon (part of the Flowers for Every Season Ribbon Combo); the Lovely Labels Pick a Punch; the Timeless Tulips Stamp Set which is where you’ll find the sentiment; and that beautiful floral embossing folder, Ornate Floral. What IS retiring is the great paper set, Flowers for Every Season Designer Series Paper. Really, it’s everything from poinsettias for Christmas, Tulips for Spring, all kinds of flowers for summer and sunflowers and such for the fall. Every season! Don’t let that one get away!!!

And About the Greeting Card Tutorials

There are already four sets of Greeting Card tutorials for sale. You can see them all by clicking here. Then you can pick one that you’d like to read more about. After that, a link for that specific tutorial with a more detailed description will appear on your screen. As I said before, each tutorial suggests the types of products you might want to use to complete your own project. That includes measurements for all papers, as well as ribbons if I suggest one.

Then I have at least two samples for each tutorial, each using a different set of Stampin’ Up! products. Each sample has its own page, along with a list of the exact products I used with their measurements. I’ve really tried to give you samples that will inspire you to look at what you already have to make the projects. But you have to know I’m always more than willing to help you order the Stampin’ Up! products you’ll need if you’d like.

As of the day I write this, ALL of the materials in this card are available for purchase. I’m thinking that luscious set of papers might not last long. But, believe me, there are papers in the upcoming catalog and the January – June Mini Catalog that will work wonderfully with this design.

Why not try it out?

Whatever you’re crafting this weekend, have fun with it!

A Dragonfly Garden Birthday Wish

February 13, 2021 by Robin

For a garden lover

Aloha, all!

A favorite stamp set in the current Stampin’ Up! Mini Catalog is called, Dragonfly Garden. And my favorite image in the stamp set is a group of flowers, growing in a garden, which is exactly what I think of when I want to attract Dragonflies to my garden. Of course, in my perfect Dragonfly Garden, there has to be a pond. But I can make believe there’s one there somewhere.

From One Set of Papers to Another

I began the design for this card with the idea that I was going to use the Dandy Garden Designer Series Paper for he background. And that’s where the planning for this card stopped. I couldn’t quite figure out how I was going to construct the card front with any of the papers in that set. Of course the first thing I started doing was flipping through Pinterest and other online sources for ideas. I saw a card made with one of the beautiful Ornate Layers Dies on not one but three occasions. I’m sure I saw other great ideas, but this die-cut frame was what grabbed me each time I saw it.

The problem with this die and the Dandy Garden papers was that the only designs in the paper that worked with the frame were not a color that I had in mind for this card. But a brand new set of papers was going to work beautifully. The paper set is Butterfly Bijou, and will be available for everyone to see – and purchase! – at the beginning of March.

The sheet of paper that I chose featured three colors that were going to go perfectly with the floral stamp from the Dragonfly Garden Stamp Set: So Saffron, Blushing Bride, and Mint Macaron. This sheet from the Butterfly Bijoy paper set looks just as if someone had done a watercolor wash over a piece of watercolor paper to create the most gorgeous background!

There’s Still a Piece of Dandy Garden Paper In the Card!

Before I put the Dandy Garden Paper away, though, I had to snatch a dragonfly from one of the dragonfly prints. And, no, I did not fussy cut this little cutie. The Dragonflies Punch punched it out of the Designer Series Paper perfectly! Both the large and small dragonflies printed on one of the sheets work with the punch. Unfortunately you can’t punch both dragonflies out at the same time because of the way they are printed. But it’s still easier that cutting those critters by hand!

A Special Happy Birthday

I made this card for a special person, my husband’s aunt. Her birthday is coming up in just a few days. One of her favorite things to do is to walk in a wilderness-type area on the property on which she lives. Certainly there are flowers and birds. But there’s also a large pond and it attracts some beautiful insects including – you guessed it! – dragonflies. I can just see this scene out where she walks.

I found a birthday greeting that I thought would go perfectly with the other elements of this card in the Timeless Tulips Stamp Set. Because I organize my stamps by name, it seems that my two favorite birthday greetings sit right next to one another. One is in Timeless Tropical and the other is the Timeless Tulips. Works for me! I especially like this particular sentiment because of its size. It fits nicely on a 1/2″ strip of cardstock. And I can mat it with a 3/4″ strip of a coordinating color cardstock. In this case I used Mint Macaron, the cardstock I used for the card base for the card. I added two Rhinestone Basic Jewels to give the card a little bling.

The Bottom Line

I love that Stampin’ Up! seems to have been doing more in the way of “natural” designs. That includes its Designer Series Papers as well as its stamp set. I was thrilled with the Dragonfly Garden set with its coordinating Dandy Garden paper set. Then there is the Enjoy the Moment Set featuring seed pods. You’ve seen some work I’ve done with that set here. And now there’s the upcoming Butterfly Bouquet suite. Of all of them right now, the Dragonfly Garden is my favorite. You can click on its picture in the slideshow below and learn more about it and coordinating product in my personal Stampin’ Up! store right now! You will love all the products that go with it.

Whatever you are doing this week with your stamping, I hope you’re having fun with it!

A Fun Fold Valentine – For Island Hopping!

January 27, 2021 by Robin

Aloha, all!

And welcome to the first session of Island Hopping for 2021! My friend, Cheryl Hamilton, and I decided that this would be a perfect time to show off a Valentine card with a fun fold. So we’ll hop from where I live on Hawai’i’s Big Island over to our neighbor, the Island of Maui, where Cheryl lives showing off Fun Fold Valentines!

This is a New Fold For Me

The fold that you see in the picture at the top of this article is called a Vertical Easel Card. I stumbled across a tutorial for it while I was looking for something else a few days ago. I bookmarked it not quite knowing what I was going to do with it. But when Cheryl and I decided on our theme for January, I was glad I’d bookmarked it. Because here it is! I may write my own tutorial in the future as I did make a few modifications. But the tutorial I used is a great start.

Traditional Valentine Colors?

For the most part, I like to use bright red and pinks for Valentine’s cards. But I also wanted to use some of the beautiful new Love You Always Specialty Designer Series Paper for the printed paper layer on the front of this card.

My color choices (the colors in the paper set) were Blushing Bride, Rococo Rose, and Sahara Sand. OK, the Blushing Bride sheet, which included Copper Foil accents got me to the “pink” part of my color preferences. But I had the worst time trying to match it with either of the bright reds (Real Red or Poppy Parade) in the Stampin’ Up! collection. None of the other, darker, pinks worked either (for me at least). So I went in the other direction – dark but not bright.

I think that Cherry Cobbler turned out to be a really good choice. The photo just above shows the closed card. I just love how the large, scalloped heart, cut with a die from the Many Hearts Die set, and the card base made with Cherry Cobbler Cardstock provide a sharp contrast to the muted Blushing Bride and Copper patterned paper.

Not Just a Fun Fold – A Fun Shape!

Earlier this month I participated in a challenge to make a square card. To make a square card that would fit into one of my stash of A2-sized envelopes, the card would have had to be 4″ square. That just felt too small for what I like to do with a card. So I made my card 5″ square, which was just right – and ordered some A7-sized (5-1/4″ x 7-1/4″) envelopes for my stash. They arrived last Saturday, just in time for this card.

Here’s how I decorated the envelop for this project. I’ve been much better at decorating envelops WHEN I make a card.

An Aside About Envelopes

The United States Postal Service has a couple of requirements that come into play when it comes to the shape of an envelope. The one that affects square cards is that, if you use a square envelope, you have to pay extra postage. Now doing this every once in a while isn’t that expensive. In fact, I have quite a few stamps for “Non-Machinable” envelopes (which is what square is). But, when a card will fit inside a rectangular envelope, why not use something that will cost less to mail? So 5″ square card = A7 envelope.

All Those Hearts!

All of the hearts in the card’s center element are die-cut using the Many Hearts Dies. They all layer so beautifully. What’s even better is that there’s a set of sentiments in an older – but still current – Valentine-themed stamp set – Heartfelt. What’s not to like about an old-fashioned “Roses are Red, Violets are Blue…” poem! It fits perfectly in the smaller heart in the die set. I added some Champagne Rhinestones to fill out the heart a bit.

To continue on with the poem, I added another of the smaller die-cut hearts to the inside of the card. Besides completing the poem, it serves as the “stopper” for the card front when it’s slightly folded open for display. Even thought it didn’t really need it, I added a rhinestone to this heart, too.

Speaking of hearts – do you see that strip of hearts down the right edge of the Blushing Bride cardstock layer inside the card? That’s a stamp from the Lots of Heart Stamp Set. I bought the stamp set to show off some of the other images in the set and just gave the heart strip a passing glance. Hah! Now I know where it really works! You’ll be seeing it again for sure.

The Bottom Line

Making Valentine’s Day Cards is always lots of fun. But it’s even more fun when you have some beautifully coordinating Stamp Set/Cutting Tool combinations. The Heartfelt Stamp Set/Heart Punch Pack Bundle and the Lots of Heart Stamp Set/Many Hearts Bundle are totally winning combinations for Valentine’s Day Cards. If you buy a bundle, you save 10%. I put a link to the bundles in the slide show of products at the end of this post.

And finally be sure to visit Cheryl Hamilton’s blog post for today. She does amazing folds and I can hardly wait to see what she’s done for this hop!

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!

Inspiration from the Stampin’ Up! Catalog!

January 24, 2021 by Robin

Aloha, all!

When I’ve been in a creative slump one of the first places I go is to a Stampin’ Up! catalog. That’s really easy this time of year as we not only have the new January – June Mini Catalog, but the always wonderful Annual Catalog and, until the end of next month, the Sale-a-bration Brochure. If I know what stamp set I want to use, I go right to the page that features that set. Otherwise I just start flipping pages. That’s what I did with today’s project. And I only had to get to page 23 of the Mini Catalog before a card that looks like this caught my eye. The Stamp Set featured is Quite Curvy. But what really caught my eye was the lovely use of the new Hydrangea Hill Designer Series Paper.

Quite Curvy Wasn’t Just for Christmas!

I was thrilled last fall when all of us had the chance to pre-order the Quite Curvy Bundle that was going to be in the new Mini Catalog. There was also a fun Christmas-themed stamp set AND fun printed papers to go with the Christmas theme. And I loved it all and used it all. But once the holidays were over and we got to see all the goodies in the new catalog, I simply forgot about it. Until now.

This Card Could be For Any Occasion

The actual event that had me stumped about what to make was our oldest granddaughter’s 18th Birthday. Up until now, I’ve made her and her younger sister and brother cards that are more on the cutesy side. But 18 seems to be an age where something a bit more elegant. But not too serious. This card seemed to fit the bill perfectly. The card in the catalog is a “Thinking of You” card. But with the Quite Curvy stamp set, I easily made this into a Birthday card.

As I said back when I was first using this set, you can shape the sentiment stamps go along the same curve as you’ve cut out using the Curvy Dies. I usually don’t get it done perfectly. But close enough. I find using the Stampin’ Up! Stamparatus positioning tool makes it a bit easier. Once you apply the stamp to the acrylic cover of the Stamparatus, it’s staying put. That is, unless you want to move it a bit. So, to make the curve, I try to get it as good as I can on the paper I’m using, pick it up with the Stamparatus acrylic cover and then adjust it until it seems to be just about right. then I stamp.

Choosing My Embellishments

The card in the catalog used some other die cuts from the Curvy Dies. But I wanted either a butterfly or a dragonfly. After cutting and punching a few things, I decided on the small dragonfly that can be made using the new Dragonflies Punch. I chose some Highland Heather and Gorgeous Grape Cardstock for the dragonflies, and some Old Olive Cardstock for the leaves, which I die cut using one of the Curvy Dies.

I did take the suggestion in the catalog to use my Dark Highland Heather Stampin’ Blends to color some White Baker’s Twine (from the Snail Mail Twine Combo Pack, also in the Mini Catalog. I adhered the leaves to the top part of the card using Multipurpose Liquid Glue except near the stems. Then I wrapped the colored twine around the stems before adhering the punched dragonflies.

I have to admit that I made another one of these cards after I made Morgan’s card. It’s so pretty and I have a friend who I know would love that for her birthday this month, too.

The Bottom Line

Simple. When you’re looking for some ideas, check out the Stampin’ Up! Catalogs. You might even find something that inspires you enough to want to buy it! And of course you know I’ll help you with that. Just call or e-mail me and I’ll help you place your order. Or you can place it yourself online at my Stampin’ Up! Website – robinstamps.stampinup.net. Click “Shop Now” and you’ll be on your way!

Happy stamping! And Happy Shopping!!!!