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Robin Messenheimer, Independent Stampin' Up! Demonstrator

Island Hopping

Island Hopping – What’s Old Is New Again

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Aloha,  all!

I just cannot believe it’s almost the end of April! It’s not just that it’s the end of the month. It’s April! How have four months of 2021 gone by already?

The good news is that today is a Wednesday – the last Wednesday of the month. And that means it’s time for Cheryl Hamilton and I to get together for our monthly Island Hopping blog posts. This month, of course, we’re both focusing on what’s coming in less than a week – a brand new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog. By this time next week we’ll all be able to order just about anything that’s in the new catalog. But Cheryl and I, as Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators, have had access to a selection of products for the last month or so. Today we’re sharing pictures of what we’ve done with some of them.

My  Favorite  New  Stamp  Set

This past Monday I shared the first card that I made with my favorite new stamp set, Hand-Penned Petals. Today I’m excited to be sharing another couple of stamps from that same set. While I love coloring in stamps with line art, I really like what Stampin’ Up! has done with “fill” stamps in this stamp set. You have to know that these stamps, that you can use to fill color into the line art, are not intended to fill in the line art perfectly. There are some stamps where that is the case. But in this set, with its key phrase, “hand-penned,” the result art work is supposed to look as if someone hand drew and filled the images. I love this look. I especially love that I don’t have to try to be “perfect” in what I do with the set.

For the image I stamped today, I used a new Stampin’ Up! In Color, Polished Pink, to stamp the fill in the flowers, and another new color, Soft Succulent, to fill in the leaves. For the most part, I stamped color off of the stamp before I added the inked stamp to the image. In two cases, I added the ink fill at full strength, as in the left at the bottom right in this image. I love the look with the colors mixed!

And  Fun  New  Papers

The background for this card is ALL Soft Succulent. My favorite part of this is that I used the new Stampin’ Up! 2021-2023 In Color Designer Series Paper Assortment for the notched strips behind the stamped layer. In this card you’ll see a sample of each of the 4 prints in the paper sets for all of the colors in Stampin’ Up!’s collection this year. The cardstock that’s the base layer in this card is also Soft Succulent which I’ve embossed using the Tasteful Texture Embossing Folder, a carry over from the current annual catalog.

You’ll also see a small piece of Polished Pink Cardstock on the right side of the card on which I stamped the “Thanks” sentiment from the Hand-Penned Stamp Set.

 

 

 

And  Here’s  the  Old

As you may know, I’ve been producing some Tutorial Booklets that are for sale here on my blog. To help me with ideas for the new tutorials I’ve been researching projects that I’ve undertaken in the past. In getting ready to plan my June tutorial booklet, I came across this sketch that I created in May 2011. That’s almost exactly 10 years ago. But it caught my eye and off I went with the design to create today’s card. I hope you feel free to use it if the mood strikes you!

Are you curious what the card from 10 years ago looked like? So was I, and I went looking for it. I could not believe that green was the background theme of that card, too. Back then it was Wild Wasabi.

I have to tell you that, not only do I miss Wild Wasabi, I really miss that luscious satin ribbon that we had in so many colors back then. But just wait until you see all of the new ribbons in the 2021-2022 catalog!

Now  Please  Visit  Cheryl’s  Blog

Cheryl’s blog post can be reached by clicking here. But don’t forget to come back here and grab a copy of the sketch for this card. I’d love to see what you do with it. Seriously! In fact, I’ll feature every card that you make with this sketch on a future blog post if you’ll send it too me.

Happy Stamping!

Robin Messenheimer



 

 

Island Hopping for Mother’s Day!

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Aloha, all!

And welcome to the first Island Hopping Blog Hop for Spring 2020. While there has been something of a damper put on Spring celebrations in this year of the virus, there are many celebrations that will still happen. One of those is Mother’s Day. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that it’s mothers all over the world who are keeping millions safe and healthy while we deal with a pandemic. So today we’re going to give you some ideas for making Mother’s Day cards.

A quick and easy card for starters

When I make Mother’s Day Cards, I like to make them fussy. So I spend a lot of time on them. But this year, with all of the other cards that you may be making to send as “Happy Mail” to friends or helpful members of your community, you may want something quick and easy to make for your mothers, aunts, daughters, daughters-in-law and others. I think that this card fits the bill.

I even have the measurements for all the layers at the end of this post if you’re interested!

For this project, I chose Petal Pink and Soft Seafoam as my Spring colors. The card base and the mat for both the stamped flowers and the sentiment are Petal Pink Cardstock. And the inks that I used to stamp the images from the Abstract Impressions Stamp Set (which will retire, by the way) are Petal Pink and Soft Seafoam.  I also used Soft Seafoam to stamp the sentiment, which is from the Tea Together Stamp Set (it will retire, too). Continuing with the “retiring” sub-theme for this post, the 1-1/8″ and 1-3/8″ Scalloped Circle Punches I used here will also retire.

Adding just a bit of texture

While I like the layout of the first card just fine – and I could make a lot of those in a hurry! – I thought I might try to jazz it up just a little bit to give it a bit more interest. So this version has a textured background, that I made with the Tufted Embossing Folder. Then I added some of the Petal Pink Metallic Edge Ribbon under the sentiment element. Finally, I placed several Petal Pink sequins from the Basic Adhesive Sequins Pack on both main layers of the card. Need I say that all of these products are retiring?

I finally got a little fussy

This last card demonstrates the kinds of things I would never include in a card for which I have to make multiples. I don’t even want to start counting the number of times I’d have to run papers through a die-cutting machine, not to mention punching each sentiment not once, but three times. But once I do enjoy!

I die-cut the two middle layers using dies from the Stitched So Sweetly dies that were in the January – June 2020 Mini Catalog. Yay, they’re NOT retiring! And I used the same sentiment as the first two cards. But this time I punched it with the Label Me Fancy Punch, added slits to either side (from the punch itself) and ran the beautiful Petal Pink Organdy Striped Ribbon (NOT retiring) through it. I finished it with a full out bow.

My basic message for this blog post is that you can make a beautiful card that anyone would be happy to receive in the mail with just some stamps, ink and paper, and maybe a punch or two. Little fuss at all. But if you want to dress up a card a bit more, and that’s what you enjoy, go for it. And go for it in a bigger way, too!

Do what you enjoy doing. Just do it as well as you can and everyone will love what you do.

Now hop on over to Cheryl Hamilton’s Blog to see what she’s up to with her Mother’s Day theme. I’m sure it will be as wonderful as her work always is. Do you see anything similar in our projects?

Happy stamping!

Robin Messenheimer



 

Measurements: Card Base, 5-1/2″w x 8-1/2″h, folded on top; layer 1: 5″ x 3-3/4″; mat for stamped layer: 4″ x 2-3/4″; stamped layer: 3-3/4″ x 2-1/2″. You’ll need scraps for punching.

 

A Fun Card for Every Stamper!

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Aloha, all!

Once again, it’s the last Wednesday of the month, and it’s time for the monthly Island Hopping Blog Hop featuring me, Robin Messenheimer, from Hawai’i’s Big Island and Cheryl Hamilton from the island of Maui. This month we’re featuring not only an upcoming holiday (Halloween), but we’re showing off how stampers at all levels of crafting experience might create a card using the same basic design.

For my projects this month, I chose the fun new stamp set, Birds of a Feather, which features four different kinds of birds ready for four upcoming holidays – Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Valentine’s Day.

The Halloween bird is a duck! And this little critter is all decked out in a pirate costume. Though most of the ducks I see are white, I wanted some color in this set of cards, so I made him yellow – Daffodil Delight yellow. I added some Pumpkin Pie for his bill and feet, as well as for the pumpkin, and colored his little vest with Cajun Craze. These are favorite fall colors in my craft room, along with the ever-present Basic Black. The Trick or Treat sentiment is also a part of this stamp set, so that makes this card fun and simple – all you need is a Memento Black Stamp Pad and some Stampin’ Write Markers. There are lots of other colors you could use to make this little guy, so just use what you have on hand!

To step it up a bit, someone who has experience in stamping, but doesn’t want to go too overboard to make a card that has a bit more pizzazz that the beginning card, might stamp three ducks instead of one. There’s a bit of technique to doing this, and it involves using the Stamparatus to keep the ducks all in a line. I stamped one duck at the left end of my 4-7/8″ piece of Whisper White Cardstock, using the Stamparatus with the hinges on the right. Then I moved the paper to the left 1-5/8″ and stamped another duck, and then 1-5/8″ again.

I mounted the stamped layer onto a layer of Cajun Craze Cardstock and then onto a layer of Basic Black Cardstock. Before adhering these layers to the card base, I added a length of the new Basic Black 3/8″ Scalloped Edge Ribbon, which I glued down using Tear & Tape Adhesive. Finally I stamped the sentiment in basically the same place as I stamped it in the beginner version of the card.

I really had fun with this version of the card because, as you might imagine, I’m one of those Avid Stampers who loves to add ribbons and embellishments and designer series papers to my projects. And that’s what I did with this version of the card.

Once again, I have three costumed ducks marching across the card. But for this card, first of all, I colored them using Stampin’ Blends Alcohol Markers. Besides being awesome markers, you can buy them one at a time! I used the Daffodil Delight and Pumpkin Pie Blends, both the light and the dark. Now, I’m not a pro at alcohol markers. But I sure do like the way they just slide onto paper and blends so well together. I somehow have managed not to have the Cajun Craze Stampin’ Blends in my collection. I was so sure that I had them all (I’ll order them soon). So it was back to the Stampin’ Write Markers for the vest.

But what about how the three ducks are laid out? I stamped the ducks on either end of my white layer, but for the middle duck, I hand-cut him out and adhered him to the middle section with Stampin’ Dimensionals. But that’s not all! Instead of coloring his vest, I stamped the top part of the duck on a piece of the gingham from the Regals 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper set – which is in the background of this card. I also added a bit of the Cajun Craze Linen Thread from the new Come to Gather Ribbon Combo Pack in the Holiday Catalog before I adhered the fussy-cut duck to the white cardstock.

Finally, I wrapped a length of ribbon around the layer made up of the gingham paper and Basic Black Cardstock, tying it into a bow (love bows!) to finish it. I stamped the sentiment onto a 1″ square of white cardstock, cut a 1-1/8″ square of Basic Black to mat it before adding it to the card with a Stampin’ Dimensional.

This was fun and I may just do it again before too long. I hope you have fun with whatever you’re making this holiday season.

Now go over to Cheryl’s blog to see what she has in store for you!

Robin Messenheimer



 

Island Hopping with Seaside Notions!

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Aloha, all!

I am finally back in Hawaii after more than two weeks away from home, the last week in the 109 degree plus temperatures of the desert southwest. Yep, in Las Vegas. I am SOOOO happy to be home out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, whose currents do a wonderful job of moderating our Big Island of Hawaii summer temperatures.

To celebrate the sea around us, as well as to bring back my partnership with Cheryl Hamilton, who lives and crafts on Maui, to continue with our budding Blog Hop, Island Hopping.

The stamp that we’ve chosen for this month’s hop is Seaside Notions. What better set to highlight our being out in the middle of the ocean than a stamp set that features sea creatures and shells, along with some wonderful sentiments. For my part in the hop, I’ve chosen to share with you three different cards made with the same basic colors, along with the Seaside Notions Stamp Set, the Stitched Shapes Dies, the brand new High Seas 3D Embossing Folder and the Basic Adhesive-Backed Sequins. I switched up colors and ribbons a bit just to keep it a bit more interesting!

My first card is a layout that I use frequently in cards where I want to show off one stamp in a set. In this case, I chose to show off the Sand Dollar in this stamp set. I stamped the image, as well as the sentiment, using Bermuda Bay Ink. For some accents, I used a background layer of Bermuda Bay Cardstock and some Bermuda Bay 1/4″ Mini Striped Ribbon. In the background right behind the squares is a sheet of Coastal Cabana colors Designer Series Paper (from the Follow Your Art Designer Series Paper set.

For my second card, I added most of the rest of the sea shells in the stamp set, stamped in either Bermuda Bay Ink or Coastal Cabana Ink. While I didn’t color any of the shells in my first card, for this card, I put a hint of color in each shell AND I stamped one of the shells with a fun technique. There’s not much room here today, so my next post will go into more detail about how I made this card. The tasseled-look ribbon in this card is the 5/8″ Woven Threads Trim. In the catalog, it looks like a textured ribbon. But, in the fine print, we are told that we can remove the “top” thread to create the tassled look. My “top” thread is more at the “bottom,” and I think the tassles look perfect with this picture!

I really mixed up the colors a bit in this final card of this blog hop post. I looked up some photos of Sea Horses and found many of them with brown or orange colors. So I stamped this little critter using Memento Tuxedo Black Ink so that I could color him (her?) using my Pumpkin Pie Blends markers. I used the light pen to color the whole figure, then accented it using the darker Pumpkin Pie color down the middle, shaded off to the left and right. For the eye, I colored a small adhesive-backed pearl using the Basic Black Dark Blends marker. I have to say that, while I enjoyed fussy-cutting the shells in the second card, I did not particularly enjoy fussy cutting these seaweed shapes. I’d intended to put three of them behind the main picture, but I have to tell you that two was enough.

Once I got this card laid out as I wanted it, I realized that I’d left out any sentiment on the front of the card. Not to worry – I added the sentiment, along with a simply-stamped piece of seaweed, on the inside of the card. I think that will do just fine!

Now that you’ve gotten this far with me and all the fun I had with this stamp set, I’m sure you’ll want to see what Cheryl has made for her side of this hop! Here is the link to her blog post. I love what she does with fun-fold cards!!

And, as always, I have a list of most of the Stampin’ Up! products that I’ve used for this project below. The pictures are linked to the very same product in my own personal Stampin’ Up! online store – open 27/4/365 for you to research any of these products and even buy them if you wish! If you have any questions, just let me know!

Robin Messenheimer