Northwest Stamper

Author: Jennifer

  • Getting Creative with the Christmas Star Stamp

    Woo hoo!  Today is the day that I’m heading to Utah for Founder’s Circle and I don’t think I could be any more excited!  5 days to relax, stamp, explore, and socialize with some amazing stampers and demonstrators – what could be a better vacation? 

    I’ll be blogging from my trip in Utah as well as offering a Founder Circle special while I’m away!  So, be sure to stop back by the blog to catch all the excitement.

    But, while I’m traveling, I wanted to make sure to share with you some new project ideas using the Christmas Star holiday single stamp. 

    This stamp is an elegant way to decorate or create for the holidays.  And the coolest part is that it is super easy to make it pop-out into a 3D star!  But more on that in a minute. Smile 

    Now, first thing, I’ll warn you – this stamp is bigger than you think.  I ordered the stamp and didn’t really pay attention to what clear block the flyer listed that was required for it.  I assumed one of my medium blocks would work – NOPE!  It takes the biggest block (block F).

    Yup.  That is a 4.25” x 5.5” card base and the Christmas Star next to it!

    Now, you may be wondering what can I do with a stamp that big? 

    Why, make cute cards and home décor projects, of course!  Smile The first thing I did was make a Christmas card with the star.

    I decided to go for a more vintage-y feel and so I stamped on Crumb Cake paper with my Cherry Cobbler ink.  Sponge the edges with Crumb Cake ink and then add a touch of sparkle with some Silver Glimmer paper.  Pretty, no?

    Then I wanted to play with the fact that you could make the star into a 3D star.

    How do you make the Christmas Star pop up?
    1. Stamp your Christmas Star image on a piece of white cardstock
    2. Cut out the star (yes, you need to hand cut this, but it isn’t as bad as you think)
    3. Fold the star in half using the white lines that radiate out from the center of the star as guidelines.
    4. Use your bone folder to press each fold line (you should fold in half 5 times)
    5. Set your star on a table or flat surface and then gently squeeze the sides in to cause the center of the star to push up off the table. 
    6. Your star should stay dimensional and you can now add it to your projects!

    Once I made my star, I knew I had to put in on something, so I made this rosette ornament.

    I cut two strips of 1.75” x 11” pieces of Wild Wasabi cardstock and then scored it at 1/4” increments.  Then I could fold my paper back and forth to create the accordian look. 

    Glue the ends of each strip together to make one big circle and then push the center down flat to make my rosette.  Now, I haven’t made many rosettes before, and I’m a complete newbie to my hot glue gun…. so, when I had to hot glue the middle of my rosette together so it would stay flat, it got a bit messy!  But it works, and I covered it up, so you’d never know!

    Then I just added a circle of Silver Glimmer paper (adhering with hot glue again) and then added my star (adhering with glue dots) to the top.  Punch a hole in the rosette and run some of the new Silver 1/8” taffeta ribbon from the holiday catalog and you have yourself an ornament!

    Oh, and the rhinestone!  Don’t forget the rhinestone in the center of the star!

    So see, there are lots of cute things you can do with this stamp – even if it is big!

    Founders Circle Special – Double Rewards All Weekend Long!

    Since I can’t take you all with me to Founder’s Circle this weekend, I thought I would try to do something special to celebrate anyway.

    So, from 9/18–9/22, receive DOUBLE your reward punches for each purchase!

    That is right! For every $40 you order, you will receive two punches on your punch card and be that much closer to receiving a free stamp set of your choice!

    See how Northwest Stamper Reward Punches work

    and as an extra thank you,

    Everyone who places an order between now and 9/22 will be entered to win a free Christmas Star stamp and Rhinestones!

    So, have a great weekend and I’ll see you back on here soon!

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  • Hand Carved Flowers with my First Undefined Stamp

    Today over on Stampin’ Stylin’ Inkspiration, we are playing with the Undefined hand carved stamp kit that Stampin’ Up! released during the 2013 convention.  It is always fun to see what other people create because I know… it sounds super hard or tedious.  But it’s easier than you think! 

    Check out what I created as my first stamp while at Convention:

     

    And with that I created this card:

    Yay!  I love it!

    I kept my card simple today by just using different 2012-2014 In-Colors and stamped solid image flowers on the white background paper.  That seemed a little bright so I covered it with Vellum to soften the look.  Then I added some rhinestones to the corners to cover where I used glue dots to hold down the vellum.

    Then for the sentiment, I grabbed my Four Frames stamp set and Petite Pairs sentiments and created the central image.  Add an accent of the same hand carved flower that I colored in with markers and POP!  some fun color and images that I can call MY OWN.  Smile

    If you are curious what comes in the Undefined kit, check out everything you get:

    You get:

    • Sample stencil images
    • 4 wood blocks
    • Enough raw rubber for all 4 blocks
    • Enough foam adhesive for all 4 blocks
    • 2 carving tools (skinny and wide)
    • Island Indigo marker
    • 3 postcards

    All for only $19.95!  Your own personal stamp set with tools to make more for $20.

    Anyway, I thought it was a ton of fun and can’t wait to make more.  And to help folks see how much fun it is, I’m holding a class where you can make your own personal stamp – a try before you buy idea – using my tools and your ideas.  Check it out in October if you’d like to join me.

    So, give it a try.  Or think about it, and for now, just try out the fun ideas I used on this card today.  Smile 

     

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  • Quatrefancy Window Sheets for Scrapbooking

    Stylin Stampin Inkspiratin DT badgeOk, so I know I promised to share some projects with the Christmas Star single stamp today… but that was before I remembered that today was the Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration’s scrapbook sketch for the month!  I love playing along with sketches and I don’t scrapbook nearly enough…. so design team duties came first today.  But, I do have my Christmas Star projects and post ready for you… it is just moved to Wednesday now.  I promise this time. Smile 

    But, I still have a fun project to share today!  The amazing Jennifer Campbell put together a great sketch this month and I love it because it was so easy to put together an interesting layout with it.  In fact, this page came together from looking at the sketch to done in less than an hour!!

    September Scrapbook Sketch Layout

    September 2013 SSI scrapbook sketch layout

     

    I have a stash of photos that I know I want to scrap that I got printed at Costco a couple months ago, and so I grabbed the pile and started flipping through until I found the perfect photos I wanted to scrap.

    It was so special to me this year at convention that I had a group of downline who were able to attend with me and share the awesome experience.  And it was so fun to have some friends to cheer with, lounge with, or just share ideas we saw or heard around the convention center.  I really am lucky to be able to call these gals my friends!

    Once I found the pictures and looked at the sketch, I knew I wanted to recreate the group bag tag for my main embellishment.  I used the Fun Flower die to create the same shape, added the Fancy Flower punch, and then a 1-1/4” circle punch out of designer paper.  Then, instead of our group name, I used the Banner Greetings hostess set to create my sentiment and as a throwback to the banner shape in the original sketch.

    My other fun variation was to use the Quatrefancy window sheet that comes with the Quatrefancy Specialty designer series paper.  This is one of those papers that often you look at and think,” how in the heck am I going to use this?”  Well, I loved the subtle pattern effect it gave and thought it would be a great accent to pull out the pattern from the Convention backpack we received this year.  Since the pattern was the same, it was a great way to tie together the photos, designer series paper (from the same pack) and the background paper.

    Using window sheet papers this way is great because it is EASY to figure out adhesive.  If nothing else, you have a HUGE piece of cardstock (from your photo mat) that will be covering up parts of the window sheet strip, and so you can happily put adhesive in that area.  And in this case, I decided to layer some Pear Pizzazz taffeta ribbon over the top, and so I could also run a strip of adhesive across the window sheet to glue it to the base cardstock and then just adhere the ribbon over the top of the window sheet to hide the glue.  Sneaky, huh?!

    So, there you go.  A fun, easy sketch and some ideas to get you started.  If you want to play along and try it out yourself, you can use the sketch above and then hop on over to the Stylin’ Stampin’ Inkspiration blog to add your finished photo to the Linky there.  Or just visit to see other great takes on the basic sketch.  Have fun!

    Card Supplies Used
    Stamps – Banner Greetings
    Ink – Midnight Muse
    Paper – Pool Party Core’dinations cardstock, Quatrefancy designer paper, Pear Pizzazz cs, Whisper White cs
    Accessories – Big Shot, Fun Flower die, Fancy Flower punch, 1-1/4” circle punch, Pear Pizzazz taffeta ribbon, Rhinestones

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  • San Diego Getaway Incentive Trip–Heading Home

    Hi again, friends!  I’ve been having so much fun in San Diego that I completely missed getting a blog post together last night… but now that I have 2 hours at my gate here at the San Diego airport, I thought I would take a few minutes and share a little bit more before I SanDiegoBlogBadge-whitehead home and back to work and the real world. Smile 

    So, a quick recap for those of you who have no idea what this trip is about, each year Stampin’ Up offers incentive trips for demonstrators to earn based on a combination of sales and team promotions for the year.  This year, there were about 150 of us in San Diego and met some awesome demos from across the US and Canada.  And I was especially inspired by the woman I met who was there for her first time and has only been a demonstrator for 2 years!  Awesome!

    So, these were the amazing ladies who planned the whole trip and made our stay extra fabulous!  Thanks, Angie, Laura, & Kellie!

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    They even got us treats on Saturday!

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    This was a great vacation for me and my husband and we made sure to take full advantage of it by taking the Stampin’ Up! trolley to Old Town San Diego

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    Catching a movie (ahhh, the luxuries when you don’t have your toddlers with you!), a fabulous fondue dinner at the Melting Pot, visiting the San Diego Zoo

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    and visiting some great gardens and museums (loved the Museum of Man) in Balboa Park.

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    (Mayan sculpture in the Museum of Man)

    There wasn’t any stamping at this event, but what would a Stampin’ Up! event be without something stamping related. Smile  So, on our last night, we came back to our hotel room to another generous Pillow Gift.

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    Scott laughed at me when I squealed with excitement when I opened it up and it was FILLED with stamping supplies!

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    That is the I Am Me designer paper (LOVE!), the We are Here stamp set, Hexagon Punch, 3 colors of ink, Designer Buttons, and Epic Day washi tape!  Ahhh!  I’m getting excited just looking at the picture again. Smile  I cannot wait to get home and start playing with these!

    So, all in all, it was a great getaway experience, I loved meeting and chatting with other demonstrators and their spouses, and now I hope to take this enthusiasm and turn it back into my classes and stamping projects to share!  And hopefully I will have more downline and stamping friends join me on the trip next year to Washington DC or even the grand vacation to Hawaii! 

    Want to join me next year?  Send me a message to jennifer@nwstamper.com and we’ll talk about how to get you there!

    You can do it!

    And I know this blog post is getting super long, so I thought I would share what I’m going to be posting about tomorrow (getting back to the crafty stuff). 

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    It’s the cute Christmas star!  This is a new single stamp from the Holiday Single Stamp offerings and I’m going to show you a few different ways you can use this unique stamp! 

    So be sure to stop by tomorrow and check it out.

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  • Saying Hello From Sunny San Diego!

    Yesterday was full of excitement as I gathered my things and headed to San Diego with the hubby for the weekend Getaway incentive trip from Stampin’ Up!   This was my first year to have earned an incentive trip and so I had no idea what I was in for and regardless was just excited and grateful to be given the opportunity to go.

    So, for today’s post, I didn’t get my rear in gear to have a crafting project ready to go for you, and instead I thought I’d share some of my excitement of my first day in San Diego!
    (though if you are looking for crafting ideas, check out my pop-up swallowtail tutorial or yesterday’s paper piercing samples.)

    The morning started with a flurry of activity for me.  Not just the normal last minute packing job and getting the kids ready to go to Grandma’s house…. but Stampin’ Up! decide that that would also be the perfect morning to update the clearance rack!  With cardstock, Big Shot dies, and ribbon added at 60% off, you know I had to take a minute to shop!

    Talk about crazy, I finished placing a clearance rack order at the airport, just as they were doing the final boarding call!  Needless to say, my husband thought I was crazy!

    We flew to San Diego and were met at the airport and shuttled with some other arriving demonstrators to our hotel in downtown.

    Outside of the US Grant

    Now, I knew that this was a trip where Stampin’ Up! was trying to make us feel special, but for some reason I didn’t look at the hotel ahead of time and I was expecting a nice hotel like a Marriott or something…. but it was even nicer and more amazing than I imagined!

    This was the side lobby we entered through and our own SU Hospitality Desk:

    US Grant Lobby SU getaway trip

    And our snazzy hotel room!

    US Grant hotel room SU getaway trip

    There were no organized plans, so Scott and I relaxed for a bit and then met up with my Aunt and Uncle for dinner and a cool hole-in-the wall Italian restaurant in the suburbs.  My Aunt and Uncle had been going there for almost 30 years and my cousin had grown up eating there and eventually working there.  So it was cool to see; especially once we learned when we where there that they were closing down in a few days.  So, bittersweet night for sure.

    Then once we were back in downtown, we walked to Little Italy (a neighborhood nearby) and stopped at a coffee and gelato place my uncle recommended.  It was called Pappalecco, and if you are ever in downtown San Diego go try their gelato!  It was amazing; I had the lemon and strawberry flavors.  I tried Scott’s Nutella flavor and discovered that was definitely the way to go next time!

    Finally, we made it back to our hotel room only to discover that during turndown service, we received a pillow gift as well!  What a fun way to end the day!

    I unwrapped the gift and it was this pretty painted pitcher that matched the themed items from the trip.  I’m thinking I’m going to take it home and make some flowers to put in it, so I can use it as decoration and a reminder of this fun trip.

    Tomorrow there is a trolley to Old Town and I’ll hopefully be spending some time relaxing at the hotel as well. Smile

    Thanks for listening to me share my excitement about this trip!  I feel so incredibly lucky and blessed to be here and just had to share.

    I’ll try to pull together a crafty blog post for this weekend, but in the meantime, have a fabulous Friday!

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  • Spotlighting Paper Piercing for a Fab Blog Hop on Tools!

    Thank you so much for joining us for the September Stylin’  Stampin’ Squad Blog Hop! This month we are focusing on the tools of the stampin’ trade. Specifically, each of our favorite stamping tools. It’s amazing the kinds of tools that have been created to help us along in our paper-crafting addictions.  This month’s blog hop will showcase many of the Stampin’ Up! tools that are now available to us in the 2013-2014 Stampin’ Up! Idea Book and Holiday Catalog and even a couple of products that are so new they aren’t in either catalog. We hope you enjoy seeing how we use the old and new tools and are inspired to come up with some great projects of your own.

    You should have just left stop number 9 on the Stylin’ Stampin’ Squad blog hop – Stuck on Stampin’. If so, you are in the right spot. If a link doesn’t work or you get off track, you will find the full blog hop lineup below.

    Ok, so are you ready to see what I picked for my favorite tool?  I was going to pick punches (since, have you seen my wall of punches??) but that was well covered.  And so I decided to go with the less popular tool – the paper piercer and templates!

    I promise the picture above includes all three of the templates included in the Essentials pack, but its hard to see, so here is a better picture of all of the options available to you in the pack.

    image This is my absolute favorite pack because I cannot live without my straight rows of piercing holes.  It is the simplest thing, but I use it all the time!  Now, I love the shapes and patterns as well, and have found they give lots of possibilities even if you don’t own the coordinating punch or framelit.

    But to show you 3 of the ways I use my piercer, I created this card to share today:

    Can you spot all 3 uses of the piercing tool and template?  Smile  Keep reading to see if you caught them all!

    1.  Creating Faux Stitching

    One of the coolest techniques I know with this tool is the faux stitching technique and it is so easy to do as well.  Yes, you can pierce your holes and then grab needle and thread and stitch on your cards…. or you can just do this.

    Line up the more widely spaced straight line holes of your paper piercing template so that the seam between two pieces of paper (in this case, patterns from the Etcetera designer paper) is exactly in the middle between the two lines of holes.

    how to use a piercing template for faux stitchingUse your piercing tool to poke each hole and then draw your stitch lines in with your favorite color marker.  Looks pretty real, huh?

    2.  Spotlighting with Pierced Patterns

    Since there are so many patterns on the templates, sometimes they are perfect to coordinate with a punch or framelit for an extra accent.  In this case, I loved how the oval of holes helps accent the sentiment in the center of the scallop oval punch out.  You could do some faux stitching with this as well, but I thought the simple look was a bit nicer.

    You can also do this without needing to use a punch.  Use any of the shapes to accent a stamped image on any project you are working on.

    3.  Precision Placement of Brads

    how to line up piercing template for corners

    Ok, this is my go-to use for my paper piercer and template – placing brads.  I am a pretty loosey-goosey card maker and stamper.  I’m ok if my image is a little skewed (hey, its artistic that way!) and if I didn’t quite get that bow right.  But one thing I can’t stand, is if an element that is supposed to be symetrical – like brads in a row or in the corners of a paper – comes out slightly off.

    So I ALWAYS pull out my piercing template when I’m going to add brads to a project so I can make sure they are spaced evenly apart and the same distance in from each corner.

    To do that, you just align the black solid line on the template along the edge of your paper and then pick the same hole in the corner to use for placement.  Then just use the same corner of the template for each corner on your paper and you will get perfect corners every time!

    So, there you have it…. did you figure out all 3?

    I also wanted to take a quick moment to show one other little trick I did on this card…. yeah, it has nothing what so ever to do with piercing, but I thought it was cool.  It was how I got the doily for the background of the card.

    two tone sponging on paper doilies I took a single doily and folded it in not-quite-half.  Then I took a piece of scrap paper and placed it between the top and the bottom piece of the doily.  I sponged the top piece in Pool Party; then I opened it up and sponged the bottom side with Midnight Muse.  It gives a neat effect with no cutting and only one doily!

    and back to paper piercing…

    I did a class on Paper Piercing a while back and so I thought I’d share a card we made in that class that gives you even more ideas for how you can user the piercing tool and template.

     

    So I hope you enjoyed all the tips and ideas, and now are inspired to get out your piercing templates and start creating!

    For even more inspiration and ideas for using the tools you have at home, keep on hoping and visit Bree for some fun with the Simply Scored!

    Blog Hop Participants:

    1. Shellie G. of Craft Smashup
    2. Pam S. of Stampin’ in the Sun!
    3. Tonya B. of Stampin’ with Tonya
    4. Dawn S. of Dawn’s Creative Chalet
    5. Darcy J. of DJ’s Stampin’ Place
    6. Pamela W. of Stinky Tofu
    7. Kim R. of Stamping with Kim
    8. Justin K. of JK Cards
    9. Heidi B of Stuck on Stampin’
    10. Jennifer B. of NW Stamper <— YOU ARE HERE!
    11. Bree R. of Craft-somnia
    12. Diana E. of Stampin’ Fun with Diana
    13. Jennifer C. of Happy 2 Scrap 4 Life
    14. Jamie H. of Unique Ink
    15. Kristina M. of Mama’s Sanity

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    Card Supplies Used
    Stamps- Express Yourself (hostess set)
    Ink- Midnight Muse, Calypso Coral, Pool Party
    Paper – Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Etcetera designer paper
    Accessories – Paper piercer, piercing mat, Essentials Piercing Template, Scallop Oval punch, sponge daubers, white doilies, Mini Brads, stampin’ dimensionals

    Help me better plan future classes, online offerings, tutorials, and events –  take this quick survey on in-person and online class offerings and you’ll be entered to win!  Take the survey now!

  • A Fun Pop-Up Card with Swallowtail Tutorial

    When I was at convention this year, Shelli showed off some cards that had neat pop-up effects.  Once of the cards that really struck me was a cool card that used the Swallowtail butterfly to create a surprise pop-up on the inside of the card.  I thought it was extra cool because when you look at that stamp image, it is too big to fit well on a card front and so I never would have thought it would have thought to try it on the inside of a card.

    So for a recent technique class, I decided to try it out and create that moment of surprise for class attendees as they got to make this card.

    Here is the front of the card… I kept it simple since we were going to be focusing on the details inside the card.

    Then you untie the ribbon (which you need so the card doesn’t try to push open on you when you aren’t ready), open it up and hello, butterfly!

    If that is a little hard to see, here is another angle to help you see the pop-up effect.  I also used the Pleasant Poppies background stamp to give the effect of the butterfly flitting through the flowers.

    To create this pop-up effect, you want to do the following:

    1. Start by stamping and coloring your Swallowtail butterfly image. 
    2. Then cut out the butterfly. 
    3. Gently fold the butterfly image in half (you don’t have to press hard to crease it, just make sure it is set to fold how you want when the card is closed.
    4. imageTake a piece of window sheet and punch a 1-1/4” circle out.
    5. Cut a spiral into the 1-1/4” circle as shown in my poorly drawn image to the right. Smile 
    6. On the “top” side of your spiral, attach a glue dot to the center of your spiral.  Attach another glue dot to the “bottom” side of your spiral at the outside end of the spiral.  (it doesn’t really matter which side is top and bottom, as long as your glue dots are on the opposite sides of the spiral)
    7. Glue the right wing of the butterfly to the right side of your card inside.
    8. Fold the butterfly in half and press the window sheet spiral onto the backside of the left wing with the glue dot in the center of the spiral sticking to the wing.
    9. Hold the butterfly down so it is folded in half and close the card.  This will allow the left side of the card inside to stick to the glue dot on the edge of the spiral.
    10. Open the card and check if you like how much of a pop you get with your butterfly.  Reposition the spiral as needed to get it just how you like.

    Hopefully that made sense!  If not, let me know and I’ll try to put together a video on how to do the pop-up effect.

    Like I mentioned, this is a card I shared at a recent card class and I loved the idea of sharing some pop-up and flip style cards with everyone.  I’ve finished my class schedule for the rest of the year – so if you are interested in joining me at a future event, check out the calendar and let me know!

     

    Want to win a $20 Stampin’ Up! shopping spree? 

    Take this quick survey on in-person and online class offerings to help me better plan future classes, online offerings, tutorials, and events and you’ll be entered to win!  

    Take the survey now!

     

    In the meantime, give a pop-up card a try!  They are fun and easy, and give the recipient a fun surprise.

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    Card Supplies Used
    Stamps- Swallowtail, Pleasant Poppies, Express Yourself (hostess set)
    Ink- Early Espresso, Sahara Sand (marker), Pool Party (marker), Calypso Coral (marker)
    Paper – Sahara Sand, Whisper White, Calypso Coral, Pear Pizzazz, Window Sheets
    Accessories – 1-1/4” circle punch, Word Window punch, Modern Label punch, Glue Dots, Pear Pizzazz taffeta ribbon, Elegant Butterfly punch, Bitty Butterfly punch

  • Finally Finished August’s Paper Pumpkin Kit!

    I know, I know… we are already in September and I”ve had my Paper Pumpkin kit for a few weeks; but I finally had some time to sit down with my August kit and start playing.

    I try each month to make one example following the pre-designed sample and then make the rest using only the supplies in the kit and a little creativity…. so this is what came out this month:

    I’ll admit, I started out a bit stalled since this month, but once I started playing more ideas started coming.  And I even ended up with some extra stickers and pieces I can use for other projects – I just need another burst of mojo to finish those up! Smile

    Plus, I had to make sure to stamp up my envelopes as well.  So, here is what I did along with my two favorite cards in the set:

    I actually stamped the front bottom corner of three of the envelopes by inking up my bicycle stamp with the Bermuda Bay ink and then inked each envelope one after another without re-inking in between.  So you get a slightly faded effect as you go.

    I also used this technique to get this cool motion effect on one of the cards:

    Just stamp the bicycle on the right side of your paper and then keep stamping WITHOUT re-inking while moving the stamp slightly to the left each time you stamp.

    Yes, it’s true, this card uses a few supplies not included in the kit (some scrap Whisper White cardstock, the 2 1/2” circle punch, paper piercing tool, and the Essentials Piercing Pack) but that is because I started out stamping out the bicycle on the card back and I completely messed it up!!

    So, I needed to do something to cover up the boo-boo and thus the scraps started coming out.  Plus, I loved the idea of piercing the circle to help it coordinate with the background print.  What do you think?

    Don’t forget – if you have been thinking of signing up for Paper Pumpkin, you need to be signed up by TONIGHT if you want to get your first kit in September. Sign up here

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    So today’s post was supposed to go up yesterday but instead of adding the finishing touches to the post and publishing, we had the excitement during breakfast of our carbon monoxide monitors going off and having to quickly evacuate our house due to extremely dangerous levels of the gas in our house.  Thankfully we had the monitors and all the people and animals in our house are fine, and the kids had the fun of seeing firetrucks come to our house and getting to hang out with firemen.

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    So, the moral of the story is… if you don’t have carbon monoxide detectors in your house, please go get some!  You never know when you will need them.  I know we had no clue anything was wrong or that we were in danger until they started going off.

    All the best and happy & SAFE stamping!

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  • Playing with the New Labels Thinlits Flip Card

    When I ran a recent class about cards that flip and pop, I knew I had to share a card using the new Labels Thinlit die.  I mean, the fact that one run through the Big Shot and you have the card almost done, got to love the ease of that. 

    Since the thinlit die comes with a bunch of extra shape dies, I wanted to see what I could come up with that mostly uses those extra shapes.  Have you seen all the options?

    image

    So, this is what we made:

    I decided to try to experiment – and this is a little hard to see in the picture – but with the main label shape, we actually cut out a label in Coastal Cabana and then cut out a second label shape in So Saffron, but this time, we placed the “hi” die inside the label die so that it would cut out the “hi” leaving a hole in the shape of the word (does that make sense? Smile)  Then we glued the labels together so the Coastal Cabana peeked through!

    To decorate the rest of the card, we added a bit of Washi tape to the front of the card and then stamped an image from the Gorgeous Grunge stamp set.  We stamped the inside, just like the card from last month’s newsletter

    (if you missed it, you can sign up here and I’ll get you a copy of the past newseltter)

    So this is an idea to make a card using just a few supplies…. now I’m off to try out a few more ideas that incorporate more items from your craft room to step up the card even more. 

    Untill then, happy stamping!

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  • The Right Way to Get-away & an Idea for a One Layer Card

    2013-08-30 17.30.12Ever have one of those months where you swear you can’t keep up and yet you look back and try to figure out why you were so swamped?  Well, August apparently was that month for me!  Everytime I thought I was about to get caught up, I had something else that was starting to run behind and needless to say I felt like the proverbial headless chicken running around my house.  Thankfully, I got most of my major projects done before the Holiday weekend and my awesome hubby planned the perfect Anniversary getaway!

    You see, Sept 1st is our wedding anniversary and this year he planned a secret getaway… I had no idea where we were going until we got there!  Plus he was extra awesome and told me to pack some craft stuff to take with us!  Isn’t he the best!

    So we packed up our kids and turned out he had rented a house on the Washington Coast and while the whole family would be there Friday night, Saturday the kids would head off to Grandma’s house and we would have the place to ourselves to relax and enjoy the quiet until Monday.  And relax we did!  Check out my view from the dining room table where I did some crafting: 2013-09-01 15.29.56

    Anywhoo – the trip was fantastic and exactly what I needed to relax and get re-energized!  Hopefully, you were able to enjoy your holiday weekend as well and get some “you” time in as well! 

    I was going to share one of the cards we’ll be making at my Cute and Classic card class this Friday, but I discovered that the photo quality was pretty bad.  So, that will be my post for tomorrow and in the meantime, I thought I’d share an idea for an almost-one-layer card using the Wildflower Meadow stamp.

    Since the Wildflower Meadow stamp is basically a background stamp, it does most of the heavy lifting for you in this card.  I just stamped the front of a Very Vanilla cardbase and then added a couple rhinestones for bling on the flowers, some ribbon around the bottom of the card, and a cut out snippet from the Banner Greetings hostess stamp set for the sentiment in the corner.

    If you wanted to step it up a bit, without adding layers, you could use the Wildflower Meadow embossing folder to dry emboss the flowers on the front for a little extra oomph!

    Card Supplies Used
    Stamps – Wildflower Meadow**, Banner Greetings
    Ink – Raspberry Ripple, Baked Brown Sugar
    Paper –Very Vanilla
    Accessories – Gumball Green Stitched Satin Ribbon, Rhinestones

    ** available in a discounted bundle with the coordinating embossing folder

     

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  • Adding a Splash of Washi to Your Cards

    So turns out when I start working on something, I can get really focused on that task.  In the case of last week, that task wasn’t any of the handful of crafting projects and event prep I needed to work on, but instead was an even more daunting task – picking a preschool for Nicholas!  2013-08-23 12.29.45

    Awww….aren’t they getting so big? Smile 

    I thought it would be a quick and easy thing to figure out, and I’d be back working on my other projects right away.  But, no…. there are so many choices and variations.  Thankfully, we were able to find some good options and start the process for getting him enrolled, so now I’m able to get back in the crafty mindset!

    And first on the docket – Thank you cards!

    I always like to send thank you cards to everyone who places an order with me and I wanted something bright and cheery to remind us that summer hasn’t quite ended yet!

    I used 3 of my favorite items right now:  Washi tape, Flower Shop bundle, and the Oh Hello stamp set to put this together.

    Card Supplies Used
    Stamps –     Oh Hello, Flower Shop
    Ink – Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight, Rose Red, Gumball Green
    Paper – Rose Red, Whisper White
    Accessories – Posy Punch, Gingham Garden washi tape, Stampin’ Dimensionals

    So, if you’ve ordered with me in the last few weeks… check your mailbox for your own copy of this card!

    If you’ve ordered with me in the last month and NOT received a card, please let me know!  There have been some hiccups in the Stampin’ Up! ordering system and some demonstrators have not been receiving notice about orders placed.  I want to make sure I’m giving you the best possible service, so if you haven’t heard from me, let me know so I can fix it. Smile 

     

    But no matter what, THANK YOU for stopping by and please come back soon!

     

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  • Fun Friend Card with Paper Pumpkin Welcome Kit Stamps

    I’ve been subscribed to My Paper Pumpkin since it started and so each month, I tend to get excited about the newest projects and stamps that come in the mail each month, and I sometimes forget about the past stamps.  But with the August promotion where you can get your first 2 months for only $10 a month (including shipping!), I have had some new friends join Paper Pumpkin this month and get the welcome kit.  So, I wanted to send a little note saying hello and thank you and decided to pull out those stamps that come with the welcome kit.

    This is what I came up with:

    It all started with a card base that I had made a while back by embossing the entire card front with the Honeycomb embossing folder.  Then just started adding some fun elements that were lying around my craft room.  I loved how the new burlap ribbon made a fun border for my scrap of Whisper White cardstock that I stamped with the speckled splatter stamp.

    So I hope they like it!  I really had fun with it and think I may need to make a few more!

    Don’t forget – the 50% savings for the first 2 months ends August 31st!  You can cancel or skip a month anytime with no penalty, so if you’ve been thinking about trying it out, don’t miss out on this great deal!  Plus I’ll send you one of these cards as well to thank you for joining. Smile  Get your no-obligation Paper Pumpkin subscription started here and use promo code PUMPKINDEAL!

    Card Supplies Used

    Stamps- Paper Pumpkin Welcome Kit
    Ink – Crumb Cake, Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight
    Paper – Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
    Accessories – Linen Thread, Burlap Ribbon (SU Holiday catalog), Glue Dots, Big Shot, Honeycomb embossing folder, Decorative Label punch

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