Northwest Stamper

Author: Jennifer

  • Designer Frames Embossed Love Card

    I hope you had a wonderful Valentine’s Day!  My day was like pretty much everyday except my hubby was super sweet and let me sleep in a little in the morning.  He even fed Nicholas breakfast while I slept!  That was an awesome enough gift for me. Smile

    Well, as evidenced by my just getting my Christmas thank you cards out in the mail last week, I’m a bit behind on my holiday card making.  So, it really wasn’t any surprise that I didn’t get many Valentines done…and by many I mean, I got one done.  Sure, I helped my son make one for his daddy, and so I hurried to put together one from me as well.

    I saw a card on the Stampin’ Up! facebook page that used this stamp from the Easy Events stamp set in front of the lattice embossed background and it was inspiration enough to get me started.

    imageI was trying to figure out how I wanted to mat the image when I remembered that I had just received the Designer Frames embossing folders as a free Sale-a-Bration item and sure enough, the rectangle frame was a perfect fit!

    The really cool thing about these embossing folders is that since the plastic is somewhat see-through, I could stamp my image first and then line it up inside the frame before embossing.  Sure, it leaves a little bit of ink on the folder, but that is easy to clean with a little spritz of the Stampin’ Mist cleaner.

    Anyway, after embossing the image, I decided to snazzy it up a bit and used a black marker to outline the embossed ridge near the inside of the rectangle.  Then I cut out the whole frame and sponged to make it “pop” more off the background.

    Oh, and one tip I’ll give you about watercoloring your images:
    Let the ink sit for an extra minute before you start blending your colors.

    I used a blender pen, and though I know the Basic Black ink is water resistant and that classic ink dries really quickly.  I forgot that if you are going to be doing a lot of pulling the color around with a blender pen – let your stamped image sit for an extra minute to totally dry.  I started coloring in almost immediately after stamping and found that if I went over the black lines very much with the blender pen it would darken my color (in this case, I ran into it with the green of the tree).  It still looked pretty and came out fine, but I ended up stamping again anyway because I wanted a more vibrant color when I was coloring.  Letting the image sit while I cut out the frame was more than enough time to be ready to color.

    Don’t miss out on Sale-a-Bration – see what you can get FREE with your order!

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    Easy Events Love Card Recipe:
    Stamps:      Easy Events
    Ink:  Lucky Limeade Classic Ink, Cherry Cobbler Classic, Soft Suede Classic, Basic Black marker
    Paper: Basic Black CS, Whisper White CS
    Accessories:  Big Shot, Designer Frames Embossing folder, Cherry Cobbler seam binding ribbon, Basic Black 1/4” grosgrain ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Lattice embossing folder

  • Scrapbooking Sunday: Summer Fun Simple Layout

    Oops, got behind posting todays scrapbook layout.  This is one of the first pages I did last year when getting back into scrapbooking.  I had ordered the Country Club Simply Scrappin’ kit because I thought it could be very versatile and I think it totally works.

    I love Simply Scrappin’ kits because you have a little of everything to help you put together your scrapbook pages and you know it will be all coordinated! Plus, you have everything you need in one small package so it is ultra portable, like in this case when I took the pack to a crop with my pictures, a couple stamps, and some ink.

    I stamped and cut out the title using Broadsheet Alpha.  It took a while, but I liked having the individual letters.

    Then clustering a few of the kit elements just for fun at the bottom let me play with the different elements of the kit.  Then adding some stamping using the Creative Elements stamp set to create a border along the bottom.

    Overall, this isn’t my favorite layout of my recent pages, but the pictures and memories are wonderful and I’m glad to have them captured while I still remember that exact day.

    I’m definitely going to have to do more scrapping of days and pictures from everyday activities and not just holidays and milestones.  What do you scrap?

     

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    Broadsheet Alphabet - Clear-Mount Stamp Set - by Stampin' Up!Creative Elements - Clear-Mount Stamp Set - by Stampin' Up!
    Broadsheet Alpha Stamp Set                           Creative Elements Stamp Set

  • Berry Blossom Thank You

    Something you may not know about me… I tend to be an overthinker.  That holds true for my card making sometimes.  I sit down with an idea and then take forever tinkering with colors, embellishments, layout, etc.  Well, yesterday was different!  I needed some thank you cards and wanted to get them done before the baby woke up and the toddler got bored and started deconstructing the craft room.

    So I sat at my table and said, lets do something fast… and one look at a Lucky Limeade flower sitting on my table and the Berry Blossom designer paper in the box at my feet and I was off and running.

    So, I had a scrap of the designer paper and I often pull my color combo cues from the paper itself.  So in this case, I decided to run with the Lucky Limeade, Calypso Coral, and Wisteria Wonder combo.  Since I had the Limeade flower, I thought the Wisteria made a good border for the patterned paper and built from there.  I was able to get two cards done in about 10 minutes and then I put together this card from the last few scraps.

    I popped the Limeade flower up on the largest flower from the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch in Calypso Coral and added a little bling to make it fun.  Then, I had already glued down the Whisper White paper before I stamped the Thank You and after stamping, decided it needed something else.  So, enter the Wisteria Wonder Stampin’ Write marker to the rescue with a bit of faux stitching.  Fast, and turns out I loved it!  I hope it makes the recipient smile too. Smile

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    Love Impressions Scrapbook Layout Recipe:
    Ink:      Chocolate Chip, Wisteria Wonder marker
    Paper: Berry Blossom designer paper, Wisteria Wonder CS, Lucky Limeade CS, Calypso Coral CS, Whisper White CS
    Accessories:  Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer Punch, Basic Rhinestones, Stampin’ Dimensionals

     

  • Loving Thoughts Valentine’s Card

    Alright, I’ll admit I’m totally behind on getting pictures taken for my blog right now; but then I realized that there are number of projects that I don’t share on my blog that are great idea pieces out on my demonstrator website.  So, I thought I would post one of those projects so you could see one of the cute ideas.

    Totally cute, right?

    And it’s actually really easy to put together as well!  Its mainly cutting a few blocks of paper, some hearts using the new Heart Collection Framelits die, add some ribbon and some stamping, and you are good to go!  And do you see the pleated satin ribbon?  Love!

    So, if you want to see more about this card or a bunch of other project ideas you haven’t seen on my blog, check out the idea section of my website.  Let me know which projects inspire you!

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  • Gotten Your Free My Digital Studio Trial Yet?

    My Digital Studio

    With the holidays having recently passed, you’ve probably either created your own digital project (from calendar to holiday card) or received a number of them in the mail.  The world of digital crafting and creating has really expanded in the last few years and I love that My Digital Studio provides a one-stop-shop for all kinds of projects!

    Plus, now you can try the full program for FREE!

    Stampin’ Up! has just started offering My Digital Studio Express (the downloadable version of the software) with a free 30-day trial.  So, it is easy to check it out for yourself!

    Why is My Digital Studio cool?

    • Create fun digital projects using your favorite Stampin’ Up! artwork, colors, and pre-designed templates
    • You can use the software on either a Mac or a PC
    • The software comes with pre-loaded stamps, punches, embellishments, papers, etc – but Stampin’ Up! is continually adding new content as they come out with new products.  So you can keep adding to your software…AND the downloads you buy can be used in any software program that can open a image file
    • Lots of options for how to print and share your projects including sending to a professional printing service straight from the program.
    • All of your digital download and printing services orders are eligible to earn “hostess” rewards!  So, you could be printing out a bunch of photo books for your family and get free stamps/paper/etc at the same time!

    Check out this link to learn more about My Digital Studio including a video highlighting what you can do.

    or

    Click here to get your trial now!  Its totally free, so why not give it a whirl and see what fun things you can create!

    My Digital Studio Express Trial -- Digital Download

    I’ve used MDS for a number of projects personally from cards to scrapbook pages; I’ve even used it to design my blog!  If you have any questions about how it works or what My Digital Studio can do, shoot me an email and I’d love to talk with you more.

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  • Scrapbooking Sunday & A Superbowl Special!!

    As I mentioned last week, I’ve been getting back into scrapbooking recently and so I’m hoping to be able to share with you some ideas for how to use your different Stampin’ Up! supplies to make some fun layouts.  So, today is week 2 of Scrapbooking Sunday and stick around to the bottom of the post for my Superbowl Special!

    But first, can I share with you some photos of my littlest stamper? Smile

    This layout was based on a sketch by my friend Charity Becker.  I don’t know why I hadn’t thought of collaging photos into one single block before, but I love the look.  And it was perfect for me to put together those multiple “sleeping baby” pictures from when we were still in the hospital after Caitlin was born.  Plus it was the perfect opportunity for me to pull out the Love Impressions specialty paper I scored from the Clearance Rack!

    Since the sketch itself was pretty simple, I had fun pulling out some of my new toys and adding some fun touches.  First up…. Framelits labels!

    Since you get 6 different sizes of the same shape, I could make 3 different sized but coordinating labels for the bubble border at the top of my pictures.  Plus, I LOVE the fact that you can see what exactly you are cutting out with your framelit and so I could center the grey “LOVE” where I wanted when I went to cut it out.  And just to keep it fun, I used my embossing folders on two of the labels.

    And then to balance the bottom of my pictures, I ran a row of the Blushing Bride pleated ribbon.  I really don’t think I can get enough of this ribbon! Color in the XOXO from the designer paper with my waterbrush for a subtitle.  And then one of my favorite touches – I pierced holes at the corners of my photo frame and ran Cherry Cobbler Bakers Twine to make a subtle outline of my centerpiece.  It was so easy and really made a bigger impact than I expected for such a small amount of material.

    Do you love this stuff as much I do?  So much fun to use!  Ready for a special to help you add these to your stash for a deal?

    Superbowl Sunday Stampin’ Special!

    Alright, the Superbowl is a big day for many folks – whether you are watching for the game or for the commercials.  So, lets have a little stamping fun along with it!

    • Order discount
      • Call or email me your order at anytime on Sunday and once the game is over, I will total up the final score and the last digit of that number will be the discount for everyone’s orders!
      • So, if the final score is 31-7… add them together to get 38… so the last digit is ‘8’ and so everyone gets 8% off their purchase.
    • Bonus drawing!
      • Everyone who gets me their order prior to the end of the game will be entered in a drawing for a free spool of Pleated Ribbon in the color of your choice!

    Contact me at jennifer@nwstamper.com or 425-307-1646 to place your order.

    Online orders will be entered into the bonus drawing and discounts will be applied in the form of a reimbursement check.

    Alright everyone, GAME ON!  Enjoy your Sunday and I’ll see you back here soon!

    To Order Stampin’ Up! Products Anytime, click here!

    Love Impressions Scrapbook Layout Recipe:
    Ink:      Basic Grey, Real Red, Blushing Bride
    Paper: Love Impressions designer paper (CLEARANCE RACK), Real Red cardstock, Basic Grey CS, Whisper White CS
    Accessories:  Big Shot, Polkadot embossing folder, Lattice embossing folder, Framelits – Labels, Blushing Bride pleated ribbon, Cherry Cobbler bakers twine, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack, Glue dots, Water brush, Sponge Daubers

  • An Everyday Enchantment Valentine

    Hopefully you had a chance to enjoy the blog tour earlier this week.  I loved playing with the new Sale-a-Bration items for my projects and so I reached for them again when I was working on a card for a long-distance workshop I have coming up.

    I was working within the constraints of what stamps, ink, and tools my hostess had; but since I was providing the paper and embellishments – I knew I really wanted to work in the Everyday Enchantment designer paper and Calypso Coral Organdy ribbon.

    I also was excited to use the Fun Flowers Bigz L die for the Big Shot. I don’t use mine nearly enough but I started playing with a Very Vanilla flower and thought it really went with the vintage look when I sponged the edges. Then I was told that the scallop circle punch from the Itty Bitty Punch Pack fit perfectly in the scallop circle from the Fun Flowers die, and that gave it just the right amount of Pop!

    This is one of those cards that looks complicated but is actually really easy to pull together.  So hopefully the girls getting together for the workshop will have a lot of fun making their own copies!

    Interested in hosting a workshop even if you aren’t local?

    I’m happy to work with you to put together a long-distance workshop so that you can earn all your hostess benefits at your own convenience.  Email me at jennifer@nwstamper.com for more details!

    To Order Stampin’ Up! Products Anytime, click here!

     

    Fun Flowers Valentine’s Day Card Recipe:
    Stamps:  French Foliage, Teeny Tiny Wishes
    Ink:  Crumb Cake, Early Espresso
    Paper: Everyday Enchantment designer paper**, Lucky Limeade cardstock, Very Vanilla cs, Calypso Coral cs
    Accessories:  Big Shot, Fun Flowers Bigz L die, Itty Bitty Punch Pack, Adhesive Backed Pearls, 1/8” Calypso Coral Organdy ribbon**, Sponge Daubers

    ** FREE items as part of the Stampin’ Up! Sale-a-Bration promotion

  • Vintage Fresh for Today’s Sudsol Blog Tour!

    SUDSOL Blog Tour, February 1st!
    Hi everyone!  Today is the day for the big SUDSOL blog tour.  I love all the ideas you can find on a blog tour and hopefully my projects today will give you some new ideas to try at home.  For this tour, the focus is on the fun new things in the Occasion Mini and the Sale-a-Bration catalogs.  I decided to show you some of my favorites with 3 different projects; and since I have a lot to share…lets get this show on the road!

    A Scallop Circle Mini Basket

    So, for those of you not familiar with SUDSOL, it is a community and content website specifically for Stampin’ Up! demonstrators who are interested in really focusing on thinking about their stamping business as an actual business.  So, there are lots of great ideas, tips, and sharing of projects – including a library full of templates and project patterns with photos and instructions created by other demos (not a member? click the link above to sign-up for a 2 week FREE trial to check it out).

    Anywho, I was browsing the library and found this totally novel idea for how to turn a Scallop Circle (from the Bigz Big Shot die) and turn it into a little box – or in my case, add a handle and make it a basket. See:

    Seriously, I would have never thought to score and cut a scallop circle die cut to make a small rectangular box.  But isn’t it cute !!  I pulled out my coordinating Sale-a-Bration items: Fresh Vintage stamp set, Everyday Enchantment designer paper, and the Everyday Enchantment brads and ribbon pack; and went to town decorating!

    So, I started by pulling out the pattern I liked from the designer paper and making a 1/2” band around the box.  I had a piece left over from cutting my band and so I cut that in half (making two 1/4” strips) to make my basket handle.  I didn’t like the seam where I glued them together at the top of the handle, so I pulled out the Lucky Limeade organza ribbon and wrapped it around the seam to hide it.

    As you can see, I have chocolate in my basket (yum! chocolate!)  I actually have 2 undecorated Reese’s mini peanut butter cups in the bottom of the basket and 2 decorated ones on top.  I used the Blossom Bouquet Triple Layer punch along with the Fresh Vintage stamp set to decorate my candy.

    SU Demos – you can find the instructions for this box in the SUDSOL library here. 

    A Fresh Vintage Thank You Card

    Alright, so I had the chocolate and the basket, I needed a card to go with it.  So, I set out by pulling out my next favorite item – Framelits Labels collection!

    I wanted to use the big flower image from the Vintage Fresh stamp set and was super excited to see that one of the labels seemed to have curves that exactly fit the shape of the flower’s flourish.  So, I started with that as my guide for the layout.  Then I wanted to use my current favorite ribbon – Pleated Satin Ribbon in Blushing Bride.  Yes, you heard right… they pre-pleat the ribbon for you!

    Anyway, I knew I wanted to use the labels and the ribbon and so then I just fiddled with placement and papers until I thought it looked alright.  Here are a few touches that might be hard to see in the above picture:

    Sponging of the Blushing Bride label and the Basic Grey cardbase with Blushing Bride ink.  Oh, and popping up the smallest label.

     

    I stamped the repeating flourish pattern from the stamp set along the bottom of the card front with my stamp-a-ma-jig and then layered the ribbon along the top edge.

    A Fresh Vintage Stand-Up Card

    Alright, so I had been tasked to create 3 projects for this blog tour and I was now up to 2.  I decided to turn back to the SUDSOL pattern library to see if there was something that really pulled me in.  I ran across this stand-up card pattern and thought it was something I had never done before and it looked like fun.  So, I gave it a go and this is the results!

    I love how this card style will actually lie flat for mailing in an envelope but stands up when you pull it out.  Cool, huh?

     

    I tried to keep in theme by using the same color schemes (or at least more Blushing Bride and Pool Party), designer paper, and stamps. I decided to pull out one more new Occasion Mini product to play with for this project – Twitterpated designer buttons. I was inspired by some recent vintage-y scrapbook pages I had seen and wanted to try out lots of layers for the focal point and then have some sentiment that suited staring at me from a shelf. Thus – Beautiful Life.

    SU Demos – you can find the instructions for this card style in the SUDSOL library here.

     

    Whew! You made it!  I had so much fun creating these projects and I hope you enjoyed them as well.  I’d love to hear which was your favorite – please leave me a comment and let me know!

    CONTINUE on the Blog Tour

                           

    Adriana Benitez                            Annette Bogue

    And after the tour I’d love to have you come back and visit here again; or for SUDSOL members, check out more of my projects in my gallery on the SUDSOL site.

    To Order Stampin’ Up! Products Anytime, click here!

    image

  • Sneak Peek for Wednesday

    It’s been a while since I’ve participated in a blog tour and so I decided to join up with one through a Stampin’ Up! demo business group called SUDSOL.  On Wednesday a group of talented demos will be sharing cool ideas for using some of the new Sale-a-Bration and Occasion mini items.  We each have to share at least 3 samples and I’m really happy how my samples turned out.

    So, in the hopes of encouraging you to come back and visit me on Wednesday, I thought I’d share today a little sneaky-peek of one of my projects.

    And I will say, there is another really fun feature of the project show above that you totally can’t see from the picture!

    Hope to see you Wednesday!

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  • Scrapbooking Sunday: Mixed Bunch page

    Since the end of last year, I’ve started to get on a scrapbooking kick.  I realized that I had a lot more fun and was much faster with scrapbook pages when I started from a sketch and so I started playing along with some sketch challenges.  This was a page I created based on a sketch by the very talented Kristy Lee.

    Normally, I am one of those people who try to jam a million 4×6 pictures onto a 12×12 scrapbook page; so the idea of only having one picture is definitely outside of my comfort zone.  However, I loved this picture and it stood alone well for the story (Nicholas getting his first tooth) that I just went for it.

    It also meant I had lots of space to fill with other elements on the page.  So I grabbed my new Mixed Bunch stamp set and matching Blossom punch from the Occasions mini and am pretty sure I used every stamp in the set!

    I punched and popped up the flowers with varying heights to add some dimension to the page.  And then I added some extra accents for fun – a brad here, some dazzling details on the Tangerine Tango center of the white flower (hard to see in the picture), and some Crystal Effects on the green flower thing.

    You can also kind of see in this picture how I had fun sponging the letters for my title.  I busted out my Big Shot to cut them out but thought white was too stark.  So, thanks to the awesome color matching-ness of Stampin’ Up papers and inks, I was able to pull in the colors of the papers by sponging the coordinating inks across the letters (well, I actually sponged the paper and then cut out the letters, but you get the idea).  This was a new idea for me; and I’m definitely going to have to do it again.

     

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    First Tooth Scrapbook Page Recipe:
    Stamps:      Mixed Bunch
    Ink:  Old Olive classic, Tangerine Tango classic, Chocolate Chip classic, Bashful Blue classic
    Paper: Old Olive designer paper, Bashful Blue textured cardstock, Chocolate Chip cs, Whisper White cs, Crumb Cake cs, Tangerine Tango cs, Old Olive cs
    Accessories:  Chocolate Chip 1-1/4” striped grosgrain ribbon, Crystal Effects, Gold Brad, 3/4” circle punch, 1” circle punch, Blossom punch, sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Ticket corner punch, Paper piercer, Dazzling Details, Star stickers and border from retired SS kit, Timeless Type Junior Alphabet, Big Shot

  • A Slightly More Masculine Thank You

    Today I wanted to share the last of the cards we made at a recent class of mine.  The other cards all were flowery or included pink so I figured I ought to try to come up with something for the more manly folks in your life.  (Plus I really wanted to use my Stripes embossing folder for the Big Shot!)

    So this is meant to be a quick and easy card you could make when you need a thank you card and everything you have in you drawer is too girly.  This was also one of my first times pulling out the First Edition specialty designer paper.  It’s a lighter-weight paper, so its kind of fun to play with – even when you are just doing something as simple as tearing an edge.

    Oh, and did I mention that the Stripes embossing folder is one of the items you can get FREE during Sale-a-Bration?  Smile
    (It’s easy to miss in the SAB catalog, but it’s there!)

    So, while I’m still trying to figure out just what defines a “masculine” card; I think this will work for now!

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    Stripes Thanks So Much Card Recipe:
    Stamps:      Sincere Salutations
    Ink:  Rich Razzleberry classic
    Paper: First Edition specialty designer paper, Rich Razzleberry cardstock, Soft Suede cs, Pear Pizzazz cs
    Accessories:  Stripes embossing folder, BigShot, Gold Brads, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Snail adhesive, Paper Piercer

  • A Birthday Card for a 2 Year Old

    December is a big month for my family… its my birthday, now my daughter’s birthday, Christmas, and my son’s birthday.  This year my son turned 2 and even though he wouldn’t really notice the card in the sea of wrapping paper and family – I still wanted to make him a fun little card.  So this is what I came up with:

    I didn’t have a cutesy stamp set that screamed “kid’s birthday” to me, so I pulled out my new Patterned Party set and started playing around.  I stamped the numbers image first using the Pacific Point ink and then stamped a second time on a piece of scrap only this time coloring in the number 2 with Real Red and Daffodil Delight markers to give it some “pop”.  Then I cut it out and glued it over the blue image.

    After it was all put together, it felt like it was missing something so I dug through my stash of ribbon and ran across some Bashful Blue taffeta ribbon and decided to play with adding it above the numbers.  I thought it looked like icing…which I thought was fun for a birthday card.

    I also added some Dazzling Details glitter glue to the flame on the number 2, but it is really hard to tell from the pictures.

    In the end, while he was more caught up in the excitement of unwrapping I was still happy I took the time to make the card.  And while it may seem silly; I’m totally putting it in his scrapbook!

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