Northwest Stamper

Category: Cards

  • Holiday Card Class part 1–Dasher and Northern Flurries

    This last weekend I held my first Holiday Card stamp-a-stack of the season.  In an attempt to get a jump of making all your holiday cards this year, I put together a class for folks to make 12 cards – 3 each of 4 different designs.  It was an interesting challenge for me to put together cards that were fun and yet didn’t take a ton of time to make each one.  In the end, I love how these turned out.  Here are the first two we did:

    Shimmery Dasher

    This card was the simplest of all the cards we did.  It used one of my favorite patterns from the Deck the Halls DSP from the Holiday mini directly on Crumb Cake cardstock.  Then we stamped the A La Carte stamp – Dasher – on a piece of Whisper White and matted that with Chocolate Chip cardstock.

    The part where it gets a little extra fun thrown in is on his antlers.  For this we added a bit of Frost White Shimmer Paint.  To get this effect, you ink up your stamp with Chocolate Chip ink and then before stamping, use a sponge dauber to dab shimmer paint directly onto the antlers – on top of the Chocolate Chip ink.  Now stamp and see the the shimmer.

     

    Vellum Northern Flurries

    This card was inspired by a card I received at the Portland Regionals created by Jenn Lindamood.  I tweaked it a little bit and really love how this looks in person. 

    We embossed Cardstock Vellum using the Northern Flurries embossing folder from the Holiday Mini.  Before adhering the embossed piece to the Night of Navy base with silver brads, we stamped on Whisper White cardstock, snowflakes from the Northern Hearts hostess set in Bashful Blue and then stamped the sentiment from Many Merry Messages in Night of Navy.  Punch that out with the designer label punch and glue down to your card base.  Now attach your Vellum and you have a quick and pretty holiday card!

    Tomorrow I’ll share the other two cards we made in this class. 

    Get the kit

    If you want to make these cards yourself, I am offering the entire class as a Holiday Card Class to Go kit giving you the full color instructions, pre-cut supplies, and envelopes for 12 total cards for only $25 plus shipping

    or attend my second Holiday Stamp-a-Stack session on November 20th if you are in the Bay Area.

    Contact me at jennifer@nwstamper.com to reserve your space or your card kit!

  • Happy Halloween!

    I wanted to wish you all a happy and safe Halloween this year!  I hope your evening is fill with fun and yummy treats!

    Here is my Halloween card treat:

    Happy Halloween!

    If you are curious, I created the spider by punching out a 1″ circle in Basic Black and then used the Curly Label punch to punch out the legs (you just slide the edge of the paper just barely into the punch to create the thin legs).  The mummy is just wrapping some ribbon around a Basic Black square and then adding white gel pen eyes.  And the pumpkin is the 1″ circle punch again only I cut out 3 and layered them so that two overlapped and then the center pumpkin covered up the overlap.  Add a bit of chocolate chip cardstock for a stem and you’re done!

    Card Recipe:
    Stamps:     Teeny Tiny Wishes
    Ink: Tangerine Tango, Basic Black marker
    Paper: Dusty Durango CS, Whisper White CS, Basic Black CS, Rich Razzleberry CS, Wicked Fun DSP
    Accessories: sm Scallop Square punch, Curly Label punch, 1″ Circle punch, 1-1/4″ Square punch, Small oval punch, Word Window punch, White gel pen, Whisper White taffeta ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

  • Day of Gratitude Thank You

    Yesterday I shared a thank you card I made for a future hostess with some fun punching with the new Decorative Label punch.  Well, today, I thought I would share another card along the same lines.  Well, I was on a roll with the decorative label punch and so after playing a bit came up with this card for my friend to thank her for hosting a workshop with me.

    Day of Gratitude Thank You (1280x1207)For this card, the Thank You sentiment is punched out using the Decorative Label punch.  I turned the punch vertically (so it was tall and narrow) and punched out the Thank You at the top of the punchout shape.  Then I pulled the end of the punchout (the part with the stamped image) through the middle of the back of the punch so that it wouldn’t get cut again, and slid it down so the Thank You sentiment was just above the bottom of the punch opening and cut it out.  Again, I know that can be hard to visualize so I will try to get a photo explanation out soon.

    I also punched the corners of the card with the same Decorative label punch to get the curved and indented corners.  Love it!

    Did you know you can get this punch along with the matching Tags til Christmas stamp set as a bundle for 20% off?  Check it out!

    Card Recipe: 
    Stamps:  Day of Gratitude
    Ink:  Garden Green, Old Olive marker, Poppy Parade marker, Peach Parfait marker, Chocolate chip marker and ink pad
    Paper:  Garden Green CS, Very Vanilla CS, Autumn Spice DSP
    Accessories:  Decorative Label punch, Adhesive back pearls, Stampin’ Dimensionals

  • A Curly Cute Thank You

    Well, guess what?  My camera battery died and I don’t have my charger with me.  Sigh.  Thankfully my cell phone takes decent pictures and so i was able to get a couple reasonable shots to last me until i can get my battery charged.

    I wanted to share this card with you because of the fun punchout I created.  This is a thank you card for a friend who is going to be hosting a workshop with me in a couple weeks.  I had been playing around with my new Day of Gratitude stamp set from the regional and my Designer label punch and ended up with the punched flower below.

    Curly cute Thank You I made the flower by punching out the flower with it in the center of the designer label punch.  Then i took that punch out and slid it back into the punch so that one end of the punched out shape was in the punch and the other end was pulled up through the opening in the back so that when I squeezed the punch, only half of the paper would be cut.  I then repeated that again on the other side. 

    i know that is totally confusing 🙂 so, i’ll try to take some photos when my camera is working again to show you what I mean.  But I have to say, this punch is awesome for playing around with different punch shapes.

    Thank You Recipe:
    Stamps:      Curly Cute, Day of Gratitude
    Ink:  Concord Crush marker, Old Olive marker, Poppy Parade marker, Blushing Bride marker
    Paper:  Elegant Eggplant CS, Whisper White CS, Elegant Soiree DSP, Soft Suede CS 
    Accessories:      Stampin’ Dimensionals

  • More Stampin’ Up! Portland Regionals Display Boards

    I got some photos taken but then got so busy finishing prepping for my friend Jenny’s workshop tomorrow that I didn’t get them edited in time to post today.  So, here are a couple more display boards to keep you inspired.

    IMG_1591IMG_1588

  • Stampin’ Up! Regionals Display Boards

    Since I’m still working on getting photos of some of the fabulous swaps I received at the regional on Friday, I thought I would share with you a couple of the display boards that I was able to photograph.  Hopefully these photos are clear enough that when you click on them to enlarge you can see the detail on the cards. 

    I’m always so impressed with the samples displayed at Stampin’ Up! events and then even more so when I realize that most of the cards and projects displayed are actually created by fellow demonstrators and not just the artists at SU headquarters!

    So, here is some inspiration for you:

    SU Regional display board 1

     SU Regional Display Board 2

  • Stampin’ Up! Regionals today!

    I don’t have a project share today but that is because I’m about to head to the Stampin’ Up! regional seminar in Portland, OR!  I’ve been up late trying to get my swaps wrapped up but haven’t had a chance to photograph them yet.  I can say that I think this will be one of the cards in my holiday card stamp-a-stacks that I’m holding Oct 29th and Nov 20th in Mountain View, CA.  I am super excited to be going to Regionals and can’t wait to get back online this weekend to share what I learned and the fabulous swaps and make & takes I got while I was there.  I’ll try to get a post up tonight with the first bits I can get photographed. 

    Until then, Happy Stamping!

  • Square Card Challenge – LNS challenge #92

    I earned the hostess set Northern Hearts recently and was excited that it matched my Northern Trim letterpress die.  So, its funny that the first card I created with it ended up having nothing to do with the matching die, even though I had finished scraps from the right die lying around.  Oh well, this let me play with my other item I just had to have, but hadn’t used yet – the big buttons from the holiday mini.

    I used markers to color the stamp set and then added one of the biggest buttons in the pack!

    I can’t decide if this is a Christmas/holiday card or not.  What do you think?  Would you send this as a Christmas card?

    Northern Heart Birds Recipe:
    Stamps:     Northern Hearts
    Ink: Cherry Cobbler marker, Pear Pizzazz marker, Blushing Bride marker
    Paper: Crumb Cake CS, Very Vanilla CS, Greenhouse Gala dsp
    Accessories: Paper piercer, Candy Cane Big Designer Buttons

  • Halloween Letterpress Card

    When I was first playing with my letterpress plates and trying out different inks and paper, I ended up with extra pieces as samples.  This Trick or Treat was one of the pieces I made using Confetti White paper and classic Pumpkin Pie ink.  It turned out pretty well, so I had set it aside to use later.  Then, I also had this card base I made using Basic Black paper and torn Old Olive cardstock originally for a punch art card that ended up going a different direction, and so I had that lying around too.  So, put them together and add a fun halloween pumpkin and this is what turned out:

    Punching the pumpkin –

    I also had to get a little creative with the pumpkin.  I didn’t have oval punches, which is what I would normally use, but I did have a 1-1/4” circle punch available.  So, I punched out three full circles from some Tangerine Tango cardstock.  I then slid one of the circles back into the punch so I could punch again, trimming off one side of the circle to make an oval like shape.  Now, I did this by sliding the circle in and tapping the side of the punch to shift it into place – the complete pain in the tush method.  If I were to do this again, I would either stick my circle to the back of a post-it note or use dotto to temporarily adhere the pumpkin to a piece of computer paper so that I had a bigger piece of paper to hold when trying to control how much of the circle I was trimming.

    To finish the pumpkin, I sponged the edges of the circles with Chocolate Chip ink,.  Then overlap two of the circles and adhere together.  Adhere the trimmed circle/”oval” on top of the two circles.  Cut a strip of Old Olive CS and adhere to the back of the pumpkin you just created for a stem.

    Trick or Treat Recipe:
    Ink:     Pumpkin Pie classic ink, Chocolate Chip classic ink
    Paper: Basic Black CS, Confetti White CS, Tangerine Tango CS, Old Olive CS
    Accessories: Trick or Treat letterpress die, 1-1/4″ circle punch, sponge, paper piercer, Ice Rhinestone brads

  • A Masculine Birthday

    Here is a quick share for the day; it is my attempt at a masculine birthday card.  My brother-in-law had his 30th birthday and I needed to get some card off to him.  I didn’t want to use a tree set and many of my stamp sets used cutesy animals or had lots of flowers, neither of which scream manly man. 🙂  So, I relied heavily on colors to man-up this card.

    I had some fun with my Party Hearty stamp set by paper piecing the party hats.  I stamped with my Dusty Durango ink and then stamped again on a piece of dsp so I could cut out two more of the party hats to glue over the stamped image.  I also used one of the Texture Plates for the BigShot to create the diamond background in Soft Suede.  The one other piece you might not be able to see, I punched out the Celebrate You stamped image and then behind that punchout, I adhered a scallop circle punch in Dusty Durango.

  • A Moment of Silence

    This isn’t stamping related but I’m taking a day’s break today from my typical stamping projects and having a virtual moment of silence for my grandfather. 

    My grandfather had been struggling with Alzheimers for the last almost 10 years and had reached the point this year of requiring around the clock care and management.  Admirably, my grandmother stood by and supported and cared for him in their home that whole time until late this summer when she realized she needed more help and he moved into a hospice care home.  Sadly, last week he passed away and today is the funeral.  So, I am in Arizona to spend time with family and remember the man that could be stern and spunky all at the same time.

    So, with that – I am taking today to remember my lost loved one and hoping all of you are surrounded by family and friends who love and support you.  Our cards, scrapbook pages, and other projects are neat to look at, but they are special because of the love and care we put into them that can be felt by those who view and receive them.  So, here is to family and friends and the love and support we can share with each other.

    And to Grandpa, we love you and will miss you.  JAW 1925 – 2010

  • Just Believe Easel Card

    Here is the last of the three fancy fold cards we made this week.  This final card was my first ever easel card.  I had seen lots of folks making them but never took the time to figure them out until this class motivated me to create one.  I started out thinking I wanted to make the card in Elegant Eggplant and that I wanted to use a Wheel stamp.  From there I picked the Just Believe stamp set since it match my Always In Bloom wheel and continued building and embellishing until I got to this:

    butterfly easel card (530x800)

    Now if you aren’t familiar with an Easel card, this type of card is called Easel because the base of the card acts as a stand so that you can have the card front permenantly popped up and on display if you want.  Here is a side view:

    butterfly easel card side (780x800)

    The nice thing is that the card lies flat for mailing.  Here are the steps to create this card:

    1. Cut a piece of cardstock to 4 1/4” x 11” for the card base. 
    2. Then cut a second piece of the base color cardstock at 4 1/4” x 5 1/2” for your card front.
    3. Score the 4 1/4” x 11 paper at 5 1/2” and 8 1/4”.  Fold the card in half at the 5 1/2” score line (like a typical card fold) and then fold the cardstock in the opposite direction at the 8 1/4” fold.  So you end up with the cardstock looking like a zigzag pattern when looking at it from the side. 
    4. Adhere the 4 1/4” x 5 1/2” card front piece to the smaller scored end of the paper so that when you fold the card flat, your card front completely covers your card base.
    5. Embellish your card as desired being sure to add some embellishment or paper layers to the inside of the card base to help “catch and hold” the card front when you open the card.  In the example above I used the Rose Red cardstock with the white stamped layer.

    Tip:  If you are using cardstock layers, you may want to curl/distress the edges so that there is more cardstock sticking up to catch the card front

    Tip:  When wrapping ribbon around a card front, especially closer to the open end of the card, use a bit of adhesive to tack down the center of the ribbon to the inside of your card front.  That keeps the ribbon from sliding when you are tying it as well as keeps it from sliding off the card entirely during handling. 🙂

    Just Believe Easel Card Recipe
    Stamps:      Just Believe, Always in Bloom wheel stamp
    Ink:  Old Olive, Rose Red, Elegant Eggplant
    Paper:  Elegant Eggplant CS, Rose Red CS, Whisper White CS, Blushing Bride hostess dsp
    Accessories:  Whisper White taffeta ribbon, self adhesive Rhinestones, Snail adhesive, Glue dots, Butterfly punch