Northwest Stamper

Paisley Petals Anniversary Card

Jennifer — Sat, 19 May 2012 07:07:00 +0000

This weekend my family and I headed out of town to Spokane, WA for my grandparent’s 65th anniversary. I think it is so awesome to see two people who have shared a life for 65 years and have so many interesting stories from their adventures along the way!

So, this when I found this sentiment from the Fifth Avenue Floral stamp set in my scrap pile, I thought it was perfect for them:

I used this card to play with a few other tools and techniques as well. First was pulling out my new Edgelits that came out with the recent Occasions mini. I love that Edgelits allow you to cut a decorative edge wherever you want on your paper. So, I started out with cutting the edge of my Rich Razzleberry card base. Then I cut a piece of Paisley Petals designer paper with the same edge design. To give me this short card front:

TIP: If you are trying to make a layered piece like my card front, you may find that it is less stressful to cut a piece that is the right width and then after you cut your edge, measure how much of a border you want between your edges and then trim off your excess paper on the squared edge (like where the fold of the card is)

The other technique I wanted to play with was “fussy cutting”. I grabbed a piece of of the Paisley Petals designer paper and started cutting out some of the flowers from the paper pattern. Its funny, I think I like the flowers cut out better than in a full sheet of designer paper!

So, I hope you have a wonderful weekend; I know I will have a great time with my extended family as we head to the big carousel in Riverfront Park. I’ll be back online later tonight though, so if you have order or project questions, I’ll be in touch then!

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Need a copy of the 2012-2013 Stampin’ Up! catalog? Click here!

2012 In Color Bookmarks

Jennifer — Fri, 18 May 2012 07:11:00 +0000

I’ve been so spoiled because I’ve had the last week to flip through my new Stampin’ Up! catalog and play with some of the new papers, stamps, and even the new style of ink pads! But I also made sure to spend time this week gearing up to share the love as well.

I finished up these little bookmarks that show off the new 2012-2014 In Colors and included one in all of the catalogs that I sent out in the first batch of mail this week.

I wanted to do something special for my customers as a thank you and since I know that it can be hard to tell what a color really looks like in real life when you are looking in a catalog, I thought these might be a fun way to see what the ink and cardstock look like.

Each one shows off the Gumball Green stitched satin ribbon (which I’ve decided I LOVE this new satin ribbon! I was so depressed about losing the current satin ribbon but now I need all of the new satin ribbon instead!); as well as a Primrose Petals flower, Summer Starfruit flower, Midnight Muse flower, Gumball Green flower, and Raspberry Ripple flower. Ends up being a pretty set, huh?

Wish you had a 2012-2013 Stampin’ Up! Catalog too?

I’d be happy to make sure you have a copy…because isn’t it more fun to look at the glossy pictures than squint and try to look at photos on the computer? Fill out my catalog request form so I know where to send it and I’ll get you one as soon as I can!

Request your catalog here!

I hope those of you who are receiving these bookmarks in the mail this weekend enjoy the taste of some of the new goodies to come starting in June!

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Get them before they are gone! Items are selling out so don’t miss out!

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Another Fresh Vintage Faux Tiled Card

Jennifer — Wed, 16 May 2012 16:09:00 +0000

As I’ve been cleaning up my craft room and trying to clear out scraps and the little hodge-podge of items I’ve stamped or cut for a project and then later decided I didn’t want to us them; and in the process I came across more of my Faux Tiling samples.

I had scored and stamped the Whisper White paper when I was trying to decide on a design for a class a couple months ago and though I decided to go with the diagonally scored version, I couldn’t let this go to waste! Just had to add a sentiment from the Just Believe stamp set, a couple punches (word window and modern label), and some scrap Basic Black 1/8” Taffeta ribbon.

I can’t decide which version I like better, todays card or the original version. What do you think? Diagonal scoring or square with the pretty sentiment?

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Beautiful Simplicity

Jennifer — Mon, 14 May 2012 17:46:00 +0000

Today we have another “ode to retiring products” card. I love the inspiration I get from Stampin’ Up! and my demonstrator website they provide and in this project’s case their designers remind me of a lot of cute things…. like how I totally forget to do tone-on-tone paper punching (the red flowers from the retiring Blossom Bouquet triple layer punch on the red pennant) or creating the banner or clothesline effect with the retiring mini clothespins (reminder to myself – need to get more while they are on sale!).

Its simplicity with a ton of uber cute details and different textures (paper, fabric, thread, wood). What is your favorite part?

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Life is Beautiful Card Recipe:

Stamps: Style Beautiful
Ink: Real Red
Paper: Real Red cs, Just Add Cake designer series paper
Accessories: Linen Thread, Candy Cane designer fabric, basic rhinestone jewels, mini clothespins, Blossom bouquet punch, itty bitty shapes punch pack, big shot, perfect pennants die

Happy Mother’s Day!

Jennifer — Sun, 13 May 2012 16:27:00 +0000

Mother’s Day is here and I want to wish all of you mothers, grandmothers, female support systems, and friends a wonderful day. I know I am blessed to have some wonderful women in my life and I am especially lucky to be able to share Stampin’ Up! with my own mom – Kathy Thisted. We are both demonstrators and have attended convention together for the last 3 years with this year being our 4th year in a row!

It is so awesome to have someone to share my enthusiasm, frustrations, and ideas with, and so on this Mother’s Day, I just wanted to give a shout out to her and say thanks mom, for being a great mom as well a great creative inspiration and friend.

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday, full of family, friends, and creating!

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Vintage Vogue Mother’s Day Card

Jennifer — Sat, 12 May 2012 07:04:00 +0000

Alright, the count down to Mother’s Day is on! Here is another card we made during our Mother’s Day card class but the nice thing is, you could use it any time of the year!

Can I just say, I can’t believe how long it took me to realize what a great combo Blushing Bride and Rich Razzleberry are! Sigh, of course I discover this right as Blushing Bride is retiring. Oh well.

This card was also an excuse for me to use the library clips I’ve been holding onto for a while and are retiring as well. In fact, this card’s whole concept came from me wanting to use the clip to hold a couple pieces of cardstock as the focal point of the card… I just worked out from there.

We did some stamping with Versamark (the flourish to the right of the torn edges), heat embossing (the white sentiment words), and fussy cutting to make this card.

And in the end, I finally got around to remembering to decorate my envelope. I stamped on the outside and lined the inside with matching Rich Razzleberry designer paper. Don’t you just LOVE how a lined envelope looks?

And of course, this is also one of my goodbyes to Vintage Vogue as well. Definitely one of my favorite “vintage” sets. So, I will probably use this card for a Grandma but can see making this design again later in the year for birthdays or thinking of you cards. What would you use this card for?

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Vintage Vogue Mother’s Day Card Recipe:

Stamps: Vintage Vogue, Fabulous Phrases
Ink: Versamark, Blushing Bride, Basic Black
Paper: River Rock cardstock, Rich Razzleberry CS, Blushing Bride CS, Whisper White CS, Brights Designer Series Paper Pack
Accessories: Clips assortmant pack, white embossing powder, heat gun, basic rhinestones, stampin’ dimensionals

Simply Soft Elegant Mother’s Day Card

Jennifer — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:12:00 +0000

I keep forgetting Mother’s Day is this weekend! Thankfully, I ran a class last week specifically for creating Mother’s Day cards, so now I have a stash that I can use this weekend since I’m sure I’ll forget again and think I have a couple weeks. Today I thought I’d share one of my favorite cards from the class using the Simply Soft hostess set. I like that it looks simple yet elegant:

This is also one of the cards that went out this month in my Cards To Go program, so hopefully some folks are getting good use out of this design for Mother’s Day too!

To create the banner points at the end of the sentiment, I used the Pennant Punch punching technique I described in this blog post. I love it!

Finally, I added a bit of fun to this class by creating coordinated envelopes to go with the cards. In this case we stamped the outline shape on the front of the envelope and then did the colored flower heads on the back flap of the envelope

I don’t know why I always forget to stamp my envelopes… but when you have Whisper White envelopes from Stampin’ Up! its almost a waste not to stamp on them since the paper is explicitly made to be excellent to stamp on.

I’m thinking this is going to go to my Grandma…another elegant lady in my life.

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Fabric Pocket Tissue Holder

Jennifer — Thu, 10 May 2012 07:02:00 +0000

So, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I’m not a sew-er. As in, I don’t own a sewing machine or wouldn’t know what to do if placed in front of one if I had to do anything other than push the pedal down and move my fabric forward.

I do, however, have a great demo friend name Annie Lee who loves sewing and when I was getting ready for the Northwest Women’s Show, offered to take some of my Stampin’ Up! designer fabric and make some project samples with it.

In this case, it is a fabric holder for those pocket tissue packs using the retiring Candy Cane Christmas fabric (right now its 70% off too! Total steal! Check out all the designer fabric options):

I mean, seriously, who wouldn’t feel a bit cheered up with these bright and fun colors when you are feeling under the weather?

So, a huge THANK YOU to Annie for showing me some super fun ideas for when I get over my fear of the sewing machine and try it out myself.

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Making a Perfect Mini Bow the Easy Way!

Jennifer — Wed, 09 May 2012 07:02:00 +0000

For years, I’ve been running classes where one of the cards may have a bow on it. And I’ve watched folks struggle with trying to make a smaller bow without either getting your fingers caught or one side of the bow threatening to come out. Now, it is totally possible to tie it like normal, but I’ve finally put together a video on how to do it the quick and easy way that comes out perfect everytime! No, seriously! I have it at the bottom of this post.

So, here is a card I made with the sample bow from the video. Isn’t it cute? It uses the retiring satin ribbon (seriously, I think this is the product I’m most sad about losing!) for a border and bow.

Now if you are curious about the scallopy Saffron circles under the ribbon – surprise! It is the retiring Pocketful of Posies designer paper and I just cut along the white lines in the paper.

See, just cut and flip it over and here you go! Oh, and another close up of the bow.

Alright, so if you’ve made it this far, check out the video for how I made this bow using a fork… that is right, a fork. Then leave me a comment and let me know what you thought of it!

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Hello Easy Bow Card Recipe:

Stamps: Easy Events
Ink: Early Espresso Classic, Soft Suede Classic, Crumb Cake Classic, Old Olive Classic
Paper: Pocketful of Posies designer paper, Perfect Plum cardstock, Whisper White cs
Accessories: 2-3/8” Scallop Circle punch, Basic Pearls, Old Olive 5/8” Satin Ribbon, Blender pen, glue dots, Sponge Daubers

Wanna Hear Some New Catalog Tidbits?

Jennifer — Mon, 07 May 2012 10:49:00 +0000

Early this morning, Stampin’ Up! released an online copy of the upcoming catalog to demonstrators in the US and Canada. So, of course, while I was up at 2am for a middle of the night feeding for my littlest stamper (4 months old), I started flipping through to see what was in store.

Boy, was I not disappointed!!! The baby fell back asleep and I kept sitting there going back over the beautiful pages of the new catalog.

So too wound up to sleep, I thought I’d write up a post to share some of my excitement with you! Stampin’ Up!’s policy won’t let me share product pictures or exact details yet but I can describe what I’m loving!

-More Framelits! Like lots more framelits! You know how in the Occasions Mini there was the labels and hearts nesting framelits? Well, watch for a super awesome flower (that has, I think, a matching stamp set) that nests as well as other great shapes. Oh, and more new dies and edgelits too.

-A new mat pack! If you’ve been in one of my classes before, you know I love my paper piercer and mat pack. I couldn’t believe they were retiring my beloved mat pack, but now I know why. Because they are making it better! Can you say matching piercing outlines? Guess, there is another thing on my wish list.

- New punches! Yes, another of my downfalls (have you seen my wall of punches?) and there are multiple new punches including a great replacement for the current butterfly punch. Plus, in keeping with Stampin’ Up!’s tradition of coordination – they have matching stamp sets.

-Super Fantabulous looking scrapbooks! Um, so I have a ton of scrapbooks on my shelf at home that are not completely full, but I’m seriously considering changing some of them out for the new ones. They come with metal label holders on the end!! Plus, not only will we be getting your regular page protectors but now divided page protectors too! Cannot wait to try out some new-to-me scrapping styles with these.

- Improved Tools! From bigger scrub pads to clean your stamps to a cool looking new paper trimmer, I have a feeling I’ll be upgrading a number of my tools. And loving it, of course.

- And it wouldn’t be a new catalog without some great new stamp sets, some returning favorites from past mini catalogs (hi Mixed Bunch! hi Bordering on Romance! hi awesome holiday sets!); and of course, the new In Colors as well.

I just ordered my first couple boxes of catalogs, and can’t wait to hear your reaction when I send them out later this month. If you’ve ordered with me recently, I’ll be making sure you are covered with your own free copy. If you aren’t a current customer of mine but would like a catalog, go here to let me know you would like to be on my catalog list.

PS- if you just can’t wait that long, new recruits who sign up with the new $99 starter kit will be getting the new catalogs in their kit! So, not only will you be able to view the catalog online with hours of signing up, but you’ll have your print copy and a chance to preorder soon after.

Alright, I’m off to bed again. Hope you’ve enjoyed these little teases of what is to come in a few weeks!

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Get them before they are gone! Items are selling out so don’t miss out!

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