Northwest Stamper

Tag: Cards

  • A couple cards for my new Meetup group

    Since I’m pretty new to the Bay area, I recently decided to start up a Meetup group as a way to meet new folks and find some other like-minded crafty people.  Today was our first meetup, and so I planned a couple cards for us to work on over pie at Marie Callendars.  Between work and vacation, I hadn’t had much of a chance this month to do much card making so it was a lot of fun to create some cards and get everything ready to share with folks today.  It also gave me a chance to use some of my retiring items so I can start making room for the new goodies coming out in a few weeks.

    Here are the cards and if you happen to be in the Bay area, we’d love to have you come be a part of our group! 

     

    Father’s Day Card Recipe:
    Stamps    : Teeny Tiny Wishes
    Ink: Chocolate Chip Classic
    Paper: Bermuda Bay CS*, Crushed Curry CS*, Whisper White CS
    Accessories: Chocolate Chip stitched ribbon*, Large Star punch, Small Star punch*, 1/16″ circle punch, gold brad, Snail

    Best Wishes Recipe:
    Stamps    : Kind and Caring Thoughts*
    Ink: Basic Grey Classic
    Paper: Basic Grey CS, Whisper White CS, Pink Flamingo DSP*
    Accessories: Cameo Coral Marker*, Old Olive Marker

    * indicates a retiring item

  • A little love with the Rough Type alphabet

    So, the May scrapbooking promotion was the kick in the pants I needed to commit to getting the rough type alphabet stamp set.  I loved the idea of a high quality clear mount alphabet but was initially on the fence.  Well, the incentive of free designer brads was enough for me to just go for it and boy am I glad I did! 

    Sure, it takes a little bit to label all of the stamps but once you do, it is so easy and fun to make all kinds of words.  In this case, I was playing and decided to spell out Love.  It also gave me a good excuse to play with my BigShot – both with the polka dot impression folder and my heart die. 

    Stamps – Rough Type alpha
    Ink – Melon Mambo, Rick Razzleberry, Old Olive
    Paper – Melon Mambo CS, Rich Razzleberry CS, Whisper White CS, Cottage Garden DSP
    Accessories – Polka Dot Impression folder, Rich Razzleberry ribbon, small heart punch, 1″ circle punch, Heart BigShot die

  • A Blog Candy Thank You with Canvas Cuts

    A few weeks back, the Royal Blog Tour kicked off with a huge number of blogs sharing some fantastic projects.  While I was browsing, I entered my name into a few blog candy drawings and much to my excitement, I actually won one! 

    The lovely Peggy Outen had some fabulous projects and sent me the Chit Chat rubons from the Occasion Mini that retired at the end of April.  Now, little did she know how much I LOVE rub-ons.  They are like clear stamps without the smudging.  I love that I can place them anywhere on the page, see exactly what it will look like before commiting it to paper, and then armed only with a popsicle stick, can get a perfect image in seconds flat.

      So, I just have to say to her:

    Yes, Peggy, you are the very best ever.  Thanks for being so generous and sending me the rub-ons.  I also had to use some of my goodies from the clearance rack.  So, the curly label punch out is the Canvas Cuts with the matching Fashion District rub-ons.  Using the Canvas Cuts has been a lot of fun and so much easier than I expected.

    I was in such a groove, I had to make one more using the Canvas Cuts and the Chit Chat rub-ons for the sentiment.  This card introduces another super fun product – Bitty Buttons and the matching Itty Bitty Shapes punches.  I thought the little flower buttons and punches went great with the DSP, and they look sooo cute in person.  I think this may be my favorite Summer Mini catalog item.

    Best Ever Card:
    Paper – Very Vanilla CS, Real Red CS, Merry Moments DSP
    Accessories – Birds and Blooms Sizzlit, Fire Crystal Brads, Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon, Canvas Cuts, Fashion District rub-ons, Chat Room rub-ons, Stampin’ Dimensionals

    Friends Forever Card:
    Paper – Melon Mambo CS, Very Vanilla CS, Thoroughly Modern DSP
    Accessories – Canvas Cuts, Fashion District rub-ons, Kiwi Kiss satin ribbon, Bitty Buttons, Itty Bitty Shapes punch, small heart punch, Crystal Effects, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Chat Room rub-ons

  • Shades of Spring quick card

    Oh my goodness!  Can you believe it is April 30th already?  Where has the time gone? 

    Well, I had to post my last card from the “traveling with limited crafting supplies” series in honor of this being the last day of the Occasions Mini Catalog since everything but the base cardstock are from the mini – Vintage Vogue stamp set, Shades of Spring DSP, Hugs scalloped cardstock. 

    This card started out as an idea I had late at night but when I started working on it during the day my idea didn’t work quite right.  So, starting from just the blocks of DSP, I turned the card on it’s side and started adding elements till I got the finished result I liked. 

    It was a bit of a challenge since the only green ink I had was an old olive marker and most of the paper I had was either card bases or chocolate chip.  But challenge only makes you get more creative, right?  So, the flower is stamped on the pink DSP, the leaves are cut out of the green DSP, and the center of the flower is a circle of the polka dot DSP – all from the Shades of Spring DSP that is gone after today.  I also used the Hugs scalloped paper to make a nice background accent for my flower and popped it all up with dimensionals.  It was a fun card to create.  If you have any cards like this where a challenge helped inspire your creativity, I’d love to see what you’ve done.  Just leave a comment with what your challenge was and a link to your inspired finished project.

    Supplies:
    Stamps – Vintage Vogue
    Inks – Chocolate Chip classic
    Paper – Shades of Spring DSP, Hugs CS (both retiring after today!), Lavendar Lace CS
    Accessories – Circle punch from Itty Bitty Bits set in the Summer Mini, Stampin’ dimensionals

  • Sneak Peek – Father’s day card

    Here is another in my series of cards I made with limited supplies. 

    Coming this Saturday, the new Summer Mini catalog starts up and in there is some great new stamps, accessories, and designer paper.  One of the great papers is this new Travel Journal paper.  It is perfect for making cards and scrapbook pages for your trips, or just for some masculine layouts.  Both patterns you see here are actually the same paper, just front and back.  Add a couple courderoy buttons and a touch of color with ribbon, and VOILA!  A Father’s Day card, all ready to go.

    Supplies:
    Stamps – Teeny Tiny Wishes
    Ink – Chocolate Chip Classic
    Paper – Travel Journal DSP, Kraft CS, Chocolate Chip CS, Whisper White CS
    Accessories – Chocolate Chip courderoy buttons, Pumpkin Pie 1/4″ ribbon, Stampin Dimensionals, Glue Dots

  • Getting back to stamping!

    Wow, its been a while since I posted.  I have to admit, I’ve had lots of intention, even taking pictures of cards I’ve made but yet I never had a chance to post.  Well, today is the day to actually get pictures off my camera and up online! 

     Today’s card is one I made a week ago when I went to visit my grandparents down in Arizona.  I wanted to take Nicholas to meet his great grandparents so we hopped on a plane and flew for a weeklong visit.  I knew my mom would be visiting at the same time, so I decided I ought to take some stamping supplies with me for some late night stamping sessions.  I didn’t have a lot of room, so I took a little bit of patteren paper, a couple pieces of cardstock, a circle punch, some buttons, ribbon scraps, 5 markers, 1 ink pad, and 2 stamp sets (Fox and Friends and Teeny Tiny Wishes).  Basically what I could jam in a large SU stamp box plus the stamp sets.

     I made this for a friend of mine who moved across the country and I wanted to send her a card to say hello.  I LOVE this glitter DSP from the Occasions Mini catalog  and when I think of monkeys I think of her, so this was my attempt to combine the two in a fun yet simple card.  It was quick and easy and hopefully she will get a kick out of it.

    Supplies:
    Stamps – Fox and Friends, Teeny Tiny Wishes
    Ink – Chocolate Chip Classic
    Paper – Sending Love Specialty Paper, Very Vanilla CS, Chocolate Chip CS, Kraft CS
    Accessories – Circle punches, Stampin’ Dimensionals

    One last bit of fun.  While I was in Arizona, I realized that the Creating Keepsakes crafting convention was in town, so since my mom and grandma like to craft as well, we decided to have an early Mother’s Day treat and all went to the convention for some classes and shopping.  Since I was going all day, that meant Nicholas went with us.  He was so good all day and all the ladies there loved seeing him in the classes.  So, at age 3 months, he’s now been to his first crafting convention!  Got to get him started early.  Plus, he needs to train for when he goes with me to the Stampin’ Up! Convention in July!  Here is a picture from our day out – 4 generations of crafters.

  • More from Stampin’ Up regionals

    I have so many awesome things I saw or made at last weekends regionals that its going to take me a few posts to share the best with you.  I can’t imagine how many pictures and ideas I’m going to come back from convention with.  It should be a blast though!

     

    imgp5357I just had to share a picture of Mom and me, waiting to get let in to the conference room.  The energy was high and when they opened the door, hundreds of women started cheering as they raced (yes, literally running!) to grab their seats.  Shelli Gardner, the owner and co-founder of Stampin’ Up!, was there to talk to us about the direction of the company and share some of her tips and ideas.  She seems really nice and a lot of fun to listen to.  So after one of the sessions, we got a chance to say hello and snap a picture with her.  I have to say, I was very impressed that when I asked her a question about the product line and gave my thoughts, she was very open with me and seemed to care what I thought. 

     

    Finally, here are a couple of the make and takes we made during the day.  This uses one of the new sets in the Occasion Mini – Soft Summer-  and at the end of the day, I won the stamp set we used at our table for the make and take.  Woo Hoo!  I can’t say no to a free stamp set.  🙂

    soft_summer_regionals2soft_summer_regionals

  • One more card using the BigShot

    Hi all!  I know, its been a little bit since I posted on my blog and I blame it all on the Twilight series of books by Stephanie Meyer!  My friend Kally got me hooked on the series and I found myself spending the last two weeks spending my lunch breaks and evenings powering though all four books in the series plus watching the movie and all the behind the scenes extras.  It is seriously addictive! 🙂 

     

    bigshot_bestwishes_wmBut I managed to pull out of the books to get things together for my technique night this week.  Like I mentioned before, we met at a Roundtable Pizza and it actually worked reasonably well.  The biggest problem was that where we were sitting didn’t have the best light after the sun went down.  But if we were in the offical meeting room area I think it would have been fine.  I’m thinking I’ll try hosting my card class there on the 27th (the class is open for more people to come, email me if you want to join in!) 

     

    Here is the final project we did for the Technique Night.  We used texture plates and an embosslit for this card.  These are probably my two favorite items for the bigshot and what pushed me over the edge to buy mine.  Texture just makes everything cooler and having a perfectly embossed AND cut-out image in one is awesome too.  Add in the fabulous kiwi kiss satin ribbon and a half pearl and you’re done!

  • Another card organization option – a year in a box!

    cardbox_wm1As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been slowly trying to get my crafting supplies, partial projects, and completed projects organized so I can actually find what I’m looking for in less than 20 minutes. 🙂  Well, when my mom was visiting last month, she brought with her the instructions for a great project.  Using the Forget-me-not keeper from Stampin Up!, we created a decorated box and inserts for storing all of the cards you need to send out in a year.  Now, first I don’t know how many of you out there had seen this box in the SU catalog and were like me and thought, ” that looks just like the photo boxes you get at Michaels only in plastic”.  Well, it took me ordering one to realize they are totally different, and the SU box is way cooler!  Turns out, the boxes you get at craft stores really are made for photos and so are not quite tall enough for your standard 5.5 x 4.25 cards to be placed inside and still have the lid close completely.  The SU box is made to fit cards perfectly, plus it comes with 12 plastic inserts to help you organize the cards you make.  In our case, we used those inserts for each month.   So, now I’m totally a convert to these boxes.  They pack flat and then go together in a jiffy and actually fit my cards.  

     

    cardbox_inserts_wmSo, we placed a piece of cardstock on the inside of the box behind the the front panel to add some color and then used designer paper and ribbon to decorate the frontside.  One note if you are going to decorate one of these boxes yourself.  Definately use the red sticky strip.  The plastic has a slight texture to it, and the sticky strip really locks the paper to the plastic.  For each of the inserts, we printed out a piece of paper with the month dates on it to fill out who needs a card and for why.  We used the So Many Scallops stamp set for all of the stamping in this project and the crop–a-dile made punching a hole in the tabs for the ribbon soo easy.  Really the thing that I think makes the crop-a-dile a must have is how it makes punching thick and hard materials like you were punching through paper.  I’ve punch metal and chipboard and now thick plastic. 

     

    Anyway, when we were all done with the box project, we made four matching cards.  Again, we used some patterns she brought and I was so glad she brought them.  I would never have thought to do some of these techniques like punching out all the cardstock circles and gluing them on a cardfront of the same color – but they all turned out super cute!  We spent most of the day making theses projects because we were chatting and sharing supplies (and cutting the paper, that I think was what took the longest).  I wish my mom lived closer than 5 hrs away so we could do projects like this more often because it is really fun to spend an afternoon crafting and then end in the evening with so much completed so show for it!   Though I guess this means next time she visits it is my turn to come up with the craft project. 🙂

     

    cardbox_cards1_wm    cardbox_cards2_wm 

     

    Box Recipe
    Stamps:     So Many Scallops
    Inks: Baja Breeze
    Paper:  Windsor Knot DSP, Baja Breeze CS, Old Olive CS, Chocolate Chip CS, So Saffron CS, Whisper White CS
    Accessories:  Forget-me-not Keeper, Double Stitched chocolate chip ribbon,  Filigree Brads, Stampin’ Dimentionals, Sticky Strip, Scallop edge punch, Scallop Square punch, Crop-a-dile

    Card Recipe
    Stamps:      So Many Scallops
    Inks:  Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip
    Paper:  Windsor Knot DSP, Chocolate Chip CS, Old Olive CS, Baja Breeze CS, So Saffron CS, Whisper White CS
    Accessories:  Sage Shadow 1/4″ ribbon, Whisper White 1/4″ ribbon, Apricot Appeal 1/4″ ribbon, Chocolate Chip 5/8″ ribbon, filigree brads, glue dots, 1/2″ circle punch, Scallop edge punch, Scallop Square punch, Stampin’ Dimentionals, So Saffron marker, Chocolate chip marker, Sage Shadow marker, Old Olive marker

  • Pictures from Mom and Me

    What a whirlwind spring!  There have been tons of family visits, stamping events, and work deadlines.  That has kept me away from my computer as much as normal but also means I have a backlog of great things to show you! 

     

    First up, I thought I would share some of the projects we did as part of the mom & me event.  I tried to keep the cards simple with plenty of opportunity for kids of all ages to get involved.  So, I’m thinking of going back and sprucing up some of my examples now (like coloring in some of the images that I left as outlines for kids to color or leave as is) but since I want to get a post up, I’ll show you there current state. 🙂

     And my SCS blogging group, sorry I’ve been away so long but I’m back and will be visiting your blogs very soon!

     

    Here are the cards we did:

    star_thanks_wmmm_monkey_wmmm_lym_wm

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    This is a photo frame we did using a CD case as the holder. All you have to do is pop the cover off of the case and then rotate the cover so it would stand up if the cd case base was on the table.  Pop the cover back on and then slide in your decorated background.  In the second picture, I didn’t have a photo printed out to put in the frame, so I put a red piece of card stock in to show you how you don’t glue down the top left corner so it can sit over your photo.  🙂  Its easy, peasy!cd_photomat_wmcd_photomat2_wm

  • Another Petal Pizazz pastel card

    Four of the samplers with different pages shown
    Four of the samplers with different pages shown

    Late last week, my mom came up for a visit (a week after my MIL was here for a week visiting!)  She was in town to join me at the Creating Keepsakes big scrapbooking convention in Portland this last weekend.  The convention was an absolute blast and we stayed up waay to late Saturday night at the crop and then having our own after-hours crop back at my house. 🙂  We had a great time over the weekend and between our projects at home and the projects we made from the classes at the convention, I have lots of cool things to show you this week.  I’ll be trying to get to pictures taken of the projects and posted this week. 

     

    Late last week, the paper came in for my paper samplers and so I got to go through all of it when I was cutting it to 6×6 sheets.  I have to say, there is some really cute paper!  I have a few now on my wishlist that I didn’t have on there before (Flock Together anyone? Textured designer paper!)  I still have a couple left, so if you want one, email me and I can get one out to you!

     

     

    A badly fanned out view of one single paper sampler
    A badly fanned out view of one single paper sampler

    Finally, when my mom was here, she wanted to try out the pastel techniques we did at our technique night last week.  So, while showing her how to use pastels to color an embossed image and color ribbon, I made a quick thank you card for one of the ladies who purchased one of the paper samplers.  This time I played with layering multiple pastel colors on an image.  I only used a little but it makes such a nice blended effect that you could get more complicated and make some beautiful designs.

     

    pastel_thanks
    Card Recipe
    Stamps:     Petal Pizazz, Thank You Kindly
    Inks:  Green Galore, versamark
    Paper:  Purely Pomegranite (love note), Very Vanilla CS, Whisper White CS (for the embossed images)
    Accessories: Pastel chalks, clear embossing powder, sponges, whisper white grosgrain ribbon, glue dots

  • Getting in a little stamping

    lilacflower_wm  Its been a crazy week for me but I’ve finally managed to sneak away to get a quick card put together and up on the blog.   This last week, I was away in Dallas on a business trip and returned home to my Mother-in-law visiting for a week.  And while all of that is fun, I haven’t had much time to get some stamping in.  But then yesterday, I had the perfect excuse to take time out of entertaining and get creative.  My MIL was going to a wedding and didn’t want to spend $4 for a “nothing special” card from the store.  So, we were going to make a card for her to take.  So, while she was getting ready for the wedding, I started playing with some of my scraps to see what I could come up with.  In this case, I had the flowers from my crystal effects technique night, the bow from the same night (we were discussing different ways to tie bows), and then scraps from the new SAB paper – delicate dots.  I only had about 15 min to come up with a layout and put it together so it is simpler than I might have done if I had more time, but it was nice to use some of my pieces into a simple, pretty card.  Inside the card, I stamped the Heard from the Heart sentiment “wishing you happiness today and always”. 

     

    My other project I’ve started is getting my office cleaned up and turned into a craft room.  My dining room has been great but my DH would rather I get set up in a slightly less public space. 🙂  So my MIL and I went to ikea and shopped for some fun organizational pieces and I hope to make good progress on this project over the next week.  Having the pieces sitting in my house is pretty motivating for me to get it done.  I’ll share pictures when i’m done.   Hope you all are having a great week!