Northwest Stamper

Tag: embossing

  • Embossing Two Ways with Dragonfly Dreams

    Embossing Two Ways with Dragonfly Dreams

    When I had a hostess ask me this month to use Dragonfly Dreams for one of her event cards, I smiled and said “of course!”  Then I did my best Winnie the Pooh Image result for impression and sat at my craft table poking my head and saying “think, think, think”.  I had played a little with this set, but I hadn’t actually completed a full card yet.  But, as I started thinking about what other supplies I had lying around my desk I wanted to play with (the Sale-a-Bration Glimmer Paper assortment and the Hexagons Dynamic Embossing folder), some ideas started coming together.  In the end, what was left on my table was this finished card and a great opportunity to mix embossing styles and lots of textures all in one card!

    LEARN MORE ABOUT HOW TO MAKE THIS CARD

  • Stampin’ Up Display Stamper 2014 Submission

    Stampin’ Up Display Stamper 2014 Submission

    So, every year I go to the Stampin’ Up convention… and every year I’m blown away by the amazing ideas and inspiration on all the different display boards.  (To see what I’m talking about, here are a few past posts I’ve done showing the display boards.)  Well, this year they are doing a call for display board stampers and to throw your hat in the ring, you need to pull together some of your best/favorite projects and put them together in one post to show your style and ability.  So, I thought it would be a fun way to flip through my past projects and put them together to share with you here.  And maybe they will love them too and I’ll get to share even more ideas on a display board at the Stampin’ Up Convention 2014!

    oh, and PS – if you love the idea of checking out all the display boards, don’t forget that anyone who joins Stampin’ Up as a demonstrator right now will get free registration to convention this summer!  So, you just get yourself to Salt Lake City, and you can be blown away by inspiration for FREE!  Yay!  Email me at jennifer@nwstamper.com for more details if you are interested or check out this page to learn more about the perks of being a demonstrator!

    So Here You Go!
    3 Cards

    so very grateful colored

    So Very Grateful Thank You

    Burlap and Gold Masculine Card (blog post here)

    Negative Heat Embossing with Pleasant Poppies (blog post here)

    1 Scrapbook Page

    This was so hard for me to narrow down and decide which scrapbook page to show.  I think my favorite layout may actually be this older one, but I figured the one I’d show here is this –

    Perfect Pennants with Watercolor Wonder Waves (blog post here)

    Or maybe it is just that these photos always make me smile!

    2 3D items

    Ok, this is where I don’t make and post nearly enough.  So here is what I decided was the nicest from things I actually designed myself – instead of flat out copies of what other people had created. Smile

    Card organizer for holding cards and envelopes (blog post here)

    Easter Treat Bag (blog post here)

    Awww.  So much fun to walk down memory lane.  I hope you enjoyed the ideas and inspiration. Smile

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  • Chalkboard + Polaroid = Unexpectedly Cute Card!

    Chalkboard + Polaroid = Unexpectedly Cute Card!

    My brain has been filled with getting things ready for my Demonstrator Stamp & Share event I’m planning for Saturday (I’m super excited though – 4 hours of stamping, demonstrations, displays, and door prizes! How can that NOT be a great way to spend a Saturday afternoon? Smile )  But that means when it comes time to write a fun blog post for you all, my mind is a bit of a pile of mush.

    So, I think today is going to be a bit short and sweet, but I made sure to share a card that I am totally in love with right now so at least the pretty eye candy will make up for the lack of writing!

    My “Chalkboard technique meets Polaroid pictures” card:

    I don’t know why this card just makes me happy when I look at it!

    It all started with me wanting to do a Polaroid picture style image for a card.  And for some reason, I had in my head the chalkboard technique (where you heat emboss a sentiment in white on a piece of black cardstock and then sponge some extra white ink over the top to look like chalk dust) and so they just came together…. even though if you think about it, they don’t make any sense together at all!

    But it is art, right?  There is no right or wrong here!

    I also am loving the Petite Petals bundle I got recently and just had to use it again.  This time I spiced up the flowers with the little bitty flower from the Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack.  Add a silver mini brad to the middle and it is a whole new flower!

    The card still needed a little bit of something extra, so I embossed the front of the card with the Mosaic embossing folder, rounded the corners, and then added some Gold bakers twine for the last little pizzazz I needed.

    I may make simple cards, but sometimes they just come together and you don’t need all the extra fuss and muss!

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    Supplies Used

    129684sFeels Good Clear-Mount Stamp Set
    134821sPetite Petals Wood-Mount Bundle
    129984sModern Mosaic Embossing Folder
    118309sItty Bitty Shapes punch pack
    122941sSilver Mini Brads
    132975sGold Baker’s Twine
  • Cheery Thinking of You with Petite Petals Flowers

    Cheery Thinking of You with Petite Petals Flowers

    Whew!  I’m back to the land of the living!

    I went to bed last Thursday night thinking of all my plans of what I was going to finish and get caught up on on Friday (aka Valentine’s Day).  Instead, I woke up in the early hours of the morning with a terrible stomach bug!  So, instead I spent the day in bed with a brief period laying on the couch.  Finally I am back to functional again (though now my husband has gotten taken out) and I’m trying to get caught back up. Smile 

    Today’s card was the perfect share today because of the number of people I heard of that were sick recently as well as a sweet friend who just had to suffer a devastating loss.  So, for all of them and for you, here is a card to send a little sunshine your way.

    This card was inspired by a card by Natasha Zandbergen that I had found on Pinterest and of course had to give it my own flair!  So, I loved the idea of cutting out the oval shape from the Oval Framelits and stamping my sentiment from the super fabulous Perfect Pennants stamp set for the focal piece…. and then I started getting a little creative.

    First – I embossed my front layer with the Decorative Dots embossing folder from the Sale-a-Bration brochure.  Then I decided to be a little odd and I sanded the the dots that were embossed.  It is a really subtle thing, but I wanted to soften the dots and give them a bit of texture.  See, when you sand your embossed elements, even if you don’t use core-dinations cardstock, it gives the raised part a bit of a velvety look.

    Then, I wanted to play with the new Petite Petals stamp set.  So I got to stamping.

    Psst – here is a little secret.  If you look at those flowers and wonder why they aren’t punched out very crisply, that is because I was borrowing this stamp set from my mom and she had forgotten to loan me the punch.  I wanted to have the flowers cut out, so I hand cut them.  They look much nicer when you use the punch!

    It still needed something though, and I played with all different options for breaking the So Saffron yellow color up along the bottom of the card and ended up settling on the Natural Chevron Trim as that extra piece. 

    Plus I thought that the chevron looked like arrows for a conveyor belt shuttling along those good thoughts to the card recipient. Winking smile  I know totally dorky… but hi! *waving* I’m a dork!  hee hee

    So, hope you are healthy and having a wonderful weekend at your home!  Until next time!

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    Stampin’ Up! Supplies Used
    Stamps – Perfect Pennants, Petite Petals
    Ink – Basic Black, Raspberry Ripple, So Saffron, Soft Sky
    Paper – Whisper White, So Saffron
    Accessories – Big Shot, Oval Framelits, Decorative Dots embossing folder (FREE with a $50 order) Petite Petals punch, Naturals Chevron ribbon, Sanding Block, Rhinestones

  • Last Minute Valentine Card Ideas from Leadership

    Last Minute Valentine Card Ideas from Leadership

    I have had a TON of cards sitting on my camera begging to get edited and shared with the world, and finally I had time yesterday to spend most of the day editing them.  So, with Valentine’s day just around the corner, I thought I would share some of the great card swaps I received at Leadership that are perfect for giving to a loved one on Friday.

    created by Robbie Chandler

    Isn’t Red, Gold, and Black such an awesome color scheme?!  I love how she did a bunch of gold embossing over the red base and the black cardstock (that she then punched out with the Petite Petals punch).  Then add some gold washi tape and the gold baker’s twine and just a touch of red glimmer paper.  Very elegant!

    created by Kim Allen

    A less traditional card but really fun and whimsical.  I love the sentiment from the Love You to the Moon set and I think the punched out moon for the rocket to fly around is so cute (yes the moon is part of the stamp image but I like the layering with a different color of cardstock.  And the Razzleberry button with white bakers twine is a nice touch at the top of the banner.

    created by Dawn Walker-Randall

    And finally a more traditional Valentine’s Day card with the red and white, and hearts!  This uses the heart framelits and see that cool flower background on the bigger heart?  That is the Petals-a-Plenty embossing folder that embossed the Pool Party paper and then they inked it!

    Check out my video tutorial for coloring the embossed flowers with this folder here

    So some totally fun ideas to give you a few more ideas while you still have time to create!  I’ll have at least one or two more ideas for you this week, but hopefully this gets you started!

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  • Hershey’s Nugget Treat Box with Hearts a Flutter

    Ok, ok, I know Valentine’s Day was yesterday but I got behind on my blogging and still had some cute projects that I wanted to share.  So Pin these projects or save the pictures so you can remember them for next year – or change up the colors and stamps and make cute little goodies for Easter or Mother’s Day!

    First up – a cute little box for holding Hershey’s nuggets and a matching card!

    I grabbed some of the Love Impressions Specialty Paper – now found on the clearance rack for only $4.79 a pack! – and got to work decorating.

    I used my Heart punch and the Hearts a Flutter stamp set and framelits to create the decoration on the front of the card.

    Then I used more of the paper to wrap my nuggets so they look cute when you slide the box out of the sleeve.  The nugget wraps were 1” x 3.5” if you are going to do this at home.  So you can get a TON out of one sheet of pattern paper.

    Then I made a matching 4” x 4” card to go with the box.  Here is a close up of the “fun” part of the card!

    TIPS:

    • Grab the hearts embossing folder from the Adorning Accents embossing folder set.  These are not at wide as your standard embossing folder, but are perfect for adding a fun trim to your cards.
    • Stamp your sentiment on a rectangle of whisper white cardstock and sponge the edge with Pink Pirouette ink for a subtle pop to your saying.
    • Get the cute scallop trim by cutting out 2 of the scallop tags from the Hearts a Flutter framelits and adhere them to the back of your rectangle!

    image

     

    If you want to make your own nugget box, I found this great post on SplitcoastStampers where a wonderful stamper named Chris posted templates for pretty much every size and shape of nugget box.  I used the Nugget_Box_6_short template.

    So, make and enjoy!

    In the Seattle area and want to try out some fun technique ideas?

    Join me for my upcoming Terrific Techniques class on Monday Feb 18th!  This is my monthly class where we play around with different techniques and ideas for using our crafting tools in new and creative ways!  This month we will be focusing on masking & misting.

    Check out the details and make sure to RSVP right away to guarantee your seat!

     

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    Valentine Nugget Treat Box Recipe:
    Stamps:      Delightful Dozen, Hearts a Flutter
    Ink:  Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Markers: Chocolate Chip, Pink Pirouette, Real Red
    Paper: Love Impressions designer paper, Whisper White cs, Chocolate Chip cs, Pink Pirouette cs, Real Red cs
    Accessories:  Sticky Strip, Heart punch, Hearts a Flutter framelits, Adorning Accents embossing folder, Big Shot, Scallop Dotted ribbon (chocolate chip), Stampin’ Dimensionals, Sponge Daubers, Stampin’ Trimmer, Bone Folder

  • Christmas Gift Tags from Scraps and No Peeking

    Ok, so Christmas is only 2 days away!  Eep!  Are you ready and have all your presents wrapped?  I’ll admit, I have most of them wrapped but not all of them!

    But wrapping presents got me thinking about gift tags and I was going crazy with the No Peeking set and had so much fun playing with my ribbon and paper scraps to make a variety of tags for this year.  Check out what I made:

    It all started with me stamping a bunch of images on scrap paper and then picking up extra cardstock scraps from around my craft table and punching or cutting them into roughly tag shapes.

    First I grabbed some Gumball Green and heat embossed the “No peeking” sentiment with white embossing powder.  Then I punched them out and added some ribbon and cut out stamped images

     

    Next were some simple flap style tags.  I scored them so that the heat embossed sentiment (white for the “no peeking” and Early Espresso for the “Jolly Christmas”) would show when it was closed.  Then I decorated the flap with cut out stamped images and ribbon.

    Next I was on to some more simple tags.  I just embossed or stamped the images of the penguin and reindeer and cut them out, then layered them onto the Real Red scallop and Gumball Green circle.  Stamp the “To: From:” sentiment on the back and you are good to go!

    Finally, my last set were my random experiments.  I had an extra reindeer on a scallop circle and thought it would look cute on a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock (really like how this turned out) and I tried to leave enough space so you can actually write who it is to and from.  (I had thought this through in my head before seeing how much space there actually was!)

    And finally, my ultimate in playing.  I had the scrap of Crumb Cake and Real Red and decided to do a twisted tag.  I stamped and then heat embossed the penguin in Basic Black (it looks awesome heat embossed by the way) and then colored in some of the spaces with my Real Red marker.  Then I stamped a little bird next to him also in Basic Black (you can see how much nicer it looks embossed this way).  Then I added some “snowballs” aka pearls along the side.

    So there you have it!  Some quick last minute gift tags to add a touch of handmade to your projects.

     

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    No Peeking Gift Tags Recipe
    Stamps:     No Peeking
    Ink: Basic Black marker, Gumball Green, Real Red marker, Early Espresso, Basic Black, Versamark
    Paper: Gumball Green, Real Red, Whisper White, Crumb Cake
    Accessories: Stampin’ trimmer, 1 3/4” scallop circle, 1 1/4” circle punch, Real Red stitched grosgrain ribbon, Whisper White stitched grosgrain ribbon, Crumb Cake seam binding ribbon, Cherry cobbler bakers twine, Embossing Powder (white, black, early espresso), basic pearls, Real Red 1/8” taffeta ribbon, 1/16” hole punch, heat gun, embossing buddy, Stampin’ Dimentionals

  • Elegant Thank You Card using Emboss Resist

    Ever have one of those days where your mojo is kicking in and you are able to make some projects that just make you smile?

    I hope so!  Yesterday was one of those days for me and I was having such a blast finishing getting ready for my Awesome Embossing class this weekend.  I had such a hard time narrowing down what I wanted to showcase for the class since there are so many cool embossing techniques and so many variations on what you can do with many of them.  But I focused down to 4 different ideas that I loved.  However, my absolute favorite was the card I’m sharing today – the Emboss Resist card!

    Emboss resist

     

    I had just gotten my new Lacy and Lovely stamp set…so glad I got this set!…and I thought it would be perfect for this technique.  I tried to stick to a more monochromatic style card even though I added a few other hits of color; and so my focus was on the Calypso Coral elements around the white embossed doily image.

    Seriously, this is so quick to do and such a pretty result!  I’ve decided I’m going to do this card for my swaps at the Stampin’ Up! regionals in Tacoma in a couple weeks.  So if you are going to Tacoma, find me and I’ll swap with you. 🙂

    And this isn’t the best picture, but I thought I’d share a sneaky peek at my first Halloween card and another embossing card for the class:

     

    I promise I’ll share the full card soon!

    Well, I’m off to take my family to the Puyallup fair.  This will be Nicholas and Caitlin’s first time at a big fair and hopefully they love seeing the animals, displays, and other fair favorites while we are there!  Wish me luck that I don’t get sucked into too many “you’ve never seen a knife that cuts like this!” demos and displays.  🙂  I love all the too-good-to-be-true stuff that seems to always be offered at these events.

    Now just ask me how many of the items like that that I’ve bought at fairs have actually gotten use after I’ve gotten home… no wait, maybe you better not. 😉

     

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  • Tons of Tools Card and Embellished Envelope

    Sunday was this month’s Technique Night with my meetup group and by request, I did a night that was focused on going over many of the tools you might encounter on your crafting journey including:

    • The BigShot
    • Aqua and Blender pens for water coloring
    • Crimpers
    • Bone Folders
    • Paper Piercing tools
    • Heat and Dry Embossing
    • the Crop-a-Dile for eyelet setting and hole punching
    • the Stamp-a-ma-jig for exact stamp image placement
    • Color spritzers
    • And paper punches

    So, we ended up using all of these tools on the following two projects.

    First we used a Whisper White envelope (since it uses the same type of paper as Whisper White CS, these envelopes take ink and stamping really well!) Trim off 1 1/4” from one of the short sides of the envelope.  Then we used the scallop edge punch on the smaller piece.  For the larger piece, we stamped and used the color spritzer to scatter Soft Suede ink on both sides of the envelope.  Then we ran the big piece through the crimper.  Watercolor the stamped image using the covers of classic ink pads and a watercolor pen, add a punched out scallop square, and adhere and you are pretty much done.  We punched two holes through both the top and bottom pieces of the envelope so we could run ribbon through to tie the envelope closed.

    Next we made this card:

    This card used the BigShot for making the dots on the white paper.  Then we used the brayer to lightly go over the dots to give them some color.  We did dry embossing on the Rich Razzleberry CS using some holes I punched out some Chipboard with the Simple Alphabet Dies for the BigShot.  We stamped the flower image from the Vintage Vogue stamp set, used the Stamp-a-ma-jig to place the text below the flower and then heat embossed using black embossing powder (don’t forget to use the embossing buddy to ensure you don’t get stray embossing powder flecks!).  Used the crop-a-dile to set the jumbo eyelet; and then finally used the super, awesome mat pack and paper piercer to punch the row of holes below the Rich Razzleberry CS.  Oh, and we used the bone folder and the groove in the paper cutter to score the card so we had a nice crisp fold.

    Whew!  That’s a lot of tools, but it was lots of fun.

    If you are interested in any of the tools used for these projects, you can get them now through my online store .  Plus –  if your total is $25 or more you will be entered into my drawing for a $50 gift certificate!

    My favorite tools are the BigShot and the Mat Pack.  What are yours?

  • More baby gifts – thank you card set and a frame

    It seems like I know a lot of people having babies right now.  I reconnected with a friend recently on Facebook and learned she was due at the end of August with her first child.  I was so excited for her, I decided to make her a few things to send in addition to a gift card – what i call the light weight version of baby wipes. 🙂

    First I created this photo layout for her using a 5×7 frame.  I started with the baby feet wheel and built the layout from there.  I found the DSP in my scrap pile and started layering pieces together.  After I had it assembled, I wanted to give the stamped image a little kick, so I inked up the wheel in Rose Red and wheeled out some more feet so I could cut them out and glue on top of part of the Chocolate Chip image.  Finally, I added one of the Sherbet designer buttons from last catalog.

    Then I created a set of simple thank you notes so she has something fun Io send folks who give her little girl baby gifts.  I love the Fox and Friends stamp set for baby stuff and so had to use a variety of critters from the set for these cards.

    I also stamped the envelopes to match the cards.  It was a good reminder about how the quality of paper you stamp on affects your image.  I was out of Stampin’ Up! envelopes so I used some of the value pack envelopes that I got from Michaels a while back.  Definitely doesn’t grab the ink nearly as well as Whisper White paper, but it works ok.

    Baby Thank You Cards recipe:
    Stamps:      Fox and Friends, Thank You Kindly
    Ink: Chocolate Chip
    Paper:  Whisper White CS, Melon Mambo CS
    Accessories:  Stampin’ Write Markers, Delicate Dots embossing folder, 1 3/8” circle punch, Scallop Circle punch

  • Blast from the past cards

    Yesterday, I was invited by a nearby demo to come stamp with her and a couple of her ladies in a casual afternoon of card making. (thanks, Lisa!)  I had never met her before, but I was excited to meet other stamping ladies from the area.  First off, I am so jealous of her workspace. 🙂  She has a large, long room that is all stamping, all the time in her upstairs.  Everything is perfectly put away in organized drawers, shelves, and hanging on the walls. Plus she had the coolest metal decortation on her wall that held cards. So everywhere you looked was something inspiring. I definitey need to do something like that.

    all-my-love

    I ended up making 4 cards using a mix of new and retired elements. I realized that I keep reaching for my new stuff when working on projects but that I have a lot of neat old stuff too. Just because something is retired doesn’t mean it isn’t great., right? Anyway, time for me to run to work. Happy Monday!

    wishingthebest

    always_sponged

    always_tag

  • A new job and a couple cards

    Its only been a day and a half and I already feel bad that I don’t have a blog post planned. 🙂  I started a new job yesterday and between that and racing home to place my first new catalog order, I didn’t get any crafting done.  So, today is just a quick post before I head in to work to share with you a couple of the swaps I recieved during a recent new catalog stamp set swap.  These are some simple but pretty layouts that I really liked.  Both use new hostess sets and Raspberry Tart DSP.  Kinda cool to see different uses for the same product.

    dreamalittle
    Designed by Debbie Flattum. This is the card that convinced me I needed the kiwi kiss/very vanilla satin ribbon. It was also neat to see the sweet stems embosslit.
    echoes_of_kindness
    Designed by Kathy Thisted. Very simple but pretty echoes of kindness using watercolor paper.