Northwest Stamper

Tag: jennifer blomquist

  • Thanks Joy Fold Card

    Tonight was another fun technique night with my meetup group and we spent the night creating three different “fancy fold” cards.  Specifically, we made a Joy Fold card, a Gate Fold card, and an Easel card.  Here is the first card we created –

    IMG_1563 (3) (800x568)

    This is a Joy Fold card.   That means, instead of the typical folded in half card, you use two pieces of card stock to create your fold.  Here is what it looks like when open:

    IMG_1562 (800x779)

    This is actually a very easy card to create.  Here are the dimensions to create this card yourself:

    1. Cut your base cardstock (in my card it is Poppy Parade) 4 1/4” x 8 1/2”.  Score at 5 1/2”.
    2. Cut one piece of DSP at 4” x 5 1/4” (the Greenhouse Gala blue flower paper above)
    3. Cut a second piece of DSP at 4” x 2 3/4” (the Greenhouse Gala green flower paper above)
    4. Cut your inner cardstock piece at 3” x 8” (I used Daffodil Delight).  Score at 4”.
    5. Adhere your DSP, then position the base cardstock piece in the center of your large DSP.
    6. Decorate your inner cardstock as you wish.  We stamped the ala carte So Many Thanks stamp on a piece of Whisper White paper and then sponged the edge with Daffodil Delight.
    7. Use a punched or cut element to hold down the corner of your inner cardstock on the outside flap.  I used dimensionals on the heart from the Heart to Heart punch out to make a pocket for the corner of the cardstock to fit into.

    These are fun cards to create and gives you a chance to be creative as you play with color combinations of cardstock and different designer paper patterns.  What are your favorite combinations?

  • Embellished Pocket Calendar

    This summer, I discovered at one of those big box fabric stores, some pocket calendars at a rediculously low price.  So, I just had to pick some up (I’m such a sucker for a good sale).  The calendars ran August 2010-July 2011 and so I thought they would be perfect for me to keep in my craft tote for scheduling Stampin’ Up! events while I was out at workshops and classes. 

    But a storebought calendar just wouldn’t do.  So what do we do?  We embellish!!

    I grabbed some of my scraps, punches, and the BigShot and went to town:

    I printed out some of my favorite photos of Nicholas so that they would fit being matted by the 1 1/4” square punch.  They make me smile everytime I pull this out.  Smile And of course, I couldn’t leave the back empty, so I put a photo I love of our family from a vacation this summer. 

    This project is so fast and easy that I made one each for my mom and dad as well.  All you have to do is
    – pull the plastic cover off the calendar and measure the cover
    – cut a piece of DSP that is slightly wider than the cover dimensions
      (you want it slightly longer so that it doesn’t pull away from the ends when you adhere it to the cover and fold it around the spine of the calendar). 
    -I printed off photos and then punched 4 squares out of Basic Gray to use as mattes for my photos using the 1 1/4” square punch. 
    -Then I used the BigShot to cut out the numbers for the year using the Simple Numbers Bigz die. 

    The biggest thing to watch out for is to not add too thick of embellishments and layers so that you can fit your calendar back into the plastic.

    These are a fun, inexpensive gift.  Hmm..,I think I may have to see if I can grab a few more.

  • Making stamping and crafting your business

    Hi all!  I received some fun news yesterday that I just had to share with someone who would understand my excitement; and so I hope you all don’t mind me sharing with you. Smile

    So, some quick background on me.
    I joined Stampin’ Up! three years ago because I loved crafting, teaching others, and I liked the idea of the business opportunity.  Fast forward to this summer and I had spent my time as a demo working on my business here and there but mostly acted as a hobby demo and liberally took advantage of the 20% or more commission and sneak peeks/preorders.  So I decided that after convention this year, I was going to focus on making this really be a business for me.  And that’s what I’ve done the last few months.


    My fun news?
    I was told yesterday that my sales for this year (July 1 to now) are only $10 short of my sales for the entire last year (July 2009- June 2010)! Wow!! I had no idea!


    So, I wanted to thank all of you for your support as friends, blog readers, and customers!  I absolutely love what I do and I love sharing it with you all.

    I thought I would share a card I made almost two years ago but I still think it is a fun little card.

    Now, I’m still building my business but it feels great to know that if you really decide and commit to making stamping and crafting your business, it can work!

    If you’ve thought about becoming a demo, I’d love to answer any questions you have and share information about the business opportunities and the benefits of being a demonstrator.  I know that I’m so glad I did!

  • A Rough Type Index Card

    If you’ve ever visited splitcoaststampers.com, you’ve probably noticed their extensive gallery showcasing thousands of cards made by talented stampers, all organized by stamp set.  Well, the card shown when you are looking at the list of stamp set names is called the index card and it is made to show every single stamp in the set.  So, with the latest catalogs that have come out, they asked some of the demonstrators to create index cards for the recent stamp set.  I volunteered to make 4 cards and this is my card for the Rough Type stamp set that was in the Summer Mini.

    It’s funny; I hadn’t notice until I was stamping that ‘H’ and ‘I’ are next to each other in the alphabet and that spells “Hi” – but, I think it’s pretty convenient!  I also experimented with ribbon tying with this card as well.  I punched a hole on the left and right side of the “& z” images using the smaller of the two hole punches on the crop-a-dile.  Then I threaded my Marina Mist 3/8” taffeta ribbon from the front of the white cardstock to the back and then came back up to the front of the card next to the “z”.  I glued a second ribbon piece to the back of my white paper and use that to tie a knot with the ribbon I had threaded.  I then popped it up on dimensionals to adhere to the card base.

    Rough Type Hi recipe:
    Stamps:     Rough Type
    Ink: Basic Black, Marina Mist, Cajun Craze
    Paper: Whisper White CS, Cajun Craze CS, Marina Mist CS
    Accessories: Marina Mist 3/8” taffeta ribbon, Crop-a-dile, Stampin’ Dimensionals

    ****Clearance Rack items are selling out! Have you got your favorites yet?****
    Don’t miss the unheard of deals on paper, ink, ribbon, kits, and more!  Check it out now – visit the online store and click “Clearance Rack” on the left side of the page.

    tip – when looking at the Clearance Rack, use the drop down box on the upper right side of the screen to say “view all” items.  Then you can easily scroll and scan through everything available at one time!

  • Scrapbooking with My Digital Studio and an MDS Contest!

    I’ve always loved the look of a handmade scrapbook, and so when the big digital scrapbooking wave hit, I wasn’t too sure about it.  However, when Stampin’ Up! came out with My Digital Studio and I saw how easy it would be to match all of my papers and embellishments to the digital layouts and create hybrid scrapbook pages, I started catching the wave too.

    I bought MDS so that I could try to make headway with my wedding album (lets just say the photos and memorabilia have been in a box for the last 9 years).  Well, I’ve been too distracted playing with other projects that the wedding album hasn’t happened.  But here is an example of a layout I whipped up tonight.

    Cute as a button_wm

    I love this picture my mom took of my son during a recent visit and thought it would make a great page.  I started with one of the built in photo layouts that had caught my eye and even though in the end I ended up moving everything around and deleting some of the photo spots, it actually was quick, easy, and fun to create this page.
    (All of the elements I used on this page come by default with My Digital Studio)

    Plus, have you heard?  There is a My Digital Studio contest going on right now!

    I figure this layout is practice for me so I can get some ideas to submit for the My Digital Studio Contest being run by Stampin’ Up!  Create your best digital designs and you could win $400 in digital downloads for My Digital Studio!

    Here are the details:

    • Design 1 digital card and 2 single page layouts using only My Digital Studio and Stampin’ Up! downloads
    • Submit your samples plus the official entry form and photo release form to MDSContest@stampinup.com
    • Contest runs from Oct 1 – Nov 15, 2010
    • A panel of judges will select 10 winners – 5 demonstrators and 5 customers
    • You can see the full rules, FAQs, and more details here.

    Don’t have My Digital Studio or want more digital downloads?
    Grab a copy from my online store and you can be designing in no time!

  • World Card Making Day fun

    I meant to get this post up sooner but my camera suddenly did not want to talk to my computer and so the photos were in limbo for a while.  Thankfully, after much massaging, sweet talking, and cajoling, my camera finally decided to let me pull off the pictures. Smile 

    Did you do something fun for World Card Making Day this last Saturday?

    I met with some folks to create some cards to donate to Operation Write Home and send our cards out to the troops overseas.  We ended up with a small group, but it was still a very fun group and we enjoyed hanging out for a couple hours and just letting our creative sides loose.

    This was the first to two cards I designed for the day.  However, instead of cutting all the same paper for everyone, I cut a bunch of different color cardstock and designer series paper in the dimensions needed for the cards.  Then everyone could use the same basic design but get creative on color combinations, stamps, and even the layout.  I have to say, I got some new fun ideas from what everyone made.

    So from that, folks mixed and match and came up with some fun variations on this card.  Here are some examples of what folks did using the same dimensions of base layers:

    Bethani’s Cards   

    Karolina’s Cards

    Pam’s Christmas Card

    Kind of neat how the same idea could be used in different ways?  Later this week, I’ll share the other designs we made on Saturday. 

    What did you make on World Card Making Day?  Leave me a comment and share what you did!

  • Celebrate World Cardmaking Day – join me in crafting for a cause

    Did you realize that tomorrow is World Cardmaking Day?  That’s right, there is a holiday to celebrate creating and sharing handmade cards!  Many folks will be celebrating this occasion with stamping and crafting events, and I’m no exception.

    If you are in the San Francisco Bay area, join me as I celebrate World Cardmaking Day with a fun and FREE stamping event.  We will be making two cards, one for you to keep and one to donate to our Troops overseas.  No experience is necessary and I will be providing everything you need to create these cards.

    Here are the details:

    World Cardmaking Day Charity Event
    Roundtable Pizza – Mountain View, CA

    October 2nd from 1pm – 3pm 

    Create two fun and easy cards and choose one to take home and one to put in the box to donate for the troops.  All completed cards will be donated to Operation Write Home (http://www.operationwritehome.org/)  If you have extra completed cards you would like to donate, I’d be happy to accept them to send in.

    Cost: Free, so come try it out and bring your friends!  The more people we have the more cards we can create and donate!

    email me at jennifer@nwstamper.com to let me know you would like to come and I’ll be sure to have supplies ready and waiting for you!

  • Update on the Stamping Roulette Shopping Spree Drawing

    roulette board sept29I wanted to post a quick update on the Stamping Roulette promotion going on right now.  The board is filling up and we have only two more days (until midnight Oct 1st) to fill the board to get the bonus drawing for an extra $20 gift certificate.

    So, in case you missed it, here is how the game works.  You have three ways to earn spaces on the board.  When the board is filled up, I will spin the wheel and one lucky person will receive a $50 shopping spree! 

    To earn a spot on the board:

    1.  For every $25 you spend with me, you will receive a number on the board.  Yep, that’s right, spend $25 and you could win $50!

    2.  New! Host a workshop with me in October and receive a free space.  I offer workshops in your home or workshops in a box for folks who live to far away for an in-home workshop.

    3.  Thinking of becoming a demonstrator?  Join my team and get 3 free numbers on the board!

    If the board fills up by October 1st, I will spin a second time for an extra $20 shopping spree! 

    So contact me at jennifer@nwstamper.com or shop online now to reserve your chance to win big!

  • 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?

  • A Handmade Wedding Book and Card

    I’m back!  I had such a blast in Vegas. This was my first vacation since having my son, and though I missed him, it was great to have adult time and he got some quality time with Grandma. We also lucked in to a crazy room upgrade – we got a room on the “50”th floor looking at the Bellagio fountains! Amazing!

    vegas hotel room view

    We were there for our friends wedding and so I had made them a book to save the photos and memories of this trip.  I got the supplies and learned the binding technique at a store demonstration when visiting my mom.  Now that I get how it works, I’m going to see if I can replicate it with Stampin’ Up! supplies.

    I had the book all ready to go, but still needed to make a card, so I took my supplies with me and planned to put it together in Vegas.  Well, I discovered when unpacking that I completely forgot my clear mounts!  So I had to get a little creative so I could mount my sentiment. Smile Turns out, if you are desperate, you can use the stamp case as a mount.  It doesn’t work as well as a clear block, but it will work!

    But in the end, I was able to pull together a card that I love and was so happy to give to them while celebrating this awesome time for them.

    Wedding Card Recipe:
    Stamps:     Baroque Motifs, Occasional Quotes
    Ink: Blushing Bride, Chocolate Chip
    Paper: Whisper White CS, Chocolate Chip CS, Blushing Bride CS
    Accessories: Adhesive Back Pearls, Victoria Crochet Trim Ribbon, Small Heart Punch

  • Experimenting with the Stampin’ Up! Letterpress Dies

    As I mentioned last week, I received the new Letterpress Dies and made my first card using the method recommended on the packaging.  However, I’m not always good with rules and recommendations and so I had to start experimenting myself with how these dies worked with different inks, paper, and BigShot “sandwich” combinations.

    I wanted to share my results with you so you could try some of these ideas out yourself or avoid the methods that didn’t work so well.

    But first – a new sample using the bigger Trick or Treat letterpress die:

    The green ribbon in the Pumpkin Pie button is actually the 1/4” Old Olive grosgrain ribbon cut in half.  If you do this to thread through a button, I highly recommend using a needle to thread it through the holes.  I was using the “wet the end of the ribbon, twist, squint, shove, and hope enough gets through to grab with your fingernails” technique.  Lets just say the ribbon frays much more easily that way.

    Experimenting with Paper, Ink, and BigShot techniques

    Click Read More to see my experiments with the Letterpress dies including photos for the different papers, inks, and techniques I used. (more…)

  • Sponging up a No Layer Card

    Each week, the Late Night Stampers group has some kind of challenge.  This week was particularly intriguing to me as the challenge was to create a single/no layer card.  When I first read this, I thought, “won’t these cards be boring?”  Well, boy was I wrong!  Folks came up with all kinds of cool ways to make a card look interesting without needing lots of layers of paper and embellishments.  So, I took up the challenge and decided to create one myself, no paper layers, no embellishment layers, just paper and ink.

    Here is what I came up with:

    Using scoring lines and sponging, this card turned out much better than I expected.  I scored the outer frame at about 1” in from the top and the bottom of the card and about 1/2” in from the sides of the card.  Then I scored the inner frame about 1/4” in from the outer frame.  I then masked at the inner frame lines and sponged with Pink Pirouette ink and stamped my flowers using Blushing Bride and Rich Razzleberry.  Next I masked the inner part of the score lines so I could sponge the outer areas with Pink Pirouette and finished it off by sponging the edges of the card in Rich Razzleberry.

    Tip:  Did you know that it is easy to score at precise measurements that don’t go to the edge of your paper using a paper cutter and a bone folder?  For a frame like I created above, grab a paper cutter that uses a grooved track for cutting like this one and position your paper to the dimension you want to score.  So, if you were scoring the sides of the frame above, you would put your paper at 3 3/4” so that you are scoring 1/2” in from the side of your 4 1/4” card front.  Then use the bone folder instead of the cutting blade and use the ruler on the cutting track to help you score the length you want – so in this case, from 4 1/2” to 1”.  Keep doing that for each side of your frame, and voila!  You are done!

    Need a bone folder or a grooved paper cutter?  You can order them here!

    No Layer Card Recipe:
    Stamps:      Petal Pizazz, Just Believe
    Ink:  Pink Pirouette, Blushing Bride, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive
    Paper:  Whisper White CS
    Accessories:  Paper cutter, bone folder, sponges