Northwest Stamper

Tag: paper piercing

  • Create a Cupcake Makes for a Bright Birthday

    When you are making a birthday card for someone, isn’t one of the top things on your mind all about making them smile?  Well, unless the birthday boy or girl hates cupcakes (is that even possible?!) I’m going to bet this one will bring a smile to their face!

    At least it does for me every time I pull out this card. Smile

    I designed this card for my technique class recently where we focused on paper piercing so I used the Essentials Paper Piercing Pack for the Decorative Label Punch shape around the outside of the punchout.  Then I used the rows of holes on the template to make even photo corners around each corner of the Whisper White cardstock.

    image

    Here is a close up of what I’m talking about:

    Plus, with the coordinating Cupcake punch, it makes it easy to get your cupcake together too.

    And speaking of birthdays, today is my Dad’s birthday!  I’m happy to be celebrating with him and my mom today and before we left to go visit, Nicholas decided to create a card just for Grandpa.  He picked out the stamp set, the colors, the punches, and where to glue everything down.  He may be 3, but he loves making cards for people too!

    2013-04-26 08.25.52

     

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    Supples Used
    Stamps     – Create a Cupcake
    Paper – Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Real Red, Brights Family Designer Paper Stack**
    Ink – Chocolate Chip, Daffodil Delight
    Accessories – Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Piercing Tool, Decorative Label Punch, Cupcake Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals, 2-way Glue Pen
    **Items on the Retiring Stamps & Accessories List

    imageimage

  • Trying Out Ombre with a Fun Piercing Card

    At a recent class, I focused on different ways to use Paper Piercing in your projects.  Well, we made this card as a way to show how you can use a design from the Paper Piercing Templates without needing to have the matching Big Shot die or punch.

    See, as much as I think of myself as a hoarder of Big Shot dies and embossing folders, I still have managed to get by without the Apocathary Accents framelit set (I’m sure this will be fixed in the future though Smile)  But I had the piercing template and thought this shape would be a nice accent for some punched out butterflies.

    You can see it a bit better in this picture:

    I also pierced my Whisper White paper and glued it down so that the “backside” of where I pierced was what was facing up on my card (the pierced parts poke up and out from the paper instead of pushing into the paper).

    Plus this was a fun attempt to try out the Ombre trend.  I played with a few color themes but settled on Blues as my colors of choice.  I used the following blues in this card:

    • Baja Breeze
    • Pool Party
    • Island Indigo
    • Night of Navy

    But grab your favorite colors and try it out with pinks, greens, or purples.  Or you can step it up like some of the gals in my class did and start layering in on different blues using the Bitty Butterfly punch and layering them over these Elegant Butterfly punch outs.  Let me just say they look super pretty!

     

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    Supples Used
    Paper – Whisper White, Baja Breeze, Pool Party, Island Indigo, Night of Navy
    Accessories – Paper Piercer, Essentials Paper Piercing Pack, Piercing Mat, Elegant Butterfly Punch

  • One More Princess Birthday Card

    If you are looking at this project sample today and think it looks familiar, you are right! 🙂

    While working on my Make & Take at convention using this Quinceanera stamp set, I had the white diecut cut out, the edges pierced, the princess stamped, the paper pieced dress cut and adhered, and most of the coloring done…. then I colored in the girl’s skin itself.  Lets just say I was a little confused about the directions and everytime I tried to fix things she just kept getting darker and darker!  But that sort of thing has never happened to you has it? 😉

    Long story short, I started over and tried again and got the version I used on my treat bag.  But that meant I came home with this main image all done and it would have been silly just to throw it away.  So, I decided to put together a card so you could see how you might use this stamp set even if you didn’t know someone celebrating a Quinceanera.  (Next up, I think I’m going to make a wedding card or bridal shower card with this set!)

    I also used the new 1 1/4” Scallop circle punch from the new Holiday catalog (Yay for more nesting punches, right?!) and more Pool Party ruffled ribbon.

    So, what do you think?  What do you think this stamp set would be good for?  Leave me a comment and I may try to make samples for some of your ideas!

     

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    Quinceanera Princess Birthday Card Recipe
    Stamps:     Quinceanera, Pennant Parade
    Ink: Stazon Black, Primrose Petals, Crumb Cake
    Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Primrose Petals, Pool Party
    Accessories: Basic Rhinestones, Essential Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer, Piercing Pad, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Big Shot, 1-1/4” Scallop circle punch, 3/4” Circle punch, Blender Pen, Paper Snips, Stampin’ Dimensionals

  • You’re Amazing Ticket Banner Card from Convention

    Alright, today is another share of the Stampin’ Up! convention make & takes.  I LOVED the variety and number of different projects we got to make and I thought that the projects we made with the You’re Amazing stamp set were especially unique.  And I’ll admit, this card is not at all hard to do, it does take a little bit of time to put together. 🙂

     

    There are so many details to this card and after creating it, I think I might just hang it over my desk to remind myself that even when I’m feel low and my self-esteem has taken a hit, that I can have amazing moments too.  And I can remember how much I enjoyed creating this card.

    Some tips if you are making a card like this:

    • When using the Essentials Paper Piercing pack to create a dotted outline for a die cut shape or stamped image, I recommend placing the piercing template on your card base first so you can line it up exactly where you want it to be; then do your piercing, and then add in your center piece.
    • If you want to make a string of little punched tickets (or any shape), I stamped my images first, pierced the hole for running the linen thread through, and then punched out the ticket shape.  You can punch them out and stack them up and pierce the hole, but I didn’t want to have to deal with trying to hold onto the little tiny pieces while piercing.
    • I actually tied the linen thread through the end of the die cut shape to help hold the banner up
    • Depending on your personality, you can opt to leave the ticket banner hanging loosely in the front of your card…. or you can be like me and use a glue dot behind each ticket to place it precisely where you want it to go! 🙂  The tickets may not necessarily hang evenly, but at least they will stay put.
    • The little hearts are actually a clever trick of punching out the 4-petal flower from the Itty Bitty Punch pack and then trimming off two of the petals to make a tiny heart.  This makes it even smaller than the single small heart punch.
      image

     

    Like I said, there are a lot of details, but honestly, that is what made this card so fun for me.  If you check out my blog very often, you see that a lot of the projects I tend to make are the more quick and simple cards – cards that have one or two cool details but don’t take much time to put together.  So, when I get to sit down and focus on more details on the card every now and then it is actually pretty relaxing for me. 🙂  Am I the only person like this?

     

    So, even if you don’t have time to do this whole project, hopefully you got some ideas for different elements to try in your projects in the future.  Though I’ll admit, I’m most addicted to my Essential Piercing Pack, what is your favorite piece to try?

     

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    Check out the 2012 Holiday Catalog

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    You're Amazing Clear-Mount Stamp Set

    Ticket Banner Card Recipe
    Stamps:     You’re Amazing
    Ink: Midnight Muse, Primrose Petals, More Mustard
    Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Primrose Petals, More Mustard, Midnight Muse, Early Espresso
    Accessories: Punch Pack, Linen Thread, Basic Pearls, Essential Piercing Pack, Paper Piercer, Piercing Pad, Apothecary Accents Framelits, Big Shot, Ticket Builder punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

  • Four Frames Pierced Frame Card

    Ok, so this is my last card we did at my card stash class on Friday.  I really, really wanted to get out my new Piercing Pack and start playing with the new shapes and designs they have and thought it would be fun to highlight on of the punches.

     

    I also pulled out the new Polka Dot pack of designer paper to give a subtle look for the background of the card so that it was interesting to look at but the focus was mostly on the stamped image.  This paper pack is one that I didn’t give much of a glance to when I saw it in the catalog but I have a feeling it is going to get A LOT of use!

    Anyway, back to the piercing, here is a close up of the design.  I actually did something a bit different too when I put this together.  Normally, I pierce the holes from front to back (so the part that is pushed up is hidden), but this time I decided to make those raised pierced parts face up toward the stamped image.

     

    If you haven’t seen how they redesigned the Mat Pack (now called the Essential Paper-Piercing Pack), you get 3 plastic mats with predesigned holes that coordinate with edgelits, framelits, and punches!

    Essentials Paper-Piercing Pack

     

    Oh and ps – there are going to be more of these cool piercing packs coming out soon with the new Holiday catalog!  I get my hands on my new pack in a few days, I can’t wait!!

     

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    Four Frames Pierced Card Recipe
    Stamps:     Four Frames, Fabulous Phrases
    Ink: Early Espresso, Marina Mist
    Paper: Very Vanilla, Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade, Marina Mist, Polka Dot dsp
    Accessories: Essential Paper-piercing mats, paper piercer, neutrals brads, stampin’ dimensionals, decorative label punch

  • Rock and Roll Swap Card

    So, if you’ve never been to a Stampin’ Up! event, let me fill you in on an addicting activity that usually happens called “swapping”.  See, the first couple of times I went to a regional event or convention, I was told to bring some card fronts to trade with other demos…so I’d bring like 20…. or fewer.  Then I would get there and see so many amazing cards that I so desperately wanted to take home and drool over and I quickly learned that 20 was definitely NOT enough! Smile 

    So, this year I made around 80 swaps for convention – 40 of two different designs.  Today I thought I’d share one of my swaps:

    Ever since I saw the Love and Care hostess stamp set in the Summer Mini, I knew the big flower would be perfect for the “Rock and Roll” technique.  So, I decided to play with that for my swap. 

    The center flower paper is all hand-stamped.  To make the More Mustard/Bravo Burgundy flowers, I first inked up the flower with More Mustard.  Then before I stamped, I took the stamp and rolled the edges around on the Bravo Burgundy ink pad.  Then I stamped my image onto my paper.  So, it took a bit of time, but it gives you a fun effect, don’t you think?  Then just stamp the rest of your flowers like normal and you’re done!

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    Take Care Swap Card recipe:
    Stamps:      Love and Care (hostess)
    Ink:  More Mustard, Bravo Burgundy, Wisteria Wonder, So Saffron
    Paper:  Whisper White cardstock, Always Artichoke CS, Wisteria Wonder CS
    Accessories:  Medium Oval Punch, Daffodil Delight 1/8” taffeta ribbon, Sponge Dauber, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack

  • Sometimes the Card Wins

    If you have been to any of my classes or events, you’ve probably heard me say “its not a mess up, its just an opportunity for embellishment!”  And I really do believe that when you do something and say “oops!” you can usually tweak your card design or add an embellishment and you will still end up with an awesome card.  However, this week I had the card that finally beat me. 🙂

    I was designing a card for my meet & greet with my local meetup group and had an idea to use sponging and the Sale-a-Bration stamp set Bliss.  I did some masking of the center of the card, and when I looked at it, I decided I needed to draw an outline of the masked area to help it stand out.  Unfortunately, I drew my rectangle lopsided, so I thought, I’ll just rotate my white layer and it will be artsy.  But that looked wierd, so I thought I needed to do more to make the center stand out and look good, so I did clear embossing over the flourish.  It was nice, but not enough.  So I added ribbon and then I added piercing along the bottom of the center area.  In the end I just gave up and decided to call it a loss.  Oh, and di I mention that this was supposed to be a card showing how you could do something simple with little to no layers? 🙂

    But, I thought the base idea was good, so I tried again, pulling out some of my favorite elements of the first card and really like how the second card turned out. 

    This is the card we will be making on Saturday and it uses sponging with sponges and with sponge daubers, paper piercing with the mat pack, and then coloring ribbon (its the Organza ribbon that is originally white!) with markers.  I can’t wait!

    And don’t forget, this is the last few weeks to earn this stamp set – Bliss – free with any $50 order.

    Stop by the online store and grab some of your favorites and enjoy your Sale-a-Bration freebies!

    Bliss Card Recipe:
    Stamps:     Bliss (Sale-a-Bration)
    Ink: So Saffron, Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Bravo Burgundy
    Paper: Whisper White CS
    Accessories: Whisper White Organza ribbon, Bravo Burgundy Marker, Paper Piercing tool, Mat Pack, Stampin’ Dimensionals

  • Ice Cream Parlor Quick Accents Card and Card Purse

    In a flurry of excitement, Sale-a-Bration has officially begun!  Of course you can earn free stamps, but I love that you get options for other items like the Ice Cream Parlor Designer Paper and Quick Accents.  I had gotten this paper pack during the preorder and the more I use it, the more I’ve now decided that I NEED the matching Ice Cream Parlor buttons and ribbon pack!

    In the meantime, I thought I’d share a couple projects I’ve made using this paper and cardstock stickers.  First up, a super quick birthday card:

    For this card, the striped designer paper, the Daffodil Delight scalloped border cardstock sticker, and the Peach Parfeit designer paper – all come as part of the Ice Cream Parlor DSP And Quick Accents Sale-a-Bration pack.  I just added some Early Espresso taffeta ribbon, cardstock, and a staple to finish out the card.  Seriously, this is a 5 minute card!

    Next, I created a purse sized to hold a set of standard 4.25” x 5.5” cards and matching envelopes:

    If you are on my mailing list, you should have received the full tutorial for this purse in your inbox yesterday.  If you didn’t, let me know!

    Not on my mailing list yet? Sign up here.  I’ll even resend the copy of my email with this tutorial in it to folks who sign up in the next couple of days.

    Over the next week I’ll be sharing more Sale-a-Bration creations, so I hope you stop by again and check them out!  Until then, happy stamping!

    Make a Wish card recipe:
    Stamps:     Birthday Bliss
    Ink: Early Espresso Classic Ink, Marina Mist Classic Ink, Daffodil Delight Classic Ink
    Paper: Pacific Point CS, Whisper White CS, Daffodil Delight CS, Ice Cream Parlor DSP
    Accessories: Ice Cream Parlor Quick Accents, Early Espresso 1/8” taffeta ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Small Tag punch, Large Tag punch, Blender Pen, Crystal Effects, stapler

    Wonderful Friend card purse recipe:
    Stamps:     Wonderful Favorites
    Ink: Marina Mist Classic Ink, Early Espresso Classic Ink
    Paper: Marina Mist CS, Melon Mambo CS, Whisper White CS, Daffodil Delight CS, Ice Cream Parlor DSP
    Accessories: Ice Cream Parlor DSP, Ticket Corner Punch, Subtles Family brads, Round Tab punch, Paper Piercing tool, Mat Pack, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Sticky Strip, Bone Folder

  • A Big Button Petal Pizzazz

    This month’s make & take project had me focused on using the Big Designer Buttons from the holiday mini.  I didn’t know what else I wanted to do with a card, but I knew I wanted to use my buttons.

    So, after digging through my stamp sets, I ended up finding my Petal Pizazz set and realized that the buttons were a perfect fit for the biggest flower in the set.  So, I started from there.  My other challenge for this card was to not use any punches.  I love my punches and so I use them on almost every card…but this just goes to show, you don’t have to use a punch to make a fun card.

    If you like these buttons, don’t miss them.  These color sets (which match the Candy Cane DSP and Designer Fabric, and the Deck the Halls DSP and Designer Fabric) are only available in the Holiday Mini which lasts until January 3rd.

    Thinking of You Recipe:
    Stamps:     Petal Pizazz, Teeny Tiny Wishes
    Ink: Blushing Bride, Early Espresso Marker
    Paper: Whisper White CS, Pear Pizazz CS, Blushing Bride DSP (hostess)
    Accessories: Candy Cane Big Designer Buttons, Paper Piercer, Mat Pack

  • 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?

  • Thank You Kindly Index Card and the Philosophy of Card Fronts

    For a while now, I’ve been a member of the card front club.  That is, someone who participates in card front swaps and who creates card fronts when making new card projects.  I always told myself, “I’m saving cardstock this way” and some folks say it saves a lot of room when storing your cards.  cardfront_projectIt made perfect sense, right? Well, I realized that I’m not nearly as organized as I’d like to be and often I’m just grabbing a card last minute from my stash.  (Thankfully, I have a large enough stash, I can still tailor my choice to the recipient.)  In any event, I like to have my cards ready to go so I only have to write on the inside and put it in an envelope. 

    So, this weekend I started project “turn cardfronts into cards”.  Over the course of three nights, I cut, scored, folded, and glued card bases to 46 of my cardfronts.  And last night, I finished the last card.  It was during this time that I realized that I like how cards look better when I go ahead and use a half sheet of cardstock for the card base instead of making a card front and later trying to line-up the front on a separately cut base (I wasn’t so good at that sometimes).  Plus, while I might be saving a few cents not using as much colored cardstock, sometimes it really does look nicer to have the color for the base (I even used a half sheet of colored cardstock for some of my cardfronts – definitely using more cardstock that way!).  So, now I’ve swung over to the “just do it” camp and will leave card fronts for pretty much swaps and special uses only.  I’d love to hear other people’s thoughts on this topic though.  What do you like better?

     

    Once that was all done last night, I didn’t have much time or energy for much else.  So, I tried working on my index card project.  I picked up my Thank You Kindly and some paper and got to work. 

    thankyoukindly_index

    This was one of those times that you think you have a great card idea and as soon as you start stamping you realize that “great” isn’t quite the right adjective. 🙂  It also doesn’t help when you cut your cardstock and then realize you totally cut at the wrong sizes!  So, I kept tweaking it as I went until I got to the point where I knew it needed something but everything seemed too much.  So, I finally went with putting on the button latte buttons (I love, love, love these buttons!!!) because the empty space was driving me nuts.  So, while its not my most shining work, its not bad for a card that had to use every thank you sentiment in the stamp set and no other stamp set period.  I call this one good enough and will be moving on tonight to Simple Stems. I’m feeling a little more optimistic about that set.   

     

    And yes, for those of you who left comments about my Video Game Live concert experience.  You are right, I had a camera. 🙂 Though the host actually encouraged use of recording devices at one point, so I don’t really feel bad.  Unfortunately, my pictures were mostly blurry so I can really only share the costume contest line up.  These were concert goers who dressed up for fun, glory, or a prize.

    vglive_sm vglive2_sm

  • The jackpot of love

    Alright, I’ve made it home and in between trying to catch up on all my home life stuff (those piles of papers and clothes didn’t seem to magically put themself while I was away, darn!) I wanted to post up another card I made over the weekend.

     Game Night is a new Spring/Summer set that I bought because I thought it would be perfect for scrapbooking the multiple trips my DH and I have taken to Las Vegas.  We both also love board games – in fact my birthday party this year was a board game night at my house.   The set includes the jackpot stamp, the sentiments “game night” and “big winner”, card suits, chess rook, dice, and dominos.  Its something fun and different from all the flowers and bird stamps out there right now. 🙂

    jackpotNow about the card.  So, first off, I couldn’t seem to get the lighting to work in my favor and to show off the fact that the white rectangles with the red hearts are actually curved out in the middle (courtesy of pop-up glue dots) to look like reels on a slot machine.  This card was a challange to myself to use the new Game Night stamp set for a card; and not for a card that just says “game night” with no other purpose than to use the set. 🙂  My inspiration was thinking hitting the jackpot in love and since I always have to use the slot machines when I’m in Vegas, I naturally thought of the slot machine reels.  I’m still trying to figure out how to , in general, take my cards to the next level, but this was a fun way to play for now.

    Recipe:
    Stamps:  Game Night
    Ink: Basic Black, Ridinghood Red, Basic Grey
    Paper:  Ridinghood Red CS, Whisper White CS, Basic Grey CS, Kraft CS
    Accessories:  Pop-up glue dots, paper piercer, mat pack, corner rounder, sponges, heart trio punch, white gel pen, word window punch, circle punch