Northwest Stamper

Tag: stampin’ up

  • 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

  • Over 20 new items now in the Stampin’ Up! Clearance Rack

    I just saw that Stampin’ Up! has added even more fabulous retired items to the online clearance rack.  Some of these items are such amazing deals at up to 60% off that I had to quickly share them with you.  Check out all the great deals online.  I’ll be back again soon with more project shares but had to spread the word of these great deals. 

    Hurry and get your favorites before they are sold out!  See it all online in the Clearance Rack.

  • A New Mini Catalog plus free brads and more

    Summer Mini Catalog: May 1 – Aug 31

    Well, May is here and that means that the new Summer Mini has been released.  Boy is it a doozy this time!  With something for everyone, there are great products for scrapbooking, vintage, new punches, awesome new accessories, papers, stamps and more. 

    As a bit of a punch junkie, one of the items I had to order was the new Itty Bitty Shapes punch pack.  That’s right, punch PACK… where you get three small punch shapes that not only coordinate with a stamp set but also with some new clear Bitty Buttons.  How cool is that?!?  I’ll be pulling those out to play with this week.  So, while I’m working on some samples to share with you all, I wanted to also share some cool promotions going on this month.

    Promotions

    Free brads – Celebrate National Scrapbooking month!  Love fun brads to accessories your scrapbooking and card projects?  Well, for the month of May, purchase select stamp sets and receive a FREE package of designer brads.  Check out the flyer for all the details.

    Free stamps and more – Ever thought of starting your own business or just having access to tools, ideas, and a great discount for your own crafting hobby?  Well, Stampin’ Up! may be the perfect opportunity for you.  With such a supportive community, lots of awesome resources to learn new tips, tricks, and ideas, and a chance to not only earn 20% of everything you buy or sell but to grow your love into a fun home business.  I love being a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator and would love to answer any questions you have about if it is the right thing for you. 

    If you are ready to join the Stampin’ Up family, sign up through my online website (passcode is “stampingplace”) or contact me to get started.  Right now, not only is Stampin’ Up going to send you two awesome Workshop WOW DVDs with great ideas and techniques but I’m going to sweeten the deal a little.  As I mentioned above, during May, when you purchase certain stamp sets you get FREE brads.  Well, sign up to join my Stampin’ Up! team this month and I’ll GIVE you your stamp set for FREE as well.  If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me!

  • 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.

  • Simple holiday cards with a side of bling

    Well, December is finally here and like usual I suddenly realize that I need to get my Christmas cards put together and my mailing list organized.  Thankfully I was running a technique night this last Tuesday and so we created three fun holiday cards.  The actual card designs aren’t too complicated as the focus was more on some fun techniques to add some bling to your cards.  These cards were tons of fun to make and look much better in person than in the photos. 🙂

    Technique 1 – Stained Glass Window

    For this card, the bling came in the form of sparkle on a colored window sheet image.  To do this, start by stamping your preferred image onto a window sheet using Staz-on ink.  Squeeze some crystal effects onto a piece of plastic or some waxy paper (I like using the backing that is left behind when you peel off the sticker labels for your stamp sets).  Add a drop or two of reinker dye and some dazzling diamonds glitter.  Mix together and apply to your stamped image with a paintbrush.  Once that has dried, attach your window sheet (ink side down) to your card front using brads or your favorite adhesive (just note that if you use adhesive it will show through unless you cover it up with another card element.

    Stamps: Christmas Classics
    Inks:  Staz-on black, Soft Suede classic ink, Old Olive reinker
    Paper: Soft Suede CS, Whisper White CS, Merry Moments DSP
    Accessories:  Gold brads, Scallop edge punch, paper piercier and mat pack, Crystal Effects, Dazzling Diamonds glitter, Close to Cocoa marker (to color in the trunk)

    Technique 2 – Brayer Resist

    I had been seeing some fabulous samples using the new Bride specialty DSP.  If you haven’t seen the paper before, it is a white (or black or ivory) paper with either stripes or the swirly pattern in shiny foil of the same color.  While this is pretty and elegant on its own, it is also perfect for coloring because the shiny part resists ink.  So, for this card, we inked up our brayer and rolled it over the paper to create the design on the bottom half of the card.  It can take a few rolls to get the color coated evenly but gives you tons of options with only one package of paper and a few ink pads.

    Stamps: Sweet Season, Sincere Salutations
    Inks: Night of Navy classic ink
    Paper:  Bridesmaid DSP, Whisper White CS, Bashful Blue CS
    Accessories:  Organza ribbon, Scallop circle punch, brayer, Frost Crystal brads, paper piercer, Stampin dimentionals

    Technique 3 – Shimmer Paints

    So, this is the hardest effect to see in a photo but adds a subtle shine to your projects.  It is also the easist and fastest technique of all.  Ink up your image (don’t you just love the Dasher stamp from the under $10 section of the catty??) and set the stamp aside BEFORE you stamp.  Next, take your shimmer paint container and shake it up.  Open it up and set the lid in front of you.  Now, you should be able to take a sponge dauber and pick up the shimmer paint from the inside of the paint container lid.  Sponge the paint on top of your inked stamp (in my case I just sponged over the antlers).  NOW, stamp your image onto your paper.  You will see the color come through but with a shimmery effect where you applied the paint.  I then used the dauber which had some ink and some shimmer paint left on it from daubing the stamp rubber and used that to distress the edge of my square paper.  It gave it a really nice shimmery brown all around the edge.

    Stamps:  Dasher
    Inks: Chocolate Chip classic
    Paper:  Merry Moments DSP, Real Red CS, Chocolate Chip CS, Very Vanilla CS
    Accessories:  Sponge Dauber, Frost Shimmer Paint, Chocolate Chip 5/8″ ribbon

  • It’s a …..

    boycard_wm

    Well, I’m happy to share that we found out earlier this week that we will be having a little boy come Christmas time.  So, of course to commemorate the occasion I had to put together a quick card to share the news. 🙂 

     

    I wanted to play with some scraps left over from cutting a scallop circle with the BigShot and start coming up with some ideas using the Nursery Necessities stamp set.  I have a feeling I’ll be getting a lot more use out of this stamp set over the next year.   If you have put together some cute baby cards or scrapbook pages, I’d love to see your ideas.  Leave me a comment with a link to your blog or photo of your design, and I’ll check them out.

    Well, I’ll leave you with baby’s first picture and I’m off to finish my Stampin Up convention 2009 scrapbook!

    baby boy

  • 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

  • 30 card swaps in 3 hrs

    This weekend has been awesome!  The weather has been perfect – in the high 70’s and sunny all weekend – and I got to go to the Stampin’ Up! regional seminar on Saturday up in Seattle.  Oh my gosh was it tons of fun, super inspiring, and a chance to reconnect with the folks in my Stampin’ Up family.  I’ll posting more this week sharing the swaps and idea boards with you but for today I had to tell you about the feat of craziness I embarked on on Friday night. 🙂

     

    Since I live in Portland, the drive to Seattle is about 2.5 – 3 hrs which means I would have had to get up at 4 in the morning on Saturday to head up to Seattle in time for regionals.  Well, anyone that knows me knows I’m not a morning person, so I decided to head up on Friday night and share a hotel room with my mom (who was coming down from Bellingham) so we could get some sleep and be up early, but not too early on Saturday.  So 10pm on friday, I arrived at our hotel room.

     

    Now, the silly thing is, I decided at the last minute that I wanted to participate in the card swapping that happens at every Stampin’ Up event.  So instead of getting them done early like a sane person, I only had time to plan in my head and grab supplies before heading north to meet my mom. 

    hotel_stampingstationhotel_bedSo once I got in the hotel room, I set to stamping and cutting and glueing everything I needed for my 30 swap cards.  From 10:30pm to 1:30 am, I power crafted with moral support (and then gluing support :)) from my mom.  In the end, I was so glad I made my swaps because I got to trade for some amazing cards.  Plus, I guess it was a good way to warm up for an all day stamping fest on Saturday.   But until I get those photographed and up, here is the swap I came up with:

    foryou_petals_wm

  • 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!

  • Trying out the BigShot – a card, a box, and the matchbox

    I wanted to put up a quick post before I had to run into work.  This week has gone by so fast and has seemed so busy, but the rest of the week should be more relaxing.  On Tuesday, I was hosting a Technique Night focused on using the BigShot.  Unfortunately, that night I had some folks cancel because of illness, unexpected time conflicts, delays, and getting lost, so it ended up not happening.   One the upside, my friend Jennifer recently decided she wanted to make a baby book for her daughter but had been overwhelmed by where to get started.  So, since she had come over, I helped her figure out what she needed.  She ended up deciding to get the Stampin Up! Baby Girl simply scrappin kit, and after looking at it more closely, I can’t wait for her to get it because I think it is going to be so stinking cute.  Then last night we went to Michaels and picked out an album to go with it.  So, I’m feeling good that we got something productive done. 

     

    So, since the Technique Night didn’t happen this week, I rescheduled it for next Tuesday.  I’m trying something different this time.  I created a meetup group called Portland Card Makers recently and since some of those folks were going to come, I thought I would try out a public location that most people could easily get to and find parking.  So, I ended up finding a Round Table pizza that had side sections with long tables that you could reserve for free.  It may seem odd crafting in a pizza place, but I’ve been to an event at a Fuddrucker’s so, hopefully this will work out.  I guess we’ll see!

     

    Here are some samples I was playing with for the BigShot.  The first is a card using the Top Note die.  It was an interesting and different way to create a card since the inside of the card is the inside of the Top Note die.  Then, I was going to do a box/basket using the Scallop Envelope die and some ribbon.  The last thing we were going to do at the technique night was a card using texture plates and an embosslit but I’m reworking that card right now.  And then finally I thought I would share a box I made with the new Matchbox die.  It was sooo easy to make since everything is cut and scored for you.  You only need to use one piece of sticky strip or snail and its together!  Plus the die punches out the label that I stamped and put on top.  Easy peasy.

     

    bs_technight_wmbs_matchbook_wm