My son had to admit that Washi could be useful:
The black diagonal Washi from the Epic Day This n That suite was the only one he considered acceptable, but he agreed that identifying his cables made sense.
He has a LOT of cables. Apple cables.
The ocean attacked his phone the day before he was supposed to fly back to campus. Good thing he worked that extra week, because he wasn’t planning on a new phone. Naughty ocean.
My Paper Pumpkin for May pushed me to work outside the box:
Before you ask, that little tile in the corner was a swap and I LOVED it!!
This My Paper Pumpkin kit from May has sat on my stamp desk for a while as I decided what to do with it. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t do a lot of scrapbooking. I have a really hard time choosing the photos – I think that’s what gets in my way. I really wanted to use this kit, but it took Convention to get me in the groove.
I’m gonna show you ALL the pages, but I’m not going into details on every product I used.
The My Paper Pumpkin kit included front and back covers, 6 pieces of DSP (6×6), 5 pre-cut DSP pages to fit the covers, 6 pages of self-adhesive embellishments, and a bag with 2 buttons and 2 arrow-shaped clip embellishments.
I needed MORE pages!! I added card stock pages and pulled out a heap of stamps. I also added mementos I collected at Convention.
Sometimes I journaled on the self-adhesive embellishments, and sometimes I wrote directly on the page.
That picture of Crystal in her Pineapple Sunglasses is my absolute FAVE.
Aussie Aussie Aussie!! Oi Oi Oi!! Wouldn’t you know it, we sat next to 3 demonstrators from Queensland, Australia for the opening General Session.
We really enjoyed meeting Stampin’ Up! staff, but Kathy Pitt (You Crew:Â Meet with an Illustrator) and Sara Brook-Humphrey (the My Paper Pumpkin girl – working in the Social Media booth) were special highlights.
I am so proud of my PINEAPPLE!
I’m also proud to have been part of the Guinness World Record for most greeting cards sent from a single location at one time.
Swaps!!! Need I say more?
If you don’t follow Erica Cerwin’s blog Pink Buckaroo, take a look HERE for more details on her INCREDIBLE Paper Camper. I was speechless.
Classes at convention are always outstanding. The class I enjoyed more this year was Carrie Cudney’s class “Living a Creative Life”. She had great quotes, great projects, and a great ice-breaker: We threw rolls of TP around the room!!
We wore those ridiculous Pineapple Sunglasses for 3 solid days. By Saturday afternoon my eyes were fatigued from looking through that cheapo plastic. We sure had fun with them!
Big Screen Photos…
and my name badge.
I used Tombo (the Wonder Adhesive) to adhere DSP to the front and back sides of the covers, then used a little Washi to dress up the edges. All the holes were pre-punched. Still, to be completely honest, this was NOT a 30 minute project. I think I spent a couple of afternoons on it – but I did more than double the pages. Here’s the kit:
Just a few more days to sign up for My Paper Pumpkin at the special promotional price of $10 + tax DELIVERED to YOUR DOOR! You’ll get a ready-to-go project with all the pre-cut paper, embellishments, stamps and ink you need. You add adhesive and a little time. These projects are perfect for taking out and about with you! Visit the Paper Pumpkin website and be sure to use promocode PUMPKINDEAL when you check out!
LOVE these muslin gift bags from the Holiday catalog!
Lazy girl that I am, I cut a piece of ribbon and just clipped it on with the clothespin from the Tag a Bag accessory kit. That little rhinestone is a leftover from…something. A kit, the name of which I cannot remember or find. But you could take a plain rhinestone jewel and color it with a Sharpie® marker and get the same result.
Here’s what I did to stamp the bags:
THAT’S IT. I did NOT wash, fold, dry, iron or otherwise pay any attention to these bags. I used Stampin’ Up! Classic Ink. It dried to the touch but I noticed that as I stuffed the bags the ink would transfer to my hands, so I recommend allowing them to dry overnight before gifting them – there was no ink transfer the next day for me. I stamped 4 different times – the 2-step flower image in Primrose Petals and Raspberry Ripple, the stem in Old Olive, and the sentiment in Raspberry Ripple – and didn’t have any problems with smearing.
I made a bunch of these for my Hostess Club members. They’re filled with a cute stamp and some Trader Joe’s Chocolate Covered Sea Salt Butterscotch Caramels (I think I’m happy that TJ’s isn’t in Hawaii because these would become an ISSUE for me). These bags are a perfect last-minute-gift solution! I’ve got a stash on hand and I think you should too 🙂
I forgot to share my last organized Convention Swap project!
This tag measures 3 1/2 x 6 inches. The two base layers were shaped using the Window Frame framelits – just cut your card stock to the width of the framelit, place the framelit at the top of the panel and run into your Big Shot just far enough to cut the top, then back it out.
Love that glimmer paper – I haven’t used it much lately, but Sparkle Season is coming!!
This swap produced absolutely gorgeous samples – thank you, ladies in Group 1- and a special thanks to my swap angel, Lynn Marshall, who stepped in to actually swap my tags when I developed a time conflict.
At convention, Pam Morgan showed us a trick for adapting our new Tag a Bag gift bags. I brought home my Make ‘n Take projects (they were Take ‘n Makes for me! Much easier to bring home on the plane) and used her technique to step up my Tag It project.
Didja see his EYEBALL?
I had a little giggle fit over this one, I guarantee ya! This is a Maui Stamper Original Idea 🙂
Pam showed us how to put the gusset in the bottom, and I’ll give you the instructions for that too, but I also want to show you one more Maui Stamper Original Idea (MSOI – you knew that was coming, didn’t you?)Â She suggested we put a little piece of grunge chipboard inside the bag (that kinda junk cardboard that keeps your Stampin’ Goodies from getting bent when they’re shipped.)Â My MSOI was to wrap that little bad boy so when you look into the package it’s pretty, not grungy.
The dimensions for converting the bag are at the end of the post – here’s the how to wrap the base:
Cut your grunge chipboard just a hair short of 2″ x 3″. Cut a piece of DSP to 3″ x 4″. (This is Quatrefancy Specialty DSP.)
Apply a thin coat of Tombo (the Wonder Adhesive) to one side of the grunge chipboard. You want it to be spread smoothly and evenly to avoid any bubbles in the finished product. Center the chipboard over the wrong side of the DSP and use your fingernail or a bone folder to create the DSP at each edge (you crafters with the beautiful manicures will already have that bone folder in your hand). Trim the corners on the diagonal.
Spread a little more Tombo on the flaps and use your bone folder to press them over the edge and firmly across the bottom of the grungy cardboard.
When Pam put her bag together on stage at convention, she made it look really easy to get it squared but I had a little trouble until I had this MSOI. I put some SNAIL on one of the short flaps on the side of the bag and attached the bottom side of the covered grunge chipboard to the flap. This gives you something to wrap the bag around when you assemble the bottom. Once the first flap is secured, put SNAIL on the opposite flap, turn it under and stand the bag with the base squarely on top.
Doesn’t that little wrapped base look pretty?! And see how the wide flaps are pressed to the outside? Reach down into the bag with the bone folder and press the two narrow side flaps in place, then add a little more SNAIL to the two wide flaps and fold them in to finish the bottom of your bag. E-Z!!
To make the flat bag into a gusset bag, trim a narrow strip off the bottom – just to open it up. Score at 1 1/2″ from the bottom of the bag across the short end (I actually scored on both sides, flipping the bag over on my Stampin’ Score to be sure both score lines were solid.) Then score your bag at 1″ from each long edge. Snip along that 1″ score line on all 4 sides up to the 1 1/2″ score line – when you open up the bag it will resemble the open bag in the first couple of photos. Be sure to really press each of those score lines in well with your bone folder before attempting to assemble the bag. Don’t forget to invert and score the “gusset” fold on each side. Here’s a shot of the Big Screen at convention:
And there you have it! A package all ready for Iggy the Eyeball Iguana and some very special treats.
Be sure you stop by this weekend for another RemARKable Stamp of the Month tour featuring Tag It, the stamp set chosen this year to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities. Stampin’ Up! will donate $3 for every single Tag It stamp set sold. We’re proud of this support, and Stampin’ Up! as a company has donated over $1,000,000 to RMHC. In addition, Stampin’ Up! demonstrators world-wide lend their hands and hearts to RMHC, putting smiles on the faces of families in crisis. It’s just another way we’re Making a Difference.
Nothing says summer to me like bright yellow flowers:
Summer Silhouettes is one of my favorite all time stamp sets and I was tremendously relieved when it survived the Social Security line (Stampin’ Up! Retiring Stamps List). I’ve used it for my daughter’s wedding invitation, countless swaps, cards, and projects.  The images are clean and graceful and I honestly don’t think you make anything but a beautiful project using this stamp set!
Coloring the rhinestone with a Sharpie takes about 3 seconds and is a fun little step-up technique.
One of my favorite TOTALLY new products in our 2013-2014 Annual Catalog is the Tag a Box Gift Box bundle on page 158. Yes. Stop reading and go look. It’s that awesome!
You can buy the boxes on their own (and they are really cool) or you can buy them as a bundle with tags, twine, clothespins and adhesive to make your gift giving personal – without perspiration! Yeah, it’s NO SWEAT 🙂
(Thank goodness it was time for a photo…that was going downhill much too quickly!)
Everything you see was included in the bundle except for the Label Love image, the button and the Tangerine Tango card stock used for the belly band. LOVE THOSE CLOTHESPINS!!! I will be hoarding them and yes you will see them again!! Oh, and those are my sparkly shreddies inside the box, too 🙂
There are loads of options to personalize your packages – each bundle includes 8 boxes and the fixin’s for 10 tags. And there’s plenty of Baker’s twine (20 feet of each color!!) so you’ll see this again too.
I stamped the Label twice – once in Crushed Curry, once in Bermuda Bay. I trimmed the Bermuda Bay piece with my snips and adhered it to the Crushed Curry label with a few dabs of Tombo (the Wonder Adhesive). Faster and easier than markers!
What would you put inside of this package?
If you’re not a demonstrator, you likely have never talked to Demonstrator Support (DS). You may not even know that they exist. But for those of us who are demonstrators, these people are angels.
A few weeks ago Crystal and I were discussing how much we had been whining to DS. We’d each had a couple of situations where we’d needed their help, and they’d gone above and beyond (as is customary for them) to address our concerns. We thought we’d tell them thank you.
These little tents were our response. Each one holds 3 Hershey Kisses. But they’re not just any Hershey Kisses – they have macadamia nuts in them! I’ve been told you can only get them here in Hawaii, and I have to confess I’ll just take that at face value because I haven’t looked anywhere else. We thought they would be a welcome treat.
There’s one now! DSP is so perfect for something like this. Having two different papers on each side makes such a difference.
These are simple strips of DSP, scored 3 times and folded into a tent. You could put a re-sealable fastener under the flap if you wanted to, but these are closed with a bit of SNAIL.  I was afraid that if they were too fancy I wouldn’t get them done.
It’s a good feeling to do something nice for someone else.
I’ve only been in a hot air balloon once but it was an extraordinary experience. When they are inflating the balloon, the burners are really noisy, but once you get into the air and you’re floating along it is incredibly quiet and serene. The ground below you moves by with almost surreal speed, smoothly and silently. I would love to go up again.
Ink up the little hot air balloons and then use your Black Stampin’ Write marker to swipe across the bottom to highlight the basket. You don’t have to wipe off the colored ink first.
Again, my apologies for featuring a retired stamp set but these calendar cards were created in January for a class and the stamps were part of our product line at that time.
Welcome to the first Stamp of the Month tour for the Brand New Deliciously JUICY 2013-2014 Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog!! Are you as excited as I am about this fabulous assortment of paper crafting goodness?? I hope so!
The June Stamp of the Month is Mosaic Madness. It’s especially juicy because of all the coordinating products that carry the Mosaic theme: the Mosaic punch, the Mosaic TIEF, and the Quatrefoil Fancy DSP.
(If you are not a regular reader at the Maui Stamper, I apologize. You should know that I am a very lazy girl and I get tired of typing things like TEXTURED IMPRESSIONS EMBOSSING FOLDER (TIEF), DESIGNER SERIES PAPER (DSP) and FIRM FOAM INK PAD (FFIP). Please make a note of these abbreviations.)
I’ve done a number of projects using the products from the suite, but for our blog tour I wanted to try using the images in new ways. First up – le card:
If SOMEONE used her SAMJ (oh, all right, Stamp-a-ma-jig) that “beautiful” would have been straight. Instead, it is beautifully hand made 🙂
The Mosaic punch fits perfectly along the scallop border from the Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die!  There are 7 of them, with the top and bottom trimmed to fit the card.
Got a little pierce-happy but it was worth it…and the little holes made a perfect place to run some Linen thread through to balance the opposite side.
If you need a box to go with that sassy card, I’ve got just the thing:
I was feeling a little continental…don’t know if this is more Scandinavian or Swiss, but when I started playing with the long stamps from Mosaic Madness I started seeing ribbon and it didn’t take much to put together a belly band. (Hint: if you are adding paper layers to a belly band, I recommend you score the plain belly band first, then add the trim on top for a smoother fit.)
The Mosaic punch can be a medallion, a flower, a tag…you name it! Just punch out a bunch of them and start playing.
For the next stop of the tour, you’ll be heading over to see what madness Robin has created! Enjoy!!
Got lost? Here’s the entire tour:
Nancy Amato http://www.stampinallnight.blogspot.com
Melissa Bolinger http://www.stampinup.net/blog/2089191
Jackie Bottomley http://www.jackiebottomley.blogspot.com
Susan Carlson http://www.stampinmomoffour.blogspot.com
Tamra Davis http://www.thecardladies.com
Connie Deibler http://www.conniestamps.com
Crystal Kondo http://www.card-ed.com
Deb Lehigh http://www.thestampinhut.typepad.com/
Debbie Lever http://www.debbiescreativespot.blogspot.com
Anne Matasci http://www.MauiStamper.wordpress.com
Robin Merriman http://www.trinitydesignstudio.blogspot.com
Maria Pane http://www.stampinandscrappinwithriri.blogspot.com
Andi Potler  http://www.absolutekreations.com
Michele Reynolds http://www.inspirationink.typepad.com
Jeannette Swain http://www.stampsnwhatnot.com
Janet Wakeland http://www.remarkablycreated.com
The Maui Stamper 