Category Archives: 3-D

The 2-4-6-8 box: An old friend made easier with Simply Scored

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Simply Scored makes short work of that old stand-by, the 2-4-6-8 box:

Spice Cake 2-4-6-8 box

  • Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set
  • Pool Party, Pear Pizazz, More Mustard and Early Espresso card stock
  • Spice Cake Designer Series Paper
  • Spice Cake Designer Buttons
  • Pear Pizazz Classic ink pad
  • Simply Scored
  • Medium Jewelry tag punch
  • Hemp twine
  • Dazzling Diamonds

Those are some humangajangous buttons!!  I’m going to set up my neglected sewing machine and have some fun with buttons and fabric – it’s been a long time since I’ve done any real sewing.  (We’ll see how far that goes!)

Like my crazy haircut fringe?  I’m not sure what posessed me to do that but it was fun.  I just scored a strip of cardstock so that each side would be 1/8 inch shorter than the corresponding Pool Party side.  Then I snipped that goofy fringe and used SNAIL to stick it to the inside of the box.

Spice Cake Box from the top

The 2-4-6-8 box is a simple concept and easy to adapt.  The basic concept is to score a piece of cardstock across the 8 1/2 inch dimension at 2, 4, 6, and 8 inches.  That gives you 4 panels each 2 inches wide and a little tab that’s 1/2 inch wide.  Turn your paper 90 degrees and score 1 to 2 inches from the bottom, snip and fold up the bottom, and you’ve got a simple open-top box.  If you turn your cardstock to the 11 inch direction, you can easily adapt the box to a rectangle.  For example, score at 2, 5, 7 and 10 and trim the last inch to a half inch and you’ve got a 2 inch by 3 inch box.  Clear as mud?  Try it, you’ll see how easy it is.  Or Google 2-4-8 box as there are loads of tutorials out there.  I’m not into re-inventing the wheel by documenting a technique someone else has already covered!

Needless to say, the Simply Scored tool makes this project super simple.  I’m finding myself reaching for it more and more, and I can’t imagine how I lived without it.  It’s like the Big Shot that way – once you’ve used it, you can’t imagine using anything else!

 

Re-use, reduce, recycle

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We make a real effort to recycle in the Maui Stamper household.  I spotted a great way to re-purpose a couple of Stampin’ Supplies, and the best part was that this little trick solved an annoying problem for me.

I’m not a fan of the way our Linen Thread and Baker’s Twine are packaged.  You know, the ones wrapped around the card and stapled into a cello bag.  This nifty solution appeared on a number of blogs:


Yep – those are little embellishment containers.  I can’t bear to throw them away because they just seem so useful!  They’re just right for dispensing twine and thread.  Do you see the eyelet on the side?  The Crop-a-dile punched a hold in the side of the container with no problem, and I set the eyelet there just because.  I confess to still having a couple of containers full of eyelets even though we don’t offer them in our catalog any more.  (Boo.)

Here’s the container for the Linen Thread:

Linen thread container

I had to dress it up a little bit, and the little tags with the name of the thread are for those late-night stampin’ sessions when things get a little giddy.

Inside the linen thread container

Aha!  Double recycling!  I used an empty ribbon spool (this one is from the new In Color ruffled ribbon) to hold my thread so it wouldn’t snarl.  I cut the cardboard ring from the ribbon spool down to fit inside the container – unfortunately, there isn’t a circle punch that fits right, so I used the 1 3/4″ circle and then trimmed it down.  I put some pretty DSP on top with a little Tombo to dress it up, and when I punched the circle out of the middle of the DSP I saved it and stuck my needle through it.  I always keep a fat needle with my Linen Thread and my Baker’s twine, and having it inside the container means I’m less likely to stick myself with the needle while rummaging in my drawer.

The little puka on the side for the thread

I’ll bet you have a couple of these little embellishment containers sitting around.  If you don’t, you have two choices:  hurry up and use a whole mess of buttons or brads or spinner arrows or whatever so you empty out a container, or order a set of 6 of them for $3.95 (#103649).  You can still recycle the ribbon spool 🙂

Composition Books the Maui Stamper Way

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I love to write, and I’m addicted to notebooks of all sorts…but I prefer it when they’re interesting (I was going to say “pretty” but that sounds like an 8 year old girl.)

Last weekend I made a very quick trip to Portland, Oregon for some training with Weight Watchers.  I was meeting three other Hawaii WW staff there, and I wanted to bring them a little “something”.  What could be better than some “interesting” composition books?

Katie's composition book

This one was for Katie – and of course, there had to be a coordinating pen.

Shawndra's composition book

I love this page of Designer Series Paper, but you can see that Shawndra’s scallops got a little mashed in my suitcase.  They’ll be fine with a smidgen of Tombo.

Kim's composition book

Blue and green for Kim – my favorite color combination!

Anne's composition book

Well, yes – yes, I did make one for myself!

These all use the Pocketful of Posies Designer Series paper.  I have loads of gorgeous papers right now because DSP is  Buy 3 get one Free!   You can get some too, but just through August 31 (I just did the knuckle trick to be sure that was right!)

A special order

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Last week I was asked to design pocket cards to coordinate with an internal promotion a local business was doing for its sales staff.  The manager at the store wanted something that would set this promotion apart, and she gave me a sample of the card that her employees would receive.

I had a fabulous time playing with this project!  The sample that I received was trendy but very classy – much like the merchandise in this store.  The employees are all female, so I was free to encourage my feminine muse.  Here’s the result:

Marina Mist flower card holder

Because this project is sized to hold the equivalent of a business card, I was able to make it stand up.   It’s like a greeting card that opens from the top instead of the side, but there’s a pocket on the front to hold the card.  It looked GREAT with the enclosure inside – but I can’t share that with you.  This was such a fun More Is More project!

I used the Creative Elements stamp set with Shimmer White, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Marina Mist as the color palette, and I’m sure you can figure out the rest.

Here’s the flower embellishment up close:

Marina Mist Flower Embellishment

I heard they were a big hit with the staff – that feedback was music to my ears.  It’s one thing to love what you do, but when you create something for someone else and they love it too, that’s incredibly satisfying.

Come back tomorrow for another adaptation of this project!

Peggy’s Village

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Peggy came to visit one day last week and brought her version of the Village of Cuteness:

Peggy's Village of Cuteness

Can you stand it?  She decided to interpret her Village as a Christmas Village, with wreaths on the front doors, a string of lights, a palm tree, and – be still my heart – two little blow-up Santa Village People!!!!

Look at her Christmas Hale:

Peggy's Christmas Hale

Don’t you love that palm tree, and the bouganvilla spilling over the window box at top?  I may have to do another village.

And in case you are wondering, that’s not “hale” (rhymes with whale), it’s “hah’ ley”, kinda rhymes with trolley (if you said it tra-ley!)  It’s the Hawaiian word for house.

Something special for the hostesses

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I brought back Convention tote bags for the members of my hostess club:

Convention Tote bags

I loved the prints and colors – which are now available as My Digital Studio downloads – but I knew I would need to find a way to tell them apart.  The solution, of course, is a tag:

Hostess tag up close

These tags are made with coordinating Designer Series Paper (On sale – do I need to say it again?? – buy 3 get one free!) with an initial and a paper flower.  I love making these paper flowers because they involve smushing.  Smushing is a very scientific term for beating-the-stuffing-out-of-a-wad-of-paper.  Don’t you have days when a little smushing would do you a world of good?

My Workshop hostesses in August and September will also get one of these exclusive tote bags – call me if you’d like to put together a special event for a few of your friends.

Saving my change…

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There are many people who contribute to my growth and success as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, and one who has made a big impact is Janet Wakeland.  I met her a year ago at convention and was encouraged and inspired by her energy and strong business.  After convention this year, she encouraged us to start saving for next year right away – a brilliant idea.  She suggested a change jar, and I came up with this:

Change Is Good

I used Paisley Petals Designer Series papers on the jar (on sale, buy 3 get one free!) and a bunch of new stamps from the 2011-2012 Idea Book and catalog to collage a couple of tags.  I LOVE the font on my new Alphabet – the Spencerian Alphabet Lower – and the fact that it’s a Clear Mount set made stamping the words a breeze even WITHOUT the Stamp-a-ma-jig!    I’ll confess that I did each letter twice on two separate tags just in case, but using the Clear Mount stamps was so easy that I ended up with two sets of tags 🙂

Goodies on the Change Jar tag

A Trinket Key, a Clear Bauble and some ribbon finished up my jar and it’s ready to be fed.  This one is designed to coordinate with the colors in my bedroom, but I’m going to make another one for the laundry room.  It’s my opinion that any and all cash (coin or bills) found in the laundry belongs to She-Who-Washes-The-Clothes.  I consider it tip money.

At a minimum, I’ll need it to be able to pay the second-checked-bag fee next year.

Exploring Wisteria Wonder

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How can you not love a color with Wisteria in its name?

Wisteria Wonder In Color Class project
Wisteria Wonder fills a real gap in the Stampin’ Up! color palette, and I know I’m not the only person who is happy about that.  I wanted to explore how each of the 2011-2013  In Colors coordinate with the Stampin’ Up! color families, so I came up with a set of classes that will explore each of the colors in turn.  Guess which one will be first?

This first class will be Wednesday, August 10 and will feature this note card set (made with the Easy Events stamp set) and two other projects.  Cost is $10, and you can RSVP at my Online Store.  Just click on the event in the calendar on the landing page, and it will take you to the class description and a big ol’ RSVP button.  Hope to see you there!

The Village of Cuteness

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Stampin’ Up! offered us an optional +Fun class on Friday night at convention.  There were 3 different classes to choose from, and I can’t really tell you why I signed up for the Village of Cuteness.  I’ll confess it WASN’T the name – in my book, things like puppies and kittens are cute.  Villages, well, not so much.

Anyway, sleep deprived as we were, we hustled through dinner on Friday night and lined up with a thousand or so of our very best friends to make these:

The Village of Cuteness

Oh yeah, I finished mine in the time allotted and brought them home and set them right up.

NOT!!!

We barely got them painted!!  We decided that was really our plan all along, as trying to bring them home all embellished (more about that later) would be a challenge.

Stampin’ Up! did a great job with these projects.  We had EVERY product we needed and more, clear instructions, even refreshments.  What we were lacking was time (and sleep, which may have had an impact on our ability to make the best of our time.  You be the judge.)   We jumped right in and started painting and distressing with the awesome Distressing Essentials Kit (#118762, $19.95), also known as the Get Your Hands Inkier Than They Have Ever Been In Your Life Kit.

Cheryl and Priscilla with their inky fingers

Cheryl is sitting next to Priscilla, who was the BEST EVER table-mate and fit in with our craziness absolutely perfectly.  Priscilla was much neater at this than I was, as I seemed to have ink AND paint all over my hands.  You have to feed the muse.

Peggy and the cupcake

Speaking of feeding, Stampin’ Up! provided us with dessert – as if we needed more sugar in our systems.  Peggy inspired us all with her cupcake-eating-technique…but some things are meant to be enjoyed in the moment.  You’ll have to trust me when I say it was impressive.

Working on the Villages of Cuteness

This was serious business as we studied our instructions to figure out what we needed to get done in class and what we could do at home.   Notice those looks of concentration!!

Happy Villagers

It seemed like we’d just started when the announcement was made that it was time to pack up.  Priscilla kindly offered to take our picture with our Villages.  I’m not quite sure what Cheryl is doing over Robbie’s head.  We were among the last to leave, and we took a little time to check out some of the displays outside the Make and Take hall before we headed back to our rooms.

Robbie, the Plan Ahead Demonstrator, had brought USPS Flat Rate boxes with her, and the next morning at breakfast she announced to us all that she had already shipped her “Village People” home.  I distinctly remember thinking “Ha, a lot of good that will do”, but I kept that snarky little remark to myself.  Good thing.  Sunday morning we were desperately trying to buy a suitcase for our excess luggage – and when we found one, we crammed that puppy full too.

Once I was home and unpacked, I sat down to finish the Village.  My blocks were already painted and distressed, and my wood sheet doors were stained and attached to the houses.  It was all the other stuff that needed to be done.  I wish I could tell you how much time I spent, but I really didn’t keep track.  I had the tunes going, it was late enough that the Captain was outside chasing mousies, and Mr. Maui Stamper was sound asleep.  I can’t remember the last time I had such a good time with a project!

I’m looking forward to next year’s +Fun class!

 

Owl Multiplication

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I turned my back for just a little bit and look what happened:

Orderly Owls

All of a sudden there was a flock of owls!  (HIJACK:  I have a thing for collective nouns, and I found a website that claimed the correct term for an assembly of owls is a Parliament of Owls.  Love it.)

These owls descend from THIS website, although they’ve mutated ever so slightly.  They’re so much fun to do that I’ve become slightly addicted.  They have the added benefit of being just the right size to stuff with a little wad of cash, which is the Gift of Choice for every graduate I know.  I made a couple in school colors for some of my favorite members of the Class of 2011, but I’m not showing you those just yet because they haven’t been delivered.  I’m trying to figure out how to put a mortarboard on them, but if they’re to be delivered before the Grads head off to school I’d better get moving.

One Pear Owl

These just crack me up!!!