Category Archives: cards

Hope Changes Everything: Love of Leaves

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This past week I’ve had a number of friends and family members experience changes in their relationship with the Big C: Cancer. It’s such an insidious disease, and when you add in the uncertainty of life caused by the pandemic, things can get a little uncomfortable. I’ve been leaning pretty heavily on HOPE, and made this card yesterday to send to someone dear to me:

Maui Stamper Stampin Up HOPE CHANGES EVERYTHING Love of Leaves
  • Stamps: Love of Leaves
  • Color Palette: Very Vanilla, Cinnamon Cider, Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, So Saffron
  • Accessories: Stampin’ Cut & Emboss (available September 1, 2020), Stitched Leaves Dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Old World Paper Embossing Folder, Metallic Pearls, Cinnamon Cider ribbon, Gold trim (Forever Greenery Combo Pack), Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I’ve had the Love of Leaves bundle on my desk a lot recently. We don’t really have autumn leaves here in Hawaii, but some trees do experience an autumn change of color. I love these beautiful shapes and the way they work so well together (it’s what Stampin’ Up! does best!).

Maui Stamper Stampin Up HOPE CHANGES EVERYTHING Love of Leaves

I made a huge mess of my ink pads creating this project. I kept pressing stamps with dark ink into the light ink pads without cleaning them – I was really into the process! I’ve found if you use a paper towel to blot the place in an ink pad where the “stain” has appeared, you can generally pull out most of the offending ink. A quick re-ink and the pad is *almost* as good as new.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up HOPE CHANGES EVERYTHING Love of Leaves

I was inspired by a card shared on Instagram by the Stampin’ Up! concept artists @stampinup. This color palette is similar to theirs, but not the same. I’d love to see it in shades of pale greens for spring, or even reds and burgundies for December. I guess it’s back to the drawing board!

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Love of Leaves bundle
# 155195 $47.50 usd

If you’ve got fall leaves – or a heart filled with hope – on your mind, shop HERE.

Inspired by Designer Series Paper

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I love our DSP. The colors are rich, the designs are versatile, the finish of the paper is smooth, and the weight is Goldilocks perfect – not too heavy, not too light, but juuuuuust right. I’ve been challenging myself to dig into my stash (it’s a little embarrassing) and create with all of the beautiful paper I’ve found there.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Peaceful Poppies

I used a Stampin’ Sponge to lightly shade the front edge of my Whisper White card. I didn’t want the bold color of Pool Party card stock, but the WW seemed too stark. Sponging was the perfect solution as it provided a hint of color and a very simple technique.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Peaceful Poppies

That Peaceful Poppies DSP is gorgeous and completely IN YOUR FACE. The colors and images are really bold, but they’re really easy to use. I reached for this combination first when I decided to dig into my DSP stash.

The So Sentimental bundle is a versatile bundle with unique and very useful stitched shapes that layer in a multitude of ways. This one is a keeper, and it’s carrying forward into the new Annual Catalog.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Magnolia Lane
Maui Stamper Stampin Up Magnolia Lane

This same layout has a simpler construction. The DSP panels stand on their own without a complimentary mat behind them, and the Whisper White card base is left in its natural state. I struggle with simple stamping (ink, stamps, paper) but this is pretty close for me.

Are you a DSP hoarder? I confess that I am, but I have been sending a lot of cards lately, and my stash is getting a little thin. Cutting into this gorgeous paper is hard – you know, the first cut is the deepest – but the results are worth it!

A lot of our beautiful DSP is on sale in the Online Store. Hurry, supplies are limited!

Triangle Fun Fold Swaps

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I made a big stack of cards to swap at an event…that has been deferred. This was to have taken place a couple of weeks ago, and I was so discouraged that I set the entire project aside for a while, but they’re done now – and I’m quite happy with them, if I do say so myself:

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

This is an exceptionally easy fun fold to do, especially with our paper trimmer. Score a sheet of 8 1/2″ x 11″ card stock both horizontally and vertically. Place it diagonally along the cutting edge of your trimmer, making certain that you’ve centered the top and bottom corners. (The “X” in the center of the scored lines should be along the cutting line of the trimmer as well.) Cut your card stock diagonally – the trimmer cutting edge isn’t quite long enough to make it to the ends, but if you slide the cut piece of card stock out of the trimmer, you can finish it up with your snips – it’s less than 1″ on either side.

Cut your DSP into 4″ x 5 1/4″ rectangles, and cut them diagonally as well. One design goes on one triangular panel, the other design goes on the other. A focal point/shaped image attached to one panel finishes the card and helps to keep it closed at the same time.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

Here’s what it looks like with one panel open. And here it is with the other panel open:

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

I used the Stamparatus to mass-produce those white die cut sentiment panels. It’s MUCH easier to cut them without the sentiment – you don’t have to position the die so precisely, and if it wiggles a little before it goes through the die cutting machine it’s NBD (No Big Deal). If you use the lighter weight Whisper White card stock, you can even cut two at a time!

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

Now you have a stack of die cut panels ready to be stamped.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

Create a template by cutting your die cut out of the center of a good sized piece of card stock. Place your mass-produced die cut blank in the center of that template.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

Align the clean sentiment stamp you have chosen on top of the positioned die cut and close your plate, picking up the stamp.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

Add ink to your stamp, press the plate, and lift. Perfect placement every time – and you can do a stack of these in a hurry!

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

Since this design was being mass produced for a swap, I used two different DSP combinations to finish them. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I oriented the card stock on the opposite diagonal between the batches, so they open differently. Here’s the second version:

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

You can see the difference in the way the card opens:

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

This opens up instead of down compared with the card above, but the side still opens to the left – the shape is just inverted.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Triangle Fun Fold

This card uses the gorgeous Peaceful Poppies DSP, and the sentiment is from Love What You Do. The two cards are the same layout, with the same embellishments. The difference is the DSP and color palette, and the sentiment on the focal point.

There are just a few more days until Sale-a-bration 2020 is in the rear view. We have one final release of SAB Rewards that include current catalog product, so be sure and take a look at the choices available as a free reward for your $50 purchase. You can start shopping HERE!

Quick and tiny notes

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Sometimes you just need a little something to write a quick note. You don’t have a lot to say (I KNOW, but it happens!!). The card doesn’t need to go in the mail – it’s going on a package or in a lunchbox. Short and sweet!

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Timeless Tropical

The Sponge Daubers are the easiest way to apply ink directly and precisely onto a rubber stamp. When you want more than one color, “a little daub’ll do ya!”

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Timeless Tropical

These are the same colors and stamps, but by using the plumeria image I’ve changed the feeling of the entire card. The only embellishment is a pearl jewel, and there is absolutely no measuring or placement involved in this card. Change the sentiment, or do as I do and make a few with no sentiment at all. When you need a note, add the appropriate sentiment and you’re set! These note cards fit perfectly in our 3″ x 3″ Whisper White envelopes.

Keep it easy and keep a stash! Need supplies? Shop HERE.

A Japanese New Years Wish

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I’ve learned a lot about different cultures living on Maui. Our community is diverse for many reasons, but primarily because the sugar plantations brought in workers from many countries beginning in the mid-1800’s. While sugar is no longer grown commercially here, the many families who arrived to work in the fields have taken root and enriched our communities with their traditions.

The first Japanese workers arrived in the mid-1880’s. Their legacy is found in everyday life on Maui, including food, language, art, celebrations, and so much more. When Stampin’ Up! offered the New Years Celebration set to the U.S. market, I was excited to have the opportunity to craft with these images.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up New Year Celebration
Maui Stamper Stampin Up New Year Celebration

The characters for Happy New Year are embossed in gold and are written in Kanji, one of three writing systems. The colors are also very symbolic, as red and white are used to represent happiness and joy, and gold represents wealth and prestige. Bamboo represents wealth and prestige, and the chrysanthemum flower signifies longevity and rejuvenation. There’s a big message in this simple card!

Maui Stamper Stampin Up New Year Celebration

This set is not in any catalog, and it will only be available to the U.S. market through January 31, 2020. You can see samples and an interpretation of the images HERE, and of course, you can shop at the Online Store. These images are so Kawaii!

Feels Like Frost is Thinking of You

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Do you remember when I told you I’d challenged myself to make as many cards with the Feels Like Frost DSP as I could in an afternoon? I’m not finished yet!

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Feels Like Frost Thinking of You
Maui Stamper Stampin Up Feels Like Frost Thinking of You

I really like the Scripty 3D Embossing folder. It’s very subtle and elegant. I also love that the silver Metallic Pearls take on a blue cast when they’re on blue paper! It works for me.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Feels Like Frost Thinking of You

This is another tone-on-tone version from the endlessly versatile Feels Like Frost DSP stack. These cards almost put themselves together! If you need a stash of cards, I highly recommend you make a batch with these gorgeous photo-realism images and leave the sentiments off until you’re ready to send them. You’ll thank yourself later, I promise.

Are you ready to buy Feels Like Frost YET??? You know where to SHOP.

Flourishing Phrases and Colour Inkspiration 58

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When I saw the colour palette for CI58 I thought OH YEAH. I love Crumb Cake with anything, and Blushing Bride and Metallic Gold seemed like the perfect match.

Tell my brain that!

I don’t know why I struggled, except for the sad reality that I’ve been away from my craft desk a lot recently and my mojo is rusty. (I think that would be a great title for a Country and Western song. Just sayin’).

Here’s what finally came together:

The gold Faceted Gem would have been better, but I didn’t have one in my stash (gasp). The dot on the i in friend is a metallic pearl because I lost both the white and the gold die cut dots. Like I said, I think my mojo is rusty. And I’ll quote from Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day : “Some days are like that. Even in Australia.”

(OH EM GEE. I just read the Wikipedia entry for this book and apparently Judith Viorst altered the text for Australia and New Zealand. In all of the other editions, Alexander wants to move to Australia because it just has to be better there. But in the Aussie and Kiwi versions he wants to move to Timbuktu. My sense of the world has been turned upside down. We have always said “Some days are like that. Even in Australia.” and I have always wondered if that didn’t have something to do with my eldest actually moving there! This is going to take some adjustment.)

Fortunately, there’s some news in the Stampin’ Up! world that will straighten out the globe and shine your mojo. For every $50 US you spend in July, you’ll get a $5 voucher towards any purchase in August. If you’re a US shopper, visit my Online Store to get started.

Sale-a-bration: Lasting Lily

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If you haven’t checked your calendar recently, this Friday is the last day of Sale-a-bration 2019. You have 3 days to bring Lasting Lily into your craft room – don’t miss out!

It took me a while to fall in love with Lasting Lily. The images caught my eye from the beginning, but I struggled to get the image right. It wasn’t until I learned to use a spoon to create a “dry spot” on my ink pad that I was satisfied with the image. It’s worth the effort!

I used the Daffodil Delight Watercolor pencil to add detail to the stamen on the lily – it was very easy to get just a hint of color. I also used the Calypso Coral pencil to define some of the edges and lines in the flower.

Prior to the arrival of the Stamparatus, I always bought my background stamps on wood blocks. I liked being able to reach up and grab them just as they were. Now I’m choosing clear mount stamps, and the Crackle Paint stamp is one of our new cling stamps. If you haven’t given them a try, you are going to LOVE them! Matter of fact, sometimes I don’t even take them out of the case. If I just need to ink a little part of the background stamp, I ink it up right in the case, place my card stock on the inked portion of the stamp, lift it up and then give the stamp a swipe with the Shammy and move on!

If you’re ready to place one last order before Friday, head on over to the Online Store. You won’t regret it!

Petal Palette – good energy for a good person

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When someone does something especially nice for you, it feels really good to create a card just for them. You can think about them in the process, both in terms of their preferences and tastes as well as their general goodness and importance in your life. Making a card for someone has really good energy.

Maui Stamper Stampin' Up! Petal Palette Crackle Thanks

I used Stampin’ Blends to add a little color to the image stamped in Memento Black on Whisper White card stock. In some cases I went right over the black images, and the result is more subtle color.

Maui Stamper Stampin' Up! Petal Palette Crackle Thanks

I used a needle to thread the Old Olive Linen thread through the stitches in the Daffodil Delight circle, making the thread bow more secure on the card. I’ll use a glue dot in a pinch, but I like my cards to stick together for a long time! A bow that is tied in place will hold on for much longer than one that is glued on.

Maui Stamper Stampin' Up! Petal Palette Crackle Thanks

This card is for a real gentleman. He is a genuine, warm, kind man – one of a kind.

If you need a few supplies to make just-the-right-card for someone who went out of their way to be kind to you, Shop HERE.

Let Them Eat – a Piece of Cake

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My DSP (Designer Series Paper) stash is getting Out Of Control. I could (gasp) get rid of some, or I could just use it. Wait – what was the question?

The Botanical Butterfly DSP from the 2019 Sale-a-bration catalog is really versatile. One side of each design is a full color butterfly based design, and the reverse is a black and white design. Some are geometric, like these dots, while others would be excellent choices for coloring. I love it when our products can meet so many needs!

We did this in one of my clubs, and some of the crafters chose to use the reverse side with the colored butterfly design. It’s just a different look, and I love that they explored their own ideas.

Maui Stamper Stampin' Up! Piece of Cake


That little flower at the top of the cake seemed like the perfect touch to finish this sunny card. I stocked up on the black Rhinestone Jewels when they were on the Clearance Rack, and if you don’t have any you can always use a Black Sharpie to color a traditional Rhinestone Jewel.

Do you have a February birthday? Be the first person to comment with your date – no year necessary – and I’ll put this in the mail to you. You can pm your address, as we don’t need that kind of information all over the interwebs!

Need supplies? Shop HERE.