The Last RemARKable Month of Sale-a-bration

Posted on March 10, 2016 by mauistamper

There are 21 day left in Sale-a-bration: 21 glorious days when every $50 you spend earns you FREE exclusive products. The RemARKables are sharing SAB inspiration this month:

There’s a LOT going on here – and I love that it all coordinates! Stampin’ Up! is the Coordination Super Hero.

Stamps: Botanicals for You (SAB), Honeycomb Happiness (SAB), Easter Lamb
Color Palette: Whisper White, Crushed Curry, Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder
Accessories: Botanical Gardens DSP, Big Shot Fry Box Bigz L, Ovals Framelits and Zig Zag TIEF, Fringe Scissors, Botanical Gardens Washi Tape, Metallics Glitter Tape (SAB), Wink of Stella brush, Paper Snips, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This is a face only a mother could love. There’s a HEAP of Stella (none of that Winkin’ business here) and up close it looks as though this chick did a face plant out at Keawakapu Beach. In real life, it’s just super-sparkly.

I trimmed the front of the Fry Box to within 1/8″ of the side and bottom tabs, then turned them under and attached the box to the card front with dimensionals to create a true 3-D basket.

I had a blast with these eggs. Arrange Washi on card stock and then use the Oval Framelits collection to give you a perfect oval egg. That’s silver Metallic Glitter Tape – no adhesive required!

Stamps: Botanicals for You
Color Palette: Whisper White, Mint Macaron, Watermelon Wonder, So Saffron, Blushing Bride, Island Indigo
Accessories: 2015-2017 In Color Designer Paper Stack, Rhinestone Jewels, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This is softer and simpler, and will suit any occasion. I like to have a stash of cards like this – I can add a sentiment inside and have a birthday, thank you, or Easter card as quickly as you can open an ink pad.

Rhinestone jewels are featured on the Weekly Deals through Monday. I consider myself “out” of Rhinestone jewels when I’m down to 3 (unopened) packages. What’s your number?

I hope you found a little inspiration here today! Bloggers are always grateful when you pin our creations and share what you love. If you comment on the posts as you travel through the blog today you’ll make our blogger hearts fill with delight!

Heather Mathieson is next up, and the full tour is listed below in case you want to go your own way.

Anne Matasci – YOU ARE HERE!!

Watercolor wash

Posted on February 28, 2016 by mauistamper

I’m not a classically trained artist – SURPRISE – but I pay attention to trends and try to pick up simple techniques. One thing I’ve learned is that watercolor paper makes a big difference when you are, well, watercoloring. A couple of weeks ago I played with watercolor wash:

Stamps: Flowering Fields, Tin of Cards
Color Palette: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight
Accessories: Aquapainter, Stampin’ Write markers

I started with the watercolor paper and played with the wash. If you look closely at the card above, you’ll see that I held it upright before the water had soaked in, and it created a little river of yellow through the blue. Color theory: yellow + blue = green.

When I trimmed the panels down to make cards, the color was too close to the edge. That just means I’ll have to make more in order to try again.

The sentiment on this card is from the Wetlands stamp set, and I used my Uniball White Gel pen to add some accents to those flowers. These are simple cards – you could make a batch in one afternoon. I like to make them without sentiments and set them aside until I need them. I can customize with the sentiment and font that matches my purpose.

Experiment a little! It’s just paper {wink}.

Hello My Friend

Posted on February 25, 2016 by mauistamper

Never in a million years would I have picked the Hello stamp set from Sale-a-bration to be so versatile…but I’m here to tell you that it is.

Stamps: Hello (Sale-a-bration 2016)
Color Palette: Whisper White, Blackberry Bliss, So Saffron, Old Olive
Accessories: Wildflower Fields DSP, Botanical Garden Jewels, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Banner punch

This is based rather generously on THIS card by Brian King. It’s a very simple concept that works especially well with the big bold HELLO and the accessory phrases that come with this Sale-a-bration set (I don’t need to mention that you can’t buy this set, you can only earn it as a free gift when you spend $50 before March 31st, do I?)

I wasn’t sure what I was going to do when I ordered these Botanical Garden Jewels, but I knew I needed to have them. I think they’re the perfect touch, don’t you?

Trust me, you could make a heap of these in no time at all and have a fabulous stash ready for any occasion. Or just ready for all of your girlfriends’ birthdays. Which is about the same thing.

Blushing Flowering Fields

Posted on February 22, 2016 by mauistamper

I think I am officially obsessed with the Flowering Fields stamp set available through Sale-a-bration. I’ve done a number of variations on the same theme – the most recent one is in Blushing Bride:

Stamps: Flowering Fields, Timeless Texture, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Color Palette: Very Vanilla, Blushing Bride, Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, Rose Red, Sahara Sand, Old Olive, Pear Pizazz
Accessories: Linen Thread, Stampin’ Write Markers, Uniball White Gel Pen, Wink of Stella

I love coloring in these images with my Stampin’ Write markers. Sometimes I use the fat, brush end, and sometimes it’s the pointy writing end, but either way it’s something I find relaxing.

I mix and match the backgrounds from Timeless Treasures – it’s one of those sets I know I’ll reach for again and again. And speaking of reaching for something, my Wink of Stella brush is always on my craft table these days. I’m thinking of getting one for my bathroom too – don’t you think a little {wink} would be just the thing for those too-early-Monday-mornings?

Here’s how I start…the backgrounds are stamped off and I do 3 of each one. My tiles are 1 3/8″ x 1 1/8″ and I have to stamp twice, but I’ve found it easy to line up the images by eye.

Once I have a set of images I like, I move them around until I find a sequence that pleases me. The rest is just Fast Fuse (and a bow with the Linen Thread, but I’ve done hundreds if not thousands of those and it’s No.Big.Deal.)

Here’s the original. Keep your eye out – there are more to come!

RemARKable Sale-a-bration Celebrations

Posted on February 11, 2016 by mauistamper

Welcome to the February edition of the RemARKable Blog tour. I hope you can BEAR what I have to share today – (groan)

I love these bears. They’re round and they have whimsical faces and then there are those honkin’ claws. Stampin’ Up! keeps it honest there.

The Bear Hugs stamp set has a matching set of framelits, but I didn’t have them available when I created these cards and chose to trim them out with my snips. This guy is inked in Soft Suede, and then I used a damp Aquapainter to blur the color and add Blushing Bride highlights to his nose and ears. The fish are sparkled with clear Wink of Stella, and they’re hanging from a linen thread rope.

I brought the whole Bear Family together for the second card – same color scheme, same Woodlands TIEF but a different scene altogether. (Note that the Woodlands TIEF will be available in the 2016-2017 Annual Catalog but is not currently available to order.)

I used the same technique for the ink on the trees, but I used a much lighter hand on the first card. The daubers allow you a lot of flexibility that way, and these two cards really illustrate the difference.

I LOVE THESE FACES!!!

Click on the image to see what Heather Mathieson has created for your crafting inspiration. The tour links are listed below if you’re looking for a particular artist. Thanks for visiting!

Anne Matasci YOU ARE HERE!

Hello, my friend

Posted on February 8, 2016 by mauistamper

I’m behaving now – this is a perfectly respectable hello.

Stamps: Apple of My Eye, Hello (2016 SAB), Timeless Textures
Color Palette: Whisper White, Daffodil Delight, Garden Green, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Paper Snips, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch

This is my kind of Clean and Simple – pretty clean and kinda simple. I intended to put that lemon section on dimensionals, but I was distracted and stuck it right down onto the paper. You could just as easily stamp it directly on the card front, but that’s not what I did.

I like the subtle texture you get from the images being cut and attached. If you look closely at the first photo, you’ll see there’s a Whisper White panel (4″ x 5 1/4″) attached to the Whisper White card front. Again, it’s just a little thing but I like it.

I was at an event with Mr. Maui Stamper this weekend, and our table enjoyed an interesting conversation on the dual themes of “Happy Wife, Happy Life” and “If Mama Ain’t Happy, Ain’t Nobody Happy”. So if I want to put a Whisper White panel on to the Whisper White card front, I’m gonna do it. It makes me happy.

This is not your Mother’s blog post

Posted on January 30, 2016 by mauistamper

Buckle your seatbelts, my friends. If you consider yourself easily shocked, you might want to visit another blog today. There’s a story here…

I designed this card for my Hostess Club, because I really didn’t think the one I WANTED to make was appropriate. For the record, here are the supplies:

Stamps: Honeycomb Hello
Color Palette: So Saffron, Crushed Curry, Basic Black, Mint Macaron, Whisper White
Accessories: Botanical Builder Framelits, Botanical Gardens DSP, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Rhinestone Jewels, Iced Rhinestone Embellishments, Aquapainter

You have to be a little careful with this chick, because there’s attitude in that face. And this is where the story begins.

I’m gonna let my BFF tell it – actually, she practically demanded that I let her write this post.

This card is not for the faint of heart. Or for the Fragile Friends.

So… a bit of background. Imagine. Late night in a stampin’ garage dodging insects. (And by late night, I mean, 9:00…cause my normal bedtime is 7:30… so we are talking LATE). And a couple of stampers, who shall remain nameless to protect their identities, were perusing the new Occasions Catalog. And at this time of night, delirium has set in. Severe case of the funnies has set in. We get to Honeycomb Hello. Love the bird, the stamps, but decide how USEFUL an OH HELL sentiment could be. And how we are apparently missing this sentiment from our stampin’ arsenal. Well, don’t you love the markering stamp technique?? Allows you to put ink where you want and not where you don’t. So…you can make whatever sentiment you like.

This is the perfect card for your bestest bff of all time. Cause they are the ones you call when you have the phrase… “Well, you’ll never guess what I did today….” or when you forgot something significant, or when you are needing comfort… but in ALL those situations, OH HELL works!! And cause she is your bestest BFF, she totally gets it. And jumps right into the madness and sits with you (brings the wine and chocolate) until life is normal again. And she is also the one, when opening this card will understand that it is the perfect card at the perfect time. It’s a PERFECT I’m sorry card. Or Birthday… or well… ANYTHING. This is the best BESTEST BFF CARD.

Don’t you just love those little honeycomb embellishments!?! They are the perfect accent to add to this little chick.

Now, I LOVE kind and pretty and delightful cards that uplift and make people’s day. But even though we live in paradise, life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. A good OH HELL and a glaring chick will make your BFF smile. Every time. I promise. Cause it’s the reminder that she gets it. And, really, she doesn’t even need to say anything for you to understand that that fact.

Seriously? Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Flowering Fields

Posted on January 28, 2016 by mauistamper

This is turning into my favorite stamp set from the 2016 Sale-a-bration catalog:

Stamps: Flowering Fields (SAB 2016), Timeless Textures (clear and wood mount), And Many More (clear and wood mount)
Color Palette: Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Old Olive, Pear Pizazz, Crushed Curry, So Saffron, Soft Suede
Accessories: Linen Thread, Stampin’ Trimmer, Stampin’ Write Markers, White Gel pen

I stamped all the Timeless Textures backgrounds first. Most of them were stamped off (inked, then lightly stamped on scrap paper, then stamped onto the project). I added the Flowering Fields images with Soft Suede and then hand colored them. I’m really getting into hand coloring.

If you look at the image in the top left corner, you’ll see the White Gel pen highlights. I find so many uses for that pen, and I’ve learned to keep a brand new one as backup. Maybe it’s the warm Maui weather, but I find they dry out before they are used up. I used to do all kinds of crazy things to make them last longer, but I finally gave up. They’re $4. I’m worth it.

Beautiful Ride

Posted on January 24, 2016 by mauistamper

Did you ever count VW Beetles on road trips? Scour the highway so you could be the first to spot one and earn the dubious right to slug your fellow passenger? Wish you could be lucky enough to ever own one?

Some cars seem to evoke more powerful memories than others. As a kid, I used to count them, but it was my kids who played the “Punch Buggy” game until either someone was in tears or I was hollering or both.

Stamps: Beautiful Ride
Color Palette: Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Crushed Curry, Smoky Slate
Accessories: Watercolor paper, Aqua painter, Mini-brads, Black Bakers Twine, Botanical Gardens DSP, Stampin’ Dimensionals

You can see I have mad water coloring skills – ha! It’s fun and I’ve learned to Let It Be (cue the Beatles. See what I did there?).

I’ve added links to Stampin’ Up! products right in the card “recipe”. Let me know what you think! Of course, you can always just shop HERE. And while you’re at it, cruise through the Sale-a-bration options…because everybody loves FREE.

It’s a RemARKable New Year

Posted on January 14, 2016 by mauistamper

Welcome to the 2016 RemARKable Blog Tour, where we showcase the versatility and creative options of Stampin’ Up!

Stamps: Botanical Blooms photopolymer, Happy Birthday Everyone (Host)
Color Palette: Mint Macaron, Crushed Curry, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Accessories: Big Shot, Botanical Builder framelits, Pearl jewels, Crushed Curry Baker’s Twine

I had a serious problem getting that edge going the right direction across the bottom of the card. It should be simple, but I’m famous for making simple things complicated. To avoid the problem in the future, I marked my framelit:

Just to be perfectly clear, the arrows should point towards the bottom edge of the card!

It’s addicting one you begin to play with all of the floral pieces – I ended up with a lot of extras, and I tucked them into one of our clear envelopes to store with the framelits.

I also used the same concept to update the cover on the Kraft Grid Journal, currently available on the Clearance Rack at $1.98 for a package of 2. They’re perfect for tucking into a bag or desk drawer, or to keep in the car for those random (BRILLIANT) ideas that always pop into my head when I’m driving.

I used Versamark for the cover of the Kraft Journal, and added stamped details in Crumb Cake. A couple of stamps and a little sponging created texture on the blooms, and a little more Baker’s Twine finished off the look.

The Botanical Blooms bundle includes stamps, framelits and Designer Series paper with a great tropical flair – I know it will be a big hit here in Hawaii! It’s also a natural during Sale-a-bration, as it’s perfectly priced to qualify for a free SAB stamp set or paper pack.

Click below to see what Heather Mathieson has created this month – or scroll to the bottom of the page to take your own customized trip through the tour. Enjoy!