A remarkable friend

Posted on August 28, 2015 by mauistamper

If you’re lucky, you have a remarkable friend. She is generous, thoughtful, and knows just when to send you a really DUMB meme that will make you laugh until you…well, you know. I needed a card for a remarkable friend, and Stampin’ Up! heard me loud and clear:

Stamps: Remarkable You, Gorgeous Grunge
Color Palette: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Pool Party, Lost Lagoon, Gold
Tools: Aquapainter, Lost Lagoon satin ribbon (retired), Winter Wonderland DSP (Holiday 2015), Gold Washi (retired), Island Indigo Baker’s Twine (retired, other colors available), Iced Rhinestone Embellishments (Holiday 2015)

I’ve used just a tiny piece of the Winter Wonderland DSP (Designer Series Paper) but every sheet in that assortment is gorgeous. There’s new gold washi in the Holiday 2015 catalog too, but I had this on hand. And check out the Iced Rhinestone Embellishments!! Can I get a chorus of “More is MORE!!” here please??

Pool Party and Island Indigo are one of my favorite color combinations. I can use it all year without feeling out of season – maybe that’s why I like it so well!

Happy birthday, my Remarkable Friend!

What does the Minion say?

Posted on August 22, 2015 by mauistamper

As a counterpoint to the Angry Birds card, we created a Minion card.

Stamps: None (GASP!!)
Color Palette: Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Basic Black, Smoky Slate
Accessories: Thinlits Circle card and the Big Shot; 2 1/2″, 2″ and 3/4″ circle punches; Owl Builder punch; Stampin’ Dimensionals; Tombo (the Wonder Adhesive); Fringe Scissors

This is an easy card, but it takes a little time, and your fingers will likely get all Tombo-ee (yes, that is a word.)

Begin with the Circle Thinlet card in Daffodil Delight. You’ll need 2 pieces of Pacific Point (mine were 1 1/2″ tall) for the overalls, plus narrow strips to make the straps. The “button” on the straps is from the Owl Builder – a real button would have made this card too thick for standard postage.

I used a 3/4″ strip of Basic Black for the bands near the eye (what the heck are they for, anyway??) And you’ll need to punch 2 Whisper White 2 1/2″ circles, a 2″ Daffodil circle (that you’ll cut in half), and a 3/4″ Black circle for the eyeball. The glasses? goggle? monocle? is created by punching a 2″ Smoky Slate circle, then centering the round opening in the 2 1/2″ circle punch to cut out a ring. I used Stampin’ Dimensionals to give it some height over the eye.

This is what the card looks like laid out flat. There’s a plain Whisper White circle on the back of the eye to write a message, but here’s where I got stuck. What does the minion say? No idea.

Here’s the back side, laid flat. Note that the “hair” is angled off to the side – otherwise it gets smushed (also a word) when the card is closed.

My card is CASED from THIS version, but there are many other versions in the CraftyWeb. Have a blast creating your own!!

Stars for a star-swept couple

Posted on August 10, 2015 by mauistamper

My niece was married in May, and I was delighted that she asked for my help with the favors for her wedding. Their theme was Starry Starry Night, and they carried it out beautifully. She had wine charms for her favors, and late one night we texted back and forth a dozen times until we came up with a plan:

I’ve done enough mass production to know that you have to break it up into smaller tasks. I want to enjoy the process, and production isn’t my favorite thing to do. It’s a gift that I can give, and I want to give it joyfully!

The first thing that I did was borrow another set of Star Framelits so that I would have two. By carefully planning and cutting the card stock into strips, I could cut eight stars at a time…two pieces of card stock at time. It’s not the recommended procedure, but if your shape is simple enough it works! Having 2 sets meant I could put 4 framelits through at a time.

I’ve also learned to work in stacks. It helps me to keep track of my progress, and also helps avoid the inevitable shortage of one piece or another.

Tools help too! The piercing mat was a lifesaver 🙂 The stars are Night of Navy and Soft Suede, and I stamped one side with a star pattern from a retired Project Life set called Point and Click. The other side had their names and wedding date printed – I confess that was mostly by trial and error using MS Word. Print first, cut with framelits second!

It was a great feeling to get them all finished and ready to send off. I confess that putting them in a Priority Mail package and sending them off across the ocean made me feel a little nervous, and I was quite happy to get that arrival email! The Post Office has been good to me, and I am a big fan.

We used to carry a fabulous product called Champagne Mist Shimmer paint, and I have a stash of it that I keep for very special projects. Every star was sprayed front and back with Shimmer Spray, and it was a perfect finishing touch.

Finally, my card for the happy couple carried out the theme too:

The entire event was a glorious celebration of love, commitment and family. Congratulations and many happy years together, Liz and Mark!

A Manly Convention Swap

Posted on July 30, 2015 by mauistamper

I only signed up for one organized swap this year at Convention. If you’re only going to do one, you think it through pretty carefully – and when I thought it through, I made the decision to go Manly. Manly cards are a challenge, especially with a catalog full of flowers and butterflies. Don’t get me wrong – I love flowers and butterflies – but sometimes a girl needs a Manly card, and I was looking for inspiration.

Stamps: World Map, Happy Birthday Everyone, Be the Star
Color Palette: Whisper White, Basic Black, Cucumber Crush
Accessories: Star framelits, Black Baker’s Twine, Stampin’ Dimensionals, White Craft Ink, White Embossing Powder, Embossing Buddy, Heat Tool, Rhinestone Jewels

I wanted to incorporate one of our 2015-2017 In Colors, and was pleased to find that Cucumber Crush would work. I’ll be honest: that’s the In Color I am having the greatest challenge using. When Christmas comes, it will get better, I’m sure.

I used the embossing buddy like mad, yet some of the cards still had some tiny white flecks. I think my embossing powder is suffering from life in the tropics – humidity is not a friend to embossing powder! If you’re having “stray bit” problems, try a new batch of EP and see if that helps. You can get some HERE!

Big News, Baby!

Posted on July 27, 2015 by mauistamper

They say babies like bright colors – I certainly hope so!

This was another card I brought to convention as a general swap. I confess that I struggled with the colors a bit, and when they were all completed I wished I’d stamped the lamb in Watermelon Wonder – but it is what it is.

Stamps: Big News, Barnyard Babies
Color Palette: Whisper White, Blushing Bride, Watermelon Wonder, Early Espresso
Accessories: Hearts Border punch, Blushing Bride cotton ribbon, Two-way Glue pen, Dazzling Diamonds, the Big Shot and Large Polka Dot TIEF

The embossed background just doesn’t show up in this photo, and I’m sorry. It makes a difference.But I made a special tool to position those hearts:

It’s a strip of card stock – I must throw out a hundred of these a month – with holes punched in it. And it just so happens that those holes line up perfectly with those hearts:

I decided where I wanted the hearts on the first card and made a template. I placed the template across the bottom of the sentiment and made tiny dots with the tip of a sharp pencil. Remove the template, put a dab of Tombo (the Wonder Adhesive) on each pencil mark, and drop in the punched hearts. As Mr. Maui Stamper and I like to say when we’re working on a project, it’s CUSTOM.

Speaking of Mr. Maui Stamper, I tried to be as clandestine as possible with the Dazzling Diamonds. He was traveling a bit around the time I made these, so I had a little extra time to try and cover my tracks. My observation when all was said and done is that there is no hiding Dazzling Diamonds. You either do it or you don’t. And for now, I think I won’t.

I mentioned that I struggled with the colors…This was how I began. But I didn’t have a Watermelon Wonder ribbon that I could put in the corner, and using markers to get two colors on the Big News stamp wasn’t something I wanted to do 25 times over. Sometimes these decisions make themselves.

Still Wild About Flowers

Posted on July 16, 2015 by mauistamper

Really love this set!

Stamps: Wild About Flowers, Butterfly Basics
Color Palette: Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Tip Top Taupe, Hello Honey, So Saffron
Accessories: Sweet Li’l Things DSP, Hello Honey ribbon (retired), Pearl Jewels, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stampin’ Write markers

And I love the way Tip Top Taupe (T3) works with yellows! I started with a T3 card base, but it was overwhelming – I switched it to Sahara Sand and liked the difference.

I saw another blogger use a Stampin’ Write marker to add some depth to the flowers – I tried it, but I don’t think I have her expert technique. It’s not bad from a distance, but I think it looks a little clunky up close.

Just for fun, I tried the same layout with the addition of Mossy Meadow – and a different flower technique. I used a Hello Honey Stampin’ Write marker to add definition directly to the stamp after inking the image with So Saffron, then stamped onto my Very Vanilla panel. The sentiment is from An Open Heart – love that font.

Which one do you like better? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

The RemARKable In Colors for 2015

Posted on July 9, 2015 by mauistamper

Each new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog brings a new In Color collection, and everyone anxiously awaits the reveal of those new colors. One thing that is often lost in the excitement is the In Color Bundle – a selection of the 5 new ink pads plus an assortment of the new In Color card stock – for the price of the ink pads.

Maui Stamper 2015-2016 In Color Ink and Cardstock bundle

2015-2016 In Color Bundle #138358 $32.50

I have my favorites (and some not-so-favorites) this year. Today’s projects confirmed some of my opinions, but there was a surprise too!

Stamps: Awesomely Artistic, Watercolor Wings, Tin of Cards
Color Palette: Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Watermelon Wonder, Blushing Bride
Accessories: Word Window Punch, Bold Butterfly Framelits, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Sticky Note, Paper Snips

I love tone-on-tone looks, but these In Colors are predominantly bold colors, and they needed a little softening to fit the vision in my head. I used a sticky note to create a mask for the floral image, allowing me to add leaves and texture “behind” the image.

Color Palette: Whisper White, Crumb Cake, Mint Macaron, Lost Lagoon

Bermuda Bay complements Mint Macaron very well, but it was just too bright a look for this card and I switched to Lost Lagoon.

That little bitty Crumb Cake butterfly body could have been fussy cut, but I have a really hard time with straight lines. Here’s what I used:

Can you see the tape? Just a tiny bit held the word window punched piece to the end of the card stock, allowing me to feed it into the punch again and create that skinny little bit.

One last combination:

Color Palette: Whisper White, Soft Suede, So Saffron, Delightful Dijon, Crumb Cake

This combination surprised me – I didn’t expect to like it because I DON’T LIKE DELIGHTFUL DIJON. I don’t wear that color, I don’t decorate with that color, although I do like Dijon mustard. That’s as far as it goes.

What do YOU think – which combination is your favorite?

I couldn’t make this design work with Cucumber Crush. I’m waiting for Christmas before I try to make friends – that one has me stumped for now. And as much as I love Tip Top Taupe, it didn’t want to stand alone in this concept either. It would be a nice accent in place of Crumb Cake, but I chose Crumb Cake. My projects, my rules.

However, I am SURE some of the other RemARKables have featured Cucumber Crush or Tip Top Taupe or maybe even BOTH of them! You’ll have to make your way through the tour to find out…but there could be worse things to do, couldn’t there?

Next up is Heather Mathieson!

Nancy Amato
Melissa Bolinger
Tamra Davis
Anne Matasci – YOU ARE HERE!
Heather Mathieson
Audra Monk
Maria Pane
Michele Reynolds
Pam Staples
Janet Wakeland

Breakin’ out the Butterflies

Posted on July 2, 2015 by mauistamper

…and there are a LOT of butterflies to break out! This card uses the stamp and framelit bundle that was SO hard to get earlier this year. Thank goodness it’s easy as can be to order now!

Stamps: Butterfly Basics
Color Palette: Whisper White, Mint Macaron, Tip Top Taupe
Accessories: Butterflies thinlets, All is Calm DSP (retired from Holiday 2014), Rhinestone jewels, Glue Dots

I grabbed the retired All is Calm DSP because it was close by, and found rather serendipitously that it was a very close (but not exact) match for Mint Macaron. Life can be sweet that way! There are beautiful Mint Macaron papers in my new 2015-2016 In Color paper stack, but when I made this card, that stack was not in my stash.

This is a very simple look to create. The top Whisper White layer is 3 3/4″ x 5″ and the butterfly is carefully positioned using the magnetic platform to be cut out of the top 40%. The top layer, sans butterfly, is stamped and then adhered to a DSP layer measuring 4″ x 5 1/4″, and that whole assembly is adhered to the card front (in this case, the GLORIOUS new THICK Whisper White). Finally, a couple of Glue Dots put the butterfly back in place, with a gentle bend in the wings to provide additional dimension. Easy and done!

Shop HERE to add these goodies to your stash!

Con-grat-YOU-lations!

Posted on June 23, 2015 by mauistamper

BRAVO is a sleeper stamp set that has made the cut for 2015-2016:

Stamps: Bravo
Color Palette: Whisper White, Night of Navy, Encore Gold
Accessories: Itty Bitty Accents punch pack, Gold Glimmer paper, White Jute ribbon, Gold Sequin trim

Bravo Photopolymer #135380 $26.00

These messages are perfect for graduations, weddings, new babies, or any special event where congratulations are in order. The variety of fonts, image sizes, and orientations increases the versatility of this set (I especially love that there’s a “tall” option!)

Cards that acknowledge an accomplishment mean so much – who needs to hear “Way to Go!” from you?

Shop HERE.

The Maui Stamper

papercrafts, my stories, and the occasional insight

Category Archives: cards

A remarkable friend

What does the Minion say?

Stars for a star-swept couple

A Manly Convention Swap

Still Wild About Flowers

The RemARKable In Colors for 2015

Breakin’ out the Butterflies

Con-grat-YOU-lations!

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