Category Archives: cards

Workshop Words

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Convention is coming…and there’s so much to do to be ready.  It’s a 4-day celebration of Stampin’ Goodness and I can’t wait!  Stampin’ Up! does a fabulous job of recognizing, rewarding and encouraging all of the demonstrators in attendance and I’m looking forward to this year’s surprises – because I know there will be surprises in store for us!

Last year, we earned an exclusive stamp set available only to demonstrators who attended convention.  Each of the expressions in the set was business related to use with customers and team-mates.  It was just the thing to recognize a few Maui Stampers that have accomplished some big goals in the past 6 weeks:

Maui_Stamper_Workshop_Words

  • Workshop Words stamp set
  • Pool Party, Midnight Muse, Pool Party, Cajun Craze and Whisper White card stock
  • Comfort Cafe Designer Series Paper
  • Midnight Muse FFIP
  • Pool Party Stampin’ Write marker
  • Pool Party 3/8 inch ruffled ribbon
  • White Bakers Twine
  • Jewels Pearls
  • Decorative label punch
  • Stampin’ Dimensionals

It’s such a treat to get an “atta-girl” card in the mail…who wouldn’t like an unexpected pat on the back?

 

Clean and Simple Thanks

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Clean and simple isn’t a regular part of my repertoire.  It’s a style I admire, but one I find difficult to execute.  I just can’t seem to stop adding things, and before you know it my cards are covered with layers, embellishments, and road signs.  However, my son needed thank you notes.  Clean and simple fit the bill:

My Friend Thank You

 

  • My Friend and Perfectly Penned stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla card stock
  • Crumb Cake and Riding Hood Red Classic ink pads
  • Riding Hood Red 3/8 inch taffeta ribbon
  • Rhinestone jewels

My apologies;  the Riding Hood Red ribbon is retired, but Real Red is available and would be a perfect substitute.

Why don’t I make more Clean and Simple cards?  I really like them – it’s a mystery, I guess.  I don’t mind not knowing the answer.

{flashback:  Catholic Elementary school.  Classroom full of 11 year olds playing  “stump the priest” asking ridiculous questions.  His response?  A placid smile and “It’s a mystery, my child”.}

Note that this card was made before my FFIP arrived.  I could spend the next 6 months remaking cards with the FFIP to see how much better they looked.  Or I could just make new cards.  Yeah.  I think that’s what I’ll do.

 

 

 

Make {another} Cake

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This set has so much potential, as does the fabulous Comfort Cafe Designer Series paper:

Make a Cake Starfruit

  • Make a Cake and Itty Bitty Banners stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla, Summer Starfruit and Midnight Muse card stock
  • Comfort Cafe Designer Series paper
  • Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple and Midnight Muse FFIP (Firm Foam Ink Pads)
  • Summer Starfruit, Raspberry Ripple and Midnight Muse Stampin’ Write markers
  • Raspberry Ripple 3/8 inch Stitched Satin Ribbon
  • Big Shot and Bitty Banners Framelits
  • Stamp-a-ma-jig
  • Jewels Rhinestones
  • Stampin’ Dimensionals

The first card I made with this set felt too busy – a victim of the philosophy “More is More” but not in a good way.  I wanted to keep a similar feeling but streamline it a bit.

The first step was to choose the Designer Series paper, and I like the balanced feeling this paper gives.  Once I had it in place the rest of the card came together pretty easily.  My Stamp-a-ma-jig came in handy; despite the clear stamps, the lines on these stamps really need to be in the EXACT right spot for the best look, and the SAMJ was just the thing.  It’s an indispensable tool for me.

Those Bitty Banners Framelits are fast becoming indispensable as well – perfect flags and banners every time!  Not that everything always has to be perfect, but when it turns out that way it’s pretty sweet.  Speaking of sweet, it’s mango season right now and we have an abundance of sweet, juicy, fragrant mangoes in our house.  There’s nothing in the world like fresh fruit, ripened to perfection on the tree.  I have orange hands and fingernails from peeling and slicing, but I don’t mind when the reward is fresh mango.

 

Making friends with Gumball Green

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Time for a little confession:  the first time I set eyes on Gumball Green, I thought “Forget that!”  I’ve softened a bit:

Dig you Gumball Cajun

  • I Dig You stamp set
  • Whisper White, Cajun Craze and Gumball Green card stock
  • Floral District Designer Series Paper
  • Daffodil Delight, Cajun Craze and Gumball Green FFIP (Firm Foam Ink pads)
  • Cajun Craze Stampin’ Write marker
  • Piercing tool and new piercing template
  • Daffodil Delight 1/4 inch stitched grosgrain ribbon
  • Rhinestone jewels
  • Stampin’ Dimensional

The Big Dump Truck definitely needed a driver!  It might not have NEEDED the sparkly hub caps, but they are certainly an improvement.  Work with me here.

I splurged on our new piercing tool and templates and I’m really glad I did.  The piercing tool is made in the same ergonomic model as the stylus that comes with the Simply Scored tool, and it’s very comfortable in my hand.  The template is much larger and I didn’t have to skootch it along in order to get a nice long pierced lines.  Definitely a lot of bang for the buck!

I cannot imagine getting this kind of ink coverage with our old style ink pads.  FFIP RULE.

Gumball Green is not a timid green by any stretch, but it’s a fun color to play with.  I would call it a Kelly green.  Matter of fact, last weekend I saw a gorgeous Kate Spade handbag at the Nordstrom Rack in just this shade of green.  I was sorely tempted, but I bought a new bag in Boston and the Rack’s price was a big savings but it was still Kate Spade if you get my drift.  The new Gumball Green bag will have to go to another home…this time.

 

 

 

Flocks of little green birds

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Isn’t it odd how stamps you didn’t think you needed or wanted become your favorites?  I don’t understand but I’m willing to embrace the paradox.

Betsy's Blooms in Gumball Green

  • Betsy’s Blooms and Itty Bitty Banners stamp sets
  • Gumball Green, Primrose Petals and Whisper White card stock
  • Floral District Designer Series paper
  • Gumball Green, Primrose Petals and Daffodil Delight FFIP (Firm Foam Ink Pads)
  • Basic Black Stampin’ Write markers
  • Big Shot; Labels Collection and Bitty Banners Framelits
  • Daffodil Delight Seam Binding
  • Rhinestone Jewels

This is a square card.  I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of square cards I’ve made, but I love the design possibilities.  I also love the way these birds fly across the front of the card – they remind me of all the little birds I watch in the morning zooming around outside my kitchen window.

I liked this concept of a flock of birds so well I wanted to stamp it again in A2 format (that’s 4 1/4 x 5 1/2).  At the time, I didn’t have the FFIP in all of our luscious Stampin’ Up! colors so I used my old ink pads:

Betsy's Blooms in Baja Breeze

 

That’s Baja Breeze and Lucky Limeade; can you see why I’m in love with the FFIP?  In all fairness, some of my old-style ink pads are more than 5 years old – but Lucky Limeade is only a year old!! I’m thrilled with the results I’m getting with these new ink pads.

I have something kind of exciting to share, but it’s also a little bit scary.  I’m within a reach – well, a real stretch – of earning the Stampin’ Up! Hilton Head incentive trip.   If you had told me a year ago that I would be in this place I would have laughed and offered to pour you another glass of your favorite refreshing beverage, but it’s true!  I have some hard work to do but I’m excited by the challenge.

If you’re thinking about ordering Stampin’ Up! product and don’t have your own demonstrator, I would LOVE to take your order.  If you’ve bought Stampin’ Up! product from me in the past and are thinking you might like to purchase more, I would LOVE it if you placed your order before June 30th!!  Every person who orders between now and June 30 at my Online Store will receive a special hand-stamped thank you and two yards of new ribbon from the 2012-2013 catalog.  Thank you in advance for helping me to achieve this dream!

 

 

Choosing stamps

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Betsy's Blooms spotlightI’m trying to be deliberate in my choice of new stamps.  Every time Stampin’ Up! releases a new catalog I have the overwhelming urge to press the “I WANT IT ALL” button on the demonstrator website.  (OK, full disclosure:  there is no such button.  However, demonstrators have been lobbying for this button for years.)

I know that there are people – Stampin’ Up! customers as well as demonstrators – who not only want it all, but buy it all.  Perhaps some of them have a large enough business or crafting environment to actually need it all.  In all honesty, I have to acknowledge that I neither have time nor space to have it all.  That brings me back to the dilemma of making choices.

It’s easy to choose the things that I love.  It’s tricky to be sure I have a well-rounded selection.  It’s even harder still to choose things that will appeal to a broad cross-section of crafters.  Over the years, I’ve gotten better at that last set of choices, but it takes careful evaluation.  And just like each of you, I will make a decision and then see something that another stamper has done with a set that I had dismissed as absolutely un-workable and all of my “careful evaluation” goes out the window.  Ah well, there’s room for an impulse buy or two in my budget!

Happily, this card was made with a stamp set that was a gift to me from Stampin’ Up!:

  • Betsy’s Blooms and Itty Bitty Banners stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla, Cherry Cobbler and Soft Suede card stock
  • Comfort Cafe Designer Series Paper
  • Soft Suede and Cherry Cobbler Classic ink pads
  • Summer Starfruit Firm Foam Ink Pads (FFIP)
  • Big Shot and Herringbone Textured Impressions Embossing Folder
  • 3 and 3 1/2 inch circle Originals Dies
  • Bitty Banners Framelits
  • 1/2 inch Cherry Cobbler Scallop Dots ribbon
  • Stampin’ Sponge
  • Stampin’ Dimensionals
  • Jewels Rhinestones

I can’t wait to get the rest of my FFIP!!  They’re arriving slowly but surely and my, oh, my are they fabulous!  Betsy’s little bird will surely SING when she gets inked up with FFIP in Cherry Cobbler.

I have to let you in on a little secret.  This is one of those things I wouldn’t have noticed, but I think it’s pretty interesting.  I looked at that Comfort Cafe DSP and my mind said “Cherry Cobbler” – and that’s what I pulled out to use.  However, yesterday afternoon I was dreaming through the Annual Catalog and I came across the color palette for Comfort Cafe:  Cajun Craze!!!  Honestly, I couldn’t tell the difference until I put the papers together.  I’ll have to make this card again and make that adjustment.  I’m waiting for that Cajun FFIP though…

 

Can you dig it?

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This stamp set isn’t brand new to the Brand New 2012-2013 Annual Catalog, but it’s one that recalls sweet memories of my son.  From the time he could see beyond his own hands he has been fascinated with vehicles, and as a toddler he could identify  construction equipment better than most adults I knew.

I Dig You Midnight Muse

  • I Dig You stamp set
  • Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper
  • Whisper White, Gumball Green and Midnight Muse card stock
  • Gumball Green and Midnight Muse Firm Foam Ink Pads (woo hoo!!)
  • Daffodil Delight 1/4 inch stitched grosgrain ribbon
  • Color Spritzer tool
  • Midnight Muse Stampin’ Write marker
  • Big Shot, 3 inch and 3 1/2 inch Bigz circle dies
  • 1/8 inch hand held circle punch (not Stampin’ Up!)

I like all of the circles in this layout, and I especially like those crazy Firm Foam Ink Pads (to be known as the FFIP).   Love the coverage on that excavator!

I need to focus on “guy” cards – I never have enough – and this stamp set is a perfect choice.

 

Happily Mauied

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Mr Maui Stamper and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary last week.  It’s hard for me to believe that many years have gone by!  Math has never been a strong point for me, and clearly there’s some sort of mistake here.  I’m barely 30 years old myself – right???

Making a card with Designer Series Paper called Mocha Morning was clearly the perfect choice for a couple of coffee lovers:

Mocha Morning Anniversary

The geometric layout and neutral color scheme give this card it’s strong masculine theme despite a curly-cue or two.  And since this was a hand-delivered card, I got out a big Neutrals Designer Button for the front.  I know you can attach buttons with glue dots, but I much prefer stitching them on.  It doesn’t take all that long to make a couple of holes with the Pokey Doodle (Thank you, Heather Summers!) and thread a little Linen Thread through the holes and make a knot.  I like knowing that button isn’t going to fall off.

There was a little part of his present that I didn’t have on hand to put in his package (yes, there might be one or two disadvantages to living 2500 miles out in the Pacific Ocean!!)  I made a coordinating 3×3 notecard to tell him about it:

Morning Mocha 3x3

Who takes these photos anyway?  Operator error.  I would never take such a crooked photo.

By the way, if you’re one of those Plan Ahead sorts of people, scoot yourself on over to the Clearance Rack.  Lots of beautiful accessories and gorgeous holiday products at GREAT prices!  Clearance Rack merchandise is only available through the Online Store because supplies are so limited, so if you love it, buy it!  You won’t regret it 🙂

An Egg-ceptional Gift Card

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A few times a year, I am asked to prepare a gift certificate for a dear friend by her dear mother-in-law. This time, I thought it was time to do something a little different:

Easter Gift Certificate

There’s an Easter Egg card inside a tiny Scallop Envelope basket inside that small cello bag.  It’s not particularly elaborate, but it was fun to do and something a little out of the ordinary.  Here’s what’s inside:

Easter GC first page

I used the oval from the Big Shot Scalloped oval to make four egg shapes, and put them together with a brad left over from one of the SAB bundles.  This one has a butterfly with vellum wings for the front cover.

Easter GC page two

The second egg has a small tag with the details on the gift.  I told you she was a dear mother-in-law!!

 

Easter GC page three

I cut an oval out of DSP and hand-trimmed the middle out – I used that on page two above.  The top and bottom pieces went on the third page with a space in the middle for the names of the generous givers.

Easter GC last page

The last page is simply decorated for Easter.

It was fun to do something unexpected – that’s the beauty of hand-made crafts, right?

 

Choosing colors

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The way I look at it, sympathy cards pose a unique challenge.  I want them to convey hope, warmth and comfort, while still acknowledging the fact that a family is grieving.  The challenge for me is in choosing the colors; I want them to lift the spirit but still be soothing.

Just Believe With Sympathy

  • Just Believe and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
  • Concord Crush Classic ink pad
  • Whisper White, Pear Pizazz, So Saffron and Concord Crush card stock
  • Stampin’ Sponge
  • Pearl Jewels
  • Modern Label Punch
  • Crop-a-dile
  • Pear Pizazz Seam Binding

I made 10 of these for a ministry group at my church.  When they need cards, I’ll come up with 2 or 3 designs and make 10 of each – it’s much more enjoyable for me than 20 or 30 of the same design.  10 is my magic number when it comes to production – more than that and I start wondering why on earth I said I would do this!

I’m very fond of the Just Believe stamp set, but I have a feeling it may be on the retired list this year.  It was a convention set in 2010.   Stampin’ Up! gives us heaps of free stamps at Convention, and they’re always brand new.  I’ve heard that the Powers That Be are planning on cleaning house a little bit and giving us a fresh start with a lot of new product, so I’m trying to put myself in the right frame of mind to say good-bye to some old favorites.  Cross your fingers that Teeny Tiny Wishes makes the cut and remains to stamp another year – that set is my absolute sentiment anchor!!!

The most difficult thing to let go of will be Pear Pizazz.  It’s a 2010-2012 In Color, and since it’s 2012 now that means Pear Pizazz (plus Blush Blossom, Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait and Concord Crush) will be retiring to make room for a new group of colors.  Embrace change!!

So what do you think?  Are these colors hopeful or hopelessly bright?