Category Archives: cards

Happy Girl’s Day

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Today is Girl’s Day – traditionally celebrated in Japan with elaborate displays of dolls, but adapted in Hawaii to  a day of priveledge and gift-giving.  It’s primarily celebrated in families with Japanese heritage, but what girl turns down the opportunity for something special?  I can remember the delight my oldest daughter expressed coming home from Kindergarten on March 3 many years ago to report that the boys all had to carry the girls’ lunches to the cafeteria tables for them!  Little did she realize that on May 5 (Boy’s Day) she would be returning the favor.

Since my girls are  far from home, international shipping is expensive – and we’re not Japanese – they are getting “Happy Girl’s Day” Facebook wishes from their mom.  I know.  What a grinch.  But Crystal designed a very cute Girl’s Day card for the Maui Stampers at our last team meeting, so I can share it with you – and come to think of it, with my girls.  Ah, the wonders of technology.

Happy Girl's Day

  • Kimono Kids stamp set
  • Real Red, Daffodil Delight and Naturals White card stock
  • Basic Black classic ink pad
  • Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Rich Razzleberry, Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point and Peach Parfait Stampin’ Write markers
  • Round tab and 1 3/8 inch square punches
  • Medium cello bags
  • Sticky Strip

There are a number of tutorials and videos detailing the steps for making this double slider card, but most of them involve cutting up plastic bags and then trying to stick them together with enough adhesive so that they won’t come apart.  It’s MUCH easier to slice off a section of the Medium flat cello bags (50 for $4.50, #102757).  It’s the perfect size…but of course, you’re wondering what on earth I might be talking about, aren’t you??  Look:

Girl's Day card open

Those little tabs can be pulled and this card magically reveals two darling girls, one on each side of the card!    Can you tell I was paying attention to my conversation  more than to coloring this card?  Honestly.

So Happy Girl’s Day to all you XX Chromosome types.  XY types, not to worry, your day is coming.

 

Just a little bling

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If you’ve been a Maui Stamper reader for a while, you’ll know that glitter is a challenge in my household.  Mr. Maui Stamper is Not A Fan.  Glitter itself isn’t such a problem for him – it’s glitter that doesn’t stay where it belongs that he dislikes.  We think it goes back about 10 years to the time my oldest daughter bought a cute tee shirt with glittered accents, and that tee shirt ended up in the same load of laundry as some cycling shorts.  The glitter behaved badly and since then, all glitter has been suspect.

Fortunately, the glitter in the Stampin’ Up! Glimmer Paper (#121790) is VERY well behaved:

Punch Bunch with Glimmer Paper

  • Punch Bunch, I {Heart} Hearts and A to Z stamp sets
  • Real Red, Blushing Bride, Concord Crush and Whisper White card stock
  • Glimmer Paper
  • Concord Crush and Blushing Bride Classic ink pads
  • Heart to Heart, Scallop Circle and 1 3/8 inch circle punches
  • Big Shot and Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions Embossing folder
  • Rhinestone Jewels
  • Whisper White 3/8 inch taffeta ribbon

I’m pretty crazy about this glimmer paper.  It has such a deep, rich color, and the sparkles stay put.  It doesn’t take much to make a statement on a project, and I have my fingers crossed that this will stick around for Christmas next year.  I think I’ll send Stampin’ Up! a little note and suggest a permanent place in the catalog for Glimmer Paper – will you send one too?

Busy bees

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Sweet Summer is my favorite Sale-a-bration set  – well, maybe it’s tied for that honor with BLISS.  Last week I saw a fabulous card made by a friend on the RemARKables team and had to make one for myself:

Sweet Summer

  • Sweet Summer Sale-a-bration stamp set
  • Whisper White, Pear Pizazz and Concord Crush card stock
  • Pear Pizazz, Concord Crush, Melon Mambo and Real Red classic ink pads
  • Aquapainter and So Saffron Stampin’ Write marker
  • Real Red 1/8 inch taffeta ribbon
  • Love Impressions rub ons

Regina Cornelius designed this card, and though I made a few changes you can see I was true to her concept.  I’ve just realized that I forgot to give the bees their little vapor trails, and I’ll have to go back and fix that oversight.  Regina and I participate in a forum that Janet Wakeland, my 5th level upline, offers for support and training.

If’ you’re not a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, all this talk about teams and groups may be a little confusing.  Stampin’ Up! is a direct sales company, which means each person who “signs up” to sell/distribute Stampin’ Up! products is, in the company’s language, “An Independent Demonstrator”.  That means we own our business instead of working for Stampin’ Up!, and part of our business plan includes sharing the Stampin’ Up! business opportunity with other people.  When someone decides to become an Independent Demonstrator, they sign up through an existing demonstrator and become part of her team or group, or “downline” as the Stampin’ Up! terminology goes.  It gets a little confusing, but the end result is that this type of organization creates a lot of opportunity for friendship, collaboration, and education.  If you’d like to learn more,  send me a message and I’ll be glad to tell you about the Maui Stampers – you don’t have to live on Maui to be one!

Be My Valentine

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Stampin’ Up! has begun tempting us with the prospects of Convention 2011.  These are three very short but very full days, andthe thing that every demonstrator look forward to is swapping.  It’s crazy, it’s frantic, and you never know what you’ll come home with – but you always come home with loads of great ideas.

Today’s card is cased from a card I received last year, and I have regretably lost the original stamper’s name.  I’ve cased this cards so many times, in so many different ways, and every time I see something new.

I {Heart} Hearts

  • I {Heart} Hearts and Filled with Love (retired) stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla and Crumb Cake card stock
  • Cherry Cobbler, Riding Hood Red, Crumb Cake, Early Espresso and Regal Rose classic ink pads
  • Piercing tool, mat and template
  • Cherry Cobbler seam binding; Stampin’ Dimensionals
  • Full Heart and Heart to Heart punches

Happy Valentines’ Day!

Some Super Fun

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Last weekend we went to a Super Bowl party at Cheryl’s.  She’s finished with her renovations (lucky girl), and her big ol’ Big Screen TV is already installed, so it made sense to drive out to Haiku for the game.

We all watched until about half time, and then the ladies started migrating into Cheryl’s stamp studio.  She has a great space set up, with lots of gorgeous light and room for both crafting and working from home.  She even had a project all set up for us:

Cheryl's cupcake bookmark

  • Create a Cupcake stamp set
  • Pretty in Pink, Cherry Cobbler and Whisper White card stock
  • Pretty in Pink, Crumb Cake, and Early Espresso classic ink pads
  • Early Espresso Stampin’ Write marker
  • Build a Cupcake punch; Stampin’ Dimensionals
  • Retired 1/4 inch grosgrain ribbon – I’m not even sure what color it is!  Maybe Close to Cocoa?
  • Big Shot and Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing folder

These cupcakes are charming and just the right sized, and I love how easy it is to use the punch.  Why stress about lining up the stamps when you can just punch them out and put ’em where you want ’em?  That’s my idea of brilliant.

We didn’t quite make it back for the 3rd quarter, but we all gathered around to see the end of the game.   Great party, Pat and Cheryl – let’s do it again next year!

 

Thanks, cupcake!

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Despite the chaos and the noise, I’ve found a little time to craft:

Cupcake Notes

  • Thank You Kindly and Create a Cupcake stamp sets
  • Cupcake standard wheel
  • Whisper White, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette and Early Espresso card stock
  • Rose Red and Early Espresso Classic ink pads; Early Espresso Stampin’ Write marker
  • Rose Red Seam binding
  • Build a Cupcake punch
  • Big Shot and Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing folder

These were quick and fun – I did about 20 of them in about an hour and a half.  The cupcake bases are textured with the Lattice folder and the top is cut from Pink Pirouette – I only used Create a Cupcake for the sprinkles on the frosting.   I punched the cupcake pieces from narrow strips of cardstock that I fed through the punch to minimize waste and I glued all the pieces down with Tombo the Wonder Adhesive.  The cherry is punched out of Rose Red cardstock and the stem is quickly brushed with the marker.

If I was feeling like an over-achiever I would watercolor those cupcakes along the bottom, but I’m not so I won’t.  Who’ll know?

Bee mine

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I can only work with pink and red exclusively for so long:

January Club Valentine

  • Sweet Summer (SAB) and I {Heart} Hearts stamp sets
  • So Saffron, Very Vanilla, Regal Rose and Certainly Celery card stock
  • So Saffron, Regal Rose and Certainly Celery Classic ink pads and ink refills
  • Aquapainter, Victoria lace trim, Subtles brads

It’s nice to do a simple card once in a while.  Tone on tone stamping is an easy, inexpensive way to add texture to a card and the variety of hearts in the I {Heart} Hearts set give plenty of options.  I’m fond of that silly little bee, too.

Are your Valentines ready?

Baby, Baby, Baby

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A friend had a baby girl recently.  We worked together to come up with a birth announcement, and it was one of the most enjoyable collaborations I’ve done.  It was clear from the outset that this wasn’t going to be a pinky-frou-frou announcement, and so we experimented with a lot of color combinations.  In the end, my friend came up with Rich Razzleberry and Pear Pizazz with just a touch of Melon Mambo and Daffodil Delight.  I would never in a million years have made those choices, but I was delighted with the way the colors worked together.

I made a samples in her color choices with all sorts of stamps.  When it came down to it, she couldn’t choose just one – so I made three different announcements:

Eastern Blooms baby

Baby announcement #1 uses the Eastern Elegance stamp set with the Bitty Punch pack and a 1/8 inch circle punch…

Cheep Talk Baby

Announcement #2 uses the Cheep Talk stamp set…

I {Heart} Hearts Baby

and Announcement #3 uses I {Heart} Hearts.

Hope you enjoy!

Hand Made by Anne

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Did you think I would never come up with another idea of my own?  It was starting to look that way, wasn’t it?  I have a few more projects from our team meeting because I’m tellin’ you, it WAS a Stampin’ Frenzy – but here’s something I did all by my little ol’ self:

Eat Cupcakes and Sing the Song

  • Eat Cupcakes stamp set and Music Notes standard wheel
  • Whisper White, Pretty in Pink and Crumb Cake card stock
  • Riding Hood Red, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake and Pretty in Pink Classic ink pads
  • Chocolate Chip Stampin’ Write markers
  • Build a Cupcake punch
  • Riding Hood Red taffeta ribbon (retired)

Confessions first:  About that Riding Hood Red ribbon – I bought a “few” rolls of that ribbon for Christmas cards in 2009.  For assorted and sundry pathetic reasons (that no one gives a Fig Newton about) I did not send cards in 2009.  That gorgeous ribbon has been sitting in my drawer for too long and I have decided to bust it out – it’s close enough to Real Red that you can make the substitution.  Fair enough?

Observations second:  Kraft – umm, I mean Crumb Cake – is the perfect Valentine’s Day neutral.  It sets off any Red or Pink and it combines beautifully with Chocolate and Espresso.  Chocolate…Espresso…Crumb Cake…Houston, we have a problem.

Jokes third:  Do you get it?  Do you see the joke in the card?  Look closely…

It’s the Music Notes behind the cupcakes!  Imagine someone singing Happy Birthday!!  I hope you got it.

Love It Moment fourth:  The Build a Cupcake punch includes little punched out candles, flames and CHERRIES.  Life doesn’t get better than that.  I stamped the cherry in RHR, punched it out, and then just zipped the Chocolate Chip marker over the stem.  Eeee-Zeee.

Sale-a-bration starts today.  Get shoppin‘!!

Perfect for any Occasion

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There was a time when Robbie maintained that she wasn’t creative.  If that was true back then, it certainly isn’t true any longer.  Look at this card she brought for our shoebox swap:

Baby Blossoms by Robbie

She used the Springtime Vintage Designer Series Paper – which she told us was so much fun to use that she was heading home to order more – and paired it with the coordinating Baby Blossoms stamp set.  Look at how the tiny polka dots in the DSP coordinate with the tiny polka dots on the frame?  Get out the accordian and Roll Out the Barrel!!  (Beer Barrel Polka?  Get it?  Yeah, kind of a stretch – must be late!)

Hijack alert:  For many years, our church here in South Maui had a wonderful Polish priest.  He’s now retired and ministering to the good folks on the Big Island, but back in the day, a St. Theresa potluck was never complete until Father Jack pulled out his accordian.  He knew all the oldies but goodies, and would lead everyone in a sing-along.  Every time I hear an accordian, I’m reminded of Father Jack.  Music triggers such vivid memories!

(Ed Sullivan voice:) And now back to our show!

Sew Suite by Cheryl

Cheryl is one of our “rookies” and a quilter – can you tell?  Look at the details she thought of!  I love the eyelet border, and she told us that tape measure is last year’s Crushed Curry – a perfect color match for the real thing, and still available in the Clearance Rack!  She used textured paper to give the tape measure and the thread an authentic look.

Her images are all from the Sew Suite stamp set in the Occasions Mini catalog.   Not a rookie card at all!  I was very proud of her work. 🙂