It’s a RemARKable Autumn

Posted on September 7, 2013 by mauistamper

Trick or Treat!

Halloween goodies – or a bag full of Creepy Crawlies? I’m hoping for treats, not tricks.

The Halloween Bash stamp set has fun images to play with, and I thought these tickets were just the thing to add to the top of my tag. They’ve got a little sparkle courtesy of Vanilla Smooch spritz. And the hole for that gorgeous ribbon at the top is made with the small ticket punch – it makes a generous opening. I’ve used the beautiful black and grey striped ribbon that’s available again as part of the Halloween Banner Simply Created Accessory kit.

I stamped the main image once in Tangerine Tango, then again in Black Staz-on. I cut out the word “CRAWLY” in black, snipped the ends, and added Basic Black card stock extensions to the ends. The black rhinestone gems at the bottom are colored with the black Sharpie® marker that NEVER leaves my desk!

The tag can stand alone without the bag, but we do love those Tag a Bags! Don’t miss the textural stamping on the Tangerine Tango tag base courtesy of Gorgeous Grunge, the stamp set that does everything – even the dishes!! (ok, I’m KIDDING there…)

It’s a challenge for me to get in the mood for a true Autumn card, but I think the muse was working for this one:

Magnificent Maple is a single stamp and it is truly a magnificent rendition of a leaf. I’ve masked and stamped it in Crushed Curry, Tangerine Tango, Cajun Craze and Old Olive. I chose Naturals Ivory card stock for the card base, but I used Very Vanilla for the tag – the Naturals papers have just enough texture to them that a bold image such as that tag doesn’t come out with enough definition to please me.

I used the Tags for You stamp and punch bundle and popped the label up on a dimensional. “So Grateful” is from Apothecary Art, and the spatters are from Gorgeous Grunge. (If I keep using that stamp set it’s gonna get a Maui Stamper Abbreviated Name, but for now I’ll spell it out.)

I hope you’ve enjoyed today’s Stamp-of-the-Month projects and I encourage you to take the full tour to see what everyone is sharing. Robin is up next and I KNOW she’ll have a treat in store for you! All the blogs on the tour are available below in case you want to re-visit a favorite or just take the tour in your own quirky way. I encourage that kind of behavior 🙂

Butterflies on sale!

Posted on September 6, 2013 by mauistamper

Do you love a deal?

Well DUH..who doesn’t?

The Papillon Potpourri stamp set and Bitty Butterfly punch are discounted 15% through September 30.

The Clear-Mount bundle is $26.27 (#135311 – be sure you use the bundle item number!)

The Wood-Mount bundle is $29.67 (#135312)

Need them now? Order at my Online Store – and be sure to enter X369CEC2 in the Hostess Code box. All September Online Orders will share in the Hostess Benefits at the end of the month – but you MUST enter the Hostess Code to be included.

Enjoy the savings!

A Serendipitous Chicken

Posted on September 5, 2013 by mauistamper

Last Spring, Mr. Maui Stamper and I were in Phoenix and took the opportunity to spend a few days in the Grand Canyon. WHOA. It is grand! But this isn’t about the Grand Canyon, it’s about something I saw there. I saw a Chicken made by Edith John.

Edith is a Navajo from a family of Navajo crafters. II saw her work at the Heard Museum in Phoenix too. (It’s a FABULOUS museum – but this post is not about the Heard.) I have a soft spot in my heart for chickens, at least hand-crafted chickens. The real thing…well, I like them in principle, but I’m not much of a Green Acres kind of girl and I don’t see myself putting a chicken coop in the back yard.

ANYWAY…I had spent some time looking at Edith’s chickens while I was at the Heard, and I saw them again in various gift shops throughout Grand Canyon National park. I couldn’t make up my mind. I didn’t see one I really loved above all the rest, and to tell the truth, I’d already spent enough money for one trip. Edith’s chickens are well priced for hand-crafted art, but they are not inexpensive. I came home without one.

About 3 weeks later, I was in my local thrift shop looking for bits and pieces for a craft project and I saw a chicken. I held my breath as I turned it over…

Oh.My.Goodness. If ever a chicken was meant to live in my home, this was the one. Not to mention that the price in my local thrift shop was many times less than the price at the Heard or at the Grand Canyon.

SUCH a handsome bird!!! He was a tad dusty and clearly needed rescuing from the thrift shop. There’s a little ding or two in his paint job, but that just endears him to me all the more.

Clearly this chicken was the one I was meant to have. He has a permanent home on my kitchen counter. I would love to say that I was listening to that small, quiet voice inside when I was shopping at the Grand Canyon, but if I’m honest, I have to acknowledge that I was listening to the nagging voice that pays the bills. Either way, this was a truly serendipitous find.

Back to Mixed Bunch

Posted on September 3, 2013 by mauistamper

I’ve let Mixed Bunch sit on the shelf too long…

Mixed Bunch, Best of Butterflies, Serene Silhouettes and Express Yourself (hostess) stamp sets
Primrose Petals, Gumball Green and Whisper White card stock
Primrose Petals, Gumball Green and Daffodil Delight FFIP
Blossom and 3/4 inch circle punches
Vintage Buttons
Stampin’ Dimensionals and Glue dots

We made this card at a Very Special Class over the weekend with a very talented group of young ladies, and when I say young I mean 7 and 11 year olds. They did very, very well and were loads of fun too. Nothing fazed them.

One of the girls was a little worried when she got ink on her fingers but I told her it was a badge of honor and then she smiled and said, “Well, these ARE my favorite colors.” How can you argue with that?

This card was cased on a beautiful monochromatic card from Wanda Pettijohn

September Travels

Posted on September 1, 2013 by mauistamper

August 2017: Edited to correct the stamp set.

My observant reader, Roberta Koster, contacted me this week to let me know that I’d listed the wrong stamp set with this calendar page. It’s not Travel Post, it’s Postage Due. Thank you for submitting this correction, Roberta!!!

Back in the BC (Before Children) days, Mr. Maui Stamper and I loved to travel in September. All the families with children were home starting school, the weather was still perfect in most parts of the world, and we enjoyed the relative calm of traveling off-season.

Then we had children.

Now we live the “Duo Life” again. (We decided the term “Empty Nest” is negative.) September travels await!

Postage Due ~~Travel Post~~ stamp set
Whisper White and Island Indigo card stock
Melon Mambo and Island Indigo Stampin’ Write markers
Basic Grey FFIP

The only trick to this one is that those words were selectively inked on the biggest image in the Travel Post set. Everything else is quick and easy!

Pumpkin Pedaling

Posted on August 29, 2013 by mauistamper

TWO MORE DAYS FOR $10 PUMPKINS!!

This is the card designed by the concept artists at Stampin’ Up! for the August My Paper Pumpkin Creative Escape. If you’ve been out of the country for the last month, you might not know that you can begin your My Paper Pumpkin subscription for only $10 a month plus tax – but you need to hurry because this deal is only good through August 31st! (And Maui peeps, watch the clock – Stampin’ Up! runs on MST which is 4 hours earlier than HST).

Of course, I had to play around and add my own touches. I used the polka dot background from the July kit (I KNOW, I haven’t made it up yet – I just did that May kit!!) I also added some Candy Dots with 1/2 inch circles over the flags I created with the self-adhesive strips that came in the kit. They’re just like washi!!

You know the trick with the Decorative Label punch, right? To create a mat, punch two labels in a contrast color, cut one down the middle long ways and the other down the middle short ways and adhere them to the base image with Tombo (the Wonder Adhesive).

I used the 3 inch Bigz circle die for the Cherry Cobbler label and made a Bermuda Bay paper flag and a Cherry Cobbler Chevron Ribbon flag for this card.

Love the texture in the ribbon!!

Last card – love that sentiment from the My Paper Pumpkin Welcome Kit!!

This was a true 30 minute creative escape – including opening the box and putting the clear labels on the stamps!! These kits are perfect for crafting-on-the-go…just grab the box and your Tombo and you are ready to craft ANYWHERE! But don’t wait because this great deal is about to end. Visit the My Paper Pumpkin website and use promo code PUMPKINDEAL when you check out. You deserve it!

{The fine print…the My Paper Pumpkin promotion is available to new subscribers only. Cost is $10 + tax for the first two months. Subsequent kits are $19.95 + tax per month. There is no minimum subscription. Manage your subscription (change billing, skip a month, cancel subscription) at http://www.MyPaperPumpkin.com.}

Washi for the College Man

Posted on August 27, 2013 by mauistamper

My son had to admit that Washi could be useful:

The black diagonal Washi from the Epic Day This n That suite was the only one he considered acceptable, but he agreed that identifying his cables made sense.

He has a LOT of cables. Apple cables.

The ocean attacked his phone the day before he was supposed to fly back to campus. Good thing he worked that extra week, because he wasn’t planning on a new phone. Naughty ocean.

Saving My Convention Memories

Posted on August 25, 2013 by mauistamper

My Paper Pumpkin for May pushed me to work outside the box:

Before you ask, that little tile in the corner was a swap and I LOVED it!!

This My Paper Pumpkin kit from May has sat on my stamp desk for a while as I decided what to do with it. In case you haven’t noticed, I don’t do a lot of scrapbooking. I have a really hard time choosing the photos – I think that’s what gets in my way. I really wanted to use this kit, but it took Convention to get me in the groove.

I’m gonna show you ALL the pages, but I’m not going into details on every product I used.

The My Paper Pumpkin kit included front and back covers, 6 pieces of DSP (6×6), 5 pre-cut DSP pages to fit the covers, 6 pages of self-adhesive embellishments, and a bag with 2 buttons and 2 arrow-shaped clip embellishments.

I needed MORE pages!! I added card stock pages and pulled out a heap of stamps. I also added mementos I collected at Convention.

Sometimes I journaled on the self-adhesive embellishments, and sometimes I wrote directly on the page.

That picture of Crystal in her Pineapple Sunglasses is my absolute FAVE.

Aussie Aussie Aussie!! Oi Oi Oi!! Wouldn’t you know it, we sat next to 3 demonstrators from Queensland, Australia for the opening General Session.

We really enjoyed meeting Stampin’ Up! staff, but Kathy Pitt (You Crew: Meet with an Illustrator) and Sara Brook-Humphrey (the My Paper Pumpkin girl – working in the Social Media booth) were special highlights.

I am so proud of my PINEAPPLE!

I’m also proud to have been part of the Guinness World Record for most greeting cards sent from a single location at one time.

Swaps!!! Need I say more?

If you don’t follow Erica Cerwin’s blog Pink Buckaroo, take a look HERE for more details on her INCREDIBLE Paper Camper. I was speechless.

Classes at convention are always outstanding. The class I enjoyed more this year was Carrie Cudney’s class “Living a Creative Life”. She had great quotes, great projects, and a great ice-breaker: We threw rolls of TP around the room!!

We wore those ridiculous Pineapple Sunglasses for 3 solid days. By Saturday afternoon my eyes were fatigued from looking through that cheapo plastic. We sure had fun with them!

Big Screen Photos…

and my name badge.

I used Tombo (the Wonder Adhesive) to adhere DSP to the front and back sides of the covers, then used a little Washi to dress up the edges. All the holes were pre-punched. Still, to be completely honest, this was NOT a 30 minute project. I think I spent a couple of afternoons on it – but I did more than double the pages. Here’s the kit:

Just a few more days to sign up for My Paper Pumpkin at the special promotional price of $10 + tax DELIVERED to YOUR DOOR! You’ll get a ready-to-go project with all the pre-cut paper, embellishments, stamps and ink you need. You add adhesive and a little time. These projects are perfect for taking out and about with you! Visit the Paper Pumpkin website and be sure to use promocode PUMPKINDEAL when you check out!

Swaps from the Maui Stampers

Posted on August 24, 2013 by mauistamper

Today I’m pleased to share the talents of the Maui Stampers:

Cheryl used Sweater Weather DSP and the Magnificent Maple and Tags 4 You bundle for her card.

I love the pop of Coastal Cabana with the Modern Medley DSP! Stephanie used stamps from Happy Day and Express Yourself (hostess).

Robbie made these gorgeous Halloween Treats inspired by Pam Morgan’s stamping demonstration at convention.

Take a 6″ x 6″ square of DSP, run a line of Sticky Strip along one edge, and make a cone. You can see how the flap on the cone is tucked in at the top.

Don’t you love how Robbie used a smidge of gold embossing powder on that Vintage Button?

Ramona cut the Natural Composition Specialty paper with the Secret Garden Framelits and then used the Woodgrain TIEF to tie the elements of her card together.

Cheryl (two Cheryls!!) used the Kind & Cozy stamp set for this cheery card. This is a “you made my day” kind of card! She used a Pool Party panel behind a 3 3/4″ x 5″ note card to create extra interest.

Lots of creative inspiration here – enjoy!

Two Pineapples

Posted on August 22, 2013 by mauistamper

I inked up my Undefined Pineapple:

Undefined hand carved Pineapple
The Good Life stamps, May 2013 My Paper Pumpkin
Gorgeous Grunge and Yippee Skippee stamp sets
Old Olive, Baked Brown Sugar, Crushed Curry and Whisper White card stock
Old Olive, Crushed Curry and Baked Brown Sugar FFIP
Old Olive, Always Artichoke, Crushed Curry and Baked Brown Sugar Stampin’ Write markers
Natural Trim ribbon
2 1/2 inch circle punch
Big Shot and Thinlets Circle Flip card die
Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die
Honeycomb TIEF
Stamp-a-ma-jig
Sticky Strip
Stampin’ Sponge

Yeah, I kinda pulled out everything in the stamp studio for this one 🙂

The pineapples are inked with markers and masked. I carved just one pineapple, and I carved it in a hurry! It has a folksy, rustic look to it.

Didja break down and get the Thinlets Flip Card die yet? I confess that if I hadn’t seen them in person at convention I might not have been so anxious, but I did and I was so I ordered them on August 1st – the first day I could. The 5 chevron pieces are one of the accent dies that accompany the Circle Flip die.

I stamped this sentiment from Yippee Skippee three times in three colors of ink and cut them up. There’s a strip of Crushed Curry card stock stamped with the diagonal lines from Gorgeous Grunge behind the words to serve as an anchor. Lining that up was definitely a job for the Stamp-a-ma-jig.

If you stretch the entire card out, this is what the first side looks like. You’re seeing the front of the card, the back of the flip, and the inside of the card. The Baked Brown Sugar panel was run through the Honeycomb TIEF before I adhered it to the Old Olive card base. I added a strip of white card stock (more details HERE) to the inside for additional writing space, and I put a Crushed Curry 2 1/2″ circle behind the flip to give it a finished look. I might write an additional note here, or I might add a photo. And yes, this is an extended card. Patty Bennett has made an excellent tutorial – see it HERE.

Turn the card over to see the second side. If you look closely at the Natural Trim ribbon you’ll see that I butted the edges on the diagonal to create a finished edge – I didn’t want a knot or a bow. It also creates a more finished look over the scallop trim from the Tasteful Trim Bigz XL die. I used a full-height piece of Sticky Strip to secure the trim.