A special card for a special couple

Posted on September 26, 2011 by mauistamper

We have some dear friends who were married this month, and they needed a special card:

Sweetly Said and Creative Elements stamp sets
Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush, Pear Pizazz, Shimmer White and Whisper White card stock
Wisteria Wonder and Concord Crush Classic ink pads
Blossom Builder and XL 2 Step Bird punches
Big Shot and Fun Flowers L die
Stampin’ Sponges
Vanilla Smooch Spritz
Champagne Mist Shimmer paint mixed with rubbing alcohol in a spray mist bottle
A retired brad (oops, my bad)
Mini Glue dots and Tombo the wonder adhesive

I love making these flowers (I know – surprise, surprise). But they really add something special to a project! They’re a leeeetle bit tricky to get into an envelope, but I’ve even mailed them using a larger padded envelope (#116911, #2.95 for 3). This was a hand-delivered card, so I put it in a Medium envelope and gently closed the flap.

I really love that Creative Elements stamp set too. It always seems to supply the right image when I’m looking for something…you know, that kind of looking when you don’t know WHAT you’re looking for but you know you’ll recognize it when you find it? That kind of looking.

The paper in this flower has been mashed into a completely new substance. It almost feels like raw silk when I’m done mashing it. Once I get it like that, I mist it with the Champagne Spray until it’s pretty damp, then shape it and set it aside to dry. When it’s dry, it stiffens up a bit and holds its shape. I don’t know how that works, I just know it happens.

My Paper Garden

Posted on September 25, 2011 by mauistamper

Look what’s growing in my garden:

Easy, too – Spice Cake Designer Series paper, buttons, ribbon, twine – and of course my Simply Scored!

Here are a few tricks:

Score the paper every 1/4 inch. I’ve tried scoring every half inch on one side, then flipping it over to score in the middle of each half inch on the other side (that creates every 1/4 inch alternating mountain and valley), but in my opininon it’s not worth the trouble.
Cardstock is harder to fan fold than Designer Series paper, so practice with the DSP – just be sure not to press so hard that you tear instead of score
Your paper doesn’t have to be tall – maybe 1 or 1 1/2 inches – but longer is better. If it’s too short, when you try to fold the fan around to make a circle the top edge has to stretch too much and it will “lampshade” on you. Mine are two pieces (8 1/2 inches) each stuck together with Sticky Strip.
To get a secure fan, I use my piercing tool and mat after I have scored to pierce a hole in the center of EACH panel at the bottom edge of the strip. Then I use a big needle threaded with Linen Thread and stitch through the holes. I leave the holes on either end for the last step: when all the other holes are threaded, I attach the two ends of the paper strip with Sticky Strip and thread the Linen Thread through that last hole. Then I can cinch up the fan and tie it off.

I know, I know, it sounds complicated. The first one feels complicated. After that, they are mindless. Trust me. I have a basket with pieces of these fan-fold flowers in varying states of completion, and when I have a couple of minutes I’ll work on them. They are a perfect finishing touch!

Un-marked cards

Posted on September 22, 2011 by mauistamper

Are you sick of Spice Cake yet?

How could you be? Honestly…

This is a very simple card that will go into my stash of “un-marked cards”. It’s nice to have a few cards without any sentiment for that moment when you realize you need a special card and NOW. I’m sure I’m the only disorganized person out there. I think Stampin’ Up! made a “Happy Belated Birthday” stamp just for me.

Did you want to see the whole thing? There really isn’t much more to it:

Pear Pizazz, Pool Party and Early Espresso card stock
Spice Cake Designer Series Paper
Simply Scored
In Color Designer Printed Brads
Big Shot and Floral Fusion Sizzlet

It really IS very simple!

Grateful for Spice Cake

Posted on September 21, 2011 by mauistamper

I need more Spice Cake Designer Series paper already – my package is just about used up:

Fabulous Phrases and Gently Falling stamp sets
Very Vanilla, More Mustard, Pool Party and Early Espresso card stock
Spice Cake Designer Series paper
More Mustard, Cajun Craze and Early Espresso Classic ink pads
Big Shot and a retired Sizzlet – you could use Floral Fusion
In Color Designer Printed brads
Stampin’ Sponges
Stamp-a-ma-jig

This paper and these colors are my absolute fall favorites! I’ve never been a big fan of More Mustard but I am now reformed, and even though Cajun Craze doesn’t appear (officially anyway) in the paper, I think it’s a great addition. I’ve been really inspired by these colors and I love the patterns in the paper.

Here is the truth about the banner: it took me multiple attempts to get those words lined up JUST the way I wanted them. The first couple of attempts I made without the Stamp-a-ma-jig, and clearly I was operating under some sort of fantasy there. Once I pulled out the SAMJ my words lined up just the way I wanted them. Duh.

Gratitude is an attribute I am constantly seeking. It seems that no matter how well things are going, I can find something to complain about (and yes, it often involves people who have the nerve to be driving at the same time I want to be driving on MY ROAD – and this would refer to any road on which I am currently traveling.) The sentiment to “Celebrate Gratitude” could be my theme song.

Time for a little bit of singing.

The 2-4-6-8 box: An old friend made easier with Simply Scored

Posted on September 19, 2011 by mauistamper

Simply Scored makes short work of that old stand-by, the 2-4-6-8 box:

Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp set
Pool Party, Pear Pizazz, More Mustard and Early Espresso card stock
Spice Cake Designer Series Paper
Spice Cake Designer Buttons
Pear Pizazz Classic ink pad
Simply Scored
Medium Jewelry tag punch
Hemp twine
Dazzling Diamonds

Those are some humangajangous buttons!! I’m going to set up my neglected sewing machine and have some fun with buttons and fabric – it’s been a long time since I’ve done any real sewing. (We’ll see how far that goes!)

Like my crazy haircut fringe? I’m not sure what posessed me to do that but it was fun. I just scored a strip of cardstock so that each side would be 1/8 inch shorter than the corresponding Pool Party side. Then I snipped that goofy fringe and used SNAIL to stick it to the inside of the box.

The 2-4-6-8 box is a simple concept and easy to adapt. The basic concept is to score a piece of cardstock across the 8 1/2 inch dimension at 2, 4, 6, and 8 inches. That gives you 4 panels each 2 inches wide and a little tab that’s 1/2 inch wide. Turn your paper 90 degrees and score 1 to 2 inches from the bottom, snip and fold up the bottom, and you’ve got a simple open-top box. If you turn your cardstock to the 11 inch direction, you can easily adapt the box to a rectangle. For example, score at 2, 5, 7 and 10 and trim the last inch to a half inch and you’ve got a 2 inch by 3 inch box. Clear as mud? Try it, you’ll see how easy it is. Or Google 2-4-8 box as there are loads of tutorials out there. I’m not into re-inventing the wheel by documenting a technique someone else has already covered!

Needless to say, the Simply Scored tool makes this project super simple. I’m finding myself reaching for it more and more, and I can’t imagine how I lived without it. It’s like the Big Shot that way – once you’ve used it, you can’t imagine using anything else!

Imagining fall color

Posted on September 18, 2011 by mauistamper

Fall color in Hawaii…wellll, let’s just say it looks a lot like summer color, spring color, even winter color. I’ve said it before – we do have seasons. There’s mango season, whale season…we used to have tourist season but it seems that runs 365 days a year! There’s a lot to see as our islands have so many micro-climates. If you were to drive around any of the islands, you would see a great deal of change – rainforest, lava flow, broad agricultural fields, and of course beautiful sandy beaches. Here on Maui, it doesn’t take that long to drive anywhere to see this variety (although I’ve been known – often – to complain about a 35 or 40 minute drive. Call me spoiled.)

However, I’ve lived other places in my life, and I’ve certainly experienced seasons. Each fall, when Stampin’ Up! introduces beautiful autumn-based stamp sets, I take a little trip down memory lane. This year’s Spice Cake Designer Series Paper and fabrics are beautiful and brought back a lot of really fond memories. This suite is just my kind of design, and I couldn’t resist the stamps, paper and fabric.

For club this week, I chose the leaf image from Gently Falling that most closely resembled leaves we see here. It looks like the jatropha in my yard or the wili wili trees that line so many roadsides. We had to stretch our imaginations a little, but no one seemed to mind:

Gently Falling and Pretty Postage stamp sets
Whisper White, More Mustard, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze and Pool Party card stock
Early Espresso, Cajun Craze and More Mustard Classic ink pads
Spice Cake Designer Series Paper
Early Espresso 1/8″ taffeta ribbon
2 1/2 inch circle, Postage stamp, and 1 inch square stamps
Stampin’ Dimensionals
Dazzling Details

It’s a simple card with a simple layout. The unexpected brightness of Pool Party in the Spice Cake suite is reminds me of a clear sky on a perfect fall afternoon. It makes you happy to be outside and grateful for the sunshine. Little things…I try to be grateful for little things.

Speaking of little things…let me show you a little bit of sparkly detail:

Thank you, Stampin’ Up!, for Dazzling Details!!! Yet another form of sparkle on the Approved List for Mr. Maui Stamper. I love bling, but it’s not allowed to run free in my house. I’m okay with a little compromise – I get my sparkle, he gets sparkle-free laundry.

The orange cat hair I can’t do anything about.

Re-use, reduce, recycle

Posted on September 16, 2011 by mauistamper

We make a real effort to recycle in the Maui Stamper household. I spotted a great way to re-purpose a couple of Stampin’ Supplies, and the best part was that this little trick solved an annoying problem for me.

I’m not a fan of the way our Linen Thread and Baker’s Twine are packaged. You know, the ones wrapped around the card and stapled into a cello bag. This nifty solution appeared on a number of blogs:

Yep – those are little embellishment containers. I can’t bear to throw them away because they just seem so useful! They’re just right for dispensing twine and thread. Do you see the eyelet on the side? The Crop-a-dile punched a hold in the side of the container with no problem, and I set the eyelet there just because. I confess to still having a couple of containers full of eyelets even though we don’t offer them in our catalog any more. (Boo.)

Here’s the container for the Linen Thread:

I had to dress it up a little bit, and the little tags with the name of the thread are for those late-night stampin’ sessions when things get a little giddy.

Aha! Double recycling! I used an empty ribbon spool (this one is from the new In Color ruffled ribbon) to hold my thread so it wouldn’t snarl. I cut the cardboard ring from the ribbon spool down to fit inside the container – unfortunately, there isn’t a circle punch that fits right, so I used the 1 3/4″ circle and then trimmed it down. I put some pretty DSP on top with a little Tombo to dress it up, and when I punched the circle out of the middle of the DSP I saved it and stuck my needle through it. I always keep a fat needle with my Linen Thread and my Baker’s twine, and having it inside the container means I’m less likely to stick myself with the needle while rummaging in my drawer.

I’ll bet you have a couple of these little embellishment containers sitting around. If you don’t, you have two choices: hurry up and use a whole mess of buttons or brads or spinner arrows or whatever so you empty out a container, or order a set of 6 of them for $3.95 (#103649). You can still recycle the ribbon spool 🙂

A little mermaid

Posted on September 8, 2011 by mauistamper

Today it’s yet another Convention 2011 WOW Swap CASE. Honestly, I need to get crackin’ and come up with some original cards, don’t you think? Jeri Holm of Overland Park, Kansas made this irresistable card and honestly, I didn’t change much. It was an enormous hit at our class over the weekend, even if it was the most detailed card we made. Not hard!! DETAILED.

Word Play stamp set
Sahara Sand, Always Artichoke, Marina Mist, Not Quite Navy, So Saffron and Blushing Bride card stock
Sahara Sand textured card stock
Paisley Prints Designer Series Paper
Simply Scored
Not Quite Navy and So Saffron Classic ink pads
Oval, Small oval, 1 inch circle, 1 3/4 inch circle, 5 petal flower, Scallop Circle, Triple heart and Scallop Border punches
Scallop and heart Bitty punches
Champagne Mist Shimmer paint
Stampin’ Dimensionals
Stampin’ Sponges
Pearl Jewels
Big Shot and Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing folder
Googlie Eyes (non-SU)
Always Artichoke and Cherry Cobbler Stampin’ Write markers

I got a little carried away with the Champagne Mist Shimmer paint. Initially I used it mixed with rubbing alcohol in a spray bottle to mist the card and give everything a little sparkle, but then I got the brilliant idea of dusting her little mermaid face and her “shells” with the paint. The shells, not so bad. The face, well, it looks like a 5 o’clock shadow to me. Next time we’ll leave it off. In class, we used the Shimmer Mist for the whole card but the new Dazzling Details glitter glue to give her shells some pizazz. Perfect!

One of the questions everyone had putting this together concerned crumpling the little flower stack for her hair. I used a bamboo skewer (the kind you use for kebabs) but the point of a pencil or even your snips would work – just poke a point into the center of the flowers and fold everything up around it. The only trick is to be sure you don’t press so hard that you punch a hole in the flowers.

There are loads of tutorials on the Side Step card. It’s a fun, it’s unusual, and it meets the “one-44-cent-stamp” criteria. That’s a plus in my book!

Making it simple

Posted on September 5, 2011 by mauistamper

I’ve been playing around with my new Simply Scored tool and I’m very pleased with it:

Simply Soft (Hostess) and Fabulous Phrases stamp sets
Naturals Ivory, Cajun Craze, More Mustard and Old Olive card stock
Cajun Craze, More Mustard and Old Olive Classic ink pads
More Mustard 1/2 inch scallop dots ribbon
Simply Scored

These specialty folds cards with all of the little score marks are enormously simplified with the Simply Scored tool. It’s so much easier to leave the paper in once place, and I really appreciate having the scoring lines every 1/8 inch. Those little pegs for marking your spot are really helpful, too! I think I’m going to have to break down and take some photos in the next couple of days, but that will require an archeological expedition. Things are a tad messy in the ol’ stamp studio right now. Creative process and all that.

The beautiful Monk Seal that was on Keawakapu Beach last week decided to find another spot to sunbathe. I’ve kept my eye out as I walk on the beach each morning, but I haven’t seen any sign of her. As much as I enjoyed watching her, I’m glad she’s a wild thing.

A special visitor

Posted on September 1, 2011 by mauistamper

Our family has a “spot” on the beach near our home. Sara walked over yesterday morning for a little beach time and quickly sent me a text that someone was sunbathing in our spot:

This is the Hawaiian Monk Seal, specifically an 11 year old female. Since she is a member of an endangered species, there were signs posted around her to remind her adoring public that she needs her space and should not be disturbed. I didn’t think taking a couple of pictures would disturb her, but the surf didn’t cooperate with her snooze:

We’ve had a pretty good swell going on the south shore for the past couple of days, and apparently she didn’t calculate enough distance for herself. She got a good soaking, rolled about 3 times (not easy for a girl her size!) and moved up the beach a little:

It’s a bit of a pity that I didn’t have a video camera on me. Although she is graceful in the water, her locomotion on the sand is what I would call galumphing.

Once she moved past the (present) high tide mark, she settled comfortably on the sand but kept an eye on me:

Volunteers from the community were on the beach providing information about the Hawaiian Monk Seal (and making sure the two-leggers kept their distance.) They assured me that this seal was healthy and had likely selected this spot (Our spot!) for a little R&R while she went through molting. All that lovely green algae growing in her fur will be shed in the next few weeks as she drops that coat and a new one comes in.

I’ll keep you posted.

The Maui Stamper

papercrafts, my stories, and the occasional insight

A special card for a special couple

My Paper Garden

Un-marked cards

Grateful for Spice Cake

The 2-4-6-8 box: An old friend made easier with Simply Scored

Imagining fall color

Re-use, reduce, recycle

A little mermaid

Making it simple

A special visitor

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