Wow cards: Due

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For our second Wow card, I cased one of my own recent favorite projects:

Wisteria Best Friends

  • Best Friends and Perfectly Penned stamp sets
  • Naturals White, Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush and Pear Pizazz card stock
  • Wisteria Wonder and  Concord Crush Classic ink pads
  • Vanilla Smooch Spritz
  • Big Shot and Fun Flowers Bigz L die
  • XL Two Step Bird, Boho  and Flower Builder punches
  • Neutrals buttons and White Bakers Twine

I loved that big distressed flower and brought it back in a new color scheme.  To get that look, you REALLY have to smush the individual die cuts a lot, then stack them and secure them with a button or brad, and then mist them.  The misting process softens the paper even more, and so when you do your final crush and fluff your petals crumple naturally.  The paper also holds its shape best if it has been misted and allowed to dry in place.

We had a pretty good time smushing those flowers.   It’s an excellent way to take out a little aggression, because the paper really benefits from some serious twisting and crumpling.  Once you’ve really worked it over and you start to assemble the flower, all of that crankiness seems to melt away as your blossom takes shape.  Who could be angry with a flower?

I think I’ll cut some Fun Flower shapes to have on hand for emergencies.

 

Wow Cards: Uno

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I liked the little card so well, I turned it into a full sized card for my WOW class:

Marina flower full card

It’s almost exactly the same – except there isn’t a pocket on the front.  This card still opens from the top, and the inside has a lovely panel but I forgot to take a photo of that.  Honestly, I must be sniffin’ the Tombo these days because I seem to forget more than I remember!!

I tried something a little different last week – a WOW card class.  In the past when I’ve done card classes I’ve tried to have something for everyone, but I’ve learned it’s pretty difficult to please all of the people, all of the time.  The people who like simple cards don’t want to fuss with detailed cards, and vice versa. This time we focused on details – lots and lots of details!  Cheryl said she had to stand up to get it right.

Cheryl the Stand Up Stamper

Her hands were flyin’!  I took 3 different photos and her hands are a blur in every one!  I have to confess that when I really get into a project I stand up too.  I just can’t seem to concentrate if I’m sitting down, or maybe it’s just that I have to get my whole body into the process.

Hmmm.  I wonder if Weight Watchers will assign a Points Plus activity value for aerobic card making and paper crafting?

A special order

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Last week I was asked to design pocket cards to coordinate with an internal promotion a local business was doing for its sales staff.  The manager at the store wanted something that would set this promotion apart, and she gave me a sample of the card that her employees would receive.

I had a fabulous time playing with this project!  The sample that I received was trendy but very classy – much like the merchandise in this store.  The employees are all female, so I was free to encourage my feminine muse.  Here’s the result:

Marina Mist flower card holder

Because this project is sized to hold the equivalent of a business card, I was able to make it stand up.   It’s like a greeting card that opens from the top instead of the side, but there’s a pocket on the front to hold the card.  It looked GREAT with the enclosure inside – but I can’t share that with you.  This was such a fun More Is More project!

I used the Creative Elements stamp set with Shimmer White, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake and Marina Mist as the color palette, and I’m sure you can figure out the rest.

Here’s the flower embellishment up close:

Marina Mist Flower Embellishment

I heard they were a big hit with the staff – that feedback was music to my ears.  It’s one thing to love what you do, but when you create something for someone else and they love it too, that’s incredibly satisfying.

Come back tomorrow for another adaptation of this project!

Peggy’s Village

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Peggy came to visit one day last week and brought her version of the Village of Cuteness:

Peggy's Village of Cuteness

Can you stand it?  She decided to interpret her Village as a Christmas Village, with wreaths on the front doors, a string of lights, a palm tree, and – be still my heart – two little blow-up Santa Village People!!!!

Look at her Christmas Hale:

Peggy's Christmas Hale

Don’t you love that palm tree, and the bouganvilla spilling over the window box at top?  I may have to do another village.

And in case you are wondering, that’s not “hale” (rhymes with whale), it’s “hah’ ley”, kinda rhymes with trolley (if you said it tra-ley!)  It’s the Hawaiian word for house.

Something special for the hostesses

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I brought back Convention tote bags for the members of my hostess club:

Convention Tote bags

I loved the prints and colors – which are now available as My Digital Studio downloads – but I knew I would need to find a way to tell them apart.  The solution, of course, is a tag:

Hostess tag up close

These tags are made with coordinating Designer Series Paper (On sale – do I need to say it again?? – buy 3 get one free!) with an initial and a paper flower.  I love making these paper flowers because they involve smushing.  Smushing is a very scientific term for beating-the-stuffing-out-of-a-wad-of-paper.  Don’t you have days when a little smushing would do you a world of good?

My Workshop hostesses in August and September will also get one of these exclusive tote bags – call me if you’d like to put together a special event for a few of your friends.

Saving my change…

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There are many people who contribute to my growth and success as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, and one who has made a big impact is Janet Wakeland.  I met her a year ago at convention and was encouraged and inspired by her energy and strong business.  After convention this year, she encouraged us to start saving for next year right away – a brilliant idea.  She suggested a change jar, and I came up with this:

Change Is Good

I used Paisley Petals Designer Series papers on the jar (on sale, buy 3 get one free!) and a bunch of new stamps from the 2011-2012 Idea Book and catalog to collage a couple of tags.  I LOVE the font on my new Alphabet – the Spencerian Alphabet Lower – and the fact that it’s a Clear Mount set made stamping the words a breeze even WITHOUT the Stamp-a-ma-jig!    I’ll confess that I did each letter twice on two separate tags just in case, but using the Clear Mount stamps was so easy that I ended up with two sets of tags 🙂

Goodies on the Change Jar tag

A Trinket Key, a Clear Bauble and some ribbon finished up my jar and it’s ready to be fed.  This one is designed to coordinate with the colors in my bedroom, but I’m going to make another one for the laundry room.  It’s my opinion that any and all cash (coin or bills) found in the laundry belongs to She-Who-Washes-The-Clothes.  I consider it tip money.

At a minimum, I’ll need it to be able to pay the second-checked-bag fee next year.

Stamp theory

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In theory, you only need a couple of stamp sets – change up your colors and your layout, and you have a completely different card:

It's Raining Concord Crush Flowers

  • Raining Flowers and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
  • Very Vanilla, Melon Mambo and Concord Crush card stock
  • Melon Mambo, Always Artichoke, Daffodil Delight and Concord Crush Classic ink pads
  • Eyelet border punch
  • Piercing tool, template and mat
  • Always Artichoke Seam Binding
  • Stampin’ Dimensionals
  • Big Shot and Fun Flowers Bigz L die
  • Crystal Effects

In THEORY, I said – after all, we all know there is no such thing as too many stamps.  Not enough room to store your stamps, yes, this is possible.

If you look closely and compare today’s card with the previous Raining Flowers card, you’ll see many of the same elements – the Fun Flowers Bigz L die, Crystal Effects, and Two-Step Stampin’ – but these are very different cards.  Of course, there are no pancakes in this post, so this card suffers by comparison, but that’s just the way the Ricotta and Mango Stuffed pancake crumbles.

I’ve gotta stop thinking about those pancakes.

It’s Raining Flowers

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What a perfect name for a stamp set!


It's Raining Mambo Flowers

  • Raining Flowers and Fabulous Phrases stamp sets
  • Whisper White, Melon Mambo and Early Espresso card stock
  • Pocketful of Posies Designer Series Paper
  • Baha Breeze, Melon Mambo and Early Espresso Classic ink pads
  • Medium Jewelry Tag punch
  • Big Shot; Two Tags Bigz and Fun Flowers Bigz L dies
  • Early Espresso 1/8 inch taffeta and Rose Red Seam Binding ribbons
  • Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stampin’ Sponges
  • Crystal Effects

Don’t forget – Designer Series Papers are on sale this month – buy 3 packages and get one free!

Speaking of free, Raining Flowers was one of the many free stamp sets I brought home from convention (talk about excess baggage – next year I’m bringing an extra suitcase!).  It’s a Two-Step Stampin’ set, but even better, the various pieces coordinate and layer really well together.  It’s almost like Stampin’ Up! MEANT TO DO THAT!!  (I know.  What a concept.)

Speaking of things I’ve been meaning to do, I finally got my two bites (ok, three) of pancakes.  My son has been on the mainland for a month and he flew home yesterday.  To celebrate his return home, the two of us had breakfast at Longhi’s this morning.  A couple of weeks ago, Mr. Maui Stamper and I had breakfast there, and he rejected my suggestion that he order Longhi’s famous and perhaps even more fabulous Ricotta and Mango Stuffed Pancakes.  Mr. Maui Stamper cares about his health, and I care about my waistline, and neither one of us could justify an entire plate full of such decadence.  But I wanted some of those pancakes, so I convinced my son that we should go out to breakfast this morning since his dad is now away.  Of course, I would be happy to order for him.

I have been anticipating those pancakes for two weeks, and when our server told us we had JUST (by 3 minutes) missed breakfast I was in shock.  I told him how much I’d been looking forward to those TWO BITES of pancakes, and he returned in a couple of minutes to say the chef wouldn’t mind making us an order of Ricotta and Mango Stuffed Pancakes.  WOW!  Did that ever make my day!

Would you like to see the pancakes?

Longhis Ricotta and Mango Stuffed pancakes

Look carefully…there are two forks.

I had exactly 3 bites and my son polished off the rest no problem.  They were DIVINE.

Exploring Wisteria Wonder

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How can you not love a color with Wisteria in its name?

Wisteria Wonder In Color Class project
Wisteria Wonder fills a real gap in the Stampin’ Up! color palette, and I know I’m not the only person who is happy about that.  I wanted to explore how each of the 2011-2013  In Colors coordinate with the Stampin’ Up! color families, so I came up with a set of classes that will explore each of the colors in turn.  Guess which one will be first?

This first class will be Wednesday, August 10 and will feature this note card set (made with the Easy Events stamp set) and two other projects.  Cost is $10, and you can RSVP at my Online Store.  Just click on the event in the calendar on the landing page, and it will take you to the class description and a big ol’ RSVP button.  Hope to see you there!

Color you can learn to love

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Some things just need a little time to grow on you:

Best Friends Forever in More Mustard

  • Best Friends Forever and Teeny Tiny Wishes stamp sets
  • Whisper White, More Mustard, Lucky Limeade and Island Indigo card stock
  • More Mustard, Lucky Limeade, Cherry Cobbler and Basic Black Classic ink pads
  • Timeless Portrait fabric
  • Lace Ribbon Border punch
  • Linen thread
  • Regals Designer Buttons

I didn’t like the colors when I first saw this Make and Take card at convention – I’m not a real fan of More Mustard – and I wasn’t sure if I liked that fabric “flag”.  I didn’t finish it in Salt Lake, but brought it home to put together in the relative sanity of my studio.  As I looked at the separate pieces, and then started to put them together, I decided I not only liked the card but I loved the color combination.

Isn’t that life?  I try very hard to be open-minded, but I often struggle with snap judgement.  Mr Maui Stamper, on the other hand,  seldom makes quick judgements.  I think that’s why we’re so fabulously compatible.  We’ll come home from an evening out together and have completely different perspectives on who we’ve seen and what we’ve heard.  It’s not as though we were at two different events, but we have different insights.

Marriage is a lot of work, but it’s a wonderful thing.  You can learn to love it, too.