Not quite pink and red

Posted on January 6, 2011 by mauistamper

It feels like it’s been such a long time since I’ve had inky fingers! I have a couple of projects on the desktop that I can’t share quite yet, but here’s a quick and easy Valentine with a different color palette:

Cute by the Inch and Woodgrain stamp sets
Whisper White, Chocolate Chip and Poppy Parade card stock
Baja Breeze and Poppy Parade Classic ink pads
Baja Breeze Seam Binding
Basic Rhinestone jewels and Stamp-a-ma-jig

Will you forgive me for being so fussy as to use the Stamp-a-ma-jig with Clear Mount stamps? I am picky, picky, picky about squares being lined up. I eyeballed the positioning twice and threw the results in the trash twice. Other than getting my squares in a row, this is a very simple card for Valentine’s Day or just to say I love you.

There’s a Whisper White panel on the inside. You can write on Poppy Parade with a dark pen or marker, but I like the clean look that the white panel adds. It has absolutely nothing to do with my vision. Really.

I got a new Point-and-Shoot camera for Christmas, but as you can see, my photos aren’t much better. Operator error, or perhaps just Operator Learning Curve. So much to do and just not enough time in which to get it done!! I shall persevere, I promise – I like taking photos too much.

Perhaps I’ll practice on Captain Stupidhead.

The Clearance Rack

Posted on September 9, 2010 by mauistamper

You know, I’m in the same boat as all of you when it comes to the Clearance Rack. Stampin’ Up! doesn’t let the demonstrators know when they put new goodies up in the Rack for sale, and over the weekend it occurred to me that I hadn’t shopped there for a while. Oh boy, was that ever a mistake! Some of my favorite retired items were there…including the tiny square and rectangular glassine envelopes. Naturally, I had to find a project for them:

Cute by the Inch Stamp set
Early Espresso Classic ink pad; Melon Mambo Stampin’ Write marker
Pink Pirouette, Early Espresso, Melon Mambo and Whisper White card stock
Vellum card stock; scrap retired Designer Series Paper
Scallop Square, XL Two Step Owl and Bitty Punch
Square glassine envelopes $1.99 for 20

I used the Bitty Circle to make a little Peek-a-boo window through the vellum for “hi”.

And another…

Teeny Tiny Wishes and Elements of Style stamp sets
Basic Black Classic ink pad
Whisper White, Basic Black and Pumpkin Pie card stock
White Gel pen; Champagne Mist Shimmer paint
Bat punch; rectangle glassine envelopes $2.49 for 20

Get these envelopes while they last at my Online Store!

A Holiday Mini Sneak Peak

Posted on August 11, 2010 by mauistamper

Robbie is flying out tonight on the red-eye to go to a huge family event in Northern California, and being the amazing and generous soul that she is, she INSISTED I take her brand-new, Holiday Mini Sneak Peak for demonstrators Big Shot die to play with because otherwise it would be lonesome at home. Now that I have it, I may not give it back:

I didn’t intend to do anything more than put this Candy Wrapper Box together so that when Robbie returns, I could show her how to assemble the box. Ha! If you don’t have the Big Shot yet, you’d better change the channel, Cherie. Imagine this in Pumpkin Pie with bats and spiders…in Night of Navy covered with stars and snowmen…in Bashful Blue with that cute little onesie rolled around it…you get the idea.

Cute by the Inch Hostess Level II stamp set
Melon Mambo and Whisper White card stock; Retired Designer Series Paper
Regal Rose Classic ink pad
Big Shot and Candy Wrapper Bigz L die
Pretty in Pink 5/8″ Satin ribbon; Rhinestone jewels
Heat tool; hideously messy non-SU glue
Jewelry tag medium punch, 1″ circle punch

Now don’t go thinking I’m rubbah-dulteratin’ (courtesy of Jan Tink) by using a non-Stampin’ Up! flower. Shannon West showed us these flowers at convention and I’ve been wanting to try them since I got home. I considered taking photos for you but thought I’d better figure it out first…good decision. Shannon used our Sticky Pages to form and hold the ribbon into a flower, and since I didn’t have any Sticky Pagges on hand I decided to use a very sticky clear liquid glue – something similar to what hot glue would be if it were liquid. I won’t name names.

To make the flower, you snip almost all the way through your ribbon at 1/2″ intervals and then use your heat tool to curl up the “petals”. At this point, I discovered my first challenge. Any surface appropriate for holding the ribbon flat in order to blast it with the heat tool was not going to survive the blasting, and my fingers were not either. I ended up warping my old cutting mat (I need a new one anyway, no biggie) because the alternative was holding that ribbon across my lap and believe me, that was not going to happen.

It took a while for the ribbon to heat up, but once it started to curl the edges rolled up quickly and I was on to step 2. I punched a 1″ circle from a scrap of cardstock and covered it with the Glue That Must Not Be Named. Shannon had worked so quickly and smoothly, but she wasn’t dealing with those funny stringy bits of glue – you know the ones. I had to add more and more glue as I worked my way around the circle, mostly because a significant amount of the GTMNBN was at this point stuck all over my fingers. Not only must it Not Be Named, it does Not Come Off of Fingers very well.

The final result is very pretty, especially with that blingy Rhinestone in the middle covering up the messy end bits all covered with GTMNBN. I want to point out that this was my very first attempt at this technique, and I’m sure I’ll get better. I’ll also get some Sticky Pages (#114300, $6.95 for two 12×12 sheets and worth every penny).