Takin’ a break from holidays

Posted on September 17, 2013 by mauistamper

Feels as though I’ve been crafting in orange-and-black, red-and-green for DAYS. I needed a change of palette!

Lovely as a Tree, Woodgrain and Express Yourself (hostess) stamp sets
Whisper White, Soft Sky, Gumball Green, Baked Brown Sugar and Marina Mist card stock
Baked Brown Sugar, So Saffron, Soft Sky and Marina Mist FFIP
Baked Brown Sugar and Gumball Green Stampin’ Write markers
2 1/2 inch circle punch
Sponge Daubers
Soft Sky Seam Binding
Distressing tool

Love that distressing tool. I call it the shredder. Most of the FFIP were just a source of ink for the daubers, and I markered the trees.

I used this week’s Mojo Monday sketch – Mojo311 – as the basis for this card. Tomorrow it will be back to designing for classes, clubs and events – but tonight it was nice to take a little break.

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

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!

What could be better? Best of Shelli

Posted on August 17, 2013 by mauistamper

RemARKably, it’s the third Sunday and time for a Best of Blog Tour. The featured set for July is Best of Shelli – you DO know who Shelli is, don’t you?

Best of Shelli 25th Anniversary, Affection Collection and Express Yourself (hostess) stamp sets
Very Vanilla, Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral and Baked Brown Sugar card stock
Crisp Cantaloupe and Baked Brown Sugar FFIP
Big Shot and Hearts A-Flutter Framelits
Artisan Punch
Natural Trim Ribbon
Stampin’ Dimensionals

Each of these images really does say “Shelli Gardner” in my mind. I had a good time stretching my usual sense of style to play with the textures available with these varied images, and of course once you start cutting out flags it’s really hard to stop 🙂

I have a soft spot for typewriters – I’ve got my grandfather’s old Royal in its traveling case. He used to take it on the train every day from Redwood City to San Francisco as a VP for Pacific Far East Line. I vividly remember riding with my grandmother late summer afternoons to the train station to wait for Gramps to get home.

Best of Shelli 25th Anniversary and Trust God stamp sets
Whisper White Craft Ink and Pistachio Pudding and Soft Suede FFIP
Whisper White and Pistachio Pudding card stock
Big Shot and Circle Thinlets Flip Card die
1 3/4″ Circle punch
Bitty punch pack
Pearl Jewels
Tea Lace Doily

This has a TOTALLY different feeling, doesn’t it? If you look closely you’ll see I didn’t bother to align these images perfectly – no Stamp-a-ma-jig this time! I was feeling terribly cavalier and did some “eyeball inking” – imagine that!!

This looks straight onto the Flip Circle portion of the card – you can see how everything is lined up. I trimmed a smidge off the Tea Party doily so that it would fit around the curve created by the thinlet.

Here’s my trick for that two-tone effect. I ran a piece of Whisper White card stock through with the thinlet, overlapping just the last scoring bar. It was easy to line up that folded line on my Stampin’ Trimmer and take the flap off so that I could adhere the back panel to the card base.

Here’s what it looks like flattened out from the front – well, it’s the front of the card and the front of the second page, and the back of the Circle Flip – if you can follow my fronts and backs!

Here’s what it looks like if you flip the “flattened out front” card onto the reverse side.

One more angle for you to see! Although it appears that the front panel is NOT Pistachio Pudding, I assure you that it is. This Thinlet is really fun to play with!

Your next stop, as always, is the Trinity Design Studio – be sure and leave Robin a comment to tell her how much you love her work!

Here’s today’s RemARKable Tour line-up in case you decide to go off-road:

Nancy Amato http://stampinallnight.blogspot.com
Melissa Bolinger http://www.stampinup.net/blog/2089191
Jackie Bottomley http://www.jackiebottomley.blogspot.com
Susan Carlson http://www.stampinmomoffour.blogspot.com
Tamra Davis http://www.thecardladies.com
Lynn Embrey http://www.possibilitiestamperstudio.com
Kathy Hamrick http://www.countryroads.typepad.com
Crystal Kondo http://www.card-ed.com
Deb Lehigh http://thestampinhut.typepad.com
Anne Matasci http://www.MauiStamper.wordpress.com YOU ARE HERE!!
Robin Merriman http://www.trinitydesignstudio.blogspot.com
Andi Potler http://www.absolutekreations.com
Michele Reynolds http://www.inspirationink.typepad.com
Sharon Tisdale http://www.stampinup.net/esuite/home/coveredbridgesstamper/blog
Janet Wakeland http://www.remarkablycreated.com

Convention Swaps: WOW Cards

Posted on July 29, 2013 by mauistamper

I wanted to do another oval card for one of my swaps. It’s fun, it’s easy, it fits in a standard envelope, and you don’t see too much of it.

The technique is simple. You fold a 4 1/4 x 11 inch piece of cardstock in half at the 5 1/2 mark and place the folded side slightly inside of your oval framelit. This works best with our lighter weight cardstocks, Very Vanilla and Whisper White. The framelit will cut cleanly through two layers of these papers, giving you the card base. Once that’s ready, I like to cut another complete oval out of my featured color of cardstock and adhere that to the Very Vanilla card – I use Tombo, the Wonder Adhesive.

Flower Shop and Express Yourself (hostess) stamp sets
Very Vanilla, Pool Party, and Crumb Cake card stock
Epic Day This n That DSP
Bermuda Bay and Daffodil Delight FFIP
Daffodil Delight Seam Binding
Bermuda Bay 1/8 inch taffeta ribbon
Big Shot
Oval Framelits
Honeycomb TIEF
Lattice TIEF
Pansy Punch
Vanilla Smooch Spritz
Dazzling Details
Tombo, the Wonder Adhesive
Stampin’ Sponges
Stampin’ Dimensionals

On August 24th, I’m holding a class to make two of my swaps. We are definitely going to make the Very Vintage card, but I haven’t decided if I should include this card or the Too Kind swap I’ll be posting in a few days. I’d love to hear what you think!