Re-creating a Maui Stamper Classic

Posted on June 9, 2017 by mauistamper

Sale-a-bration 2016 inspired a card that has become my all time favorite. Because the stamps were available for such a short time, I made a few different versions but then moved on. I’ve watched every catalog for a suitable replacement, and when I spied Flirty Flowers in the 2017-2018 Annual Catalog I knew I had a good possibility.

Stamps: Flirty Flowers, Sunshine Sayings, Timeless Textures
Color Palette: Very Vanilla, Blushing Bride, Flirty Flamingo, Sahara Sand, Soft Suede
Accessories: Linen Thread, Stampin’ Write Markers

There’s a time commitment in cutting and stamping this card. It’s not a good candidate for mass production, but it’s a great project for relaxing and enjoying the creative process.

It’s really enjoyable to mix and match textures, images and colors to create a unique card. My original design using the Sale-a-bration stamp set Field Flowers was done in yellow tones, but I also created one in pinks and another in blues. The monochromatic palettes tie together an otherwise chaotic collection of images.

I tried this one with Fresh Fig and Sweet Sugarplum. There are things I like about it, but it’s definitely a different vibe.

In all honesty, I think Flowering Fields was a once-in-a-lifetime set of stamps. I’d love to know what you think – please leave me a comment with your thoughts.

And just for the record, here’s the original Flowering Fields cards in Crushed Curry and So Saffron. It was CASEd many, many times, and I am very grateful to those generous crafters who acknowledged my design. If you CASE a card, please give the original artist credit. Thanks.

Flowering Fields, continued

Posted on April 11, 2016 by mauistamper

My favorite combination appears to be your favorite as well! Thank you for your generous comments about what I’ve come to call the Flowering Fields Tile card. I continue exploring new color combinations with this design.

This version is Soft Sky with Pool Party. One of the things Stampin’ Up! does well is create tonal pairings in their color spectrum. I’ve stayed with Very Vanilla card stock and Sahara Sand ink and paper as my foundation. The Flowering Fields images can be used singly or in repetition, and I don’t copy from card to card, so each one is slightly different from the rest.

If you don’t enjoy coloring, this isn’t the card to make. I like to color, and because the tiles are small (1 3/8″ x 1 1/8″) if one tile doesn’t please me, I throw it out and start another. It’s only paper.

This version is Calypso Coral and Blushing Bride. I miss Crisp Cantaloupe, the retired In Color from last year. It was an ideal pairing with Calypso Coral, but I try to keep my published work current. It’s bad enough that I’m still featuring this retired Sale-a-bration stamp set!

My greens are Pear Pizazz and Old Olive, and the sentiment and Flowering Fields images are stamped in Soft Suede. The Timeless Treasures backgrounds are stamped in Sahara Sand using the stamping off technique.

You might not notice it unless you were really studying the card, but I have a slight obsession with trying to get the floral images AND the backgrounds balanced. It involves a lot of muttering and staring and shifting, and I have no one to blame but myself.

It’s time to move on to current stamp sets, but I wanted to share this last group of cards to demonstrate the impact of color. Enjoy the creative process, and thanks again for your kind words.

Weekly Deals – a good week to stock up!

Posted on March 8, 2016 by mauistamper

As Sale-a-bration nears the finish line, the Weekly Deals come through with stash-worthy goodies:

Basic Black Bakers Twine #134576 ~~$3.00~~ $2.25

Bow Builder Punch #137414 ~~$18.00~~ $13.50

Color Me Irresistible Specialty DSP #138439 ~~$13.00~~ $9.75

Handpicked Framelits #138439 ~~$25.00~~ $18.75

Rhinestone Jewels #119246 ~~$5.00~~ $3.75

I don’t know about you, but I think your average 6-year-old would be THRILLED to find a package of Rhinestone Jewels in an Easter basket. Talk about a hip Easter Bunny. Go on, be a hero.

It would be easy to get to $50 with a selection of these Deals, and then you could purchase the Flowering Fields stamp set – the clear mount version is listed as low quantity on the Inventory Status Report, and I’d feel so badly if you missed it! Shop HERE.

This card and the Blushing Bride version have proved to be very popular and have already been CASED. I’m very grateful to those of you who linked back to The Maui Stamper – and for the few that did not, there’s always time to edit your post. It’s the right thing to do whenever you CASE (Copy And Share with Everyone).

Enough sermonizing. Be sure to stop back on Thursday afternoon (3pm HST) for the RemARKable Blog Tour!

Watercolor wash

Posted on February 28, 2016 by mauistamper

I’m not a classically trained artist – SURPRISE – but I pay attention to trends and try to pick up simple techniques. One thing I’ve learned is that watercolor paper makes a big difference when you are, well, watercoloring. A couple of weeks ago I played with watercolor wash:

Stamps: Flowering Fields, Tin of Cards
Color Palette: Whisper White, Island Indigo, Daffodil Delight
Accessories: Aquapainter, Stampin’ Write markers

I started with the watercolor paper and played with the wash. If you look closely at the card above, you’ll see that I held it upright before the water had soaked in, and it created a little river of yellow through the blue. Color theory: yellow + blue = green.

When I trimmed the panels down to make cards, the color was too close to the edge. That just means I’ll have to make more in order to try again.

The sentiment on this card is from the Wetlands stamp set, and I used my Uniball White Gel pen to add some accents to those flowers. These are simple cards – you could make a batch in one afternoon. I like to make them without sentiments and set them aside until I need them. I can customize with the sentiment and font that matches my purpose.

Experiment a little! It’s just paper {wink}.

Blushing Flowering Fields

Posted on February 22, 2016 by mauistamper

I think I am officially obsessed with the Flowering Fields stamp set available through Sale-a-bration. I’ve done a number of variations on the same theme – the most recent one is in Blushing Bride:

Stamps: Flowering Fields, Timeless Texture, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Color Palette: Very Vanilla, Blushing Bride, Pink Pirouette, Melon Mambo, Rose Red, Sahara Sand, Old Olive, Pear Pizazz
Accessories: Linen Thread, Stampin’ Write Markers, Uniball White Gel Pen, Wink of Stella

I love coloring in these images with my Stampin’ Write markers. Sometimes I use the fat, brush end, and sometimes it’s the pointy writing end, but either way it’s something I find relaxing.

I mix and match the backgrounds from Timeless Treasures – it’s one of those sets I know I’ll reach for again and again. And speaking of reaching for something, my Wink of Stella brush is always on my craft table these days. I’m thinking of getting one for my bathroom too – don’t you think a little {wink} would be just the thing for those too-early-Monday-mornings?

Here’s how I start…the backgrounds are stamped off and I do 3 of each one. My tiles are 1 3/8″ x 1 1/8″ and I have to stamp twice, but I’ve found it easy to line up the images by eye.

Once I have a set of images I like, I move them around until I find a sequence that pleases me. The rest is just Fast Fuse (and a bow with the Linen Thread, but I’ve done hundreds if not thousands of those and it’s No.Big.Deal.)

Here’s the original. Keep your eye out – there are more to come!

Flowering Fields

Posted on January 28, 2016 by mauistamper

This is turning into my favorite stamp set from the 2016 Sale-a-bration catalog:

Stamps: Flowering Fields (SAB 2016), Timeless Textures (clear and wood mount), And Many More (clear and wood mount)
Color Palette: Very Vanilla, Sahara Sand, Old Olive, Pear Pizazz, Crushed Curry, So Saffron, Soft Suede
Accessories: Linen Thread, Stampin’ Trimmer, Stampin’ Write Markers, White Gel pen

I stamped all the Timeless Textures backgrounds first. Most of them were stamped off (inked, then lightly stamped on scrap paper, then stamped onto the project). I added the Flowering Fields images with Soft Suede and then hand colored them. I’m really getting into hand coloring.

If you look at the image in the top left corner, you’ll see the White Gel pen highlights. I find so many uses for that pen, and I’ve learned to keep a brand new one as backup. Maybe it’s the warm Maui weather, but I find they dry out before they are used up. I used to do all kinds of crazy things to make them last longer, but I finally gave up. They’re $4. I’m worth it.

The Maui Stamper

papercrafts, my stories, and the occasional insight

Tag Archives: Flowering Fields

Re-creating a Maui Stamper Classic

Flowering Fields, continued

Weekly Deals – a good week to stock up!

Watercolor wash

Blushing Flowering Fields

Flowering Fields

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