It’s time for a December Calendar……

…and I’ve turned to For The Birds one last time:

Maui Stamper 2015 Easel DIY Calendar December

After this year I’ll have to find a new favorite – I was so sorry to see For the Birds retire.

I used the treetop from Lovely as a Tree and positioned a sticky note to create a mask, allowing me to vary the height of my trees.

Maui Stamper 2015 Easel DIY Calendar DecemberA little smudge of Smokey Slate with the Aqua Painter gives my skater a little color to stand out from the snowy Whisper White background.

And a heartfelt Happy December to you all.

Visit Cheryl and Crystal to see how they’ve finished out their 2015 calendars!

Sweet Birds for the First of June

June’s Easel calendar is one last look at the retiring set For the Birds:

Maui Stamper June 2015 Easel CalendarIf you saw the RemARKable Blog tour in May, you’ll remember that I featured this stamp set.  It’s ideal for coloring with colored pencils.

Sweet Birds for the First of JuneSuch happy little birds!  If it wasn’t for Captain Stupidhead, I would have a bird bath in my yard.  Come to think of it, he’s gotten so old that he doesn’t even look when they are on the lawn 6 feet in front of him.  Maybe I’ll go bird-bath shopping…

Please take a look at what Crystal and Cheryl have done for the Merry Month of June.  And happy crafting!

It’s RemARKably hard to say GOODBYE

Welcome to the May 2015 RemARKable Blog tour, where we explore all things GOODBYE.  I’ve chosen to focus on the Stampin’ Up! 2014-2015 catalog retiring list, and I’ve based my projects around one of my favorite all-around stamp sets, For the Birds:

Maui Stamper For The Birds RemARKable Blog Tour May 2015This is a (sort of) Clean and Simple card.  There’s just one image, and there are no sentiments, but there are multiple layers.  It’s a very quick card to assemble and employs one of my favorite card-making tricks:  have plenty of cards on hand with NO SENTIMENT.

Maui Stamper For The Birds RemARKable Blog Tour May 2015I could add Miss You, Sorry, Love You, Thinking of You, even Happy Birthday – or Happy New Baby in a real pinch!  (It’s a nest – get it?)

Maui Stamper For The Birds RemARKable Blog Tour May 2015If you’re lucky enough to have Blendbilities, For the Birds is a great choice because of the detail and variety, but today I chose to use colored pencils.  If you’ve ever had a kid in grade school, you more than likely have colored pencils in your house.  Even if there are no kids, colored pencils are inexpensive and working with them is easy and generally trouble free.

Maui Stamper For The Birds RemARKable Blog Tour May 2015With this much magnification, you can see the shading, but the general effect is much more subtle.  If you see a few fuzzy bits in that top left corner, your birdie-eye has spotted bits of the white jute ribbon cut apart and tucked behind the image.

Maui Stamper For The Birds RemARKable Blog Tour May 2015For the Birds Clear #126407  $24.95  Wood #132001 $32.95

Maui Stamper For The Birds RemARKable Blog Tour May 2015I must confess that when I spotted this DSP from the Back to Black (retiring) collection I did a little happy dance around my studio.  FEATHERS.  Need I say more?

Maui Stamper For The Birds RemARKable Blog Tour May 2015Look closely and you’ll realize that I am no rock-star-pencil-colorist.  But I do find it relaxing and enjoyable to play with shading and color, and this stamp set is a great all-around addition to your stamping birdhouse!

Enjoy the tour – I love the unique manner with which everyone interprets the theme – and I’ll see you here next month.  Head over to see what Heather Mathiesen has created!

Maui Stamper RemARKable Blog Tour Goodbyes

 

Love my birdies!

Tomorrow is the RemARKable Blog Tour.  I’m featuring For the Birds, and I have a little sneak peek for you today:

Maui Stamper For the Birds

  • Stamps:  For the Birds, Dictionary (both retiring)
  • Color Palette:  Night of Navy, Real Red, Whisper White, Basic Black
  • Accessories:  Colored Pencils (non-SU), All is Calm Washi (Clearance Rack), Stampin’ Dimensionals

This image is intentionally a little stark – I think it adds to the feeling of missing someone.  That washi tape was serendipitous, as in my mind it looks quite USPS-y.  (That’s a word because I wrote it out and that makes it so.)

Maui Stamper For the BirdsDon’t be afraid of coloring pencils – they’re very easy to use and the colors are very forgiving.  Plus there’s always an eraser.  Really, I should use pencil more often.

Be sure to stop back tomorrow afternoon for the RemARKable tour!

Maui Stamper RemARKable Blog Tour Goodbyes

Blendabilities: Part II

I’m experimenting more with Blendabilities, the awesome new alcohol markers soon to be available to customers (and available NOW to demonstrators!)  I wanted to explore how they function purely as coloring tools.  I put them to the test with one of my favorite line art stamp sets:

Maui Stamper Blendabilities for the Birds

  • Stamps:  For the Birds, Work of Art
  • Color Palette:  Daffodil Delight, Costal Cabana, Basic Black, Whisper White
  • Accessories:  Basic Black 1/8″ Taffeta Ribbon, Coastal Cabana Thick Twine, Stampin’ Dimensionals, and Blendabilities in Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Coastal Cabana, Rich Razzleberry and Cherry Cobbler.

Just as I did with my flower from a few days ago, I stamped my image a few times and then played with the Blendabilities.  I love to color!  I just wanted to see what would happen with different colors and approaches.

Maui Stamper For The BIrds with BlendabilitiesMaui Stamper For The BIrds with Rich Razzleberry BlendabilitiesMaui Stamper For The BIrds with Daffodil Delight  BlendabilitiesMaui Stamper For The BIrds with Costal Cabana  Blendabilities

The short answer is that these markers are a coloring delight.  I didn’t attempt to shade “within the lines” but used a single color for each defined space.  I did use the light, middle and dark tones of the markers to create contrast, in this case between wing and body.  No streaking, beautiful, even coverage, and gorgeous color.  I’m hooked.

Woo Hoo! Its Two!

blog-tour-pinworthy-300Welcome to this month’s tour.  The big news in these parts is that one of my favorite people in the whole wide world is expecting…TWINS!  She’s RemARKable in so many ways – as a matter of fact, if you are following this Pin-Worthy tour in sequence, you’ve just come from her blog.  I’m ruining the surprise factor, but today I’m going to share a bit of the decor for her baby shower.

Maui Stamper PinWorthy Blog Tour It's TwoA party begins with invitations and I’ve made TWO.  These are designed to have the details on the back.  Crystal has chosen bright colors for her nursery, and I chose Bermuda Bay and Calypso Coral tones for these projects.

Maui Stamper PinWorthy Blog Tour It's TwoThe li’l Giraffes are stamped in Pool Party and Crisp Cantaloupe, and are corralled in our new On Film (LOVE!) framelits.  There are so many awesome new framelits available in the Occasions catalog that it’s tough to choose – thank goodness for Sale-a-bration 🙂

Maui Stamper PinWorthy Blog Tour It's TwoLove this Retro Fresh DSP – it coordinates with EVERYTHING.  These little birds – from the For the Birds stamp set – are seriously under-appreciated.  To keep these really versatile, I didn’t use a “Shower” sentiment, so these cards could just as easily be announcements or thank you notes.

Maui Stamper PinWorthy Blog Tour It's TwoI quickly colored the wings and tails with markers, then used the Aqua Painter for a light wash over their little birdie bodies.  Check these out – I’m telling you, For the Birds is a sleeper.

The second Party Sneak Peak is the banner.  Gotta love those new banner framelits too!!  Yes, you can hand cut your own banners.  Yes, it’s not that hard.  But cranking them out with the framelits gave me 13 IDENTICAL banners and you know that’s not easy to do by hand!  So worth it…

Maui Stamper PinWorthy Blog Tour It's TwoThe message is loud and clear, don’t you think?  And I had such fun embellishing each banner.  I used a lot of Retro Fresh DSP, plus embossing folders, buttons, ribbon – if I could reach it I used it!

Maui Stamper PinWorthy Blog Tour It's TwoI used the Natural Trim to string my banner, both for the color and the fact that the texture helps hold things firmly in place.  And if you know me, you’ll know those buttons are actually sewed on with Linen Thread.  It had to be done.

Maui Stamper PinWorthy Blog Tour It's TwoEach letter from the Timeless Type Sizzlets is mounted on an embellished circle from the Pennants Bigz die.  I kept them uniform and relatively uncluttered to tie the message together since each banner was unique.

Maui Stamper PinWorthy Blog Tour It's TwoI’m telling you, it was a lot of fun to embellish all of these!  Definitely Stand-Up-Stamping.  (Do you stand up?  I think we need a club.)

Maui Stamper PinWorthy Blog Tour It's TwoThe new Bigz Spiral Flower die is getting a lot of action in my craft room.  You can adjust the tightness of the spiral to give you an entirely different look each time, or even (as I’ve done here) add a big ol’ pearl to the middle.

If you’ve held off on making a banner because you thought it would be too hard, hold off no longer!  The letters don’t have to match – mix-and-match is a great look.  It’s a great way to use up scraps and bits, and although it might turn into a treasured memento, I view it more as an in-the-moment kind of project.  Enjoy it for today, or this week, or even a month, and then replace it with something new!

Hope you’ve enjoyed this stop on the RemARKable PinWorthy tour.  Time to head over to see what Audra has created this month.  Thanks for checking in!

RemARKable PINworthy Blog Tour 2014

Sweet Thoughts

Sometimes simple is best, but it can always use a little twist:

Maui Stamper handmade card For the Birds

  • For the Birds and Summer Silhouettes stamp sets
  • Whisper White and Smoky Slate card stock
  • Smokey Slate FFIP
  • Pink Pirouette Stampin’ Write marker
  • Pink Pirouette 3/8 inch taffeta ribbon
  • 1 3/4 inch circle punch
  • Corner rounder punch

I cut the Whisper White card to 4 x 5 1/4 inches and mounted it on a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 inch square of Smoky Slate.  Just a little twist!

Here on Maui it’s been so hot and HUMID the past week or so.  I can’t think about fall at all.  And I’ve got red and green all over my craft room, but I’m not quite ready to share that.  Soon, though…in the meantime…

Maui Stamper handmade card For the BirdsI love this technique.  It’s so simple.  I used a punch here, but it’s easy to do with framelits, too.  And framelits have so many shape options!  Just for the record, I punch first, make tiny pencil dots at four points on the inside of the card (around the punched space), then stamp.

For the Birds is an overlooked stamp set.  Give it a second look!

Stampin' Up! For The BirdsClear mount #126407 $24.95

Wood mount #132001 $32.95

 

June on a wire

I love birds.

I love hearing the cardinal first thing in the morning; at dawn the male is always at the top of the Cook Island Pine across the street from my house.  On a perfect day, it’s his “Good Morning” that wakes me up.  If I’m too sound asleep (read: stayed up way too late stamping) then I miss his song, and it’s the shrill, repetitive call of the Francolin that shatters my dreams.  Either way, it’s a pleasure to lie in bed for a few minutes listening to all the diffferent bird voices as the day begins.

Maui Stamper June 2013 calendar

  • For the Birds Stamp set
  • Crumb Cake, Daffodil Delight and Pool Party Stampin’ Write markers
  • Pool Party FFIP
  • Stampin’ Sponge
  • Simply Scored
  • Borders Scoring Plate

The first time I stamped this design, I used the stamp just as is….but the wires that the birds sit on started and stopped in the middle of the calendar page and it bothered me.  I added the sponging to make it seem more complete but I was just kidding myself.

Then my Simply Scored Borders Scoring Plate arrived in my pre-order from the Spring Catalog (I LOVE GETTING PRE-ORDERS.)  It had the perfect curves to make edge-to-edge wires!  I scored them first, then without moving the guides ran the Crumb Cake Stampin’ Write marker in the score lines to further define them.

Every once in a while, I amaze even myself.