Miss you…

A card helps to make the distance seem a little shorter:

Maui Stamper Holiday House Miss You

 

  • Stamps:  Holiday Home, Gorgeous Grunge, Just Sayin’
  • Color Palette:  Soft Sky, Pool Party, Bermuda Bay, Pear Pizazz, Soft Suede, Chocolate Chip
  • Accessories: Homemade Holiday and Word Bubble Framelits, All is Calm Washi tape

When you live on a small island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, separations happen.  Sometimes they’re short term, sometimes they’re for a long time.  Sometimes I really don’t like them.  Most of the time, I put on my big girl pants and deal with it.

Maui Stamper Holiday House Miss You

Making a card helps.

 

Making Manly Cards

There are a lot of wonderful men in my life, and I like to send cards to them.  But oh, do I struggle to come up with Manly Ideas!  This one is very loosely based on page 109 of the new catalog:

Maui Stamper Hip Hip Hooray

  • Stamps:  Just Sayin’, Hip Notes and Dictionary
  • Color Palette:  Real Red, Basic Black, Very Vanilla and Bermuda Bay
  • Accessories:  Word Bubble Framelits, Mini Silver Brads, Corner Rounder punch

Maui Stamper Hip Hip Hooray

This is for my dad for Father’s Day:  a no-nonsense kind of card for a no-nonsense man.  He doesn’t say a lot, but he ends every phone call with “Love ya, kid” and I know he means it.  I’m looking forward to seeing him and my Mom for a few days before convention.  That’s coming soon!

 

 

Love ya, Blackberry Bliss!

Oooh, have you gotten your hands on the new 2014-2016 In Colors yet?  I mean for reals, not just looking at them on a printed page or a computer screen.  Up close and personal.  Oh yeah… Maui Stamper Tape It Hip Notes

Every year when the new crop of In Colors are released, my first impression is “meh”.  I don’t mean to be cynical, but I just can’t seem to drum up a lot of enthusiasm for colors on a screen.  I faithfully place my order and wait to see what comes, and when I get my hands on them I ALWAYS fall in love.  This batch is no different; they are rich, saturated colors that combine beautifully with our existing colors.

  • Stamps:  Tape It, Just Sayin’ and Happy Hour
  • Color Palette:  Blackberry Bliss, Hello Honey, Rich Razzleberry and Lost Lagoon
  • Accessories:  Apothecary Accents Framelits, circle punches, Candy Dots, Stampin’ Dimensionals and Hello Honey Stitched Satin Ribbon

Maui Stamper Tape It Hip NotesThis simple concept can be re-interpreted so many ways – a geometric base, a label, and a few accents.  Break out something new or maybe dig out something neglected and give it a shot!

More Monster Love

Are you in love with a little monster?

Maui Stamper Monster ManiacsI’m awfully fond of quite a few li’l monsters myself!

  • Stamps:  Monster Maniacs, World Map, Just Sayin’
  • Color Palette:  Crushed Curry, Night of Navy, Garden Green
  • Accessories:  Regals Candy Dots, Big Shot and Word Bubbles Framelits

Maui Stamper Monster ManiacsThese are such fun to color.  I’m still a kid, I guess…I love the coloring part!

Sale-a-bration is in full swing – when you’re ready to place an order, think in $50 chunks to take advantage of all the gorgeous free product available 🙂

Maui Stamper 2014 Sale-a-brationShop HERE!

 

A little Mojo Geometry

This week’s sketch at Mojo Monday had me seeing all sorts of shapes:

Maui Stamper Mojo Monday #333 Just Sayin'

  • Stamps:  Just Sayin’ and Language of Love
  • Color Palette:  Basic Black, Whisper White, Crushed Curry and Bermuda Bay
  • Accessories:  Full Heart Punch, Word  Bubbles Framelits, Kaleidoscope DSP, Crushed Curry Chevron Ribvon, Textured TIEF

The sketch had two large circles, and I was soon thinking about polka dots.  The polka dots morphed into the triangle, and as you’ve surely heard before, that was the end of that 🙂

Maui Stamper Mojo Monday #333 Just Sayin'I’ve used two hearts like that a lot lately and I’m not tired of it – are you?  I particularly like the contrast between the Bermuda Bay and Crushed Curry.  It’s kind of a peanut butter and jelly deal.

Maui Stamper Mojo Monday #333 Just Sayin'When I realized there were two different sides of paper in my package with a triangle motif I almost shouted out loud!  That wasn’t planned but it was a happy surprise for me.

Want to see where this started?

Mojo333SketchI took some liberties with the layout but you can clearly see the inspiration.  The circles wanted to be more towards one edge and once I moved them they seemed quite content.  (Do you talk to inanimate objects?  Please say you do.)

 

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

Retro Fresh Love Ya

It’s not quite a clean and simple card, but it’s close:Maui Stamper Retro Fresh Love Ya

  • Stamps:  Just Saying’
  • Color Palette:  Coastal Cabana, Baked Brown Sugar, Tangerine Tango, Very Vanilla
  • Accessories:  Word Bubbles Framelits, Stripes TIEF, Big Shot, Naturals trim, Full Heart Punch, Retro Fresh DSP, Rhinestone jewels

The Designer Series papers in the Occasions catalog are so richly colored and so versatile!  There were plenty of combinations that I liked, but this one with its rainbow-shaped domes was the Gold Medal winner.  (Admit it, you’re staying up late to watch the Olympics too,)  Punch a couple of hearts, stamp a message and cut it out with a framlit and you’ve got a valentine, anniversary, birthday, or just because card ready to go.

Maui Stamper Retro Fresh Love YaDimensionals rule the adhesive world!  Both the heart and the word bubble get a lift, and that’s a big part of what makes this simple layout work.  The Stripes TIEF makes a difference too – those two elements give my projects that  “Bam!”

There’s a little bit of Baked Brown Sugar (BBS) ink rubbed onto the Naturals trim to darken it and give it the same color tone as the rest of the card.  That trim takes ink really well.  (So do my fingers but that’s not what we’re interested in here.)

Maui Stamper Retro Fresh Love YaDon’t forget it’s Sale-a-bration!  For every $50 in merchandise you spend you earn FREE exclusive Stampin’ Up! product.  Visit the Online Store to choose your favorites.  And thanks!