Circles and lines

Posted on May 17, 2014 by mauistamper

I can’t remember much of high school geometry – I was good at math, but I didn’t enjoy it – but I do love playing with shapes.

Stamps: Oh Hello (retiring)
Color Palette: Basic Black, Whisper White and Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: 1/8 inch Black Taffeta ribbon, Cute Clips, Kaleidoscope DSP, the Big Shot and Circles Framelits, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I love using Basic Black and Whisper White (or Basic Black and Very Vanilla) as a foundation for my color palette. Change out the contrasting bright color and change the feeling of the project! This DSP is from Kaleidoscope, which is retiring, as is the Black/Vanilla combination in Modern Medley – my favorite 2013-2014 DSP.

I used a Post-it® note to mask the words and stamped that fabulous chevron image from Oh Hello above and below them. Don’t try to do both sides at once. Trust me.

Now that’s geometry I can love.

Call me a Tissue Box Dork

Posted on February 9, 2014 by mauistamper

Really. I love creating tissue box covers.

This one is pretty simple because it’s for the Manliest Bathroom in the house. (It’s generally the SANDIEST too, but that’s a story for another day.) I found this gorgeous Basic Grey grid Designer Series paper in the new Kaleidoscope assortment from the Occasions catalog. When you see the rest of the patterns, you’ll think there must be a mistake – but really, it’s there!

It’s the last one on the right – the one rolled over the top. Huh.

Anyway, the other night I was in one of those twitchy finger, I don’t know what I want to do, what-should-I-make kind of moods. D’you ever feel that way? I walked down the hallway and looked into the Manly Bathroom and thought TISSUE BOX. (I know. You probably would have done the same thing.) It didn’t take long from that point.

Once I decided to use that fabulous grey grid the colors fell into place. The embellishment was kind of tricky. Remember, this is a MANLY bathroom. Flowers are out. (In fact, the ribbons may be viewed suspiciously.)

I used the Rosette Bigz XL die and made a very short, manly rosette. (Is that an oxymoron?) I stacked buttons and brads and paper circles, using dimensionals – and a fair amount of hot glue – to create some height. I dug out my stash of ribbons to find the right colors. That gorgeous Basic Black/Basic Grey wide satin ribbon is still on the Clearance Rack, my friends!

I can’t tell you exactly why I enjoy these so much. They’re pretty simple to construct. It’s fun to play with color combinations. It’s a challenge to assemble the right assortment of embellishments. When you’re finished, you have a pretty box for your tissues. I think there’s more to it than that, but I haven’t figured out exactly what it is. I guess it’s just a mystery.

If you’d like to make one of your own, there’s an easy-to-follow tutorial over at SplitCoastStampers. Have a good time!

Cheery Ellies for a Grey Day

Posted on January 27, 2014 by mauistamper

Crushed Curry is a perfect antidote for grey!

Stamps: Zoo Babies and Happy Hour
Color palette: Crushed Curry, Basic Grey, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Stampin’ Dimensionals, Basic Grey Striped Ribbon (Clearance Rack!), Kaleidoscope DSP

Yes, even on the Valley Isle we have the occasional grey day. The cheerful Kaleidoscope Designer Series Paper was the inspiration for this card, and the super-simple layout encouraged me to take an extra step with the elephants.

The two background Ellies are stamped using the “stamping off” technique – ink your rubber, stamp lightly on scrap paper, and then stamp onto your project. The featured Ellie is stamped with all the glory that a Firm Foam Ink Pad (FFIP) offers, then trimmed out with my paper snips and lifted up with Stampin’ Dimensionals.

I stamped the ear a second time with Crushed Curry, trimmed it out and adhered it to the card with another Dimensional. Dimensionals are like Magic Wands!! They make all sorts of fabulous things happen. However, this ear looked a little funny flying off Ellie’s head.

The solution was a super-thin line of Tombo (the Wonder Adhesive) to make the front side of the ear stick to Ellie’s head just as God intended!

If you had told me when I began stamping that I would absolutely NEED all of these different adhesives I would have probably laughed in your face. What did I know then? Adhesives make the paper crafting world go round.

Hope your day is sunny and bright!