December 2020 DIY: Poinsettia Christmas

Posted on December 1, 2020 by mauistamper

Ah, December. Not what we expected this year, is it? So let’s have some alternative poinsettias, shall we?

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Poinsettia Petals December 2020 DIY Easel Calendar

Stamps: Poinsettia Petals, Celebration Tidings, Forever Fern
Color Palette: Whisper White, Basic Gray, Just Jade, Calypso Coral, Mango Melody
Accessories: The BOSS*, Poinsettia dies, Fluid 100 watercolor paper, Watercolor pens, Vellum, Metallic pearls, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Wink of Stella

* Stamp Cut and Emboss Machine. Which takes a lot of space and typing, so I’m calling it The BOSS.

Poinsettias aren’t just red any more! They’re cream colored and speckled and variegated and even gold, so I don’t see why they can’t be Calypso Coral and Mango Melody! It’s 2020 and the rules are all useless, so I am making my own. So there.

This might have been my favorite month of all of 2020. The watercoloring, the vellum, the swirls and dots, and the metallic pearls all made me feel very in-the-zone, and heaven knows 2020 needs itself some ZONE.

Cheryl and Crystal have December calendars too, so take a moment to see what they have done. And then maybe, in the spirit of the holidays, take another moment to leave them a comment to tell them what you love about their work. Bloggers are funny like that, we like a little bit of attention every now and then.

Or just tell us what new rule you’ve made for 2020! What colors are your poinsettias??

If you’d like to make a 2021 calendar click Contact the Maui Stamper at the top of the page and send me your email. I’ll invoice you $5 and when you’ve paid I’ll email you a pdf of the 12 months of 2021 and a cover to finish it out and make a lovely gift. (I think we will still be making new rules in 2021, so a new calendar is a Very Good Thing.)

If you’re as smitten with this bundle as I am, click HERE to get your own. Thanks.

Hope Changes Everything: Love of Leaves

Posted on August 30, 2020 by mauistamper

This past week I’ve had a number of friends and family members experience changes in their relationship with the Big C: Cancer. It’s such an insidious disease, and when you add in the uncertainty of life caused by the pandemic, things can get a little uncomfortable. I’ve been leaning pretty heavily on HOPE, and made this card yesterday to send to someone dear to me:

Maui Stamper Stampin Up HOPE CHANGES EVERYTHING Love of Leaves

Stamps: Love of Leaves
Color Palette: Very Vanilla, Cinnamon Cider, Cajun Craze, Calypso Coral, So Saffron
Accessories: Stampin’ Cut & Emboss (available September 1, 2020), Stitched Leaves Dies, Stitched Shapes dies, Old World Paper Embossing Folder, Metallic Pearls, Cinnamon Cider ribbon, Gold trim (Forever Greenery Combo Pack), Stampin’ Sponges, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I’ve had the Love of Leaves bundle on my desk a lot recently. We don’t really have autumn leaves here in Hawaii, but some trees do experience an autumn change of color. I love these beautiful shapes and the way they work so well together (it’s what Stampin’ Up! does best!).

I made a huge mess of my ink pads creating this project. I kept pressing stamps with dark ink into the light ink pads without cleaning them – I was really into the process! I’ve found if you use a paper towel to blot the place in an ink pad where the “stain” has appeared, you can generally pull out most of the offending ink. A quick re-ink and the pad is *almost* as good as new.

I was inspired by a card shared on Instagram by the Stampin’ Up! concept artists @stampinup. This color palette is similar to theirs, but not the same. I’d love to see it in shades of pale greens for spring, or even reds and burgundies for December. I guess it’s back to the drawing board!

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Love of Leaves bundle — **# 155195 $47.50 usd**

If you’ve got fall leaves – or a heart filled with hope – on your mind, shop HERE.

Technique Tuesday: Split Card

Posted on July 21, 2020 by mauistamper

You’ve probably seen it – stamp once, split the results, and BOOM! two cards. It’s been on my list of things to try, and today I can share the happy results.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Beautiful Friendship Split Card Technique

Stamps: Beautiful Friendship, Lovely You
Color Palette: Whisper White, So Saffron, Bumble Bee, Cinnamon Cider
Accessories: Stitched So Sweetly dies, die cutting machine, Forever Greenery Trim Combo Pack, Metallic Pearls, Stampin’ Dimensionals

This is an easy technique. In order to make your double card front, you start with a half sheet of card stock, 8 1/2 x 5 1/2 inches. I use a pencil to make a light mark at the 4 1/4 inch point along the top and bottom of the paper. (If you have eagle eyes, you can just see it in this image.) Then just stamp down the middle…

Just like that! You might notice a couple of things: I used two different accent leaves in different colors from left to right, and I smudged on the right. Smudges are not always an insurmountable problem! It depends on the location of the smudge, and this one was easy to cover

The next step is to cut your half sheet of card stock into quarters. This yields two pieces, 4 1/4 by 5 1/2 inches – the perfect size to create a card front!

I love this gold trim – just tie a knot where you want it to stop fraying. It frays all by itself, such a time saver!

This side of the split panel uses Gray Granite ink instead of Cinnamon Cider, so my accessories and accents use that color. The ribbon is retired, and I’m sorry, but I have been waiting since Moses signed up to be a demonstrator for my 1/4 inch Gray Granite shimmer ribbon!! This was in the archives and I dragged it out for this card. I used the Layering Ovals dies for the sentiment on this card.

Adding a little extra color to the sentiment panel helps to tie it together with the rest of the card.

Ready to make your own? Grab some stamps, ink and a half sheet of card stock and have some fun. I used some sticky notes to mask my images, creating a sense of depth, but do whatever it is that makes you happy. Try monochromatic color schemes as I used here, or go big and bold with bright colors. Flowers are a great way to start, but other images will work too. Just a note: I couldn’t come up with a satisfactory card using images of people or animals. They look odd cut in half, and inevitably one side gets stuck with a “back side”.

Maui Stamper Stampin Up Bonus Days Promotion July 2020

Just 10 more days to earn Bonus Days Bucks! Beautiful Friendship is one of my all-time favorite stamp sets for the lushness of the images and the many different types of cards they allow you to create. Shop HERE.

Vibrant Vases: Colour INKspiration #60

Posted on August 12, 2019 by mauistamper

I am just under the wire for the Colour INKspiration #60 challenge! It often catches me because the deadlines are in Australian Eastern Standard Time Zone, and that means it’s a day ahead because of the International Dateline. I should know better – my daughter lives north of Sydney – but even when I do the math correctly I’m often under the wire. But here’s my contribution:

Stamps: Vibrant Vases, Crackle Paint, Beautiful Bouquet
Colour Palette: CI#60 Petal Pink, Terracotta Tile, Pretty Peacock, Blueberry Bushel; also Gold and Whisper White
Accessories: Stampin’ Write markers, Aqua painter, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stitched Rectangle dies, Metallic Pearls, Gold thread (retired)

This is the inspiration image for CI#60. I’ll tell you, these colours are a bit of a challenge to put together! Terracotta Tile and Petal Pink are made for one another, but those other two, well, it was a stretch. This project sat on my craft desk for a few days in pieces.

When I got the idea for the classic Blue-And-White for the vases, things started to come together. I used both Stampin’ Write markers and the Aqua Painter to get shading on the blooms, and used the Aqua Painter for the vases. I intended for it to have that slightly uneven, outside-the-lines look that old china pottery has.