Bring on the candles

Posted on March 29, 2014 by mauistamper

My son turned 20 earlier this month. His birthday coincided with the start of a fabulous spring break trip sponsored by the university, so he has only seen his card recently. I’m pretty sure he’s not a regular reader, but I didn’t want to spoil the surprise in the rare event he checked in.

I got a little carried away…yes, there are 20 candles.

I hope you like my candle flames! They’re cut from the end of the stem from the Bird Builder punch. The candles themselves were hand-cut and are primarily Soho Subway DSP with a little Early Espresso and Island Indigo thrown in for contrast.

The cakes are floating on sheets of Window Strips. They’re hand cut, too. This was for my son, after all!

I made little packages and put them on the side of the card with dimensionals. Honestly, I go through a LOT of dimensionals. I quit worrying about it a long time ago – about the time I figured out they cost just over a penny apiece. Seriously.

The other side has balloons:

The “strings” are held in place with Glue Dots. If you decide to make one of these cards (and I hope you do) trust me in this, you need Glue Dots. Just open up a fresh box and knock yourself out. I use a pokey doodle to pull them off the roll, but a bamboo bbq skewer works really well too.

Since my handsome son is away at school, I had to mail this card, and it required a custom envelope. I used to dread making custom envelopes, but not any more. The Envelope Punch Board is my BFF.

I didn’t use any bulky embellishments (such as buttons) so I just needed a little extra postage for the weight of all the extra card stock. I made the envelope on the roomy side since the card is thicker than usual.

Stamps: Make a Cake, You’re My Hero, Perfect Pennants
Color Palette: Island Indigo, Crushed Curry, Early Espresso, Calypso Coral, Very Vanilla
Accessories: Oval Framelits, Window Sheets, Bird Builder, Small Oval, Corner Rounder, and 1/2 inch circle punches, Early Espresso 1/8 inch taffeta ribbon, Island Indigo Bakers Twine, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Weekly Deals March 25 to 31, 2014

Posted on March 25, 2014 by mauistamper

This week’s deals are top shelf!! Core’dinations paper – in assortments – is a MUST HAVE, and I have used every design in the Soho Subway AND the This and That Epic Day DSP packs – they’re that good!If you live on Maui and have an order under $70 I’ll be glad to place your order as an add-on to mine to keep your shipping costs down. I’ll be ordering on Sunday – let me know if you’d like to join me.

And these digital designs are perfect for spring…get your crafty going!

This is the last week of Sale-a-bration, and the 25th Anniversary “Best of” series is also bowing out on March 31st. Click HERE to see the 25th Anniversary sets; click HERE for the SAB brochure.

You can DIY – Order ONLINE!

Lovely Sale-a-bration

Posted on March 23, 2014 by mauistamper

Time to be honest: I almost didn’t order the You’re Lovely stamp set available through Sale-a-bration 2014. I got hung up on “You’re Lovely”. I mean, really? Who says that? If you know me even a little, you’re probably laughing your head off imagining me saying “You’re lovely” with a straight face.

But of course I did break down and get it, and here’s what I did:

Stamps: You’re Lovely and TBA*
Color Palette: Crisp Cantaloupe, Chocolate Chip and Very Vanilla
Accessories: Soho Subway DSP, Very Vanilla Seam Binding, Stampin’ Write markers, Scallops TIEF, Deco labels framelits and the Big Shot, Stampin’ Dimensionals

*The “TBA” part is one of my Lazy Stamper tricks. I keep a stash of cards with no sentiment. When I get caught short on time (or more likely, last-minute-forgetful) I can run through my stash, quickly add the appropriate sentiment – ie “sorry I forgot your birthday again” – and off we go.

I used a marker this time to color in the image – usually I choose the Aqua Painter because it seems to give me more control, but I was feeling daring.

I’m glad I ordered this stamp set!

This is the last week for Sale-a-bration. It officially ends on March 31st, and in Hawaii it ends at 7:50pm when you account for the time difference. If you haven’t placed an order yet, you’ve got a week to put it together and choose your free product – click HERE to see the whole SAB brochure.

There’s one other thing to consider. During Sale-a-bration, Stampin’ Up! sweetens the pot when you choose to become a demonstrator. The cost is still $99, but you’ll choose extra product – a total of $150 worth of product, to be precise. Once you’re a demonstrator, you’ll have access to All Stampin’ Up!, all the time. This year, new demonstrators even get a free convention registration – and I can guarantee you’ll have a good time! There’s no financial obligation besides purchasing the kit and the kit is made up of items you choose – the product is completely up to you. And no matter where you live, you’ll become a Maui Stamper!

Becoming a demonstrator provides an immediate 20% discount on Stampin’ Up! products. It can be a vehicle for providing extra income for your family, or just enough extra to support your craft habit. There’s no pressure to make it one thing or another – that’s completely up to you.

One of the things that has kept me firmly planted in my Stampin’ Up! experience is the quality of the product and the commitment the company makes to the demonstrators. Our support is outstanding, and I am very proud to be a representative of this company. If you’d like to join me, I’d be honored to tell you more about it. If you’re ready to start now, click HERE! And welcome to the family 🙂

Coffee and the ColourQ

Posted on February 27, 2014 by mauistamper

Recently I’ve been cruising through a variety of challenge blogs. I’m not consistently participating in any particular challenge, but it seems that a good one really gets the creative process going. What makes a good challenge? Well, my simple definition is that when I look at it I’m inspired! Ha!

Here’s my version of this week’s ColourQ challenge:

A while ago, I ordered the Soho Subway DSP on a whim. When I opened the package I was disappointed – the papers looked pretty unattractive to an island girl. But recently I pulled them out again and took a second look, and I’ve totally changed my mind. (Memo: keep your eyes peeled mid-March after Son of Stamper’s birthday. I think you’ll really enjoy his card!)

Here’s the inspiration posted on the ColourQ blog:

I knew instantly that the card base would be Crumb Cake (aka Kraft) and the Basic Black would be an accent colour. (What the heck, let’s spell it with the u today, shall we?) I went looking for DSP with either Summer Starfruit or Cool Caribbean – well, the Cool Caribbean is long gone – I was looking for Pool Party. When I found that Summer Starfruit tone-on-tone paper I knew I’d hit the jackpot.

The Perfect Blend stamp set should have been on my very first order for this catalog, but for some odd reason it wasn’t. It’s not that I don’t like coffee – I am a total junkie, and also perhaps a teeny tiny bit of a coffee snob. I guess that was the problem: I don’t like drinking my coffee out of to-go cups. I like glass, ceramic, pottery…but not plastic, styrofoam, or cardboard.

Apparently I’ve managed to get my nose out of the air on that count and it’s a good thing, because this stamp set was a blast to play with. I stamped the image 3 times for each cup – once on Whisper White, once on Pool Party and once on Crumb Cake. Yes, I fussy cut them, and it was worth it. Please note the words “you” and “me” from the Fabulous Phrases stamp set. Again, I was inspired and those words came to mind immediately when I visualized this card, but Fabulous Phrases only had a “you” stamp. I got really crafty though (see what I did there??) and used the end of “welcome” and my Black Stampin’ Write marker. Brilliant, if I do say so myself!

You could make this card with the Perfect Blend stamp set, any DSP, and a Neutrals card stock assortment – plus a couple of colorful scraps. I’ll bet you know someone that needs this card.