Still Sailin’

Posted on May 18, 2011 by mauistamper

While I had the Sail Away stamp sitting on my awesome crafting desk (thanks, honey!) I made one more card:

Sailing Away and Thank You Kindly stamp sets
Whisper White, Poppy Parade and Marina Mist card stock
Early Espresso Classic ink pad
Marina Mist and Poppy Parade Classic ink refills
Aquapainter
Early Espresso Baker’s twine

Don’t you love that twine? It’s mail-worthy!! Stampin’ Up! calls it Bakers Twine, but I think it looks pretty nautical, and I’m sure it will find a spot on many cards. As will this sailboat, which has turned out to be much more fun than I anticipated.

Funny thing, but I’m not a huge fan of the wind. I know it doesn’t make much sense to rapsodize about the romance of sailing when you don’t like wind, but contradiction is my middle name. However, I would never wish the trade winds away because if you don’t have trades you have icky sticky humidity. I just want those trade winds to be reasonable…gentle and soothing and cooling, not gusting and blowing sand and dirt and my hair every which-a-way. Is that so much to ask?

A Majestic Tree

Posted on March 26, 2011 by mauistamper

This tree is my favorite. I still love the retired set Branch Out and I don’t know if I’ll ever get rid of mine, but the tree from Thoughts and Prayers is really majestic. I confess to being something of a tree hugger, and though I love all types of trees I am especially fond of trees with a big, umbrella shaped canopy – just like this one:

Thoughts and Prayers and Thank You Kindly stamp sets
Very Vanilla, Always Artichoke, Not Quite Navy and River Rock card stock
Always Artichoke and Not Quite Navy Classic ink pads
River Rock Stampin’ Write marker and a Blender Pen
Big Shot and Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing folder
Jumbo brads in Pewter and Vanilla 3/8 inch taffeta ribbon

This card also uses my VERY favorite color combination – blue and green. We re-painted a number of rooms in our home as part of The Renovation, and almost every can of paint was blue or green. As a matter of fact, our bedroom is now River Rock with an accent wall in Not Quite Navy. Seriously.

This was another card in the Manly Card series, and though I did sneak in a little smidgen of ribbon you’ll notice there’s no sissy bow. It’s a manly Tie Your Tie sort of knot. The tree is easy to stamp in two colors if you use an ink pad to color the leaves and then remove excess ink from the branches with a Blender pen and color the trunk and branches with a marker.

I am still putting things away in my fabulous new crafting space, and am discovering that I have kept a lot of STUFF. Getting rid of things you don’t need any more is a wonderful feeling. Crafting in this room is a total joy, and sometimes I stop mid-project just to look around me. It’s pretty sweet.

Thanks, cupcake!

Posted on February 10, 2011 by mauistamper

Despite the chaos and the noise, I’ve found a little time to craft:

Thank You Kindly and Create a Cupcake stamp sets
Cupcake standard wheel
Whisper White, Rose Red, Pink Pirouette and Early Espresso card stock
Rose Red and Early Espresso Classic ink pads; Early Espresso Stampin’ Write marker
Rose Red Seam binding
Build a Cupcake punch
Big Shot and Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing folder

These were quick and fun – I did about 20 of them in about an hour and a half. The cupcake bases are textured with the Lattice folder and the top is cut from Pink Pirouette – I only used Create a Cupcake for the sprinkles on the frosting. I punched the cupcake pieces from narrow strips of cardstock that I fed through the punch to minimize waste and I glued all the pieces down with Tombo the Wonder Adhesive. The cherry is punched out of Rose Red cardstock and the stem is quickly brushed with the marker.

If I was feeling like an over-achiever I would watercolor those cupcakes along the bottom, but I’m not so I won’t. Who’ll know?

Punchin’ up some new blossoms

Posted on January 9, 2011 by mauistamper

Wow – do you love the new mini? The 2011 Occasions Mini has such cool new products – and product suites – that I’ll be inspired for weeks. Thank goodness for the demonstrator discount 🙂

One of my first purchases was the Blossoms Petals punch. I love flowers that stand up off the page but I confess that hand-cutting them out gets tiresome. This punch does the work for you, and there are enough different shapes that you can create all sorts of blooms:

Thank You Kindly stamp set and Music Notes standard wheel
Whisper White smooth and Pirouette Pink textured card stock
Play Date Designer Series paper
Pirouette Pink, Pretty in Pink and Rich Razzleberry classic ink pads
Stampin’ Sponges, Brights Designer Buttons, and Hemp Twine
Blossoms Petals punch, Stampin’ Around Wheel Guide

I used the sponges to add some texture to the flower petals with Pirouette Pink and Pretty in Pink ink. I’m starting to like the Hemp Twine for these buttons, too – I’ve used Linen Thread in the past, but when I ran out of thread I switched to twine. I like the bulk in the knot, and since that button isn’t going to pass the USPS quarter-inch test I figured I might as well go for broke. And I think I made a good call on the Wheel Guide – it’s hard to fake it when your lines of music are wavy.

These soft colors seemed to beg for a pop of color, and I started with a little Daffodil but it just wasn’t enough. Razzleberry was the solution – and the button and the “thanks” are the same color in person.

I’m gradually resuming my “regular” schedule. My middle daughter is home through the end of this week and then off to spend the semester abroad in Spain, so I’m enjoying these last few days together. It was an absolutely gorgeous beach day today and we were all lazy as can be, reading books and watching the whales. Yesterday was the opposite – we did the Piiholo Ranch Zipline! I’ll share photos of that soon.

Check out this mini for yourself and see if you can resist all these goodies!