Welcome to my Zoo

Posted on September 1, 2014 by mauistamper

September…it used to be all about back-to-school, but most Maui Scholars have been in the classroom for a month already!

I’ll confess that the phrase “what a zoo” entered my mind when I thought about back-to-school. You’ll never see these 3 characters in a zoo!

Stamp set: Zoo Babies
Color Palette: Rich Razzleberry, Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive

Did you notice the banner across the top? I did something I’ve never attempted before…I doodled it.

Take a look and see what Cheryl and Crystal have done with their calendars this month. I’m sure you’ll enjoy our mini-tour!

See ya later, Alligator

Posted on March 30, 2014 by mauistamper

Who wants to see an alligator, anyway?

Well, maybe we can make an exception for this guy!

Stamps: Later Gator (SAB 2014) and Zoo Babies
Color Palette: Daffodil Delight, Gumball Green, Very Vanilla
Accessories: XL Oval punch, Jute twine (My Paper Pumpkin kit), Epic Day This n That DSP

That Epic Day DSP is on sale through Monday night on Weekly Deals and it’s a keeper! Sale-a-bration ends Monday night too – at 7:50pm HST – so if you’ve been waiting for the last minute, never fear, it’s here! Shop ONLINE!

Woo Hoo! Its Two!

Posted on February 13, 2014 by mauistamper

Welcome 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.

A 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.

The 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 🙂

Love 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.

I 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…

The 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!

I 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.

Each 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.

I’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.)

The 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!

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!

Stampin’ with the Maui Stampers!

Posted on August 12, 2013 by mauistamper

Maui Stampers is my blog, and it’s also my Stampin’ Up! group name!

Crystal and I came back from convention loaded with ideas, inspiration and most of all, SWAPS! We wanted to share as much as we could, as quickly as we could, with the Maui Stampers who were unable to make the trip to Salt Lake. We put together a wild and crazy Stamp-a-palooza. I’ve shared a few of the projects but there are just too many to keep posting one at a time, and they’re all pretty simple since we were in production mode. Here are the rest, in no particular order:

I’m just giving quickie info on these – this one is Zoo Babies in Gumball Green, Calypso Coral and Coastal Cabana, with a bit of Epic Day Washi Tape along the back.

This is Toil and Trouble with Teeny Tiny Wishes – it’s hard to see, but the black card base is embossed with the Stripes Embossing folder. That Vintage Button is filled with Black Glitter from the Holiday catalog and I am telling you, that stuff is GLITTERY!!! Mr. Maui Stamper woulda had a fit if I’d brought this out at home, but we were Some Where Else. Thank goodness.

I am IN LOVE with You’re My Hero! It’s not just for kids, either – I have some things to share in another week or so that I think you’re gonna love.

Simply Sketched is a hostess set, and I think it’s a bit of a sleeper. The images are beautiful line art and the sentiments are things you need. I chose Pear Pizazz and Baked Brown Sugar for this sympathy card.

Gorgeous Grunge is another catalog sleeper – and it is SO MUCH FUN!! Just slap on that ink, baby!! There’s a little Witches Brew Washi on this card – Washi is translucent so you can get extra dimension by layering it over a stamped image. The greeting is Label Love – don’t miss the savings on that bundle! And yes, I hand-cut the sentiment to layer it. It’s not that hard 🙂

This last card uses Too Kind, one of the first sets I purchased from the new catalog. I’ve used it for so many things – those big, free form flowers are so versatile and easy to stamp. I do NOT use the Stamp-a-ma-jig on them, much as I love it – these are just Bash and Stamp images! Love that new Tags 4 You set in the Holiday catalog – you’ll see more of that, too. Calypso Coral and Crisp Cantaloupe are the perfect tone-on-tone combo.

And just for fun, here we are:

Stampers and guests! These are brave women – it was a little bit touch-and-go as Ms. Hurricane Flossie tried to rain on our parade. But neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds. Or stamping.

June Paper Pumpkin: Hello to You

Posted on July 9, 2013 by mauistamper

Did you get your Paper Pumpkin for June? If you haven’t signed up, tomorrow (July 10) is the last day for the July Pumpkin – go HERE and say Yes to the Red Box!!

I confess that I added a smidge of ribbon, but otherwise this is the card as designed. Oh. Well, not quite. The example showed it as a landscape card, but I turned it on the side to make it portrait.

The stamps included the Hello to You sentiment (nice masculine font – we don’t see too many of those!) plus the little heart and a big square zig zag (I guess the trendy term is chevron) background stamp used to create the Soft Suede hexagons. (Once a nerd, always a nerd. You can call them honeycomb.)

Initially I thought I would make all the cards the same, but then I started looking at those pukas (that’s Hawaiian for holes) and I realized how much fun it would be to put different things in the openings. Flowers seemed like a natural.