Five Stamping Favorites For One Card

By | April 17, 2016
0 Comment

An Elegant Cuppa

It’s the Little Things

Here’s a Kate Spade inspired card sporting five of my favorites for papercrafting.

  • the little bow in classic black
  • the wide black and white stripes from the Timeless Elegance Designer Series Paper
  • the classic style gold tone bow paper clip embellishment
  • large polka dots softly impressed in Blushing Bride card stock
  • gold heat embossing

Together they add up to an elegant card expressing an endearing sentiment: coffee and time spent with friends.

Just Stamp Tips

Stamps

Too many favorites, too little time: The Occasions Catalog is packed with stamp sets, papers, embellishments and tools that will soon be unavailable. If you’re a hot beverage fan, be it coffee or tea, there’re no better stamp sets than Balloon Celebration and A Nice Cuppa.  I borrowed from both, and tossed in a wee sentiment from Hello Life.

Paper

Timeless Elegance offers Victorian style roses, vintage lace, mod graphics, bold stripes and elegant dots. All in neutral black and Very Vanilla. Love.

Embellishments

The Bow Paper clips are stylishly functional. Back them with card stock cut to fit and they add an accessorized style. 24 clips for just 5.50. Deal!

Tools

Cups and Kettle Framelits dies coordinate with A Nice Cuppa, and offer some bonuses: the coffee mug and the cutlery. The Bow Builder punch creates a classic bow in two clicks. Easy peasy perfection.

Retiring List

On Monday at 1 pm Stampin’ Up! will release the list of products that will be removed from the current catalog to make way for new products coming in June. Click here to see the list.

Suggestion: If you spot items you want, order on-line right away. Items will sell out quickly.

Shopping List

Click on any item below to take you to my Stampin’ Up! store.

 

Heat Embossing: VersaMark + Powder = Wow!

By | April 13, 2016
1 Comment

ShineOnStarburstBirthday

My first experience with heat embossing and an embossed image is still fresh in my mind. Way back when, my rubberstamping dealer showed me a folk art style doll image that had been stamped and embossed in black (circa 1994). It was a lone, unfinished project but I was in awe! I was swooning.

Then my mentor showed me “how to.” OMG! I was beside myself as the embossing powder melted with the heat gun and the image appeared almost magically. Wowie, wow, wow!

I smile because most newbies have the same experience. That’s just the nature of the heat embossing technique. One technique can deliver a great punch.

In fact, today’s project wears only ONE stamped word. But it’s no shrinking violet layered above the equally impressive thinlit-cut “happy.” This happy birthday card screams joy, and it’s very simple to produce.

ShineOnStarburstBirthdayCU

Project Stars

Paper

Lots of awesome products produced the card. The Shine On Specialty Designer Paper with the silver elements shout “Bam!” This paper, found in the Occasions Catalog that runs through May 31, has six double-sided designs. On one side, silver foil designs shine for a brilliant effect. On the other side, there are neon bright shapes and patterns. Hence, it needs to be mounted on solid card stock—in my opinion. I layered the cloud pattern on Kraft cardstock, and also grabbed the thin diagonal line pattern for the whacked-up sunburst. It’s layered on a silver foil sunburst that’s been rotated just a smidge to peek out. I added three silver balloons.

Stamps

The embossed “birthday” is one of the 33 stamps in the Crazy About You stamp set. Yes. Thirty-three stamps. Even more exciting is that it is part of a bundle that includes the “happy” thinlit, plus three others. This is a DEAL!

Tools

Framelits, thinlits, punch. No more needs to be said.

Embellishments

One lone strand of white twine is attached to the biggest balloon floating off to finishing off the project.

One Last Thing

The layout is my loose interpretation of Mojo443.

Screen Shot 2016-04-12 at 6.22.40 PM

Whoops! One More Last Thing!

Check out the FINAL offering of Weekly Deals. You will find the selection here.

To find out more about the project products, click on any image below.

 

 

 

Blooming Thank You With Botanical Gardens Suite

By | April 11, 2016
0 Comment

BotanicalBloomsTY2

One Stamp Set, Two Looks

Stamps and tools should offer lots of options when you invest in them. The Botanical Gardens suite meets the criteria.

Today’s project, a thank you card, again uses Botanical Blooms and the coordinating framelits. However, today I added two additional framelits to create an alternate look:  the single tea cup die from A Nice Cuppa  as a vase to arrange the flowers in and the Striped Scallop Thinlit to create a lattice background. Mossy Meadow and Hello Honey cardstock (retiring) make an encore appearance, but today’s design delivers an English cottage flavor instead of a tropical feel. Here’s the tropical feel.

BotanicalBloomsTY

I like both. I also like the fact that I finally used the Striped Scallop Thinlit purchased months ago. What held me back? I don’t know because I love it. The scallops work upside down, right-side up, side-to-side …

Just Stamp Tips

  • The Precision Base Plate and Big Shot Die Brush come to the rescue in cutting and releasing the scallop thinlit from the Whisper White cardstock.
  • The Wisteria Wonder and Rose Red blooms were die cut, daubered (is that a verb?) and shaped using a bone folder and stylus for dimension.
  • The thank you sentiment is stamped on the small heart print Wisteria Wonder DSP from the Have a Cuppa paper stack. I used VersaMark to ink up, then heat embossed using white powder.
  • Basic Pearls add the finishing touch.

BotanicalBloomsTY2b

Supplies are listed below. Click on any image to hop to my Stampin’ Up! store.

Once These Colors Are Gone, They’re Gone!

By | April 9, 2016
3 Comments

BotanicalBloomsTY

Retirement is Approaching

Good-bye Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow! Be warned. Some of the colors in Botanical Gardens will be sent off into retirement come May 31. Hello Honey and Mossy Meadow, both found in the Botanical Gardens DSP, are part of the 2014-2016 In Color Collection that will retire. Once these colors are gone, they’re … well, GONE. That means ink pads, refills, designer papers, embellishments, accessories … everything … will no longer be available after May 31.

Here’s another warning: Many products sellout as soon as the Retirement List is published. This year, the List will be released on April 18. This means some of the products will NOT be available until the May 31 date posted on the catalogs. When they sell out, they’re gone.

Today’s Project

Not only am I bringing birthdays back, I’m trying to bring Thank You back.  Today’s card is a nice way to express thanks.

 

BotanicalBloomsCrop

 

I based my layout on Mojo Monday sketch 442.

Screen Shot 2016-04-09 at 12.11.00 PM

The mix of colors and florals in the Botanical Gardens suite creates a dreamy tropical papercraft. Everything in this suite offers endless possibilities for cards and projects. The photopolymer stamp set is perfect for spot on stamping precision.  The Botanical Builder Framelit Dies eliminate fussy cutting stress to produce flowers, leaves and a cool border. And the Botanical Gardens DSP steps up to make color choice easy. The suite will take you through summer in creating cards for all occasions.

Just Stamp Tips

The sentiment and contrasting layered circles were cut using the Circle Collection Framelits. It’s wonderful that you can produce 10 sizes of circles with one framelit set versus 10 punches that could quickly brake the bank.

There was no need to fussy cut the Mossy Meadow leaves and tropical flowers; the Botanical Builder Framelit Dies do the job in a couple passes through the Big Shot.

Vellum creates a soft, transparent layer between the texture of the wide jute ribbon and the popped up sentiment circle.

Stamping veins and spots on the leaf cut-outs adds more dimension.

Click here to shop for the suite and retiring products.

 

Create 9 Easy Cards in Just Two Hours

By | April 6, 2016
0 Comment

AprilClass

Sending hand-made paper greetings is getting easier and cheaper by the day thanks to my upcoming All Occasions Cards class on Saturday, April 18.

Here’s the Easy

In just two hours, we’ll create thank you, birthday and thinking of you cards that your recipients will love. Based on a recent Paper Pumpkin kit, the designs are clean, simple and a tad trendy. There’s the easy.

Here’s the Cheaper

On April 10, the cost of sending a “real” greeting card will actually decrease. Yes! In what the U.S. Post Office is calling a historic turn of events, the cost of mailing cards and letters will drop from 49 to 47 cents.

No More Excuses

Let the tradition of sending hand-made paper greeting cards that goes back to the ancient Chinese thrive. Producing the hand-made cards is easy when you join this class. And now it’s even cheaper to cover the cost of the postage stamp.

Click here to reserve your spot. Seating is limited.

Final Week to Snag Free Sale-A-Bration Favorites

By | March 27, 2016
0 Comment

If you love free stuff, you’ll want to act quickly to take advantage of the best promotion of the year — Sale-a-Bration ends on March 31. For every $50 in product you order, you earn a free Sale-A-Bration pick. Here are my top favorites this year.

 

SAB_botanicals1

Botanicals For You Stamp Set

Party_Pants

Party Pants Stamp Set

Honeycomb Happiness

Honeycomb Happiness

2nd_Release_2

Metallics Glitter Tape

Click here to see all the choices or to place an order on-line. If you spend $100, you earn two picks. Spend $150 and you earn three picks, plus $15 in Stampin’ Rewards. Don’t delay — Sale-A-Bration ends Thursday. If you need help, please contact me. I’d love to hear from you.

 

Tags Week: Easter Lamb with Hello Life

By | March 23, 2016
0 Comment

Easter Lamb Tag

I love tags! One step down from greeting cards, tags are no doubt my Number Two most needed papercraft.

Today I combined the sweet Easter Lamb with Hello Life. Admittedly, it’s my first time inking up the largest image of Hello Life. As you can see, I only PARTIALLY inked it. Love the “happy.”

Just Stamp Tips
Start with a 2-inch strip of card stock and punch with the simple Ornate Topper punch. Next, stamp the lamb to create a horizontal tag. Then, it’s easy to selectively ink with photopolymer stamps. I used my Versamark pad, then sprinkled white embossing power on the card stock. Petite background posies from the Number of Years stamp set are inked and embossed the same way to create the base layer of the tag.

The lone lamb becomes the black sheep with the Archival Basic Black pad used to both stamp the image, and watercolor it with the Aqua Painter. I added strokes of Wink of Stella Clear.

Easter Lamb Tag Crop

 

One adorable Bow Paper Clip backed with Watermelon Wonder ties the coordinating Envelope Paper for a bright pop of color.

Supply List
Click on any image to order or get the details.

Join me for a relaxing break to create some greeting cards.

Hello Sunshine!
All Occasion Cards Class

041616Class

  • date: Saturday, april 16, 2016
    time: 1-3pm
    place: Studio 5425
    price: 15.00
    rsvp: April 10, 2016

Class fee includes materials to create 9 cards and adorable coordinating envelopes. Click here for more details and to RSVP.

Happy Spring! It’s Tags Week at Just Stamp

By | March 21, 2016
0 Comment

BunnyTags

The first day of spring introduces Tags Week at JustStamp. It’s the perfect time to showcase tags since Easter baskets need to be crafted this week.

Just Stamp Tips
Paper
Corrugated Paper  is a new item in the Share The Fun catalog, page 148. The cardstock-weight paper with the crimping makes a sturdy base for a tag. The package includes two colors: white and Kraft. My favorite is the Kraft, but the white comes in handy for textured clouds and icing.

Tools
Cucumber Crush card stock become blades of grass with the help of Fringe Scissors. For the best results, open the scissors and insert the card stock to the center of the cutting blades.

Handpicked Framelits make the Happy Easter sentiment pop up from the grass.

BunnyTagWithCarrot

I’d love to hear from you. Add your comments by clicking on the Comments link at the top of the post.

Here’s the supply list. Click on any image to hop over to my Stampin’ Up! store.

Teeny Tiny Wishes Clear-Mount Stamp Set
$27.00
Sprinkles Of Life Photopolymer Stamp Set
$21.00
Kraft And White Corrugated Paper
$7.00
Cucumber Crush 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock
$7.00
Whisper White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Cardstock
$8.50
Have A Cuppa Designer Series Paper Stack
$8.00
Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad
$7.00
Cucumber Crush Classic Stampin’ Pad
$6.50
Tempting Turquoise Classic Stampin’ Pad
$6.50
Melon Mambo Classic Stampin’ Pad
$6.50
Daffodil Delight Classic Stampin’ Pad
$6.50
Scalloped Tag Topper Punch
$23.00
Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack
$17.00
Large Oval Punch
$16.00
Extra-Large Oval Punch
$18.00
Fringe Scissors
$10.00
Handpicked Framelits Dies
$25.00
Cucumber Crush 1″ Dotted Lace Trim
$6.00
Very Vanilla Thick Baker’s Twine
$3.50
Melon Mambo 1/4″ Cotton Ribbon
$6.00
Honeycomb Embellishments
$5.00
Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker
$3.50