SALE-A-BRATION Is Here!

Sale-a-bration is Stampin’ Up’s biggest promotion of the year! Between January 28-March 31, for every $50 of Stampin’ Up! product that you purchase, you can choose one free exclusive gift from a choice of thirteen items included in the Sale-a-bration brochure. What exactly are these items? 

First there are four great stamp sets available. Banners are really hot right now and check out the seven cute banners in the Banner Blast set. In addition there is a little star, flower, and heart! These banners are a perfect fit for the Banner Punch (which is also available as a SAB choice) or they can be easily snipped with paper snips.

Petal Parade has fun flowers, greenery, some scallops and a neat feathery chevron.

How cute is the See Ya Later stamp set with four different graphics and really fun sentiment combinations? These combinations can be used individually or together in lots of different ways!

Last is the You’re Lovely set which would make a “lovely” label for a card or other project. Plus it coordinates with the Deco Labels Framelits Dies.

To see all the free items available during the SAB period click on the Sale-A-Bration brochure on the right of this blog. 

Here is a card that I made with the Banner Blast stamp set!

This card was made in honor of my fabulous Stampin’ Up! upline Brian King. This week I found out that Brian had once again been recognized by Stampin’ Up! for the great job he is doing as a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator. Congratulations Brian!! You TOTALLY deserve it! 

I then decided I should make a congratulations card and the Banner Blast set seemed perfect! I looked for a Designer Series Paper to use on the card. DPS is great to use on cards because once you find a paper you automatically have all of your colors! I selected the new Retro Fresh paper that is on page 19 of the Celebrate the Everyday catalog. I LOVE this paper. I love all the fun arrows and the great colors! I thought Brian would like it to. (After all doesn't he have on a Coastal Cabana shirt in his avatar?) I punched out the Banner Blast images with the Banner punch that is also available as a free SAB gift but you could also use some paper snips. 

I thought the congratulations sentiment from the Sassy Salutations set went great with the banners. I used the Banners Framelits Dies to create the flags on the sentiment piece. Though my piece is much narrower that the largest Banner Framelit I was able to use the Framelit to create just the flag tip on the sentiment and on the DPS layer under it. You could also create the flags with paper snips.  

Supplies Used:

• Stamp Set: Banner Blast (133551 wood -133554 clear); Sassy Salutations (132070 wood - 126707 clear)
  
• DSP and Cardstock: Retro Fresh Designer Series Paper (132993); Coastal Cabana (131297); Baked Brown Sugar (131296); Tangerine Tango ( 111349); Very Vanilla (124301)
  
• Ink: Coastal Cabana (131175); Baked Brown Sugar (131174); Tangerine Tango (126946); So Saffron (126957)
  
• Tools: Banner Punch (133519); Banner Framelits (132173)
  
• Accessories: Linen thread (104199); Brights Candy Dots (130931)

To order click on the ordering tab just under the header above. You can email me privately with any of your papercrafting questions or ask them in a comment below!

Banners Framelits Video!

Several weeks ago I posted a card I made for the birthday of my wonderful Stampin' Up! upline Brian King. The card contains a crown made using cardstock and Stampin' Up's Champagne Glimmer Paper, which I cut using Stampin' Up's new Banners Framelits. These Framelits are on page 27 of the new Celebrate the Everyday Catalog. (You can see a PDF of this catalog along the right side of this blog.) They are designed for making banners but can be used for many other things. For the crown I made I used the three smallest Framelits. These Framelits coordinate with a new stamp set called Pennant Parade. The Framelits and stamp set are available individually or together in a bundle. Here is a video showing the Framelits and the Pennant Parade stamp set being used on a gift bag but you could just as easily use the same pieces on a card or to decorate a package. 






The Celebrate the Everyday Catalog is full of lots of other fun papercrafting products. Check out the super cute Word Bubble Framelits dies and the coordinating Just Sayin' stamp set on page 36. These would be great on any papercrafting project. If you don't have a demonstrator and would like a hard copy of the Celebrate the Everyday Catalog send me an email and I will get one in the mail to you!

To order click on the ordering tab above just under the header. You can email me  with any of your papercrafting questions or ask them in a comment below!

Quick and Easy New Year Card

I have a great, fast solution for those of you who really wish you had sent holiday cards but had too many constraints on your time during such a busy season. More and more people are waiting until after all the holiday hustle and sending New Year cards - and what could be easier than a New Year card with a My Digital Studio (MDS) template. All you have to do is insert a picture and you are done!! You can send it to Stampin' Up!'s Print Services or print it on your own printer. More information about using MDS is available on my previous blog post Chalkboard Christmas or by clicking on the My Digital Studio tab under my blog header. Here is a card that was made using the Hello New Year Postcard Template.

This template creates a 5X7 double-sided card. The sample pictured is made using Pool Party and Pumpkin Pie "ink" but in MDS these colors can easily be changed to any of Stampin' Up!'s colors. If you think you might like to give MDS a try you can download a trial version, good for 30 days, for free. You can then purchase the Hello New Year Postcard Template (or any of the other available downloads) and create and print projects. After 30 days you can decide whether you want to purchase the software for $19.95. Either way you still own all of the downloads you have purchased. MDS downloads can also be used in other software applications such as Photoshop Express. The Hello New Year Postcard Template can be purchased in the Stampin' Up! store.

To order click on the ordering tab above just under the header.  You can email me with any of your papercrafting questions, including MDS, or ask them in a comment below!

Happy New Year!

I recently saw a card that used the Stylish Stripes embossing folder with random skinny strips of Silver Glimmer paper. I loved it! What a great idea for any card that calls for bling. I couldn't wait to use it on a card and the New Year seemed like a perfect occasion! When I thought of New Year and silver I also thought of Midnight Muse. Here is the card I made.

I randomly adhered various thicknesses of skinny strips of Silver Glimmer paper into some of the grooves of the stripes. I found that varying thicknesses and random application of the strips made for a more visually pleasing element. (Which is a good thing since, for me, it is almost impossible to cut the strips exactly the same thickness!) While many embossing folders, like Wildflower Meadow, have a clear direction, others, like Chevron have no specific direction or like Square Lattice, have no direction at all. Also, while the look will vary, they generally can be used with either side up. You need to remember this when planning your cards. I had my card basically designed in my head but when I started to assemble the card I discovered a problem. I wanted to make a horizontal card with three party hats and assumed that the stripes would work fine with that design - but when I began to assemble the card with the side I wanted to use up, I noticed that the stripes flowed from the upper left to the lower right. I did not like that look, especially with the addition of the Sliver Glimmer paper.  I wanted the stripes to flow from the lower left to the upper right. I am not clear if it really would make any difference but it did for me! I finally decided I could create the illusion I wanted by using two pieces of embossed Whisper White and cutting the pieces into three sections and splicing the pieces to make one horizontal piece. I used thin strips of Midnight Muse to visually create the three sections and cover my seam. I realized two things after the fact. One, to add a little more bling, I meant to use Shimmery White cardstock instead of Whisper White but got totally distracted by the stripe issue (darn!); and two, I could have cut my finished embossed "piece" into three sections, shave a little off each piece where the sections would join and then mount them to an additional piece of Midnight Muse. That is an idea for next time!

Even in MDS, Stampin' Up! has an extremely limited selection of New Year stamps and none fit with my design so I created an MDS text box that said "Happy New Year!" in a font I liked. I printed it in MidnighttMuse "ink" on Whisper White cardstock.

I have some good news and some bad news for you. First, the good news is that tomorrow is the launch of the new Celebrate the Everyday Occasions catalog. I plan to post a PDF on the right side of my blog once it is available. The catalog contains lots of exciting new stamps, Framelits and accessories that I will be showing you over the next few months. Now the bad news. With the exception of the carryover items (see the carryover PDF on the right of this page), today is the last day to order from the Holiday catalog. This includes the Stylish Stripes embossing folder that I used here and which is not carried over. I really like that folder and find it to be very versatile. If you would like to have it you need to place an order today!

Hope you have a wonderful New Year!!

Supplies Used:

• Stamp Set: Pennant Parade (Clear-Mount 122742) (Wood 128697)
• Cardstock: Midnight Muse (126843); Whisper White (100730)
• Ink: Midnight Muse (126860), Versamark (102283)
• Tools: Stylish Stripes Embossing Folder (132174); Postage Stamp Punch (122344); Petite Pennants Punch (122361); Owl Punch (118074)
• Accessories: Clear Embossing Powder (109130); Basic Rhinestones (119246)
• Font: Viner Hand ITC

To order click on the ordering tab above just under the header or email me if you prefer. You can also email me with any of your papercrafting questions or ask them in a comment below!

Merry Christmas!

Wishing you a Wonderful Christmas and a great rest of the year!!

Here is a card I made with MDS using the Welcome Christmas stamp brush set, Festival of Prints and First Edition digital DSP. I was able to easily change the color of the stocking, ornament and star and add an outline of digital stitching to the Very Vanilla cardstock layer. You can't really tell from the photo but I added a touch of Dazzling Details to the star making this a hybrid project! Experimenting with an MDS trial version might be a great activity to pursue if you have some downtime this holiday season. 

Please email me with any of your papercrafting or MDS questions or leave them in a comment below.  

Chalkboard Christmas

Chalkboard is very hot right now in graphic design. Once you look for it you will see it everywhere. This look can be easily created with paper and ink. Earlier this year my upline, Brian King, showed how to create some great cards that contain chalkboard elements. You can see that blog post here.  Recently I saw a cute chalkboard Christmas sign and decided to do something similar for my Christmas card. Last year I made my cards with Stampin' Up's My Digital Studio (MDS) and was very pleased with the results so it seemed like a great way to do my cards again this year. With MDS I had all the "supplies" I needed, literally at my fingertips and I was able to create my card in a few hours! Plus once I had it created there was no craft area to clean and I could print as many copies as I needed, either through Stampin' Up's Print Services or on my own printer! If you have not considered using MDS in your papercrafting you should! Yes there is some learning involved but you can download a free trial if you want to test it out and Stampin' Up has produced almost 100 short instructional videos, each focusing on one small aspect of MDS. You can click on the My Digital Studio tab above to see these videos. If you think you might be interested I would encourage you to look at the Getting Started with a Card video first.  I think this video will give you the best introduction to MDS whether or not you are a card maker. After that you can check out MDS Overview and Getting to Know MDS.  A detailed list of FAQs will give you lots of good information. Stampin' Up! has tons of digital downloads and introduces new ones each week (see the link on the right side on this page for the most recent downloads) plus MDS comes with plenty of content to make lots of great projects right from the start.

Here is the card I made. 

A chalkboard look can be created in MDS simply using Basic Gray digital cardstock and white digital ink but digital chalkboard is also available from a number of places. Stampin' Up! has a chalkboard background in three of its digital download kits (Convention 2012 Photobook Template; Back to School and Hello World). You can purchase one of these kits and use the chalkboard that is part of the kit or if you know how, digital chalkboard can easily be made in Photoshop or similar software and saved as a JPG. Once you have it as a JPG you can use it in MDS, just like any other element. That is how my chalkboard element was made. I then cropped a piece to the size I wanted and created text boxes with the words merry and Christmas in white "ink". Some of the fonts I used appeared chalk-like from the start. For the others, MDS allows you to easily reduce the opacity of the "ink" creating more of a chalk look. For text MDS uses the fonts already on your computer. If you want more there are tons of additional free fonts available on the Internet for download. I then added a star and a tree trunk from two stamp brush sets (as they are called in MDS) that came with the software. I placed my finished chalkboard on a digital Cherry Cobbler background and added digital DSP. If you would like to try experimenting with digital chalkboard I will be glad to email you a copy of the JPG I used. Just email your request to cottagepapper@bellsouth.net.


Supplies Used in MDS:

• Stamp Brush Sets: A Holly Jolly Christmas (star); Holiday Blitz (tree truck)

• Cardstock and DSP: Cherry Cobbler; Festival of Prints Digital DSP; Christmas Cocoa II Digital DSP; First Edition Digital DSP

• Ink: Whisper White

To order click on the ordering tab above just under the header. You can email me privately with any of your papercrafting questions or ask them in a comment below!

A Royal Birthday!

Today is a special day and to celebrate this special day, three of us are participating in a blog hop. What's so special about today you ask? Well, it's Brian King's birthday! Brian is our Stampin' Up! upline and "King" of our "InKing Royalty Team". We hope that you enjoy our little blog hop dedicated to Brian as he celebrates his special day. I'm number 2 in the list; the full blog line-up with links to all of our blogs is listed at the bottom of this post. I hope you'll click on each link to see the special cards that we've made for Brian. And, when you're done, you may want to check out Brian's blog. He always has something amusing to share with his readers.

When I started to think about a card for Brian I immediately thought it should have a royal theme. I thought a crown would be a good choice. Stampin' Up had a great stamp set called You Rule! that contained a crown. Though the set is retired it is still available as a digital download but Brian had made a fantastic card with that set and I knew I couldn't improve on it. Then I thought about possibly creating a crown with punch art. After looking at my punches I didn't see anything that I thought would work but then I thought of the Banners Framelits Dies that are available from the new Celebrate the Everyday catalog which begins January 4. Demonstrators can order from this catalog early and I had ordered this Framelits set. It seemed perfect! I could cut three sets of three different sized banners and layer them to create a crown. I originally planned to use the Brushed Gold cardstock throughout but then I remembered the Champagne Glimmer Paper (FYI it is cardstock weight even though it is called "paper") and it seemed perfect for the crown. Brian is not a fan of glitter but I think Glimmer Paper on occasion meets with his approval. When I think of royalty I think of deep purple so I pulled out some Elegant Eggplant to use with the Glimmer Paper. I had planned to use the You Rule sentiment stamp in MDS from the set mentioned above and also use another stamp from that set and in MDS create the sentiment  "King, You Rule".  As I was working in MDS I realized I could just use a font in MDS to create the sentiment! I also used the font to print "Happy Birthday" on the inside of the card. Here is my card.

The next stop in our blog line up is Lynn Kolcun at Stamping with Avery's Owlery. Thanks for visiting and be sure to click on the last link and leave a comment on Brian's blog to wish him a happy birthday :-)

1. Kelly DeTommaso at Kelly's Creative Corner

2. Katie Ferguson at Cottage Paper 

3. Lynn Kolcun at Stamping with Avery's Owlery

4. Brian King at Stamp with Brian -- Don't forget to leave him a comment to wish him a happy birthday. 

Supplies Used:

Cardstock: Bermuda Bay (131197); Champagne Glimmer Paper (127885); Elegant Eggplant Cardstock (105126); Brushed Gold Cardstock (102935); Very Vanilla cardstock (101650)

Ink: MDS Elegant Eggplant

Tools: Banners Framelits Dies (available January 4)

Accessories: Basic Rhinestones Jewel Accents (119246); Stampin' Dimensionals (104430)

To order click on the ordering tab above just under the header. You can email me privately with any of your papercrafting questions or ask them in a comment below!