Thinking of You at Christmas

Hi Stampers,

Here's another card I came up with using the new Host stamp set called "Time of Year".  Like my post last week using this set it uses designer paper from last season, but can easily be adapted to use the new DSP in the current catalog (or whatever is in your stash)!

This card really shines with the addition of the Gold Metallic Foil Doilies (these aren't your Grandma's doilies!).  They complement the gold embossing so well, don't you think?  I love the richness of Cherry Cobbler, Old Olive & Gold together.  

Thanks for looking at my blog today.  If you would like to purchase any Stampin' Up! products, please visit my website.

Pat

Last Chance for Free Stamps!

Hi Stampers,

Now is the best time of the year to join the Stampin' Up! family of stampers! Join my team by June 30 and in addition to your starter kit, pick two free stamp sets of your choice! That's $125 worth of catalog products for $99 PLUS free shipping, PLUS two free stamp sets!  You get to choose what you want in your starter kit so if you already have Stampin' Up products, you are free to pick any products to compliment what you already own.  

Getting started as a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator is easy:

• Purchase the Demonstrator Starter Kit for $99 (ships for FREE!)
• You’ll pick out $125 in Stampin’ Up! product of your choice in your kit (any bundles, specials or clearance items are included!)
• In June Only: Select ANY 2 stamp sets as a FREE BONUS with your kit!  (Up to a $104 value!)
• Your kit will also include business supplies & catalogs, should you choose to share your stamping with friends.

The choice to purchase for yourself at a discount or to share Stampin’ Up! with others is your own. There’s no risk or obligation and no requirement to have parties, classes or even place another order.

There are so many reasons to LOVE being a Stampin' Up! demonstrator-

• Discounts on every order you place!  Minimum of 20% off all your own products.  
• Be your own hostess!  Get an extra 10% in freebies when your order reaches $150 minimum.
• Early access to new catalogs!  You'll see new products before everyone else, online and in print.  AND, you get to order before anyone else and start playing with new goodies sooner.
• Support!  Stampin' Up! loves their demonstrators!  Support through their quarterly magazine packed with ideas, online training and videos, phone support, and exclusive online sites to share ideas and tips with other demonstrators.

* Try it and see!   Click here and Join the Fun!  You'll have access to all of these benefits and my personal coaching and support for at least 3 months.  If you have $300 in orders and/or sales during those first 3 months, you'll gain access for another 3 months!  Hobby demonstrators are welcome!  

Let's get Stampin'!  Click here to JOIN NOW!

Christmas Sampler Card

Hi Stampers,

Looking for a way to use some more of your Designer Paper stash?  Here's a card that uses a mix of current products and retired papers.  Quilters, you may enjoy this design - best of all, no sewing required!  Unless you enjoy that kind of thing, lol!

I love all of the designer papers from last season, but on their own, they can be too busy for my tastes-

But cut those adorable little Santa faces into one-inch squares and they are charming!  The stripes are the reverse side of the dsp, so there's very little waste when you make this card.




The greeting comes from the Holly Jolly Greetings stamp set and Christmas Greetings thinlits dies .







The trickiest part of making this card is lining the squares up in a straight grid pattern.  Here's how I did it:



Start by cutting a 3 1/2" square of Real Red cardstock.  Use your Simply Scored tool to create a grid by scoring at 1/8", 1-1/8", 1-1/4", 2-1/4", 2-3/8", and 3-3/8".  Rotate the cardstock 90 degrees and repeat on the second side.  Now your cardstock should look like this:








Use  Tombow Multipurpose Liquid Glue on the back of each square to give yourself a little extra time to position each square perfectly.  Easy-peasy!

I hope you've enjoyed my mini-tutorial.  Now let's get stampin'!

Pat

Getting a Clear Stamped Image with your new Photopolymer Stamps

Woohoo!  The big brown truck just pulled up into your driveway and brought you a box of shiny new photopolymer stamps, now what?  Did you just pull them out of the package and start merrily stamping away?  What, you say something's not right here?  Did you remember to properly condition them before you started?  I didn't think so...

Brand-new photopolymer stamps need a little TLC before they hit the Whisper White for the first time. Don't panic, it's not a big deal, but you will save a lot of cardstock if you take the time to do this little trick.  Ink up your stamp in a light color and stamp it 2-3 times on scrap cardstock then clean it using your Stampin' Scrub & Stampin' Mist cleaner.  Repeat until you are getting a clean, solid stamped image. That's all that's needed.  Here's a great video from Jennifer McGuire that explains a different approach - either one will work great for you.

Enjoy this tip, I hope it saves some frustration for you!

Happy stamping,

Pat

Thinking of You Flip-Flop Card

Hi Stampers,

Have you taken a close look at the six new "Just for Hosts" stamp sets in the new catalog?  They are gorgeous!  I had a play with one of my favorites, "Time of Year".  I'm going to get a lot of mileage from this set.  The main sentiment is Thinking of You, and you have your choice of banners to add to that for Christmas, Birthday, Always, or Time of Year.  Check it out here.

Here is one of the cards I designed using this set for my next Christmas card class.  There may be another name for it, but I call it a flip-flop card.  The designer paper is from last season, but if you don't have any left don't fret, as there is beautiful new Christmas designer paper in the annual catalog that would look great on this card.

Here is the front of the card:

It flips open to the right -

Then the left -

Revealing your greeting inside!

Here are the dimensions if you would like to make your own flip-flop card.  I've listed the Christmas colors I used for easy reference to the photos, but I would encourage you to experiment with your favorite colors!

Card base is Cherry Cobbler, 8 1/2" x 4 1/4",  score the long side at 3"

Crumb Cake mat 4" x 5 1/4"

Poinsettia DSP 3 3/4" x 5"

Striped DSP 1/2" x 4 1/4"

Old Olive 3" x 8", score at 4"

Very Vanilla 2 3/4" x 3 3/4" (cut 2 pieces)

Thanks for stopping by,

Pat

Pop Goes the Flamingo!

Hi Stampers,

Check out the gift bags I made for my class:

I used three of the products in the Pop of Pink Suite - Pop of Paradise stamp set (#141578), Pop of Pink Specialty Designer Series Paper (#141648) and the Pop of Pink Designer Washi Tape (#141649).  The bags are the Kraft Tag a Bag Gift Bags (#138315).  They are the perfect size for a small gift!  The leaves are heat embossed using Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder (#109129).  I was concerned that the bags would not stand the heat, but they embossed beautifully!  Love the flamingo - can't wait to use her again on another project!

You can purchase any of the products in the Pop of Pink Suite here.

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

Swirly Bird for a Dear Friend

Hi Stampers,

I have one more Swirly Bird card to share today:

The swirls are three of the newest In-Colors, Peekaboo Peach, Sweet Sugarplum & Flirty Flamingo. They play well together, don't you think?  The card is matted on Smoky Slate, and the "grungy" dots are also Smoky Slate.  The small stamped swirls are Daffodil Delight, and the leaves are stamped in Pear Pizzazz with a Wild Wasabi vein running through them.  The sentiment is from Birthday Blooms.  The pearls emphasize the definite feminine feel of this card for a dear friend.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you have enjoyed seeing the projects made with the Swirly Bird Bundle and would like to purchase it, click here.

Happy stamping,
Pat

Stampin' Clouds & Kites

Hi Stampers,

Here's another card we made at my last class using Swirly Bird.  Everyone had fun sponging clouds - it's so satisfying!

The kites are so much fun to stamp and cute on their own merits, but they really pop on the cloud background.  Check out my May 31 blog post to see how we made the clouds.  The colors on this card are Peekaboo Peach, Dapper Denim & Daffodil Delight.  The sentiment is from Suite Sayings (#140712).

Enjoy!
Pat

Swirly Bird Celebration

Hi Stampers,

I am in the zone with Swirly Bird, lol!!!  Here's a card we made in class last week that was a favorite. I really like this color combo - Peekaboo Peach, Sweet Sugarplum & Soft Sky.

The base of the card is Peekaboo Peach.  The cute swirls on the right side are stamped randomly in Peekaboo Peach.  Love that tone-on-tone look.  The front of the card is Whisper White.  I die-cut the wavy edge with the Swirly Scribbles Thinlits (#141497 or #142353 if you bundle it with Swirly Bird).  The dot pattern along the wavy edge is Soft Sky and the small flowers are stamped in So Saffron.  Three small rhinestones and Wink of Stella on the die-cut swirls give the card it's oomph! Not that Swirly Bird needs more oomph, but more sparkle never hurts!!:)







Here's how the card looks before you add the die-cuts:

Here's another variation using the same colors, just arranged a little differently:

I hope you're inspired to create your own Swirly Bird masterpiece!  Email me your photos, I'd love to see what you come up with.

Thanks for stopping by,

Pat

Swirls & Stripes - Oh, my!

Hi Stampers,

Hope you had a great weekend!  We had our monthly class at my house last week and a good time was had by all!  It was an all-Swirly Bird class and I want to share with you some of the cards from my display board.  This is one of my favorites:

Love, love, love the combination of Smoky Slate, Basic Gray and Sweet Sugarplum.  So elegant! The stripes are from the Neutrals Designer Series paper stack (#138435).  The banner is stamped using the Thoughtful Banners Bundle (#142330) & Rich Razzleberry ink. The bundle includes the Duet Banner Punch and a whopping 53 piece stamp set!  The other colors are So Saffron, Flirty Flamingo, Pear Pizzazz and Wild Wasabi.  Pearls (#119247) and loops of Silver Metallic Thread (#138402) are the perfect finishing accents.

Thanks for stopping by!
Pat

My tip for the day

Hi Stampers!

Today I want to share with you my favorite tip for sending your cards in the mail.

So you've come up with a beautiful, fully embellished masterpiece for your BFF, but the thought of trusting it to the USPS can be a scary thought, right?  Not that I'm finding fault with postal workers, but the truth is that I've received some pretty beat-up pieces of mail.  It's not surprising that they take a beating, with all the handling they go through before they end up in your mailbox.  One time I received a card from a friend with some really cute embellishments that had torn completely through the envelope!  That's when I came up with this extra layer of protection, and it works like a charm.

That's a 1/16" thick foam sheet cut to size and tucked into the envelope with the card.  It doesn't add weight to your envelope, but it protects those gems and pearls from piercing the envelope.  And it's inexpensive and readily available!

This is the type of card that I always add a foam sheet to before mailing.  Those beautiful rhinestone jewels deserve a little TLC!

The recipient of your beautiful card doesn't want to see this - or worse - as the envelope wears through!

Home Depot sells Dish Foam Rolls in the moving supplies section.  It's intended purpose is to pad dishes and glassware for moving.  So if you've moved recently or you're getting ready to move, you may have some of this laying around!  I've also been able to save some pieces of it from packages I've received from UPS that use this kind of padding.  If you don't have either of these resources, it's $7.27 for a 12" x 50' roll!  That's a small price for a lot of protection.

I hope you find this tip helpful.  Please share it with your cardmaking friends!

Happy stamping,

Pat

Breakout the Popcorn & Let's Watch a Movie!

Hi Stampers!

I just watched this video with great tips on using the new Popcorn Box Thinlits Dies and wanted to share it with you!  This is a brand-new die from the catalog released last week.  Enjoy!

Baby Swirly Bird

Hi Stampers,

My obsession with the new Swirly Bird stamps continues!  A lovely young lady that I met in Florida last winter had a baby boy this week and I wanted to send her a special card.  So of course, I wanted to use Swirly Bird.  I'm seriously amazed at how versatile this stamp set is!  Here is my card:

Swirly Bird Bundle #142353

Isn't that little bird watching her eggs just precious?

To make this card, I laid my 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" piece of Soft Sky cardstock on top of my Whisper White card base.  Then I die-cut the largest swirl from a piece of Chocolate Chip cardstock and placed it where I wanted it on the Soft Sky piece.  I traced around the inside of the swirl with a pencil and cut that space out, revealing the card base beneath.  Without moving the Soft Sky piece, I traced the same shape onto the card base.  Now I could see exactly where to stamp my bird's nest.  The brown on the nest is Crumb Cake; the bird is Dapper Denim & the eggs are Soft Sky, brushed with clear Wink of Stella (#141897).  I lightly sponged the area above the nest with Soft Sky.

The next step was to stamp swirls randomly on the Soft Sky cardstock with Soft Sky ink.  I love this method of creating a tone-on-tone background.  I had some Soft Sky washi tape that I wanted to use on the card, so I attached a strip of it along the edge of the card base then trimmed 1/4" off the right side of the Soft Sky piece so that it would show.

"Peekaboo to someone new" is from Suite Sayings (#140712).  I stamped it on a banner & trimmed it with another banner cut from Dapper Denim cardstock, a cut doily, and some of the beautiful new ruched ribbon in Dapper Denim (#141424).  The tiny enamel hearts (#141410) are the perfect matching accent.

I hope you like this card.  To celebrate my first year as a Stampin' Up demonstrator, I'm sending a 3-pack of my handmade original cards to new customers with any online order!  Use host code DH3HKDV4 at checkout.  Who knows, this may be one of the cards you receive!

Thanks for stopping by,
Pat

Tips for Organizing Your Thinlits & Framelits

Hello Stampers!

I spent part of yesterday re-organizing my Thinlits & Framelits.  I've collected quite a few sets over the past year and keeping them sorted was becoming tedious. They come in a lovely sturdy plastic envelope, but I needed a better way to keep track of them.  The sticky tape / cardboard that they are attached to initially just doesn't work in the long term.  My upline Cindy showed me a roll of magnetic canvas that she had bought to keep hers, and I thought it was an idea with great promise. Here's what I came up with:

I found a roll of 12" x 24" magnetic canvas at my local craft store.  I cut it into 6" x 4 1/2" pieces using a ruler, craft knife and my self-healing mat. I was able to get 10 pieces with about a 1" x 12" strip leftover that I cut into 2 - 1" x 6" pieces. This magnet has a self-adhesive backing which I peeled off and then mounted each magnet to a piece of heavyweight cardstock cut to the same size. The two 1" x 6" pieces I mounted next to each other on the same piece of cardstock to use for some smaller dies.

The magnets are strong, yet it cuts easily with a craft knife. The cardstock that I attached them to was actually more difficult to cut than the magnets!











The magnet sheets slide easily into the original envelopes.  I labeled each envelope with the number of dies in the set so I can see at a glance how many should be there and I placed the dies face-up in the envelopes so I can count them without taking them out.

The insert that comes with the dies tells how many pieces are in the set - but they make you hunt for it.

The last thing I did was to make a label with the name of the set and the number of pieces.  This one I attached to the back of the magnet sheet.  In hindsight, I think I could have attached it directly to the magnet itself so it could be read without flipping it over.  

This system is working very well for me so far.  When I'm deep into the designing process, I tend to not put things away as I use them.  This habit can be disastrous when you have tiny thinlits, some about the size of your thumbnail!  With the magnet sheets, as long as I get the dies on the magnets, they stick!  No more dies lost under piles of scraps!

Now I can get back to creating.  I'll have some more cards to show later this week!

Thanks for stopping by,

Pat

One Year Anniversary - I'm Celebrating with Free Gifts!

Hello!

This month marks One Year since I joined Stampin' Up!  It's been a wonderful year filled with new friends, new experiences, and FUN!  I'm so glad I made the decision to become a demonstrator and to celebrate, I'm sending a 3-pack of handcrafted, one-of-a-kind cards that I designed to new customers who place any online order from me in June!  To receive your free gift in the mail, please do not click "no contact" when checking out or I will not be able to send your gift!  Please use Host Code DH3HKDV4.  for this promotion.  Any size order qualifies, just as long as you've never ordered from me before!  Please use the Shop Now icon on the left side of the page to go directly to my online store.

There are so many beautiful products in the new catalog it's hard to choose!  Here are my top two picks:

Swirly Bird Bundle #142353

2016-2018 In-Colors #141818

Thank you for visiting my blog!  If I can answer any questions or help you in any way, please drop an email to ramblinstamper@gmail.com!

Happy stamping,

Pat

Swirly Bird - Go Fly a Kite!

Hello Stampers,

The day I've been waiting for is here - the brand-new catalog is now available.  My wish list is long...how about yours?  I hope you'll find some inspiration with me!

I've been playing with my new Swirly Bird (141749) stamps again!  There are just so many possibilities with this set that I'll be showing you in the weeks to come.  Yesterday I was obsessed with stamping kites!

These kites are so much fun to stamp, I just might make one in every color of the rainbow! Such a sweet little card, I think that anyone would love seeing this in their mailbox.  My sentiment comes from Suite Sayings (140712 clear) and the striking black and white striped designer paper is from the Neutrals Collection Designer Paper Stack (138435).

Have a lovely day!
Pat