Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

November was National Blog Posting Month, and I challenged a bunch of stampers to join me in posting to our blogs every day for the month of November. We did it! I hope you have enjoyed seeing a new post on my blog every day this month. You can see the other bloggers who completed this challenge over at Stampin’ Addicts.

Can you believe it is only 12 more days to Hanukkah? Yep, it sure is! For today’s card, I took one of the 3″x3″ Hanukkah cards that I made and expanded it to a regular 4.25″ x 5.5″ card. You can see the original here.

Stamps: Let There Be Light
Ink: Versamark
Paper: Brilliant Blue, Whisper White, Brushed Gold
Other: Gold Embossing Powder, Gold Brads, Ticket Corner Punch

I’ll be making this at my holiday card classes in December.  It’s not too late to schedule one for yourself!

P.S. Today is the last day of the Online Extravaganza. Don’t miss out on the good deals!

Are you all shopped out this weekend? Get all of the items on your list? If not, have no fear, there are still plenty of great deals available through Stampin’ Up! In addition to the fabulous Online Extravaganza going on, new items have been recently added to the Clearance Rack. Like what? Well, I’m so glad that you asked! Here are the items currently on Clearance. Please visit my online store to purchase any of these fabulous deals!

The Online Extravaganza ends November 30th! Don’t delay! You can order online through my website, or contact me to place your order.

Here is another entry for the Pals Paper Arts Keep It Simple, Sweetie Challenge this week. I don’t have very many Christmas stamp sets, and what I do have are usually free hostess sets that I have earned. Both the Designer Series Paper and the stamp set used in this card are free hostess benefits! I have several holiday card classes coming up, so I needed to design some Christmas cards in addition to the Hanukkah cards I had been making. This is one of the ones I will be making with my after-school kids’ club.

Although I do not have the matching ornament stamp set, I found that this stamp fit perfectly into the space cut out by the Holiday Windows Movers & Shapers set. It is a clean, simple, and elegant card.

This what the outside looks like:

When you open it up, it looks like this:

Stamps: Holiday Best (Hostess Level 1)
Ink: Old Olive, Ruby Red (Stampin’ Write Markers)
Paper: Old Olive, Whisper White, Designer Series Prints Pack in Ruby Red (Hostess Level 1)
Other: Old Olive 1/4″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Holiday Windows Movers & Shapers Set, Movers & Shapers Die, Big Shot

I’m looking forward to making this with the kids. I think they’ll have fun running it through the Big Shot

Eve’s first grade class has just finished their desert unit. Next up is a winter unit. (I love that Brentwood teaches in thematic units. It makes my job as a librarian so much easier!) Here in Southern California, there is not a lot of real winter weather. But last year, when we were living in Central Massachusetts, we experienced an ice storm of epic proportions. We thought it would be a good thing for Eve to share with her class during their winter unit. So we put together a presentation. And we decided to create it in My Digital Studio. It was quick and easy to put together, and super easy to export. I exported one version onto CD to play on the Smart Board in the classroom, and uploaded another, smaller version to YouTube to share here. The one we will be showing in class has the pictures at much higher resolution. It will also not be automatically forwarding the pages, instead Eve will click to forward when she is ready. I was excited to see that a copy of the “My Digital Studio Viewer” is also automatically included on the CD, so it can be played on any computer.  There is no sound with it, because Eve will be reading the text aloud to her classmates.

I am so impressed every time that I use My Digital Studio. I just love it more and more! And don’t forget, if you purchase it now, you also receive a FREE Décor Elements piece (up to a $16.95 value).

I have so many things to be thankful for — a wonderful family, fabulous friends, a fantastic job, and of course a hobby that brings me joy. All of these things criss-cross my life in so many ways. One of the many things I am thankful for is to have a supportive, loving, and artistic mother who has taught me so many things.  She is a fabulous needlepoint designer and Jewish educator. She has many themes and motifs that she uses in her own art, but above all else, she loves doves. So I created this card just for her. In fact, I bought the Holiday Windows Movers & Shapers set, just for this dove, so I could make her cards with it. (It comes with 4 shapes.) I realized when I finished it, that I didn’t even stamp anything on it. I did use the Texturz Plates background that looks like the Baroque Motifs swirl, which is her favorite Stampin’ Up design. With its clean layout, this card is also perfect for todays “Keep It Simple, Sweetie” challenge on Pals Paper Arts.

Paper: Night of Navy, Bashful Blue, Whisper White
Other: Holiday Windows Movers & Shapers set, White Satin Ribbon, Texturz Plates Background #1, Big Shot

Hope you like it, Mom! And Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

This a little belated, but I wanted to give a shout out to my good friend and down-line Sandi Rantala and congratulate her on promoting to Senior Associate with Stampin’ Up! Sandi signed up right before I left Massachusetts, and has become a phenomenal Stampin’ Up demonstrator! With her promotion to Sr. Associate, I wanted to send her a congratulatory card. So Saffron is her favorite Stampin’ Up color, so I made sure to use plenty of that. I stamped the dots in the center of each flower with an unused pencil eraser. It was the perfect size! Then I put a brad through each of these. I hope she likes it!

Stamps: Wow Flowers, Starring You
Ink: So Saffron, Chocolate Chip
Paper: So Saffron, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Other: Scallop Border Punch, Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon, Rich Regal Brads (So Saffron), pencil eraser

Did you know that the scallop border punch is on sale this week? Yes! It is on sale for only $11.17 (instead of the regular $15.95). Check out the rest of the amazing Online Extravaganza Deals, now through November 30th.

I know a lot of people like to make photo cards for the holidays, and usually you are stuck with the same old templates from the same old places as everyone else. You are limited in your size, your color choice, your number of pictures. Well, I’m here to tell you that My Digital Studio changes all that. Suddenly the world is your canvas! You can choose your card size and orientation, you can choose from predesigned layouts, or customize your own. And you can print on both inside pages of the card for NO EXTRA CHARGE. Crazy, but true! The card I am sharing with you today is not a holiday card. It is just a fun card that I made for my daughter to send to my parents. I chose a 5″x7″ portrait style card, and had it printed up through Stampin’ Up’s printing service. The cover looks like this:

Because I could add any text in any font that I wanted, I decided to type in Hebrew. It says “Savta & Sabba” which is what Eve calls my parents — Grandma and Grandpa in Hebrew. The ribbon, which looks so real, is digital — no worries about paying extra for a lumpy card. I decided to add more pictures on the inside, and a little more decoration. I could have typed a note, but I wanted Eve to write something in her own handwriting.

See how the swirl from Baroque Motifs is in each of the top corners? I was able to flip one, so they were the mirror image. (That’s one of my mom’s favorite images by the way.) This is so much more than a card — it’s practically a mini scrapbook! I am so happy with the way it came out, and I know my parents are going to be thrilled when they get it! Now, back to My Digital Studio — I need to get cracking on the calendars I’m making for holiday gifts! Let me know if you have questions about this or any of the other My Digital Studio projects.

There is no better time to pick up your copy of My Digital Studio. It is part of the Gift Giving Guide, which means you can choose a free Décor Element (valued up to $16.95). You can shop now through my website. And while you’re there, don’t forget to check out the amazing deals in the Online Extravaganza!

Stampin’ Up’s Online Extravaganza started this morning, and there are some amazing deals! The Ultimate Stamper’s Starter Bundle is an incredible deal! (See picture to the left.) It would make an amazing gift for anyone just starting out on Stamping. It contains three fantastic stamp sets, ink spots and card stock in the beautiful Earth Elements family, ribbon and brads, and of course some whisper white card stock. At 40% off, how can you possibly pass it up? But be careful, Stampin’ Up has limited quantities of this amazing bundle, so order soon!

There are some other amazing bundles as well — a corduroy buttons bundle, several bundles of stamp sets with their matching punches, a striped ribbon bundle, and a whole bunch of Decor Elements bundles! I am so impressed with the quality of the items being offered in this sale! Please let me know if you would like to see pictures of any of the products, or if you have any questions.

Product Offering:

*This bundle is only available while supplies last.

You can order online through my website, or contact me to place your order.

There is a newish color challenge, ColourQ, that I’ve been meaning to do , but I’ve been having trouble squeezing it in. I decided to give it a go today, by combining it with today’s Pals Paper Arts sketch challenge. Here are the two challenges:

I decided to make a Thanksgiving card with these, and had the great idea to depict our family (which is what I am most thankful for) using the All in the Family set. I love these little doodle characters and haven’t used them in so long. That’s Steve and me on the top, and Biscuit and Eve on the bottom. I stuck with only using the four colors in the challenge (using Old Olive instead of Kiwi Kiss) by varying the shades of ink with my aquapainter.

Stamps: All in the Family, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: StazOn Black, Soft Suede, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal
Paper: Soft Suede, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal, Whisper White
Other: Soft Suede Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Flower Fusion, Earth Elements Brads (Old Olive), Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch

Coming up tomorrow — Stampin’ Up’s Online Extravaganza!

I just could not resist the adorable critters in this stamp set! Now that the weather here in Southern California is turning chilly (hey, I actually had to wear socks!), I figured it was time to pull out these little guys. I tried a new technique on these. Not really new new, but new to me. It is called VersaMark resist, and it was so easy! And it turned out great, if I do say so myself. How does it work? Well, I’ll tell you. You start with glossy white paper. Stamp whatever image you want to stay white with VersaMark. (I used the snowflakes from Christmas Punch.) Then you brayer over it with the color you want to be the background. That’s it! No embossing, just use a tissue to wipe away the excess ink that doesn’t stick to the VersaMark. Quick, fun, easy, and gorgeous! I love it!

Stamps: Cold & Cuddly, Christmas Punch
Ink: VersaMark, Basic Black, Melon Mambo, Bermuda Bay
Paper: Bermuda Bay, Whisper White, Melon Mambo, Glossy White
Other: White Satin Ribbon, Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8″ Punch, Modern Label Punch, Top Note Bigz Die, Big Shot, Brayer

Let me know if you try this technique and how it works for you!