Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

The other big project I have been working on for Laura is a bunch of thank you notes for her library volunteers. (Laura is the head librarian at Hackley School) I just love it when when my stamping and library worlds collide! I’m doing a few different designs for her, so you’ll be seeing more, I’m sure! For the first few I used the First Day stamp set, which is in Stampin’ Up’s upcoming Summer Mini catalog. I was so excited to see a bookworm stamp! Here are two variations on the same card that I made using it.

Stamps: First Day, Nursery Letters Stampin’ Around Wheel
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Real Red, Creamy Caramel
Paper: Real Red, Creamy Caramel, Whisper White
Other: 1 3/8″ Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Real Red Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon (reversed)

I couldn’t decide which one of these I liked better, so I made a few of each!

I had one more owl card that I needed to make for my friend Laura for her mom who loves owls. When I saw this week’s Pals Paper Arts Sketch challenge , I knew it held my owl solution!

For the last two owl cards, I used the owl in Fox & Friends. I needed one that was a tiny bit smaller this time, so I used the cute little owl from Love Bandit. Here is what I came up with:

Stamps: Love Bandit
Ink: Real Red, Pretty in Pink
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Real Red, Very Vanilla, Sending Love Designer Series Paper
Other: Scallop Square Punch, Pretty in Pink 5/8″ Satin Ribbon

I love the Sending Love Paper with the glitter embedded right in  it! Don’t forget, both the Sending Love Designer Series Paper and the Love Bandit stamp set are only available for two more weeks. The Occasions Mini Catalog ends at the end of April. Be sure you get what you need from it! And yes, I do custom card orders. I’m happy to either put together the supplies to help you make your own, or make them for you. Contact me for more information about this.

I saw a few cards combining this owl with this paper, and I absolutely loved the look! So much so that I just had to make one myself! I just love the colors and the circles together with the owl.

Stamps: Fox & Friends
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal, Whisper White, Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper
Other: Chocolate Chip 5/8″ Satin Ribbon, 1 1/4″ Circle Punch, 1 3/8″ circle punch, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch

I think that this Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Pad is just an amazing item! There are so many different patterns for all occasions in it! It’s only available until the end of April, so be sure to pick one up if you haven’t already.

Here’s another card I made with one of Beth’s stamps sets. It’s a super cute alien set called Greetings, Earthlings.These are really fun to play with! And I have to say, I think Old Olive is just a great color for aliens!

Stamps: Greetings, Earthlings
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Taken with Teal
Paper: Old Olive, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Pad
Other: Old Olive 5/8″ Satin Ribbon

Here’s a look at the whole stamp set:

How cute are those aliens?

I was over at my friend Beth’s house in Massachusetts last week. She’s another Stampin’ Up demonstrator and lives right near my parents’ house. I try to visit her everytime we go back there, because she and I have completely opposite taste in stamps! It’s true! Whenever we compare notes, we’ve bought completely different stamp sets! So when we get together we swap stamp sets and it’s a lot of fun. Here are two cards I made using her Lots of Bots set.

Stamps: Lots of Bots
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Bordering Blue, Night of Navy, Ruby Red
Paper: Bordering Blue, Night of Navy, Ruby Red, Whispering White

These cards made think of the song “Mechanical Man” by Bent Bolt & the Nuts. They’ve been playing it a lot on Kids Place Live, the Sirius/XM channel that Eve and I listen to everyday to and from school. It’s a very strange song and people either love it or hate it. You can listen to it here.

If you have been reading my blog for a long time, you may remember that I made a couple of owl themed Mother’s Day cards for my friend Laura last year. I asked her if she wanted some again this year, and she said, of course!So I got to thinking about how super cute it would be to replace the “o” in mom with an owl. And I put this together. It’s hard tp tell from the picture, but the owl is cut out and popped up.

Stamps: Messages for Mom, Fox & Friends
Ink: Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip
Paper: So Saffron, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Pad
Other: Pretty in Pink 5/8″ Satin Ribbon, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Unfortunately, I didn’t get the message that her mom didn’t like green until after I had made it. Hopefully it is not too much green! Otherwise you’ll be seeing a similar card in a different color scheme very soon!

I was looking for a good way to package up the cards that I made to give as gifts over Spring Break. I was running out of time, but wanted to have packaging that did the cards justice. I came up with an idea using Stampin’ Up’s large cello bags, and I was so excited when it actually worked! I used my Crop-a-Dile to punch holes in the top of the large cello bag. I kept it flat, and punched four times with the Crop-a-Dile to make eight holes about an inch from the top of the bag. I then threaded matching 1/4″ grosgrain ribbon through the holes. I gently tied the ribbon, and viola! I’m really pleased with how it turned out! (You can click on the picture to get a closer look.)

Supplies: Large cello bags, Crop-a-Dile, 1/4″ Grosgrain Ribbon (Rose Red, Basic Black, Night of Navy)

By threading the ribbon through the holes instead of just tying it around the top, the ribbon stays on even when untied and it makes it easier to open and close when taking the cards out.

This weekend’s sketch from Stamping 411 is another classic. So easy to use for so many occasions!

I decided to use the Flower Fancy stamp set (on sale this month!) combined with Orchid Opulence, one of the colors that will be retiring at the end of June. Orchid Opulence makes me think of the Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper, so I pulled the rest of my card together from there.

Stamps: Flower Fancy
Ink: Orchid Opulence, Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive
Paper: Orchid Opulence, Whisper White, Cottage Wall Designer Series Paper
Other: Scallop Trim Border Punch, Old Olive 5/8″ Satin Ribbon

If you missed out on getting the Scallop Trim Border Punch during Sale-a-Bration, don’t worry! It will be available again in the new Idea Book & Catalog coming out in July.

I may have mentioned before that my brother and his wife are having their first baby this summer. I’m super excited about it, and I’m sure that there will be plenty of boy baby items showing up here on my blog! I made this card with my brother in mind, since he was a huge fan of Curious George and monkeys in general when he was little. I love the Chocolate Chip monkey combined with Bashful Blue to make a super cute baby card.

Stamps: Fox & Friends
Ink: Chocolate Chip
Paper: Bashful Blue, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Pad
Accessories: Bashful Blue 5/8″  Satin Ribbon, 1 3/8″ Circle Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I didn’t add a sentiment to this card so that it could be used for a variety of occasions. The same paper in Chocolate Chip and Pretty in Pink is also available in the Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Pad, so it would be very easy to make a baby girl version of this card as well.

This week’s challenge over at Pals Paper Arts is a theme challenge, and the theme is Flowers. Surprisingly enough, I did not use Awash with Flowers for this theme, I figured I’d been using it enough lately, and I wanted to try something else. Instead I used the Messages for Mom set that is in the Occasions Mini Catalog. (Only a few weeks left to purchase what you want out of this catalog!) I used the large flower stamp from this set to create my own strip of paper down the left side. I used the Cameo Coral Stampin’ Write Marker to color in the large flowers, and my white gel pen to dot the centers of the small ones. The other card stock on this card is Chocolate Chip, I’m not sure why it looks like Basic Grey in the photo.

Stamps: Messages for Mom
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Cameo Coral, Whisper White, Sweet Pea Designer Series Paper Pad

Cameo Coral is one of the colors that will be retiring at the end of June. Be sure to stock up soon if it is one of your favorites! (A big thank you to Debbi for the use of her stamps and her great ideas in making this card!)