Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

Whoo-hoo! Stampin’ Up just released some great new digital downloads! Today I want to show you the new brads and ribbon that are available. (If you are as excited as I am, and want to see all of the new downloads, go to my online store and click on Digital Crafting, then Digital Downloads, then Newest Downloads) These downloads work with My Digital Studio and any other digital scrapbooking program that allows you to import PNG and JPG files.

123367 Brights Flower Brads Pack $1.95

123381 Regals Flowers Brad Pack $1.95

123374 Subtles Flower Brads Pack $1.95

123388 Neutrals Flower Brads Pack $1.95

122157 Striped Grosgrain Ribbon Color Pack $3.95

(Note: The Striped Grosgrain Ribbon Color Pack is a completely different set of ribbons than the download titled just Striped Grosgrain Ribbon)

You can purchase these or any other digital downloads through my online store. They great news is that they are available for immediate use, with no shipping or tax! Just click on Digital Crafting, then Digital Downloads, then Newest Downloads to see all of the recent additions!

Of course these items are available “real” versions too, if you want to play with actual brads and ribbon!

p.s. Did you get the My Digital Studio color upgrade? If not, take a look at this blog post for all of the information.

I’ve been out of town for the past week or so, and believe it or not, I didn’t bring any stamps with me! Instead I decided to use the time to catch up on my digital scrapbooking. I haven’t gotten as much done as I had hoped, but I have made some progress on the scrapbook I had promised to make for my In-Laws of their big trip last fall. I want to share the cover of that with you today. This will be a 12″ x 12″ scrapbook, with a photo cover. This cover looks awesome (if I do say so myself), and it was super easy to create! The background is just one piece of the digital version of the Travel Journal Designer Series Paper! I changed the opacity of the paper to about 60% so that the designs wouldn’t overpower my title.

You can purchase My Digital Studio and/or any of the digital downloads through my online store. The downloads work with My Digital Studio and any other digital scrapbooking program that allows you to import PNG and JPG files.

As I sit here sipping my second large cup of coffee, I couldn’t agree more with the sentiment from the Morning Cup set — “Caffeine isn’t a drug, it’s a vitamin.” This is the second card we made at my watercoloring workshop. For this one we used reinkers and aqua painters to color in the image. We also used Stampin’ Up’s Watercolor Paper, which is fabulously thick! It really allows you to play with the coloring.

Stamps: Morning Cup
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Subtles Patterns Designer Series Paper Pack (Pretty in Pink), Water Color Paper
Other: Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon, Aquapainter

This stamp set is definitely one of my new favorites! I love this set almost as much as I love my morning coffee! (Psst! Don’t forget — the Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon is gone at the end of the month!)

I had a great workshop last week with some fabulous stampers who wanted to learn more about watercoloring. One of the items they were interested in was Stampin’ Up’s Watercolor Pencils. We made this card together to use the Watercolor Pencils along with the Blender Pens. It’s a fun and easy way to color in your stamped images.

Stamps: Pun Fun
Ink: StazOn Jet Black
Paper: Old Olive, Real Red, Bashful Blue. Whisper White, Celebrations Designer Series Paper
Other: Watercolor Pencils, Blender Pens

I had tried (unsuccessfully) to match the rocket color the Old Olive paper by blending a variety of the greens together. One of the women at the workshop was really good at blending, and found the perfect match for Old Olive by blending the Navy Blue pencul with the Mustard colored one.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? I see a sketch challenge looking at me!

If you’ve been reading my blog over the last few days, you may have noticed that Stampin’ Addicts has a variety of challenges each week. They are super easy to play along with — make your card, upload it to your free Stampin’ Addicts gallery, and post a link back on the thread. Here are the different challenges:

• Monday = 3D Challenge
• Tuesday = Technique Challenge
• Wednesday = Accessories Challenge
• Thursday = Sketch Challenge
• Friday = Color Combo Challenge
• Saturday = Scrapbooking Challenge

I made this card for Sketch Challenge #61. Here’s the sketch:

I’ve been feeling like watercoloring more lately, so I used the super cute bear from Under the Stars for the main image. For the stripes behind it, I decided to use some of the lucious satin ribbon.

Stamps: Under the Stars
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Watercolor Paper, Pawsitively Prints Designer Series Paper
Other: Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon, Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Aqua Painter

Remember, the end of August is the end of the Summer Mini catalog and therefore the end of the Pawsitively Prints Designer Series Paper and the Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon. Get them while you can!

You know Stampin’ Up’s Butterfly Punch? And how it works so well with Flight of the Butterfly? Well, there’s another Stampin’ Up set that coordinates with it! And  with my great love of stamp sets that coordinate with punches, of course I had to get it! It is called Butterfly Prints, and it has three new butterflies plus this great quote. (You can see the full stamp set at the bottom of this post.) I used this set for Stampin’ Addicts Color Challenge 61 — Elegant Eggplant, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizazz. I have to say, this was a really hard set of colors for me to wrap my mind around. At one point, as I stared & stared at my stamp sets, I felt like beating my head against the wall. But I finally did come up with an idea, and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Stamps: Butterfly Prints
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizazz
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizazz, Whisper White
Other: Butterfly Punch, Eyelet Border Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Not usual colors for butterflies, but I think it works! Here’s a look at the whole stamp set:

I have another Stampin’ Addicts sketch challenge to share with you today. This one really highlights whatever Designer Series Paper you chose to use with it. Her is Paula’s fantastic sketch:

I was in the mood for bright colors, so I used Celebrations Designer Series Paper and made a birthday card that would be just perfect for a little boy! The cupcake is from the Sock Monkey stamp set and the “Happy Birthday” is from Look Who’s Turning.

Stamps: Sock Monkey, Look Who’s Turning
Ink: Pacific Point, Real Red, Bashful Blue, Daffodil Delight, StazOn Jet Black
Paper: Bashful Blue (textured), Pacific Point, Whisper White, Celebrations Designer Series Paper
Other: Real Red 5/8 inch Grosgrain Ribbon, 1 1/4 inch Circle Punch, 1 3/8 inch Circle Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Don’t you just love these colors together? I’m so happy to have Pacific Point back in our color line up!

I am so excited to tell you that our Great Dane Jack (Echo Evans Hijack My Heart) won his first points up at the Monterey Bay Great Dane Specialty Show! It was a 5 point major, which is a huge deal for a 7 month old puppy! We were so excited! I decided to use one of the Stampin’ Addicts Sketch Challenges to make a thank you card for the judge.

I really like making the Great Dane cards in his colors, so I started with Basic Black and Crumb Cake. Since this was such a major win, I wanted to add some gold as well. Here is what I came up with:

Stamps: D is for Dog
Ink: Versamark
Paper: Basic Black, Crumb Cake, Brushed Gold
Other: Scallop Square Punch, Finial Press Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Gold Embossing Powder, Basic Black 1/8 inch Taffeta Ribbon

Here is a picture of Jack with his ribbons. He won Winners Dog, Best Puppy, and Best of Winners. Amazing! We are so proud of him!

Have you seen the new Broadsheet Alphabet Set? It is beautiful! As soon as I saw it I knew that I wanted to use it for monogram cards. (I already have visions of holiday gifts for Eve’s teachers running through my head!) Here is a quick one that I put together:

Stamps: Broadsheet Alphabet
Ink: Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Rose Red, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla, Sweet & Sour Specialty Designer Series Paper
Other: Pumpkin Pie Satin Ribbon, Top Note Die, Big Shot, 1 3/8 inch circle punch, Scallop Circle Punch

Don’t you just love that Sweet & Sour Specialty paper? It has designed embossed in a clear gloss on one side of each sheet. I wasn’t sure how well the Rose Red & Pumpkin pie went together, until I saw a middle-school girl one day during summer school — she was wearing a Rose Red top with Pumpkin Pie shorts!

As I mentioned yesterday, there is a great sketch over at the Clean & Simple blog this weekend!

I liked this one so much, I actually made two cards!  I showed you the first one yesterday, which I made using hearts. This one is coffee cups. I just love this new Morning Cup set that we have!

Stamps: Morning Cup
Ink: Early Espresso, Pretty in Pink
Paper: Early Espresso, Pretty in Pink, Whisper White

I will confess to two cups of coffee most mornings, but thankfully I seem to make it without three!