Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

I am so excited with this week’s ColourQ Challenge colors, because they are just perfect for a scrapbook page of Eve as Laura Ingalls Wilder from the Wax Museum last week!

One of the biggest projects in second grade is their American hero report and the wax museum that is the culminating project for it. The second graders spend a few weeks in the library (with me) researching their hero and writing a report. Then they condense their report into a 5 or 6 sentence speech. On the day of the wax museum, they dress as their hero, and when people come by and push their “buttons,” they give their speech. It is so well done! All of the kids were fabulous!

I thought it would be a good idea to include a copy of Eve’s report on the scrapbook page of her in her costume. That way I can’t lose it! This will be part of her second grade scrapbook. (And yes, those are Stampin’ Up ribbons in her hair!)

This is another one of the birthday cards we made at yesterday’s card class. It is an almost exact copy of a card by the fabulous Dannie Graves. (I think I used a punch where she used a die.) It is quick, easy, and cute — my favorite kind! I’m filling in on Thursday’s after school card making class for the kids, and we’ll be making this one for sure!

Stamps: After Thoughts
Ink: Pacific Point
Paper: Pacific Point, Real Red, Old Olive, Whisper White, Celebration Designer Series Paper
Other: 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, 2 3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch

The Happy Birthday saying is from a Level 1 Hostess set. Only a few months left to earn it! Don’t forget, you can always be your own party — and Sale-a-Bration is the best time to stock up on supplies, but it ends March 31st!

This is one of the cards we made at my birthday card making class today. I just love this cupcake punch! It’s almost as good as real cupcakes! And how cute is the saying that comes with the matching Create a Cupcake stamp set? I’ll just keep telling myself that.

Stamps: Create a Cupcake
Ink: Blushing Bride, Chocolate Chip, Crumb Cake
Paper: Blushing Bride, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Other: Cupcake Punch, Blushing Bride Poly Ribbon, Clear Scallop Square Bigz Die, Big Shot, Stampin’ Dimensionals

We made a few other birthday cards today. I’ll be posting them over the next few days.

The daughter of a good friend of mine had her Bat Mitzvah recently, and I wanted to make her a card that reflected the colors of her Bat Mitzvah invitation. I really like the Jewish Star that is in the Shalom Sayings set, it has some great words in it! I stamped it twice — once in Crumb Cake, and once in Marina Mist. I cut out the relevant words from Marina Mist and glued them on top of the Crumb Cake, so they would stand out more. I used my marker to color only the “Bat Mitzvah” part of the Happy Bat Mitzvah stamp.

Stamps: Shalom Sayings
Ink: Crumb Cake, Marina Mist
Paper: Crumb Cake, Marina Mist, Whisper White
Other: Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Corner Rounder, Clear Scallop Square Bigz Die, Big Shot, Marina Mist Taffeta Ribbon

In case you were wonder, Yasher Koach literally means “have strength” but is used like “good job!” Mazel Tov means “good luck” but is used as “congratulations!”

We made this cute little 3″ x 3″ cupcake card at the workshop I had last Saturday. The cupcake punch with the coordinating Create a Cupcake stamp set make it quick and easy to put together this adorable card.

Stamps: Create a Cupcake
Ink: Crumb Cake, Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Pretty in Pink (textured), Chocolate Chip, Whisper White
Other: Cupcake Punch, 2 3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch, 2 1/2″ Circle Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

It’s hard to tell from the picture, but the top of the cupcake is popped up on dimensionals.

For our summer reading last year, the faculty at my school was assigned to read How Girls Thrive by JoAnn Deak. I spent some time talking to of the 4th grade teachers about technology and the girls in their classes, and we decided to incorporate My Digital Studio as an alternative to PowerPoint. It seemed that PowerPoint appealed to the boys, but the girls still preferred to make posters. So this year, we bought multiple copies of My Digital Studio, and I introduced it to the fourth graders. They loved it!! Both boys and girls were thrilled to use it.

The picture above is one of our 4th grade girls working on My Digital Studio on the SmartBoard. It uses a lot of the same concepts they have learned (cut, paste, copy, formatting), and introduces others such as text boxes and layers. They’ve had so much fun with it, they don’t even realize how much they are learning!

Speaking of MDS, Stampin’ Up released a few more fun downloads yesterday. These downloads work with My Digital Studio and any other digital scrapbooking program that allows you to import PNG and JPG files. You can see a PDF of all of these downloads here.

124457 For You Flower Stamp Brush Set $1.95

124458 Baby Steps Stamp Brush Set $1.95

125168 Buttons Pack Brights Add-On $2.95

125169 Buttons Pack Regals Add-On $2.95

125170 Buttons Pack Nuetrals Add-On $2.95

125186 Buttons Pack Subtles Add-On $2.95

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 charges! Just click on Digital Crafting, then Digital Downloads, then Newest Downloads to see all of the recent additions! If you registered your copy of My Digital Studio, you may also receive end-of-the month emails from Stampin’ Up featuring that month’s digital releases.

There is a My Digital Studio tab to the top right hand corner of this blog. It is a handy reference to a variety of My Digital Studio resources, including a list of all of the downloads and a break down of the printing costs. There is also a new Resources page on MyDigitalStudio.net that includes a MDS Catalog. It shows all of the MDS software artwork (contained in the boxed-version) and downloads from the October 2009 launch through February 2011! The catalog gives a snapshot of the entire product line with artwork thumbnails followed by product details. Because MDS is regularly coming out with new artwork, the catalog will be updated every month.

ColourQ has some really pretty colors up this week (not that they aren’t always) and they go really well with Pals Paper Arts Easter/Spring Inspiration Challenge.

Stampin’ Success, the free magazine for Stampin’ Up demonstrators (it’s another perk of being a demonstrator!),  had some cute samples using the Awash with Flowers stamp set. I realized that I hadn’t used mine in awhile, so I pulled it out for today. It makes such great looking flowers so easily! Especially the clear mount set! I don’t have any Kiwi Kiss, so I used Pear Pizzaz instead. (And that really is Early Espresso ink and card stock, even though it looks black in the picture.)

Stamps: Awash with Flowers, Something to Celebrate (hostess)
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Pear Pizazz
Paper: Old Olive, Daffodil Delight, Early Espresso, Whisper White
Other: Eyelet Border Punch, Pear Pizazz Poly Ribbon

These are such great spring colors! I hope you can play along with ColourQ this week!

One of the great things about being a Stampin’ Up demonstrator is the demonstrator friends that I make all over the country — all over the world in fact! My friend Debbi is a demonstrator in Mendon, Massachusetts. Although we originally met online, I have had the pleasure of stamping with her in person several times. She and I traded some ribbon recently, and she included the absolute coolest card that I have seen made with the  Ice Cream Parlor Designer Series Paper that you can earn for free now during Sale-a-Bration. I am so thrilled that she gave me permission to post it here for you to see!

Stamps: Oval All
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Pacific Point
Paper: Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Very Vanilla, Ice Cream Parlor Designer Series Paper
Other: Scallop Square Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Wide Oval Punch, Ice Cream Parlor Buttons, Linen Thread, Square Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Big Shot

Isn’t it amazing? I am in awe! Thanks Debbi, both for the beautiful card, and for letting me share it!

Purim is next weekend, and while we’ll be baking real hamantaschen later today, I first made a paper one to put on this card! I used the red glimmer paper as filling. (In real life, we prefer chocolate/peanut butter.) The paper hamantaschen is made like the real ones — cut a circle first, then fold it into a triangle. Too bad I can’t use my Big Shot on the real dough! Since Purim is about Queen Esther, I went with some royal colors to make this card.

Ink: Soft Suede (for sponging the hamantaschen)
Paper: So Saffron, Concord Crush, Whisper White, Red Glimmer Paper, In Colors Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack
Other: Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, 3″ Circle Die, Scallop Circle #2 Bigz Die, Big Shot, Stampin Dimensionals

Sorry about the discoloration at the top of the card. It’s the combination of the glimmer paper and the flash. The phrase “Happy Purim” is printed on my computer, and then punched out with the Word Window Punch.

I love the the clean simplicity of this week’s Stamping 411 sketch challenge. Those three squares could be windows for so many things!

My downline Samantha kindly gave me some of her Woodland Walk Designer Series paper, and I thought that the wood grain pages would be perfect for this, with the owls peeking out! I matted my scallop square punches with the smaller scalloped square from the Scallap Square Duo Bigz Die — this is still available although it is not currently featured in a catalog.

Stamps: Punch Bunch
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Concord Crush, More Mustard
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Woodland Walk Designer Series Paper
Other: Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Owl Punch, Scallop Square Punch, Scallop Square Duo Bigz Die, Big Shot

Love those owls! Only two and a half weeks left to earn them for free!