Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

Whoo-hoo! I did it! I finished Eve’s first grade scrapbook in time to have it printed at 30% off during Stampin’ Up’s National Scrapbooking Month sale! I want to share with you another one of the pages that I made for it. St. Patrick’s Day is HUGE at the school were I work and Eve attends. Probably because we have our own resident leprechaun to make sure the festivities are second to none. In this page, she is dancing on the table with Eve. It’s not quite as big a deal in first grade — in kindergarten all of the teachers’ feet turn green!

Now I just need to finish up the one for my mom… Don’t worry, Mom, I’m working on it!

To go along with the pack of cards that I showed you yesterday, I also needed to include a card with the gift. I wanted to make another golf card, but different. So I decided to make a round card like a golf ball! I decided that scallops are too feminine (Are they? What do you think?), so I used regular circles.

Stamps: On the Green
Ink: Garden Green, Basic Black
Paper: Garden Green, Basic Black, Whisper White
Other: Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Clear Circle Bigz Die, 3 1/2 Circle Die, Big Shot, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, 1/4″ Basic Black Grosgrain Ribbon

If you have golfers in your life, this single stamp is a great investment!

One of my colleagues who I have worked with for the past ten years is leaving to go pursue his dream of becoming a golf pro. We’ve worked together a long time, and he’s taught Eve for the past two years as well, so I wanted to make him a thank you gift before he left. I put together a pack of these cards and gave it to him earlier this week.

To get the silhouette of the golfer in black, I inked up the whole stamp in Garden Green, and then colored over just the golfer with my Basic Black Stampin’ Write Marker. I did not remove the green ink first — the black overpowers it so you don’t have to. It may be hard to see, but the white layer has debossed circles to look like dimples on a golf ball.

Stamps: On the Green
Ink: Garden Green, Basic Black
Paper: Garden Green, Basic Black, Whisper White
Other: Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Square Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Big Shot

The hardest part of the end of the school year is saying good-bye to old friends.

I made this card for  a swap over on  Stampin’ Addicts. I love this Sweet & Sour Designer Series Paper — one side of each piece is embossed! You can see it on the polka dot piece at the bottom. This is a really fun set, whether you use the flip-flops, the ice cream, or the kids in the pool.

Stamps: Sunny Fun
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo, So Saffron, Pretty in Pink
Paper: Melon Mambo, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White, Sweet & sour Designer Series Paper
Other: Pumpkin Pie Satin Ribbon, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, Brights Brads

I think these bright colors really go well with the flip-flops. Now if we could only get some warmer weather around here!

Wow! We have some fun and funky patterns in the new digital downloads this week, including a return of the Urban Oasis designer series paper!  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. The PDF gives you more detailed information about the downloads, including colors used and templates included.

126025 Simple Stitches and Corners $4.95

Exclusive to digital, this 46-piece kit gives you tons of stitched looks to add a carefully sewn look to your projects. The stitched artwork comes in Chocolate Chip and Whisper White. The kit also includes a 5-1/2″ x 4-1/4″ greeting card designer template.

126026 Flower Garden Stamp Brush $1.95

With the one-piece Flower Garden Stamp Brush, you’ll enjoy the color and flowers of a garden (without all the weeding)! Also includes a 5″ x 7″ greeting card designer template.

126029 Happy Greetings Stamp Brush Set $3.95

126041 Fashion District Stamp Brush Set $7.95

Couldn’t live without your girlfriends? Cheers to that! Celebrate your friends with the chic and sassy 20-piece Fashion District Set. Also includes a one-page 8″ x 8″ designer template.

126042 Urban Oasis Designer Series Paper $4.95

The modern colors and designs in these paper patterns truly come together to create an Urban Oasis. Keep your projects looking stylish and on-trend with these 12 Designer Series paper patterns. Coordinating colors include Baja Breeze, Basic Black, Crumb Cake, and Kiwi Kiss.

126043 Central Park Stamp Brush Set $1.95

126044 Fifth Avenue Floral Stamp Brush Set $3.95

126030 Sail Away Stamp Brush $0.95

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 an MDS Catalog. It shows all of the MDS software artwork (contained in the boxed-version) and downloads from the October 2009 launch through April 2011! The catalog gives a snapshot of the entire product line with artwork thumbnails followed by product details, which includes the colors of the designer papers! Because MDS is regularly coming out with new artwork, the catalog will be updated every month.

Yowza! It’s another tough week from ColourQ, but hey, that’s why it’s called a challenge, right?

I’ll be honest with you. I don’t like Sahara Sand. I don’t have the ink pad, and the only card stock I have is from the multi-packs. I had a hard enough time finding pictures to go with these colors, that I just could not force myself to use Sahara Sand, too. The background of this page is from the Geometric Lines Digital Designer Series Paper. It doesn’t list the colors for it, so I’m using it anyway. But I know it’s not Sahara Sand — it’s either Crumb Cake (formerly known as Kraft) or Creamy Caramel. But it looks good, and it’s close enough, so I’m going with it! Oh, and I used Early Espresso instead of Chocolate Chip, because I wanted that ribbon. I guess I didn’t do a very good job of sticking with the actual colors, but I stayed with the spirit of the colors.

This is one of the pages from Eve’s first grade scrapbook. Yes, she is almost done with second grade, thank you for asking. But I really need to finish it, since I want to get it printed this month and save 30%. I have like 15 pages left to go. I can do it, right? And the Mother’s Day scrapbook for my mom. And if I have extra time (ha!), I’ll try to finish second grade as well. Because nothing important happens the last week of school, right?

Be sure to check back tomorrow to see the latest My Digital Studio Downloads. And give the ColourQ Challenge a try — it’s good to stretch yourself!

I made this awhile ago for a friend of mine who had just bought a new condo. I used the apartment building like image from the Builder Wheel and cut it out after I colored it in. Want to know how I made the extra large Word Window for the “Congratulations”? It’s punched out of the Early Espresso twice, and actually stamped on the Marina Mist behind it! Sneaky, huh? I put monkeys in the background because she loves them — that’s the great part about making personalized cards!

Stamps: Neighborhood Jumbo Wheel, Something to Celebrate (retired hostess), Fox & Friends
Ink: Early Espresso, StazOn Jet Black
Paper: Marina Mist, Early Espresso, WaterColor Paper
Other: 2 1/2″ Circle Punch, Word Window Punch, WaterColor Wonder Crayons

Something to Celebrate was a Level 2 hostess set from the Occasions Mini Catalog and is no longer available. It is a fabulous set, with great sentiments! Want a chance to win a clear-mount one? Everyone who places an order of $25 or more  with me from now until the end of May is automatically entered in a drawing to win it! You get one entry for each $25 you order, so two entries for a $50 order, etc. I’ll draw the winner on June 1st. You can contact me to order, or shop online now.

Eve agreed to wait a month to have her birthday party, so that she could have a swimming sleepover party. I made this invitation during the Stampin’ Addicts 5th Saturday Stamp Jam, but unfortunately ran out of time to make enough to actually send to her friends. Sigh. The beauty of this one is that I can change the “You’re Invited” to “Thank You” and make them to use as her thank you notes!

Stamps: Sunny Fun, Family Phrases
Ink: Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Wild Wasabi, Blush Blossom, Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Melon Mambo, Brights Designer Series Paper Stack, Whisper White
Other: Scallop Trim Border Punch, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Daffodil Delight Satin Ribbon

I really like this Sunny Fun stamp set. It’s just too cute!

I really like this week’s Stamping 411 sketch, and the colors from the Color Lab Challenge are fantastic, but combining them had me beating my head against a wall!

I didn’t want to use flowers, and everything else that I thought of need some kind of brown. So I ran all my errands, made another pack of cards for a gift (I’ll show you those later in the week), and finally, finally decided to use one of the sayings from Word Play. (You know that’s on sale for 30% off this month, right?) And you know what? I really like how it came out!

Stamps: Word Play
Ink: Not Quite Navy, Pear Pizazz, Baja Breeze
Paper: Pear Pizazz, Not Quite Navy, Rose Red, Whisper White
Other: Square Scallop Duo Bigz Die, 3/4″ Circle Punch, Baja Breeze Seam Binding (still available!), Subtles Brads, Finial Press Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I love that that little world fits perfectly in the 3/4″ circle punch! I had tried to make the seam binding ruffled, but I couldn’t get it right. I’m going to have to work on that some more. If you have any helpful tips on that, I’d love to hear them!

When there is a 5th Saturday in a month, Stampin’ Addicts has what is called a Stamp Jam — a fun-filled day of stamping challenges and chats. One of the themes was baby cards, so I made this cute card for a friend who has chosen not to find out whether she is having a boy or a girl. Her baby shower at work was this week.

Stamps: Baby Bundle
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, So Saffron, Certainly Celery, Pretty in Pink, Basic Grey
Paper: Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Whisper White
Other: Scallop Square Duo Bigz Die, Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Certainly Celery Satin Ribbon, Subtles Brads

I made her a super cute present in these colors too, but I’m putting together a photo tutorial on that. I’ll have it up for you in a few days.