Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

Wow! Can you believe that Mojo Monday is on their 200th sketch? I had to play along! Here’s the sketch:

Fun, huh? I am making a bunch of cards for my mom to have to send as needed, so I knew it had to include Daffodil Delight. I flipped through the cards of the Color Coach, looking for ideas, and I found this color combo on the back of one of the new In Color cards. I really like it! For the big flower, I stamped it in White Craft Ink and then used Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder.

Stamps: Flower Fest, Word Play
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Whisper White (craft)
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Whisper White
Other: Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, 2 3/8″ Scallop Punch, 2 1/2″ Circle Punch, Lucky Limeade Ruffled Ribbon, Lace Ribbon Border Punch

I think I’m going to be using this color combo more often! I really like it!

I was very fortunate to have a wonderful Convention Buddy who swapped for me, shopped for me, and kept me updated on exciting news throughout Stampin’ Up’s recent convention. I made her a few little gifts as a thank you. One of them was this ribbon bookmark using the Flower Fest stamp set. I love how many different punches it coordinates with! Too make the bookmark, I embossed and punched out four of the flowers — two for the top and two for the bottom. The ribbon is sandwiched in between them.

Stamps: Flower Fest
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: Pretty in Pink
Other: Melon Mambo Embossing Powder, Fancy Flower Punch,  Chocolate Chip Scallop Dots Ribbon, Basic Pearls

I think I may have to make a couple for myself. I feel like I’m always looking for a bookmark!

It’s Carmageddon weekend here in LA, where they have completely shut down 10 miles of the 405 freeway. Luckily, I don’t need to go anywhere near there today, but hey, any reason to stay home and stamp, right? I decided to combine this week’s Stamping411 sketch challenge with the Color Lab Color Challenge:

My mom mentioned that she needs some more thank you notes, so I put this together for her. I left the ribbon off the top, since I don’t have any Island Indigo ribbon. Yet.

Stamps: Perfect Punches
Ink: Baja Breeze, Rich Razzleberry
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Island Indigo, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Designer Series Patterns Stack (Brights)
Other: Top Note Bigz Die, Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Scallop Oval Punch, Punch Windows Movers & Shapers Die, Lace Ribbon Border Punch

I really like these colors together! Island Indigo is great. Someone described it as the baby of Not Quite Navy and Pacific Point. It’s a great way of thinking of it!

Yes, I know that it’s July. And we are thinking about summer, not fall. However, I recently participated in a recipe swap, where we each made a scrapbook page of a recipe using My Digital Studio. I was in 3 different groups of eight, so I have three of my own pages to show you, and I will soon have a bunch of pages created by other Stampin’ Up demonstrators as well.  This swap happened at Stampin’ Up’s annual convention, which is going on right now. I am not there, but am fortunate enough to have a great Convention buddy to swap for me and friends to keep me in the loop. Thank you to Pammy for being my buddy, and to Sara for the fabulous texts!

The pages for the swap needed to be 6″x6″. What I did after I created the page in My Digital Studio was to export it as a JPG. I then placed it on a 12″x12″ page 4 times. I sized it at 5 1/2″ square so that I wouldn’t have to worry about a bleed area. (I was recently told, however, that the bleed area is only an issue when you print books, not individual pages.) I ordered the individual pages through Stampin’ Up’s professional print services — I love their quality! When I got it, I cut apart the 4 smaller pages from the single 12×12, and mounted them each on card stock. I used Cajun Craze card stock for this one. They look fabulous!

If you are thinking about joining the fun of Stampin’ Up to get in on the swaps and other craziness of convention, as well as a host of other demonstrator perks, there is a fantastic $99 sign up special going on now. (Believe me, when you see the new Holiday Mini Catalog, you are going to wish you had the demonstrator discount!) I’d love to have you join my team!

I know that it is well after Father’s Day, but I wanted to show you the pop-up card I made for Steve. It could easily be used for another occasion by changing out the sentiment. My friend Staci made this same style of pop-up card for a Leadership swap a year and a half ago, and I have been meaning to make one ever since! This is what it looks like when it is all opened up:

Stamps: Totally Tool, Wood Grain, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Basic Gray, Crumb Cake
Paper: Crumb Cake, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Other: Modern Label Punch, Gold Brads

It also can lie flat for easy mailing, as you can see in the picture below.

I used the tutorial over on SplitCoast Stampers to make it. It was really fun and much easier than I thought it would be.

I am pleased to announce that I have completed my second volume of card sketches! Thank you all for your kind words on the first book, it is what inspired me to keep on going. This PDF contains sketches for square cards. It is 23 pages long, and contains 41 sketches, because there is an extra one on the title page. If you are interested in purchasing the PDF, it is $4. All you have to do is click the PayPal “Buy Now” button below and I’ll send the PDF out to you as soon as I get your email. As you can see, there are also options in case you don’t already have the first book. (More about that here.)

 

Which Sketch Book do you want?

50 Card Sketches PDF $5.00 40 Square Card Sketches PDF $4.00 Both PDFs $8.00

Let this book of sketches spark your inspiration! Containing 40 sketches, plus a bonus one on the title page, it is sure to get your creative juices flowing. The sketches are clean, elegant, and easy to read. All are done in shades of gray, so as not to influence your color choices. Please let me know if you have any questions.

Fun new digital downloads from Stampin’ Up again this week! The Big Top Embellishments as well as some coordinating stamp sets! (The Big Top Birthday Digital Paper was released with the new catalog.)  I love these in real life — I’m going to have to get the digital versions, too! 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.

125834 Big Top Birthday Embellishments $3.95

These 55 colorful embellishments are designed to coordinate with the Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper patterns and the Under the Big Top Stamp Brush Set. Pair them with the paper patterns to create a photobook, or use them on your designs to quickly add a focal point to any project. Coordinating colors include Daffodil Delight, Old Olive, Peach Parfait, Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, and Whisper White.

127346 Up, Up, & Away Stamp Brush Set $7.95

127347 Sweets for the Sweet Digital Stamp Brush Set $7.95

127343 In Love Designer Series Template $1.95

Re-create the gorgeous framed project from page six of the 2011-2012 Idea Book & Catalog with this designer template! This 8″ x 8″ page can be customized with any color combination—just change the text stamp images to match your home décor. Coordinating colors include Cherry Cobbler, Early Espresso, Island Indigo, More Mustard, Pool Party, and Very Vanilla.

127352 Petite Pennants Punch $0.95

127353 Perfect Pennants Shape Punch $0.95

127356 House & Home Stamp Brush Set $3.95

127351 Cloud Punch $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 pageon 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 July 1, 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.

Arielle has some fun bright colors for us over at the ColourQ challenge today!

I was looking for pictures to go with these colors, and wouldn’t you know it? They match the colors that everyone was wearing at my nephew Leo’s first birthday party last month! How considerate of everyone!

Want to know how I made the photo in the shape of a #1? I will have a detailed photo tutorial for you later this week, but if you want to get a jump on it, I found the directions on this thread at MyDigitalStudio.net.

Here’s another card I made when I was playing around with the 4th of July clean and simple challenges on Splitcoast Stampers. It was from the first sketch challenge of the day.

It’s really a fantastic clean & simple layout. I could totally see myself using it for so many cards. But for this one I went with the Recess stamp set again. It’s just so darn cute! (You only have until the end of August to get it.)

Stamps: Recess
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Chocolate Chip, Blush Blossom, Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Pear Pizzazz, Pacific Point
Paper: Poppy Parade, Whisper White, Designers Series Paper Stacks (In Color & Bright)
Other: Clearlits Scallop Rectangle Die, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, 2 3/8″ Scallop Circle Die

Be sure to come back tomorrow for a great color challenge from ColourQ!

I think I like sketch challenges more than color challenges. I find them easier, at least. Paula has been putting together some great sketch challenges over at Stampin’ Addicts, and this week’s was no exception:

I decided to use some new goodies for it, and pulled out the new Sweets for the Sweet stamp set. The Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper coordinates with it fabulously, so I had to use that too!

Stamps: Sweets for the Sweet
Ink: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper
Other: Scallop Border Punch

I hope you’ll consider playing along — there are all kinds of Challenges over at Stampin’ Addicts!

Great news! If you liked my first book, 50 Card Sketches, I’ve started the second one! This one is going to be all sketches for square cards.