Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

We are almost at the end of Black History Month, and we have had a variety of celebrations at school throughout the month. We started it off with the African-American Read-In, and will be finishing it up tomorrow with a soul food lunch. One of the ways that the students could participate was by making something creative out of Kente cloth. Each student was given a square, and their creations are on display for the rest of the school to see.

I wanted to use the Kente Cloth to make a special thank you gift for the two teachers who have been leading the activities all month. Last year, you may remember, I made them cute felt Build-a-Bears with Kente cloth clothing. (By the way, many of those Build-a-Bear dies are available for super cheap on the Clearance Rack!) This year I decided to make something with the Dress Up Framelits. I saw quite a few examples of a framed set of five dresses, so I am not sure whom to give credit to for the original idea. I recreated it with the Kente Cloth. The Framelits are not advertised as being able to cute through fabric, but if the fabric is thin enough it is not a problem.

The frame is 14″ long, so my base paper is the one that came in it. I wanted a white background any way. I die cut the dress stands out of Chocolate Chip card stock, and the dresses out of a variety of Kente Cloth patterns. I apologize for the blurriness. My flash was reflecting off the glass, so I didn’t use it. They look really good in real life, and I can’t wait to deliver them in the morning!

Welcome to the Labor Day Fall Fun Blog Hop! A couple of weeks ago I saw some amazing stampers tweeting about putting together a Labor Day Blog Hop. I asked if I could play too, and am so excited to be a part of this hop! As you meet our stampy bloggers today, you may discover that some have goodies for you, so be sure and visit everyone on the list. We have hoppers from all over the globe today, and they are amazing artists. A full list of participants is at the bottom of this post.

Even though I live in Southern California, fall to me means changing leaves. Oh how I miss the changing leaves! I put together a gift ensemble, which includes a box of 4 tea light candles and a coordinating 3″x3″ card. This would make a lovely gift to bring to your Thanksgiving Dinner hostess, or to send and let someone know you are thinking of them this fall. (For directions on making the box of candles, see Tanya’s blog.) I used my new Simply Scored scoring tool, and making the box was easy peasy!

Stamps: Autumn Splendor
Ink: Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, More Mustard, Early Espresso
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Pumpkin Pie, Very Vanilla
Other: Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Champagne Mist Shimmer Paint, Simply Scored, Teal Lights, Tissue Paper, Heat Tool

You can’t see it very well in the picture, but I spritzed the card and box with a Champagne Shimmer Mist that I made by mixing a couple drops of Champagne Mist shimmer paint with alcohol. In real life they have a slight golden sparkle. Here is another look at the candles in the box. As always, you can click on the pictures for a closer look.

Here is a close up of the 3″x3″ card as well. I love the richness of the Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding!

Thanks so much for stopping by. Your next stop is Lisa over at Papergrace Designs. A big thank you to Lydia for organizing it! I hope you enjoy the rest of the hop!

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Full list of blogs in the Fall Fun Hop:

Eve had the hardest time deciding which of the Decor Elements chalkboard pieces she wanted for her new room — the hippo or the owl? After much careful thought and deliberation, she went with the owl. We finally had time to put him up over the weekend. (This is the largest size.)

These go up just like regular Decor Elements, but are an actual chalkboard material that you can write on!

Eve just loves her new owl.

Our only disappointment is that the walls in our new house are EXTREMELY textured. Decor Elements are not recommended for textured walls, and we are a little concerned about how well this will actually stay up. We bought the speech bubble as well, but are waiting to put that up until we see what happens. If this doesn’t work, we’ll move on to plan B, which is to put the Decor Elements on some kind of canvas or frame, and hang that. In the meantime, it looks super cute!

A huge thank you to Tanya for posting this adorable snowflake tea light candle set on her blog! After seeing her post so many different versions of the tea lights, I just had to try it. It was so much easier than I thought it was going to be! In fact, we are going to be making these as our final project in the after-school kids’ class. As like a grand finale. With a lot of supervision, of course. The snowflake is cut out of metal flashing with the Big Shot.I took Tanya’s advice and ran it back and forth several times before taking it out of the Big Shot.

(Note: Don’t buy the flashing shingles. They don’t work. Get the flashing on a roll. I found I could cut it with my Craft & Rubber scissors — on sale until Tuesday!)

Stamps: Northern Hearts
Ink: Marina Mist
Other: Tissue Paper, 1 1/4″ Circle Punch, 1/16″ Handheld Circle Punch, Heat Tool, Snowflake #2 Originals Die, Big Shot

For a complete tutorial on making the tea lights, see Tanya’s Blog.

My brother and his wife are expecting their first child in about a month. I am super excited about the imminent arrival of my new nephew, and almost as excited that they picked some super fun Decor Elements with which to decorate the baby’s room! One of the great things about using these here in Southern California, is that you can decorate above the crib and the changing table without the fear of anything falling down in an earthquake. I showed you the super cute robot they put up a few weeks ago. Well, they had time to put up the rest, so I went over to take some pictures.

You can see the robot over the changing table. They also added some monkeys swinging on a vine. (Don’t forget, you can click on the pictures to enlarge them.)

Here’s a close up of the monkeys. I just love how they are going around the corner!

Moving on around the room, they added four animals from the now retired stamp set, Wild About You. These are done in multiple steps, since each of the colors are applied to the wall separately.  My brother said it was not as difficult as he thought it would be. He actually had a lot fun putting them up!

Here are all four of the animals. (The bird is not up yet.)

Isn’t the room adorable? I have to tell you, though, these adorable creatures are all on the Decor Elements Last Chance List, and will not be available after June 30th. The good news is that right now they are all 25% off! If you want to see a visual list, go to my website, then click on Last Chance, and then Home Decor.

My brother and his wife are expecting their first baby in about seven weeks. They were really excited about the decorating possibilities when I showed them the Decor Elements catalog. They picked out a few they wanted to put up to decorate the baby’s room. I went over today to show them how the Decor Elements work, and to help put up the first one. Together we put up this adorable Chocolate colored Robot, right over the changing table.

They also have some monkeys and the animals from Wild About You to put up as well. I’ll be sure to post pictures of their finished nursery.

My friend Krystal just started a new stamping challenge blog, Stampin’ Celebration. It’s a weekly party themed inspiration challenge. This week’s challenge features super cute robots. Check it out if you are looking for new ways to stretch your creativity!

This week’s Pals Paper Arts challenge is “Anything but a Card,” so I figured it would be the perfect time to show you how my library has been transformed for spring! I am truly blessed this year to have most amazing library assistant! Karen is not only incredibly competent, but she is artistic as well. She has done an amazing job decorating the library for the different seasons and holidays throughout the year. After the St. Patrick’s Leprechaun hunt was over, she began decorating the library for spring. She used a variety of Stampin’ Up! papers and Big Shot dies to turn the library into a Springtime wonderland! Take a look (supplies listed at the very end). Click on any picture to enlarge it.

This is the display area behind the circulation desk:

These are the two sides of the circulation desk:

There are also a large number of butterflies and birds hanging from the ceiling. (She used paper clips and dental floss to hang them up.)

Supplies: Kaleidoscope Designer Series Paper, Tea Party Designer Series Paper, Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Bird with Leaves & Flowers Bigz Die, Flower Folds Bigz XL Die, On Board Bird Book

The paper was all laminated before being cut. The large butterflies, rabbits, and some of the other items are Karen’s own designs. Thank you, Karen, for your incredible contribution to the library!

When we moved into our new apartment last summer, I told Eve that she could pick whichever Decor Elements she wanted for her new room. (You might remember that she used to have butterflies on her wall.) She picked the princess, carriage, and castle — all in pink. No real shock there. But when we went to put them up, they just looked strange, floating on her wall with nothing grounding them. So I while I was looking around for some better way to put them up — maybe frames, maybe canvas — Stampin’ Up announced that they would be selling some of the raw vinyl. People could use their Big Shots to make their own Decor Elements! I bought some of the raw vinyl in Certainly Celery, but instead of die cutting it, I used it to create more of a scene with the Decor Elements that Eve had chosen.

It took us less than hour to put all of it up. Steve helped with the castle, since even standing on the bed I can’t reach that high. Most important of all, Eve loves it!

Each package of the raw Decor Elements vinyl comes with two sheets of vinyl (approximately 14-1/4″ x 24″ ), along with two sheets of transfer tape, for $12.95. It is available in the following colors:

118801 Bashful Blue
118814 Basic Gray
118804 Black
118806 Certainly Celery
114337 Chocolate
118808 Clear
114334 Dark Gray
118813 Gable Green
114336 Kraft
118805 Night of Navy
118803 Old Olive
118810 Pixie Pink
118800 Pretty in Pink
118809 Pumpkin Pie
118802 Real Red
118798 Rose Red
118812 Sahara Sand
118797 So Saffron
118799 Taken with Teal
118807 Tempting Turquoise
114335 White

Chalkboard Decor Elements Vinyl Sheets (118815) are also available for $14.95.
You can purchase any of these through my website. Just click on Shop Now.

For those of you that do not know, I am an elementary school librarian. When I saw the new Decor Element that said “Do Good. Be Kind” it really resonated with me. Of all of things we teach children, this is the most important. If they can learn these two items, then our job is well done. It is a theme that runs through most of the stories I read to them, and also what I hope they see in my daily interactions as well.

Directly opposite the door to my office is a wall that is a lovely shade of blue. It was calling out for something, and I think I found it!

Do Good. Be Kind. If only we could all follow this simple advice every day.

I love the Thoughts & Prayers Tree. I love it as a stamp and I love it even more as a Decor Element vinyl design! I have put up three of these trees so far — one at Applewild School Library, one at Paula’s house, and one at my parents’ house. But I’ve never had one of my very own. And now I do! We put up one in our living room, and I have to tell you, it looks fantastic! And it’s great for California, because you don’t have to worry about a huge piece of art falling down in an earthquake.

Remember, this comes in 6 pieces, so we started out slowly. Here’s a look at it partially up:

Here is the finished tree, right behind our couch:

My husband really liked the quote that was with it in the catalog, so added that too. We separated the birds from the quote for a more balanced look. Here’s a close-up of our end result:

I love seeing this in the living room! Here’s what it looks like: