Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

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:

We’ll take a little break from Valentines today. I want to show you one of the Decor Elements that my husband and I put up this week. We had this space above the stove, and were looking for something that would fit there. We decided on this saying, “Our attitude toward Life determines life’s attitude toward us.” It’s the perfect thing to read all day, from making coffee in the morning to cleaning up after dinner!

You can see all of the Decor Elements in the July brochure and the January supplement. We put up a few more as well, so be sure to check back to see them!

I love this tree! Have I mentioned that I love this tree? It is a fabulous tree, and I was so excited when Paula wanted to put one up at her house! It looks so great on her wall. Actually, I’ve never seen a wall that it looks bad on! Here are some of the highlights as we put it up:

And the final out come! It looks so gorgeous in real life!

So, when are you getting YOUR tree?

Every since I showed my mom the Definitely Decorative catalog with the beautiful Thoughts & Prayers Tree, she had been tossing around the idea of putting it up in the dining room. But it wasn’t until she saw the tree up on the wall in my library that she knew she had to get it! My mom custom designs Judaic needlepoint and has many beautiful pieces on her own walls. She decided that the tree would look beautiful in the dining room behind this piece:

But we didn’t want to just put the picture on top of the tree, so we decided to leave a blank spot on the wall where the picture would go, with the trunk below it and the branches above. This was easy to do, since the tree comes in six pieces. The first thing we did was to mark off the corners of the pictures with Post-It notes.

Then we removed the picture and began to put up the branches of the tree.

Eve was my handy dandy helper throughout!

Finally, we re-hung the picture.

When we were satisfied with where it was hung, we added the trunk below it.

Here is the end result.

Don’t you love it? My parents were so happy with how their dining room wall came out! And it took less than hour to put up! You can download the new Definitely Decorative brochure and see all of the amazing Decor Elements available.

Now Available! Stampin’ Up and Country Living have joined together to bring you the cutest BBQ kit ever!

For just $24.95, you’ll have what you need to throw a fabulous summer barbecue, including

• Dig In stamp set
• Die-cut table tents (two each of four colors)
• Die-cut components, bamboo skewers, and envelopes to create eight shish kabob invitations
• Die-cut coasters (three each of four colors)
• Die-cut tags (four each of four colors)
• 12″ x 12″ printed food wrapper sheets (12 each of two colors)
• Printed recipe cards (four)
• Linen thread (five yards)
• Ruby Red Classic Stampin’ Spot
• Night of Navy Classic Stampin’ Spot

(Tofu Dogs and Veggie Burgers not included…)

Here’s another look at the compononants:

You can see some other great ideas with this kit on Shelli Gardner’s blog. Contact me to order yours today!

My dad is big-time into family history and genealogy. It is his passion, and find relatives and connecting them is so much more than a hobby to him. When I saw this project on my Stampin’ Up demonstrator website, I knew that I just had to make one for him for Father’s Day. He was adamant that we take a family picture when we were all there for Passover. I’m so glad that he did, because it gave me the perfect family picture to use! I am so impressed with how this came out, and it took me less than an hour to make! I can’t wait to give it to him!

Stamps: Lovely Letters, Simple Serif Alphabet & Numbers
Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Urban Garden Designer Series Paper, Whisper White, Kiwi Kiss, Chocolate Chip
Accessories: Small Chocolate Thoughts & Prayers Tree (Decor Elements), Stamp-a-ma-Jig, 14″x 18″ frame

To create the background, I used both 12″ x 12″ sheets of the same Kiwi Kiss pattern from the Urban Garden Designer Series Paper pack. I used the 14″ x 18″ paper insert in the frame as my guide, and glued the patterened paper to it. I left one sheet 12″ x 12″. I cut three pieces off of the  second sheet — one 6″ x 12″, one 2″ x 12″, and one 2″ x 6″. I pieced these together, and you can’t really see seams unless you get relly close to it!

I’m busy getting ready for Stampin’ Addicts Parade of Papers blog hop that starts Friday morning, so I thought you might enjoy watching a video! This fabulous video from Stampin’ Up features three great scrapbooking ideas:

Want to see some more videos? Try these:

Don’t forget to check back Friday morning at 8am for the blog hop! It will be more fun than a barrel of monkeys!

(Thank you to Michelle Laycock for making these buttons available to Stampin’ Up demonstrators for free!)

I have loved this tree since I saw the latest Decor Elements brochure! It is graceful and oh so beautiful! I have been searching for a place to put it, and when we had to repaint the walls after the library flooded when the sprinklers burst after the ice storm (long story), I knew exactly where it could go! As you may know, I am the head librarian at Applewild School in Fitchburg, MA. This beautiful tree now graces the wall above our reference collection in the 4th – 9th grade library.

It was a multi-step process, but all in all it took less than an hour from start to finish. And of course I took pictures of each step along the way!

The tree comes in two sheets that need to be cut into separate pieces. It looked like this when I pulled them out of the tube.

Next, I carefully cut apart the individual pieces, making sure to keep their identifying numbers with them, as written in the instructions. I laid them out on the floor to make sure I had it all right.

I started by putting up the trunk.

Then branch number 2.

Then the rest of the branches, one by one.

This one was tricky!

The final branch!

But we weren’t done yet! We also purchased the Thoreau quote. Sean had the great idea of cutting it apart. We put the quote under the branches, and the birds above the tree. The quote says, “Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.”

Et Voila! The finished wall! I love the way it came out!

Love the tree but don’t have enough space? It comes in three sizes, and is also a part of the Thoughts and Prayers stamp set. Let me know if you have any questions about this. If you live close enough (or want to fly me out), I’m more than happy to help you put one up!