Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

Hello and welcome to the Stampin’ Addicts’ Holiday Mini Blog Hop, where we will be featuring a variety of the new products in Stampin’ Up’s Holiday Mini Catalog! You may have arrived from Trina’s blog, where she shared the super cute Festive and Fun, or you may be starting here. The blogs connect in a circle, so either way you’ll get to see them all! I am excited to show you some of the great digital downloads that are available in the Holiday Mini Catalog. Each of these have actual paper versions as well.

The first download I want to show you is the Pick Your Poison Embellishments. There is also a coordinating Piece of Poison Stamp Brush Set, though I didn’t use it. This download comes with labels and borders. I used two of the border strips to create the background of this page, and a third one around the edges to frame it. There are both blank labels, and ones already filled in. I used one of the blank ones below the photo.

My next project features the digital version of the Spice Cake Designer Series Paper. You may have noticed that Trina used this in the blog hop banner and buttons as well. It is a beautiful paper set, with a soothing fall feel to it. For this project I created a Thanksgiving Menu that you can be proud to display on your holiday table. If you wanted to make this in a hybrid version, you could use the actual Pool Party ribbon instead of the digital version. Because you can choose which part of the Designer Series Paper shows through the punch, both Trina and I were able to fill our punch with the flower image! It was a quick and easy wow!

My final project uses the Digital Version of the Frostwood Lodge Designer Series Paper. This would be great to use for your Christmas Cards with the family photo! I love the quilt-like quality of the designs, as well as the wood ones, so I combined these into a patchwork scrapbook page.

Want to see all of the digital downloads? Come by after the Mini catalog goes live on September 1st and I’ll post them here for you.  Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you enjoyed this look at three of the Digital Downloads. Now it is time to move on to Debra’s blog where she will be showing you the beautiful single stamp, Leaves of a Tree.

Great new downloads from Stampin’ Up today! Cute letter punches (love these since you can fill them with patterned paper!) and some great fall stamp sets. These downloads work with My Digital Studio and any other digital scrapbooking program that allows you to import PNG and JPG files.

127425 Smitten Alphabet Punch $7.95

You’ll be smitten with this digital-exclusive 26-piece alphabet punch; fill the playful letters with your favorite card stock, Designer Series Paper, or photos! Like all My Digital Studio punches, these are vector files, which allows them to be scaled up or down without losing image resolution. Download also includes a one-page 8″ x 8″ designer template.

127404 Bright Blessings Stamp Brush Set $5.95

This 12-piece set is perfect for your fall projects—or for expressing appreciation any time of year. It’s based on the Bright Blessings Jumbo Stampin’ Around Wheel, with images and artwork separated for ultimate digital versatility.

127403 Falling Leaves Stamp Brush Set $5.95

Crunch, crunch, crunch . . . don’t you love the sound of those fallen leaves under your feet? These digital leaves won’t crunch, but they will help you celebrate the harvest season in style. This 10-piece stamp brush set download also includes a 4-1/4″ x 5-1/2″ greeting card designer template.

127424 Established Elegance Stamp Brush Set $5.95

Our 10-piece Established Elegance Stamp Brush Set is perfect for adding a vintage flair to your designs in the form of focal images or subtle elements. Download also includes a 5″ x 7″ greeting card designer template.

127416 Under the Stars Stamp Brush Set $5.95

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.

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!

Yes, I know that Eve is seven years old. Yes, I know that it is January. But take a look at the ColourQ colors this week! What a tough batch of colors!

Now, fortunately for me, Eve just so happened to be wearing a Rich Razzleberry sweatshirt at her first Thanksgiving, and the other colors are represented as well. So, I took a little trip down memory lane, and made a scrapbook page from Eve’s first Thanksgiving.

Do you like the turkey at the top left? I am so proud of this turkey that I made out of punches! I made it to match the one on Eve’s bib. Do you want to know the secret of the feet? Those are actually the feet from the Owl Punch, but I hid the rest of the owl behind the round circle of the turkey’s body!

Happy first day of Sale-a-Bration!

This is my favorite page of the desk calendar that I made my dad. It is for November, and contains pictures of Eve & Leo from this past Thanksgiving. Both the paper and the saying are from the Autumn Spice Digital Kit.

I can’t wait to see how big Leo will be at the next Thanksgiving! And Eve too…

I finally got to see the actual desk calendar in person, and I have to say that it exceeded my expectations! It came out great! I’ll post some pictures of it soon.

Happy Thanksgiving! When I saw these super cute Build-a-Bear Pilgrims on Heidi’s Blog, I knew that Eve and I had to make them! We had a lot of fun putting these together on Wednesday morning, before all of the cleaning and baking began. These are the ones I put together.

Paper: Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Whisper White, Basic Black, Brushed Gold, Real Red
Other: Bear Bigz Die, Beary Essentials Bigz Die, Small Tag Punch, 1 3/8″ Circle Punch, 1/4″ Square Punch, Paper Snips, Big Shot, 2-Way Glue Pen

Eve set hers up in the “Mooflower” that her Savta and Sabba bought for her when we all went to Plimoth Plantation (yes that it how they spelled it) two years ago. How cute are they, making their way to the New World? I think we’ll bring this over to my in-laws as decoration.

Thank you Heidi for the great idea, and Happy Thanksgiving to all!

One of the things the students in the after school class have been really interested in trying is Heat Embossing. While I would never let a child do this unsupervised, it works well in a small group setting. This is one of the cards that we’ll be heat embossing this week. The color is added to the leaf panel with sponge daubers after embossing it.

Stamps: Autumn Splendor, Thank You Kindly
Ink: VersaMark, Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze, Cherry Cobbler
Paper: Always Artichoke, Cajun Craze, Soft Suede, Very Vanilla
Other: Gold Embossing Powder, Sponge Daubers, Heat Tool

I think they’ll have fun with it!!

I just love this set, Autumn Splendor. The lines on the leaves make them so elegant! I made this card with my after-school class today, and each one came out different yet beautiful! I’ll be making it at a workshop this weekend as well. I wanted to use my Poppy Parade ribbon, so I went for a brighter version of fall colors on this one.

Stamps: Autumn Splendor, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Pumpkin Pie, Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Poppy Parade, Chocolate Chip, Very Vanilla
Other: Poppy Parade Poly Ribbon, Word Window Punch, Designer Label Punch

The kids have really gotten the hang of using the punches. Now they are clamoring to do some heat embossing!

Happy November! As I mentioned before, November is National Blog Posting Month and I will be doing my darndest to post every day, along with some of  my other friends over at Stampin’ Addicts.

Sticking with the pumpkin motif, I have another fall themed card for you. I made this one with my after school class as well. It’s a Z-fold card, which they enjoyed making. The hard part was remembering to put the glue only on HALF of the truck piece.

This card works great for both the Friday Mashup Pumpkin Theme Challenge and Holly’s Color Round Up Challenge #8.

Stamps: Loads of Love, Loads of Love Accessories
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Basic Black, Basic Grey
Paper: Old Olive, Cajun Craze, Very Vanilla, Autumn Spice Specialty Designer Series Paper
Other: Aqua Painter

A few of the kids put the dogs in the back of the truck, instead of pumpkins, which looked super cute as well!

Wow! I was so excited to see this super cool technique on Lyssa’s blog! She has a great photo tutorial, but I took a few pictures of my own as I created the card below. It is inspired by Lyssa’s friend Lori’s card, with her great idea of using the leaves from the two-step bird punch as fall leaves. Basically, the idea of this technique is that you attached punched shapes to your card stock, then run it through an embossing folder, which makes it look like the punched shapes are inset into the card stock. This works particularly well with the square lattice folder!

Here are some examples from a card that I am making at a Shoe Box Swap today.
Step one — adhere your punched shapes to the card stock.

Step 2 — run that piece through the Big Shot in the Square Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing Folder.

Step 3 — finish your card

Stamps: Perfect Punches
Ink: Cajun Craze, Early Espresso
Paper: Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, More Mustard, Old Olive
Other: Early Espresso 5/8″ Satin Ribbon, Scallop Oval Punch, Two-Step Bird Punch, Top Note Die, Square Lattice Textured Impressions Folder, Big Shot

How gorgeous is that? It is an easy “wow!” Try it with different embossing folders for different looks.