Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

There’ a really fun sketch over at Freshly Made Sketches this week — I like that it has two stripes across the page instead of the usual one.

This gave me a chance to play with some of the new goodies from the Occasions Mini catalog. I love, love, love these new Framelits! I hope they come out with lots of other shapes as well. I also used the new Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details. It is easy to use and adds just the perfect amount of bling.

Stamps: Beary Best Friends
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Cherry Cobbler, Blushing Bride, Soft Suede
Paper: Blushing Bride, Cherry Cobbler, Whisper White, 2010 In Colors Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack
Other: Labels Collection Framelits, Cherry Cobbler Dotted Scalloped Ribbon, Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details, Stampin’ Dimensionals

I colored the bear with reinkers and my aquapainter. The envelope is stamped on Blushing Bride card stock, then cut out and popped up on a Stampin’ Dimensional.

Take a look at this fabulous sketch that Paula put up over at the Stampin’ Addicts’ sketch challenge last week. Isn’t it great?

My friend and downline Samantha is starting a new teaching job, in her own classroom at another school. I wanted to make her a card to wish her the best. They sure are lucky to have her! This sketch was just perfect for what I wanted to do! I rotated it 90° so it would fit the bear. The dress is paper-pieced, the rest is colored with ink and an aqua painter.

Stamps: Beary Best Friends, Season of Hugs
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Poppy Parade, Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip
Paper: Poppy Parade, Baja Breeze, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper
Other: 3/4″ Circle Punch, 1″ Circle Punch, Designer Label Punch, Aqua Painter, Paper Snips

Do you see what looks like note book paper in the background? It’s actually a sheet from the Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper Pack! How fun is that? Only a few more days to get in on the Buy 3 Get 1 Free Designer Series Paper sale!

I was so excited to find an Israeli paper crafting challenge, that I had to do it right away! It is called שלוש בשלישי or Tuesday Trio. This week they had a sketch challenge, plus an additional challenge of using dots.  I combined this with Color Throwdown #131 and the SUO Challenge of using something from Sale-a-Bration.

I looked through my different Sale-a-Bration products, and came back to the Bear Hugs set that I had featured for the Stampin’ Addicts Blog Hop. This is one of the sets from the main catalog that you can earn for free during Sale-a-Bration. I had to add Crumb Cake for the bear. I tried to color him in Pink Pirouette, and it just looked horrid! Here’s what I came up with:

Stamps: Bear Hugs
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Crumb Cake, Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Pink Pirouette
Paper: Baja Breeze, Not Quite Navy, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White
Other: Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Small Oval Punch, Large Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Scallop Ribbon Border Punch, Big Shot

I love this stamp set, and these are perfect baby bear colors!

I can’t post some of the cards that I’ve been making lately, since they are gifts that have not yet been given. Instead, I have a special treat for you, a fantastic card made by Eve! First, I am happy to tell you, she can now use the Stamp-a-ma-jig by herself for perfect placement. Not bad for a 7 year old! She had a couple great ideas for this card. One is the girl bear’s tiara, which was stamped in Versamark and then embossed in silver. The other was to stamp the trophy separately, then cut it out and raise it up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. She drew the speech bubble freehand.

Stamps: Beary Best Friends, Beary Nice Wishes
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Versamark, assorted Stampin’ Write Markers
Paper: More Mustard, Whisper White
Other: Silver Embossing Powder, Stampin’ Dimensionals, Stamp-a-ma-jig

I love stamping with Eve! She’s so clever and creative.

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!

We were very fortunate to have children’s author Ben Mikaelsen visit school last week. He gave an amazing and powerful presentation. If you ever have a chance to hear him speak, or to have him come to your school, I highly recommend it! One of the things he spoke about was his daily life with Buffy, a black bear whom he had saved from medical experimentation and raised from a little cub. Buffy was the inspiration for this card, which I’ll be making with the kids class this week.

Stamps: Under the Stars
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Early Espresso, Cajun Craze
Paper: Cajun Craze, Early Espresso, Very Vanilla, Autumn Spice Specialty Designer Series Paper
Other: Aqua Painter

I am leading an after-school stamping activity, and the kids let me know that they are ready for Halloween! I took one look at this week’s ColorLab colors and knew that they would be perfect.

I have mostly girls in the club, so I decided to make a cute little witch bear with the colors.  I have a feeling this Season of Hugs set will be seeing quite a lot of ink this fall!

Stamps: Beary Best Friends, Season of Hugs
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Soft Suede, Crumb Cake, Pumpkin Pie, Rich Razzleberry
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Basic Black, Whisper White, Brights Designer Series Patterns Stack (Rich Razzleberry)

The boys will have the option of creating a pirate bear if they want.

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? I see a sketch challenge looking at me!

If you’ve been reading my blog over the last few days, you may have noticed that Stampin’ Addicts has a variety of challenges each week. They are super easy to play along with — make your card, upload it to your free Stampin’ Addicts gallery, and post a link back on the thread. Here are the different challenges:

• Monday = 3D Challenge
• Tuesday = Technique Challenge
• Wednesday = Accessories Challenge
• Thursday = Sketch Challenge
• Friday = Color Combo Challenge
• Saturday = Scrapbooking Challenge

I made this card for Sketch Challenge #61. Here’s the sketch:

I’ve been feeling like watercoloring more lately, so I used the super cute bear from Under the Stars for the main image. For the stripes behind it, I decided to use some of the lucious satin ribbon.

Stamps: Under the Stars
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Chocolate Chip, Old Olive
Paper: Chocolate Chip, Old Olive, Watercolor Paper, Pawsitively Prints Designer Series Paper
Other: Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon, Old Olive Satin Ribbon, Aqua Painter

Remember, the end of August is the end of the Summer Mini catalog and therefore the end of the Pawsitively Prints Designer Series Paper and the Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon. Get them while you can!

I’ve been teaching a summer school class on rubber-stamping and card-making to elementary school kids this week. It is super fun and lets me experience the joy of beginning stampers all over again! Do you remember that moment when you looked at your first card and went, “Wow! I made that!” ? Today I am bringing in the Big Shot and letting them die cut and dress some paper Build-a-Bears. Have you ever seen an 8-year-old run something through a Big Shot? Sheer joy!

This is a card I made for last weekend’s Stampin’ Addicts’ Iron Stampers Throw down. It combines two of the challenges — Throwdown Challenge #3: Hit me with Your Big Shot! (use the Big Shot at least three ways) and Iron Stamper Challenge – 8 PM – Secret Ingredient: School Days. I used some of my new dies and paper!

Paper: Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Pacific Point, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Basic Black
Other: Beary Dressy Originals Die, Bear Bigz Die, Beary Bright Sizzlet, Vintage Wallpaper Embossing Folder, Big Shot

I think I’m going to have to save this for Eve’s first day of school card. Hopefully I’ll remember…

Wow! I just love this Build-a-Bear stuff! Stamps, die cuts, embosslits… They are all so much fun! When I saw this week’s color challenge at Pals Paper Arts I knew it would work perfectly with the boy bear.

Then of course came the question — do I make one on the Big Shot, or use the stamps? Oh the dilemmas! I was more in a mood to color, so I chose the stamps.  I used my Stampin’ Write markers to get nice bright colors. Of course I had to add some Creamy Caramel for the bear.

Stamps: Beary Best Friends, Beary Nice Wishes
Ink: StazOn Black, Stampin’ Write Markers (Creamy Caramel, Brocade Blue, Ruby Red, Crushed Curry)
Paper: Brocade Blue, Ruby Red, Crushed Curry, Whisper White
Accessories: Rich Regal Brads (Brocade Blue)

I love how it came out! These are fabulous colors together!