Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

I am so excited to have been picked as one of the Birthday Honors for last week’s Seize the Birthday sketch! It is week two of the same sketch, so it is the same sketch again, this time with a masculine bent.

I just got my awesome This & That Epic Day bundle, the new smash-book type casual scrapbooking journal and accessories from Stampin’ Up. I used the Designer Series Paper and the Washi Tape on this card.

Stamps: I Dig You
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Basic Gray, Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Gumball Green
Paper: Pool Party, Crumb Cake, Very Vanilla, This and That Epic Day Designer Series Paper
Other: Epic Day This and That Designer Washi Tape, Neutrals Brads, 2 1/2″ Circle Punch, 3″ Circle Bigz Die

This is a lot more distressed than my usual style, but I like how it turned out. I even used my fingernail to rough up the edges of the Crumb Cake circle.

I have a private class coming up this weekend, and one of the things that the hostess wanted to make was a Halloween treat bag. I love making cute little Halloween treats, and they could not be easier with the Ghoulish Googlies Bundle! Available in either Clear Mount or Wood Mount, this combines both the Googly Ghouls stamp set and the Ghoulish Googlies Designer Printed Kit — plus it saves you 15% as well! Here is the cute little bag I came up with.

Stamps: Googly Ghouls
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Lucky Limeade, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Basic Black
Other: Ghoulish Googlies Designer Printed Kit, Spider Web Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Printed 2011 In Color Brads, Labels Collection Framelits

The Ghoulish Googlies Designer Printed Kit is such a good deal! For only $7.95, it includes 20 printed double-sided tags: 10 ea. of 2 designs; 10 glassine bags with die-cut edges: ea. 3″ x 5″ x 1-1/2″; 50 adhesive-backed googly eyes (ea. 5 mm); and 10 pieces of Pumpkin Pie/Whisper White Baker’s Twine, ea. 8″ (color exclusive to this kit). Buy it with the Bundle, and it is an even better deal!

Fun, friendly, kid-like colors in today’s ColourQ challenge. I decided to combine them with the card sketch from Stamping411. It works great for scrapbook pages too!

I spent this past weekend at the American Library Association annual conference. It was here in Southern California, so the whole family went, and a few friends as well. I took this fun picture of Eve and her friend with a person dressed up as Olivia the pig (from the Olivia books). The colors in it are just right for today’s challenge.

The background paper, which looks just like the writing paper that the lower grades use, is from the fabulous new Storytime Designer Series Paper, available both as real paper and digitally.

I’ve already shown you a bunch of birthday cards that I have made with the fabulous I Dig You stamp set. I originally got this set because my nephew LOVES trucks. His second birthday is coming up, and while I could use one of those other cards,  I wanted to personalize it more. I had the idea of making a card with the number 2 in the back of the dump truck. This week’s Freshly Made Sketch was just perfect for it.

I like how the dump truck looks in a circle, so I switched out the oval for a circle.To accommodate the wider shape, I made the whole card a 5″x5″ square. It’s like I just pulled out the two sides of the sketch wider.

Stamps: I Dig You, Memorable Moments, Itty Bitty Banners
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Basic Black
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Island Indigo, Whisper White, Summer Smooches Designer Series Paper
Other: 3″ Circle Die, 3 1/2″ Circle Die, Chevron Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Bitty Banners Framelits, Silver Brads

Interestingly, I used this same color combo and designer series paper on my parents’ anniversary card yesterday. I love how versatile it is!

I was in a swap last month with a group of other demonstrators over on Stampin’ Addicts. We used stamp sets that aren’t new to this catalog and combined them with some of the new products that came out. I used my favorite little boy stamp set, I Dig You, and paired it with the new Comfort Cafe designer series paper. They look amazing together! And the new In Color, Summer Starfruit, is great for construction vehicles.

Stamps: I Dig You
Ink: Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede, Pool Party, Midnight Muse, Cajun Craze
Paper: Summer Starfruit, Soft Suede, Midnight Muse, Very Vanilla, Comfort Cafe Designer Series Paper
Other: Pool Party Seam Binding, Square Lattice Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Isn’t it cute? Be sure to come back tomorrow! We’ve got another great Stampin’ Addicts blog hop for you. This one is featuring stamp sets from the new catalog. I’m sure my wish list is bound to get longer after I hop around!

Oh my goodness! Freshly Made Sketches is so fabulous this week! They are having a surprise Blog Hop for Rita, who is having a baby shortly! Of course I had to play along!

I have one last retiring stamp set to show you, before this catalog ends at midnight Mountain Time tonight. This cute hippo card is inspired by a similar card by Kelly Acheson. Some of my stamping kids saw it when we were looking on Pinterest, and wanted to make one. Here’s what I came up with.

Stamps: Look who’s Turning
Ink: Concord Crush, Wisteria Wonder
Paper: Wisteria Wonder, Concord Crush, Whisper White, In Color 2010-2012 Patterns Designer Series Paper Pack
Other: Scallop Border Punch, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, 2 3/8″ Scallop Circle Punch

Congratulations, Rita! Best of luck with your new baby!!

Did you notice that all of the Build-a-Bear items are on the retiring list? All of them. The stamps, dies, everything. These are so great for kids cards! If you have kids and don’t have these stamps yet, I highly recommend them!  I made a cute little girl bear card for two challenges today. It combines the Paper Players challenge of Polka Dots and the Friday Mashup Challenge of using ribbon and a decorative edge.

Don’t you love how the scalloped circle from the Perfect Pennants die matches the Scallop Trim Border punch? By the way, that fabulous striped ribbon is retiring as well.

Stamps: Beary Best Friends, Beary Nice Wishes
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, VersaMark, Crumb Cake, Melon Mambo
Paper: Melon Mambo, Whisper White, Just Add Cake Designer Series Paper, Brights Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack
Other: Scallop Trim Border Punch, Perfect Pennants Bigz Die, Circles #2 Die, Melon Mambo Striped Grosgrain Ribbon, Black Embossing Powder

I embossed the “Happy Bearthday” phrase so it would stand out more against the Wild Wasabi. I was thinking about using the Melon Mambo embossing powder for it, but Eve thought the black would like better. She’s got a great eye, that kid!

Oooooh! Another great sketch from Freshly Made Sketches this week! I love, love, love that circle!

I had so many ideas on what to use in this card, and that was only thinking about the sets that are retiring! Should I put the truck from Loads of Love? Or the cupcakes from Crazy for Cupcakes? In the end I decided on the perfect thing for that circle — one of the circles from Take a Spin! I combined it with some of the bright paper from Big Top Birthday to make a fun card any child would love.

Stamps: Take a Spin
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Pacific Point, Real Red, Daffodil Delight
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper
Other: 2 1/2″ Circle Punch, 3″ Circle Die, Game Spinner Hands, Daffodil Delight Seam Binding

Don’t miss out on these stamps that are retiring. Take a Spin and over 200 more will not be available after the end of May. You can download the PDF, the Excel file, or view the retiring stamps in my online store.

This week’s Stamping 411 Sketch Challenge is so fun, with a circle in a square!

As I was looking around for what stamps to use in the circle, I realized that I hadn’t used my Take a Spin set in a really long time. It was perfect for this sketch! I used the trick of making my card 4 1/4″ square, so that it can fit in a regular envelope. That way you don’t have to pay extra postage for a square card.

Stamps: Take a Spin
Ink: StazOn Jet Black
Paper: Pacific Point, Real Red, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper
Other: Game Spinner Hand, 2 1/2″ Circle Punch, 1/2″ Circle Punch, Real Red 1/4″ Grosgrain Ribbon

I stamped my image twice, once on Real Red and once on Pacific Point, then cut out the Pacific Point pieces and glued them on top of the Real Red one. I bent the ends of the game spinner hand up a little so they wouldn’t catch on the edges.

What fun, summery colors from ColourQ today. It’s kind of a last hurrah as we wave good-bye to summer, even here in Southern California!

As I looked through my old pictures for ones that matched the colors, I found this super cute one of Eve and Biscuit. Can you ever have too many pictures of adorable children and their puppies? How sweet are their faces? Eve was two here, and Biscuit was about 1.

The background paper is from the digital version of the Domestic Goddess Designer Series Paper. It has such cute patterns!