-
Want to Receive Free Stamping Tips & Project Ideas Every Month?
& receive exclusive samples, subscriber-only content & coupons!
Subscribe to My Blog
Receive updates as soon as they're posted when you subscribe through a Reader! Receive next-day updates by email:Stampin' Up! Catalogue
SPRING/SUMMER COLLECTION 2008
The Stampin' Up! Spring/Summer Collection Catalogue is now online!Click here to view it online.ADJUSTED CANADIAN PRICING CHART
Jun
29
You may remember me posting this Emergency Card Kit as a Class Kit by Mail a few weeks ago. I had such positive and overwhelming response, particulary from my US readers - however due to Stampin’ Up! policy, it was not a class I was (am) able to sell outside of Canada. Although I had many emails requesting that I sell it in a Stamp Class by Email format (for non-Stampin’ Up! demonstrators), or a Class Planner format (for Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators) I didn’t feel comfortable doing that, as the tutorial is not set up in that fashion. The second reason is that the whole concept of the "Emergency Birthday Card Kit" is not an idea that is original to me - it was a concept I was introduced to at a Stampin’ Up! regional event, but I thought it was such a great idea that I decided to put together a kit with supplies and offer that to my readers who wanted to make their own.
I have a personal rule that I will not profit from someone else’s idea. Every online class I offer - whether it is a Stamp Class by Email or a Class Planner for Stampin’ Up! Demonstrators - is based on ideas and concepts that I personally developed and the project designs and templates are ones that I designed and created (at least , to my knowledge, they are original templates- and I say that because it is has happened that someone else comes up with a very similar template design and I don’t know about it). Now I do want to clarify that these card designs and the box template are my original designs, it’s just the idea or kit instruction wording that is not mine.
So, all that said, as I really value YOU, my blog readership, I’ve decided to gift you with a free tutorial. In the download links below you will be download a very slightly modified version of my Emergency Blog Class Kit by Mail - it is the tutorial I send out with my Class Kit by Mail with a couple of explanations added in. You are free to use it for your own personal use, OR if you are an SU demonstrator you are free to print it out and base a class on it or offer it to your own customers. Please note that my copyright and reprint permission information is on the bottom. It is in pdf format. * I will not be releasing an unsecured version (i.e. MS Word) format of this tutorial due to some issues that have occurred in the past, so I thank you for your understanding of this*.
Update: I’ve had a couple of questions on what supplies you need in order to make these projects. All you need to have is 1/2 of Stampin’ Up!’s Simply Scrappin’ Confetti Kit. For the set shown in the picture above you will use three of the self-adhesive die cut sheets (each kit comes with 6 self-adhesive die cut sheets - 2 each of 3 different designs), and ONE each of the textured CS: Taken with Teal, Rose Red and Old Olive (which come in the kit). You will have the River Rock CS sheets left over. I also created a circle template for getting the rounded opening on the box (you can’t actually see it in the picture) - I used my coluzzle, but you really could use anything circular. One full kit will make 4 boxes and 24 cards with plenty of the die-cut adhesives from the kit left over to make other projects.
Optional: because I like all my cards to have a greeting on them, I used three stamp sets: So Many Scallops (an SAB set - now retired), the Think Happy Thoughts stamp set (in the current catalogue) and the A Little Birthday Cheer stamp set (also in the current catalog). You can either completely omit the use of the stamp sets, or simply use whatever birthday greeting stamp set you have on hand.
Download the Emergency Birthday Card Kit Tutorial HERE.
Download the Emergency Card Kit Instructions HERE.
Jun
27
Summer Blogging Schedule
Filed Under Stampin' Ideas | 8 Comments
If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been these past couple of days, be sure to read my post below "We’ve sold our house!". As a follow up to that post, I wanted to take a minute and touch base with you all and let you know that I’ll be running on a lighter posting schedule over the summer. Rather than my typical posting of 5-6 days a week, it’ll probably closer to about 3 post a week, with of course a bit of time off for summer holidays and when the baby comes.
With the kids home from school I’m finding it harder to maintain the structured schedule I did during the year - my days now are all over the place. Then of course, with my due date rapidly approaching (July 26th), I have a ton of stuff still to do to get ready, and am also feeling the need for a little down time. We’re headed to Ottawa tomorrow morning to visit family and for a little vacation and will be there for a week. Although I will be dealing with any "emergency" emails,and I will be bringing some stamping stuff with me, I probably won’t be posting all that much. I’ll be back on Monday, July 7th and will be announcing my Stampin’ Monday Makeover Challenge Winner. In the meantime, if I don’t have a chance to post this upcoming Monday, you can add your entries to this post HERE.
Jun
27
Featured Stampin’ Up! Artist of the Week: Andrea Murdock
Filed Under Stampin' Up! Featured Artist | 1 Comment
It’s one of my favourite days of the week again, when I get to introduce you to the work of other talented Stampin’ Up! demonstrators. For today’s Featured Stampin’ Up! Artist, I wanted to highlight Andrea Murdock’s work.
Andrea says "I live in London ON. I have been a demo for 1.5 years and I am passionate about stamping and scrapbooking using SU products. My inspirations come from seeing other people’s ideas and having it grow into one of my own. Also, I tend to buy an item then build a design around it. I also find that since I have started stamping and scrapbooking the world’s colours now seem to stand out to me more than they ever did before- mind you they stand out in SU colours LOL! I tell everyone how uncrafty I am and how SU and great support from other demo’s have truly helped me develop my own style."
The card above and the card below were both created by Andrea. Be sure to take a minute today and check out all the great projects she has on her blog: My Stamping Heaven.
How about you? How would YOU like to be a Featured Stampin’ Up! Artist on my blog? Click HERE for more information on how this could help your Stampin’ Up! Business and to apply.
Jun
27
We Sold our House!
Filed Under Stampin' Ideas | 20 Comments
I am so excited I just had to share - after 6 weeks on the Real Estate market we finally sold our house! If you’ve been wondering what happened to me over the last couple of days, I have to tell you that it has been an incredibly intense week - I’m not really sure if that’s the right word, but it’s as positive a spin as I can put on it - *lol*! It seems like all of a sudden everything started happening at once. The kids finished school last Friday, over the last week my almost 2 year old went from being this sweet, angelic child to hitting the terrible twos with a VENGEANCE (now we affectionately call hime our "Franken-child" - *lol*)and then all of a sudden we had a flurry of showings for the house. I’ve pretty much spent every spare minute the last 2-3 days cleaning, doing laundry (the combination of summer and 4 kids makes for a HUGE amount of laundry) & dealing with a cranky toddler while I have been home, and then of course have had to find things to do out of the house during showings (while dealing with a cranky toddler).
Yesterday I was lamenting to my husband that I hadn’t touched a stamp into two days & was behind on dealing with my blogging and my SU business - because of course my stamp room is still all packed away into the garage and laundry room, and I have to haul everything out when I want to stamp - and I didn’t know how much more of this stress I could take. Then the phone rang. It was our Real Estate agent and he had an offer for us. So last night over a period of a few hours and a lot of back and forth we managed to reach an agreement. The best part is that the offer didn’t really have any conditions and we got the closing date we needed (end of September).
I can’t even begin to tell you what a weight is now off my shoulders. It sounds silly to say, but I feel renewed, re-invigorated and just itching to stamp!
Jun
24
Today’s Stampin’ Up! Tutorial Tuesday is a quick and easy tutorial showing you how to use your Stampin’ Up! chunky glitter with the On Board Chipboard. I am so going to miss this chunky glitter when the Occasions Mini expires at the end of this month. Although we do have chunky glitter in the main Idea Book & Catalogue, I just LOVE the colors in the Occasions Mini. Here’s how I covered the chipboard letter with the glitter:
Step 1: Place a fairly thick layer of Tombow Multi-Purpose adhesive on the chipboard. As you can see from the picture below this is much thicker than when you’re adhering cardstock to the chipboard. You want enough glue on there to be able to "hold" the amount of glitter you need to completely cover the chipboard.
Step 2: I took a scrap piece of Stampin’ Up!’s grid paper, and folded it in half, then opened it up again. I lay my chipboard letter on it then poured a whole bunch of chunky glitter all over it. I used my finger to carefully press as much of the chunky glitter into the glue as it could hold.
Step 3: I gently picked up my covered chipboard letter, tapped off all the excess glitter, and then funelled the remaining glitter back into my container. You could also use your powder pal, store your chunky glitter in a square plastic container or even use a paper coffee filter. Set your letter aside to dry. Once dry, I mounted it to my card front using Stampin’ Dimensionals
Stamps: Big Birthday Candle, In the Stars
Ink: Certainly Celery, Basic Black, Whisper White Craft Ink
Paper: Regal Rose, Whisper White CS. Prints Pack (hostess level 1 set)
Accessories: embossing buddy, white EP, heat tool, paper piercer, foam mat, chunky sprinkles glitter, tombow multi-purpose adhesive, stampin’ dimensionals, Fairly Tale ribbon originals.Jun
23
Stampin’ Up! Makeover Monday Challenge
Filed Under Stampin' Ideas | 6 Comments
I Hope you all had a good weekend. Mine was an absolutel whirlwind! We had the stamp camp all day Saturday and it went really well. We had 34 ladies attend and made the Bali Breeze tin and 12 cards. Go figure that despite all my lists and careful prep (it took two car loads to get everything to the Church) I forgot my camera! Thankfully my friend and downline Karen Harman didn’t, so I assigned her the position of official photographer. As soon as I’m able to get pictures from her I’ll post some along with more details on how the day went so you can see. Needless to say though, by the end of the day I was so tired from being on my feet all day that I was in bed by 7:30 pm - *lol* - and BOY DID IT FEEL GOOD! Same thing with yesterday actually ,as we had another busy day where we were out and about pretty much the entire day, so it was another early to bed night. I feel almost back to normal now although I find that I’m starting to get into a bit of a panic mode as I just realized last night that I am just over 4 weeks away from my due date and still have so much that I want/need to get done.
For today’s Makeover Monday Challenge I based my card on THIS CARD by Kirsten DuBosque from the blog Confessions of a Naptime Stamper. As her card had the dotted designer paper (DP) I decided to base my card design around the dotted DP from the Jersey Shore collection. It’s funny because when I first saw that collection of papers I wasn’t too crazy about it as Brilliant Blue was one of my least used and least favourite colors. However, as I challenged myself to use it for my Pun Fun Stamp Class by Email (which you can see if you scroll down this page) and Class Planner I found myself really liking it in this color combination (with Bashful Blue, Wild Wasabi and Pumpkin Pie).
Now it’s your turn. I’d love to see what you come up with! If you’re new to my blog, on our Monday Makeover Challenge you take a totally or almost totally non-Stampin’ Up! project and make it over using ALL Stampin’ Up! products. Colors can change, but layout has to stay pretty much the same (or at least be recognizable). Anyone can participate. All you have to do is post your picture to your blog, website or splitcoaststampers, then link back to this post. Once you’ve done that, leave a comment in the comments section with a link to YOUR card so I and all my readers can see it. You can enter as many times a week/month as you’d like. You get one entry per project that you make over. The first Monday of the following month (so the first Monday in July) - I’ll annouce a winner. The winner receives an item from the current Stampin’ Up! catalogue valued at $14.95 or less from me. Happy stamping!
Stamps: Zoofari, Absolutely Fabulous
Inks: Black Staz On, Wild Wasabi, Bashful Blue, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Jersey Shore DP, Bashful Blue, Brilliant Blue, Pumpkin Pie, Whisper White CS
Accessories: Word Window Punch, 1 1/4" circle punch, 1 3/8" circle punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals, corner rounder punch (for the scalloped border), 1/16" handheld circle punch (for the holes on each scallop), blender pen.Jun
21
Simply Stamped Saturday Delayed
Filed Under Stampin' Ideas | 1 Comment
Just a quick note to tell you that today’s post will either be delayed until tomorrow afternoon (after 12 pm EST) or possibly cancelled completely as for the last week I’ve been busy getting ready for today’s Cambridge Spring Mega Stamp Camp and haven’t been doing as much personal or blog-related stamping.
Jun
20
.jpg)
Well, I did it again this week, only a variation this time. If you remember, for last week’s Stampin’ up! Featured Stampin’ Up! Artist, I had forgotten to email someone to ask them to be my Featured Stampin’ Up! Artist. Well this week I thought I’d be a real smarty pants and email someone immediately after I posted my apology. Lo and behold all week I’ve been wondering why I hadn’t heard back from them -maybe they were on holidays, maybe they didn’t get my email. Last night as I was going through my email, I found that I had somehow hit a wrong button in my address book and accidentally emailed it to my own email address! So instead of having nothing to share today, I thought I’d share with you the work of a fellow SU demo from the UK - Jenny Moors.
I stumbled across Jenny Moor’s blog when she emailed me through my Demo to Demo website. I loved her style and thought I’d share some of her work with you. As I browsed her blog I also found it neat to see projects with stamps sets and designer papers that are retired here in Canada and the US. The picture above is from her blog and shows you a sample of her work. You can check out more of her work on her blog Stamping Moments. If I’m able to get ahold of Jenny and get a short bio I’ll be sure to post it later.
UPDATE (Fri. 2:50 EST): I contacted Jenny and asked if she could share a little bit about herself with me and this is what she said: "I live in Poole, Dorset, England. I am married and lucky to have two Sons. My Friend Sharon got me into Cardmaking by a Birthday Present Five years ago. Last March I stumbled onto some Craft Blogs and fell totally in love with the Stampin’ Up Products. I couldn’t believe my luck when I found out Stampin’ Up was coming to the UK last November - I signed up straight away. Firstly to be able to get my hands on the fabulous products but Mostly to Share what I have learnt through Crafting"
Jun
19
Stampin’ Up! Try it Out Thursday: Mini Glitter Dots
Filed Under Stampin' Up! Try it Out Thursday | 31 Comments
For today’s Try it Out Thursday, I thought I’d show you another use for Stampin’ Up!’s mini glue dots. The whole concept of using Stampin’ Up! adhesives with glitter and embossing powder was introduced to me at a Stampin’ Up! Regional Event about a year ago. Last night as I was pondering what to share with you today (in the midst of preparing for our Spring Mega Stamp Camp this upcoming Saturday), I was holding a roll of Stampin’ Up! Mini Glue Dots, and all of a sudden it hit me - why not showcase a decorative border using mini glue dots and our fine Cosmo glitter? So, here it is - albeit a bit later than I normally post as my husband is away again, we were prepping for the stamp camp late last night and I had a showing and an obstetrician’s appointment this morning. Better late than never I suppose! I’ve put together a little tutorial to show you what I did along with a couple of tips I learned along the way.
Step 1: I took a piece of 2 1/2" x 3 1/2" Bashful blue CS, and used Snail to adhere a white CS strip (1 1/2" x 2 1/2") to the left side of it.
Step 2: I aligned the edge of my paper piercing template (from Stampin’ Up! tool kit or alternately the mat pack), and used a pencil to make a small dot in the center of each hole. I basically used the template to help me create evenly spaced dots. Tip: Make your pencil mark VERY faint as it does show through the glue dot, even when the glitter has been applied as you’ll see in later pictures.
Step 3: Place a Stampin’ Up! mini glue dot on top of each of your pencil marks. Tip: Apply it directly from the roll, don’t try to pick it off and apply it manually or you’ll distort your glue dot. It was surprisingly easy to do and I didn’t have any problem getting the glue dots "right on target"
Step 4: Lay your CS onto a scrap piece of paper or powder pal, sprinkle on a layer of the fine cosmo glitter. Use your finger to press the glitter onto the glue dot. Return remaining glitter back to container. Tips: I rarely use the Powder Pal, especially with the fine cosmo glitter because I find that it IS so fine that a lot sticks on my powder pal and I seem to waste a lot. I prefer using my powder pal with SU’s beads instead. A couple of alternate ways to use your glitter are to store it in a square plastic container that is almost large enough to hold a full card laying down - this is my preferred method, as I find in the long run there is less wastage. The downside is that it takes more room to store. In this case, as I had no more square containers available, I took a piece of scrap paper, folded it in half, opened it up again, laid my project on it, sprinkled on the glitter, tapped off the excess, then carefully picked up the scrap paper and tapped it so that the glitter collected in the crease of the fold and used the fold to guide it back into the container.
Finished Card: Decorate your card as desired. Here I used a So Saffron card base, wheeled it along the bottom in So Saffron ink with the Sweet Stars Jumbo Wheel. My greeting came from Nursery Necessities, and my main image came from Bundled in Love. I first colored in my main image with Stampin’ Up! chalks (I believe it was Ballet Blue, using the provided applicator), and then used my blender pen and Bashful Blue classic ink to shade. When you look at the picture you can see what I mean about the pencil dots showing through - I don’t think it looks too bad, and I don’t know that there is any real way to eliminate it completely unless you don’t make yourself a "guide" to help you position your glue dots.
Jun
18
Whatever Wednesday: Gift Card Holder Tutorial
Filed Under Stampin' Up! Whatever Wednesday | 29 Comments
It’s that time of year again! I’m sure all of you moms with school aged kids know what I’m talking about …. our kids are counting down the days, and us?……well…..we’re counting down the days too, only some might argue from the opposite perspective: "How in heaven’s name are we going to keep the kids occupied all summer?" Yes, you guessed it, school is almost over. For my kids, school ends on Friday, so I’ve been busy making my end of the year teacher gifts. Over the years, after making different kids of teacher gifts, I’ve finally settled on Chapter’s gift cards (for those of you not familiar with Chapters, it is a large chain of bookstores in Canada - not sure if it’s in the US or not) . I find that gift cards are appreciated because then the teacher can buy whatever they want with it, and what teacher doesn’t like to read, or isn’t on the lookout for neat new resources for the next year?
If you’re a new reader, Whatever Wednesday is when I share with you any Stampin’ Up! creations that I am currently working on. Since I figure there are probably at least a few of you out there who will be giving gift cards, I thought that for Whatever Wednesday, I’d share with you a gift card holder I designed , and I created a tutorial for you in case you want to make some yourselves! You can see the inside of the gift card holder in the picture below. I’ll apologize in advance though as I wasn’t as careful as normal when taking my pictures so some are not as clear as I’d like.
Step 1: Take a 3 1/2" x 10 1/2" piece of CS and score at 3" and 7" (see template download). You’ll notice from the template that there are 3 "sections". You want to line up the bottom edge of the MEDIUM sized of the three CS sections with the bottom of your grid paper. Place a pencil mark along the bottom at 1 1/4" and another at 2 1/4". Place a pencil mark at 1/4" on both the left and right sides.
Step 2: Take your word window punch, lign up the left side of the punch with the 2 1/4" pencil mark, and the top edge of the punch with the 1/4" pencil mark on the right side (your punch will look as shown) and punch. Repeat on the other side. I do want to mention that this idea to create a "tab" using the word window punch is not my original idea. I saw it done for the first time on Amanda Coughlin’s blog HERE.
Step 3: By punching both sides, you create a "tab" as seen in the picture below.
Step 4: You are now going to rotate your CS so that you are looking at the SMALLEST flap- this is the bottom flap. Align your 1" circle punch with the center and punch out half a circle.
Step 5: This is what your cardstock piece now looks like:
Step 6: Close up the flaps so that the bottom flap (with the punched 1/2 circle) is on the inside. In the picture below you are looking at the bottom of the card front. Take your pencil and make a little mark on either side of the "tab" at about the halfway mark as shown.
Step 7: Open your CS back up, place this piece on a foam mat, and use your paper piercer to poke a hole through each of the pencil marks you made. I tried using the 1/16" handheld punch, but it didn’t have quite enough reach.
Step 8: On your craft mat, take a metal edged ruler and your craft & hobby blade and make a little slit in between the two pierced holes as shown.
Step 9: Your tab will tuck into the little slot, holding the whole thing closed.
Step 10: Open your gift holder back up, and place a piece of sticky strip along each edge of the bottom flap as shown in the picture below. Peel off the red backing and stick to the middle portion of the CS.
Step 11: This is what the inside of the gift card holder now looks like. Decorate the front and inside as desired.
-
Andrea Walford
Stampin' Up!® Demonstrator
Cambridge, ON, Canada
(519) 241-8771
Welcome! Through Stampin' Up! I'm living my passion to teach, to share, & to inspire others towards creativity. I hope you enjoy all the artwork and inspiration that I've put here. You can read more about me HERE.
Have a question or a comment? Email me
Visit my *NEW* Website for Stampin' Up! Demonstrators
