Jul

24

Try it Out Thursday: Creating a Decorative Corner with the NEW Scallope Edge Punch

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Stampin' Up! Scallop Punch

How do you like the top corners of my bookmark?  I was so excited when one of my downline Pat Duggan emailed me and shared this new technique that her daughter Kim Duggan had discovered while playing with Stampin’ Up!’s new scallop edge punch, that I just HAD to share it with you.  It is so easy it’s unbelievable - the tutorial is all of 2 pictures *lol*!

Step 1: To create this corner, you need to hold your punch upside down so that you are looking at the underside of the punch.  The way in which you align your CS in the punch is the most critical thing to achieving this type of corner.  You need to center one of the full scallops in the corner of your CS, and then carefully push your CS into the punch as far as it goes (make sure the scallop remains centered)…and punch!  That’s it!  Repeat on the other side and your decorative corner is done (the next picture shows you what it looks like)

Stampin' up! scallop edge punch

Step 2: This is the final outcome after punching both top corners. Decorate your bookmark as desired (I’ve included a supply list of what I used to decorate mine below). Stay tuned tomorrow for my Featured Stampin’ Up! Artist of the week.

Stampin' Up!

Stamp set: Stitched Exotics
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss (the new Stampin’ Up! in colors for 2008/2009), Black Staz On
Paper: Pink Pirouette, Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss
Accessories: Jumbo Pewter Eyelets, 1" circle punch, Crop-a-Dile, blender pen, scallop edge punch, brayer, white tafetta ribbon dyed kiwi kiss and riding hood red (for a tutorial on how I dyed my ribbon click HERE).

Jul

23

Stampin’ Up! Whatever Wednesday

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Stampin' Up!

Remeber last week in THIS POST when I commented that I wasn’t sure whether I liked the new Simply Send Card Elements kit?  Well, as I predicted, upon using it further, it’s starting to grow on me, although NOT with the intended designs that the kit came with. I’ve actually really enjoyed seeing what other ways I can use the SS kit. The card is pretty easy and self-explanatory - I’ve included the supply list and dimensions below.  The leaves were created by taking a strip of old olive CS, scoring a line down the middle, running it through my paper crimper, and then punching them out with my small oval punch.  I trimmed the end off of one of the leaves because it seemed to "sit" against the stem a bit better.  The leaves were attached using mini glue dots.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Try it Out Thursday where I’ll be showing you a cool new way to use Stampin’ Up!’s new scallop edge punch!

Stamps: Stem Sayings
Paper: Old Olive CS (non-textured), Whisper White mat (4" x 5 1/4"), DP from the SS kit (1" x 5 1/4"), adhesive die cuts from the SS kit
Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Button from SS kit, wide olive grosgrain ribbon, mini glue dots, small oval punch, paper trimmer with scoring blade, paper crimper.

Jul

22

Stampin’ Up! Tutorial Tuesday: Markered & Glittered Vellum Accents

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Stampin' Up! Tutorial Tuesday

You may recall that a few months back I posted a tutorial on creating acetate accents for your cards (if you missed that tutorial you can see it HERE).  For today’s Stampin’ Up! Tutorial Tuesday I decided upon a variation on that theme - creating vellum accents. As with acetate, vellum accents have been quite trendy in paper crafting for awhile now.  Typically though, most of the vellum accents that you see are colorless.  As I love color and I love glitter, I decided to create some accents that incorporate both.  This technique is the perfect opportunity to showcase the versatility of your Stampin’  Write markers and VersaMarker.

Step 1: You’re going to want to use vellum cardstock - it’s sturdier than the regular vellum and easier to work with.  Start by running your embossing buddy over the vellum. Stamp an outline image in black craft ink, sprinkle on black EP and heat with your heat tool.  Although I used black ink and EP, you could actually use any color you want. Tip: to re-create the look of of the colorless vellum accents I would stamp in white craft ink and emboss with white EP, then cut out your image.

Stampin' Up!

Step 2: Using your Stampin’ Write markers, color in your stamped images.  The depth of color of your image is going to depend on a couple of things: how many layers of color you apply, and whether or not you also color on the back of the image.  In the image on the left, I applied 1 layer of Regal Rose to the center circle of each petal, one layer of Pretty in Pink to the outer part of the petal and 2 layers of certainly celery to the center of the flower.  On the flower on the right, I applied 1 layer of each color on the front, and then a layer of Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery on the BACK of the image. If you’re not too fussy on glitter, you could just leave your images as is, cut them out and you have some really pretty colored vellum accents.  If you like glitter, then  proceed to the next step.

Stampin' Up!

Step 3: Take your VersaMarker and color over everything you colored with your markers.  TIP: your VersaMarker’s tip will pick up some of the marker color, so before moving on to the next color (i.e. the Certainly Celery flower center), clean your marker in the same way as you would for a blender pen - to do this, angle your marker so that the tip is on it’s side, and gently scribble and rotate onto your scrap paper until the ink runs colorless once more  - the tip WILL stain a bit(never mash down on the tip and "scrub" your markers or blender pens clean or you’ll ruin the tip).  Work quickly and then cover the entire image with Stampin’ Up!’s Heat and Stick powder (this is what you see in the picture below). Heat with your heat tool until the powder melts.

Stampin' up!

Step 4: Sprinkle on Dazzling Diamonds glitter, then heat once again with your heat tool, to set. Below you can see a close up of the two flowers once they have been glittered and heat set.

Stampin' Up!

Stampin' Up!

Step 5:  Cut out your images with your paper snips and add to your cards as accents! You can see my finished card below. The CS is Pink Pirouette, one of the new in colors, paired with Pretty in Pink.  The ribbon comes from the Fairy Tale ribbon originals.

Stampin' Up!

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial.  Stay tuned tomorrow for my Whatever Wednesday post, when I showcase another card I made with the Card Elements Simply Scrappin’ Kit.

 

Jul

20

Stampin’ Up! Makeover Monday Challenge

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Stampin' Up!

Nope, no baby yet.  The reason for my week long blogging silence has actually been because I’ve been tackling the one and a million things on my "to do before the baby comes" list .  I don’t know about you, but I seem to thrive on tight deadlines….or at least that’s what I like to tell myself…..in all honesty it’s probably more like I’m a procrastinator when it comes to things that I don’t feel like doing. And all the things I’ve been doing this past week DEFINATELY fell into the "didn’t feel like doing category", until of course with less than a week until my due date, I suddenly realized I couldn’t put them off any longer and HAD to do them.  Thankfully they’re pretty much done now and I can focus on my stamping again. 

When I finally sat down to stamp today, I almost felt like I had forgotten how *lol*!    Once I got going though I was on a real roll and stamped 6 cards! Which means that tomorrow, I’ll be spending some time pre-dating & pre-uploading some posts so that even if baby does come, you’ll still be seeing some posts.  I have 2-3 more posts planned for this week and same for next week.

Since I was so excited to be stamping again that I decided I’d post my Stampin’ Up! Monday Makeover challenge one day early. Today’s card actually comes from the July 2007 cover of the CARDS magazine. I loved the simplicity of the design.  I find that when I haven’t stamped for awhile (and for me, awhile is anything over 3 days) I have a hard time getting my mojo going, so a nice easy card was a good place to start.  I used my 1 3/8" squre punch to punch out 3 squares from the Bali Breeze DP, and then 1 square each from Old Olive, Rose Red and Taken with Teal CS.  I then used my Felt Flowers from Stampin’ Up!’s Flower Fusion tin and added a circle rhinestone brad to the center of each.  I finished off the card by adding, white taffeta ribbon and stamping the greeting from "Heard from the Heart" one of the stamp sets that will be released in the new catalogue.

Now it’s your turn.  Take a totally or at least mostly non-Stampin’ Up! card, 3D item or scrapbook page, and make it over using all Stampin’ Up! product.  Post it to your blog, Splitcoaststampers, or other photo gallery and link to this post.  Once you’ve done that, post a comment in the comments section of this post with a link to your card.  You can makeover as many projects as you would like. Each project gets you one entry into my monthly draw.  The winner is drawn the first Monday of the following month, and receives an item valued at $14.95 or less (CAN) from the current Stampin’ Up! catalogue.

Stay tuned tomorrow for my Tutorial Tuesday feature!

Jul

14

Stampin’ Up! Makeover Monday Challenge

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Stampin' Up!

Welcome to the first July Stampin’ Up! Makeover Monday Challenge.  Although I had every intention of posting a challenge and announcing last month’s winner last week, as I had just gotten home from vacation, it unfortunately didn’t end up happening, so be sure to read to the end of this post, because I’ll be announcing the winner today.

The purpose of Stampin’ Up!’s makeover Monday challenge is to take a totally or mostly non-Stampin’ Up! card and make it over using all Stampin’ Up! products. It doesn’t have to be a card, it can be a 3D item or scrapbook page as well. Colors and accessories can change, layout has stay pretty close to the same (i.e. it has to still be recognizable as the same layout). Post your card to your blog or to splitcoaststampers, link here, then post a comment here and link to your post.  You can enter as many samples and as many times as you want in a month.  At the beginning of each month, I randomly draw a winner from the previous month’s entries.

Today’s makeover card is based on THIS CARD, that was created by Lauren Meader. You can see a full listing of supplies I used below.

Okay, on to today’s winner…….drumroll please…………and the winner of the June Stampin’ Up! Makeover Monday Challenge issssss……Michelle Ip!  You can see Michelle’s card HERE. Congratulations Michelle!  Please email me at andrea@sunnystampin.com with your complete mailing address, and I will mail your prize out to you.

Now it’s your turn.  Follow the directions above, and post your creations in the comments section.  I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

Stamps: Pun Fun, All Holidays
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Close to Cocoa, Chocolate Chip, Berry Bliss DP
Ink: Basic Brown, Close to Cocoa, Pretty in Pink
Accessories: 1 3/8" square punch (to create the "flag"), blender pen, crystal effects (to give the coffee a more realistic look), pink taffeta ribbon, 1/8" handheld punch, 1/16" handheld punch, vintage brads, coluzze circle template, blade and mat.

 

Jul

12

Stampin’ Up! Stamp Simply Saturday

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Stampin' Up!

My Stampin’ Up! Sneak Peak pre-order finally arrived yesterday - Yay!  I can’t even begin to tell you how gorgeous the new in colors are in person!  I am VERY excited to be able to start creating with them.  For today’s Stamp Simply Saturday - where I feature cards that can be created in 15 minutes or less - I decided to see what I could do with the new Simply Sent Card Elements Kit. 

Now I have a confession to make and hopefully I won’t ruffle any feather’s, but I am really on the fence about whether or not I like this kit.  Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that the 8 1/2" x 11" CS is textured, and I do like the patterned paper.  It’s the die cut images that I’m just not sure about.  I suspect it’s a matter of style.  They are very geometric and to my eye anyways, kind of busy-looking.  Waaayyyyy out of my stamping "comfort zone" .  However, often, after I’ve used something and seen how other’s use it, I often find myself changing my mind.  So, I’m hoping that happens this time.

Jill Hilliard’s card that I posted in my Stampin’ Up! Featured Artist of the week inspired me to pull out my Artfully Asian set and use it again before it retires.  As I was looking for ways to use the Simply Sent kit within my comfort zone, I decided to use my coluzzle to cut out the center portion of the largest die cut, and then use the outside as a "frame" for my image.  I then cut out another circle using my coluzzle, and stamped the leaves from Artfully Asian, sponged the edge in More Mustard, and then centered it onto the "frame".  The greeting comes from All Holidays.  All other card elements come from the Simply Sent Kit.  All supplies are Stampin’ Up! of course! 

I’d love to see how YOU are using the Simply Sent Kit. So if you’ve created cards using that are of your own design (i.e. not the ones that SU pre-designed as part of the kit), I’d love to see them.  Leave a comment with a link back to your project on you blog post, your SU website gallery or your Splitcoaststampers gallery.

Jul

11

Featured Stampin’ Up! Artist of the Week: Jill Hilliard

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Every Friday I try to take the opportunity to introduce you to the wonderful creations of a different Stampin’ Up! demonstrator as part of my Stampin’ Up! Artist of the Week feature.  This week I’d like to introduce you to Jill Hilliard.

Jill says: "I have been an SU demo for a little over 1 year and stamping for about 4 years. I live in Collegeville PA, near Philadelphia. I love everything about stamping and Stampin’ Up! I am totally addicted to papercrafting."

The card above and the set of cards below were created and photographed by Jill.  Be sure to take some time to check out all the great projects she has on her blog: Jill’s Card Creations.

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. 

Jul

10

Stampin’ Up! Try it Out Thursday: Black Magic Technique using Metallic Art Pencils

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Stampin' up! Black Magic Technique

For today’s Try it Out Thursday, I decided to take a closer look at Stampin’ Up!’s Metallic Art Pencils.  I’ve had those pencils sitting with the rest of my "stash" for probably almost 2 years now.  I bought them because I thought they looked really neat, but then didn’t really know what to do with them.  As I was web surfing I came across a few different cards using the Black Magic Technique. I’m not really sure who came up with the technique and unfortunately can’t remember the blogs I saw it on as I didn’t book mark them at the time. I thought however it was such a stunning look that I decided to try it with the metallic art pencils. Although you can’t get the full effect from the picture, Stampin’ Up!’s Metallic Art Pencils add a beautiful shimmer to the card which you don’t get with traditional color pencils - almost the look of Pearl Ex.

The basic Black Magic Technique is as follows:

  1. Stamp a solid image stamp in White Craft Ink onto black cardstock. Let dry.
  2. Color over the white craft ink using color pencils.
  3. Use a white gel pen to outline the image.

While playing with this technique, I added a little twist (I love doing that - finding ways to alter and/or improve on existing things - it’s the way new ideas are born!) and decided to share that with you in a little tutorial. 

Step 1: Ink up a solid image stamp in white craft ink (here I used the Fabulous Flowers stamp set) and stamp onto black CS.  Make sure your stamp is inked up really well. Let dry.  If you are in a rush, you can speed up the drying process with a heat tool.

Step 2: Color over the white craft ink using your metallic art pencil.  You’ll notice from the picture that I did not completely cover the white craft ink.  I colored the centers of the petal and left a small white border showing.

Step 3:  Here you can see the whole thing colored using the three colors shown in the picture.  I used the gold and green for the centers of the flowers and layered them (i.e. first I colored with the gold, and then colored over top with the green).

Stampin up

Step 4: Now here’s my little twist.  I put a few drops of the white craft re-inker onto the lid of my white craft ink pad.  I then used the smallest aquapainter brush tip, dampened it (to keep the bristles together), and then picked up some of the white craft ink and "painted" the outline of the petals.  Take a look at the picture in Step 5 for more on how I painted the petals.

Step 5: Unfortunately the picture turned out a bit blurry (as I took it left-handed), but you can see that I only colored along one side of the petals.  What I really liked about using the aquapainter is that because the brush has flexibility, you can get varying line thicknesses, based on how much pressure you apply. Although the white looks really intense while wet, it dries to a softer finish.

Step 6: You can see from the picture below the effect it gives as it starts to dry. I’ll let you in on the reason I added this little twist in the next picture.

Step 7: I then took my signo white gel pen and outlined a thin line on the outer edge of the side of the petal that I painted the white re-inker onto.  So what was the purpose of the white re-inker?  Because it is drying on top of the metallic art pencil, as it dries, it softens up the intensity of the color of the metallic art pencil underneath, giving a third "shade".  This adds a little more depth of color than if you simply did this card in two steps with the metallic art pencil and then the white gel pen. 

Stampin' Up! Black Magic

Step 8: Here’s the finished card.  Below I have a list of all the supplies I used to create this card (all Stampin’ Up! of course).  If you are an SU demo and you would like to receive this tutorial in pdf format (which is perfect for handing out or emailing to your customers if you teach this technique in a class or club) then be sure that you are subscribed to my Demo to Demo e-newsletter (you can subscribe on the home page of www.demotodemo.com on the left side) as I’ll be including it in my next Demo to Demo newsletter, due to be released this weekend (unless of course I happen to go into labour - *lol*).

Stamps:  Fabulous Flowers, All Holiday’s
Ink:  Whisper White Craft ink, Basic Black Classic ink
Paper: Basic Black, Certainly Celery, Pale Plum CS
Accessories:  Celery 1/4" grosgrain ribbon, Styled Silver hodgepodge (I think that’s what it’s called - it was from the Occasions Mini Catalog), 1/16" handheld punch, ticket corner punch, mini glue dots.

Jul

9

Le Jardin Class Planner & Stamp Class by Email now available!

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Stampin' Up! Class Planner

Hi everyone!  Just thought I’d let you know……no baby yet! I spent all of last week in Ottawa visiting my family and hoping for a last "hurrah!" before the baby comes.  Although we had a lovely visit and the kids enjoyed themselves immensely, I was feeling quite under the weather and very physically uncomfortable most of the week. I kept feeling like the baby could come at any moment, which of course had me in a bit of a state of panic because I’m not ready yet, and  I don’t mean emotionally ready either!   Somehow the time snuck by so quickly and I’ve been so busy that I realized last week that I have no baby clothes sorted and washed, no diaper bag with newborn stuff ready, no hospital bag packed, not even a crib set up for the baby.  I would have been in a real pickle if the baby had come - *lol*!  So, although I have been home since Sunday evening, I’ve pretty much spent the last few days getting organized - both for the baby, with household stuff, and for my Stampin’ Up! business. I’m happy to say that things are falling into place.  I’m also really excited to say that I hired a Virtual Assistant to help keep my Stampin’ Up! business chugging along smoothly when the baby comes.  Although I will be posting less frequently for the next couple of months, I won’t totally disappear from the blogging world - my posts just may be a bit more erratic.  Also my class planners and stamp classes by email are still on their regular release schedule of once a month (around the 10th of the month). 

Speaking of which……I want to introduce you to my newest class planner and Stamp Class by Email:  Le Jardin….featuring Stampin’ Up!’s Pretties Kit!

Stampin' Up! Le Jardin class Planner

Add a touch of elegance to any occasion when you gift someone with one of these gorgeous cards featuring Stampin’ Up!’s Le Jardin designer paper and the Pretties Kit.  In this class you’ll learn how to create these four standard-sized cards (4 1/4" x 5 1/2"), each featuring different elements from the Pretties Kit, and a custom-designed box to hold them in. The box is the perfect size for holding between 6-8 cards and their envelopes (the number of cards the box holds depends on the amount of embellishments you have on the cards). You can check out the open view below:

Stampin' up! Le Jardin

I have two versions of this class available:

Jun

29

A Gift for You: Free Emergency Birthday Card Kit Tutorial

Filed Under Tutorials | 76 Comments 

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.

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    Andrea Walford
    Stampin' Up!® Demonstrator
    Cambridge, ON, Canada
    (519) 620-8810

    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.

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  • The Fine Print

    All content, including designs, concepts, text, and photographs are COPYRIGHT ©2008 Andrea Walford. My artwork is shared for your personal inspiration and enjoyment, and may not be copied for submission to contests, magazines, etc.

    You are welcome to CASE any FREE artwork I share for your personal use (such as personal projects, swaps and your classes).

    Please do not CASE the projects that I offer as part of my Class Planning Service for Stampin' Up! Demos. The class planners are part of a PAID service. The project designs & templates are original, and were custom-designed for the exclusive use of those Demonstrators that have purchased the planners. These designs and templates are protected by Intellectual Property Laws. You are welcome to use them as inspiration for your own designs, as long as they have been sufficiently modified, and a link to the original class is provided. Thank you for respecting these limitations.