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‘Sending You Thoughts’ and Kerchief Card Kit

Hello Stamping Friends,

The sun has returned in our beautiful Colorado after a very- windy -snowy- day yesterday!  The clouds cleared and it was below zero last night but today looks to be gorgeous.  I hope you are getting some sunshine.  If not, better double up on those D vitamins!  Even our little Ruger seeks out the sunshine!

  What he really wants is a nice long walk outdoors!  

That is for sure!  If we don’t start walking soon we will both just be waddling!

Let’s move on to the Sale A Bration products I have to show you today.  First is the Kerchief Card Kit which many of you earned free with a $50 purchase.  It was one of my first selections.  The kit has preprinted greetings but you can change them up as I have done here.  The kit version without changes is on the left.  I turned over the label that was in the kit and stamped it with a greeting from ‘Flourishing Phrases’, sponged the edge with Poppy Parade and added Terracotta Tile Faceted Dots.  Aren’t the matching envelopes great?

  

For the Balmy Blue version I used the same ‘Flourishing Phrases’ greeting, cut a label from the Retired Lily Framelits Dies, sponged the edge in Balmy Blue and added a Noble Peacock Blue Rhinestone.  The Pretty Label punch works well for the greeting and is still available.

If you like kits I encourage you to subscribe to Paper Pumpkin.  In March we celebrate 7 years of Paper Pumpkin and subscribers will receive a free stamp set in the kit so you will get two stamp sets.  Click on the image to go to the Paper Pumpkin site or go to online ordering where you can purchase a prepaid subscription along with other products and get free Sale A Bration products.

 

 

And how far away is spring?

March 20th is the first day of spring, Sal, so 24 days; but remember March is generally one of Colorado’s snowiest months so get ready to build more snowmen.  My grandsons were here with Amber and building a snowman:

       

  Grab him quick!  He is eating yellow snow!

Too late!  Let’s look at the ‘Sending You Thoughts’ set and how I used it to make a get well card and a birthday card.  The greeting “Another sensational year of you” is in the ‘Sending You Thoughts’ stamp set.  The base is Grapefruit Grove with a layer of Tufted 3D embossing on Whisper White and a bottom layer of Gingham DSP.   The flowers and vase are from the ‘Vibrant Vases’ stamp set and stamped on Whisper White then cut with the Pretty Label punch,  The edge of the label is sponged and then popped up on a doily.  Rhinestones were added to the birthday card and Happiness Blooms Enamel Dots are added to the get well card with a tiny little bow for each from twine.

I am sad to have to send a get well card but delighted with the greetings in this set.  Take a look:

  • Base – Grapefruit Grove, 5 1/2 X 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4
  • Gingham Layer – Grapefruit Grove Gingham DSP, 1 3/4 X 5 1/4
  • Tufted Layer – Whisper White 2 1/4 X 5 1/4 embossed with 3D Embossing Folder
  • Inside Layer – Whisper White 5 1/4 X 4
  • Strips for under the ribbon and inside – make 3 – 3/4 X 5 1/4 – use the backside for contrast on one
  • Pretty Label Punch – Whisper White 3 X 2

Stamp the vase in Memento black ink, mask the vase, then stamp the flowers.  Vibrant Vases is a fun stamp set that has two step stamping so you can stamp the main images and then use a second stamp to color each image.  I used Grapefruit Grove for the coloring of the vase and flowers and Call Me Clover for the leaves.  I sponged a little light grey at the base of the vase with a make up brush, a Q-tip would work nicely, too.

  I wonder what it would look like with lots of different colored flowers and flowery DSP?

Lovely, I am sure, but I generally lean toward the monochromatic look.

Have a blessed day!

SAL,  Spring’s A Lurking (just around the corner)

Karen

 

 

 

Silhouette Scenes & Heart Foil Tin Brownies

Hello Stamping Friends,

February hostess code:  FPRJEPZJ

How was your Valentines Day?

Mine was phenomenal!  My grandsons gave me chocolates and a card and flowers via their folks and Paul brought home chocolates and had my favorite flowers delivered – carnations!  I was very spoiled and loved every minute!

I made Paul a card similar to the one on page 132 of the annual catalog.

I changed it up a bit by using the rectangle stitched framelits and a Blueberry Bushel layer on a Balmy Blue card base.  I attached a double sided adhesive sheet on the back of White Velvet Sheets (retired), cut out the ‘forever’  using the Sweet Silhouettes Dies and adhered it to a piece of Bluberry Bushel.  I cut around the word to make a nice background.  Lately, I have been seeing a lot of words embossed in white embossing powder on black paper and then cut out around the words.  I liked that look so I imitated it here.

Measurements:

Base:  Balmy Blue  5 1/2 X 8 1/2 scored at 4 1/4

Layer 1:  Blueberry Bushel  4 1/8  X 5 3/8  (make 2-one for the inside)

Layer 2:  See A Silhouette Designer Series Paper  4 X 5 1/4

Together Greeting:  Balmy Blue  2 X 1 1/2 cut with Rectangle Stitched Framelit to 1 11/16 X 1 3/16

Silhouette :  Whisper White 3 3/4 X 2 1/4 cut with Rectangle Stitched Framelit to 3 9/16 X 2 3/16

Forever:  White Velvet DSP 3 1/2  X 1 1/2

Background of Forever:  Blueberry Bushel 3 1/2 X 1 1/2

For the inside I printed a poem I wrote on Whisper White cardstock and cut it to 7 3/4 X 5 1/4 scored at 3 15/16 (one hair less than 4 inches) and glued just the right side to a Blueberry Bushel layer.

Love Poem to Paul 2

And for my family and special neighbors I made brownies in the Heart Foil Tins ( page 9 of the mini catalog).

One brownie mix made all 10!  I washed the tins really well and sprayed them with PAM no stick spray then cooked them at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. (18 minutes would have been better)

The tins have high-dome lids so you can decorate them as you wish.  I used the German Chocolate Coconut Pecan Icing.

For the lid I used several of those fun supplies from the suite on page 9 of the mini.  I layered:

  •  A Heart Doily (stamped on the back-see below)
  • A punched out scallop from the From My Heart Specialty Designer Series Paper using the Heart Punch Pack
  • A punched straight edge heart from the same DSP using the Heart Punch Pack
  • A retired pink heart jewel

A little red bow at the front completed the project.  I put two glue dots on the inside of the lid to hold it on better.

   

On the back of the doilies I stamped Happy Valentines Day from the retired ‘Valentine Love’ stamp set and used three glue dots to adhere the whole set of hearts to the lid.  The lid is clear so the greeting shows through when they open up their goody.

   

If you don’t have food in the tin you can punch another heart for inside the lid.   Also, the heart doilies fit perfectly in the bottom of the tin for further bling.  The heart tins wash up to use again.

   What’s the point of posting valentines after the day has come and gone?

Ahh Sal, love is in the air everywhere and with anniversaries and birthdays we can change up the greetings and delight someone’s heart any time of year!

If you haven’t met your neighbors, try making a batch of brownies in heart tins with great big hello greetings and take them around as you introduce yourself.

SAL,  Send A Love gift

Karen

Click on little Sal to be directed to my online store where you can order the products.  If you don’t have a demonstrator I would love to earn your business.

 

 

 

Rustic Retreat Waterfall Card

Hello Stamping Friends,

February hostess code:  FPRJEPZJ

The card I am demonstrating today is not hard- just a bit hard to explain.  I will use many pictures to help you see the process since I have yet to take on the challenge of Youtube videos.

      You just can’t find a way to animate me!

And a way to stabilize the camera and the time to learn to edit!  Ah well…..  It is good to have a goal.

This card will show you how you can think ‘outside the box’ to create stamped images of just pieces of a stamp.  We are familiar with coloring on the back of our stamps to use only what we want but this card has the greeting stamped and then cut.  Side-note: when you do color the back of your stamps, be sure and use the regular markers to color the stamps not the Stampin’ Blends as Stampin Blends will stain your stamps.

  

   

On page 49 of the 2019-20 annual catalog are the two stamp sets I used for this card, Rustic Retreat and Peaceful Place:

   

    Wait, Rustic Retreat shows only 11 stamps and its greeting doesn’t have wood at the edges like your pictures.

Patience, there is a way!

I used the Garden Lane Designer Series Paper (DSP) and Garden Green card stock layer on a Thick Whisper White Base.  I have pictures of two different colors from the DSP.  I made two cards and didn’t realize I hadn’t taken the main pictures of the one I mailed, but “serendipity” – you get to see two versions!

So let’s look at the waterfall:

  

Base:  Thick Whisper White,  5 1/2 X 8 1/2  scored at 4 1/4

First Layer:  Garden Green, 5 3/8 X 4 1/8

Designer Series Paper (DSP) Layer:   Garden Lane, 5 1/8 X 3 7/8

Waterfall Strip:  Regular Whisper White, 2* X 9 1/4 scored at 2″, 2 3/4″, 3 1/2″, 4 1/4″ (Basically, 3/4″ intervals); *I cut the 2″ width just a hair less so no white showed from the edge of the squares if they weren’t cut perfect.  You could also sponge the edge garden green so the white isn’t obvious.

Belt: Garden Green, 4 1/8″ X 1″, punch two small holes 1/2″ from the bottom and 1/2″ from the left and right sides,

Background Squares for waterfall:  Garden Green, make 4,  2″ X 2″

Background Bottom Layer for the “Loved”: Garden Green, 2″ X 3/4″

Top Squares for waterfall:  Whisper White, make 4, 1 3/4″ X 1 3/4″

For the Braver, Stronger, Smarter, Loved banners:  Whisper White, 1 3/4 X 4

Inside Strip Layer: Garden Green, 5/8 X 4 1/8

Inside Strip Top: DSP to match front, 3/8 X 3 7/8

Two brads and a 1/8″ hole punch

4″ of twine

Ink:

  • Thinking Of You – Soft Suede, Garden Green pine boughs
  • Deer-Chocolate Chip (retired) Garden Green trees at each side
  • Bear- Early Espresso, Garden Green pine boughs
  • Squirrel- Basic Gray, Garden Green leaves from the Peaceful Place Stamp Set
  • River Scene –  Memento Black so it can be colored if you like; I added one of the birds from the High Tide set and did color the back of the bird stamp with the Basic Black marker
  • Happy Birthday – Soft Suede
  • Cabin – Memento Black
  • Banners – Soft Suede; stamped, cut apart, then mask just the words and stamp in Soft Suede with the Thinking of You stamp, pictures following

I used the Stamparatus for the Thinking of You and the A.A. Milne quote but mounted the other stamps on acrylic blocks.

We do a lot of cutting and assembling with dies and sometimes stamping is hardly used on our cards.  Not this time!

    Wh…Wh… What!?

Yes, Sal, that was exactly how my club ladies reacted when I showed them all the stamps they would use.  But they seemed to have a really fun time stamping!

    You will know for sure they didn’t when they drop out of club!

It is always a possibility but so far club is just growing so I think it is acceptable to do challenging cards.  But as I said it really isn’t that hard.  Let’s start by taking our waterfall strip and burnishing those score lines nicely.  The folds all go one way so it looks like a candy cane:

Next, adhere all the green 2 x 2 layers to the strip like shingles.  Put your adhesive on the white strip NOT the back of the green since only part of the green is adhered in all but the 2×2 section.

Now turn the strip over and stamp the river scene on the long part.  Remember the candy cane shape? It seems like you are stamping on the wrong side but you aren’t.  Take the ink to the stamp and don’t try and figure out what part is off the edge and not ink that part.  Just ink the whole stamp completely and use grid paper to protect your work space.  (We sell that!)

Use a sticky note to mask the bottom 3/4″ of the strip so that you have a nice white border between each of the pictures.

Also mask the bottom 5/8″ of the 1 3/4″ squares used for the bear and the squirrel to give that nice white border between pictures.  The deer can be stamped without masking since you have three lines of words making the banner bigger to begin with.  (Say that three times fast!)

Stamp each of your 1 3/4 X 1 3/4 white squares per the above details under inks used.  I wanted a little more of the rock and flowers with the squirrel so I stamped the squirrel with his tail practically off the top, then masked him and stamped the rock only on the left side of the squirrel.  Clean your stamp before inking the rock so you don’t get the squirrel’s paws on the left side.

  

    Would you mind showing us the other squares so we don’t have to keep scrolling up and down? 

I can do that!

           

   

Next, stamp the A. A. Milne quote on the Whisper White 1 3/4 X 4 strip in Soft Suede ink.  I used the Stamparatus for this stamp and the Thinking of You stamp so I could restamp each to get a good image. With two Stamparatus plates I put a stamp on each plate.

Now cut each section of the saying.   You will love the Stampin’ Up! cutter for this step, you can tell right where you are cutting.

    

Head back to the Stamparatus and put each of these sayings right where we stamped the ‘Thinking of You’.  Mask the words, remembering the Thinking of You is a bit longer than some of the sayings so your sticky note will be as wide as the word ‘Thinking’ and then ink up the Thinking of You stamp in Soft Suede and stamp your banners.

Use a second sticky note to hold the mask in place since we can’t use a magnet.

 

Voila!  You have banners with wood grain edges!  Glue those at the bottom of your little white squares.

Take the little 2″ X 3/4″ Garden Green piece and mount the ‘Loved’ banner.  Punch two little holes on each side of A. A. Milne and run a piece of twine up from the back and tie a double knot at the front leaving extra length down from the banner.

Glue this piece on the bottom of the river scene.

  Are we done now?

No, Sal, but this is a good place to stop and get some coffee and chocolate!!

The belt on the front is next and it is the critical piece to making the waterfall card work correctly and fit in our standard envelope.

Belt: Garden Green, 4 1/8″ X 1″, punch two small holes 1/2″ from the bottom and 1/2″ from the left and right sides.  Each square on our grid paper is 1/4″ so that is helpful.

Is this a sign of your age that you are repeating yourself?!

Sal, be nice, you’re the one who didn’t want to keep scrolling up and down.

Once you’ve punched the little holes in the belt, adhere the DSP to the Garden Green layer and then position the belt 1″ from the bottom of the belt to the bottom of the Garden Green layer.  Mark through your holes in the belt with a pencil to show where to punch the other layers.

Punch holes through the Garden Green and DSP layers. Be careful here:  add tear and tape to the back of the belt on the 1/2″ width between the hole and the side of the belt for extra stability making sure no adhesive gets between the two holes.   Attach the belt with the brads.

You are ready to attach your waterfall strip!  Place two pieces of tear and tape at the very center of the belt and no longer than the 2″ width of the waterfall strip.

Slide the waterfall strip behind the belt, peel off the backing of the tear and tape, and glue the end of the waterfall strip – the squirrel in our case- on the center of the belt exactly lining up the bottom of the belt with the end of the waterfall strip.

Stamp Happy Birthday on the inside in Soft Suede and the cabin in Memento Black, if you want to color with the blends.   Add the strips at the bottom, stamp your name on the back and you really do have a masterpiece!

So now you know another way to use stamps! I hope you enjoyed the detail and are ready to make your own Rustic Retreat Waterfall Card.

Would you like to join a stamp club to make cards like this?  I will be starting new club rotations in May and would love to have you join us!

February hostess code:  FPRJEPZJ

SAL, Snowing A Little, Sharing A Love

Karen   (text 303-815-0838)

Click to order:

 

 

 

 

 

Heirloom Frames Magnolia Birthday Card

Hello Stamping Friends,

Here in Castle Rock, CO we are getting another snow storm so our lawns should look awesome come spring!  It makes for a wonderful day to create cards if you don’t have to punch a time clock!

At club this past month I actually had a quick and simple birthday card that took less than an hour to make but was stunning.  Take a look:

   

Base:  Petal Pink 4 1/4 X 11 scored at 5 1/2″

Layer:  Magnolia Lane Designer Series Paper (DSP):  4 1/8″ X 5 3/8″;  Cut an oval from the middle of the DSP (use this cut out to cut in half for the inside).  I used the Oval Stitched Shapes Framelits.

Frame:  Whisper White 5 1/4 X 4 (make 2)  Use the Heirloom Frames Die to cut an oval frame and then emboss the cut out frame with the matching Embossing Folder.  The products come in a set so you get both the dies and the embossing folders in the set and the set includes both an oval frame and a square frame.

Sponge the frame ever so lightly with Petal Pink ink.

Adhere the Magnolia layer to the base after cutting out the oval center and then stamp the sentiment using the Painted Glass stamp set.  By using the Stamparatus you can stamp it and then restamp it to get a nice dark black sentiment.

A magnolia flower with a bud is fussy cut from the DSP being careful to leave a nice edge of black around the flowers.  Use a black marker to enhance the black border if needed. Adhere to the frame with glue dots and adhere to the pink oval with a Stampin’ Dimensional.

The ribbon is 6″ of 5/8″ Organdy Striped Ribbon in Petal Pink.

The inside sentiment is from the stamp set Stitched All Around.

Add a few Pearl Basic Jewels and you are done.

All the products used above can be purchased at my online store.  Just click on little SAL waving from the computer.

Thanks for stopping by.

SAL, Snowing A Lot, Sharing A Love

Karen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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