Stamping with Michelle

Christmas Scrapbooking

Now that the holidays are over, you probably have a whole pile of pictures to scrapbook, right!  Well, here is a fairly simple page that my scrapbooking group did earlier this month.  It uses some of the paper that is discontinuing, but I'm sure you could substitute something in its place.


Materials: Holiday Tag Team, Big Deal Alphabet, Fundamental Phrases, Spot On Jumbo Wheel
Cardstock: Ruby Red, River Rock, Very Vanilla, Real Red, Old Olive, Dashing DSP
Ink: Ruby Red and Old Olive
Accessories: Five Petal Flower Punch, Gold Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals

In the process here, you can see how my family enjoyed part of our holidays! 

I hope you all had a great Christmas and I wish you a safe and happy new year!

Michelle

PS...Don't forget that we have a new catalog coming out and you only have until January 1 to order anything out of the current catalog that is discontinuing before it is gone for good!

Artfully Asian card

Masculine cards can be especially difficult to design.  Early this fall, we had a close family friend suffer from a sudden heart attack, and I needed to design an appropriate thinking of you card.  This is what I came up with:

Materials: Artfully Asian
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Chocolate Chip, Confetti Cream
Ink: Basic Grey, Always Artichoke, More Mustard, Ruby Red
Accessories: Aquapainters, More Mustard Grosgrain ribbon, Aged Copper Hodgepodge Hardware

I was really pleased with my results.  The images in the Artfully Asian set convey a thinking of you without being too feminine.  And the images were easy to color using my trusty aquapainters. 

If you are looking for a versatile stamp set that can be used equally for masculine as well as feminine cards, I think you will be pleased with the Artfully Asian set!

Happy Stamping!

Michelle

Hostess Set Preview

OK...I've been giving you little previews of a new hostess set that will be available in the Spring/Summer Catalog called Time Well Spent.  I've had more fun with that stamp set!  I'm sure you will want to host a workshop so you can earn it.  Here is another preview to whet your whistle!

Materials: Time Well Spent, Short and Sweet
Cardstock: Pale Plum Perfect Plum, Certainly Celery, Barely Banana
Ink: Basic Grey, Perfect Plu
Accessories: Soft Subtles Watercolor Crayons, Aquapainters, Round Tab Punch, Elegant Eggplant grosgrain ribbon.

This is an especially fun stamp set to watercolor with as the images are nice and large and easy to add color to.

Call me today to book your Winter workshop so you can bring some Spring into your life with this stamp set!

Happy Stamping!

Michelle

A pretty card with the Pretties Kit

Have you seen the Pretties Kit in the catalog?  I confess that it's been there since July, but I haven't done a whole lot with mine.  Here is a fun card to help you along with using some of those fabulous pretties!

Materials: Curvy Verses
Cardstock: Brocade blue, Chocolate Chip
Ink: Brocade Blue pad, Brocade Blue and Chocolate Chip markers
Accessories: On Board Blossoms and Basics, Pretties Kit, Theater Ribbon Originals

The flowers in the Pretties Kit come in white, and you can add color to them in a variety of ways.  You can use an aquapainter and pick up color from an ink pad and paint it on.  You can use the Stampin' Pastels.  You can use a sponge or the daubers to sponge color on.  For this one, I used the Stampin' Write markers and I just colored the color on.  The other thing I did was to add color to the half-back pearl.  I colored it with a Chocolate Chip marker, quickly coated it with clear embossing powder and then heated.  Make sure you have tongs to hold onto it, since it is quite small and gets quite hot!  The tongs from the Crafter's Tool Kit work well for this!

Happy Stamping!

Michelle

Frosty Card

Here is a fun card created with the stamp set Frosty.  Frosty has been in service for quite some time, and now finds himself on the retiring list.  Frosty has worked hard, and he will be able to live out the rest of his days in the happy place where all retired stamp sets go!


Materials: Frosty
Cardstock: Ruby Red, Wild Wasabi, Bashful Blue and Confetti White
Ink: Basic Black, Ruby Red, and Wild Wasabi
Accessories:  Stampin Pastels, Vintage Brads, Stampin' Dimensionals

If you would like to order Frosty before he is gone for good, be sure to contact me by January 1.

Happy Stamping!

Michelle

Tag Punch Card

Here is a fun card that used the tag punches to create a unique focal point. I liked it so much, I even created a tutorial for you!




Materials: Holiday Tag Team, Short and Sweet
Cardstock: Always Artichoke, Certainly Celery, Bravo Burgundy,  Very Vanilla and Wintergreen DSP
Ink: Always Artichoke
Accessories:  Small Tag Punch, Tag Punch, Build a Brads, Bravo Burgundy grosgrain ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, 2-way glue pen

This looks like a complicated card, but it really isn't that difficult.  It just has a lot of steps.  You start by punching the small tag punch out of a strip of cardstock.  Then you take the larger tag punch and punch around the smaller punch out to create a thin tag shape.


You will need sixteen of these little tag shapes.


Next you will begin to glue these shapes onto a 4" x 4" piece designer series paper.  The two way glue pen works especially nice because with the chisel tip you can easily place the glue right on the thin tag.

Place your first tag, centered left to right and about as far down on the paper as you can.




Place the next tag right up against the first one making sure that the diagonal parts are lined up.  This is the most important thing to remember when making this star.

Continue placing the tags all around until you have a cross shape.

Now you will put another layer of tags on top, offsetting them from the first layer.  Do you see the square that has formed in the middle?  As best you can, center the short straight side of your tag in the center of the sides of that square.

If you look closely you can see the points of the star beginning to form.



Continue placing the tags around just as you did for the bottom layer.  You should end up with something like this.

Now it is time to make magic!  Can you see the star that has been formed by the tags?  You need to cut the excess paper off as shown to reveal the star shape.

You should now have a shape that looks something like this!

Create a second star, and use a Stampin' Dimensional to layer them, offsetting them slightly so that you can see both layers.

I've seen samples done with this technique where the cardstock was layered on vellum to create a translucent star.  You could also do this in softer pastel colors and make it into a flower.  The possibilities are endless!

Happy Stamping!

Michelle

Retired Accessories List

Stampin' Up has now released the retired accessories list to their demonstrators.  You can view that list here.  Please keep in mind that these items are available until January 1 or while supplies last.

Let me know if there is anything that you need!

Michelle

Baby Shower Card

Well, this weekend, we held the baby shower for my sister.  To our delight, she was totally surprised!  Anyhoo...I showed you the invitations we made for the shower, so I thought you might like to see the card I made her.  Yes?




Materials: Bundled in Love
Cardstock: Certainly Celery, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie, and Glossy White
Ink: Basic Gray, Certainly Celery, and Pumpkin Pie pads; So Saffron and Pumpkin Pie markers
Accessories: Crafter's Tool Kit, Aged Copper Hodgepodge Hardware, Neutrals Watercolor Crayons, Brayer, Cream grosgrain ribbon

For the focal point image, I stamped the image in gray on the Glossy cardstock.  Then I colored the image in with the white watercolor crayon.  Next I brayered over the image in Certainly Celery.  When I wiped off the crayon, it had resisted the ink and I could then color in with my markers.

If you'd like to try this technique, let me know and we can order a brayer and the neutrals crayons for you!

Happy Stamping!

Michelle

PS...Keep an eye on this blog.  Stampin' Up will be posting the retired accessories list today and I'll make a quick post when it is up!

Holiday Treat Bag

Just in time for the Wrapping up the Holidays promotion, here is a fun little goodie bag that is super easy and will make a great gift this holiday season.  The materials used mostly replicate what you will get when your order the Holiday Tag bundle from the Wrapping up the Holidays promotion.  When you order the tag bundle, you will get enough supplies (not including the cello bags) to make fifteen of these fun little goodies bags!



Materials: Holiday Tag Team
Cardstock: Real Red, Soft Sky, and Whisper White
Ink: Real Red
Accessories: Corner Rounder, Red Gingham ribbon, Medium Cello bags, Mini Glue Dots

These little goodie bags are quick and easy to create and would make fun hostess gifts, coworker gifts, or a fun little add-on with any other larger gift.

I made the scallop edge using the corner rounder.  You need to take the guard off the punch and use the punch without it.  Start at one edge of your cardstock and punch along the bottom.  If you turn your punch upside down, the part that is punched looks like a smiley face.  As your punching, make sure that the right edge of your smiley face is just touching the left edge of the previously punched smiley face.

Try it!  It gives a whole new look to your stamp art!

Happy Stamping!

Michelle

Another card sketch

Hi everyone!

I've got another sketch for you to help simplify your stamping time:



This is a fairly basic design.  The gray strip across the card measures 5 1/2" x 1 1/2".  Then you add ribbon or even a strip of cardstock along the bottom.  Finish it off with a circular image.  It could be a metal edge tag or it could just be a roundish image that you mount with a dimensional.  Here is my sample to match the sketch.



Materials: Time Well Spent
Cardstock: Real Red, More Mustard, Confetti White, Brushed Silver
Ink: Basic Grey, Real Red, More Mustard, and Pumpkin Pie
Accessories:  Aquapainters, Old Olive 5/8" ribbon, Linen Thread, 1 1/4" and 1 3/8" circle punch

This is another sample that gives you a sneak peek at the new hostess set Time Well Spent. I also created a faux metal edge tag using my circle punches and Silver cardstock.

If you send or email me your creation using my sketch, I'll try to feature it on my blog!

Happy Stamping!

Michelle