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Today I've been making a pile of thank-you cards for recent customer orders, and thought I'd share the process with this One-Minute Tutorial. Click the picture to view it larger.
And keep an eye out for some soon-to-be-announced Black Friday fun! If you're not already subscribed to my newsletter list, you might want to be…….!
Products I used for this card
I’m so pleased that you’ll be joining us for our upcoming card-making class. Now I’ll bet you want to know how to FIND us!
We are currently meeting at the Lutheran Church of the Master in Coeur d’Alene, ID. It is on the northeast corner of Ramsey and Kathleen. There are several buildings on the campus; we’ll be in the main building – in Schmidt Hall. Schmidt Hall has its own door to the parking lot; please use that one to enter the building, rather than using the main doors near the Sanctuary and church offices.
Please note: If you will be arriving or departing during hours of darkness, I encourage you to bring a flashlight. It may be helpful navigating outside on potentially uneven, wet or sloping ground. Just an idea for your safety.
Driving directions: Most convenient entrance to the church parking lot is the very first right-hand driveway north of the Ramsey/Kathleen intersection. Super-easy, if headed north. But…
… if you’ll be arriving from parts farther north, local traffic and turn lanes and such can be a little more challenging. So I encourage you to either come south on Atlas and turn left onto Kathleen, then left onto Ramsey (and then immediately right into the parking lot), OR come south on 95, and then right onto Kathleen, then right again onto Ramsey (and then immediately right into the parking lot).
You may notice a driveway the enters directly off of Kathleen, but that driveway is often closed during school hours. So it’s probably just safest to plan to follow the driving directions above.
See you soon!
Image courtesy of John Kasawa at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
These fun 3-dimensional tags will be going out shortly as thank-you's for recent orders placed through me. The tags feature the Festival of Trees bundle (stamps + punch), along with another photopolymer stamp set called "Christmas Tagables". Colors are Pear Pizzaz and Mossy Meadow. And gold, of course; can't forget the sparkle!
The base tag measures 4-1/4 x 2", and the top is punched with the Angled Tag Topper. (You can get 10 such tag bases from a single sheet of 8-1/2" x 11" Whisper White cardstock.)
I did end up using my Stamp-a-ma-jig when stamping the 2-step parts of the tree image….. mostly because I was doing a big pile of these assembly-line-fashion, and it was just faster than eye-balling every one. I stamped the solid part of each tree with 2nd-generation Pear Pizzaz ink, and then stamped over that with Mossy Meadow.
Each tag uses 2 identically-stamped tree images; both punched out with the coordinating Tree Punch. One of the images is then trimmed shorter: at 1/4" above the top of the trunk. (Have I mentioned lately how much I love my grid paper?) I just flipped the tree face-down on the grid paper and marked where the 1/4" point was (that's 1 square) on both left and right sides; then cut across with scissors. Then I gently curved the lower part of each tree forward with my bone folder.
After applying the ribbon at the bottom (tip: using the Silicone Craft Map underneath allows you to apply SNAIL all the way to the edge of the tag without making any mess!), and after stamping the Holiday Cheer sentiment above that, I started building the "tree".
First, I anchored the full-tree piece as far left and low as reasonable, putting a glue dot under the tip at the top, and a Stampin' Dimensional a quarter-inch or so up from the bottom…… keeping the entire tree trunk parallel to the left edge of the tag. Then I mounted the partial-tree image over that one, with it's bottom edge 3/4" (3 squares) higher than the lower edge of the full image. (Have I mentioned lately how much I love my grid paper?) I also made sure to align the center of that piece (the tree trunk) with the lower tree image, and kept it parallel to the left side of the tag. As before, there's a glue dot behind the top tip (on the back side), and a Stampin' Dimensional about 1/4" up from the bottom.
I think the rest of it is pretty easy to figure out from the picture, but another time-saver I used was to mount the "to" and "from" images on the same block (making sure they were straight, and parallel to each other). I used an 8" length of Gold 1/8" Ribbon (double-knotted at the back) to finish it off.
Like most anything you create in multiples, I recommend using an assembly-line process to power through a pile of these if you'd like to make some. Each tag has a number of steps to completion, but each step goes fairly quickly.
Products Used
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Over this past weekend my Paper Dreamers team members and I, along with our customers & friends, participated in World Card Making Day. And I'm thrilled to be able to share today that collectively we made 213 handmade cards! (That got reported to me, that is. It's entirely possible there were even more.) So a big thank you and congratulations to all who were included in that number!
One of the sets of cards I personally worked on included several cards from the "Hip Hip Hooray" designer card kit by Stampin' Up!®. This was my first time exploring that kit and I was pretty impressed! In fact, this is probably one of my all-time *favorite* card kits. These cards are notesize cards, in a heavy-weight Kraft cardstock – printed with either dots or a graph pattern in white. Cards can be oriented in either vertical and horizontal format, and they all have coordinating Kraft envelopes. 3 clear-mount stamps (AND a basic clear block) are included in the kit, along with a Basic Gray ink spot (small ink pad), a full sheet of Stampin' Dimensionals, and several other embellishments. The main design elements come from 5 generous sheets of stampable "Peel & Stick" cardstock-weight stickers.
Overall, I found the kit pretty easy to put together….. but I figured it could be even EASIER with a few added tips. So here are some of mine:
I think the "Hip Hip Hooray" kit is already a generous value at $19.95, because it makes 20 cards and even includes stamps, ink & acrylic block you can use later. But throughout the remainder of today, you can get it for 25% LESS than that, as it's one of this past week's Weekly Deal items!
And speaking of "Deals", don't forget that today is the final day of Stampin' Up!'s "Stamp, Stock & Save" special offer, too. If your craft room is in need of replenishing ink pads, cardstock or envelopes, there are only a few hours left to stock up on those basics and save!
The "Hip Hip Hooray" card kit comes with nearly everything you need to complete your 20 cards. But I found these following items helpful to use, too.
Lynda recommends
OK. So how in the WORLD did this happen?!? One minute World Card Making Day was "next month", and then next minute it's TOMORROW! I know I've been "spinning-in-circles busy" recently, but gooooood grief!
So anyway, now that it IS tomorrow, I guess I'd better get the invitation out for my WCMD "event", huh? Which will be virtual this year, since my stamping friends are several hundred miles apart and impossible to gather into one room. :-) So here's the scoop:
You're invited:
To join me for World Card Making Day, by scheduling time tomorrow (Saturday, October 4th) to make one or more handmade cards. And then connect with me on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/YourPaperDreams
I'll be posting throughout the day with updated totals of cards we've collectively made, and some other stuff that just MIGHT lead to your winning a prize! But of course you can only win if you're participating! So keep checkin' in throughout the day and sharing how YOUR cardmaking is going. (Tip: don't wait to see something posted in your FB newsfeed, because only a small percentage of posts are likely to show up there. It's actually best to visit my page at the address above.)
So what kind of card(s)?
Well, ANY kind of handmade card counts! But some ideas that come quickly to mind include:
And here's something timely from Stampin' Up!…… A "Stamp, Stock & Save" stock-up special! In a nutshell, EVERY color of Classic ink pad, and all assortment packs of 8-1/2 x 11 cardstock, and envelopes & a few other things are ON SALE through Monday (Oct. 6th). This is the first time I ever recall such a generous cross-section of "basics" on sale at the same time, so if you're finding your basic supplies looking a little thin (or you still need something to complete your ink & paper collection), now's the time to stock up! But you'll want to hurry, because this all ends on Monday!
Well this is my first official "Throwback Thursday" post. These past couple of weeks I've really been sucking up all the info I can about Project Life®, and have fallen head-over-heals in love with the system. And now that we're carrying our own line of Project Life products (Project Life® by Stampin' Up!®), I've actually been making progress in getting this past summer's pictures into an album where they belong! (Yay, me!)
And I'm also proud of myself for having taken fairly regular pictures, too. Probably more this summer than just about any I can recall. Of course not as many as I would have LIKED to have taken, but definitely an improvement upon my usual style of – "Oh darn….. sure wish I had some pictures of that event!"
But it seems that getting pictures into their appropriate spots leads one to dig deeper for even more. And yesterday while digging through some super-oldies I came across a group from one of the earliest Stamp Camps I hosted. (I actually co-hosted this series with another demonstrator, and we both always worked SO hard that it's no wonder we only had energy to do 'em twice a year!) Back in those days we were using facilities at the Island County Fairgrounds (Whidbey Island, WA) for our day-long Stamp Camps. Certainly not the most pleasant of environments for spending the day, but everyone had fun nonetheless.
Join me in this walk down memory lane (from probably about 1999 or 2000, I think), and in giving thanks that stamping styles have evolved since then! Oh.My.Goodness!
So hey! Who do ya recognize here?
Well, I am SO excited to have finally found a perfect location to begin holding local card classes! It's been what seems like an eternity since moving away from my former home where I held monthly classes for up to 8 at a time for years and years. And by contrast my new home is hardly big enough for ME to stamp solo! So this search for the "perfect" place to hold classes again has taken me a mighty long time. (Believe me, I had a LONG list of requirements as to what I was looking for…… yes, with THIS many years' experience I kinda had those things figured out.)
So it was with a mixture of extreme excitement (and yes, a little nervousness) that I launched my new monthly card class series just one week ago today – right here in Post Falls. And I look forward to working with the lovely ladies I met and getting to know them (and their friends) more in the future. Hurray! I'm back in the saddle – but with the new twist that card class will now always be "pack-it-up-and-take-it-with-me" style.
We'll be doing 6 full-size cards every month: 2 each of 3 different designs. I've added a couple of other fun tweaks, too, but won't go into that here 'cuz I haven't even had a chance to share 'em with the ladies at class. But I did want to share the 3 designs my guests made last week, so I'll bring you this first one today and share the other two later on.
As I was starting to consider what I would design for this first class I met a lady who seemed really excited about joining us and learning to stamp, and she came right out and asked me if we could please do a Christmas Card. Well of course I told her sure thing….. and then as it turned out she never signed up for class. Oh well, I hope the others enjoyed "her" card anyway! 🙂
This features the "Bright & Beautiful" stamp set from the Holiday Catalog, along with the Stars Framelit set in the 2014-2015 Annual Catalog. The upper part of the front is embossed with the Decorative Dots Embossing Folder, and the lower section features a couple of pieces from the "All is Calm" Specialty Designer Series Paper collection. (May I just mention here how much I adore that DSP collection?!?)
I'll be sending a complete review of how we created this card (supplies & step-by-step instructions) to the ladies who attended this class, as well as to my Paper Dreamers team. If you'd like the instructions for how to make my future monthly Card Class designs – come join us at class, host a class for your own friends (yes, we might even be able to swing a distance class; just ask), or join my Paper Dreamers team!
Product List
I recently needed a birthday card for a guy whose personality kinda leaves room for something a little different, if you know what I mean. So I immediately reached for that fun new "Age Awareness" stamp set. And as long as I was rooting around in the "A" part of my stamp collection anyway, I grabbed the new "Amazing Birthday" set, too. Later on I realized the "Celebrate" from the upcoming "Holiday Invitation" stamp set would be perfect as well, and added that to the pile. Then I gathered up some "guy" colors (browns and bronze mostly, from a retired DSP set whose name escapes me) and cooked up this little number. And then I signed & sealed it – and mailed it off.
And then I was sad.
Because not only had I not made a copy for myself to keep, but I'd even forgotten to take a picture!
So I made another similar one – in a different color scheme.
But although it looked fine, it just wasn't the same. So I made another in the SAME color scheme.
There. That's better. And then I took pictures of both so I could share.
Both the card fronts and their coodinating insides gave my Big Shot a workout, which was fun because it's been a bit of a while since I've had a play date with my Big Shot! I used 2 sets of Framelits and the 1-1/4" circle punch….. blended it all together and this is what came out. I think this would work well in just about ANY monochromatic color combo, don't you?
Oh! And speaking of the Big Shot, there's a special going on right now (through Aug. 31) that offers you your choice of one of 5 FREE exclusive Stamp Set/Framelits bundles with the purchase of a Big Shot, OR….. if you already have your Big Shot you can get one of the exclusive bundles for 15% off the price of buying the stamp set and Framelits set separately. Be aware these bundles are exclusive to this offer, so they're available for a limited time only (Aug. 31, 2014); and they're NOT the same bundles found elsewhere in the catalogs!
Pssst! One of these bundles even features a fab new stamp set that technically won't be available otherwise until the Holiday Catalog goes live!
Check out these special limited-edition bundles here, and see the specific stamps sets and major tools I used on these cards in the list below.
Product List
I'm so excited to finally be able to announce the Grand Opening of my monthly card-making classes in Post Falls – next Thursday, August 28th! We'll enjoy a lovely easy-to-access location with plenty of work space and parking, along with the creature comforts I've insisted on, and rent that won't force your class fees through the roof! Hurray!
So if you're in the greater Spokane, Post Falls, CDA area and don't already have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator with whom you work, I hope you'll come celebrate with us at my Grand Opening! Come "make & take" 6 pretty cards with coordinating envelopes – at your choice of 3 class sessions that day.
Oh! And did I mention that all 3 sessions of these classes on Grand Opening Day on complimentary?!? Yep, you read that right….. your class is "on me"!
So grab some friends and come enjoy a couple hours of creativity and fun!
Details and sign-up info are at: http://bit.ly/Class-Signup
Oh, and I'm also going to be holding a Crafter's Garage Sale in Post Falls – today and tomorrow (Fri/Sat – Aug. 22 & 23). Location, times and other stuff: http://spokane.craigslist.org/gms/4630314608.html
Come see what stamps, inks, embellishments, dies and other tools & treasures might enhance YOUR Paper Dreaming adventures!
Ok, I admit it. I'm hooked.
I don't think I'm destined to ever become a prolific page-maker, but I have to admit I've accomplished more pages since Stampin' Up!® partnered up with Project Life® a few months ago than I'd done in the past half-dozen years or so! I love that the system is straightforward and simple, but that you can work at any level of design that you wish. In other words, while you can follow the totally simple, plain vanilla version of creating a layout (just slipping photos and cards into pockets), there's still room for as much or as little personalization and creativity as you may feel inspired to include.
This layout's got a little more "creativity" factor goin' on, beginning with messing around with the photos in Photoshop Elements. (At which I'm all thumbs, btw, so the process took way more time than it should have. But once I get my teeth into an idea my "stubborn" gene tends to take over, and well…..) Anyway, the close-up of the chalk and the B&W background on the family picture are examples of that Photoshop Elements stubbornness. But once the pix were printed, sliding 'em into the photo pockets took all of a minute or two….. so a reasonable trade-off, I figure.
I chose cards from the "Everyday Adventure" collection (you might count 4 of 'em used – the 3 with journaling, plus the one with the 2 interlocking circles). Then I turned to what Stampin' Up! is known for: color coordination. I checked the catalog to see exactly which colors were used in the Everyday Adventure card collection, decided which of them I'd like most to feature (based on the colors in my pictures), and cut 3" x 4" pieces of Designer Series Paper in those same colors to fill in the remaining 2 openings. LOVED THAT!
Then I headed over to my computer, fired up MDS and worked a little digital design magic for the "SAFE" and "BASEBALL game" phrases. (I already had the software and "Game Day Baseball" stamp brush set [digital downloads] on my computer, so I didn't need to purchase anything new for this.) I suppose you could call the results "embellishments", but they're actually just images printed onto Whisper White cardstock and cut out. Not really magic at all. But how awesome is it to be able to work with those same colors all the way through the process – and end up with a finished project that totally coordinates?!? I've grown so spoiled with having all these "coordinating" options over the years that I can't imagine trying to create a complete project (of ANY kind, actually) without Stampin' Up! at my fingertips.
Ready to give this super-easy form of memory keeping a try? In addition to a couple of scraps of retired Designer Series Paper, here are the rest of the products I used in this layout. The first 3 were the basics (only $27.85 combined!), and I used the last 3 for the custom artwork.
Product List
Annual Catalog & Idea Book. Click to view online.
