I am referring to one of Stampin' Up!'s newest set of Designer Series Specialty Papers, Nursery Suite.  As I have no new babies in my family or circles of friends at the moment, and none on the way, my eyes just skipped right over this set while I was first looking through Stampin' Up! newest Idea Book and Catalog.  Then I remembered an article in an issue of Stampin' Up!'s demonstrator magazine, Stampin' Success, that had used this set to mimic Bargello stitching.  So I went back and looked a little bit more closely at the paper set AND decided to buy it.  So there I was with this big package of papers and I had to figure out what to do with it!

     Which brings me to today's SUDSOL Blog Tour!  I wanted to prove to myself – and to you! – that this set of papers is Not Just For Babies!  Thus my first card, using one of the die cut sheets from the set, some coordinating Pear Pizzazz Stitched-Poly Ribbon, and one of our brand new stamp sets, For Everything.  The colors featured in this card are Pretty in Pink, Pear Pizzazz, and Baja Breeze.  Accented with a Flower Brad and a greeting motif using the Scallop Oval Punch matted with a scallop oval cut with the Sizzix Movers and Shapers die, this is a nicely pastel card – and Not Just for Babies!

     While I had the Pear Pizzazz Stitched-Poly Ribbon out, I went for a different piece of paper from the set, this time featuring more of the Baja Breeze and Pear Pizzazz, without any of the Pretty in Pink.  For this card, I used another new type of product featured in the newest catalog, the Quick Accents Self-Adhesive Die Cuts (stickers to the rest of the world) that goes with the paper set.  Stampin' Up! has fewer Simply Scrappin' sets this year, but has added some of the self-adhesive die cut sets which you may purchase to accent some of your Designer Series Paper sets.  The strip of scalloped Pear Pizzazz is from the Quick Accents set, and it matches up perfectly with Stampin' Up!'s Scallop Edge Punch.  Nice touch!  The accent color for this card is Chocolate Chip, and the mat behind the "Get Well Wishes" (from the Stamp Set Teeny Tiny Wishes) also comes form the Quick Accents pack.  To finish the card off, I added some of Stampin' Up!'s newest Designer Buttons, tied with a bit of white embroidery floss.  A comforting Get Well card – and Not Just for Babies!

     Remember that I said that Stampin' Up! featured a bargello-themed card in a recent issue of its magazine.  This card is totally copied from that sample.  It also highlights one of the other colors featured in the Nursery Suite papers, So Saffron.  I still had those buttons out, so accented the greeting made from the Brand New Stamp Set, Fabulous Phrases, and tied on a piece of 5/8" Very Vanilla Grosgrain Ribbon.  Stampin' Up! designs nice cards!  And even they know this set is Not Just For Babies!

     But YOU might want to see how this set can be used to make a quick and easy Baby Card!  This is about as quick and easy as it gets.  Just cut some paper and ribbon, layer it up, and add a pre-made greeting from the Quick Accents set!!  No stampin' at all!  And those little bunnies are as cute as a, well, bunny.

     Finally, I want to thank you for stopping at my blog during the SUDSOL Blog Tour!  SUDSOL is one of THE BEST GROUPS for Stampin' Up! demonstrators.  The group's leaders keep us focused on the wonderful business that we have using Stampin' Up! products.  It features a library of helpful articles, great tutorials, and fabulous reference materials.  On top of that, there is a great samples gallery, and challenges every day of the week to help me get motivated to produce samples to use in my business.  If you're a Stampin' Up! demonstrator and would like to try it out, the first two weeks are free!  And if you're NOT a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, think about becoming a member of my team. THEN you can try out this fabulous site for yourself.

     Oh, and that last card – I used the other die cut paper in the Nursery Suite set of papers, and accented it with TWO of the sticker strips from the Quick Accent set.  It's all on a card made of Pretty in Pink and tied together with some 5/8" Pretty in Pink Satin Ribbon, with a Thank You from the For Everything Stamp Set!  Definitely Not Just for Babies!

     Now onto the next stop on the SUDSOL BLOG TOUR, Gail Beezley's blog, Stamping With Gail!

Or, if you'd like to go back to see the previous blog, just click here to visit Kathy Alt's blog, Kathy's Stampin' World,  again (and we're all well worth seeing more than once for sure!)

     I am just blown away by the fabulous new colors that Stampin' Up! has provided for me (you, too!) to use this year!  And what a great way to show a group of them off than with a stack of tea cups from the New Stamp Set, Morning Cup.  When I have a tea party, I love to use all different kinds of tea cups – just makes it feel as if I've raided my grandmother's kitchen cabinets for all those odd cups from old sets of family dishes.  What memories!

     But I digress – this stack of tea cups is what most recently brought that memory back to me – and look at those colors!  Poppy Parade, Daffodil Delight, Peach Parfait – all just so enjoying being together on one card, don't you think?  I got the idea for using this group of colors from fellow Stampin' Up! demonstrator, Connie Babbert, who does just wonderful design work.  I sketched in the colors for my card with Stampin' Write Markers, and used some sheets from the new Designer Series Paper set, Sunny Garden.  Hmmm.  Tea Party, Garden Party – well THAT all works well together!  And the papers work well with this color scheme because they included the very same new colors.  The final touch is a luscious piece of Daffodil Delight Taffeta Ribbon, and a base card of Daffodil Delight Card Stock.  I may have to go make myself a cup of mango-flavored tea and go out into my Hawaiian Garden (yes, that's a piece of it peeking out from behind the picture!) to enjoy a beautiful day.

    And there I go digressing again!  Before I go out for that cup of tea, I want to share the sketch for this card with you.  I have to tell you that I tried layering up the two layers of Designer Series Paper.  But I always ended up going back to the simplicity of just having those two complementary strips of printed paper accent each other – which I think they do nicely.  Have fun with this sketch!

Aloha, all!

     At the beginning of this week I shared a card using the stamp set, Morning Cup.  Oh, I have just too many "favorite" new stamp sets.  But this is definitely one of them.  (Actually, whichever new stamp set I have out on the Craft Room table right now is my current "favorite"!)  I played around with it quite a bit last week making samples for my workshop display boards.  There's so much that can be done with it, I could probably play around with Morning Cup to the exclusion of the rest of my stamp sets for a month!  But that wouldn't be fair to the other sets now would it?

     Enough rambling – here is another card that I made using some of Stampin' Up!'s newest Designer Series Paper sets, as well as this new stamp set.   I loved the idea that fellow demonstrator, Sandra Grimes, had of pairing up the Coffee Pot with the Newsprint Designer Series Paper.  What better combination than morning coffee and the newspaper!   For this card, I placed those two elements on a background of a sheet of Real Red Patterns Print designer paper stack (doesn't that paper just look like old fashioned wall paper?).  Stampin' Up! has put together a gigantic pad of papers in each of its color families this year, and this is one of the patterns in the stack. 

     To tie the elements on the card all together, I matted both front layers with Real Red Card Stock.  Then I stamped the coffee pot on a scrap of the Patterns Print that I used as the background and cut out the center part of the coffee pot and adhered it to the stamped image.  Nice! 

     A bit of a finishing touch with some Very Vanilla Brads and a thin layer of Basic Black Card Stock to frame the card, and it's done!

     Here's the sketch for this card – a nice all around sketch if you want to show off some Designer Series Papers along with a favorite stamped image!

Click on the picture to get a copy of the Stampin' Up! Announcement!  Call me to book a workshop!!!

     One of the most recent challenges for my SUDSOL online Stampin' Up! Demonstrator groups was to use the technique called Fossil Stone.  I had never done this before, and I can tell you right away that I'll definitely be doing it again – and again, and again! 

     In fact, this will be one of my first technique classes for my fall series of Techniques classes that will begin in September.  I can hardly wait to show it off!  While I can give you the instructions here for it, I learned so much from trying it out myself that you'll really want to take this class from me if you're on the east side of Hawaii's Big Island in September!

     Here's the card that I made, using Perfect Plum and Concord Crush Classic Ink Pads, overstamping the background with a stamp from the new set, Just Believe.  I definitely think that the overall effect is stunning!  The sentiment on the card was stamped on a left over piece of matching inked card stock, then cut out and mounted on the front of the card with Stampin' Dimensionals.  The finishing touch was the Whisper White Organza Ribbon.  Lovely, if I say so myself (oh, I guess I just did!)

     The basic instructions are pretty simple:  You will need two pieces of plain acetate and two Stampin' Up! Classic Stamp Pads.  Use one light color and at least several tones darker.   You'll also need two 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" pieces of Glossy Whisper White Card Stock and a brayer.  Begin by using the lighter stamp pad to ink an area on one piece of acetate, making sure that the area covered with ink is larger than a piece of the card stock.  Then ink over that in a random motion with the darker stamp pad.  Place the second piece of acetate on the top of the first and rub over the inked area with a brayer. You'll get some air pockets, but that will form a lovely part of the final image.  Remove the top layer of acetate and set it aside ink side up.  Place one piece of the glossy card stock on the first piece of acetate, glossly side down (or facing the ink).  Place the second piece of card stock glossly side UP on top of the first piece.  Finally, place the inked side of the second piece of acetate on top of the second piece of card stock.  Again use your brayer to press evenly over the acetate-card stock sandwich.  Remove the acetate and carefully pick up the top piece of card stock and set it aside, inked side up, to dry.  Remove the other piece of card stock and set it aside to dry also.  You can wash the acetate and reuse it many times.  Note that, if you use transparency acetate for this project, you will have to wash off the coating while you are washing off the ink. 

     Try it out yourself!  Or sign up for my September 18 (Saturday) or September 20 (Monday) class!

     The quotation stamp on this card is my favorite quote from the 2010 Summer Mini Catalog stamp set, Favorite Thoughts.    Gosh, I was really hoping that this one would be carried forward into the 2010-2011 Idea Book and Catalog.  It may be really hard for me to put this in my retired stash for sale next summer!  It may also be hard for me to separate it from the wonderful tea bags and tea cup in the brand new stamp set, Morning Cup.

     One product featured here that you can't really see is the new Color Coach.  I've decided to try it out for you so you can see the kinds of color combinations it suggests.  For example, I had decided that I wanted my main color to be Wild Wasabi.  When I went to the Color Coach to see what it suggested, one of the combos was So Saffron and Perfect Plum.  There is no question but that I would NOT have ever found this color combo.  Not in a million years, and I have all the colors laid out in front of me in the craft room.  Now I'll look at it a bit differently!

     Oh, and the products that ARE shown are definitely 2010-2011 Catalog favorites:  Chantilly Lace ribbon and the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  I really was struggling with that big blank corner to the left of the tea bag layer and the top of the quotation layer.  Once I added that texture, the card really did feel complete!

     Here's the sketch for this card.  And I'll share some more cards with the Morning Cup Stamp Set over the next few days. It's a fun stamp set with which to play!

     Back when I first started this blog – can you believe it's been TWO YEARS!!?? – I was making my very first swaps for the Stampin' Up! Convention. One swap was a "no-layer" card and I used a round punch to make windows in the card front so that an image from the inside showed through.  Ever since then, I've used different ways of punching shapes to provide "windows" through which to view pictures. 

     Recently I came across instructions for making a 4-pane window to frame an image.  The instructions used retired products (as many of my tutorials have ended up doing! – I'll try to fix that soon).  I really liked the idea, so I updated it using, um, fairly current products.  The "fairly" in that statement is that I am not yet replacing my entire collection of punches with Stampin' Up!'s new style of punches.  While I LOVE the new style – so much easier to store as well as to use – my checkbook is not yet supporting doing all the replacement that needs to be done.  And so the instructions for making the window for this card use the still useful "old" style 1-1/4" Square Punch.  As I use this punch for a lot of my projects, and likely a lot of my tutorials, I will probably purchase the new style sooner than later.  But for now, instructions for making the window for this card are here.

     Besides the 4-pane window, you might be interested to know about some of the other Stampin' Up! products and techniques that I used to make this card.  I originally thought I'd use my Watercolor Wonder Crayons for this card.  But I really wanted to capture the lovely new color, Marina Mist.  Unfotunately that color is not available in the Watercolor Wonder collection yet.  So I decided just to use my Stampin' Write Markers to try the watercolor look.  Wow, it sure worked wonderfully!  I colored the stamp from the set, Inspired by Nature with the markers (the other colors are Daffodil Delight and Garden Green) and then spritzed them a bit with Stampin' Mist Stamp Cleaner (it's the closest spray bottle to the craft room table!).  Nice look!

     I trimmed the window to 4-1/8" x 4-1/8", placed the stamped image behind it, then adhered it to a card made of Daffodil Delight, stamped with a sentiment from that old faithful stamp set, Sincere Salutations.  The butterflies are made with the Sizzix Embosslit Beautiful Wings, and the ribbon is Marina Mist 5/8" Satin Ribbon. 

     Before I layered everything up, I texturized the window layer using the Square Lattice Embossing Folder.  I have a couple of notes about that.  If you texturize with an embossing folder AFTER you have made the windows, you'll skew the shape and width of everything a bit.  But it doesn't look too bad.  I tried a sample made by texturizing the card stock FIRST, and THEN punching the windows.  All in all, I think that I like the latter technique better.  Why don't you try it out and let me know what YOU think! 

     Have fun with the project!

     As you can probably tell, I tend towards the kinds of designs that have clean lines and some symmetry.  I like to have neat edges and have papers and ribbons and such lying nice and flat on the card or scrapbook page.  But I've noticed in many of my craft magazines as well as in Stampin' Up!'s publications and samples, the "old," "vintage" look has become very popular.  I'm sure there's some psychology in that as we go through some economic and environmental hard times.  But regardless of the underlying cause, I'm really going to work to try to learn how to take what I'm most comfortable with and turn it into a more vintage look.

     Today's project is my first try at this in a side-by-side manner.  Let me back up a bit and say that I really like making covers for my 5" x 8" lined note pads and I've had instructions for making this posted here almost since I began my blog.  It just looks so, well, plain, to have the pads just sitting around with bare paper on them!  And my favorite theme to use for note pad covers is the musical "note."  For awhile, Stampin' Up! had a wheel with whimsical musical notes on it, and there was a great stamp that said, "Just A Note."  Perfect for that.  Well, this year, there's a new wheel with musical notes, but they've done themselves one better and have a great set of printed Designer Series Paper that has musical notes on it.  It's one of the sheets in the Newsprint Designer Series Paper set.  Hooray, I have my theme again!  And here are the two projects that I've made with this idea of trying out a Vintage Look when my first instinct is to make something with nice, neat, straight lines.

     My first try with the new papers is on the left, and the second one, with a bit of stepped up Vintage look, is on the right.  Both of these projects use basically the same products:  Newsprint Designer Paper, Lovely Letters Alphabet, Rich Razzleberry Patterns Paper, Rich Razzleberry Card Stock, a Border Punch, and some Stampin' Up! Ribbon.

     Here's my first try at this with my traditional clean-cut look.  Can you tell I took this photo during the sunset last night?  Love the lighting!  Anyway, I made some nice clean cuts here, and used plain Very Vanilla card stock on which to stamp the letters.  The border punch is the Scallop Edge Border Punch, and the letters are nicely lined up with some Stampin' Dimensionals popping them up over some 1/4" Rich Razzleberry Grosgrain Ribbon.  The letters are cut into 1-1/8" squares and I punched the mats with the 1-1/4" Square Punch. 

     Now let's check out the Vintage look:

     To begin, I roughed up the edges of both pieces of Designer Series paper – the Newsprint as well as the Rich Razzleberry Patterns.  Then I sponged Rich Razzleberry ink from a Classic Stampin' Pad all over both pieces of paper.  Instead of using the Scallop Edge Border Punch, I used the Eyelet Border Punch.  The letters are the same color and size as in the plain card, but I used some more of the Newsprint Designer Paper on which to stamp them.  Then, instead of some plain grosgrain ribbon (think clean lines) I used Very Vanilla Taffeta Ribbon which I first ruffled by pulling a center thread through it and then mussed up a bit by applying some Rich Razzleberry Ink with a sponge.  Finally I applied the letters NOT in a straight line (straight lines were not allowed in this project, well, except for the note pad itself).  Angled up a bit they seem to fit more with the vintage look.

     What do you think?  Which do you like?  If I get at least 10 comments about this post by July 24th, I'll pick one commenter who can choose one of these note pads for a gift!  Check back here next week to see who wins the note pad!

     While I'm very happy to say that I finally have some time just for me in my Craft Room, unfortunately a good friend just passed away this past weekend.  He and his wife were among a group of people with whom we were very close when we lived in New Mexico, and my husband had just spoken with him recently, and had actually had a chance to see him when we were on the mainland in April.  This is a very sad time for many of us.

     Of course, we wanted to get a note right off to our friend in sympathy for the loss of her husband.  At the same time, I had been wanting to try out some watercolor techniques as I get ready for the series of technique classes I plan to present this fall.  So there was my card.  I really like this soft look, and all I did was add "sympathy" sentiment on the front, and then wrote our note to her inside.

     To get the watercolor look for this card, made with the stamp set, Inspired by Nature, I used this solid style stamp and Stampin' Up!'s Watercolor Wonder crayons.  I first used an Aqua Painter to damped the entire area of the stamp.  Then I used the crayons to color in the images.  I kept the watercolor crayons wet throughout the process.  If the color on the stamp started looking to thick, I applied the Aqua Painter directly to that area of color.  Once everything was colored, I spritzed the entire stamp JUST ONCE! with the same solution that I use to clean my stamps, Stampin' Mist Stamp Cleaner.  I laid this large stamp rubber side up on my work table, then laid the Confetti Cream card stock onto the stamp and pressed firmly all over the stamped image.  It really came out nicely, I think.

     I added some butterflies from the Sizzix Embosslit, Beautiful Wings, and some 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon in the Daffodil Delight color, to bring out the color of the card stock that formed the card base.  I used a bit of Chocolate Chip card card stock to mat the picture and accent the large butterfly.

     As I said, I've been able to be in the Craft Room (finally!) this week, and I have many project to share with you over the next week!

     The printed papers to which I refer are, of course, Stampin' Up!'s Designer Series Paper sets.  I can hardly wait for each new catalog to see the new Designer Series Papers, and I want to have them ALL!

     While I can't have them all (or at least so says my checkbook), I do try to have as many to use and show off as possible.  I'll definitely have quite a few of the newest papers to show at this Saturday's New Catalog Open House in the Craft Room.  If you're on my newsletter mailing list, you already have all the details.  If you'd like more information, just e-mail me and I'll get right back to you.

     Here is one way in which I'm going to show off what you can do with these wonderful papers:  just use them to decorate the front of a card!  Yes, the papers can be as much of a card front feature as any stamped image!  The following four cards also have something else in common – they all use the new Stamp Set, Fabulous Phrases.  I am just crazy about this set because it's the first set like this that I've purchased in the Clear Mount form.  I can put any phrase I want to make from the words in the stamps onto one clear block and stamp them all at the same time.  Fabulous!  All of these cards just use two words – but there are lots of possibilities for using more with this stamp set. 

     So here we go with the cards.  They all use the same basic layout, and the measurements are at the end of this post.  The layout is based on one I found in the January 2008 issue of CardMaker magazine.  Love the inspiration from this magazine!

     I made the above card using the Sunny Garden Designer Series Paper set.  It's the same design set as the "Cottage Wall" set that was in last year's catalog, but all made up of Stampin' Up!'s bright new colors, including Daffodil Delight and Poppy Parade, which I feature in this card.  Other new colors in this set are Pear Pizzazz and Peach Parfait. The ribbon accent is some of Stampin' Up!'s new 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon in Daffodil Delight.

     This card features the paper set, Lap of Luxury.  Luxurious colors for sure!   The highlighted colors here are Pretty in Pink and one of this year's "In Color" colors, Concord Crush.  Love that grape!  Again I finished this card off with some ribbon, in this case the Pretty in Pink Taffeta Ribbon.

     In keeping with the fruit theme, this card uses the paper set, Blueberry Crisp and an "old" color come back to life this year, Pacific Point.  I "stepped up" the design of this card by texturizing the front Very Vanilla Layer with a design from the Sizzix Texture Plates #4, and added some of the brand new Chantilly Lace ribbon.  Luscious! 

     Finally, the card with what I think (so far anyway) is my absolute favorite in this year's Designer Series Paper collection, the Sweet & Sour Specialty paper set.  One side of each sheet has Gloss!  You can see some of it shining in the flash of my camera.  Wow!  Both colors that I featured in this card are old favorites, Pumpkin Pie and Rose Red.  I'm so glad Stampin' Up! kept those colors!  Again, I stepped up this card, but this time with a bit of a deeper texture provided by one of the newest Sizzix Embossing Folders, Square Lattice.   Of course, a bit of Very Vanilla 1/8" Taffeta Ribbon to finish it off.

    Here is my set of measurements for the card layout.  Rounded corners are made with the 3/16" Corner Punch.  I hope you'll try it out yourself!  If you have young crafty children at home, just cut them some papers and have them make their own Designer Series Paper arrangement.  I'd love to see what they come up with!