Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

The craft fair in New Bedford was this past weekend. Luckily we had planned to be down here anyway, since we lost power in Fitchburg on Thursday night from the ice storm. It was a nice craft fair, but not too many people stopped by. I enjoyed talking to the women one either side of me. One had quilts, the other hand-painted kipot (yarmulkas).

I still have plenty of Hanukkah items left! Drop me a note if you want to buy any of the items that you saw here. I’ll leave you with a few pictures from the ice storm. Hopefully we’ll be back home again soon! In the meantime, I’ll be posting some older cards.

Here in New England, things are “Wicked” — “Wicked Cool,” “Wicked Awesome,” “Wicked Fast,” etc. On SplitCoast there is also a monthly Wicked Demonstrator’s Challenge. It contains a color challenge, a sketch challenge, and a technique challenge. Below are the cards I made for the December Wicked challenge. They both use the colors in the color challenge — Always Artichoke, Basic Black, Bordering Blue, and Tangerine Tango. The first card is for the sketch challenge:

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The second card is for the technique challenge — this month the technique is color-blocking. I kinda cheated on the color-blocking. The two Whisper White pieces are matted on black and layered on top of the Artichoke and Blue. I still think it looks good though!

My husband and I were at the grocery store the other day, and he said, “I have to go buy some cards.”

I just looked at him for a minute, and then said, “Are you kidding me?”

“No,” he said, “I need some Christmas cards.”

“I can make Christmas cards.”

“You can?”

“Yes, I can.”

So here are the cards I came up with. I tried my hand at sponging one background, and brayering the other.This first one is my version of a card by Christine Okken.

Stamps: To You and Yours
Paper: Baja Breeze, Basic Black, Glossy White
Ink: StazOn Black, Baja Breeze, Pacific Point, Not Quite Navy
Accessories: Silver Brads, Oval Punch, Designer Label Punch, White 1/4″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Two-Way Glue, Dazzling Diamonds, Brayer

This second card is also someone else’s design, and I cannot find the original. If this is your card design, please let me know so that I can give you credit.

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree, Holidays & Wishes
Paper: Ballet Blue, Basic Black, Glossy White
Ink: StazOn Black, Ballet Blue, Lovely Lilac
Accessories: Two-Way Glue, Dazzling Diamonds, Sponge Daubers

See, I can make Christmas cards!

I love all of the cute little things you can make with the scallop circle punch over the peppermint patties. I’ve made them for Halloween, Valentine’s Day, and even St. Patrick’s Day. So of course I thought about making some for the Hanukkah craft fair. And you know what? THey didn’t look good with the scallop circle! It just didn’t work for Hanukkah. But I didn’t let that stop me! I pulled out my 1 3/4″ circle punch and did a non-scalloped circle around them. I packaged them in cello bags (also available from Stampin’ Up) and used the Top Note Die to make a cute topper. Tip — you fold it one way for the small cello bag, and the other way for the medium cello bag. I think they came out pretty cute!

Stamps: Holiday Blitz, Festival Fun (retired)
Paper: Summer Sun, Night of Navy
Ink: Night of Navy
Accessories: 1 3/8″ circle punch, 1 3/4″ circle punch, Big Shot, Top Note Die, York Peppermint Patties, Cello Bags

One of the items I had been meaning to make for this upcoming Hanukkah craft fair was some “Color-Me Cards.” What are they? Color-me cards are generally made for kids, they have a front with an outline image stamped on it that can be colored in. They are usually packaged with crayons, too. I came up with three designs for my Hanukkah color-me cards, all of which use the retired Festival Fun set. It was a great Hanukkah set.

I used StazOn to stamp the outlines, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the image running, no matter what it  was colored in with. The image is matted on Yo-Yo Yellow, and the card base is Pacific Point. Here is a sample that Eve colored in.

I packaged them with an envelope and 4 crayons each in the large cello bags from Stampin’ Up. I used a couple of strategically placed staples to separate the card from the crayons, then folded down the bag and taped it to the bag. I toyed with other ways to close it, but this one worked out best.

I think these would be super cute to make for birthdays and other holidays as well!

I have to tell you, I think this color challenge may have been the hardest one for me yet. The only color of these that I ever use is Certainly Celery. It is the only one that I have the full-sized ink pad of! Here are the colors that Kristina Werner chose for this week’s color inspiration:

So I thought, and I looked through my stamps, and I thought some more, and then I decided they would be the perfect colors to try something that I had seen but not done yet — to use my markers on the Upsy Daisy set. So here is what I came up with:

Stamps: Upsy Daisy
Paper: Perfect Plum, Bordering Blue, Whisper White
Stampin’ Write Markers: Pale Plum, Perfect Plum, Bordering Blue, Certainly Celery, Sage Shadow
Accessories: Certainly Celery 1/4″ Grosgrain Ribbon, Slot Punch, Big Shot, Top Note Die

I realized after I made it that I probably could have made a nice card using Pretty Peony with these as well. Filing that idea away for next time!

I would like to publicly thank Dannie Graves for making my life easier this year! She has these fabulous monogrammed stationery sets with a holder on her blog that completely solved my dilemma of what to give Eve’s teachers for the holidays! She even has a great video tutorial on how to make the portfolio for them! Here are the first three that I made.

They each use a different designer series paper. The set with the “K” uses Georgia Peach Paper and card stock and ink in Old Olive, Regal Rose and So Saffron. The ribbon is the Regal Rose 5/8″ Grosgrain.  The set with the “G” uses Mane Blueberry Paper and card stock and ink in Old Olive, Not Quite Navy, and Bashful Blue. The ribbon is the Bashful Blue Strip Grosgrain. The set with the “T” uses Bella Rose Paper and card stock and ink in Riding Hood Red, Kiwi Kiss, and Pink Pirouette. The ribbon is the Kiwi Kiss Striped Grosgrain. All of them use the Lovely Letters Stamp Set for the monogram initials, as well as the 1 1/4″ circle punch, 1 3/8″ circle punch, and scallop circle punch.

I put 6 cards in each packet, making two each of three different color combinations. This is what the Bella Rose pack looks like on the inside:

And here is a closer look at the three different note cards.

I’m having fun making these, and hope the recipients enjoy them as well! Only four more to go!

Extra, Extra! Read all about it! Stampin’ Up just announced which stamp sets will be retiring at the end of this catalog!

• Stamp Sets in Alphabetical Order
• Stamp Sets in order by page number

Fall-Winter 2008 retiring stamp sets are available for purchase December 9, 2008 – January 18, 2009. Buy your favorites today before they’re gone!

Plus, now through December 23, you can get 10% OFF all retiring stamp sets and FREE SHIPPING on orders over $70—don’t wait to take advantage of this limited-time offer! You can order through my website or email me to place an order.

(Please note, Stampin’ Up recommends ordering by Tuesday, December 16 for delivery by Christmas.)

Yep, still making items for the Hanukkah Craft Fair. One more week to go! I was going to make some more of the Hanukkah Window cards that I posted earlier. But I had my Big Shot out, so I thought I would incorporate the ever so beautiful Top Note Die into the design. This wasn’t what I had originally planned when I began, but I am pleased with the way it turned out.

I love SplitCoast Stampers. It is full of the most wonderful, creative, thoughtful women I have ever “met.” Among other things, it has a wide variety of weekly challenges for papercrafters. This card combines two of the challenges — Tuesday’s color challenge and Wednesday’s sketch challenge. The color challenge this past week was a neutrals challenge — Basic Black, Very Vanilla, and Sahara Sand. I don’t have any Sahara Sand (I know, I know, I really have to get some…) so I substituted Creamy Caramel. It’s not the same, but it will have to do. You can see the sketch from the sketch challenge here. Here’s what I came up with:

Stamps: Together Forever, Forever Flowers Stampin’ Around Wheel
Ink: Creamy Caramel, Stazon Black
Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, Creamy Caramel

They aren’t colors I necessarily would have chosen on my own, but I think it came out pretty nicely!