Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

Did you get all of your thank you notes written? I am happy to say that I finished mine before Winter Break ended! I needed cards that would be quick to make and easy to mail, so I adapted one of my favorite Winter Holiday cards into a thank you note. To keep it flat enough for mailing, I used Dazzling Details in the center of each snowflake instead of the Basic Rhinestones.

Stamps: Perfectly Penned
Ink: Marina Mist
Paper: Marina Mist, Whisper White
Other: Northern Flurry Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Dazzling Details

Good news about Dazzling Details! It is still available even though the Holiday Mini catalog has ended! Even better news — there is a Cherry Cobbler Dazzling Details available in the Occasions Mini Catalog!

What a great sketch from clean&simple this week!

The question, of course, is what to put in the circle… I’ve been having a lot of fun lately with my Snowflake #2 die, so I decided to go with a snowflake instead of a circle at all. And I went so clean and simple that I didn’t even use an extra layer of card stock! I just ran my card base through the Big Shot in an embossing folder.

Stamps: Four the Holidays
Ink: Pool Party
Paper: Pool Party, Whisper White, Silver Glimmer Paper
Other: Snowflake #2 Die, Snow Burst Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Big Shot, 1″ Square Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Don’t forget! Stampin’ Up’s Online Extravaganza starts tomorrow (Monday)! Stop back here for all of the details!

Now that Halloween is over, it’s time to dive head first into the next set of holidays!  Here are some great new digital downloads from Stampin’ Up to help you on your way! These will also work great for my East Coast friends needing to scrapbook their Snowtober pictures. These downloads work with My Digital Studio and any other digital scrapbooking program that allows you to import PNG and JPG files, which is most graphics programs. (Clicking on the pictures above will take you right to the store to purchase these downloads.)

128892 Designer Gift Cards $4.95

Have a friend’s wedding coming up? Or need to thank someone with more than just a note? Everyone loves a gift card. Use our Designer Gift Cards to take your generosity to another level. The Designer Gift Cards download includes a 10-piece stamp brush set and a three-page 11″ x 8-1/2″ gift card designer template that includes magenta dotted lines so you can print and cut out as many gift cards as you want. The images on the cards are designed as stamp brushes, so you can customize the colors to suit your occasion. Buy the coordinating Gift Labels Stamp Brush Set to have on-hand for even more versatility. Coordinating colors include Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Lucky Limeade, Marina Mist, Not Quite Navy, and Peach Parfait.

128875 Frosty Day II Digital Kit $9.95

Bundle up with our stylish retro Frosty Day II Kit, and bring a funky pop to your projects. This recolored version of our retired Frosty Day Designer Series Paper includes the 12 recolored paper patterns, a coordinating 25-piece stamp brush set, and a one-page 10″ x 5″ calendar designer template. Coordinating colors include Kiwi Kiss, Melon Mambo, Pool Party, and Soft Suede.

128895 Gift Labels Stamp Brush Set $3.95

Our seven-piece Gift Labels Stamp Brush Set includes sentiments perfect for Christmas, bridal showers, weddings, thank you cards, or greetings for any time. Pair it with our coordinating Designer Gift Cards download for a complete combination.

128881 Snow Stamp Brush $1.95

Celebrate the snow by using this one-piece stamp brush on your winter projects. Use it as a background on a scrapbook page, or as an accent on any design.

128882 Snowflake Trimmings Digital Punch $1.95

Use these snowflakes on your projects for a bold, wintertime look. Our two-piece Snowflake Trimmings Punch also comes with a 5″ x 7″ greeting card designer template. Like all My Digital Studio punches, these are vector files, which allows them to be scaled up or down without losing image resolution.

You can purchase these or any other digital downloads through my online store. (Clicking on the pictures above will take you there as well.) They great news is that they are available for immediate use, with no shipping charges! Just click on Digital Crafting, then Digital Downloads, then Newest Downloads to see all of the recent additions! If you registered your copy of My Digital Studio, you may also receive end-of-the month emails from Stampin’ Up featuring that month’s digital releases.

There is a My Digital Studio tab to the top right hand corner of this blog. It is a handy reference to a variety of My Digital Studio resources, including a list of all of the downloads and a break down of the printing costs. There is also a Resources page on MyDigitalStudio.net that includes an MDS Catalog. It shows all of the MDS software artwork (contained in the boxed-version) and downloads from the October 2009 launch through September 30, 2011! The catalog gives a snapshot of the entire product line with artwork thumbnails followed by product details, which includes the colors of the designer papers! Because MDS is regularly coming out with new artwork, the catalog will be updated every month.

**Don’t Forget! Free Downloads coming November 4-7 in honor of Digital Scrapbooking Day! **

Here is the second scrapbook page that I made for the My Digital Studio contest. I wanted the colors of the page to match Eve’s outfit, so I made my own background paper by stamping white snowflakes all over the paper. Instead of doing each one individually, I created a grouping that I liked, the selected the whole group and copied and pasted it in one chunk. Then I spread these chunks around the page.

The photo layout is one of the preset ones from My Digital Studio. It’s nice to have the option to use one of theirs or start from scratch.

I hope you enjoyed the Stampin’ Addicts Blog Hop this weekend. I am constantly amazed at the talent of the women on the hop! I had some stamping time while watching the bowl games on New Year’s Day, so I thought I would try a new challenge. Well, a “new to me” challenge. I went over to Our Creative Corner, and they had a really interesting challenge this week. The theme is “Thank You” and you need to use a blue and cream color palette and add metal and vellum to your creation. Wow. That seemed a lot to combine together at first, but then this brilliant idea popped into my head! What do you think?

Stamps: Thank You Kindly
Ink: Marina Mist
Paper: Marina Mist, Very Vanilla, Vellum
Other: Marina Mist Taffeta Ribbon, Very Vanilla Hodge Podge Hardware, Designer Label Punch, Northern Flurries Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Big Shot

The Hodge Podge Hardware has a Vanilla finish on it, but is actually metal, so I think that should count, don’t you? The snowflakes are embossed on vellum. If you do this, be sure to use the vellum card stock, not the vellum paper. The paper will tear.

ETA: A big thanks to Minnie for letting me know how well this fits into the Hand Stamped Sentiments Winter Blues Color Splash Challenge #49!

ETA 2: And hey, it is perfect for this week’s Stampin’ Celebration Inspiration Inspiration Challenge #34, as well!

The minute I saw Jen’s gorgeous card, I was amazed at how great the snowflakes looked in Melon Mambo & Old Olive! I immediately had to make one myself, and loved it so much that we made it at the after school class on Thursday as well. I changed mine up a little, to make it easier for the kids. It’s the perfect winter thank you!

Stamps: Northern Hearts, Heard from the Heart
Ink: Melon Mambo, Pretty in Pink, Old Olive
Paper: Pretty in Pink, Melon Mambo, Whisper White
Other: Old Olive 5/8″ Satin Ribbon

I guess when you live you in Southern California, you can make the snowflakes any color that you want!

A few people have asked to see the cards that the fourth graders made on their field trip to the Jewish Home. This is one of them! This card was designed by my downline, Samantha Alvarez, who is one of the fourth grade teachers. It uses the now sold-out Candy Cane Christmas Designer Series Paper. (Note: If you really love something, order it early in the mini catalog period.) The good news is that there is still a digital version of this paper available and it will never run out! Three of the patterns are available in fabric as well.

Stamps: Holiday Lineup
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Baja Breeze, Blushing Bride, Real Red, Garden Green, Pumpkin Pie
Paper: Baja Breeze, Blushing Bride, Whisper White, Candy Cane Christmas Designer Series Paper

Here’s the same card, but I substituted the Big on Christmas stamp set instead. I love that these two sets have images the same size so that they are interchangeable! We had both sets available for the kids and seniors to choose from.

Although I used my markers to color in these images, we brought the Watercolor Pencils to the Jewish Home instead.

As soon as I saw this week’s colors from ColourQ, I fell in love with them! Aren’t they gorgeous?

As I tossed around ideas on how to use them, I knew I wanted to do a winter scene, but not just snowflakes. I played with the idea of birds for a while, but as I keep reading through my stamp sets, I hit upon Lovely as a Tree. Now there’s a classic! I’ve done cards similar to to this, but I’ve always used black for the trees. This time I used Wild Wasabi for the Evergreen, and Soft Suede for the other trees. I sponged Tempting Turquoise at the bottom, then gradually added Pacific Point up to the top.

I wanted to add a little sparkle to it, so I went to get my  Dazzling Diamonds. (I kind of wished I had the Glass Glitter from the mini catalog to make a border around the Top Note.) But I found my Iridescent Ice embossing powder first. And a lightbulb went off in my head! I could do the Dazzling Diamond Dust technique on this card! It would be perfect! And I’ll also submit to the So Shelli Contest this month, which is all about techniques! For this technique, you cover your entire stamped image with Versamark, then heat emboss it with Iridescent Ice embossing powder. This gives it a beautiful sparkly sheen! (And makes it really hard to take a good picture!)

Stamps: Lovely as a Tree
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Soft Suede, Tempting Turquoise, Pacific Point, Versamark
Paper: Wild Wasabi, Pacific Point, Glossy White
Other: Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Top Note Bigz Die, Vintage Wallpaper Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Big Shot

It’s easy to create images of a Winter Wonderland when I don’t have to shovel the real stuff!

I had to try this because it looked so cool! I brayed Marina Mist ink on the inside of my embossing folder, and then when I put in the piece of Whisper White, only the raised snowflakes kept their original white! You may notice this card looks remarkably similar to this snowflake card. It is the same basic layout, but a very different feel to the card.

Stamps: All Holidays
Ink: Marina Mist, Crumb Cake
Paper: Whisper White, Crumb Cake
Other: White Satin Ribbon, Decorative Label Punch, Simple Pearls, Northern Flurry Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Stampin’ Dimensionals

A huge thank you to Tanya for posting this adorable snowflake tea light candle set on her blog! After seeing her post so many different versions of the tea lights, I just had to try it. It was so much easier than I thought it was going to be! In fact, we are going to be making these as our final project in the after-school kids’ class. As like a grand finale. With a lot of supervision, of course. The snowflake is cut out of metal flashing with the Big Shot.I took Tanya’s advice and ran it back and forth several times before taking it out of the Big Shot.

(Note: Don’t buy the flashing shingles. They don’t work. Get the flashing on a roll. I found I could cut it with my Craft & Rubber scissors — on sale until Tuesday!)

Stamps: Northern Hearts
Ink: Marina Mist
Other: Tissue Paper, 1 1/4″ Circle Punch, 1/16″ Handheld Circle Punch, Heat Tool, Snowflake #2 Originals Die, Big Shot

For a complete tutorial on making the tea lights, see Tanya’s Blog.