Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

There are very few things better than waking up on a rainy Saturday morning and heading into the craft room to stamp! Especially when there is a new Stamping 411 sketch challenge!

I decided to use the Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper again, and built my card around that. You can’t buy this paper anywhere, but when Sale-a-Bration starts (in 3 days!!), you’ll be able to earn it for free! It’s so pretty! I haven’t shown my butterflies much love lately, but they go great with this paper.

Stamps: none (seriously? Wow!)
Ink: Poppy Parade, Soft Suede (both used for sponging edges)
Paper: Lucky Limeade, Soft Suede, Peach Parfait, Poppy Parade, Pool Party, Very Vanilla, Everyday Enchantment Designer Series Paper
Other: Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions Folder, Basic Pearls, Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon, 3/4 inch circle punch, 1 inch circle punch

Now back to the craft room — I’ve got to get ready for the Stampin’ Addicts Sale-a-Bration blog hop next weekend!

The kids in in my after school class have been stamping with me for a few years now, and are ready to move beyond the basics. So for tomorrow’s class we are going to be focusing on Heat Embossing. (Which ties in perfectly with this week’s Pals Paper Arts challenge!) Below is one of the cards we are going to make. It uses the Baby Wipe Technique to stamp the butterflies, then the entire image is covered in VersaMark ink and then Iridescent Ice Embossing powder for the Dazzling Diamonds Technique. I think the girls will have a ton of fun with this one!

Stamps: Butterfly Patterns, Flight of the Butterfly
Ink: VersaMark, Pacific Point, Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo
Paper: Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Whisper White
Other: Butterfly Punch, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder, Scallop Square Clear Bigz Die, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Plus they get to use the Big Shot to cut out their card base, so what could be bad?

Tuesday means ColourQ, and today’s colors are rich and vibrant!

It’s my off week, so I decided to make a card. I don’t have any Kiwi Kiss, so I used Old Olive instead. I have a really special sneak peek on this card for you. Tangerine Tango Embossing Powder!!! It’s coming in the new Summer Mini catalog next month! It will also be available in Wild Wasabi and Melon Mambo! How fun is that?

Stamps: Heard from the Heart
Ink: VersaMark, Crumb Cake
Paper: Cherry Cobbler, Crumb Cake, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango
Other: Tangerine Tango Embossing Powder, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Framed Tulips Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Cherry Cobbler Seam Binding, Basic Pearls, White Gel Pen

Just so you know — the seam binding is not in the Summer Mini catalog, and we have no word that it will be carrying over. So if you like it, be sure and get what you need before the end of the month!

My very talented downline Samantha created a fabulous two-page 8″ x 8″ scrapbook layout for a swap that she was in on Stampin’ Addicts. She was kind enough to let me post it here, and I am excited to share it with you! (You can click on the photo for a closer look.)

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly, Eastern Blooms
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, So Saffron, Whisper White
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo, Old Olive, So Saffron, Whisper White
Other: Old Olive 5/8″ Satin Ribbon, Butterfly Punch, Scallop Border Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Gorgeous! I love how she made her own patterned paper to match!

Here’s a second card I made at my friend Beth’s workshop. It uses a super easy but really cool looking technique! See how there is a blank space between the embossed dots? You run your card stock through the Big Shot twice, each time with just 1 1/4″ inches of it in the embossing folder. Doesn’t it look great?

Stamps: Flight of the Butterfly
Ink: Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Marina Mist
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Pacific Point, Whisper White, Tangerine Tango
Other: Basic Rhinestone Jewel Elements, Butterfly Punch, Perfect Polka Dots Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Big Shot, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Do you see how sparkly those rhinestones are? They are amazing! And a really good deal, too — 150 self adhesive rhinestones for $4.95! Thanks so much, Beth, for a great time and a cool new technique!

You know Stampin’ Up’s Butterfly Punch? And how it works so well with Flight of the Butterfly? Well, there’s another Stampin’ Up set that coordinates with it! And  with my great love of stamp sets that coordinate with punches, of course I had to get it! It is called Butterfly Prints, and it has three new butterflies plus this great quote. (You can see the full stamp set at the bottom of this post.) I used this set for Stampin’ Addicts Color Challenge 61 — Elegant Eggplant, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizazz. I have to say, this was a really hard set of colors for me to wrap my mind around. At one point, as I stared & stared at my stamp sets, I felt like beating my head against the wall. But I finally did come up with an idea, and I’m pretty happy with the way it turned out.

Stamps: Butterfly Prints
Ink: Elegant Eggplant, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizazz
Paper: Elegant Eggplant, Baja Breeze, Pear Pizazz, Whisper White
Other: Butterfly Punch, Eyelet Border Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

Not usual colors for butterflies, but I think it works! Here’s a look at the whole stamp set:

I really like this week’s Stamping 411 sketch. (Do I say that every week? I feel like I say that every week. But you know what, I really do! These are great sketches!)

There are two things I’ve been wanting to do since the new catalog began. One is to play with the colors in the Brights collection and the other is to use my new Beautiful Wings Embosslit. So I combined them both for this sketch. Wow! That Beautiful Wings Embosslit is amazing!! (One important thing to note: be sure to run it through your Big Shot with the hinge opposite the handle.) Here’s what I came up with:

Stamps: Simply Said
Ink: Pacific Point
Paper: Pacific Point, Melon Mambo, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Other: Daffodil Delight Taffeta Ribbon, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Big Shot

Isn’t it so bright and cheery? I love it!

I love stamp sets that coordinate with punches. Absolutely love them! It’s a weakness of mine. One of the great points of the new Idea Book & Catalog is that it actually tells you which punches coordinate with the sets! Color Throwdown is having a big party, celebrating their 100th color challenge, so I decided to give it a try. Here are the colors

Punched Posies is a Level 2 hostess set in the Summer Mini catalog. I had to get it, since the stamps coordinate with our punches! I saw a great card on Mickey’s blog, and based my entry for the color throwdown off that one.

Stamps: Punched Posies, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Ink: Regal Rose, Real Red, Certainly Celery, Baja Breeze
Paper: Regal Rose, Real Red, Certainly Celery (textured), Baja Breeze, Whisper White
Other: Rhinestone Bards (Fire Circle), Butterfly Punch, 1 3/4″ Scallop Circle Punch, Fancy Flower Punch, Five Petal Flower Punch, Word Window Punch, Modern Label Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals

It’s a definite change from my Clean and Simple style, but I really like how it came out!

This week’s Pals Paper Arts challenge is “Anything but a Card,” so I figured it would be the perfect time to show you how my library has been transformed for spring! I am truly blessed this year to have most amazing library assistant! Karen is not only incredibly competent, but she is artistic as well. She has done an amazing job decorating the library for the different seasons and holidays throughout the year. After the St. Patrick’s Leprechaun hunt was over, she began decorating the library for spring. She used a variety of Stampin’ Up! papers and Big Shot dies to turn the library into a Springtime wonderland! Take a look (supplies listed at the very end). Click on any picture to enlarge it.

This is the display area behind the circulation desk:

These are the two sides of the circulation desk:

There are also a large number of butterflies and birds hanging from the ceiling. (She used paper clips and dental floss to hang them up.)

Supplies: Kaleidoscope Designer Series Paper, Tea Party Designer Series Paper, Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Bigz Die, Bird with Leaves & Flowers Bigz Die, Flower Folds Bigz XL Die, On Board Bird Book

The paper was all laminated before being cut. The large butterflies, rabbits, and some of the other items are Karen’s own designs. Thank you, Karen, for your incredible contribution to the library!

I was excited to have a chance to do the Stampin’ Addicts Color Challenge today. It is a stunning group of colors that I never would have thought to put together — Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Brushed Gold, and Black. As I was trying to decide what to do with the gold in particular, I remembered that my friend Paula had heat embossed some butterflies (from Great Friend) in both gold and silver and they looked stunning. So I thought that I would try that too! I also broke out the new Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions Embossing Folder. This has a beautiful embossed images in the lower right hand corner. I decided that I wanted a little more embossing, so I flipped it around and ran it through again. It wasn’t quite the same impression the second time. I think I need to play with this idea a little more.

Stamps: Great Friend
Ink: VersaMark
Paper: Rich Razzleberry, Old Olive, Brushed Gold, Basic Black
Accessories: Elegant Bouquet Textured Impressions Embossing Folder, Gold Embossing Powder, Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon (turned upside down so the polka dots don’t show)