Rubber Stamping & Card Making with Yapha

Great sketch from Freshly Made Sketches this week — I love the clean lines and the three elements in the middle.

I loved this sketch as soon as I saw it, but I have to admit that when I sat down to make my card, I forgot that it was square. I might have try it again with a square card. I decided to turn those three circles into three lollipops, especially since the Sweets for the Sweet stamp set in the big Idea Book & Catalog coordinates so perfectly with the new Sweet Shop Specialty Designer Series Paper in the Occasions Mini.

Stamps: Sweets for the Sweet
Ink: Calypso Coral, Lucky Limeade, Island Indigo, Pool Party, VersaMark
Paper: Pool Party, Lucky Limeade, Whisper White, Sweet Shop Specialty Designer Series Paper
Other: Calypso Coral Ruffled Ribbon, 1″ Circle Punch, Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder

I wanted to give the lollipops a little more “pop,” so I covered each in VersaMark ink and then embossed them with Iridescent Ice Embossing Powder. They look almost good enough to eat!

This past week we had “Boo Buddies” at work, where we each pick a name and leave that person little treats all week.  I love doing this! It is so much fun! The only bummer for me is that I can;t do anything hand-made, or the person will know that it is me. But Monday is our big reveal, so I can FINALLY craft something for my buddy!

I decided to make one of those super cute hexagon boxes made from two milk cartons. Have you seen them? Paula has a fabulous tutorial on her blog. I made mine to look somewhat like a pumpkin, but I didn’t put a Jack-o-lantern face on it, so it can continue to be used until Thanksgiving.

I filled the inside with chocolates, and covered them with stamped labels to make them more festive. I fit about a dozen in there.

Stamps: It’s a Wrap Holidays
Ink: Tangerine Tango, Lucky Limeade, Basic Black
Paper: Tangerine Tango, Brights Patterns Designer Series Paper Stack, Labels
Other: Lucky Limeade Ruffled Ribbon, Crop-a-Dile, Milk Carton Bigz Die, Big Shot

This was a really fun box to make. I hope she likes it!

One of my favorite things to do with the Matchbox Die is to fill it with chocolate! And now that we have these fabulous wrapper stamps, it’s even easier! I made this little box of chocolates for Steve, a fun addition to his birthday cards.

Stamps: Word Play, It’s a Wrap Occasions
Ink: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper
Other: Matchbox Bigz XL Die, Big Shot, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, Stampin’ Dimensionals, mailing labels

There are two versions of the label stamps available – It’s a Wrap Occasions and It’s a Wrap Holidays. They are so much fun!

I hope that you enjoyed the Stampin’ Addicts blog hop this past weekend! If you didn’t have to time to hop through it, it’s not too late! As promised, I will show you what is inside those cute little baby shower boxes. I used the new It’s a Wrap Occasions stamp set to wrap a couple of Hershey Nuggets!

This stamp set is fantastic. It works with mailing labels that are 2 5/8″ by 1″ to create perfect little nugget wrappers!

Here’s what the whole set looks like:

It also comes in French and Spanish, and the most exciting news is that there is going to be a holiday version in the upcoming Holiday Mini Catalog as well!

I think I like sketch challenges more than color challenges. I find them easier, at least. Paula has been putting together some great sketch challenges over at Stampin’ Addicts, and this week’s was no exception:

I decided to use some new goodies for it, and pulled out the new Sweets for the Sweet stamp set. The Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper coordinates with it fabulously, so I had to use that too!

Stamps: Sweets for the Sweet
Ink: Real Red, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Old Olive
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, Real Red, Whisper White, Big Top Birthday Designer Series Paper
Other: Scallop Border Punch

I hope you’ll consider playing along — there are all kinds of Challenges over at Stampin’ Addicts!

Great news! If you liked my first book, 50 Card Sketches, I’ve started the second one! This one is going to be all sketches for square cards.

Welcome to Stampin’ Addicts Retiring Stamp Set Blog Hop, where we are featuring some “must have” stamps that will not be available after June 30th. You may have just come here from Adriana’s Blog, where she featured the adorable Animal Stories, you may be moving backwards from Heidi’s blog featuring the fabulous Dream Gardens, or maybe you are starting here. In any case, the blogs all link in a circle, so you’ll get to see them all!

I am excited to be featuring the ultra adorable Bugs & Kisses. While this set is a must if you have small boys, I am going to show you a few other uses for this set as well. Just remember, it will no longer be available after June 30, 2011.

My first card is a traditional use of Bugs & Kisses. I love how the insects look in the filmstrip made by the Spiral Punch (which is also on the retiring list). I made this card a little more feminine by using the floral paper from the Pawsitively Prints II Designer Series Paper (also on the retiring list).

Stamps: Bugs & Kisses
Ink: Wild Wasabi, Poppy Parade, So Saffron
Paper: Tempting Turquoise, So Saffron, Basic Black, Whisper White, Pawsitively Prints II Designer Series Paper
Other: Spiral Punch

For my second card, I decided to think outside the box a little. Which is ironic, because I ended up making a square card! I combined the ant stamp with the gingham paper from Pawsitively Prints II Designer Series Paper to  make a great picnic invitation for people of all ages.

Stamps: Bugs & Kisses, Afterthoughts (hostess level 1)
Ink: Basic Black, Poppy Parade
Paper: Poppy Parade, Basic Black, Whisper White, Pawsitively Prints II Designer Series Paper
Other: Clear Scallop Square Bigz Die, Big Shot

My third card uses a fun technique called Sparkly Stained Glass. I will have a detailed tutorial on this easy but stunning technique in the next week or so. Sorry that the picture is a little blurry — sparkly things are hard to photograph well. This card also uses the soon to be retiring Fine Cosmo Stampin’ Glitter.

Stamps: Bugs & Kisses
Ink: StazOn Jet Black, Bashful Blue
Paper: Bashful Blue, Subtles Designer Series Paper Stack
Other: Window Sheet, Crystal Effects, Fine Cosmo Stampin’ Glitter, Subtles Brads

My final card uses the always fun Baby Wipe technique. I used this to create the multi-colored worms, so that they would match the gummy worms inside the treat cup. I’ll have a tutorial on this technique coming up in the next few weeks as well, in case you are not familiar with it. This card also uses the 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon which is ALL retiring!

Stamps: Bugs & Kisses
Ink: Real Red, Daffodil Delight
Paper: Daffodil Delight, Real Red, Whisper White
Other: 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, Large Tag Punch, Extra-Large Tag Punch, Sweet Treat Cup, Real Red 5/8″ Grosgrain Ribbon

I hope you enjoyed these projects! Please stop back again soon for the tutorials! Your next stop is over at Running with Scissors, where Heidi will be featuring the beautiful Dream Gardens Stamp Set.

I promised the kids when they signed up for card making that we would make cards with candy in them. As you can imagine, this was a big draw! Here is the third card we are making tomorrow after school, it measures 4″ x 4″ folded. (With a big thank you to my downline Melissa for saving me when I ran out of Sweet Treat cups!)

Stamps: Sweet Centers
Ink: Basic Black, Tangerine Tango, Wild Wasabi
Paper: Tangerine Tango (textured), Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Other: 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, Sweet Treat Cups

I’m sure there will be more candy corn eaten than actually put in the cards!

We got the notice a few weeks ago. “Please send 50 Valentines to school with your children, unlabeled, signed with their name.” I’ve given Eve the option each year, whether she wants to buy her Valentines or make them. In past years, Eve has wanted to buy store-bought Valentines, usually princess ones. This year however, she decided she wanted to make them. She liked thet idea of lollipop holders. So we looked through all of my Valentine-related stamp sets, and she settled on the cute image of two birds from the Love You Much stamp set.

We made up a sample, then got down to business yesterday afternoon. The whole family helped (well, except for Biscuit). I cut and stamped, Eve colored and signed, Steve glued and punched, and we all threaded the lollipops through. We managed to put together all 50 in less than 2 hours yesterday afternoon!

Here is our final result:

Stamps: Love You Much
Ink: Basic Black, Real Red
Paper: Real Red, Whisper White
Other: Watercolor Pencils, Crop-a-Dile

And here is a look at all 50 together. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself!

Steve punched the holes with the Crop-a-Dile. I asked him how he liked it, since I personally think it is an amazing punch. His reply? “It’s smooth! Like driving a Ferrari…”

When I saw this fabulous card by Gretchen Barron, I knew I had to make one with gummy worms in one of the sweet treats cups as well. And once again, the Stamping 411 Saturday Sketch Challenge lent itself nicely to including one of the sweet treat cups.

I started out by looking at the colors of the gummy worms. (And tasting a few for additional inspiration, of course.) They went from red to yellow with orange in between, so those were the colors I chose for my card. I made my own “ink pad” with drops of reinker on a baby wipe so that my stamped worms would have the same color variations as the gummy ones. I wanted to use an oval like in the sketch, so used a Stampin’ Write marker to ink up only “worm wishes” out of the rest of the phrase.

Stamps: Bugs & Kisses
Ink: Real Red, Only Orange, Yo-Yo Yellow, Versamark
Paper: Real Red, Only Orange, Yo-Yo Yellow, Whisper White
Accessories: Sweet Treat Cup, 1 3/4″ Circle Punch, Large Oval Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch, Scalloped Border Punch

I’m definitely having fun with these sweet treat cups!

Ever since the Top Note Die came out this summer, very clever demonstrators have been turning them into super cute owl bag toppers. When I saw this adorable Valentine’s Day owl bag topper that Krystal made, I knew I had to make one! I was so excited when I even found the Valentine’s Day candy corn. I ended up making two, one with the candy corn and one with Valentine M & Ms. We’ll give these to Eve’s kindergarten teachers, one of which can’t eat chocolate. (The horror!) They were so cute, and quick, and easy, we may make them for some of the other teachers as well.

Here’s a close up of the head.

Stamps: Love You Much
Ink: VersaMark (for embossing the beak)
Cardstock: Pretty in Pink, Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Riding Hood Red, Basic Black
Accessories: Heart to Heart Punch, 1 3/8″ Circle Punch, 1″ Circle Punch, Top Note Bigz Die, White Embossing Powder, Small Cello Bag