Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge - Week 97

Yes, it's Wednesday. Again. But really... how can I be expected to get this card made, photo'd, and blogged in one day? Maybe if I didn't have a 3.5 year old and 3 month old in the house. In all honesty, I think we're lucky I get this card up as 'early' as I do, lol! So this week's challenge was a bit less out of the box for me, though I would definitely not have come up with this design myself!
I decided to use the retired Unfrogettable stamp set for this card. I need to make more cards for Belly Laughs and this was a nice simple design so I though, why not? Here's what I came up with... simple but sweet, I think.


My card recipe for this 'hoppy' card includes:

Stamp Set: Unfrogettable (retired)
Card stock: Wild Wasabi (retired), Crushed Curry, Whisper White, Walk in the Park DSP (retired)
Ink: Close to Cocoa, Basic Black, VersaMark
Accessories: Wide Oval Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch, 1-3/4" Circle Punch, Scallop Edge Punch, Watercolor Wondercrayons - Earth Elements, Aqua Painter, Sizzix Big Shot, Scalloped Circles #2 Die, Button Latte, Linen Thread, Chocolate Chip Taffeta Ribbon

That's it for this Mon... er Wednesday! Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge - Week 96

This week's sketch challenge was definitely outside the box for me. I never would have thought to create a background with three equal strips of DSP.


When I saw this week's sketch design, I thought it would make a wonderful wedding shower card. My friend asked me to make a couple of cards for her, including a shower, so I used the challenge as my basis for this card. I think it turned out beautifully and I hope the bride-to-be loves it!


The card recipe for this card includes
Stamp Sets: She's All That (retired), Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock: Close to Cocoa, Baja Breeze Regular and Textured (retired), Berry Bliss DSP (retired), Confetti White
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: Big Shot, Scalloped Circle Die #2, Heat Tool, Gold Stampin' Emboss Powder, Clear Rhinestone Brads, Styled Vanilla Hodgepodge Hardware, Designer Label Punch, Flower Fusion Too, Chocolate Chip Double Stitched Grosgrain Ribbon

3D Pop-Up Card Tutorial

I had so much positive feedback on the 3D pop-up card that I made for my Father-in-Law. However, everyone was rather disappointed that I didn't include a tutorial for this type of card. So last week I sat down, made this pop-up card, and made sure to document every step! This is my first tutorial, so hopefully it all makes sense! Any feedback is appreciated :) Have fun making your own pop-up card and be sure to show me the final result! Or join me at my 3D Birthday card class on Sunday September 13th to make 2 3D Pop-Up Cards and 2 Shadow Box Cards. Contact me for more details!

Step 1

Cut an 8-1/2" x 11" piece of cardstock to 8-1/2" x 8-1/2". I like to use textured cardstock, with the textured side facing 'out' so that you can see the texture when the card is folded up.


Step 2

Score your cardstock at 4-1/4" on each side, so you'll have your cardstock scored into four quadrants. You'll also need to score on quadrant in half diagonally. To do this, place your cardstock diagonally onto your Scor-Pal or paper cutter making sure that both corners are on the score line. Hold cardstock in place carefully and score the one quadrant diagonally - this is where the card will 'fold in'.



Step 3

Once all the scoring has been done, orient your cardstock with the diagonal score line in the top right quadrant. Then, cut the score line between the two bottom quadrants as shown.


Step 4

Fold your cardstock along all the score lines with a bone folder to ensure crisp folds. Once all the folds have been made, bring the bottom right quadrant over to the left and adhere to the bottom left quadrant and adhere with a strong adhesive (such as Stampin' Up!'s Sticky Strip). Your card will now stand up and you're ready to create your scene.


Step 5

Create your scene in the card. I used the Razzleberry Lemonade DSP to enhance the backgrounds of this card. I also used SU!'s Sticky Strip to adhere all pop-up elements to make sure that they stayed firmly on the card as these cards are often manipulated a lot ;)

You may be wondering how to create the 'pop-up' elements on the card. Cut a piece of cardstock, 1/4" or 1/2" depending on the width of your pop-up element, and fold into a square or rectangle. Adhere one side to your element, one side to your card (with Sticky Strip) as shown below. Make sure to take into account the folding of the card when including your pop out elements. Don't place them right on the bottom of the card as they'll be crushed during folding. Before adhering them, be sure to check that the card folds properly with the element in place.


Since the card will always tend to 'pop-up', I like to make a belly band to hold the whole thing together. This is easy to do. Use a 1-1/2" x 8-1/2" piece of cardstock, scored at 2" and 6-1/2". You'll be left with a 1/4" gap at the front of the belly band. This is easily hidden with a decorative elements, such as the flower on scalloped circle on my card.


The card recipe for this card includes:
Stamp Sets: Sock Monkey, Pun Fun, Family Phrases
Cardstock: Melon Mambo (textured and regular), Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry, Confetti White, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry Stampin' Write, Soft Suede Stampin' Write, Dusty Durango Stampin' Write, Crushed Curry Stampin' Write, Melon Mambo Stampin' Write, VersaMarker
Accessories: Iridescent Ice Stampin' Emboss Powder, Heat Tool, Stampin' Dimensionals, Tombo Mono Adhesive, Chunky Glitter Essentials, Wide Oval Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Scallop Circle Punch, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, 1-3/8" Circle Punch, Sticky Strip

That's it for today. Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

July Stamper's Group Projects

As I mentioned in this post, one focus in our demo magazine was 3D cards. So for our stamper's group this month I decided to try out another type of 3D card - a shadow box card. The idea behind this card is simple, create a shadow box with cardstock and place your scene inside, message on the outside. The trick is to make your scene 3D as well, using dimensionals, etc., to give the shadow box elements depth. I also wanted to showcase the new In Colors so our shadow box was made of Rich Razzleberry, Soft Suede and Melon Mambo textured cardstock.

The great thing about this shadow box is that it fits into a standard A2 card envelope! It is constructed with two pieces of 4 1/4" x 5 1/2" cardstock, each scored at 1/2" and 1" on both ends (cardstock in landscape orientation). The front and back pieces of the cardstock are adhered together using Sticky Strip - just to make sure that the shadow box stays together if it's manipulated a lot by admirers - which it most certainly will! :)

The card recipe for this Forest Friends shadow box card is:

Stamp Sets: Forest Friends, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock:Soft Suede Textured, Rich Razzleberry Textured, Melon Mambo Textured, Melon Mambo, Whisper White
Ink: Soft Suede, Crushed Curry, Basic Grey, Old Olive
Accessories: 1 3/4" Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, Wide Oval Punch, Modern Label Punch, Slit Punch, Crushed Curry 1/2" Grosgrain Ribbon, Soft Subtles Buttons (retired), Vintage Brads, Linen Thread, Paper Piercing Tool, Mat Pack, Stampin Dimensionals, Sticky Strip

Our second card involved lots of brayering and two resist techniques: wax resist and emboss resist. We used the new Animal Stories stamp set and made a jungle-themed birthday card. I especially love the look of wax resist, which involves taking crumpled wax paper and ironing it on glossy cardstock (make sure to use a cloth between your iron and the wax paper so that you don't ruin your iron!). Then brayer over the cardstock with a dark color - we used Chocolate Chip - and wipe off excess ink with a tissue or paper towel. The ink will only adhere to the areas where there is no wax creating a safari looking effect.

For emboss resist, the image is embossed in white on Whisper White cardstock. Then ink is brayered over the cardstock and the embossed image 'resists' being ink, causing it to stand out from a colored background. Much more so than if it was simply embossed on coloured cardstock. We used Crushed Curry only, but you can use more than one color to create neat color gradient effects. The ink doesn't adhere to the embossed image and causes it to pop out. On this image we also sponged chocolate chip around the edges to help the giraffe stand out.

The card recipe for this emboss resist card is:

Stamp Sets: Animal Stories, Family Phrases
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Crushed Curry, Dusty Durango, Whisper White, Glossy White
Ink: Chocolate Chip, Crushed Curry, VersaMark
Accessories: Scallop Oval Punch, Wide Oval Punch, Sponge Daubers, Heat Tool, White Stampin' Emboss Powder, Brayer, 1" Double Stitched Chocolate Chip Ribbon, Wax Paper, Iron

Enjoy and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge - Week 95

Okay, so I know it's Tuesday. But I did make this card on Monday, just didn't get a chance to post it 'til today. Life with two kids sometimes gets in the way of blogging :p Who would've thought? LOL!

It's my second week doing these sketch challenges and I love it! It forces me to think outside 'my' box and use DSP and embellishments in ways I'm not used to. For example, I would've never thought to place elements on my card on an angle like in this week's sketch. Or I wouldn't usually use DSP for my background for fear of making my card too 'busy'. But, I'm quite pleased with what I came up with and although it's busier than what I'm used to, I also think it 'simple' enough to be pretty.

So here's what I came up with, using the retired Sweet Always DSP and 'Merci' stamp set for inspiration.

The card recipe for my Mojo Monday Week 95 Sketch Challenge is:
Stamp Set: Merci (retired)
Cardstock: Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin Pie, Pixie Pink, Whisper White, Sweet Always DSP (retired)
Ink: Close to Cocoa
Accessories: Big Shot, Simple Flower Embosslit, Ice Circle Rhinestone Brads, 1/16" Hole Punch, 1" Double Stitched Chocolate Chip Ribbon, 1/4" Pretty in Pink Grosgrain Ribbon, Dimensionals, Perfect Plum Stampin' Write, Pretty in Pink Stampin' Write, Summer Sun Stampin' Write, Basic Black Stampin' Write

The other thing I love about these sketch challenges is that I have carte blanche to use retired SU! products. Of course I can use them in all my creations, but I much prefer to use current products so that my customers can recreate them if they want. There's nothing worse than a customer falling in love with something and having to tell them it's not available!

I hope you enjoy this week's sketch challenge, it gives you some inspiration as well and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Razzleberry Butterfly

Well, I'm loving this Razzleberry Lemonade DSP. It looks a little crazy in the catalog and I really hesitated purchasing it during our demo preorder. But I took the plunge and I'm SO glad I did!
It is SO much fun, great colours, great patterns and actually rather versatile! In my second last order I also got the Big Shot Beautiful Butterflies die and thought this DSP would be perfect for it! I played a bit and this is what I came up with.

The card recipe for my Razzle Butterfly card includes:
Stamp Set: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry, Melon Mambo (textured), Razzleberry Lemonade DSP
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: Modern Label Punch, Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder, Heat Tool, Big Shot, Bigz Beautiful Butterflies Die, Bigz Top Note Die, Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Button Latte, Glue Dots, Silver Brads

I couldn't stop at just one butterfly though, and wanted to use a flower from my Pretties Kit as well as play with brayering. I brayered Crushed Curry on glossy cardstock, then brayered Rich Razzleberry overtop, without completely covering the Crushed Curry. I then wiped it down with a baby wipe, to remove excess ink and blend it all. In the end, I came up with this Pretties Butterfly card.

The card recipe for my Pretties Butterfly card includes:
Stamp Set: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock: Rich Razzleberry (textured), Crushed Curry, Glossy Cardstock, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, Crushed Curry, Basic Black
Accessories: Big Shot, Beautiful Butterflies Die, Pretties Kit, Crushed Curry Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Glue Dots, Silver Brads, Brayer Eyelet Border Punch, Crystal Effects

These new In Colors are just so bright and so much fun and this DSP just incorporates it all! So go for it, take the plunge with this crazy DSP!
Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Christmas in July!

There's been a lot of talk amongst demonstrators over whether the new In Colours can be used on Christmas cards. There are no reds or greens. But in my opinion, these colours can be used with regular SU! colours to make some great non-traditional Christmas cards. I personally LOVE the new In Colors (they are SO my cup of tea!) so I decided to challenge myself to make two different Christmas cards using them. They're definitely not traditional, pretty unusual (especially the one using the crazy but lovely Razzleberry Lemonade DSP), but I would most certainly love getting one of these in the mail :) I used the new Level II Hostess Set Christmas Punches for these cards. This is such an awesome Christmas set, definitely one other good reason to book a Christmas workshop (in addition to great hostess benefits, lots of fun and a make-and-take!) Contact me today or attend my Champagne Punch Open House to book yours!

Take a look at these crazy Christmas cards and let me know what you think!


The card recipe for my Razzle Chistmas card includes:
Stamp Set: Christmas Punch, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Cardstock: Old Olive, Rich Razzleberry, Razzleberry Lemonade DSP (New!)
Ink: Rich Razzleberry, VersaMark
Accessories: Tag Punch, Modern Label, Eyelet Border Punch, Silver Stampin' Emboss Powder, Heat Tool, Crushed Curry Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin' Dimensionals, Silver Brads, Silver Cord (retired)


The card recipe for my Christmas Punch card includes:
Stamp Set: Christmas Punch
Cardstock: Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry, Bermuda Bay, Whisper White,
Ink: VersaMark
Accessories: Boho Blossoms Punch, Tag Corner Punch, Scallop Oval Punch, Silver and Iridescent Ice Stampin' Emboss Powder, Heat Tool, Big Shot, Stampin' Up! Backgrounds I Texturz Plates, Rich Razzleberry Polka Dot Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin Dimensionals

Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

Mojo Monday Sketch Challenge - Week 94

So I've been getting bored of the same old card designs I've been using. My cousin Patti is always sending me pictures of her fantastic cards with awesome layouts. Lately though, I just don't have the energy to come up with my own. So I decided I'll participate in this weekly challenge. Every Monday the folks at Mojo Monday provide a card sketch and the challenge is to adapt it to your own card. People use all kinds of stamps, cardstock, papers, accessories, etc. since it's not a Stampin' Up! thing. Here is this week's sketch:

So for my first challenge I decided to finally crack open my package Summer Picnic DSP, retired last July! I purchased it and loved it so much that I didn't want to use it. But really, that's just silly. I bought it to use it, and boy did I ever! Lots of DSP and I used my favorite patterns from that set. Here's what I came up with... I clear embossed the oranges using craft ink. I used markers to color the strawberry three different colors and also clear embossed it by stamping over the colored strawberry with VersaMark (using the Stamp-a-ma-jig).


The card recipe for my Mojo94 card includes:
Stamp Set: Tart & Tangy
Cardstock:Real Red, Pumpkin Pie, Old Olive, Whisper White, Summer Picnic DSP (retired)
Ink: Pumpkin Pie (craft), Real Red, Basic Black, Old Olive, VersaMark
Accessories: Scallop Circle Punch, 1 3/8" Circle Punch, 1 1/4" Circle Punch, Clear Stampin' Emboss Powder, Heat Tool, Big Shot, Stampin' Up! Backgrounds I Texturz Plates, Pumpkin Pie 1/4" Grosgrain Ribbon, Stampin Dimensionals

Keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

New Catalog Champagne Punch Party

I'd like to invite you to my New Catalog Champagne Punch Party to be held on July 26th from 2-5 PM. It's 'Open House' style, so come anytime to enjoy

-A FREE make-and-take using new stamp sets, In Colors and accessories
-Door Prizes
-Exclusive specials including FREE 'Jingle All the Way (S)' Decor Element with a $50 purchase or FREE Ink Pad or 'Welcome (S)' Decor Element with every $75 purchase
-Viewing the new Idea Book and Catalog, as well as the new Definitely Decorative Brochure
-Class sign-ups and workshop booking specials
-A chance to purchase my retired stamp sets and some retired accessories
-And of course Champagne Punch and some yummy treats!

Please RSVP at 613-836-8844 or monkeypapercrafts@gmail.com. Can't make it? Give me a call or place your order by e-mail to qualify for these specials and to book your Christmas season workshop! I'm looking forward to seeing you and be sure to bring a friend to book your FREE GIFT!

Stay tuned for more projects using the New In Colors, Stamp Sets and Accessories and keep letting stamps bring out your creativity!

New Catalog! And Happy Birthday Canada!

Today is a big day - not only is it Canada's Birthday, but today the new Stampin' Up! catalog goes live! There are so many exciting new products, stamp sets and accessories in this catalog! And not only that, but there are over 1000 items at $25 and under! How amazing is that!

For the first time, Stampin' Up! has an ALL CANADIAN stamp set! Glorious and Free is now available for only $31.95. Put your Canadian mark on all your projects. For the month of July, Stampin' Up! is also introducing the 'Deal of the Week'. Once a week, a new deal is revealed. This week, save 30% off the Scallop Edge Punch:
This very versatile punch is great for adding a little something to all your projects. But hurry, this deal is only available through July 5th. A new deal will be revealed on July 6th! View all the new items in the catalog in my Online Store and be sure to purchase your punch at 30% off today!

Enjoy browsing the new catalog and Happy Birthday Canada!