Are you in need of a birthday card for a musician? Or someone who loves music? The new Stampin’ Up! set Music from the Heart is perfect for creating music themed cards.
When I saw this set in the new January-June Mini Catalogue, I knew I would be buying it! Music is a big part of my life, so I knew I could come up with a few ways to use it. I also loved that the music notation is accurate…LOL.
For this card, I used my Stamparatus to be sure that the music staff lines were straight. I stamped the treble clef and the notes by hand – in part because I had to use the one note more than once. If you can read music, you will (hopefully!) recognize that I stamped out the first line of the Happy Birthday song. I figured that the hearts on the treble clef and last note would provide a bit of symmetry. I added in the piano image at the bottom just for a little extra design element. You could easily bling this cardfront up with rhinestones to make it even more flashy!
This stamp set will also be perfect for music-themed scrapbook pages. Given that I’ve committed to getting a bit more serious about memory keeping (read “I will actually make scrapbook pages rather than just think about making them…”) I am sure that this set will get a workout for at least a couple of pages for me.
Are you more of a scrapbooker or a cardmaker? While I’m not abandoning my cardmaking efforts, I will be making more of an effort in the scrapbooking area. I will post some of my pages on the various YamStamps outlets – here on the YamStamps site and on the Facebook Page. I am thinking of doing some more creative challenges in the Paper Crafting with YamStamps Facebook Group – is that something of interest to you? Please join us in the group and we’ll be getting that starting in the next little while.
In the meantime, I’ve now got a design for a birthday card for a musician…but there’s also need for a thank you card, just because card, encouragement card… It’s not just that I’m avoiding the snow removal outside, really! Stay warm everyone!
Stampin’ Up!’s Holiday Catalogue has a lot of great products for the holiday season – and I love being able to use them for something other than holidays! This starry birthday card is an example of using a holiday catalogue product for another occasion. (OK, maybe not too much of a stretch there, but still an alternative).
Like many of Stampin’ Up!’s “stitched” dies, there is a stitching mark on the outside and the inside of the cutting line for the Stitched Stars dies – so both the positive and negative die cuts have that detail. For this card, the stars were cut from the Whisper White cardstock and then set aside (to be used on another project at some point in time!). The cardstock was then adhered to some Designer Series Paper – in this case, Bird Ballad, and then onto the cardfront. We just used a single piece of paper, but if you wanted to be really tricky, you could either die cut the stars from the Designer Series Paper and then place them in the negative spaces of the cardstock, or cut squares/circles from the DSP and place them behind the negative spaces. In either case, you could vary up the pattern direction if you desired. However, you may know that I sometimes refer to myself as “The Lazy Crafter” (trademark pending LOL), so the single sheet of Designer Series Paper was the way to go for my starry birthday card design. This card design could be used for so many different occasions by changing out the sentiment and switching the backing papers. Easy peasy!
The sentiment is from the Perennial Birthday stamp set, and a little rhinestone bling goes a long way to make a card more special. The backing cardstock (and ink) are Calypso Coral, which is one of the colours in the paper’s design. (Lazy crafter – why think too much?).
This starry birthday card was one of the featured projects during September card classes. Tomorrow is the September Christmas Card Class – using some of the elegant Brightly Gleaming Foil Elements. At the time of writing this post, there were a couple of openings left – so if you are free at either 1pm or 7pm, contact me ASAP if you’d like to join us! Class fee of $30 covers all supplies, including a full package of the elements. Next month we’ll be using the Holiday Rhinestones for our projects – and class is filling quickly. Check the YamStamps Events page for all the upcoming events, and contact me if you have any questions or for registration! Thanks for stopping by the blog today.
Piece of Cake Handmade Card! It refers to the stamp set as well as the process to make the card! The Piece of Cake stamp set (and coordinating Cake Builder punch) are NOT retiring – BUT the discounted bundle will not be available beyond June 3 – so why not get them together for a deal while you can?!
This was a recent class card – and we used the Stamparatus to make sure the images lined up perfectly – so this Piece of Cake Handmade Card really was a piece of cake to create! The images were stamped in Tuxedo Black Memento Ink, and then simply coloured with Stampin’ Blends. We only used one shade of each of the inks but you can still get a bit of shading and depth by colouring over a section again to enhance and deepen the tone. (main colours: (dark) Balmy Blue, (dark) Highland Heather and (light) Smoky Slate for the cake stand). I love the way that these alcohol based markers don’t leave “streaks” where you’ve coloured and gives a very solid look to the image.
Cardstock is Gorgeous Grape, combined with a few little strips of the How Sweet It Is Designer Series Paper. That paper was part of the Designer Series Paper share that I did for the Occasions Catalogue – and I will be offering a share for the Annual Catalogue as well – so stay tuned for details! Paper shares are a great way to get a sampling of everything – you have enough to use on a few projects, and you can also decide if you want to get full packages of your favourites. Sometimes you need to see the paper and designs in person to get the full effect!
In the meantime, please remember that retiring products are available while supplies last / until June 3 – so please don’t hesitate if you really want to get something that’s marked as retiring – especially if it’s anything but a stamp set!! Stampin’ Up! has a bit more immediate ability to react to demand with stamp sets since they make them in house so those rarely will sell out before the end of the catalogue period (but again, no guarantees!). Any questions, concerns, or assistance needed placing an order – as always – please contact me!
Final note – Wednesday is May 1st – yay, May! It’s also MONTHLY CARD CLASS DAY – the first Wednesday of the month – a bit of a shock when the first day of the month and the first Wednesday are the same day! Please contact me ASAP if you want to attend at 1pm or 7pm!! Space is limited. Check the YamStamps Events page to see all upcoming dates – including the special date for the June Monthly Card Class! Hope to see you in a class soon!
Let Them Eat Cake! OK so I know I’m not using that quote in the correct context, but it talks about cake so that’s good enough for me. Check out this Birthday Cake Card, made with Stampin’ Up!’s Cake Builder Punch which is available for ordering once again!
Today’s Sunday Swap Share is this Birthday Cake Card from Karina Chin – who used the Piece of Cake Bundle on her card. The discounted bundle includes the Piece of Cake Photopolymer (clear/see through) stamp set and the Cake Builder Punch, which is once again in stock and available to order….though I notice it says “Low Inventory” which means it may go on backorder – so if you’d like it and need it now, please don’t hesitate to order it! In the background, the Scattered Sequins Embossing Folder was used to add texture. This folder is available for purchase, or as a Level 1 Sale-a-Bration reward choice with a $60 product order. (please note that there are different item numbers, depending on if you’re purchasing or getting as a Sale-a-Bration item).
There is more good news – Stampin’ Up! has let us know that the Cake Builder Punch (AND the Butterfly Duet Punch – hopefully available to order again in the next couple of weeks) will be available beyond the Occasions Catalogue! I don’t know if the BUNDLES will be carried over, though, so if you’d like to get the stamp set and punch together at a discounted price, you’ll want to be sure to grab the bundle before June 3/while supplies last/once orderable. You can contact me if you have any questions or need assistance placing your order.
One week today I’ll be completing my leg of the Around the Bay Relay Race! This is the second time I’m doing the 2 person relay (15km each) – which I told myself would be so much easier than the bunch of times I did the full race….but at this point in time, I’m not so sure about that! It’s been a tough winter for training for sure – but I’m glad to be able to get out there. Wish me luck… (and I will definitely be saying “Let ME Eat Cake!” afterwards!!!)
This is a perfect card for a Manic Monday – easy but impressive (though that’s the goal for most of my crafting any day of the week….). This Metallic Foil Birthday Card features one of the Grapefruit Grove Foil Sheets which comes paired with Lovely Lipstick Foil Sheets as a Sale-a-Bration Level 1 package! You get four sheets of each, so eight sheets total for plenty of crafting opportunities!
For this Metallic Foil Birthday Card, I used the Grapefruit Grove Foil which has an iridescent sheen to it – so it’s good for a gender neutral kind of card! Here it’s embossed with the Scattered Sequins Dynamic Embossing Folder, and the sentiment is from the Happy Birthday Gorgeous stamp set. I usually like to use circles for sentiments or images if I can because they’re very forgiving – you don’t have to worry about whether the image is totally straight – and in this case, I wanted to mount the sentiment on an angle to make it a bit more interesting, so it’s easy to do if there aren’t any straight lines or corners I need to worry about! Just a few steps and this card is done. Of course, I used my thrifty trick of cutting the backing circle from the backing layer of cardstock for the foil sheet – since noone will see the hole there anyway!
Just a reminder that for each $60 CAD in product that you order, you earn a Level 1 Sale-a-Bration reward (like the foil sheet package used to make the Metallic Foil Birthday Card) – and $120 CAD product order means you can pick either a Level 2 reward or TWO Level 1 rewards! Coming on Friday, February 15 – more options! A new set of rewards to tempt you through to the end of Sale-a-Bration, March 31st. I’ll be sure to post a link to the catalogue here on the YamStamps site on Friday.
Of course, the Demonstrator Starter Kit special is still going strong – $225 worth of product of your choice for just $135 – or you could add in an exclusive Craft & Carry Tote Bag for a total kit price of $175. Provincial sales tax ONLY applies – so if you’re in a province with a blended tax, there is NO tax, and FREE shipping. You can check out this page of FAQ (shortcut is yamstamps.com/join) or contact me if you want more information about joining my “Eh” Team of stampers! I’d love to have you join our group!
Hey cupcake!Send a sweet greeting to a friend using Stampin’ Up!’s Hello Cupcake photopolymer stamp set. This is a Level 1 Sale-a-Bration reward that you can select for free with a product purchase of $60 CAD.
It’s Sunday, so that means a Sunday Swap Share – like this card created by Megan Munro. (Check out the YamStamps Facebook Page, where I’ll be posting a different cupcake card idea!). Apparently there’s also some sort of a sporting event happening today, but since it’s not the Olympics, I’m not really keeping track…
It’s such a fun card! Love the Glitter Enamel Dots accents. Also – true confessions – I can’t figure out what paper or set she used as the background paper, so if you can, let me know…LOL. **EDITED TO ADD: Thanks Linda Snyder! She was diligent and actually contacted Megan (haha why didn’t I think of that?!) and Megan kindly responded and let us know that she used the stamp “Wood Words” (available in red rubber clear mount or red rubber wood mount) to create the background!!**
One thing to notice on this card and the one I’m sharing on Facebook – both creators took the time to “fussy cut” the icing image. If you know me, that will often knock a card out of “I’m going to copy this card” contention. HOWEVER – starting in March, Stampin’ Up! will be featuring some limited time items that coordinate with Sale-a-Bration products – including FRAMELITS for the Hello Cupcake set!! So hey cupcake, guess what card is now back in the “copy” category for me?! These items will be available for purchase as of March 1 – and I will definitely post more information closer to that time.
In the meantime, I’ll try to stay focused while I’m waiting for my product preorder to arrive! One of the fun aspects of being a demonstrator is that we can preorder upcoming products ahead of their general release. This is in order to give us a chance to come up with some fun samples and prep to use them in clubs and classes (or just to have fun playing with the product ourselves….LOL).
If you’re interested in hearing more about becoming a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator with my group, you can RSVP for my free Information Evening! The next one will be held Thursday, February 7 at 7pm. You’ll find out more about what’s involved and how I can help you run your business in a way that works for you. If you can’t make that time, contact me to set up a different time to meet up, or check out my FAQ page here.
Oh – and hey cupcake, don’t forget to visit the YamStamps Facebook page to see another cupcake card sample! Happy Superbowl Sunday 🙂
