Find ideas, instructions and materials used to make a variety of paper-craft projects using Stampin' Up! products. As an independent Stampin' Up! demonstrator in New Zealand I love to share my passion for creating things with paper including cards, boxes, gifts and decorations. I find that making things is a fun and relaxing past-time which relieves stress and gives me a purpose to be active every day. If you have any questions or want to learn more about Stampin' Up! feel free to contact me.
My latest Mailbag Make has been created using the Best Dressed designer series paper with some mini cards and envelopes. The supplies in this kit allow you to make two little 3-1/4" square booklets which you can use as a mini photo album, journal, or special gift.
The front of two booklets and one side of the Best Dressed DSP.
You get six mini cards with envelopes, pre-cut cardstock, and 12 square pieces of Best Dressed double-sided paper so you'll have a huge choice of colours and designs to decorate your books.
The back of two little booklets and the reverse side of the Best Dressed DSP.
You will also get a link to my private instructional video in which I show you how to make the booklets and explain how you can decorate them by fussy cutting some of the designer series paper. If you'd like to stamp your books, as I have done in my sample, you may like to purchase the Dressed To Impressstamp set.
There are enough supplies with this kit so you can make two little booklets with pages made from the mini cards and envelopes.
The first six pages of the booklets made from cards and envelopes and decorated with stamps and fussy cut images.
You can stamp on the pages with your own stamps and ink or attach your favourite photos to them.
The last six pages of the mini booklets decorated with fussy cut images from the designer series paper.
The envelopes pages make small pockets which are perfect for hiding little surprise messages!
The inside of my original booklet with stamped and die cut images as well as some fussy cut paper.
If you don't have any stamps you can write on the pages or just decorate them with images from the designer series paper.
If you want, you could make some mini cards instead of two booklets as you'll have plenty of supplies at hand with this Best Dressed Mailbag Make kit. Just add adhesives and some scissors!
Have a look at my Sneak Peek Video to see what's included in the Mailbag Make and to learn how to order yours!
I must admit that I am a hoarder, but not in a bad way. I only hold on to things that I know I will use in the near future. For example, when I cut my card mats to size there is always a little sliver of paper left over and I keep all those little pieces in a scrap paper drawer so I can use them on future projects.
Sometimes they are useful for stamping sentiments for the fronts of my cards and some pieces are just big enough for a little die cutting. However I end up with lots of straight strips of paper which are great for making backgrounds on cards.
I made a video to show how to use the little strips in three different ways on card fronts.
The first card I created by gluing a variety of coloured strips on to a thin piece of Whisper White cardstock. I used the coloured piece as a background to stamp an image of birds from the Free As a Bird stamp set in Gray Granite ink. I then embellished the front with Mossy Meadow Twine and a sentiment stamped on a scrap of Balmy Blue cardstock.
For the second card I used scrap strips of Come Sail Away designer series paper. I stamped a piece of Sahara Sand cardstock with a sentiment from the Peaceful Moments stamp set in Mossy Meadow ink on a diagonal. I glued the dsp strips on the same angle, leaving a little gap between each piece so the Sahara Sand cardstock could be seen. I then added a little anchor from the Sail Away Trinkets with some Night of Navy/Sahara Sand Baker’s Twine.
I attached this to the front of a Night of Navy card base and use another piece of Sahara Sand cardstock on the inside which I stamped with some images from the Sailing Home stamp set in Night of Navy and Sahara Sand ink.
The final card I made with only two colours -- black and white. I wove the scrap pieces together to make a background mat which I cut with the second largest Stitched Rectangles die. You can learn how to weave paper by watching my video.
I glued the woven die cut piece on to some Real Red cardstock I had put embossed with the Subtle 3D folder. I stamped the field of poppies image from the Painted Poppies stamp set on to a scrap piece of thick Whisper White cardstock using Tuxedo Black Memento ink and coloured them with Real Red Blends.I finished off the front with some Real Red ribbon, rhinestones and words cut with the Well Written dies. This was all attached to a Basic Black card base.
For the inside I used some more images from the Painted Poppies stamp set in Memento Black and Real Red ink on Whisper White cardstock.
I hope my three cards have inspired you to keep those scrap pieces of paper to make your own unique cards!
Now that things are slowly moving towards a 'new normal' I am gearing up to have crafting classes in my home again. To protect my students as well as myself, I decided we should all wear face masks while crafting in close proximity.
I looked online to learn how to make homemade face masks and once I found a design I liked, which I could easily make with materials I have here at home, I got started on sewing the masks. However, being a creative person I had to decorate them as well!
I started with a 5" x 9" (12.5 cm x 22.5 cm) rectangle piece of material which was not porous and had a flat surface so I could stamp on it. I marked 2" (5 cm) in from each corner and connected the marks with a diagonal line which I then cut off as shown in my video.
I folded down each long side 1.5" (3.8 cm) and ironed it in place, making a crease. I then folded over each short end twice to make a sleeve for the ribbon and sewed it in place. Next I folded back the long sides and placed a few small stitches on an angle to make a pleat which created a 3-D effect. You could even colour the image in with permanent pen like Stampin' Blends to make it prettier.
To finish up I pulled the ribbon through each sleeve, leaving a loop on the bottom of the face mask. After placing a bead on the ends of the ribbon I was able to secure them with a double knot. To wear the face mask, place the loop over your head and around the back of your neck. Tie the ribbon into a bow on the top of your head to hold the mask in place.
I hope you are able to follow my instructions and will make your own face mask to stay safe and healthy. Don't forget to decorate it with your favourite rubber stamp!
Stampin' Up! has created a Covid-19 Giveback PDF with some great sentiments and images relevant to the world's current situation. You can purchase this PDF file online for $12 USD and then you can print and use the them as many times as you'd like. All the money raised from the sale of this downloadable file goes to two charities which are helping with the current pandemic: The World Health Organization’s COVID-Solidarity Response Fund and United Way Worldwide’s COVID-19 Community Response and Recovery Fund.
Some of the Covid-19 Giveback Sentiments
I printed some of the images from the PDF and cut them out using dies, punches and my paper snips. Originally I planned on using the Double Wonder technique to make a few simple cards which I would just place the sentiments on top of . . . but I got a bit carried away and made 44 cards!
I hope you like what I've made and I apologise for the bad photography -- the sunshine wouldn't cooperate with me!
You can see close ups of these cards in my YouTube video.
In my video I also show you all the sentiments and images you will get when you purchase the Covid-19 Giveback PDF. I rarely throw anything out so I have a large stash of bits and pieces from old projects which I used to make cheerful cards to #ShareSunshinewith strangers. I am going to drop them in to mailboxes on my walk down the hill here in Tuakau.
A few of the backgrounds are from very old 'attempts' at cards using embossing folders and inks.
Some of the embellishments and embossing folders are no longer available but they worked well with the images I printed.
The 'Quaran-tini' cards are for my family in the USA!
Stampin' Up! punches are well made and heavy compared to other companies but that is only one of the many features of these fabulous products. There is so much to say about these punches that I have made three short videos to explain everything and I have included them throughout this blog post.
My Stampin' Up! Punches Stacked
All the punches have a locking mechanism which allows them to be locked in the closed position for easy transportation and storage. You simply slide the dark grey lock towards the punch hole to unlock, which allows it to open up for use. To lock the punch, just hold it closed and slide the grey plastic towards the front of the punch. This keeps it flat so you can store the punch stacked on a shelf or in a drawer.
The shapes and sizes of some punches -- the two on the far left are unlocked and the rest are locked and stacked.
The image on the top of each punch shows the actual size of the item that will be created when you use the punch. The front, angled edge of the punch has a small picture of the image as well, so you can easily find the punch when they are stacked.
When I first get a new punch I use it on some cardstock so I can test how it works. I am then left with a template which is very useful when designing my projects.
Punch templates are handy when designing a project as you can use them to choose the correct size for your sentiments.
I can place the template over my cardstock to see how the image will fit my project. I can also use the templates to determine which size label punch will fit the sentiments I want to use.
Some cards and papercraft projects with the punches I used to make them.
The templates are also very useful when using a punch that has more than one image. Place the stamps on top of the cutout sections of the template (the negative space) to arrange them so they will perfectly fit in the punch after you have stamped the cardstock.
I show you how to do this with the Hot Air Balloon punch in this video.
Stampin' Up! punches are strong and durable but sometimes they do get dull with a lot of use. You can sharpen them easily by punching some aluminium as shown in my next video.
You can use the image you have leftover after sharpening to make some interesting projects. Here I have made some flowers with the daisy and leaf punches. I just attached the metal images to some green wire and gently shaped the flowers with a bone folder and my fingers.
Some little metal flowers and leaves made from aluminium cans, wire and buttons.
I hope you've learnt some things about using punches from this post and my videos. Punches are great tools for enhancing your cards and to complement your projects!
