Baby due in January – the Mini Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine

 

Get the nursery ready because I have some exciting news!

I’m delighted to announce that the Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine’s baby is due in January 2021. Demonstrators can order this fab little machine from Tuesday so I’ll be popping one onto my pre-order straight away.

Customers can order from 5th January, which happily is during Sale-a-Bration, so can choose a free gift, too!

I have the full-sized Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine and have been really impressed with it. I love that it fits on top of my trolley and that the rolling action is so smooth and easy compared to my old machine. This one is available now, but I urge you NOT to order it from my website. 

Why? Because if you talk to me, I can help you get it cheaper if you choose it as part of your Starter Kit. 

I will definitely be ordering the the Mini version on 1st December because I know that the vast majority of die-cutting I do is small and so the little machine will a be a great space-saver on the desktop. 

  

Here they are side by side, so you can see the difference. If you have the Greenery Embossing Folders, you’ll see they are sized to fit in the Mini perfectly, with its 3.5" (8.9cm) platform. 

If you'd like to get your hands on the Mini early, you can purchase it as part of the Starter Kit from tomorrow, when you can also order from the new Jan-Jun 2021 Mini. I’d love to welcome you into my team and help you get the absolute best value out of your Stampin’ Up!® crafting experience.

If that’s not for you, remember you can start ordering this on 5th January, which is also when the Jan-Jun 2021 Mini Catalogue goes live and Sale-a-Bration begins! Just get in touch via the email address listed on this page, or through my Facebook page.

And please come back tomorrow afternoon for another worldwide blog hop - this time on a winter holiday theme. See you then!

 

Coming Home beach huts

Fancy a bit of respite from relentless Christmas projects? A week or so ago, I challenged my regular customers to create a project inspired by a place they love.

I was making this card anyway and am all for pinning the challenge to the card, rather than the other way round, so decided this was inspired by Findhorn Beach in Scotland.  Here’s a pic I took on a very blustery day there in 2017.

 

The ‘beach huts’ on my project are actually little houses stamped with the Coming Home stamp set and coloured in using Stampin’ Blends. Pool Party, Old Olive, Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral, in case you were wondering. The sand is a mix of Ivory and Daffodil Delight. 

 

I created the sea by tearing some Whale of a Time Designer Series Paper. I only have scraps of this left after using it for lots of classes this summer, so couldn’t resist adding the little fussy-cut turtle. I don't think they get turtles off Findhorn but they are occasional visitors to Scottish waters, so that’s good enough for me.

Get perfectly placed houses by stamping with the Stamparatus. The stamps are designed to work like this. Using the top hinge, stamp one house, move the plate to the right one slot then repeat. Keep going until you have as many houses as you need. 

 

If you’d like to order anything you see here, please visit my store and, if shopping in November 2020, please use the host code RMK743TS. The host code allows me to earn Stampin’ Rewards which I use to order thank you gifts for my online customers.

Starburst Christmas card with Pine Woods Dies

Crafty Friday finally happened! We had to postpone for a week because some of the kits took SO LONG to arrive. In fact we gave up on one of them and my husband drove another one over to the lady's house; inevitably, the first kit arrived in the post the next day! It had taken nine days to arrive.

I’ll only show you one of the cards we made here as the other one was a direct copy of this. 

Yes, we were sponging again and I thought it was a good opportunity to have a go at the Starburst technique. We all began by making our templates. I always take a pretty rough and ready approach to crafting, winging it as I go. One lady, however, measured all her angles using a protractor! It was to be expected, I suppose, as she is a retired maths teacher.

These are the three stages of template making. Others have suggested making these out of window sheets or other acetate but I’m not convinced; I think that would allow ink to pool and make it more likely to smudge and blob.

We sponged on to the Pretty Peacock cardstock in whatever colour ink we had to hand. I had Pretty Peacock, of course (to me, ink pads are like Pokemon; gotta catch ’em all!)  but others achieved good results with Just Jade and the now retired Island Indigo. I really like this colour combination; Pretty Peacock, Just Jade and just a splash of red. 

 

The greeting panel is from the same die set as the sprigs of evergreen; the Beautiful Boughs dies, which was released last year but never goes out of style. 

I ran out of the red ribbon from the All The Trimmings Ribbon Combo Pack which I’d used for the samples as I’d had to donate my prepared kit due to the postal issues. Therefore, during the actual session, I used this gorgeous Just Jade gingham from the Flowers For Every Season Ribbon Combo Pack instead.

These Pine Woods Dies are one of my favourite products ever. Both of these trees have open foliage which pops out but, as you can see, the back one, in Mint Macaron, has retained these pieces. That’s because I was lazy and didn’t clean out the die. But you know what? I like the effect!

 

To get the greeting, from In The Pines, onto two separate lines, you have severa; options. The stamp set is photopolymer, so cutting it up is really easy. But that felt a bit drastic for one card. Another option is to mask each section off using tape or a sticky note, but that is fraught with danger. Instead, I inked and stamped each word separately using a Stampin’ Write Marker, cleaning the stamp very thoroughly in between. 

 

If you’d like to order anything you see here, please visit my store and, if shopping in November 2020, please use the host code RMK743TS. The host code allows me to earn Stampin’ Rewards which I use to order thank you gifts for my online customers.

Merry & Bright Online Extravaganza - 10% off almost everything in the Annual Catalogue

Like discounts? You can save 10% off ALMOST EVERYTHING in the Annual Catalogue for one day only! Starts 11pm on the 23rd November and runs until 10.50pm on the 24th. 

 

There are a few exceptions for supply reasons, so please download the PDF to see what's NOT included. Remember, if it’s in the Annual Catalogue and available, as long as it’s NOT on this list, it should be 10% off. 

 

See the list of exclusions here

Nine ideas for Snowman Season

We are rapidly approaching Christmas – I know, right? This year has been so weird that some days I have to remind myself it’s November.

In preparation for the Big Day, I have been running craft sessions using the Snowman Season stamp set, after taking quick bookings in one day during the Flash Sale. I held three sessions – two short daytime events and a longer Saturday morning. 

Guests signed up for all three sessions, which included the stamp set and instructions so they could make the cards even if they couldn't attend. This is how I send out my kits – packed in plant-based biodegradable cello bags in boxes made from recycled card, held together with paper tape.  Just doing my bit to avoid plastic waste!

These sessions were popular both with the guests and with me; I cannot tell you how much easier it is to design projects when everyone has the same stamp set! Having said that, preparation coincided with my holiday in the Lake District so I inevitably turned to other talented crafters for inspiration.

So in one mega blog post, let’s take a look at the projects we made...

I love this one, which was heavily inspired by Mary Fish. I switched to the Evergreen Forest 3D Embossing Folder because it’s new and I love it. I cut my snowy hills with the Pine Woods Dies, although I expected the guests to cut them freehand. Sorry, ladies!

I coloured the images using ink pad lids and blender pens – my most-used method because I always have both on hand. But what about black? You can’t squeeze the Memento Tuxedo Black ink pad to get ink in the lid, so simply swipe the pad onto a clear block or other shiny surface and pick up your colour from there. Because it’s water-based, it will clean off easily.

Our second project for the first session was this little notecard which we stamped all over in Pool Party. A simple but fun design which I blatantly CASEd from Kim Quade.

The Saturday session saw us tackle five cards, starting with this cute little notecard. To get the shading behind the snowman, we just sponged directly onto the die-cut label (which I’d pre-cut using the Tasteful Labels dies), then the snowman is stamped separately, fussy-cut and popped up on Dimensionals. Yes, even his little twig arms! The sprigs are punched using the Sprig Punch – I wasn’t die-cutting that lot for 10 people, sorry!

More sponging for this card – I’m all about the sponging at the moment, have you noticed? For this one, we cut a snowy hill freehand from scrap paper (you can also tear it for a softer effect) and used it as a mask for sponging. You need a very light tough on the sponging here. The sky is also sponged, working from the corners inwards. 

I love this design, which is an almost direct copy of one by Laura Mackie. We named the snowmen Tom, Dick and Harry so I had a frame of reference when talking the ladies through this project. 

The trick here is to stamp the two right images (Dick and Harry) twice. Stamp them once on the background, along with Tom’s twig arms. Then trace the ground onto some scrap paper, cut this out and use as a mask for sponging the Pool Party. (My sponging is a little rough because I made this one on holiday and didn’t have my sponges with me so compromised using a tissue!)

Next stamp all three snowmen onto some Whisper White cardstock and cut them out. This means you can cut off those fiddly twig arms as they will be there on the background for you. Then you can add all the cut-out images to the card base, popping up for some dimension.

Another blatant copy here, this time of a project by Karina Chin. The only change I think I made was to use Feels Like Frost Designer Series Paper, which is SO versatile because of its white and silver side. This means you can sponge or brayer it in any colour to match your project. 

Just to mix things up a little, we made a snowman-free card simply by stamping and sponging onto some Whisper White cardstock and cutting it into three equal strips. Want to make this one quicker and easier? Use Designer Series Paper and a punched greeting label instead – you’ll have a batch of Christmas cards in no time!

 

This is one of my favourite cards of the sessions, with this cheery little snowman who looks like he’s practising his yoga and saluting the sun. Not a wise move for a snowman, if you ask me. To get an even flag, you can use one side of the Tailored Tag Punch, which I did here. 

Our final project was this snow globe-inspired card. I took inspiration from Bonnie O’Neill but changed things up a little as it seemed a shame not to use my Snow Globe Scenes dies. Working on the theory that if you’ve got it, use it, I mounted this onto a scalloped circle from the Layering Circles Dies, too. Cutting round the greeting freehand gives you an interesting shape – and it’s really easy to do, too.

I hope you’ve been inspired by these Snowman Season projects, many of which can be adapted to other images, too. 

If you’d like to order anything you see here, please visit my store and, if shopping in November 2020, please use the host code RMK743TS. The host code allows me to earn Stampin’ Rewards which I use to order thank you gifts for my online customers.

More In The Pines inspiration

As you may have gathered if you're a frequent visitor to All Things Stampy, I’m a BIG fan of trees. So the forest-inspired imagery of the In the Pines Bundle made it an absolute must for me.

As I showed on Monday, this set isn’t just for Christmas. It’s perfect for masculine cards, sympathy cards, birthday cards, congratulations cards, ‘just because’ cards and yes, Christmas too.

Take a look at these fabulous samples create by Stampin’ Up!®'s own artists and see if you’re inspired to head into the pines. 

 

 

 

For the ‘fabulous’ card at the top left, the background colours are created with sponge daubers. The images are stamped and then cut out with the ‘snowy hill’ dies from the bundle.

 

To create the starry/snowy sky on the ‘Life is better with you’ card, use a paintbrush or water painter to dilute Whisper White craft ink and spatter over the base. I love this technique! 

For the ‘Season’s greetings’ card, there are some serious techniques going on. The trees are stamped with the solid tree stamp and cut with the open die. Then the outline tree is stamped and embossed with white, watercoloured with Mint Macaron and cut out with the detail peek-through tree die. Clear embossing powder is used over the white craft “snow” in the background so it does not smudge.

 

Want to make these two fun projects? Please click here to see and download a free tutorial over on my website. I have converted it to A4 measurements. 

 

In the Pines stamped onto DSP

In The Pines is not just for Christmas! I used it recently to make a batch of cards for a variety of occasions.

The small cards are to thank customers who ordered from me at a party I held for a long-time customer, Mandy. Mandy has stuck with me for many years, for which I’m truly grateful. 

So how did I make them? The small cards are simply a standard card base cut in half. I stamped them using the Stamparatus for speed and accuracy, in Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight ink. The “Thanks” comes from Waterfront – a must-have set which has been around a few years but remains as versatile and useful as ever – and the gorgeous Misty Moonlight twine is from the Flowers for Every Season Combo Pack.

The spattering is done with a paintbrush. I wet the brush and then picked up some Balmy Blue ink from the ink pad lid, then tapped the brush on top to spatter the ink across the project. Very simple but very effective.

For the standard-sized cards, I stamped directly on to In Good Taste Designer Series Paper, which gives the card a look of texture without the bulk. Then I stamped as before, with larger stamps, using the Stamparatus and the same colours. I used various greetings; some from Beautiful Autumn and the congratulations sentiment is from Beautiful Friendship. 

The BIG celebration was my downline Sue, who celebrated her 10th anniversary as a Stampin' Up!® demonstrator. This is an amazing achievement but of course, she wouldn't have stuck around if it hadn’t been so much fun! 

On these cards, I spattered ink in both colours; Balmy Blue and Misty Moonlight. The water dilutes the colour for a soft effect.

I really enjoyed making these projects and it made a change from Christmas cards! I love how the trees look in blue and it just shows how In The Pines – which at appears at first glance to be a Christmas stamp set – offers so many more possibilities.

If you’d like to order this set – or anything else – please follow the link below and use the November 2020 host code RMK743TS if you’re spending less than £150. If you’re spending more than £150, please talk to me first and I will help you get the best value. 

 

Masculine Blog Hop - Starburst technique

Welcome to another blog hop, this time on a masculine theme. Thank you for dropping by to see what I’ve made – and I hope you enjoy travelling around the world from the comfort and safety of your own home, as you explore some fabulous masculine projects from Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators. 

Masculine cards seem to cause people a lot of bother, particularly those who favour floral designs with lots of embellishments and bling. Fortunately, this theme plays into my hands as I’m not big on bling and fuss! But if you struggle to make masculine cards, remember: men are people, too. They like many of the same things that we do – scenery, cake, trees and animals!

I’ve gone with the animal theme for my cards. Both my husband and son love foxes – in fact, my son put “fox” on his Christmas list every year until he was about 14. When I mentioned this last year (he’s now 20) he said he still wanted one and had only stopped asked for it because he new it wouldn’t happen.

So what better than the handsome fox from Nature’s Beauty for my projects? I made two cards with ever so slightly different colours – which do you prefer?

I think this might be the first time I’ve ever created a starburst background but it definitely won’t be the last as it was a lot of fun. 

To do this, start with a piece of scrap paper or cardstock the same size or slightly larger than your card front.

Draw a circle where you want your main element to be and mark the centre of the circle with a dot. Then using a ruler, simply draw straight lines through the circle, through the dot, to create a starburst design like this one. Make sure you draw an even number of lines.

Mark every other section with a dot or shading. Then carefully cut these marked sections away. You'll end up with a mask that looks like this.

I applied a very thin layer of Tombow Multi-purpose adhesive to the back of my mask and allowed it to dry thoroughly. This made it repositionable but mean it didn't move around for the next stage which is... brayering! Yay! Well, you can sponge instead if you prefer. If you do prefer to sponge, make sure you start in the centre and swipe outwards away from the circle, so you don’t crease the mask. 

 

 

My first card was sponged in Sahara Sand onto Very Vanilla. The second is sponged in Sahara Sand and a hint of Soft Suede onto Sahara Sand cardstock. 

  

On top of this I added a die-cut circle from the Tasteful Labels dies (which meant I didn't actually need to mask the centre circle but it holds it all together), stamped with a greeting from Zoo Globe. Then all I needed to do was add my fox and some cut-out leaves from Beautiful Autumn.

I hope you like my masculine cards – for more masculine inspiration, please hop around the world and see what other Stampin’ Up!® demonstrators have created.