"You Had Me at Crumb Cake!" Masculine Valentine

Last week, I was creating a new Pinterest board based on Masculine Valentines, and I realized I needed a few more of them of my own to pin on my board. Masculine styled cards seem to be more difficult for some people to design, so those pins tend to be popular. And I love to design masculine themed cards - perfect match! I drew from a few sources for this one.

My biggest source was from the Heartfelt Bundle in the 2020 Jan/Jun Mini Catalogue, but I also used a sentiment from Geared Up Garage in the Annual Catalogue and the Braided Burlap Trim and Coastal Weave 3D Embossing Folder from the Jan/Jun Mini.

Texture and colour are also really important in a masculine card so I drew heavily on Crumb Cake and Copper with just a pop of Real Red and a hint of Basic Black. Here's the card:

• The basic palette of the card is Crumb Cake, Copper, Very Vanilla and Real Red, but the Crumb Cake really defines the masculine look. The sentiment is stamped on the card base at the start.
• I embossed the Happy Valentine's Day sentiment from the Heartfelt stamp set on Very Vanilla using Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder and punched it out with the Heart Punch pack. I also punched a scallop heart out of Copper Foil Sheet using the same punch pack.
• The punch pack also punched a Crumb Cake heart and Real Red Scallop Heart. The Soft Suede heart was cut free-hand.
• The arrow was stamped using the image from the Heartfelt stamp set and fussy cut.
• A Very Vanilla panel was embossed with the Coastal Weave 3D Embossing Folder. It was placed over the Copper Panel that the scallop heart was punched from. You can't see the hole as it is covered by the Very Vanilla panel.  
• The Braided Burlap Trim is added then everything else is added as shown, using glue dots or Stampin' Dimensionals.   

I have another 1 Day Craft Crop to Aid Refugees coming up this spring. It will be held on Saturday March 14th from 9 am to 9 pm in the beautiful, natural light-filled lobby of Emmanuel Church, 2600 Hebert Road, West Kelowna, BC. Here's the official word: 

The Refugee Care Collective at Emmanuel Church in West Kelowna is hosting a One Day Crafting Retreat /Crop in our bright, spacious lobby on Saturday, March 14, 2020 from 9 am - 9 pm. The $65 fee will get you lunch and dinner prepared in our kitchen, lots of natural light, room for your equipment, a fabulous goody bag, door prizes, make and takes, challenges, and use of my equipment and stamp collection. But the best part is 12 hours free of housework, kids, responsibilities with nothing to do but craft and visit and eat! All proceeds after costs, and all profits from any orders taken through Stampin' Up! will be donated to the Okanagan Syrian Sponsorship Circle, as we raise the money to bring the family of the Syrian refugees we previously supported to Canada.  Come out and have a great time crafting, but also support a wonderful cause and do something to help relieve some of the suffering in our world.

Here are some photos from one of the last times we did this:

                                                                                                                                  

Here's where you can register: Hit submit when you've filled it out and I will get it. You will need to pay the registration fee to secure your spot. Directions are at the bottom of the form.

More Birthday Cards for Grandsons

It's going to be a quick post today with a couple of custom cards to share that I made for two of my grandsons who have birthdays in June. As I may have mentioned, June is a busy month for birthdays in my family, but these are the last two, Kesten and Wyatt!

Kesten will be seven years old and has always been into Lego. He also enjoys the Lego Movies, especially the Jurassic Park versions. I thought that might be an easy thing to recreate in punch art. I thought wrong. It turns out that Lego people are deceptively hard to make with punch art. This was the photo I was trying to replicate:

And here's how it turned out (simplified version):

I'm not listing punches and instructions, because it took me hours and I can't remember them all, and, furthermore, I don't recommend that you even try, because I would never attempt it again, I don't think, unless someone paid me a lot of money or I had a lot of wine to drink!!! The basics were the 1/2 circle, the word window, the fox builder for hair and dino tail, and the story label for the dino 

legs. Oh, and the owl builder!

The second card was for Wyatt.

Wyatt is turning six and right now is obsessed with Back to the Future! He wants a Back to the Future Lego set for his birthday! I was a little easier on myself with his card, but not much.

I used my sponge brayer to create the flaming look of the letters, but I started out by doing it wrong. (Always look at the picture first, folks, instead of trusting your memory.) I had it all sponged and all the letters die cut and was arranging them on the card front before I realized that the gradation should go from top to bottom or vice versa on all the letters, not from left to right one letter at a time. So I had to start over! I used the car from the Geared Up Garage stamp set, stamped in StazOn Ink on the retired Galvanized Paper (from the 2018 Holiday Catalogue) to make the DeLorean time traveling car from the movie and the sea weed die from the new Smooth Sailing die set makes great flames if you trim it down a bit.

The background Designer Series Paper is from the See a Silhouette series.

Anyway, hope the boys both enjoy their cards and their birthdays! They are both getting older so quickly! I feel like I'm missing so much of it! Wish they both lived closer! Happy Stampin'!

Mr. Santa's Steampunk Birthday Card and Stampin' Storage Starts Today!

My hubby is my willing Stampin' Up! product delivery man. In fact, my local customers love to see him coming up to their doors carrying their orders so much, that some have started calling him Mr. Santa and even Mr. Stampin' Up! Well, Mr. Santa had a birthday a while ago, and I was very excited to be able to use the Geared Up Garage product suite to make my best steampunk-type birthday card for him. I die cut, I embossed - both ways, I stamped, I sponged and generally had a great time and here's what came out of that flurry of creative activity:

• I altered the Classic Garage Designer Series Paper I chose by stamping the grease spot from the Geared Up Garage stamp set on it in both Basic Gray and stamped off Soft Suede ink. Then I added the All Geared Up to Celebrate sentiment all over the perimeters of the page in Basic Gray ink. It gives it a moodier look.
• I used some Copper Foil Sheet and ran it through the Big Shot with the Corrugated Dynamic Embossing Folder. I couldn't spritz the paper because it was foil, but it didn't handle the dynamic embossing process very well either, cracking in several places along the ribs of the corrugations. To hold it together, I ran strips of Tear & Tape across the ribs on the backside and that not only held it together well, but provided adhesive to add it to the card front.
• The gears are copper foil as well as Smoky Slate cardstock heat embossed with Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder and sponged with Soft Suede ink.
• The sentiment is on a strip of Sahara Sand, again heat embossed using Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder and sponged with Soft Suede ink. 
• The three narrow ribbons on the left are: Copper Trim, Black/Silver Striped Metallic Ribbon and Braided Linen Trim. 
• There's even a couple of pieces of vellum in their, die cut using one of the Garage Gears Thinlits.

And now for the exciting news today! Stampin' Storage is now available for you to buy! Orders will be going in this week so give me a call or go to my On-Line Store to place your own!! How great is all this modular storage! Buy a little, or buy a lot - it does what you want it to do! And the prices are so reasonable!

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Geared Up Garage Cling Stamp Set [148590] $29.00	Geared Up Garage Cling Bundle [150610] $66.50	Classic Garage 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [148482] $15.00	Copper Foil Sheets [142020] $5.50	Vellum 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [101856] $12.25
Early Espresso 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [119686] $11.50	Sahara Sand 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [121043] $11.50	Smoky Slate 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [131202] $11.50	Versamark Pad [102283] $12.25	Soft Suede Classic Stampin' Pad [147115] $10.25
Basic Gray Classic Stampin' Pad [149165] $10.25	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad [147113] $10.25	Copper Stampin' Emboss Powder [141636] $6.75	1/4" Copper Trim [144179] $8.25	Black/Silver 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Striped Metallic Ribbon [148486] $9.50
3/16" (1 Cm) Braided Linen Trim [147808] $9.50	Heat Tool [129053] $41.00	Embossing Buddy [103083] $8.25	Stamping Sponges [141337] $4.75	Garage Gears Thinlits Dies [148521] $45.00
Corrugated Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder [148026] $14.00	Big Shot [143263] $150.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.50	Glue Dots [103683] $7.25	Stampin' Dimensionals [104430] $5.50

Geared Up Garage Jump Starts Your Heart

I needed a masculine valentine card for my Technique night class, and my By the Bay one was a little to time consuming for the purpose, so I went to Pinterest for some ideas. I found a couple by France Martin that I just loved, where she embossed the gears, rather than die cut them, but, alas, I didn't order the "Meant to Be" Bundle and had no heart shapes for die cutting, so I needed Plan B. I decided to keep the gears though, die cut using the Garage Gears Thinlits Dies, and use Cherry Cobbler, stamped with the "grease spot" stamp from Geared Up Garage Cling Stamp Set in Smoky Slate for that textured look in the background, and add a panel of  Classic Garage DSP.

I love the look of the silver foil on the deep Cherry Cobbler and Basic Gray paper. It's so striking don't you think? I added a strip of Black/Silver 1/4" Striped Metallic Ribbon and then die cut the Auto Logo shape out of the silver foil as well and stamped the great sentiment in Cherry Cobbler and used the same die to die cut it as well. I placed the silver middle piece back in by using a strip of Tear & Tape across the back to hold it in place and glued the Whisper White piece with the sentiment on top of it. The whole logo/sentiment piece was added using Mini Dimensionals. The final touch was Heart Epoxy Droplets coloured using the Dark Cherry Cobbler Stampin' Blends Marker.

On Feb. 15, the second wave of Sale-A-Bration Rewards will be available for you to earn, along with all the previous rewards, minus what has been sold out already. There are some beautiful additions:

The Painted Seasons Stamp Set and DSP - Level 2 Reward

 All Adorned Stamp Set

Country Floral Dynamic Textured Impressions Embossing Folder

Also coming Mar. 1, are some special coordinating products in  exclusive promotion while supplies last. So excited about these.

 Call Me Cupcake Thinlits Dies 150072

Coordinate with the Hello Cupcake Photopolymer Stamp Set in the SAB Brochure

 Four Seasons Framelits Dies 150074

Coordinates with the Four Seasons Stamp Set from the Second Release SAB Rewards

 Hop Around Framelits Dies 150073

Coordinates with the So Hoppy Together Stamp Set from the SAB Brochure

 Lily Framelits Dies 150071

Coordinates with the Lasting Lily Stamp Set from the SAB Brochure

 Story Label Punch  150076

Coordinates with the Part of My Story Stamp Set from the SAB Brochure

More Than Words Photopolymer Stamp Set 150069

Coordinates with all the sets in the SAB Brochure, the Story Label Punch and more.

I know you're going to be really excited about this because it makes those SAB rewards even more worthwhile, but you HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL MARCH 1!!

OR DO YOU???  There is a way to get them earlier, and it's part of the best deal Stampin' Up! has to offer! You'd be silly to pass it up!

THE STARTER KIT!

You can get these items right now as part of your Starter Kit. And during Sale-A-Bration, you can pay just $135 and get $225 worth of any Stampin' Up! Products you want including any of these SAB coordinating items - and did I mention NO SHIPPING!! Do you have to sell anything? Not unless you want to, but if you signed up today you would get an additional five and a half months of 20% discounts on your favourite Stampin' Up! crafting projects, first peak at the new Annual Catalogue and the ability to order from it a month before the public!

Isn't that too good to pass up? Sounds like it to me.What happens after 5 1/2 months? Nothing, you just lose your status as a demonstrator, if you can't make your minimum in sales, and that's it!

If you live in Canada, and don't have a demonstrator, I would LOVE to have you join my team! We have a Facebook Page, Quarterly Online Meetings (or in person if you live near enough) team incentives and personal coaching!  I will send out a  Welcome Package to you, introducing you to the team! To join, go to the top menu and click on Join My Team and follow the prompts.

Click on the links below to take you to my On-Line Store, where you can read about, look at, and purchase if you wish, the products used to make this card today.

Product List

Geared Up Garage Cling Stamp Set [148590] $29.00	Geared Up Garage Cling Bundle [150610] $66.50	Silver Foil Sheets [132178] $5.50	Classic Garage 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper [148482] $15.00	Cherry Cobbler 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [119685] $11.50
Whisper White 8-1/2" X 11" Card Stock [100730] $13.25	Smoky Slate Classic Stampin' Pad [147113] $10.25	Cherry Cobbler Classic Stampin' Pad [147083] $10.25	Cherry Cobbler Dark Stampin' Blends Marker [144575] $6.00	Black/Silver 1/4" (6.4 Mm) Striped Metallic Ribbon [148486] $9.50
Heart Epoxy Droplets [148583] $8.75	Garage Gears Thinlits Dies [148521] $45.00	Big Shot [143263] $150.00	Tear & Tape Adhesive [138995] $9.50	Mini Stampin' Dimensionals [144108] $5.50
Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $5.50	SNAIL Permanent Adhesive [104332] $9.50	Glue Dots [103683] $7.25