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Perhaps you would like to avoid the crazy shopping rush called Black Friday this weekend....or maybe AFTER you have done your shopping this weekend you would like to just relax and check out all the wonderful products Stampin' Up! offers! If you look through the catalog as if you were choosing a gift for someone, you might find that there are quite a few suitable items even for the non-stamper....or the crafter!
Stampin' Up! has already started their Online Extravaganza through November 30. But to have a little Black Friday and Cyber Monday fun, I'm offering a special tutorial as a treat for you when you place an order of $25 or more (before shipping and tax). It's an easy mini album to make, perfect for a few Christmas photos. This offer is good now, Black Friday through Cyber Monday (Nov. 28). When I see you have placed your order, I will email you instructions on how to receive your tutorial. You can order online at my Stampin' Up! Online Storeor contact me to place your order. Just email me at Karen@Karenstamps.com.
It's fun to make a little album with the Top Note die, especially for Halloween. Here I used Halloween paper from last year to make a little album for my niece and her grandma to make a little Halloween scrapbook mini album. Just cut out your page shapes from chipboard and paper and decorate to your heart's content!
Here are some more pages from the baby scrapbook I made. Some materials and stamps may be retired but you can easily substitute something similar. You can copy the layout ideas or just get your creative juices flowing! These smaller albums are so much fun to make! Just slip the pages you make into the clear page protectors in the album.
Make your own designer paper by stamping...and this stamp even comes from what could be considered a Valentine stamp set! (I think it is a retired stamp set)
Designer paper from Nursery Suite Specialty #117165. I don't remember where I got the punch art giraffe idea, but you can google it and probably find one to your liking.
These are die-cuts from an old Simply Scrappin' Kit but you can find something similar in the current catalog. Love the Simply Scrappin' Kits!
I usually like to make the last page in a baby album something about sleeping!
Even though this is a 6x6 album, to make a larger page, just take the same layout ideas and make them larger! There's probably always a little something extra you can add, too! Have fun with it!
Baby scrapbook albums are so much fun to make! I've made them for gifts and as special orders for other people. Whether you start with just a generic baby theme or choose something special, such as nursery colors, you just need to start, and as you play around with your pages and layouts, creativity will come! You can get many Stampin' Up! ideas for layouts just by looking at the Idea Book & Catalog. This scrapbook is made with the 6x6 Natural Linen Post Album #104515 (it also comes in a Ring album if you prefer). Some stamp sets and materials I used are retired, but you can easily substitute something similar.
For the album cover decoration I usually like to just tie some ribbon around the cover and attach a tag of some kind. This one is the 1/2" Stitched-Poly Ribbon laid over 5/8" Grosgrain Ribbon.
I used the Scallop Trim Corner and Scallop Trim Border Punches to this photo mat....best to just start with a piece of paper and punch, not expecting a certain size. I added tiny Pearls in between the scallops. The flower is made with the Daisies #2 Die and the Big Shot.
I think these pieces are from a retired Simply Scrappin' Kit (which are fabulous for making scrapbooks!).
Isn't this paper purse cute from the outside using the Top Note die #113463 on top and the Love Letter Designer Series Paper #117162 plus a big red button from the Candy Cane buttons that were in the Holiday Mini Catalog. I hope they put all these new Big Designer Buttons in the next catalog!
And when you open the purse, you'll see this:
It's cute as is, but when you open it you have a small explosion album! You can add photos and embellishments inside or package a small gift inside. The purse is made with a 12"x12" piece of card stock.
If you need any of our wonderful Stampin' Up! paper and supplies, please order from my Online Store or email me. Remember, the Spring Is Blossoming special sneak peek is going on! After you spend $20, you can add this sneak peek to your order....only until April 30th! Don't miss it! You'll LOVE both the Four Frames Stamp Set and the Paisley Petals designer paper!
You've heard me say before that one of my favorite things about being a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator is receiving the special Stampin' Success Magazine every month! You would think we would all become accustomed to getting this magazine and become rather ho-hum about it after awhile.....but ABSOLUTELY NOT! As soon as they start hitting the mailboxes, demos are posting that they received theirs and others start posting wondering when theirs is going to arrive! We are always anxious for the next issue packed with business tips and fabulous projects! Stampin' Up! even posts the magazine online so we get a sneak peek before it hits our mailboxes, even though it is nothing like having it in our hot little hands!
The November 2010 issue had a great article about preserving memories with handmade albums, just small simple ones. I took the basic idea and used it as a project in my stamp camp last weekend and added a few different touches. I thought it was a great idea for a generic little album, whether people wanted to make it for a few Thanksgiving photos or something else.
Here is the little scrapbook we made, starting with just a 10" x 5" piece of card stock!
Click on the photos to enlarge.
You can make this album any size....just fold your paper in half, open, then fold each side to the middle, producing four sections. Fold the bottom up for the pockets. Make a few tags or photo mats, do a little stamping or punching little scraps of paper, add a couple little embellishments....whatever!.....you have a nice little album ready for photos! On this project we used the stamp set "Just Believe".
If you have any questions about this project or becoming a Stampin' Up! Demonstrator with the amazing Starter Kit 50% discount, just leave me a comment!
I have just LOVED these flip albums ever since I saw my first one! I've made several for gifts and this one was for a graduation gift. I left it rather generic so she could use it any way she wanted to, whether for graduation pictures or college or family or friends or anything. The first one I ever made I thought was incredibly complicated, but they really are pretty simple and this one went together easily. I won't go into detail on how I made it because there are a lot of directions out there, but if you have questions, leave a comment or email me. I did use retired Designer Series Paper, Bella Birds but I think everything else is current.....at least for June!!
When you make one of these albums, you can hardly stop yourself from flipping all the pages back and forth! The Big Shot and our Stampin' Up! punches really help to make interesting elements in the album.
These are some more pages I put together for a recipe album using a Stampin' Up! Linen Album (#104509). I used various stamp sets, the Big Shot, Designer Series papers, ribbon, punches, sometimes made my own designer paper! Some of the pages have pockets into which recipes can be inserted or they can just be pasted on the page. Since I don't know exactly how the recipient will use the album, I wanted to make it versatile.
If you want to make a recipe album or scrapbook like this, contact me soon.
It's so much fun to play with the Voila Chef (#115102). You can watercolor him or you can paper piece, which I did on his pants using Designer Series Paper. Just stamp on the DSP and cut out the section you want to overlay on your already stamped outline of the chef. Since this is for my personal use, I have used some retired product, such as the Antique Brass Hodgepodge Hardware on the tag and the greenish Gingham Ribbon. You can easily substitute with current product and colors. I made the chef first and then wasn't sure what to do for the background. But then I found the little stamp in the Tiny Tags stamp set (page 28) in the Occasions Mini and stamped it all over the Whisper White card stock, essentially making my own designer series paper!
Yesterday I was working on these albums for someone for their Disney pictures and autographs, and while I know glitter is messy, I added to it by seeming to spill or knock over everything I touched, from a container of eyelets to every jar of glitter! But it all came out fine in the end! I made these monogram tags to go on each album and put a border of Chunky Glitter on each one. That worked fine, but when I did the chipboard stars, the glitter looked a little sparse. Then I found the Fine Cosmo Glitter in my drawer and sprinkled (or spilled!) that on to fill in the tiny spaces. That did the trick! Never can have too many jars of glitter around! Here are some photos of my mess and the albums!
As you probably already know, My Digital Studio is a new software program from Stampin' Up! that allows you to create digital projects such as cards, scrapbook pages, photo albums, calendars, and multimedia. It has gotten rave reviews from stampers who have been able to design cards in just a few minutes or fill a digital scrapbook full of photos in a short time, and they are loving the beautiful calendars they have created. You can see a couple of my projects HERE, HERE, and HERE.
I am now "certified" in My Digital Studio after completing the training provided by Stampin' Up! and have earned the "badge" you see here in this post! That means I will be able to help you become competent using My Digital Studio when you purchase it. It comes with nearly 2,000 elements for you to use in your projects, and already there are additional downloads available for purchase. Once your project is complete you can send it off to the professional Stampin' Up! printer, print it yourself on your home printer, or send it to a printer of your choice. You can also add your own ribbon and embellishments or stamping once you have your project printed if you prefer the "hybrid" look! I'm sure we are only at the beginning of this great adventure as more and more stampers learn new ways to use My Digital Studio! Contact me with any questions before or after purchase!
When we got to watch our son's wushu demonstration at college a couple weekends ago, I took a few photos but mostly I took video. With My Digital Studio I can (and I did!) incorporate that video into an "interactive photo album" so that he will be able to see the pages I designed plus watch short videos of the demonstration. I was surprised how easily I was able to do that with my limited computer skills! But I also wanted more photos for the pages. Luckily, I was able to figure out on my computer how to capture individual frames from the videos and save them individually as photos. Not sure how clearly they will print out, but for now, it suited the purpose.....and I learned a new computer skill! Here is one of the scrapbook pages I made with My Digital Studio using all these extra photos I was able to extract. If you click on the link above, you can watch a short video from Stampin' Up! about My Digital Studio.
Last weekend we got to go to Austin to visit our boys, although one was sick so we only saw him as we dropped off an order of chicken soup from the restaurant where we had dinner! We were lucky to be there in time to see our son, Steven, do his Wushu demo for a campus club. This is just the "Demo Team", a group chosen for their skills and dedication to the practice and the sport. The kids were all amazing in their skills, and the audience, who had been milling around, talking, and eating, all stopped to gather and give the Wushu team their full attention. Wushu is Chinese martial arts like you might have seen in the move "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon".
Since I was learning how to make an "interactive album" with the new Stampin' Up! My Digital Studio, I decided to try making an album using my Wushu photos and video. I don't think the video will play on this post, which is a good thing since I probably need to edit it first, but this is a page I made with My Digital Studio. After designing the page, I embedded? one of my video segments into the photo. I can burn it to a DVD or I can email it to my son and the video(s) will automatically play on each of the pages as they are viewed! It was an amazingly easy project to work on, for being so "technical", what with including video! Now I need to go finish up the album and email it to him for a birthday gift today!
There are SO many things you can do with My Digital Studio! You really need to check it out!!
Here's another page I made for my album with My Digital Studio as I am learning to use it. This would have been a baby scrapbook page if I had just inserted baby photos into the designer template....but you can take any page and make it your own or even start with a blank canvas.
Don't forget about the special Hostess Offer from Stampin' Up!.....through November 30, get My Digital Studio 50% off with a $400 workshop!
I've started making a digital photo album of some of my New England vacation photos in My Digital Studio. You can do so many things with this new program from Stampin' Up!. It isn't limited to just scrapbook pages or albums or calendars, although you can make all those things. And if you submit your project to the official Stampin' Up! printer, you can be assured that your colors will be true to the Stampin' Up! colors.
Here is what might be my cover page. I can always go back and change and work on my project. Would you believe the design began as a baby album but I'm changing it to work for my trip pictures!
Have you watched this video yet on my Stampin' Up! website? It's right there under "Featured Project" and I'm sure you will enjoy it. Click HERE to see the Stampin' Up! video.
And here is a mini album I made using one of the techniques in the video. I used the Sale-A-Bration Designer Series Paper called "Delicate Dots".
While you cannot still get this same paper, you can use any of our Designer Series Paper. Choose any papers in the package to use because they all coordinate! And during the month of May, if you purchase three packages of Designer Paper, you get one free! Read all about this special offer for National Scrapbooking Month HERE.
