Made in Stampin’ Up! My Digital Studio

Why not make a card for a Star Wars friend since today is Star Wars Day!  May 4th!  May the 4th be with you??  Get it??  I didn’t at first, when my husband was wishing it was a work day a few years ago so he could repeat this Star Wars phrase to everyone!  I’ve been to a few Star Wars movies through the years, but not the most recent one. My husband, sons, and son-in-law are fans (but not over-the-top crazy ones!) so I’ve had opportunities to make some Star Wars cards for them, especially my son-in-law! He even has them on display on shelves in a spare bedroom!

These are some of the cards I have made through the years. I wouldn’t be able to think them up myself, but you can find ideas on the internet, of course! You don’t even need stamps mostly paper and punches and maybe a scissors!

The picture above I made when Stampin’ Up! had My Digital Studio. Our family went to Death Valley a few years ago (Fantastic trip and scenery!  If you haven’t been there, you need to put it on your list!) and although we didn’t know it at the time I don’t think, there was at least one hike we were on that my guys commented looked like something out of Star Wars. When we got home and researched it, it turned out that some scenes were filmed in this area!  So I had a photo of my son on this hike and with My Digital Studio added a light saber!

But here are some other Star Wars cards I have made that you can keep on file!

This is a punch art R2D2 card, a little bit involved with all the small pieces! You can see it in my blog post HERE.

This might have been my first Star Wars card I made with Darth Vader and Yoda! I know I found some kind of “Yoda Language Generator” site where you could type in your message and they would translate it into how Yoda would say it! You can Google that term.  Here is the blog post about this card.

This card was fun with the BB8 character! You can read about the making of this card HERE.

I like this Yoda card, maybe because of the colors! You can read about this card on this blog post HERE.  

Even if you don’t send out any Star Wars cards today, it would be a good day to get into the spirit of Star Wars Day 2018 and try your hand at making some Star Wars cards to keep on hand!  You know you must have some Star Wars friends or relatives you’ll be able to send the cards to for birthdays or other occasions! And look up that Yoda Language Generator! It really is fun to play with!

As Yoda would say, “For your Star Wars friends, make cards. Hmmmmmm.”

Happy Star Wars Day! May the 4th Be With You while you make Star Wars cards (or any other cards)!

Make an Elegant Floral Share What You Love Thank You Card with this BEAUTIFUL Share What You Love Specialty Designer Series Paper.  It is available now in the Share What You Love Suite in the Gotta Have It All Bundle. Even if you do not purchase this largest Bundle during this Early Release offer, you will want to order the paper as soon as possible in June! The paper is double-sided, heavyweight, and on one side has pearlized accents!  You might be able to see the gleam a little bit on these blue flowers.  Really pretty in person!

To make this card, I began with a card base of Mint Macaron.  If you have been a Stampin’ Up! customer for awhile, you might already have this cardstock in your stash! If not, you will receive it in a cardstock pack that comes in the two larger Bundles.  From the beautiful designer paper, I cut a strip and then the piece to fit the front of the card. But I cut this piece into two and just flipped it over to the backside for the bottom half of the card layer. I think it just adds a little interest to have the two different patterns, and they coordinate so beautifully. I used a piece of the 1/4″ Copper Trim ribbon to apply over the seam.  I think it matches pretty well with that bottom piece of designer paper.

For an embellishment I chose one of the Pearlized Doilies that come in the larger Bundles.  These have a pearlized surface on one side and white on the other side that could be colored if you wanted. I had no planned idea of how I was designing this card, but I just played around until I was happy with it…..and that didn’t take long!  I punched a circle of Mint Macaron with the 2 1/4″ Circle Punch to adhere behind the doily.  Then I needed “something” to decorate the front of the doily. I thought about adhering the greeting across it, but after playing around, I just added some cut out flowers from the designer paper on top of the doily, some pieces popped up with Stampin’ Dimensionals (or the Mini Dimensionals).  Even though it’s a bit of effort to cut out these flowers by hand, I bet you can’t cut just one!  This paper is so beautiful you can enjoy the close-up cutting and get a better appreciation for the art that is this paper!

The greeting is stamped in Mint Macaron ink on a piece of Whisper White with an image from the Love What You Do Stamp Set in all three bundles.

Check back on THIS POST yesterday on my blog to find out about all the Share What You Love Bundles available for you to order NOW!

I really liked this card when I finished it!  And I enjoyed making it!  That’s a win-win! While you are waiting on your new products, you can try making a design much like this Elegant Floral Share What You Love Thank You Card using whatever designer paper you have and embellishments.

Something you may have passed up on the Last-Chance retiring list of Stampin’ Up! products is the Just Add Color Paper which is great for “adult coloring”.  This paper is heavyweight, perfect for whatever style of coloring you prefer. You get 2 pages each of 6 designs. Color them in or leave them as the outline images for a simplistic card or project.  Whatever you like!

Stampin’ Up! offers many coloring options!  On these cards I used my Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers, which, hopefully will be back in stock in time for the new catalog! You could also color with the Aqua Painter and ink refills, like watercoloring, or a watercolor paintbrush.  Use the Watercolor Pencils and Blender Pens. Use the Stampin’ Write markers – usually the lighter colors work best as the dark would be a bit heavy for this kind of coloring.

On these two cards, I colored a whole section of the paper and then cut into the paper to fit on a card.  The underwater card was not as hard it might appear!  I didn’t color inside the lines on every bit of the seaweed, just kind of colored most of it green without staying in the lines.  Then I usesd my Pool Party marker to kind of fill in empty spaces to look like water, since it is under the water after all!  Then I colored kind of all over the area with the Light Pool Party to give it the watery look.  Just play and see what you come up with!

If you would like an easier way to make a card with this paper, consider cutting out the exact image(s) you want to use and color those, not the whole area!

Check out THIS BLOG POST to see the card I made with just a teapot that I colored and cut out and mounted on a card!

They say adult coloring is really good therapy for all of us!  Did you like to color as a kid?  Well, it’s time to stop and enjoy it again with the fun adult coloring techniques!  Forget your problems for awhile as you concentrate on your artistic coloring, staying in the lines (or not!), and enjoying the pretty colors!

Grab this fun paper if you are the coloring type before it is gone!  Put the Just Add Color Specialty Designer Series Paper on your next Stampin’ Up! order so you can do some adult coloring!

Stampin’ Up! Last-Chance Retiring List While Supplies Last!

One of the beautiful stamp sets that is on the Last Chance list that I hate to l see leave is the Birthday Blooms Stamp Set, with which  stamped this Birthday Blooms Floral All-Occasion Card.  I’ve always thought this stamp set was so pretty and I loved the fonts of the sentiments. This stamp set can be used various ways. The flower image could be embossed, could be stamped and cut out around the outline, or stamped in a color with no coloring in a monochromatic card. Color in the flower image many different ways. You can make beautiful cards with this stamp set!

For my card, I used a card base of Daffodil Delight. This was a card base already cut in my pack of paper, cut the “long” way that I must not have used, that would have the fold at the top of card.  I chose to put the fold on the side of the card for something different.  We don’t usually make a card with the fold on the side but there’s no reason not to!

I stamped the flower and greeting on a piece of Shimmery White Cardstock, one of my favorite papers!  It has just the tiniest bit of shimmer that you can see if you hold the paper at the right angle, but it’s also good for watercoloring. I wasn’t watercoloring on this card,  I was using the Stampin’ Blends alcohol markers, but the paper is just good and works well with these markers.  The Stampin’ Blends got caught up in the Chinese New Year factory shut down right at the time that more and more people were ordering them, causing a huge backorder situation, so Stampin’ Up! took them off the ordering list for now until they are fully resupplied, probably around the time the new Stampin’ Up! catalog comes out.  It won’t be long now, hopefully!  I LOVE using these markers!!  There is just something about them!

For a little interest I added a strip of designer paper at the bottom. This happens to be from the Delightful Daisy Designer Series Paper, which has sold out already, but you can substitute from lots of choices.  You could even add a bit of ribbon tied around the side or some small accents, like pearls or dots or sequins to the front of the card, but there’s nothing wrong with simple!

I have to add that I used the Stamparatus to make this card.  I did try to do it without but when I stamped the greeting, it didn’t stamp fully!  So I was sunk!  I turned the paper over and stamped again….but this time, the flower didn’t ink up in the center ( probably needed to reink my ink pad!) so it didn’t stamp nicely. Then I grabbed my Stamparatus and when each of the stamps didn’t stamp fully, I could just ink up the stamp again and stamp again right over the image, thanks to the magnets holding my card front down like nobody’s business!  When you get a Stamparatus in the new catalog, you will want to be very careful with the magnets!  They are very strong!

If you want to make a simple card with a beautiful flower and lovely sentiment, be sure to get this Birthday Blooms Stamp Set before it retires May 31 and try a card like my Birthday Blooms Floral All-Occasion Card.

SHOP THE LAST-CHANCE RETIREMENT PRODUCTS TODAY!