Sale-A-Bration!!!

Sale-A-Bration (SAB) starts today!! Stampin' Up!'s hugely popular annual sale. There are so many fabulous products that you can earn for FREE with every qualifying order of $60. Here's a card designed by my lovely friend and Stampin' Up! upline, Leena Girsa that uses some fab new SAB freebies!

Sweet Sorbet DSP - #133521
Such fun, soft patterns and colours in this paper.

Sweet Sorbet Accessories Pack - #133522
You get adhesive-backed cork and three colours of twine.

Decorative Dots TIEF - #133520
Love this folder!

Banner Blast Stamp Set - #133551
10 stamps with a coordinating punch, yes please!

Banner Punch - #133519
So cute.

These are just a few of the great products you can earn, starting today until March 31st, 2014. The other fantastic thing about this year's SAB is that Stampin' Up! has made it really easy for you. In the front of the SAB Brochure, they've put together various bundles for different types of crafting activities - card making, gift-giving, party planning, scrapbooking and digital designing. All the bundles feature products from the annual catalogue that coordinate together and meet the sales requirements to earn FREE product. If you like what's featured in the bundle, you just have to order with a single product code for all the products rather than several product codes. LOVE!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Sunday Stamps Sketch!

Welcome to another bi-weekly challenge at Sunday Stamps! This time around, Kathya's got a fabulous sketch for us. I really enjoyed working with it.

I stuck really close to the sketch and got the inspiration for the colours from the banner I created using the Watercolouring with Tissue Paper Technique. You can see the technique here. With Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought I'd keep in line with the heart from the sketch. I punched the hearts from a scrap of paper using the retired SU! punch, Heart to Heart and then punched that out with the 2-1/2" Scallop Circle. I popped it up with Dimensionals, same with my sentiment. For some subtle bling, I scattered some jewels.

Hope you'll join us. You have until February 8th to play along. Check out the other lovely DT Member Blogs for more inspiration. :)

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

RECIPE:
Paper: Wisteria Wonder, Whisper White, Calypso Coral
Ink: Calypso Coral
Stamps: Teeny Tiny Wishes
Tools: Heart to Heart Punch (retired), 2-1/2" Scallop Circle, Modern Label Punch, Word Window Punch
Accessories: Jewels
Challenge: Sunday Stamps

DSP Series: Gift Bag

Today is my last post in my week-long series on using Designer Series Paper. If you've been following along, I hope you've enjoyed this series. If you're just joining in, you might want to check out the previous posts. :)

I've saved the best one for last! I created a mini bag with four 3x3 cards, four envelopes and five tags from just one piece of DSP. I based the bag off of my original creation here.

I won't go into too much detail here because I'll have a photo tutorial on creating this bag next week and you can also view the original post for my full bag by viewing the link above.

These are so quick and easy to put together and make great gifts! With just one piece of DSP and a few sheets of card stock, you can create a mini stationary set with cards and tags and the bag it all comes in can be reused also for a small gift. Do you love it?!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

RECIPE:
Paper: Birthday Basics DSP, Card Stock: Naturals, Raspberry Ripple & Bermuda Bay
Tools: Modern Label Punch
Accessories: Stampin' Up! Mini 3-⅛" x 3-⅛" Whisper White Envelopes

DSP Series: OSW

Welcome back to Day 4 in my week-long series on using Designer Series Paper (DSP). If you missed the last few posts, you might want to go back to check them out. Today, I'm sharing with you a One Sheet Wonder (OSW). If you're not familiar, it's when you use one sheet of paper to create several projects.

Here is mine that I adapted from Mae Collins. The one I found on her Blog was in centimetres and I rounded the numbers because I prefer to work in inches.

I won't share the cards I created with this OSW today, but I will let you know that I was able to create 14 cards from just this one piece of 12x12 DSP. :) You can keep the cards very simple, or spruce them up a bit too with other embellishments. There are many, many possibilities with OSW cards and projects and I can see myself using this technique over and over again.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

DSP Series: Card and Envie

This is Day 3 of my series on DSP and today I've created an adorably cute 3-½" x 5" card with coordinating envelope, all from DSP! This is made super easy with SU!'s Envelope Punch Board.

I made my card base from two scraps of card stock - Primrose Petals & Basic Grey and then layered with DSP. I accessorized with pearls and coordinating ribbon.

If you've been following along, I hope you're enjoying this series. Also, if you look back over the last several posts, have you noticed I've been using the same DSP and stamp set to make cards and projects for different occasions? Stay tuned for more on that also. :)

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

RECIPE:
Paper: Primrose Petals, Basic Grey, Birthday Basics DSP
Ink: Basic Grey
Stamps: Petite Pairs
Tools: 1-¼" Circle Punch, Artisan Label Punch, Envelope Punch Board
Accessories: Pearls, Summer Starfruit Stitched Satin Ribbon

DSP Series: Post Card

Welcome back to my DSP Series. You can check out the first post yesterday. This one is along similar lines… it's a post card. Making post cards with DSP is very easy, really, you could just make one similar to the tags I made yesterday. I went a step further and used the Post Card Stamp Brush Set in My Digital Studio (MDS).

With the newer updates in MDS, you can crop and colour stamps to your liking. The Post Card Stamp Brush Set isn't quite as long as I wanted, so I cropped and pieced together two images to get the size I wanted. :) I fit four on a page, printed at home, cut and glued my DSP on the other side.

These are quick and easy too and no worries if you don't have an envelope on hand! For me, receiving a card in the mail is special, receiving a post card is also memorable.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

RECIPE:
Paper: Naturals Card Stock, Birthday Basics DSP
Tools: MDS, Post Card Stamp Brush Set

DSP Series: Tags

This week, I'm focusing on DSP - Stampin' Up!'s Designer Series Paper. They offer a great variety of double-sided, high quality 12x12 paper. It's awesome! The thing is, sometimes people don't know what to do with it. The first few posts this week will be simple projects and then we'll get into some more detailed ones.

First up, tags!

These ones are simple 2x3 inch tags. I simply cut some Naturals Card Stock, made a hanging tag from some coordinating ribbon and then glued DSP on the other side. So quick and simple, this took me less than five minutes! How cute would these be with a coordinating card and bag?! Stay tuned later in the week for some ideas. :) In the meantime though, you can check out one of my bags here.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

RECIPE:
Paper: Naturals Card Stock, Birthday Basics DSP
Accessories: Summer Starfruit Satin Stitched Ribbon

Sketch Saturdays

Welcome back to another segment for my posts I'm calling Sketch Saturdays. This is my second one, and I'm really enjoying doing this. It's opening my creative mind…

This week, I'm featuring a sketch I created myself for a One Sheet Wonder series I'm working on (more on that in the coming weeks). It's a simple sketch, but check out what I did with it!

Well, I did a few things with it, actually. First, I flipped it. Next, I created four designs with it, from the very simple (for someone with very limited supplies, for example), to the more elaborate, using tools that one may not have access to.

I wanted to showcase that a simple sketch, doesn't always have to be so simple… and that you can create with just using the very basic of tools. The first card only uses a paper trimmer and a marker to ink the stamp. There's not much more to the second one, but just switching to a couple of basic punches and you've got a different look!

The third looks a little more in-depth, but it really isn't. You might think that I used some fancy tools, maybe a punch, but all I used were paper-piercing tools! I pierced the holes first in my triangular piece and then cut a small border free-hand following the shape of the pierced holes. The heart is also done the same way.

Lastly, the fourth uses the Big Shot and the Floral Frames Framelits, as well as the the Modern Mosaic TIEF. I heat embossed the sentiment, scattered some pearls and added an In-Color Dahlia.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

RECIPE:
Paper: 2012-2014 In Color Card Stock, Very Vanilla, Basic Grey, Birthday Basics DSP
Ink: Basic Black, Basic Grey, Raspberry Ripple
Stamps: Petite Pairs
Tools: Big Shot, Modern Mosaic TIEF, Floral Frames Framelits, 1-1/4" Circle Punch, Artisan Label Punch, Paper-Piercing Mat, Paper-Piercing Tool, Paper-Piercing Essentials Pack, Heat Tool
Accessories: Pearls, In-Color Dahlia

For the Bride-to-Be

Oh yes! Love the colour combo over at Colour Me...! this week - Pink Pirouette, Smokey Slate, So Saffron and a neutral. I immediately thought something "girly", so I created a CAS card for a Bride-to-Be. Check it out:

I stamped the dress from Love and Laughter in Pink Pirouette and then punched it out with my 1-3/4" Circle Punch and layered it with a 2" (non SU!) scallop circle in Smokey Slate. I haphazardly looped some ribbon on the back of the scallop and then popped it up. I finished things off by embossing my card layer and then stamping the sentiment from the same set in So Saffron.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

RECIPE:
Paper - Pink Pirouette, Whisper White, Smokey Slate
Ink: Pink Pirouette, So Saffron
Stamps: Love and Laughter
Tools: 1-3/4" Circle Punch, 2" Scallop Circle Punch, Big Shot, Perfect Polka Dots TIEF
Accessories: 1/8" Ribbon (non SU!)
Challenge: Colour Me...!

Watercolouring with Tissue Paper

If you missed my post yesterday, check it out because it'll explain how to do this technique. Today, I'm showing you a project I created with it.

Since I didn't get a lot of colour variation (and ended up with a lot of white space) in my paper, I cut the "good" pieces into 2-3/4"squares. I layered them on top of 3" square cards. The two colours that were prominent resembled closely to Wisteria Wonder and Calypso Coral, so those were the papers I used.

I created some coordinating envelopes using the awesome new Envelope Punch Board from Stampin' Up! and then included two sentiments with Dimensionals on the back for the recipient to choose either, or none for that matter, depending on the occasion.

I decided to individually package them. Not sure what I'll do with them yet. I've thought about randomly handing them out to people I meet or a "thank you" gift for customers who place orders with me. So many possibilities!!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Try It Tuesdays

I'm excited to write my first post in my new segment I'm calling Try It Tuesdays. This is where I'll try different projects based on things I've seen, heard or read from various sources.

Today, I'm trying out a technique - Watercolouring with Tissue Paper. Perhaps you did this as a child… I don't personally remember, although I'm sure I did. I saw this technique done on a show my daughter was watching called Mister Maker. Actually, I started paying attention to it half way through, so I kinda  guessed at it when my daughter and I ran downstairs to try it out. :) Read first how we did it, and then check out the bottom of the post to see my afterthoughts…

Before you start, make sure you:

1. have a waterproof surface (we used a plastic table cloth)
2. have your tissue paper pieces ready to go
3. have a paintbrush and water on hand
4. work in a place where you can leave your project to dry

Here's how we did it:

We first wet our paper (Stampin' Up! Whisper White card stock) with a paintbrush and water.

Next, we scrunched our pieces of tissue paper on top of the wet paper.

Then we took our paintbrush and water again and completely soaked the tissue paper to get the colours to bleed onto the paper.

After that excitement, we tried to wait patiently to let the project dry completely, overnight. (Read that I was not very patient and tried to dry it with my heat gun, kept peeking at the results and then removed the tissue paper prematurely.)

5. The final result:

OK, so clearly, this project requires patience! Upon further investigation (thanks Google!), you shouldn't use acid-free tissue paper because it is bleed proof. I have all my tissue paper gathered in one place and have no idea if it is or isn't. I just thought my lighter colours didn't work… but it could also very well be that I just didn't wait for them to bleed. :)

Next time, I will try watercolor paper (although the card stock seemed OK) and will use a water spray bottle instead of a paintbrush. Oh, and wait patiently overnight!

Check back tomorrow to see the project I made with my paper.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

Sunday Stamps SSC67

I'm loving the colour combo we've got going on over at Sunday Stamps this round - Night of Navy, Strawberry Slush & Silver!

I know my punched circle looks gold, but it's truly the Silver Foil paper that I adore, but unfortunately just doesn't show well on camera. I used the now retired Lots of Love Letterpress Texture Plate on it for a subtle effect. I stamped off a few of the hearts randomly on the paper to give varying shades of Strawberry Slush. It adds a lot of depth!

I didn't want to add too much to my card, so I opted for some punched hearts from Silver Glimmer Paper and heat embossed my sentiment in silver.

We hope you'll play along with us, you have until Friday, January 25th. Make sure you check out the other DT Members for some awesome inspiration… and don't forget to leave them some love too!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

RECIPE:
Paper: Night of Navy, Whisper White
Ink: Strawberry Slush
Tools: Heart to Heart Punch (retired), Heat Tool, Big Shot, Lots of Love Letterpress (retired)
Techniques: Heat Embossing
Challenges: Sunday Stamps

Sketch Saturdays - Numero Uno!

Yay! My first post for my weekly segment I'm calling Sketch Saturdays. Every Saturday I'll be posting a project based on a sketch, found or created by me. Today's sketch was found on Pinterest. The link lead me to Basic Grey. Here's the sketch...

…and here's my design:

My design is loosely based on the sketch, but you can still see it, even though I omitted a couple of things. :) When I looked at the sketch, I immediately saw a flower pot with flowers bursting out of it, so that's what I created. The pot was easy. And so were the flowers for that matter, thanks to the Flower Shop stamp set and coordinating Pansy Punch!

I've been dying to play along at Colour Me…! and so I'm thrilled to be entering this into the challenge this week. It's a two-colour challenge - Melon Mambo & Marina Mist. My neutral colour is Early Espresso. Since there were only two main colours to work with, I stamped off the flower image three times to get varying shades of Melon Mambo. This, along with curling the petals & popping up the flowers at different heights, gave a lot of dimension to the card.

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph

RECIPE:
Paper: Early Espresso, Whisper White, Marina Mist
Ink: Melon Mambo
Stamps: Flower Shop, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Tools: Big Shot, Stripes TIEF, Square Lattice TIEF, Pansy Punch
Challenge: Colour Me…!

12x12 Bag with Written Tutorial!

The internet is a lovely place, isn't it? A while ago, I searched out how to make a 12x12 bag from DSP.  I found many lovely examples, but nothing like what I was looking for. I wanted to use only one sheet of DSP and I wanted it to be big enough to fit my standard-sized cards in it.

I am a paper hoarder and thought creating bags from my retired DSP to sell and give away would be perfect for all the shows I was doing in the fall. I could use them for a promotional tool, and people could buy them and use them to give my cards as gifts.

They were a hit! They were also a hit with my fellow Demos when I brought one originally for show and share and then taught them how to make their very own. Now I will teach you too…

WHAT YOU NEED:

• Stampin' Up! 12x12 DSP (If not SU!, must be double-sided) 
• Simply Scored 
• Paper Snips 
• Sticky Strip 

WHAT YOU DO:

1. Choose your preferred side of your paper. Make sure you score properly so that the area you want showcased works. For my sample above, I had to make sure I scored it properly to accommodate the pattern (that was only on part of the DSP). You also want to make sure that a pattern won't be upside-down when you flip over the top flap.
2. Score your 12x12 paper at: 3/8", 5-3/8", 6-1/4" and 11-1/4".
3. Turn your paper a quarter turn and score at 2" (top) and 11-1/4" to make a 3/4" bottom. Again, make sure you score the right sides that you want to be the top and bottom of your bag, if your paper isn't a consistent pattern throughout.
4. Cut your tabs. Cut along each vertical line, up to the 3/4" score line (bottom of the bag).
5. Optional: cut angles in your tabs at the bottom of your bag. I do this because I think it's a cleaner look.
6. Crease along all your score lines and fold over your top "handle".
7. Run a piece of Sticky Strip down the 3/8" side. It's important to run it as close to the edge as possible.
8. Peel and stick your two sides together. Do not overlap the two sides past the Sticky Strip, otherwise your bag will be wonky. (Note: This is the only way I could make my bag work properly to the dimensions I needed from one piece of DSP). :)
9. Add a piece of Sticky Strip to one of the bottom tabs and adhere together.
10. Pinch & crease the sides slightly at the top to give the bag a little more dimension.
11. Punch your handles using the XL Oval Punch from Stampin' Up!. Punch one side at a time.
12. Optional: create tags from the punched-out ovals. You know me, I like to use every last bit of paper! ha.
13. Your bag is complete! Use it how you like. I've used mine for cards (fits anywhere from one to eight 4-1/4" x 5-1/2" cards & envelopes depending on how many embellies you have on them). I've also used them for small gifts.

I hope you've enjoyed this tutorial. I'd love to hear what you think! I also don't mind you sharing this, but please do not sell my tutorial because I have given it to you for free. I would also appreciate you credit me/my site if you share.

Until next time, stay crafty!

Steph

Seriously?!

Are we seriously already a week into 2014?! I can't believe a week has gone by already. I hope you're reading this from somewhere warm... it's been crazy cold here lately! I think it's about -16C (3F) right now. That's much better than the -40C with windchills the other day!

On top of the frigid temps, we've had it all over the last few weeks - an ice storm, snow squalls/blizzards and a huge dumping of snow. Have you ever got to experience "frost quakes"? Freaked me out the first time I heard one (before I knew what it was). It's when water gets down into the soil and then freezes. The pressure causes somewhat of an explosion in the earth and creates a big BOOM! If it's close, it shakes the house. After knowing what the noise was, it was pretty cool hearing it...


Anyway, with the crazy weather, holidays, sicknesses, etc., I have not been able to get down and inky in my craft space. So I have a couple of older projects to show you until I can create some new stuff.

This card was pretty quick to put together. I stamped the delicate doily design several times in Pool Party and then did the same, but heat embossed with Smokey Slate. I also heat embossed the sentiment in Silver. I added some velvet decorative tape (non SU!) for some added dimension. I thought it suited the design well.

Until next time, stay crafty!

Steph

RECIPE:
Paper: Pool Party, Smokey Slate, Whisper White
Ink: Pool Party
Stamps: Happy Day, Teeny Tiny Wishes
Tools: Heat Tool
Accessories: Jewels
Techniques: Heat Embossing

A New Year!

Can you believe you haven't seen me since last year? ha. I know, corny joke... but somehow it sounded better than saying you haven't seen me in over two weeks! :-|

Anyway, Happy New Year! I hope you had a great night and will have a great year ahead. I have lots of things planned after a busy end to 2013. I've been thinking a lot about what 2014 will bring. Here are a few things that are coming up at Hofkissed:

Try It Tuesdays

Will feature projects that I've tried based on challenge sites, things found on Pinterest, etc. It might not always be papercrafting, but it'll be fun!

Throwback Thursdays

Will feature my projects from way back when (some from 15 years ago!) and I'll recreate my design, I guess CASE myself, but make it better. I've learned a lot over the years - I used to cut everything by hand (gasp!).

Sketch Saturdays

Whether it's based off a sketch I created myself, or from one I found online, I'm going to create a project based on a sketch. Every Saturday. It'll be fun, and will help get my mojo back after the holidays... and maybe help you out too!

Weekly Series

I've got a couple things lined up here already - one on organization & another using up scraps. These are week-long series about various things. I've done both of these before, but they were both hugely popular, I thought I'd concentrate on these areas again. :)

Sunday Stamps

I'm still happily designing for Sunday Stamps and it is a bi-weekly challenge. If you haven't played along with us before, add that to your "to do" list for 2014! It's fun and will surely get your mojo working as we switch between colour and sketch challenges.

This past Sunday, we had a sketch challenge. One that I created, actually. I'm late in posting my design because on top of the busy holiday season, I was suffering a lot from migraines. Feeling better now and I was glad to be able to get down and stamp!

With Valentine's Day around the corner, I thought it was time to get started on some cards. Simple design, but I love how it came out! Why not pop on over to Sunday Stamps and play along with us?!

Sorry for the extra-long post today! There was so much to tell you about. :) If you made it through, thanks for reading!

Until next time, stay crafty!
Steph