StampinUp Demonstrator Kit and Paper Pumpkin Review!

Yay!!!! My demonstrator kit came and I could not be happier! The inks are so nice, the stamps, card stock, just everything!!! 

My kit selections and promo materials. 

I had no idea that in addition to the items I chose for my kit, I would also receive a Paper Pumpkin kit.  I had never heard of it, so I opened it last.

Cute packaging! 

Card materials, stamps, and coordinating ink! 

Closeup of the card materials. 

I had an order from a customer and put together this Thank You card using this kit and a few things from my demonstrator kit.  

Needless to say, I loved this so much I subscribed immediately! If you want to subscribe, or just preorder one month, go to www.mypaperpumpkin.com to order or go to www.florigami.stampinup.net to get started!

Happy Crafting! 

Cardmaking - Birthday Flowers

This is a fairly simple birthday card I made, using a few different techniques. Materials you will need:

Scoring board and bone folder

Card stock in 2 coordinating colors

White card stock  

Stamping ink in color of your choosing

Large background stamp

Happy Birthday stamp

Edge punch

Adhesive ribbon

Markers

Glue runner  

Start by cutting and scoring your card stock to the desired card size, I chose 5 x 7 to fit in A7 sized envelopes.  Then edge punch what will be the front of the card, I used a lace edge punch.  I stamped my background image on a 4 x 6 piece of white card stock and then colored in the image with markers. I used a coordinating piece of adhesive ribbon along the left side, but washi tape will work as well.  Then I cut a coordinating rectangle of card stock 1.5 x 3 and layered my "Happy Birthday", stamped on white card stock to it. I then used dimensional dots to give it some depth when attached to the front of the card. I also used patterned scissors to cut around the "Happy Birhday" stamp to give it a nicer edge. Try this out for any occasion and set of stamps you love, happy crafting!

Craftermath - An Engineer's Guide to Crafting

So I wanted to make these little rosettes I kept seeing and it occurred to me that I already had all of the materials, but I did not see any clear instructions for the sizes of paper needed.  Then I realized that they are just strips of paper in circles, so I used the circumference formula: 

c=2*pi*r

Where c= the length of your paper, r=the height of your paper, and pi can be rounded to 3.14 and the size of the finished circle across will be 2 times the value of r.  Sounds a little complex, but I'll give an example.

Say I want a rosette that is 7" across. Then my strips of paper need to be 3.5" width wise and at least 22" lengthwise, but you should do at least 24" lengthwise since the paper is folded.  To go the other way, say I have paper that is 18" lengthwise, the biggest rosette I can get from that is going to be about 5.75" across, so to be safe, I should cut the width of my strip to about 2.5"-2.75" just to be safe so I'm not stretching the paper.  This formula will work for any size rosette and you can adjust your accordion folds based on appearance, but remember, the further apart your folds are, the more you "shorten" your initial length, so always try to have extra length so you don't tear your paper, happy crafting! 

Materials needed: 

Paper of your choice, I used K & Company Double Sided paper

Glue, I used Elmer's Craft Bond

Scoring Board, I used Martha Stewart

Button

Embroidery Floss and Needle

Scalloped Die Cuts, I used my Cuttlebug, but you can also use a punch

Materials used for rosettes minus my Martha Stewart scoring board! I used one but it's not in this pic.

The above rosette is 3" across. I cut my paper 1.5" wide and 12" long. So I needed at least 9.4" length, but I wanted it to look "full" so I used the entire 12" length with 1/4" folds.

A stacked rosette. 

This was done using 20" of length and 3.5" of height, I did all of the folding and glueing and then cut 1" off the top to make 2 rosettes, 1 at 2.5" height (5" across when flattened) and 1 at 1" height (2" across when flattened) and then glued them together. 

DIY Pocket Wedding Invitations Part 2

In Part 1 we made the envelopes and part of the backing, this will show how to complete the invitation. I used Word to design my text and graphic inside of a 4" x 6" space and printed it. 

Tree graphic with 2 little birdies. 

I then cut them out and used my glue runner to adhere them to the flat part of the invitation.  I decided to move the glitter rectangle to go "inside"/behind the pocket, because I liked how it looked. 

Glitter paper in pocket. 

I also added a quote that I printed and then placed that on top of a rectangle of coordinating vellum, but let creativity be your guide, this was just what I chose. 

I also used word to type up my directions and RSVP. They directions were cut to 4" x 5.5", but anything under 5"x 7" will fit.  I cut the RSVP to 3.5" x 5.5" so that when they were stacked together they would later nicely.

Inserts in pocket. 

Now you're all done! The invitations here will fit inside A7 sized envelopes and the RSVP inserts will fit inside A2 sized envelopes.  Mine were .70 to mail each, and I also added a small Velcro closure for my invitations to give them a little, well, snap. :) Happy Crafting!