The One Piece of IKEA Furniture Stampers Can't Live Without

A funny thing happens when you become a Stamping’ Up demonstrator - you acquire a lot of stamps! One of the reasons I joined was due to the discount but I was surprised how easily I fell in love with some designs. My stamp collection was pretty small before, but it exploded last year. How to store them all?

I have a small office/craft room that I kitted out with Billy bookshelves years ago to display my toy horse collections and be a reading nook. Unfortunately I never get the chance to read anymore - it’s a hobby that requires time and peace, which is hard to do with my pet birds. I donated some of my books, moved some things around and bought an extra book shelf for my biggest Billy bookcase (yes, you can do that!). This freed up my two Benno CD/DVD towers. It wasn’t quite enough room because I still had books I wanted to keep. Eight or nine stamp case sized cubbyholes can be configured and depending on whether you collect wood or cling stamps, 6-11 sets can be stashed per cubby.

Since we don’t live near the IKEA, I plotted and planned my shopping list. The Gnedby CD/DVD towers are now a fraction of the price of the old ones and I had just enough space left in the office for one, where I stashed the books. Whew! Now that I had space for all my stamp cases, I had to organize them. But, that is another post! You will see that I marked all the discontinued sets with a red sticker. I always try to feature current products just in case you see them and want to order them right away. Speaking of, Sale-A-Bration is one until the end of March, so make sure you make a qualifying order in case you want some of the free stamps.

Here's a little peek at my craft room - if it wasn't a disaster at the moment, I would take a wider photo. Each month gets better and better though. In theory I should be able to make a video by December ;-)

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January Update

I can't believe I'm running out of January! There was so much I wanted to share, but I was too busy being sick or crafting. I'll wrap up three things in one post though!

First things first, it's time to Sale-A-Brate! I could not wait to put my order in on January 3rd. Sale-A-Brate is more than a great time to join Stampin' Up, it's a fun time to earn bonus stamps and paper. I can't wait to make something with my Lovely Friend set. There are two reward levels at $60 and $120 purchases, so now might be a good time to stock up on supplies for a year of card making and card giving :-) One of the products I have my eye on is the Mixed Medallions set. Check out the Sale-A-Bration brochure.


Woohoo! Stampin' Up has been around 30 years. That's quite a milestone for many companies. With my last order I received this lovely pin. I was looking over some of my older SU catalogues and it's fascinating how trends come and go in the crafting world. I used to work at a Canadian craft store chain, Lewiscraft, and someone there told me that crafts are always on a ten year cycle. Maybe that has shrunk since the advent of YouTube and Pinterest - a lot of crafts seem pretty evergreen these days. I registered for OnStage in April and I can't wait - it's going to be a great time!

January might be a great time to start goals, but remember you can start goals any time of the year. I jotted down six things I wanted to accomplish this month and one of them was to create an Instagram account. One of the things that was stopping me is that I did not have a stamp that said "hello" for my first post. How ridiculous is that? Problem solved with the Eastern Beauty stamp set. This set is actually quite versatile and you can make a lot of cool repeating patterns with it.

A post shared by Christine Anne (@yourfriendchristine77) on Jan 28, 2018 at 10:48am PST

Happy New Year! Time to get organized

Happy new year friends! I don't have much in the way of 2018 resolutions this year, but I have been dying to reorganize my office/craft room. We promptly went to IKEA and then we promptly came down with colds, so I haven't had a chance to assemble my new Gnedby CD/DVD shelf. I have a couple from when they were called Benno. Not only are they good for CDs and DVDs, but paperbacks and Stampin' Up sets!

In the spirit of SU's motto "Inspire create, share", I hope to inspire you to create more by sharing by sharing this tip. I find when I'm designing and making cards, bits get everywhere and then I have to re-stamp or cut them again. Usually I toss everything into a dollar store basket, but do you know what's better than a dollar store basket? An IKEA Antonius basket. They're the ultimate project basket. The 6" middle compartments will hold your small paper pads and embossing folders or a bunch of quarter fold cards. The smaller compartments will wrangle your adhesives and scissors or keep all your Stampin' Blends markers together too! They are $2.99 Canadian and I scooped up four of them because IKEA is an all day trip for us. Oh, and the Antonius basket will fit in your Raskog. What's a Raskog? Stay tuned :-D

You'll thank me at Christmas!

December Stamping Project: Team Swap Christmas Card

I'm going to be posting a bunch of Christmas cards in the coming days and I'll start with one made for my team swap. At first I didn't know how to feel about my design, mostly because I made my cards with plenty of time to spare. The downside to getting cards done early is that you want to add or change them the more you look at them. I resisted that! I had some fun trying out new techniques though, such as inking an embossing folder before running it through my Big Shot. This effect is so sharp, especially when you use it with a contrasting colour instead of the matching paper colour.

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Here are just some of the cards I received in return from the swap. I'm so fortunate to have a great team.
 

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Stay tuned for more cards!

November Stamping Project: Peace on Earth Christmas Cards

Nothing puts more fear into some hearts than Christmas cards. Start them in July? Get them out on time? I would love to make handmade Christmas cards if I had the time...

Never fear! You can totally stamp a stack and give a special handmade card easier than you think! You just need a little planning and you'll have a stack in no time by designing a card around two stacks of paper. Pick one task per night and you can make them in a week. Promise!

This card uses the One Sheet Wonder technique, if you need to brush up on it. Another thing to note about this design is that you can make horizontal or vertical cards - as long as the sentiment square covers the seam of the two papers.



Supply list for many cards

• Be Merry 8.5x11" cardstock pack
• Whisper White 8.5x11" cardstock - optional - the Be Merry pack comes with extra thick Whisper White paper
• Quilted Christmas 6x6" DSP
• Old Olive ink
• Real Red ink
• Carols of Christmas stamp set
• Stitched Shapes Framelits Dies
• Year of Cheer Specialty washi tape
• White copy paper
• Dimensionals
• Ruler and craft knife or Stampin' Trimmer
• Adhesive, Stampin' Dimensionals and Big Shot

1. Score as many sheets of Garden Green and Cherry Cobbler down the middle for the number of cards that you want to make. Cut in half but do no fold to make card bases.
2. Measure the largest square from Stitched Shapes against a sheet of Whisper White cardstock and cut strips of paper. You should be able to get 9 squares from a sheet. Die cut the squares from the strips.
3. Use the Peace on Earth stamp to stamp sentiments on the squares. Use either Old Olive or Real Red ink, or both!
4. Select one sheet of each design from the Quilted Christmas 6x6" DSP paper pack. Follow the One Sheet Wonder technique to create a variety of pieces to create card fronts from.
5. Pair up a big piece of DSP with a small piece for the number of cards you are making. Line them up together and trim, if necessary, so that the two pieces are flush with each other.
6. Carefully tear two pieces of washi tape and adhere the two pieces of paper at the seam. Wrap the tape around the front and back edge - no need to cover the part that will be covered by the sentiment.
7. Run adhesive over the back of the new card front you just created and adhere to the front of the card, centering it in the middle.
8. Take your sentiment squares and pop them up with Stampin' Dimensionals.
9. Trim copy paper into 7.5x10" sheets, then cut them into quarters measuring 3.25x5". Adhere them to the inside of the card, or stamp another sentiment inside - it's up to you!

Here is step 4 and 5 in action. The washi tape is from last year's tin of cards.

You can have the small piece at the top or bottom of your card - it's up to you!

Now, this it the part of the card that I can't tell you how to do, because it's up to you! You can take your favourite Christmas dies and die cut shapes from gold and silver foil paper (hey, Stampin' Up! sells that too). In my sample photo, I used the stars from Starlight Thinlits Dies and discontinued nesting stars. You could add any of the lovely shapes from Pretty Pines Thinlits Dies. My tip for die cutting foil paper is to make sure that the foil side is against the die for a perfect cut. Cutting against the back can rag the foil.

And there you have it! You can stamp a stack for Christmas and share what you love with your special friends and family :-)

One Sheet Wonder - What?

I decided to introduce this technique ahead of November's stamping project - the One Sheet Wonder! If you haven't heard of it before, it's a great way to save paper and pennies by using one sheet of paper to cut out all your shapes. Given the cost of paper, I'm all for thrifty projects. You can One Sheet Wonder any size of paper. Here's how I decided to divide 6x6" sheets of Quilted Christmas paper from Stampin' Up.



How many card fronts can you make with one package of paper?



1. Cut the 6x6" sheet of paper in half so that you have two 3x6" strips.
2. Cut a 3x3.25" piece from each strip.
3. Cut the remaining piece in half so both pieces are 3" wide.

Super simple, right? If you choose one sheet of paper of each design, you'll have lots of pieces to mix and match for card fronts. Stay tuned for the finished project!

October Stamping Project: Smitten Mitten Greeting Cards

If it feels like I skipped over Halloween - I have! Unfortunately I don't have any little goblins and ghouls to make a craft for. Autumn in Calgary is a very short season - maybe a few weeks before we're launched into winter. I designed this card as mini-glove weather approached.



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Supply list for two cards

• Powder Pink 8.5x11" cardstock
• Whisper White 8.5x11" cardstock
• Rose Red 8.5x11" cardstock
• Powder Pink ink
• Rose Red ink
• Smitten Mittens stamp and die bundle
• Cable Knit embossing folder
• Stamping sponges
• Ruler and craft knife or Stampin' Trimmer
• Adhesive and Big Shot

1. Score a sheet of Whisper White down the middle. Do not fold or cut in half yet.
2. On the right hand side of the Whisper White sheet, stamp mittens and patterns all over in Powder Pink ink.
3. Cut in half to make two card bases.
4. Flip the cards over and stamp the non-mitten sentient inside with Rose Red ink. Add a tiny mitten too!
5. Use up largish scraps of Whisper White by stamping the mitten sentiment twice in Rose Red ink. Die cut.
6. Die cut two solid mittens from Rose Red cardstock.
7. Cut one long 2x11" strip from a sheet of Powder Pink cardstock and cut in half.
8. Emboss with cable knit embossing folder.
9. Go back to your card bases and sponge Powder Pink ink around the edges.
10. Time to assemble! Adhere the embossed strip to the front of the card. Layer the solid mitten behind the stamped mitten. Voila!

You could also try making this card vertical or use the Softly Falling embossing folder instead. Imagine all the cool colour combos you could do - purple, red, green, blue - I went with pink tones to be a little different :-)