321 Stamp: Launching Creativity

Delicate Doilies Goes Bright

Lacey doilies are all the rage these days in papercrafting, but who says they have to just be white?! This card uses Stampin' Up's new Delicate Doilies stamp set -- in Pumpkin Pie, Melon Mambo and Chocolate Chip Ink.

The doilies that mat the focal point are so much fun. The Melon Mambo one was cut from a sheet of 16 laser cut doilies in our new Flirtatious Designer Series Specialty Paper -- you get a sheet of the Mambo and sheet of Pumpkin Pie plus 10 other coordinating sheets of printed paper. The Chocolate Chip card stock doily mat was cut using a great new Stampin' Up Big Shot die called Perfect Pennants -- it has two sizes of circles with lacey edges and three sizes of triangles that layer to make cute pennants (also popular right now).

Check out this detail — I used a safety pin from our Vintage Trinkets to attach my little love tag which was punched out with the Jewelry Tag punch. The little bow tied onto the end of the pin with our White Baker's Twine is the perfect little touch. And that new polka dot scallop ribbon is the bomb!! It comes in 10 colors including the Chocolate Chip I used here. It is so flexible and easy to tape down without a lot of bulk. And one side is printed with dots but the other side is blank grosgrain and the dots do not show through so you could use the plain side if you wanted.

Finally -- tomorrow is the end of our $99 starter kit promotion -- such a great way to become a Stampin' Up demonstrator. You can sign up online by clicking here and you get a bonus -- a Christmas project box which Stampin' co-founder Shelli Gardner helped design.

Here's a very short video she made with more information.

  

I'd love to answer any questions you have about the Stampin' Up Opportunity so get in touch. But remember the $99 kit and the Christmas box go away at the end of the day on July 31.

A pull-up candy bar surprise

Here's a great project when you want to surprise someone with a sweet treat -- in this case a full size Hershey's Milk Chocolate bar that's been wrapped in the pretty First Edition newsprint style Designer Paper from Stampin' Up and then hidden inside a card stock "tube" to be revealed when the recipient pulls the ribbon.

Here are dimensions and scoring instructions to make the candy bar sleeve (and at the end I'll post measurements that I use when I do not wrap the candy bar.):

6” by 6” Marina Mist Card Stock (stamp it as you like, I used Marina Mist ink and the Nature's Walk stamp set for a tone-on-tone look. The label was made with the Four Frames set and the words came from Teeny Tiny Wishes -- a must-have word set!)

Test the square’s “grain” and score along the side that bends easiest for neater folds. (So the most “bendable” direction is horizontal in the Fiskars Trimmer or your scoring tool.)

Score at 2 ½” — 2 ¾” — 5 ¼” AND 5 ½” from one end.

** The wide panel closest to the ½” side flap is the front. Punch a little down from the top of this front flap with the Word Window Punch BEFORE assembly & with the wrapper open flat. This will create the slot that you will thread your ribbon through later.

I wrapped my candy bar in a piece of the newsprint paper that was 6 inches wide and 6 1/2" tall. I needed that extra 1/2" to be able to tape the ends closed with SNAIL adhesive and then I crimped them a couple of turns in the Paper Crimper to give it a finished look.

Seal the card stock sleeve closed using Sticky Strip or the liquid Tombow Glue. Cut a piece of wide ribbon 16 ½” long. Here's a look at the candy bar pulled up so you can see how the ribbon is wrapped around the bottom of the candy bar, which is then slid down into the sleeve.

You'll be threading just the ribbon on the front of the candy bar through that Word Window slot that you punched on just the front panel. When it gets to the bottom it stops and it's easy to slide the candy bar out of the ribbon. (I've also attached a Gift Card to the candy bar before so that surprise pops up when you pull the ribbon.) I just tied linen thread around my ribbon tops -- and you want to tie it close to the top of the candy bar so it holds it in. This was a nice way to keep it "manly looking" since this one was a Father's Day theme.

And here is a look from the back so you can see that there is NO slot there, just in the front.

Here are those adjusted measurements to make the sleeve a little smaller when you use a candy bar just in its wrapper without the added bulk of the designer paper wrap: Use a 5 ½" wide by 6” card stock square and score at: 2 ¼” — 2 ½” — 4 ¾” AND 5” 

These are so much fun to make and like I said before, stick a gift card onto the candy bar with a couple of mini glue dots and it's really a treat!

Blossom Bouquet Punch Card

I made this card a couple of months back as a Stamp Club project to showcase the new Triple Layer punches. See those cute flowers? Everything but the center of each flower is made using one punch that has a three-position lever that you can move so it punches three different flowers! The stamp set for the stems and the cute flower stamped center -- and the greeting -- is Bold Blossom from the Summer Mini Catalog -- so it's only available through August 31 and is the perfect match in size and style for these punched flowers. It's only $12.95 in wood mount (item #123232) and just $9.95 in Clear Mount (item #122232) The smaller punched centers in Daffodil and Melon Mambo were made using the Itty Bitty punch pack punches -- love those for that perfect little touch to finish off a project.

Finally, to wrap up my recent tributes to the end of the space shuttle program that I've shared here on my blog, click here to see a wonderful blog post by my friend, CBS Radio Correspondent Peter King, whose post includes a video of my husband Bill sharing his throughts on the final landing during the CBS Early Show Thursday morning. The video is embedded in Peter's post about halfway down. Bill still has lots of space news to cover for CBS, such as the launches to the space station as American astronauts hitch a ride on Russian rockets and tracking the progress of NASA's new commercial space partnerships. Thanks for endulging my mentions of the space program since they inspired my blog's name.

The end of an era

When I wear my other hat as a writer I try to avoid cliches -- but it truly is the end of an era today as Atlantis, the last space shuttle, lands at the Kennedy Space Center.

"Mission complete, Houston," shuttle commander Chris Ferguson radioed post landing. "After serving the world for over 30 years, the space shuttle has earned its place in history. It's come to a final stop. You know, the space shuttle has changed the way we view the world and it's changed the way we view our universe. There are a lot of emotions today, but one thing is indisputable -- America's not going to stop exploring."

As my husband, CBS News Space Consultant Bill Harwood wrote, "Over the course of the shuttle program's 30-year space odyssey, Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis and Endeavour carried more than 3.5 million pounds of cargo to orbit, brought another 230,000 pounds of equipment back to Earth and deployed 180 satellites and space station components."

The end of an amazing era of progress. And technological spinoffs that had very down-to-Earth benefits, such as microsurgical instruments that let doctors save the lives of premature babies, components of an artificial heart, heat protection for NASCAR race drivers -- heat resistant shuttle tiles have even become a soldering platform for jewelry artists, replacing a hazardous asbestos fiber version. That's just to name a few.

I'll be back with a stamped work of art soon -- but first I had to share this breathtaking celestial art, a photo shot by the crew aboard the International Space Station as the shuttle Atlantis descended through the atmosphere this morning. That's the ionized trail of super heated air behind the shuttle as it plows into the atmosphere -- those lights below are Central America. Truly amazing.

Watch for a shuttle to appear soon at a museum near you -- as the three remaining orbiters go to sites in Los Angeles, Washington, DC and the Kennedy Space Center -- with a prototype "pathfinder" shuttle going to New York City.

It's been an awesome 30 years to live on Florida's space coast where every launch and landing was a cause for celebrtion — every setback and loss of life a cause for great sadness. I know the shuttle has inspired a lot of future scientists who will invent even more technologies to benefit us all. Godspeed to America's space program and thank you to all the local folks from the Kennedy Space Center who've invested their heart and soul into this program.

The Last Shuttle Launch is almost here

You may have noticed the name of my blog is inspired by the space coast of Florida where I live -- home to the space shuttle for the past 30 years. So please endulge me in some non-stamping information. Now this Friday, July 8 at 11:26 am EDT it will be time for the final shuttle launch when shuttle Atlantis and her crew of four astronauts lift off. The photo above was taken by my husband Bill when the crew arrived at the Kennedy Space Center on this beautiful Independence Day. The Atlantis astronauts at the shuttle runway are, from left to right, commander Christopher Ferguson, pilot Douglas Hurley, Sandra Magnus and Rex Walheim.

It is a very bittersweet time in our area with this magnificent program coming to an end. I've had several questions about coming here to watch this historic launch and I wanted to share some links I often email to people when they ask. Just click here -- and then scroll down until you see the "best places to watch a launch" section with a map of some sites. And here is one more -- click here for a site that focuses on the photographs you can expect to shoot from each location. The areas along US highway 1 in Titusville are the best public viewing spots -- and it will be very crowded this time!

And to check in on the latest launch news, click here for my husband's CBS News space site.

Godspeed Atlantis!

The New Catalog is Here!!!

 
It's July 1 and that means it's "Happy New Year" day for Stampin' Up. You can see the new catalog in a great "flip-through" online version by clicking the photo link for it in the right column of my blog -- and if you want the list of supplies for all the great projects in the new catalog, the Stampin' Supplies link is right below that, which will download a 33-page pdf right to your computer with a list of supplies by page # and project.

As always, if you want to order online from the new catalog, just click on the link in the upper right column.

Enjoy and can't wait to share all the new ideas that a new catalog inspires.