Stampin' With Michelle Pepper

I have been toying with the idea of setting up a facebook page for my little Stampin' Up! business. You can see the FB badge on the right of this page so please go ahead and like it, to show me some support :-) I have resisted getting a FB account until now, so please be patient with me as I get myself up to speed with this whole new world. (those who are reading this via email, the link is: www.facebook.com/stampwithmichelle) With November and December being such busy months, I actually did get quite a bit of crafting done, more than what I had blogged about! So I will be pretty-ing up my FB page with photos of these projects that I managed to snap a photo of. Many thanks my readers, and hope to see you there on FB too :-)

It's now 5 days till Christmas, and I haven't send out any Christmas cards - shocking for a card maker, don't you think? Well, I'm soldiering on today, employing the help of my boys :-) It is a simple card inspired by this week's Paper Player's challenge: I hope you are all more organised than I am. If not, there is still time to post locally :-)

This would be a favourite stamp set of mine if I actually own it, lol. Lucky for me, my SU upline is willing to let me use hers while she's away - yay, thank you much Penny.  Look at how simple this card is to make: one stamp, some bakers wine, on Very Vanilla card stock, and a corner rounder. Round off the corners and there, you have a nice Clean And Simple card :-)

This is my version of this masterpiece . I wanted to be prepared in case a stamping expert turns up at the lunch hour workshop at the Dare To Dream Conference. Sponging is one of my favourite techniques and this tree image? Well, I don't think I can ever tire of using it.

Another simple simple card for the lunch hour workshop. People can customise the card by way of the sentiment they choose to put on the card, the colour of the card base, and how/if they embellish it. I just so {heart} that tree with the girl swinging image!

When the workshop for card making is over a lunch hour, you know that it will be a rush so the cards will need to be simple. Embossing Folders are the answer for quick and simple yet beautiful cards. TIP: see that row of pearls? It was placed there strategically - to hide a little stamping mistake I made when stamping that "journey" statement. End result is a beautiful card though, so I am pleased.

It really is birthday month in the Pepper extended family. This time, it's my Nathan's 8th birthday, and the fact that he asked me if I have made his card yet warms my heart. I mean, doesn't that tell you that my boys look forward to receiving a hand made card from me? Well, I had such warm and fuzzies that I just wanted to make him a special card. So here's the effort, combining the last two birthday cards. A flip flop card AND a treat cup card with a trap door. And of course, it had to be Lego minifigure in the cup, for a boy who only had Lego on his wish list. The fruity DSP is retired, but I just had to use it for this boy who loves fruit. Strawberries...hmmm...and it just so happen to be strawberries season now too. Yeah! These interactive cards are truly fun and if you didn't want to figure out the tricky way to make it, it is easy to make with one of the Thinlits Card Dies recently released by Stampin Up!

Fat free, and sugar free; need I say more? My lovely sister-in-law made all the cupcakes for her 1 year old's birthday celebration, and I supplied these toppers - what a team we make :-) I made these exactly as I made the one here , I just got real good at it now, after making (and supervising the making of, thanks Dream Hub Women ) 30 of these beauties.

I love using the Circle Treat Cups for a fun and novelty card. Lego, chocolate candy and money... all that a 4 year old really wants right? Hope so! I actually had a Gruffalo book ordered but it hasn't arrived in time, so that will have to be Christmas present :-) The coins are $1 coin and there are four of them, one for each year of age. That's a tradition we do in our family, now I'm just extending it to the extended family :-) I actually made quite a few major mistakes in the process of making this card, but all is well that ends well. Hence the inside panel uses a DSP that doesn't coordinate with the DSP panel on the front of the card. See the tabs? You pull those to reveal the trap door to access the contents in the treat cups. Clever huh? Novel, surely! I had such a lot of space left at the top of the front panel too, so I search and search through my stamp sets and you know what? I don't have a big enough, one line, birthday greeting! So now I'...

Known by a variety of names, mainly swing and flip flop, these interactive cards are back in popularity. Now with Stampin' Up!'s new Thinlit card dies, these cards can be made quickly and easily. Confession: I made today's feature card the conventional way as I haven't got these new products yet, and I knew I wouldn't get it before Grace's birthday. There are many youtube videos out there showing how to make these, but this one I found the most efficient, short and sweet :-) So, here it is, a precious little card for my precious little niece: My own added feature to the interactive card is the square tag with the cupcake image. Inside is where I will be able to write a birthday message to Grace. Circle Card Thinlits Die (133480) $67.95                                                            Label Card Thinlit...

Ever since I laid my eyes on the Holly Jolly tags on page 13 of the Holiday Catalogue, I have been looking forward to make these beauties, only I wanted to make ornaments for the Christmas tree! Well, indeed-y, you can use these as a most elaborate gift topper or tag that will also double up as an ornament for your recipient's tree this Christmas. Now, isn't that fantastic! You will notice on the catalogue that these tags are quite dimensional and bless Stampin' Up! Training staff Carrie has kindly shared a video tutorial on how to create the dimensional look. Tip #1: I tried to attempt the folds without scoring, and that was not easy at all, breaking a tip or two of the snowflake. The Simply Score Tool makes the scoring, and then the folding, a breeze. Tip #2: The silver metallic ink is very slow to dry, especially on the clear window sheet, so I decided to heat with the Clear Embossing Powder after stamping. That worked beautifully. Tip #3: You will need a h...

I have been AWOL in participating in challenges just when I was just getting started...well, I am so glad to be into it again, hopefully. Today's project is inspired by Case Study Challenge #158 : My take was inspired by the different card shape. The big flower also reminded me of the snowflake shape because I am on the snowflake bend of late (be warned, nay, advised: more blog posts featuring snowflakes to come). Combining the two, we have a Snowflake card!  What a novelty card, don't you think? It is cut out from the largest snowflake from Stampin' Up!'s Festive Flurry Framelits set. I used the Silver Dazzling Details glue to highlight the dimensional snowflake piece. It is small enough to be a beautifully ornated placecard for a special dinner party or a breakfast event. It can also double up as an ornament for the Christmas tree, or Gratitude tree. What about making these in different colours? Hmm, I might just try it in pinks and purples, too. Than...

A birthday card to go with the handmade gift box set for Carrie . The flower is from the Blossom punch, minus one petal. It didn't end up being used in a previous project but found its home here :-) I am loving the colour combination: Baja Breeze, Chocolate Chip and Calypso Coral. The button on the flower is actually made from the Simply Pressed Clay. I didn't stamp on the inside of this card as I needed all the room I can get to write in a special message :-) but I did use the same DSP pattern on the envelope so I tick off the box for co-ordination.  Thanks for stopping by, bless you all!

It's my friend Carrie's birthday and since we haven't got a car at the moment, I haven't been able to go shopping for a present. So what do you do the night before? Well, you make a handmade gift! My inspiration came from SU! Demo Tania Bell who had shared in July a  video tutorial  on how to make a lidded box from a single 12" x 12" sheet without cutting.  Problem was, there was no instructions for the smaller boxes so imagine the mental gymnastics that I was doing late at night (as I got too engrossed in watching Iron Man 3 to multi-task as I originally planned, so I got to working on these close to midnight, lol).  I am quite proud of myself, so these measurements are available at the bottom of this post, for your convenience :-) The smallest box in this set had room for only one Ferrero Chocolate. I managed to squeeze in 2 treat size of Picnic bars in the middle box, and the largest box is good for 3" x 3" cards (I made a set of 6 card...

Ombre, the French word for colour that is shaded or graduated in tone, is a popular trend in fashion, and we've seen it in the paper craft industry for a while now too. Today's project was inspired by a card I saw on Diane Dimich's blog. I used the bitty butterflies from the Papillon Potpourri stamp set (click  here for the bundle promotion that is on until the end of this month). The colours I used are Blushing Bride, Crisp Cantaloupe, Calypso Coral and Strawberry Slush. Instead of a card, I framed it with my favourite sentiment from the Loving Thoughts set: For that is indeed something close to my heart. I think for many of us, we have not permitted ourselves to dream - big dreams ("that's just impossible!"), fun dreams ("that's so selfish!") or small dreams ("anyone can do that!") If you feel that is true for you, the time to change that is Now! There are many who will walk this journey with you if you dare to dream an...

The inspiration for today's card was from page 22 of the current Annual catalogue . What a fun way to use embossing folders! Brayer the ink onto the raised side of the embossing folder (Chevron folder, in this case), lay the Whisper White card stock in, close the folder and run it through the Big Shot - that's it! That's how you get the colour in the recessive areas of the card. The big sentiment from Oh, Hello stamp set, stamped over the chevron oval from the same set, is all that is needed to finish this card off nicely. I love it when I only use one stamp set to complete a card, and the Oh, Hello stamp set is simply versatile enough to be that set for me. Well, hope you give this technique a go if you haven't already tried it. Bless you heaps, and thanks for stopping by. ps: wondering how you'd clean the emboss folder? Easy, just run it through running water.

  photo from Stampin'! Up Blog 2013 Stampin' Up! just released the next instalment of single stamps. These are LIMITED TIME offer only, available until 31 January 2014. Now since it's just been released today, I haven't got any of the stamp to demonstrate with but I didn't want this blog post to have no photo so I have uploaded the above sample from a recent Stampin' Up!'s blog post . (I hope this is ok to do... I am trying to find out and when I do, and if it's not ok, then I'll be taking it off here promptly!) The Christmas Star is the first stamp from this collection that caught my eye, and look at that simple yet so effective card that SU! Concept Artist Melody H made - wow! It is so uncomplicated and fast enough to make even for a busy person, and to make lots of them to send out for Christmas this year. So have a look at the new collection of single stamps below, and email me peppertime123@gmail.com if you want to place an order. ...

A good friend and customer suggested awhile ago that I make a card with the 2013-14 In Colours so that it would be handy to give to customers to see what these colours look like in card stock, not just from the catalogue pages. Time passes, there's always a growing list of things to do...you know how it goes... Then one day, since a lot of stamping tools were already out, and I remember a card I saw in the  blogworld that fellow SU! demo Emily Campbell had made, I set to work to cross this off the list. Well, I got one card made, so now I just have to make a bunch of these to give to customers.  Thanks for stopping by today. Bless you heaps. Now if you haven't already seen it on my Promotions page, this month Stampin' Up! has a special Butterfly Bundle offer that I'd like to bring your attention to:

As promised , today's card features the second card we made at my monthly class this week. We used the stamp set, Wetlands, but this time we used two other techniques to achieve the look we got. The first is called "sponging" technique, because you sponge the ink onto the cardstock with a sponge, starting with a light pressure and increasing pressure to achieve the shade you want. You can also layer colours on. You can create similar effect with a brayer, but I can't get the hang of brayering, so sponging it is, and I love it! Isn't it amazing the kind of scene you can create with a humble sponge and some ink? The second technique used is "Masking", where you use or create a template using copy paper to mask off a section of your card so that it doesn't get inked up with the colour you're sponging (or stamping or brayering) with. In this card, our template is the shore line, which we created by tearing a copy paper, and also the horizon line...

This is the first of two cards we made at my monthly class this week. We were all done by 9pm, isn't that fab? It shows how quick and easy these were to make, and we all need that because not everyone has time to make elaborate cards, and certainly even if you do, there are times you just need to be productive in a short craft session. There is a name for this technique and it is called Colour Wash which I learned from Tami White, one of the few US demos I consider my mentor. Since she has already done a video tutorial of it, I won't need to re-invent the wheel so just click here to view her excellent video and the original card that we CASEd from. The aquapainter is the tool for this technique - it is a brush with a reservoir to hold water in, so you just have to squeeze to get the brush wet. I think these would be a great alternative for little toddlers - no more spilling of water container at the painting table! As you can see, with this technique, n...

How is that for an amazing view from your backyard? Our family have just been to Queenstown, the world's 4th friendliest place where the boys got to experience many "first-s" (ski, gondola, luge, extravagant hotel/apartment), beginning with their very first time being on-board a flying plane. I won't go into details about the trip, except to explain how it has  anything to do with today's card. It was just so lovely to be welcomed into a city we've not been before as a family by being invited to lunch with a local resident. Gill is our friend's mum whom we have met probably about 5 times in Auckland. She welcomed us so warmly, fed us lunch and took the time to show us on the map where the attractions are. I was overwhelmed with gratitude and of course was designing a thank you card in my head while I sat at her dining table. My eyes went back and forth from the view out of her dining area, the majestic snow-capped mountains (the above picture was f...