Saturday Card Sketch 823 -Zany Zebras Birthday Card

There are 2 ways to interpret the sketch this week - as flat triangular layers, or as an Arrow Fold card.  Since the Arrow Fold is new to me, I decided to go that route.  I made a video and wrote a tutorial so that you could make one, too!

 

The Arrow Fold is pretty easy - it's just few diagonal score lines folded into that triangular shape.  Then you use adhesive to keep the folds shut.

🌞Joyful Stamper Tip: save paper by die-cutting pieces from the center of your cardstock mats.  In this card, I die-cut the Stitched Nested Label that the zebras are on from the center of the Whisper White mat.  The cut-out portion is covered by the Just Jade Designer Series Paper.

• Cut the card base to 5-1/2"x11" and score in half on the long side at 5-1/2"
• Mark the short side at 2-3/4".
• Mark the left and right long sides at 1-7/8", 3-3/4", and 5-1/2".
• Score from the 2-3/4" mark to each of the marks on the long side, both left and right sides.  You'll have 6 diagonal score lines when you are finished (3 on the left and 3 on the right), all radiating from the 2-3/4" mark.
• Watch the video to see how it's done!

Zany Zebras makes the cutest cards!  I wanted something fun and bright for my twin nephews' 6th birthdays.  After stamping the zebras, I went over them with a Blender Pen to fill in the image a bit with the stamped ink.  This is one of my all-time favorite techniques!  Add a pack of Blender Pens to your next order and give it a try - you'll see why it's a favorite! 

 

Pin, print, or save the tutorial for this card.  Measurements and supply list are included in the tutorial.

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Saturday Sketch + Card Video & PDF Tutorial

My brother and his family stayed with us in our itty bitty one-story 1200 square feet home this week and it was crazy!  Crazy in a super fun way, though.  I love my niece and twin nephews.  They are 7, 5 and 5.  Those ages are so healing and healthy for an adult to take his or her mind off the cares of the world.  What's more important this morning than playing a Wii Mario Kart tournament?  Nothing?  Or what's more important this evening than roasting a marshmallow over a campfire for a s'more?  Nothing!

Using a sketch like this week's from Splitcoaststampers is a timesaver in week's like this past one where there wasn't much time to create.  There's even a forum thread to post a photo of what you make with the sketch, or to gallery gaze at what others did with it.

I loved the idea of combining the Buffalo Check background stamp with Free As A Bird.  The images were colored with Stampin' Blends, as were the pearls.  

Did you know you could color pearls, rhinestones, and ribbons with Stampin' Blends?  Since the Blends are alcohol inks, they can be used on both porous and non-porous surfaces.  I love that ability to have embellishments in whatever Stampin' Up! color I need!

Knowing people learn by different methods, I've created both a video and a written tutorial for this week's sketch card.  Enjoy!

Friend Like You Online Class Sunday, June 14 8 PM (ET) Details here.

Mystery Stamping Hour

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If you are enjoying The Joyful Stamper site

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• Use this month's Reward Code to earn points towards a $50 shopping spree - read the details here.
• Join me every Thursday at 11 AM ET for my weekly Happy Half Hour Live stamping show on my Facebook page.  

Joy in being creative, community in sharing a common interest, purpose in what we make - this is stamping at its best!  Thank you, friends, for choosing me as your demonstrator!

Parisian Blossoms Magnificent Adventure + Free Tutorial

Good Monday morning, friends!  I have a sweet story for you that hopefully starts your week off on a happy note.  My grandmother fractured a disc in her back and has been in the hospital almost three weeks.  Friday was her 89th birthday (yes, she's a Valentine's Day baby) and when I called her hospital room to wish her a happy birthday, it was noisy and sounded like a party was going on.  I asked her about it and she told me my parents were there, both my aunts and uncles (her other son and daughter and their spouses), and my cousin.  They'd brought a cake with plates and utensils, balloons, and flowers.  PLUS the hospital staff came around to sing to her and give her a cake.  PLUS a volunteer group sang to her and gave her cupcakes.  My grandma - bedridden in the hospital for almost three weeks with a fractured disc and several infections and turning 89 years old - said excitedly, "This is the best birthday I've ever had!"  Isn't that cute?

It was a marathon stamp session Saturday and this is one of the projects that came from it.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Parisian Blossoms Specialty Designer Series Paper (DSP)!  There was no way to pick a single pattern so I chose three and created a block layout to highlight them.

Each DSP piece is cut to 2-3/4" x 2-1/8" and adhered with Multi Purpose Liquid Glue to a 4-1/4"x11" Thick Very Vanilla cardstock base.  

A 3"x4" Champagne Foil piece is  tucked behind a 5-1/2"X2-3/8" piece of Vellum cardstock.  I love how the Champagne Foil picks up the champagne on the ribbon edge and in the rhinestone!  The Eiffel Tower is a die from the Parisian Dies that coordinate with the Parisian Blossoms stamp set (bundle them together and save 10%).  I used Cherry Cobbler cardstock to cut this out.  If you use this trick, the little pieces pop out easily.

The greeting is from Parisian Blossoms and is stamped on a strip of Petal Pink cardstock in Pool Party ink.  I used a Bone Folder to curve the greeting strip and adhered it with Stampin' Dimensionals.  The Petal Pink Metallic Edge Ribbon is tied in a bow and anchored to the sentiment strip with a Mini Glue Dot.  A Champagne Rhinestone Basic Jewel adds a simple hint of sparkle.  **I'm just now seeing I left one little itty bitty piece in the die-cut.  I realize some of you are itching to reach into the screen and poke it out and I'll apologize right now for that bit of stamping indiscretion 😊**

Click any of the images below to shop for these pretties!

Read on for the free tutorial I have just for you!

Click the image for a tutorial you can pin, download, or print.

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Thank you for choosing me as your demonstrator!  I appreciate your business!

Ooh La La!

I'm an armchair traveller.  Yes, I go places (Alaska and Las Vegas in the last 4 months) but my strong preference is to stay home.  Everything I love most is here!  The great thing about this personality quirk is that I will listen to your travel stories and look at your travel photos for as long as you like because I genuinely enjoy hearing about others' adventures.  So set that projector up, load up the slides, and invite me over!  

Wait, I think I'm in the wrong decade with that sentence.  Not having a cell phone, I get confused at times and think I'm back in the '80s.

Parisian Beauty is all the Paris I need.  It's part of Stampin' Up!'s Parisian Blossoms suite, found on page 14 in the Mini Catalog (don't have a copy?  Click here to see it online or to request a free catalog package).  My card today features this suite and uses last week's Splitcoaststampers Sketch Challenge.

I just realized I did not stamp at all on this card!  I did, however, use the Parisian dies, which coordinate with the stamp set.  Look at the detail of the Eiffel Tower die!  I die-cut it with Champagne Foil paper to match the Champagne Rhinestones Basic Jewels.  I also sprinkled in a few Holiday Rhinestones Basic Jewels in Pool Party.  ❤

The "merci" is also a die from the Parisian set.  I cut three from Petal Pink cardstock, then glued them together using a Fine-Tip Glue Pen.  I like the lift and attention that trick gives.

A swirl die-cut with Pool Party cardstock and a sweetly tied Petal Pink Metallic-Edged Ribbon add elegant detail.  I also used a Stampin' Sponge to apply Soft Suede ink to the edges of the Parisian Blossoms Designer Series Paper.

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Video and post here

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Hershey Nugget Cakes - Facebook Live Video

It's a tradition for me to make Hershey Nugget Cakes for each of my three girls to take into school.  They pull them out at lunch time and their friends go crazy!  Instant popularity.  Friends bought.  Mission accomplished.  

That was a joke - I am not trying to buy friends for my girls!  I just need an excuse to buy Hershey nuggets and making these cakes is it.

Emma's cake 

Alaina's cake

Caitlin's cake

There's no need for me to write a tutorial - I'll link you to the one I followed.  

Nugget Cake

My rings for the cake tiers are 1" wide strips cut from cereal boxes.  I cut three: 10", 8", and 6" in length.  Each was formed into a circle with the ends stapled together.  I fit 6 nuggets on the top tier, 8 on the middle tier, and 10 on the bottom tier.  It depends on how you staple the ends together, though.  You may fit 7, 9, and 11 on your tiers.

The top uses the Spooktacular Bash bundle of stamps and dies plus Monster Bash Enamel Shapes and Basic Black Scalloped Ribbon.  I colored in the images with Stampin' Blends alcohol markers.  That little ghost makes me smile every time - he's SO CUTE!

To get the images to stay standing, I taped toothpicks to the backs of the ghost and Dracula pieces.  The sentiment has a paper "easel" glued to its back.

There were gaps in my tiers where I couldn't fit another nugget but the cardboard ring was exposed.  To hide that, I added some frames and stamped images from the Spooktacular Bash Bundle.  The images were colored with Stampin' Blends alcohol markers, too.

Tear 'N Tape and lots of hot glue were used to hold these cakes together.  LOTS of hot glue!  In some of the photos you can see the hot glue.  I don't aim for perfection when I make something - I aim for joy!  Joy in the making, joy in the giving, and joy in the receiving!

I did a Facebook Live last week showing off all my Halloween projects (more than just these cakes).  Every project I show in my Live has a printable tutorial for you.  They are on my blog here.  My excitement in the video is a little over-the-top but I REALLY love this stuff!



As always, I am grateful for you choosing me as your demonstrator.  My aim is for you to have the BEST stamping experience - it's a job I absolutely love!  Thank you for ordering with me!

Spooktacular Bash bundle (10% discount)

Monster Bash Enamel Shapes

Monster Bash Designer Series Paper

Basic Black Scalloped Ribbon

Stampin' Blends alcohol markers

Shop with me here

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Faux Wood Technique

I saw the Faux Wood Technique here for the first time and fell in love with the look.  

Then, like I usually do, I made a mistake here and there in the execution!  It turned out fine, though, and since I was gleefully praising myself as I was playing, I decided to make a photo tutorial for you all!  My steps are a bit different than the original tutorial because of my mistakes, which I ended liking.  

I have another card example using this technique at the end of this post!

Faux Wood Technique Photo Tutorial

Choose 3 colors that are a light, medium, and dark of each other, plus Whisper White.  Oh, and that Close to Cocoa ink pad is really Soft Suede.  I kept the pad when the color retired and just reink it with Soft Suede.

Add your lightest color first, which is Crumb Cake here.

This is the way to add the ink in each step to your cardstock.  It's called the direct-to-paper method.  Place your ink pad at the edge of your cardstock, then drag it across.

Add next darkest color, which is Soft Suede here.

Add darkest color next, which is Early Espresso here.  And, yes, you can use your mini ink pads for the direct-to-paper method!

Wait a minute to give the previous applications of ink time to dry, then add Whisper White ink.  I did get a tiny amount of brown ink on my pad, but it's fine!  You can blot it out with a paper towel or be like me and just leave it (I think it's evident from these photos that my supplies are well-used!).

We've made our faux wood cardstock - isn't it wonderful?!  Now it's time to cut our frames.  If your dies are able to nest inside each other, you can do the next three steps at once.

Place the smaller frame inside of the larger frame.  

LOVE!!!  Don't you love that look?  **swoon**  That fabulous wood grain paper in the background is from the Come To Gather DSP.  I pulled on the Copper Ribbon Trim to get a full look.

I loved the Faux Wood Technique so much that I made a second card.

Instead of squares, I used stitched rectangles for the frames.  You could use Stitched Shapes dies to get square, circle, and oval frames, too.

The leaf die is from Gathered Leaves dies (as is the Crushed Curry one in my first card on which I stamped the sentiment).  I pressed the leaf die into a Delicata Gold Glitz ink pad then ran it through my machine with Cajun Craze cardstock.  

The multi-colored leaves were SO easy to create.  I scribbled on the stamp with Stampin' Write markers, breathed on it to rewet the ink, then stamped on Very Vanilla cardstock.  I used my Stampin' Write markers lightest to darkest: Crushed Curry, Pumpkin Pie, Cherry Cobbler.  

Layering Squares dies (item #141708)

Stitched Shapes dies (item #145372)

Gathered Leaves dies (item #150662)

Delicata Golden Glitz ink (item #150711) *currently on backorder but still orderable

Stampin' Write Markers -Regals (item #147155)

Beauty & Joy stamp set (item #150518) **one of my Top 10 picks!**

Copper Trim (item #144179)

Come To Gather Designer Series Paper (item #150454) *currently on backorder but still orderable

Thank you for choosing me as your demonstrator!  It's always my goal to give you your best crafting experience.  Your support lets me know that you ARE having your best crafting experience!   

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