Vintage Card with Matchbook Holder

I sat down the other day to play with some of my favourite retiring stamps and accessories and this is what I came up with. Tomorrow is my last day of work for this school year and I think I will give this set to a friend at work. The match book holder idea came from Inking Idaho. I had made many match books, including a couple of mini albums, but never thought to use them to hold 3x3 cards. To create the match book, cut a piece of cardstock to 8 1/4 x 3 1/2. Score at 3 1/4, 3 1/2, and 7 1/4. If you are planning to scallop the edge, as I did here, I would suggest cutting the paper at 8 1/2 x 3 1/2. Here's what the cover of the match book looks like:
Retiring Stamps and Accessories (several of which are on sale right now) include:

Stamps: All Holidays, Friends 24/7
Accessories: Birds & Blooms Die (flowers & leaves), Hodgepodge Hardware, Spiral Punch
Paper: Newsprint Designer Series Patterned Paper, Presto Patterns

There's still time to order, but June 30th is the last day. Order online through my store, or call me to place your order.

The Open Sea - Using the Distressing Essentials Kit

I actually made this last month for a colleague's 40th birthday. I finally sat down with my Distressing Essentials Kit and started to play. The Nautical Expedition Paper was sanded with the sanding blocks to create a worn look. Next, I applied the included distress inks to the stamped paper using the included applicator (basically a plain rubber stamp). I masked the boat image and spritzed the piece with water to blend the colours together. The ink spots in this kit is water based and meant to bleed together when spritzed with water, creating the look of old, worn paper. The kit also includes files in a variety of sizes, perfect for sanding those hard to reach corners of the chipboard numbers.

My Digital Sunday - New In Colors!

New In Colors are Coming!



Best of all last year's in-colors are staying for one more year, so beginning July 1st there will be even more colors to play with! The new line is bold and bright and, judging from my weekend shopping trip, very trendy. As I was hanging my new purchases in my closet, I discovered that I have purchased a shirt that contains every one of these five colours this spring (although thankfully not all on the same shirt).Here is a chart to show how these new colors compare to both the current colors available and some of the retired colors (keep in mind that your monitor may show the colors differently than they appear in real life).

 

The first thing I thought of when I saw these new colors was the colours we saw on our recent Caribbean Cruise. I couldn't wait to play with them in My Digital Studio, so I cheated a little! Did you know that you can match any color that you find on the internet or in a photo? I used the "match color" tool in MDS to match each of these colors and create a scrapbook page showcasing my daughter in St. Thomas. To create your own colored cardstock, punch out a square and drag it to cover your page. Insert the photo that you want to select the color from and select your punch. Click on the "match color" tool and select the color in the photo that you want to match. You can even save these new colors into your favorites to use later. Stampin' UP! will release the digital version of the new colors in an update after July first, but in the meantime, check out what I created!