Stampin' Blends - The Maine Stamper

Sweets & Treats In Polished Pink

August 25, 2021

Finished Cloche Shaker Dome Card using Sweets & Treats Stamp Set

In Color: Polished Pink, Part II

Sweets & Treats come in lots of fun colors. And there is no other color as fun as Polished Pink! As I continue to explore Stampin’ Up!’s new 2021-2023 In Colors, I am tickled pink.

Polished Pink is such a happy color shade. My last card showcased Polished Pink with Mango Melody and Mossy Meadow. To see that card, click here. Today, I have paired it with Coastal Cabana and Daffodil Delight…in an attempt to make a Sweet Treats card.

Sweets & Treats Stamp Set

The Sweets & Treats Stamp Set is found in the July-December 2021 Mini Catalog. But, don’t be fooled. The Sweets & Treats Stamp Set goes way beyond the holidays.

Sure, there is a Christmas pudding stamp, and a sentiment that proclaims “bring on Christmas”. However, Sweets & Treats are year-round delights. There is pie, a cupcake, and a candy apple. I say “yum!”.

Just Desserts

I started by stamping the cake stand and my dessert stamps using Memento Black Ink on Basic White Cardstock. Additionally, I made sure to leave enough room between images to fussy cut with my Paper Snips later.

Stamping dessert images in Memento Black Ink.

Next, I colored in my stamped images using a variety of Stampin’ Blends. Want to see how I organize my blends? Click here. I love the quick and easy way I am able to add instant color! I wasn’t sure if I wanted a cinnamon candy apple or a caramel apple, so I made one of each.

Colorful dessert images, courtesy of a variety of Stampin' Blends.

Delightful Dies

Although the Sweets & Treats Stamp Set is not bundled with the Cloche Dies, they do coordinate. And that is great value if you are also interested in the Classic Cloche Stamp Set. When you buy the Classic Cloche Bundle (the Classic Cloche Stamp Set and The Cloche Dies), you will save 10%. Then, you would have 2 stamp sets that work with the same dies.

Along with the Cloche Dies, I used the Stitched Rectangles Dies. On my Coastal Cabana Cardstock, I die cut my rectangle first. Next, I centered the cloche die for another run thru my Stampin’ Cut & Emboss Machine. Lastly, I used the next largest rectangle die on a piece of Polished Pink Cardstock.

Die cuts with the Cloche Dies and Stitched Rectangle Dies.

Cloche Shaker Domes

Sometimes it’s fun to shake things up! With the Cloche Shaker Domes, you can do just that. These adhesive backed plastic domes come in a set of 10. They line up perfectly in the cloche die cut area, and hold your sequins snugly.

I wanted my Sweets & Treats to be presented against a white background, but not too white. My Blending Brush helped me to sponge on a little Balmy Blue Ink for a glass like look.

Using Balmy Blue Ink and a Blending Brush to create a soft background.

After I prepped my background, I adhered my Sweets & Treats to it. First, I did a dry fit, to make sure each treat would fit in my cloche dome. Then I glued each piece down. Please be careful…I went a little too high, and had to make a correction by adding an extra top edge of the cake plate under my desserts.

My stamped desserts adhered to the background piece.

Sweets & Treats & Sequins

If you are looking for amazing sequins for your shaker card, look no further. The Sequins For Everything are the perfect rainbow of colors. You will find 3 different shades in green, metallic, orange and red.

Removing static with the Emboss Buddy, so the sequins don't clump together.

I prepped my background by removing some static using my retired Emboss Buddy. This will help to keep the sequins from clumping. It will also leave a dull powder that may diminish the shine of your coloring. In hindsight, I should have used a dry paintbrush to pull some of the powder off my stamped images. Another thing I wish I had done was run the Emboss Buddy around the Cloche Shaker Dome, as some of my sequins did stick along the edges.

After I attached the Cloche Shaker Dome to the backside of my Coastal Cabana Cardstock, I placed some sequins over my Sweets & Treats. Then, I removed the second protective backing from my dome and placed it over my desserts.

Getting ready to put the cloche dome over my sequins and desserts.

Sweet Sentiment

I had a sweet choice of sentiments to use on this Sweets & Treats card. Instead of using a complete sentiment, I chose to use a partial sentiment.

Masking a sentiment for a partial stamped image.

From ” A tasty treat for someone sweet”, I masked my stamp and inked only “for someone sweet”. I then removed the mask (a small post-it note) and stamped my image on a piece of Polished Pink Designer Series Paper.

Sweet Finishing Touches

I love lots of layers on my cards, and this one has plenty. I chose a Polished Pink card base. Then I added a white layer 4-1/8 x 5-3/8″, followed by Daffodil Delight Designer Series Paper 4 x 5-1/4″. My Polished Pink and Coastal Cabana stitched rectangles sit toward the bottom right. By design, this gave me room for my sentiment.

Keeping with the Polished Pink theme, I chose Open Weave Ribbon in that color. Over that, I added some retired Bermuda Bay ribbon. I attached each section of ribbon with Tear & Tape Adhesive.

A look at the ribbon assembly on the card. — The last thing I adhered to my card front was my sentiment. I trimmed the stamped paper down and added a pop of Daffodil Delight Cardstock behind it. Then, I placed Tear & Tape on it and attached it over the top of my ribbons.

Adding the sentiment over top of the ribbon using Tear & Tape Adhesive.

Sweets & Treats & Polished Pink

When I first contemplated using Polished Pink with Coastal Cabana and Daffodil Delight, I pictured something fun and sweet. I hope you will agree that this card pulls that off in spectacular fashion.

My finished card, with the Sweets & Treats Stamp Set and the Classic Cloche Stamp Set.

If you need any of the supplies I used on this card, please visit my online store for an easy shopping experience. And be sure to come back soon for my final Polished Pink card in this series. There are more wonderful color combinations to explore together!

Coloring Darling Donkeys With Stampin’ Blends

January 13, 2021

Sale-A-Bration Stamp Sets Are Here!

Are you ready to color some Darling Donkeys with Stampin’ Blends, like I did for these adorable cards? The Darling Donkeys Stamp Set is a Sale-A-Bration freebie, and one not to be missed!

Cards made with Darling Donkeys Stamp Set and colored with Stampin' Blends.

I love that one of the best times of the Stampin’ Up! year is here! It is time to Sale-A-Brate, and between now and February 28, 2021, your purchase of Stampin’ Up! products earn you a FREE item(s).

Question: What’s the big deal, you may think, everyone has the ability to earn free product any time of the year. What makes Sale-A-Bration special?

Answer: During Sale-A-Bration (or SAB), a minimum order of $50 earns you a free product from the select offerings. During the rest of the year, you would need an order totaling $150 before you earn something for FREE.

Quick and Easy Cards

Card made with Darling Donkeys Stamp Set in Seaside Spray, and colored with Stampin' Blends. — I colored each donkey’s inner ears and muzzle with the Light Crumb Cake Stampin’ Blend.

My time is extra short right now, and I need to make quick and easy cards. With the Darling Donkeys Stamp Set and Stampin’ Blends, I was able to do just that, and made 3 different cards in under an hour.

First, I stamped the 3 donkeys from the Darling Donkey Stamp Set using Memento Black Ink on White Cardstock. If there were more images, I would have kept stamping, these donkeys are so cute!

I could have easily left the stamped images as plain rectangle shapes, but decided to die-cut them with the Stitched So Sweetly Dies instead. This adds another sweetness to the Darling Donkeys!

Just Add Color, With Stampin’ Blends

Card made with Darling Donkeys Stamp Set in Terra-Cotta Tile, and colored with Stampin' Blends. — On this card, I used Stampin’ Blends in Dark Calypso Coral and Light Old Olive for the flower and stem.

I have to admit, I am not a huge fan of coloring. I like to keep it simple. The Stampin’ Blends really brought out the artist in me for these Darling Donkeys. And I didn’t need every color in the spectrum to create these colorful donkeys.

Memento Black Ink and Stampin' Blends used to color the Darling Donkeys. — Minimal supplies and minimal efforts is my motto when it comes to coloring.

I started coloring the outlines along the Darling Donkey stamped images with the Dark Smoky Slate Stampin’ Blend. Next, I blended in some Light Smoky Slate, leaving blank space in the middle of each donkey. I filled in that space with the Light Crumb Cake, and added more of this color to each donkey’s face. This creates lots of depth and highlights with little effort!

More Color Choices

As card-maker artists, color choice is important. But to be honest, I was in a hurry when I created these cards. So I based my color selection off of what was sitting on my desk at the time…the 2019-2021 In Color Designer Series Paper.

2019-2021 In Color Designer Series Paper — These colors are retiring in a few short months! Get yours before they are gone for good.

Sometimes laziness pays off, and these color choices worked great for my Darling Donkey Cards. From the 5 available colors in this collection, I chose Terra-Cotta Tile, Pretty Peacock and Seaside Spray. I thought the wood-grain style design worked best with my donkey cards.

These soon-to-be retired colors represented my card bases and the designer series paper. I also used like colored ink to add a little tone on tone stamping on my card base, as seen with the small asterisk or star or flower stamp (however you like to interoperate it!).

Card made with Darling Donkeys Stamp Set in Pretty Peacock, and colored with Stampin' Blends.

Creating Drama With Paper Scraps

My stamped and colored Darling Donkeys would look pretty plain without a fun background to kick around on. Stripes are super popular right now, and using paper scraps is not only economical, but fun!

I used a 3 x 4″ piece of Gray Granite Cardstock, and adhered 3/4″ strips of Crumb Cake and White Cardstock to it. I made sure that no matter which direction (horizontal or vertical) this piece worked for my card, that the stripes were horizontal in direction. Just personal choice, really.

Crumb Cake and Gray Granite Cardstock — When making the stripes for my card, I relied on small paper scraps on hand, stored separately in my craft room.

So Darling!

I hope that I have inspired you to create some Darling Donkey cards! They were quick and easy, and turned out so stinking cute. The reality is, you could substitute any stamped image for the donkeys and have just as much fun, with great results.

Make sure you stop by my online store while Sale-A-Bration continues to scoop up this great Darling Donkeys Stamp Set. Whether you use it for birthday cards, get well cards or thinking of you cards, it will make a sweet addition to your crafting projects.

To see another blog post that showcases the use of Stampin’ Blends, click here. Looking for great Stampin’ Blends organization tips? Check out this blog post! Get ready to color your world!

How To Organize Those Stampin’ Blends

August 13, 2020

Do you have a growing collection of Stampin’ Blends from Stampin’ Up? If you do, you may be wondering how, exactly, to organize those Stampin’ Blends.

Stampin’ Blends

Stampin’ Up! currently sells 39 different combo packs of the Stampin’ Blends, plus the single “Color Lifter”. Each combo pack consists of a light and a dark shade of one of Stampin’ Up!’s particular colors. The color lifter (white cap) helps to add highlights and dimension, and minimize coloring outside the line done in error.

I use these alcohol based markers for the majority of my coloring needs on stamped projects. They provide instant ink coverage and make blending colors a breeze. And because I am reaching for them all the time, I need to be able to find them quickly and easily.

Organiztional Tools

When I started collecting my Stampin’ Blends, Stampin’ Up! did not sell a specific storage solution for them. The one I purchased is from a company called Stamp -n- Storage. It is natural wood, and holds 90 Stampin’ Blends total. My storage unit holds some retired Stampin’ Blends colors, and is almost full!

Stampin' Blends assortment ready for organization

Soon, I will have to make the decision to purchase another Stamp -n- Storage organizer, or move on to the organization provided by Stampin’ Up!. The Stampin’ Blends Storage Trays (item #149169) are a set of 5 white plastic trays, each storing 6 blends. I have similar storage from Stampin’ Up! for my ink pads and markers, and I love that they are white and appreciate that they stack well.

Stampin' Blends Storage Trays, perfect for organizing Stampin' Blends

Detailed Organizing

I love having my blends in rainbow color order, stored in the proper horizontal position and ready to pull out for action. But, I couldn’t tell which blend was Real Red, Cherry Cobbler or Poppy Parade from the end cap color! Instead, I had to pull out each blend individually to read the color name listed on the barrel.

Along came a brilliant idea from a fellow Stampin’ Up! demonstrator, Cindy Johnson. She shared her version of coding the end caps with initials to help determine Real Red (RR) from Cherry Cobbler (CC) from Poppy Parade (PP). Working from her idea, I initiated my own brand of organizing Stampin’ Blends!

Labeling Stampin’ Blends

Step 1

First, I created and printed a word document with the capitalized initials of each of my Stampin’ Blends color names. I only used 2 initials for each, so Granny Apple Green became GA, for example. I enhanced the letters to bold, and used font size 11.

Later, I realized the MM’s were too wide for my circle punch, so I re-created them in font size 8. This kept the finished size of my punched circle the same, and the font size difference is not overly noticeable.

Step 2

In order to make the mini initial circles stick to the Stampin’ Blends end caps, I took advantage of my Multipurpose Adhesive Sheets. I still have small remnants from when Stampin’ Up! carried them a few years back. I cut my initials by long rows and added adhesive strips. They were prefect for this job!

Adhesive Sheets for instant stickers — The latest version is called Adhesive Sheets (item #152334), and does the same thing: creates a “sticker” for easy adhering.

Step 3

Next, I needed a circle punch to cut out each of my blends initials. I started with my office hole punch, but it is old and wasn’t cutting thru the paper nicely. So, I searched thru my punch collection to find one that was just right in size. I wanted the labels to be visible on the end caps, but not overpower the color of the cap itself by being too large.

Choosing the proper size circle punch can be a challenge

I ended up using the small circle from the combo circle/oval mini punch. It was 1 of 4 included in the Bitty Blooms Punch Pack from the Stampin’ Up! 2019 Spring Catalog, now retired.

Handy Tip:

If your punch is not giving you a clean cut, try “sharpening” it by punching thru aluminum foil repeatedly.

Step 4

Let me tell you, those tiny punched circles are super…tiny. I used the spatula from my Take Your Pick Tool (item #144107) to aid in removing the back of the adhesive paper from the small circles. It was also super handy in getting the circles centered on the blends caps.

Using the Take Your Pick Tool to help center the labels on the blends caps.

Organization Off The Chart!

After all of my Stampin’ Blends were labeled and nestled in their designated holder, I realized I would never remember the order in which they were so perfectly displayed if I took them out to use them. Therefore, I decided I needed a handy reference chart so I knew what order to return them to.

I typed up the name of each color in the order of my organization (size 12 font, bold) and after printing my list, adhered it to a piece of Balmy Blue Cardstock. I added this handy chart to the side of my blends holder using Tear & Tape. Now, I can quickly refer to the color order when putting my blends away.

Organizational Thoughts

Yes, organizing can be hard work, but so rewarding when the job is done! Here are some pros and cons and thoughts on this particular blends organization:

Pros

I can quickly find the color I need at a glance, knowing the names of the colors to begin with.
By keeping the labels to the same end of each blend, I know which end is the smaller tip and which end is the brush tip.
If I need to replace my Stampin’ Blend when it runs dry, I can swap out the end cap without needing to make a new label.

Cons

Making tiny labels can be frustrating and time-consuming.
The paper labels have the potential to get dirty. (You could combat this by adding a layer of clear tape over the initials before punching them out.)
Many of the labels have identical initials. You need to know your Calypso Coral from your Cinnamon Cider! But generally speaking, if you are looking for Misty Moonlight in the blue section, you won’t be bothered by Mint Macaron in the green section.

Organize Those Blends Today

So, whether you have a few Stampin’ Blends, or a lot, get started on organizing them today! And if you need some additional storage (or additional blends), be sure to check out my online store anytime!

Now that my Stampin’ Blends are so organized, I think it is time to stamp and color. Not only am I confident that I will be able to find the color I want instantly, I will be able to put it back just as easily in the right location. I can stamp happy! Your turn…