Category Archives: Scrapbooking

Veteran’s Day Patriotic Scrapbook Page

Today is Veteran’s Day, a day we honor our military for their service and patriotism to our country and here is an example of a patriotic scrapbook page any of us could make. Chances are every single one of us knows someone who is in the military now or has a family member who has served, whether recently or long ago. If we looked in some old boxes of photos, we can all probably pull out some vintage photos of our relatives and ancestors from their military service. Why not take some of those out of the box and put them on some quick and easy scrapbook pages and either tuck in an album or even frame and put on the wall as decor.

In case you would be interested, the genealogy website Ancestry.com is allowing anyone to look up military records free through today. I was slow in reading my email and only noticed it yesterday but it has been going on for a few days. You may have to register in some way, but they occasionally have these opportunities to look up certain family records. I find it fascinating to see actual records right on my computer screen and perhaps a real signature and handwriting by that person. I found records for my father, both my grandfathers, and a few other relatives.

Take a moment today to think about the veterans who have served our country in peace and in war and active military who are serving us right now around the world. If you would like to read more about the history of Veteran’s Day, just visit this link.

Layered Letters Father’s Day Card

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Father’s Day is tomorrow, Sunday June 21, so if you haven’t already, you better find some time today to make a card for the father in your life, whether it’s your own father, husband, uncle, grandfather, whomever!

I had fun playing with the new stamp set Layered Letters Alphabet. I liked this set from the moment I saw it and I think it will be a great set to use even for cards and projects and certainly for scrapbooking. Can you have too many alphabet sets?! Probably not! One thing I like about it is the rectangle shape and the circle that you can stamp first and then put the letter inside of it! Of course you can just use the letters plain as well. I guess I just like the font. There’s something very comfortable to me about the letters.

To make this Father’s Day card, I used the new Cucumber Crush green for the card base, layered with Whisper White. I just “eyeballed” the stamping using my Grid Paper and centering the card on the grid, but you could also use the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig if you wanted to be precise. I stamped the rectangles but “stamped off” lightly one time before stamping on the card to make them lighter. Then I stamped each letter with our Tuxedo Black Memento Ink. The Father’s Day words come from the Crazy About You Stamp Set. This stamp set is a little pricey but comes with a lot of useful stamps. And if you like, there is a Bundle with some Thinlits to choose from and save 15%.

Then for just a little more somethin’-somethin’ I added the top and bottom border from the Tin of Cards Photopolymer Stamp Set. Don’t think this stamp set is only for the Tin of Cards! I have used it a lot, separately, and you will too!

So there you have it, one idea for a Father’s Day card for tomorrow!

Get your Layered Letters Alphabet Stamp Set at the Stampin’ Up! Online Store HERE!

Jump Into Project Life By Stampin’ Up! With Moments Like These

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Stampin’ Up!, as you know, has partnered with Becky Higgins and Project Life to provide us with these wonderful kits for memory-keeping! These special kits coordinate with our Stampin’ Up! colors and come with an optional accessory pack plus coordinating stamp set. When you buy the Bundle (the card collection, the accessory pack and the stamp set) you save 15%!

The Project Life by Stampin’ Up! system is easy! Just gather your photos, insert them into the pocket pages, add some of the cards to decorate or explain, write in some journaling, and you are done! Now if you like, add some stamping and add some embellishments with any of your stamping supplies or use the too cute accessory pack that coordinates with each card collection. Do as little or as much as you like.

Stampin’ Up! and Becky Higgins featured the new Moments Like These set on their blogs! Check out Becky’s post HERE.

Star Wars in Golden Canyon in Death Valley

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Made in Stampin’ Up! My Digital Studio

May the 4th Be With You! Apparently to Star Wars lovers everywhere May 4th has become Star Wars Day (#StarWarsDay). Who knew? And now that I am on the mailing list for Furnace Creek Resort in Death Valley, I received an email the other day highlighting May 4th as a good date to visit Death Valley where some scenes from the original Star Wars movies were shot. The email describes the scenery in Death Valley as “otherworldly” which is a perfect description. At times you look out and think you are on another planet or the moon or who knows where! While my family thought some of the sites we visited looked like locations for Star Wars, we didn’t know the movie makers had actually shot many scenes there!

Just this past March we took a trip to Death Valley, CA with two of our children. Although I was not enthused about the trip in the first place, Death Valley National Park turned out to be magnificent (as all national parks we have visited have been)! The scenery is awesome and majestic, to say the least, and the setting so isolated and different than most of us ever see. You would certainly want to check the temperatures and weather before you plan a trip as it was hot enough when we were there in mid-March! The wildflowers were in bloom, and of course at higher elevations the temperature was just about perfect!

Any trip with my husband has to involve hiking, nothing major, but just easy hiking. In Death Valley there are plenty of canyons to explore. We went to the ones we could easily reach with our rental car and one of the best is Golden Canyon. It IS “golden” inside and around every corner is another incredible view. Now we wish we had known about the Star Wars filming there so we could have looked for the exact spots. As I looked through my photos again to see if anything matched one particular view we saw online, I thought of making a page in My Digital Studio with this photo of my son and seeing if I could give him a Star Wars light saber! This Stampin’ Up! software is easy to learn and use and with a few punches filled in with color and grouped together, I had a light saber! Then I added a text box and happened to have a Star Wars font I could use for the title! I didn’t attempt the proper clothing, but I’m happy with what I made! I can have this printed out into an 8 1/2″ x 11″ scrapbook page or frame it as a picture.

Stampin’ Up! will no longer be carrying My Digital Studio in about a month, but you can still purchase the software and/or any of the downloads just to have and use yourself. Just because Stampin’ Up! will no longer sell it or support it doesn’t mean we can’t use it! The software comes with a ton of content plus you can add any downloads that you particularly like from the vast selection. You can even use just the downloads on your computer. It’s not just for scrapbooking so you can get a lot of use out of My Digital Studio in many ways, such as cards, flyers, photo books, party favors, calendars and more. Print projects yourself or take them to any print shop after Stampin’ Up! stops offering printing services.

To check out My Digital Studio, just click HERE.

Only $13.97!!

Extra My Digital Studio Downloads!

All discounted 30%! No shipping!

Realize the Importance of What We Do In Our Personal Communications

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At the Stampin’ Up! Leadership Conference this year, the keynote speaker was Jason F. Wright., an author and speaker. He spoke to the demonstrators about our Stampin’ Up! Statement of the Heart and how we make a difference with our handmade cards, handwritten letters and personal communication. This is something I feel very strongly about, that I worry our society is losing, because when I find a box of old letters, written in ink on paper, hand-addressed envelopes, I recognize and feel the person who wrote it. This is true with traditional scrapbooking, too. When I hear someone say they don’t like to do the journaling because their handwriting is terrible, I think they are selfishly keeping something of themselves from the people ultimately looking at that scrapbook. Nothing typed or emailed can compare to the handwritten note or letter! I’m just as guilty, being in too much a rush to sit down and write a real letter. Think about how you used to feel when you went to the mailbox and found a letter from a friend. My mother wrote me letters almost everyday when I was away at college (everyone did think I got the most mail!).

Anyway, please take some time to sit down and watch and listen to this video of Jason Wright’s talk at Leadership. I guarantee you he is very funny and also very emotional describing some letters in his life. Have a box of tissue handy! You’ll enjoy his stamping experiences also! And it will make you realize how important that paper and ink you are working with just might be to someone who receives your card or letter.

Hope you enjoy! Then go write a letter or send a card to someone! If you have a story about a special letter or card, please leave a comment. Here is the link to view the video if you need it: https://youtu.be/iURdgEYuoso

“To love what we do and share what we love, as we help others enjoy creativity and worthwhile accomplishments…in this we make a difference!”

Stampin’ Up! Statement of the Heart

Make a Cute and Easy Album from a Kit

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So You Project Kit Images (c) Stampin’ Up! 2015

I saw this new So You Project Kit in the Occasions Catalog on page 48 but honestly it wasn’t on top of my wish list – until I saw Sara Douglass on stage at the Stampin’ Up! Leadership Conference last week show the album she made of her daughter and her friends out on a special date. I think they were going to make one for each of the friends! Then I watched the video shown below by Stampin’ Up! talking about this So You Project Kit album and saw how many things that are included, not to mention examples for each page IN COLOR that you could use – but certainly do not have to. The album holds 4″ x 4″ photos so you could get your Instagram photos printed to keep in this album! It’s the perfect size for a trip or a party or a shower or a new baby or graduation, certainly any occasion or holiday. Or just start it in a generic way and when you get a special photo, just stick it in there! On the catalog page, be sure to check out the extra supplies you might want to have on hand and the coordinating stamp set you could use. Of course, depending on your use, you might already have stamp sets you can use with it. Even if your photos are 4 x 6, they can be cropped to fit, most likely. I think it looks like a fun album and I’m putting it on my order!

Don’t forget, you will also get Sale-A-Bration FREE products with every $50 purchase! No limit! And at $150 you ALSO get Hostess Benefits! Talk to your friends and see if there is anything they would like to add to your order!

This kit would also make a great gift for any stampers, scrapbookers, or potential papercrafters!

Watch this fun video by Holly Linford from the Stampin’ Up! Home Office talk about the So You Project Kit.

To order your kit, just go to my Stampin’ Up! Online Store and place your order! I appreciate your business!

Finishing a Houston Marathon Squash Book Photo Album

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Back in January 2004 (uh, yes, that would be almost 11 years ago! ) my son Eric ran in the Houston Marathon. I immediately made this “squash book” photo album as it was called, very popular back in my earlier days of Stampin’ Up! I made the album, put the photos in it, and I see now never did any journaling in it! There’s not one date in it! Very bad! I also never got a cover made. But for 11 years, “any minute now” I was going to finish that album by making a cover (and presumably doing some journaling inside!). So it laid around here all these years, probably got dusted a few times, and finally landed who knows where. But this Christmas it resurfaced and by golly, I was going to decorate the cover! I didn’t know exactly what I would use, but immediately I spied a new Sale-A-Bration stamp set, coming January 6, called, appropriately, Best Day Ever. I thought that saying was so right for this project and stamped that on the top layer. As I’ve always said, stars are great for so many occasions, so I used the Many Merry Stars Stamp Set, which is still available in the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Supplement on page 8 and is discounted on the Year-End Closeouts Clearance Rack (while supplies last!). (If you missed out on the Many Merry Stars Simply Created Kit that was so popular, at this moment it is available too at a discount! You can still make the kit and save the stars for next Christmas – or use them for another occasion with different greetings.) I also used Glimmer Paper and the Star Framelits Dies to decorate the cover of the squash book.

I don’t have any directions at my fingertips for making the squash book, but I did use 12 x 12 card stock. You can make it as long as you want. I put photos on both sides. The trick is getting it to fold correctly, but once you do that, you’ve got it made. I’m sure you can google “Squash book” and find some details if you need them. Here are some photos of the inside so you can get an idea of how it is assembled and folded. I see I should add some dates and journaling before I let him take it home!

Here are some photos of the inside so you can get an idea of how the squash book folds and looks.

Usually I finish all my stamping projects I start, which I consider one of the advantages of the rubber stamping craft, but this project just didn’t quite make it! I’m glad I finally was able to finish this Houston Marathon Squash Book Photo Album for a Christmas gift, even if it was about eleven years overdue! Try your hand at making a small album for a special occasion!

Don’t forget, the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog is coming to an end January 5th! Even though we are excited about the new Occasions Catalog and Sale-A-Bration event coming up, don’t miss out on anything you wanted from the Holiday Catalog or Holiday Supplement before they end! Lots of items are on the Year-End Closeouts as well, so you might get a bargain!

Sneak Peek!! Stampin’ Up! Online Extravaganza 2014 – Starts Monday!

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Get your Wish List ready because the Stampin’ Up! Online Extravaganza begins on Monday! Get Hot Deals Monday, November 24 through Tuesday, December 2, 2014. There will be discounts on select products and bundles, Plus DOORBUSTERS on the first day and again on Monday, Dec. 1st! You don’t want to miss them!

Click HERE to print out or view the Online Extravaganza List!

Don’t let the term “Online Extravaganza” scare you off if you don’t like putting your order in online. Just contact me and I can put it in for you!

Print out your list, think about it over the weekend and be ready to get your deals on Monday! Let me know if you have any questions that I can answer for you!

Click Here: Karen’s Stampin’ Up! Online Store

Hello December Project Life® Card Collection by Stampin’ Up!

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Be sure to check out the Stampin’ Up! 2014 Holiday Supplement! I’d especially recommend the new Project Life by Stampin’ Up! products! You can use these cards and accessories to make scrapbook pages using the Project Life pocket pages system OR use them on traditional scrapbook pages. The products are not limited to scrapbooking and memory-keeping! Use them on cards or other projects for the holidays. You will be so inspired just to hold the cards in your hands and play! Watch the video below for some real inspiration! It shows the Hello December Project Life Card Collection and the Hello December Project Life Accessory Pack I know it will make you want to get out some photos and make some pages and projects!

Find the Holiday Supplement Products here in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

Easy Snowman Christmas Tags to Make

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It feels like winter today, even in Houston,Texas! I even wore my real winter jacket this morning to go out since the temperature was about 43 degrees. That is pretty cold for Houston! I know there may be blizzards in other parts of the country, but cold weather here just means “put on a jacket of some sort”. So in honor of the polar vortex or whatever cold blast most of the country is seeing right now, I thought some snowman project was in order! Here are some super simple snowmen that could be placed on a card or scrapbook page or in this case, I have made them into tags.

You can make them whatever size you like. Either use the Circle Framelits as I did for three different sizes or use your circle punches. You just need any pleasing sizes of small, medium, and large circles. Then cut a square for the hat (mine is 1 1/4″ square) and a piece from the Word Window Punch (who knew how handy THAT punch was going to be when it came out!). I sponged a little White Craft Ink on his hat and brim. The snowman pieces are also sponged with a little bit of Soft Sky Ink. We used to make the snowman arms with the old Snowflake Punch (don’t know if that was the name or not) but since that is not current, I just punched out the branches/leaves from the Bird Punch and those will be the snowman’s arms. Stick on a little piece of ribbon for his scarf, maybe a little flower on his hat from either the Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack or the Boho Blossoms Punch. I just used a black marker to draw in his eyes and coal mouth, handcut the little snip of orange (any orange will do) for his carrot nose and popped all three pieces up with Stampin’ Dimensionals. You could do him flat as well. The hole for the tag is punched with the 1/8″ Handheld Punch and tied with Silver 1/8″ Ribbon. Before adding the Rhinestone to the flower on his hat, I colored it with the Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities Marker, but you could leave it plain. Another project that you can do as fancy or plain as you like.

Here are some of the main supplies I used for this project. Just click on any picture to see it in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store!

Circles Collection Framelits Die
$26.95

Builder Bird Punch
$16.95

Itty Bitty Accents Punch Pack
$16.95

Window Word Punch
$15.95

Boho Blossoms Punch
$16.95

Whisper White Craft Stampin’ Pad
$7.50

Big Shot
$99.95

Stamping Sponges
$3.50

1/8″ Circle Handheld Punch
$8.95

Silver 1/8″ Ribbon
$4.95

Whisper White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock
$8.50

Basic Black 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock
$6.95

Want New Holiday Stampin’ Up! Holiday Products?

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It’s here! Today is the day! The new Stampin’ Up! 2014 Holiday Supplement is LIVE, today, Monday October 20, 2014. Click the highlighted link or click the picture above to view the new supplement. As you look through it, you will notice the pages with the ordering information are pages 8-11. Due to the short time period until the holidays, these products are ONLY available WHILE SUPPLIES LAST! Don’t delay! Order what you like right away to avoid disappointment. Some of the items in the Holiday Supplement are already available in the Annual and Holiday Catalogs.

If you like stars, you will like this Holiday Supplement! Lots of Project Life by Stampin’ Up! products for the holidays, including a new album with RED! (okay, Cherry) I love red! I think the most exciting item is the Many Merry Stars Simply Created Kit! All the materials you need to create 26 3D stars! And a coordinating star stamp set, Many Merry Stars Photopolymer Stamp Set.

Click to Shop! Images (c) Stampin’ Up! 2014

Watch the Stampin’ Up! video below to see how these stars go together!

For all these new holiday items and everything else,

shop at my Stampin’ Up! Online Store!

It’s Time For the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog!

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Did you wonder if this day would EVER get here?! The day the Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog goes live?! Let the ordering begin so you can get on with your holiday cards and projects! Not just Christmas, but fall, Thanksgiving, Halloween and other fun things! Lots of kits for those who don’t have time or supplies! New products, such as a Gift Box Punch Board!

Here’s a little gift tag card I made in minutes with the Festival of Trees stamp set, some Brights Candy Dots, Silver 1/8″ Ribbon, and a greeting stamp called Good Greetings that you can earn FREE! Just host a $300 party or place your own $300 order!

Don’t miss the Festival of Trees Bundle with the stamp set and NEW Tree Punch!

Contact me if you want to have a Christmas card party or other fun night or day out with your friends! Now go enjoy the brand new Stampin’ Up! Holiday Catalog! If you are one of my regular customers and didn’t receive a catalog, please let me know. And if you don’t have a demonstrator and are interested in Stampin’ Up! products, please contact me at Karen@KarenStamps.com. I would be happy to get a catalog to you!

Today is the LAST DAY for the Short & Sweet Offer: Become a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator by purchasing the Starter Kit for $99 and choose an EXTRA $25 in product! Get $150 in product of your choice for only $99 (regular offer $125 in product)! Click HERE for my link to get started! It only takes minutes to purchase your Starter Kit online and become a Demonstrator. Then you will be emailed a password to get in to the Demo Site and begin your training and look around and see all the resources available to you to start your own business! Choose items from the Holiday Catalog for your Kit if you like!

Shop my Stampin’ Up! Online Store for all your stamping needs!

New Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals for August 26 – Sept. 1

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Click To Shop!

New Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals for the week of August 26 – September 1! Some ribbon, framelits, a punch and embellishments, plus a cute My Digital Studio Digital Download! Check them all out HERE at my Online Store!

August My Digital Studio Downloads! Check Them Out!

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Check out these new digital downloads for My Digital Studio! You might notice you can get the Love Story Digital Project Life Cards and print out as many as you need! Instead of weekly, new downloads will come out monthly.

Today is the last day for Weekly Deals! Great day to buy some ink pads!!

Click on the link above or the photo for more information about the products. Let me know if you have any questions!

And of course, don’t forget about the Big Shot & Bundles opportunity! Buy a Big Shot, choose a free Bundle. Or if you have a Big Shot, purchase a Bundle (or more than one!) for 15% off. Check the Bundles and prices HERE in my Stampin’ Up! Online Store.

Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals June 3 2014

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Even with all the excitement over the new Stampin’ Up! Annual Catalog going live yesterday, Stampin’ Up! still has some deals for you today! These Stampin’ Up! Weekly Deals are good today through next Monday, June 9. You might want to add one of these items to your new catalog order!

Instead of offering new downloads for My Digital Studio every Tuesday as in the past, Stampin’ Up! will offer new downloads the first week of every month. Here are the latest digital downloads: