Deb Joy Smeak Archives - Delight of my Art

Easy Paper Pumpkin Storage Solution

Posted on May 17, 2020 by debjoysmeak

Paper Pumpkin kits are so much fun to get in the mail. But if you find yourself not getting around to making and sending the whole kit every month (or even if you do), you might be susceptible to “red box pile up.” I found a storage method that not only saves space, but makes my stamps easier to access so I end up using them more. Win win!

I use the Avery 23011 5.5″ x 8.5″ binders with an extra storage pouch inside. I found mine on clearance at a local store, but they are still sold on Amazon. And the sheet protectors are Avery 77004 found on Amazon here. I do have to trim down my Paper Pumpkin instruction sheet to fit the sleeves: a quarter of an inch off each side and half an inch off the bottom. If I lose any words from the instructions (rare) I just trim them out of the scrap I cut off and tape them back inside my instruction sheet. I put the instruction sheet in a page protector sleeve and put the matching stamp set in the back of the sleeve. I only keep the instructions and stamps in the binders so they are easy to page through. I find that each binder holds a year’s worth of Paper Pumpkin quite nicely. If I’m wondering what colors coordinate with a kit, what ink spot came with what kit or where an embellishment came from, it’s easy to see with a glance at the back of each sleeve. And since March kits have featured an additional free stamp set for the past two years (whoop whoop!), I put those in the front pouch.

I store all the paper and embellishments in our 6″ x 8″ cellophane bags and label it with my label maker. I use little craft bags I found at Walmart to store little punch outs and embellishments. You can find them at your local Walmart store in the craft section near the beads. (Each bag size is sold as 100 bags for $1-$2 so they are really economical and handy to have for other craft ideas as well.) I can store a year’s worth of the labeled Paper Pumkpin bags in a Walmart shoebox size clear tote bin, even with twine and other bulky items. These are only a $1 at Walmart and I use them to bring stamping supplies with me on vacation, stamp parties and events. I probably have about 20 or more in the house for various uses.

**Side note: I can fit 2 of the Walmart clear shoebox totes with lids on inside a Thirty One Zip-Top Organizing Utility Tote style 4451. I find these bags are very durable and work great for toting my supplies to and from craft fairs, especially that big Deluxe Utility Tote style 4441. It holds 6 of the Walmart shoebox clear tote bins! I don’t sell Thirty One bags, but you can buy through your local Thirty One rep or use my friend Amy Masi from these links.**

I hope this helps you get organized with your Paper Pumpkin kits and gets you using the awesome stamp sets more often. They really are a great value and you should keep on using them. Tune in to my Facebook page for live Paper Pumpkin videos and a video walk through of this organization idea. If you would like to sign up for Paper Pumpkin for yourself or as a gift you can sign up for a code here. Thanks for stopping by! #spreadthejoy

If you have an organization tip for your Paper Pumpkin kits or other crafts, please let us know by leaving a comment below.

Teacher Thank You Gift Card Pocket Card

Posted on June 6, 2018 by debjoysmeak

I can’t believe another school year went by already! My oldest will be in MIDDLE SCHOOL next year! My son will be in third and the twins will be going to first grade. So crazy! Time sure is flying by. We’ve been super busy this spring and life doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon. Life is about the journey, not the destination though, right?

I really like how this teacher thank you card came out. I am in love with the Daisy Delight stamp set and punch. They always turn out beautifully. And I love the idea of the hidden pocket inside for a gift card. Let me tell you how I put this together.

First I took a piece of Whisper White cardstock and cut it halfway down the long side, so the piece is 4 1/4″ x 11″. Score this in the middle at 5 1/2″ and also 2 7/8″. This will fold in to form the pocket on the inside of the front. I decorated this with a piece of Designer Series Paper in Lemon Lime Twist and then the flap with a solid piece of Lemon Lime Twist stamped with Lemon Lime Twist. Can you tell I like this color? Ha! Actually I think the pocket is a bit over-decorated so I think I may just do the lemon lime twist on the white fold-over pocket on the next one. I do have to make 4 of these for the kids’ teachers. I also punched with the Every Day Label Punch on the edge of the pocket before I glued down the edges with Tear and Tape.

The ink colors I used are Basic Black Archival (retired), Lemon Lime Twist, Call Me Clover, Sweet Sugarplum (retired), and Blackberry Bliss. (I guess I could have used Rich Razzleberry stamped off, but this was easier since I had it. I’ll link to Rich Razzleberry below.) It is all stamped right on the card base except for the front Daisy, which is punched out with the daisy punch. I stamped the daisy in Sweet Sugar Plum and then used a sponge dauber right on the stamp in the center in Blackberry Bliss. After punching the flowers out I sponged lightly again in Blackberry Bliss in the center. I punched out a 1/2″ circle in Lemon Lime Twist for the center of the flower and put the largest Faceted Gems in clear on top. So pretty! I really like the gradient in the leaves. I got the idea from Pinterest from Artisan Paula Dobson. The leaf fill stamp is stamped in solid Lemon Lime Twist and then I sponged on Call Me Clover on half of the image before stamping it over the outline I had already stamped on the front.

I also stamped the cute little bee from the Touches of Texture stamp set and colored in the body with Crushed Curry and a Blender Pen. I also colored the wings with Wink of Stella. Love the subtle sparkles! I think the teachers will like these. I left the inside blank so I could write a really detailed note about how much we appreciate them. I’m going to have the kids include thankful notes to fold inside as well. Teachers love to hear how the kids loved being in their class.

Have you made any teacher gifts this year? I’d love to see what you’ve made! You can add a picture to our Facebook group .

Happy stamping!

tams# 23225

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Magical Day – Dragon Cave

Posted on April 13, 2018 by debjoysmeak

My son just turned 8 and he wanted me to make him a birthday card with a blue dragon that was also a shaker card. Challenge accepted! This was a lot of fun to create, but it did take a while! It actually has quite a bit of painting involved, using my aquapainter. I think it turned out pretty fantastic, don’t you think?!

This Magical Day stamp set is amazing and I’m so surprised that it is on the retiring list. Get it now, while you still can! It’s so cute with the mermaid, unicorn, dragon, knight and wizard along with the nice sentiments and sparkle stamps. I’m getting a lot of use out of it. My son made thank you notes to his friends in his birthday goodie bags with the tiny sparkle elements in this set. I let him pick out exactly what stamps and ink colors he wanted to use. They turned out really cute! And he did them all himself. He chose Dapper Denim, Crushed Curry and Lemon Lime Twist.

Ok, back to the birthday card! I used Thick Whisper White as the base of my card. The top layer is Shimmery White because I knew I’d be water coloring on it. The middle layer is Basic Black. First I cut a circle out of the center of my shimmery white top layer, which I think was the second biggest in the layering circles framelits dies.

Then I laid that over the black panel to see where to stamp my sentiment. I wiped my embossing buddy on the black cardstock to reduce static, stamped my sentiment in versamark ink and sprinkled with white embossing powder. I tapped off the excess and heat set that with my heat tool. So far so good!

I stamped the dragon in Memento ink on Whisper White cardstock, cut him out with the matching framelit and colored him in with the Night of Navy Stampin’ Blends. I love those things! When they are back in stock, make sure you snag as many as you can. And there are new colors coming with the new catalog!!! (Can you tell, I’m so excited?!)

I used my aqua painter and ink pads to paint on the shimmery white piece. I made horizontal black stripes around the cave with Basic Black archival ink. Then I made a light wash with Smoky Slate underneath the cave and around the cave again after the black dried. Then I added a little bit of Crumb Cake all around for depth of color. I stamped a scrap piece of white multiple times with Smoky Slate using the heart from the Sure Do Love You stamp set (another one that’s retiring!). Then I used the larger cloud die from the Up & Away Thinlits to create the rocks. They looked kind of blah, so I added shadows with Basic black, and also some jagged lines to break up the circular cloud shape and then the crumb cake on top of that really finished those off nicely. I added some fire tendrils using Basic Black, Daffodil Delight, Tangerine Tango and Real Red up top, but it looked strange the rocks were on fire, so I added some mossy tufts to be on fire with Garden Green and Lemon Lime Twist. Whew!

For the shaker part, I turned over the shimmery white piece and adhered a window sheet square to match over the opening. Then I put the foam adhesive strips right around the hole and also a bit along all four sides for support. I poured in a generous amount of gold glitter flakes before I took the backing off the adhesive strips. This is the point of truth! Carefully taking all the backing off so as not to spill the glitter I also had to carefully align the black middle layer with the sentiment side down (so it would show through the cutout) so that the sides were even. Ahhh! Nerve wracking! I got it fairly straight but not perfect. Usually I don’t have a sentiment inside and just put a scrap down for the backing before turning it over and applying it to my card. This was a bit harder but I managed it in the end. I just had to adhere the dragon and my rocks and the card is finished! It took probably 2 hours of planning and execution, way longer than I anticipated, but my dear son is worth it. Let me know what you think! Please leave a comment below and join my mailing list to be updated on future posts.

I’m running a special this month, April 2018!! I will send you a gift in the mail for any order of $30 or more as a special thank you for helping me promote this month to the next level demonstrator! I’m super close, less than $150. Please help me reach my goal and let me spoil you! 😀

Use Hostess Code: R2YGTKCV at checkout before the end of the month. If your order is $150 or more, do not use the hostess code, claim your Stampin’ Rewards and I’ll still send you a gift in the mail.

To place an order, you can click on any of the products listed below and it will take you to my store. Have a wonderful day and happy stamping!

tams# 21967

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Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Color Revamp 2018

Posted on April 11, 2018 by debjoysmeak

We were due for a refresh on our color line to stay up to date and I think they really knocked it out of the park! These changes don’t take place until June 1st but I wanted you to have all the information as soon as possible as retiring inks, refills and papers will get snatched up quick.

We will have five new In Colors, like every year. But they also totally shook up all the color lines! We have to say goodbye to thirteen core colors and the five 2016-2018 In Colors. But we get sixteen new colors! Check out the charts:

IN COLORS

THE NEW COLORS

We also have previous In Colors that are returning and joining our core colors:

Mossy Meadow
Poppy Parade
Flirty Flamingo
Coastal Cabana
Mint Macaron
Blackberry Bliss

NEW COLOR COLLECTIONS

So pretty, right?!! I’m super exciting to announce these new colors. The neutrals has some color splashed in, which is so fun. The other color family colors really blend so well together so you can feel great about getting an entire color family. Which color family are you drawn to? I feel like it depends on my mood and what time of year it is, but I still think I’m mostly drawn to the Subtles. They also added an additional category, Basics, which is just Basic Black, Whisper White and Very Vanilla.

But wait, there’s more! The ink pads also have a brand new design and improved ink! I’ll be getting my new In Color pack of ink pads next week, so I’ll show them to you. They are easier and more intuitive to open, they stack (!!) and now include an extra label for the interior so it’s easy to see what color you are using. The ink has an anti-foaming agent added to the pads and the new reinkers so that the surface of the ink pads have no bubbles for optimal ink coverage. You can still use the old reinkers on the new pads and vice-versa, with the exception of the Basic Gray Archival ink pad…

Which brings me to my sad news. Basic Black and Basic Gray Archival inks are retiring. What?!! My go-to black is going away. (sad face) First my favorite adhesive, Fast Fuse, and now my favorite ink. I’ll be ok. Our black ink options will be Memento, which is a fast drying black ink that we have been using with the Stampin’ Blends (alcohol based markers). This will be the main go-to black ink. They are also bringing back StazOn ink, a fast drying waterfast permanent ink that can be used for watercoloring or stamping on non-porous items such as the window sheets or even wood. The StazOn does need a special different cleaner to clean off your stamps, as it is so permanent. So you see, we are not out of options and I’ll recover. But I did add another Basic Black reinker to my recent retiring order! See! Get the items you want before they’re gone!

If you want to get any of the retiring colors, you have to hurry because they are only while supplies last!

Click here and click SHOP NOW to stock up on your favorite colors before they’re gone.

***I have a special this month for ordering! I am very close to promoting to the next level of Demonstrator in the month of April, (less than $150!). As a special thank you for helping me reach my business goals, I will send a gift package to you in the mail for any order of $30 or more during April! I appreciate you!***

Last-Chance Products – Retiring List 2018

Posted on April 11, 2018 by debjoysmeak

Hey crafty friends! The new annual catalog was just released for demonstrators early for us to view online. You can start purchasing from it starting June 1st, but one of our perks of being demonstrators is the early peeks and pre-ordering products to play with them before they are released. I’m super excited about the new news, but first things first:

The list of retiring products (There are a few things retiring that I was shocked to hear!!)

I will be going through the catalogs live at 2 pm EST today, Wednesday April 11, and that video will be posted for future reference as well. So get your catalogs and follow along with me with your highlighter to see what is carrying on and what is going away. These PDFs will list the products that are retiring but I think a catalog walk-through will be easier for you and maybe you’ll notice some things you missed. The Holiday catalog already had a retiring list and carry over list. I’ll be going through that catalog on my walk-through as well.

Annual Catalog Retired List

Occasions Retired List

The retiring items are WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!!! Order now to not miss out on what you’ve been eyeing these past few months! I’ll let you in on what I ordered from the retired items during my walk-through. I thought I’d have more time to save up for them, but I don’t want to miss out and have to pay an arm and a leg for them on eBay later!

One more thing: I am very close to promoting to the next Demonstrator level and I greatly benefit from doing so before the end of April so I’m running a special this month! I will be mailing you a gift package in the mail for everyone that places an order $30 or more as a special thank you for helping me promote. Now is the perfect time to get those last-chance products and get a bonus too! Click here and go to SHOP NOW. I really really appreciate your orders!

Lots of Lavender

Posted on March 16, 2018 by debjoysmeak

This Lots of Lavender set is super pretty! I used every single stamp in this set on each card and envelope set. And these cards have a fun secret. THEY SMELL LIKE LAVENDER! What?! Ok, maybe you guessed that from the one where you can actually see the lavender through the shaker window…but they actually all have lavender chambers behind the front panel. Super fun, right? There is a limited time to earn this set for free, but for now Sale-a-bration is still going strong! I’ll be featuring the free sets you can earn with your qualifying purchases until SAB ends March 31. We made the ‘amazing’ one above in our weekly Cocktail & a Card class this week and I also made that one for my second ever Facebook live. You can view that video with this link and see how I put the shaker part together.

Amazing (Smelling) Lavender Card

All of these cards are your regular A2 size cards (half a sheet of cardstock folded in half) and the white panels are all 4″ x 5.25″. All of these have discreet small holes poked in the front so you can smell the lavender through the cards.

This was the first card I tried. I used Sweet Sugarplum cardstock and ink, but then added some Soft Sky ink over the top to make the lavender a little bit more blue. I think most people are using Wisteria Wonder ink for this set, which looks fabulous, but that is a color that I don’t have in my collection right now. It’s a way to stretch your imagination if you have to use what you have! You can see the small circle of holes I poked to the lower right of the flowers in the window sheet. I like this one, but I’m not a super fan of seeing the lavender. They just look dry and not really super pretty like the rest of the card. The sentiment here is from Picture Perfect Birthday. I love the fonts in this set! So scripty and pretty. I especially love the one that says ‘treat yourself.’

On the next two cards I decided to hide the lavender so you can smell it but not see it. I really like the color Rich Razzleberry so I decided on the others that I would just do a stamp-off technique to get a lighter purple. I made a mask using a sticky note pad that is fully sticky instead of just at the top. I fussy cut around it and stuck it on the center flower and then did the side ones. The purples here are all Rich Razzleberry in either full strength or stamped off once. The green is Pear Pizzazz. The ‘Thank You’ sentiment here is from another free Sale-a-bration set Heartfelt Blooms. You really can’t see the holes very well, but there are many throughout the blooms so you can smell the lavender. A word about getting dried lavender: I bought mine through eBay. I had no idea how much a pound of dried lavender would be. I have 2 ginormous bags of dried lavender now. Haha! I show one of them in the video above. You probably do not need to buy this much dried lavender!!

I really liked the clean look of this last one and it was the easiest to do for my class. Which one do you like best? Did you get this set for SAB?

Please click on the links below to shop for any of these products. Happy stamping!

tams# 21205

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Flower Basket of Encouragement

Posted on March 5, 2018 by debjoysmeak

I recently earned this new Sale-a-bration Blossoming Basket Bundle and I love it! The butterfly is so dainty and cute, the font is gorgeous and the basket of flowers is so versatile. But the Basket Weave Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (TIEF) is sooo coooool! It looks fabulous as a white on white textured background, like here, but I’ve seen so many other uses for it. I will definitely be playing around with this more and posting about it. I’m so glad it will be carrying over into the next annual catalog. And I got it for free!

I also used the Calypso Coral shimmer SAB ribbon here. I love Calypso Coral (can you tell?) and this card does a good job of showing it off. I used the *Blends to color the basket and butterfly, which I then fussy cut out. I cut inside the handle part too just by poking a hole with my scissor tip and then cutting around the inside. The text is embossed in white. I decorated the envelope with the mini butterflies on the front left side and the back flap.

Do you have this stamp set? It’s only around until March 31 so don’t miss out! It is free with a qualifying order of $100 or more. Let me know what you’ve created with this set and if you CASE this card I’d love to see it! You can email me at deb.smeak@gmail.com or post it in our Facebook group here.

*Certain Blends are on back order until June as they’ve been incredibly popular. They are definitely worth getting. If you want the entire collection make sure you order the minute they’re back in stock! If you’d like to be added to a contact list for when they are back in stock please email me your email address and/or phone number so I can email or text you as soon as I know when they’re available. I predict they’ll be on back order again soon after they’re back in stock.

If you would like to purchase any of the materials used here please use the easy links below. I would truly appreciate any orders from you and would love to be your demonstrator. Happy crafting!

tams# 20788

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Paper Pumpkin – February 2018 alternatives

Posted on February 24, 2018February 24, 2018 by debjoysmeak

I recently did my first Facebook live video to unwrap my February 2018 Paper Pumpkin. I was thrilled with the beautiful flowers in the kit. They were photographic flower stickers! So beautiful. So I made sure to sit down and do some alternatives with the stamps and embellishments in the kit. As I was looking at the kit it dawned on me that there are SO MANY letter stickers. What can we spell with these?! I looked it up online and there were over 1000 words with just one of each of the words! Whoa. I glanced through the list and wrote down the ones that I feel were the most usable for cards. I’ll attach this list below. Then I picked a few of those words to play around on a few alternative cards. I tried to pick words that would also pair with the other stamps from this kit. This is what I came up with!

For the blue card I used the Pool Party and Night of Navy Blends on the ‘rock’ letters and colored the guitars from Epic Celebrations from Sale-a-bration with Night of Navy, Bermuda Bay, Pool Party, Ivory and Crumb Cake Blends. All images are stamped in Night of Navy and I used a few of the berry vellum twigs and the natural twine from the kit as accents.

For the yellow card I used the Daffodil Delight Blends on the ‘honey’ letters, stamped in Daffodil Delight on a Sahara Sand banner cut from cardstock, although you could use a bit off one of the card bases from the kit. I so wish I had a bee stamp to go on the bottom of the flower panel going toward the flower on the bottom right! There are two great bee stamps in the catalog that would go wonderfully with this: Touches of Texture (page 152 annual) and Dragonfly Dreams (page 138 annual). I think the Touches of Texture one would work best, since it is a smaller bee. I really want that set…it’s going on my list! I also used the Hexagons embossing folder on Daffodil Delight cardstock and added embellishments from the kit. I love how it turned out!

For the green card I used Crumb Cake Blends on the ‘beautiful’ letters and stamped ‘friend’ in Crumb Cake on Sahara Sand cardstock. The Old Olive DSP is from the Petal Garden DSP Paper Stack. I also used light Old Olive Blends on the leaf sticker’s background so it would blend into the background more. I like how the flower stickers look like they’re in a bunch behind the panel, overflowing onto the card.

I think my favorite is the pink one. We can always use great teacher cards! I was ecstatic to see that the letters could spell ‘teacher.’ I wanted to play with pink so I chose the back of the mini hearts from the Painted With Love Specialty DSP Paper. To get the shape I traced the hole from the flower sheet on the green card onto the back of the pink piece I wanted to use. Then I fussy cut it out. This would work for the other thicker shape too if you don’t already have the Lots of Labels Framelits (another thing that is on my list…my long list). I outlined the letters using the Melon Mambo Stampin’ Write Marker. You can either get it from the Brights collection or the whole marker set Many Marvelous Markers. I used Melon Mambo for all the stamping and put the ‘teacher’ banner up on dimensionals, like the other cards. This one uses a Melon Mambo base with one of the provided card front pieces. We do want to celebrate the awesomeness of our teachers!

So I hope you like these alternative options to this kit. Here is the word list that I thought was helpful. Notice ‘unicorn’ is on there!! Somebody better do something cool with that one and send it to me! 😀 If you would like to order any of the extra materials I used you may click on the picture at the bottom of this post. Have a great day guys!

tams# 20484

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Watercolor Stocking Christmas

Posted on December 12, 2017December 12, 2017 by debjoysmeak

I love how this card turned out. I’m choosing this one to send out to family and friends this year with the exception of one special card I’m making for my grandma. I love watercolor washes and this is a great way to add a splash of color on shimmery white paper and a textured snowy background.

You can follow along how I made this card on YouTube here.

The items I used in this card are listed at the bottom of this post and also in the video.

The variation I did for my grandma is using the Quilted Christmas DSP to look like a quilt on a watercolor background. She has made dozens of quilts over the years and this piece reminds me of a square quilt she might make to hang on the wall. I used two different paper patterns from the same DSP stack. The red star background fit perfectly behind the 3″ x 3″ quilted piece to look like a border! I was thrilled about that.

I’m really thrilled with how these two cards turned out. I’m excited to see the variations that come from doing multiple cards because watercolor is never the same twice.

The shimmery white cardstock is a dream to watercolor on. I love how it has that wonderful subtle shimmer! I used all the colors from the DSP: Garden Green, Real Red, Lemon Lime Twist, Pool Party and Blushing Bride.

Please share with me the cards you are making for your family this year! I would love to see them. You can post on my new Facebook group here.

Merry Christmas!

tams# 18351

Product List

Hang Your Stocking Photopolymer Stamp Set

Snowflake Sentiments Clear-Mount Stamp Set

Quilted Christmas 6" X 6" (15.2 X 15.2 Cm) Designer Series Paper

Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Snowy Season’s Greetings

Posted on November 27, 2017 by debjoysmeak

I love the texture in the Cable Knit embossing folder! It adds so much depth to cards. This card features stamps from Snowflake Sentiments. This is a really easy and pretty card. I used Whisper White, Pool Party and Dapper Denim along with a splash of silver from last year’s Sale-a-bration sale. (Next one is coming up soon in January!)

I did not shoot a video for this one, but it’s fairly easy to explain so I’ll just give the measurements here:

Whisper White base – 5.5″ x 8.5″, folded to 5.5″ x 4.25″

Whisper White Stitched Shape oval – largest oval

Dapper Denim layer – 5.25″ x 4″

Pool Party layer – 5″ x 3.75″

1 Whisper White medium envelope

Directions:

Stamp the 3 different sizes of snowflakes in Dapper Denim onto the Pool Party layer. I found it easier to cut my 3 small snowflakes into 1 and 2. They line up nicely if placed together on the block and then I can use a single one when needed. After it is all stamped, emboss the Pool Party layer with the Cable Knit embossing folder with the ribs going up and down.

Stamp the greeting in Dapper Denim in the middle of the Stitched Shape oval. Stamp the single small snowflake in Pool Party in random places around the sentiment. Run a line of Fast Fuse on the back of the oval and attach a silver ribbon. Trim the ends on an angle. Place Stampin’ Dimensionals above and below the ribbon on the backside of the oval. Since the oval is so big, I recommend 4-6 dimensionals.

Attach the layers using Fast Fuse, since the Pool Party layer is so textured.

On the inside I stamped a retired greeting from Jar of Cheer in Dapper Denim and a few scattered small snowflakes in Pool Party. I also stamped the envelope front with a big snowflake in Dapper Denim and the triple line of small snowflakes along the back flap (not shown).