Nautical Expedition Suite & Spiral Border Punch

I hosted my monthly Stamp Club for the first time in my Too Cool Stamping Studio last night.  Woohoo!  It went pretty well, even though it felt weird not to be packing up all my stuff to take down to our usual spot at the fire station community center.  Obviously weird in a good way!

I LOVE that all my stuff is within reach during the event!  It was a well-known fact that I would forget at least one item (hopefully not a critical one) at each stamp club event, but now I don't have to worry about that!  And will all my stuff right there within reach, I can easily find products and projects to show or try out if one of the stampers has a question.  With the new Summer Mini items now available, I traditionally would take my new items for show & tell, so not having to box them up and carry them around is a real bonus!

Speaking of new Summer Mini items…one of our cards featured the cool nautical theme products…

I never realized how much I liked the nautical look before.  It's kind of a vintage, old-world style in masculine form!  (Isn't it great how many masculine stamps are in the new Mini?  Stampin' Up! has been listening to our requests!)  And, the look is perfect for Father's Day or birthdays, and fantastic for scrapbooking your oceanside vacations!

Nautical Expedition Suite

Once again, all of the products in the nautical theme coordinate beautifully—I love how Stampin' Up! makes this part effortless! 

I used most of the images from The Open Sea stamp set…the compass randomly stamped on the background of the first card, the "captain's log" as a background layer, the cut-out anchor as an accent, and of course the ship as the focal point colored with Watercolor Pencils and a Blender Pen.  The graphics flow together so seamlessly! 

The new Nautical Expeditions Designer Series Paper set my color palette for this card, even though I only used a small strip of the paper to add some monochromatic "texture" to the background. 

And, what about that new Baker's Twine?!  I love it!  Not only does it look like sailing rope, especially the two-tone Cherry Cobbler and Early Espresso versions, but it works for non-nautical creations, too!  The all-white is very versatile—hanging tags, threading through buttons, stringing pennants, or tying bows!  Too cool!

Complete Supplies List:

• Stamps—The Open Sea, Teeny Tiny Wishes
• Ink—Not Quite Navy, Basic Black, Early Espresso Classic Ink.
• Paper—Cherry Cobbler (textured), Not Quite Navy, Whisper White, Early Espresso card stock
• Accessories—Watercolor Pencils, Blender Pen, Cherry Cobbler Baker's Twine
• Tools—Word Window Punch, Spiral Border Punch, Sponges, Dimensionals, SNAIL

Order the supplies to make this project at my Too Cool Online Store!

Spiral Border Punch

My Spiral Border Punch likes to gather dust in the back of my punch drawer, but I thought it was a natural with the "captain's log" stamp image.  This under-appreciated punch actually has some awesome features…

The Spiral Border Punch is a quick and easy way to add interest, dimension, and color to your cards, tags, and scrapbook pages.  It's perfect for creating little accents that look like notebook paper (think Back-To-School). 

But, did you know that the holes you create with this punch are the same size as the spiral wire holes on the Stampin' Up! On Board Journals? 

The 5-1/4" x 5-1/4" Art Journal and the 8-3/4" x 5-3/4" Art Journal have 20 pages of Very Vanilla card stock and sturdy chipboard covers that can be customized with stamps, paper and accessories.  The Spiral Border Punch makes it easy for you to add additional pages to your journal, or even custom-fit Designer Series Paper to adhere to the covers!  Too Cool!

You can also use the punch to create the look of a filmstrip!  I found these two examples on Splitcoast Stampers by mum of 2+2 and kittystamp.  (The scrapbook page is actually a My Digital Studio creation using the digital Spiral Border Punch!)  How fun is that?!  And, now that film is nearly obsolete, it's practically "vintage!"  Haha!

Old-Style Spiral Border Punch

I wanted to give some tips to those of you who may have the old-style Spiral Border Punch, like me.  Stampin' Up! currently sells the Spiral Border Punch in the newer, sleeker body style (shown above) and it works just like any of the other new border punch, so I won't go into that here. The older punch needs a bit of explanation…

This punch only punches two holes at a time.  You'll need to turn the punch over and line up the edge of your card stock flush with the metal pin on the right for the first punch.

Next, you'll slide the punch down the card stock until that metal pin fits into the last punched hole.  This will ensure perfect spacing.

If you get to the end of your border and you don't have room for two more punched holes, slide the metal pin into the second-to-last punched hole instead.  This will only give you one more new hole. 

Thanks for stopping by my blog today!  Who's ready to go sailing?!

Angie