Friday, April 27, 2012

Announcing: First Thursdays!

Tutorial Tuesdays isn't enough! Red Rubber Designs also brings you: First Thursdays!

Starting in May 2012, on every first Thursday of the month something special happens here at Red Rubber Designs! No pesky dates for you to remember - just every First Thursday of every month meet us here for a fun Design Team Blog Hop and - NEW STAMP RELEASES!

And, you just never know what else may happen, so join us for each fun and fabulous First Thursday!

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Announcing: Tutorial Tuesdays!

I'd like to thank you for a wildly successful Grand Opening Celebration for Red Rubber Designs! Your support is appreciated!

Now that we've taken a breath (just a small one!), I'm proud to announce Tutorial Tuesdays on the Red Rubber Designs blog (right here!) featuring our fabulous Design Team! They're working hard to bring you fun and creative Tutorials on Tuesdays, starting May 1st.

Not only that, but for every Tuesday Tutorial here on the blog we'll have a PDF that you can download in the store - for FREE! So stay tuned and get ready to be inspired!

Monday, April 16, 2012

Blog Hop Winner

We are pleased to announce that the winner of our Blog Hop Contest is.....Heather (Farfalla Fancies). Congratulations, Heather! Please email us at info@redrubberdesigns.com so that we may send you your prize package.

Thank you to all who entered the contest by visiting and commenting on all of the stops on the blog hop. We hope you had fun and will return often.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Red Rubber Designs Blog Hop Prize Package Contest Entry

What will your prize package contain? I'm not sure but I know that the factory elves are busy after Pam leaves for the day hunting for goodies to send your way.
Disclaimer: Your box probably won't look like this. Haven't seen any elves either!

Did you enjoy our first blog hop? We hope that you were inspired by seeing what 7 different designers could create using the same rubber stamp.

If you left a comment on each stop of the blog hop, then you are eligible to be entered in a random draw for a prize package from the Red Rubber Designs store. To enter, simply leave a comment on this post saying that you completed the hop. The contest will close at midnight CDT tonight (Sunday, April 15). A winner will be announced on this blog on Monday April 16th. Good luck!


Saturday, April 14, 2012

Stamping With Perfect Pearls Tutorial

Hello everyone! This is Kate and today I would like to share a fun technique with you to be used on any card or mixed media project. I love stamping with all sorts of different products. In this tutorial we will learn how to stamp with Perfect Pearls.


First, gather your supplies. (Shown Above) You will need:
Red Rubber Designs Well-Defined Stamps
Red Rubber Designs Rustic Chic Paper
Embossing Ink or Perfect Pearls Medium
Heat Tool
Clean Paint Brush
Water Spritzer
Perfect Pearls

Cover your stamp with embossing ink or Perfect Pearls Medium and stamp on paper
Continue this process until the entire piece of paper is covered.


The paper should look like this.


Cover the embossed area of the paper with Perfect Pearls. Use the paint brush to tap the sides of the paper to remove the excess powder.


Once the excess powder is removed, heat the area with a heat gun until the embossed image begins to show up. Take a paint brush and dust it over the image to make sure all the excess powder is removed. The image can be spritzed with a bit of water to set the image.


Now you have a beautiful and shimmery background that can be layered on any card or project.

You can find this tutorial as a free download at Red Rubber Designs. Thank you for stopping by! Don't forget to visit the Red Rubber Designs Store for all your stamping needs.

Tutorial: Sydney Album Kit

Today, I have a tutorial using the Sydney Album Kit. My goal is to show what the Sydney album contains, give a few tips and then show a project I made with it.

You can buy just the album or a kit with a tin for the album. Perfect for a quick project to capture an event or a gift. There are so many things to love about the Sydney album. The colors are amazing.
The Sydney album was design with busy people in mind. It is (3) 12x12" sheets of die cuts. A lot of the work has been done which allows you to save time. It cam be used to create a round mini album or add the die cut elements to any card or project.
There are (11) 4-3/8” diameter circles, (1) 3-7/8” diameter circle, tags, arrows, buckles, flowers, corner elements (pre-scored for easy folding)…35 double sided embellishments in all, not all shown in the picture above.

The die cut elements are cardstock. They are white-core, so they can be sanded or distressed to give a vintage or shabby chic look.
All the die cut elements are doubled sided, usually solid color (or monochromatic) on one side and patterned on the other.
The die cut elements pop out without the use of scissors.

However, there are remnants of where they were attached. I use my 4" Kai scissor and run the blade along the edge to clean them up.
A sanding block can be used to distress the cardstock or smooth out any rough edges. The sanding blocks come 2 in a package and have fine sanding grit on all 4 sides.

I trimmed the edges with a scissor then went around with the sanding block to get a nice smooth edge.
The edges were inked with Burnt Umber Palette ink. This hides the white core and any imperfections for a nice finished look.
I stacked all the circles for my album and punched them all at once.
I added a binder ring with ribbons to hold the album together. Now, the album is ready for pictures, journaling and embellishments.
The small circle was trimmed, inked and matted on one of the larger circles for the top lid of the tin. Now, the tin is ready for embellishments too.

Three stamp sets were used for this project -- Well Defined Backgrounds, Define it & Memories.
This is the finished tin. I used one of the flower die cuts and a frame. The eyelets are Amelia hardware.
So easy to create in a few hours, with all the die cut elements, this kit is a real time saver for our busy lives. What a lovely gift to give someone special.
Die Cuts from Sydney kit – tag, corner accent and flower
Die Cuts from Sydney kit – bracket and arrow
The edge detail was done with a Bind It All
Stamps – Memories and Define it
Hardware – Amelia hardware
Die Cuts from Sydney kit – 2 tags, bracket and buckle
The recipient can easily add photos to this mini album.
Die Cuts from Sydney kit – tag and flower
Maya Road Sheer Round Scallop Coasters



Hope you enjoyed today's tutorial. If you would like a printer friendly version of this tutorial. It is available for download on the Red Rubber Designs website.

Friday, April 13, 2012

DT Reveal Contest Winner

The winner of the prize package from the Design Team Reveal has been chosen by random.org. It is (drum roll, please).......Vonnie Bodnar!.......Congratulations! Please email your information for shipping to info@redrubberdesigns.com so we can get your prize package on its way to you.

Don't forget that we have another contest going on right now for our Grand Opening. You can check it out on this post .

Tutorial: Mounting and Cutting Red Rubber Designs Stamps



You will need a pair of Kai Scissors, your Red Rubber Designs stamp set,
a sheet of Creative Cling Cushion, and an Acrylic Block. My stamp



Cut a piece of Creative Cling Cushion to fit the size of your rubber stamp set.




The foam cushion has paper on both sides. One side is sticky and the other is the cling side. Remove the paper from the sticky side of the cushion and adhere the back side of the rubber stamp to the sticky foam.




Begin trimming the stamp making straight cuts. Do not round your cuts around the image because that makes a beveled edge. You want the rubber and the foam to be a straight edge at 90 degree angles.




Continue cutting close to the image so that you will be able to stamp a clear image without picking up ink from excess rubber. Complete cutting all pieces of the stamp set.



Remove the paper from the cling side of each cut-out stamp.


Place your stamp on an Acrylic Block. Now you are ready to stamp!

You can find this tutorial as a free download at Red Rubber Designs.

Grand Opening Blog Hop

Today is the Grand Opening of Red Rubber Designs! To celebrate, the design team is having a blog hop. So, let's get this party started...

We hope you caught the design team reveal last week. So many talented ladies with a range of artistic styles. With that in mind, we thought it would be fun if we all used the same stamp set for this blog hop. Seven different ideas all using the same image. I can't wait to see what everyone came up with.

The image we are using today is "Life of the Party". The perfect stamp to celebrate the Grand Opening.

Here is the Blog Hop Order

A prize package will be awarded to one lucky person. To have your name entered in the random drawing, leave a comment at each stop of this blog hop. To complete the hop, return to this blog Sunday, April 15th and leave a comment on the contest entry post that you completed the blog hop. The deadline to comment is Sunday, April 15th at Midnight (Central Time).

The winner will be announced here Monday, April 16th.

There are Grand Opening Sales and new products introduced this weekend at Red Rubber Designs, you will want to check it out.

Good Luck and Happy Hopping!



Sunday, April 8, 2012

ANNOUNCING OUR GRAND OPENING CELEBRATION!

Come celebrate our Grand Opening at Red Rubber Designs: For two days we will celebrate with sales, prizes, contests and more!

Join us on Friday & Saturday, April 13-14, 2012 at our online store - http://www.redrubberdesigns.com/ - and see what we have to offer for all of your creative stamping needs. We’ll have new stamps, new patterned papers and more.

We’ll kick off our Grand Opening Celebration with a Blog Hop by our fabulous Design Team on Friday morning. Be sure to visit our blog to start the hop and get inspired to create!

Then visit our blog and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/RedRubberDesigns) throughout Friday and Saturday for contests and other chances to win prize packages from Red Rubber Designs.

Come celebrate with us!

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Red Rubber Designs Prize Package Contest Entry



Left to right: Pam Upper-owner, Louise Granlund, Paula-Kay Bourland
Debra Miller, KC Eddy
Diana Queen, Kate Yetter, Sarah Hemphill-DT Coordinator



We hope you enjoyed meeting our talented Design Team. If you visited each of the DT member's blogs and left a comment, you are eligible to enter the random draw for a prize package from The Red Rubber Designs store. You can enter by leaving a comment on this post. The contest will close Tuesday, April 10 at midnight CDT. So you still have time to go back to make sure you commented on each of the blogs. We will announce the winner on Friday 13th (someone's lucky day) during our Grand Opening festivities.




Red Rubber Designs Design Team Blogroll

Debra Miller-Cream City Angels

Paula-Kay Bourland-Creative Stamping with Paula-Kay

KC Eddy-Distracted by Something Shiny

Diana Queen-Wordbird's Nest

Louise Granlund-Kard Krazy

Kate Yetter-The Scrap Yard

Friday, April 6, 2012

Red Rubber Designs Welcomes Kate Yetter


My name is Kate Yetter and I am a wife and mother. I have two adorable little men that are my inspiration to create. I love making art with pictures of my family. I have been watercolor painting, sewing and scrapbooking since an early age. I love being able to create things that make me happy when I look at them. I enjoy learning new forms of art and experimenting with the items I have lying around.

I work as an RN on a pediatric and adult brain injury unit on the weekends. I love nursing but my dream job is to create art when my kids go to school. Retirement may be a more realistic goal. Right now my craft time is while the kids are napping and whenever else I can squeeze in some alone time, which is not often.

I am so excited to have been invited on the RRD Design Team and look forward to sharing art made with their amazing products.


Kate brings a little vintage, a little grunge, and a little steam punk style to our team. Check out her blog, The Scrap Yard, for today's creation and be sure to leave her a comment!

Kate is the final reveal for our Design Team. We hope you have enjoyed visiting all 6 blogs and will follow them for lots of ideas and inspiration.

Have you left a little love on all of the designer's blogs? You haven't? What are you waiting for? You don't want to miss out on a chance to win a fabulous prize package from Red Rubber Designs do you! To be included in the random draw, come back here tomorrow April 7th and enter the contest by leaving a comment on the "Prize Package Contest Entry" post. The contest will close Tuesday, April 10 at midnight CDT. The lucky winner will be announced on Friday, April 13 during our Grand Opening festivites. Hope to see you there.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Red Rubber Designs Welcomes Louise Granlund


I'm Louise and I hail from the Chicagoland area. I've lived here all my life which is getting to be quite a long time now :) By day I work as a court reporter, something else I've been doing for a long time.

In my spare time I like to play with rubber stamps, ink, paper, etc. My love affair with stamping and scrapbooking began about 10 years ago. I'm drawn to all things vintage and that pretty much shows itself in my art.

I've been blogging for about six years or so and more than anything I've enjoyed the friends and fellow artists I've come to know online. I even met two who took an art cruise with me :):)

I'm looking forward to this new venture through Red Rubber Designs, creating art with great stamps and getting to know new people and making new friends!


Louise brings a touch of feminine vintage to the team. Please visit her blog, Kard Krazy, to see what she created for you today. By leaving a comment on her blog, your will be eligible for a chance to win a fabulous prize package.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Red Rubber Designs Welcomes Diana Queen

My name is Diana Queen. I have been married 25 years to the most wonderful, supportive, fun loving fella of all time! Together we have twins, a boy and a girl. They are the loves of our lives and keep us very busy. I am so very blessed to be a "stay at home" mom to the little loves.

Card making began when my children were small and I needed a creative outlet that I could finish a little quicker than scrapbooking. On a whim about 4 years ago I typed the word "card making" into my computer and I haven't looked back!

I have met the most creative, wonderful people in the paper crafting community. My style is hard to pin down. I love everything from clean and simple to slightly shabby chic.

I am very blessed and excited that Pam and Sarah have invited me to join the RRD team. I'm looking forward to a creative Journey with Red Rubber Designs.


Diana brings a clean and simple style with a burst of color to the team. Go take a peek inside Wordbirds Nest to see what she has created today. While there leave a comment to be eligible for a fabulous prize package from Red Rubber Designs.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Red Rubber Designs Welcomes KC Eddy

Hi! My name is KC Eddy and I live in Central Missouri, with my husband, two daughters and our collection of furry friends - too numerous to mention. By day I am an accountant, by night I am a craft-a-holic. I also enjoy boating and camping with my family and am a huge Chicago Bears fan!

I have crafted in almost every medium imaginable; including paper, ceramics, porcelain and glass. I am especially fond of jewelry and mixed media. Though I often get lost in a project and make things more involved than they need to be, I try to streamline my projects for teaching and tutorials so that others can learn from my experimentation.

I am a Design Team newbee so this is a very exciting new adventure for me. I hope you'll join me for the ride.


KC brings a desire to learn and a willingness to share to our team. Her blog,
Distracted by Something Shiny, is new...don't you love that name?...so stop by for a visit and see what she is creating. By leaving a comment on her blog, you get a chance to win a fabulous prize.

Monday, April 2, 2012

Red Rubber Designs Welcomes Paula-Kay Bourland


I am a full-blooded Texan, married for 45 years to a wonderful husband, mother of two sons and seven grandchildren.

For a number of years I have been scrapbooking and stamping. What I enjoy most is making and sending cards to minister and bless other people.

In the last couple of years I discovered Copic markers which have become my favorite medium for coloring. I've enjoyed teaching Copic coloring classes to customer and friends.

As a former angel for 9 years with The Angel Company my hobby became a business and real joy in my life. I was on the TAC Dream Team designers and the Digi Design House design team.

How exciting to be a part of the Red Rubber Designs Design Team and help promote this wonderful stamp website. Join with us for stamping challenges and fun!


Paula-Kay brings an obvious love of teaching and coloring to our team. Please visit her blog, Creative Stamping with Paula-Kay, to see what she has in store for you today. Leave her a comment for a a chance to win a fabulous prize.

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Red Rubber Designs Welcomes Debra Miller



My name is Debra Miller. In 1997 my high school friend, Christa, gave me a stamp set for my birthday. I would travel 350 miles from SE Wisconsin back to Minnesota to go to her stamping parties, to learn more about stamping and card making - I know crazy! I was hooked and I never looked back.
I've been on the lookout for great images, yummy papers and cool gadgets ever since. I haven't bought a card in over 10 years - so I'm saving money right?!? ;)

My husband, Mark, is both understanding of this hobby {obsession} and my biggest fan - so very lucky.

Thank you - Pam and Sarah for asking me to join the RRD design team. Can't wait to get started designing for Red Rubber Designs!


We welcome Debra's crisp, colorful style to our team. Please visit her blog, Cream City Angels to see what she has created for you today. And be sure to leave her a comment for a chance to win a fabulous prize.