Hello stampers! I was so excited to play with crystal and ice and Feels Like Frost designer series paper. This is all in preparation for my epic Feels Like Frost sweet suite class. For a year now I have been offering a monthly Sweet Suite Saturday class. This class is just a variation on that theme. Let me tell you a little more about that.

Sweet Suite Saturday

Sweet Saturdays was born from a desire of mine to give my customers not only the best “bang for their buck” or in fancier English, more value for their money. I also wanted to create a more relaxed atmosphere and a more intimate environment. Suites are also a very smart way to buy your products. Rather than dabble and get a little of this and that, buying the suite lets you make beautiful things with all the coordinating products. It results in limitless creativity. It can be compared to buying a complete outfit with coordinating accessories so you don’t have to go assembling an outfit one piece at a time. I think we can all relate to the endless infuriating search for just the right colour top to go with a beautiful skirt or vice versa. Save yourself time and frustration and get it all at once.

When my customers purchase the bundle they get to make four free cards. If they aren’t thrilled with the bundle they can also choose to simply pay a $25 fee for the class. Now that Stampin’Up! has introduced a comprehensive price for the entire suite which includes the 10% discount on the stamp set and die bundle I have created an “epic” option where you get eight amazing cards to make for free. It really is an incredible deal but I like to reward my customers for investing in products that will bring them lots of creative potential. The Feels Like Frost class is coming up quickly with two available dates, Thursday October 17 at 7pm and Saturday October 19 at 1pm. I might offer another date in November, but that depends on when my third grandchild decides to enter this world and meet oma.

Crystal and Ice

Shimmery crystal effects and ice stampin’ glitter are included in the Feels Like Frost suite. I finally got a chance to make a card using both of these on vellum! I was really excited to try that because it reminds me of hoar frost which is one of my most favourite things about winters in Canada. It was also born of necessity because I didn’t bring any glimmer or foil paper with me to Holland. Necessity is the mother of invention and I am loving the challenge. I adhered the vellum pieces with a little bit of tombow liquid adhesive because I also forgot to bring glue dots along! Let’s take a look at the card.

The Card

Do you see how lovely the ice stampin’ glitter looks on the vellum? There is shimmery crystal effects underneath to hold it all together. I almost felt guilty for covering up the shimmery crystal effects, but now you get double bling. The shimmery crystal effects would probably look really nice on its own as well. It is so nice to have separate dies that just cut out branches and snowflakes that mimic the foliage that is found in the stamp set Frosted Foliage.

I was inspired to make this card by Bronwyn Eastley. She used the polar bears from the Snow Globe Scenes dies but I didn’t bring that bundle with me to Holland so I opted to use the deer die cut stickers from Most Wonderful Time product medley instead. You can find Bronwyn’s card here.

The party gets carried to the back of this card where there is room to write a personal message as well as include a gift card or cash, both are always appreciated at Christmas time! I changed up the size of the patterned paper panels and I added the vellum accents and the crystal and ice.

On the last panel of the back of this card is a gift card holder. I didn’t have a circle punch to cut the usual half circle for the traditional “grip” for the gift card so I used the inside stitched framelit from the Frosted Frame dies, I just turned it on an angle. The result is quite acceptable and the opening is a little larger which will make it easier to extract the gift card.

What I like best about this last panel is the way the stamp and the die cut mimic each other for a cohesive look. Once again the shimmery crystal effects with the ice stampin’ glitter on vellum creates an ethereal look reminiscent of hoar frost. I think I’m in love!

The Story

As promised, I am going to share why there was no blog post yesterday. Our day started with a dramatic and frightening event. Gerard’s right hand man called him at 7:30 am in great pain. It turns out he was having a heart attack! Waiting for the ambulance to arrive was excruciating. I kept praying that God would spare his life and He did. Turns out that Ali had two blocked arteries. He underwent surgery right away and had two stents put in. The doctor told him he was lucky to be alive. Ali is 62. How quickly our lives can change.

After destressing from that I cleared up my stamp table and then Caroline van der Straaten picked me up and we had a lovely day together. We started with coffee and pastries at Bakkerij Vreugdenhil, then we went to the market in Wateringen and then we went home and had lunch. After another trip to a store called Action to buy some little lights we got to work punching and die cutting. The project? A beautiful framed Christmas wreath. It is still under construction but it was just so lovely to get together with a fellow demonstrator and friend just to create and have fun and catch up on each other’s lives. I am blessed!

Thanks!

Thanks again for stopping by to join me for the day’s creation and a story. I am thankful for your presence in my life and I am happy to share my creativity with you. That really is a big deal as it took a long time for me to see myself as a creative person. Happy stamping and don’t forget to sign up for classes if you are local. I still have it in my list of goal to create online classes but for now online orders are also lovely. You really are the lifeblood of my business, without you there would be no Pampered Stamper. Have a super day.

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