by Jackie Bultje | May 7, 2019 | Birthday, Birthday Banners, kids cards |
Hello stampers. Life got in the way this morning so I am posting in the afternoon. The good news is that I most likely have my space above my garage rented out and that will be such a relief. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with that space, but the purpose of it was to provide me with some much needed regular income. God is so good and always provides what we need in His time. Back to Birthday Banners and Balloons. I had such fun playing with this stamp set. It is one that lends itself very well to using different colours and getting a totally different effect. I thought it would be fun to show two cards side by side, not only so you could see the different colour schemes, but also that you could see the candle flames stamped properly!
Now that you see the cards side by side the upside down flames on the first card are SOOOO noticeable. I ask myself, how did I not see this in the first place? Too funny for words.
I just love the fresh colours of this card. The enamel dots were from my stash and I am pretty sure they are retired, but we always have a lot of cute colours in the catalog and on the clearance rack. I used melon mambo, pool party and pineapple punch on this card as well as night of navy for the stitched banner stamp.
Here is the inside of the card I shared with you yesterday. If you missed it, you can see it here. You can see how easy it is to add some string and tie the balloons together. I just put a glue dot on the back of the balloons near the bases and then left the string long enough that I could loop them together in a knot at the bottom. It’s all in the little details. The banner is just stamped right on the paper so no need to cut it out with the framelits. If you wanted to make it extra special you could, but I didn’t think it was necessary.
For this card I punched out three different balloons, real red, daffodil delight and night of navy. They make a nice pop of colour on a lemon lime twist base which I ran through with the Gently Falling embossing folder. Do you see how the pattern on the balloons is repeated in the banner? It makes it such fun to play with different colour combinations. The tiny candle was embossed with the soon to be retiring in colour embossing powder collection.
Here you can see some more cute sayings from Birthday Banners. I love stamping them in different colours, it adds to the birthday fun. Birthdays should be fun, exciting and colourful and these cards exude that happy feeling. Have I mentioned that this adorable set is retiring? We will be making these cards next week at coffee and a card class but they are also very easy to copy at home. If you live in Canada and want any of these products, just click on the link below and you will be taken directly to my online store. Happy shopping! Use my current host code and I will send you a happy card in the mail. Thanks for stopping by and have a super day.
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by Jackie Bultje | May 6, 2019 | Birthday, Birthday Banners, Emboss Resist technique, embossing, Framelits |
Hello stampers! I bought the Birthday Banners stamps set on a whim about two months ago and it is finally time to use it. I bought it because it coordinated with some banner framelits that I already have. I am going outside of my usual style and that is a good thing to do once in a while. You don’t want to get predictable, that’s boring! I don’t make enough cards suitable for kids, and these fit the bill for any age.
Now is a good time to take inventory of your stamping stash. You want to get the most use out of what you already have especially with your framelits and punches. Framelits will go on the clearance rack every now and then, but NEVER bundles. So you want to be sure that you have as many stamps as possible that coordinate with the framelits you already have because then you will use them more often. Is there a retiring colour that you really love? Make sure you have not only the card stock and the reinker, but also ribbon, twine and patterned paper that has that colour in it. On these cards I decided to use up my lemon lime twist. I love that colour, but as a demonstrator I will not be using it after May 31. No sense having someone fall in love with something they can’t buy!
I purposely took the picture of this card so that you could see the inside with the bright balloons. I even put string on them and tied them together to make it extra special. These balloons are in the Birthday Banners stamp set and they coordinate with our balloon punch to make it super simple to make a balloon bouquet. I cased this card from Michelle Zindorf, the queen of brayering. I didn’t brayer though, I sponged the background with blueberry bushel after embossing the swoosh from Star of Light in white. Michelle was a genius to think of the swoosh to make the candles look like they are being blown out! I embossed the candles in that gorgeous in colour embossing powder collection that is retiring. Here I used the lovely lipstick and pineapple punch embossing powders, great for the emboss resist technique.
Emboss resist simply means that you emboss your image first. That means that you stamp the image in versamark which is a sticky watermark ink. If you don’t add embossing powder you will just get a great tone on tone effect which is great for backgrounds. If you choose to emboss, then you sprinkle embossing powder on to your versamark stamped image, tap off the excess on to a clean coffee filter and then heat with the heat tool (which I call an embossing gun) After you have embossed your image you can sponge on ink or use a brayer and it will not stick to the embossed image. Do you see the blue on my one candle? That happened because the white part of the candle is not embossed. Next time I think I will cut out the candles and pop them up so that doesn’t happen. I could also have embossed the happy birthday but since this card is for my coffee and a card class I didn’t want to add too many steps. Do you see the fine detail in the swoosh from Star of Light? I love that you can use a Christmas stamp set for a birthday card. A lot of people have also used this swoosh as a Disney element (aka fairy dust) on cards or scrapbook pages. This stamp set is retiring as are the coordinating framelits.
I simply had to include this card even though it contains a glaring error that will have you laughing at me. Do you see what I did wrong on this card? I love the cute enamel dots, the raised banner with the two colours and the bright and cheerful candles. That banner cuts out with a framelit of course and there are two stamps so you don’t have to colour your stamp with a marker, also makes you look like a rock star. But when you stamp your candle flames upside down, well, that’s not such a bright idea is it?!! I really hope that maybe a few of you would have done the same thing.
I am going to stop this blog post now since I really, really want to go to pickleball, and it was canceled all of last week so I am in withdrawal. I also think my girth may be expanding due to lack of exercise! I will continue this post tomorrow including a new and improved version of this card in a different colour scheme of course as well as the last card in the trio. Thanks so much for stopping by, remember if you need to purchase anything and you live in Canada and are looking for a demonstrator, just click on the images below and you will end up at my online store. How easy is that?
Have a super day!!
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by Jackie Bultje | May 4, 2019 | Mother's Day, Paper Trimmer, technique cards, Time for Tea |
Hello stampers. Can you believe it is already May 4? That means it is almost Mother’s Day! It really doesn’t feel like it in southern Ontario. It has been such a cold and rainy spring, I still have a mud yard because it has been too wet to grade and add top soil and seed grass. Great card making weather though! I have some Mother’s Day Tea cards for you today. I was inspired by Amy O’Neill’s card which I saw in the Freshly Made Sketches site. I really need to get involved in these sketch challenges so look for that to happen. Maybe you would like to play along too. Amy used the tea framelits from saleabration and the Tea Together set from the Occasions catalog. I had not yet inked up this beauty so it was high time to do so.
The other source of inspiration for these cards was a package of Tea Room designer series paper and rich razzleberry velvet ribbon. I am really happy with how these cards turned out and I think they will be perfect for Mother’s day and for my coffee and a card regulars.
This is the card that I cased from Amy O’Neill. She used pool party for the base but I was literally down to scraps in that colour so I chose mint macaron. I love how the teacup turned out. I coloured the flower with calypso coral blends and granny apple green for the leaves and daffodil delight for the flower centre. Do you see how I placed my watermark right over the glare from the lights? Yes, the picture was taken during the day, but it was such a dreary day that I needed the lights on inside!!
This little diagram gives you an idea of how to make the pocket shaped panel on the front of the card. The original patterned paper piece is 4″ square. Mark the middle with a pencil at 2″ and then one inch up each side. Cut from the three inch mark to the middle 2″ mark on either side. I then adhered it to a piece of cardstock 4 1/8″ wide. I lined up the edge of the patterned paper with the edge of my trimmer guide and then cut. Do that on either side and you’re done!
Here is a closeup of the teacup. You can even see the Wink of Stella that gives such a pretty sparkle over top of the colouring done with Blends. The best thing is that there is no fussy cutting. The framelits do all the work for you.
This card uses the same “recipe” as the card on the right in the first picture. I used two different patterns from the Tea Room Specialty designer series paper. The top one is 3 1/2″ by 3 1/4″ and the bottom piece is 3 1/2″ by 1 1/2″. Put them on a pool party base measuring 3 3/4″ by 5″. The other card has a rich razzleberry base. I made a third card using this same layout, but I forgot to take a picture of it in natural light.
Here you an see my vintage teacup up close. I embossed the tea cup in silver on vellum cardstock and then cut out another teacup out of patterned paper. I adhered them together with Tombow liquid adhesive using a sponge to apply it evenly. The result is that the pattern is softened and almost gives it a porcelain look. That pretty ribbon you see is also part of the Time for Tea suite in the annual catalog. It has a stunning copper stitching along the edge that is not done justice to in the picture. I really love how all the different patterns just look so lovely together, just like an assortment of vintage china.
Time for Tea is retiring are the Spot of Tea framelits but the Tea Together set will be in the new catalog. Here they are so you can see them:
I did not use this stamp set or framelits for my cards but I did use the ribbon and the paper from the suite. For a complete list of products used just scroll down to the end of the post. If you click on any of the items and you live in Canada, you can shop from my online store and have these amazing products shipped right to your door. Stampin’Up! charges 10% shipping as well as provincial sales tax.
Thanks so much for stopping by, I hope you were inspired to make some cards and send some happy mail.
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by Jackie Bultje | May 3, 2019 | making a difference, Paper Pumpkin, sympathy, thinking of you |
Hello stampers. You have heard me talk a lot about Paper Pumpkin. One of the many things I love about Paper Pumpkin is that it makes it easy for me to help charities like Hospice. Our Chatham-Kent Hospice has a beautiful program where they send a handmade card on the one year anniversary of the death of a loved one. This is such a thoughtful thing to do and when I heard about it I knew it was the right fit for me. What a great way to use my business to bless others. Studies have shown that the one year mark in grieving is a tough one. Most people have forgotten your loss and moved on, so it can be very touching to receive a card on that anniversary. Paper Pumpkin is different every month but every once in a while it is perfect for my Hospice cards. That means I can make beautiful cards with my team of volunteers with very little prep time involved. It is also wonderful for the volunteers because the cards are easy and beautiful. Here are some of the cards we made today.
All the sentiments that we used came from different Paper Pumpkin kits. Paper Pumpkin is a monthly subscription that comes in the mail and includes a stamp set, a mini ink pad and all the supplies you need to make great cards. All you need is a tape runner. Glue dots and dimensionals are included as well. Paper Pumpkin is going up in price in June, so if you want to lock in the savings you would be wise to get a 12 month prepaid subscription. This will not only save you $3 per month (when the price goes up) it also gives you a free month as well as $27.50 in host benefits. You can skip a month at any time with no penalty and you can activate your subscription whenever you like. Don’t you think it would be a wonderful Mother’s Day gift?
See all the details in this card? Everything was included in the kit. Lovely colour coordination and such great textures too.
Do you see the sentiment on this card? It is from next month’s Paper Pumpkin! How on earth did I get my hands on that so early? It was my prize at OnStage in Quebec City where one of our make and takes was a Paper Pumpkin card from the May kit designed by Shelli herself. You are not going to want to miss out on this beautiful Paper Pumpkin kit.
After I took the picture of this third card I realized it would be fun to daub a little daffodil delight in the centre of this grey granite rose. It really did look great, so I took another picture to show you. I just changed this card up a little from the original in the kit. I centred the middle panel and added some baker’s twine. So simple and so pretty.
Don’t you think these cards will be perfect for Hospice? I love the soft spring colours, just like a bit of sunshine after a long dark winter. I thought you might like a glimpse of my table as I was prepping for the Hospice card making class. I pre-stamped the sentiments to make it easier and faster to get more cards finished.
I took one more picture to show you a little trick of mine. Whenever you are trying to adhere something to a surface that is not smooth such as ribbon or corrugated paper or glimmer paper it is a good idea to have your dimensionals on a smooth surface, not on the other stuff. Take a look:
Do you see how I placed the dimensionals above the corrugated banner? That way the sentiment will not only be offset, it will also be on firm footing and not fall off in a few days. I hope you enjoyed these cards and that you were also inspired to either come and help out with making cards for Hospice or starting some kind of community service in your area. Share what you love and spread joy with your hobby or your business. Together we can make the world a better place. Have a super day and thanks for dropping by.
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by Jackie Bultje | May 2, 2019 | Brusho, embossing, Humming Along, masculine cards, technique cards, watercolouring |
Hello stampers. It is already May 2! Time flies when you’re having fun. I was asked this morning if there was a way to make a masculine hummingbird card. I think there is and I actually have just the thing for you. I made this watercolour wash background card for my Sweet Suite Saturday class but with the leftovers from showing the technique I made a different card. I kept it clean and simple with no bling and added a large, bold sentiment to the bottom. This framelit was a freebie from saleabration 2018. It is in the annual catalog now but it is retiring. I love its bold simplicity. Let’s check it out.
The textured pattern that you see behind the hummingbird is a framelit from the Humming Along bundle. This is done on watercolour paper, so I ran it through the Big Shot twice, the second time upside down. This ensures that all those little intricate bits get cut perfectly. Then you need to use the die brush when the framelit is still on the cardstock. Brush vigorously and then you will have to hardly any poking to remove it from the watercolour paper. I then took an aqua painter and made a wash on the paper. Then I picked up some balmy blue ink with the aqua painter and went over the wet spot. Make sure your ink is nicely watered down so you get the best watercolour effect. Let’s take a closer look at the “masculine” butterfly.
I embossed the hummingbird in black on watercolour paper. I then spritzed him with water and then carefully sprinkled on some Brusho powders starting with red on his breast, yellow on his head, prussian blue and mossy green on his wings and some gamboge on his tail feathers. If you get your colours too dark you can blot off with a baby wipe to reveal the colours underneath. Make a few at once so that you can play around with colour. My second hummingbird was much prettier than my first one.
Before I sign off today I want to share with you a gorgeous new product medley called Everything is Rosy. It is only available for the month of May while supplies last. It is the perfect Mother’s Day gift for the avid paper crafter. I will share a link so that you can see lots of samples made with this medley of products. Demonstrators at each OnStage in April showed this line of products to us. We could not order it ahead of time so I don’t have it yet so I will share the treasures found online. Here is the link to my Google search. Here is the link to Mikaela Titheridge’s blog, she is an Artisan award winner who presented at OnStage. Lastly, here is the link to Tracie St Louis’ blog, she is a fellow Canadian demonstrator who shared with us at OnStage in Quebec City.
Thanks for stopping by, I hope the masculine hummingbird inspired you to make one of these beauties for yourself. Remember, Humming Along is retiring so get it while you can. Have a super day!
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Black Stampin’ Emboss Powder
[109133]
$6.25
