by Jackie Bultje | Aug 4, 2021 | BOGO sale, Christmas, saleabration |
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Finally a blog post from me. I had to stay away from my desk for a while because sitting and typing was the worst thing for my back. Thankfully I am feeling much better and ready to get back in the groove. Just in time, because our first summer saleabration is here!!
Saleabration in the Summer!!
Who would have thought that we would have a saleabration sale in the summer? Rather than having a three month long saleabration in the winter, Stampin’Up! decided to change it up to two two month saleabration events and I am curious as to how you will like it. There are lots of great items for you to be able to get for free but I would encourage you to order as soon as possible as there are predictions that some saleabration items will run out quickly, especially the Counting Sheep set and the Be Dazzling specialty paper. I did a virtual tour of both catalogs yesterday, you can see it here.
My First Saleabration Card
This is the first card that I made using saleabration products and it is also going to be the card that I make for our Fab Four event in September. You can sign up for that if you like. The cost is $25 and four demonstrators will teach a card. The videos will be posted in a private Facebook group and we will send you your card kit. You can then make your cards at your own pace and then join us for a Zoom gathering where we will do the door prizes and show some other things we have made with the products we used for our card so that you have some more inspiration. Here is the link to the event.
The Be Dazzling paper is so sparkly it reminds me of a dress that the stars would wear to the Oscars! Here is a closeup. Just know that the card is so much better in person. One of my customers dropped by this morning to pick up a card kit and she saw the card and said, wow, it looks way better than in the picture I saw online yesterday.
Looking for Inspiration?
Would you like to know a great trick to finding inspiration for your stamp sets or ones that you are thinking of getting? For example, let’s say you are not sure if the Counting Sheep set would be a good saleabration choice. Then go to Google and do a search. Type in “Counting Sheep Stampin’Up!” and then click on images and you will see all the projects made with this set. Brilliant!!
BOGO Sale
I have jumped on the bandwagon and have created my first ever “buy one get one free” sale. This is how it works. You request permission to join the group. Then you read the “about” section to understand the system. After that you click on “media” and you will see albums. Each album has a price. That is the value of all the items in this album. For example there is an album for stamp and die bundles for $50. In order to get one of these bundles for free you need to spend $50 in my online store before shipping and taxes.
Now is a great time to take advantage of the BOGO sale. You will get a free saleabration item with a $60 purchase, you will get a FREE pdf tutorial and you get $60 in free product from my BOGO sale. Here is the link so you can check it out.
Free Tutorial With Purchase
Did you know that you can choose which pdf tutorial you get for free with your purchase? It can be the Artistically Inked Tutorial from the Create with Us International Tutorial group or it can be the Saleabration tutorial from the Demo Design Dream Team. Either are free with a $60 purchase.
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me today. I am hoping that blogging once a week is okay for now. Perhaps when I am back in Holland I will have time to blog three times a week again. Just know that I appreciate you being here. Have a super day and I would be honoured if you live in Canada and choose to shop with me. The links to my store are listed below.
Product List
by Jackie Bultje | Jul 26, 2021 | Plentiful Plants, Prime Time With The Pampered Stamper |
Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. Truth be told it has not been a very happy Monday for me. When I woke up this morning I felt like a squashed bug. If you could have seen me attempting to get out of bed you would have cringed. When I managed that incredible feat, I gingerly put one foot in front of the other praying that I would make it to the toilet, and that once there I would be able to sit down, wipe and get up again!!! I’m sure you can guess what happened? A bad back!!
Commitments
I have commited to blogging once a week now, but this morning I didn’t think it would happen. It is now almost 8 pm and I am able to stand at my desk and type. I have put my keyboard on a stack of Paper Pumpkin boxes and that is working just fine. Sadly I had to cancel my first in person class in almost a year!! Sometimes you just have to accept reality and know that you can’t do it all. Today I want to share a card that I made with my Prime Time group last Thursday.
Plentiful Plants
Plentiful Plants is one of my favourite bundles in the new catalog. It is on trend featuring macrame plant hangers, house plants and some great sayings. I simply cased the catalog to make this card and to show that you can use the catalog for inspiration, not just for ordering things.
Here you can see a closeup of the pot and the hanger.
In the stamping community we learn from each other and I was thrilled when my brand new Prime Time member shared her card with us. She made one small change that made such a difference. She chose to mat the focal image. Thanks so much for sharing with us all Ethel Wegner! I decided to try it too, and I think Ethel has a point. What do you think?
When Everything Grinds to a Halt
When everything grinds to a halt, it is amazing how grateful you feel when things start improving just the tiniest little bit. I am over the moon happy that I was able to sit and stand long enough to share this post with you. After this, I will ice my back and rest again. Hopefully tomorrow morning at 10am I will be up to doing my weekly YouTube and Facebook live video showing you the fourth card in my Sweet as a Peach series. I have two kits left that can be mailed to two lucky people! They are only $25 including postage.
Thank You!
Thank you for joining me today. This past week I had a very successful BOGO sale, but there is still LOTS of product left. I have decided to extend the sale and you are welcome to join if you live in Canada. Please read the “about” section so you understand how it works. You are welcome to wait until saleabration starts on August 3 if you want to get more bang for your buck. With every $60 you spend you will also earn a free saleabration item AND a free pdf tutorial of your choice. Here is the link. Happy shopping!
Product List
by Jackie Bultje | Jul 19, 2021 | Measure of Love, tutorial, virtual coffee and a card class |
Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. Today I want to talk to you about joy in the journey. I realize that it has been more than two weeks since I have blogged and an absence like that hasn’t happened for a long time! A lot has happened in the last few weeks. Let me tell you about it, perhaps you can relate.
The Many Hats of a Woman
Now I am not talking about real hats, although I have quite a few of those as well, not only because I love hats, but because I really need to keep the sun off my face. Vitilago and sun are not good companions. I’m talking about all the roles and commitments that we have to juggle. For me it’s mom, oma, daughter, sister and fiancée as well as friend and upline.
Traveling during COVID is a privilege but it also means lots of quarantining. On June 24 I was out of quarantine. That meant I could finally visit my parents and I could hold my grandchildren. We squeezed in an “oma day” and I had a lovely overnight visit with my oldest daughter. At the beginning of July Rachel my youngest, was finally able to move back to Ottawa. We packed up the car (actually she did that all on her own) and we stopped by for a goodbye visit to my parents and made the long drive to our capital city. Sadly there were no fireworks on Parliament Hill largely due to the residential school tragedies that have come to light. I was supposed to go on to Montreal to visit my second oldest daughter, but that ended up not working out. The bonus to that is that I was able to have a longer visit with my parents and I could tackle some gardening projects for my mom.
The Challenges
In the background I was trying to figure out a way that I could travel to North Carolina and avoid the mandatory hotel quarantine. This meant flying out of Toronto and flying back into Detroit. I looked into an airport shuttle service as well as the train but neither option could get me to the airport on time and I had a mid-afternoon flight!! My daughter-in-law ended up accompanying me in my vehicle which she drove back to her place. I arranged for a cab ride back to the border on the way home and had friends ready to pick me up in Windsor. It was enough to make your head spin!!
At the end of this journey I discovered that I could have arranged a cab from Detroit to pick me up in Chatham so I could have flown out of Detroit all along. So much for the myth that the borders are closed. Suffice it to say that there wasn’t much joy in this journey, but there was lots of joy in the stay in North Carolina!
Joy in the Journey
So what am I talking about if there wasn’t much joy in the journey? Well, thankfully I am talking about the bigger picture, the joy in the journey of life. I came across a great quote by Joanna Gaines:
“Consider the way we begin a new year, thinking about the goals we want to achieve, asking ourselves where we want to be at the end of that year, at the end of five years, at the end of 10 years. The last scene of a movie, the final page of a book the finished meal on the table – we judge a lot of things by how they turn out.
And through all of this it seems like we’ve learned to glorify the outcome of something far more than the defining moment that got us there: the spark that caught our heart’s interest in the first place or even the beauty of all that happened in between – the courage and belief and intention it took to pick up our brush and paint, only to repaint the very next day. I can see how I’ve judged my own commitments this way, forgetting that all things are shaped during the journey. That is the essential part.”
Type A
I am a bit of a Type A personality. I can be driven and competitive and that means that sometimes I do lose the joy in the journey and that makes me sad. These past few weeks have allowed me to refocus, to re-energize and to take a step back. Sometimes you have to let something go in order to find it. Covid has been a challenge for small business owners including me. I have tried new technology and am pleased with what I have learned. What I am not pleased with is the numbers and the reason is that I simply can’t understand them. I am going to be super vulnerable and transparent here so please be kind. By doing this I hope you can shed some light on this topic for me and perhaps even point me in the right direction.
YouTube Mystery
For the past year or so I have been posting regularly on my YouTube channel. I have 3690 subscribers which makes me very happy. The part that mystifies me is that I often have less than 100 views. I would love so much to change that but I have no idea how but I need to let it go because it is robbing me of my joy in creating and sharing. The mystery is that when I was just starting on Youtube I had more viewers per video than I do now. The only thing I can think of is that there are a lot more people now using this platform and maybe it is just saturated. Who knows? All I know is that I need to let it go!
On Saturday I was in my stamp room all day making beautiful cards and I would like to share them with you today. These cards will be the feature of my August virtual coffee and a card class as well as an in person class on Tuesday August 17.
Measure of Love Cards
I was so pleased with these cards and then I realized that there are five Tuesdays in August and I made one card for each Tuesday so I can do a video tutorial for each card on YouTube! Here is card number five.
This card was inspired by The Kitchen Table Stamper. I didn’t have the tags dies so I used a punch instead and drew around the hole with a Black Blends! Here is her blog.
This card was inspired by Cheri Stojcovich. Here is her blog post.
This last card was inspired by fellow Canadian demonstrator Tina Zinck. Here is her blog post.
How to Get these Cards
I am excited to now be able to offer you three options for these cards.
- $25 for just the card kit including postage.
- $50 for the card kit and the stamp set including postage.
- In person class on Tuesday August 16 with both of these options.
Please remember that my card kits cannot include any stamped images so you will need the stamp set to complete them as shown.
More Joy in the Journey
In order to have more joy in my journey, I will only be blogging once a week for the foreseeable future. I do love writing but I love stamping more and I am hoping to do more spontaneous videos. As always I treasure your feedback. If you want to add a little joy to your journey, check out my tutorials page for some instant gratification. You can also choose a free tutorial with a $60 purchase. I hope you have a super day and I wish you joy in your journey.
Product List
by Jackie Bultje | Jun 28, 2021 | Hydrangea Hill, stitched triangle dies |
Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. Today I have another card to share with you from Susan Forsythe. This one is Stitched Triangles Magic! I was intrigued by Susan’s card so I made one myself so that I could better explain it to you as well. Next week I will do a full video tutorial in my private Prime Time group. If you are interested in joining this group, you can read about it here.
Stitched Triangles Magic!
It really is quite magical when you layer some gorgeous stitched triangles and assemble them on a card. Susan added a beautiful intricate band between the triangles that also comes in this die set. By popping up the triangles you get a really cool effect. I hope my pictures do Susan’s card justice. Let’s take a look.
In the following photo you will see the detail even closer. All I can say is “Wow!”.
Video on my Facebook Page
I did a video on my Facebook page which shows a rather embarrassing “boo-boo” while I show how this card is made. It will give you a good starting point though if you want to make this card yourself. You can check it out here.
If you purchase the Stitched Triangles from me today then I will send you a free paper sampler of the Hydrangea Haven paper.
A Short Post
Sorry for the short blog post today. This is going to be a pretty busy week for me with lots and lots of kilometres being covered. On Thursday I will be bringing Rachel to Ottawa as she is moving into her new apartment, hopefully starting a new summer job and getting ready to go back for her third year of university. Then I will travel on to Montreal to visit my other daughter Katrina. On the way home I will stop at my parents for a sleepover. Home Tuesday and then Wednesday back to the airport to fly to North Carolina for a week with Gerard visiting his family.
Tomorrow night I have a Bingo evening with my team. Wednesday is an “Oma day” with the four grandchildren and somewhere in between I will pack and help Rachel pack a U-Haul trailer. Did I mention that I still need to get a trailer hitch installed on my vehicle too? Crazy times for this crazy squirrel.
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me today and thanks to all of you who have placed online orders or who have purchased tutorials from me. The next one for sale is the Sweet as a Peach International Create With Us Tutorial Bundle Team. It is $25 or free with a $60 purchase. Here is the sneak peek.
Stay cool! I hope you have a super day.
Product List
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Silver Metallic Thread [138402] $4.75 | |
by Jackie Bultje | Jun 25, 2021 | designer series paper, Expressions in Ink, fancy fold, Slimline Cascade Card |
Hello stampers and happy Friday to you. Today I am sharing with you an Expressions in Ink Slimline Cascade Card. I did not make this card but I love it so much and couldn’t have done it better myself. It was in a package of happy mail from Susan Forsythe, my wonderful team member who keeps blessing me and our local Hospice with her beautiful work. Her timing was perfect. I had my first COVID vaccine yesterday and today my arm is sore and I was feeling a bit tired. So lovely that I have a beautiful card to share with you without having to do any of the work!!
Expressions in Ink Slimline Cascade Card
Isn’t that a mouthful? I had to google what this type of card is called. Can you believe that I have never made one? To me it looks like Susan made a very clever version of it without having to measure a lot of mats. Here is a photo of her fantastic card.
Slimline Cascade Card Instructions
Here is a website that I found that explains how to make one version of this card. For your information Susan’s base cards is 10 1/2″ wide by 8 1/2″ tall scored at 3 1/2″ and 7″. The rest of the instructions can be found here with some adjustments. I plan to make this card with different designer series paper for my Prime Time Group next week. If you have made one of these cards, I would love to see it!
Behind the Scenes
If you are wondering why this blog post is being posted so late in the day let me let you in on a little secret. I got my first vaccine shot yesterday and felt fine yesterday. Last night in bed however, my arm was quite sore and I had a lousy night. I decided to set my alarm for later than usual and then I watered my new gardens while my coffee was brewing. That was a bit of wasted time because as soon as I was sitting on the back porch with my coffee and pie it started to rain. No worries. This squirrel was in a rare zen mood and I stayed in my chair and enjoyed the rain, the greenery and the birds.
After breakfast I found a lovely surprise in the mail, a package of gorgeous cards from Susan for the Hospice program. What a delight! I will do a video of them tomorrow so you can see them too. Finally in the afternoon I was sitting at my desk to write my blog when my three year old granddaughter called. Oma, will you come over and make cards with me. Well, of course I will!! Coming out of a two week quarantine after 7 weeks away, those grandbaby snuggles and interaction are the best!! Ana has not forgotten how to “tap, tap, tap” and she listens so well to instructions. We only had a large block and a small stamp for the sentiment but she wanted to do it all by herself.
I told her, you need to be very gentle, and she did it perfectly. There might be someone to take over my business when I become old and feeble in about forty years!! That will make me the same age as Pap!!
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me on my ramble today. I hope you are getting some chances to see your loved ones and also a bit of time to be creative. Happy stamping and have a wonderful weekend and a super day. As always, if you live in Canada and want to purchase the supplies that were used, just click the images in the product list below to shop online with me.
Product List
