by Jackie Bultje | Jan 7, 2021 | split negative technique |
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today will be a short blog post where I am going to share a split negative card. I was inspired by Gail Ellis but the technique has been around for a very long time. The stamparatus makes it very easy to do!
Split Negative Card

The sentiment on this card comes from the free saleabration set Heal Your Heart and the flower is from Corner Bouquet which is another free saleabration set. This year saleabration is only for two months. It started Tuesday and goes until February 28. If you want to shop with me to get these stamp sets for free you can either click on the product links below in the supply list or you can click here.
With each purchase of $60 before shipping and tax you qualify for a free item. There are two items that require a $120 purchase. They are the Berry Blessings bundle and the A Touch of Ink stamp set.

The Best Way to Get Your Stamps
I made a short video to share with you the best way to get your stamps. Enjoy!
If you are looking forward to getting more bang for your buck or just want to treat yourself, you can click the link here to get started with that fun journey.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for joining me again today. I appreciate every way that you connect with me. Be sure to pin your favourite cards to Pinterest and remember that I send random cards to people who leave comments on my blog. Have a super day!
Product List
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Black Stampin’ Emboss Powder [109133] $6.25 | | |
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by Jackie Bultje | Jan 4, 2021 | rest |
Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. My topic today is rest for the weary. I have a feeling that I am not the only one who is feeling weary and who is longing for rest. After a while the stresses of life seem to pile up and you realize that you really are weary and that you need rest. True rest can be hard to find and it can also be hard to do. There are often compelling reasons not to rest. It is hard to step away.
Come to Me
Jesus knew this and he often went in to the wilderness to retreat, to rest. In Matthew 11:18 we are encouraged to come to Him, to give our burdens to him. What a comfort! I need to do this more often and I want to encourage you to do the same.

Rest for the Weary
Last week I was blessed to be able to spend four days with my parents. I rested with them. Of course I had some normal work to do, meal preparation and clean up, but for the most part we simply communed together and enjoyed each other’s company. How wonderful! Old letters were retrieved from boxes and tins and photo albums were brought to light. This in turn brought forth amazing stories and reminiscing. Here are some pictures that I took from my time with them, but first here is the poem that inspired me to make “rest” my word for 2021.

Here is a closer view of the poem, but I wanted you to see the photo that went with it as it is so restful.

Letters and Stories

This was a letter that Mom sent to Pap when he was working for a peat moss company in Manitoba before they got married. Note the lack of street address and postal code. This tiny town was literally just an encampment on a railway spur. 25 cents was a lot of money back then for a letter and we complain about postage now!

This letter was sent to Pap by Mom when he was sailing back to Canada to go back to work for another year before getting married. The letter was actually sent to the ship and he received it. I don’t know if he got it while at sea but he certainly did the moment the ship docked in Halifax.

This is a stack of letters sent by Pap to Mom. Pap was quite the colourful writer but we are denied access to these letters until after their death. Mom did share that she thinks these letters made an enormous difference when Pap was all alone in a foreign country. Letters were sent more often than once a week!


The History of Happy Mail
As you can see, my life has been steeped in happy mail. I also wrote letters to Holland to my oma and to my cousin, in Dutch! Later I also wrote letters to Gerard. Now I make beautiful cards and write letters in them. I am thankful that my mom kept all those letters and I am also glad that my Dutch has improved to the extent that I can tackle these old missives. Cursive writing crammed on a page to get as much in as possible makes for a difficult read!
Last Day to Order from Holiday Catalog
Today is the last day to order from the Holiday Catalog, so if there was something tugging at your heartstrings, get it now!! Please do you use the current host code as found on the side of my blog home page. Tomorrow is the beginning of Saleabration. The first ten people to place an online order will get a sampler of the Berry Blessed paper.

If you want to see another card made with this beautiful bundle, check out this blog post. Please join me for daily live videos on both my Pampered Stamper page and my personal page with the COVID countdown.
Tomorrow morning I will be live on YouTube with my virtual coffee and a card class. You can join me by subscribing to my channel.
I hope you have a super day and thanks so much for joining me today.
by Jackie Bultje | Dec 22, 2020 | Berry Blessings, sale-a-bration, saleabration |
Hello stampers and happy Tuesday to you. I know…it should have been “happy Monday” but I was in no shape to write a blog post yesterday. My beloved Pap is declining rapidly and that is hard especially during COVID times. This card, Wishing You the Berry Best, is clean, simple and refreshing. Could I go so far as to say a balm for the soul?
Wishing You The Berry Best
With this post I am indeed wishing you the berry best for the coming year. We have all had a difficult year behind us and we all hope for better times ahead. I know for sure that we will be grateful for the things that we used to take for granted and that is a good thing. More than ever people need happy mail and I am happy to be in the happy mail business. I hope that I have inspired you this year with my blog and sharing my life stories. This card will undoubtedly make someone happy.

This card is so clean and simple. The only thing I did to step it up a notch is cut an extra set of leaves and pop them up. I LOVE raspberries but I didn’t get to pick any this year because I spent the summer in Holland. That seems so very long ago now!!

You can’t see it in the picture but I added Wink of Stella to the raspberries for a pretty sparkle. I used Poppy Parade and Granny Apple Green for a very fresh colour combination.
How to Get it For Free!
The stamp set and paper are free with a $120 purchase during saleabration which is from January 5 until February 28 this year. Some years saleabration items have sold out so I would strongly advise that you get your orders in quickly at the beginning of January so that you get exactly what you want. Here is my suggested product purchase so that you get the most value for your money.
- Sweet Strawberry Bundle #156214 $43.
- Poppy Parade ink pad #147050 $10.25
- Granny Apple Green ink pad #147095 $10.25
- Brights Collection cardstock #146975 $12.25
- Basic White thick cardstock #159229 $11.25
- Memento Black Ink Pad #132708 $8.25
- Pacific Point Ink Pad #147098 $10.25
- Wink of Stella glitter brush #141897 $11
- Ladybug trinkets #154299 $10.25
The total for this is $126.50 and of course you can tweak it based on what you already have, but this assortment of product will allow you to mix and match the colours so that you get the most out of your free products. The pretty ladybugs are just the icing on the cake so to speak. I need to look in my stash to see if I can find them, they would have made a nice addition to my card!


Open House canceled!
I was really excited about hosting a COVID friendly Open House but with the coming four week lockdown in Ontario this is no longer possible. Hopefully I will be able to fill the gap with regular videos showcasing all the amazing products from the upcoming Occasions catalog. If you are unable to pick up a copy of the catalogs from my front porch, let me know and I will pop some in the mail for you. The catalogs are free but there is a $5 postage fee which I would refund you on your first order.
Thanks so much for joining me today, I hope you are doing well and that you have a super day.
Product List
by Jackie Bultje | Dec 18, 2020 | Berry Blessings, sale-a-bration, saleabration |
Hello stampers and belated happy Friday to you! Today I am sharing a Berry Blessings Sneak Peek with you. I have finally had some time to play with the new products and I am so excited to share a little sneak peek with you of what lays ahead. Today I made a card quite accidentally with FREE paper for salebration but with a paid set from the Occasions catalog. Oops.
Perfect Coordination
One of the things I love most about Stampin’Up! products is the perfect coordination. Lately they have stepped it up by coordinating free saleabration products with items from either the annual catalog or the current “mini” catalog. You wouldn’t believe how excited I was one when I saw one of the free offerings for saleabration this year. It is a super cute fruit set with coordinating paper AND there is another coordinating fruit set that is also adorable. Who doesn’t love strawberries, raspberries and blueberries along with some gingham paper? It reminds me of spring, romance and picnics!
My Accidental Berry Blessings Sneak Peek
Of course the very first card that I wanted to share with you was going to use these products. Well….it went a little off the tracks. You see, I accidentally paired the free paper with a paid for bundle from the Occasions catalog and it was NOT on purpose. I paired it with a live Facebook video and I was running tight on time so I decided to not ink up what I thought was the second stamp set. After the video was finished I went on to create a card using the stamp set that I had already inked up. Here it is!

The Problem
Now it turns out that the stamp set that I used is the Sweet Strawberry bundle which comes with a coordinating punch. There are also strawberries on the Berry Blessings paper so I honestly thought I was using the coordinating set. Yes and no. It does coordinate, but so does the other set that actually comes in the free saleabration bundle. I decided to share my card anyways and tomorrow morning you can join me for another Facebook live video showing you how lovely that stamp set is as well.
Here is my video from this afternoon so that you can see how beautiful the paper is as well as LOTS of other items from the Occasions catalog. I may have shown the paper in my first video, so I will link that here as well.

How to Get the Most Out of the Occasions Catalog
- Pick up your copy from my front porch at 81 Delaware Avenue in Chatham, or message me if you want me to send you one in the mail.
- Consider joining me for my monthly virtual Coffee and a Card class. Not sure? Check out my weekly YouTube live video on Tuesdays at 10am EST here.
- Subscribe to my Parcels in the Post where you can assortment of beautiful products that are curated to bring you maximum pleasure and value.
- Join a Pod Party to get more than just a free saleabration item. Win one of three perks: $12.68 in host merchandise, Punch Party stamp set OR a half price item plus a private video tutorial and card making class. All that is required is one order of $68.75 before shipping and tax.
- Join my team. It’s like joining a chosen family and getting a discount for your hobby and passion. There is also an opportunity to earn money if that is what you want. I have a free training group to help you with that.
by Jackie Bultje | Dec 16, 2020 | Christmas, gifts, Heartwarming Hugs, notecards and envelopes |
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today I want to share a hidden treasure from the annual catalog: mini paper pumpkin boxes. Did you know that these cute boxes are super easy to decorate, they are food safe AND they fit our note cards and envelopes? I just discovered them when I created my #itsallaboutthetreats event. Let’s take a look.
Mini Paper Pumpkin Boxes
As card makers we don’t always realize what a wonderful gift a package of hand made cards can be. With the mini paper pumpkin boxes, you have an easy solution for packaging your notecards and envelopes. Here is a picture of two boxes that I made along with the coordinating notecards and envelopes. This time the theme is Christmas, but you can make it whatever you want! They are $10.25 for a package of ten sturdy, food safe boxes.

Today was quite the grey, overcast day so the natural lighting was less than ideal. Truth be told both the cards and the boxes are MUCH nicer in person, but you are going to have to take my word for it. I now have a pdf tutorial for these projects and more as well as three favourite Christmas recipes if you are interested. I have a Zoom gathering planned for this Friday morning from 10am till noon EST to make the coffee carrier and two other boxes plus to bake traditional Nanaimo bars. If you purchase the tutorial you can join in on the Zoom gathering for free.
Quarantine Report
I thought I would update you on my quarantine experience. It has been a little bit intense for two reasons. The first reason is the COVID situation in Europe. Both the Netherlands and Germany are going into strict lockdown today and that affected the amaryllis prices drastically on Monday. It was like the stock market crash of 1929 for the flower industry and in one day Gerard saw all his hard work and profits for the year go down the drain. Being apart when things like that happen is tough.
The second thing is my Pap’s health. Two of my siblings were begging me to break quarantine so that I could go and see him. They were afraid that I might miss seeing him alive. I had to make the difficult decision to sit tight and wait until it looked like I had no option. Please pray that he will hold on till my quarantine is over. It does help to know that I am only two and half hours away instead of an ocean apart.
Keep Stamping!
I miss my regular stampers and hope that you are still stamping on your own. Please join me in my weekly live YouTube videos with the virtual coffee and a card. I hope to send out the kits for January on Friday so let me know if you want to join in. My newsletter was sent today with information for Pod Parties and for an actual Open House and new catalog launch on January 4. I have designed a COVID friendly way for you to see the new products and to sign up for virtual classes or buy in stock kits. That’s it for now, have a super day!
PS. I forgot to mention that I used the stamp set Press On for the cute coffee cups and that if you live in Canada I would love it if you shopped with me by clicking on the items in the product list below….
Product List