by Jackie Bultje | Feb 27, 2020 | journal, Pressed Petals, Vintage |
Hello stampers and happy Thursday to you. Do you ever miss things in the catalog? You see something beautiful that someone else has made and you say, where did you get that? They say, “Stampin’Up!”. Hmmm. How did I not see that? Well, I have just that hidden gem for you today.
Hidden Gem
Are you curious what this hidden gem is? Turn to page 170 in the annual catalog, you will find it right smack dab in the middle of the page! It is called Pressed Petals Journal and quite truthfully, it doesn’t look like much. Who knew that with a little embellishing it would show its true colours? Who knew that if you opened the cover there would be an inspirational quote on each page? Let’s take a look at what I did with it, but first I want you to see it unadorned.
Pressed Petals Journal
So here is what I did with this pretty plain little journal. I gave one to each of my team members who came to #OnStage2019 in Toronto with me.
Unfortunately those gold wax seals are no longer available but I still had some in my stash and I thought they looked really nice on these vintage journals for my team members. I was one short, so I made the last one last night using only current products so you can reproduce it if you like.
How Did I Do That?
Are you wondering how I got that plain brown book to look like this? I’m guessing you couldn’t even tell that there were embossed or pressed flowers in the cover of this little book. All I did was swipe a merry merlot ink pad across the cover and it looks like antique leather. I added a bit of Pressed Petals paper and Pressed Petals specialty washi tape to make it look pretty.
Yes, that washi tape makes the lovely flower and the centre of the flower is Perennial Essence floral centres which are self adhesive too. On the sentiment I added a little designer element which I had also originally overlooked in the catalog. they come in three metals, antique copper, antique gold and antique silver. There are 36 in a pack and you can find them on page 178 of the annual catalog.
The finishing touch is some braided linen trim that I unraveled on the ends to make it look a little more vintage. All the details combined together make it a pretty lovely and thoughtful gift. I am hoping to make these with lots and lots of people for a fundraiser for our World War 2 veterans and their families. More on that later.
If you want more inspiration online, there are literally tons of ideas out there, just click on this link and see for yourself. You can also click on this link to see some other projects I have made with the Pressed Petals Suite.
Happy Mail Contest
Please don’t forget about the happy mail in Canada for Gerard contest. I am hoping to get lots of cards for him when he comes on March 29. If you participate your name will go in a draw for the masculine stamp set of your choice from the mini catalog. Just send a masculine card to Gerard van der Sar c/o Jackie Bultje, 81 Delaware Avenue, Chatham, Ontario N7L 2W3. I will also blog about your card! This was so much fun and so very meaningful when you did it for me when I was in Holland. Thanks so very much for participating and also for stopping by to read my blog today.
Saleabration in Full Swing
Saleabration is in full swing and several free items are no longer available. Why am I telling you this? I don’t want you to miss out on your favourite freebie. Hosting a private class or workshop is also a fantastic thing to do at this time of year. Everyone has an opportunity to get free stuff and you have a chance to get the Lovely Ladybug stamp set for free with a $375 workshop. Let me know if you want to host a gathering or if you want to do an online party. You can message me with your order as well or even better, use the host code and order online, then it will come straight to your door.
Do you want to see all the cute things made with Little Ladybug? I did a google search and here are the results.
Happy stamping and have a super day!! See you tomorrow.
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by Jackie Bultje | Feb 26, 2020 | aqua painters, Birthday, colour wash, masculine cards, Tropical Oasis |
Hello stampers and happy Thursday to you. Today I want to share with you a very simple colouring technique, colour washing with aqua painters. I used this technique yesterday on one of my Tropical Oasis cards and I will share with you a few valuable tips and tricks to enhance this technique.
Tips and Tricks for Colour Washing with Aqua Painters
Totally by accident I found a very important tip for colour washing with aqua painters, but I will share a few more here with you as well.
- Use thick whisper white cardstock instead of regular cardstock. The thickness of the cardstock will allow deeper grooves from the embossing with the dies and this allows for lovely variation of colour.
- Use an acrylic block pressed into your ink pad of choice as your “ink pad” for picking up the colour for your aqua painter.
- Hold the aqua painter on a bit of an angle as you brush the colour on to get better and more consistent colour coverage.
- Play with different colours or even use more than one colour on your die cut cardstock. You might be surprised that the colour you first chose is not the best one. That is what happened to me with my pineapple topper. Originally I used granny apple green because I loved the pop of fresh colour. Turns out that garden green looked a LOT better.
- If you are colour washing a background then your best choice is either shimmery white cardstock or Fluid 100 Watercolour paper.
Compare the Difference
Last night during my Facebook Live I didn’t have the pineapple topper that I needed on hand, so I had to improvise. Caroline had accidentally cut a white topper in the morning at coffee ad a card so I used that and did a colour wash with it using garden green. It looked fabulous, so I thought I would share it with you here.
Do you see how the granny apple green topper now seems to lack depth and reality when you compare it to the garden green colour washed one? Great things happen when you are forced to improvise and experiment. This is also a great trick to remember when you are all out of a certain colour of cardstock.
Palm Trees and Tropical Prints
These last two cards really don’t have anything to do with colour washing but I wanted to share them with you anyways. Again, it is interesting to see the change in the card that happens simply by switching up the patterned paper. It is the same sheet of paper, just turned over!
You would choose which paper to use based on your recipient. Does he or she wear subdued, classic Hawaiian shirts or vibrant and boisterous ones?
Clean Vintage Card
There were lot of improvising opportunities last night! I was missing a pineapple topper in garden green that was supposed to be the bush under my palm trees so this is the card that ended up being created! I loved the clean and simple vintage look and it also shows you how to use a partial label die with the woodie. This was also the only sentiment that I had not yet used in the Tropical Oasis stamp set.
Answering Your Questions
I just wanted to address something here since I know that many of my readers are fellow demonstrators. As most of you know, I love to share what I do freely, however I do have only so many hours in a day. So please don’t be offended if I cannot take the time to explain to you how I run my classes or events. About a year ago I started a private Facebook group just to address those needs. It is available to anyone in the world and it is super affordable, only $5 a month in your own currency payable through PayPal or etransfer. I do weekly live videos and also share other files and great information there. We have a wonderful tribe of people on this group and that is where you can go if you want to learn business tips and training from me. Thanks for understanding!
Looking Back
Do you ever look back on your work from the past? I love to go back to some of my old blog posts to see what I made a year or two ago. If you are like me, your cards are kind of like your babies. You really, really get attached to them and they hold special memories. Check out this blog post for some lovely cards and a heartwarming story too. Don’t let the attachment and affection you have for your cards prevent you from giving them away! Just take a picture of them and know that they will be going to a very good home and spreading love around the world.
Facebook Live
Every Tuesday I do a Facebook live video showing the three cards that we made at coffee and a card that morning. If you missed the one from yesterday you can see it here. If you like it, please share so your friends can see it too. Thanks so much for joining me today and have a super day.
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by Jackie Bultje | Feb 25, 2020 | Tropical Oasis, Vintage |
Hello stampers and happy Tuesday to you. I love vintage, so the vintage feel of the tropical oasis suite really appealed to me, especially the vintage station wagon on the patterned paper. Of course I wanted to use as many of these great images as possible without sabotaging too many of them. I think I came up with quite a good solution without having to fussy cut too many of them. Let’s take a look!
Vintage Station Wagon
I used one of the dies from the So Sentimental bundle to cut out nice shapes that could be the focal point of a card. Each of the frames has a vintage station wagon in it. They face different ways so that will affect where you place your palm trees, but it is fun making each card a little differently. A picture is worth a thousand words so I took one for you.
So you can see that I got five full images, two partial images and a few fussy cut station wagons as well. Now let’s look at it on a card.
Vintage Station Wagon Card
This was the first card I made but there was something about it I just didn’t like. I decided that the braided burlap trim under the bush was just too stiff looking. It felt like it was just put there as filler, so I took it off. I then deconstructed the ribbon and put the loose pieces there instead and that was the look I was after. Yay!!
Truth be told, the card above is not mine, I decided to use Caroline Seward’s card as an example because she stepped it up a notch by making her bush two dimensional. The bush is actually the pineapple top with the bottom cut off. She added the bottom part as an extra layer and I think it looks fantastic. Everyone at coffee and a card class loved making these cards.
During the class Jean Saunders remarked that the label shaped frame actually looks recessed from the card because of the sponging around the edges with the saddle brown StazOn. What a great effect! If you want to see the other cards we made with the Tropical Oasis suite you can check out yesterday’s blog post here.
Colouring on Stamps
Using your markers to colour on stamps is a great way to make your image more beautiful. Just use the broad tip of your marker angled sideways. Do a little healthy huffing after you are done colouring to remoisten the ink before stamping. (that means to simply blow some hot, moist air on it!)
The Next Tutorial
I have enjoyed working with this suite so much that I think it will be the subject of my next tutorial. If you love making cards but hate trying to figure out all the measurements and the techniques involved, these tutorials are perfect for you. They will jump start your own creativity and build your confidence to create beautiful things. Tutorials help you get the most out of your stamping supplies. After you have made ten cards with a product suite you really have your groove on. You can also use the card styles or the techniques to work with other stamp sets. The cost of a tutorial is the same as the cost of an in person class but with a lot more information. I highly recommend them. You can access all of my tutorials at the top of the blog.
Monthly Free Tutorial
Did you know that I belong to an amazing group called the Demo Design Dream Team? Every month we collaborate on a 16 project tutorial which is NOT for sale. Instead we give it away to our team members and to customers who order $50. (that is the Canadian equivalent) If you have ordered from me and I have inadvertently forgotten to send you this free tutorial, please remind me!!
Happy Mail for Gerard
I finally decided to make it Facebook official that I am in in a relationship with Gerard. This isn’t news to you my faithful followers, but it sure did prompt a storm of well wishes that really touched my heart. He is coming to visit me on March 29 and I thought it would be wonderful to surprise him with happy mail. I am offering a draw for a free masculine stamp set of your choice from the mini catalog if you send a card for him. Your card will also be featured on my blog. This was such a fun thing to do when I was in Holland that I thought we could do it again on this side of the ocean. Here is the address if you want to participate: Gerard van der Sar c/o Jackie Bultje 81 Delaware Ave, Chatham, Ontario N7L 2W3.
Some More Vintage Feels
I’m feeling a little nostalgic today with all these vintage cards and that super cute station wagon so I thought I would share a link to a great web page and also this photo. I hope it brings a smile to your face and also some happy memories. We can all use some “warm and fuzzies” once in a while. Thanks for dropping by and have a super day!!
Saleabration Urgency
We are almost two thirds of the way through saleabration and I thought I should exercise due diligence and let you know that some free saleabration items are now running out. If there is something you have your eye on that you would really like for free, be sure to get it before it’s gone. I really hate high pressure sales, so this is not what this is, it is just a gentle reminder that some nice things don’t last. He who hesitates sometimes misses out. The kerchief card kit and the metallic baker’s twine and sequins are both gone now. Now this really is the end of my blog post!
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by Jackie Bultje | Feb 24, 2020 | embossing, Framelits, Vintage |
Hello stampers, I’m back!!! So sorry for dropping off the face of the earth with no notice. After an amazing week of true winter vacation including snowshoeing, ice skating and snow tubing I am going to do a blog post on the Tropical Oasis pineapple. Quite the contradiction but it feels good.
Tropical Oasis Pineapple
When I first saw the tropical oasis suite, it was the pineapple die that really caught my attention. There is a separate die for the pineapple fruit and the pineapple greenery which I think is simply fantastic. This arrangement really allows the textures to pop. The pineapple greenery die embosses and cuts at the same time and it also has little slits in it that allow you to “peel” bits of it forward to create depth and texture. Did you know that the pineapple is a symbol of hospitality? That is why it is often featured as an ornate carving on newel posts and on doorways.
Tropical Oasis Suite
The tropical oasis suite has so many great things in it. I don’t know about you, but I am really loving this suite approach from Stampin’Up! Creating is so much fun and also easy when you have so many coordinating products. The following closeup shot will let you see the great texture in the braided burlap trim and the coastal weave 3D embossing folder. Antique bronze trinkets are also available in these fun shapes: pineapple, hibiscus, ukulele and leaf. There are twenty four in a package. One thing that you might not notice right away is that the flower has been stamped in saddle brown Stayzon ink which gives it a great vintage feel. I was very, very impressed with this ink!
A Few Tips and Tricks
- After cutting out the pineapple bottom I did a colour wash with it using an aqua painter and crushed curry ink. Just smush the ink pad onto a clear block and then pick the ink up off of that with an aqua painter.
- Notice how the braided burlap trim is a little wider at the ends? Yes, you can tease it apart to give even more texture and interest.
- After running the very vanilla cardstock through the Big Shot with the coastal weave embossing folder I sponged it with some saddle brown stayzon ink to make it look more vintage.
- The flower was stamped off in saddle brown stayzon and then I used an aqua painter with calypso coral ink to colour wash it.
- Fluff out the pineapple greenery to make it more lush.
Cards for Coffee and a Card and Facebook Live
Here are all the cards we will be making at coffee and a card tomorrow and I will also be doing a Facebook live at 7pmEST so you can see how I did it. I will blog about the other two cards tomorrow and Wednesday.
Happy Mail for Gerard Contest
Did you know that I am doing another happy mail contest? I love the great energy this creates among the stamping community and even more, I love how much Gerard gets into this. He loved the happy mail in Holland contest and he was even more excited than I was when cards arrived in the mail. I thought it would so wonderful to surprise him with a stack of happy mail from all of you when he comes to visit on March 29. If you would like to participate you can send your masculine card to Gerard van der Sar c/o Jackie Bultje 81 Delaware Avenue, Chatham, Ontario, N7L 2W3. I will blog about your card and you will be entered into a draw for the masculine stamp set of your choice from the Handmade for You mini catalog.
Winner of Blog Candy
Congratulations to Debbie Colquhoun who won the Valentine’s Paper Pumpkin stamp set I’ll Bee Yours. Thanks to everyone who took the time to comment on my blog and share my post on Facebook or Pinterest. You wouldn’t believe how much it means to small business owners when people help share their work.
Thanks so Much!
Thanks so much for stopping by today, I really appreciate you. I had a fantastic time away at a cottage in Huntsville with my kids and grandkids enjoying a real Canadian winter. We had so much fun in the snow! This cottage is available for rent for the rest of the winter, so let me know if you are interested and I will let the owner know. Here are a few pictures so you can appreciate the view and the solitude.
Being here was so soul restoring. The peace, tranquility and serene beauty of nature all around you is balm for the soul. Spending time with family here was priceless. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have been able to do this. It is great to be back, now it is time to get stamping and to organize all the club orders. If you would like to order online please use the current host code available on the right hand side of every blog post! Have a super day.
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by Jackie Bultje | Feb 14, 2020 | Artfully Aware, Stamparatus |
Hello stampers and happy Friday. Happy Valentine’s Day too. Instead of a romantic pink and red card today we are doing something a little different. How about Granny Apple Green meets Night of Navy? What a striking colour combination!
Throwback to Saleabration 2019
The cards I am showing you today are a throwback to March 2019 with the second release of saleabration products. All Adorned was one of these products and it didn’t really look like much of a stamp set to be honest. Until you pair it with the stamparatus!! When I saw what this stamp set could do with the stamparatus I was super impressed.
Running out of Time
I was so impressed with this stamp set and how it showed the amazing abilities of our stamparatus I created a class for it. Then I ran out of time and it got shelved. Today I resurrected those cards and set a class date. I am so excited to finally show what our stamparatus can do and I hope you can join me. I have five stamp sets left that will be included in the class. One is already spoken for, so there are four available now. $40 will get you a two hour class, three cards and an amazing stamparatus lesson.
Long Distance Option
If you would love to participate in this class with a private, exclusive Facebook live video, I will be creating an event. Tickets will be available for $15US and the time will be 10am on Thursday March 19. I have a PayPal button so that you can prepay to guarantee your spot. I will have the measurements of all the card pieces that you will need so that you can create the card right along with me if you like. Just think of it as a video and a tutorial all in one.
Granny Apple Green Meets Night of Navy
Here are the cards that we will be making in the class or during the private live video. They all use the retired stamp set All Adorned. The middle card really touches my heart, it uses the stamp set Artfully Aware that Janet Wakeland designed in honour of her mom who has Alzheimer’s.
If you would like to see each card individually, check out this blog post from last year. Thanks for joining me, I am going to spend some time with my kids and grandkids and make some great memories! I hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day. Remember, if you comment on this blog post and share it on Facebook or Instagram you will be entered into a draw for the I’ll Bee Yours stamp set. Draw is in one week!
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