by Jackie Bultje | Jan 16, 2020 | masculine cards, Mountain Air, My Meadow, The LIbrary Challenge |
Hello stampers and happy Thursday. Today I am participating in The Library Challenge and the book we are using for inspiration is Where the Wild Fern Grows. I loved this book so much when I was a child, so I was thrilled to see that it was the featured book for the library challenge.
The Importance of Books
I have loved books for as long as I can remember. One of my most vivid childhood memories is on grade one when I went to the school library for the first time. Oh, the wealth of books! I remember one book in particular because it was a different shape than all the others. It was about frogs I think and it was taller than the rest. Even now I always have at least one book on the go. Books are the only way I truly relax and do nothing. Ask my kids and they will tell you that I get so lost in my book that I hear nothing! I think they finally believe me when I say that I am not purposely ignoring them, I truly don’t hear them! My book transports me into another world.
Sometimes this time travel into another book is not a good thing. I feel so deeply that the book I am reading can really affect my mood. Where the Wild Fern Grows reduced me to a torrent of tears. I was a stoic child who would never cry in public or even in front of my family; I would go and hide to cry. At 52 I am finally learning to be vulnerable and let my tears show. Go figure.
Books are vital to mental health, to being more well-rounded as a person and therefore more open to other people’s ideas. Books help us to understand other people and other cultures. They can be a bridge to peace.
Where the Wild Fern Grows
If you have never read this book and you would like to know about the story line, you can check out the link here. The Library Challenge encourages us to make a card inspired either by the cover of the book, the title or the story. I chose my inspiration to be the story. Billy grows up in the Ozark mountains and trains two hunting dogs that are the love of his life. While several tragedies occur, I like to focus on the big picture. I know that there are many money that BIlly looked back on with joy. His heart will always be in the mountains and he will never forget his beautiful and loyal dogs Old Dan and LIttle Ann. Do yourself a favour and read this classic. If you have kids or grandkids or even elderly parents, read this book aloud to them. People love being read to, it is so calming and we could all use more of that in our lives!
My Card
I chose to use the stamp set Mountain AIr. This great nature set is a pleasure to work with! With mountains, tree lines and individual trees, birds, rocks and a moon you have all you need to create a gorgeous scene. I also used the water stamp from the new set My Meadow. The frame and the saying are from the Painted Poppies Bundle.
The card itself is quite simple so I added interest by adding texture and dimension. Simply winding the linen thread around at angles and tying at the back makes for a more interesting focal point and adds texture. The white panel is adhered to the mossy meadow panel which is popped up on the grey granite card. The sentiment is also popped up as is the smaller pine tree.
Only three colours were used on this card: mossy meadow, grey granite and balmy blue. By stamping off, also known as generational stamping, you get more colours for a more in depth effect. If you want to see another project I made that uses generational stamping, check out this blog post.
The Library Challenge
If you want to read more about The LIbrary Challenge, or if you want to take part yourself, you can find them here. I know you will be inspired as I was to combine my love of reading with my love of card making. What book are you reading right now? What was your favourite book as a child? I would love to hear from you in the comments. Thanks so much for joining me today, have a super day!
I just realized that I promised to tell you the story about my afternoon with my Tante Nel but it will have to wait until tomorrow. Enough stories for today.
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by Jackie Bultje | Jan 15, 2020 | Blends, Christmas, embossing, Timeless Tulips |
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday. The title of my blog post is a beautiful quote from the inside of one of my happy mail cards. This is just more proof that happy mail is amazing, not only for the beautiful cards that are made, sent and received, but also for the handwritten message within. Are you curious?
Tricia’s Card
Tricia Minturn from Durand, Wisconsin sent me this beautiful Christmas card. Inside she wrote: “Through your posts I know you are a Christian and would not mind receiving a late Christmas card because Christ is never too late or out of season.” Wow!!! How true is that? The stamped saying inside is also so true and heartwarming: “Wishing you a season of joy as we remember the night when Love came down to earth and became our song of celebration.” Thanks so much Tricia for your wise words and your beautiful card!
Tricia used the Merry Christmas dies, the beautiful Feels Like Frost paper and the Woodland embossing folder. I am trying to guess how she did the unique background. It looks like she sponged seaside spray over whisper white cardstock and then added some sponging with either silver metallica ink or a shimmer paste. Clever girl, you will have to reveal your secrets in the comments. I absolutely love how you used just a small strip of this gorgeous paper for the focal point of your card. It really makes the white Christmas pop! The silver metallic thread in behind that centre panel is also a nice subtle touch.
Durand, Wisconsin is a small rural town. The Durand area was first settled in 1856 when 21-year-old Miles Durand Prindle came up the river in a keel boat named the “Dutch Lady”. This little trivia fact made me smile because of the Dutch connection which was a total surprise to me. Durand is located on the Chippewa River and is close to the border of Iowa and Minnesota.
Sally’s Card
The next card comes all the way from New Zealand and it is a breath of spring with its lovely cheerful tulips. Quite fitting since it is actually summer in New Zealand right now. Thank you Sally Wheoki for this beautiful card. There are so many things I love about Sally’s card. She made the tulips pop by colouring the background with balmy blue Blends. One of the tulips is popped up and extends slightly past the edge of the card but not so much that it won’t fit into the envelope. The sentiment is popped up over the calypso coral twine and it was cut using the stitched rectangle dies.
Sally also used the rule of odd numbers to keep her card artistically pleasing. There are five tulips and she incorporated three different colours for the flowers. So clever. All the tulips have a lovely shimmer to them because of the Wink of Stella clear glitter brush that Sally used to accent her blooms. #itsinthedetails
I just realized that this card also perfectly fits the theme for today. It is also never too late because it uses Timeless Tulips!! I do love words. The happy mail envelope was also worthy of a picture as it reminds me of the global nature of our stamping tribe. Sally was also very clever because she used the mini catalog as a source of inspiration. Check out the gorgeous card on page 43! I know that I sometimes forget to do this, but our catalogs are great idea books too.
Thank you so much Sally for your lovely card. I love that you have been such a loyal FB follower and training team member too. We are definitely stamping family. It was heartwarming to read about the personal changes you have seen in me over the last year and that my happiness is so evident. I am blessed!
I am hoping that there will be more happy mail tomorrow for me to blog about, if not, there are still some cards that I have not shared from my ten card collection using Botanical Prints product medley.
Thanks
Thanks for joining me today! Tomorrow I will share some pictures of my afternoon. I had the distinct pleasure of having high tea with my Tante Nel. There is of course a story to share about this and why it happened. In the meantime, happy stamping. I hope the happy mail cards inspired you today. It’s never to late to send happy mail to those you love, and it’s never to late to start a new hobby or a new career. Don’t forget about the amazing deal on the starter kit or the beautiful stamp set you can get for free if you host a qualifying workshop.
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by Jackie Bultje | Jan 14, 2020 | dryer sheet technique, Grace's Garden, Happy Mail in Holland, technique cards |
Hello stampers and happy Tuesday. Today I want to share with you a very interesting and easy technique called the dryer sheet technique. I haven’t done this in at least a year but a gorgeous happy mail card arrived two days ago from Terry Hamilton and that is the technique that she used.
Terry Hamilton from Kelowna
Terry Hamilton lives in Kelowna, British Columbia. Kelowna looks absolutely gorgeous. Its name means grizzly bear in the Okanagan language and it is situated on Lake Okanagan in the heart of the Okanagan valley surrounded by mountains. Apparently it is close to Big White, a famous ski resort that my son Oliver would love to go to!
I loved reading Terry’s letter inside the card. She has been a Stampin’Up! demonstrator for 8 years has big plans for her business. She tells me that she has been following me for years and that is such a happy surprise for me since her name did not jump out at me as one I recognized from comments on my page or blog. Another blessing from this happy mail in Holland contest. You never know when you are touching someone’s life!
Terry’s Dryer Sheet Technique Card
Terry used the tree stamp from Winter Woods in shaded spruce with beautiful gold foil accents. I am guessing she started out with the shaded spruce and gold ribbon and built her card around that colour scheme. The framelit is from a set in the holiday mini but for the life of me I can’t remember which one and I don’t have the mini with me here. Help anyone?
Here you can also see the actual sparkle that happens with this dryer sheet technique. How do you do it? In three simple steps!
- Stamp your image on a piece of whisper white cardstock.
- Take a used dryer sheet and spray it with spray adhesive. Press it onto your stamped image and trim off the excess dryer sheet.
- Sprinkle on some dazzling diamonds glitter and tap off the excess! Adhere to card base as desired with varying mats.
If you do not have spray adhesive you could also take a glue stick and completely cover your stamped image, just be sure to let the image dry completely and also be sure to get total coverage. Here is a video by Tami White. I would have done one myself but I don’t have any used dryer sheets on hand (or any new ones either for that matter, I’m not sure if they use them over here in Holland, I will have to check) Thanks for your beautiful card Terry and I wish you every success in your business, I know you will do well if you are sharing and teaching cards like this one. The dryer sheet technique is perfect for beginners and seasoned stampers and also eco-friendly.
Grace’s Garden by Jean Saunders
Before I show you Jean’s card, let me tell you a little bit more about this delightful woman. Jean is a regular at my coffee and a card classes and she makes beautiful cards. She would make an amazing demonstrator but she would rather just enjoy her hobby at home and come to classes with me, but I have convinced her to let me do a few videos where she shows how she made a great twisted pop-up card. Jean lives in Chatham, Ontario and she used to run a home daycare where she also cared for ALL of her grandchildren. She is a fun, loving and super involved grandma and has such a close relationship with them that even the teenagers love to pop in and visit her and Jack. Jean is an inspiration to me with her kind heart, generous spirit and sense of humour too.
The dies from Grace’s Garden bundle are used to cut an opening in the card front in the shape of a garden gate, which is why the dies by themselves are called Garden Gateway Dies. Jean made a gorgeous inside scene as well that you can see through the garden gate. She is a very patient and meticulous stamper, #itsinthedetails. Did you know that Jean is super creative and has many different artisitic talents including tole painting, knitting, crocheting, sewing, baking and more. She used to sew kilts for her grandchildren for their highland dance competitions.
This last picture shows the closeup detail of the garden scene. Don’t you just love Jean’s cheerful colour combination of highland heather, calypso coral and call me clover?
Thanks so much for your beautifully detailed card Jean, it is a masterpiece.
Tutorials
Tutorials are created to help you make cards step by step to guarantee your success and to minimize frustration. They take quite a while to make as you need to type out all the little details involved in making a card. I am a member of the newly formed Demo Design Dream Team and we create a monthly tutorial that we do NOT sell but that we give away to people who join our team or who order through us. If you place a $50 order either online or in person, you will get this 16 project tutorial emailed to you as soon as I can.
I have two other tutorials that I have made. One is for the Parisian Beauty Bundle and the other is for the Botanical Prints product medley. They are $15 each and will help jump start your creativity. I am so happy to be able to offer these to you. If you purchase either of these products through me online I will send the tutorial to you for free as a thank you.
Thanks so much!
Thanks again so very much for joining me. I was having second thoughts about featuring two cards in my blog post since they were the last two in my happy mail stash. Just as I was putting the finishing touches on this blog post, Gerard came into my stamp room with two more happy mail cards that just arrived in the mail. I was reminded of the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread”. He is giving me my daily cards!! My heart is happy that you are participating in this fun venture. Have a super day.
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by Jackie Bultje | Jan 13, 2020 | More than Words, Snowman Season |
Hello stampers, and happy Monday to you. This is a standard greeting from me but I don’t mean it to be flippant. The truth is, it might NOT be a happy Monday. It might be a very difficult Monday. That is why I am choosing to write about “the plans I have for you”. This is part of one of my favourite Bible verses from Jeremiah 29. Verse 11 says, “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Let me tell you why it was on my heart to share this verse with you today.
Prayers for Aileen
Last week my team member Aileen Boersma messaged me on Facebook. For me, it was just past breakfast time. For her, it was 2:30 in the morning. I knew right away that something was not right. Indeed, she was messaging me from her hospital bed. She couldn’t sleep and no wonder. She knew that today she would be undergoing surgery to remove a brain tumour. You need to know that Aileen has just finished a big battle with breast cancer. She was just getting back to regular life, having fun at stamp classes and restarting her own stamping business. We don’t know the plans that God has for us and we often don’t understand them. I do know that God promises to never leave or forsake us, he walks the difficult paths along with us. The ultimate future he has planned for us is of course heaven.
Please pray for Aileen, for her, for her family, for the doctors and nurses taking care of her. If you want to send her happy mail, that would encourage her family as well. Here is Aileen’s address: 13123 Beechwood Line R.R. # 3 Ridgetown, ON N0P2C0
Happy Mail from Ingrid Vos
This cheerful card from Ingrid Vos is very fitting for this post, as it says “New Year’s Wishes” on t he front. I love the monochromatic theme of this card. Ingrid must have been paying careful attention to my blog posts and she noticed that I was often at a loss to know exactly which products were used. She made it easy for me and wrote in pencil on the back of her card. That is how I know she used the saleabration ribbon from last year in Grapefruit Grove. The stamp set is More than Words from the saleabration coordination product offering last year. Would you like to see Ingrid’s beautiful card?
Ingrid comes from Hamilton, Ontario. Hamilton was known for its steel production for years but when my daughter Katrina moved there and also son Alex with his wife Amelia lived there for just over a year I found out that this is a city of many beautiful water falls and hiking trails. As a young girl I went for a rare family outing to see Dundurn Castle and the Royal Botanical Gardens. Hamilton is a great city to explore! Thanks Ingrid for this great card! It was great to meet you in person at #OnStage2019 in Toronto and also to have you in my training group.
If you want to see what this stamp set looks like and some cards that I made with it last year, you can check out this blog post.
Deborah Kerns’ Card
This next card is made by artist Deborah Kerns. Deborah follows my Pampered Stamper page and is a source of encouragement with her comments on posts and videos. Debbie is also a member of my training group, it is so nice to have a stamping tribe! Debbie used the stamp set Snowman Season. This fun set is being carried over, so that means it is still available!! I love how the snowman pops with the shaded spruce background!
Debbie is from Little Hocking, Ohio. I am going to look this up on Google maps right now because I think it must be close to the Hocking Hills which is a beautiful area in Ohio that I had the great pleasure of visiting several years ago. Amazing hiking trails and caves and lovely forests and rolling hills. I would love to go back. It is about a four hour drive from Chatham and the hikes were so easy and gratifying. Thanks so much for your cheerful card Debbie! I love this happy snowman. If you click here you will see some of my previous posts featuring this happy fellow.
Facebook Live Tomorrow
Tomorrow (Tuesday) is my regularly scheduled Facebook live. It will be at 9am EST or at 3pm here in Holland. I will be featuring a teepee card. I haven’t made one of these fancy fold cards yet, but I am told that they are super easy to make and I like that idea a lot. I know you will too! Thanks so much for joining me today and for all the happy mail that is coming to Holland. It really does make my heart happy and it has provided a whole new way to blog and connect people around the world.
Don’t forget about saleabration, you can order online just by clicking on the images below in the product list and you get a free item with every $60 you spend. You are also most welcome to join my team by getting the starter kit which is the best deal in the catalog and comes with no strings attached. Just click here to start the big savings and the fun journey. My plans include the hope and joy of a growing team and more online customers! I hope you plan to take advantage of the great saleabration offers and all the beautiful new products in the mini catalog.
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by Jackie Bultje | Jan 12, 2020 | Christmas, Happy Mail in Holland, Positive Thoughts |
Hello stampers and happy Saturday, Today I want to talk a little bit about what happens when stampers get together. It really doesn’t matter where you are in the world, when stampers get together, fun happens. We usually gather around a table with food and drink and first we talk and share our passion about creativity and paper crafting. Whether you make cards as a hobby or teach card making as a business, it makes no difference. We all get excited when we see other people’s work.
Dutch Demo Open House
What I noticed yesterday at the Dutch Demo Day open house is that everyone has different things to bring to the table. It can be small things like a very different approach to colour combinations to interesting ways to make boxes or folders for cards. It could be a talent for layering details to create a gorgeous focal point. Someone felt badly that they brought only two cards to show but I learned so much from both of them. One was a fold I have seen but never made, and the other one was a very simple but interesting layout for a card. I know that they will both give me great inspiration. The best part however is the shared enthusiasm and I love how we all go home with a lighter step. I made a couple of videos showing the cards that some of the demos brought with to show and share. Here is one showing Caroline van der Straaten’s work. She is on the artisan design team and you can find her blog here. Caro is also my new upline in Holland! This second video shows Diana van Otterloo’s work. You can find her blog here.
Happy Mail in Holland
Another way we as stampers are getting together is through this happy mail in Holland contest. We are virtually gathering around to see what the latest card is that came to my mailbox and I love that. Today I will be sharing a card from New York State and one from my home town in Chatham, Ontario. The first one is from Debby Kainu who I first met many years ago at a Stampin’Up! Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah. She was a friend of a friend, Michelle Deslandes from Vermont. (At least this is how I remember it, I could be totally wrong, and if that is the case, I am looking forward to hearing the real story!) The second card is from my team member Yvonne Macfadyen.
Debby’s card
Here is another view of Debby’s beautiful card. I love this fold, I featured in in my blog back in October, you can see it here. Debbie used the gorgeous Feels Like Frost paper that was so popular it sold out. Debbie is from Middletown, New York. This city is in the Hudson River Valley area in the foothills. I am quite sure I drove through this area when leaving New York City and heading to upper state New York on my way home to Ontario. So very lovely with all the hills and trees.
Yvonne’s Card
Yvonne was the first person to come to my coffee and a card classes. She is originally from England and has the most delightful accent. Yvonne loved card making so much that she was placing such regular orders that I encouraged her to get the starter kit. What a dilemma it was for her! She agonized over it for weeks. Finally I asked her, what do you have to lose? Well, the answer was clear. Nothing. She also knew she had everything to gain! Little did she know then that she would gain so much more than just some free bonus stamp sets, a great discount and some more goodies. She gained a whole tribe of friends and so many great experiences. Yvonne is not only my longest running team member, she is also my right hand for prepping for classes and for running my classes while I am gone and a true friend. What a blessing she has been in my life!!
Yvonne used the brand new set Positive Thoughts to make this gorgeous card. I love the colour combination, the use of white space and the clean and simple look of it. Fantastic card!! She made me order the set, so that is a good thing. Here is a look at the happy treatment of the envelope as well. When you stamp your envelope there is no doubt to the recipient that they are getting happy mail! It even makes the postman smile I think. The next time I blog about happy mail from Chatham I will tell you some interesting facts about my city.
Paying Attention to Detail
How many of you caught the fact that at the beginning of my blog I said “happy Saturday”? Well, I had every intention of publishing this blog post on Saturday but then we ended up picking up a rental car that is automatic so I could drive myself. Our loaner vehicle needed a car wash and the lineup was long. To make a long story short, it was time to leave for Deventer, a beautiful city near where Gerard’s youngest sister lives before my blog post was finished. I will tell you more about that lovely city tomorrow. I am going to publish this blog post today, even though it is a Sunday because most of the work was done yesterday and I don’t want to post twice tomorrow.
Thanks so much for joining me, happy mail keeps streaming in. I so appreciate all the love. This is what happens when stampers get together in spirit! Have a blessed Sunday.
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