Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. Today is another Easter post but without bunnies! Easter is all about celebrating Jesus. Rejoice in Him is a beautiful stamp set but I never thought I would be stamping Jesus!
I kept the Rejoice in Him card simple by stamping on a stitched rectangle die cut which I mounted on Abigail Rose paper. “Jesus” was coloured with the natural tones Blends. I fussy cut the leaves and the dove. The sentiments were stamped on Gray Granite which were die cut with the Something Fancy dies.
I hope you like these simple Rejoice in Him cards which focus on Jesus and what He has done for us. Perhaps it will inspire you to send some cards to shut-ins who cannot attend an Easter service. I will do the same!
A Personal Note
I have been in Canada for the past three weeks and it has been so lovely to reconnect with my kids and grandkids, my mom and my siblings. It has been wonderful to do a few in person classes and so see some of my team and my customers. Three events left: a private class with my dear friend Sonja who suffered a life-threatening fall, a team gathering and a stamping extravaganza class with four of my team members also teaching.
Uncharacteristically I have not been taking many photos of posting on social media. Instead I have been fully immersed in the moments with my loved ones. On the one hand it feels a little disloyal to all of you, but on the other hand it feels liberating and natural.
Online Exclusives
My social media absence is probably not great for sales though. Did you know that there is a whole new line of products available from Stampin’Up? They are called Online Exclusives and you can find them here. These products will not be in any catalogs and they are available while supplies last. Basically, if you love them, get them!
Thanks so much for popping by today, I hope you enjoy my blog. If you live in Canada you can just click on the links below to shop with me, and I hope you do! If you live in Europe, you can shop with me here. I really appreciate your business and will send you a free pdf tutorial bundle when you shop with me. Have a super day!
Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. Today I have some fabulous Garden Birdhouse cards with Blends. Blends always make me happy because they just colour beautifully. Trust me, even people who dislike colouring fall in love with our Blends. The colour just goes on so smoothly with such rich depths and they really do blend so beautifully. I’ve combined the Garden Birdhouses stamp with the free saleabration set Beautifully Happy. Someone in the stamping world combined those two stamps and I was very impressed with the result.
A Little Tip for the Crumb Cake Garden Birdhouses Cards
If you look carefully at the Crumb Cake cards, you will see some white on the garden birdhouses. I used our Chalk Marker on them and afterwards I was super disappointed to find that they are no longer in our offering. Thankfully you can get this look another way. Simply use your Blender Pen with some white craft ink. I keep one Blender Pen just for use with white craft ink. The white on Crumb Cake is such a soft look for a gender neutral baby card.
Hello stampers and happy new year to you all! Today I am going to show you how to save money with this quick and easy hack. All over the world inflation is record high, so any way to save money to extend the life of your products will be welcome I am sure. What you will need to use this simple trick is 90% or higher isopropyl alcohol. This product is readily available in drugstores or in large supermarkets. You can also get it on Amazon here and hav some little bottles to share with your friends.
Video Tutorial on How to Save Money
Simply watch this short video and you will see how I refilled both my Wink of Stella and my Blends. It is handy to have either a pipette or a little bottle like this one that I used to do my Blown Alcohol Technique that you can see here.
A Note of Caution
If your Blends are too far gone then they are beyond repair. The thing is, you won’t know until you use your tweezers to remove the tip. After you have removed the tip, lay it aside. Add three drops of reinker and then three drops of isopropyl alcohol. At this point you carefully put the tip back into your Blends alcohol marker using either your tweezers or your bare fingers. If the tip is still in good shape then this happens easily. If it is light and frayed and “squishy” then it will not work. See the photo below comparing a “bad” tip with a good one.
Saleabration Begins on Thursday!!
Did you know that saleabration begins on Thursday? This year it is only for January and February. As always you can choose free items with either a $60 purchase or a $120 purchase. There is also a fantastic deal on the starter kit. This year there are three options. One of them includes a Boho Blue mini Stampin’ Cut’n’Emboss Machine. Check out the photo below! I hope that if you live either in Europe or in Canada that you will consider joining my team. Let the fun (and the training!) begin. Whatever your goals and dreams, there is a warm and welcome space waiting just for YOU>
If you live in Europe, here are the prices for you, both in pounds and in euros.
A Personal Note
First of all, thanks for joining me again today. I know it has been a long time since I have written a blog post. I flew home to Canada on December 1 to spend four weeks with my family, friends, team and customers. It was jam-packed with lots of fun and meaningful and precious moments. I am so very thankful that I can travel back and forth to be with them. The snuggles with all my grandchildren at their first Christmas concert swelled my heart to bursting with gratitude. Hugging my little mama in her kitchen was also so beautiful. We played lots of games together, I made her favourite cream of broccoli soup and brought her Christmas baking including nanaimo bars that I make with her recipe. We had three customer events and a memorable team retreat, Wow!
Christmas Day brought with it unexpected grief with the sudden death of my beloved Oom Stoffel. He died while having an angiogram done. The blessing in this is that he died a relatively pain-free death and was able to live in his own home until the very end. I would never have thought that he would go home to heaven in the same year as his dear brother, Pap. I was able to fly back in time to be a pallbearer for his funeral and to give a eulogy on behalf of the Canadian branch of the Boot family. A bittersweet joy. Pap now has one brother left, Oom Johan who is 91. He looks just like Pap, except with blue eyes!
Hug your loved ones, make time for them and never take them for granted! Have a super day and hope to see you again soon. In the meantime, be sure to check out my YouTube channel and subscribe if you haven’t already done so. That is where all the action is!!
Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. Today I have a fun technique with you that I call Blown Alcohol technique. I did something similar this summer but it was WAY more complicated. You can see that post here.
I was reminded of this technique by my European team leader Michelle Last and you can see her blog post here.
Thankfully I have also made a video for you to see how it is done. I also show you how NOT to do it and what happens when you mess up. Always fun to see someone else’s mistakes isn’t it?
Blown Alcohol Technique Cards
To do this technique successfully you need vellum cardstock, 90% or above isopropyl alcohol (you might just know it as rubbing alcohol in North America) and Blends markers. It is helpful to have a stampin’ spritzer as well as these little bottles from Amazon.
Here’s a close-up of the cards so you can see the detail:
Little Tip
What makes the blown alcohol focal point so vibrant is the use of adhesive sheets. When the blown alcohol technique is complete you put the entire sheet of vellum onto an adhesive sheet and then you can adhere it to a sheet of basic white cardstock. Use your layering circles dies to cut out circles and stamp your sentiment in versamark and emboss in gold. Remove the adhesive backing and add to your card front. Accessorize with die cuts, flat jingle bells or stamped and die cut pine cones.
Video Tutorial
Here is a video tutorial that I made. It is in typical Jackie fashion with some trial and error but I think it will make you feel totally at home. My wish is that when you watch my video you will be empowered to give it a try yourself. I used the following Blends colours: Soft Succulent, Old Olive, Just Jade and Evening Evergreen. Just Jade has been retired so if you don’t already have it you could try and substitute with a different shade of green.
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me today, I hope you were inspired. Please leave a comment so I know you were here and if you really want to show me some love, pin some of your favourite photos so more people will find my blog. Every little bit helps. The links to shop with me online in Canada are below.
Hello stampers. I am SO excited to share with yo the Festive Florets Collection. The collection includes two stamp sets, a set of dies, beautiful 12 x 12 paper and gold gems. What I like so much about it is that with this collection you can make cards for the whole year! as such it is a worthy investment that you will not tire of easily. Shall we take a look?
Festive Florets Card Assortment
Today I made three different cards using this collection. I will also share the video tutorial so you can be inspired to create as well. Two of the cards are Christmas cards and the third one is an all occasion thinking of you card. Together they use all the frames dies included in the set. There is so much more to explore with this collection.
I also made some Christmas cards last week with these stamps and dies. These cards will also be part of my Save Your Sanity Stamp Camp
on December 7, 2022.
Video Tutorial
More Inspiration from Other Demonstrators with Festive Florets
The following card is by Amy Koenders and you can check out her full blog post here.
This beauty is from Gail Ellis. Gail combined the Merriest Frames Hybrid bundle. You can check out more of her fabulous work here although this card is not featured on her blog just yet.
The last card I am sharing with you caught my eye because of the way she used a pop of red behind her frames. It’s such a simple thing but it makes a huge difference! I also like the addition of the die cut leaves. You can read about all the details on her blog post here.
Contest
I am offering a contest this week for two reasons. One is simply because it is a fun thing to do. The second reason is that I want to see if contests actually work as an incentive to buy. This is how it will work and unfortunately it is only open to Canadians. If you order the Festive Florets Collection AND if at least five people do so, then one lucky winner will get Many Marvelous Markers. That is a very significant prize so I hope that I get a bunch of orders. Everyone will get THREE free pdf tutorials if they order the Festive Florets Collection. That makes everyone a winner don’t you think? Contest closes on Friday November 4 at noon EST. Please use the current host code SBEEKQT when you place your order.
Official Photo of Festive Florets Collection
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate it when you drop by and of course I would love your business. If you are NOT Canadian, you can still support be by purchasing my tutorials or by joining Prime Time or my Training Group. You can see all those things at the top of my blog under Services
Hello stampers and happy Friday to you. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to you too! I was hoping to host a Canadian Thanksgiving dinner here for my Dutch friends a week later but when I went to order a turkey I had a little sticker shock. A 12 pound turkey was going to cost me 120 euros. That’s about $160. I couldn’t do it. Instead I will share a few of my creations from the last month that have a nice fall vibe.
Apples Make Me Happy
Thanksgiving needs to have pie and one of those pies should be an apple pie. The other two should be pumpkin and pecan because we all know that you need at least three pies to choose from! I made this fun apple card a couple of weeks ago and I just love how the apples turned out.
When the kids were little we used to go apple picking at the local orchard and then we would go home and make a ton of applesauce together. Of course there would also be a few delicious apple pies made. Great memories and great scrapbook pages!
It’s hard to believe but these cards are almost exactly the same size. One is American sized and the other European A4 size, so a little longer and narrower. Which one do you like better? You can see the video tutorial here.
Matchbook Treat Holders
Looking for a super simple treat holder? This matchbook treat holder is so easy but so very cute. I used the Hello Harvest bundle to make them and the Rustic Harvest paper.
This is what it looks like in the inside:
Distressed Gold Season Of Chic Card
My last fall creation has more subdued and antique looking colours. I am curious to hear what you think about this one.
If you purchase the Season Of Chic bundle then you are in for a treat! I am going to give you a 13 project tutorial bundle and each of the cards features this Season of Chic stamp set. How awesome is that?? You can see the video for this card here. I hope that you discover my YouTube channel and subscribe. It is one of the main ways that I now teach my people the art of card making!
Thanks!
Thanks so much for joining me today, I am thankful for YOU. I hope that you choose me as your demonstrator and if that is not possible, please support me by purchasing my awesome tutorials. You can find them on my blog as well, or just click here for some instant gratification. I hope you have a fantastic weekend. The links to my online store can be found below.
