Hello stampers. It was quite a stamping and teaching frenzy before I left for Holland last week so I didn’t have a chance to blog about my alternative cards using Come to Gather from last week’s Facebook live. I was actually quite pleased with how they turned out so I would love to share them with you. It seems that every week something crazy happens during my weekly Facebook live, so maybe you should check it out. For the next three weeks they will be on Tuesday morning 9am EST or 3pm European summer time. I would love for you to come to gather with me during these Facebook live events. We have so much fun together!
Come to Gather designer series paper
When the paper is this gorgeous it is easy to create beautiful cards. My original card was a swap card that I had received and was not allowed to share just yet, so I changed it up and made this one instead. I really like the white ghost pumpkins so I used Harvest Hellos to stamp one on shimmery white cardstock and one on the Come to Gather designer series paper.The sentiment is from a Paper Pumpkin stamp set and is stamped in Pretty Peacock.
There is a sheet of paper in the Come to Gather collection that reminds me of the printing books we had when I was in grade one, so I made a school inspired card with it.This was actually cased from a swap card that I received earlier in the month.
I love how you can make two totally different cards with the same set of paper. One is vintage and the other is clean and fresh.This last one uses the September Paper Pumpkin stamp set for the saying. Where you see the leaf at the bottom? That was an embellishment opportunity as I had smudged some ink there! It looks even better now. Embrace the imperfections!
More than Cards
This gorgeous framed art piece was made by Lisa Lange, one of the display artists at the Holiday Hoopla event I spoke at in Illinois the weekend before I left for Holland. One of the things you will need to create this beauty is the Hand-lettered Prose dies. I am not sure about the size of the frame but I am guessing either 5 x 7 or 8 x 10. Isn’t the Come to Gather paper just spectacular?
The Purpose
If you have never put ink to paper then you are in for a very pleasant surprise. You will truly be amazed at the creativity that this simple act unleashes.With creativity comes joy, and joy begs to be shared. I would love to help you start on this journey of discovery. Please comment below and we will connect! I post videos on my Facebook page which you can find here. I also share a bit on YouTube. If you want to follow me there, just click here. If you click on subscribe then you will never miss another video!
The purpose of making cards is double. You get the joy and satisfaction out of making something special with your own two hands. Someone else will then get the pleasure of receiving what you have made.I am a firm believer that every card makes the world a better place, as long as you take the time to send it.
Thank You
Thanks so much for joining me today. I really do get a lot of joy from seeing you come on over and reading my blog. You are noticed and appreciated! This is just another place to come to gather!
You can help me by pinning my creations to Pinterest. If you hover your mouse over the pictures on this blog a red Pinterest button shows up, just click on that and away you go! Your comments are also very encouraging. Lastly, if you live in Canada you can order from me through the shop now button or by clicking on any of the supply items below. Of course, there is always room on my team for you as well! The best deal in the catalog is always the starter kit. Click here if you want to save a LOT of money and get exactly what you want, not just what’s on sale. Every day is a sale day with the starter kit.
I hope you have a wonderful day. I am coming down with the first cold I have had in over a year, so I am going to take some more oil of oregano and am going to go for a walk along the sea with Gerard.
Hello stampers, I’m back with a gorgeous Come Sail Away sampler. It is so hard for me to stay away from this Come Sail Away suite as I am always drawn to the water and to all things nautical. I also love samplers! What about you? What’s your go to set in this catalog? Do you love making samplers too? This one is a 12 x 12 and will fit in either a regular frame or a shadow box. Mine is in a dark shadow box and I think it might look nicer in a simple white frame.
The Sampler
What makes this Come Sail Away Sampler so awesome is that it is so very easy and quick to make. The Memories and More pack make it this way. Three of the sections are made using the beautiful laser cut cards in this kit. I simply matted them with night of navy 1/4 inch bigger than the cards. I will include a list of supplies that you will need to make this sampler yourself at home. The whole thing took me about an hour to make.
Some Tips
Did you know that this sampler was made using no stamps at all? This is a great beginner project for that reason. I also thought it would be very nice to include a memorable picture in the bottom panel where it says celebrate today. That would add the perfect personal touch. These cards were designed to be used for scrapbooking but they can also be used for cards. In fact, Stampin’Up! makes special cards and envelopes to coordinate with these cards. If you are like most people and sometimes find yourself wishing you had more hours in a day, you might want to check out this product line. You can keep it simple or you can go fancy, but either way it is a wonderful time saver!
Facebook Live
Every Tuesday at 7pm EST I do a Facebook live video showing the cards that we made at coffee and a card that morning. This time we used the Come Sail Away suite. Here is the link so you can check it out too.
Thanks so much for joining me today, sorry it has been a while since I posted. This was due to my wanting to spend the last week of vacation with my kids and grandkids but also because I needed to rest my wrist and thumb some more. The healing is simply not happening. Tomorrow I am going to try acupuncture for the first time!
I always look forward to seeing your comments and every online order excites me and brings me deep gratitude.
Hello stampers! Here is my summer sampler. It has the exact same measurements as the Spring Sampler I posted yesterday. I love the fresh vibrant colours in this one: coastal cabana, bermuda bay, pool party, daffodil delight and a pop of calypso coral all on crisp whisper white background. This one has a lot of texture with embossing folders, popped die cuts and white emboss resist with the lighthouse. I also love the fact that the letters in SUMMER are all different. I totally cased this from fellow demonstrator Cathy Casey whose creation you can see here. I also used her idea for the daffodil delight panel. Here is my work.
I just love playing with different stamp sets and small vistas. Each little rectangle is its own masterpiece. If you have never made a sampler before, you should try it. It’s a lot of fun!! I love the crisp contrast with the heron on the top left corner and the dreamy quality of the lighthouse panel. I embossed it in white and then sponged over it with coastal cabana and then a little touch of calypso coral and daffodil delight to create a sunset look. The stamp sets that I used work very well together: Lilypad Lake, Beautiful You, Colorful Seasons, High Tide and Come Sail Away.
Don’t you just love how I turned the girl in the dress from Beautiful You into a girl in a bikini? I think I did a video on that a long time ago. It wasn’t my original idea but it sure is fun! First you add the belly button, then draw a line to make a bikini top. Then draw on a bikini bottom and give her some legs! I can hardly draw at all and I managed to do this without a problem. Have fun and play, you will be amazed at what can happen.
The measurements for this sampler are almost exactly the same as the Spring Sampler from yesterday’s post, but I will include them here to make life a little easier for you.
Measurements
frame: 8″ by 10″
bottom panels: coastal cabana 3 5/8″ by 2 7/8″ white: 3 3/8″ by 2 5/8″ scrap of crumb cake torn to look like sand
centre panel- : 2 7/8″ by 7 1/2″ whisper white: 2 5/8″ by 7 3/8″ The letters are daffodil delight, coastal cabana, bermuda bay, granny apple green and balmy blue.
top panels: 2 3/8″ by 3 1/4 ( two are coastal cabana, one is daffodil delight) one white and one bermuda bay 2 1/4″ by 3 1/8″
I hope you enjoyed this summer sampler and that you are inspired to create your own.
I will most likely be absent from this blog for the next ten days. Tomorrow I am going to Detroit to meet with a fellow demonstrator. We are hoping to collaborate together as cross border buddies. I will fill you in on all the details when I get back. Even more exciting, Gerard is coming for an 8 day visit for my birthday which is on Saturday. I want to spend every minute with him, so work is going to take a back seat. I know you will understand. That is the beauty of owning your own business and doing what you love. #workhardplayhard #familyfirst I will try to stay on top of emails and orders and I will post on social media a little bit too. Thanks for all your love and support, it means so very much to me. Enjoy your new catalogs, I have left some on my front porch if you need to pick one up.
Hello stampers. This Spring Sampler is a little late, but it is officially still spring! Last year I made samplers for each season and my customers were requesting more of them. They are such fun to make! While making cards is very gratifying, they get sent away. A sampler is your creative work framed for all to see. Do you want to see what I made?
I didn’t have time to take pictures of each individual rectangle but I can tell you which stamps I used and the colours. The colours are whisper white, petal pink, calypso coral and pear pizzazz. I used a new stamp set called Butterfly Wishes as well as Enjoy Life, Beautiful You and the Large Letter framelits. The letters are popped up with mini dimensionals over vellum which was layered on the Petal Promenade designer series paper. With the new catalog going live today both the letter framelits and this pretty paper is now discontinued.
Measurements
frame: 8″ by 10″
bottom panels: calypso coral 3 5/8″ by 2 7/8″ white: 3 3/8″ by 2 5/8″
centre panel- petal promenade paper: 2 7/8″ by 7 1/2″ vellum: 2 1/2″ by 7″
top panels: 2 3/8″ by 3 1/4 (one was calypso coral, two were grapefruit grove) white or patterned paper 2 1/4″ by 3 1/8″
The panel with the lady from Beautiful You was a happy accident. I used the wavy framelet from Lilypad Lake to make an intricate design on the one end but instead it cut it right off leaving a nice wavy edge, so I just added some pretty paper from the Petal Promenade collection to add interest. It is 2 5/8″ wide and is tucked behind the white panel.
I added a scrap of ribbon to the top right panel that has the saying from Enjoy Life. Tomorrow I hope to share my Summer Sampler. We will be making this sampler on Saturday June 15 at 1pm. the cost is $25. I can make a kit that you can order but I cannot include stamped images. Thanks for dropping by and remember the new catalog goes live today!! What is at the top of your wish list?
Hello stampers. I was thrilled to find two refill kits from Grown With Kindness in my paper cabinet. Now I could design a sampler that I had brewing in my head. I really love the stamp set that came in this Paper Pumpkin as well as the gorgeous paper in the kit. The paper/cardstock was meant to layer on cards but with some creativity I came up with a different plan! Here is what I made. It is a 12 x 12 sampler in a very inexpensive frame.
You could definitely use different paper for the background, I was playing with about five different ones but I settled on this one because it brings out the pool party colour in the cups. I have a neat trick for the saying on the bottom left square. Let’s take a closeup look.
I stamped the saying from Grown With Kindness in Fresh Fig and since ink takes longer to dry on vellum I was able to clear emboss to give a nice raised image that is also more intense. I sponged Tombow liquid adhesive on the back of the vellum so that it doesn’t show. Fresh fig is retiring in a few days, so if you need any cardstock or ink refills be sure to order now! Just click on the images at the end of my blog post and then you will go straight to my online store. Live in Canada and have never ordered online before? No worries, it is totally safe. Just click on Create Account on the top left of the screen. You will be prompted on what to do next. If you choose to use the host code TXE4JNCY I would be most grateful.
If you are interested in a kit, let me know. Maybe I will have time to offer this as an in person class as well. Thanks so much for stopping by and have a super day.
Hello stampers. Happy Monday!! Good Things Grow was a Paper Pumpkin kit from March 2018 and I loved it so much that I ordered quite a few, enough to make samplers with it. The first one I made had a lemon lime twist background and I just made a second version with a daffodil delight background with a lace overlay. The good news is that they are available as kits!! They are only $20 each. Not sure yet on the shipping cost. I think it will be quite cheap if you provide your own background because then the package will be smaller, but I will definitely look into it.
Here is a closeup of this one. I added a gold foil acetate overlay for even more luscious texture. I have four kits with this available.
When I was at Art in the Park on Saturday selling these kits among other things I had the inspiration to add a yellow background. I decided on daffodil delight with a lace overlay. This was super easy to do by simply adding spray adhesive to the back of the lace paper.
Here is a close up so that you can see the detail from the Delightfully Detailed laser cut paper I used for the background.
The best part is that I used a Paper Pumpkin kit from March 2018 called Good Things Grow to make this sampler. The kit was a beautiful card kit, but I turned it into a sampler instead using even the envelopes which I thought were too pretty to mail!! Be sure to subscribe to this amazing monthly kit before the price goes up in June.
That’s all for today, my wrists are still terribly sore. My new keyboard tray is coming Wednesday so that will make my desk work ergonomically correct. Thanks so much for stopping by and don’t forget to get your Paper Pumpkin Subscription before the price goes up. You need to get a prepaid subscription in either 3, 6 or 12 months to lock in the low price. Here is a quick link to make it easy for you, or message me if that is easier. Let me know if you want a sampler kit and together we’ll figure out the details of shipping and payment. Some day I will have a simpler PayPal button process. That is on my to do list in the coming week(s).
Here is a sneak peek for June, just to give you an idea of what to expect.
