Hello stampers. I love words and I love puns so it is only natural that I love the saying “Ghoul Friends”. This saying is part of the stamp set Spooktacular Bash which is part of the Monster Bash suite. You can find it on page 54 of the holiday catalog.
The Card
I don’t send out Halloween cards but I do love dressing up and handing out candy. Someday I hope to throw an epic Halloween party complete with fantastic ghoulish treats and fun costumes and of course scary games. This lovely card was a swap card that I received from Christina Walker.
Do you see all the lovely details on this card? The gorgeous ornate frames die and the Stylish Scroll embossing background? The glittered black organdy ribbon is the perfect finishing touch for this card. Here is a closeup picture so you can see it even better.
More Time
Do you ever wish that you had more time? I sure do!! Maybe it could also be a matter or prioritizing things. I know that I absolutely love Christmas so I often jump right into Christmas card making and I forget about fall cards or Halloween. If I would make a point of making all kinds of fun things for Halloween then perhaps I would host a big Halloween party and we could use all the fun stuff I had made. There’s always next year, but maybe I have inspired you to get creative for Halloween.
Share Your Story
If you have fun Halloween traditions, I would love to hear about them. Share your stories in the comments below and I will choose someone to get this fun card in the mail. Blogs are more fun when they are interactive don’t you think? If you do have a fun tradition, maybe you want to scrapbook it too. There was a fun sample in the holiday catalog and I’m going to share it here too.
Thanks!
I’m so glad you stopped by today. I hope you have fun decorating for Halloween, even if it is just a few pumpkins on the porch. Celebrating death is not my thing at all, but dressing up and sharing candy, well that is something quite different. Enjoy the little things and remember, #itsallaboutthetreats.
Hello stampers did you know that Stampin’ Up! is raising money for mental health with a brand new stamp set? The stamp set is called Nature’s Beauty. Four dollars from every stamp sold is donated to mental health organizations. I find it so fitting that Stampin’Up! is doing this awesome thing. We all know that the joy of stamping is great for mental health; it is such a stress reliever. On the other side, it is such a mental health boost to receive a beautiful hand made card. This is a beautiful stamp set with animals and trees that are perfect for colouring. I want to show you what I have done with this set.
The Cards
The first card was made because I wanted to showcase these stamp sets for my Christmas Bingo event on Friday. At this event we play lots of Bingo and everyone wins a prize of product from the new holiday catalog. We also make four simple projects using holiday catalog products. There are a lot of people at this fun event so the projects have to be simple. I decided that a monochromatic card would be perfect. The colours are also emotionally soothing, very appropriate for a mental health awareness campaign! Here is my first card:
Here is the second card, and lastly be sure to watch the video to see how the last card was created and why. I hope you fall in love with this stamp set and help raise money for mental health awareness.
The Video
Thanks so much for joining me today, I am especially proud of working together with such a great company that is always looking for ways to help out. Mental health is a huge issue these days and card making is a great way to make a difference in so many ways. Have a super day!
Hello stampers! Did you know that this is the first time that Stampin’Up! has offered a coordinating combination of dies and embossing folders? Yes, this brand new product has dies that cut out an oval and a rectangular frame as well as embossing folders that transform these frames into works of art. I am even more excited to use the heirloom frames dies and 3D embossing folders now that my new 3D embossing plate came in. It is so easy to use with just the Big Shot base. At the end of this post I will share a video so that you can see it in action.
Why Get the new Embossing Plate?
When Stampin’Up! announced that they were no longer going to be selling the Big Shot I was rather alarmed. What were we going to do without a die cutting machine? It is true that they are working on a new machine but it will not be available for a while. I firmly believe that it will be a superlative product just like our Stamparatus is way better than any other product in its class. However, I am frugal and I didn’t really want to spend any more money making the Big Shot work for me. Our new 3D embossing folders are made to work in the new machine that is being developed and they will only work in the Big Shot with some tweaking. I used two pieces of thicker cardstock that come in our specialty designer series paper to create a shim. What a nuisance!! It was tricky to use and boy was it getting ugly. For $13 I have a beautiful 3D embossing plate which works like a dream. I can totally vouch for it as it will just make your life so much easier. No muss, no fuss. Yay!!
The Cards
What I like most about this card is the duplication of colour between the designer series paper and the stamped birds in the frame. It highlights one of the best features of Stampin’Up! products: colour coordination. You never have to guess. Your cards always look professional even if they are very simple. Colour coordination saves you time and simplifies the creative process.
Do you notice that this card is larger? That is because it is! It is a large Memories and More card measuring 6 1/4″ by 4 1/4″. I wanted a larger card to better showcase the pretty feather paper from the Bird Ballad suite. Otherwise the pretty grey heirloom frame would cover most of it up. the bird was fussy cut from the Bird Ballad paper as well.
The Opportunity
Did you know that the starter kit is also an option for someone who has no intention of becoming a demonstrator? Furthermore, did you know that you can put whatever you want into this kit? Yes! It is totally customizable to whatever you want and it costs only $135 in Canada with no shipping and tax. Normally you would get to choose $165 worth of products to put in your kit, but for the month of August you can choose $205 worth of product. There is an “Extra, Extra” promotion going on right now where you get an extra $40 worth of free product and then in September you get an extra $14 coupon code to use on your order.
You can get the kit just to get the great deal, but after that you will have until the end of December to use your own 20% discount. If you want to stay active as a demonstrator or keep getting your discount you need to spend or buy $400 each quarter. If you order the starter kit through me that automatically makes you a member of my Beyond Pampered Team. We have free monthly gatherings where we get together to stamp and enjoy treats. I also have a team training page that is free. My goal is to help you meet your goals and to live your dreams. Click here if you want to get started. You will be asked if you have a host code, click “no”, then click “apply”. The only time you have a host code is if you hosted a workshop and you wanted to use your host rewards towards the purchase of a starter kit.
The Video Must-See
Here is the video I made to show you a very important trick to using the Heirloom Frames Dies and 3D embossing folders without messing up. Without this trick it can be troublesome indeed, in fact, I wasn’t sure if I was going to promote this product until I discovered this trick. Happy stamping and thanks so much for stopping by.
Hello stampers! Do you ever have a product that you keep reaching for? Stitched Nested Labels might just become one of those.I know it has been for me. These lovely dies are perfect for adding a distinctive focal point to your card. They are big enough to stamp an image on as well as a sentiment. Stitched Nested Labels are also part of the Free as Bird bundle, so it is a win win situation don’t you think?
Two of the cards use the Stitched Nested Labels, but they all use Free as a Bird which is one of my favourite stamp sets and suites in the catalog. Have you seen the gorgeous paper that coordinates with this set? Oh my!! So many possibilities. These dies are really wonderful to use, much easier than our earlier stitched dies. I don’t know if it is just me, but the other stitched dies are really hard to get out and some of my people are afraid of tearing their cardstock when doing so. The Stitched Nested Labels pop out really easily and cut perfectly as well, so I consider them a good investment.
This is a close up of the first card so that you can see the great coordination of the in colour designer series paper. You can also see the lovely stitching in the Stitched Nested Dies here. No fussy, time-consuming poking here, you just run the die through a die cutting machine and it comes out like this! I used the largest die here and I used a scrap of white. Here is a picture so you can see how it is done.
This pool party card uses tone on tone stamping in the background and it also uses the second largest die from the Stitched Nested Labels. The bottom piece of patterned paper measures 4 1/4″ by 2 3/4″. Do you notice that the flowers on the stamped image perfectly match the patterned paper? I love using the designer series paper as inspiration for colouring.
So Thankful For My Team
Actually I didn’t make these cards at all, my team member Alison Reid did. What a blessing to me! Alison brought a box full of cards that she had made in the last month to our team party on Wednesday night. Her timing was perfect as I had just found out that my Pap was in the hospital and was planning to go visit him first thing Thursday morning. That meant I had no time to design cards for my coffee and a card class. Thankfully I had taken pictures of Alison’s cards and decided to use the three she had made using the Stitched Nested Labels. I sent the pictures to my other team member Yvonne Macfadyen who then made the cards and prepped them for my class. I am so blessed to have such a great team. These two have been on my team for ten years now and we were actually celebrating that on Wednesday night. One of the things that many team members shared that night and then later on our team page was how thankful they all were for the meaningful friendships formed through Stampin’Up!
This last card doesn’t use the Stitched Nested Label dies, but it does use the Swirly Frames stamp set and the layering circles dies. When you look at the crumb cake circle it makes you think that a stitched die was used, but that is actually the stamp. I got this stamp set at a Prize Patrol at an OnStage event. OnStage is a local Stampin’Up! event that used to happen twice a year and Prize Patrol is when a select group of people win a prize. We are given wristbands or stickers with different colours and when a certain colour is announced, then those people win a prize. It’s a lot of fun. I may have overlooked this stamp set in the catalog, but it is one of those great foundational stamps that can really make a big difference in your card making. The rectangle in the background is also from this set.
This card actually has a lot going on in it. Alison cased this card straight from the catalog. You can see it on page 117. I actually like Alison’s card better. She used the Subtle embossing folder on the so saffron background rather than the stamped image in the catalog. The flowers and the leaves are fussy cut. You can join me at my weekly Facebook live video on Tuesday night at 7pm EST when I will be making these cards and sharing any tips and tricks we learn at class.
Starter Kit Opportunity
Thanks for joining me. I appreciate you ever so much. If you live in Canada and want more excitement in your life, you may wish to consider joining my team. Whether you only want your own discount or you want to build a stamping empire, the starter kit is the golden ticket. Click here or message me if you need help. And yes, you can add pre-order items from the holiday catalog to your starter kit!! Until the end of August the starter kit can be totally customized with up to $205 worth of products in it as well as a Paper Pumpkin kit, 8 annual catalogs, 8 holiday catalogs and 50 order forms. You pay only $135. Wow! What are you waiting for?
Hello stampers. I have a very special interest in the Royal Peacock. Not only is it a gorgeous stamp set with a beautiful suite of products to support it, it is also a creature very dear to my grandson’s heart. Two weeks ago we went to the lovely local attraction called Clovermead. They raise bees, sell honey and have a petting zoo with lots of cute critters including a passel of goats, sheep, chickens, pigs, cows and, yes, peafowl. I say peafowl because there are peacocks and peahens and peachicks!! Little Leo doesn’t have too many words in his vocabulary yet, but one of the new ones is definitely peacock. He prays for the peacock every night before bed now. I think I need to send him a peacock card, what do you think?
I think that Stampin’Up! has really captured the beauty of the royal peacock in its stunning paper, foil sheets, rhinestones and reversible ribbon. When I was on the cruise I received this lovely card from my friend Kathy Morgan. I met Kathy years ago at a Leadership Convention in Houston, Texas. We were roommates at the Embassy Suites and we really bonded over happy hour! It was wonderful to spend a day with her and her husband BIll in Santorini. Thank you so much for gifting me this Royal Peacock card. I can’t wait to make it in a class. Here is Kathy’s blog if you want to check it out.
Royal Peacock is also a two step stamp set which allows for some amazing opportunities. The peacock was stamped in blueberry bushel and then a detail stamp was stamped over it in versamark and embossed in gold. Wow! The photo really can’t capture the beauty of this card. I took a close up so you can see it a little better.
In this closeup you can see the gold embossing that add a lot of richness to the feathers. You can also see the beautiful Noble Peacock specialty series paper in the background as well as the coordinating Beads & Baubles embossing folder. I have to say that this is one of my favourite suites in the annual catalog. The colours are just so rich and striking, just like the actual bird. I can see why Leo is enthralled. Click on the image below and you will see the contents of the entire Royal Peacock stamp set as well as the rest of the suite. It would be great to add to a starter kit or to order and get some bonus bucks. If you live in Canada and want to take advantage of the amazing deal on the starter kit, just click here.
Tomorrow’s post will feature me sharing some of the cards that my customers made at coffee and a card class this morning as well as one variation that I made myself. It was so neat to see how each person’s card turned out differently. One big lesson with pigment sprinkles: less is more!! If you are too generous with your sprinkling they you will actually ruin your card since the colours will be too saturated.
Thanks for stopping by today, I appreciate you!! Have a super day and be sure to spread some love by sending a card.
Hello stampers! I’ve missed you! I am finally home from the Greek Isles Incentive trip and ready to share my inspiration with you again. It is honestly one of the highlights of my year to go on the incentive trip and get spoiled by Stampin’Up! as well as reconnect with all my demonstrator friends around the world. I never take enough pictures of myself with other demos. I promise that will change next year when Gerard comes with me to Maui. This was also the first time I did not participate in the organized swap on the cruise. I did take pictures of some of the swap cards so that I could share them with you but the lighting in the Hospitality Suite on the ship was less than ideal. I think you would agree though that a lousy picture is better than no picture.
One of my favourite cards was this one that used the Pretty Pavilion bundle to make a Greek church that is so iconic on the islands. How creative is that! I don’t know who made it but if any of you readers do, please let me know in the comments. I just found out who made this card! It is Susan Smith from the USA. I also saw in her much better photo that the roof of the “church” is made from the Pretty Peacock foil run through the Subtle embossing folder. It just looks like glimmer paper in my photo.
Not only did the creator of this card use Pretty Pavilion to make the church, he or she also made the sea using High Tide. I love the addition of the copper trim in the background to mimic fishing nets. Did you know that this ribbon pulls apart to make it look like this? The blue glimmer paper was made using either silver or sparkle glimmer paper coloured with blends or reinkers. Very clever indeed and I knew you would want to see it. Do you know why the building on the Greek Isles are all blue and white? Our tour guide told us that during the several hundred years that Greece was occupied by Turkey they were forbidden to fly their own flags. They instead painted their houses in the colours of the flag: blue and white!
This photo was taken in Santorini. It is one of those moments when you want to pinch yourself to make sure that it is real. It is simply stunningly beautiful.
I have one other project that I would like to share with you. The picture quality is a little blurry but you will get the gist. I hope to recreate it in a class for you.
Isn’t that just the cutest thing? Great home decor item that would also make a perfect gift for someone. It uses the Come Sail Away suite as well as the Under the Seas framelits and Hand-Lettered prose dies. Here is the backside of it:
Do you see that the creator of this great art piece used our chipboard packaging that comes with our specialty designer series paper? The black circles that you see are just velcro circles used to adhere this project to the display board.
I’m so glad you stopped by today and I hope that you were inspired by these projects even if I didn’t make them myself! That is another reason the incentive trip is so much fun and so beneficial. We are surrounded by greatness and by inspiration and we learn so much from each other that makes it exciting to get back to work. Don’t forget about the amazing deal on the starter kit. Not only do you get $210 worth of product and pay only $135, you also get a $14 coupon to use on your order the month after you sign up.
I would absolutely love to have you join my team. They say that if you really love something, you want to share it. If you only get a very small part out of this starter kit than what I did it will be totally worth it. The possibilities are endless starting with your own discount but including finding new friends in your own town but also all over the world and creating a fun business if you want. I would love to show you how. My dream is to have a team that has representation from every province and territory in Canada. What are you waiting for? Here is the link if you are ready to start this amazing adventure.
July is also the month for Bonus Days. That means for every $60 you spend in July before shipping and tax you get a $6 coupon code to use in August. Every little bit helps!
That’s all for now! I hope to have more fun things to share with you tomorrow and I also know that I promised you some pdfs. One thing at a time, but I haven’t forgotten and I am looking forward to doing it. Have a super day and stay cool.
