by Jackie Bultje | Mar 4, 2020 | gratitude, Honour and Remember, Peaceful Moments, Peaceful Poppies |
Hello stampers. Mindful gratitude. Think about that for a moment and really let it sink in. How often do we practice mindful gratitude? I know that for me it can go in spurts, but when I practice it, I am so much happier. Gratitude transforms us. It can transform the world around us as well because gratitude is contagious. Just like smiles.
Mindful Gratitude for our Veterans
I am planning a very meaningful project that will help us exercise mindful gratitude for our veterans and their families. May 5 is Liberation Day in the Netherlands and this year will be the 75th anniversary. If you have ever had the chance to go to Europe to see some of the battlefields of either of the world wars, you know how what a moving experience it is. We have not had war on Canadian soil since 1812, so we have no idea how a peaceful countryside can turn into bloodsoaked soil, how cities and villages can be laid to ruin in a moment. Our freedom came at a high price and I would love to thank our veteran community in a tangible way.
If you want to read more about how our troops were involved in the World War 2 liberation of the Netherlands, you can read about it here.
A Tangible Thank You
When I saw the Peaceful Poppies stamp set from Stampin’Up! I was immediately inspired to use it to thank our veterans. I wanted to do something big, something that would involve our entire community and maybe even inspire other people to do something similar.
This has now become an official project!! You can join in too. On Saturday April 25 from ten am till noon you can make up to ten cards or a journal. There will be cards for varying skill levels so you can choose which cards to make. The important part will be what you write inside, a heartfelt thank you for the sacrifice that was made for us. If you have personal memories of that time there will be small journals that you can share your stories in and even put in pictures if you like.
I will be going to Holland to attend the festivities as will the Chatham Pipe Band, so there will be lots of people to help distribute the cards and journals. Let’s see how many we can make! Here are the cards for you to see.
Honour and Remember Cards
If you really love to get creative, there will also be a table set up where you can unleash your own creativity and make whatever you want with the supplies provided. As a thank you for helping with this Honour and Remember project you will be able to keep five cards for yourself. If you want to see more cards made with Peaceful Poppies, you can check out this blog post.
Share this Event with Everyone
Please help make this event successful by sharing this blog post with everyone you know. Social media is a great tool for doing this quickly and easily. Here is the link for the event. If you cannot come to the event in person, you are more than welcome to send your cards to Jackie Bultje, 81 Delaware Avenue, Chatham, Ontario, N7L 2W3 and I will make sure they get to Holland in the hands for the veteran community.
Last Month of Saleabration
If you are not familiar with Stampin’Up! you might not know that they have a huge annual event every year called Saleabration. It goes from January through March and with every $60 purchase you get a free item. In the last few years they have also made some items available for free with a $120 purchase. This is in a addition to regular host benefits. The free stamp sets, paper and accessories are exclusive to salebration and are not available after this promotion ends.
A few new things have been added to the offerings including Flowering Foils paper, Rise & Shine stamp set, Well Dressed stamp set, So Very Vellum paper and the Tags in Bloom stamp set. If you want to see these items, just click here. If you have any questions, feel free to message me. Of course I would love to have your business if you live in Canada. Just click on the images below and you will be in my online store.
Product List
by Jackie Bultje | Mar 3, 2020 | Honour and Remember, Peaceful Moments, Peaceful Poppies, World War 2 |
Hello stampers and happy Tuesday to you. I’m finally writing my daily blog post, some back issues have slowed me down a bit today. Honour and Remember is the name of the project that I am hoping to engage the community in to add a personal touch to the 75th anniversary of the World War 2 Liberation of the Netherlands by the Allies. Our Canadian soldiers played a huge part in this liberation effort and many of them or their families will be attending festivities in the Netherlands in May. I plan to be there too.
Honour and Remember
Since this event took place seventy five years ago, it is highly likely that many of our veterans are no longer alive. Their families will be there to represent them and it is my hope that we can give these family members visible tokens of our appreciation. This can be in the form of a hand made card or a journal with stories and photos. How wonderful would it be if we could get a card or a journal to each person there?
The power of a handwritten note and a shared story is incredible. If you have stories that you would like to share, please send them to me and I will include them in a journal. You are also welcome to send photos along with your stories. I am flying to the Netherlands on April 29. The community event will be on Saturday April 25 from 10am till noon.
The Cards
Here are the cards that we will be making. Some are meant for beginners and some are meant for those who like to so more detailed work.
Tomorrow I will post all the cards individually so you can have a closer look at them. I used the notecards and envelopes to make it extra easy for everyone.
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me today, I appreciate you. If you don’t already have a demonstrator, I would be over the moon happy if you ordered from me! Of course there is a spot waiting for you on my team as well. Be sure to check out all the new saleabration offerings that became available today. If you have any questions, please let me know.
Happy Mail for Gerard
I am hoping that you will all participate in the happy mail for Gerard contest! This is what I wrote yesterday:
Please don’t forget about the happy mail in Canada contest where we want to shower Gerard with some love when he comes to Canada. If you send a masculine card for him by March 29 I will enter your name into a contest for a masculine stamp set of your choice from the mini catalog and I will blog about your card. I will also video Gerard opening all his cards so we can all enjoy his surprise and delight. Here is the address: Gerard van der Sar, c/o Jackie Bultje, 81 Delaware Avenue, Chatham, Ontario N7L 2W3 Canada
Product List
by Jackie Bultje | Jan 27, 2020 | Double Z-Fold, Peaceful Moments, Peaceful Poppies |
Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. Today I have a huge double Z-fold card for you. When I saw the sheet of peaceful poppies designer series paper with the big stems of poppies I knew I wanted to use this on a BIG card so that the flowers would remain intact. It’s a lot of fun making a big card.
Huge Double Z-Fold Card
Let’s take a look at this beauty. When it folds up it is six inches square, so that means you have to make your own envelope!
Here is another look when it is closed.
I just love how the patterned paper gets used to its full capacity here, I even used the patterned paper for the leaves and as the background for the focal point. The Peaceful Poppies paper really is terrific.
The saying in the inside of the card is from Inspiring Iris. You could also leave it blank and write your own personal note inside. Alternatively you could put a white panel on the back for a longer missive.
When A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
It’s story time. Last week two cousins came to visit me and one of them brought along some old photos. This was one of them. It is a great old photo of a children’s choir from my mom’s home town of Maasdijk. My mom and her sister are in the middle of the photo. You can find Adrie with the red mark (someone must have done that so that everyone would know which one she was) and the girl to the left of her is my mom Rina.
Imagine my surprise when I get a message from my uncle on Pap’s side of the family saying that he is also in this picture. Pap’s family is from Zeeland, a different province in Holland an hour’s drive away in this day and age. Back then it took longer to travel that distance, especially since Zeeland is an island. So what was Oom Stoffel doing in Maasdijk as part of the children’s choir?
How the War Brought Families Together
I immediately knew that this picture must have been taken during the war. Indeed, after some questioning, I found out that this picture was taken either in the fall of 1944 or spring of 1945. How amazing that in those dark days of war they still had a children’s choir!
Do you want to know why my uncle was in this picture? You see, all the people from Zeeland province were evacuated because the Germans flooded this island province to prevent a possible landing from the Allies. The Boot family came to live in Maasdijk and they met the Robbemond family at church.
The families became friends and that is how my Pap met my Mom. There is a five and a half year age gap between my mom and my Pap, so when they first met there was no romance. In fact, Pap was interested in Mom’s older sister! That never developed into anything, but it was years later when they finally “saw” each other and fell in love. My Oom Stoffel is the cutie in the bottom row, far right. Mom’s other sister Bep is in the second row, fifth from the left.
I remember my Pap telling me the story of how he walked to Maasdijk from Zeeland taking some animals with him. I can’t remember if it was cows or horses or some of each. He walked for three days to get there! Being here in Holland has been wonderful to meet more of my relatives and discover more of my own heritage. It is humbling to see how God works to weave the threads of our family history.
Peaceful Poppies pdf Tutorial
I am thrilled to tell you that my latest tutorial is now complete and ready for purchase. It has colour pictures and instructions for ten great cards. Four of the ten cards are different fancy folds. I hope you enjoy it!! Just click on the button below to purchase it and I will get a notification and send it to you. Thanks so much for your support, I appreciate you all very, very much.
by Jackie Bultje | Jan 24, 2020 | designer series paper, paper, Peaceful Moments, Peaceful Poppies |
Hello stampers and happy Friday. Today I have gone a little out of my comfort zone to design a geometric poppies card. I wanted to challenge myself and do something a little different. Geometric designs are not my strong suit but I am quite happy with how my card turned out. What style do you struggle with?
Geometric Poppies
All of my peaceful poppies designer series paper was laying out and I just love so many of the designs and wanted to combine them on a card. That is how I came up with the idea of doing a geometric design with poppies. I started out with cutting a bunch of circles and squares with the stitched shape framelits. I scattered them on my background paper and played around a bit with what looked good together. Truth be told, it took a few different design layouts before I was satisfied.
The smaller squares got turned diagonally to make them diamonds and they are also all popped up to create more interest and dimenstion. I toyed around with the idea of creating a banner for the sentiment, mostly because I wanted to cover up that tiny black mark that I made. The sentiment looked better stamped right on the card. A banner messed up the crisp lines of the geometric design. In the end I was playing around with needing just a little something extra and that is how I came up with the poppy from the Peaceful Poppies elements. It has been so much fun incorporating those elements into my peaceful poppy cards!
If you want to see another card that I made incorporating a geometric stamp set, you can see it here.
The Most Important Tool
I often forget to write about how often I use my stamparatus. It really is the most important tool! For this card I used it to stamp my sentiment. Especially if your ink pad is of a certain vintage, your sentiment might not turn out as dark and crisp as you like. If you use the stamparatus then you can stamp several times in the exact same spot for absolute perfection. You see, the stamparatus is a stamp positioning tool. If you want to see a video on it, you can see it here.
A Little Vintage
Last night I caught up with some more cousins, this time it was two daughters from my mom’s favourite sister growing up. Tante Adrie (short for Adriana) was younger than mom by 16 months. She came to visit Mom in Canada when I was a year old and my cousins had some pictures from the visit for me. Some of them I had never seen before so that was really special!
The first time I looked at this photo of my Pap, I didn’t even see myself looking through the back window of the truck!!
With my mom my sister Adriana and my brother Oliver. I was about a year old here. Looks like I am either ready for a nap or just woke up!!
I’m pretty sure my dad made these little wooden chairs. This is me with my cousin Dan. It is so nice coming across pieces of your own history and to see how our stories intertwine. Thanks for indulging my walk through nostalgia!
Happy Mail in Holland
I just came back from a little shopping trip with Gerard’ sister. We hit a few used stores, they are called “kringloop” here. I found some great little leather shoes for the grandkids, some Royal Albert Old Country Roses dishes and a cute little book with all Dutch words for the grandkids. When I came home I checked the mailbox and there was happy mail. Thanks Gertie Boven, I will blog about your card tomorrow. I haven’t even opened it yet!
I just had to take a picture of these cute little “bikes”. They teach the littles how to have good balance so they can bike right away without training wheels.
PDF Tutorial
If you are liking the Peaceful Poppies cards, you will be happy to know that I now have a complete pdf tutorial for all ten cards. Here is a picture. Just click the buy now button if you want it. It’s that simple! It does take a bit before I get the notification from PayPal, but when I do I will send it to you.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for popping by today, I always feel like we have had a little chat together. I am hoping to start writing like a fiend after this and get a good chunk of my new Peaceful Poppies pdf tutorial done. First a live video with my training group and then nose to the grindstone. It was fun playing tourist this morning, tomorrow I will share some more pictures.
Product List
by Jackie Bultje | Jan 22, 2020 | Peaceful Moments, Peaceful Poppies, starter kit, Z-Fold card |
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday. Today I have a simple Z-Fold card for you using the Peaceful Poppies paper and Peaceful Moments bundle. I find that a z-fold card is a great way to showcase two coordinating or contrasting patterned papers. The one I chose today is actually included in the free paper pack that you get when you get the starter kit with Stampin’Up! This is one sheet of paper, it has stripes on one side and a watercolour poppy design on the other side.
Z-Fold Card
I love the fresh colours of this paper and you can never go wrong with stripes and a floral together! The poppy on the sentiment is from the Peaceful Poppies elements. It is a watercolour paper die cut with embossing already on it, all you have to do is give it a watercolour wash with your aqua painter and some ink.
The label for the sentiment is used twice, once on the Z-fold panel and once again inside the card. I left the inside one blank so I could write something personal there. This saying is meant to be paired with the “With Deepest Sympathy” saying but I felt that it could be used on its own for a simple thinking of you card. There is a family in my hometown right now whose daughter was involved in an industrial accident. She will most likely be paralyzed from the chest down unless a miracle happens. It is already a miracle that she survived. How horrific for this twenty year old and her parents! This card will be for them.
Here you can see the top view of the z-fold card. It measures 4 1/4″ by 11″ and it is scored at 2 3/4″ and 5 1/2″. It is a super simple fold but so effective for showing off your beautiful paper. If you would like to see another example of a Z-Fold card, check out this blog post.
When You Want the Best Deal Ever
Imagine for a moment that you really love this Peaceful Poppy suite. How could you get it for the least amount of money? Put it in a starter kit. If you get both bundles, that is two stamp sets and two sets of framelits, add to that the Peaceful Poppies elements and the Poppy Parade ink pad. You will then have $4 left over. If you go the clearance rack there are about ten choices for that price point, but I would suggest the real red solid ribbon here. In your kit you will get the assorted patterned paper collection which includes the peaceful poppies paper used on this card. You will only pay $135 for all of this. If you would put it on a normal order in Ontario your total would be $204.85.
It gets better. You also get a free mini paper trimmer which is absolutely adorable and perfect for using up your little bits of paper and cardstock for banners and sayings. Lastly, you get to choose one extra stamp set of your choice from either the mini or the annual catalog. Why not pick a great expensive one? May I suggest Well Said, a set with 51 cling stamps with lots and lots of different sayings? It is worth $61. Another great choice is Rooted In Nature which is $57.
After getting this amazing deal where you save all the shipping and tax AND get free stuff, you now will also get your very own discount of 20% on every order you place. You will keep this discount until the end of June no matter what. Did I mention that you also get a free Paper Pumpkin in your starter kit? I just had to tell the story about this amazing deal.
Well Said: A Possible Free Stamp Set
Rooted In Nature: Another Great Choice for your Freebie
Thanks!
In just one week I will be heading home after a wonderful stay in Holland. I am so very thankful to all of you who have journeyed with me and also sent me happy mail. I am curious to see if the mailbox will have any surprises today. If you would like to shop with me, just click on the products below and you will be on your way! If you would like to see the live video I did yesterday showing you how to make the fun flap fold card from yesterday’s blog post, you can see it here. There is moment where it freezes because I got a Facebook call, but it doesn’t last long! Have a super day.
Product List
by Jackie Bultje | Jan 17, 2020 | Painted Poppies, paper, Peaceful Moments |
Hello stampers and happy Friday to you. Today I am going to be talking about Peaceful Moments, the stamp set, and peaceful moments with my Tante Nel. How fitting is that? In face, I am thrilled that the poppy suite is in the mini catalog because poppies are the flower that Canadians use to commemorate the supreme sacrifice of life of our soldiers. This year is the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Holland by Canadian soldiers from World War 2 and there will be epic celebrations all over Holland in May and I hope to be here again. Let’s take a look at the sets.
Peaceful Moments and Painted Poppies stamp sets
Painted Poppies Card
It really is just so lovely the way the paper, the stamps and the dies coordinate. I added some vellum to soften the patterned paper under my sentiment. I had these silver sequins laying around, I think they were from a Paper Pumpkin kit. Do you see the leaves? They are also cut from the Painted Poppies designer series paper.
I was curious to see what the card would look like with a black sentiment instead of highland heather. I also knew that you would want to see a card with a different sentiment. There are lots of great sentiments in the Peaceful Moments stamp set.
What is your preference? Do you see that I also added a stamped and coloured poppy to the sentiment? I like that extra pop of red.
Peaceful Moments Story Time
I haven’t forgotten my promise to tell you the story about my high tea with Tante Nel. Let me introduce Tante Nel to you. You see, my mother came from a family of fourteen children. Yes, fourteen!! All from one mother and one father. Tante Nel is my mom’s younger sister by thirteen years. She is also the aunt that first hosted me when I came to Holland as a fourteen year old teenager. I thought she was super cool, after all, she listened to and sang along with ABBA!! She wore makeup and high heels. Jeans!! Totally different than my mom. Without Tante Nel, I would never have met Gerard. He came to her house when it was my cousin Corrina’s 17th birthday. Gerard has always maintained his friendship with Tante Nel and her family.
Since Tante Nel had hosted me so many times over the years, I thought it was time that I hosted her for something. Therefore, I invited her to high tea at De Bosrand. I knew that this was a lovely little restaurant in a peaceful little corner of the world on the edge of the Staelduinse Bos. What a lovely time we had catching up on everything that was going on in our lives. Here is a picture of us and of some of the delicious treats we enjoyed.
I am sure that “high tea” is something different depending on where you go. I would consider this a “low” high tea in the sense that it is rustic and relaxed and utterly unpretentious. There is of course a tea pot with numerous choices of tea. There is a tiered tray with all little savoury sandwiches on the bottom and sweet treats on the top. In between all of this the waitress brought little cups of coup, a chicken satay, some sort of battered shrimp in a delicious sauce and who knows what else.
The best part of course was the company and the conversation. This is just another huge blessing of being in Holland, the possibility of seeing my Dutch relatives. It was wonderful to enjoy peaceful moments with Tante Nel over high tea.
Rustic Retreat
There is still room for you to be pampered by The Pampered Stamper. You can join me for a three day, three night retreat in Muskoka. Imagine staying in a lovely cottage and having someone cook and bake for you. Then imagine that you will also be stamping and creating without having to think of your own ideas and being able to take home all your extra supplies and a pdf tutorial for more creativity? There will also be little excursions into nearby Huntsville to check out the shops and bakeries. You could choose to go to Arrowhead Provincial Park and skate on their beautiful groomed skating trail through the woods. All this for only $400. Save your spot for a $100 deposit.
Sweet Suite Saturday Free Class
Did you know that on Saturday February 29 at 1pm you can come to a free class if you purchase either of these bundles? It is time to continue with the Sweet Suite Saturday classes. You can also make four cards for $25 if you do not wish to purchase a suite or bundle. This card will be the first one we will make but there will be more coming up which I am also planning to make a tutorial of to help you create more beautiful things with these amazing products.
Thanks!
Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope you have a wonderful weekend. If there is happy mail tomorrow, there will be a blog post. If not, you will hear from me again on Monday. I am hosting some cousins from Zeeland tomorrow afternoon. Happy stamping and remember, the best way to get these products at an amazing price is to put them into your starter kit. Here is the link to help make that happen really fast.
Product List
