by Jackie Bultje | Nov 1, 2021 | blessings, Honour and Remember, Painted Poppies, Peaceful Poppies, remembrance day |
Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. Card ministry? That is the subject of my blog post today and it is ever so fitting that I am at my parents’ while I am writing this. You see another card from this “card ministry” by Sonja arrived in the mail for them today. Let me tell you a little about Sonja and her card ministry.
Sonja and her Card Ministry
I met Sonja many years ago when I did a fundraiser called Hearts for Haiti. That was the beginning of a long friendship. I found out later that Sonja was part of a card ministry at her church. Every month she would send a card to the people on her list, mostly elderly and shut-in people. She also sends cards to as many veterans as she can, not just in November, but every single month! Sonja has taken her hobby and turned it into a ministry and my family is also now on her list.
My parents and even my brother Oliver now feel like they know Sonja. You see, she doesn’t just send a card, she writes a lovely, newsy letter in her beautiful handwriting in each letter. My mother was touched that Oliver is now also included in the salutation. What a wonderful example you are to all of us Sonja. To make it even more significant, you should know that Sonja is also a long term caregiver to not one, but two people!
Sonja’s Card for Veteran Fred
What an amazing idea for a Remembrance Day card. You see, Fred’s family is so grateful for Sonja’s monthly cards that they send her a picture of their father with his card every month. Sonja asked if she could share his story and his photo with her card ministry people and this is the result. I am so blessed to have met people like Sonja in my business. We really can change the world one card at a time, this is proof of that.
Card for my Family
Here is Sonja’s October card for my family. I had to include a snippet showing her beautiful handwriting and how she included my brother Oliver because she knows that he is the primary caregiver for my parents. What a blessing!!
What Can We Do?
I would love to shower Sonja with cards of encouragement. Share you stories with her and show her some love. Here is her mailing address (she has no idea that I am doing this and I hope it will be a wonderful surprise!) Sonja Russchen 388 Talbot Street West Blenheim, ON N0P1A0, Canada
You could also do what Sonja does. Start gathering names of people who could use monthly encouragement. Word will spread and you will be asked by family members to send their loved one a card.
Thank You!
Thank you for joining me today on my blog. I hope you were inspired. The latest International Create With Us Tutorial has just been released and it features the Painted Christmas Suite. You can get it for free with a $60 purchase or you can buy it for $20US. Just click here and it’s almost yours!! If you want any of the supplies that were used in today’s cards, just click on the links below to shop in my online store. I appreciate it!! Have a super day.
Here is our talented team!
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by Jackie Bultje | Mar 10, 2020 | Honour and Remember, Peaceful Poppies, So Sentimental |
Hello stampers and happy Tuesday. Today I simply want to share a very meaningful journal which will be part of my Honour and Remember campaign. A journal is a perfect place to record memories and stories as well as photos. I think it will be perfect for the Honour and Remember event. Let me tell you more about it.
Meaningful Journal for Veterans
I am hoping that there are some people who have stories to share with our veterans and their families. This journal is the perfect size for holding some small but extremely meaningful stories and pictures. Our veterans and their families have given so much in World War 2 and a story of how their sacrifice affected someone’s life would be priceless. If you have not had a chance to share your story personally with a veteran or their families, now is your chance!
The Journal
Here is a picture of the journal. I have kept it very simple. A mossy meadow ink pad was swiped across the journal cover for this amazing emboss resist look. Peaceful Poppies paper was added to the front as well as some black ribbon and a sentiment from So Sentimental. A poppy element was added to the edge of the frame to make it complete.
Here is a closeup of the journal. The stitched label die is from the Stitched So Sweetly dies. The sentiment is from So Sentimental and you can save 10% when you buy those two products as a bundle. Until March 31 this bundle will also come with a free saleabration item of your choice. Yay!!
Thank You!
Thanks so much for joining me today, for sending cards for the happy mail for Gerard contest (three more cards came in today!!) and for participating in the Paper Pumpkin for cancer campaign. Together we can make a very meaningful difference in this world. Please help spread the word about the Honour and Remember campaign too. Stories are powerful and are meant to be shared. So often we don’t hear about how we impacted someone’s life, so this will be a great way to do so.
Have a super day!
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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.
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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
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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.
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