by Jackie Bultje | Apr 15, 2020 | A Good Man, masculine cards, Memories & More cards, Snow Front |
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday to you. Today I will be showcasing some more Happy Mail for Gerard cards, and the first one uses the stamp set A Good Man. How appropriate! Gerard is a good man indeed. Thanks to Sharon Meyer for this great card.
Sharon Meyer’s Card
I really love how Sharon created a scene for her good man who is relaxing in the sun. Perhaps she knew that Gerard does indeed like to soak up some sun in the summertime when he is not as busy in his greenhouses. From my time in Holland I have come to understand why Dutch people are sun worshippers. Sometimes the sun is quite a rare visitor to this lovely country.
I love how you coloured the man Sharon! Where is the grass from? Another reason this card is perfect for Gerard is that we are hoping to do lots of road trips in the future including an epic one across Canada and another one to explore the States. With the COVID-19 this seems a long way off! It’s good to have dreams though, and this card evokes that feeling very well. Thank you!
Farmington, New York
Sharon comes from a town called Farmington. When I looked up I had to chuckle: Farmington is a town located in the northern part of Ontario County, New York United States. What’s the chance of her county being named after my province? It is highly likely that I have driven through Farmington on my way to Vermont on more than one occasion. Upper New York State is beautiful!
More Cards with A Good Man
If you want to see some more cards that I have made with this great stamp set “A Good Man”, you should check out this blog post from last year. I know I gave one of these cards to my son Alex for Father’s Day because I truly think he is a good man and a great dad. There is something truly beautiful when you see your son in his role as a father; it melts my heart.
This Good Man Plays Guitar
The next card I want to share with you was made by Shel Anderson from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Winnipeg is known for its music scene, so this card is very appropriate coming from there. It is also perfect for Gerard since he plays base guitar. The next Stampin’Up! trip is a Caribbean cruise, and I have almost earned it. Who knows if cruises will be ok again next year? This corona virus has put everything into a different light, hasn’t it? Let’s take a look at Shel’s card.
The Little Details
Do you see how Shel stamped a tulip beside the address? A subtle nod to his country. No one can visit the tulip fields and the beautiful Keukenhof gardens this year. It was supposed to be my first visit there as well but now it will have to happen another year. The guitar and the “thanks” are from the Tropical Oasis Memories and More cards. Monday’s card also used the Memories and More cards. Have you ever used these? They are fantastic, both for scrapbooking and for card making.
New Items on the Clearance Rack
Yesterday new items were added to the clearance rack. There are some amazing deals and I think they will disappear quickly, so be sure to check it out. If you live in Canada, I would be so happy if you ordered through me. Here is the host code: CWD9ZZ2H. Click here to see all the bargains.
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me today. I will be live at 1pm showing you how to make the Dutch Door card, hopefully you can join me on my Facebook page. I try to upload my videos to YouTube as well, if you subscribe to my channel you won’t miss any. See you here on Friday with more cards from the Happy Mail for Gerard contest. Don’t forget about my new contest! It’s a fancy folds one. Send me your favourite fancy fold card and I will blog about it and you will be in a contest to win the Little Ladybug stamp set. Contest ends May 31.
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by Jackie Bultje | Nov 11, 2019 | Christmas, monochromatic cards, Snow Front, Toile Christmas |
Hello stampers! Does monochromatic Christmas sound boring to you? Or does it sound complicated? This week I had a request from one of my club members to take the mystery out of our wonderful Snow Front stamp set. The sheer number of stamps in there can be daunting. Let’s take a look at why I chose a monochromatic Christmas card for this set.
The Inspiration
I had two sources of inspiration for this card. The first one was the Toile Christmas paper, the second was The Cow Whisperer. Now I love that name as I grew up on a dairy farm. But that is where the similarities end. You see, I was terrified of cows. I had to help with the milking and we had a few cows that were downright mean. They could kick sideways and they would do it when you least expected it. Most cows are gentle, but when you meet a mean one, look out!! There was no whispering then! Anyways, here is her card.
Simply Monochromatic
The idea for a monochromatic card was indeed inspired by the paper as it is also monochromatic. If you would stamp a colourful scene and put it on this paper it would be too busy. When you use Snow Front in just one colour it is not so overwhelming. I chose to use Garden Green, but you could also use real red as that is the colour on the other side of this stunning paper. We used to have wallpaper in our living room that reminds me of this paper. Maybe you did too?
Start by putting all your stamps on blocks. Then decide what sort of scene you would like to make. I like to take some cheap computer paper and play a bit. That takes the stress out of it as you are not wasting any of your precious cardstock.
The Most Important Tip
The most important tip when working with Snow Front is to use a mask. For this card I made a mask of the cabin. The way it works is that you first stamp your cabin where you want it to go. Stamp it again on piece of sticky note paper, cut it out and place it over your stamped cabin. Then you can stamp some trees around the house and it looks like the cabin is nestled in the woods rather than just floating in the scene. The other tip is to stamp multiple times without reinking, that will give you different shades of colour for a more realistic look.
My Card
I stamped the cabin first and then covered it with a “mask” which is just another cabin stamped on a sticky note and cut out. That allows you to stamp over your mask so that the trees and the slope come right up to the cabin to make it look like a unified scene. There are three different sized single trees in Snow Front. Your scene will look a lot nicer when you use different sized trees. I will do an exclusive video on how to make this card on my Pampered Stamper Elite Group on Facebook. If you want to be a part of this group you can be! All you need to do is place an order with me, either for product or for a kit. Kits can be shipped anywhere!
The stitched rectangle framelits are perfect for adding detail. “Lots of love at Christmas” is from Itty Bitty Christmas. What I liked best about using these two stitched rectangle framelits is that I didn’t have to do any fussy cutting. The sentiment fits right under the very vanilla rectangle, and because it is curvy you don’t even have to worry so much about trying to get it perfectly straight.
Don’t you just love how all the Stampin’Up! products coordinate? The garden green double-stitched ribbon is also part of the Toile Tidings suite. Very vanilla is the colour of the card base which is also the background for the Toile Tidings designer series paper. If you want to really take it over the top with coordination you can wrap your gift in our exclusive Toile Tidings gift wrap!
My lovely Clementine
I just had to end this blog post with a few pictures of my darling Clementine. She is my third grandchild who came into this world in the middle of a snowstorm just before 2am on Friday November 8. Oma missed her birth by about ten minutes because of that nasty storm. So did the midwives! My brave daughter delivered her 9 pound 6 ounce baby herself. Both are doing so well.
It is pretty awesome to be able to hold your grandbaby so soon after birth. Oh, those cheeks and that tiny nose! I’m so thankful that everything went so miraculously well given the circumstances. God is so good.
Thanks!
As always, thank you for stopping by today and reading my blog post. I love hearing from you! Thanks for sharing my creations on Pinterest and on Facebook and thanks to those of you who are ordering online from me and also ordering kits. I hope you have a wonderful day.
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by Jackie Bultje | Nov 4, 2019 | Christmas, Merry Moose, Snow Front |
The stories we tell ourselves can have either a very good effect or a crippling effect on our well-being. There are three little stories I want to share with you today to show my point. Two are negative stories and one is a positive one. I have a feeling that you may be able to relate to at least one of them. Do you want to hear more?
Old Photos
If you are like most women you are not always satisfied with the way you look. I have found myself telling my daughters that they are so beautiful, inside and out and yet I didn’t always believe that about myself, not even when I was young. When I look back at old pictures, even sometimes from two years ago I find myself saying, you actually look pretty good! Why were you being so hard on yourself? You see we so easily get caught up in negative self talk harming the one we should love most. Even the Bible implies that we should love ourselves. We are told to love our neighbours “as ourselves”. If we can’t be kind to ourselves how can we expect others to be kind to us? So go ahead, get out some old photo albums or go back to your Facebook pictures and look through new eyes. You might be surprised!
Clothes in my closet
A few years ago I bought a lovely tunic top from Yolanda’s Boutique. It was a beautiful turquoise and black soft knit but it was form fitting. I had worn it happily the year I bought it but the following year I looked at it longingly and decided that I could not wear it this season. I thought I had gained weight and that it would not look good any more. So it sat in the closet for a whole season. Near the end of the season I thought maybe I should try it on. It looked great!! I had wasted a whole season because of the negative story in my head. How silly is that?
The other side of the coin is that if there are some favourite clothes in your closet that aren’t even close to fitting you should put them away where you don’t see them every day. That way they don’t mock you every time you see them. No sense being reminded of what you can’t have. It might even be time to give them away so that they can be enjoyed for a season by someone else. If you do end up changing sizes you will be rewarded with a new outfit or two.
The Incentive Trip
When I first became a demonstrator I was vaguely aware that there was an incentive trip to people who did well in the business. It seemed like a huge accomplishment that was way out of my league so I dismissed it. The crazy thing is that as soon as I changed my mindset and believed that this WAS possible for me, everything changed. I mapped out my goals, changed the way I do business and the next year I had earned the trip. Success and happiness really do start in your head!
The Reason
The reason that I am sharing these stories with you is that I know that you can relate. Your stories may not be the same, but you will also be astounded at how much the stories in your head affect your everyday life. I’m encouraging you to rewrite the story in your head! You may have convinced yourself that you are not creative or that you don’t know anyone that is creative. This afternoon, take out some of your supplies and spread it out on your table. Ink, paper, stamps. Play. Even if you only have a piece of whisper white cardstock, take it and ink up your stamps. See what they look like in different colours. Find your favourite patterned paper and lay it beside what you have stamped. You might be pleasantly surprised by what you put together.
Some Cards
I made this monochromatic moose cards using only Memento Black and Delicata silvery shimmer ink. I added some wink of stella to a few of the trees but the picture didn’t capture that beautiful detail. You can see the snowfall accents puff paint. What a fun product that is! Don’t be fooled. It comes out like milk, but when you activate it with the heat gun it puffs up like popcorn. Very satisfying for all ages!
I added this picture because I think I like the card better without the moon. What do you think? I was able to take it off and use the small adhesive remover tool to clean it up. Good as new! I also like the red background. This card is really lovely in person. The saying is from the Greatest Part of Christmas host set. You can get it for free by hosting a qualifying workshop or by placing a $200 order.
This card makes me very, very happy. Do you know why? It was made by my daughter-in-law Amelia who isn’t really into card making. She uses stamps to make wrapping paper, tags and very occasionally a coordinating card that is super simple. I think she knocked it out of the park with this creation! It was totally her idea and her creation with NO help from me. I am so proud of her.
Can you believe that this card was made by a first time stamper? Yes, my son Oliver’s girlfriend, Laura made this beautiful card, also without any help from me. I love the way Laura did her trees adding in a tree from Rooted in Nature.
This last card was made by my son Oliver. I’m pretty sure this is the one of the first cards he has made in years. He made one probably six years ago for his girlfriend then. He did a great job didn’t he? It was his idea to sponge some yellow behind the trees. My photo is a little blurry but it will have to do. My heart was full having my family stamp with me and create memories. Here is a photo of the creative mess! We had one abstainer, but he was looking for a cabin for us to rent during reading week in February, so all is well!
Thanks!
Thanks so much for joining me today! I hope that you get a chance to stamp with your family. It is so much fun to share your joy of stamping with those you love. I hope you have a super day. Please let me know if you need anything of if you want me to blog on a certain topic or stamp set. If you live in Canada and would like to order from me, it’s easy! Either click on any of the items below or click on one of the catalogs in the sidebar and away you go.
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by Jackie Bultje | Oct 30, 2019 | Christmas, double stamping, Snow Front, white craft ink |
Hello stampers and happy Wednesday! Today I want to share with you a cool double stamping technique with Snow Front. This technique was a big hit yesterday at coffee and a card class and I showed how to do it during my weekly Facebook live video last night. I will include the link to the video at the end so you can see it too in case you missed it.
How to do double stamping
This technique is actually really simple and the best part is that you don’t need a lot of accuracy to make it look good. The secret is a white craft ink pad. For this card I first stamped the pond in pool party and then the trees in pretty peacock. The next step is VERY important. Be sure to clean your stamps thoroughly otherwise you will get coloured ink residue on your white craft ink pad. Ask me how I know! After the intense cleaning you can ink up your stamps in white craft ink and stamp over top of your trees and pond. If you offset your stamp just a wee bit that looks even nicer.
The result
The result from this simple technique is that your forest and pond look like they have been blanketed by freshly fallen snow. You can still see the colour peeking out but it looks very ethereal. There are ways to step it up a notch with some sparkle. One way is to stamp over the pond one more time with white craft ink and then sprinkle on some shimmer white embossing powder and heat set. You can also spread on some shimmery crystal effects and then add some ice stamping glitter. When your scene looks good you stamp your deer using the stamparatus so you can ink up several times and make your deer nice and bold.
The cards
The moon and the stars were stamped using our Delicata silvery shimmer ink pad. Those images come from the Waterfront stamp set which pairs very well with Snow Front. The saying is from the amazing host set Greatest Part of Christmas. Did you know that if you place a $200 order online you are also entitled to host benefits? You would get $20 in free merchandise and this set is only $18. Host sets are a fantastic deal because that one is worth $30 and is only available to people hosting a workshop or placing a $200 order.
Finding Joy in the Little Things
I was driving home from pickleball this morning and it had started to rain. After several beautiful days it was actually refreshing. There is something beautiful about wet pavement on tree lined streets. I actually did a u-turn so I could get some pictures to share with you. This is just two streets over from my house. It was raining and I was parked illegally so I snapped a few quick ones and one of the three was blurry but I still want to share it. You will see the potential I am sure! Another one is still on my phone that I forgot at my son’s place. Oh my….
Oma Duty
As a closing note, this blog post is super late because I had the lovely job of oma duty tonight. It was a crazy busy day with a fantastic Most Wonderful Time class this afternoon, a live video on my Elite group page, some finishing touches on my AIrbnb apartment above the garage and of course pickleball. Well…now it is time for bed but I didn’t miss a day of blogging! Truth be told this post was almost finished before noon but then life got in the way.
Thanks for dropping by, sleep well and don’t forget to count your blessings. Before I forget, here is the Facebook live video I did and you can see how I made one of these cards and two other ones as well.
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by Jackie Bultje | Sep 26, 2019 | mental health, Nature's Beauty, Snow Front, Uncategorized |
Hello stampers. I absolutely love stamp sets that allow me to play. Snow Front and Nature’s Beauty are perfect for that. Nature’s Beauty has some great images in it and I really wanted to make some great cards so that you would all want to buy it. Why you ask? Well of course I want you to want ALL the stamp sets in the catalog, but this one has a special place in my heart. Nature’s Beauty is a stamp set that has been especially created to raise money for mental health organizations. Four dollars from each set will be donated to different mental health organizations in each country so that the money raised in each country remains there. Thank you Stampin’Up! Nature’s Beauty is a lovely stamp set with beautifully drawn animals: a deer, a rabbit, a fox as well as several different groupings of trees and grass. It will be great for many different occasions and just because.
Snow Front
When I was ready to make my third card using Nature’s Beauty I knew that I wanted to create a scene for the deer. I also knew that I wanted two deer facing each other. That means that I needed to use a really cool but simple technique involving the stamparatus and the silicone mat. I will share this technique during my Facebook live next Tuesday. Having only limited supplies on hand forces me to be a little bit more creative. Snow front has so many different stamps that allow you limitless possibilities for winter scene making. Time was of the essence and this card was actually very quick and easy to make, it came together on the first try!!
You can see that I used only three colours: soft suede, mossy meadow and seaside spray. The seaside spray is very subtle, it is found in the small patch of ice at the feet of the deer. It also ties in with the patterned paper in the background that comes from Come to Gather.
The deer on the right is the one that was reverse stamped using the silicone mat. This technique gives the stamped image a totally different look which may cause you to think that it is an entirely different stamp! I would love to spend a romantic evening in that cabin by the woods watching these deer? I hear the nightly rate is good, so you might want to stay there too!
Nature’s Beauty
This stamp set has only image stamps in it but it will coordinate with any of the sentiments from our other stamp sets. I also think it works very well for blank cards. Sometimes the only words you need are the heartfelt letter you write on the inside of the card. They are priceless. I would encourage you to use this stamp set to send random acts of kindness cards. Cards that can be sent for no reason at all but to send happy mail. If we all did that more often the world would be a better place. Mental illness would decline and that is the purpose of this stamp set! I hope you all get on board and buy the set. In fact I believe so strongly in this that EVERYONE who orders this set from my online store will get a card from me in the mail using this set. The only catch is that you must use the current host code: ZQKK7SAB.
Remember, four dollars from every set sold will be donated to the Center for Addiction and Mental Health in Canada. That is a significant contribution and I am excited to see how much money we will raise. It would be amazing if we could keep tabs on how many cards are sent using this stamp set! Together we can make a difference, one small step at a time, one stamp set at a time, one card at a time.
Thanks for stopping by and be sure to tune in to the Facebook live on Tuesday at 9am EST or 3pm European summer time. I will be making this card and two others using Nature’s Beauty.
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