Hello stampers and happy Tuesday to you. Did you overlook the new Friendly Gnomes set in the mini catalog? Gnomes are perfect for Valentine’s Day. Add a little whimsy and humour to your Valentine’s card and a bring a smile to someone’s face. Don’t limit your Valentine’s cards to just the romantic love in your life. Share the love with your friends, coworkers and neighbours. Every could use a little more love!
Friendly Gnomes Z-Fold Card
I made this Friendly Gnomes z-fold card yesterday for my weekly Facebook live video. Every Monday at 10am EST or 4pm in the Netherlands I do a Cheer Corner Facebook live video. The purpose is to spread cheer and my viewers can nominate someone to receive this card. Together we CAN change the world one card at a time.
Changing Things for the Better
Recently I have decided to make my Cheer Corner a little more interactive. I share the supplies and measurements ahead of time so that you can make the card with me or do it later. Here is the photo that I shared on my Facebook page.
Facebook Cheer Corner Video Tutorial
Here is the video that I did for my Facebook Live on Monday.
Hello stampers and happy Tuesday to you all. It has been SO long since I have written a blog post so today I thought I would introduce myself as the new Mrs. van der Sar-Boot. I accidentally changed my name on Facebook using the Canadian way of spelling Dutch names. Some of you were asking about that! In Canada we capitalize the “V” but in the Netherlands they do not. So many people have a “van” which means “from” in front of their names that it doesn’t count. If you go to V in the phonebook you will not find any names there that start with “Van”. Funny, right? I also added the “Boot” because that is my maiden name and that is also often done here. Now I have to wait 60 days before I can change my name on Facebook again, those are the rules.
Mrs. van der Sar-Boot
That sure is a mouthful isn’t it? I will also have to change the watermark on my cards to take the “Bultje” off but I think I am just going to do van der Sar on there or it will take up too much room. Perhaps I will just ask Nicole who designed my watermark to show me both options. I am so glad that I have branded myself “The Pampered Stamper” as that will not change.
I thought it might be fun to share a few photos from our big day. It was such a fantastic day for us. Despite all the sorrow surrounding our wedding day with so many deaths including my Pap, Gerard’s dad, my best friend Karen’s dad on our wedding day and then my ex-mother-in-law the week after, our day was amazing. The weather was perfect, the food was great, the flowers incredible, the littles were all terrific and everyone had a great time. Our photographer captured it all in the most delightful way, what more could we ask? The best part? We are happy beyond our wildest imaginations!
What About My Business??
I thought this would also be a good time to reassure you that I am definitely keeping my business going while living in the Netherlands for the next four years. I have now been a Stampin’Up! demonstrator for seventeen years and have built a great business with a fantastic team and I want to keep that going for sure. The plan is to return to Chatham every three months or so and when I do I will do a team event and a customer event. Naturally I am hoping to grow my YouTube channel and to have you order from me online.
Right now I am doing videos at 10am EST with the following schedule:
Monday: Cheer Corner
Tuesday: Stories and Stamps
Wednesday: Stamping Through My Stash
Thursday: private Prime Time Video (free for my team but open to everyone to subscribe to here
Friday: private Training Group Video (free for my team but open to ALL demonstrators for a yearly fee here
Here is my YouTube channel so that you can subscribe and stay up to date with what I am creating.
Live in Belgium or Ireland?
Stampin’Up! is beginning in these two countries on October 4. How exciting is that? If you live there or anywhere in our European market you would be most welcome to either shop with me or join my team. You can check out the options here on my European website.
Historical Party
We had a Dutch wedding reception as well and it was held in a little café on the edge of the Staalduinse Bos. My mom used to walk and bike there with her friends and this charming café was already in existence when she was a little girl. The picture below is of us with her family. Not everyone could make it of course but it was wonderful to have so many friends and relatives come to celebrate with us.
Do you remember my friend Karen? It was so very sad that her dad died on the morning of our wedding. Of course she was unable to attend the wedding, but her and Paul were able to come to the Netherlands to celebrate with us here. What a treat.
Regular Routine
I am looking forward to getting back to blogging more regularly, I have definitely missed it. Thank you for joining me today! Have a super day.
Hello stampers and happy Tuesday to you. I know, I know. Blog posts are never on Tuesdays. This one is. Today I am sharing with you some simple cards with Fancy Frames dies. I hope you love them as much as I do!!
Fancy Frames Dies
What makes these dies so special is that they make it so very easy for you to make a stunning card with very little effort. No one will know how easy it was for you to create your masterpiece! No fussy die cutting, no cranking of lots of dies, just some pretty paper, coordinating cardstock and a few pretty gems. Sound unbelievable? Take a look!
Card Samples
Here are a few cards that I have made this week using these lovely Fancy Frames Dies. I also made a video tutorial that I will include at the end of this post.
Here is a closeup of the Abigail Rose card. I love how this card came together with all those subtle tones! The roses on the front were fussy cut from the patterned paper. “You’re always so good to others…” comes from In The Moment stamp set. The brushed metallic dots are the perfect finishing touch.
Using Leftovers
Do you see the cards above? I found some leftover Hues of Happiness paper and played with them to make these cards. The polka dot paper is one of the free saleabration items which I coloured with blending brushes and Balmy Blue ink. I love the crane turned into a stork for the baby card!
Video Tutorial
Here is a video showing you how I made some of these cards. Enjoy!! If you haven’t already, please subscribe to my channel. It’s a wonderful to stay in touch with what I am sharing. Lately it seems that Facebook is making it more difficult to find older posts and videos, so YouTube is a great alternative!!
Don’t Forget About Saleabration!
Summer saleabration is in full swing! You can order your Christmas stamps (or anything else!) and get free items as a bonus with each $60 purchase. You can see all the offerings here.
The current host code is 3S2AFM37.
Thanks so much for joining me today! I appreciate that you are a part of my stamping community, have a super day!
Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. Today I am going to share a Handsomely Suited Waterfall card with you. I first shared this card in my Prime Time With The Pampered Stamper group with a rather funny video. In typical squirrel fashion the card went seriously wrong, but I got it fixed and everyone got to see how NOT to do a waterfall card.
Handsomely Suited Waterfall Card
I won’t be sharing the video tutorial here since it is exclusive to Prime Time, but I will be doing a different waterfall card for my June virtual Coffee and a Card class. There are still a few spots left if you want one. Kits will be mailed out next week!
If you want to join Prime Time, this is the best time to do so. I have just committed to posting more exclusive content there including travel videos and photos. My Prime TIme people have been with me and supported me when COVID first crippled my in person business and I very much appreciate that.
Waterfall Mechanism
When I first had the idea to do this type of card I wondered whether or not the tie would make it “around”. It does!! This card is best appreciated when you see it in action, so here is a short video.
I’m not sure if the format of this video will actually work but I’m sure you will let me know what it looks like on your device. The one thing to remember when making a waterfall card is that your layers must be firmly adhered so that the edges don’t catch when you activate the waterfall mechanism. Here is a link to a tutorial that I used as a start for this card.
Join Me on June 1
On June 1 at 10am EST I will making another waterfall card featuring the Berry Blessings paper. This will be the first card for my June Virtual Coffee and a Card class. There are still a few kits available for $25 including shipping anywhere in Canada. This month you will get five cards, four of which are fancy folds. I am also going to write a tutorial so this will be another option to join in on the fun!
The Best News
On Friday I shared on social media that Gerard and I are engaged! Such happy news and so happy to be able to share with you all. We first met at my cousin’s birthday party here in Holland when I was visiting. I was 17. We wrote letters for a year and he visited me in Elora for two weeks. With no internet back then and slow mail and different plans we decided to break up. Fast forward more than thirty years and we reconnected when he heard that my marriage was over.
What a delight to discover that we were even more in love than we were as teenagers! Due to COVID we do not yet have a firm date in mind for the wedding and not even a definite place as that depends on my parents health. We are leaning towards Chatham in either June or September of next year.
This was just a fun selfie that we took at the beach. He proposed with dozens of roses and champagne right at home! I was in shock as it all happened so fast. Maybe you saw the photos of the champagne and the roses. I couldn’t say anything yet then because not of all our kids and family and friends knew yet. The outpouring of love on Facebook is amazing! Thanks so much for all your words of congratulations and kindness.
The Pampered Stamper Will Stay in Business!
In case you are worried, my business as The Pampered Stamper will continue. I have a great assistant on the other side of the ocean and she may just be working more hours for me. Planning times for online classes might be a little tricky but that’s ok. COVID has been a blessing forcing me to do my business totally online. There will still be lots of trips across the ocean to see my family and to keep things organized for my business.
Hello stampers and happy Monday to you. Today is the last blog post about the Happy Mail in Holland contest cards and it features Boho Indigo and Ornate Layers. I love the Boho Indigo Product Medley as well as the Ornate Layers dies so we are in for a treat today. Many thanks to Jo Foster and Carole Thomas for these great cards.
Boho Indigo
Jo Foster made a great fancy fold square card using the Boho Indigo product medley. You can find this great set of products on page nine of the annual catalog. Jo is from Grovedale in the province of Victoria in Australia. Jo has participated in several of my contests and she has also sent happy mail to my parents. I love our across the world friendship!! I hope that someday we can meet in person. To see her Happy Mail for Gerard card, and to read a little bit about Grovedale, check out this blog post.
Doesn’t this look like an interesting fold? The card measures 5 3/4″ across by 5 1/4″ high. The side flaps and top flap are approximately 2 7/8″. I will definitely be recreating this beauty and doing a tutorial with it for you. Would you like to see the inside?
I love how Jo used stamps to create “background paper” for the side flaps. I love this monochromatic card! Jo included a cute little mini card that had all the products listed that she used: very vanilla cardstock, Boho Indigo designer series paper, Tasteful Labels dies, Flowering Blooms and Tasteful Touches stamp sets and Boho Indigo gold ribbon. All the images were stamped in Misty Moonlight.
Ornate Layers by Carol Thomas
Carol is a member of my team from Olds, Alberta. I checked out Olds online and it is a small farming community with a great website that you can see for yourself here. I will share a picture with you too.
Carol’s card is a classic beauty with sahara sand and whisper white cardstock and a gold embossed leaf. The simplicity of her card really lets the ornate layers stand out. Carol also included a note telling me about this card. She cased it from Su Mohr of Aromas & Art. Sue does lovely work that has also inspired me in the past. Carol writes that the largest die is also a perfect fit for the inside of the card. Here you can see it for yourself.
Thanks so much ladies for your beautiful cards and also the sweet sentiments inside, I am feeling the love and so is Gerard!
Happy Mail in Holland Contest Winner
There were 25 entries in my Happy Mail in Holland contest and they were all wonderful. I am so thankful for each one of you that participated. It was a joy and an honour to blog about your cards and also a fun journey to see where you are from. I used a random number generator to select the winner. I am happy to announce that the winner is Bianca Rebel from Dordrecht, the Netherlands. Bianca gets to choose a stamp set of $30 or less and I will send it to her as a thank you for participating in this contest.
Hello stampers and happy Tuesday. Today I am going to share with you the Bargello technique, and yes, it is not Monday. Yesterday was my birthday and I took the day off! Despite the COVID pandemic, I had a most wonderful birthday. The only thing missing was the presence of my love, Gerard. Now, back to card making. Have you heard of the Bargello technique? Neither had I, so let’s see what it is all about.
Bargello technique
How did I discover this? Quite simply I saw this card from Tracy Tucker using strips of shimmery white cardstock that she had sponged in gorgeous colours. When I made the card in a video I was informed by my viewers that this was the name of that technique. Basically you cut strips of paper and then arrange them so that they are offset from each other. Here is a tutorial from Splitcoaststampers and I will also share the video that I did.
My Card of Many Colours
I like calling this card “my card of many colours”, it reminds me of a song by Dolly Parton, Coat of Many Colours which I really love.
Here is the card before I put the sentiment on. I chose to remove the coastal cabana mat from the card that I cased from Tracy. The colours uses are melon mambo, pumpkin pie, mango melody, granny apple green and coastal cabana.
Here you can see the two cards together. I accidentally flipped the card as well! Do you see that I embossed the flower on the melon mambo section instead of the coastal cabana? Which one do you like better? It was a happy accident.
Video
If you watch my video you will see how it is done. I really like the splatter at the end to make water droplets which are echoed by the Flowers for Every Season gems OR the frosted and clear epoxy droplets.
Shimmery White Cardstock
This is a fantastic product that I really, really love. It is great for sponging and for watercolouring. Here is another post that I did with shimmery white cardstock. It just so happens that I have more of these stamp sets AND the paper in stock if you are interested. Just message me and we can negotiate!
Thanks!
Thanks for joining me today and for all the lovely birthday wishes. I had a wonderful day yesterday and it was great to not work at all and just enjoy the way the day evolved. Here is a picture of me and my son Oliver. He was the organizer for the kids to get the gifts and to spoil me along with Laura.
No, I am not drinking four glasses of wine! This cute table came with the picnic bag, isn’t it adorable and ever so functional? I also got silicone baking mats, a bicycle pump and a harness to hold my weed whacker so that my arms don’t almost fall off every time I do this garden chore.
