Monthly Archives: January 2015

Hello You thinlits for Spring

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It’s not spring here, not even close. It’s below freezing actually but the day looked beautiful – from inside. So I decided to make a spring like wreath using the Stampin’ Up! Wondrous wreath stamp set and the Wonderful wreath framelits to show that they aren’t just for the holiday season. Although it may be a while before I can send this card!

Stampin' Up! Wondrous Wreath

I started by cutting out the centre of the wreath with the tab on the framelit pointing straight upwards so that it would be easy to remember where to put the tabs on the stamp set and also when cutting out the outside of the wreath. It’s much easier to cut the centre first because if you wait until you’ve stamped, you can’t see clearly where the centre is! I stamped the first set of leaves in wild wasabi, stamping off first. The second set of leaves were in wild wasabi also. Then I stamped the flowers in so saffron and perfect plum and cut them out with the flower from the wonderful wreath framelits. I then cut out the happy using the Hello You framelits in a couple of colours so that I could decide which I preferred (adding the runners up to my stash of words). After deciding on the layout, I stamped the Spring in wild wasabi. This is from the Stampin’ Up! Crazy about you stamp set. I then used glue dots to fix on the flowers and popped up the wreath using stampin’ dimensionals. The happy was adhered using the tombow glue giving the glue a little time to set a bit before fixing it so that it wouldn’t ooze. I dry embossed the envelope flap with the plenty-a-petals embossing folder to match the flowers on the wreath.

Perpetual Birthday Calendar – March

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I’m up to March in my Stampin’ Up! Perpetual birthday calendar – I still haven’t worked on my calligraphy though, I must get to that or just scrawl the names in in my normal handwriting. I followed the suggestions by Stampin’ Up! a little for this month’s page – here’s a close up of the top.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday calendar

I used pumpkin pie and hello honey as suggested but changed the banner. I didn’t want all the banners to be either glimmer paper or background DSP. This one is from the Moonlight stack and is in hello honey. I first sponged some hello honey in the middle of the paper before stamping the March images in pumpkin pie, stamping a second time without re-inking on some of the images. March is also stamped in pumpkin pie. Rather than using the M in white as suggested, I tapped it onto the pumpkin pie ink pad first. I like how the M really pops now.

Stampin' Up! Perpetual Birthday calendar - March

I did the same sponging and stamping at the bottom corner of the paper as on previous months.

A Happy Thing for Holly

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First I would like to thank Rizzo and the Pink Ladies at In The Pink for selecting my card as a Perfect Pinky. It’s an honour to be recognised.

My friend Holly is amazing. This year she’s run 1400 miles which includes 8 marathons, 4 half marathons and some 10K and 5Ks too.  She has a brilliant method which means that for each training run that she does she puts $5 in a jar for charity and apparently this means that she almost never misses a run. Perhaps I should try that!! Read her blog for more information. She’s on a quest to do a marathon in each state and has done 26 so far. She’s kind enough to say that I inspired her by running marathons (way back in 2001). I think it was a sort of “heck if Liz can run them, I can too” kind of thing. I’m not much of a runner. At least, I don’t look like one. Or rather, I’ll never be fast, but I’ll get there. Eventually. I was trying to run 780 miles this year and didn’t make it (thyroid issues and sinus infections derailed me) and got to 641 which is a record for me. So I’m in awe at 1400. This deserves a card. And the Stampin’ Up! A Happy Thing set combined with Painted Petals seemed perfect.

Stampin' Up! A Happy Thing

I know that Holly’s not a pink kind of girl so I figured yellow and green would work. I stamped the lemon from the A Happy Thing set in memento black on some scrap paper and cut it out (it’s not that hard, really) and then stamped it on the card. I used my cut out ( a jig in woodworking terms which I’ve heard a lot of lately with my father visiting. He and my brother spend a lot of time in the basement workshop!) to mask the first lemon and stamp out 2 more. Then out came the blendabilities in daffodil delight and old olive and some silence as I coloured away. I’m not sure why colouring stops you talking, but it does. I used the colour lifter to add some highlights to the lemons. Next I used the sentiment from the Painted Petals – it’s made for Holly! – also in old olive. I mounted the card on an old olive base and I’m really thrilled with how this came out.

Maybe you think that lemons are an odd thing for a celebratory card. But Holly pushes through any issues – fitness, plantar fasciitis and makes things work. So it seems right to me. Congratulations Holly!

 

Are you excited about the new catalogs?

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I know that I am. I’ve been trying not to neglect my older stamp sets but I’m having a hard time doing that! Just in case you’ve missed all the excitement, here’s what’s happening. The new Occasions catalogue, filled with spring and Valentines themed inspiration went live on January 6th.

Stampin' Up! Occasions 2015

As a demonstrator I was able to order from this a month ago and I’ve been having a great time playing with all my new goodies. The best part is SAB aka Sale-A-Bration which is an amazing promotion that apparently Stampin’ Up! runs each year. This is my first time experiencing it and it’s awesome – it runs from January 6th to March 31st!

Stampin' Up! Sale-A-Bration 2015

For every $50 that you spend (before tax and shipping – and believe me it’s easy to spend $50 in the new catalogue!) you get to select a free item from the Sale-a-Bration catalogue. Also the hostess rewards (or your own rewards if you just put in a large order) are increased by $25 once you hit $250 in addition to all the SAB freebies. This really is THE time to buy! And if you sign up as a demonstrator (which gives you a 20% discount) you get to either pick a kit from the Occasions catalogue or 2 sale-a-bration items. Definitely THE time to sign up. The starter kit, which you customise completely, is only $99 with free shipping for $125 worth of stuff plus the kit or the 2 SAB items. You can’t ask for a better deal – and there’s no requirement to buy another thing. Ever. Although, you will. I guarantee it! But, as long as you stay active ($300 per quarter in sales which includes sales to yourself) then you continue to get the 20% discount – and as an extra thank you for signing up, your first order after sign up (as long as it’s within 45 days) gets a discount of 30%. What are you waiting for? Please email me if you have any questions otherwise just go to the site, hit the Join button and select me as your demonstrator (Liz Bailey, Randolph, NJ) and sit back and plan what you’ll stamp with first.

I’ve been trying to decide which are my top five favourite new items. I think they are:

Lotus Blossom – you’ve possibly seen this everywhere already and it’s a free set!

Painted Petals

Sheltering Tree

Hello You Thinlits (which comes bundled with Crazy about You – definitely a useful 15% to save there)

Perpetual Birthday calendar with its stamp set (this isn’t a bundle, but they go together and I was out of spots on my list!)

There’s also a lot of gorgeous new DSP both for sale in the Occasions catalogue and free in the SAB one. And four new blendability colours. And I’ve got my eye on the Mini Treat bag thinlit dies – there are so many extra pieces in that set which could also be used on cards…

If you don’t have the catalogues, just click on the images of the catalogues in the left hand panel to view them right now. This assumes that you’ve got some spare time – don’t open them if you need to leave the house within the next 20 minutes!

 

 

A Thank you for the occasions catalogue

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I’m very grateful to Stampin’ Up! for bringing out a new catalogue, full of new goodies. The catalogue went live on January 6th along with the big Sale-a-bration sale. See more details here. I was trying to make a birthday card for my sister whose birthday is next week but the Stampin’ Up! Painted Petals stamp set wanted to make a thank you. So I went with it. It’s a supremely simple card and yet rather effective. I’m sure that I’ll make it in numerous colour ways. I love the typeface of the “thank” too.

Stampin' Up! Painted Petals

I was having a very unusual day for me. I was having a “use DSP day”. In fact some cards had DSP AND ribbon. Which I think is a first. Anyway, I’d pulled out some Color Me Autumn to show that it could work with the new spring stamp sets and got my palette from that – crushed curry, mossy meadow and cajun craze. But after I’d stamped the stems in mossy meadow and some flowers in crushed curry, the DSP didn’t fit and the card was screaming for the Thank you to be stamped in crushed curry. Apparently cards sometimes have minds of their own.

I did eventually get my card done for my sister – and another for my brother to send her, but I made a bunch of other cards along the way. Apparently I needed time to create whilst still thinking about her card. There is pressure of course, she’s a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator herself so her cards had to be as perfect as possible!

I don’t know who will get my new thank you card, but it’s good to have some on hand. And it’s such a happy spring like thank you. I finished it off by adhering the very vanilla mat to a base of crushed curry and lined the envelope in the backgrounds DSP in crushed curry.