Monthly Archives: March 2016

Happy Home for CC&S

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This week we have an exciting challenge at CAS Colours & Sketches. Since this is the fifth Thursday in the month, it’s a double. As in, there’s a sketch AND colours to use. It’s the first this year and therefore the first since I’ve been on the design team. I’ve been mulling this one over for a while.

Stampin' Up! Happy Home and Endless Birthday Wishes

Here’s the challenge banner:

I started with a piece of watercolor paper and applied a wash of pacific point getting paler towards the bottom. I used the aquapainter and really squeezed it so that the paper was really wet and the colour would flow. The heat tool was really useful to dry the paper afterwards so that I could get onto the next step which was stamping the image from Happy Home in chocolate chip. I used the Stampin’ Write marker in daffodil delight to colour in the shirt. I really love this image, the line drawing and the child remind me so much of the illustrations in Winnie the Pooh. I remember my mother saying that she couldn’t read the story about Tigger to us because she would start laughing uncontrollably and just couldn’t continue.

I also stamped the sentiment (from Endless Birthday Wishes) in chocolate chip onto a small piece of very vanilla. All that was left for the sketch was the stripe – and this is made with a piece of seam binding ribbon wrapped around a layer of very vanilla. I don’t like the edges of my ribbon to show, hence the layer. I use fast fuse to fix the edges of the ribbon securely before gluing that layer onto a card base of very vanilla.

Stampin' Up! Happy Home and Endless Birthday Wishes

I found this sketch a little intimidating to start with – especially since the colours were also set, but in the end I really enjoyed making this card and am pleased with it. As was Doug, one of my work colleagues, whose birthday was on Monday.

I hope that you’ll have a go at this one yourself. Don’t be intimidated by having the sketch and the colours defined – just let the challenge banner work in the back of your mind for a couple of days and see where you can go. Take a look at the inspiration from the rest of the Design Team.

Don’t forget that the Sale-a-bration promotion ends today! So do yourself a favour – spend $50 with me (using the Rewards code on the left), get free enamel dots from me, get a freebie from the Sale-a-bration catalogue AND get a start on working towards your $40 in free product! Or sign up to join my team for $99 plus tax (free shipping) and get $155 of product. It’s an awesome deal.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Pedal Pusher Party Pants

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How’s that title for a bit of alliteration? Today, as we get to the final days of Sale-a-bration, I’m using two of the free products that I got over the last few months, Pedal Pusher and Party Pants. This is a quick and easy card, easy to mass produce and easy to change by changing the colours.

Stampin' Up! Party Pants and Pedal Pusher

I stamped the bicycle on very vanilla in archival black ink. I find that I need the piercing mat underneath to give extra cushion when stamping this or the middle of the image isn’t crisp. Adding some ink from the re-inker to the pad helped too. Be careful after you’ve stamped, it’s very easy to smudge this. I added the basket and the picnic image since that seems appropriate for a birthday. I then coloured in the bike using my lost lagoon marker and then added a touch of the clear wink of Stella on top. The bike I got at 13 was a metallic blue and this reminds me of it. I stamped the sentiment from Party Pants in versamark on lost lagoon (after using the embossing buddy) and then used the gold embossing powder. Once I’d heated it to the lovely raised shine, I wiped a soft cloth over it to remove any remnants of the embossing buddy powder. Next I used the Balloon Bouquet punch to get my balloon. The balloon string was hand drawn with a black Stampin’ write marker before I added the balloon, popped up with stampin’ dimensionals. I mounted this on a lost lagoon cardbase.

Lost lagoon is one of my favourites of the soon to be retiring in colours. It’s hard to pick an absolute favourite, I have a trio instead – lost lagoon, mossy meadow and blackberry bliss. The other two of the five are close to colours currently available but these three are beautiful, rich and unique. I’m going to miss them. Fingers crossed that they come back in a colour refresh someday.

I’ll be posting later tomorrow – at around 8am – since that’s the time that the new challenge is posted at CAS Colours & Sketches.

See you then,

Liz

Memories in the making – Party Pants

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I pulled out the Memories in the Making pack of Project Life cards and flicked through them thinking to use one on a card. I’ve yet to jump into the Project Life arena although I plan to. When I get some photos printed! Anyway, I pulled out an embossed piece of 4″ by 6″ card and decided to sponge watermelon wonder over it. Since I had my sponge dauber out, I also decided to dab watermelon wonder onto the white glimmer tape. Putting the tape onto a silicone mat works really well – you don’t lose any of the stickiness and the excess ink wipes off the mat. A word of warning here though – the tapes takes AGES to dry. Actually, after a few cases lately of getting ink all over my fingers, I think I left the tape for several hours.

Stampin' Up! Memories in the making and Party Pants and Glimmer Tape

I then cut a banner end with my snips and put the glimmer tape onto the sponged card, wrapping the end under the card to get a good edge. The sentiment is from the set Party Pants and it’s stamped in more watermelon wonder on whisper white. I punched it out with the 1.5″ circle punch and also a watermelon wonder mat using the 1.75″ circle punch. Next I glued the sponged piece to a watermelon wonder card base and popped up the sentiment over the glimmer tape. I used the 2015-2017 in color DSP stack to make the envelope liner using the framelits. Looks like I’ve made another feminine birthday card – I’m short of masculine ones again although almost nobody at the office has a birthday next month. Or at least, nobody that I know. So I have time to make some.

Stampin' Up! Memories in the making and Party Pants and Glimmer Tape

By the way, in case you’re wondering where any of today’s products are from, they are all Sale-a-bration freebies that you need to order by Thursday if you want them. Or any of the other freebies because sadly we’re almost at the end of Sale-a-bration. You could pick up one of them with a $50 order which would also garner you the It’s My Party enamel dots. Check out the Customer Loyalty Program details over on the left.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Announcing my Customer Loyalty Programme

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Yesterday I shared that I was almost ready to announce my Customer Loyalty Programme (or Program seeing as I live in NJ!). Well, today’s the day! I’m really excited about this because I want to reward my customers for shopping with me. There are going to be two ways to get rewards and yes, this is one time where double dipping is acceptable.

Firstly, there’s going to be a Stampin’ Rewards code (formerly hostess rewards) which you use when you are creating an order under $150. If you spend the month’s target amount (it will change) I will send you the month’s free gift with your thank you card. If you spend over $150 with me, then please don’t use the hostess code – you will earn your own Stampin’ Rewards and I want you to get them! I’ll still send you the free gift and a thank you card – as long as you don’t check the no contact box! If you do that, I can’t send you anything because I won’t know who you are.

Secondly – and possibly this is more exciting – when you spend $400 with me (product total, not including shipping and taxes), you get to spend $40 for free in a current catalogue. All you have to do is track your spending with me and when you reach $400 send me an email with your name, email, mailing address, and order numbers and totals (not including tax or shipping) and what you’d like to spend your $40 on. This is an offer from me, not Stampin’ Up! Here’s one of the best parts – there is no time limit on your orders, so if you take 6 months or 6 years to spend $400 with me, it makes no difference. You still earn $40 to spend in a current catalogue.

To qualify, your $400 does not include taxes or shipping nor any extra payments you made towards items bought with Stampin’ Rewards dollars or 50% off items.

Thirdly – if you’ve bought from me in the last year, you’ll receive the current Stampin’ Up! catalogues from me when they are available.

I have to say that my customer loyalty programme is of course subject to change.

So to recap:

If you buy less than $150 from me, use the Stampin’ Rewards code that will be on my blog each month and, if you meet the target amount for the month, you get the free gift. If you buy more than $150, don’t use the Stampin’ Rewards code, spend your own Stampin’ Rewards and still get the free gift.

Track your purchases and when you reach $400 email me to get your $40 in free product.

 

So to get started – this month’s Stampin’ Rewards code is  RJ6V9VRQ. If you spend just $50 with me and enter this code, I’ll send you the It’s My Party enamel dots which I’ll order once the workshop closes on 24th April. If you spend more than $150 with me, don’t use my code, spend the Stampin’ Rewards and I’ll still send you your enamel dots. And don’t forget to add your order to your list to get to the $400 you need for the $40 free.

It's My Party Enamel Dots by Stampin' Up!

I’ll point out that $50 is the amount that you need to spend to get a freebie from the Sale-a-bration promotion going on currently which ends on Thursday. So do yourself a favour – spend $50 with me, get free enamel dots, get a freebie from the Sale-a-bration catalogue AND get a start on working towards your $40 in free product!

If you’ve already ordered with me, your earlier orders all count towards the $400 total.

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

I’ll create a Customer Loyalty Programme page soon so that the details are easy to find.

See you tomorrow,

Liz

Paper Pumpkin March 2016 Alternate 5

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This card is inspired by yesterday’s and also by the Pals Paper Arts challenge this week. It’s a very sweet combination of colours, so I’ve produced a sweet card.

Stampin' Up! Pocketful of cheer

Here’s the colour banner which inspired this, my fifth Paper Pumpkin March 2016 alternate.

PPA-293-Mar24

I first cut a large circle in a piece of spare card using the circles framelits and then held that over my very vanilla piece. I used two of the stamps from this month’s Paper Pumpkin kit, Pocketful of Cheer and mint macaron, blushing bride and so saffron ensuring that I stamped over the edge of my mask. I decided to continue with the circles and stamped the sentiment (from the same kit) in mint macaron onto a scrap of very vanilla and then popped it out with a punch. There was something missing so I grabbed my blushing bride cotton 1/4 inch ribbon. I don’t use ribbon a lot but when I do, this is my favourite. It’s so easy to work with. I wrapped a piece of the ribbon around the very vanilla layer and fixed it on the back. Then I glued down my sentiment circle. The very vanilla piece was then mounted on a mint macaron card base. Finally I made the bow and attached that with glue dots. It amused me that my iron gets the most use in ironing ribbon for carding!

Stampin' Up! Pocketful of cheer, Paper Pumpkin March 2016 Alternate

The envelope liner was made using the envelope liners framelits dies and paper from the 2015-2017 in colors DSP stack in mint macaron.  and did you notice the #I’mbringingbirthdaysback also stamped on the envelope? I’m continuing my plan to give out more cards although today’s card isn’t helping much! I definitely need more male birthday cards.

I’m working out the details of a Customer Loyalty program and I’m excited to be announcing the programme very soon.

See you tomorrow,

Liz