Apr 19, 2017 | cards, Retired List, Stampin' Up!
Do you know an Everyday Hero? You know, the person who is always helping out, coming to the rescue but not always in a big, flashy way, and often in a quiet, in the background kind of way. This is the card for them! It uses the retiring Stampin’ Up! set, Everyday Hero. I love the cartoon images! This card uses the cityscape on the bottom of the card, and the cape image on the top. Watercoloured the cape by scribbling with the brush end of the Pacific Point Stampin’ Write marker onto a Silicone Craft Sheet or spare Clear Block – pick up the colour with an Aquapainter, and then colour the image. Since the cardstock is Very Vanilla, you can’t overwork the image too much, otherwise the cardstock will pill. I actually like working on regular cardstock every once in a while with watercolouring, so that it forces me to colour the image and then leave it alone….good for quick card making and resisting the urge to rework an image to death. The image is stamped in Basic Gray, which is an Archival ink, and won’t run when it gets wet. A tip, though – if you quickly set the ink with a Heat Tool, you can move on to the colouring stage more quickly.
The star is coloured in with another retiring product, the Gold Wink of Stella Glitter Brush. Don’t panic, the Clear Wink of Stella will still be around, but the gold one is going away. I love how easily these brushes add some shimmer to a product. Talk about an Everyday (crafting) Hero to rescue an otherwise ordinary project?!
I used the Everyday Hero set for a card that I shared on International Women’s Day on the YamStamps blog here. Lots of fun options for this set, but it’s only available until the end of May. The retiring list is here. You can shop online here – or if you need assistance placing your order, please contact me. If you live in Quebec, I can place the order for you and have it shipped to you, but the online ordering system doesn’t work in la belle province, sorry. Retiring stamp sets have guaranteed availability until May 21st, after which date it’s while supplies last. Tools and accessories are while supplies last only, and some are already sold out! So please don’t hesitate. Happy shopping.
What everyday hero could you send this card to? Leave a comment and I will send my project to one commenter to share!
Apr 16, 2017 | cards, Occasions, Retired List, Seasonal Catalogue, Stampin' Up!
Wishing you a Happy Easter! Sharing some samples from Stampin’ Up!’s Easter Message stamp set – available in clear mount or wood mount. If you like these images, grab them while you can! This set is retiring so will be available until the end of May; stamp sets are guaranteed until May 21st, after which they will be as supplies last. You can shop online, or contact me if you have any questions or need assistance placing your order.
Apr 14, 2017 | cards, Stampin' Up!
Housework whenever. That’s one of the sentiments in the upcoming new stamp set, Crafting Forever. It’s also the set that I was asked to help showcase at the recent Stampin’ Up! On Stage event in Toronto (I talked about it in this last blog post). The new catalogue is still a month and a half away, and the retired products are flying off the shelf in the meantime, but I thought I’d share a couple of my samples.
This sample uses Gorgeous Grunge (available in wood mount or clear mount), which is retiring (waaaaaah!). My goal for the presentation was to show ways that you could use the set without colouring everything in each time. In this sample, I used the “splotches” with various coloured inks to add the colour to the card, and then just added a bit of smoky slate to shadow the brushes image. If memory serves, I believe the colours are Wisteria Wonder, Pear Pizzazz, Pool Party, Sweet Sugarplum, Daffodil Delight and Calypso Coral. To add the shadowing, I scribbled with the Smoky Slate Stampin’ Write marker onto a Silicone Craft Sheet, then picked up the colour with a Blender Pen. I find that gives a softer effect than colouring directly onto the cardstock.
This is another sample I showed at On Stage. I love the sentiment – do something creative every day. I have already stamped that a few times in my planner! For this card, I sponged various colours onto Shimmery White cardstock, and randomly stamped the months from the Perpetual Birthday Calendar stamp set (also retiring). I created the little palette by die cutting an oval from the Layering Ovals Framelits, and then cutting the notch using the end of the curved channel die from the Sliding Star Framelits. I thought it coordinated well with the brushes image, which I stamped along the bottom of the card.
haha there’s the sentiment! This is a quick sticky note holder using the Blooms & Bliss Designer Series Paper (which is retiring….there’s a bit of a theme here, eh?!).
I stamped the sticky note as well – because you can always have prettier notes. They’re also great to use in a planner!
I’ll be sure to share more of my samples in the next while, as well. In the meantime, please be sure to grab the retired product that you want ASAP – you can shop online 24/7 in Canada, or email me. (If you’re in Quebec, you’ll need to email me, as the online store option doesn’t work in la belle province unfortunately!). Don’t forget that if you place an order for $50 product or more during April, you’ll be entered into my Celebration draw for a Big Shot!! Enter early, and enter often!
Apr 10, 2017 | Events, Retired List, specials, Stampin' Up!
What a busy weekend it was! Retiring after the weekend seemed like a good idea – but not in the permanent sense – only in the “I shall retire to my bed” thinking! haha. I am not retiring, but some Stampin’ Up! product will be (at the end of May)….read on to find out more.
Stampin’ Up! held Centre Stage and On Stage Events globally – the main event was in Amsterdam, but we had a local event in Toronto as well (there were others – across North America and the South Pacific). I was honoured to be asked to do a presentation on a new stamp set in the upcoming catalogue during the Saturday event….and that meant Friday rehearsal as well. So I trekked into Toronto on Friday afternoon to do a run through with sound and the cameraman while other helpers were busy completing set up for the big event the next day. Here’s a selfie that I shared on Instagram – with my head mic – just like Madonna/Britney/Beyonce…..
Friday Evening was the Centre Stage event for demonstrators at the Silver Elite level and above – basically, demonstrators with a certain number of people in their demonstrator group. We get a lovely meal, some training focusing on business or team building, and, yay, goodies. This year we got a fun apron and a stamp set…..plus a copy of the new catalogue.
Saturday was the main show – On Stage! A busy day full of fun – seeing friends from all around, meeting new friends, getting my presentation done and over with (phew!), making some fun projects….
(me on stage at On Stage) Thanks for this photo, Arlene….and hey, I did actually look up at everyone! (I thought I spent most of the time staring down at what I was doing….which I probably was, just that Arlene caught the one moment I looked up?!).
Members of the “Eh” Team who were able to attend On Stage. Love this photo because we’re obviously having fun!
So many highlights of the weekend, and of course one of (if not THE) biggies = new catalogue sneak peek! It’s a mixed blessing though, because with the upcoming new catalogue (June), there’s LOTS of fun new items….but in order to make room, a bunch of product has to retire. Again, a mixed blessing – some of the retiring product is available at up to 50% off BUT it is while supplies last. What to do?
-
-
Check out what’s retiring, and make a list
-
-
Contact me if you have any questions, or need assistance placing your order.
Mar 31, 2017 | Announcements, Sale-A-Bration, Stampin' Up!
Alas! It is the last day of Sale-a-Bration 2017! There are only a few more hours to take advantage of the all the freebies! Have you grabbed your free Sale-a-Bration product with each $60 in merchandise ordered? Or the two extra free stamp sets of any value in the already great deal of the Starter Kit? You have until 1150pm Mountain Time tonight. Be warned – the system is going to be VERY busy today, and especially tonight, so you’ll want to grab your starter kit or place your order as soon as possible.
The Paper Pumpkin 3 month subscription special also ends tonight. You can get three months of craft kits, including April’s kit, designed by the CEO of Stampin’ Up! plus a FREE gift, for just $74 (save $5) plus a free Sale-a-Bration item if you purchase TODAY. You have until April 10th to subscribe to get the April kit, but the discount on 3 months and the Sale-a-Bration free item will disappear tonight.
Do NOT worry though – April is not going to be dreary! I will be announcing a promotion from ME for the month of April – to celebrate my 15 years with Stampin’ Up! and my much longer time on the planet. Plus I will start taking names for the mail out of the new annual Stampin’ Up! Catalogue – so there’s no need to despair – April will still be AWESOME. Be sure to be on my mailing list (click the link or use the box at the top right of the page) so that you don’t miss out on any of the upcoming events and announcements!
TONIGHT – I will be part of the Ladies’ Quarter Auction being held at Providence Christian Academy in Waterdown. Look for my table – I’ll have some retired (but still wonderful) Stampin’ Up! product for sale, a make and take, and a free draw, in addition to the FOUR packages I’ll have up for auction!
Mar 24, 2017 | cards, Sale-A-Bration, Stampin' Up!
This simple but striking black and white card is an example of how easy it can be to get a handmade card done and in the mail quickly! It’s good for those of us who sometimes battle our inner (or maybe not so inner…) perfectionists – so that a card can take FOREVER to complete because we keep messing about with it endlessly. I think that the angle of the Designer Series Paper strip makes the card more interesting, and not quite so “stark”. The paper is from the Sale-a-Bration free choice, Inside the Lines (item 143830), which features 12 pages of 12″ x 12″ sheets of black line art on a white background. It’s great for colouring….or not.
We made this black and white card in Stampers Club this month. The strips of Designer Series Paper were initially 6″ long, and matted onto Basic Black Cardstock. To keep the construction simple (because my brain can sometimes only manage so much), we simply adhered the strip on an angle that we liked (so each card was slightly different), then trimmed the edges so they aligned with the edges of the card. No measuring, no fuss, no muss. Simple. The cardbase is Thick Whisper White cardstock since there’s not many layers and I wanted the card to still feel substantial.
Keeping with the monochromatic theme, the sentiment from Wild About Flowers is stamped in Basic Black; actually it’s two stamps, but easily lined up as the set is photopolymer so it’s essentially “see through”. The paper is fairly versatile, so by changing the sentiment, you can easily adapt the card for whatever purpose. A simple black and white card could also be used as a sympathy card. Much as I love this black and white card, it can easily be made more colourful by colouring in the Designer Series Paper. Club members had the option of colouring in selected images (or the whole set of images) with Stampin’ Write Markers, or the easy way of adding colour – simply sponging colours randomly directly onto the strip of paper.
If you like the black and white card effect, you might consider the YamStampsMore Online Class – Monochromatic is Marvelous. It features designs and techniques that use a single colour or shade – and shows that monochromatic is not monotonous. Once you purchase the class, you have lifetime access to class materials, so you can watch the videos whenever it is convenient for you. I’m working on my next online class, and working on a big special for APRIL, as I’ll be celebrating 15 years with Stampin’ Up! so you will want to keep an eye here on the YamStamps site!
