Suite Samplings Plus

Y'all, I am so excited about this new offer I have for you. Stampin' Up! has always been about coordination. Our inks match our cardstock, which coordinates with our Designer Series Paper, which also matches our ribbons, washi tape, enamel dots, etc. The last couple of years, the Catalogs have featured "Suites" that generally revolve around one of our Designer Series Paper Packs. They've pulled together ribbons, papers, stamp sets and embellishments that all look wonderful together and that helps make your crafting a little easier as there's less decisions to make. (I am definitely one of those who hates making decisions--my handsome hubby can attest to that.) But, buying everything in a Suite can get a little pricey. So, let me introduce you to my Suite Samplings.

What is a Suite Samplings? Pretty much exactly what it says. You will get a sampling of the consumable items in a particular suite PLUS some extra product I've added to help round out your kit and give you the most crafting possibilities (ie, white cardstock, envelopes, etc.) I will feature a different Suite each month. There will be Optional Extras (stamp set, dies, punches, etc.) that you can add on to your order that I will ship out with your Suite Samplings kit. (These will also get you some extra goodies from me.)

My first Suite Samplings will focus on my favorite Suite in the catalog--Delightful Daisy. This DSP is so pretty and cheerful, and since outside my window it currently looks like this...

...I am personally in need of some springtime flower therapy.

Isn't this a beautiful set? So cheerful and fun. 

So, what comes in the kit? Each month will be different, but they will always have a half package of DSP. That means you will get 12 half sheets (6 x 12) of DSP. Why send 12 half sheets instead of 6 full 12 x 12 sheets? Two reasons; one, it will make it easier for me to mail it out to you, and two, you are more likely to use the sheets since they've already been cut. You know we really don't hoard our papers, it's just so hard to make that first cut into that beautiful 12 x 12 sheet. Well, now you won't have that problem because I've already cut it for you. ;o) You're welcome. 

Pretend you see some Delicate Doilies and 2 other ribbons on here. :o) 

Here's what you'll get in the March Suite Samplings Kit. 

• 1/2 pack Delightful Daisy DSP cut at 12x6 (2 half sheets of each design)
• 2 sheets each 8 1/2x11 cardstock Calypso Coral, Old Olive, Pool Party, Night of Navy and Daffodil Delight
• 4 sheets 8 1/2x11 Whisper White Cardstock
• 10 Whisper White Envelopes
• 6 Delicate Doilies (pretend you see these in the photo above)
• 1 yd Double Stitched Ribbon Daffodil Delight
• 1 yd Ombre Ribbon Calypso Coral (This one's missing in the photo...) 
• 1 yd Gingham Ribbon Night of Navy (...and so is this one)
• 1 yd Mini Chevron Ribbon Old Olive
• 18 Clear Faceted Gems (6 each of 3 sizes)
• 18 Gold Faced Gems (6 each of 3 sizes)
• 4 Mini Pizza Boxes
• Bonus--I will cut and punch out 5 Whisper White tags for you similar to the one you see hanging from the jar in the photo above. 

This is what is included in the March Suite Samplings Kit and you get all of this for $20. The retail, if you could get just this amount of each item, is slightly over that and you're not paying for tax or shipping to and from SU. To buy all of this in their full sizes you would pay over $109!! If you are local to me and would like to pick up your kit when it is ready, then $20 is all you will need to pay. If you are not local, see the shipping note below. 

Optional Extras:

• Daisy Punch $18
• Daisy Delight Photopolymer Stamp set $17
• Bundle (This includes both the punch and stamp set and is priced at 10% less) $31.50

Bonus--If you purchase either the punch or stamp set I will include 10 3x3 envelopes that fit nicely inside the Mini Pizza Boxes. If you purchase the Bundle (which is both the punch and stamp set), you will get the 10 3x3 envelopes PLUS you qualify for a FREE Sale-a-Bration item. Simply let me know what you would like when you email me. 

Email me to reserve your kit.

Shipping Notes:

I took my kit over to the Post Office and worked with the awesome ladies there to find the best and most economical way to ship these kits out to you. I will be able to send them out in a Priority Flat Rate padded envelope for $7.25. So, just to make it a nice round number I will add on $5 for shipping which will make your total $25.

This is only available in the US. You need to email me to order. I will send an invoice and payment will be to me, in advance of the order being placed and sent out.

Deadline for ordering is Monday, March 5th. I will place the order early the following morning and hope to have the packages ready to ship out to you by March 16th (delivery from Stampin' Up! permitting).

I hope you're as excited about this as I am. I will be posting a couple of projects over the next few days to give you some inspiration for the kit. There's SO many things you can make.

HOSTESS CODE CLUB: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do Not Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o( )

Mail a Card Monday #2

Well, I'm on a roll! Two weeks in a row. Woo hoo! Can you tell I'm not very good at following through on things sometimes? I really do hope to keep up with this one though. Such a good use of my crafting stash. :o) 

I managed to get a couple of cards out in the mail today. This is one of the ones I sent out. We made it last month at my Stamp-a-Stack. I purposely left the design without any wordage so it could be used for whatever occasion it might be needed. It happened to be needed for an "I think you're awesome" card. 

To color the flower I simply ran an Aqua Painter over the stamped image, coloring in the petals. Since the Real Red ink is a water based ink, the water in the Aqua Painter caused the ink to bleed and gave me a soft pink color. Once the flowers were dry, I punched them out and then curled the petals lightly with a Bone Folder. It gives the flowers much more life and movement.  Thankfully the depth of the Faceted Gem will help keep the flower from getting squished in the mail. I did pay a little extra to get this one hand-canceled though since that gem is kind of bulky. Didn't want it ripping through the envelope.

I don't often remember to design the inside of the cards, but this was an easy one. LOVE this set. Super versatile.

I will be back tomorrow with a SUPER AWESOME offer I have put together. Can't wait to tell you about it. :o)

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

HOSTESS CODE CLUB: Please use this month's Hostess Code when you place an order. It will allow me to pick up some goodies to share with you when I send out your Thank You gift at the end of the month. (If you check the "Do Not Contact" button when you order, I cannot legally contact you in any way, which means I cannot send you a Thank You gift or any extra goodies. :o( )

Mail a Card Monday--on a Tuesday

I recently saw a post where a Stampin' Up! demonstrator has decided to mail a card (or several) every Monday. I don't remember where I saw the post, and now there are several doing it, so I don't even know who to credit for the original idea, but I want to thank her and jump on this bandwagon myself. I have SOOOO many cards in my stash. Every class I do I usually cut extra, just in case, then there are the swaps that I have done, and my Paper Pumpkin kits. That has added up to a LOT of cards.

See what I mean? As you can see, I haven't been very good at mailing cards out either. I honestly can't even give you a good excuse as to why I don't. My teenage daughter should have been my example. She was bored one day so I told her to write a letter to a friend, and you know what, she has been so diligent in sending letters to both friends and family over the last couple of years. I don't think a week goes by that she doesn't put a letter in the mail. Seriously, what is my excuse? So, I'm going to set a goal to send at least one card out every Monday. This week I'm sending out 4 because I am behind on birthday greetings. (Did I mention something about not mailing cards out?) 

I was all excited last night about starting this goal and then I remembered that today, Monday, is a holiday--no mail today. That's OK. I got the cards ready and they are currently snug in the mailbox (along with one of my daughter's letters) waiting for our awesome mail carrier to pick them up tomorrow. 

The picture is to show that I did get them all ready to go. The card on top is just there to hide the addresses. :o) I actually CASED that card directly from page 34 of the Occasions catalog. I bought the set specifically to make this card as I had a sweet friend in mind to send it to. I actually made two, and believe it or not I DID send the first card to my friend a couple weeks ago. 

Next week I hope to send out some more happy mail. I know several people I need to thank for various reasons, and some that could use some encouragement. Maybe I'll keep a few cards in my purse for those "waiting" times (doctors, violin lessons, etc). Or, maybe I'll stash a few in the kitchen to write in when I'm waiting for dinner to simmer or bake instead of checking my phone or computer. I'm sure if I think hard enough I can find plenty of minutes in my day that can be better spent encouraging someone else. 

How about you? When was the last time you sent some happy mail to someone? 

Till next time...

God's love and blessings!

Cute Home Decor project

Hello there! Isn't this super cute?!? I was inspired by Dee Slater who did something similar. As soon as I saw her post I knew this would be a great class. It starts with a sweet "HOME is wherever I'm with you" plaque, but the letter "O" is interchangeable motifs that can be changed out with the seasons/holidays. I added a few more motifs than she had and used the retired Buckaroo Blue color for a lot of mine as it is the best match for my craft studio cabinets. I also decorated one of our pizza boxes to hold the extra motifs that are not being used at the time.

I love how this turned out. I used a super strong magnet on the frame piece, and cheaper, less strong magnets on the back of each motif. They hold on really well, but come off quickly and easily. 

I'm hosting this class at the end of the month (February). My guests will be able to customize theirs to their color preference. They can also decide if they just want a pumpkin, or a jack-o-lantern for October.

What do you think? Is this something you'd like to display in your home? I've included links below to most of the products I've used. You can find a tutorial for the frame on Dee's you tube channel (linked above).

If you do choose to put an order in on my site, please be sure to use the hostess code you see above so I can add a little extra goody to your "Thank You" gift.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!!

Christmas Extravaganza!

Hello there! I am so excited! I have been having so much fun in my newly renovated craft studio. I will try and share some photos with you later, but for now I want to share some of the projects I've been working on.

I will be hosting a Christmas Extravaganza here in a couple of weeks and my ladies are going to get to make a couple of really fun projects. Here's the first one.

I saw something similar online and thought it would be fun to try. I couldn't find a tutorial, so I just played around till I could make it work. I LOVE it!! My only wish is that the little fairy lights I bought had a timer so they would turn on and off automatically. Oh well. I think I may make another one using the Night in Bethlehem set.

Speaking of Night in Bethlehem, this is our second project.

This is a card that folds into a standard envelope. I originally found the idea on this blog. It's in another language, but it wasn't too difficult to figure out.

I am so looking forward to this Extravaganza. I've told the ladies it will be like a craft class and Christmas party all rolled into one. Between the downstairs renovation, and a couple months of health issues, I am practically giddy just being able to craft again, and I may be going a little overboard with goodies for my ladies. I had a hard time narrowing down the projects and how many gifts to make for them. :-) I guess that's a good problem to have. I sure hope they enjoy it as much as I'm enjoying the planning. I'll share more with you later. I don't want to give all the surprises away. ;-)

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

PS. Don't forget to take advantage of the Online Extravaganza (I think they stole my name) going on at Stampin' Up! for this week only! Lots of great deals to be had.

Please use the Hostess Code above when placing an order so I can send you some extra goodies with your Thank You gift.

The Stamparatus is Coming!!!

Hello there! I know your first thought is, "What in the world is a Stamparatus?" Good question. I will answer that in a minute, but first I want to share a couple of projects we made at my TNT class this week. In case you're not familiar, TNT stands for Tips and Techniques, and boy did we learn a lot of new ones this month.

I had to jump on the ever-popular Eclipse Technique bandwagon. I love how this card came out, and the technique is a LOT easier than it looks. This was also my first time playing with the Painted Harvest stamp set. This one is kind of addicting. I will have to post a video, 'cause it's kind of like magic the way the second stamp all of a sudden adds petals and shadows where there weren't any just before.

Secondly, we played with the new Stampin' Blends. Each of the ladies chose a different image from the Sugarplum Dreams stamp set to put on her notepad. These will help us keep track of our "Naughty and Nice" lists. :o) 

And now for the BIG NEWS! The Stamparatus is coming and trust me, you want to be among the first to get it! 

The Stamparatus is a new and innovative stamp placement tool developed in partnership with a team of demonstrators leaders. It will change the way you stamp! In fact, you'll wonder how you've ever lived without it! 

Why do YOU need one? You’ll fall in love with stamping all over again when you learn everything you can do with it!

• Make multiples with ease
• Consistently stamp crisp, clean images
• If you want a darker impression, apply more ink and restamp—no need to start over
• Make fewer mistakes, saving time and money
• Easily create 2-step, 3-step, and 4-step stamped images using reversible plates
• Develop new and specialized stamping techniques with adjustable stamping plates and precision placement

Product Details:

• Compatible with Stampin’ Up!’s red rubber and photopolymer stamp
• Foam mat to use with photopolymer stamps
• Rulers and gridlines for quick measuring
• 2 open sides so you can stamp on larger paper
• 2 reversible plates: a total of 4 surfaces to work with
• 2 magnets to hold the paper in place
• Magnet storage areas
• Retail Price–$49.00!!

Okay. I’ve gotta have one. How do I get in line?

With the launch of this tool, we’re trying something different: testing a new reservation system. It acts like a true preorder: you reserve your spot and we guarantee shipment as soon as the product arrives in our warehouse.  This system will allow us to get the product to market as soon as possible while avoiding backorders and efficiently managing inventory.

The global launch will feature three reservation windows. For each window, please note the following:

• Reservation quantities are while supplies last.
• Limit is 1 tool per customer per reservation window.
• You may participate in multiple reservation windows.
• In order to reserve your Stamparatus, you are required to provide your credit card information.
• Credit cards will not be charged until the Stamparatus ships from our facility. When you close your order, be sure to verify that your credit card and shipping information is correct.
• The first reservation window opens at 2:00 PM (MT) on November 16. While supplies last.

Have more questions? I’ve got answers. Check out the resources below.

   *Stamparatus Launch Q & A

   *How to Reserve Your Stamparatus Tutorial


I cannot tell you how excited I am about this new tool. I cannot wait till it comes out!! I believe it's going to make stamping so much easier. No more smeared edges and missed spots. Not to mention how easy it will be to do multiple cards of the same design. Can't wait!!

Oh, and I will be back later this week with some sneak peeks of projects for my upcoming Christmas Extravaganza!!

I've included below some of the items I used in the TNT projects. If you do put in an order, please be sure to use the Hostess Code listed above and I will be sure to send some extra goodies along with your Thank You gift.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!

Sneak Peek Saturday--I mean Wednesday.

Y'all, I was going to wait till Saturday to post this so I could do the whole alliteration thing with the title, but I, seriously, couldn't wait.

I LOVE this new bundle called Colorful Seasons from Stampin' Up! Right now, it's only available to demonstrators, but it will be available to all when the new catalog goes live next month. You are going to love the new catalog. So many great sets and fun ideas in there!

For this card I used a couple of the dies, and just a sentiment from the stamp set, but you also see a sneak peek of 2 of the new In Colors; Berry Burst-the centers of the flowers, and Tranquil Tide-the greenish color in the middle of the color wash.

I used the "acetate smoosh" technique on our watercolor paper for the background with Marina Mist, Tranquil Tide and Pool Party markers. In case you've never heard of the "acetate smoosh" technique, I took a piece of acetate (the flexible plastic piece on top of my stamp set) and scribbled color on it with the markers. Then I dropped lots drops of water on the paper from my aqua painter in the area I was planning on coloring. The next step is to place the colored acetate on the wet paper and watch the fun. I lifted the acetate up and then touched it down in a few areas to get the random dots on the edge. I think I need to order more watercolor paper 'cause that technique is kind of addicting. :o)

I cut the flowers from watercolor paper as well, and used the Berry Burst marker in the center of them and an Aqua Painter to draw the color out into the petals. For me, the hardest parts of this card were picking out which of the background colors I wanted to use as the base card (I went with Marina Mist) and determining where to put the sequins.

Do you want to see the stamp set and dies?

See what I mean about versatile? It covers the whole year, and those leaves and snowflakes are GORGEOUS!! I'm going to have to play with those next.

Don't forget, like the title above says, there are a lot of great items on the retiring list, some are discounted up to 50%, and some of them are already gone, so if you have something on your wish list, better get it quick.

Oh, I almost forgot! You can get a sneak peek, or should I say, your own pre-order of items in the catalog with this awesome offer from Stampin' Up! This bundle is really cool, and you get a FREE gift with either bundle. These items will be in the new catalog, but this bundle with the free gift will not. Check out my website for all the details and what's included in the bundles.

OK, that's a lot of fun stuff! One more piece of important info--don't forget to use the Hostess Code you see above when you place an order through my store. When you do, I will send you another free gift along with your Thank You gift and card.

Well, I have several more stamp sets I was able to pre-order that I am dying to play with, so I better get stamping.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!!