#imbringingbirthdaysback!

Good morning!

A few days ago I remembered that I had a birthday coming up for a male family member and needed to get a card in the mail ASAP. I didn’t have much free time so I needed to come up with something quick and simple.

I ended up with this…

Very simple, took me 30 minutes top. I kinda like it, good for a masculine birthday!

Ingredients for the card are listed below

• Stamp Crumb Cake card stock with the Hardwood background stamp using Early Espresso ink.
• Using various patterns from the Neutrals Designer Series Paper stack, cut out pieces in various sizes (I didn’t use any more than 1 inch wide, smallest is about half an inch wide.
• Trim both ends of each piece of DSP with the Banner Triple Punch
• Trim a piece of Whisper White cardstock to 1″x 4″. Punch the end using the Banner Triple Punch
• Stamp Birthday Wishes, using Early Espresso ink, from the Build a Birthday stamp set.
• Arrange your DSP banners, overlapping here and there, and adhere down.
• Adhere your sentiment banner over the DSP banners
• Using a button from the Neutral Designer Buttons pack, thread it with some linen thread and tie a knot.
• Adhere the button down using Glue Dots

That’s it! Easy!

So, you have to be wondering what the heck the title of this post is about!  Check this out…

Back in January Shannon, an employee of the Stampin’ Up home office, challenged herself to make as many handmade birthday cards as possible. She put the offer out on social media even, anyone that wanted a card from her should let her know. She quickly ended up with a huge list (over a thousand!) of people who wanted a birthday card.

She shared a photo (can be seen on her post about it linked below) of a huge stack of cards that she was getting ready to mail, the photo was shared many many times, and it started a movement! People loved the idea of sending personal, handmade cards.

Now, as a stamper, isn’t that what it is all about? Sending a bit of love to make someone happy? People get so much junk mail, bills, etc. Handwritten letters, cards, etc seem to be on their way out.

Shannon then carved her own stamp, to stamp onto the back of each of the envelopes. It uses a hashtag at the front so people will know that they can search for the phrase on Facebook and Instagram, and see what others are creating and sharing.

Go ahead, try it! Log into Facebook, in the search bar at the top (where you would type in someones name when wanting to view their page) type exactly #imbringingbirthdaysback (or copy it from here and paste into Facebook). You will then find alllll of the Facebook posts that use that hashtag in their post. Everything from demonstrators, to customers, to Sara from the Home Office, etc. FUN!

Anyway…. Stampin’ Up asked what they could do to help Shannon with her personal challenge. They loved the idea! So they copied her hand carved stamp, and created it for everyone to use on their birthday cards!

It originally sold out in less than 5 hours! WHOA! But they have since gotten in a HUGE HUGE order of them, are selling them left and right, and it doesn’t look like it is slowing down anytime soon.

You can use the stamp on the back of a card or on your envelope. You can see how I am using it here…

It fits perfectly onto the back flap of your envelope!

If you would like to read Shannon’s original post about this, check it out HERE. Trust me, it is a good read. Shannon explains a lot more about the meaning than I did.

Product List

#IMBRINGINGBIRTHDAYSBACK Single Wood-Mount Stamp [143573] $12.00	Whisper White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [100730] $8.50	Crumb Cake 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [120953] $7.00	Early Espresso Classic Stampin’ Pad [126974] $6.50	Hardwood Clear-Mount Stamp Set [133035] $15.00
Build A Birthday Photopolymer Stamp Set [138646] $16.00	Neutrals Designer Series Paper Stack [138435] $22.00	Neutrals Designer Buttons [130031] $8.00	Linen Thread [104199] $4.50	Banner Triple Punch [138292] $23.00
Glue Dots [103683] $5.25	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $4.00	Medium Whisper White Envelopes [107301] $6.50

Let me know if you have any questions!

Have a great day!!

Sale-A-Bration ending tomorrow!

Hope everyone is having a great Wednesday!

This is just a reminder that Sale-A-Bration is ending tomorrow, March 31st!

If there is anything you have been eyeing now is the time to grab it.

Remember, with every $50 purchase you get a FREE item from the Sale-A-Bration catalog. Free is always a winner in my book! And the great thing? You can purchase anything to get that free item. Make sure to check out the Clearance Rack HERE (huge savings!!!) or the Weekly Deals HERE.

This is also a great time to stock up on the retiring InColor items. I posted the information in THIS post. You can grab the colors you don’t want to be without (inkpads, refills, paper, and more!) and get your freebie on top of it.

Let me know if you have any questions or want to place an order.

See you tomorrow with a quickie masculine birthday card and information about Stampin’ Up’s #I’mBringingBirthdaysBack stamp!

Have a great day!

Weekly Deals! March 29th- April 4th!

HOLY COW! Friday is APRIL! Where has this month gone????

Anyway, sorry I didn’t get these up yesterday. I was home from work, vegging on my couch with a blanket and the dog all day.

Feeling back to myself today, so without further ado…

Gift Box Punch Board [135863] $20.00 $15.00	Hamburger Box Bigz Xl Die [133724] $43.00 $32.25	Hearth & Home Thinlits Dies [139666] $20.00 $15.00
Leaflets Framelits Dies [138283] $25.00 $18.75	Metal Rimmed Pearls [138394] $5.00 $3.75

My #1 pick for this weeks deals? The Hearth & Home Thinlits, hands down.

These are so versatile, and coordinate with two stamp sets. These were introduced on our holiday catalog and were so popular they not only kept the die sets around, but also introduced a new stamp set to coordinate with them. NICE!

This set is perfect. Simple, sweet, and just so easy to use.

This is a card that I made for a swap back in December. I was able to whip out 50 of these in about 3 hours. Not bad at all!

The card used both the Happy Home stamp set and the Hearth & Home thinlit.

Just a simple card I sent to a wonderful friend of mine, using just the stamp set. (I fixed the bow before mailing, I promise lol).

You might remember this card, it is from a class that I held recently. The flower box? That is made using the Hearth & Home thinlits as well! I die cut two of them, then carefully cut one of the tops off of one, and adhered it to the other to give some dimension.

The thinlit set is so  much more versatile that it appears at first glance! Check on Pinterest and get inspired by all of the creative things that you can do with it HERE.

Let me know if you have any questions 🙂

 

Have a great day!

 

What I Love… Pt 2

Happy Easter weekend!!

No work today, yay! I love having these extra days off, such a treat. Hopefully the weather cooperates so I can take our dog to the park. The weather has been so weird here in Illinois this week. 64 on Tuesday, 40 and rain on Wednesday, 32 and rain and snow today. Ew. But my bulbs are coming up, that gets me excited every spring!

Now, a few days ago I challenged myself to use a stamp set that I haven’t  used before HERE. I chose What I Love, a free set that can be earned until March 31st. Wednesday and Thursday nights I came up with 2 cards.

This first is my favorite of the bunch, also the easiest 🙂

It is hard to tell in the photo, but one of the flowers is fussy cut and adhered with dimensionals.I masked the flower image that I stamped directly onto the white panel so that I could stamp the leaves where I wanted without covering the flower.

Just a sweet simple card. I will be sending this to a new customer this weekend!

The next one took a lot longer than I anticipated, and while I am not 100% happy with it, I enjoyed the technique and will be trying it again.

The inside panel says YOU

With this technique, you stamp your image first with white craft ink (pigment), then dry with a heat gun. If you don’t do that, the ink won’t dry fully. Pigment ink is intended for embossing so it is very wet and sticky. Unfortunately there is no good white dye ink.

After your white ink is dry, stamp over your image with whatever color you choose. This allows you to stamp on black cardstock. So fun!!!!

TIP: I then used the outline image from the set and first inked it with Versamark, then directly into Melon Mambo ink before stamping it onto the cardstock. This is a little trick that you can do to turn any dye ink into a pigment ink! You won’t ruin your dye ink pad by doing this. Just remember first the Versamark, then the dye ink. This was you can heat emboss the image, as I did here (with clear embossing powder).

Now, this is the first time that I have tried this technique, as I said, I will be trying it again!

I was a bit disappointed to see that the Melon Mambo that I used turned purple over the black cardstock. I am wondering if I needed to have a more solid coat of white under it?

The rest of the card was completed with Melon Mambo cardstock and bakers twine, so you can see the big difference in color.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend and an even better Easter!

 

 

Paper Pumpkin

Good morning!

I just wanted to share the big news about Paper Pumpkin with you all real quick.

March is Paper Pumpkins 3 Year Anniversary! WOW! Not only is it their birthday month, they are sending out the One Millionth kit this month as well!

To celebrate, all of the March kits are being sent out in a beautiful teal birthday box. But the best part??

All of the April kits will have a bonus stamp set it it (Value of $17!), called All About Everything. Exciting! I know that I am not the only one that loves free 😉

Sara, Stampin’ Up’s newly appointed CEO, shares a bit more info in the video below:

 

As Sara mentioned, sign up for Paper Pumpkin by April 10th to receive the special April kit (with the extra FREE stamp set!).

Now is a great time to sign up! Until March 31st, you get 3  months for only $55, as well as a FREE Sale-A-Bration Item!

I should be receiving my March kit in the next few days, and when I do, I will share with you all. I have seen sneak peeks here and there… I am loving this months kit!

Though it is no secret how much I love Paper Pumpkin in general! I talked about it HERE and HERE.

If you have any questions, let me know in the comments, or email me at InkItAll@yahoo.com

See you tomorrow with my self imposed challenge to use the What I Love set!

 

Product List

1-Month Prepaid Paper Pumpkin Subscription [137858] $19.95

3-Month Prepaid Paper Pumpkin Subscription [137859] $59.85

6-Month Prepaid Paper Pumpkin Subscription [137860] $113.70

12-Month Prepaid Paper Pumpkin Subscription [137861] $215.40

What I Love…

Good morning!

Now, I have a confession to make. I have a TON of stamp sets that I have purchased, but have never used. I need to start challenging myself to reach for sets that haven’t touched ink over my favorites (Looking at you Gorgeous Grunge and Timeless Textures!!).

Included in that long list are some of the free sets I have received during Sale-A-Bration, including What I Love

This is such a sweet, simple set. Why haven’t I used it yet?!?!?! I need to change that, ASAP. I am challenging myself to use it this week, and share on Friday my results.

In the meantime, here is a video from Stampin’ Up that shows a great, quick card created with this set.

 

Have you used this set yet? I would love to see what you came up with! Link it in the comments below, or email me at InkItAll@yahoo.com. With your permission, I will share your creations on my blog.

Have a great day!

 

 

Weekly Deals! Mar. 22nd- Mar.28th

Good morning!

I hope everyone’s week is off to a great start!

Just a quickie for you today. It is Tuesday, so that means another 5 items that are 25% off!

Curvy Corner Trio Punch [139683] $20.00 $15.00	Gold Stampin’ Glitter [133457] $4.00 $3.00	Pearl Basic Jewels Embellishments [119247] $5.00 $3.75
Silver 5/8″ Satin Ribbon [134548] $7.00 $5.25	White Perfect Accents [138416] $5.00 $3.75

The Curvy Corner Trio Punch is fantastic!!!! 3 punches in one! Stampin’ Up released this in the holiday catalog, intended as a limited time only item. It was so popular the powers that be at Stampin’ Up decided that it is sticking around!

I only have one card photographed that used it (bad Tyra), but trust me when I say that I have used it many many times since I got it last October.

 

See how just that tiny punch adds the perfect little something? The card would have been fine without it, but I love the little extra detail.

Once again, using my BFF, Pinterest, to show you all the fantastic things that can be done with the punch. Check them out HERE.

That is it for now! Have a wonderful day!!

Miss You!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

In hindsight, I should have created a St. Paddy’s day card, or at least one with some green to it. But I didn’t… oh well lol

Now, can I toot my own horn a bit and say how much I love this card? Soft, feminine, easy… perfect in my book. I got the idea from a Stampin’ Up only demo board, I saw another demonstrators idea and I went with it.

Ingredients used are listed at the end of the post

Look closely at the background… see those soft pink stripes? Those were added using one of Stampin’ Up’s great masks!

Recipe

• Trim a piece of Pink Pirouette cardstock to form a top folding A2 card.
• Trim a piece of Whisper White cardstock to 4″x5.25″
• Lay the Stripes mask (from the Dots & Stripes bundle) over the white panel, tilting it so the stripes go diagonally across the panel. Use some temporary adhesive or painters tape to hold the mask in place so it won’t shift around.
• Using an ink dauber and Blushing Bride ink, apply ink in a gentle swirling motion over the mask. Use a very light hand here, you don’t want the stripes to be very bright. We are looking for subtly here 😉 Focus on adding ink to the center of the white panel and as it moves from the center of the panel, the ink should be lighter until it fades totally out.
• Remove the mask, admire your stripes! (it took me three tries to get it the way I wanted, don’t be discouraged if it doesn’t look the way you want right away. Practice until you get the feel of how the ink blends onto your cardstock, how much pressure you need, how much ink is needed, etc…)
• Using the large vine stamp from the First Sight stamp set, ink it up with Crumb Cake ink, then stamp it off once onto a scratch piece of paper, then onto your white (now striped!) panel, in the center.
• Punch a heart from Pink Pirouette cardstock
• Stamp the heart using the splatter stamp from Timeless Textures, using Crumb Cake and again stamping it off once before stamping onto your heart.
• Cut a piece of Gold Glimmer paper, and tail the ends using the Banner Triple punch.
• Adhere the Glimmer paper in the center of your panel.
• Stamp Miss and You from the Crazy About You stamp set using Crumb Cake ink. Do not stamp off in this case, you want the ink full strength.  (love this stamp set! Lots of words to make your own sayings!). “Miss” should be stamped to above the glimmer paper on the left side, “You” should be stamped below the glimmer paper on the right side.
• Adhere your heart in the center, using dimensionals.
• For once I didn’t use sequins 😉 But I still wanted a little something-something. I added a few dots of Gold Glitz Dazzling Details for shine.
• TIP: When using Dazzling Details (or other similar product) sometimes you are left with a little tail where the product left the squeeze bottle, or the top of the dot has a funny point to it. To get rid of that, flick the cardstock underneath where you placed the dots. That will help settle the product, giving you a nice rounded sphere. 

That is it! I think that I will be making another similar card using flowers as the center image instead of a heart.

The masks that Stampin’ Up offers are wonderful, inexpensive, and can be used in SO many ways! I urge you to check them out and add them to your order if you need a few dollars more to make it to $50 to get a Sale-A-Bration item, or snag a set as part of your Stampin’ Rewards.

As always, let me know if you have any questions. Have a great day!
Product List

Pink Pirouette 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [111351] $7.00	Whisper White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [100730] $8.50	Gold Glimmer Paper [133719] $5.00	Blushing Bride Classic Stampin’ Pad [131172] $6.50
Crumb Cake Classic Stampin’ Pad [126975] $6.50	Timeless Textures Clear-Mount Stamp Set [140517] $20.00	First Sight Clear-Mount Stamp Set [140688] $18.00	Crazy About You Clear Stamp Set [138859] $39.00
Sweetheart Punch [133786] $16.00	Banner Triple Punch [138292] $23.00	Dots & Stripes Decorative Masks [133775] $3.00	Gold Glitz Dazzling Details [133755] $2.50
Stampin’ Dimensionals [104430] $4.00	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $4.00

Weekly Deals! Mar. 15-21st

Good morning!

I hope that everyone successfully made it through another Monday.

I can’t believe that it is Tuesday… again… already. It seems like the past week flew by.

But that is good news, that means that Stampin’ Up has released their Weekly Deals!

Cherry On Top Cotton Paper Assortment [138308] $7.00 $5.25	Festive Flower Builder Punch [139682] $18.00 $13.50	Fringe Scissors [133325] $10.00 $7.50
Gold Foil Sheets [132622] $4.00 $3.00	Happy Patterns Decorative Masks [138313] $6.00 $4.50

Whoa! 2nd week in a row that I don’t need anything? My wallet is actually safe?! Wow! Well, that is probably more of a sign that I have too much stuff, but we won’t talk about my stash 😉

The Festive Flower Builder Punch is a must have in my book! Not only does it coordinate beautifully with the (now retired) Reason for the Season stamp set, it coordinates with the Friends & Flowers stamp set from the Occasions catalog!

One thing that I adore about Stampin’ Up is that they make the punches and dies to be useful for multiple stamp sets!! You don’t need to buy a punch or die knowing that you can only use it to coordinate with one thing!

Now, admittedly, I don’t have this set. It really isn’t my cup of tea, but I have seen some darling things created with it. Check our what I pulled up on Pinterest HERE.

Even if you have  no desire to pick up the stamp set, the punch is invaluable! There is SO much that can be done with it. Want to see some ideas for using the Festive Flower punch? Check out the eye candy HERE.

I was working on a card last night, and oddly enough, I used one of Stampin’ Up’s masks to create a soft and subtle background. I will be sharing that card on Thursday, but here is a sneak peek…

It is hard to see, but there are very soft (Blushing Bride!) stripes in the background. Stay tuned for Thursday, you will be able to (hopefully) see it better!

Have a wonderful day everyone!

 

CAS-ish?

Happy Monday!

I hope that everyone had a fantastic weekend! Friday night my husband surprised me with dinner out at a great steak place near us. It was SO good!!! Saturday was errands with the hubby, but we snuck in a nap too. Those are my favorite kind of days 🙂 Yesterday he worked, and I didn’t do much at all, just vegged recovering from the cold that I picked up.

I did complete a card for you all though! Last time I posted, I mentioned CAS cards (Clean and Simple). It is a struggle for me to make them, I always want to add more lol

Coco Chanel was quoted as saying “When you leave the house look in the mirror, and take one thing  off.”  Meaning, don’t overdress yourself, wear too much jewelry, accessories (scarf, hat, etc). I think that the same applies to cards! At least for me lol It is so easy to over dress a card. So I try to step back before adhering my embellishments, and remove at least one thing. That helps my cards from looking too busy.

On that note though, it is sooo hard for me to do something simple, with little embellishment. That is where the sequins came into play below 😉

But without those sequins, I think that the card would have been too plain. Do you agree?

I made this for a wonderful friend of mine, who should be seeing it in her mailbox any day now!

It didn’t take long to create either! (Ingredients for the card are listed at the end of the post)

• Basic Black cardstock, trimmed and scored to form an A2 card
• Shimmery White cardstock trimmer to 3.75″x 4.75″
• Stamp the layered circle image using Basic Black ink (from the Memories in the Making Project Life stamp set)
• Die cut the solid butterfly image from the Butterflies thinlits dies using Dazzling Diamonds glimmer paper
• Die cut the detail butterfly from the Bold Butterflies Framelits dies using Pink Pirouette ink
• TIP: Using a ink dauber, tap on Blushing Bride ink onto the Dazzling Diamonds glimmer paper, as well as onto a strip of White Metallic Glitter Tape (FREE with a $50 order!). I did it very lightly, just to give a hint of pink. Fun thing is that you can change the glimmer paper and metallic tape to any color you choose, as light or as dark as you would like, just by adding a bit of ink. Make sure you tap the color on, don’t rub! Otherwise bits of your sponge will make its way onto your paper or tape.
• Adhere the solid butterfly onto your card, then the detailed butterfly over it. I used glue dots down the center of the butterfly, so that the wings could be bent out giving some dimension.
• Adhere the metallic tape on the bottom third section of your panel.
• Stamp the sentiment (this one from Six Sided Sampler stamp set).
• Adhere the white panel onto the black.
• Add a few sequins. These are from the Feb ’16 Paper Pumpkin
• Add a bit of Dazzling Details to the butterflies body and wings for some extra sparkle and dimension. Do this last so you can set it aside to dry.
• Sit back and admire 🙂

 

 

We will be out of town starting Wed morning, we are heading to St. Louis for a Halloween Trade Show. SO excited! My hubby and I (and my mom!) are big Halloween fans. This is a trade show for those in the industry to see the newest and most exciting items coming out for the year. Think of it as the CHA of the Halloween world! In addition, we will be heading to the Shaved Duck, one of our favorite restaurants ever and the City Museum. The City Museum is amazing. Great for kids and adults. It is the oddest, most random museum ever, but that makes it the most fun 🙂

On that note though, the blog won’t be quiet. I will be working tonight to have some things auto publish for you 🙂

Have a wonderful day!!!

Product List

Project Life Memories In The Making Photopolymer Stamp Set [140743] $16.00	Six-Sided Sampler Clear Stamp Set [130956] $19.00	Basic Black Archival Stampin’ Pad [140931] $7.00	Blushing Bride Classic Stampin’ Pad [131172] $6.50
Basic Black 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [121045] $7.00	Shimmery White 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [101910] $8.00	Pink Pirouette 8-1/2″ X 11″ Card Stock [111351] $7.00	Dazzling Diamonds Glimmer Paper [135315] $5.00
Bold Butterfly Framelits Dies [138135] $17.00	Butterflies Thinlits Dies [137360] $25.00	Dazzling Details [124117] $2.50	Sponge Daubers [133773] $5.00
Glue Dots [103683] $5.25	Liquid Multipurpose Glue [110755] $4.00