Hello May!

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And just like that it’s May already.  I’m not sure I can say time is flying by with people, me included, staying home these days. I think I have lost track of how long I have been self-isolating. So far it hasn’t been bad other than missing my family and friends. But thankfully we have such sophisticated technology that we are in contact sometimes numerous times a day.

For May’s CD calendar page I used the Very Versailles and Butterfly Gala stamp sets and Pretty Peacock ink and a Daffodil Delight marker.

 

Share Sunshine – Making a Difference

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Stampin’ Up! is committed to making a difference in our global communities and caring about people first. As part of the Making a Difference program they are offering a product giveback opportunity to support organizations that are helping COVID-19 frontline responders and communities vulnerable to the pandemic.

The Share Sunshine PDF Download is a digital stamp set that’s packed with both lighthearted and heartfelt sentiments and imagery relevant to the unique COVID-19 and social distancing situation we’re currently experiencing–including many ideas that came from demonstrators and customers! You can use the download in your cardmaking and papercrafting projects. Simply print the imagery on cardstock and cut it out using your Paper Trimmer, punches, or dies. Since we are physically distanced from each other, now is a perfect time to share sunshine with our friends and family by sending cards!

The PDF download is 15 pages of digital sentiments and images. It includes both funny and heartfelt sentiments in black and also in different Stampin’ Up colors. The price of the download is $12

100% of the proceeds will be donated to COVID-19 efforts. The two global charities chosen (because Stampin’ UP is a global company) are WHO and United Way. When you order you will have the option to select either one or to select the money to be split between the two organizations. 

 Sara Douglas, Stampin’ UP CEO did a video on Facebook showing all of the included pages. I have shared that post to my Space Coast Stamper Facebook page. 

I have not made any cards yet so I am sharing a couple that other demonstrators have made.

Created by Jean Addis

 

Created by Susan Campfield

 

And one last note. I know you can create your own sentiments and print them out to use on cards.  The advantage to purchasing this download is that you have such a large collection of them in different colors and fonts and you didn’t have to spend time trying to create you own. There are such clever sentiments included that I’m sure you wouldn’t think of.  And you are giving back with your purchase to organizations helping to fight this pandemic.

You can purchase the download here

Have a great day, stay safe, and be well.

Beth

Tropical Oasis Suite

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Some time ago, when I could still have stamp classes, I did a class of three cards all using the same layout, the same stamp set and the same Designer Series Paper pack. Living in Florida getting the Timeless Tropical Bundle was a must.  My inspiration came from demonstrator Lisa Curcio. You can see her card and video here.  I didn’t buy the braided burlap ribbon from the suite of products so I used the regular burlap ribbon from the annual catalog. Lisa’s card had the back side of the front folded panel adhered between the card base and the designer series paper. For my first card  (the one with the cars) I did that but decided later that I actually liked it better adhering it so that the back became a mat for the white insert. You can see the difference in the cards below. Some of the photos were taken with the card in a cello protective envelope which I do for my classes so there is some glare. And I am not sure where the actual cards are right now. I am in the process of reorganizing my stamp room.

The palm trees are stamped in Old Olive (stamped off) and then Pretty Peacock ink dabbed directly onto the inked stamp right over the Old Olive ink with a sponge dauber. The trunks are then colored with an Early Espresso marker right over the Old Olive ink. Do all of this before even stamping on your paper.

The pineapple bottom portion is sponged with Crushed Curry ink. The top is sponged with Garden Green ink.

The flower is inked with Mango Melody ink and then the center sponged with Real Red ink right on the inked stamp prior to stamping the flower on your paper.

 

The stamp set and dies have been so popular that they are currently on backorder but expected to be available the week of the 27th. You can still order them now but there will be a slight delay in getting them.

I am enjoying the most heavenly rainly, cool day. It has been so hot lately making my one and only outing of the day (walking) miserable with temperatures still close to 90 degrees in the late afternoon. Today it’s 65 degrees and wasn’t currently raining this morning when I decided to go walk. I got as far as the end of the driveway when the rain came. So much for a morning walk. Maybe later today.

Make someone’s day. Send them a card.

Paper Pumpkin Surprise in May Kit

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The Paper Pumpkin team loves planning fun surprises, so they’ve been VERY excited to let us know what they have in store for the month of May: a fabulous kit featuring the new 2020–2022 In Colors, plus Purple Posy, an In Color from the 2019–2021 collection. This means that as Paper Pumpkin subscribers, you will be first to get your hands on new In Color products. And that’s just the beginning of things to love about this kit!
 
Stampin’ Up will be  adding colors to this image after the online release of the new catalog (April 24th). I will make sure to share it with you as soon as I have it. If you want to subscribe to Paper Pumpkin, do it before May 10th to guarantee you will get this really special kit in may! You can subscribe here.  There will be a place to enter in my name as your demonstrator.  If you have been a Paper Pumpkin subscriber and took a break for whatever reason this is a great time to give it another try. With everyone having to stay home stamping is the perfect activity to keep from getting bored. I have been especially happy with the recent kits. Each kit is $22, comes monthly and includes everything you need other than adhesive. The best part, you get cool new stamps and ink. The first kit will come with an acrylic block to mount your stamps which are photopolymer.
 
Retiring In Colors
Remember that the 2018-2020 In Colors will be retiring. The retiring list comes out next week so if you need ink refills or additional cardstock now is the time to get it. Once that list comes out they sell out very quickly.
 
 
Thanks for looking in.
 
 

April CD Calendar & Nursing Home Cards

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I am almost a week late in posting the April CD Calendar page but if you’re like me it’s hard to know what day it is anymore with the current stay-at-home recommendation. And I have been staying home. In the last 3 weeks I have been out twice. Once for an emergency dental appointment and then to take cards to the local nursing home. When I heard that visitors were currently not permitted in nursing homes I imagined how lonely it could feel and thought a hand-stamped card might bring a bit of cheer. I have so many cards because of doing lots of classes. Bins full of cards but most of them with the inside not finished. I called one of our nursing homes and asked about doing cards for them and was told they would love it.  I found out that not only were patients not allowed visitors but they had to even eat in their rooms as the common areas were not big enough to allow the recommended distancing between them. Then she told me there were 117 patients. I didn’t expect that many but got to work.  I decided to write a note inside each one. That was the biggest task. I asked if there was anything else that people might do for them and was told the patients love candy and chips but the vending machines were empty. Because only medical staff are currently allowed inside the vendor could not come in to refill them. I put this info out on my Facebook page and one friend took individual bags of potato chips to them. I ordered some assorted chocolate candy and took it with my cards.

These are stacks of the cards I did for the nursing home. There are 118 cards which all say Thinking of You.

I also made these tent cards for Easter to be put on their meal trays.

This is the inside of the Easter tent card.

I have friends who are also making cards for different homes and friends who are busily sewing masks. I love seeing that people are helping others get through this difficult time.

Thanks for stopping by and stay safe and healthy

Sale-A-Bration 3rd Release – New Items

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There are just a few days left of Sale-A-Bration and an opportunity to earn free product. The new items all come from the catalog. If you are thinking you don’t need anything right now keep reading because I am offering a special to go along with this.

These are the stamp sets that coordinate with the Butterfly Duet Punch:

And this is the stamp set that coordinates with the Wild Rose Dies:

Because of the social distancing mandate that has resulted in no classes for awhile I am offering a special with any orders between now and March 31st. If you spend $50 you get to pick one free item in the $50 category. Spend $100 and you can select one of the $100 items or 2 of the $50 items. I had planned on offering free shipping with an order. If you want to order online from my store then I will give you a coupon equal to the shipping to be used on a future order. Ordering online means the order will be delivered directly to you and you won’t need to come pick it up at my house. However if that option works better for you I will order as long as you send me your list by March 30th.  If you order online please use the host code for any order that is less than $150.

March Host Code: GRXF7H7B

If you are staying home I hope you are enjoying time to do some stamping. Please share what you are creating on my Facebook Space Coast Stamper’s VIP community page. You can get there here.

Thanks for stopping by

Bee Bingo

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Last week before all of the limitations were put into place about groups of people I held my second bingo event. As it turned out it became my last stamping get-together for awhile as I am sheltering in place along with so many others. I had 12 people come and my overall theme was bees because I LOVE the new Honey Bee stamp set.

Each bag had a set of the Stampin’ Up note cards and envelopes, supplies for the make & takes, a Honey Stinger Waffle (Amazon), a little honeycomb jar filled with honey hard candy, and a Burt’s Bees chap stick.

 

Any order received that day got $5 off . And they all got to keep the RSVP pens which had pieces of the coordinating DSP inserted in the barrel.

 

There were plenty of prizes including stamp sets, dies, DSP, embellishments and more. There were also plenty of raffle prizes.

 

Since toilet paper is in such short supply right now I thought this bee looked cute perched on top of a roll and who knows, that roll just may come in handy for the person who won it.  Speaking of toilet paper, one of the guests, Kym,  brought me the cutest gift. She machine embroidered right on a roll.

 

Guests received extra raffle tickets if they brought a snack to share so we had plenty of goodies to eat. These cookies were made by my friend Debi and I. We have both taken two classes in cookie decorating and we have lots to still learn and much more practice before they look like we want them to look but for our 3rd try we were happy with these.

 

We had fun doing it but as you can see it can be messy. I don’t know if I will ever use black icing again!

 

My friend, Donna, came well prepared to hand sanitize. She put it in one of Stampin’ Up’s spritzers. Clever idea Donna!

 

Terri, Debi, Evelyn and Connie

I’m not sure what Evelyn is pointing to but she is one of my mahjong buddies and we play often. When she had a bingo on her card she yelled out “mahjong”.

 

Donna, Kym, Barbara, and Jan

 

Terry, Dee, Kathy and Diane

 

Terri won a stamp set, pearls, and ribbon.

 

Debi won a stamp set and coordinating punch

 

Connie selected a Paper Pumpkin kit as her winning prize

 

Diane won the Honey Bee Designer Series Paper, a package of card stock and a roll of ribbon. She also was the lucky winner of the last “cover all” bingo game and won the $50 shopping spree. While guests could only win one of the bingo prizes they all were eligible to win the shopping spree and some of the raffle prizes.

Jan won a stamp set and embossing folder

 

Barbara won the roll of toilet paper with the bee perched on top.  With the shelves in the store empty this just may have been the best prize of all!

 

Dee won this cute soap which was one of the raffle prizes.

 

Another raffle prize won by Evelyn

 

Kathy won this raffle prize. A little pillow that says “It’s good to be queen”

It was a fun day and I’ll plan another bingo in the future for sure.

I hope everyone is keeping their distance from others, washing hands, sanitizing and being smart.  That’s what it is going to take to get through this pandemic. Remember you’re not only protecting yourself but other people as well. My daughter is a nurse and I worry about her and everyone else who is required to work.

Have a great day

My Wonderful Family – April Paper Pumpkin

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For April, Stampin’ Up! created a fun, family appreciation themed card kit that would make it easy for customers to share their hearts with those they love most: mom, dad, daughter, son, sister, and brother. April’s kit even includes Mother’s Day and Father’s Day sentiments, giving your customers the perfect way to show their appreciation for beloved parents on their special days with a beautiful, handmade card.

One more thing about this “fam-tastic” kit: The Paper Pumpkin team knows that everyone’s clan is unique. With that in mind, they provided sentiments that would include anyone in your life who feels like family; for instance, “brothers” and “sisters” who have helped you along the journey of life.

 

 

If you have been thinking about Paper Pumpkin, now is the perfect time to give it a try! 

WHY? From now through March 31, you can earn FREE Sale-A-Bration item(s) when you purchase a 3-, 6-, or 12-month subscription.  

 

Be sure to order and activate your subscription by April 10, to receive this kit. You can subscribe by going to  Paperpumpkin.com.

Thanks for stopping by and

 

Global Design Project Winner!

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I was super excited to learn that my entry in last weeks challenge was selected as one of three winners. That project is my previous post which you can see here.  There is a new challenge every Monday and I have followed them for quite some time but have never entered before. Since I had this project ready for my bingo event and it fit the theme of the week I decided to enter. You don’t actually win a prize or money or anything other than bragging rights so I’m taking that and bragging a little bit. Or a lot.

You can follow Global Design Project and the team here. Anyone can enter the challenges. And it’s not restricted to Stampin’ Up or demonstrators so make a card and give them a try. Who knows, maybe you’ll be a winner too.

 

 

Honey Bee 3″x3″ Cards

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One of my favorite sets in the mini catalog is Honey Bee. I was thrilled when one of the SAB free items was the Golden Honey designer series paper (it was so popular it has already sold out). Stampin’ Up! makes it so easy to create cards with their coordinating products.

I have a bingo event next week with a bee theme so look for another post later with more photos of the all that fun. This is a sneak peek at one of the make and takes. I decided to play along this week with Global Design Project’s theme of flutter and fly.  #GDP231

I love little 3″ x 3″ cards. A set makes a great gift and you can still mail one if you put it in a regular envelope. A quick and easy way to say “I’m thinking about you”.

 

 

Thanks for stopping by and keep those hands washed. (smile)
 
March Host Code:  GRXF7H7B