Tag Archives: Special Reason

Our current hostess code is FCGZVMVE.

Hello Stamping Friends,

It is another very snowy day here in Castle Rock, Colorado and I am loving it!  As a little girl I would get so excited when it snowed, but my dad would look at me and say “If you had to go out and feed the cows you wouldn’t be so happy!”  I just have birds outside to feed and they were sure glad we had stocked up the bird feeders!

Today I have a few Thank You cards to show you.

Which do you like better?  These were simple using the Lovely Floral Embossing Folder, #148048 and  the Banners For You Stamp Set, # 141710,  with the Bunch of Banners Framelits, #141488.  There is a Heart Epoxy Droplet, #148583, in front of the Thank You and a Frosted Flower Embellishment, #148782, in the center of the flower.  The tiny clear droplets are retired as is the ribbon.  I am learning to stock those embellishments when they are introduced before they sell out.  Hopefully you have done the same.

• Card Base:  Thick Whisper White  8 1/2″  X  5 1/2″ scored at 4 1/4″
• Top Layer:  Pacific Point 5 1/4″ X 4″ embossed with the Lovely Floral embossing folder
• Greeting:  Scrap of Whisper White stamped with the Banners For You greeting and cut with Bunch of Banners Framelits
• Inside:  Greeting is stamped directly on the Thick Whisper White.  It is from the Spirited Snowmen stamp set in the Holiday Catalog.  The bottom design is from the Banners For You stamp set.  I had never noticed that little flourish design before.

Stay with me while I show you how fantastic our Stamparatus is for mass production.  I have been delighted to use it instead of blocks so I can restamp an image if it is not as perfect as I like, but I never thought I would use the hinge apparatus that lets you move the plate down the base in perfect intervals.  It was interesting to watch the demonstrations as the stampers stamped Happy Birthday or a design a number of times down a card but not something I thought I would ever do.  However,  I tried it for mass producing the banners and it worked beautifully.  Tip: Place one of our stamp cases under the plate to give a sturdy base for inking up the stamp.

I inked the stamp and then moved it down one step in the hinges.  I had six beautifully lined up banners.  I should have stamped the inside greeting first so I could line up the banner over top instead of doing the greeting over the banner.  I ruined the first one in my line up attempt but once the stamp was lined up, I moved the plate down the hinges and had a nice set of banners ready to cut out.  Tip:  Use the acrylic sheet from your Stamp A Ma Jig to test the line up of the stamp.  You will save a lot of grid paper and it would have saved me a banner!

Tip:  Cut up your shammy to make a great little tool to clean any shadows off the edges of your stamps.  It works great for cleaning your stamps while they are on the Stamparatus as well. I cut mine into several rectangles for each person to have at their station instead of a wet wipe.  I store them in another of our stamp cases.

These are the cards you see me producing in the pictures:

The Spirited Snowmen set did not carryover (they didn’t ask me…) but I wanted to show you the Delightfully Detailed Note Cards & Envelopes from the Annual Catalog page 193, #146911.  There are 20 cards that are already color-washed.  10 are in Blackberry Bliss and 10 are in Mint Macaron (but I thought Pool Party was a better match and used it for my cards). I embossed some with the Softly Falling embossing folder, #139672, and I used the new Big Shot Embossing Mats, #146327, with the snowflakes from the Seasonal Layers Thinlits, #143751, to emboss the images instead of cutting them.  We can do this with any of our framelits giving us a whole new application for embossing.  You can see the embossing done on top facing down or on the bottom facing up in these images.

The Pool Party Shimmer Ribbon, #144152, was a great accent for the image which was stamped on a 3 1/2″ X 2 5/8″  Oval.  The edges were sponged with Pool Party.

Greetings:  ‘From The Heart’ – Petal Palette, #145788;   ‘Thanks so much’- A Big Thank You, #147377;   Inside bottom flourish – Banners For You, #141710

Bonus Card:

I made this card for Paul, my DH-darling hubby- and wonderful helper in this business!  We celebrated 43 years of marriage on December 20.  The card uses the Sprited Snowmen, the tree from Winter Woods (which does carryover), the Swirls & Curls embossing folder (also carrys over), and the Star of Light stamp set, which I hope stays in the annual catalogs for years.  I bought the Stitched All Around stamp set, page 17, # 146632,  just because it had a stamp that said “Oh darling you are fabulous”  and I wanted to use it on a card for Paul.  It made a great inside for this card.

Flashback Fun

When you are in the design zone, don’t forget Vertical Greetings on page 31 of the Annual Catalog.  This is another set I hope continues for years.  I used the current Vertical Greetings set with the ‘Special Reason’ stamp set and the ‘Stylish Stems’ Framelits that are retired.

The pink strip I cut off the front side was placed on the inside on top of a fun piece of Designer Series Paper.

Another favorite from the past is Paisleys and Posies with the Paisley Framelits:

You could use this as a card layout for a thank you card using a piece of Designer Series Paper, DSP, with a strip of foil paper, a fun framelit cutout and a thank you in the corner. It is fun to challenge yourself to bring in all the colors of a piece of Designer Series Paper.   The photopolymer stamps will bend so you can round them into a corner similar to what is shown here using a past Sale A Bration stamp set.  Send me a picture if you make a card with this layout, I would love to see it.

Next time I have some amazing Valentines to show you from my stamping friends at club.

The current hostess code is:  FCGZVMVE and it is Sale A Bration time!

Click on SAL to go to the online store.

SAL,  Show A Lot of different cards

Karen