Last Wednesday I hosted my first Facebook Live crafting session.  Here are the cards I made:

The images and sentiments are from the new  Bloom and Grow stamp set and coordinating Budding Blooms dies. I stamped them in Memento Tuxedo Black ink and coloured them quickly with my Stampin' Blends.  The cards are made using the Floating Die Cut Frame technique, popularised by Jennifer McGuire, Bruno Bertucci and several other card crafters. The key to making these cards easily is using Glad Press'n Seal plastic wrap to hold  the die cuts in place as you work with them.

One of the neat things about this technique is that it makes 2-for-1!  The centre that is cut out to make the frame for card 1 is affixed to another card base to make card 2.

Then I filled in some of the white space between die cuts with retired black rhinestones, and added sentiments.

Here's another set of cards I made using this technique as a dry run for the FB Live:

This one uses the flowers from the Rose Trellis stamp set in the Occasions Catalogue.   I think it's interesting the different effects the more- and less-closely-spaced flower clusters give.  Do you have a preference?

We didn't buy out this store, but we should have!  The extra rolls she did buy were snapped up by other demonstrators.  She even placed an online delivery order with the supermarket, who couldn't fulfil our quantity request (who orders 27 boxes of plastic wrap???) but did get some for more demonstrators.  

If you want to see how this product is used to make the cards, feel free to watch any of the videos I've linked to in this post...including my Facebook Live video.  Also, see below for how to tune in to tomorrow's Live!

Each week I'll be hosting a crafting session on my Nancy's Nifty Notes Facebook Page.  I'll start at 10:00 am on Wednesdays and will probably run for 30-45 minutes.   You can tune in live or watch on replay!  Add comments and questions and I'll  respond either orally during the broadcast or in the comments afterwards.

​Here's some help for my friends in the USA:
Melbourne, Australia     Wed, 8 May 2019 at 10:00 a.m. AEST    
New York, USA              Tue, 7 May 2019 at 8:00 p.m. EDT      
Chicago, USA                Tue, 7 May 2019 at 7:00 p.m. CDT      
Denver, USA                  Tue, 7 May 2019 at 6:00 p.m. MDT      
Phoenix, USA                Tue, 7 May 2019 at 5:00 p.m. MST      
Los Angeles, USA        Tue, 7 May 2019 at 5:00 p.m. PDT      ​

I've been spending some time using retiring favourites this month.  Today's card is CASE'd from the 2018-2019 Annual Catalogue.

I stamped the rose image on the So Saffron card base in So Saffron ink.  Looking again at the catalogue photo I think they must have applied So Saffron ink very lightly to a Whisper White card base, probably with a sponge brayer, then stamped-off the rose image.  

The Daffodil Delight pennant was embossed with one of the Petal Pair embossing folders.  I inked up the rose stamp again with Petal Pink and Mint Macaron Stampin' Write Markers and cut it and the leaves out with the Petals & More Thinlits Dies.  The sentiment is stamped in Blackberry Bliss ink.

Can you see the Gold Metallic Thread in the picture?  It's much more visible, and the Basic Adhesive-Backed Sequins more muted in real life.  It's funny what the lighting will cause the camera to emphasise.

This is the final card we made in my Monthly Card Class.  Unlike the others, it features items that are carrying over to the new Annual Catalogue - yay!

CASE'd from (ugh - I can't find it! If it's you let me know and I'll update!), this card has a panel of Whisper White embossed in the Lace embossing folder and mounted on a Grapefruit Grove mat.  The sentiment is stamped in Grapefruit Grove ink and is from the Piece of Cake stamp set.  

The butterflies are cut with the Butterfly Beauty dies from Grapefruit Grove Foil that was available paired with Lovely Lipstick Foil during Sale-A-Bration.  It has a holographic finish that gives a rainbow effect in the light - very cool.  We snipped off the two lower butterflies and added them to the inside of the card.

A note on carry-over products:

Products that are offered in bundles (which save you 10%) in current catalogs and are carrying over will NOT be offered as bundles in the next catalog, even though both items will be offered.  Therefore, if you have bundled items on your wish list it may be prudent to go ahead and order them before June 3.

Examples of bundled items used on this card:

Same products, un-bundled:

Paper Pumpkin is Stampin' Up!'s monthly paper crafting kit that has been available in North America for 6 years.  This special kit, designed in conjunction with SU!'s co-founder and chair, Shelli Gardner, is a one-off global offering.

The Shelli kit from Paper Pumpkin includes the following:

• An exclusive stamp set not available anywhere else
• One Classic Stampin’ Spot® from our Classic ink collection
• Paper and crafting materials to create 12 cards (3 cards of 4 unique designs)
• 12 exclusive, coordinating envelopes
• Adhesives and embellishments for all 12 cards

I will be creating a Pinterest board with alternative project ideas for using the contents of the Hugs for Shelli Kit.  I will also offer a session in my craft room for customers who purchase it to come assemble their kit and make some alternatives if they like.

​When I lived in the U.S. I really enjoyed both the original designs and creating alternatives with my Paper Pumpkin kits...I hope you'll take advantage of this opportunity!

I fully expect this kit to sell out quickly...you may pre-order with me now, and I will collect payment from you before placing an order on May 15. This will save you having to remember on the day!

Another card from my class this month featuring another retiring stamp set, Vertical Greetings.

My friend and former U.S. downline, Nickie, brought this card to my attention when she taught it in her class, and we've CASE'd it from Leonie Schroder.

We had fun playing with the embossing folder for the background panel:  we inked up one side of the folder with the Mint Macaron ink pad before running the Mint Macaron card stock through it.

We used Mint Macaron, Early Espresso and Crumb Cake markers to ink up the topiary and stamped both it and the sentiment using the Stamparatus.  This made proper placement so easy on both of the little card stock panels!

This week I've shown you several projects made with retiring products.  If they've sparked your interest I urge you to order them while they are still available.  Click on the button below to go to my online store and see what will be going away forever on June 3!

This month's class mostly featured stamp sets that are retiring in June.  This card is no exception.  CASE'd from Eva Dobilas, it is a bright, cheerful birthday card that is suitable for anyone who enjoys a lovely fermented beverage, be it beer, kombucha, cider, whatever!

This card has a LOT of elements!  From the many stamped, die cut, and sponged pieces of the bottles and sentiment, to the embossed card base with a strip of Wood Textures DSP.  Then there is the project-within-the-project of the watercolored background.

We used a piece of Watercolor Paper and spritzed it with water.  Then we added Coastal Cabana, Lemon Lime Twist and Mango Melody ink with an AquaPainter, adding and mixing until we had something we liked.  We also flicked ink spatter on using the cap of the AquaPainter and the tip of the brush.  Once it was dry (we did this first and while it was drying stamped and cut the other elements) we stamped the bubbles with Coastal Cabana ink.

Everyone enjoyed making this, and had someone in mind to give it to...if you don't have this set consider picking it up before it's gone!

Coordinating products to consider:

Here's another card we made in the Monthly Card class last week.  It features the Lovely As A Tree stamp set.

Lovely As A Tree is the longest tenured stamp set...it's been in the catalogue since 2001!  I personally heard Shelli Gardner say that it would never retire, but along with wood mount stamps that she also said she'd never give up, she's had to admit to "never say never!"  Yes, at the end of this annual catalogue, Lovely As A Tree is finally retiring.

To make the background for the trees we masked the top and bottom of the Whisper White layer.  Large Post-it Notes work well for this, but I've also found this Post-It Removable Labelling Tape that is ideal. I brought mine from the U.S., but a quick search found it available on eBay in Australia.

Once we made sure the masks were in place, we sponged Balmy Blue and Pear Pizzazz ink onto the exposed strip of Whisper White, being sure to start on the mask and work onto the card stock.

We used the Stamp-A-Ma-Jig (remember this?) to place the trees since it is a wood mount stamp set.  Added the sentiment and layered it up - a simple but very pretty card!

Additional coordinating items to consider:

I fully expect this product medley to sell out quickly!
Reserve with me now, and I will collect payment and order tomorrow.
​This will save you having to remember during the day!

In my Monthly Card Class this month I featured several stamp sets that are scheduled to retire on June 2.  One of them is this high-impact Floral Statements set, which combines flowers and a word on one stamp.

CASE'd from Heather Cooper, this card makes a big impact in its simplicity.  We used Stampin' Blends alcohol markers  to colour, and the Stitched Rectangles dies add to the top two layers.  ¼" Ombre Ribbon and Glitter & Clear Epoxy Shapes add the finishing touches.

Paper Pumpkin is Stampin' Up!'s monthly paper crafting kit that has been available in North America for 6 years.  This special kit, designed in conjunction with SU!'s co-founder and chair, Shelli Gardner, is a one-off global offering.

The Shelli kit from Paper Pumpkin includes the following:

• An exclusive stamp set not available anywhere else
• One Classic Stampin’ Spot® from our Classic ink collection
• Paper and crafting materials to create 12 cards (3 cards of 4 unique designs)
• 12 exclusive, coordinating envelopes
• Adhesives and embellishments for all 12 cards

I will be creating a Pinterest board with alternative project ideas for using the contents of the Hugs for Shelli Kit.  I will also offer a session in my craft room for customers who purchase it to come assemble their kit and make some alternatives if they like.

​When I lived in the U.S. I really enjoyed both the original designs and creating alternatives with my Paper Pumpkin kits...I hope you'll take advantage of this opportunity!

I fully expect this kit to sell out quickly...you may pre-order with me now, and I will collect payment from you before placing an order on May 15. This will save you having to remember on the day!

Last week during my Facebook Live video you may have caught me saying that the new Stitched Nested Labels Dies looked like they could be fun to use for the Triple Time Stamping technique that we used on this card in my March class.  So I decided to give it a try, with the following results.

Normally we use a coloured card base and 3 light layers to stamp on, which is what I tried first.

I stamped some images from the Sailing Home set I received at OnStage Live in Night of Navy, Sahara Sand and Basic Gray.  The largest die fits well on the note card sized base, but in part because the images are a bit large for the available space I wasn't thrilled with the result (the blurry picture doesn't improve things either - sorry!).

So I decided to swap the coloured and light layers:

This time I pulled out the Beauty Abounds set, which will be carrying over from the current Occasions Catalogue (yay!).  The layer swap and smaller images worked much better, I think.  This card screams "Spring!" to me...I'm still adjusting to April being Autumn.

Have you been stamping and creating recently?  Send me pictures of what you're doing - I'd love to see them!  nhoetker@mac.com

For my U.S. readers:
Today (Thursday) is ANZAC Day, which was established to commemorate the landing of Australian and New Zealand Army Corps soldiers on the Gallipoli Peninsula in Turkey, on 25 April 1915 during World War I.  It was a drawn-out stalemate of trench warfare that resulted in high casualties on all sides. The involvement of ANZAC troops proved to be a key influence in developing national identities in both Australia and New Zealand and their independence from Britain.  

Glenn and I were fortunate to see a very well-executed and moving exhibit about the Gallipoli Campaign while we were in Wellington earlier this month.  Unbeknownst to us at the time, the huge sculptures that were an integral part of the displays were made by the talented folks at WetaWorkshop, the famous movie and TV model/costuming shop that has done so much great work, from "Lord of the Rings" to the "Avengers" movies.

At OnStage Live, Bev Easton was sharing a special swap she'd made to commemorate the centenary of WWI (2014-2019) and ANZAC Day.

The scope of ANZAC Day has expanded to honour troops that have served in all the conflicts that have come after World War I as well.  I continue to hope that these remembrances will help our leaders bear in mind that war is not a good answer to disputes.

And on that solemn note I'm off to enjoy my public holiday!

It's so exciting to see presentations of new products at OnStage...and even better when we get to play with them!  I think SU! did a great job of picking projects that showcase the variety of styles and products available.

If you followed along on my Nancy's Nifty Notes Facebook Page you've already seen the projects we made, but here are some better pictures:

This card showcases items from the Bird Ballad Suite:  Free as a Bird stamp set, Bird Ballad Designer Series Paper (DSP), and ⅜" (1cm) Scalloped Lace Trim.  Fun fact about the DSP is that the artist actually coloured in the images with our Stampin' Blends before sending it to the printer, so when we colour our stamped images they will have the same look!

This note card is made with the Come Sail Away Suite: Sailing Home stamp set, Come Sail Away DSP, Sail Away Trinkets and Baker's Twine with Sahara Sand and Night of Navy threads.  There are coordinating dies, too!

This card features the Perennial Essence Suite: Floral Essence stamp set, Perennial Flower punch, Perennial Essence DSP, Perennial Essence 12x12 Vellum, and Perennial Essence Floral Centers.  The twine is from the Magnolia Lane Ribbon Combo Pack.  Such soft, pretty images inspired by Impressionist painters like Monet.

The suite used for this card is called Follow Your Art:  It Starts with Art stamp set and Follow Your Art DSP.  The suite also has coordinating dies and embossing folder as well as super-cute washi tape, SU-themed mini shipping boxes, and an embellishment kit.

Finally, we got to make a sneak-peek sample of the cards that are coming in the first GLOBAL Paper Pumpkin kit!  That's right, all markets will be able to purchase this one-off kit in May!

Called Hugs from Shelli, this kit was designed with a lot of input from Shelli Gardner, co-founder and Chair of Stampin' Up!  It reflects a lot of her style, which is touted as "earthy and elegant with lots of layers and texture."

The Shelli kit from Paper Pumpkin includes the following:

• An exclusive stamp set not available anywhere else
• One Classic Stampin’ Spot® from our Classic ink collection
• Paper and crafting materials to create 12 cards (3 cards of 4 unique designs)
• 12 exclusive, coordinating envelopes
• Adhesives and embellishments for all 12 cards
• Coordinating Stampin’ Up! colours: Crumb Cake, Early Espresso, Old Olive, Petal Pink, Pool Party, Pretty Peacock, Soft Suede and Very Vanilla
• Item #152032,  $37.00