Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

 I can't believe how fast 2021 went, even though it dragged in parts, mainly during lockdowns and restrictions. In spite of everything that went wrong, I was able to think back this New Year's Eve and reflect on the many blessings that also happened. 

There were major things like selling our old home and moving into a new one. There were important things like making new friends and continuing to develop friendships, being able to craft, learning new things. 

We always had food on the table and petrol in the car, and we were able to take a few local trips.

So this New Year's Eve, I decided to make an Exploding Box Album to hold some of the precious memories of 2021. If you would like to make one too, find out how here. I wrote you some instructions. And I have included information about the new supplies I used. The ribbon is the new Frayed Ribbon in white. 

May 2022 be good to us all! 

Urgent: November Seasonal Sale

 This great Stampin' Up! sale is on now, but only till November 18th while stocks last! And this sale is for Aussie crafters only, sorry.

 

Promotion Period: 16–18 November 2021

• The sale will run for three days only.
• The discount includes 10% off cardstock, 15% off ink pads (excluding ink pad bundles and third-party pads), and 20% off dies.
• The discount applies to products featured in the 2021–2022 Annual Catalogue only. Products from the July–December 2021 Mini Catalogue are not included.
• The sale is available through both online store purchases and demonstrator orders.
• Please note that items available vary by market based on shipping constraints and product availability.

 

Shop at SusanSalutations online store. 

Happy Mother's Day!

To all the Mums out there,  I hope that you have a fabulous Mother's Day. I hope you can honour and spoil your own mother if able and that your day makes you all feel special.

There are so many beautiful hearts and flowers options in the Stampin' Up! range if you need to make a last minute card.  Garden Wishes comes to mind right away:

 

 

Then there's the heart stamps. The Lots of Heart stamp set makes some lovely appreciation gifts and cards such as shown in these samples, but use your imagination to make your projects your own.

 

 

 If you want classically beautiful flowers, the Prized Peony stamp set is perfect. Here are some more cards samples using the Peony stamps:

However you celebrate today, I hope it is a good day

Till next time.

How Do I Use Gilded Leafing?

 Many have asked me how to use Gilded Leafing. It's such a pretty embellishment! And it isn't too hard to use.

It comes in a large jar like this.

See that plastic container at the bottom left? You need one of those (I use a deeper one) to hold the gold leaf while you work with it.

Be careful once you let it out of the jar! It is light as a feather and easy to cause it to puff into the air! I turn off all fans and close the windows when I am working with it. This is a time even a face mask could be useful! It will stop you accidentally puffing air towards the light, thin leaf and then finding it all over your desk and clothing!

The next thing I use to affix gold leaf is my Tombow Multipurpose liquid glue. I add a thin film of the glue to the part of an image I want to gild and put it aside to dry. Tombow Multi dries tacky! It's perfect for adding some gilded leaf to your projects.

You can even draw wiggly lines like this, allow them to dry, and gild them. Try dots, add some glue to the middle of a flower image, or to the windows of a stamped house. Add some to a reindeer image's antlers! The possibilities are endless.

 

 

The next thing you need is some kind of brush with stiff bristles. I use one like this. I bought it at a grocery store in the stationery section. You could even use an inexpensive child's paintbrush set. It is a perfect tool for brushing away excess gold leafing.

So once you have your tacky image all set to go, put a little gold leaf into your large container, and press your tacky image into the gold leaf. It will pick up lots of fluffy bits! Then bring in your stiff brush and brush away the excess, making sure the excess your brush off  falls back into your large container.

For the project I am showcasing here, I dry embossed my cardstock then swiped Tombow across some of the raised parts, allowed it to dry, then pressed the gilded leafing into the tackiness. I brushed away the excess and voila!  A finished, embellished piece!

 

Be sure to use the same stiff brush to help to carefully put the excess Gilded Leafing back into its jar.

Other ways to Use Gilded Leafing:

You can also use Heat and Stick Powder to gild stamped images. Stamp in Versamark first. Quickly pour Heat & Stick Powder on top. Tap away the excess (as thought you are going to heat emboss the image).

Now use a heat tool to quickly heat the Heat & Stick powder. The trick here is not to heat it too long. Your image will then be tacky enough to pick up the Gold Leafing.

You can use double sided tape to create lines of gilded leafing on your projects. Just lay some tape down on your project, take off the covering paper, and press it into the gold leafing. You could create just straight lines or criss-cross lines of tape across your project to create a pattern.

I'll add a few more images once I have photographed my projects to show you what I mean.

Here are links to the products I used while using gilded leafing:

Gilded Leafing 

Multi Purpose Liquid Glue 

Versamark Pad

Heat Tool

Heat & Stick Powder

Ask questions about how to use these products in comments and I will get back to you. :)

Gilded Leafing as an Embellishment

 

 

Gilded leafing is a popular technique this year and I just had to try playing with it! 

 

This card has an embossed panel in the background and I chose to use the gilded leafing on that. 

When you get these gold flakes, they come in a large jar. When you open that jar, be careful! The leafing is light and airy and can be puffed away by the smallest breath.

I turned off my fan and had a large plastic container ready before I opened mine. I also had a stiff paintbrush at the ready.

Once I embossed my cardstock, I brushed some Tombow glue across the raised ridges and set it aside to allow the glue to become tacky dry.

Then I carefully piled gold leaf on top of the glue. Once it had caught, I brushed the excess away with my stiff paintbrush.

It really is a pretty effect!

 

Shop for supplies used to make this project:

 

Gilded Leafing   154560

 

Garden Wishes Bundle  156220

 

Painted Texture 3D Embossing Folder  154317

Stitched So Sweetly Dies 151690

Dandy Garden 6" x 6" DSP  154297

 

 

Happy Valentine's Day!

 I whipped this card up for me husband yesterday. I think he appreciated it! As promised, I used the same stamp set I used for Galentine's Day to make it.

What do you think?

 

 

 

I used an ink pad to drag across the embossed card front to highlight the rides in the Old Paper impressions. I used Petal Pink to do that. Since hubby and I have been married for a couple of decades now, I htought Old Paper suitable for my purpose! Lol!

I hope you enjoyed Galentine's Day, Valentine's Day or both.

Happy Galentine's Day!

 That's not a typo! Today is Galentine's Day and I have a stamp set to prove it! Lol! It's a day started around 2010 in the US after a TV show named an episode after the celebration of gal pals. It's a day to let your girlfriends know you appreciate them and all they do! Have a party, phone them, send a card. I made sure to make a heap of these little cards so I could wish my church friends a happy day.

Galentine's Day happens on February 14th, the day before Valentine's Day. I think is is a great way to make those who aren't in a relationship, are widowed or divorced, special as well. Valentine's Day can be a bad day for them, so why not take the opportunity to turn it around for them a little?

Here are the supplies I used to make my little Galentine's Day cards. 

I think I have an idea for my husband's Valentine using this set as well. I'll come back tomorrow and show you if it works out :)

Happy Galentine's Day!

#galentinesday

Online Extravaganza - 10% off selected items for 24 hours only on 24th November 2020

 If you have had your eye on something lovely from the Annual Stampin' Up! Catalogue, be sure to order on Tuesday 24th November to save 10%!

 I wanted to let you know now so you have time to plan. There are some exclusions to the 10% off, so I am showing you those here:

There's still so much more available! If you do order, please do use host code

UQ2N9Y3M  and choose me, Susan Hurley-Luke, as your Demonstrator. It might be time to stock up on some supplies for Christmas/New Year crafting, or even gift someone else with some Stampin' Up! goodness. I think our kits are beautiful gifts, for example. They have just about everything you need to make beautiful cards and more.

Happy shopping!

Susan

 

Designer Series Paper Sale 1st to 31st October while supplies last!

 

Do you love Designer Series Paper? I do! If you want a bargain on so many dsp packs from Stampin' Up!, be sure to check out the October sale in my SusanSalutations store! 

Be sure to shop with me, Susan Hurley-Luke.

I hope you get something nice!

Sailing Home with Embossing Paste - a masculine card

There was a new challenge form Sara Douglass, the Stampin' Up! CEO this week. (Yes! She is a crafter too!) She challenged all who love Stampin' Up! to use some stencils and embossing paste this week, and I decided I would answer her call!

So I broke out my (retired) silver embossing paste and a plastic spoon as a tool for spreading it (I couldn't find my palette knives!), found a stencil and some water colour paper, and got to work.

First I washed down my watercolour paper with water from a Water Painter. Then a dropped a couple of drops of Balmy Blue reinker on the paper and washed that around with my Water Painter as a background.

That had to dry before I used my embossing paste so I speeded the drying time along with my heat tool.

Next I laid my stencil down on my silicone craft mat and smooshed some embossing paste over the top. You can get these palette knives to handle the paste. Just remember to have a flattish container with nice, warm, soapy water handy to put your stencils and tools into after you finish smooshing. Embossing paste dries hard very quickly. I also popped my Silicone Craft sheet in ti be cleaned.

While the paste was drying, I prepared some stamped anchors and seaweed, and I heat embossed one anchor in silver. I got my sentiment tag ready too. And I found some retired Designer Series Paper to decorate my Smokey Slate card base inside and out, and got that ready.

I added some retired Baker's Twine to my anchors and then arranged the elements on my card front.

My watercoloured, embossing pasted background with the Sailing Home elements on top

Once I was happy with their placement, I adhered everything down, then added this layer to my decorated, fun fold card base.

Don't forget to decorate the inside of your card!

Have you tried embossing paste yet? You can now get White (141979) and Shimmery White (145645) embossing paste and can change the colour of both with a few drops of reinker, so you can have nearly 50 colours!

Here are some of the other supplies I used in this project:

Sailing Home stamp set

Smooth Sailing dies 

The stencil I used is retired. Current stencils are available.

Palette Knives

Silicone Craft Sheet

Water Painters 

Fluid 100 Watercolour Paper

Heat Tool

Blossoms In Bloom!

This week I have been creating with the Blossoms in Bloom stamp set and dies (Bundle item number 154123). What a great bundle this is! The big, beautiful main stamp and die really caught my eye. I have linked all the products I used so you can find them in my SusanSalutations online store. I just know you will want to recreate these cards or explore some ideas of your own!

First I started playing with the dies. The main die fills a whole card front! I could cut the die cut in half and make two cards! Woo hoo!

I used one of my Water Painters to water paint different ink colours on the Shimmery White A4 Cardstock die cut and let them dry before I cut the die cut in half.

All it took was some Basic Black cardstock, some Gold Foil sheet and some Gold Stampin' Emboss powder with a few Gilded Gems to create this card. I mounted it on a Pretty Peacock cardstock base.

Here's a closeup of the water painted blossoms on black:

Then I wondered what the second half of the die would look like when glued to a thick Whisper White cardstock base, I was not disappointed!

It was so fresh looking! I added a few sprinkle images to complete the look. And some more Gilded Gems.

I embellished my envelopes with blooms from my Floral Essence stamp set.

Then I turned to the stamp set. Wow, I loved the stamps too! Here's a couple of samples of the stamped blossoms. I used the whole stamp for these cards. You could just colour some of the blooms with Stampin' Write Markers if you wanted a partial image of course.

This first card is stamped in Bumblebee ink and the centres are stamped in Cinnamon Cider. The leaves are stamped in Mint Macaron. I mounted the Whisper White cardstock layer on Just Jade cardstock and finished with some Just Jade ribbon and some Rhinestone Basic Jewels.

The next card is the same except for the colours of ink and cardstock. I stamped the petals in Magenta Madness and the centres in Bumblebee. The leaves are again Mint Macaron ink. I added some gems and this time I used some Misty Moonlight cardstock and some Misty Moonlight ribbon.

When I embellished the envelopes, I used the smaller blooms and leaves from the Blossoms in Bloom stamp set.

These cards were quick and easy to make! I love that I could sit down and make a couple of cards in each design. When I make cards, I like to make a couple at a time. I figure I might as well do that since I have all my supplies out for one project anyway.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my projects today.

Oooh wait!, I just realised I have not made any cards with the dies and stamps together on one card! And the size of the blooms stamps and dies really are wonderful for scrapbook pages! What would they look like if I cut a die shape with foil? Or vellum? Or if I heat embossed the stamped blossoms? Or layered them? Or.....

Right, back to the craft room. Lol!

Here's how to order the bundle or the individual stamp set or dies from my store. Leave me a comment if you order and a link to your own project using these dies so I can see!

If you just want the Blossoms in Bloom stamp set, here it is

If you just want the Many Layered Blossoms dies, here they are

If you want the Blossoms in Bloom bundle, this is the page.

Enjoy your stampin' day.

Forever Greenery Product Suite

One of the nicest suites in the new catalogue for me is the Forever Greenery Product Suite. It's just so lovely to create with.

When I first ordered I left out the stamp set! I was interested in the designer series paper and embossing folders (which are smaller, by the way, than the size we have been used to from Stampin' Up!) and forgot about the stamp set! I have ordered it now and have to wait till it arrives to use the beautifully details distINKtive images.

The beauty of the product suites is that you get a discount when you order everything together. If you like though, you can pick and choose what parts of the suite to order individually. You won't get the savings you get with buying a suite, but it is possible to order everything individually.

In the meantime, I played with the dsp and some of the elements to make a photo gift folder. I love how it turned out. Here is the front before I finished adding ribbon and dsp to the tags in the pockets:

And here is what it looks like inside. I left the Whisper White panel free so I can stamp and write on it when I know who I am giving it to.

Here's the first tag folder I made using retired dsp to see how it would turn out. I liked it so much!

I finished this one much more thoroughly using the Forever Blossoms stamp set. It's a beautiful set of images and sentiments too.

I hope you enjoyed my projects and if you are now wanting to have some of these products yourself, remember to shop at my lovely new SusanSalutations Shop!

Do remember to choose to shop with me, Susan Hurley-Luke 😊 Thank you!

New Catalogue, New Shopping Site!

The 2020-2021 Stampin' Up! Annual Catalogue is LIVE! You can see it at my revamped SusanSalutations shopping site. The site has been revamped to give you a much better shopping experience.

You can still use the old links but I recommend you update your bookmark for the SusanSaultations shopping site. You may also find you have to re-enter your password as the new site won't know it yet. :)

You will notice bigger images, better filters to search for products, and a new place to make your Wish List, which can then be shared with friends and family in case they want a hint about what to get you for birthdays and Christmas!

You can also search the new catalogue online there, but if you live in Australia and would like your own copy so you can place orders with me, please contact me via email at susanl_hl AT yahoo.com
When you do order, look for my picture to make sure you are ordering with me.

It's so exciting when a new catalogue comes out, AND a new recruiting special! Right now you get to choose a FREE bundle  on top of your great value Joining Kit if you join my team in June!

Meanwhile, why not start browsing the new Ideas Book and Catalogue? 

Hope to chat with you soon!