Sad Blendabilities Announcement

This week, Stampin Up issued an update on the Blendabilities problems. Unfortunately, it's not good news.

"A number of you have experienced quality issues with the Blendabilities product line. Due to the nature of the defect, we have concluded that difficulties, dissatisfaction, and product returns will only become more widespread. The manufacturer is unable to correct the problem in a manner that we are certain would meet our high quality standards and provide us with a stable, long-term solution.

Therefore, after a great deal of deliberation and in order to prevent further disappointment, the Blendabilities product line has been discontinued."


If you have ordered Blendabilities through me in the last 90 days, I have attempted to contact you already. If you have any questions, please contact me for more information.

Big things come in small packages

I posted this sweet little box on my Facebook page, but forgot to share it here. The Tiny Treat Boxes are 2 inches on all sides--perfect for a jewelry gift or to fill with candy. At $6.95 for 25, you can't go wrong!

I like to decorate these with whatever pretty things are hanging around my desk--bits and pieces that I can't bear to throw away but don't have a plan for. This one uses the Best Year Ever DSP from Sale-a-bration, the Bow Builder Punch, Gold Sequin Trim, Calypso Coral Pompom Trim, and some Coastal Cabana Thick Baker's Twine.

Weekly Deals March 10

 Check out the Weekly Deals!

Nautical Best Day Ever

I love finding a way to make a masculine card! This card is inspired by a card by Alexandra Agelean of the UK. I think the color scheme is quite nautical--it reminds me of harbors and signal flags. The rhinestones are colored red with the Cherry Cobbler Blendabilities. The trim on the upper left is the Natural Chevron Ribbon, but the "natural" brown didn't really work with my colors. So I used my Smoky Slate Blendabilities to make it match! Yay for Blendabilities!

If you love this set as much as I do, be sure to get it before the end of Sale-a-bration (March 31!). Hosting a party is better than ever during Sale-a-bration: if your party reaches $250, you get an additional $25 host benefits!

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Stamps: Best Day Ever (SAB)
Paper: Smoky Slate, Pacific Point, Whisper White
Ink: Pool Party, Smoky Slate, Pacific Point, Real Red, Blendabilities in Cherry Cobbler and Smoky Slate
Accessories: Natural Chevron Ribbon, Rhinestones

Pastel Pompom Boxes

Remember the post about re-inking your ink pads??? Well, this is what those pretty papers turned out to be!

I will admit that this picture makes me smile, but not as much as petting those little pompoms makes me smile! I'm a sucker for texture, and boy, do pompoms qualify as texture!

The boxes are tiny--1 3/4" on all sides, and I made them with the Gift Box Punch Board! It only takes a 6x6 piece of paper, and I think it's so fun to be able to make boxes in many different sizes!

The pompoms are made with baker's twine--lots of white, and then some accents of Thick Baker's Twine or whatever twine I had on hand that seemed to coordinate. I wrapped all the twine around 2 or 3 fingers--wrap about 60x--then pulled off the loops and tied (tightly) around the middle. Snip all the loops, trim up, and you're done! I think the pompoms make the boxes extra special! These boxes (and more just like them) are headed for baskets the first weekend of April.

Want to make cute little boxes like these? Here's the tutorial for the Gift Box Punch Board--it's EASY, I promise--and a link to buy the Punch Board in my store. What a great way to make a tiny giftie into something really special!

You made my day--a CASE of copying

In the stamping world, we use the acronym CASE (Copy And Share Everything) when we use someone else's idea to make a project. It's considered acceptable. {wink} Of course, some of us can never leave well enough alone--we have to put our own little touches in!

This darling card was CASEd from page 5 of the Sale-a-bration catalog. I totally love this sentiment, and I had so many ideas for using it (and the rest of the stamp set), that I was overwhellmed and stumped. Soooooo, I decided to start CASEing all the ideas I liked.

When I got to this card, I started out just like the sample, but I liked the Gold Glimmer Paper better than the Silver used in the original. And I didn't want to make the card unmailable by using a button (this is my justification for only buying--never using--buttons), so I substituted some Hello Honey Thick Baker's Twine from the new Sale-a-bration offerings. Then I thought the greeting circle needed "a little something," so I added some doodling with my Soft Suede marker.

Ta da! There you have it, a CASE with my own little touches. What set are you stumped by? Try re-creating somebody else's project--maybe even from the catalog!--and see if that jumpstarts your creativity!

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Stamps: Best Day Ever (SAB)
Paper: Coastal Cabana, Best Year Ever DSP (SAB), Gold Glimmer Paper, Whisper White, Bermuda Bay
Ink: Coastal Cabana, Calypso Coral marker, Soft Suede marker
Accessories: Circle Framelits, Banner Punch, In Color Accessory Pack (SAB)

How inky are your ink pads?

Last week I was playing with my Irresistibly Yours Designer Series Paper from Sale-a-bration, and something was just "off." I didn't like the colors--they weren't going on smoothly. Sooo, it dawned on me that they might need to be re-inked. The photo above shows the "before" on the left and the "after" on the right. Big difference! My poor Pistachio Pudding ink pad was super dry!

Here are a few others I re-inked: 

I seem to use my colors seasonally:  brights in the summer, pastels in the spring, etc. So it should be no surprise that many of my Subtle family ink pads were dried out! Here you see Calypso Coral, Pistachio Pudding, and Soft Sky  all inked up and pretty.

Check your ink pads, and then check your ink refill stash. Do you need to brighten up a few ink pads like I did? The lighter colors will need to be re-inked more often than the darker colors, so March is a good time to check out your Subtles family!

Click to order your ink refills here. They cost $2.95 each, or you can save a bit and buy a whole family at once for $24.95.  Either way, you'll be happy to have good depth and coverage on your favorite colors of ink for such a low price! I generally don't have to buy a refill more than once every 2-3 years. It's a good investment.

Curious what I did with all that pretty paper? Come back later this week and I'll show you what I made!

Weekly Deals and a Blendabilities Announcement

Check out the great deals this week! 

Blendabilities Update
There has been a production error on some of the latest batch of Blendabilities. For now, Stampin Up has put a hold on any ordering until they get a resolution from the manufacturer. Sadly, that means we cannot order any Blendabilities at this time. I will keep you updated.