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Save the Date + a Stock Update…

by Betsy May 19, 2020

written by Betsy

Happy Tuesday! I don’t have a Make & Tell for you today, but I do have some other fun news!

April 26th marked our first anniversary here at The Greetery! I can hardly believe it’s been more than a year since we launched this blog and our shop! We went into this not knowing at all what to expect, but we have been overwhelmed with your support and enthusiasm. Thank you for coming along on this ride with us – for your support, your comments, excitement over new products, encouragement, and the overall kindness displayed by all of you, our customers, has been the most fulfilling part of this whole undertaking! We can’t express enough how much we appreciate each and every one of you and we’re so happy you’re here!

With that in mind, we’re ready to do a bit of celebrating next week! Even though we’re a month behind our anticipated celebration date, if life has taught us anything in the last few months it’s that sometimes things don’t go as planned. 🙂 Next week we’ll be celebrating with the release of some new products, prizes, and lots of projects from the Inspiration Team + some special guests!

Stock Update: I know we have so many out of stock products right now that you all have been waiting ever so patiently for. Our manufacturers are working hard at getting back on track and getting our orders to us. Our packers here on our end are busy prepping what has already come in, and more things are coming later this week. We were hoping to do a major restock by the middle of this week, but a large stamp reorder we were expecting has been slightly delayed. In an effort to avoid frustration with placing multiple orders, we have decided to hold off on restocking bits and pieces as they come in, and instead do one large restock once everything that’s trickling in has arrived. We’re hoping to have a nearly fully-stocked store in time for our anniversary celebration!

We’ll see you back here on Friday for a fun TGIF post with Kelly!

May 19, 2020 51 comments

TGIF – Spring Bouquet + Shiplap Background with Caly

by Betsy May 15, 2020

written by Betsy

Happy TGIF! We have a special guest for today’s TGIF – Caly Person is joining us today with a beautiful card she created using Budding Beauties Spring and Just Mason Around. I love the clever way she did the background…read on for all the details.

Hi Friends!
If you’re anything like me, you enjoy springtime when flowers begin to bloom and the grass is at its greenest! I love fresh cut flowers and decided to play with the Budding Beauties Spring set to create an arrangement using the Just Mason Around set.

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I began by stamping all the images using different shades of ink, being thoughtful what colors I wanted to pop off my card in the end. Baby’s breath is a soft and delicate flower that I knew would be really subtle, so I gave my cherry blossoms and tulips more vibrant colors in pink and purple. When I was done die-cutting the foliage and flowers, I looked up at my daughter – who is usually painting or coloring across from me – and asked her what color she felt my mason jar should be and knowing what my favorite color is, she said “teal!” So teal it is – or as close as I could get with my ink selection.

For my background, I found inspiration just looking at photos online. Shiplap backgrounds
stood out to me so I used the Alpha Alignment Guide to create my own. I masked off the sides of my card and ink-blended each plank from the top down with light gray ink. To give it
additional interest, I used a ruler and black drawing pen to frame in my shiplap background
before arranging my flowers and jar with foam adhesive for lots of dimension.

I felt the tulips needed additional color, so I used a dark purple colored pencil and lightly added shading until I was happy with what it looked like. I didn’t think my card needed a sentiment so I left it as it is. Sometimes, a peaceful arrangement speaks for itself, doesn’t it?
Thanks so much for stopping by today.

I hope everyone is taking care during this time. Enjoy your flowers (or plant some – I assure you, it does the soul good!)
~Caly

May 15, 2020 25 comments

All Make & Tell Tuesdays

Make & Tell: Stamp a blooming forest with Budding Beauties Spring

by Betsy May 12, 2020

written by Betsy

It’s Make & Tell Tuesday time! Today I’ll be pulling out the baby’s breath image from the Budding Beauties Spring set to use in a unique way. I always love those photos or paintings where it looks like you’re looking up at the sky surrounded by a beautiful forest. We’ll be doing a fun take on that today by stamping a blooming forest using that baby’s breath image.

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We’ll start out by watercoloring a panel of watercolor paper, then add stamping and heat embossing over the top. You could use this same concept along with either Fir & Foliage No. 1 or 2 for a more traditional forest. You could change up the colors of the watercoloring to look like a sunset, or maybe even a snowy scene for the holidays.

Here’s this week’s video…

May 12, 2020 14 comments

All TGIF

TGIF – Spring is in bloom with Kay

by Betsy May 8, 2020

written by Betsy

Happy Friday! Kay is here with some beautiful springy projects using the Fleur Impressions set. We just had this set come back into stock in the shop, so Kay’s timing is perfect. Whether you’re new to this set or you’ve had it in your stash for a while, Kay’s beautiful cards will make you want to get this set inky!

Spring has finally made it’s way to my neck of the woods, and the flowers are blooming everywhere! We live out in the country here, and we have so many beautiful wildflowers. I am totally loving the flowers and warmer temperatures and it has inspired my card making too. I love the Fleur Impressions stamp set so much and wanted to explore some different color schemes using the different flowers in the set. I came up with two different cards, one with a warmer feel and one with a cooler feel.

My first card uses the warmer colors. I stamped the flowers in shades of red, orange and yellows. For the background, I used the Flappable Stencils. I used the stencil that makes the stripes and just rotated and stenciled a second time to give the look of plaid. I then speckled with a little bit of the same color ink.

For the frame, I used the Nordic Frames dies. I cut out the medium one and then used the smallest to cut out the center. I layered this over my background with foam tape. I then die cut all of the flowers with the Fleur Impressions coordinating dies and adhered those to the frame with foam tape. The sentiment is from the Sentiment Suite: Birthday stamp set.

And here is the same card, using the same supplies just with different colors! And if you know me very well, you know that purple and blue is one of my all time favorite color combinations!

I hope you have enjoyed my card today and I hope you are enjoying sunshine and flowers where you live too!

Thanks so much for stopping by!

May 8, 2020 14 comments

All Updates

Stock update

by Betsy May 7, 2020

written by Betsy

Hey all! I’m just popping in with a stock update. We’re starting to see a few restocks coming in.

We’ll be restocking some stamps and dies in the shop in just a bit. I wanted to keep you in the loop and let you know that we have a very limited quantity for a few of the items. Because of the long lag we’ve had in being able to get product from our manufacturers, I’m afraid our out of stock email alert list has grown beyond what we have to put in stock right now on some of the items. We have more orders coming in over the next few weeks as our manufacturers work to catch up on orders. So if you miss out on this batch, we recommend signing up again for the email alert so we can hopefully catch you on the next round.

Here is a list of what we’re adding to the shop tonight!

Stamps:

Dies:

May 7, 2020 1 comment

All Make & Tell Tuesdays

Make & Tell: Stamping a Terrarium Garden

by Betsy May 5, 2020

written by Betsy

Happy Tuesday! Are you ready for a fun Make & Tell? I’ve been digging around in the dirt a little around the yard, potting up some flowers and enjoying the sunshine. But yesterday was rainy, and it made me want to pull out my Pot-Pourri set and Terrarium die to “plant” some inky versions in my craft room!

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Pot-Pourri is such a fun set, and I haven’t given it a lot of love lately, so it was fun to pull it out again. I love stamping these plants in all shades of green for lots of interest. For the plaid background, I pulled out my Painterly Stripes Background and stamped that fun plaid using several shades of green.

The sentiment is from the Fresh Air set, and everything is layered over a Crimped Frame diecut. I used an easy masking technique to create the layers of plants. Very fun to do – you could definitely mass produce this card too…just set up your MISTI and stamp multiple panels assembly-line style.

Here’s today’s video – enjoy! 🙂

May 5, 2020 16 comments

All TGIF

TGIF – Easy floral thank yous by Dawn

by Betsy May 1, 2020

written by Betsy

It’s Friday! I hope the sun is shining and you’re enjoying some of the same beautiful weather we’re having here. Dawn is here for today’s TGIF post with some pretty thank you cards that are fun and easy to mass produce using her formula! Let’s check them out…

I’ve been going through quite a few thank you notes lately, as I’ve been tucking them into artwork I’ve been shipping out! So I decided I’d better beef up my stash of thank yous, and these cards fit the bill perfectly!

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And because they really just consist of four main elements, they’re so easy to put together. They’re even the perfect type of card you could create elements for, while hanging out in front of the TV or maybe out on the deck with your family! All you need is a background (I used Painterly Stripes), a big focal element (like Sketchbook Roses), an eye-catching sentiment (how about Written in Ribbons) and a simple die cut (Nordic Frames) to separate the focal items from the background.

The really fun part about these, is that you can put them together in a wide array of color combinations, like I’m sharing today! Create your focal elements in whatever colors you can dream up, and then let those colors be the same ones you use on your background and sentiment. Easy peasy!

I love Dawn’s formula for creating these cards! Focal point, sentiment, background + a mat layer…a simple concept you can use over and over for unlimited looks. What sets would you plug into her formula?

May 1, 2020 13 comments

All Make & Tell Tuesdays

Make & Tell: Faux watercolor with solid stamps + oxide inks

by Betsy April 28, 2020

written by Betsy

Good morning and happy Tuesday! Last week I promised a video on the watercolored lemons from the card set I posted on our More Fresh Air Inspiration post.

This is a fun technique that uses solid image stamps, stamped with Distress Oxide inks, to create faux watercolor. It’s fun and easy – easier than starting with outline images, in my opinion, because much of the work is already done for you with the stamping. You’re just adding in some blends with a sort of wet-on-wet technique often used in traditional watercoloring. The entire process is done with Oxide inks – no special watercolors are needed. Just a paintbrush, your oxide inks, and water. Oh, and your favorite solid-image stamps of course! I used Lemon Blossom.

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Here’s the video for you!

To finish off my card with the full lemon pattern background, I added a sentiment from the Written in Ribbons set, and a black and white striped strip stamped with the Painterly Stripes Background stamp. For the Hello card, I created a collage sentiment by combining a few different elements – the Slim Alphabet die, a sentiment from Signed & Sealed, and another from Written in Ribbons. The different pattern strips were cut from another lemon panel, along with some stripes and plaids done with the Painterly Stripes Background.

This was a fun technique – I’m already wondering what other images from my collection might work really well for this! What would you use?

April 28, 2020 20 comments

All Updates

Shipping notes, including the temporary suspension of international orders

by Betsy April 23, 2020

written by Betsy

Good evening! I’m just popping in with some shipping updates.

International orders: We made the decision to temporarily suspend international ordering due to extensive USPS delays. We have been monitoring international shipments and unfortunately, most orders placed within the last 3-4 weeks are not seeing any movement beyond the international hub in Chicago. Therefore we have decided to temporarily stop accepting international orders. All international orders that have been placed have gone out, with the exception of those waiting for the Sentiment Starters die. Once those dies arrive, we will ship those orders, but will not be accepting any more international orders until we start to see movement on the current orders and the backlog start to ease. Thank you for your understanding.

Domestic Orders: While most domestic orders seem to be moving through the system at a fairly normal pace, please be aware that there does seem to be a few bottleneck areas – specifically hubs in Chicago and Detroit. We’ve also noticed that tracking doesn’t seem to be updating as much along the way. Many times it will show as having left our regional facility in Sioux Falls, SD, and no further updates until it arrives at the destination’s regional facility. So we ask that you not be too alarmed with the lack of tracking updates, and give things a bit more time than usual.

Sentiment Starters dies: These are on the way! We hope to start shipping out orders that are waiting on this die beginning this weekend, depending on when they arrive (see note above about the delays in domestic shipments, which applies to us receiving things as well 🙂 ) We will get them out as soon as we possibly can because I know crafty goodies are really fun, but waiting for them is not!

Also, we’ll be taking a break from TGIF tomorrow. Originally we had some fun anniversary celebration things planned for this week (can you believe The Greetery is turning ONE already??!!), but due to the current situation, we’ll be celebrating at a later date! I can’t wait! ❤️

Take care and I’ll see you back here on Tuesday for a Make & Tell video!

April 23, 2020 28 comments

All

More Fresh Air Collection Inspiration

by Betsy April 21, 2020

written by Betsy

As a special treat today, several members of the Inspiration Team, along with myself, have created even more projects featuring the delayed dies from the Fresh Air collection that was released last month. Since these dies are now available in the shop, we wanted to bring you some fresh inspiration!

And don’t forget, we’re running a special Give & Make promotion. You get 10% off your order AND help the wonderful Meals on Wheels program when we match your discount with a donation! This program helps support our home-bound seniors with nutritious meals, delivered by caring volunteers. It’s truly a lifeline for many, especially during these difficult times. Use the code GIVE-19 at checkout to receive the discount. Good now through Friday, April 24 at 11:59pm EDT.

Please Note:

Before we get to the projects, I also wanted to mention again, in case you missed it in yesterday’s post, the issue with the Sentiment Starters dies. While we went ahead an put them in stock along with the rest of the dies, we are still waiting on our full shipment of those. Our manufacturer is working hard to get those to us as soon as possible. If your order includes the Sentiment Starters dies, please note that it will be held until they arrive, which we anticipate being later this week. If you do not wish for your order to be held up, we recommend placing a separate order for that die. Thank you for your patience as we work through these tricky times with our manufacturers and the issues they’ve been facing recently.

Now let’s have some fun with all of the beautiful new projects the Inspiration Team has created for you today!

Angelica created this beautiful Easter project using the pretty individual flowers from the Print Shop: Fresh Floral set. Even though Easter is past, I’m sure you can envision doing something similar for just about any other occasion, simply by swapping out the sentiment.

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I love the sunny yellow plaid background she created with the Painterly Stripes Background stamp. It’s just so fresh and pretty with the flowers layered over the top.

Next is another pretty card by Angelica. This one is so pretty, yet simple and would be great to mass produce.

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She gathered up two of the tulip stems from the Budding Beauties: Spring set with a Fit to Be Tied bow. The sentiment she added was done by combining the Sentiment Starters dies with the Slim Alphabet dies. She once again created a pretty stamped background, this time using the Windowpane Plaid Background.

Next, Dawn has a couple of beautiful projects using her signature style and amazing color combos!

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She also used the Sentiment Starters die to create the “sending love” sentiment. She combined them with the Alphabuds Slim stamps and Backer dies. I also love how she filled out our Print Shop: Fresh Floral bouquets by adding in some BotaniCuts Rose leaf diecuts. Done in that beautiful teal, they’re just so striking!

This next card by Kay uses the Silver Lining die in such a fun way! I love how she tucked several of the individual flower sprigs from the Print Shop: Fresh Floral set behind one of the cloud layers. Instead of clouds, it just creates a beautiful scalloped border.

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She finished off her card with a pretty watercolored/blended background and a sentiment from the Simple Things set.

Laurie is up next with this pretty project using some Print Shop: Fresh Floral elements clustered behind that Sentiment Starters sentiment.

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I love how instead of combining the diecut words from Sentiment Starters with our Slim Alphabet dies or a stamped sentiment, she combined a few words from the different phrases in the set to make her own, just using the Sentiment Starters dies. Clever girl!

Norine pulled out the Silver Lining die for this next adorable card!

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I love all her layers and layers of different textures and patterns. And then that cute pop of color with the balloons from Top Down Day and heart epoxies are the perfect finishing touch. So cute!

Finally, a few more cards from myself. This first one uses the Silver Lining die – I think Norine and I were on the same wavelength here! Instead of silver lining, how about gold lining? 🙂 I cut the narrow scalloped cloud strips from gold metallic cardstock for a pretty, sparkly touch on this card.

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I layered a whole bunch of the clouds cut using the Silver Lining die, each sponged with shades of pink and yellow ink to create cotton-candy clouds. I finished it off by adding the balloon cluster from Top Down Day, as well as the “need a lift” sentiment from that set.

My next card uses the Fresh Air Window Frame die paired with the Marcra-Made For You and Macra-Made Fillers dies. I’ve been itching to pair these together!

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The simple Window Frame die is a great size for creating scenes! I also incorporated some brick detail. I used the Brick Layer die to create a “stencil”, which I then used to add some texture paste to create the brick texture. I sponged over it with some Rusty Hinge Distress Oxide ink to bring out the texture even more. The sentiment is from the Signed & Sealed set.

Next is a pair of sunshiny cards that were so much fun to create! I stamped lots of different patterns and cut them into strips to create a whole set of cards. I actually have a couple more cards from the set, along with a fun faux watercolor technique video that I will share with you next week! We had so much going on today, and the technique is a fun one that I think deserves its own post, so watch for that for next week’s Make & Tell Tuesday.

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The different pattern strips were created with the Lemon Blossom set along with Painterly Stripes and Fresh Floral Background. I’ve been having so much fun with Painterly Stripes – stamping it multiple times creates such fun plaid patterns that you can easily do in all sorts of colors! The sentiments I used here were done with a mix of the new Sentiment Starters dies mixed with the Slim Alphabet dies. So fun to build your own sentiments to fit your project, such as the “sending sunshine” I created here to go along with the lemons.

That wraps up our post for today! I hope you enjoyed this extra dose of inspiration using some of our latest products!

April 21, 2020 23 comments