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Fresh Air Collection Sneak Peek #1

by Betsy March 21, 2020

written by Betsy

Throw open the windows, put the top down…it’s time for some Fresh Air! Today I’m sharing a couple of sneak peeks of our latest collection called Fresh Air, which will go up in the shop on Friday, March 27.

The Fresh Air collection is filled with images that conjure up all of the things we love about spring…a fresh breeze through the window, a ride with the top down, and prints that are as fresh as linens straight from the clothesline.

You’ll have fun doing some print and pattern building with a new suite of products, plus there are a few items that will be great additions to your sentiment arsenal.

On Monday I’ll be sharing one more sneak peek, and then we’ll start the full product introductions and Inspiration Team projects on Tuesday!

Please Note: Important release information – Due to our die manufacturer moving to a new facility, which has been complicated by the COVID-19 situation, there are a handful of dies being showcased in the new Fresh Air collection that will not be available next Friday when the rest of the collection goes up in the shop. Our manufacturer was in the middle of producing our large die release order when they shut down production to finish the move. Working with a skeleton crew due to the virus situation, they have not been able to resume production as quickly as they had hoped. We are anticipating having these dies in stock by early April, but as you all know, the COVID-19 situation changes day to day, sometimes hour by hour. Therefore, we have to consider that production may not be able to resume as anticipated, should they be issued a shelter in place order. With this in mind, we decided to go ahead with the release rather than push it back and wait for the dies to come in. We sill have lots of wonderful new goodies that will be available on Friday. Thanks for bearing with us in this less-than-ideal situation!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend – we’ll see you back here on Monday. 🙂

March 21, 2020 39 comments

All TGIF

TGIF – Turning Autumn into Spring with Keeway

by Betsy March 20, 2020

written by Betsy

Hello all! TGIF! Keeway is here today with an amazing project that turns our Autumn Sketches set into a gorgeous spring scene. I loved reading how she created this card bursting with spring greens…

Hi friends and happy Friday! It’s been a whirlwind of a week and I hope everyone has been staying safe, healthy, and indoors. It’s even been rainy and cloudy here in California, so I thought what better way to help us escape from it all, but bringing you a bright and happy scene we can look forward to. In fact, I am going to show you how I used the Autumn Sketches Stamp Set outside of fall!

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I started by stamping the outline image of the leafy branch along the left edge of a piece of bristol paper in Versamark ink. I also used the outline image of the leaf to fill in gaps and to add variation to arrangement. I then covered it with gold detail embossing powder, tapped off the excess, and heat set it with my heat gun. Now we’re all set to color!

I randomly picked a few shades of green Arteza Real Brush Pens that have different intensity and variation of colors. The ones I selected are A122 Moss Green, A126 Crocodile Green, and A132 Forest Green, A170 Pear Green. I laid down the colors by essentially add a little scribble of it within different leaves, and then using my water brush pen to blend it out, even across the lines. This is what gives it that loose, dreamy feel. This first layer is lighter, especially when using the water to dilute out the color as you drag it outwards.

I immediately moved on to the second layer of color, using again the same colors listed earlier, but this time adding more intensity to areas near the stem of the leaves. This time, use your water brush to drag out the color but only up to the outside line of the leaves. This allows the color to be more pronounced within the images. Add more color as needed.

I then used a blue color, A117 Arctic Blue, to fill some gaps between the leaves. Again, I generously used my water brush to blend out the color so that it is not concentrated in one area. This adds a look of day time to your foliage scenery. I gently added some splatter with my watercolors. But if you don’t have watercolors laying around, you can scribble some color from your brush pen on your craft mat (or palette), pick it up with a wet brush, and gently tap to create splatter. Now set this aside to dry completely.

For my sentiment, I used the Let’s Have a Word: Beautiful Die. I die cut the words out of white card stock, and then ink blended Broken China and Wild Honey distress oxide inks on them. This allowed the words to continue to colors of your scene, while standing out, but not too much where it’s distracting. This was added to the bottom center of the panel.

Last, but not least, I decided to add a little bird to my branch for a cute factor. I used the Robin & Wren Stamp Set, and my Altenew ink colors Sand Dunes, Rocky Shore, Mocha, Espresso, and Snapdragon inks. I added this bird to the card with foam tape, and love how it’s gazing up into the sky!

Isn’t it beautiful? I just love all the color. Before I go, just a bit of an update. Unfortunately, I don’t have a sneak peek of our upcoming Fresh Air collection just yet. We’re running into a few little hiccups due to the current situation in our world. I’m holding off just a bit, but stay tuned…I’m fairly certain I’ll be able to share more info (and a peek!) tomorrow! Hang in there with me…if there’s anything we’re learning through this experience it’s how to roll with the punches. 🙂 Stay safe and stay well, dear friends. ❤️

March 20, 2020 18 comments

All Make & Tell Tuesdays Sales

Make & Tell Tuesday + a Flash Easter Sale

by Betsy March 17, 2020

written by Betsy

Hi all. I wanted to pop in with a few things today. First of all, I hope you are all staying well and safe. It’s a crazy world right now and everything feels topsy-turvy. My kids are home from school for the foreseeable future, as I’m sure many of yours are as well, if you still have children at home. We’ll be adjusting to a new normal, that will hopefully be over before we know it. But while we’re in it, I hope we can care for each other and lend support to our neighbors near and far. We’re in this together!

In the meantime, we’ll be making the best of it and hopefully even having a little fun here on the blog. Crafting and being creative can be a wonderful escape and always help to calm my mind and spirit. I know many of you feel the same. So, unless there’s a major change over the next week (things do feel very fluid at the moment) we’ll be carrying on with the countdown and release of our latest collection called Fresh Air.

When I was working on this collection and came up with the name and Fresh Air concept, I had no idea how fitting it might be, and how we might all be longing for some Fresh Air, in more ways than one! Hopefully it can provide a little bright spot in your day. We’ll begin later this week with some sneak peeks, and then three full days of projects and reveals next week before the products go up in the shop on Friday. If anything about this timeline changes, we’ll be sure to let you know.

While we’re at it, we’re not really having fun unless there’s a sale, right? For the next two days, we’ll be having a flash sale on a few of our Easter items. If you haven’t had the chance to start on your Easter cards and projects yet, now’s your chance to pick up a couple of new things. Our Easter Jubilee Creative Kit and Caring Cross stamp + stencil and die are 20% off now through Wednesday night at 11:59pm CDT. Use the code SPRING20 at checkout to receive the discount.

Here are a few galleries filled with projects from our Inspiration Team using these two products. First is Caring Cross…

And Easter Jubilee…

Before I go, I have a new project that I created last week using Caring Cross. I shared it on Instagram, but I thought I’d share it here, too. I’m afraid it’s only a partial Make & Tell Tuesday, with an emphasis on the Make, and not so much Tell. 🙂 Long story short, some loaned out video equipment did not get returned as expected when classes didn’t resume after spring break because of the shut-downs. I thought I’d go ahead and share this project anyway, sans video.

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So I started with a panel of heavy-weight Yupo paper, and created an alcohol ink background using Copic inks and Pinata Metallic Brass ink. Once it was completely dry, I diecut the cross that is just the two pieces, not the solid cross, from the panel. I stamped it with palm branch and heat embossed it with gold powder, and then heat embossed the berries with white powder. I added the Happy Easter embossed sentiment along the bottom to finish it off. Before adding it to a card base, I also diecut the cross pieces from the card base so that my card front would have a cross-shaped window in the front. I’ve had several of you ask what that little two-piece cross die is for, and this is one way you can use that die. I used the leftover pieces cut from the alcohol ink background to create a matching bookmark by layering those pieces over a solid cross diecut, which was also stamped with the palm and heat embossed with gold.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. Stay well and stay safe! ❤️

March 17, 2020 16 comments

All TGIF

TGIF – Pretty Plants with Norine + a Save the Date!

by Betsy March 13, 2020

written by Betsy

Happy Friday everyone! Norine is here today with the most adorable project ever for today’s TGIF. AND, make sure you read through to the end of today’s post for a fun Save the Date announcement! 🙂

Hello friends, I just realized it’s Friday the 13th! Good thing I’m not superstitious. Super-psyched for spring, but not super-stitious. I’ve been messing with plants and growing green things and while I’m not a super-talented gardener, I am always optimistic. Today’s plants though are ones I have been wanting to “plant” since I first saw the cute macrame plant hangers when they were released last year! I’ve recently taken up the craft of macrame again since first trying it in 7th grade and made some plant hangers for real, so these dies spoke to me in a very real way!

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For today’s card, I combined the dies from the Macra-Made For You Dies set with the stamps from the Pot-Pourri stamp set. I used all the combinations of light and dark green inks I own to get the variety of vegetation that real living plants come in and stamped the layers of three different potted plants.

I also stamped three different pots, stamping the first layer in a light color and repeating the stamping with darker inks around one edge to suggest shadows. Then I cut all of the stamped images and paired up plants with pots and hung two of them in a die cut macrame holder and left the 3rd to be a table-sitter.

Next, I die cut the Cozy Cup Coaster and folded a corner of it to tuck over the edge of a red gingham table cloth. I found the perfect pale wood-grain patterned paper in my stash and used it for the card panel background and to me it just screams “cottage”!

I stamped a sentiment from the Sentiment Suite – Thank You stamp set, stamping directly onto the patterned paper rather than adding any extra die-cut tags, to keep things from looking too busy. Finally, I positioned all the elements in place to create the cozy little scene of house plants, trimmed the card panel 1/8th” on each side and adhered all the layers to the card base. I popped the table plant up with some foam tape to add a little extra dimension.

Agh! Isn’t Norine’s project just the cutest? I love how she combined all of the different elements!

Now for a fun announcement! We’re busy, busy, busy getting everything ready for the release of our next collection. Join us here on the blog the week of March 23-27 for sneak peeks, reveals, projects and prizes! Our latest collection called Fresh Air, will be available in the shop on Friday, March 27.

March 13, 2020 28 comments

All TGIF

TGIF – A Care-A-Van of fun with Angelica

by Betsy March 6, 2020

written by Betsy

Happy Friday! Angelica is here today with a couple of super fun birthday cards! Her projects are always eye-popping and these are no exception! Let’s hear all about them…

I am back for another fun The Greetery TGIF project. We can never have too many birthday cards on hand, right? I decided to share a set of birthday cards I recently made with the Christmas Car-A-Van stamp set.

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I have been wanting to use this stamp set for awhile. It’s so darn cute, and perfect for my teenage boys. But there’s also another reason why. The Greetery donates $3 per set for the lifetime of the set, to the Samaritan’s Purse charity, which is so instrumental in providing emergency relief during hurricanes and other natural disasters (and is also the parent charity of Operation Christmas Child). Such a cute stamp set for an amazing cause!

The van and presents are multi-step stamps, which I stamped with Distress Oxide inks. I then pulled out my Polychormos pencils and added all the shaded details. I was inspired by a Christmas card that Betsy shared on her blog, back in October. Adding a little extra color in certain places really makes the images come alive! I finished the cards with a sentiment from Sentiment Suite: Birthday Stamp Set.

While I was stamping the above vans, I also stamped a lot of die-cut vans. I made another card, arranging the die cuts into three rows.

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Such a simple card to make, and can be used for many different occasions. This card has my boys’ names all over it! I arranged the buses, trimmed the edges with a paper trimmer, and saved the cut-off pieces for a future card. I added a Birthday Suite sentiment to finish the card, die-cutting it with a Sentiment Suite banner.

Thanks so much for joining me today. I hope I have helped inspire ideas for this fabulous stamp set. Until next time, Happy Crafting!

I love that Angelica used this set for her project today! Besides the fact that her projects are just adorable, it also gives me a chance to give an update on our Christmas Care-A-Van Give & Make. As Angelica mentioned in her post, $3 from the sale of each stamp set has been and will be donated to Samaritan’s Purse/Operation Christmas Child. Thanks to your purchases over the past few months, we were able to make a donation to help those who have been affected by the devastating tornadoes in Tennessee earlier this week. Our hearts and prayers go out to those who are hurting there from the loss of life and property. <3 Thank you for your support of this project!

March 6, 2020 9 comments

All Make & Tell Tuesdays Video Tutorials

Make & Tell Tuesday: BotaniCuts Lily + Colored Pencils

by Betsy March 3, 2020

written by Betsy

Hello evening crew! It’s Tuesday, and that means I got to spend some time creating! I put together a new Make & Tell video to share with you. There have been several requests to do some coloring videos for the BotaniCuts Lily, so today I pulled out my colored pencils and put one together for you.

In the video, I’ll show two variations of the same basic technique. First we’ll color a white lily, and then switch the colors for something a little bolder and create a Stargazer lily – one of my favorites.

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I’ve been wanting to pull out my Simple Things set again after Laurie shared her beautiful project a week or so ago for her TGIF post, so I did that to create a few cards using the lilies I colored in the video. I thought it would be the perfect filler for a few of the lilies.

For the card with the stargazers, I layered the Simple Things eucalyptus under the lilies, along with the medium rectangle from the Nordic Frames die. I sponged some Spun Sugar Distress Oxide ink underneath. The eucalyptus was stamped with Bundled Sage and Iced Spruce, along with Frayed Burlap for the stems. The sentiment is a combination of stamps from the Bountiful Wreath and Sentiment Suite: Thinking of You sets.

I wanted a softer, monochromatic look for the card with the white lilies, so I did a simple watercolor background and layered the white lilies and eucalyptus over the top. The sentiment is here is from the Simple Things set.

And good news! The BotaniCuts Lily dies were just restocked in the store!

I hope you enjoyed today’s Make & Tell, and you’re inspired to go create something!

March 3, 2020 19 comments

All TGIF

TGIF – Spring-time Robins with Kay

by Betsy February 28, 2020

written by Betsy

Most of us here in the midwest are looking for signs of spring…any sign of spring! One of the best is to see the first robin of the year. Those little guys are smart and if they’re around, you know spring has arrived (or will be here very soon)! Kay is here for today’s TGIF with a beautiful project that’s the perfect reminder that spring will be here soon…

As winter draws to an end here, my thoughts have totally turned towards warmer days and spring flowers, and so I was inspired to bring out some pretty floral stamps to play with. I love the Fleur Impressions stamp set from The Greetery and had not had a chance to use that set yet, so was exited to play with it for this card. I also paired it up with a cute little bird from the Robin & Wren set, and created a frame to set it all off with the Nordic Frames dies.

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For the background, I blended some purple and blue distress inks, then splattered some of those same colors along with some white acrylic paint.

To create the frame, I used the two smaller size frames from the Nordic Frame dies, layered the smaller one inside the larger of the two and cut them out together. I adhered this to my blended panel with foam tape. I stamped all of the pretty flowers from the Fleur Impressions stamp set, and little bird from the Robin & Wren stamp set, in different shades of purples and blues. I then cut them out with the coordinating dies, and added them around the frame with foam tape.

For the sentiment, I used the Hello from the Signed and Sealed Stamp set, and Beautiful from the Sketchbook Roses stamp set. I cut these out with the coordinating dies and added them along the frame with foam tape.

I hope you have enjoyed my card today and I hope it inspires you to do some spring crafting!
Thanks so much for stopping by!
Hugs,
Kay 🙂

February 28, 2020 26 comments

All Make & Tell Tuesdays

Make & Tell Tuesday – Batik Stamping

by Betsy February 25, 2020

written by Betsy

Good afternoon! It’s still Tuesday, right? Are you up for a Make & Tell Tuesday?

I’m a little late with this today…to be honest, I was working on this yesterday and got so carried away playing with variations of this technique and different color combinations, that I didn’t get my video done! And then today was one technical issue after another. But I didn’t think you’d mind if I shared it a little later in the day. It’s happy hour – grab a little something to sip and take a break…

I’ve been doing a lot of coloring videos lately, so for this week’s video I was in the mood for a good old-fashioned stamping technique. Emboss-resist techniques have always captured my imagination, and today’s technique is a take on that, and is inspired by Batik fabrics.

Batik fabrics are created by dying, then over-dying fabric over a pattern created using wax. The wax is then removed to reveal the design. Today I’m exploring something similar using ink blending and stamping paired with clear embossing powder.

The technique is fun and interesting when using tone-on-tone colors, but you can step it up a notch and get some really unique looks by using a variation of the technique along with contrasting ink colors. I’ll show you two different ways to do this technique in today’s video. I’ll be using the pretty leaf cluster from Signed & Sealed With a Kiss for each.

Here is the video…

This was the first background pattern I created when I started playing around with this idea. This was done the same way as the first technique shown in the video. I started by sponging ink onto a panel of watercolor paper, then used the technique shown in the video to create an all-over pattern. When I was finished, I spritzed it with water for more texture, and added some ink and gold splatters. I didn’t want to cover too much of that pretty panel, so I simply diecut it with the Crimped Frame die, and added the Let’s Have a Word: Beautiful sentiment.

These next two cards use the variation I show later in the video – of stamping in one color and essentially trapping that image under clear embossing powder so you can sponge contrasting color over the top. I finished off the “sending prayers” card with a sentiment from the Caring Cross set, and a BotaniCuts Lily. The hello card was finished off with a Written in Ribbons sentiment for a pretty yet simple card.

And of course I had to turn the panel I created in the video into a card as well, so I added the Let’s Have a Word: Happy die, and a “birthday” sentiment from Sentiment Suite: Birthday, stamped onto the little banner from the Easter Jubilee kit.

I hope you enjoyed this Make & Tell Tuesday, and if you give this technique a try, we’d love to see it! Link us up in the comments or tag us on Instagram or Facebook!

February 25, 2020 22 comments

All TGIF

TGIF – Clean & Pretty Cards with Laurie

by Betsy February 21, 2020

written by Betsy

Happy Friday! Are you planning some crafting time this weekend? Many of you should have new goodies to play with from the latest release! If you’re in need of a little inspiration to get you going, Laurie is here today with some pretty cards done in her classic clean and simple style. She’s here to tell us all about them…

Hello Greetery friends! It’s Laurie here today with a couple of quick and easy cards! I adore the Greetery’s classic style because it lends so well to my clean and simple style. First up this card using one of my new favorite sets, Sketchbook roses. I stamped a white panel in black using the large image from the set and then cut it down to fit offset on the pale pink card front.

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I added 2 little pieces of gold washi to the card base and then used a layer of fun foam to pop up the floral panel. I stamped the sentiment in the top corner and finished it off by adding a couple black sequins.

Another favorite from one of the first few Greetery Releases is called Simple Things. I love the eucalyptus images in this set and how they can add so much elegance and simplicity to a bright white card base.

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I stamped the images in layers. I added the light blue and then stamped in a white ink over the top. Then I stamped the 2nd layer of dark blue with another layer of white ink, just to mute the images slightly. Last, I stamped in the branch image in a dark brown. To give the card just a little shine, I added the sentiment in with heat embossing, using a gold powder. To continue with the clean look but to give the card just a little more detail, I added in a ½” scored frame around the front.

So pretty and classic, aren’t they? Laurie does such a great job of creating simple and beautiful projects with the best little details, like that gold washi or the embossed frame border. I hope these pretty projects inspired you to pull out these sets soon!

TGIF & have a great weekend!

February 21, 2020 19 comments

All Release Day

Lily & Palm Release Day!

by Betsy February 14, 2020

written by Betsy

The new products we’ve been sneak peeking and showcasing this week will go up in the shop this morning at 10am EST!

Before I get to some other updates, we have winners for the two $25 gift certificates to announce! Ladies, if you could email customerservice@thegreetery.com, we will get your codes to you ASAP so you can shop the new goodies.

Winner #1 is Cindy H from Heather’s blog!

Winner #2 is Linda Edwards from Dawn’s blog!

Now for a few housekeeping details!

Buy It All Button: Many of you have been requesting a Buy it All button and I’m happy to announce that we’ll be giving that a go with this release! All of the products from the new Lily & Palm collection will be on the home page as usual when they go live at 10am, and among them will be a product called Lily & Palm Complete Collection. You’ll be able to purchase all items (there are six items in this mini release) at once by adding this bundle to your cart. The price of the complete collection is $111.00

Out of Stock Items: We just got in a shipment of stamp restocks. All stamp sets that are out of stock at the time of this post going live will be restocked a bit later this morning before the new release items go live. This includes the following sets:

Summer Sketches
Oopsie Daisy
Pine Blossom
Signed & Sealed
Signed & Sealed With a Kiss
Pretty Postmarks

As for dies, at the time of this post, every single die in our shop is in stock! We have a few stencils that are out of stock, and those will not be restocked in time for the release. We expect those in about a week. I think that covers it, but if there’s any product you’re wondering about specifically that I didn’t mention, you’re always welcome to send an email to customer service.

Before I go, here is a link to the new Lookbooks from the Lily & Palm collection. I just love seeing all of the beautiful Inspiration Team projects in one place! And just a reminder, you can always easily access the lookbooks by scanning the QR codes on the stamping guides or the stickers on the backside of the inserts for those products without guides. Store them with your products for a quick way to get inspiration!

Thanks for making this another fun reveal week!

February 14, 2020 19 comments