Happy Mail!

Good morning!  Don’t you just love it when you get something fun in the mail that you weren’t expecting?  That happened to me recently.  My upline earned a cruise as a reward for the success she has had in her Stampin’ Up! business.  And to keep us entertained while she was gone, she sent us a little kit of pieces and challenged us to make something with it and then share it online. 

The kit contained:

1 Crumb Cake Envelope + 1 Crumb Cake Card base (already cut,scored and folded)

1 cardstock rectangle just slightly smaller than the card face, cut from crumb cake cardstock  

5 strips of the delicious new Affectionately Yours WashiTape 

1 length of Cucumber Crush thick bakers twine

1 punched vellum pansy

And 1 white perfect accent 

She didn’t give us any other rules or restrictions, so I assumed we could use some of our own supplies to add to the creation.  So I also used Whisper White Cardstock, stamps from both Teeny Tiny Wishes and Love & Affection.  I also punched another flower from WatermelonWonder cardstock  using the same Pansy Punch, and used Night of Navy and Crumb Cake inks. 

This was my result!  I had so much fun doing this. This challenged me a bit because I have washi but I have never used it – so it was fun to finally give it a try.  Man, it’s addicting!  If you are a washi newbie like me, a couple tips:

• If you are slow and careful it DOES peel back up if you don’t get the placement quite right (it’s very forgiving).
• It is slightly see-through, so plan accordingly.
• It has a slick surface, so if you want to stamp on it, you’ll want to use something designed for slick surfaces, like StazOn (note, I haven’t tried this myself yet, so don’t take my word on it working).

For the week my upline was gone, fellow demonstrators were posting their creations on our private Facebook group and I was so surprised at how much variation you could get from the same supplies.  It just goes to show you that there is no “right” way to create and you don’t need a ton of supplies to make multiple cards if you just challenge yourself to use what you have.  Of course, if you want to have lots of supplies, don’t let me stop you!  I’m certainly not the one to preach about that! J 

Hope you found this fun and inspiring…I sure did.  Until next time, happy stampin’!  If you'd like to see what the kits looked like right before she mailed them and what some of my friends did with their kits, click here!