After finishing up with the pink Whimsy and Wonder class at my house last Sunday, I started thinking about Poinsettia cards and offering online card kits for them. My next thought was what kind of paper will I use for the kits since Stampin' Up! didn't offer any specific Designer Series Paper for the Poinsettia bundle this year. I looked through my stash of current DSP for nearly half an hour imagining how this or that would look, and I just wasn't getting very excited about any of the possibilities. Don't get me wrong, I love our current DSP...I just love it with the stamps and dies it was made for. I thought maybe if I got the bin down from the top of the closet where my last year's scraps lived, I might see something that gives me an idea of what paper I could use this year. So, I got the step ladder, and up I went. I brought the bin to the floor in front of me and started going through it. I was shocked to see the amount of beautiful paper I just left unused from last year. I'm sure I was "saving it" for something, but here it is a year later, and I lost the opportunity to use it.
Did you read what I said, "lost the opportunity?" That's messed up, but that's the way Demonstrators think about current products versus retired products. Customers can't buy retired products from our online stores, so we shouldn't use retired products. That's the talk around town, and I would say to myself, "I'll just use retired products when it doesn't matter, or when I'm just making something for someone who doesn't care if it's retired or not," but that never happens! Never. So folks, I've decided to break free and walk on the wild side (again) and use the retired beautiful paper that was specifically designed to accompany the Poinsettia Petals bundle. I'm just getting started, but here is my first design.
I used our Shimmery White card stock for the petals and stamped them with Soft Seafoam. I used Garden Green card stock and stamped the leaves with Garden Green ink. I love the specialty Vellum paper that was made for this suite last year, and the piece I used actually matches the design in the DSP.
I made another card omitting the stamping and using the white felt paper that is in the current catalog. I didn't like the texture and I couldn't help but worry about it looking a little dirty after I curled the petals and handled it quite a bit. I won't make any others out of that paper.
I'm so excited to piddle around in my bin and see what else I can come up with. The Designer Series Paper from last year had an image of a Poinsettia that you could actually cut out with one of the dies from the bundle. I love the card I came up with using it.
I also love the plush Vellum paper too that was offered in the suite from last year. I used a small strip of it on this holly and berry card.
So, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to go back to my bin and use all of the paper from last year to make card kits to sell on my website. The kits will NOT include a full pack of Designer Series Paper like all of my other kits, and they will be sold at a discount. I'll send an email out announcing the new card kits once I get them designed, made and posted. Subscribe to my blog so you don't miss these reduced price kits. I hope you'll consider purchasing one or two!
The reason I think it's a great idea to make card kits of this bundle to sell is that you don't have to own the stamps and dies to create a beautiful card. I've used mostly die cuts of the Poinsettia Petals to make all of these cards with little stamping. Just curl the die cut petals to bring them to life, layer them up, add them as focal image to the beautiful paper, add a sentiment of your choice and voilá, you have a beautiful card!
Check back in a couple of days if you're interested in purchasing card kits using this beautiful Poinsettia Petals Bundle. Subscribe to my blog and you'll receive an email once I upload the kits for sale. Thanks for reading my blog today and happy crafting!
Kim Webb
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