New Products ON SALE

There are NEW additions to the Clearance Rack!!!!

Since Blendabilities were discontinued, new things have been added to SALE-A-BRATION. 
While supplies last!

It's Spring!

I have been a pretty sick girl for the past few days. A trip to the ER even. bleck! I am at home resting and feeling better today. I have a follow up visit with Doc. tomorrow.

Anyway, while being quiet and resting, I have been coloring with my Copics:) I used a new digital stamp image. I didn't have all the colors of Copics I needed, but it still turned out nicely I think. Yeah, I uh kinda got on the Marker Pop website and ordered more colors. I know, I know, I swore I had enough colors at Christmas. But I really didn't have many yellows... I used Stampin' Up! Perfect Plum and Hello Honey cardstock. I LOVE their cardstock, the quality and the colors - big sigh.

Product Update

Remember, the strikes at the west coast ports and China not shipping out any products during the Chinese New Year, have caused massive delays for many many companies. I ordered some more  opic Markers yesterday, and the first three vendors had such low inventory, they didn't have all the colors I wanted. I finally found all 5 colors in stock at one vendor. Copics come from Japan and are all shipped into ports on the west coast.

Stampin Up! Related an update about the butterflies!
The Butterflies Thinlits have shipped from China, and we are awaiting an arrival confirmation date; that means at this time we do not have an availability date. Once we have more information, I will let you know. 

Now, about Blendabilities.

Over the months we’ve noticed quality issues with this product, but they were within normal tolerance. However, when corrections and complaints became more and more frequent, we increased the sophistication of our quality testing. Our manufacturer is now reporting a 30 to 40 percent fail rate before they are shipped to Stampin’ Up!—which is unacceptable.

The decision to pull the Blendabilities line was painful for all of us here at Stampin’ Up! We carefully selected a reputable manufacturer whom we believed could produce high quality, alcohol-based markers. But with the manufacturer reporting that 30–40 percent of the product produced could not be shipped to Stampin’ Up!, and with other defects being discovered by us when we tested the product here at Stampin’ Up!, we’ve come to the conclusion that the company are in a no-win position. Due to the nature of the defect, the problem would only become more widespread. That leaves us with only two possible courses of action: to keep selling the product (with uncertainty about whether the manufacturer could ever repair the defect) or withdraw it from our offering. We felt that we would rather pull the line than continue to try and sell a product with such a high fail rate and such an uncertain future.

I sure have learned a lot about commerce, business and manufacturing. It makes me sad that the US has to rely on China to make so many of our products. I mean EVERYTHING you know? Anything made here in the US costs more, and for companies to keep the cost down they go to China. Those poor people are making nothing for their work in factories. Little kids are working in the clothing factories. Wow. How on earth did things get so messed up, and how do we fix them? Some people blame labor unions. I can see that to some extent, but it can't be just that simple. I haven't had really nice towels since the textile industry left us. Doesn't matter what brand, how much I pay for them, they all have hems and they rip out. Towels never used to do that. We didn't have hems either, did we?

 

A Different Look

I did a handful of the first cards for thank yous to take to Church. When Card Ministry last met, we noticed that they were low on thank you cards. I didn't want them to run out before we met again and made more. It's a different look, and I like it. I wanted the Ministers to have some that were not so girly you know?

Project Details
Stamps	Postage Due, Gorgeous Grunge, a very old Magenta stamp on left border
Card Stock & Papers	Very Vanilla, Brushed Gold, Soft Suede
Ink	Crumb Cake, Soft Suede, Early Espresso
Accessories	sponge daubers, (scripture done on computer)
Tools

Project Details
Stamps	Beautiful Bunch, Bloom With Hope (greeting)
Card Stock & Papers	Strawberry Slush, Crisp Cantaloupe, Whisper White
Ink	Hello Honey, Strawberry Slush
Accessories	Crisp Cantaloupe Ruffled Ribbon
Tools	Lovely Lace embossing folder, Modern Label punch

Stamp Your Art Out

I've said this before but I have the best time with this group of ladies! They are so sweet and such fun to be around. Since the group has grown, I tried a more assembly line approach this time and most of it worked better for us. One part did not, but you know, these ladies were so patient and helped each other out, and helped me. It was awesome:) What didn't work? Well, in my head, the second card design was going to work well, because half the group made one color combination with one set of flower stamps, while the other group made a different color combination and flowers/punches. In real life it was confusing. Plus it was not easy trying to design two similar but different cards. So, I won't do that again. I have a couple of requests for next month. Using more vellum with heat embossing, and something that can be used for a wedding. Kathy brought some cards to show us. I always love when people do that:) Which reminds me, that I did not! I thought about it, I even told myself some cards I bet they would like to see. Did they make it into my traveling case? That would be a big nope! Okay, next month!

Project Details
Stamps	Papillon Potpouri, Peaceful Petals (sentiment)
Card Stock & Papers	Very Vanilla: card base 5 ½ x 8½ score at 4 ¼                            1 ¾  x 5 embossed layer Crumb Cake: 2 x 3 ½ Vellum: 2 ¼ x 2 ¼ punched Color Collections Paper: ¾ x 3
Ink	Crumb Cake
Accessories	Pearls Basic Jewels, Linen Thread, Stampin Dimensionals
Tools	Decorative Dots Embossing folder, Punches: Tag Topper, 1 ¾ Scalloped Circle, Bird Builder, and Corner Rounder

Project Details
Stamps	Beautiful Bunch, Flower Shop, Petite Petals, Mixed Bunch, Happy Watercolor (sentiment)
Card Stock & Papers	Blackberry Bliss/Tangerine Tango base 5 ½ x 8½ score at 4 ¼ Whisper White: 2 ½ x 5 ½                           3 x 6 ½ stamped images Hello Honey/Melon Mambo: 2 ¾ x 5 ½
Ink	Hello Honey, Blackberry Bliss/ Melon Mambo, Tangerine Tango and Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories	Stampin’ Dimensionals
Tools	Punches: Fun Flower, Blossom, Pansy, Petite Petals, Modern Label and Word Window

Project Details
Stamps	Another Great Year (sentiment)
Card Stock & Papers	Whisper White: card base 5 ½ x 8½ score at 4 ¼                                 butterfly layer 3 ½ x 4 ¾ Patterned Paper: 4 x 5 ¼
Ink	Calypso Coral
Accessories
Tools	Butterflies Thinlets