Loving the new stuff!

Life has been very busy this past week. After I got my order, I had to make a whole bunch of cards, do Christmas shopping and usual life things. I did not take the photo I had intended of my pile full of goodies! And now that it's all put away, it's a little late. :/

So far, I have used the Polar Party set a LOT.

(All images borrowed from Stampin' Up website and link back to the product.)

I absolutely love it! I've made a bunch of cards with it and the combinations are really endless. I use watercolour pencils and a Blender Pen. When I first tried using watercolour pencils, I was using a little jar of water and a paintbrush. Then I had seen a video where they were using the Blender Pens. I decided to try it and it works fantastically!

I also love the Snowflake Punch. No more attempting to cut out every little crevice!

 But it turns out that the product I love the most of everything I got in is the Frost White Shimmer Paint:

I don't have any photos to upload just yet, but applying the Frost White Shimmer Paint to a dauber, then using the "inked up" dauber on a stamp and stamping with the paint gives an amazing look. I did up a card using Night of Navy card stock and the Serene Snowflake set (gorgeous set!) inked up with the shimmer paint, and it's just lovely. I also tried the Simple Snowflake stamp with the paint just on Whisper White card stock and it's a very neat effect. What I haven't tried yet is mixing the paint with some ink refill--a technique I saw in a YouTube video. You get your colour with this shimmer to it. It's really quite something. There are two other colours available, as well.

Well, you know, there is a tie, actually: between the shimmer paint and the Texturz Plates that I bought for the Big Shot. ;)

I got a whole bunch of other stuff. New demonstrators get an extra 10% off their first order over $200 and since I was acting as my own hostess, too, that meant I got the extra 10% plus hostess benefits. (If you're at all curious about being a demonstrator, email me!) After doing some calculations, I realized that just buying a little more meant I would get a whole lot more! So I went all out and now need to restrict myself a bit. ;) I figure I can at least share what I got.

As part of my FREE hostess benefits:
*Simply Soft hostess set (only hostesses can acquire this with their hostess dollars)
*Flower Fancy stamp set
*Heart to Heart punch
*sponge daubers pack
*Frost White Shimmer Paint
*Scallop Edge Border Punch
*Heart Treat Cups (thinking ahead to Valentine's Day and little projects with the kids!)

Merchandise I got at 50% off because of hitting a certain sales level for the order:
*Big Shot Originals Circles #2

On top of that, I ordered:
*Silver Glimmer Paper (available for a limited time in the Holiday Mini--Jan. 3 is the last day to order it)
*Dazzling Details glitter glue (also from the Holiday Mini; I got 2 of these. So far, I am really liking that it is SO less messy than the usual way of adding glitter!)
*the Texturz Backgrounds #1 plates mentioned above
*the pads needed for the Big Shot to use the Texturz Plates
*the Snowflake Punch
*the Polar Party stamp set
*Mini Silver Brads
*the Paper-Piercing Tool and the Mat Pack to be able to use the brads more easily
*Basic Rhinestones
*I {Heart} Hearts Bundle--this was a special promotion that week to get the I {Heart} Hearts stamp set and the I {Love} Love jumbo wheel and I added to it the jumbo handle, since I didn't already have one
*Many Merry Messages (this was on sale, too)
*both the English and the French stamp sets for On Your Birthday--it was 50% off at the time!
*the Four the Holidays stamp set
*Creatively Yours stamp set
*some gifts for people
*different colours of card stock and Classic Stampin' Pads, and some envelopes

I can say that I met my quota for the quarter. ;)


I now have on the top of my Wish List:
*things for embossing
*the Stamp-a-Ma-Jig--I've had too many things be stamped crooked. The Stamp-a-Ma-Jig gives you a way of making sure you stamp it straight, regardless of how crooked you put the rubber part of the stamp on the wood block! ;D
*more ink colours and card stock colours, especially some textured card stock: so many projects I look at and like use textured card stock! The stuff I already have has the white core and doesn't withstand texture plates well :(.

That's it for now!