Hi friends,

Welcome to a brand new month. I heard this referred to as day 147 of March and I couldn’t agree more… what a strange year this has been.

I hope that you and your loved ones are safe and staying well.

Here in my part of the world we are dealing with sub-zero temperatures overnight and (mostly) sunny afternoons. It’s a beautiful. time of year, regardless of the weather.

But you’re not here to talk about the weather, you want to know what Stampin’ Up! are offering for the month of July – amIright? lol

It’s BONUS DAYS time again!

From now until the 3rd of August, you’ll earn a $9 voucher for every $90 of shopping. Spend $180 and you’ll get 2 x $9 vouchers.

The vouchers will be emailed to you in the form of a ‘Coupon Code’ – so make sure you hang on to those codes and don’t delete them.

From the 4th of August you can redeem those vouchers. How cool! A free shopping spree sounds good to me.

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In the meantime, the next #greataustraliancraftshow is upon us. Sadly we still can’t do in-person craft shows, but these online craft shows have taken on a life of their own and are hugely popular.

It’s all happening over on Facebook from Thursday 2nd July to Sunday 5th July, so pop over and say g’day. I’ll be online for chats, giveaways, inspiration and a healthy dose of fun & games.

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I also want to take this opportunity to thank my valued customers for their amazing support. You are truly valued and appreciated each and every year – but especially this year during such an uncertain time. I love helping you to stay creative and am honoured that you choose me as your Stampin’ Up! demonstrator.

June was an amazing month for me as I reached big sales milestone (400,000) with Stampin’ Up! and also earned my 11th incentive trip. We are off to Hawaii next year (if international travel is allowed). Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.

Happy stamping, 

This month the You Can Create It (YCCI) supplies were simple yet full of potential: a full piece of 5″ x 7″ watercolour paper and a half sheet of Gray Granite cardstock.

Wow! Where to begin?!

I decided to use the watercolour sheet to die cut pieces from the Sunflowers dies.

Hang on… what’s that?

Yes, it’s a sneak peek of a brand new die set from the upcoming annual catalogue which goes live on Wednesday 3rd June. So exciting!!!

The next step in the process was so fun… watercolouring!

I used the Aqua painter filled with water, and ink from a whole lot of different ink pads LOL.

Tip: Use an acrylic block (or something similar) as a ‘palette’. Press the block into the ink pad and then use the Aqua painter to lift the ink off the block for colouring. This helps to keep the ink pad surface free of excess water from the brush.

Design Team Projects

Once again the YCCI Design Team have created amazing and inspiring projects.

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Play along with us!

Just gather up these same supplies and see what you can come up with.

Let’s create!

Happy stamping, 

What a week! Buckle up, crafters, because I’ve got exciting news for you.

With all the craziness of life at the moment, it’s so important to find joy and immerse yourself in something you love.

And we’ve got it in spades this week.

1. New catalogue launches on Wednesday

One thing we all LOVE is brand new craft products. In this gorgeous new 2020-2021 Stampin’ Up! catalogue there are pages and pages of them!

Hopefully by now you’ve received your hard copy in the mail (if you’ve bought from me in the past year) – if not please get in touch. You can download the digital copy when it goes live on Wednesday morning.

We’re making lists, checking them twice and working out what to get now and what to get later. Yep, I’m right there with you.

But don’t forget to check the retiring items in case there’s anything there you want to pick up before they are gone for good.

There’ll be a few hours from midnight Tuesday when the online store closes, but you’ll be ok to order from early Wednesday.

2. Extra Stampin’ Rewards

A brand new Stampin’ Rewards bonus starts on Wednesday – perfectly timed to coincide with the launch of the new catalogue.

For those of us with a big wish list, this is FANTASTIC news!
Extra free product is coming our way with every qualifying order.

As you may already know, Stampin’ Rewards is the free product credits you get when you place an order over AUD$250. It starts off at 10% of the value of your order and goes up from there.  So for example, if your order is $270 then you get $27 in free product.

Well, from WEDNESDAY you’ll get a bonus $40 in Stampin’ Rewards when the order reaches $400! So instead of getting $40 in free product, you’ll get $80! Yay! 

3. Get a bonus bundle

If the idea of bonus Stampin’ Rewards sounds good, how about combining it with a 20% discount on your crafty shopping with Stampin’ Up!? One of the most-loved benefits of joining Stampin’ Up! is getting that awesome discount – it means we can buy more (ahem) I mean save more LOL

But seriously, have you been thinking about joining Stampin’ Up!? Or rejoining? If you have, GET EXCITED because a new joining bonus has just been announced and it will knock your socks off.

From Wednesday, you can choose a FREE punch bundle or die bundle to any value when you get the Stampin’ Up! starter kit, in addition to all the regular perks! For $169 you could potentially end up with a kit worth $415. It’s really that good!

You can choose from one of the bundles of stamps & punches on pages 168-169 of the new catalogue, OR one of the stamps & dies bundles on pages 174-175. Take your pick! That’s up to $100.75 value extra, for free!

You’ll also be able to choose any additional available products worth up to $235. So get that wish list out and start working out what you’ll get. Stampin’ Up! will even throw in extra catalogues and various business supplies worth $80. The cost is still only $169 and shipping is free! 

Learn more here.

4. New Improved Shopping Experience

Many of my customers enjoy ordering their products directly through me, either by phone, text or email. I love connecting with you and chatting about our shared love of crafting. But increasingly, many of you are enjoying the convenience of ordering online through my online store. Anywhere, anytime.

If you are familiar with my online store, you may notice some changes when you get in there from Wednesday.

We’re excited to be making some fabulous improvements.

• The new online store will be more intuitive, have powerful search and navigation capabilities, and will have a much cleaner look
• It will work seamlessly on all devices – desktops, tablets and mobile phones. There’s even a new Feedback feature to help create a better shopping experience for you.
• You’ll see much larger pictures of the products so you can check out the close-ups before you decide to purchase.
• You can even sort and use the filter function to find exactly what you’re looking for.
• You’ll get real-time inventory status information, so you’ll know straight away if a product is on backorder or will be retiring soon, or if stock levels are low (so you can order before they run out).

Just something to note: If you rely on your browser to remember your login info (including password), the browser will probably ask for this information the first time you log in to the new site. If you remember your password you can just add it to the new site, or you can use the “Forgot Password” link and follow the steps to reset.

If you have the store link bookmarked as a ‘Favourite’ in your browser, it should redirect but you may need to update the saved link. You’ll know you’re still shopping with me if you see my name SIMONE BARTRUM in the top corner.

We’re so excited to bring this highly-anticipated and improved shopping experience to you.

5. Four Days of Facebook Fun

The Great Australian Craft Show is back from Thursday to Sunday, so make sure you check out my Stamping with Simone Facebook page for all the action.

Perfect timing with the launch of our new annual catalogue in the same week, so we’ll be bringing you NEW videos, NEW product spotlights, NEW giveaways and all the fun. I’ll be online during the day, ready to chat with you and respond to your comments. Hope you can join me!

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I’ll be back tomorrow to share my monthly YCCI (You Can Create It) project, which will be another sneak peek from the new catalogue. See you then!

Happy stamping, 

From scraps to tags to cards

A new video went up today – a quick 2 minute tip about using up your scraps.

Here are the projects that were shared in the video:

Having a collection of die cut pieces is so very handy for making tags and even for using the elements on cards with just a simple embossed background.

[Click to Watch the YouTube video]

New Catalogue is coming

My copy of the upcoming 2020-2021 annual Stampin’ Up! catalogue arrived on Friday and it’s gorgeous! As you can imagine, I’ve been reading it from cover to cover ever since.

If you shopped through me or my online store during the past year, you can expect your complimentary new catalogue to arrive later this month. This is just another little way I thank my customers for choosing to shop with me.

Don’t yet have a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator? Jump over to my online store and check out the fabulous bargains and Last Chance products. There is still time to get some of these before we switch over to the new catalogue in early June.

Here is this year’s new cover design. Love, love, love the simplicity.

New Catalogue Pre-Order – Join us!

It’s beyond exciting to be part of the Stampin’ Up! community at the moment because TOMORROW our annual pre-order period begins for the NEW annual catalogue.

If you LOVE the products, love a good deal and love to get your hands on NEW products early, then why don’t you join us? It’s only $169 for $235 worth of products (and you get to choose them), you get at least 20% off future purchases, you get to be part of an awesome team of like-minded crafters, and you get me as your committed mentor. If you join from 5th May 2020 you can even add brand new sneak peek products to your joining kit. Curious? Read this and then message me with your questions. xxx

Great Australian Craft Show Thank You

A huge big thank you to everyone who joined me over on my Facebook page over the past 4 days of the Great Australian Craft Show with CraftAlive. I’ve absolutely loved chatting and connecting with so many of you! And thanks to all of you for your encouragement with the new videos. Now that I’ve worked it all out, I’m excited to continue them. I loved all the video topic suggestions that were shared today – you’ve given me lots of material to work on!

Happy stamping, 

One thing new cardmakers always ask about it, is how to make base cards from an A4 sheet of cardstock.

It’s one thing to know that you can make 2 cards from one A4 sheet – but it’s a whole other issue trying to work out where to cut!

I’ve made a video to answer all your questions.

Although it is designed for beginning cardmakers who are using A4 sized cardstock (metric measurements), it is also great for those wanting to cut their cardstock more economically.  No waste! 

Learn how and where to cut, the benefits of scoring a crease before folding cardstock, and an alternative method that – seriously – could transform your cardmaking for the better. It did for me! 

And as a bonus for my blog readers, here is a handy downloadable one-page summary (in A4 size of course).

I hope it comes in handy for you.

Happy stamping, 

Welcome and thank you for joining me for Day 2 of the Great Australian Craft Show (read about Day 1 here), and it also coincides with our monthly YCCI You Can Create It post.

[If you’re new to my site, you can learn more about this fun international by-mail program in my launch post. FYI: I have just 1 leftover kit for the May-June 2020 mail out. First one to message me about it gets it – only $25 includes postage to anywhere in Australia]

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A Tropical Oasis? Yes please!

It’s freezing cold today and I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind being in a tropical oasis right about now. Just hearing the name of this suite of products almost takes me there.  Hmmm. I can almost smell the Pina Colada.

This video shows some fantastic hints and tips about the products that make up this suite – it was a lightbulb moment for me with that burlap trim! Many of the products in this suite are retiring so if anything grabs your eye you can get them here (Australia only). It also happens to be the paper that was included in the April YCCI kits that were sent out earlier this month. 

YCCI April Packs

This month’s pack included:

• a couple of panels of Tropical Oasis designer series paper
• Tropical Oasis trinkets and
• a generous length of the lovely Braided Burlap Trim

I stuck to a favourite go-to layout to make this card for a friend.

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Design Team Projects

Want to see what our talented YCCI Design Team created?

Of course you do! Be ready to be wowed because they have seriously outdone themselves this time.

[If the links for the designer’s names don’t work, check back in a couple of hours. Their posts won’t go live until 5pm Mel time – I’m posting this early for the GACS2 visitors xxx]

Thanks for visiting today. Now it’s time for me to get back to my tropical oasis…

Happy stamping,