The new 2018-2019 Stampin’ Up! annual catalogue is here and it is beautiful! Some say it’s the best catalogue yet! I’ll leave that up to you to decide. I will say it’s full of so many beautiful new colours, lots of lovely stamps and so many embellishments that it’s hard to know what to get first!
If you are anything like me you probably want all the new colours NOW! You may even, be thinking that you have to swap your old style stamp pads in continuing colours with the new style so they all match. Of course, you need the matching card stock and the new Stampin’ Blends. Then there’s the tools… the new simply shammy is a must for cleaning your acrylic stamps. What about the Stamparatus? and of course the new Big Shot Embossing Mats? My wish list is huge and we haven’t even got to the stamps, bundles, textured embossing folders or ribbons yet!
To be honest at first glance, I was a little overwhelmed and then disheartened as I know my tight budget is not going to stretch to get everything I need or want for classes, let alone for my private use.
My Strategy
It might sound strange to have a strategy for purchasing craft products but trust me it’s worth taking a few minutes to think about what you are going to be creating in the next few months… Personally, I know that I’ll be doing some Christmas in July projects, then there’s Father’s Day in September followed closely by Halloween and Christmas Card preparations and a few birthday cards along the way. In September, the new holiday catalogue will be released so I definitely want to a selection of the new colours before then because I predict these new colours feature heavily in the holiday catalogue.
Although I want ALL my ink pads to be in the new style now, it isn’t essential right at this second as my old ink pads work just fine. So I’m going to wait until January when Sale-a-Bration starts so I can get free products when I buy them.
Next thing, I look at is what is my budget? and how can I get the most for my money? When you spend $250 on product you get 10% in Stampin’ Rewards and the rewards increase the more you spend. So rather than placing several small orders, I weigh up whether I can wait and place a larger order to take full advantage of the Stampin’ Rewards. Everyone loves free stuff!
If you regularly spend $150 a month on your craft and you intend to spend over $169 on your wish list, consider joining Stampin’ Up!. You can customize your starter kit with $235 worth of products for just $169 with FREE shipping. Talk to to me about your options.
So how can I get what I want?
Let’s start with the inks…
Starting with the inks is merely a suggestion. You will see a lot of gorgeous samples in the catalogue that you will want to replicate (CAS) or use as inspiration.
2018-2019 In colors
The new 2018-2020 in colors come in a bundle of 5 stamp pads saving you 10%… so you could get all 5 and the five refills for $91.00 (Never ever buy an ink pad without the ink refill!) For someone on a budget, that’s a big outlay all at once. So let me give you a few other options, to enable you to get the colours you want:
- Option 1: Grab a five pack of uninked Stampin’ Spots ($15.75) and the five classic ink refills ($6.50 each) for $48.25 That’s a significant saving. The advantage of the ink refills and stampin’ spots is they take up very little room and are the perfect size to use with your Stamparatus. This option leaves you some money left to buy a pack of In Colour Cardstock ($14.75) or embellishments.
- Option 2: Buy In color Stampin’ Write markers for $26.25. This is the cheapest of the options. Perfect if you don’t have heaps of room and love colouring sections of your stamps. Not such a great option if you do lots of sponging. (Talk to me if you want the pens but still want to sponge – you can make it work for you!)
- Option 3: Buy all the In color ink refills and experiment with techniques like baby wipe techniques, watercolouring, and direct to paper techniques. All five refills will set you back $32.50 (plus shipping)
- Option 4: Join The Creative Eclectic’s exclusive “in colour club”. For five months at $50/month plus local postage and handling (post pack). At the end of your five months, you will receive a pack 2018-2020 Stampin’ Write Makers absolutely free! Each month you will receive:
- one Classic Stampin’ pad
- a pack of coordinating A4 cardstock
- coordinating designer series paper in that in colour
- ink refill
- roll of coordinated ribbon
- mini binder clips in that in colour
- an exclusive project tutorial using your new in colours.
So you’ve got a few options with the new in colours. More details about The Creative Eclectic in Colour Club will be released next week.
New and Returning Colours
In my previous posts about the colour revamp, I mentioned that there are 16 new or returning core colours. Stampin’ Up! offers a New Colour Classic Ink Pad Assortment bundle with all 16 new colours for $187 saving you 10%… so you could get all 16 colours and the 16 ink refills ($6.50 each) for $291 (Never ever buy an ink pad without the ink refill!) Then you’ll need some card stock. The New Colour Card stock Assortment ($24.25) contains two sheets of all 16 colours. Your total outlay for new colour stamp pads, ink refills and cardstock is $315. Again that’s a big outlay all at once but remember you will get 10% in Stampin’ Rewards to spend on whatever Stampin’ Up! products you desire.
Here’s some other options to get your hands on the new colours:
- Option 1: Grab three packs of uninked Stampin’ Spots ($15.75/pack), the 16 classic ink refills ($6.50 each) and New Colour Card stock Assortment ($24.25) for $175.50 That’s a significant saving of around $139. Remember how I said the Stampin’ Spots take up very little room and are the perfect size to use with your Stamparatus. This option leaves you some money left to buy other things.
- Option 2: Buy the New Colour Assortment Stampin’ Write Markers for $84.00. As I said before markers are perfect if you don’t have heaps of room and love colouring.
- Option 3: Buy all the new colour ink refills (sold separately for $6.50 each) for $104.00, place a drop on your acrylic clear block or silicone craft sheet and use a sponge dauber to transfer the ink to your stamp.
- Option 4: Buy one Classic Stampin’ Pad ($13.00) and ink refill ($6.50) each month for $19.50. Choose the colours based on what you love or know you will be stamping soon. For example if you’re about to start your Christmas Cards think about getting Shaded Spruce, Mossy Meadow or Granny Apple Green first – I suspect these greens will feature heavily in the upcoming holiday catalogue so you’ll want to be prepared.
Now the papers and card stock…
Cardstock
Before you even think about buying a single sheet of card stock, do a “stock take” of what you have on hand. You don’t want to end up with 7 packs of Very Vanilla that you will struggle to use. (Yes, I have 7 unopened packs of Very Vanilla A4 card stock.)
Then think about what you are going to make – cards, boxes, scrapbook pages. For most things A4 card stock is perfect, but if you’re making lots of 3″ x 4″ note cards, wine bottle gift bags or a 12″x12″ scrap book page, you’re going to need 12″x 12″ Cardstock which comes in Whisper White, Very Vanilla or assorted packs for each colour family: Subtles, Regals, Brights, Neutrals, 2017-2019 and 2018-2020 in colors.
Earlier in the post I mentioned the New Colour Card stock Assortment ($24.25) contains two sheets of all 16 colours. If you don’t use a lot of card stock this is a reasonable option.
Another great way option when you only want a couple of sheets in each colour is to grab a A4 assortment pack for each of the colour families. (You’ll find these in the annual catalogue on the bottom of pages 183 to 187.)
If you don’t have a huge stash of card stock and want card stock to match your designer series paper, consider the A4 card stock packs that coordinate with the Designer Series Papers on pages 188 to 191 of the Annual catalogue. These packs contains 24 x A4 sheets (8 of 3 colours or 6 of 4 colours depending on the paper) that perfectly match your designer series paper. This allows you to reduce waste.
Designer Series Papers
Last year, Stampin’ Up! had a wonderful Designer Series Paper promotion in July where you buy three and get the fourth free. Rumor has it a similar promotion will be running again this year so it IS worth waiting a week or so before (after 1st July) purchasing papers if you want a few different packs.
Kits
If you don’t have loads of supplies or the thought of cutting up card bases or dragging out your big shot doesn’t appeal, an all inclusive kit is a great option. These kits contain everything: stamps, ink, a block, card bases, envelopes, Stampin’ Dimensionals, die cuts, accents, embellishments and trim – all in a gift box. All you need to do is grab your scissors and the adhesive of your choice and off you go! There is no waste! They take up very little space so you can pack them in your suitcase,caravan or camper when you go on holidays. Imagine sitting by the water or under the trees with a glass of wine or a cuppa and making a few cards. Sounds relaxing to me.
Check out pages 7 to 9 of the annual catalogue to see the Notes of Kindness, Soft Sayings and Lots of Happy kits. These kits even have refills available so you can make more!
Bundle it up!
Throughout the catalogue there are at least 30 different bundles where you can save 10%. I cannot stress enough the importance of buying the stamp and the bundled die or punch together. In my experience, I know that when someone just buys the die or the stamp on its own to “save money”, they will buy the other part of the bundle down the track. It happens almost every time! So not only have they paid full price for two items – they’ve paid for two lots of shipping too. This is incredibly frustrating to watch! It doesn’t make sense to me at all. If you can’t afford a bundle this month wait a couple of weeks until you can afford it. This avoids the regrets and wasting money!
Share with Friends
My big tip is to team up with friends. The wonderful group of ladies who I caught up with last week are eyeing off similar papers so four of them are each buying a different pack of designer paper (on a combined order) and splitting them between them. That way they don’t waste money by having too much paper they won’t use (is there such a thing?) AND they get more variety. Everyone wins.
Take a similar approach to ribbons, bundled stamp pads, packs of card stock, envelopes, note cards and embellishments.
Order with Friends
If you have a group of friends who craft together all wanting to place an order, order together, share the shipping costs and share the hostess rewards. You could even make a party of it! Ask me how.
Join and save
If you intend to place an order over $169, I recommend purchasing a starter kit that $235 worth of products for just $169 with FREE shipping. There is no obligation to stay a demonstrator. However, if you do stay a demonstrator you will get 20% off your future orders. These savings add up! So if in future you intend to buy a bundle not only do you save the 10% on the bundled products but you save a further 20% on the bundle price. That’s a pretty good deal.
Do you regularly spend $150 a month on your stamping supplies? Yes? Then you should also consider joining Stampin’ Up! Talk to to me about your options.
If you think, “Wow I’d love to save that much money… Join me up now ” – here’s what you do first:
- Pick the $235 worth of products you want you want in your Starter Kit (Contact me for if you aren’t sure what to choose.)
- Click here – make sure my name is in the upper right corner.
- Read and agree to the Independent Demonstrator Agreement
- Complete your order AND
- Check your inbox!
That was too easy!
What are your tips to get the most out of the new catalogue? Comment below
