Product of the Month

Stampin' Up! has been working over the last year or two to change things up. We have seen more focus on expanding into scrapbooking products, changes in formats of different products, and changes to programs and events. 

The latest to hit the ground is the new Product of the Month.

December saw the release of the inaugural POM product with a package of 12"x12" DSP, True Blue Florals. New POM are released each month, and can be purchased for $5 for December through April, and $7 afterwards with your qualifying purchase of $100, limited to 1 POM per customer. Of course, I had to have this first one, particularly because blue is my favourite colour. 

I had the paper here for a few days before I figured out how to use it for the first time. A month or so ago, I bought some kraft notebooks on Amazon. I bought lined and blank booklets, and planned o decorate the covers. What a perfect project for the POM!

I chose some of the papers, focusing on those with random patterns. I was worried if they were linear, I would be unable to line them up to suit my OCDness. It was good that I did, as I am not that practiced doing this just yet!

I laid the booklet out, opened, on the DSP and determined the measurements I would need to use. The full 12" width, by a height of 9 1/4" worked perfectly. I cut it, then adhered the paper to the book cover. 

Next, I trimmed the corners in order to reduce the bulk when folding the edges over. This worked well with Tear n' Tape to wrap the paper around and make the cover look neat. The inside cover needed some help though. I decided to use Night of Navy to create a panel to cover the uneven edges. 

After wrapping the book, I used my card making skills to create a focal point on the front cover. A Round of Hellos, a new stamp set coming in the Jan.-Apr. Mini Catalogue and Online Exlusives releases, was the perfect foil for the paper. It is cheery, has simple floral stamps and was just the right size images to work. I stamped florals, leaves, and a sentiment, then fussy cut them all out. This set can also be used with a combination of circle punches or dies.

The blue and white twine from the 2025 Advent Calendar matched well, and served to make a bow and stems for the flowers. I found some retired sequins to use to add some bling (how could it be finished without bling??). 

On my first attempt at a book cover, I had thought ahead and added ribbon between the inside panel and the book cover to serve as a closure tie for the booklet. This one... nope, I thought of it too late to make it work. Maybe next time I will be on top of it!

If the next Product of the Month is anything like this one, I think I will be hard pressed NOT to buy them each month. The value is clearly there, and I tend to try and order at the $100 mark to maximize the value of shipping costs anyways. 

*Edit: It took me so long to get this post finished that I am actually posting on the day the January Product of the Month is being released. Yep... I was right. It really is a great one. A full set of sentiment stamps for only $5?  Wow! I am ordering to get mine. I will have to use it and update this post with another picture or two!