So Thankful for You

Hello friends! I hope you had a wonderful weekend and your week is looking great. This week marks my 2 month retirement.  I can't believe it's been 2 months already. But I must admit, I am really getting used to it.  I like the fact that even though I am busier now, it's what I want to do, and not what my work made me do. It's a whole new feeling to wake up energized to start the day, all refreshed and ready to go. Because I have been using this time to do a lot of down sizing and cleaning, I haven't had a lot of time to create.  But my craft room is looking better and I'm finding treasures that I forgot I had.  That's always a good thing.  So I have placed them in a separate box with the intention of making something with all the new goodies.
Today though, I wanted to share the cards we made at my monthly stamp camp Saturday.  Still working with items from the holiday catalog, I had 10 ladies here and as always, we had so much fun.
Here's the parade of cards and a little bit of info on each one:

I found quite a few of the Crumb Cake envelopes while re-organizing, but not many note cards to match.  Stampin' Up! sells them as a set, so I just made my own note cards using Crumb Cake card stock. Here's a set of 4 and I made a larger envelope using the Envelope Punch Board to hold them all. Tied with a ribbon, this makes a nice gift to your hostess if you're visiting someone for Thanksgiving. I'm going to make another set because we are going to 2 houses this year. The acorns are cut using the new Acorn Punch. We didn't stamp the acorns with the set though. I wanted to use the Color Me Irresistible card stock, so we swiped the ink pads over the paper, then wiped it off with a paper towel. Then punched out the acorns.  There's also some acorns made from the new Corrugated Paper. I love that paper; has so much texture. The designer paper is the Into the Woods, framed by a piece of Early Espresso card stock.

What could be better than a crisp, clean Christmas card? The Delicate Ornament Framelits on a piece of the Red Foil paper makes a stunning card and it's easy to make. The holly is from the Embellished Ornaments stamp set, which matches the framelits.  Very Vanilla satin ribbon finishes it off quite nicely I think.

There are many versions of this card out on the internet, but this is mine. Smoky Slate card stock, embossed with the Brick Wall EF, and the Hearth & Home Framelits to make the window. The stamp set is the beautiful Happy Scenes stamped in Mossy Meadow. I used 2 way glue to add Dazzling Diamonds to make the snow.  The sentiment is cut from Red Glimmer paper using the Christmas Greetings Thinlet. The sky is sponged with a very light touch of Soft Sky, and the bricks are lightly sponged with Smoky Slate. This may be my Christmas card this year.  Fun to make.

And finally, this is almost an exact copy of the hundreds of cards out on the internet, so I can't tell you where I saw it.  I just knew I had to make it.  I decided to sponge the trees in Old Olive, and the sleigh in Night of Navy.  I sponged Pacific Point in various shades to make the night sky. A little sparkle here and there with my silver glitter pen (not Stampin' Up!) helped to create the snow and stars. Stamp set: Jingle all the Way. Framelits: Sleigh Ride

I hope you like my cards today.  Next month, we are making 16 Christmas cards with one sheet of 12 x 12 paper.  It's called "One sheet wonder" cards and there are so many versions out on Pinterest and other websites.  One of my friends figured out a template to make 16 and believe me, it's awesome. There are only 2 miniscule pieces of paper left over to throw away, so she really used up all the paper for sure. I'll post those after November 14th so you can see them.

Until next time, happy stamping.  Have a great week! 

Scrappy Creations # 2

As part of my efforts to be a better blogger, I have learned how to create a post, but not have it post until a specific date and time.  Yay me! I'm learning...slowly but surely. 
Yesterday I mentioned that I was cleaning out my card box and showed you some Halloween cards. Today, I found more "scrap cards"; that is, cards made from scraps.  I had previously posted a few of those last month, and here are two more that I recently made.  All pieces are left over from supplies I cut for stamp camps.

These strips are from the Cherry on Top designer paper pack. I then stamped my flowers using the Flower Patch stamp set and cut them out using the Flower Fair framelits.  Candy dots were used for the centers.

These strips are from the Pretty Petals designer paper pack.  The stamp set is Summer Silhouettes and I added some bling with the Brights Sequins assortment.

I hate to throw anything away, so if there's a decent size scrap left, it goes into a now organized plastic folder, by color family. Before, they were all in one box and it took me a long time to find just the right color. Target dollar section to the rescue! I found several plastic portfolios; some with compartments, some not, and each folder was a different color.  For the card stock pieces, if the folder was blue, all the blues went inside. If it was pink, all the reds and pinks found a home, and so on. For my designer paper, I separated the scraps into florals, geometrics, stripes, etc.  I used a folder for each type of design.  It's working out well for me and now I don't get frustrated when I'm trying to find a scrap.
I hope you enjoyed my post today. If you do not have a Stampin' Up! demonstrator, please email me and I'll be sure to send you a catalog.  The holiday catalog is still good until January 1. I'd love to send you one.  Be sure to check my online store for some great Weekly Deals and other wonderful specials. Have a great day.

Some Oldies to Remember

Hi ! Welcome and I hope you're having a great day today. Since retirement, I've made a huge list of things to get done. I am slowly working on that list. I'm learning quickly that retirement is very different. It's not like having a vacation, where you rush around to get everything accomplished before you have to return to work.  It's more like "yes, I'm getting things done, but the pace is very different". One of the things on my list is the never ending task of cleaning the craft room.  You know, pulling things out, discovering things you forgot about and that includes cards.  If you are a paper crafter, I'm sure you're like me.  You make a lot of cards and they go into a box until you need one for a friend. I really needed to clean out that box and send some of those cards to people that can use them for charity. And, I discovered these. Because Halloween is coming soon, I thought I'd share them with you today.  They are all made with retired Stampin' Up! items, and forgive me if I don't list what they are, because without looking them up, I don't remember. 

I think this cute cat and the spider web stamps are from a couple of years ago. The ribbon was also from a Holiday catalog around the same time.  The google eyes are from my stash.

This paper was from last year's Holiday catalog.  I just had to cut these little goblins out, and pop them up on dimensionals.  The "boo" was actually on a candy treat that another friend made, and I took it off and placed it here.

This paper was also from last year I believe.  I love those trees with the black night behind them and those scary yellow eyes. The House framelits are so cute and I don't think I will ever part with them.  I stamped the ghosts and cut them out and popped them up with dimensionals. The pumpkins were done the same way.  I used our Blendabilities (which are no longer available) to color the houses

So there you have it.  A parade of Halloween cards from a time gone by. I hope you enjoyed seeing them and until next time, happy stamping!