STB - may 22 2023

So it's time for another week spread in my STB memory planner. And my lamenting about being left alone with a sick doggie. And feeling sick myself.

If you're a cardmaker visiting here, may I just mention how cool it is to use up your ancient stash when working on preserving your memories like this ;) Washi. Journal cards. Alpha stickers. Feels so good.

and still more milestone cards

Needed a 50th wedding anniversary card. Happened to know what the bride's outfit was going to look like so I modeled their card on it using a wonderful stamp set, Beautiful Blooms Builder from The Stamp Market and some Altenew inks ...

And I needed a 60th birthday card so did some gold heat embossing with Stamplorations Healing Herbs stamp on pretty patterned papers and voila!

 

Thanks for coming by today. 

STB - may 15 2023

And after Mother's Day comes a week where an old U-Boot came to town. Well, not really. It just passed by on its way to Speyer.

 

a CASE in blue

 Hi there peeps! 

I was very inspired by a card Andrea M. made recently and it actually moved me to hit my craft room and CASE it.

Loved her color combo so I stuck with it. Perused my dies for something that would give that fall feel, but keep my life simple. Chose a bit bigger pattern for my BG but it sure looks a lot like hers. Love it.

Because I loved the design so much I decided to put a twist on it and go a bit masculine. Same colors. Different motif. Feathers this time. And an embossed plus clock BG to go with the happy birthday, time passing theme.

Inkystamp sentiment stamp,

Penny Black Berries and Leaves die,

embossing powder, twine

Lifestyle Crafts feather die,

A Pocket Full of Happiness cover plate

That's it for today. Thanks for looking.  

pretty in pink - and green

How about a couple cards with a similar color scheme although they came about in different ways.

The patterned paper inspired me for this first one.  Needed a personalized card for DS so decided to include the initial as part of a shaker.  Sequins and gold are always a good idea, right?

I was sorting through some old stamps and ran across this oldie but goodie peony from PTI. Paired it with a more modern stencil BG and some cool word dies from A Pocket Full of Happiness. And some glitter washi!

Hope you are having a peaceful day. Thanks for looking.

 

STB - may 8 2023

The next week in my Stop the Blur. Lotsa love - the kiddos, the town, Mother's Day.

 

more milestone cards

Seems like some of the only cards I actually sit down and create lately are for lovely ladies turning 70, 80 and 90.

 STAMPlorations Gift Builder 1 die

STAMPlorations Celebrate die

STAMPlorations Peony number 2 stencil

MFT numbers die

Papertrey hello die

Thanks for stopping by today.

STAMPlorations art marks and markers

While I was having fun using up those gelli prints , I also had this cute little Mini Art Marks stamp set out. That little rainbow caught my eye and I had some fun with it, water based markers and a spray bottle.

Mini Art Marks stamp

water based markers

Hello Sunshine die

Time consuming, but worth it I think. Have a good day.

STB - may 1 2023

Another week in the books. The Stop the Blur book that is. And it's actually the first page of a new planner cuz the first one's a wrap!

STAMPlorations more designs with gelli prints

 Hi there peeps! 

I was having so much fun using a technique (a la Susanne R.) which also uses up those gelli prints we all have hanging around our craft rooms. 

Paired it with  a cool coffee mug die cut here.

Or how about with many bloom die cuts cut from black cardstock?

Oh heck. How about with a green heat embossed ice cream cone? Artistic license, ya know?

Art Marks stamp, Zen Coffee Cup die,

Just Caffeinate sentiment stickers,

Trendy Spring Blooms die,

5 Love Words die,

Sweet Cravings stamp,

embossing powder

That's it for today. Thanks for looking.  

STAMPlorations and gelli prints

Hi there peeps! 

I was very inspired by a technique (a la Susanne R.) which uses up those gelli prints we all have hanging around our craft rooms. Don't ya love it?

Paired it with a black heat-embossed-on-white fussy cut floral bloom.

Paired it with a white heat-embossed-on-black fussy cut floral bloom.

Art Marks stamp,

Dee's Flora stamps,

gelli prints, embossing powder

That's it for today. Thanks for looking.  

STB - april 24 2023

 I've decided to start including my Stop the Blur weeks here on my blog too. Until now I'd only put them on my instagram. If you're interested you can find more descriptive content over there. If not, you cardmaking friends can just ignore these STB posts ;)

die cut a card edge flap

Saw a cool technique over at Scrapbook.com which inspired me to give it a try.

I'm not a huge interactive card fan, but this level of interactivity I can handle. Turns your sentiment into a tri-fold card flap holder. (There must be a better name for this!)

One graduation and one get well version.

happy valentine's day 2023

Lordy, lordy look who hasn't posted for two months! Not sure anyone cares, but if nothing else but to remind myself sometime down the road here's why... I'm not making as many cards lately. I make the occasional one that is necessary (Valentine for example) and otherwise use up ones from my stash. More on that later.

This was the Valentine I made for DD this year. I was inspired by something Heidi Swapp created. Did you see this fun piece in her reel? I love the little interactive window elements. I used another of Heidi's ideas from another piece and included "5 things I love about you." Three in the windows on the front and two on little pull out tags in a pocket inside.

I pulled out all kinds of supplies from my stash - PP to stamp on, stamps, dies, inks, colored pencils, twine. All the things. Loved the process. Hated the clean up :) 

On a side note, something keeping me busy lately is getting my stamps and dies into the Evernote app so that I have an overview of what I actually own. And for a project like this it would have been very helpful to use Evernote to see which Valentine/love/vintage etc stamps I own instead of flipping through everything.  I own a shitload, actually, but alas they're not all in Evernote yet. 

When I have everything inventoried, I aim to destash about a third of my shitload. Just keep watching ;) 

Here are DH and DS versions.

What has actually been taking up my time more recently is a foray into the world of memory planning. An oxymoron if I ever heard one, but I'm learning to live with it ;)

Are you a planner? I am the world's worst planner. Ever. So why would I get into memory planning? My cousin introduced me on to the Heidi Swapp memory planner world and by golly it's a great idea. It's basically scrapbooking daily life in a simple format - photo driven with some journaling to record the memories and some decorating just for fun. Heidi calls the process "Stop the Blur" as in keep track of everday life so when people ask you what you did last Tuesday you can actually answer. You can check out the idea here. 

So before jumping into it (and buying all the things) I decided to give it a try using a notebook from the dollar store and supplies I already have. I print photos at the drug store and pop them into my book often hidden in interactive elements. Here's a peek. 

Full disclosure, I just recently did buy all the things :) I've been enjoying this process this since last fall so I'm gonna make the switch to Heidi Swapp's memory planner format. If you are a memory planner, I'd love to hear any of your tips for a newbie!!!