Hey everyone,  Last post I mentioned keeping a google document for birthdays. Were you thinking.....I'm sending handmade cards to avoid technology and how impersonal it feels! So, why is this woman, asking me to use technology for birthdays?!  I ask myself everyday, what the balance is between technology and personal. I like to use personal handmade gifts and cards or spend quality time with family and friends. But, I like to use technology almost like a personal assistant. If you are related to me, you know I would not even know what to buy at the grocery store if it weren't for my amazon Alexa.  I tend to forget things. Do you ?  I will at times have momentary lapse and forget even the names of my colleagues and then I end up with an awkward..." hey you!! " Very similarly...I forget birthdays, not because I don't care, but because I just can only keep so many things in my head. This is where I like to use technology.  One of the reasons to

As a part of this Organized Card giving challenge, I'll be posting tutorials and tips on how to make quick cards, but seeing as it is December and you may have a few cards to send out in January, let's kick start January with some already handmade cards. One of my favorite quick cards are the kits, that stampin up has, where they include everything including ink, glue, dimensionals, paper and envelopes all for $35 and you make 20 cards out of it. It's cheaper than Hallmark and they are beautiful. Almost a little more beautiful than what I usually can come up with. You can even sit, sip some wine by the fireplace this Christmas break and make all of these and be ready for the cards in January. Check out  https://www.stampinup.com/ECWeb/default.aspx?culture=en-us&dbwsdemoid=2156819 to order your kits today. Use hostess code TVFKYXJG for orders under $150. ** If you have some handmade cards ready at hand or have materials to make some other cards, you are alr

Hey everyone,  If you’re reading this post, it means you’re somewhat serious about the New Year’s resolution to send cards to people you care about. Do me a favor and give yourself a quick pat on the back from me. Starting is half the battle.  Actually, it’s more important to start, than to succeed. People that start something are usually the ones that end up finishing strong. I tend to procrastinate, just like everyone else. But, just like with anything, if I tell myself, just start….just run for 5 mins, just workout for 5 mins, just clean for a minute, I build momentum to keep going forward. Then when the time is up, its not so bad. You can keep going more… That’s exactly what we’re going to do this week. We’re going to start strong. That’s all you need to do for this week. I know the New Year’s doesn’t start until a month from now, but we want to actually hit the ground running as soon as the new year hits. So, preparation is the key here. For this week#1, and #2, get

You are driving home from grocery store or work, you stop by the mailbox and open it. You try to pry every single piece of mail from in there. You quickly try to scan the mail you got…and it’s mostly bills, advertisements, random credit card approval applications. Because…that’s ever worked!! You sigh, because its normal, routine and boring!! Then you realize you see a teeny tiny envelope, with a handwritten label. Not the fake cursive kind that some organization uses to ask for money, but the real kind! You open it, and it’s a greeting card. Handwritten greeting card that says Happy Birthday or Just thinking of you, and it put a huge smile to your face. I love that feeling, and guess what? I want all my loved ones to feel that feeling. Even better, I want to be the one to put that smile on their faces. I never truly understood the importance of getting cards in the mail until my husband Ray went to the hospital. He had surgery and was in the hospital recovering for almost 2 m

Happy Monday everyone! Who is excited for the fall and Christmas season?! This is my favorite quarter of the year. Halloween, thanksgiving and Christmas! With the holidays come the fun crafts! I wanted to show you a fun card layout. It's a step card. When you open the card, it cascades down and has multiple layers. The stampset used for this card is called Ready for Christmas! The " A wish for everything merry" is stamped on a circle cut using the Stitched shaped framelits. It adds a nice stitching while cutting the circle. Definitely recommend the set. **The credit for this layout goes to Simone Bartrum. Instructions: For the step card, use the directions shown in the sketch. All places with dashed lines are scored and the rest are cut. Embellish the card using the Ready for Christmas stamp and framelits. Try out this fun card for this Christmas season! Product List Ready For Christmas Photopolymer Bundle [ 146056 ] $59.25

Happy Monday everyone! I hope you all had a great Labor Day weekend and a good start of school. I love this time of the year, when the summer is ending and fall is starting, the morning air gets crisper. We had my craft class today, and these are the fall inspired crafts we did. I love home decor and a fall banner is a must do. Check out the supplies for these projects below. The instructions for these projects to come later this week. So, don't forget to subscribe now, so you don't have to remember later! Pin these items for future use! Product List Eastern Beauty Photopolymer Bundle [ 145308 ] $48.50 At Home With You Photopolymer Bundle [ 145351 ] $50.25 Seasonal Layers Thinlits Dies [ 143751 ] $33.00 Links by TheseAreMyStamps.com

Happy Monday everyone! Let's start out the week with something to look forward to. I don't know about you, but I always enjoy planning for a project and looking forward to doing something creative. You ever have any projects that you have been planning for a while? This past weekend, Ray and I, worked on a DIY project that we had been talking about for a while. It finally happened, and it was oh so rewarding!  We tranformed our crates and gave it a grey distressed look!  Instructions: This is the before picture! The crates are just your ordinary run of the mill crates, that I got from Michaels. You can get your wood or crate of choice that you would like to distress.  Start with a Dark Walnut Stain ( Minwax Woodstain 2716). Coat with the entire crate/wood with the stain. Use a rag and wipe the excess stain. The longer you keep the stain, the darker the grey stain, and less you keep the stain, the lighter grey it will be.  Take a rag, use whi

Happy Friday everyone!! Today's the last day of techniques week! Thank you for reading and joining along. I really appreciated having you as my audience!  I saved the best and the most elaborate technique for last!  This technique is called the Bokeh technique. It looks like little water bubbled in the background. It is the perfect background for those simple sentiment cards!  Instructions:  1. Use ink refills and pour out two different colors. I used flirty flamingo refill and peekaboo peach refill.  2. Use a paintbrush and water color paper and fill in the entire paper with both the colors! Mix it up and let it blend.  3. Finish coloring in the entire paper.  4. I cut out different circles using a circle thinlit. Use it as a template. Use whisper white refill. 5. Color in the different circles using sponge dauber and whisper white. Use different pressure to have the colors come out differently.  ** TRUST ME- WHEN YOU FIRST M

Welcome to Day 4!!  This technique really doesn't seem like much of a technique because of how easy it is!  The brick on the crumb cake cardstock is actually textured snow/brick look. I love love loveee this bundle. It's called At Home With You, the combinations are endless with this. You could do fall doors, spring doors, thanksgiving doors and Christmas doors.  Instructions: 1. To get the textured brick look, use the embossing paste on the stencil template. Just layer it on. 2. Just brush off the excess, pull and peel the stencil. Really, that's how easy it really is!  I even had my Aunt Karin come over and craft with me tonight. She ended up making this incredible Christmas card out of the stampset and embossing paste technique! I really love how the garland wraps around the door!! I can't wait to make this card for Christmas!! Don't Forget: For techniques week, throughout the week : every 25$ you spend, you receive a