Stampin! with Jaydee

Hi Everyone

Firstly, a very happy New Year to all of you.  I hope 2019 brings you all health and happiness and all the wonderful things you wish for each other.

Before Lou and I left for our Christmas cruise, I did a major sort out and re-organization of my crafting space.  That sort out - and the break - left me energized after what was a long and sometimes stressful year.  Being re-energized meant that I was able to do some crafting!   It took me quite a long time to get into the rythym and make my first card, but once I got going I managed to make 12 cards.  Might not seem a lot - but that's more cards than I have made in a long time!

I needed some inspiration to get me going and went in search of some of the challenge sites and found a great sketch across at Freshly Made Sketches and a theme from Watercooler Wednesdays.

I needed to make a card for one set of our besties who live in England.  They love the cafe culture, so I thought a coffee themed card would be a good idea.  I brought out an old set from Fun Stampers Journey called Le Cafe.  I love the images in this set and realized that two of the images would fit perfectly onto the circle from the sketch.  I had fun coloring them in.  Here's a closeup:

Hopefully you can see the shimmer and shine I added to make the croissant look glazed and the coffee wet :-)

I found some very old patterned paper in my stash.  I think it came from a Simon Says Stamp card kit from a couple of years ago.  The color was perfect - my friend loves pink!  I added that behind the focal image, along with a couple of strips of metallic and textured paper.

Here's my card:

Of course, I had to put a sentiment into the inside and found the perfect one from Altenew's Coffee Love.  The steaming cup image is also from the Fun Stampers Journey - Le Cafe.

Then, I added a little touch to make the envelope special.  Both the blackboard and sentiment stamp are from Le Cafe.

I don't generally do soft, feminine colors, but I know my friend loves these soft shades of pink, so I think they will appreciate it!

On a personal note:

2018 did pose a lot of challenges - I won't bore you with them, but it did impact a lot of areas of my life, including my creativity.  I'm a pretty organized crafter and like a very clean space in which to create, but with so much going on, I found that I wasn't as organized as normal - and that really impacted my ability to craft.  Also, I generally practice the "one in - one out" method of keeping de-cluttered.  The last six months or so, I hadn't been doing that either.  Consequently, I found that I had a lot of stamps that I had purchased but just wasn't using.  That made me feel guilty every time I went into my craft room.  I felt that I SHOULD be using the things that I had bought, but they just didn't "fit" when I tried them out.  Am I the only person who feels like that?

I also had left over cardstock from my SU days - anyone remember Kiwi Kiss?  I had 3 packets of it... I do still love the color, but so rarely use colored cardstock, that I decided it was time to go through EVERYTHING in my craft room and clear out.  Let's say that our local charity store got a lot of unexpected crafting items just before Christmas.   It felt so good to clear out and sort everything.  I also found things that I had forgotten about - and was so happy to see them and use them - like this Le Cafe set!

Once I was finished clearing out, I cataloged the remaining stamps so that I could look through them all at a glance whenever I sit down to create a card.  I cannot tell you what a huge difference that has made to my crafting!

Anyway, I'll be back tomorrow morning with my Addicted to CAS challenge card.  In the meantime, a huge thanks to all of you who have patiently waited for me to put up a blog post and haven't given up on me and unsubscribed.  I really do appreciate that - and I appreciate all of you.  Warm hugs and prayers for those of you who need a little lift tonight.

Hugs

Jaydee

Card recipe:

• Cardstock:  Neenah Solar white 110#
• Stamps:  Fun Stamper's Journey:  Le Cafe.  Altenew:  Coffee Love