A Trio of Penny Black Cards

I hope you all had a great weekend. Ours started with our first snowstorm of the year on Friday. It was so bad that we couldn't drive down our hill. I had to pick up my girls from school and we trekked up our hill while fighting the winds and cold. It was a beautiful sight, reminded me of Narnia, but we were glad it was a short walk. :)

We were also without power for most of Friday and some parts of Saturday, so I wasn't able to post some cards I had meant to post. So we spent most of that time reading (thanks to our charged Kindles!). And speaking of reading, I was so disappointed that The Book Thief, which is advertised as a young adult book, is loaded with cuss words. I was reading it to my girls when I realized it (thankfully I was doing the reading, so I skipped the undesirable words), but we like to take turns. I guess we'll have to shelf that one and look for another book to read together.

Anyway, I have a trio of cards that I made using some Penny Black stamps and papers today. The main image is PB Skyline and the sentiments are from Hot Rod. The papers are PB Madison. I used Madison papers in all three and inked the stamps with coordinating colors. Here it is n red and aqua.

Here it is in golden yellow. I love the turquoise and golden yellow combo. I highlighted the banner sentiments with Want2Scrap pearls.

And the olive and turquoise combo. It is hard to see, but these layers were mounted with Scrapbook Adhesives by 3L foam squares to add more depth.

Have a great week, friends! We anticipate more snow this week, but hopefully we won't lose power again.

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Girly Card for my Girly Daughter

My card today is one I made for my very girly daughter (who likes pink and everything glittery and princess :) ). I used some of my now retired The Craft's Meow stamps. The chipboard frame is also retired and it's by Tattered Angels. The pretty border scallop is by Spellbinders.

I used Prima papers. I inked the chipboard frame and added some paper flowers because they just seemed to belong there.

By the way, my daughter loved it! :)

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Vintage Thank You

Happy Monday! One reason it's happy is it's the middle of January and we don't have snow! I'm enjoying this unusual warm winter, but I think it'll change soon. :)

My card today is another Thank You card that uses some holiday papers, City Sidewalks by Pink Paislee.  I love it when I can use holiday products for non-holiday occasions. I die cut the side border using Spellbinders's Classic Scallop Edgeabilities. The elegant sentiment is from Penny Black's Flower Gallery stamp set.

I added a little Want2Scrap pearl to highlight the girl's coat and another on the sentiment banner.

Have a great week!

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I'm back and some thoughts on making gifts for people...

I can't believe it's been over 2 weeks since I posted anything here. I have been busy with the holidays and stuff that I just decided to take a break from blogging. We did some traveling to visit family, even got stranded for 4 days in Cincinnati. It was all good and we made the best of the situation. I'm so thankful that our kids are so resilient. They had a better attitude about being stranded than I did. :)

At the end of 2013, as many of you do, I spent time just evaluating my year and life, in general. Socrates said, "An unexamined life is not worth living." I don't really do new year resolutions, but I do find areas in my life that always need improving (my list is a mile long!). Since this is my craft blog, I'll start there.

I came across a quote by the author John Green, who said, "Don't make stuff because you want to make money - it will never make you enough money. And don't make stuff because you want to get famous - because you will never feel famous enough. Make gifts for people." He is right on.

As you know, I've been doing product design work for some of the best paper crafting companies out there. I have enjoyed all the blessings that came with that. But it came to the point where it became work and I didn't feel motivated anymore. I had to step back and evaluate why I do what I do. It easy to get caught up in the money aspect of it all, and to some degree (though I hate to admit it), I love that people follow me through various social media platforms. It is my pride that puts value on my life through how much money I make and how many people follow me. That should not be.

In the end, I realized I should love creating because above all it's a reflection of my Creator. What gives me the greatest joy with my hobby was that I get to give and share through it. I love giving away my cards as gifts to friends and family. I love that I get to send handmade cards to people. I love that I get to post my crafty ideas on my blog. I love that I get to share it with the ladies here in Croatia. I love that I've "met" so many dear people through it. I love that I get to design products that others use to do all of the above!

And so I had to evaluate and think through how I get to do these things that truly make my hobby worth pursuing. For starters, I will make sure I enjoy what I do, not to make money necessarily, but because it's an opportunity for me to give. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoy product design (and earning extra income), but now it isn't the sole motivation for creating, but an enhancement, a helper if you will, for creating. There's just something about working with my hands that is more appealing to me than working on the computer. I just really enjoy cardmaking. And in return, I think when I'm happy with my craft, I become a better product designer.

After The Craft's Meow closed, I have been approached by several stamp companies interested in hiring me as an illustrator. I haven't committed to anybody and won't until I know what I want to do. So no news there for now, in case you're wondering. :) In the meantime, I'll be concentrating on just making things.
 
Another area that I've been working to sort out is my non-crafty side of life. What has stand out lately is my need to grow in my love for God. Luke 10:27 says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind..." I know it is every Christian's resolution and there's always room to improve on loving God, but I was drawn more specifically to the phrase, "with all your mind."  Perhaps it's because I'm homeschooling this year and felt I need to up my academic brain. Perhaps I'm realizing I'm getting "up there" age-wise and my brain needs to be more stimulated for fear of forgetting things. Regardless of the reason, I'm glad that God brought this to mind.

So how do I go about loving God more with all my mind? You can see my post on my faith blog on how I am doing this.

Thank you, friends, for reading to the end. I will share some new crafty projects I've been creating starting next week. And we'll see where we go from there...Have a great weekend!

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