Hello my friends! I hope you had a wonderful Christmas and have kicked off a great new year in style! And I hope you have recovered from all the festivities and are settling nicely back into your routines.

So many of us reflect at the change of every year, and 2020 had everyone hoping for change in the new year!!! Have you made any resolutions or goals??? What about crafty goals? I have, and thought I’d put them here for the world to see, and to hold me accountable. 😁 Maybe some of these will resonate with you too!!!

Blogging More: I really enjoyed blogging last year and participating with hops, so you will see more of that here in the new year. I have also enjoyed doing DT work, so that will continue through 2021. In 2019 I only posted 32 times in the whole year, but in 2020 that number jumped to 85!!! And I’d love for that # to make another jump in 2021. The more I blog, the more friends I make, which is a win. If I inspire someone along the way, well that would be the frosting on the cupcake!!!

Using My Stash: I’m so very proud of the hop I created last year, Collected Crafty Collabs, where we focused on using things in our stash rather than the latest or greatest stamps or products on the market. Like Justine Hovey, I am tired of trying to keep up and being tempted by so many new releases that I could never use it all. So, the only new products you will be seeing here for awhile are new digi releases for DT work, which I justify as reasonably priced and easy to store, so I’m ok with those. The rest of the year will be me delving deep into my stash and enjoying things I bought and never had a chance to use.

Getting Value for My Purchases: I have given this a lot of thought and think that I should really use a stamp set or die more than once for me to get the $15+ worth of value from it. Ideally, I think 3 uses justifies the purchase. So, when I do break down and buy something new I am *only* doing so if I have 3 different ideas for using the set (not including making multiples of 1 design). Before I place an order, I will either sketch out or describe in writing what my 3 ideas were so that when the set comes in I can keep it with it and not forget my inspiration for the set in the 1-2 weeks it takes to arrive. I also want to review the sets I currently own, try to remember any cards I made using them, and spend the year trying to fulfil that 3 card minimum for each set. That may be 3 cards in 1 go (and post) or 3 times over the course of the year as the set fits a cardmaking need. We’ll see how diligent I can be as the year progresses. I have a Squirrel Sister who might be up for a 3 Cards, 1 Set Challenge, so hopefully that will keep me motivated! (Anna, let’s talk to see how to make this work!!!)

Paper Pad Killing: I will be the first to say that I own more paper pads than any 1 woman should. Twice in 2020 I did posts on killing a paper pad ala Jess Crafts. I have found a group of friends willing to give it a go for their first time ever, and I think when they see how easily it comes together, they will want to do it again. I’m realistic though, this is more likely to be a monthly or quarterly project, and I just need to keep my paper pad purchasing under control until I put a dent in my stash!

Organization: This past year, several of my hop and DT deadlines were in the same week. That week I’d end up eventually cursing and swearing, unable to find a certain ink pad without pulling out 10 others. I’d promise myself that I’d label them before the next deadline week came around, and then I wouldn’t. If biting the bullet 1 day can save me 12+ times of frustrations, why have I not done it yet?!? I own several brands of ink pads, and I want to focus on getting at least the Distress Oxides before the end of January. Maybe my Simon Says Stamp inks in February, and Impression Obsession inks in March, and regular Distress in April. I have some stragglers that aren’t in full sets, so they could be wrapped up in May, and the rest of the year I could enjoy the glory of labeled ink pads. I’m pretty happy with the rest of my organization, though their placement around the room may change a bit to be more efficient. My dies are not near my die cutter, for instance, so I’d like to tweak the room a bit, and sadly new furniture will be the only way I can adjust things. That doesn’t fit into my immediate plans, which I’ll talk about next.

Just Stash January (aka No Spend January): As I mentioned above, I can’t buy it all, and I’ve bought more than 1 woman should. I could craft for the rest of my natural life and not run out of anything but adhesive. Hell, I could craft well into the afterlife (whatever version of it you believe in), nearly for eternity, if there was a way to “take it with you”. My good friend and Squirrel Sister, V of Passions and Distractions, is hosting a Just Stash January party and I want to get creating with my stash to play along. I encourage you to check out THIS POST by V for more details of how you can play along with us!!!

Design Teams: Crafting is therapy, and without it I slide into a funk. Sometimes, I wake up in the funk and would just sit and sulk all day… until I remember I have a deadline, and I go craft… and my mood improves. Dt’s keep me accountable and thus make me craft when I would otherwise spend the day on the internet looking at what other people are making. As much as I enjoy the 2 Challenge DT’s I am on, I would like to add 1 more… 1 that doesn’t require using digis. I have used digis for years, and appreciate the ability to resize, rotate, flip, etc. I have amassed a large number of them and have a good organization for them on my cloud drive. All that said, they are not my go-to when I just want to play with paper. I hate fighting with my printer, and I really hate when I forget its a digi and try to watercolor it and have my ink smear. A couple new unsponsored challenges have sprung up, so maybe I’ll see if they would be a good fit for me and my schedule. Just another way to meet the goals above and get more value for the products I own.

Variety: I find that many of my cards end up looking the same… layers, image, sentiment, sequins. Similar layouts… no real variety. My hop groups really encouraged me to break out of my creative rut and try techniques I hadn’t done before or had forgotten about, or to use supplies I hadn’t reached for in ages. I’ve put together a list of techniques I want to try in the coming year. Hoping I enjoy the variety, produce cards in a wider set of styles, and perhaps find new things I’m good at. And the bonus is that I won’t bore you with the same thing over and over!!!

Whew! That’s a lot to work on, but they have a certain amount of overlap, no? Certainly in 365 days around the sun, I should be able to make a dent in these goals! I’m also really eager to share with you a new project I’m kicking off… details coming on January 20th 😉. Hope you’ll be excited too!!!

Welcome! I hope you had a great time last night kicking 2020 to the curb!!! And here we are with a fresh start, a bright outlook, and a rainbow colored card to celebrate a 2021 birthday! The January challenge at 2 Crafty Critter Crazies is sponsored by QKR Stampede, a division of Stamp On It.

They kindly provided me with this image, aptly named Party Cow. I had fun playing with this and this cute cow was easy to color up with my Prismacolor pencils and Gamsol. The patterned papers are from a 4×6″ paper pad from Hobby Lobby called Eat Cake that I have had *forever*. Almost all the papers have touches of glitter which are hard to see in photos, but give the card a special touch. I used 2 of the coordinating papers with some scrap cardstock in my stash. I used Simon Says Stamp stitched rectangle and oval die sets, as well as an old Spellbinders scalloped oval die set. The paper is busy and I wanted the focus to be on the image, but I couldn’t resist adding this fun, punny sentiment from an older My Favorite Things set called The Whole Herd die cut with banner dies from Creek Bank Creations. I thought this card already had so much going on that I really didn’t need any other embellishments, but I did assemble the card with foam tape to enhance the different layers. Here is another angle so you can see the dimension of the card.

The rest of the girls on the DT have created some fabulous projects and you can see them all by heading over to the 2 Crafty Critter Crazies challenge site! Then, when you make your first critter project for January, come back and enter it for a chance to win the prize from QKR Stampede. In the meantime, you can hit the Stamp On It site to see all the brands they carry and to see if there is anything there you would like to add to *your* collection! Thanks for visiting with me today and Happy New Year!!!

My friends, I am so sad to say that this is the *final* hop in the little group I put together oh so many months ago. What started as an avenue for bloggers to collaborate, turned into a little community of talented crafters who did their best every month to wow and amaze you, and many pf them have become my closest friends. All the while, they stuck to the premise of using the stash of supplies that we have all collected over the years and not used nearly enough. I have to say, seeing Justine Hovey and others on IG saying they are no longer trying to keep up with all the releases when they have so much they haven’t even used yet… well, it makes me feel like *maybe* we started a trend. *Maybe* we made people think about what they have stashed in closets and drawers, bins and shelves, and even still in the bag we bought it and brought it home in. And *maybe* that sparked a conversation, then another conversation, and another. Now don’t get me wrong, stamp companies aren’t going to slow things down while they still have folks throwing money at them… but if enough people reduced their spending they would reduce their releases so we could enjoy shopping instead of battling between FOMO and a depleted savings account. I can hope, anyway! Here I am, getting all sentimental about the hop, and you are just here for the cards! Wait no further…

I made today’s first card using primarily the Cool Christmas set from MFT, but as it didn’t have a squirrel image I also pulled in the We Must Celebrate set from Stampin’ Up! I thought if I can’t make a squirrel card, I should at least make a 4 snowman card with a squirrel!!! (You didn’t think I’d let the last month go without a squirrel, did you?!?) In case you are wondering, Marie is the red snowman (Christmas is her favorite thing ever (only 2nd to donuts), so I went with red), V’s fav color is Cobalt, Anna’s fav is Turquoise, and I can never decide between yellow or lime green, so I used both. When I realized the color spread, I just knew I had to make our snowman car purple to complete the rainbow along with the orange carrot noses! The images are colored with Prismacolor pencils and blended with Gamsol. Now for the background, I ink blended a little Distress Oxide Broken China and Hickory Smoke using hill templates I created out of printer paper. I traced over the snow drifts with a thick layer of Crystal Ice Stickles and pulled it out a bit with an old paintbrush to spread the sparkle across the snow. I also added Stickles to the trees for extra snowy sparkle! The images are almost all popped up on foam tape for dimension. I couldn’t have glued them flat if I wanted as the Stickles is really dimensional too. Here’s another look that captures the layers and sparkle of the card better.

And here’s a better look at the coloring… I added glossy accents to the hubcaps and carrot noses. The trees got a double coat of Stickles; Frosted Lace for the opaque white and Crystal for some iridescence!!! The 2nd coat was still wet while I was taking pictures 😊

I know it doesn’t look like it, but this card came together super quick and thankfully Stickles dries fast! It went so fast I actually had time to make a 2nd card. Check it out:

The snowy ground is glitter paper but the snowfall in the sky is BoBunny glitter paste with extra loose glitter added to help it match the paper. This card almost didn’t make the hop because when it was 95% done, I blundered with the sentiment, which was supposed to be stamped directly on the background. I was out of time to remake the background and almost threw it out. Rather than waste the time and effort, I punted and stamped the sentiment on white, die cut it, and matted it on the matching glitter paper. Not what I was shooting for, but still cute, no? What doesn’t show in the pic above is the iridescence of the glitter paper and how much green it has in it, which is why the snowman’s accessories are purple and green. Here is a better shot of the glitter:

I know I’ve spoiled you to expect 3 cards from me, but with Christmas we’re lucky I managed 2! Thank you to all of my fellow crafters who hunkered down and had a project and post ready to go in a week that had so many other demands for our time. I appreciate you more than you know!!! And a really big thanks to anyone who followed along, and maybe subscribed along the way. That totally makes all the work of posting worth it!!!

Happy Holidays everyone!!!

The December challenge at Jan’s Digi Stamps is going through January 3rd, so you still have plenty of time to entry your current crafty projects. Remember that the challenge is a truly Anything Goes challenge, so cards, layouts, home decor items, planner pages, pottery, sewing, and even Christmas cookies are all included!

For my card, I used an accessory image in the Holiday Sleigh set, shown below.

I’m still having health issues limiting my hands, so I used the precolored image from the set to make life easier. A little bit of printing, die cutting, and embossing, and the card was done with a little help from a retired paper pad by Recollections and some scrap cardstock. The sentiment was from a set in my stash. A few half pearls finished this card off nicely. Here’s another look at the card.

This card came together so easily, I whipped up a bonus card, this time using an accessory image from the Jan’s Digi Stamps set called Holly & Boo, shown below.

Again, I went with the preprinted version of the holly and pines in the set. I used 2 and simply rotated and positioned them to create opposing corners. A little printing, die cutting, and heat embossing the sentiment and this card was also done in a jiffy. Best part is, the patterned paper is part of the same 6×6 sheet I used in the first card, but this is the back side! Gotta love double sided paper! More scrap cardstock, mirror paper, and a handful of sequins to finish it up.

Please don’t forget to see what the rest of the team made today to inspire you, and check out the sale going on through Christmas at Jan’s Digi Stamps. I know its a busy time of year, but after you finish whipping up your last minute cards, handmade presents, tags, desserts, or just made yourself a new bookmark… pop over to the challenge and enter a photo of your project for a chance to win free digis. All the details are over at the Jan’s Digi Stamps challenge! It’s been my pleasure to design for Jan this year and I’m eager to see what new sets she comes out with in 2021.

That’s it for me today. I’ll be back before the end of the year, but I want to thank those of you who follow my tiny, little blog or Instagram account, and those who leave me comments and encouragement. This holiday season fills me with gratitude. And I hope that regardless of what you celebrate, or if you even celebrate at all, that you too can find gratitude for something in a year that tested us all.