Day 1 Sheltering In Place

Hi all,
As we live in Chicago, my daughter and I are taking the precaution of sheltering in place due to COVID-19.  My husband and son are still going to work as there is no official order to shelter in place.  It should have been spring bring week but as reported yesterday, those plans went to the wayside.  My daughters and my plans were pretty simple, 4 doctors appointments between the two of us with a trip to Wisconsin Dells for a couple of day sandwiched in between for some hot tubing and Spa days.  None of that now.

New plans in place; spend a week staycationing. We will be doing all of the things we normally do on our vacations.  We always have home cooked meals every night with movies nights and game nights every single evening.  So no blogging this week.  I am focusing on spending time with my family and hoping this whole COVID-19 thing has blown over by next week.

Stay well and Happy crafting!!

TINA Stanczak

shop |    http://emptynestscrapin.closetomyheart.com

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Make It Monday - Featuring Life in Boots

Hi all,
For Make It Monday today, I really need to make Wedding invitations for my sisters wedding.  I had shown my sister the current catalog and she fell in love with the Life in Boots (shown below) and Country Rooster.

As luck would have it, both are part of the Stamptacular Sale happening through the end of February or while supplies last. I was thrilled to see these sets were included in the sale as I had planned on ordering and using the the wedding invitations and thank you cards.

The below picture shows how I laid out my design for the wedding invitation.  I stamped the cowboy hat in intense black and the boot in toffee to see which color I liked better before going whole hog on the stamping.  In the end I switched to Expresso Ink on the Kraft paper, because it just looked better to me.

Today I stamped and cut 50 sets of boots and 50 cowboy hats.  I cut the boots and the cowboy hat at the same time to save time. I love how they turned out. 

During the month of February, enjoy Stamptacular savings on selected stamp sets and Stamp + Thin Cuts bundles! With drastically reduced pricing on stamp sets of all sizes and dozens of Stmap + Tin cut bundles, this is a sale you don't want to miss. Included are 5 popular stamp sets that have been brought out of retirement just for this special!!  Shop Stamptacular sale

Well, off to make the bases for the wedding invitations.  I need to finish these so we can address and mail on Valentines day.  Wish me luck in getting my thank yous out in a timely manner.

Have a wonderfully crafty day!!

Tina

Make it Monday - Featuring Perk Up

Hi all,
For Make It Monday today, I really need to make Thank You cards.  This past Friday was my retirement party.  I retired from Motorola after a wonderful 31 year run, so my husband threw me a party.  My wonderful friends surrounded with congratulations and a few lovely gifts.

I feel in love with the Perk Up set in the fall but hadn't had a chance to use it.  Perk Up is a fantastic Stamp/Thin Cuts set to have in your collection!

Perk Up on sale Feb 2020 ONLY $15 for the bundle

 Here are 3 of the cards I made up really quickly. I love how they turned out.

During the month of February, enjoy Stamptacular savings on selected stamp sets and Stamp + Thin Cuts bundles! With drastically reduced pricing on stamp sets of all sizes and dozens of Stmap + Tin cut bundles, this is a sale you don't want to miss. Included are 5 popular stamp sets that have been brought out of retirement just for this special!!  Shop Stamptacular sale

Well, off to make more cards.  I need to make 10 total.  Wish me luck in getting my thank yous out in a timely manner.

Have a wonderfully crafty day!!

Tina

Technique Tuesday - Featuring Stickles

Hi all,
Today for Technique Tuesday I would like to feature one of the techniques used at the CTMH album retreat.  We stamped butterflies for a number of the layouts.  I wanted to make my butterflies pop off the page so first I folded the wings up, then I added foam adhesive behind the wings.

 I really like the way it made the butterfly wings pop off the page.

Next I added stickles.  I love Stickles.  The thing is I could never figure out why anyone would want black stickles.  Now I know.  I used Diamond Stickles Glitter Gel (pictured below) on these butterflies.

 Yes, I love the look but next time I would use Black Diamond Stickles Glitter Gel.

Contact me if you would be interested in making springtime scrapbook layouts or cards featuring butterflies.  LOL, I know it is not even February....I am betting the ground hog is going to go for an early spring!!

Have a wonderfully crafty day. 

Hope you come back Thursday for Throwback Thursday!! 

Tina

Finish It Friday - 2019 December Daily Album.

Hi all,
My goal for the day is to finish my base pages for my 2019 December Daily Album.  I started by photos taking on Dec 1 and focused on the photos during the month of December. I wanted to keep it simple during the holiday season.

Now I need to actually finish with my 2019 December Daily Album. I have broken it into chunks to make my project a little more managable.

1. Pull together all my base pages into the album (plan to finish today for Finish it Friday)
2.  My plan for Sunday is to print all the photos 
3.  As soon as my photos arrive I plan a Make it Monday to insert photos and go crazy with dots, glitter and other emblishments.

Catch me at the end of day when I hope to post some photos and a short video showing my base pages.

Have a wonderfully crafty day and check back soon to see progress on the 2019 December Daily Album!

If you made a Decmber Daily album, leave a comment below as I would love to see your craftiness!

New Year, New Goals

Hi all!

If you are like most people, you are setting yourself goals of 2020.  I am like most people in that I am setting my goals for the year.  Like most people I set health, weight, and exercise goals for the new year.  I also set crafting goals for the new year.

My non-craft goals include
1) Cancer checks - chest, insides, skin.  I have appointments for cancer checks all month long.
2) Weight - easy, lose 30 pounds.
3) Exercise - yes, I joined a gym.  Now I have to create myself a workout log so I can track my workouts.  I feel a scrapbook layout forming up.

My crafty goals:
1) Weekly/Bi-weekly projects

• Make-It Monday - Make 1 kit every other Monday.  I would like to feature the Cut Above® layout kits that I have been receiving from the Craft with Heart™ Scrapbooking program is a subscription. I have at least 20 layouts to catch up on so I am set for the year.

• Technique Tuesday - In order to continue to grow as a crafter, I would like to try one new technique every other week and give it a try.  I can guarantee there will be some epic fails along the way.  I am hoping you can learn from my fails and save your self some craft supply $s.

• Work on It Wednesday - my plan is to pick a project I started and just put more time into it to get it closer to finished.

• Throwback Thursday - Like so many scrapbookers I have loads of older photos that I haven't touched.  I just need get some of those photos off my table, onto a layout and into a page protector.

• Finish It Friday - my plan is to pick a project that is almost finished and just push through to the end.  Normally these are projects I set aside beside of an epic fail or lack of photos or some frustration that kept me from finishing. I need to work thru to the end and just finish these projects.

• Stash busting Saturday - similar to throwback Thursday but with a focus on the stash vs the photos. Like so many crafters I have so many oldies but goodies that I just need to take out and use until they are gone.  My husband jokes that I am not a crafter but more of a collector.  To be fair when I see a really pretty kit, I want it whether I have photos to match or not.  I mean, I have had those occasions when I have looked at my photos and said, well such & such kit is perfect for these photos.  Note of caution, I could be throwing back as long as 22 years ago as that is when I started scrapbooking.

• Sunday - I have set aside each and every Sunday to plan my projects and write my blogs for the next week so you have something to view / read /inspire you on a weekly basis. 

Hope you all are enjoying the new year! 

Have a wonderfully crafty day and check back tomorrow for my 2019 December Daily update!

Happy New Year's!!

Happy New Year's!!

I am wishing you Happy New Year with art from RoseMarie Massaro.  Didn't she do a beautiful job combing the new Cricut digital cuts with retired New Years Cheer Stamp set (S1611)?   Makes me want to break out this stamp set to finish my New Years Eve layout from last year and create a layout for this year.

I am taking the rest of the day off to recover from dancing my feet off last night and dream of all the projects I want to finish in 2020!!  

Oh, and I have to pick my word for 2020 CREATE, FINISH, or TEACH.

CREATE - I want to spend a year creating....I have a list of projects a mile long.

FINISH - well, I also have a list of projects I started over the last 22 years but never finished.  If I can finish 1 project every other week, I might be able to clear the ground floor of my house of projects.

TEACH - I am signed up to teach karate 3 days a week.  I now have a class of my own as well as the classes I assist with. This is new for me.  Stretching to grow as a teacher.

New Year, new goals, new projects, new growth!

Happy New Year!