My job is with an international organization so with the multiple worldwide crises, I was burning out after a year of non-stop work. I always worked long days, but during lockdown, there was no boundaries between work/personal. We were working weekends, holidays, evenings and I knew I needed a break.
I eventually started to schedule in self-care. As an introvert, this meant frequent walks with Ollie (my dog) and dedicated time in my craft room (without my work phone!). Also by this point, my sister and brother-in-law finalized their wedding date so I was planning out the wedding memento for them in more detail. Once the vaccine started rolling out, we started having other social events again. One of the first big events was my brother-in-law’s older brother’s wedding. I made two wedding cards and the process reminded me how important being creative is for my mental health.
Interactive Wedding Cards
First, I made a shaped easel card, using Card Making Magic’s Fancy Nesting Circles to cut the base. This was more in my usual style so it felt fairly effortless – even finalizing the colors of cardstock (mostly from Tonic Studios’ Pearlescent line) was fast. For the decorative layers, I mainly used Spellbinders’ Tiffany Lavaliere. To decide which combination of layers I liked best, I pulled out a bunch of Card Making Magic and Spellbinders dies from my collection. Then, I cut every circular label, frame, and medallion, so I could see different combinations side-by-side.
Ultimately, I kept the layers simple with even the embellishments restrained to flatback pearls and flowers (especially compared to my usual). I finished with a sentiment from The Ton Stamps, where I heat embossed the ‘happy’ in my favorite Gold detail embossing powder from Ranger Ink.
The most difficult part of the entire card actually ended up being the sentiment on the inside of the card. To match the greeting (from Card Making Magic’s Love & Marriage stamp set), I wanted to heat emboss the recipient’s names in a similar font. It took many tries to mimic the font. But once I was happy with it, I used an Embossing Ink pen to write and then the same gold embossing powder.
Second, I made a tri-fold card and used a faux die-cut layering technique from Jennifer McGuire. While it was much more finicky and involved trial and error, the result was one of my favorite cards. I used the Hero Arts My Monthly Hero Kit for February 2019 pretty heavily for this card. I love being able to use up supplies and this card made good use of many items. While I rarely buy/use card kits, the Art Deco theme is great for many occasions, so I know I’ll get lots of use from the included stamp, dies, and stencils.
Birthday Cards and Organization
The first birthday card of the year was for my brother-in-law. I wanted to try out new techniques, so I made an interactive card, with flaps that opened to a different image. I couldn’t find my Party Panda Lawn Fawn set, but a very sweet member of one of the LF facebook groups very kindly sent me a bunch of die cuts.
I used the Lawn Fawn Cloudy and Grassy stencils for the background but again had some trial and error to get a smooth blend. I liked the panel with Shabby Shutters and Broken China best, but ended up with extra background panels. I used those later in the year for a batch of holiday cards. For the flaps, I did partial die cutting with my Simon Says Stitched Rectangle dies. I also used Simon Says’ Punny Animals stamp set for the sentiment strip.
Around this time, I was finally able to get a lot of the pending work done in my craft room. Once everything was mostly set up and organized, it was much easier to craft and be inspired. While organizing my stamps/dies, I also stamped and die-cut all of my sentiments at least once. One of the really useful changes I made to my organization was to pick up two garage organizers. I used these containers to organize all of the sentiments and die cuts rather than the embroidery containers I used previously.
During my organization spree, I went through my supplies and pulled out paper collections I hadn’t used in a while – many from Bo Bunny Variety Pack Kits I purchased years earlier. Once I sorted the collections, I realized I could easily split them into four main themes: mother’s day, birthday, children, and holiday. For the holiday stack, I divided them further into fall and winter-themed items. Once I had the five groups, I sketched out some ideas and put each stack in a project bin to work on the next time I wanted to do some random crafting. I later went through my embellishments and pulled out items I wanted to use up, also dividing them among the five bins.
The ‘birthday’ bin was the first one I worked on. I made around 30 birthday cards in A2, mini slimline, and slimline sizes. For all of these cards, I pulled out pre-stamped/cut sentiments. Having everything ready to go made crafting smooth and quick. I also used up quite a few of the older embellishments. After I finished, I was able to downsize my die cuts and stickers to a single drawer in my craft room. Most of the A2 and Slimline-sized cards I ended up sending out to friends/family within a few months. But I still have most of the mini slimline in my stash for when I need to quickly send a card. I left off the focal image so I can still customize them based on who I send them to. Since I wanted to create lots of cards in a short amount of time, I used card sketches to make it faster. Some of my favorite sketch sources include OWH, Mojo Monday, Sketch Saturday, Freshly Made Sketches, and JessCrafts.
After I replenished my birthday card stockpile, I stamped out a bunch of rakhi sentiments. The Rakhi sentiments I attached to the last few generic cards, so I could get them to my cousins on time.
Donating Cards, Batch Holiday Cards
I felt very inspired once I finished off the birthday project bin. But when I pulled out the fall holiday bin, I was unsure what to make since I don’t send Halloween/Fall cards. However, around this time I learned about a local organization that was helping refugees, domestic abuse survivors, and others in the area. I reached out to them and luckily they wanted encouragement cards to include in the care packages they prepared for local families. I made around 40 A2 cards using many of the Fall papers and pulled in sentiments like “Thinking of You”, “Sending Hugs”, and “Just Because”. Donating these cards felt great and I’m glad I cold use up so many of the products that had taken up space in my room. Since I needed to send get these out quickly – I didn’t end up taking any photos.
With that positive experience, I decided to also make a bunch of winter holiday cards – some of these I planned on sending to friends/family. But the majority were for donating to the local organization – especially cards made from the more explicitly religious papers. The area I live in is highly diverse so I pulled in some sentiments in Spanish, French, Dutch, and Italian from a Papertrey Ink global holiday greetings set. Many of my Spellbinders Club Kits were also perfect for these cards. For the Santa die cuts, I used the November 2019 Large Die of the Month and made sure the skin tones varied. I really liked how the darker-skinned Santas looked – the contrast with the brighter reds, greens, and yellows made the die-cuts stand out. I also made a few Hanukkah cards using the Verve Magic “Light Up My World” stamp set. Unfortunately, I believe this brand has since gone out of business. I thankfully found a few companies that make lovely stamps for Hindu holidays including Crafty Meraki, CraftyScrappers, and CrafTangles. The last two companies are in India, so I had to get my uncle to send me the items to the US. But Crafty Meraki stamps are great and conveniently based out of Northern Virginia. I definitely want to pick up more global-focused sets as I don’t have much in my stash for Muslim, Jewish, or other holidays.
Wedding Memento for my Sister
This project definitely took a lot of work and coordination. But it was completely worth it! My next post will go into the details but here’s a quick preview of the final album and box. The base was the 3D Mini Vignette Album die set from Spellbinders and the spine was the Universal Accordion die. I had to make adjustments to expand the spine since I wanted enough space to have photos and messages from 20+ family members. I worked on this project throughout the year in bits and pieces. But putting everything together was in Sept/Oct as the messages and photos started arriving.
