July Hostess Club Project

I am truly aware that we don't make near enough men's cards in my classes so I decided that caseing this one from the catalog would be a wonderful idea. The inspiration I started with can be found on page 83 of the 2015/2016 Annual Idea Book & Catalog.

As you can see from the inspiration, they used Crumb Cake Cardstock for the base, but because I wanted to use the new Corrugate Paper, I decided to start with a Basic Black Cardstock base instead. I don't know what Stampin' Up!'s concept artists used to make the splatters on the card. If they didn't use a stamp it's possible they used an aqua painter, picked up some ink and then flicked it on to the card. You can get the same effect by using a toothbrush.

Stampin' Up!'s version uses:

• Travler Stamp Set 
• One Big Meaning Stamp Set
• Crumb Cake Cardstock & Ink Pad
• Basic Black Cardstock & Ink Pad
• Whisper White Cardstock
• Whisper White Baker's Twine

My Version uses:

• Traveler Stamp Set
• Guy Greeting Stamp Set
• Gorgeous Grunge Stamp Set
• Basic Black Cardstock & Ink Pad
• Crumb Cake Corrugate Paper
• Whisper White Cardstock
• Soft Suede Cardstock for the envelope
• Typeset Specialty Designer Series Paper - for the envelope liner. I know it doesn't look like it because the stripes aren't at an angle but it is, trust me.
• Envelope Punch Board - Because this card is not a standard size, it's actually 4.25"x4.25".
• Dimensionals, of course.

Labor Day Weekend - Card Donations

Somehow this post didn't get posted when I thought it should have, so it's a little late but still relevant.

I spent the first day of this Labor Day Weekend with my dear friend, Linda. She needed to get her stampin' studio organized and packed up for a while. It's something she needed to do for a while but kept putting off. I know how she feels, I would feel the same way. So we spent the afternoon packing and purging. We were quite impressed with the progress we had made,  our only expectation for the afternoon was to get a couple of areas done, but we managed to get it all done.

Our reward for working so hard was to go to Wurst Haus for dinner, have umbrella drinks and listen to live music. 

Fast forward to Monday, during the purging process she had found a ton of full cards that she had received in swaps she participated in. I went through them to see which ones needed light paper inside for writing (because the card base was a dark color) and which ones needed special envelopes. It gave me an excuse to use my new envelope punch board, more on that later.

I then counted out 75 cards and envelopes and took them to two senior living places here in town, Carriage Inn and Elmcroft. They were very appreciative and didn't come a moment too soon as one of the residents had just asked if there were any birthday cards available for her niece's birthday. I pulled out the cutest card that I knew her niece would love. 

There are a lot of great organizations that collect hand made cards and send to the troops but I have yet to hear of any organizations that make sure our seniors have cards. My grandma loved my cards she would get so excited to go through my basket and pick out cards to send to friends and family. 

You might not know this, I didn't, that a lot of times the seniors in the "home" don't have much. They and/or their families are responsible for having their own hygiene products but most if the time they don't. So the next time you go in a trip and stay in a hotel go ahead and grab all the toiletries in the room and then donate them to a local senior home. 

As demonstrators we get a lot of swaps and don't know what to do with them, giving them to those that would use and appreciate them is a wonderful way to brighten someone's day.

Thank you for stopping by.

--Marion