It’s Sunday – and that means it’s time to take a look back at the past week in my Week in Review post. In today’s post, I want to share a quick rundown of the week (for those who don’t follow me every day) and a little extra background (for those who already tune in daily).
It’s been another big week – and there’s been a lot going on in the background. As I am preparing to send out the Super-Awesome Fun Time Card Kits that feature the Happy Hibiscus Bundle (they will be delivered to the post office early next week), I’m also prepping for a shoebox swap with my awesome upline and have been sorting and photographing the Holiday One-for-One cards to drop them in the mail next week, too. How fun! On top of all that, Mom’s here for Thanksgiving (and some time after), so I’m sure we’ll get into some trouble that you can guess I will share with you in the coming week.
Here’s a quick look at my shares from the past week, followed by a quick look at what’s ahead in the week to come.
Monday
Some mistakes can direct us to fun, new ideas. When I was trying to spotlight a beautiful tree in the Splendid Autumn 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper, I lost the image of the tree with a hole that was too big. I decided to use both of the cropped circles, popping one up and ruffling the edges of the other. The result was a “ruffled spotlight” that made me very happy. Here’s my card I shared on Monday:
Is it obvious that this fun idea was birthed from a mistake? 🙂
If you’d like to read more about this card, including closeups of the circles at the heart, CLICK HERE.
Tuesday
I hadn’t put away the Splendid Autumn 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper when I sat down to make a Happy Retirement card for Dana, a kind and long-time employee on my team at work. Dana loves purple, so I knew this page would be perfect for Dana:
Isn’t this sentiment from the Gone Fishing stamp set beautiful?! If you would to read more about this project, including how this card opens (and what’s inside), CLICK HERE.
Wednesday
I hopped into Christmas was a fun combination of prints from the Sentimental Christmas Designer Series Paper. This pack of retro-style patterns and colors are perfect for the holidays. The card is simple – I love the papers AND the sweet sentiment from the Peaceful Season Bundle. Here’s the card:
If you’d like to read more about this card and the products I used to make it, CLICK HERE.
Thursday
After Wednesday’s brief visit to Christmas, I was back to Autumn on Thursday with a recap of projects I’ve made with the Splendid Autumn 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Papers and some color combinations inspired by the pages. Here’s one of my all-time favorite color combinations for Autumn:
If you’d like to see all of my Splendid Autumn 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper projects and to peek at all six of the color combinations I shared on Thursday, CLICK HERE.
Friday
Whiplash! Friday was back to Christmas – I never realized how back-and-forth my cardmaking can be at this time of year. I guess it makes sense since Christmas and Thanksgiving are my favorite holidays (I’m not alone in that). Here’s the Christmas card I shared on Friday:
Those trees are beautiful, aren’t they?! I thought I would like them against the plaid pattern, but I didn’t know how much I’d love it! If you want to see more and read about this project, CLICK HERE.
Saturday
OK, now I realize this has gotten out of hand a bit…BACK to Autumn…I’ve loved the Caring Leaves stamp set since I first saw it in the Stampin’ Up!’s 2024 Holiday Mini Catalog – it’s simple, it’s sweet, it’s beautiful. I stamped the leaves with three colors – Wild Wheat, Pecan Pie and Pretty Peacock – to build this arrangement of leaves:
I hand-snipped these leaves (so easy!). Here’s a bit of backstory you didn’t see in my post:
I get really nervous to arrange flowers and leaves on a card – they look so great when laid out on the card but I can’t always replicate that look when the glue joins the party. I originally glued these leaves down to a Pecan Pie panel – as luck would have it, they were too far to the left of the panel. Ugh! I couldn’t leave them that way, so I snipped around the inside edges of the leaves in a circle to hide the old piece but keep all of the leaves intact and then glued that panel to this newly cut one. That additional layer helped to lift the leaves up a bit, giving them new life and allowing me to position them where I wanted on the card. Yay! Little mistakes…
If you’d like to read more about this project, CLICK HERE.
Coming Up This Week
New Products on the Way
Last week was a big week for Stampin’ Up! demonstrators. We were able to place our pre-orders from January’s Spring catalog last week and from January’s Online Exclusives. We also earned Sale-a-Bration rewards – good times! My order is still in route, but I’ll be sharing something exciting from the new product lines as soon as my goodies arrive.
I don’t want to get too far ahead of things, but I will be hosting product shares and making Designer Series Paper swatch books with these new goodies, too! If you’ve signed up with me before, you’ll receive an email when they are posted. If you haven’t participate in my shares before, please email me at [email protected], and I’ll add you to my distribution list so you know when they are ready for sign-ups. ♥
Holiday One-for-One Swap
I hosted my annual Holiday One-for-One Swap again this year, and I’ve loved all of the projects that have graced my mailbox. I’m photographing them all and sending them out this week. So many beautiful, inspired projects in this bunch! I can’t wait for the recipients to receive their swap cards and to share these projects with you in December.
Thanksgiving
It’s Thanksgiving week! I’ll be taking some time off this week, but my blog will continue going. I hope you’ll pop in (even if you are on vacation) to check out what I’m sharing.
Thanks for stopping by today!
Brian
Online Exclusives Live
Stampin’ Up! has loaded so many wonderful, new products into the online store. To check out all of the new Online Exclusives, click on the image below – you don’t want to miss out on these!
Placing an order today? Of course you are! If you are placing an order for $150 or more, I want you to enjoy all of the Host Rewards you have earned. If your order is less than $150, I’d love for you please add this Host Code – 2Z3FBEY3 – when prompted. Thank you!
These pretty projects made me smile all over again!