Brian’s Week in Review: June 22, 2025

Welcome to my Week in Review. Today I want to give you a quick rundown of the week (for those who don’t follow me every day) with a little extra background (for those who already tune in daily). Before we jump in, here are some personal tidbits from the past week…

It’s been a busy week – but a good kind of busy. Mom is still here, and we have been crafting a lot. She’s making a bunch of cards to take home with her, and I’ve been helping. We’ve also been puzzling and cooking. She and I have been working a “quick and easy” puzzle since the day she arrived – and we’re almost done (at least that is what we keep telling ourselves).

On Thursday we took a quick day trip to Ellijay, Georgia in the North Georgia mountains. We met my friend, René, for lunch at a lovely diner in the small town. Then…René invited us back to see the home she and her husband built five years ago (after we shopped for cheese and olive oil at some of the shops around the restaurant). Here we are in René’s craft room that overlooks the mountainside:

We had a wonderful visit with René. Then Jeremiah, Mom and I stopped off at the Panorama Orchards store. We are all suckers for a good farmer’s market, so there was arm-twisting. We grabbed an impromptu picture on the way in so I’d have something to share with you:

At one of our recent Pumpkin in the Fungeon calls, Mom shared that she hadn’t been able to find her Valencia Peanuts in the Greenville area stores. This one’s for the Pumpkin in the Fungeon participants who’ve been worried about Mom’s grocery list – she found them!

The beauties went right into the pressure cooker and have made a great snack over the past couple of days – and the rest are in the freezer. Who doesn’t love some boiled peanuts?!

Hopefully I’ll have a picture of a completed puzzle to share with you…let’s jump into the week…

Monday

In honor of the Cheers & Sips Super-Awesome Fun Time Card Kit (that I had been advertising for week prior), I made a quick and fun card with several patterns from the Celebratory Sips Designer Series Paper. Here’s the card I shared with you on Monday:

I THOUGHT the Alphabet a la Mode Dies were on the Last Chance list, so I was nervous to share this card (in case they were gone) – until I realized they were not being retired. Goody! If you’d like to read more about this card, CLICK HERE.

Tuesday

Tuesday’s project was a turtle-y cute card for a turtle-y awesome friend. I wasn’t sure where this card was going as I started making it – I knew I wanted to stamp and cut the turtles to hold a “thank you” banner. That was it. Here’s Tuesday’s project:

I was prepared to cut the arms to hold the banner, but the dies did that work for me. What a fun find! I love both of the Designer Series Papers I used here – such a great combination of greens. My original card had little red hearts, but I thought the big, green heart was more turtle-y. If you’d like to read more about this project, CLICK HERE.

Wednesday

I love playing with Designer Series Papers and often pull my favorite color combinations from the papers the brilliant Stampin’ Up! designers create. On Wednesday I shared some project I’ve made and shared from the Boho Vibes 6″ x 6″ Designer Series Paper, along with six color combinations inspired by the colors in the papers.

I can’t tell you how much I love this color combination:

If you’d like to see my Boho Vibes projects and the color combinations I shared, CLICK HERE.

Thursday

On Thursday I shared a sweet, simple (but layered) card with the Pattern of Friendship Bundle. I love the texture from the large die in the bundle and all of the fun sentiments in the set. Here’s the card I shared on Thursday:

If you’d like to see more about this project, CLICK HERE.

Friday

I liked the layout of Thursday’s card so much that I immediately made another card with the same layout to share on Friday. This card features pages from the Floral Impressions Designer Series Paper (so it takes on a different look from the get-go). Here’s the card I shared on Friday:

In Friday’s post, I also shared the measurements for the card (and the one I shared on Thursday) so you can play with this simple layout, too. To read more, CLICK HERE.

Saturday

On Friday I was happy to have some time to play with new things. I had so much fun with the Sweet Jar Bundle and loved making this heart-filled card:

There’s a lot of pink and red in this card (outside of my normal, non-Valentine’s Day designs), but I am happy with how it turned out. If you’d like to read more about this project and the products I used to make it, CLICK HERE.

Mom has decided it’s time to go home (even though the puzzle is not done), so she’ll be headed out soon. I’m happy she was able to stay longer than normal – a much more enjoyable visit now that I’m retired.

I’ll have so many fun things to share with you in the coming week – I hope you’ll come back to check it all out.

Thanks for stopping by today!

Brian

Buy One, Get One 50% Off

Stampin’ Up!’s big Buy One, Get One 50% Off Sale kicked off this week and runs through the end of the month. The sale features Suite Collections and products from Suites. There’s a lot to learn about how the promotion works, so you’ll want to be careful when placing your order (or orders) to ensure you get the most savings. For more information about the sale, CLICK HERE. To see the additional sale details I shared at the launch, CLICK HERE.