Before Beary Christmas Retires

In a few days, the Holiday catalog will go away and the Seasonal Expressions will come to life, as happens every year. It will be time to move on from all the Christmas stamps for a little while.

But first, let's take one more look at the Beary Christmas Cardmaking stamp and die set without the lens of Christmas and see how it can still be used going forward. 

The twig wreath and the tree jump out at me for their potential uses for non-Christmas projects. I did a little test stamping of the twig wreath image, repeatedly stamping it on top of itself several times, with only a slight twist of the post-it between inkings. Surprise! I'm liking the result! 

Here's the card using the wreath, stamped multiple times. 

I used a 2.50" circle punch to cut it out and popped it up using a slightly smaller fun foam circle. 

Beary Christmas Cardmaking is here if you want to pick it up before it goes away!

Before you put away those Christmas stamps take another glance at them and see if they can work in some non-Christmas projects. 

Until next time, happy stamping in the new year!

--Sarah

12 Days of Handmade Christmas Cards--Day 5 and 6

Because I can't seem to remember to post them here after I share them on Instagram every day, I'm going to do two days at once to catch up. 

Day 5

Taking a little turn into the land of baby blue Christmas cards...I am always drawn to the calmness of pale blues. No fluff, no fussiness. This is one sentiment from the First Noel stamp set.

 See it here. 

White glitter paper adds texture and a bit of sparkle without overpowering the project. 

Day 6

This card was heavily inspired by a card made by a fellow CtmH consultant that I follow on Instagram. Here's her creation:

Until tomorrow,

--Sarah

A Little Scrapbook Advice

I've heard versions of this statement so many times: I would love to have scrapbooks for my children but it's such a monumental job--I have thousands of pictures--I'll never catch up. There's no way. I don't even know where to start. 

I get it. 

Totally.

Let's take a moment an examine the problems here. 

If you look at scrapbooking as something you must do to preserve every photo, you will absolutely be perpetually "behind" and completely overwhelmed. Currently, there are 3500 photos just on my phone from this year. That's far too much scrapbooking to ever even think about. (More on this topic later.)

Task #1

Stop telling yourself that you must Scrapbook every photo. We all know that's not a realistic plan anyway. Relieve the pressure. Instead ask yourself these questions:

What photos/events/memories do I want to preserve?

If I could only scrapbook one page per year, what photos would I make sure were included on it?

What details/thoughts/memories are most important to *me*?

What information/details from my own early life do I wish had been preserved for me? 

Use the answers to these questions to help you select what's really important to you to include in a scrapbook.

Based on these questions, my personal scrapbooking philosophy has evolved over the years to this: 

I try to scrapbook two kinds of pictures--those pictures that help recall a memory or a thought that my sons might not be likely to remember on their own and those pictures that are poignantly representative of our life. To me, these two kinds of pictures are the most important and are most worthy of the space in my scrapbooks. When I have covered these two areas well, I will feel like I have arrived as a memory keeper. No pressure needed. 

Task #2

Write down the details now so you can Scrapbook factually whenever you choose to do so. Maybe this means using a photo safe pen to write the date on the back of the printed photos as you print them. Or perhaps it means bullet journaling in an email to yourself to be read again later when you are ready to Scrapbook. Whatever way you choose, lay down the facts in a place that is accessible because you will forget things. We all do. 

Task #3

Change your thought process about the looming insurmountable pile of photos that are languishing in your phone and your closet and your "ready to be scrapbooked" file. Stop saying "I'm so behind, I'll never catch up." Just stop. This is not helping you. In fact, it may be exactly what is paralyzing you. 

Instead be grateful that you have the opportunity to preserve so many details and photos. As the saying goes, you can only eat an elephant one bite at a time. Likewise, you can only tame that big pile of photos, one (or maybe two) pages at a time. 

Spend a little bit of time on the task of arranging maybe ten pages worth of photos so they are easy to access and ready to be scrapbooked. If it's appealing, give yourself a directive such as "I'm going to reach for a few of these older photos and scrapbook them after I finish the current page I'm working on." 

You can only tackle the big pile one page at the time. However, every page is progress. Don't forget that. Every memory captured, every moment and thought you have written down is important. 

Which brings us to...

Task #4

Enjoy what you have already accomplished! Whether you have just completed your first scrapbook page or you have volumes  of work achieved, spend a little time enjoying your body of work. Don't criticize or edit. Just see the achievement. Let your work inspire you to move forward. 

I think if you alter your perspective just a tad and think of the potential of that big pile of photos, rather than just a monumental heap, you will feel less overwhelmed by it and more inspired to take it on one page at a time. 

Take it as a great compliment that you have lived a full life--you have much to show for it. That's an awesome gift! 

And finally, remember that you don't owe anyone a scrapbook. Enjoy your hobby. Whatever you manage to do in terms of memory preservation will just have to be enough. Down the line, no one is going to say "It's not a complete scrapbook so just throw it away." 

Seek not to do it all, seek to do what you can, really well.

Until next time,

--Sarah

12 Days of Handmade Christmas Cards--Day 4

12 Days of Handmade Christmas Cards

Day 4

Continuing with the glitter paper theme, it's a crisp clean Christmas card with lots of sparkle and a merriment. 

The tree die is from the Beary Christmas--Cardmaking Set. 

Just on a whim, I thought you might get a kick out of this card throwback to 2009. This was the Christmas card I sent to family and friends that year. 😀

Until tomorrow.

--Sarah

CTMH Technique Blog Hop - Glitter is Glamorous

Merry Christmas, stamping friend! Welcome to the CTMH Technique Blog Hop for December featuring all things glitter! 

I know you enjoyed your stop at Belinda McLane's blog which then brought you here. 

My glittery project is a Christmas scrapbook page using three different sets of dies--the Silver and Gold Cardmaking set, the bow Die, and of course, the Block Alphabet--all cut from the red glitter paper. Surely the holidays and glittery paper are a match made in glitter heaven! 

My quick tip for this project is this--if you are not someone who prints your photos at home (like me), you can use a piece of scratch paper cut to the size that your photo will be to stand in, while you are working on your page. See that green piece of paper? That's the stand in for my photo on this layout. I just use a tiny bit of adhesive to secure it in place while I'm working. Then when I have the photo, it's easy to pop out the temporary paper and permanently attach the actual photo.

Above shows the work in progress, with the photo popped in. I used a 6x8 photo on this page--I'm loving this size right now. 

Here's the finished page. The patterned papers and the journaling card are all from the Beary Christmas Workshop kit. 

Close to my Heart offers glitter paper in red, black, silver, gold, white and Bashful pink. It's a sturdy weight but still easy to die cut.

You will notice that I added the loopy bow to each ornament. I simply trimmed the legs off the bow die cut and glued the simple bow to each ornament. 

Glitter paper is so festive--I hope you will give it a try soon on a scrapbook page! 

Your next stop on the hop is Cat Nowak's blog! 

Thanks for hopping with us today! Please feel free to leave a comment so I know you stopped by, telling me your favorite way to use glitter in your papercrafting. 

See the Silver and Gold Cardmaking Stamps and Dies here.

See the Red Glitter Paper here. 

Until next time,

Sarah

12 Days of Handmade Christmas Cards--Day 3

Day 3 finds us assembling a crisp and clean card using traditional colors of glitter paper and a grouping of three ornaments, each with a loopy bow. 

This die set is made to accompany the Silver and Gold suite of products...in a few days we will make use of the ball-shaped ornaments too. 

Until tomorrow,

--Sarah

12 Days of Handmade Christmas Cards--Day Two

Day Two 

A good bow can make everything more grand, I say! And an excellent sentiment stamp. 

Don't you agree? 

12 Days of Handmade Cards

It's Christmas time! I love Christmas and I must admit on of the reasons I am a card maker is for the joy of making Christmas cards! 

So let's do this!

12 Days of Handmade Christmas Cards--Day 1.

This top-folding card uses an awesome technique--paper tearing! It's so simple and when done with white-core cardstock, you get that cool white edge. I did a little free tearing on the leaves but punched the holly berries with a circle punch because it's a little more challenging to tear glitter paper. 

I'm warning you--there will be a stocking-full of glitter paper in this series as I am all wrapped up in the sparkliness this Christmas! 

If you happen to use Instagram, I am sharing this series there using the hashtag #12daysofhandmadechristmascards  If you are a card maker, feel free to use it as well. 

Until tomorrow, go and be glittery!

--Sarah

Crafting Christmas Cards

Some say Christmas cards have gone the way of the rotary phone and the turntable (just send an email or a Facebook post, they say) but I do still love to make and send them, so here we are. 

There's something magical about receiving a physical hand-crafted card in the mail box. Some things are just worth the effort to hold on to, don't you think? I do.

So here are a few of the Christmas cards I've crafted this year.

I hope you get to craft some Christmas things too!