Hi Crafty friends! It’s been a few months since my last post, my apologies and I’ll talk more about in Storytelling time below. But first, wanted to share these 2 cards I made using various supplies!
Mixing and Matching Dies and Products
One of the things I love to do in cardmaking is mixing and matching products from various companies. I rarely make cards with predominately one company’s release, it does happen but not often in my case. I think that would make it difficult for me to be on any design teams because I just can’t pick 1 favorite company, I love them all!
So for these 2 cards, I used ombre papers from Scrapbook.com! Love the ink blending effect, it’s a quick and easy way to make cards. My hand and thumb have been giving me some trouble so I’m wearing a brace when necessary. It’s nice to have this paper pack to give my hand a rest from ink blending.
The sentiment is from Simon Says Stamp’s “Leafy Frames”, one of my fav stamp sets. I die cut the Essentials Hexagon blanket and double stitch dies for the sentiment from Pinkfresh Studio. I actually won the entire Essentials release from their IG hop and I couldn’t be more estastic!
The pretty florals are stickers I picked up from my local Dollar Tree crafty aisle and I added a gold bow for more interest. Really like how these cards turned out!
Storytelling time
So, for a little life update…
If you’ve been around my blog and/or social media, then you know I have a full-time day job that I have been with going on 17 years. I started working for this non-profit organization back in 2008 in Florida. Hubby and I moved in 2012 and I was still able to work for them remotely. It’s a blessing to have that kind of set up. However, the past couple of years, the workload has really increased and the hours I work shifted a lot over into my evenings when I would normally craft.
I’ve been burned out for quite awhile and not able to take vacations until the end of the year because of the work schedules. So, I had to put the blogging and cardmaking on hold. The other hiccup to all this is my affiliate brands. Most of them have left Shareasale after Awin acquired them. That left me with less income to run my blog and my hobby. I’ve had to do some shifting over to AZ and I still shop at Scrapbook.com. So, if you go back to previous posts, you might find a lot of those earlier links no longer work. And, I apologize for that. I don’t think any of the crafting companies could foresee that they would have to leave Shareasale. I do still have my page where I link to essential products that I use primarily. But, going forward, I will probably not have many links as I once did.
What this means going forward is that I’ll more likely use my social media outlets to share my cards and other projects tagging the companies whose products I used. This blog will remain online and act as a sort of catalog for myself and for my readers. The other I want to share with you is that this year I’ll be filing early retirement, more likely in the Spring of 2025. With that, I hope my life will change for the better having more time to spend with my hubby, friends and craft full time. So with that said, if you’re not following me on IG, please click this link to connect up! Thanks for Reading!
Some of the links to the products I used are affiliate links which means that when you shop with them, I’ll receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Your support helps me run my small crafty business. Thank you so much!
- Scrapbook.com Ombre Pattern Paper Pack
- Pinkfresh Studio Essentials Collection ~ Scrapbook.com or at Pinkfreshstudio.com
For products I use most frequently, click here!
