We Must Celebrate
Main Product: confetti from door number 9 of the Spellbinders Advent calendar.
I made two of these shaker cards to give to two friends (Karen and Diana) a few weeks ago on the occasion of their retirement. Retirement is definitely something that we must celebrate. That sentiment came from a Stampin’ Up! set that I really like. It seemed to fit very well onto the banner die cut that had been behind door number 4. The vase was behind door number 8. This card design seems to hold the record of using products from 3 doors. Actually I just realized that the flowers on the vase came from doors number 3 and 6, so I used products from 5 doors. Maybe I’ll be able to beat that record sometime before the whole advent calendar has been opened.
I had a bit of a problem with the sequins on some of the sequins sticking to the top edge within the shaker window. I’m not quite sure what happened – but I had jostled the card before I got it properly assembled so some of the adhesive from the foam behind the card perhaps got onto some of the sequins. Or the sequins are just sticking to some of the adhesive on the foam – I have heard of a trick of running the powder from an embossing buddy along the edge of the foam to try to prevent shaker elements from sticking to the foam, but that seems a bit risky – knowing my luck I’d put too much powder down and the card wouldn’t hold together and all the shaker elements would fall out.
It may have been better to use a bit of a thicker foam since I had die cut elements rather than just stamped elements on the inside of the shaker window. The added thickness seems to cause the sequins to get wedged in place rather than to always shake freely.
But, as Gina K likes to say, it’s better than horrible.
Happy Thankful Thursday
It has been ages since I have written anything for a Thankful Thursday.
I am so thankful that I had written a Thankful Thursday email almost every week for about a month. I loved the habit of creating that email every week. In that email I had mentioned some of the things that had happened in the previous week for which I was thankful, I included a few photos and I talked about some of the things that were happening in Creative Treats Club. I posted a link to many of those emails on my blog. It’s kind of fun to go back to look at what was going on in my life at that time. You can check out some of those emails at:
I am so thankful that I had written a blog post several times a week for several years back when the children were younger. I loved the habit of taking a photo a day and sharing a bit about that photo as well as some of the things that were going on in my life at that time. I highly recommend embarking on a Photo365 project. It’s kind of fun to go back to look at what was going on in my life at that time. You can check out that blog at: I have to grant permissions for that blog – it was back before everyone was sharing almost everything on social media and I was sharing photos of my children and other people’s children so I didn’t open it up broadly.
I am so thankful that I fully participated in the 100 day project last year. I had half-heartedly tried doing the project a few times which was still a good thing, but I was very glad that I stuck with it for the full 100 days last year. I loved the habit of crocheting every day. My friend, Vanessa, had shared photos of a baby afghan that she was crocheting in the round for her each of her grandchildren. While I don’t have any grandchildren on the near horizon, our son Stefan was going to become an ‘uncle’ because his girlfriend, Georgia’s, sister Olivia was having a baby (a girl who they named Amelia). And so, I ordered some beautiful graduated yarn, enlisted the help of my friend, Ivana and learned how to crochet in the round. I was really pleased with the result. And more importantly, I loved the process. I ended up making 3 baby afghans. I was able to give one to a friend, Karen’s, daughter Anna’s baby Lennon. And, I have an extra pink one that is awaiting a baby girl to born. I tried out 3 different patterns, which I need to find again because I still have some more balls of yarn to turn into circular baby afghans. I’ll share the links here once I find the patterns. And, if you want to learn to crochet your own, let me know; I’m happy to pass along my basic knowledge. I’m so glad that my grandmother (my dad’s mom) had taught me to crochet many years ago. I made many rectangular afghans using the same (now lost) pattern. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed crocheting. I have 2 unfinished afghans from many years ago. Maybe for a future 100 day project I will dig them back out, figure out what size hook I was using and get a crafty friend to help me figure out what pattern I was using and finish them off. I do want to set up a monthly needle crafting session with friends. Let me know if you want to join that monthly session. Who knows, maybe I can make some progress on those half-finished afghans once I get that going. I’ve included an inspirational afghan photo below, as well as a photo of one of the ones I made. It was crazy how little yarn I had left after finishing the scalloped edge. I’ll save the photos of the other 2 for another blog post. I used a graduated yarn so you don’t get the effect of the separate sections, but I do want to try one of those soon – so that I can buy the Dr. Seuss book to give with the afghan.
The start date for this year’s 100 day project is Sunday 23 February. I can see a “Start It Sunday” post coming our way soon! I won’t be crocheting this year. I will be making greeting cards and writing blog posts. Maybe even making an occasional Instagram or Facebook post or making a YouTube video. But the main goal of this year’s 100 day project is to work my way through the Altenew Educator Certification Program (AECP). There are 3 levels. Each of the first 2 levels has 10 courses. Each course has 6 lessons. And I’ll be making a card after each of those lessons. That means 60 cards for level 1 and another 60 cards for level 2. I think we have to take 5 courses for the final level 3 which I think means another 30 cards. And we will be assigned a special project at the end of each level. I’m not sure how many cards / paper-crafting projects the special project will entail, but suffice it to say I won’t be finishing my AECP program during my 100 day project. But I will definitely make some progress on it. And that’s what I’m looking forward to: the process of learning and applying what I’m learning.
Creative Treats 