Christmas Sentiments for Cardmaking

Hello and Happy Monday! I’ve been away for the holidays and didn’t schedule any posts so I apologize for the silence. I had a lovely time with my family and ate more than my fair share of food. But then again, that holiday pretty much endorses overconsumption. 😉

The winter holidays are fast approaching and I have managed to miss the deadline for creating products geared specifically for the holidays for my shop. Since re-opening my Etsy shop in April, I had thought about the timeline I would need to keep to meet the winter holiday selling opportunities. However, as a one-person enterprise, I wear many hats while having a family that always keeps me happy and preoccupied so I missed that window. I would have had to have my holiday merch up by end of October at the latest. So some hard truths had to be told and I had to pivot. I will spend the winter months making products but this time, I will include batches of holiday products for next year. Because I have to tell you, I don’t like to work on winter products in the warm months. It’s just me, I like to work the season. But the retail schedule says otherwise and so I find myself in this predicament.

All that said, I will be including some of the winter products I will be working on for next year in my updates as well as the less seasonal products. Today I did some mass production work stamping Christmas sentiments and then die cutting them. So they are ready to go for any cards I make. I love doing this because it helps to streamline the cardmaking process and that is something I am constantly seeking. Plus I love seeing them all laid out on my table. It makes me happy!

I absolutely adore the mix of fonts used for these sentiments. I look forward to creating the cards that can accompany these beauties.

Have a lovely Monday!

What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday #569

on my desk…

Hello everyone! I can not understand how it is already Wednesday again. I can’t keep up with the time. I am late because after my morning workout I decided to wash my hair and I did not realize how much my hair has grown since going to a salon. I was due for a trim before businesses closed and we were housebound. So now I am way overdue and drying my hair took longer than normal this morning. So here I am. I also had to cancel my annual physical this week and re-schedule. I called my doctor’s office only to here the assistant told me she had openings in July. I may be extra cautious but I refuse to set foot in a hospital unless it’s an emergency. I feel fine now and don’t have any questions for my doctor so I don’t see the reason to see her. So when I feel it’s safe, we can meet again.

For those of you that aren’t familiar with WOYWW (What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday), head on over to Julia’s Stamping Ground and you will find desks from all around the world where we get to snoop on other crafter’s desks.

On my desk you can see my coloring book and on the left you can see the journal I am using for One Little Word. Each year you pick a word and then she provides video prompts each month. My friend and I are working through it together and today I am working on wrapping up my April entries. At the end of the year, I will share some pages from it.

I had some coloring time this week.

I had a chance to start a new coloring page. I was in the spring mood so I searched for flowers. This page is fun but it takes quite some time for each flower to make them look dimensional. I am finished with the hard ones and then I will begin working on the leaves. This is the Ivy and Inky Butterfly coloring book by Johanna Basford. I love the whimsical images.

Weeding in my garden.

The weather was so beautiful last Saturday that I got my first opportunity to get into my garden. So weeding was my first order of duty. I have lots of them so this will take a while.

My fruit atree farm area all weeded.

I cleaned up the weeds in my fruit tree farm area. It was covered with so many dreaded weeds. But my lovely husband joined me and I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed breathing in the fresh air and feeling the warm sun on my skin. I am not a fan of weeds but it is so rewarding to see them after. I always take before and after photos so I can appreciate all the work.

This is a photo of one of my dwarf fruit trees. I missed photographing the other trees when they were in full bloom because it was so crappy outside then.

Above is another dwarf fruit tree and me peeking through. They are nearly done blooming. I am hoping the squirrel will not eat everything this year.

The weather was warm enough for my son to open up his studio (a.k.a. clubhouse). I thought it would be fun to take a picture of it through the blossoms. It makes the studio look magical!

Above you can see the bits and pieces of a die cut. I wonder if you can tell what they will make. I cut them all out on my Silhouette in preparation for mass production for a card. I can’t say what it is until next week after I assemble and send them out to the recipients. But I have been having fun cutting them out.

I hope you all are well and I intend on enjoying the sunshine today so I will visit most of you tomorrow. Stay well.

Belinda

What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday – #538

on my desk

Hello friends! It’s that time again! For those of you that aren’t familiar with WOYWW (What’s On Your Workdesk Wednesday), head on over to Julia’s Stamping Ground and you will find desks from all around the world where we get to snoop on other crafter’s desks.

I am a little late to the party today but you will be pleased to see I am actually being rather productive this morning. I am calling today Silhouette designing day in my craft room because I am working in my Silhouette app today. I have some of my tools out for the first shot on my desk. Remember those coasters I showed you a few weeks ago? I wanted to customize them and make them into a housewarming gift for my sister-in-law. Well that’s them in the desk shot before I got to work. I also have sticker paper out, Silhouette tools, scissors, my laptop, etc.

Cutting vinyl for my home decor items.

I have all sorts of vinyl but this is my first time using the Oracal 651 brand by Silhouette. It claims to be perfect for indoor and outdoor projects and it has a perfect shine so I thought it would be perfect for these coasters.

Coasters
Laying out vinyl on coasters.

I created a mock version in paper for sizing and placement purposes. Then I used my weeding tool and carefully began laying down the vinyl.

coaster with vinyl attached

Smoothing down the letters.

I began with the first letter and used the paper mock up to help align it. Then I layed down the remaining letters which are all attached for easier placement and then smoothed out air bubbles.

Applied the vinyl initial.
Applied the vinyl initial.

I liked the look of the initial straddling the marble and wood. So I usede my T-ruler to help with placement. I thought it would be fun to have her name on some and first initial on others. Underneath them you can see my second project all cut out on the Silhouette.

The final set of coasters
The final set of coasters.

I think they came out great. I will be sending them with my husband this weekend. He and his brother’s are all going to fly in and spending the weekend with their sister as a housewarming guests!! It will be fun for them to have quality sibling time without spouses and kids. I am really happy for them because I think we lose sight of our siblings sometimes in the daily happenings of family life. So I am hoping this will be the beginning of an annual sibling trip.

fall boxes created on the Silhouette.
I assembled these fall beauties.

The paper you saw under the coasters, I cut out on my Silhouette and assembled these adorable fall themed boxes. I decided to shake it up and interchange the tops for a pretty contrast. I couldn’t find my red line tape which is really good so I used my ATG but will look around later and restick them once I find the red line tape.

top view of boxes with acorn pattern cut out.
Top view of the boxes.

My last project this morning was to convert digital files I bought online to stickers on my Silhouette so I can print and cut them on the machine to use in my planners.

New fall stickers for my planners.

Isn’t she cute? I love the fall colors and now I can just grab a few anytime I need one in my jounals.

A morning spent with my Silhouette makes for a productive morning today. I hope you all are having productive days. I’ll pop by later today and through the weekend.

Happy crafting!

Belinda

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