Rooted in Nature - Thinking of You

Here is another card using the Rooted in Nature Stamps. 

I used the tree stamps on a very vanilla mat to make my own forest back ground. Then I used the framelit and a small scrap of very vanilla to cut a single tree. 

The Z-fold of this card is simple to make. Just score your 5 1/2” x 8 1/2” base at 4 1/4” and score again at 2 1/8”.

Fold the 4  1/4” line to make the card middle or spine. Then fold the 2 1/8” score back toward the spine. This makes the Z. 

Then you just adhere your card front to the half front of the base. It’s easiest to apply your adhesive to the card base and set your mat down on it then trying to guess where to stop applying adhesive on the mat. 

Assemble the rest of the card as shown and voila! Give it a try, and let me know how it goes. 

Rooted in Nature - Beautiful Oak

I love the tree image in the Rooted in Nature stamp set. It reminds me of a tree I used to drive past often when we lived in New Mexico. 

That tree was just there by itself, in all of it’s gorgeousness, in the middle of nowhere. It seemed so persistent, and strong, and present. I loved the tree so much, that I stopped on the highway one day before we moved away from New Mexico to snap a photo. 

What a  perfect image for a card you might need for a friend going through a hard time. 

This card is very simple to put together. 

I used a 5 1/2” x 8 1/2” Early Espresso card base scored at 4 1/4”. I embossed the front of the card by loading only the front side into the embossing folder, then ran it through the Big Shot. 

I stamped the tree image on a piece of very vanilla, then carefully tore the edge (tearing toward myself) to make a ragged edge. I wrapped a piece of ribbon around the bottom edge and secured it with a glue dot. I added an embossed leaf in Crushed Curry and adhered the whole bundle to the front of the card. I added a greeting to a very vanilla mat and adhered to the inside. 

So simple, yet so beautiful.

What’s Up In October?

October is my favorite month of the year! I love fall foliage, costumes and candy, and my birthday is in October! October is also the month I created Cloth, Paper, String! This year, I will be celebrating five wonderful years of building this creative community. 

Since October is so great, I have a plan to celebrate all month long, and I hope you will join us. 

What would any great birthday celebration require? Probably games, presents, good memories, maybe some crafts, and of course, cake!

Follow along on Instagram, Facebook, and here. Join in the fun by adding photos or comments  on the post, and I will be giving away prizes all month long. Prizes will include handmade cards that you can use to send to the people you love, and of course, free craft supplies. 

On Mondays, your challenge will be to #makeacardsendacard (#MACSAC). Each week, I will have a theme, announced on Facebook live, challenging you to send a card to someone. All you have to do is make the card (or use a handmade card from your stash), mail it, and post a photo in the comments of that week’s Monday #MACSAC post. Be sure to post your photo of the card front, or even the stack of cards in your mailbox by Sunday of each week. 

On Tuesdays, I will be encouraging you to try a new craft or technique. By the end of the week share how it went in a comment on that Tuesday post. 

Wednesday’s are game night! I will post a quiz or question. Just add your answer to the comments and I will choose a winner on Thursday morning. 

Thursday’s are for memories, #TBT. I will be sharing a few of my favorite Cloth, Paper, String memories, and would love to hear some of your memories along the way. 

Friday’s are fun-days. Each Friday, I will post a new creative challenge for the weekend. Complete the challenge by Sunday evening, and tell us about it, or post a photo in the comments to the Friday challenge post. 

Every Saturday, I will post a Saturday Special. Now I post Stampin’ Up! specials when they are abounded. But these Saturday offers are discounts or deals, just for you. 

Finally, Sunday’s will be our Prize Patrol. This is the day when I tally up all of the challenge results and comments, and draw the winners. Most prizes will be mailed by the following week, though some will be mailed by November 1. 

Are you ready to party all month long? I am! And I’m excited to have you help me celebrate five years this amazing Cloth, Paper, String adventure. 

It’s a Jungle Out There Kids!

Yesterday was Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day! This is a great day because there are a lot of adorable, fresh faces at the office, and the kiddos are learning about the real world of work. I always enjoyed bringing my kids to the office to help them understand what it is I really do in my day job. I do “policy”. This is really hard for people, even adults, to grasp what I really do. It’s not like being a pilot, or a police officer, or a waitress.  It isn’t implicitly understood what my function or output is. But I think what I do is very interesting and fun and important. Coming to the office gave the kids context for what my job is, and helped them appreciate how and where I spent my days.

Of course my kids are grown now, so I miss binging them in for the day. But that doesn’t mean I can’t enjoy when my colleagues children come to the office. In fact I was very excited to learn that a colleague was bringing her two young boys to a meeting early in the morning. To make sure they had a productive day, I made them padfolios and business cards to help them get through the rest of the day.

These are super simple to replicate. I used a 8” x 10 1/4” piece of cardstock scored at 5” and 5 1/4”. I glued that to a small note pad to make the cover. Then I made a 5 1/2” x 4 1/4” Night of Navy mat. I stamped and used watercolor pencils and a blender pen to color the Animal Outing* stamp set  images on a 5 1/4” x 4” whisper white base.

I used a 5” x 5” square retired DSP and the envelope punch board to make the inside pocket that held the printed business cards. Assembly was quick and easy. Coupled with some crayons and the boys made it through at least one meeting taking “notes”.

*The Animal Outing stamp set is in the new Stampin’ Up! Catalog, and available starting in June. Sign up for my mailing list if you would like a new catalog when it’s available.

On Stage!

I’ve just come home from one of my favorite weekends of the year, On Stage!

On Stage is a twice a year creative refuel from Stampin’ Up! It is chock full of fun, crafting, and creative inspiration. Of course we do some business related work as well, but fun is the main event.


This past weekend, I got an exclusive early look at the new 2018-2019 Stampin’ Up! Catalog (Want one? Request one here). I got to try out some of the beautiful and innovative new paper crafting products headed our way. And I get to pre-order some of those products and will get to play with them for weeks before anyone else.

I met new friends and reconnected with long time friends. I learned new techniques and have a notebook full of ideas to share with you.

And I got spoiled. Seriously. Spoiled, with a capital S! So many treats and freebies. I can’t decide which are my favorites.

So stay tuned.  I’m going to be sharing so much of the On Stage awesomeness over the next few weeks, and months. And I’m planning to run out of ideas by the fall, just in time for the next On Stage (which BTW is the big 30th anniversary party for Stampin’ Up!).

Does attending On Stage sound like fun? Why don’t you join me in November? Contact me for all the details.

The Red Box Challenge!

If you’ve been following along, you already know that I love Paper Pumpkin. A beautiful and practical creative retreat delivered right to my door every month, for under $20. It’s awesome. But I will admit, sometimes the boxes don’t get emptied right away. I might do the greeting cards, but skip  the small gift enclosures or tags. I might need all of the projects for a holiday gift idea, or I might only use half of them. Of course the projects are just too pretty to get discarded. So they wait. In a neat stack. 

Because life happens, and we can let those boxes linger on long, Stampin’ Up! Has issued a challenge. We are challenged to open one of those red boxes in the pile and make an alternative project. That means make something different than the project the kit was designed for. This might mean turning a card base into a giftable treat, turning those embellishments into a great scrapbook page, or whatever your imagination sees in that little red box of supplies.  Once you’ve created your masterpiece, share it on Facebook or Instagram with the hashtag (so its searchable) #redboxchallenge and you might become internet famous!!! 

Well ok, you might become Paper Pumpkin internet famous. Your project could be featured online by Stampin’ Up! And you might win the March Anniversary Paper Pumpkin FREE! 

So here is my Red Box Challenge project. I looove, love, love donuts. But the May 2017 kit had nine donut cards. I didn’t need nine donut cards. Now, this girl can eat nine donuts from Krispy Kreme without a second thought, but that’s neither here nor there. So I made a “mermaid” card instead. What do you think? 

Want in? Join Paper Pumpkin now.

Want to join the challenge? Here are the rules and fine print!

Snips, Snail, and a Bone Folder “Tail”

If you’ve been to the Cloth, Paper, String studio, you know that I have lots of tools and supplies to help you achieve your perfect crafting goals. I really enjoy sharing these tools and sharing in the fun of crafting all the things. But I’ve decided to make a slight change starting with this month’s paper crafting workshops.

In my cloth and string events, people are given a list of supplies that they need to bring to class. Now, for paper classes, I will ask crafters to bring their own paper crafting basic tool kit along to workshops. What is a paper crafting basic tool kits you ask (besides a mouthful)? Well it’s pretty simple, actually, and you probably already have the three most important pieces laying around your house. Of course it can also be pretty extravagant if you like, but I’m going to focus on three core items - scissors, adhesive, and a bone folder. Here are my favorites for paper crafting:

First, you need good scissors. And yes, they need to be used only for paper. I love the Stampin' Up! snips because they have a perfectly pointed end that allows for smooth fussy cuts around those stamped designs.

Second, you need a steady stream of adhesive to craft with paper. Now there are many kinds of adhesives, each with it's own special use. But most commonly you just need to adhere paper to paper and the Stampin' Up! Snail Adhesive is perfect. Plus, I always keep a stock of refills on hand if you run out during class. If there is a specialty adhesive needed for a workshop project, I will provide it. But over time, your adhesive collection will likely grow.

The last key paper crafting tool to bring along to class is a bone folder. It makes for sharp creases and flat folds. You can use your fingernail, but that gets tough after a few folds. Again, I love the Stampin' Up! bone folder. Especially the personalized* one gifted to me by a sweet friend this year. 

* Personalization was done after purchase by a third party and is (unfortunately) not available through Stampin' Up!

While I obviously prefer the Stampin' Up! versions, you are free to bring whatever your favorites are to class. But if you need a kit, you can get all three of these for just $24, when ordered directly from me. It can take a couple weeks for items to arrive, so plan ahead for your future workshop attendance. 

I can't wait to see you at the next workshop! And don't forget your kit. 

Happy 2018!

Whether you are celebrating or mourning the passage of 2017, A brand new year is an exciting time!  I love the blank slate of it, all of the potential ready to be appreciated. Are you ready for 2018? I am so ready.

We don’t make resolutions in our house, we set goals. One big goal in our family in 2018 will be the remodel of our kitchen, more on that later. I always have travel goals, and I’ve set a fitness goal of running a 5k in less than 30 minutes this year. The kiddos have their own goals related to school and such. And of course I have big goals for Cloth, Paper, String! 

With all these goals, it’s important to take some time to get organized and get your plan together. I’ve been busy with a lot of planning over the last couple weeks. For example, with our kitchen, we’ve spent years fantasizing about what we would like to change.  But after a series of issues with our current kitchen, we finally had to focus on reality. We needed a plan - what needed to happen, in what order, and final decisions on what we could realistically do with our space and budget. The same decisions need to be made regarding our other goals...what is realistic, what steps are needed to get us there, what does the end result look like? 

Honestly, with my busy family, I need a plan everyday. That’s why I’m a big fan of planners. And I don’t mean an electronic calendar, that just doesn’t work for me. I need to visualize it, write it, erase it, feel it, in order for my plan to work. And yes, I love to do lists that I can cross off. I just love the blank slate of a new month or a new week in my planner. 

That’s why I was so excited when Stampin’ Up! introduced the Love Today Planner. It’s pretty, practical, and a great tool for keeping me on track with all of my plans. And since it is undated, you can start on any month.  Over the next few weeks, I’m going to share some of my favorite planning and organizing tips. I would also love to hear your tips and tricks to stay on task and achieve your goals!so be sure to follow along and comment here on the blog, and on Facebook or Instagram.