WOYWW #863

 Good morning, crafty friends!

I totally spaced last week. Bob and I got an early start into the city (2 hrs away) for a day of Christmas shopping. I remembered it was Wednesday on the drive home almost 12 hours later. LOL

I went back into the city on my own yesterday after Bob mentioned a couple of things.  Why couldn't he have dropped the hints last week? ::: smh :::

First off, Lynn. You asked about my writing. If you'll check the side-bar you'll see my Christmas romance that came out eight years ago (Yeah, I had no clue it was that long). If you like Hallmark style stories, I think you'll enjoy An Ozarks Christmas. I'm pushing now to have Book 2 released in May.

Okay.. my desk as I left it yesterday morning:

Nothing super exciting except the glue mat from Stampin' Up! where I was using a dauber to glue the snowflake and the cards those snowflakes went on.

Here's a close up of the card:

This is the last of the elements from the November 2019 Paper Pumpkin kit. I have a few items left over that I'll put in the Christmas crafting section of the ScrapRack. 

I hope to get back to Reindeer Club in 2026. I have projects I want finished and still more Paper Pumpkin Christmas kits to work through. I'll talk more about that next week.

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Sarah and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Sarah’sCraft Shed for all the details. Miss Sarah has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list.

Creative Blessings!

Kelly

WOYWW 858

 Good morning, crafty friends!

I apologize for not getting 'round last week. Seemed every time I sat down to visit, Bob would come upstairs needing something. This week will be better. LOL

Bob leaves in a couple of hours for our niece's wedding in OK. I'll be taking advantage of the place to myself for the next six days to really dig into this mess. I've listed five specific areas to target, one per day with a  little wiggle room.

I'll give you a list but first, here's the desk for this week:

I cleaned part of the desk off yesterday after making the Week 2 Christmas card. I worked from the same Paper Pumpkin kit as last week. There are two designs left in the kit. I want to get them made up this week, filmed and scheduled so they're out of the way. Here's a close up of one of six cards:

The original design had the sentiment Love And Joy stamped in Shaded Spruce on a white banner. I thought Peace went better with the snowflakes. I also heat embossed the sentiment. 

Okay.. the list. I find it more encouraging if I make a list of what needs to be done and push to accomplish each in one day. When that task is done, I'm done until the next day and the next item on the list.  Next week I'll embarrassingly show a before picture of items #2 & #3. for now:

Wednesday - Put away all the stamps/ dies from the #31days of Halloween AND catalog the dies. 

Thursday - Sort/ file all the Halloween crafting into their binder

Friday - Sort/ file all of the Christmas crafting into their binder

Saturday - Clear out the sewing corner (mind you, very little of sewing is in the bedroom lol) and put actually sewing stuff where it belongs

Sunday - Finish any of the above that needs finished (wiggle room day)

Monday - Read the book I need to review on Wednesday

I hope to pitch a lot of stuff. We shall see.

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Sarah and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Sarah’sCraft Shed for all the details. Miss Sarah has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

 

WOYWW 857

 Good morning, crafters.

Popping in to show what's on my desk.

After a crazy month of a video every day, I'll only be posting on Tuesday's this month. Time to  get Christmas cards done.

These are modified from the November 2019 paper pumpkin which was to be all tags. I made the first set of tags and put them on the card front. I still need to put the liners in.

Haven't decided if I'm doing another set from this kit or pull up another kit. Guess you'll find out next week. ;-)

As to my uploading of videos. I live in the middle of no where. Here in the states, it's referred to as "directions to my house include turn off the paved road". Between my internet provider, youtube and where I live, uploading takes a long time. a 30 minute video can take up to 3 hours. That's one of the reasons my videos are usually short. I also can not do lives because I pixelate too bad.  It is what it is. 

Not everyone has this issue. If I want to travel 2 hours north and stay at a hotel, my videos would upload in minutes instead of hours. 

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Sarah and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Sarah’s Craft Shed for all the details. Miss Sarah has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list. It is what it is. LOL

 

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT - MAIL IT MONDAY - Sort of

 Happy Monday, crafty friends. 

Welcome to a new week.

I know I've been absent but for good reason. Two weeks ago I began preparations to meet up with crafty friends from Dear Julie Julie's junk journal group, including Julie!  I spent a week putting together the goody bags I'd be giving each of the fourteen women in attendance over the course of about nine days. 

The following picture looks more like I was trying out for a role in WICKED or The Wizard of Oz when in fact, I spent ten hours Easter Egg dying papers for the goody bags.

The green hung around for a bit but you can just make out the orange on my nails. 

Okay... so today is Make It-Mail it Monday but I'm showing something a bit different.

These are boxes of cards I've made in the past. They need to be mailed but before I do that, I'll be spending today sorting them by category and moving to three photo boxes on the paper unit in the filming/ crafting corner. That box in the front left is all Christmas cards as well as a stack in the middle to be put together. Those go in their own box since I only send them in late November for the holiday season. 

I'm off to do a bit of house cleaning then start the sorting process. 

Do you mail the cards you make? Let me know in the comments if you have a stash that could bring someone a smile.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT MAIL IT MONDAY

 Good morning, crafty friends.

I'm a little late this morning as I had to create the cards first. I spent the past three days at an on-line writing conference. So much information to absorb. I'll be rewatching many of the presentations.

The envelope I chose today came from Joyce. I can't tell you how long the kit was mailed as apparently, I tore off the postage stamp for a journal. LOL Go figure!

I also failed to take a picture of the kit but in the cards you'll see a southwestern theme with patterned paper that appears to be straw bales and a lime green micro dot print,. Then she provided us with some stamped sentiments and the longhorn skull. She also included some cute cactus washi that I've trimmed the inside with and have just enough to add to the envelopes when I mail. 

In both cards, I tore the straw patterned paper for a bit more rugged texture.

Card 1:

For this one, I incorporated all of the pieces from the kit and mounted on Cinnamon card stock. I used a 1.25" scallop punch and a 1" circle punch for the sentiment. The words were all stamped rather close together so small circles it is!  I colored the feather in L. Gray Granite and used L. Pineapple Punch for the flower.  The skull was adhered with dimensionals.

Card 2:

Since I used all of the micro dot on Card 1, I chose to go directly to a Bermuda Bay base. The sentiment is matted on Crushed Curry. 

That's it for me today.

We have a beautiful day in the Ozarks with temps only in the upper 70s before heat returns. I'm spending most of the day outside getting the tomato plants mulched, the soaking tank set up and maybe some brush burning. 

I'll see you tomorrow with a Tag Tuesday video link up.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT - MAIL IT MONDAY

 Good morning, crafty friends!

I'm still busting out the Card Chicks tub. Over he weekend I found the final kit that I'd sent. the packet wasn't in the tub so I figured rather than add the kit to the rest, I'd just make the cards.

I think some of the papers came from coordinating papers from the SAB catalog. I did include a piece of Crushed Cucumber cardstock I'd embossed with a Leaves & Branches EB folder from Sizzix.

Since I knew this was going to  by my last kit, I did several Stampin' Up! orders ahead of time to collect A FRIENDLY HELLO from the Sale A Bration catalog. We had one other SU dem in the group and she had one. Everyone else got a full stamp set to work with.

I used one Petal Pink card bas and one Crushed Cucumber. The mats were cut from dies as part of the Free As A Bird set.

I hope you enjoyed these. I'll be back tomorrow with either a #TagTuesday or a #TryItTuesday. I've not looked at my planner yet this morning. 

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT - MAIL IT MONDAY

 Good morning, crafty friends!

For my post today, I'm sharing the entire collection of cards I made from Madison's paper challenge. I made 14 cards using 3 different One Sheet Wonder layouts. I've already started mailing some of these. Was nice to have general sentiments handy.

Group 1 featured Petal Pink bases. The large petal flowers on the top left card were made from the Stampin' Up! 4-leaf clover punch. The card on the top right used one of the retires flower punches.

Group 2 featured Melon Mambo. Since the paper featured flowers, I used the Stampin' Up! medium daisy punch (retired).

Group 3 featured Tangerine Tango as a base. the floral border is Poppy Flower from Studio Light. The Shamrock punch was used as well as a swirl  embellished with black enamel dots and various sentiments from my stash.

 

That's it for me today. I am taking part in a 3-day on-line Junk Journal Retreat (even while Bob is home!) so will be squeezing in posts as I go. 

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

WOYWW #777

 Good morning, crafty friends!

I do love that number!~ 

If you're in to numerology, here's the meaning behind 777:

"linked to self-discovery and personal growth. Take time for yourself and embrace the solitude. Tune out distractions and contemplate your direction in life."

Go create and spend time with your best friend - YOU!

Remnants of the Make It - Mail It post I did on Monday. You can see them by clicking - HERE

I didn't get pictures take of the Clematis today. Will try to do that for next week. I went back to bed this morning. LOL

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over to Stamping Ground for all the details. Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list.

 Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT - MAIL IT MONDAY (photo heavy)

Good morning, crafty friends!

Remembering I had this post to write is the only thing that got me out of bed this morning. Earth Day 2024 and we started out with 32*F!!  I've heard it's what they call a 'blackberry winter'. Yep, mine are blooming. So are two of my Clematis. I'll have to check them after bit. Little Duckling hasn't bloomed yet but I'll need to walk out after bit and see how the other two fared.  

A few weeks back, I showed a tub of misc. card kits from when I was part of the Card Chicks group. Every month, each of us would take turns sending a kit (standard sized envelope's worth) to every member of the group. For the next several months (yep, I have that many left to work on), I'm going to be pulling one envelope at a time and seeing what I can make from the leftovers. 

This week's kit came from Terry Serman in Cranberry Twp. PA August 2020.  

I know I made 1 card from the kit as there was a single sentiment cut out from that particular image sheet. Here's what was left in my kit:

Lots of happy colors to play with. In the back you'll see I selected some Stampin' Up! cardstock colors I thought would pair well. I did not use them all. They were Pool Party, Pretty Peacock, Melon Mambo, Crushed Curry.

Let's take a look at the cards:

I started by cutting the larger of the pattern papers to 4" x 5" and matting that with black (to bring out the zebra a bit more). then mounted on a Crushed Curry card base. I fussy cut the sentiment from one of the pattern sheets then backed with Crushed Curry. I raised that up with dimensionals. The red ribbon was from my stash. 

Card 2:

I used the balloon paper as is straight onto the Crushed Curry card base. Then I used a remnant of the pattern paper and glued that near the bottom. The sentiment is from a stamp set called One Liners.

The lion was fussy cut out. I matted him to a piece of Pool Party then Whisper White. The lion and the sentiment are both popped up with dimensionals.

Card 3:

This one I had to play with a bit more to get something I was happy with. The sentiment was from the kit. I punched it out with a scallop square punch then layered on whisper White. I used Stampin' Write markers to color the lion. He has dimensionals to pop him up from the Crushed Curry mat. The dots were from the kit.

Here's a product list from the kit of items I used:

Lion: Taylored Expressions Mane Event

Pattern Paper : Pebbles happy hooray, party animal, candy shoppe.

Balloons Paper: American Crafts Balloons

Enamel Dots: The Paper Shoppe

I did note this was the kit that introduced me to wobblers. 

That's it for me today! I am working on our pantry the rest of the day before I get in a large grocery haul this week. With Bob retiring in less than 18 months, I'm on full out mode to stock the pantry with lots of shelf-stable foods we love. 

I probably won't have another post until Wednesday then hopefully, a video link up on Friday.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT-MAIL IT MONDAY - New Series

 Good morning, crafty friends!

No card today as I'm elbow deep in getting these stamp sets cataloged and in the new storage system before Bob comes home on Wednesday.

As I've told you, my #wordoftheyear is FINISH... I have a sterilite container in my studio full of envelopes containing remnants of Card Chick swaps.  

Here's the container of envelopes:

The dimensions and full info is in the video:

Every Monday I'll be showing a kit then the card/cards/ masterboard I've created. I have no clue what is left in each envelope. Going to be FUN!

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT - MAIL IT MONDAY! - Catching Up On Cards

 Good morning, creative friends!

NOTE: I had this drafted to post February 26th but it never posted so I'm ahead of the game this week! LOL

I finally feel as if I'm back on track. You know, because we're almost through the first two months of the year!

My first goal was to get caught up on swap cards for the Missouri Stamp Group I belong to. I'm determined to stay on track this year. I was behind on December, January then this month so I have three cards to show you today.

All of the cards used the same technique: stenciling with my new 5x7 Geli plate. I don't remember who's video I first saw the idea but she was using her geli plate to HOLD her papers in place while she worked with them, NOT as a base for applying ink or paint. When I saw the video I immediately went in and ordered the 5x7 from Spectrum Art Creations. Keep in mind, I have a large one that hardly ever sees the light of day... twice, maybe, since I bought it almost 12 years ago. 

Click HERE to purchase

All three stencils were purchased from Spectrum Art Creations. If they are still available, I will link them beneath the photo.

All the sentiments were from Tim Holtz - Noteworthy

You will find the video where I showed how I applied the backgrounds to all three cards HERE.

I started with the December card:

I started with a Real Red card base and mat for the sentiment. I used Real Red ink and a stencil from Ciao Bella.  I thought the image resembled a poinsettia.

For the January card, I went with a winter theme.

This was also a Ciao Bella stencil called Fluid Art. I used Uncharted Mariner ink, Seas Side Spray cardstock (SU retired) and a dual punch from SU (also retired)

Now that I'm caught up, here is the February Card of the Month (COTM):

I used a Powder Pink card base (retired Stampin' Up!), Picked Strawberry Distress Ink and a floral stencil from Spectrum Art Creations (Their own design). The heart is from the dual heart punch set from Stampin' Up!

I have all of my posts and videos for the rest of this month and into March as I get back on a posting track. The second and fourth Tuesday of each month I'll be taking part in #tryittuesday. I have the video uploading now to show you a tag book I created for the Spectrum Art Creations and Friends FB group - winter themed challenge. I'll drop the video link in here tomorrow morning.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

MAKE IT - MAIL IT MONDAY!

 Good morning, crafty friends! 

I feel like I'm finally making progress around here. From the entire multi-stack of paper pumpkin boxes I'm gradually getting through them.

Okay, so I just started yesterday with today's post... but hey, it's a start!

This kit was from December 2021 called LOTS OF PUN:

Here's a picture of the kit:

This kit is available on Ebay as of this posting.

I made all nine cards as instructed in the directions except for two. I switched them up a tiny bit to fit my needs. That's one of the great things about Paper Pumpkin. Their direction sheet is just a guide. Make them as they were designed or mix things up. You can always find alternative ways to use a kit by searching the kit name on YouTube.

Keep in mind, I'm not a PUN kind of person but these cards are really cute: 

Here's the video for today:

Since we're working with new colors for the 3KCDSEPTJJ23 Color challenge, I'm hoping to dig into some of the kits to use items for both the #tagtuesday posts as well as journal elements. I hope you'll come back to see what I create. I'm always open your suggestions, so please leave a comment. 

Which of these 3 cards were your favorite?

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

MAKE IT- MAIL IT Monday!

 Good morning, crafty friends!

Okay, today was supposed to be a Memory Dex card. I'll be doubling up on the next go round. Between Bob being home, celebrating our anniversary then a bad hotel experience for me over the weekend, just wasn't in the 'cards'.

However, I did have four cards made up for the Mintay Challenge with Spectrum Art Creations so that's the video and pictures for today.

I had to use Mintay papers/ products purchased in July/ August. Earlier this month I purchased two 12x12 sheets from the Bird Song collection and two 12x12 sheets from the Secret Place collection. I kind of mixed and matched everything around.

I've already done 4 projects I'll show you on Friday. For now, here are the four cards I made. I needed some general Thinking of You kind of cards:

Each card began with a Soft Succulent card base and one of the journaling cards from the collection. I used a stamp from one of my Paper Pumpkin kits, added velvet ribbon and pearls from Stampin' Up!

If you want to see the walk through, here's the video:

I'll be back tomorrow with tags from left-overs.

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

CARDS AND OTHER PRETTIES

 Good morning, friends!

Kateri, one of the Spectrum Art Creations & Friends FB group moderators, went on a cruise to Europe last fall and took some amazing photographs. So she offered up a challenge for us to create something with any of the photos. Our deadline is today - her wedding anniversary.

I chose four of the photos to manipulate into pretties (at least in my opinion). Note that while I did do the castle on Friday and the other three on Saturday, I didn't wait til the last minute. I plan everything out in my head for days before actually creating the project(s).

Since it's Monday, let's start with the card:

The background is of a terra cotta roof. Do you see what's hiding between the tiles?  I also used a Vintage fashion paper doll from Spectrum Art Creations... similar to this pack HERE.

I created the font in word. I may swap that lady out for one backed in white rather than black but I wanted to help draw out the item on the roof.

Next I used a photo she took of some mushrooms:

I placed the photo to the back of the frame then printed a second photo to fussy cut out just the mushrooms. I distressed the edges of the fussy cut pieces with a brown ink then layered them on top of the background photo with dimensionals. At the base of the photo, I mimicked the ground cover with some dried moss and pieces of acorn then added a couple of plastic ants, Tim Holtz tiny bone pieces and a gnome charm. (If you click on the photo to enlarge the image, you will see the tiny gnome hiding amongst the ground cover). I added a lady bug to the larger mushroom.

To make the layers fit into the frame, I put a double layer of dimensional tape all around the parameter of the photo. The tape is hidden by the frame. This gave me a bit of breathing room between the glass and the display. I simply eliminated the two pieces of cardboard backing that were in the vintage frame.

Number three:

This photo was of one of the many beautiful art pieces Kateri saw on her travels. The owl seems to be warding off a crow/ raven flying past him. The raven is on the back side of the votive cup. I printed the image on vellum and adhered to the outside of a votive cup from Dollar Tree then added French Gimp Braid Trim trim from Spectrum Art Creations.  (Note: they appear to be sold out of the brown but I've linked the white, which you can dye any color)

Here's the votive with an LED candle:

Finally, the largest piece:

I loved the picture of this castle and knew I wanted add more dimension. 

I used a black shadow box frame. First, I printed the photo out at 8x10 onto photo paper and put into the frame. I printed out a second one on photo paper so that I could fussy cut out the bird. I mounted him on two layers of black cardstock, cut him out then set aside. 

The castle was printed again but on Vellum and left to dry for a couple of days. I didn't want the ink to move/ smear. When it was dry, I fussy cut out just the castle (away from the sky/ tree background) then adhered to the outside front of the glass with Aleene's Spray Adhesive. Then I put the bird in place over the one on the print with a strip of black dimensional from Stampin' Up! The dimension appears to change depending on how much or little the frame is reclined. 

I'll be back on Wednesday for the weekly blog hop. Wait til you see my work table!!! Before AND After shots coming!

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

WOYWW #725

 Good morning, friends!

My desk this morning:

Poor lighting but I'm trying to get a gazillion things done at once so I can get back to writing my book.

While this looks staged, technically it was... for the Reindeer Club video I shot this morning. I showed the 21 Christmas cards I made from two Stampin' Up! Paper Pumpkin kits. Now to figure out what I'll do for May Reindeer Club. Hmmm... maybe get some projects out of the way? 

Last week was super busy getting all the time I could in with Bob. He found out his very best friend since grade school will need a quadruple bypass. Since he doesn't know when the surgery will happen, Bob went up a day early just to spend some time with him... which meant I was doing everything last minute LOL. In spite of that, I made my way 'round to every desk yesterday in time to start over this week! 

But we're fine now. He's in Chicago and I put in most of a full day of work yesterday. Well - until I picked up a book for research and couldn't put it down. The book - The Unremarried Widow is an amazing story of a woman's journey from meeting The One she didn't even know she was looking for to feeling like an outsider amongst military wives then becoming a widow less than a year after they'd married. #heartbreaking.  I recommend the book.

Have any of you read, GreenLights by Matthew McCounahey?  Yes, THAT Matthew McCounahey.  I haven't read all of the book but Monday I had the opportunity to sit in on his The Art of Livin' webinar - all 4+hours! Amazing inspiration from him, Trent Sheldon, Marie Floris, Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi. Another book I recommend.

You saw my painted book pages in progress last week. Here is what I made with one of the pages. 

I took part in a challenge by Natalie from Line Dot Arrow to make a Stuffed Paper Bag. You can see my flip-through video here: (it's a short video.

As I mention in the video this is to be the front cover of my spring journal. I should have the full flip-through of that journal the first Wednesday in May for you.

That's it for my desk (and story) this week. Who's Miss Julia and why am I here?  When you are done visiting me in the Ozarks, please hop on over toStamping Ground  for all the details. Miss Julia has a long list of other studios you can peek into. No standing on an up-turned milk pail to look in the window. We open the doors wide and welcome you.  Please leave your number and you'll be among the first on my list.

 

Creative Blessings!

~ Kelly

REINDEER CLUB - March

 Good morning, everyone!

Now that I have a filming/ crafting table again we can get back on track. I ran the Reindeer Club today because I was involved in prepping for an on-line writing retreat that ran last weekend.  I totally spaced getting the Reindeer Club project scheduled.   But here we go:

I made these two cards from the October 2022 Paper Pumpkin entitled Ho Ho Ho. I'm going to finish up the rest of the cards today before I clear the table off for the March Junk Journal Challenge. I'll show those cards next month when I also work with the November 2022 Paper Pumpkin- From the North Pole.

Here's the video where I put these two cards together:

I will be back Wednesday for WOYWW then again on Thursday for our final stages of the #KCDMarJJ23 Challenge.

Are you working on Christmas? Remember, one day a month can make a big difference in the serenity of your Christmas season.

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

REINDEER CLUB - A Little Late

Good morning, everyone!

This video was to have gone up on Wednesday but we were without power. I'm finally able to upload and post this morning.

First, a couple of pictures from our snow storm on Tuesday night - named 'Kassandra':

Pignut Hickory

unsure what these 2 are - pine trees in the background

One of my clothes lines with the dogwood tree in the background.

The dogwood lost limbs out of the top.

Tree limbs on the gazebo. 

We've been needing to replace this anyway.

Now to Reindeer Club - 

We're talking about Christmas Cards - specifically, LISTS.

Creative Blessings

~Kelly

 

MAKE IT - MAIL IT MONDAY - Paper Pumpkin

 Good morning, friends.

We have a major snow storm headed our way but today is to be gorgeous so I'm hurrying to post then heading into the city for the day. Bob has plans and is going to hold down the fort. 

The January 2023 Paper Pumpkin kit came just in time for this. Hard to believe it's time to start thinking about sending out Valentines!!! Do you send out cards for this day of love?

Here's the kit contents:

Key to my heart design was inspired by the Locks of Love bridge in Paris. You can read about the bridge/ fence HERE

I made one of each card in my video (posted below) but here is a picture of what the cards look like when completed:

Here's my video:

Creative Blessings!

~Kelly

MIXED MEDIA MONDAY

 Good morning, friends!

Every January I start out sending Birthday and Anniversary cards each month… for about the first three months then I fall off the wagon. I think I just get busy. The other reason is I haven’t found THE ONE… the one way in which I can be more organized about them.

I tried a file box with just index cards telling me who I needed to send cards to each month.

Then I got the idea to put them in a binder with monthly tabs and a gallon zip-lock bag behind each month to put the cards in. I never got the cards pre-done. Also, binders are really difficult for my small hands and some days the arthritis just won’t let me grasp something bulky.

This year, I have a plan. I’m going back to the box system. 

I am a flipper by nature. If you’ve seen previous posts on how I organize my stamps, you’ll get this. I like to flip through things to see what I am looking for.  The first system worked fine except for not having cards ready.  

I have a solution:

I have two of these boxes full of cards for all kinds of occasions but mostly Birthday and Thank You. I’m going to pull from these first. I am going back to the box/ flip style but I'll be using a shoe box with dividers for each month. I'll include the recipient list and start putting the cards/ envelopes behind each divider. I'll keep you posted.

Next week, we’ll kick back in with new cards for Make It Mail It Monday where I’ll begin building my stash for Thinking of You and Sympathy cards – two categories I have almost no cards ready for.

For the month of January, I have 7 Birthdays. 3 guy and 4 ladies. A couple of those were last week, but the thought will still be there.

Courtesy of Pixabay

Another thing to consider is that postage is going up again. Effective January 22, 2023, First Class stamps will go from .60 to .63 cents.

Here’s what I do when I hear this. I calculate how many stamps I need to mail the monthly cards and bills then purchase the Forever Stamps to get me through the year. I know not everyone can afford to do this but if you budget the amount in, you can save a big chunk of change over the course of the year – enough to cover buying the following year’s stamps. This kind of keeps you ahead of the USPS for a short period of time.

Do you still send cards? Please let me know in the comments below.

Creative Blessings

~Kelly