Happy 2022

Another year is behind us and the end of last year was a busy one. I wasn’t sure I was going to do my annual Christmas card and CD calendar classes last year mainly due to the pandemic but I had so many people asking about them (and I make a lot of calendars for my family and friends) that I decided to do them with limited seating. I really can’t remember the first year I did the calendar but it has been a long time and every year I struggle with some of the designs for some of the months. But when Stampin’ Up came out with the cute penguin stamp set I knew immediately I would use it for January.

I grew up in Iowa with lots of snow. Living in Florida it’s one of the things I truly miss especially during the holidays. We did have a drop in temperature this week and I saw a picture of snow falling in the panhandle. Living in Iowa we didn’t really have hills but we managed to find places to go sledding and of course ice skating. The stamp set is Penguin Place. The penguin that is sledding is stamped and the other penguin was punched using the coordinating punch.

I am currently working on a fundraiser for the PEO chapter I am in. The daisy is the official flower of PEO so we are making daisy cards to sell. PEO is Philanthropic Educational Organization dedicated to educational opportunities for women. 

This card used the new Hello Ladybug stamp set and coordinating punch along with the new Bough Punch for the leaves. The gingham paper and some of the other punches are retired.

The new January – June Mini Catalog is now live along with a new Sale-a-bration brochure. You can see the new catalog and brochure by clicking on the links below or the link on the right side of my blog. 

January – June Mini Catalog

Sale-a-bratioin January/February 2022

I have also been busy this last week on redoing my stamp room. I am fortunate to have one of the bedrooms in my home dedicated to stamping. I have wanted to redo it for quite some time using the Kalex product from IKEA. It took months to get because it sells out quickly and when they would get it in the Orlando store I didn’t have access to a truck to go get it. It finally all came together the day before Christmas so my daughter and son-in-law and I picked it up. 

This is the beginning. I put these two units together. The first one took twice as long as the second one. I have more pieces that a friend is going to put together for me. Doing this has led to going through bins and finding things I didn’t remember I had, throwing away a lot, and creating a bin of “to be finished” cards. I have enough to do to keep busy for months.

I am still decorated for Christmas. I usually wait until Epiphany before putting it all away. I do love everything about Christmas and am still enjoying it all. I bought a new tree. Mine was so old and at 9′ tall it took a very tall ladder to decorate it. I love the new tree which is pre-lit and has a bit of frost and glitter on it along with some pinecones.

Just a note on the tree top. If you know me then you know that the tree top was what my parents bought for their first Christmas tree and I grew up with it being on our tree every year. It is 80 years old and looks a little sad but the memories are such happy ones. It use to be sparkly silver tinsel with red berries and red cellophane bells but after 80 years it has lost all of the bells and the tinsel isn’t bright anymore. We always called it the spider. My tree is full of memories. 

One of the perks of making and sending cards is getting them from your friends who also stamp. 

I had a lot of excitement during December so stop back by later this week for more stories and photos of my holidays.

Have a great day