Happy New Year!

There are so many different ways to spend the first day of a New Year. I did a little of a lot of different things.

I pondered which goals I wanted to achieve for the year. Notice I said pondered. I haven’t fully fleshed them out, but I did indeed ponder them. There are so many ideas still swirling in my head so I will need to define them soon.

I know that some people may have started the first of the year actually implementing what they already defined as something they wanted to achieve, like doing that aerobic workout. I can tell you that sadly I wasn’t that ambitious. Don’t get me wrong I was active, but I didn’t quite break a sweat.

So even though I haven’t fully defined my annual goals for 2022 yet, I did join The Ultimate Blog Challenge with Paul Taubman. So I am now tasked to create a post a day for the entire month of January. Yes, that is 31 blog posts. It is my desire to begin to be more intentional in sharing my love for creativity with you all. Not sure what the next 30 days will look like, but I’m looking forward to getting creative and sharing some crafty goodies I find along the way here on the blog.

Family Traditions

I don’t have a lot of family traditions for New Years Day, but the ones I do have are dear to my heart.

Cooking my family’s traditional New Years Day meal was definiately on the list. Though my family is much smaller these days, and the kiddos are making their own traditions, I still made it, but just not as much. My family’s traditional meal for the first day of the New Year has always been Pork and Sauerkraut with mashed potatoes. I remember growing up and this not being a favorite meal of mine, but for some reason this year it tasted especially delicious. I love traditions, but sadly these have slowly changed over the years.

The Rose Parade and some oldie movies were also on the list of some traditional activities. Yup, some good ole’ binge tv, and movie watching. I love the classic oldies and they are a great way to enjoy the day. However, what’s a movie binge-watching day without a bit of creativity.

I played with a brand new printable sheet from The Stamp Doctor that is going to be released soon. These 4 adorable mini cards were so fun and easy to make. I simply print, cut, adhered together, and voila – cards were done! I will be sharing a more detailed post about these when the print is available.

Until then…Wishing you all a very HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Create and Be Happy!

Lynn

’tis the Season!

The holidays are upon us!

Are you excited?

If you’d like to get access to this fun Crafter’s Holiday Planner, please fill in the form below or continue reading to see why I created this for you. You can always come back after you read everything. (Smile)

The holiday season can be such a magical time of year.

For me, it brings back many, many wonderful memories. That’s certainly not to say that I haven’t had some feelings of heartache during these times as well.

However, I realize that this season that is often promoted to be about family, love, kindness, and giving can bring about stress, anxiety, conflict, and even heartache to some.

As a crafter I wanted to create something that offered a space that allowed me to journal and reflect back on the precious holiday memories I have as well as to bring joy to my heart doing what I love to do. . . Journaling and Crafting.

I created the Crafter’s Holiday Planner to help me find peace and joy and to prepare my heart for the holidays.

Preparing Our Hearts For The Holidays

Sadly it is quite easy to rush into the season without giving meaningful thought about the reasons for celebrating the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays.

There always seems to be so much to do and so many things to get accomplished during this time of year.

As crafter’s there are so many things we want to make to give as thoughtful gifts to others. And, oh there is baking to do. Yes, there are cookies, brownies, and goodies to bake and eat. I mean make and share with others. (smile)

Truly, so much to do and so little time.

One of the best ways I’ve discovered to help me to prepare my heart for the holidays is to. . .

Remember and journal the good times

Journal my gratitude

Reflect and pray and journal about God’s Word

A Prepared Heart Gives Way To A Creative – Giving Heart

In working through this planner and journaling the process I found my heart renewed and ready for what the upcoming holidays had in store for me.

Guess what else I discovered that was therapeutic while working through this journal? Tears came! Yup, through the process of preparing my heart, I experienced tears of sadness from thinking about loved ones and things I miss and tears of happiness of some amazingly wonderful memories that bring me joy. I absolutely feel that experiencing both of those kinds of tears are vitally important to a heart that is ready to receive and give more.

I find it so refreshing to reflect, relive and respond to all the feels that come my way by walking through the planner and journal prompts.

Now. . .my heart is restored and I’m ready to create and craft and give

A Gift For You: The Crafter’s Holiday Planner

My prayer for you is that you too can enjoy every moment of the upcoming holidays. So I hope you will accept my gift to you.

It is my pleasure to offer you the opportunity to receive a copy of The Crafter’s Holiday Planner.

I hope it will bring you a blessed time of reflection and help you to prepare your heart and get ready for all of your crafting by using the planner pages.

Included In The Crafter’s Holiday Planner

• Reflective pages with prompts to think back on fond memories and journal your responses…
• Prompts to guide your heart towards having gratitude.
• Scripture verses for both Thanksgiving and Christmas to help your spirit lean into God’s love.
• To-Do lists with creative prompts to get you started and plenty of space for you to add your own to-dos.
• Recipe pages for you to write down your favorite recipe to use or one that you newly discover and want to try.
• Recipe cards to have available for you to share your recipe with them or them to share theirs with you.
  Reflective pages with prompts to think back to fond memories…
• Recipe pages for you to write down your favorite recipes used during the holidays or one that you newly discover and want to try
• Craft project journal pages for you to plan what you are going to make and who you are making it for – place to add special notes for future reference and a place for you to place a picture of the project you make for future reference.

My suggestions after you receive your planner:

• Download and Print it
note: there are some pages you may want to print multiple copies of to give you more journaling space.

• Turn on some music or a holiday movie you enjoy to get you in a responsive mood and begin preparing your heart. .

• Grab a pencil/pen and begin journaling your thoughts following the simple prompts.

• This journal is in black and white, so grab a set of colored pencils to add a splash of color to your journal pages.

• Consider taking pictures of the crafting projects you make during the holiday season and adding them to your journal for future reference and reflection.

• Once the holidays are over and you have completed your journal, consider making a mini scrapbook of your project.

Are You Ready To Receive Your Copy?

sign up here. . .

Have you ever done something so exciting that you can’t wait to show your friends? The other day I was planning on visiting my friend Ginny at her music studio. She is a fellow crafter and enjoys making cards for friends and family.

I asked Ginny if I could bring the new die system I’ve been working on and telling her about, and walk through it with her. Being the wonderful friend I know her to be (smile), she said yes. She even made the suggestion that we video and record the process so I could then share it with my other friends whom I am not able to go visit in person.

Well, being her good friend, I couldn’t say no, so that’s what we did.

So, I brought my new fun crafter’s best friend, set up my camera and we recorded, chatted, and laughed together about how this new product can truly be any cardmaker’s best friend as well.

For those who may not know me very well yet, I LOVE to teach and share my love of crafting with others. However, recently I have not been on camera as much as I used to be when I was teaching and training years ago.

So this was a great opportunity to visit with a friend, share something I’m proud of with her, and begin to get more comfortable with recording.

Want to own this great die system?
Yes, I want to pick up my own Busy Card Maker’s Best Friend™, the One Sheet Wonder – Full Die System™!

I am super excited to announce that in collaboration with Mechele Monet from The Stamp Doctor we are launching a brand new die-cutting system.

INTRODUCING

THE

I was introduced to making handmade cards using the One Sheet Wonder (OSW) technique years ago and have always loved the simplicity that this technique offers to the creation process.

What is a One Sheet Wonder?

The OSW technique is where you use one sheet of printed paper (paper size varies) and cut it into strips and pieces using a template and then combine these pieces together to make greeting cards. It’s a fun and easy way to make cards.

An Idea is Born

I’ve enjoyed a business and personal friendship with Mechele (The Stamp Doctor) for a couple years. At the beginning of 2021 I was sharing a project I was working on using an OSW template I created. With her infinite wisdom and experience, Mechele said, I can create a die to do the work for you.

To be clear and without question, I LOVE dies!

So our journey began into creating a fabulous One Sheet Wonder die which quickly progressed into an entire system that includes coordinating and layering dies that expand and give additional dimension to your card creating options.

As crafters ourselves, we know that time is precious and at times limited. So we created this card making system with the busy card maker in mind. It also is extremely beginner user friendly and offers creative flexibility for advanced creators.

Below is a very small sampling of the cards we created using our brand new One Sheet Wonder – Full Die System™.

Fast Forward to August 2021

Introducing

The

It’s ready to Pre Order!

This system has SO much to offer & we will soon have videos, classes & tutorials, add-on products & more!

It’s a

Busy Card Maker’s Best Friend!

Have I peaked your interest? I hope so! I believe you will love what we have created for you. I would greatly appreciate it if you would check out our One Sheet Wonder – Full Die System™ sales page and see if this amazing system is something that might fit perfectly in your craft room!

Keep a look-out for additional updates, training and inspiration coming your way.

After discovering the beautiful world of papercrafting, I was immediately intrigued with all the wonderful treat and gift items that I could create using my craft stash.

With the ongoing introduction of so many crafting tools like scoreboards to create boxes and stamps, papers and, dies to create a variety of fun elements I felt I could never run out of fun things to make.

Speaking of dies! I love dies! They are on the top of my list of favorite crafting tools to work with. I should also add that my list is also quite long. LOL!

I am always grateful for the creativity of others to help inspire me to create more.

Introduction To One Of My Creative Mentors

One of my creative mentors is Mechele Monet from The Stamp Doctor. Though her brand is as The Stamp Doctor, she has such a gift for designing and creating dies that make so many awesome projects. Many of them work in tandem together, building on the possibilities of adding more creative project possibilities.

The video below offers oodles of inspirational ideas using the dies she makes. I wanted to share it with you as a fun introduction to her creativity.

As you watch this video, you will notice that it was created as a showcase for an online event she was participating in. The coupon code listed in the video is no longer valid.

Cool thing is…I contacted Mechele to see if she might be able to offer another discount coupon for my creative peeps because the one listed in the video had expired. Guess what? She said yes! I have listed the coupon code below.

Inspiration And A Discount Code? Well, Of Course!

Once you watch her video and get inspired, please consider visiting Mechele’s site and browse around to see all of the fun products that are just waiting for you to create. If you decide to pick something up, please use the code: CreateScout to receive 20% off of products listed that are not on sale.

Mechele offers great customer service and is available to answer questions as needed.

You can find additional The Stamp Doctor inspirational videos on her YouTube channel.

Valuable Tip (reminder):

When viewing inspirational pieces that showcase a specific idea, theme, or holiday, always view with an open mind on how you will be able to use YOUR own unique style and creativity. These inspirational projects are provided as just the starting point to your creativity.

Thanks for stopping by.

Be inspired to create!

Napkin Art has become quite popular lately. I find it a bit humorous, because I remember doing a form of napkin art with my grandma many, many moons ago. Of course, napkins are now available in a variety of different sizes and have awesomely beautiful art that they didn’t have years ago.

This decorative art form has so many different application techniques that you could easily spend hours of time trying to find a tutorial that is easy to follow.

I’ve curated several videos for your viewing that not only showcase some great projects for inspiration but give a variety of application techniques that will help you get started if you want to venture into this fun and surprisingly simple art. None of the tutorials provided require a lot of different tools so you could easily get started right away.

Curated Creativity

  Learn How To Decoupage Onto Napkins
This is a blog tutorial, but also has a couple of fun videos in the same post using the decoupage technique she teaches.

Paper Napkin Transfer Tutorial
This napkin transfer technique uses plastic wrap, parchment paper and an iron. The presentation is easy to understand and has some beautiful project ideas at the end.

Napkin Greetings
Using a napkin and glue stick, this video shows a super quick and easy application process.

Paper Napkin Art
This tutorial shares a really cool process that combines a bit of decoupage and a surprise technique that adds a dimension that you’ll have to watch to learn about.

How To Make Cards Using Paper Napkins
I’m not sure what I love more about this tutorial, the amazingly beautiful napkins or the very unique process of using an embossing folder to pinch  (emboss) the napkin and cardstock together.

Embossed Napkin Cards
Using matte gel as the adhesive and then embossing sections of the card front using an embossing folder gives some really wonderful effects.

Glitter Napkin Technique
This is sure to add a wow factor to your napkin card creation by applying Versa Mark, embossing powder, and then sprinkle it with glitter.

Ultimate Glitter Napkin Technique
This glitter napkin technique uses an alternate way to adhere the napkin and glitter to the cardstock base. The secret? Double-sided sticky sheets.

Napkin Cardstock
Creating napkin cardstock to then create larger-sized projects is a new idea to me. I I like this idea a lot. The samples shown in this video are really beautiful.

Time To Get Started

There you have it…multiple ways to adhere napkins to your cardstock bases as well as other project resources. These easy-to-follow video tutorials are sure to give you plenty of inspiration to get you started. Take a look at each of the different options, select which one resonates with what you want to try, and then get started.

I’d love to see which technique(s) you try and what you create, so please share them with me by either tagging your project in the comments area or consider joining my Create Scout Facebook Group Page and share your creation with our community of creatives.

If you find yourself hooked on napkin projects, please check out my Pinterest Napkin Projects Board for even more ideas.