Happy New Year 2026

  Happy New Year my friends! 

As we get ready to turn the page to a brand-new year, I just want to say how incredibly grateful I am for you. Whether you came to classes or purchased supplies from me, I consider it a privilege to be your friend and teacher.

 

I hope this new year brings you fresh inspiration, creative confidence, and plenty of time to play with stamps, ink, and paper. May your cardstock be smooth, your ink pads juicy, and your craft space filled with joy (and maybe a little giggle.

As I was going through images from today on my computer, I came across this image of a gumdrop tree. We grew up with one. It didn't stand a chance with 7 kids, LOL. My mom put spiced gumdrops on it. I love those things. I don't think I've had once since my kids moved out.

I think I owe it to myself to see if I can find some spiced gumdrops. This image brought back such sweet memories of Christmas for me. Do you have any images that bring back memories for you?

Here is the baby blanket I made for Silas Timothy. I used very soft yarn and crocheted using the moss stitch. It is a very easy stitch. You single crochet, chain one then skip a loop. It goes quickly because you don't have to count stitches like with a ripple afghan.

I got to hold Silas the day he came home. You forget how small 6 pounds is you know? I love all of the noises and faces babies make. They wiggle a lot too.

My craft room is coming along. Here you can see the upper cabinets have lighting underneath. Tim also cleaned the floor and applied something to help the floor hold up with lots of people walking on it as this will hopefully be where I'll hold classes.

Today, Tim brought up the bottom cabinets. Tomorrow my son will help Tim bring the countertops and drawers up.

   Here is the card I made for today's sketch challenge. Here's the sketch. As you can see I turned the sketch to make it horizontal instead of vertical.

I cut the stenciled paper apart after I die cut it. I layered two snowflakes on the red circle then added my image. The red circle was placed on the designer series paper with dimensionals. The designer series paper was added to a white card base. I stamped the sentiment and cut it out. It was added with a dimensional. Lastly, I added the faceted snowflakes. This will go on a patient dinner tray at a local hospital.

This is one panel from the Waffle Flower stencil set. I've never cut up and used just one image from the stenciled image panel. I'm stepping out of my comfort zone here. LOL  

I was creating on the fly. I looked at things I had in my Winter stash to add to the image. It's a good way to use up things you've made for other cards but never used.

Keywords: SC1075 Winter Cardinals snowflakes

Stamps: Waffle Flower-Postage Collage Snowy Stencil, Unity-Winter Blessings

Paper: white, SU-Traditions of Christmas designer series paper, real red

Paper Size: A2

Ink: distress inks-broken china, salty ocean, SU-real red

Accessories: SU-retired snowflakes, SU-Peaceful Greenery 3D embossing folder, Faceted Snowflakes, scissors, SU-Spotlight on Nature Die, Waffle Flower-Postage Collage Die

Techniques: dry embossing, stenciling

Waffle Flower has layered stencils that they make using the same layout but different images. It's really amazing the number of different stencils and stamps they have that go together. Here's a sample of one of the cards you'd get stenciling with the set I used for today's card. You can use it whole or cut it up and use the pieces.  When you cut between the images, it makes the images look like postage stamps.

 A friend and I were talking today about what we do with images or die cuts we've made but not used for seasonal cards. We've just filed Christmas stamps and paper away and have taken out snowmen, snowflakes and Winter things.

I told her I put my extras in a clear envelope and store them with my designer series paper that is 6" x 6".  That way when I come to that time of year again, I have extras with the paper I'll use. I don't have to remember where I put the images and cut out things, then find the paper and embellishments, etc.

How do you store your extra items?

I told my friend another way is to just give them to me and I'll put them out at classes and see if anyone would like them.  I think it's fun to get new images to work with.

Years ago I told a friend I wanted to start a business where people could rent stamps. Many people buy a set and use it a few times, then it sits in a cupboard or on a shelf. 

If you had a place where you could borrow stamps like a library, you could use the stamps for a fee then return them for something else.  Obviously that idea never went anywhere! LOL

It would be fun however to have a stamp trading day. People could bring a stamp set they want to trade for one someone else has brought. Give it some thought. Maybe we could do that sometime.

Well have a happy and safe New Year.

Blessings,

Sue