Stocking up - fun, affordable find

Every once in awhile, you find something so great and so affordable and so useful that you can't resist.

Last spring, I ran into Target for one of my trips to restock the house. It is too irresistible to skip the dollar bins near the front of the store.

Tucked in a top corner, that was a bin full of these awesome looking cards. The designs were so fresh looking and included just the right mix of thank you and generic cards.

So, I stocked up...

and then promptly went home and put them in one of my favorite wooden tobacco boxes.

For someone who likes to write notes, having new notecards is one of the biggest treats. A fun, affordable find!

Creative friends

 One of the best things about our Prairie School Farms adventure is meeting so many great people.  We continue to be blessed by opportunities to collaborate with creative and talented people. 

We belong to several different creative communities and one of the benefits is sharing ideas and items. We won a contest and had the chance to connect with Colleen from Pennsylvania.  She makes really beautiful cards.  Check out her Etsy store.

She custom designed notecards for us in two different styles.  The cards include photos from our Facebook page.  We LOVE the cards and can't wait to use them!

Please take some time to look at her work - nice things made by a nice person!

Sometimes the joy is in the process...

Sometimes the joy is in the process or the making of something and sometimes it is in the finishing.

At the Dirt, Denim and Diamonds conference, I learned a new stamping or scrapbooking technique and I was inspired to use it to make use of some of my paper scraps.  It was so simple, yet brilliant!  The flag or banner graphic element has been showing up in a lot of publications lately and I always thought to use it in crafting would be a test of patience to try to make perfect scissor cuts or to somehow fold and un-crease paper...?  I know...I feel really silly now that I know the much easier way.

Almost immediately after the conference, I pulled out several piles of my paper scraps.  I have this thing about keeping all of my paper scraps because it would be wasteful to throw away even a small square of beautifully printed paper when it could be used on some project.  I have baskets and baskets of scrap paper.

Now that I had some inspiration from Pinterest, a new technique, and of course, loads and loads of paper, I wanted to make some cards.

Card making might be a little ambitious given the time I have available during the late part of August and the fall in general.  But, who am I to ever be realistic about what I can do in a given time.

So, I set out all of the supplies.

I experimented with the new technique.  Do you see how easy this is?  A square punch makes the cut - no folding, no lining up the scissor cuts.  There is some element of getting things "square," but it is not that complicated.

Now, I had a cute way to use some of my paper scraps. Oh, the ideas!

I had my three paper ribbons or banners ready to go.  And, this is where the project sat for roughly two weeks.  I decided that over the Labor Day weekend, I would finish it (and maybe make some more cards).  I did (finish the one card).  In full disclosure, it took all three days to do maybe a combined five minutes of hands-on work.  I would do a little bit and then be distracted by another priority and then a little bit more and finally, the ONE card was finished.

The mess is still on my studio table and all sorts of items are piling up around it.  But, I am so excited to have finished one card that I might just try to start another.  As silly as it sounds, even two minutes of creative work, even knowing I needed to run out the door in just another second, doing something creative helped reenergize me.

I have an obsession.

Confession: I love stationery. Give me cards of all sizes and shapes. I buy them. I make them. I try to send them, but should send more cards to more people since there are few pick me ups better than getting a handwritten card from someone you love. Every once in awhile I take out all of my cards and reorganize them and in the process remember what I have and admire the colors and designs.

Here are some of my favorites from today's reorganization.

I made these and you can tell I was experimenting with the scalloped circle punch. I tried to use only scrap paper to decorate the plain cardstock cards. I even used the sleeve for a coffee cup because of the great texture and lovely brown color.

These cards are a take off on the old Polaroid photos. The card itself looks like a Polaroid and the envelopes are a great light grey/putty color and have the Polaroid silhouette. Fun and funky subjects make these cards unique. I found them at Acme Gift in Aggieville (Manhattan, KS).

This set is packaged so lovely. The theme is typesetting and the letter and number fonts are beautiful to view. The envelopes are just as awesome at the postcard style cards. Also a find from Acme Gift in Aggieville (Manhattan, KS).

These adorable business card sized cards are all about luck with a lucky symbol embossed in gold on the top of each. The four leaf clover is my favorite, ok - maybe it is the wishbone.