Winter cards for seniors

I’ve been sloooowly making progress on my craft room. Today we moved the furniture downstairs. I need to get a few more shelves for storage, and then I’ll be able to start reorganizing everything. I’m hoping to have it set up by Thanksgiving; I have so much Christmas stuff to work on!

For now I have some winter cards to share. Most of these are the cards I created during my craft weekend a few weeks ago. I posted group photos at the time, but I also wanted to share pictures where you can see the individual cards. These cards, which are for the Cards Connect program at the Friends and Co. organization, will be sent to senior citizens around the state. (See my Sept. 20, 2025, post for fall cards I made for this same cause.) I was able to create 71 cards this time.

I have quite a few pictures, so I won’t share individual details of cards. My main supplies were the Simple Vintage Flannel Season paper pad and ephemera (Simple Stories) and the Chilling with My Snowmies paper pad and coordinating dies (Echo Park). Embellishments are minimal, as the organization requests that cards be fairly flat for mailing. If you have a question about a specific card, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer it.

Whew! I still need to write a message in each card, and then I have to drop them off by Dec. 5. How are we halfway through November already?!

Thanks for stopping by!

Craft weekend: Day 4

The last day of craft weekend was about finishing things — leftovers and projects. I made 17 more cards with the Chilling with My Homies 6x6 paper pad and used it all up, except for some tiny scraps. I ended up with 34 cards total from that paper pad. So with the 24 cards I made with the Simple Vintage Flannel paper pad, I made a grand total of 58 cards this weekend. Yay! And here they are:

I’ll do separate posts with close-up pictures later this week. I’m excited that I have these cards done now, because I have plenty of time to write messages in them before I have to drop them off at the organization that will send them off to seniors.

And that’s a wrap on craft weekend 2025. I didn’t have time to make any Halloween cards this weekend, but that’s ok. Maybe I’ll challenge myself to use some Halloween stamps for another type of card. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Craft weekend: Day 3

Today was a cooler, dreary day — the perfect weather for staying in to craft! I’m still making winter cards. I finished up most of the paper pad I was using yesterday (minus a few scraps and pieces of ephemera, which I gave to Lisa because, honestly, I was getting tired of them) and then moved on to my next pack of patterned paper: Chilling with My Snowmies from Echo Park. 

I didn’t buy any coordinating ephemera for this paper, since I bought the dies and could make my own images. And I think they’re looking pretty cute on the cards! 

For dinner we had butternut squash ravioli and zucchini. Now we’re relaxing, watching a new Hallmark Christmas movie, and having popcorn. I might make a few more Christmas cards tonight, and I’ll finish them up tomorrow. If I have time I might make a couple Halloween cards, too, which I haven’t had a chance to do this fall.

Thanks for stopping by!

Craft weekend: Day 2

The second day of craft weekend started with an outing. It was a gorgeous fall day, with clear blue sky, colorful leaves, and plenty of sunshine. (I’m really enjoying the cooler weather after the summer-like heat and humidity we had a few weeks ago.)

We walked to a nearby vintage store to do some crafty treasure hunting. The store had a little of everything, and we probably could have browsed all day. I bought two vintage postcards, which I’ll probably turn into cards, some old piano music for cards/mixed media projects, and a vintage-inspired tulip poster. I’m not sure if I’ll keep the poster as is or cut out the different flowers for cards.

We stopped for lunch after shopping and then walked back to Lisa’s to get crafting. I worked on making winter cards for seniors with some paper and ephemera from the Simple Vintage Flannel Season line by Simple Stories. (All the die cuts from yesterday will be put to use tomorrow.) I’ve made almost twenty cards today, but I really want to finish up the paper pad so I’m going to keep going. But I figured I should do my blog post before it got too late.

I’ll do a post showing all the cards once everything is finished. For dinner tonight, Lisa made salad and gnocchi, and we had banana bread and tea for dessert. Yum!

Thanks for stopping by!

Craft weekend: Day 1

It’s time for the annual craft weekend at my friend Lisa’s, and I decided to do a little blog post at the end of each day. We started our weekend this afternoon, and I worked on die cutting pieces for some winter-themed cards for seniors. I had purchased a pack of paper and coordinating dies from Echo Park — the dies are adorable, but they have so many tiny pieces. I figured if I started with cutting and assembling a whole bunch of pieces, then I’d have a collection of images ready to go for cards.

I grouped the dies by color and taped them together so I didn’t lose any and they were a little easier to work with.

Penguin pieces are on the left, trees in the middle, and snowmen on the right. So many teeny, tiny pieces.

Here is everything finished: six penguins and eighteen trees and snowmen. I used card stock colors to coordinate with the patterned paper. Even though they were challenging — especially the penguins’ eyes, beaks, and feet — they went together faster than I thought they would.

That was all my crafting for the day. We had shrimp scampi for dinner and belated birthday treats for dessert (pumpkin cheesecake for Lisa and a Reese’s chocolate-peanut butter cupcake for me) while we watched Hallmark Christmas movies. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Andrea

I’m still here!

I can’t believe it’s been a month since I posted. And It’s been a crazy month. In September we had a contractor re-finish our basement. It was finished when we bought the house, but the following spring we started having issues with a lot of water in the basement and we had to tear out a bunch of stuff. We finally fixed those problems (we hope for good!) in August so we could redo the basement. I’m planning to move my craft room down there, and we’ll also have space for doing games and puzzles and hopefully a little storage. Of course we have to move furniture and things back downstairs, and I’m not exactly sure when that will happen because now we’re in the middle of our family birthday month. Whew.

All that to say I haven’t been doing much crafting lately, so I haven’t had anything to post. But this weekend is the annual craft weekend with my friend Lisa, so I hope to have some things to share next week. In the meantime, here are a few pictures of our “new” basement. I’ll share more photos when we have everything set up.

The area one the right is a hallway/storage area that goes to our utility room. It’s just a concrete floor, but when the painter added some flecks of color to the paint. It’s sparkly!

When we moved all the furniture upstairs, this chair didn’t fit through the back door unless we took off the door. (We had to move everything up the stairs, out the back door, around the house and then back in the front door.). So we decided this chair (covered to keep off the construction dust) will just live downstairs.

We do still need to finish the stairs. We have to choose carpet and get it installed. But since they’re usable as is, we didn’t worry about finishing that right away.

We’re really happy with how everything turned out. The basement is definitely the nicest room in our house now. :)

Thanks for stopping by!

Andrea

Fall cards for seniors

For many years I've made financial donations to a local organization that works to promote connection and meaningful relationships for older adults. Recently I learned that they have a program called Cards Connect -- individuals make cards and send/bring them to the organization, which then mails them to seniors around the state. They collect cards four times per year, and the donation deadline for fall cards happened to be a few weeks away. I pulled out some autumn-themed stamps, dies, and patterned paper and started creating.

The organization requested that the cards be fairly flat for mailing purposes, so I didn't add the dimension I usually would. I limited my embellishments to flat sequins and tried to add interest with textured or shimmery paper or a bit of splatter.

I created a total of twenty cards to donate this time. I made multiples of a few designs, but I also created some unique cards by using up bits and pieces that I've had sitting around for years (like the die-cut frames and the panel with the Emily Bronte quote).

Inside the cards I wrote a simple uplifting message with a couple of sentences about autumn. I also included a seasonal "dad joke" in each card for a little fun.

I'm hoping to make many more cards for the next round, which will be winter (not holiday-specific). I've already bought some cute patterned paper and coordinating ephemera so I can get a head start. Maybe I'll be able to finish some for my September Christmas cards.

Thanks for stopping by!

Spectrum Gardenia

With my craft room temporarily out of commission, I decided to make some cards at the dining room table with minimal supplies. I dug out the necessary tools (glue, scissors, etc.), white card stock, some pre-folded card bases, basic embellishments, and a few sentiment stamp sets. For the “meat” of the cards I used a few products from the Spectrum Gardenia collection (49 and Market): 12” x 12” card stock, ephemera, and washi tape. These are traditionally scrapbooking products, so some of the items are tricky to use on cards, but I did my best. I also found a few odds and ends that I’d made and never used that ended up working for these cards.

There you have it! Did you catch the upside-down card in the last photo? I promise I made the card the right way; I just goofed up the picture. Ha ha!

I’ll admit that I used more supplies than I originally intended. I kept thinking of the perfect punch or twine or what have you and had to wade through the craft room to find it. But I’m happy with how the cards turned out, so the extra effort was worth it.

As a little back-to-school surprise, I brought all these cards to the school where I work for the teachers and staff to use. Sharing is caring. :) Thanks for stopping by!

'Seas' the day

In my last couple of posts I've shared cards I made after creating a variety of colorful card stock panels with Distress Oxide inks. On some of the cards I used the Distress Oxide panels as backgrounds, and on others I used the panels to die cut images. On today's cards, I did both. These also happen to be my favorite cards of the bunch.

On the mermaid card the background is one of the Distress Oxide panels, embossed with an underwater-themed embossing folder and then spritzed with a shimmer mist. I stamped the mermaid tail on another panel and then die cut it, along with a few tiny seashells. I used other Distress Oxide panels to die cut some coral, and I also used those panels to cut out larger layered seashells for two other cards (the white card above and one further down this post).

The mermaid tail needed some sparkle, so I used a Stardust Gelly Roll to color some of the scales and to add lines on the fluke. I finished the card by adding a sentiment (also stamped on a piece of Distress Oxide panel for perfect coordination) and a handful of sequins.

For the second card, I went more clean and simple. I spritzed a white card base with shimmer mist and adhered a die-cut white fishing net on top. I used three of the die-cut layered seashells and adhered them to the card with foam tape. When I cut out the seashells, I used different areas of the Distress Oxide panel (e.g., darker areas or places where one color was more prominent) for the different layers, which I think adds a lot of depth and realism. I finished this card with a sentiment and a few pearls.

The third card is kind of a mix of the first two: I focused on the seashells, like the second card, but also embossed the background, like the first one. (The embossing folder is technically going sideways on this card, but I don't think it matters too much. It still evokes the feeling and movement of water.)

I also spritzed this card with shimmer mist -- it reminds me of the sun sparkling on water. I finished this card with a sentiment and a few pearls.

My craft room is still out of commission while we're working on the basement. But I've moved some supplies to the dining room table so I can still do a bit of card making. I'll probably be posting just once a week for a while since I won't have as many cards to share. Thanks for stopping by!

Wild and precious life

Today I've got a quick post to share another card featuring Distress Oxide inks. In my last post I mentioned that I had made several panels using Distress Oxide inks, and I shared a couple of cards where I used the panels as backgrounds. This time I used the panels for the die-cut images on the card.

I love this quote from Mary Oliver, and I think it's perfect for a birthday card. I also like to pair it with images from nature, and this time I chose a dragonfly and leaves.

The pink/purple Distress Oxide panel seemed perfect for a dragonfly. This dragonfly is from a Tim Holtz die set, and it has three layers. Normally I would cut each layer from a different color, but in this instance I cut them all from the same panel. You do get some natural color variation, but the different layers don't stand out as much. For the leaves, which are also layered, I cut the outlines from a part of the panel that was slightly darker, and the backing layer is a little lighter.

For the card base I used Crumb Cake card stock stamped with the Circular Grid Bold Prints stamp from Hero Arts. It reminds me of the rings of a tree. The leaves are glued directly to the card base, and the sentiment piece and dragonfly are adhered with foam tape. I finished the card with a few clear droplets.

I will have one more post featuring the Distress Oxide panels I created, so stay tuned (spoiler alert: there will be an underwater/beach theme). Thanks for stopping by!