I'm back!

Well, hello there! It's hard to believe that I haven't posted on my blog for almost two months. Since then, we've closed on our house, moved, and are working on getting settled and discovering the ins and outs of being homeowners. It's been about a month since we moved in, but we still haven't finished unpacking. We took care of what we really needed -- kitchen, bedrooms, craft room (of course!), etc. -- and then lost our "oomph." Part of the problem is that we need some furniture in order to finish getting settled, but with all the production/delivery issues and delays right now, a lot of things are out of stock and on back order. We found a sofa we liked that wouldn't be delivered until January or February! Oof. I'd thought we'd be all ready for the holidays, but now I'm not sure. So it's been a slow process.

But enough about the boring stuff. I have actually made a few cards in my new craft room! And here are the first two:

Supplies (all Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted):
Stamps: Thankful Forest Friends, Tree Rings, Sentimental: Birthday (Winnie & Walter)
Paper: Cinnamon Cider, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip card stock
Ink: Cinnamon Cider, Old Olive, Chocolate Chip, Gray Granite
Accessories: happy Birthday die (Simon Says Stamp), Ornate Layers dies, jute twine (May Arts Ribbon), Into the Woods elements, Box of Chocolate sequin assortment (Craft Medley), foam tape (3M), Art Glitter Glue (Art Institute)

One of my cousins has twins (a girl and a boy) who celebrated their fourth birthday this month, and I wanted to make cards using a stamp set that wasn't specifically for birthdays. I chose this autumn/Thanksgiving set because I think these animals are adorable and look like storybook characters. Using different dies and accessories, I made one card a little more feminine, and one card a little more boyish. For the card with all the animals, I had to cut out the images by hand -- and I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself. :)

Inside the "boy" card I simply added a layer of Very Vanilla card stock stamped with a birthday sentiment. But in the "girl" card I added a small stamped branch in each corner to tie in the images on the front of the card.

It felt like I had to retrain my crafty muscles a bit while I was making these cards, and now I'm working on my blogging muscles. I'm still not exactly sure how much I will be blogging going forward. I like having a record of the cards I've made and being able to search for a specific stamp set or technique. But finding the time and energy to do all the steps (take and download pictures, resize/edit them, write the post, etc.) isn't the easiest right now. So I may try out some different ideas, like maybe just posting pictures and supplies without much text. Or maybe a weekly round-up of whatever I've made that week. We'll see what happens.

Thanks so much for sticking around and stopping by today!