Hello Friends.  Happy Friday.  I haven't been able to do my daily walking for the past few days.  I have not been able to wake up early enough before the temperature begins to get hot.  I need to start walking before 7 am.  It doesn't look like the temperature will be cooling down any time soon.  It's been in the low 100s this whole week and will continue on to next week. I attempted to do some yoga but my DVD player stopped working and my favorite yoga program is stuck inside my DVD player.  I do have another DVD player that I will need to set up.  It's unfortunate that my DVD is stuck in the player.  

I did not work on a card last night.  Instead I organized my dies.  I am shocked as to how many I have and how many I have not used, not even once.  That has got to change.  There was a time that I would buy stamping, card making and scrapbooking products in hopes it would motivate me to start creating again but it never worked.  Or, I would have a momentary moment of motivation and start buying new products then in a short time lose interest or life gets too busy.  That is how I ended up accumulating things and end up not using them.  Does that happen to you?

I made this cute birthday card the other day.  I can't remember the brand name of the stamp because I colored the image last year but I did use Echo Park designer paper for the card.  Echo Park has monthly warehouse and clearance sales.  They currently have their summer warehouse sale.  I'm tempted to buy a few things but I will refrain from doing so until I start using what I already have.  Anyway, check the Echo Park Warehouse Sale.  

There are a few projects I would like to work on this weekend.  I'll share them once I'm done.  Hope you all have a lovely Friday. 💖

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Bouquet of Flowers Thank You Card

Hello Friends!  I can't believe it's almost the weekend.  Since retiring, the days seem to go by faster than when I was working.  I thought it would go by slower. I am now 60 years old.  My birthday was 2 weeks ago and I decided to retire earlier than the typical retirement age because I wanted to be able to be free to do things while I'm physically able to, such as traveling, go on mini adventures, do some home improvement projects, etc.  Before retiring I researched information about retirement, not only the financial aspects of retirement but quality of life information.  I read that many retired people experience isolation, boredom, and loneliness because for most of their lives, their workplace was not only a source of income but many built their social network at work.  Their coworkers were their main source of social interaction and friendships.  

I worked remotely for the past 7 years since COVID so I am accustomed to the "isolation" and lack of workplace social interaction other than through Teams messaging and meetings.  I never considered my coworkers as "friends".  Maybe when I was younger I did consider some of my coworkers as friends.  It was a time when socializing with coworkers outside of the workplace was a more common experience for me.  In fact, I am still friends with a few of them.  We mainly communicate through Facebook because I no longer live in Hawaii and a few moved to different parts of the US.   As I grew older, I learned to separate "workplace friends" from friends outside of my job.  Other than the occasional Friday happy hour get togethers or team building activities, I did not socialize with my coworkers outside of the workplace.  I don't think I'll experience the isolation, boredom, and loneliness that some retirees experience.  Quite honestly, I  have way too many hobbies to worry about becoming bored.

As I stated in yesterday's post, this week I had planned to focus only on crafting.  I have other things I plan to do next week so I wanted to put most of my efforts this week to creating cards.  I worked on a few cards yesterday.  I am trying different design styles.  Many times we have our signature style of cardmaking because it's easier to stick to a certain style.  I would like to experiment a little more and try new techniques of card making.  I am behind on the new card making techniques; a decade worth of new techniques. 

On the most part card making, especially with rubber stamping, hasn't changed much since I started rubber stamping 20 years ago.  I do notice that there has been a major decline with using embellishments on cards such as ribbons and other embellishments that cause bulkiness on cards.  I think the trend to scale down on embellishments is due to the cost of mailing cards.  The cost of stamps has increased considerably.  Unfortunately, I have a lot of embellishments such as brads, ribbons, Prima flowers, etc., but it's okay because I'll be using them to design my mini scrap albums.  They come in handy with scrapbooking.  

With this card, I piled on a bunch of stamped floral images.  I had mentioned in my previous post that I had a stock pile of stamped images that I had stamped in the past few years but never created cards for them.  I originally intended to use them on my mini scrapbook albums but I have so many of them, way too many in fact.  Now that I'm making cards again, they have come in very handy.  

Drop me a comment below.  I would love to hear from you.  If you are retired, tell me your experience as a retired person. What experiences surprised you, do you have any regrets, did your retirement meet your expectations, what does your typical day look like?  I am still trying to navigate this new chapter of my life so it would be nice to hear your perspectives on retirement.  Anyway, until next time hope you all have a wonderful day 💖

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I'm On The Roll - Birthday Card

Happy Wednesday!  The week has been flying really quick.  I've been on the roll with creating cards, I worked on a few cards last night.  I decided this week I'm going to concentrate on relaxing and focus on crafting.  I want to organize my pantry but I think I'm going to work on it next week.  There are a lot of organizing that I want to do, especially my garage, but I need to wait until the temperature cools down a little.  It's been in the 100s the past weeks.  There are a lot of projects I want to work on including crafting projects but I need to be patient.  I can't do everything all at once.

Last night I followed a sketch on Pinterest.  The card sketch was a simple design.  I didn't save the card sketch but the next time I follow one to make a card, I'll share it on my post so if you want you can follow it as well to provide you an idea on how to lay out your card design.

I believe the stamped image on this card is Penny Black.  I can't exactly remember because I stamped and colored the image a year ago.  I colored the image using Copic Markers and Prismacolor pencils for the shading.  Speaking about Copic Markers, I've had my Copic Markers since 2007 I believe and I have rarely refilled them, only a few of the skin tone colors had to be refilled.  It remained juicy for almost 20 years.  It's pretty unbelievable but it's true.  I've always stored them in my closet and in an air conditioned house so it never dried up.  I only would bring them out when I colored images then returned them back in to the closet.  

I have a lot of scrap designer papers from projects I created in the past.  I've created mini scrapbook albums and I have a lot of scraps because of it.  I'll share some of the mini scrapbook albums I created when I'm done designing them and adding the photos.  It's really something I really need to get done.  I used some of the scrap designer papers on this card.  I also have a lot of embossing folders so rather than adding a plain card stock to my card, I embossed it to give the card a little bit of dimension.  

The photo is blown up a bit so the coloring on the image doesn't look as good in the photo as it does in person.  Are we all critical of our work?  The truth is recipients of cards, especially handmade cards aren't critiqued in the way we critique our own work so we need to be kinder to ourselves and not be so critical about how good or bad we colored an image or designed the card.  Recipients don't care what brand of stamps and materials we used so we don't have to buy the latest and greatest.  They are just happy that they received a handmade card made out of love, right?

Anyway, until next time. . .have a great day 💓

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Floral Thank You Card

Hello Friends!  Happy Wednesday.  Since retiring I've been trying to work out some sort of life schedule.  I've asked a few retired people for advise and some say for the first few months to just relax and go with the flow; to just enjoy my free time and not focus on any sort of schedule.  Before I retired, I had the mindset that when I retire I would immediately tackle all the projects I have put on the backburner such as organizing my garage; redesigning my office and craft room;  start on home improvement projects like painting my exercise room; and start exercising.  I actually started a list of goals and all the things I want to get done.  

The first week of retirement I reorganized my office.  Because I worked remotely from home, I wanted to turn my work office into a journaling/planner room. I did manage to reorganize my desk, drawers and cabinets.  I also started an exercise schedule. I started going for a walk daily.  I also worked on my yard by pruning my plants and other yard work.  I traveled to Vegas for a family reunion my first weekend.  After returning from Vegas, I felt so burnt out.  On my second week of retirement, my body started aching a little. I think I over did it the first week of retirement.  I continued on the same schedule but I felt so tired from all the activities the previous week.  I decided on this 3rd week of retirement that I'm just going to relax and slow it down a little.  I have to remind myself that I don't need to do everything all at once. On the other hand, I feel like I'm wasting my free time and I start to have a strange feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out). I feel like I should be going on adventures and start on all the projects I had wanted to do.  I don't know, I'll figure it out.  Right now, today anyway, I decided to focus on just relaxing, take a nap if I need to and do some crafting.  

This morning I woke up early and did my morning walk then later sat in my backyard to drink a cup of tea before it got too hot to sit outside.  It was nice to be able to sit in my yard in the morning; something I couldn't do when I was working.  It's the simple things that I really am grateful for.  I do feel blessed that I was able to do an early retirement.  Honestly, it was something I had wanted but didn't think it was actually possible.  Everything aligned in a way that allowed it to happen.  

I created this card this morning.  I used a few floral images that I had stamped and colored about a year ago.  I have a stockpile of already colored stamped images.  I had stamped the images with the intention of using them to design a bunch of mini scrapbook albums that I created but never had the chance to finish.  

I colored the images by using a dauber. I rubbed ink on to white card stock and stamped the images over it.  It's the fastest way to color floral images.  It allowed me to color a lot of images.  I then cut the images out with scissors.   

I'll work on a few more cards today.  I can't wait to share them with all of you.  Have a great day!

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Hello, I'm Back!!

Hello Friends!  I'm back!  The last time I posted on this site was in 2015 but I decided to give blogging a try again.  I am a newly retired person.  I retired from my job on August 1st, 2026 (yipee!!) and now that I have a lot of free time, I want to give card making and scrapbooking another try.  I really miss blogging.  I remember back over a decade ago when blogging was popular,. I had so much fun interacting with other bloggers and paper crafters back then.  I know a lot of the original bloggers no longer blog, many have moved on to other hobbies or are now using other social media platforms such as Instagram to showcase their creations.

I do have an instagram specifically for paper crafting and although I've posted on there on occasion, I haven't been consistent in posting any of my creations on there.  I have tried over the past10 years to make cards and to scrapbook but, sadly, I could not get my crafting mojo going.  It has been mainly because I just didn't have the time due to my job and I had also lost interest in crafting in general.  I shifted a lot of my focus on gardening but I would really like to get back to paper crafting again.

I've kept most of my cardmaking and scrapbooking supplies with the belief that I would some day use them again.  I know there are new products and techniques for cardmaking and scrapbooking but my focus will be mainly to use the materials that I do already have and resist buying any more new items.  Like with anything in life, that can change.  😆

There were moments when I did try to craft throughout the years but I could not stick with it and be consistent but let me see how this goes.  Blogging always motivated me in the past to create new things because I almost treated my blog as a journal and I enjoyed sharing my new creations.  I'm hoping that by blogging again, I will be inspired to create again.  I also have other things I would like to share about my life as a retired person such as my life  adventures, gardening, and other things I plan to do as I navigate this new chapter of my life. If you want you can also visit or follow me on Instagram:  Stampin Inspirations I plan to post on there regularly as well.  

I'll share this card for now.  It's a card I actually created last year.  Most of the products on this card are retired Stampin Up products.  Keep in mind, the products I'll be using on my cards are not current products because my goal is to use materials I already have.  I've hoarded craft materials for the past 20 years and I really do need to use them.  Say hello if you come across my post.  Although my intentions is not to obtain new followers or focus on anyone visiting my blog, it would be nice to hear from you. Until next time. . . 💗💗💗

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Penny Black and Magnolia Stamps Cards

Hey Friends!  I recently stopped by Joanne's and Michaels and I noticed that they are downsizing on  their paper crafting section, especially Michaels.  They no longer carry a wide variety of punches like EK Success (which I loved), they discontinued carrying Spellbinder dies, they no longer carry that many scrapbook papers like K&Co.  I think it's the CAS trend of  card making and Project Life style of scrapbooking that is leading to the down sizing.  I know it's the trend right now but wow, I feel they killed the paper crafting industry. For people like me who still like to use designer papers and punches, bows and embellishments, it saddens me a bit to see how limited the selections are now.  Even the rubber stamping businesses are closing shop.  Ugggh!  I know simple is good in a different way. . .it's faster to create cards and scrapbook layouts and also less expensive because you don't have to buy as many items, but gosh, in my opinion, it haven't been good for the paper crafting industry.  

Thankfully, I still a lot of scrapbook papers, punches, dies and rubber stamps to last me a lifetime!   Anyway, just my thoughts with what is going on in the paper crafting world. 

 Just a brief information about the cards. . . for the first card above, I used Penny Black for the image and Magnolia stamps for the second card.  For both cards, I used retired Stampin Up designer papers. . . which thankfully I have a ton of. 

With this card, I also used Penny Black.  The designer papers are by DCWV which I also have a ton of!  I have a ton of everything. . .I probably can open my own paper crafting store with all the stuff I have.  Anyway, that's it for now.  I'll blog again when I have the time.  Hope you all have a wonderful day!!

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Masculine Cards

Hi Friends!  Gosh, it's been a while since I last blogged.  I'm finally done with my classes and on summer break.  It's nice to have a break from writing papers and studying.  It's been over a decade since I last was in college and it's been hard to get back to studying mode, especially writing papers and such.

I normally don't make masculine cards but I did make a few a while back and wanted to share them.  It's hard not to add a bow on my cards. . . that's primarily the reason why I don't make too many masculine cards because you have to keep it simple.

Distressing the card is a great way to design a masculine card and using baker's twine rather than ribbon.  I don't have too many masculine image but geese flying I guess is a good masculine image.

Black and white with a touch of blue is another way to keeping a card masculine.

This is simple I could get.  LOL!  I did use a ribbon so it satisfied my need to add embellishments to the card.  Copper colored brads are great embellishments for masculine cards.

That's it for today.  Thank you for stopping by my blog.

 
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4.5 x 6.25" Cards

 Hey There!!  It's me again!  I actually have time off today from my school assignments. The week starts all over again but it's a free day for me so I decided to blog something.  The cards I've posted are actually larger cards from the typical A2 card size.  These measure 4.5 x 6.25".  I had a bunch of Stampin Up envelopes that I wanted to use up so I made these larger cards.  I actually prefer it from the A2 (4.25 x 5.5") size cards because there's more room to work with.

I have a lot of "sentiment" stamps that I really would like to work with.  They're too large to use as a sentiment along with large images so I've been trying to incorporate images into the background of the sentiment designs.  Flower images really make for good background images for sentiments.

The fern images in the background are by Stampin Up.

The butterfly images are by Stampin Up as well.

I don't know who makes the rose image for this card.  I used a clear stamp but I threw away the packaging and now I can't remember the brand.  Sometimes clear stamps are difficult to use with markers.  They give that splotchy appearance on the image so I had to fill it in with Copic Markers.  I actually like the effect though.

The image on this card is by Flourishes and the paper is by Stampin Up.  I added dots to the image using iridescent paint.

Anyway, since it's my free day I think I'm going to spend my day making cards.  It'll be a fun day for me.  I hope everyone has a beautiful day!!

Etsy Shop: Inspired & Unscripted

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