September SOTM #6 & #7 Some Changes Ahead

Ooh, what a cryptic title. ;o) I'll give you more info on the changes in a bit. First, let's see another project with this month's Stamp of the Month--Gorgeous Grunge:

What do you think? I think I've mentioned before that I LOVE sparkly...anything sparkly, so I especially love our Glimmer Paper. You get tons of sparkle with no mess. Doesn't get much better than that, my crafty friends, doesn't get much better than that.

While I was perusing Pinterest for some ideas, I came across these cards and instantly fell in love. I loved the color palettes and the design, but I don't have any star stamps or punches. ;o(. No problem, I could simply switch the stars out for butterflies. This will make the perfect card for a couples' 50th wedding anniversary. The inside says "1 great life."

Ok, so now for the "changes ahead" part. I got to thinking and realized that I really like this Stamp of the Month idea, but there are 2 things I need to change. I realized that if I continue with the Stamp of the MONTH, by the end of the year I will only have focused on 12 stamp sets, and Stampin' Up! has way too many great sets for me to just focus on 12. So, I've decided that I will make it a Stamp of the Week (SOTW). That way I can work my way through 52 sets in a year. (Fun!)

With that in mind, I'm going to go ahead and show you project #7 so we can end Gorgeous Grunge week on a Saturday. This one isn't a card, it's a super cute gift box made with our new Curvy Keepsake Thinlits Dies.

I finally managed to use one of the stamps from this set that isn't a splatter. I embossed the stripey looking one with white after I stamped a splatter in Crumb Cake. I sponged all the edges in Crumb Cake and used an Aqua Painter to pull a little more color onto the cap of the acorn. After I finished this one, I thought it needed just a little pop of color, so I added a bit of ribbon.

What do you think? Which one do you like best? Oh, and don't worry about not getting more ideas to use this set, I'm sure it's going to pop up in coming weeks on other projects. It's just too versatile not to.

The second thing I will need to change is my expectations of my time. I was able to post 6 days in a row this week, but that was only because I already had a couple of cards made to show to you. I also had no cakes to work on, as I mentioned yesterday, and things are a little slower around our house this week. Next week I have a bridal shower to celebrate, a 50th anniversary to attend, and a birthday party for my own daughter. Each of these also means a cake-or 5-for me to make. Busy week means little time for crafting, and even less time on the computer, so while I plan on continuing to highlight a stamp set each week, and then giving away my projects at the end of the week, I will probably not be posting on a daily basis. I hope to still have 6 or 7 projects for you, I may just put a couple of them together on a post to save me a bit of time. Not sure how that will work, but I'm going to do my best to post at least 4 times each week. We'll see how that goes.

Anyway, I have also decided how I'm going to give away my projects. On Saturday, I will ask for you to leave a comment telling me which of the projects you liked best that week. I will then number the comments and randomly draw a number to see who will get the goodies. Sound like fun? Guess what? Today is Saturday so be sure to look back over the last couple of posts and come back here and let me know which of the Gorgeous Grunge projects was your favorite. I will give you till 9pm Monday evening, September 8th to comment.

Well, since I know next week is going to be SUPER busy for me, I think I'll spend the next couple of hours playing with next week's stamp set so I can get a head start and have some great stuff to show you.

Till next time...
God's love and blessings!