My crafty week

This turned out to be a very crafty week!  Monday not so much. I tried to make some cards, but just couldn’t get it going, so instead I worked on my jigsaw puzzle.  Tuesday, though, I knit on my son’s sweater almost all day and made some really good progress; I got about four inches done.  Then Wednesday I worked with the February Crafty Courtyard Happy Mail kit and actually stuck with it all day and used up the entire paper pad, including the cover and the postcard that comes with the kit!  I felt especially virtuous because I dug out the ancient-but-still-very-useful Creative Memories cutting system and Close to My Heart inks.  I made 20 cards (pictures below.)  Then on Thursday, I finished the front of my son’s sweater.  It’s blocking now.

Here are the cards I made with the Crafty Courtyard kit!

The Crafty Courtyard kits come with stamps and coordinating dies.  I used some of the stamps that don’t need a lot of coloring, specifically the envelope stamps.  I stamped them and die cut them, but they had a little white paper showing outside the black lines.  I didn’t like that very much, so I fussy cut the stamped envelopes — very easy because they’re basically straight lines — then used the die to make a shadow.  I like that very much!

old on the left, new on the right

I like the idea of getting a nice surprise in the mail every month, and I love supporting Michelle.  I’m not sure I’ll continue my CC subscription, though, because I don’t like the paper.  It’s different from the paper Pink and Main used to carry.  The new paper comes in a plastic bag and it’s individual papers, not a glued-together paper pad.  That’s not the problem.  The new paper is shiny and thicker than the old paper. I don’t like the feel or the look of it and I don’t like working with it.  The designs and the colors are pretty, though, so we’ll see.

Evelyn