Since Spring has yet to be sprung here in Newfoundland, I found myself at a scrapbook retreat last weekend. Many of you are likely to be doing this over the next month. One way to prepare yourself for a crop is to create kits out of your own stash.

Ain’t nobody got time for that.

But kits that are already created for you… I can do that. Gosh, even YOU can do that! I tossed my Hooray It’s Your Day Simply Created kit by Stampin’ Up! as well as my Painted Blooms Designer Series Paper in an organized fashion into my crop bag and off I went. Note that the Painted Blooms DSP was showcased here last month – be sure to check that out if you missed it. Yes, I am still hoping that by playing with flowery paper, a beautiful flower will magically appear on my front lawn from the snow banks or dirty lawn patches. At this point, I’d take seeing a green blade of grass. Or a sun. What’s a sun?

I was feeling this kit right away. Scrapbooking is my main calling, so I grabbed some white cardstock. I grabbed the sunburst mask already provided in the kit and sprayed it onto my page. It’s like a mini ray of sunshine. Naturally, I stuck a photo of my gorgeous self in the centre. I folded a piece of scrap paper and placed it underneath my photo to create a quick and easy place for my journaling tag.

From here, I played around with embellishments from the kit, as well as scraps of paper until I was happy with the layout.

I am very much loving a more simple and clean look lately. As well as the colour yellow… at least in the paper crafting world – my face seems to wash away if I wear yellow.

I wasn’t ready to put away the kit so I thought I’d make a couple cards with the leftovers. It’s a great idea to get into the habit of using the leftovers of your scrapbook page to create a card. It feels great to have very little scraps!

I decided that I needed to use some of the washi tape and tags, which came in the kit. Quickly I created some birthday tags!

Stampin’ Up! announced its retirement list and products are going fast!! Make sure you check it out before all the deals are gone!

I still have two more crops this “Spring”!! I can guarantee you that I will try really hard to create my own kits… but if I don’t, I’ll toss a couple “premade kits.” It’s a never fail… plus scrappy friends always like to share.

Have a great day!!

Cathy Caines, Independent Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator, St. John’s, NL

www.inthecatcave.com

Supplies used are Stampin’ Up! unless otherwise stated: Painted Blooms Specialty Designer Series Paper, Hooray It’s Your Day card kit, Daffodil delight refill ink, Something to Say stamp set, momento ink, 12×12 whisper white cardstock, melon mambo cardstock, Beach House washi tape, rotary date stamp, silver dazzling details, machine stitching