Inspired By A Postage Stamp

 Have you seen these new postage stamps?  They just came out a couple of weeks ago.  I have always been a fan of Mr. Rogers and rushed to our post office to buy these stamps on the day they were issued.  And it's a good thing that I did because they were sold out within a few short hours!  That means that there are a lot of admirers of Mr Rogers in our town and that makes me happy!

I keep several different kinds of postage stamps on hand.  I often try to match the colors or design of the card I am making to the postage stamp that I will be using. (Just a fun creative exercise for me; I don't expect the recipient to notice!)  So here is the card that I created to go with the Mr Rogers stamp: 

 Obviously there is a lot of red and blue, but notice that I added some touches of gold to match King Friday's crown.  Also, I wanted to use some sentiments that Mr Rogers would.  I looked through all of my stamps to see if I had any that said "I like you" or "You are special".  Surprisingly there weren't any!  But I made some phrases with some of the words from the Thoughtful Banners set that seemed close enough.  

By the way, I copied the design for the card right out of the Annual Catalog.  Whenever I feel stuck in coming up with a design, I open my catalog.  For this card, I knew that I wanted to use the Thoughtful Banners set, so I turned to that page and saw these cards at the bottom:

I liked the middle card the best, so I simply changed out the colors.   This is the very first tip that I shared on this blog!

SIMPLE STAMPING TIP #1 - Copy a design from our catalog.  Modify, if needed, to fit your own style or the supplies that you have on hand.

I have read many things about Mr. Rogers and an interesting thing that I learned is that he constantly was sending out notes of encouragement to family, friends, co-workers, and his many "neighbors".  That is why it seems entirely appropriate that his picture is on a postage stamp.  I hope that you feel inspired to send a card to someone today!

Easter Candy Crate

Today I am sharing an idea to use with the Wood Crate Framelits.  I have made these cute little crates for several other holidays & occasions over the past several months.  These are the perfect size to use as party favors or as just a little something fun to give away.

SIMPLE STAMPING TIP #32 - Use your stamping supplies to create fun holiday decor.

There are many ways of decorating & dressing up these little crates.  For Easter, it seemed natural to make a nest of shredded paper grass and add a handful of chocolate eggs.  

I added some embellishments that I made using the Hello Easter stamp set, from the Occasions Catalog.

  

The circle with the bunny is taped onto a lollipop stick.

The "Hello Spring" fits perfectly on the Duet Banner punch.

Easter is such a festive time of year and it's nice to have little ways like this of adding color (and chocolate) into your celebration!