Friday, February 7, 2025

Thanks to Eddie and Donna!

Eddie and Donna sent boxes of cards for Karen’s Card Shop. Many, many thanks! Even with their generous donations, we are still in need of sympathy and get well cards, if anyone has some of those to contribute. Otherwise, we should be good for a while.

I am blown over by the generosity of so many of you. I take every opportunity to sing your praises when I get positive feedback about the shop…which is just about every time I’m at church!

Today’s cards showcase some of the embossing folders I bought from Simon Says Stamp during their recent sale. Love these folders so much because they add just the right amount of interest for the white-on-white designs I favor. 














White on white benefits from texture! 

Mercy, grace, peace, and love, 

Susan


Friday, January 31, 2025

Thanks So Much to Pat, Lisa, and Charlotte!

Pat, Lisa, and Charlotte sent cards for Karen’s card shop, and I’m both thrilled and impressed! What kindness and generosity these ladies have shown. I’ve already got them packaged and ready to take to church!


We still need more birthday, sympathy, and thinking of you cards…if you have them to spare and are willing to share!

Today’s card—a masculine birthday card—made me so happy when it came together!


The background stamps are from Simon Says Stamp, the sentiment is from Papertrey, and the row of hearts is from Hero Arts. The dark red and warm gray inks are from Simon Says. I added small gray rhinestones to the dots that appear between the hearts on the border stamp. The result is simple and chic!

That’s all I have to say about stamping at the moment.

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan 





Monday, January 20, 2025

A Birthday Card Emergency

Two weeks ago, I restocked Karen’s Card shop and encountered an emergency! Hardly any birthday cards! How did that happen!

And then I went on a cruise to the Bahamas with my friend and fellow breast cancer survivor Kim, and forgot all about it. 



I can’t remember what alcohol was in that fancy chocolate drink, but it was delicious!

‘80s Dance Party


But then I returned from paradise, restocked the store again, and was reminded how low we are on birthday cards, sympathy cards, and get well cards.

This basket used to be all birthday. 


So I got busy. The first card was made with a Gina K posey set and colored with metallic watercolors. Very shimmery!


The second card was made with a small Hero Arts set from probably 10 years ago. The colors make me so happy!

If you would like to help out with this birthday card emergency—or if you can help with sympathy, get well, and thinking of you cards—shoot me an email at susanraihala at roadrunner dot com. I’ll send you my snail mail address. 

I get so much positive feedback from the shop. People love the cards, and they love having a variety to choose from. My cards generally look like I made them, and that limits the variety. When I tell people who sends the cards—people from all over the U.S.—they are amazed and grateful. And so am I.

If you donate, please remember to leave the insides blank since buyers can’t open the cello bags before buying. Also, I provide the envelopes, so unless you get fancy and stamp coordinating envelopes, don’t worry about sending envelopes. 

And thank you in advance. Stampers are the best!

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan

Friday, January 3, 2025

Happy New Year

The season is almost over, and I pray each one of you reading this little intermittent blog will carry the beauty of the season over into the bleaker months of the new year. 


Back in early November, I was invited to go on a cruise with a friend. Her husband, very much like mine, is an introvert and hates cruising, but my friend, an extrovert, will check the box of her twentieth cruise this time. I was so grateful to be asked, so next week, I’ll be cruising with Carnival for five days in the Bahamas. 

Yay, me! And muchas gracias to Kim and Joe for such a wonderful start to the new year. We will be leaving shortly before a massive winter storm is supposed to hit Ohio. Talk about making spirits bright!

Mercy, grace, peace, love, and sunshine!

Susan

Saturday, December 21, 2024

Christmas Abundance

Well, FOMO may cause us crafters to have supplies in abundance, but Christmas is all about abundance…an abundance of hope, an abundance of peace, an abundance of joy, and an abundance of love. 

Christmas cards, especially handmade cards, are expressions of that abundance. I haven’t been posting, but I have been stamping, and here are some of the cards I’ve made…some inspired by Pinterest.













I pray that your holiday season is filled with the hope, peace, joy, and love that are the whole reason for the season. 

And that you have a little time to be creative for your soul, as well!

Merry Christmas,

Susan



Thursday, December 19, 2024

FOMO and a Card

 Reader Liz asked a question that resonated with me. 

“Your cards are so pretty. I've been resisting by the BetterPress system and this isn't helping. :D Would you recommend this system to someone who suffers from FOMO?”

What a great question! FOMO, or fear of missing out, is a real thing and a real struggle. In a hobby where we mostly collect supplies, where many of us have so much we can’t even keep track or have to develop elaborate organizational systems to manage and store our inventory, SHOULD we keep buying new products so we won’t miss out?

My feelings on this are rather mixed, to say the least. 

On the one hand, I adore my BetterPress and don’t regret buying it. I’ve made some lovely cards with press plates, and the product works GREAT…it’s easy to use and companies are coming out with a plethora of plates for it. 

On the other hand, many of the plates are expensive and HIGHLY determined, meaning there are limited ways of working with them. For instance, the background plates are gorgeous, but what can you do with them? Consider Exhibit A:


This stunning plate from Hero Arts will always turn out the same design. You can change the sentiment, the embellishments, the color of ink, and how much you crop it, but the design doesn’t change. The design invites you to walk through the snowy trees with either stars above or snowflakes falling. Yes, you could crop out just branches or do the whole thing super-subtle as a background, but the design is still highly determined. 

If you’re a lover of all things layered and embellished to an inch thick, this limitation probably doesn’t bother you, but if you love simplicity, you’re sorta limited in what you can do.

And depending on the vendor, costs for plates are, like everything else, pushing upward at an alarming rate, especially if they come with dies.

There are plenty of products I’ve eschewed in favor of buying new inks, stamps, and paper. It’s all a trade-off. Some days, I sit in my craft space and feel overwhelmed by the many choices I have. Other days, I make a bunch of cards in a state of flow which is almost ridiculously calming and joyful. 

When in a state of flow, I’m so grateful for all my varied supplies because I pretty much have everything I need, and I can pick and choose easily. When I’m overwhelmed, I wreck a few sheets of paper, walk away, and wonder if I should sell it all and focus on reading all the books on my to-be-read shelves. Yes, shelves, plural. It’s embarrassing.

So Liz, I just don’t know if FOMO is enough to spend gobs of money on a product…and all the things necessary for using that product. I DO know that weighing the budget, style, and versatility of products is critical. Bottom line…can you realistically afford a product and its accessories AND will you likely use it enough to justify the costs? Let go of fear and make a decision based on logic and reason. 

Or just go buy the stuff because you want it. That’s what I did, and no regrets. 

Hope, Joy, Peace, and Love this Christmas,
Susan

Saturday, October 5, 2024

A Bunch of Thank-You Cards with BetterPress

A few weeks ago, my Aunt Sylvia asked me to make her some thank-you cards. I felt this was the perfect opportunity to get my neglected BetterPress out and play. Woohoo!

Here are a few of the results.






So much fun! The BetterPress paper is thick and soft and oh so touchable, and it takes the impressions of the plates beautifully. I’ve tried using my beloved Papertrey white card stock, but the results are not so good. The butterfly card uses Hero Arts ombre ink in Sylvia’s favorite colors, and it performed well. The background plate cards use Archival inks, and the leaf card uses BetterPress inks.

Overall, I’m glad I bit on the BetterPress and appreciate its ease of use. 

What new product have you used recently that is making you happy?

Mercy, grace, peace, and love,

Susan