Flashback Friday--Rocking Horses Christmas Cards

I haven't posted a cardmaking how-to in ages! Last year's health problems tanked my energy, and when my energy returned, I faced a new problem--I just couldn't seem to make a card!

I caught up on some Paper Pumpkin kits, but designing my own cards and choosing different colours, stamps and ink seemed to escape me.

How is it possible to have a whole room dedicated to stamping and not...stamp?

Funnily enough, I found my road back from an unlikely source. If you haven't seen the new Simone Biles documentary on Netflix, I highly recommend it. Although I'm not a huge sports fan, I enjoy Netflix's sports documentaries, from The Last Dance to Untold. I've always loved biographies and stories about people overcoming challenges. My challenges seemed so small compared to highly paid, highly talented, and, sometimes, high-flying athletes, but we're all human. Something about Simone Biles' struggle resonated with me. After her case of twisties, she returned to the gym and slowly regained her skills and confidence.

Crafting was my sport. It used to be so easy--what happened?

Perhaps cleaning the craft room would help. I came across many baggies of festive spare parts and bases that had been started. All they needed was the tiniest bit of time and effort to put them together. A sentiment here, some bling there--and voila! I made some cards! The original use for the spare parts long forgotten, I just arranged things until they looked pleasing and committed to gluing them down. Soon I had a stack of Christmas cards and pride in finishing unfinished projects. Are you even crafting if you don't have unfinished projects? 😄

So, here's a little Flashback Friday for one box of spare parts contained coloured rocking horses, stamped and sponged background layers and cut white paper and vellum.

Here's a reminder of the Sunday Sketch I posted last year, using the Rocking Horse set:

I made these pieces in 2023:

• background layer stamped and sponge with Poppy Parade (one Cherry Cobbler is the exception)
• white copy paper and vellum (cut at the same time so the layers matched perfectly)
• rocking horses stamped with Early Espresso on Basic White and Crumbcake cardstock

To complete the project, all I needed to do was add:

• six bases from three 8.5x11" sheets of Cherry Cobbler cardstock
• stamp the white paper and stamp a sentiment with Early Espresso
• punch gold stars from scrap gold paper

Then, to assemble, I:

• attached the Poppy Parade layers to the Cherry Cobbler bases
• placed tear tape on the back of the rocking horses and carefully adhere the vellum layer to the paper layer
• trimmed scrap DSP and cardstock to mount the sentiments
• placed the stars and used metallic ink to dot the vellum layer

It took an afternoon, but the card I envisioned last year is ready for this year. Sometimes breaking a big idea down into the tiniest task helps too.

Christmas tends to get a free pass in my Stampin' Up! collection and you can see why--sometimes you just need those little star stamps from older sets. Finding just the right stamp in my collection for the floor truly felt like a win too.

Maybe I was too caught up in perfect, maybe I just needed to reconnect to the joy in finding something I still do love. It's okay to take breaks and okay to start again--even when life is challenging and doubts loom large. Self-kindness, focus and perseverance can go a long way to reaching a goal, whether it's on the gymnastics floor or the craft room :-)