The last official snow day

I'm gonna have to admit something....these snow days have been fun (sort of)!

I'm cursing the fact that it has snowed so much (in fact, it's snowing right now), but it really has forced me to just take a breather and have some fun.  Not being allowed to go to work because of the parking madness also ended up being a blessing in disguise.  Sure it's tough doing things remotely, but I've been able to keep up with most work responsibilities while away.  I'm gonna miss this.

So what was this weekend's source of inspiration.  Well, it's actually a new club that I'm happy to have joined thanks to my friend, Elisa.  Elisa has a friend who sells Stampin Up! products (which are a ton of fun).  Once a month, a group of women get together with this demonstrator to purchase some items and to swap homemade cards!

Each  month has a theme and every one has to bring enough cards to pass around.  January's theme was birthday, and this was the crazy tedious card I created. I never seem to pick an easy route when it comes to scrapbooking, but I just fell in love with a similar card and had to try it out myself.

This month's theme is "Use your stuff", which means that we are supposed to find something that we have and haven't used yet.  If you've been to my house, you know that my scrapbook room has tons of items that have NEVER been used.  I know, I know...such a waste of money, but I'm always confident that I'll have a reason to use it and most of my crafty items are purchased on sale.

Ha!  I love how I try to reason with myself.

Anyway, I had been planning to use up some chipboard, but I realized that I much prefer to use that on scrapbook albums versus cards, so I went back into the abyss of the scrapbook room.  What did I decide to use up - paper!

I had picked up two paper packs from my local Archivers by Deja Views.  I had two 8x8 Butcher Block packs and I decided to use my Eggplant & Moss Block for this task.

I tried not to use anything else, but I did use some Tim Holtz distress ink (my favorites) - Pumice Stone and Dusty Concord.

Since all the cards did not have to be of the same design, I was able to just play with what was available in the Butcher Block.  There were die cuts - alphabets, borders, frames, tags - and paper.  So I pretty much had everything I might need.

I like some of my cards better than others, but isn't that always the case.  Here are just a few pics of some of the everyday cards produced.