Today marks my one-year anniversary of cardmaking – I’d signed up for some Stampin’ Up! monthly card kits from a local demonstrator 18 months ago but didn’t get a chance to start making any as I had a call my Mum had had a stroke in NZ and was unlikely to survive. My life was turned upside down and I managed to eventually get quarantine accommodation so I could fly to NZ to be by her bedside and spent a few months emptying the family home (my Dad passed away not long before Covid hit). There were also lots of work upheavals as well, so it was the perfect storm emotionally for me and my resilience took a real beating. BUT I started cardmaking as soon as I got back home to Australia as it helped me take my mind off things back home.
It’s amazing how the simple act of learning a new craft and bending your mind into a different direction really helps to feed the soul and take your mind off your worries. It’s been a long difficult road this year, but I’m incredibly blessed to have found this new hobby of mine (my bank manager might disagree, however).
As a long-time cross stitcher as my main hobby, I’ve been used to participating in ‘StitchMaynia’ or similar events where we work on a different stitching project each day throughout the month of May. I’m not really stitching at the moment because cardmaking is still my ‘happy place’, so I’ve decided to do my own version this year and call it ‘CardMaynia’. My aim, all going well, is to create a card (or at least make a start on a card) using a different stamp or die set every day in May. I hope to be able to finally christen some sets I’ve purchased but haven’t touched (and, ahem, there are LOTS), especially some that I bought while I was in NZ doing ‘comfort shopping’.
So, here is my first card for CardMaynia – using one of the first stamp sets I’d ever ordered (from a secondhand Facebook group) … ‘Wetlands’ by Stampin’ Up! (an older retired set). As it was a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator that got me started on my cardmaking journey, I thought it only fitting that it should be the brand I kicked off with today.
