Happy Wednesday, Thursday…well it is now FRIDAY and I hope that everyone is have a great week so far! It has been a fun yet busy week with lots of roller coaster rides….

My Dad fell on Mothers Day (well… as he said, I just lost my balance) and took the skin off of his leg and now I am putting a nurse cap on for that and also we had a DEMOLITION DAY to a wall in my teeny tiny Laundry Room….and the work on my craft area has been in full swing…

It was super exciting to see and this will not only make my Laundry bigger…we had a punched a door opening to another wall to give me access to sneak upstairs to my craft area! It had an entrance in from the garage but I thought…wouldn’t it be nice to just walk through…and PRESTO it can work (with a lot of imagination and persistence)

I have learned many lessons from this remodeling thing….PATIENCE and KINDNESS goes a LONG WAY with working together with the people that “really know” what they are doing….most of the time they just look at me and and scratch their head and say….well….IT CAN BE DONE BUT….(it’s that BUT WORD that always makes me a bit nervous)

The reality and moral of the story is….when Dad (John) is away…MOM (me!) and the PUPS (Rosie, Jack and Milo) can play! With me being here during the week…I am getting LOTS accomplished and when John rolls down with the truck and trailer…he just smiles and shakes his head!

It has just been exciting around here but one thing for sure it….it is DUSTY and I had to laugh the other day as someone walked into the house and I turned around and said – “Hi – who are you?” ….now meanwhile he had a mask on and I had a mask on…and he said “I’m the Cable Guy” and with that I busted out laughing as I thought I was in a reality sitcom show!!!

We need to get to the winners of those little pieces of gold to  “us papercrafters”…these are all 1/4″ strips of all of the cardstock that Stampin’ Up! has as remember when I made the “OH SO HANDY CARDSTOCK SWATCHES?”…well these are the leftover pieces from the cuts…and I can remember when I went into the printshop that did all of this massive cutting for me, the guy said….“we kept these for you in case you wanted them and if not we can throw them away for you!”

I thought…throw them away….HECK NO – these are like GOLD….so I am giving (2) of them away but trust me…I have probably about 4 more to give away and I will still have a stockpile for me!

I loved reading the comments and also the emails I received from people about how they have been passing the at home time….for me, I will say at the beginning I went on a Great British Bake Off bing watch as I sat an needlepointed (I have stitched 3 dog collars during this timeframe – getting a jump on Christmas gifts)…and then I also found myself getting hooked on old Andy Griffith Shows, Leave it to Beaver and MASH…

OK STAMPERS…..drum roll…..drum roll…….get ready to push back that chair and do that dance cause if you are JOYCE LODGE and MILLIE CRUM….you will be getting some Happy Mail from me!!!

Heck even if you are not these ladies…stand up and do a big stretch …..turn some music on and do a dance! I do this often but then I catch myself watching the dogs faces and I feel like they are saying, “MOM – what the heck are you doing?”

LET’S HAVE A LESSON ON THE EASE OF ENVELOPES!!!

I have ALWAYS made my envelopes fun…WHY??? easy = My Mom always used to say that it is all about the 1st impressions and the 1st impression does not have to be expensive…it just needs to be genuine.

With that said I thought…I can make the envelope a HAPPY 1st impression for not only the sweet mail person that has to touch the mail…but for the recipient as well!

When Stampin’ Up! had the envelope liner dies I was ALL OVER THEM and when they discontinued them I thought – WHY??? That just seems silly (and I still feel that way) so I never parted with them but I had to develop some alternatives and hence the birth of my envelope love!

I get asked more about this SUPER SIMPLE METHOD than just about anything…and this is how I do it and I never have sticky fingers from the glue (as that just makes me grumpy)

As you have always heard me preach to that Stampin’ Choir…it’s all about the supplies and tools that you have to make this crafting process a fun and rewarding one and this is true for this process!

I believe that we need to have (3) widths of double sided tape. Stampin’ Up! Tear N Tape is a 1/4″ wide and that is great but for years I have also bought my tape in 1/2″ and also 1/8″ width. You can get it on Amazon or go right to the Scor Pal website and see the offerings. It is considerably less than the tear n tape and I always make sure that I have a full back up roll of each as this is a necessity to me!

I used to cut my DSP to 2″ X 6″ widths and then add a 1/4″ strip of complimentary cardstock and when I do this – I use the 1/8″ scor tape and then adhere the DSP with Green Glue…(This would yield 12 envelopes from 1 sheet of 12 X 12 paper!

Now….I have been finding myself cutting the DSP to 1 1/2″ X 6′ and then a 1/2″ strip and also a 1/4″ strip like you will see in the pictures below! Using this cutting method I can get 16 envelopes from 1 sheet of 12 X 12 paper!

When I was doing kits as a Stampin’ Up! Demonstrator I was always thinking about how I can get the most use out of a pack of DSP and also this 1 1/2″ X 6″ method helps even more when you are working with a 6″ X 6″ paper pack!

Below is the final end result and the reason that I like my method is simple – it works for me and also when you hold the envelope you do not see any glue lines and all 3 pieces hold flat/together as 1! I sure hope that this all makes sense to you as I am trying my best to explain!

Below you will see the 3 sizes that I talked about above….the one in the middle is the tear n tape (1/4″) …all of these tapes have the same properties and ease of use….just figure out what you need and tear away! A roll will last you a LONG time but to me, it is just super important to have them on hand!

Below you will see that I put (2) pieces of the 1/2″ width before I add stripe #1 and stripe #2….you might be thinking…..SUSAN, WHY WOULDN’T YOU USE THE 1/2″ & the 1/4″ as that would fit the 2 pieces perfectly….well….YEP IT WOULD ….BUT (there’s that word again)

I like that extra tape to ANCHOR the top of the DSP DOWN (now who likes STICKY FINGERS…not me) and this way it also supports all of the foundation to have a beautiful and professional end product. To the remainder of this naked envelo

STOP and take a deep breath as I know this all sounds like a lot of work but it is not at all….to me, it has simply become part of the process of card making for me!

The Mini Kits that went out this week all had the paper pre cut for them to do this….and all future mini kits that I offer will be the same! I just love ENVELOPE LOVE!

Now to my SECRET WEAPON with Envelope Love….

Again, a firm believer of having the right tools to get the job done…and these scissors below are my “go-to’s” for cutting away the excess after I adhere the DSP….They are Tim Holtz scissors and they have a teflon coating on the inside which makes it a breeze to cut way the excess….and if there is any stickiness from the glue…NO BIGGIE because they are teflon.

You can find them at many of the big stores and also you can use a coupons for them…they come in 3 sizes and I like the largest ones for the job of envelopes as the blades are 9.5″ and you can do a clean sweep at one cut!

Below you can see the flip side and there is a wee bit of excess DSP hanging off…this is great as all you need to do is cut around and presto – DONE!

You can see that I always cut into the envelope…this way I know that the seal from the glue is all the way to the end…a perfect envelope!

Thanks for hanging in there with me…I just get so many people ask me how do I do my envelopes and so many of you do them a super hard way…..(tracing a pattern and then trying to cut it out)….or getting a bunch of glue at the top…

In closing I just had to share a cute picture and story of Rosie…she absolutely ADORES John and she has had a tough transition to him leaving during the week and now that there are “strangers wearing masks”…she is just beside herself with a hole in the wall…she finally was brave enough to put her top paws on it!

The next picture I adore as she is teeny tiny but oh so mighty around her brothers…she is sitting in her bed while she eats…always keeping an eye open for a brother to snitch her food!

I guess you could say that this is BREAKFAST IN BED!

Have a FABULOUS weekend and be safe and make a memory or two! In Maryland they are lifting many restrictions starting at 5 pm tonight…and I hope and pray that people are wise and continue to use good judgement!

I will pop back next week and hopefully make you smile….