After finding out I was cancer free, I never expected to find myself stuck at home once again! But that is exactly where I am due to the Corona Virus Pandemic.

One of the things I was most looking forward to was our Tropical Themed stamp camp that was supposed to have happened on March 14th, here in Kapolei. On March 13th, we made a decision to postpone the event till May 2nd. We made this decision because of our concern for the safety of our guests and also because we wanted to follow the advise of our local government to practice social distancing. As I made phone calls and sent messages to our 70 guests, I was blown away by their responses. So many of them expressed their gratitude for the postponment and shared that they were particularly worried about me! I was so touched by the outpouring of understanding by these kind crafters who were anxious to attend this fun tropical themed event.

I’m not sure everyone realizes how much work it is to put on a large crafting event? My leadership team and I had worked so hard to prepare. We had everything packed up and ready to go.

We were excited,

and a little tired too, LOL.

I m a firm believer that everything will work out as it is supposed to. In fact, if you look at the cards we are sorting in one of the photos above they say, “The Best Is Yet To Come:”. I truly believe our camp will be EVEN better because of the delay.

This pandemic not only shut down the camp but it also shut down my classes, at least for this month. So, I have been contemplating what to do so that I can continue to share projects and encourage and inspire others. I know I share a lot of stories and project photos on this blog, but that is about it. To be honest even learning how to do blog posts was a big hurdle for me to climb.

So now, in order to find new ways to share projects with you, I have decided it is time for me to get out of my comfort zone. Over the past two days, I sat down and created two stamping videos to share my latest creations.

Can I just say, that this is a huge step for me. So ready or not… here I go.

In order to tell you about the videos, let me back track to tell you a story about one of the projects I mentioned in my in my “Don’t forget to look up” post.

One day, my friend Zeny and I were stamping. We were working on projects for Inspiration Night. When it comes to creating projects, I am fine with making cards. However, when it is a box or 3D item, I always call on Zeny because I know she is great at coming up with those type of projects. Zeny had been over all day and it was late. She lives about 45 minutes away from me and we live on an island so that is considered FAR! Zeny had planned to leave in 15 minutes. We had everything designed except for one more project. Zeny had mentioned that she wanted to come up with a gift card holder for her class. I then said, “Hey, maybe in the next 15 minutes we can come up with an idea that will work for your class and inspiration night”. So the pressure was on to come up with something quick. All of a sudden I hear Zeny say, “Hey, what is this?” She then picks up this tropical looking card off the ground near where I store my card stock. Now, my studio can get messy when I’m creating, but this day things were relatively in order, so it was a surprise that she picked this thing off the ground. The partial card had exposed adhesive on the back, so it is obvious that it has fallen off of some type of base! The project she found was GORGEOUS!!! Guess what else? It was a cool, pop up gift card holder that was PERFECT for what we were looking to do. Zeny could immediately see how the mechanics of the card worked. She got out the coordinating paper that we needed and I got to work designing the front stamped image. In a matter of minutes, we came up with this.

When you pull the tab, the card pops open to reveal a slot where you insert a gift card.

Bonanza Buddies Pop Up Gift Card Holder (inside)

Zeny and I laugh when we think about how strange it was to find this project the way that we did. I am a firm believer, however, that God knows the desires of our hearts and I consider it a miraculous finding that brought both of us so much joy! Within 10 minutes our projects were all done!

When I showed the original tropical project at my inspiration night, I asked, “Does anyone recognize this card”. My friend Norine remembered that it had come from one of our bunco swaps. I then called my friend Tammy and found out that YES, she was the one who had created the project after being inspired by a larger scale project that her friend Anita had made.

So, thanks to the inspiration from these talented women, someone like me, who doesn’t make mechanical cards ventured out of my comfort zone to create this.

This version highlights a punch art hula girl that I created for my swap card for the stamp camp. Figuring out how to use punches to create different images is something I love to do. Making moving or mechanical cards is not something I’m good at. So, I’m very thankful to Zeny for sitting with me and showing me how to make this pop up card step by step.

Here is the inside.

Hula Girl Pop Up Gift Card Holder (inside)

So today’s lesson for me is to not be afraid to move out of my comfort zone. I don’t want to fear taking on projects I would have thought would be impossible for someone like me.

Since I am stuck at home, I decided to take things to the next level. So, I created 2 separate stamping videos. The first shows the steps on making a punch art hula girl. The second shows how to create this hula girl pop up gift card holder.

So, if you are one of those mechanically challenged people like me, why not give this project a try. Trust me, if I can do it, so can you. I hope that you will find the video easy to follow as I put it together step by step. My next project is to learn how to do my downline meetings online and who knows maybe one day soon I’ll take another step out of my comfort zone and try hosting an online class.

So, as we deal with the challenges of this virus, I am thankful for this time to pray and not panic. to not worry but use wisdom and to not hoard but have hope!

I know what it feels like to not be able to breathe, so my prayers go out to anyone affected by this virus. To everyone else, please follow the advise of you local government leaders and stay safe. I am hopeful and believing for the best as I use these circumstances to push me out of my comfort zone and off to the start of something new.

Here are the links to watch the videos:

HULA GIRL PUNCH ART

HULA GIRL POP UP GIFT CARD HOLDER

With lot of love and virtual germ free HUGS!
Cindy

Out of my COMFORT ZONE

Stamped With Aloha

Out of my COMFORT ZONE

Healing Hugs

Don't Forget To Look Up!

Stamped With Aloha