Right as Rain - Cardmaking and Scrapbooking with Jean Manis

Penny Black | Autumn Boots

Hello! One of my resolutions this year is to craft more seasonally and to watercolor more often. I’m trying to be intentional about both, using the seasons as a reason to reach for stamps and supplies I already own and giving myself more opportunities to practice watercoloring. This fall card brought those two goals together.

Today, I am sharing a fall-themed watercolored card. For this card, I used the Penny Black Autumn Boots stamp (introduced a few years ago). I stamped the image with Archival Watering Can ink and watercolored it with Tombow markers and Distress inks. After the image dried, I used an A2-size die to cut it. Next, I stamped the image onto masking paper, fussy-cut the masking paper, and covered the image with the mask before adding ink for the ground and sky. The detailed design made the masking more challenging than I expected, and the background was only partly successful. To complete the sky, I added ink with my paintbrush.

The process reminded me that I should first watercolor the background before I watercolor the image.

For the sentiment, I used a newer Penny Black stamp set with a coordinating die, which made adding the sentiment stress-free.

Affiliate links are used when available at no extra cost to you.

A Cozy Fall Card Reimagined

Hello! I revisited a card I made last year, which was created with the Hero Arts Cozy Critters set (offered as a club kit in September 2025). The set is also available at Spellbinders. Since making the original card, I’ve added new supplies to my collection, giving me an opportunity to mix things up and create a different version of the same cozy scene. I replaced the original animal included in the club kit with two critters from the Spellbinders Trailside Trio set. The result is a cozy fall scene with a slightly different personality.

I also used several Taylored Expressions embossing folders (now retired) that I rediscovered while organizing my folders. The Beadboard folder was used for the card background, and the pillows were dry-embossed with the Cable Knit folder. The texture adds interest without competing with the die-cut scene. For the color palette, I chose seasonal shades that give the card a cozy, tucked-in-for-the-season feeling.

I like revisiting a card design this way. Rather than starting from scratch, I can change the focal images, sentiment, textures, or colors and create something that feels new. It is also a good reminder that reorganizing craft supplies can lead to ideas as well as a more functional craft space.

Affiliate links are used when available at no extra cost to you.

Fall Door Die-cut Scene

Hello! A decorated front door is a sign of the change in season. A wreath, a few pumpkins, and scattered leaves can turn an everyday entrance into a welcoming fall display. For this card, I recreated that feeling in a die-cut scene with the now-retired Taylored Expressions Door to Door Collection. The dies in the collection, along with several other TE sets, make it easy to build an entry with fall colors.

When I purchase cardmaking supplies, I’m beginning to look at them through the lens of play value, a term often used when talking about children’s toys. A toy with high play value can be used in many different ways and continues to offer possibilities over time. Given the cost of many cardmaking products, I think it’s worth considering how many different ways a die or stamp set can be used. A door die set with accessory sets can have high play value. The door can be decorated for fall in addition to Halloween, Christmas, spring/Easter, and summer/Fourth of July (to name a few) with additional die sets. In this case, I received the Taylored Expressions Door to Door Collection for design team assignments, so cost wasn’t a consideration. Going forward, looking at supplies through the play value lens can help me decide whether a purchase offers enough creative possibilities to make it worthwhile.

Supply List

Taylored Expressions Dies: Door to Door 2, Door to Door -Molding, Door to Door Summer Décor, Door to Door – Fall, Little Bits – Leaves, Little Bits – Halloween Scene, Little Bits – Fall Harvest

Honey Bee Burlap embossing folder

Taylored Expressions Cardstock: Sweet Basil, Pineapple, Toffee, Poppy Seed, Sweet Potato Pie, Pumpkin, Sugar Cube

Bazzill Candy Buttons cardstock

Organizing My Cardstock

Hello! My cardstock is stored in IKEA magazine files in a closet, where it’s protected from sunlight and fading. I’ve tried multiple ways to organize my cardstock over the years, but I’m finally settling on a system that makes sense for how I actually use it.

The original plan was to organize everything by color hue and shades. In theory, it made perfect sense, but in practice, not so much.

Over the years, I’ve accumulated cardstock from many different companies, including Bazzill, Simon Says Stamp, Stampin’ Up!, Taylored Expressions, Spellbinders, Gina K., Memory Box, Lawn Fawn, and others. I combined all of those papers into one color-based system. It could take a while to find the color I wanted. Furthermore, once I had a pile of cardstock out on my desk, putting it all back where it belonged was a challenge. Shown below is a cart with magazine holders that became a temporary holding place for cardstock after I finished a card, except that “temporary” sometimes turned into a pile waiting to be put away.

When I got the complete line of Spellbinders cardstock, I swatched all of the colors. With the Color Swatch Petal die and Color Swatch Names stamp set from Spellbinders, tailor-made for this purpose, I created a swatch deck. That deck is shown below, along with one from Bazzill that I have owned for a long time.

I put the Spellbinders cardstock into magazine files with dividers labeling the colors. The cardstock is sorted by color to match the swatch deck. Because I was using Spellbinders cardstock regularly on my projects, I had the colors right beside me while I worked and quickly became familiar with the collection. The combination of the swatch deck and the organized cardstock made the system work really well for me. And that’s when I realized that this is the system I want.

Rather than trying to force all of my cardstock into one giant color-sorted collection, I want to create this same kind of system for the other cardstock lines. I plan to organize my cardstock by brand and color. I’ll give each major cardstock line its own section, with the cardstock sorted by color within that system.

Swatch Charts Are Part of the Plan The other part of this project is making swatch charts for the cardstock. When available, I’m using inventory templates and downloadable resources offered by the manufacturers.

One System at a Time I’m not going to try to reorganize everything at once. I plan to prioritize the cardstock systems I use most, organize and swatch those, and then work my way through the others.

I want to create a system that makes it easy for me to:

- - find the cardstock I want
  - see what colors I own
  - easily put away the cardstock
  - reorder cardstock when I need it.

Sometimes organizing isn’t about sticking with the original plan. It’s about paying attention to what isn’t working and changing the system.

Fall Quilt-Inspired Card

Hello! I’m really enjoying letting the season guide my cardmaking right now. For this card, I chose a palette of orange, navy, warm yellow, and off-white. To begin, I used the Taylored Expressions Quilted cutting plate die (now retired) to create a quilt frame from Lawn Fawn Speckled Eggshell cardstock. I love quilts, but I don’t quilt, except with paper!

- I heat-embossed the Penny Black 30-863 Autumn is Calling sentiment on Taylored Expressions Blue Corn cardstock, trimmed it to fit in the center square, and glued it to the back of the frame. I backed the frame with an A2-size panel of the Blue Corn cardstock and added the assembly to a card base.
- Next, I added texture to four cardstock panels (TE Blue Corn, TE Sweet Potato Pie, TE Pineapple, and Lawn Fawn Speckled Eggshell) with the Spellbinders Starshine Background cutting plate.
- Finally, I cut each pierced panel with the quilt die and inlaid the pieces into the frame.
- I finished the card with a die-cut needle and thread (TE Little Bits – Needle & Thread). It seemed like the perfect little detail for the quilt theme.

This is the kind of seasonal crafting I’m enjoying: choosing a few colors that feel like fall, working with the themes of the season, and finding new ways to use the supplies already in my collection. It’s satisfying to shop my craft room and discover that I already have everything I need.