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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Rainy Thursday

It's been raining ALL DAY LONG. So gross. I guess we need the rain though. I just hope it clears out by Saturday so that I can go have fun at yard sales and Crafty Bastards.

I got an Etsy custom order today, all the way from New Zealand! It still boggles my mind that mail somehow finds its way from here to the other side of the WORLD. How does the USPS do that?

Today's card is brought to you by my friend Cristina. All the paper elements, excluding the kraft cardstock, is from the stash of wedding invitation scraps that she gave me a while back. The border was made by using this technique from a Fiskars video that I saw today. I thought it was a great way to get the most use out of a border punch.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Violet, Wisteria
Stamps: Fiskars- Romance (flowers), Fiskars- Sentiments (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Threading Waters border punch
Die: Cuttlebug- Flowers
Foam adhesive: EK Success
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

One-Layer Wednesday #22

I saw that some paper crafters tweeted this blog post today. It's a list of things that the blogger has learned in her 31 years.A lot of them resonated with me, especially #10: Don't allow outside sources to determine your self-esteem. I guess I'm a work-in-progress, just like everyone else.

Random, but funny excerpt from an IM conversation this evening with my sister:
[22:03] me: they are kinda antynoms.
[22:04] me: i can't spell worth s
[22:04] sister: antonyms
[22:04] me: thank you, yes
[22:04] sister: antynoms... hah... do you have food on your mind?
[22:04] sister: nom nom nom

I made two cards tonight! I know. That's kinda rare for a weeknight, but I saw this set of stamps that I hadn't used in a while and idea came to me about how to use them and then I wanted to make the card before the idea floated away. First, the One-Layer Wednesday challenge (#22) focusing on thanking moms. I immediately thought of tea and flowers. My mom loves to drink tea and exercise her green thumb. Since I've been on a flower kick recently, I decided to switch it up by incorporating teacups. I thought it was funny how the 2 teacup stamps that I have are polka dotted. Hello, matchy matchy. The sentiment doesn't relate explicitly to moms, but I thought it was appropriate anyway. Who else is going to put up with my mouthiness and other bad habits? (see paragraph #1).

The other card was inspired by a set of tile stamps. I used this card as an opportunity to use a lot of different colors, some of which I haven't used yet. I thought that a white background would be too boring, so I decided to add the patterned paper to the card base. To ensure that the sentiment would stand out, I used black embossing powder. When in doubt, use the black embossing powder.

In both cases I used Glossy Accents on the hearts for some added dimension and shine.
Card Specs (teacups):
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Dark Peony, French Blue, Rose Coral, Chestnut Roan
Stamp: The Paper Company Studio- Faith Greetings (sentiment), Basic Grey- Cup of Tea (blue teacup, spoon), Studio G (pink teacup), Heidi Grace- Alphas, Reagan's Closet (hearts)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker, Glossy Accents

Card Specs (tiles):
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Dark Peony, French Blue, Chestnut Roan, Warm Violet, Wisteria, Aquamarine, Prussian Blue, Blue Iris, Pink Pastel
Stamp: Heidi Grace- Alphas, Reagan's Closet (hearts), K.I. Memories- Patterns (all tiles), The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Apron Lace border punch
Paper: Die Cuts With a View
Foam adhesive: EK Success, Thermoweb
Other: Glossy Accents

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Patience, Grasshopper

Another almost full-day strategic planning meeting today. I think I was the youngest and lowest ranking staff member there. I dunno what that means. Does it mean that a) all the staff on my level just skipped out or b) the leadership thought I could contribute something intelligent to the conversation? I hope it was option b, even though I talked maybe only once and that was when we broke up into smaller groups. Oh well, at least it was something (and they rewarded us with lunch from Panera).

Whew, after over 3 weeks of not having an Etsy sale, I sold an origami giraffe birthday card. I think it's important to have faith in your products and "just keep swimming" even if the sales don't come in. No, don't lower your prices, thinking that you'd get sales (see short discussion yesterday). You'll just sell yourself short. You did the work to create the card, knit the scarf, mold that clay, etc. You should be rightfully paid for your effort, time, craftsmanship and materials.

I saw one of my spinning buddies at the gym yesterday. She has put the spin classes on hold for the moment because of her pregnancy, but that hasn't stopped her from working out and training with her trainer. I saw her doing some lunges holding a weight up high in one hand, all with a visible baby belly. She's my hero. ::applause::

Spin class was quite a work out today. At the end of class, the instructor asked if anyone wanted one more song. No one said anything and I just shook my head as in "no more." She saw me and said "Ok, Tina wins. I know you worked hard today, Tina. When I put more (resistance) on, I can see Tina cranking away too." Oh, good. So my sweaty effort does not go unnoticed.

On the way home from the gym, I heard this car ZOOMING by, only to be stopped by a red light. Mwah ha ha. Stupidhead. Yeah, you don't feel so super cool now, do YA?

Today's card was inspired by...uhhh, well, what was already on my desk. I had the Basic Grey paper and light blue cardstock die cuts hanging around from over the weekend, and I felt compelled to use them. The flower cut out from the Basic Grey paper wasn't even a full flower, so I positioned it so that it'd be right against the bottom and left side of the card. I also had black die-flowers and I decided to use them because I thought they would be a good dark complement to the pink and blue. I guess my yellow phase is waning, only to be replaced by die-cut flowers.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in French Blue
Stamps: Hero Arts Cling Dots (polka dots), K.I. Memories- Crazy Love (sentiment)
Die: Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Flowers (flower), Cuttlebug- Flowers
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly, Marvy Uchida (jumbo daisy)
Paper: Basic Grey, Martha Stewart
Brad: Recollections- Silver Circles
Foam adhesive: EK Success, Thermoweb

Monday, September 27, 2010

Know Your Worth

At the office today, I participated in a semi-strategic planning meeting on a project that I work on. Usually, I sit quietly until asked for my opinion, but otherwise let the directors hash it out. However, I actually contributed to the conversation this time and felt pretty good about it.

A bonus for participating in a strategic planning meeting today was lunch (I chose the chicken pot pie).

On the Etsy front today, I got a suggestion from a seller to lower my prices. To her credit, she didn't say it maliciously or anything mean like that. I found it actually amusing because people in the past have suggested that I increase my prices. Everyone's entitled to their own opinion. Mine is "Mmmmnope. No freakin' stinkin' way." I respectfully disagree. I think $4.25 is pretty reasonable considering the originality, craftsmanship, and time it took to make the card. You'd probably spend as much on something at Hallmark, and it wouldn't even be handmade. I think it's important to stand your ground on an issue like this because if you don't know how much you're worth, other people will start defining that for you.

::stepping off soapbox now::

I wanted to make an autumn themed card so I incorporated fall-y colors and leaves. I had these black die cut flowers on my desk and they inspired me to create a lattice of them with the fall colors. The lattice panel took forever to a) die-cut and b) adhere. Because the flowers are so thin, it was challenging to glue them on. The first time around, my fingers got all gummy, which transferred to the card base. Blech. I was determined to get the card right! I tried again by using the end of a paperclip to transfer the glue to the paper pieces and that worked a lot better.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment), Inkadinkado- Autumn Foliage (leaf)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Die: Cuttlebug- Flowers
Foam adhesive: EK Success, Thermoweb

Amazingly, the floor of my room is clear of paper crafting items. I'm so proud that I've been able to keep that up for more than 24 hours. :)

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Weekend Wrap-Up + CPS #186

Whew, what a weekend! I didn't really have any set plans when I left work on Friday, but it turned out to be a busy-bee 2 days. Let's review:

Yard sale finds: It's been in the back of my mind to get better organized with my paper crafting items. I've been putting things in cardboard boxes, which works fine, but I don't like the way it looks. On the other hand, I don't want to spend a ton of money to make things look nice and it's not super important to me that everything matches. Thankfully, I was able to find a happy medium with the yard sales this weekend (see picture below).

Organization + rainy weather: Rainy weather always puts me in a cleaning/organizing mood. Trash this, recycle that, consolidate these things, put those things in their rightful place, etc. By the end of a good 1.5 hours, let me show you the result. A part of me would have liked to have taken some before and after pictures, but a) I didn't think of it until halfway through the process and b) I'd be too embarrassed by the clutter.

1. $2 cat statue (yard sale find). I figured it was cute and pink and could go on my craft show display table if there was room. I found a smaller blue version of it, but its expression was weird.
2. $3 3-drawer thing for ribbon, die-cutting related items, and Fiskars border punches (yard sale find)
3. Tool box that my mom gave me last Christmas to put my embellishments in. It used to sit on the floor to the right of the tower. Now it's closer to my work space.
4. 50-cent plastic container for clear stamps (yard sale find). I put most of my scraps either in the last drawer of the white tower or right next to the clear stamp container in old file folders.
5. I was able to organize my cardstock better and move it into the apple box. More room on this shelf means that I could move my paper cutter off the floor.

Now that I had the items in the shelf well organized, I decided to tackle my desk (see second picture). It was still raining at the time, so it's not like I could have gone for a run outside or anything. The pencil holder on my desk ran out of space so I started just leaving stuff out on the surface. Result: clutter. No good. Solution: I grabbed a mug from high school prom that had been sitting on the top shelf of my desk, collecting dust, wiped it down, and this became my paper crafting cup: 1 pencil, Prismacolor colored pencils, scissors, ultra fine Sharpie markers, white gel pen, and corner chomper (1). I KNEW I'd find a use for that mug...almost 10 years later. Hah. I also organized my box of random stuff so that they'd be easier to get to: adhesives and smaller scraps of paper (2). (3) Random thought: what is the point of the corner chomper carrier? Well, I understand what the point is, but I just don't have a use for it because it's not like I'm carrying it anywhere. It came with the tool when I bought it off Ebay. Maybe I can use it to put embellishments in or something.

With all this organizing this weekend...(pause for thought)...crap, I'm turning into my mother. (insert of wail of despair).

Here's my attempt at CPS sketch #186. I'm a little on the fence of this card. I like how the elements fit together, but I don't necessarily like the color scheme that I picked out. I might try this card again in the future, but using a light blue cardstock instead of black when die-cutting the smaller flowers.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in French Blue. StazOn in Jet Black
Stamps: Fiskars- Friendly Flowers (sentiment), Hot Off The Press- Delicate Patterns (text)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8, Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Flowers (flower), Cuttlebug- Flowers
Paper: Basic Grey
Brad: Making Memories- Fresh Anthology
Foam adhesive: EK Success
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots)

Hope y'all have a good start to the work week! :)

Friday, September 24, 2010

Fall-To Layout 109

Whoo hoo, monthly staff breakfast: waffles, sausage, eggs, and potatoes. Nom nom nom.

My mp3 player has recently been having problems with the earphone jack. I can only hear music clearly from the left ear and as the cord jiggles while I run, I can hear from both sometimes. Blah, how annoying. I tried cleaning it out with a Q-tip (advice that I found online), but that didn't solve the problem. I was prepared to shell out $40 (erk!) for a new one or wait to see if I could find a used one on CraigsList, but then I remembered that my uncle gave my mom one. She's not big on music, so I did a delete and replace and whoo hoo, I just saved $40! The better-sounding tunes did make a difference. I decided to go a little longer on my run today, 2.6 instead of 1.7 miles. :D

Awww, man. Final season of Smallville started tonight. I'm going to be sad when it's over. Clark and Oliver are definitely drool-worthy. Ha ha.

Here's my take on the Fall-To Layout this week (#109). I didn't have an extra large border punch so I decide to layer a regular sized one. I just couldn't resist using some gems to give the card some sparkle. I intially wanted to use some red ones, and even though the color is associated with the sentiment, it wouldn't have tied into the rest of the colors of the card.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ice Jade
Stamps: Fiskars- Romance (sentiment)
Punch: Fiskars Threading Waters border punch
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8
Paper: Making Memories- Chloe's Closet
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Caardvarks Clean & Simple Challenge

Ok, 2 weird things that happened today:
  • I went into the bathroom to put my contacts in, reached in the contacts container-thingy. Nothing. Nada. HUH? What gives? I searched around. I even looked down the drain, and they were hanging out in the drain catcher. Gross. Sigh.
  • I went for a run right after I got home from work. I felt motivated because a) I didn't go to the gym yesterday (took a nap instead) and b) I ate a lot at work today. I had to use my Nando's free 1/4 chicken before it expired, and we also had leftover meeting food from Potbelly.
So, guess what. I'm not the only artsy-fartsy person in the family. My sister is the cartoonist for the college newspaper. The comic for this week is below (click for a clearer image). Given that today is the first full day of fall, I thought this would be appropriate to share. Except it doesn't feel like fall at all with the 90+ degree weather we've been having today.
Today's card was inspired by Caardvarks's clean and simple challenge. They were showing off a bunch of Hero Arts Christmas/holiday cards, so I figure I could go with that theme too. I used this as an opportunity to use my new Swiss Dots embossing folder that I got last weekend. I also used the stamping off technique that I used on Tuesday. To make the Noel sentiment stand out majorly, I used black embossing powder. Pow!

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Deep Green
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Christmas Expressions (sentiment), SEI- Winter Song (leaf)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots)
Paper: American Crafts-The Goods Ceremony Paper

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

One-Layer Wednesday #21

One of the guys at the office ordered a set of birthday cards from me. He stopped by later in the afternoon and said "That purple card (pause) was pretty." Aww, what a nice compliment! He asked for another one of those. Suh-weet! I will put it on his tab (yes, like they do at the bar).

This week's one-layer Wednesday (#21) is brought to you by nature. My instinct was to go with leaves given that tomorrow is the first day of fall (buh-bye summer), but I've used leaves in my cards recently. I decided to go with a bird scene instead. After I stamped the bird, owl and vine, it was time to pick a sentiment. ::rummage, rummage:: Ah ha! I found a sentiment that I hadn't used before, but I thought it was perfect for the scene in the card. Perhaps an owl and bird wouldn't be BFFs, but I think they could cohabitate in the woods, right? One can have a creative imagination.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Deep Green, Prussian Blue, Dark Brown, Chestnut Roan, Dark Peony
Stamp: The Paper Company Studio- Whimsical Birds (bird, owl), The Paper Company Studio- Jungle (vine), Fiskars- Girlfriends (sentiment), Heidi Grace Designs- Paradise (flower)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Zebra Sarasa yellow pen

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Tuesday Trigger: Not Your Square Granny Squares

I woke up this morning, and the first site that I checked out was Moxie Fab World. I wanted to see if my card was selected as a Trigger Target, and it was! Suh-weet! That's two times now! The recognition definitely boosts my confidence in my card-making skills. :) Check out the other Trigger Targets here.

If you are interested in purchasing that card, I listed it on my Etsy shop recently.

Funny quote from the office: "This room smells girly."- IT guy. Office roommate: "Well, it's better than a stinky locker room."

Cute thing that I saw today: Little girl with pigtails wearing her karate uniform, carrying a French baguette almost as long as she is tall.

Hooray, the new season of NCIS is off to a good start. Hello, Tony DiNozzo and McGee...how I've missed you. Sometimes the reruns just don't cut it.

The Tuesday Trigger challenge over at Moxie Fab World today was an afghan. Hmm, this one WAS a challenging because first of all, the color scheme isn't something that I'm used to, but that's why it's a challenge, right? I decided to create my own quilt-y pattern by using 2 medallion stamps and the Stamping Off technique to create a lighter image. I didn't want the colors to come off too strong because I wanted to the sentiment stamp to stand out more. I debated between a knot and a bow and then settled with a bow with the ends cut in a V shape. The center of the knot needed something so I dug around for a brad set that I hadn't used in a while. I didn't have a paper piercer that would go through the knot so I cut off the prongs with Tim Holtz scissors (wow, like butta, I'm impressed!) and used glue dots to adhere it to the knot. Next, I stamped the sentiment. I added the faux stitching to tie the card back to the quilt theme and the glossy accents in the centers of the medallions because I thought the card needed more dimension. Ta da!
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Burnt Sienna, Olive Pastel, French Blue, Maroon, Yellow Cadmium, Amber Clay. StazOn in Jet Black.
Stamp: Basic Grey- Medallion (medallions), The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Brad: K&Company- Wild Saffron
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker, Glossy Accents

Hooray for New Dies!

My officemate sent me this cute doggy video today. I hope it makes you smile as much as I did. This is my first time embedding a YouTube video in my blog post. I hope this works!

I watched part of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time last night, thinking that Jake Gyllenhaal was going to make up for the meh movies that I watched earlier in the week. Apparently, eye candy can only go so far (says my sister). I haven't even gotten through half the movie yet, and I'm giving up. His accent's not really believable, and I'm not really digging him with long hair. Womp.

All the pizza casserole that I make yesterday is gone. Courtesy of my dad and my cousin. Boys, tsk.

For today's card, I wanted to use the Cuttlebug dies that I bought over the weekend. These flower dies are so versatile! Change the color of the paper used and you can have a totally different card! I'm so glad that I found them on clearance at A.C.Moore. It really does pay off to roam up and down the aisles a few times and even check out items at the end of them. That's usually where I find the clearance items. Now there's an enabling tip. :)

As you can see, I'm still on my yellow kick.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Ice Jade, Chestnut Roan
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment), Hero Arts Cling Dots (polka dots), Fiskars- Petals From Scratch (leaves)
Die: Cuttlebug- Flowers
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Citrus

Sunday, September 19, 2010

CPS #185

Greetings, folks! I hope that your weekend is ending on a good note. Today, I
  • went to the grocery store
  • gassed up my car
  • went to the hardware store to get some nuts and bolts for my display board (the incompetent online store didn't send me enough. Now, I'm not trying to be mean when I say that they were incompetent. They were. The evidence is here, here, and here.)
  • made another batch of pizza casserole because I needed to use some peppers and mushrooms that were in the fridge
  • took a nap
Oh, before I forget, I watched Monsters vs. Aliens and Revolutionary Road this weekend. RR was very ho-hum. Unhappy couple, living in suburbia. Blah blah. It didn't even have a happy ending. I dunno why I forced myself to watch the whole thing. :P Monsters vs. Aliens was definitely better.

I forgot to mention something that I thought was amusing with Robyn's move-in yesterday. She had one friend from each phase of school: undergrad, Master's, and law school to help her move in. Hooray for a team effort.

After helping Robyn move in yesterday, I wandered over to A.C.Moore. Hey, it was on the way home. I had about $12 left over from the $50 that I won a few weeks back, so I decided to spend it on a Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder (40% off coupon) and a flower Cuttlebug Die set that was on clearance (regular price $17.99, clearance price: 9.00. Mwah ha ha ha!). Ok, really, note to self: NO MORE CRAFT SHOPPING UNTIL YOU MAKE SOME MONEY FROM CRAFT SHOWS. I have to hang on until mid-October. The trick will be to just not go to the stores.

IthinkIcanIthinkIcanIthinkIcanIthinkIcanIthinkIcan.

Today's card was inspired by CPS sketch #185. I was excited to use some of the chipboard elements that Meg gave me for my birthday this year. A good ol' popsicle. I also dug out some buttons that I hadn't used in a while too. I noticed that I've been using a lot of that yellow color lately. I think it's because the bright color really does make for cheerful cards.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment), Hero Arts Cling Dots (polka dots)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Me & My Big Ideas- Chipboard Elements, Ellen Starfish Icons (popsicle)
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Victoria)
Button: Favorite Findings in Ocean
Thread: DMC- ecru

Saturday, September 18, 2010

CPS #184

I decided to skip out on spin class this morning since I went to 1-hour class yesterday and I was going to be helping my friend Robyn move into her new apartment this afternoon. I thought there was going to be some heavy lifting involved, but it turns out that her parents hired movers to do the grunt work and we helped unpack some of the boxes for the apartment. Hooray, another friend in the area!

I had a creative block earlier this week when I was attempting this card sketch (CPS #184). I grew frustrated because there are very many elements to it, but I didn't like the card that I ended up with so I just went to bed. I decided to give it another try today, and I'm so glad that I did because I love this card! It gave me a chance to use the new butterfly punch that I bought yesterday. I wanted the butterflies to be brightly colored so they'd stand out against the kraft cardstock. While rummaging through my scrap pile, I found some yellow and red pieces. Perfect! I stamped a pattern on the yellow paper so that it wouldn't look so boring. Mini glue dots were balled up and placed in the center of the butterfly and their wings were fluffed up to create a 3D look. I was able to use all scraps in this card except for the card base. Hooray for being economical!
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black and Mustard Yellow
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment), Martha Stewart- Patterns (criss-cross)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Paper: American Crafts-Metropolitan, Me & My Big Ideas- Sugarplum, American Crafts-The Goods Ceremony Paper

Friday, September 17, 2010

Fall-To Layout 108

Whooo hooo, day off! I didn't do anything really that special though. Spin class in the morning (I had the bike next to Tuesday night's instructors...it was kinda intimidating), followed by craft stores in the afternoon. I bought another set of Colorbox chalk inks (used 50% off coupon), a container of Prima flowers (40% off), and a Martha Stewart butterfly punch (40% off). I'm excited to use the inks and the punch in cards this weekend. I already used one of the flowers tonight.

I did some more craftshow prep for the rest of the day. I cranked out a few more origami flower cards. I decided to put the flowers on kraft cardstock, but I wanted my sentiments in black. I didn't think the StazOn was going to be dark enough. thinkthinkthink. Ah ha! Black embossing powder. It totally did the trick.

Ok, the Fall-To Layout challenge today (#108) was a real challenge for me, primarily because I don't own any big circle dies. I guess I need to invest in some at some point so that I can do projects like this. I had to be a little creative and use my Spellbinders label die instead. I love how the red flower totally makes a statement in the card.
Card Specs:
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black
Stamp: The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8
Paper: Die Cuts With a View- Citrus (floral)
Brad: Recollections- Silver Circles
Flowers: Prima
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Victoria)

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

One-Layer Wednesday #20

Hooray, more food at the office today. I love it when it's meeting season! Today, I snagged a second breakfast of eggs and turkey sausage. And then for lunch, I grabbed a chunk of the lasagna. Yum! There was also some leftover cake from yesterday, but it got put in the conference room where there was a big meeting going on. I didn't think it'd be a smart move to waltz in there, interrupting the meeting to get some cake. Bummer.

I signed up for another craft fair for the upcoming fall/winter season. I'm excited that they will be coming up soon, but I'm also nervous that I might be in over my head. What if I don't make enough cards to sell? That'd be a huge bummer. Fortunately, I have about a month before my first event so there is still time to prep! :)

Today's One-Layer Wednesday challenge (#20) focused on 3 images and 1 sentiment. I chose some cupcakes (can't remember the last time I used them) and a coordinating "Cupcakes Forever!" stamp that I bought a while ago, but hadn't used at all. Now that I think about it, I dunno why I bought the stamp in the first place, but at the time, I thought it was cute and went very nicely with the equally cute cupcakes. I guess the card could be given to any foodie or anyone that has a sweet tooth. To make the card less bland (aka too white), I did some faux stitching around the edge and dabbed some Glossy Accents to the centers of some of the flowers.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green, Rose Coral, Chestnut Roan
Stamps: Studio G (all)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker
Other: Glossy Accents

Funny thing from work: my boss got a new computer and she tells the IT guy: "My games are gone! Can you put them back?" I guess bosses don't want to work all the time either.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Fall-To Layout 107

Yesterday, 3 of my co-workers and I went to Nando's Peri-Peri for lunch. The restaurant is officially opening tomorrow, but as a promotion, they were giving out free lunches to people. I had a chicken sandwich with fries. The manager gave me a funny face when I said that I wanted it plain because they had some really good sauces. I saw that they had bottles of sauce in another section of the restaurant, so I knew that I could get it on the side. I didn't want to make the wrong choice and have a sandwich dunked in sauce I didn't like. I went with the medium spicy sauce, and it was very yummy. The hot sauce was a little too hot. It made my lips kinda tingly.

I'm eating some raspberries that I picked over the weekend. I HAVE TO make some more of those raspberry chocolate chip muffins tomorrow, so that I can use the fruit up. I feel like raspberries aren't the type of fruit that lasts a while.

Today's card was inspired by clean&simple stamping's Fall-To Layout 107. I was hanging out with my friend Suzie last Friday, so I didn't get around to doing the card until today. I wanted a brightly colored card, so I went with yellow and red cardstock. I had intentions of putting a small strip of colored cardstock right below the dots made by the border punch, but then I changed my mind because I wanted the color focus to be in the center panel, so I went with my white gel pen instead.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Chestnut Roan, Warm Green, Blackberry, Prussian Blue
Stamps: Studio G (butterfly), Fiskars- Friendship Garden (sentiment, flower, vase, stem, leaf)
Paper: Die Cuts With a View
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Threading Waters border punch
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Sunday, September 12, 2010

A Friend-filled, Fall-y Weekend

Hooray, some fun times were had the last few days! Suzie (friend from undergrad) came down to visit from NYC for the weekend. I took a half day on Friday and met up with her at the National Mall and walked around the Natural History Museum and the American History Museum. I really enjoyed the Julia Child exhibit (duh, of course I liked it. It was related to food). We met up with another friend from undergrad for Thai food.

On Saturday morning, we did some hiking at Great Falls, VA. The weather was perfect for outdoor activities. For lunch, we made a chicken, mushroom and pasta alfredo dish...a new recipe from a Clean Eating magazine that Suzie bought on Friday. It was very good! Not heavy like a traditional alfredo dish might be. Meg came over around dinner time, and we ended up going to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner. I got a BLT appetizer salad (I dunno why it was an appetizer size...I think it was more than enough for a dinner portion) and saved room for a slice of the new Reese's Peanut Butter Chocolate Cake cheesecake. Yum! We walked around the mall for a little bit to digest and get some errands done, and then plopped ourselves in front of the TV. Snow White was on and so was Aladdin. Wow, compared to the new Pixar movies, those movies seemed very old school.

Today, the 3 of us went to Larriland Farm to pick red raspberries and tomatoes. Check out our loot below! After lunch, Meg headed back home, and Suzie and I watched the old Parent Trap and baked raspberry chocolate muffins with the fruit that we picked. She read off the ingredients/directions while I put everything together. She mixed and put them in the muffin cups. I'm not very good at mixing; I always end up mixing too much and then the muffins turn out weird. But this time, they were perfect! I think I have enough raspberries to make another batch. BTW, I didn't have any orange juice, so I substituted that for some cherry limeade instead.

For today's card, I've been meaning to use some ribbon scraps that I had around. I picked out some and adhered them to a scrap piece of white cardstock. I used some double stick tape to make sure that everything stayed put and was straight. I added the rhinestones at the last minute because I thought the card needed some bling.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stamp: The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment)

P.S. My sister sent me this cute wedding toast video. ::collective awwww:: :D

Song of the day: "Club Can't Handle Me" - Flo Rida ft. David Guetta

Wednesday, September 8, 2010

One-Layer Wednesday #19

Today's One-Layer Wednesday challenge (#19) was black and white with a spot of color. Hmmm. thinkthinkthink. I immediately reached for my new Hero Arts Cling Dots stamp, but then I remembered that I used it yesterday. Ok, need to branch out a little more. I saw this leaf background stamp that I hadn't used in a while. What goes well with leaves? Umm, bugs. So I dug out a ladybug stamp. It'll be my spot of color against the black leaves. I always thought that black, red, and white was a good go-to color combination. It's ummmm...very Twilight? Ha ha. I thought the lonely ladybug matched the "miss you" sentiment.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, StazOn in Jet Black
Stamps: Inkadinkado- Gardenia (leaves), Fiskars- Friendship Garden (butterfly), The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger: Lipsylicious

Even though I had a 3-day weekend and even though I know it's Tuesday, it still felt like Monday. What gives? At least it's going to be a short week and I have a fun visitor coming to visit this upcoming weekend: Suzie. Fun will ensue.

This week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger challenge was a picture of lipsticks. I love the gorgeous bold, fall-y colors. I came up with this card idea while I was in spin class. Is that horrible? I was actively participating in class and not zoning out, I promise! The points of the lipsticks reminded me of flower petals so I took out a petal from a flower set that I had and created my own flower using ink colors similar to the picture. I added some Glossy Accents to the center of the flower for some dimension and a dew-y look.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Yellow Ochre, Lavender, Dark Peony, Prussian Blue. Bazzinks in Juneberry. StazOn in Jet Black.
Stamp: Autumn Leaves- Build-a-Flower (petals, flower center), Studio G (sentiment, butterfly), Hero Arts Cling Dots (polka dots)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Glossy Accents

Monday, September 6, 2010

CPS #183

Today might as well have been Happy Lazy Day, instead of Happy Labor Day. I woke up with good intentions to go to the 9:30 AM spin class, but fell back asleep. Whoops. I went on a run around this neighborhood instead before dinner to get some exercise in. When I was going up the hill towards the house, I heard a car slowing down behind me. I turned my head and it was my cousin and aunt. "Go, go, Tina!" My family is funny. :)

Here's today's card, inspired by CPS #183. The little lines on the side confused me. What am I supposed to do with that? I kinda just mushed that space together with some kraft tags that were sitting on my desk. Next time, I'll pick a color that matches the left panel more. Maybe red? The kraft, although neutral, kinda brings the color factor down a notch. I think the little elements on the tags tied the everything together in the end.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Stamp: Inkadinkado (letters)
Paper: Die Cuts With a View- Citrus (floral)
Die: Sizzix- Tags, Scallop Combo #2 (tag)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Foam Adhesive: EK Success
Flower: Prima

Song of the day: "Stuck Like Glue" - Sugarland.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Weekend Wrap-Up

I watched a whopping 3 movies this weekend: Salt, Clash of the Titans, and The Switch. I would have to say that The Switch was my favorite of the 3. Angelina Jolie kicked butt in Salt, but I thought the movie ended kind of abruptly. Maybe they are leaving room for a sequel? Clash of the Titans was a pretty exciting movie. The special effects were amazing, Sam what's-his-head is cuuute, and Pegasus was magnificent. I think I enjoyed The Switch the most because of the adorable kid.

I made the pizza casserole again, but this time I added mushrooms and a can of diced tomatoes to make the dish less meat-heavy. I feel like there was more of a balance this time.

Craft fair prep update: I have almost 5 boxes of cards for the upcoming season, and the first one is more than a month away. I definitely feel better knowing that I'm ahead of the game (well, at least compared to where I was at this time last year).

With the extra 50 bucks in my pocket, I did some craft store shopping. I got some kraft cardstock, some new stamp sets (2 $1 ones and 1 full sentiment stamp set), and a Spellbinders die set. For today's card, I strayed from my usual A2 card. I used the largest Spellbinders die in the set and cut two labels. Then I scored one of the cut-outs at the top. This will be the fold of the card...a trick that I learned at Jennifer McGuire's class last week. This will make any shape into a card, given that you have 2 cut-outs of the shape and adhesive to put them together. I cut out some of the green cardstock using the same die for the middle part of the card. I stamped the fruit and sentiment and used Glossy Accents for the lemons (another trick from the classes last week). Ta da!

Lesson learned tonight: Glossy Accents DOES take a while to dry. Leave it alone. I touched the lemons a few times, and messed up the Glossy Accents and had to do them over until I got them just right with no smudges from my fingers.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Yellow Citrus, Warm Red, Tangerine, Olive Pastel
Stamp: Studio G (fruit), The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8
Foam Adhesive: EK Success
Other: Glossy Accents

Whoo hoo, no work tomorrow! :D

Friday, September 3, 2010

Surprise and Fall-To Layout 106

Omigosh, omigosh, omigosh! So, remember the invitation that I submitted to Do It Yourself Invitations? My entry was randomly selected, and I won $50! I have a couple of crafty items in mind to buy. Now it's just a matter of narrowing down the long list! :)

Today's Fall-To Layout (#106) took me longer than I thought it would for some reason. The kraft cardstock piece was either too long or too short. The brad in the center of the flower was not the right color. I couldn't figure out what embellishment I wanted in the lower right corner. Decisions decisions. This card gave me an excuse to use one of the crochet flowers I made a while ago.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Stamp: Fiskars- Petals From Scratch (sentiment)
Brad: American Crafts, Large Brads- Blush
Punches: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Victoria)
Buttons: Favorite Findings in Pink

Song of the day: "Keep on Lovin' You"- Steel Magnolia

Thursday, September 2, 2010

Discovery Channel Hostage Situation Aftermath + OLW #18

Thanks for all the comments on yesterday's blog post about the Discovery Channel hostage situation! Yep, I'm okay. It was just so mind boggling to me that something like that happened so close to me. I was a little nervous about how traffic was going to be on the way to work this morning, but everything was fine. The DC was blocked off, understandably, but most of the police tape had been taken down by late this afternoon. I hope the people who work there can get back to some normalcy very soon. It must have been a traumatic experience for all of them and their families too.

Update on the card display drama. I called them on Monday to see what we could do about getting my money back. I got a response on Tuesday. They told me that I had to send the broken one back. Well, WHICH broken one? The one in the original order or the replacement? They are both broken. What are you going to do with them? Did you hear me? They are broken. I asked for some clarification, but have not gotten a response. Ok, you know what?! (*bleep*) that. I went to Office Depot this afternoon, bought a $4 tube of super glue, and did some plastic surgery (ha ha, get it? Plastic surgery? I know. ::groan::). They aren't in perfect condition, but it's the best that I can do. I just want to put the whole ordeal to rest.

For today's card, I wander over to Simplicity's one-layer Wednesday challenge. It focused on trees. I knew exactly which tree stamp I wanted to use, and with fall approaching soon, I wanted it to be a fall themed card. The Stampamajig really came in handy today. To make sure that the trees were floating, I used a border stamp and used it several times with different colors to make it look like a fall-y ground. Smart, huh? ::pats self on the back::

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Dark Brown, Olive Pastel, Tangerine, Deep Green, Amber Clay. StazOn in Jet Black.
Stamp: Fiskars- Border-A-Plenty (dots), Hampton Art- Terrific Tree (tree), Inkadinkado- Autumn Foliage (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Discovery Channel Hostage Situation

Ohhh, man. It was QUITE a day at the office. I got a front seat to the whole Discovery Channel hostage situation this afternoon. You could begin to hear the sirens at around 1 PM. I was in the conference room, as part of a team interviewing a potential candidate. The interview had to be moved to a different room because of the commotion outside and people chatting about it inside.

After the interview, I went over to a co-worker's window, and there were cops and law enforcement vehicles everywhere...for BLOCKS. I've never seen anything like it. Not even when I worked in DC. Among all the policemen, I saw at least 3 snipers, 2 K9 dogs, and a few armored trucks. It even looked like some of the police had taken over the corner gyro guy's stand and borrowed his stools so they could sit down. At one point, one of the police was tossing another officer some water. One of them signaled "touchdown," which I thought was very immature for the situation at hand. Hello? Everyone's looking at you during this hostage situation. What are you doing, having fun at at time like this?! Anyway, things started to get serious when I saw armored officers go in (SWAT maybe?).

Nothing was really happening for about 3 hours. I was about to pack up and go home when I suddenly saw 2 people run out of the building and heard shots fired. The guy that I could see went down. I didn't see what happened to the other guy. My heart started to race. What if he's dead??? It felt like a movie or TV scene, but oh no...those were real guns and real bullets. About 5 minutes later, I saw the 2 men that ran out of the building escorted away in police vehicles and I heard that the bad guy had been shot. You could tell that the police presence around relaxed just a tiny bit. On the way home, I heard that the bad guy was killed and all the hostages were safe. Whew!

And to think that I was going to go out around 1 PM to find buy some super glue to see if I could repair the damaged card displays. I only stayed in the building because I was called in at the last minute to sit in on the interview. It would have been scary to be outside today!