CrossFit and Pet Beds

The local animal shelter built a new facility not too long ago, and we've been looking for an excuse to visit it. We'll bring present, perfect! Julie got funding from her volunteering organization to buy enough fabric and foam pads for 15 pet beds. We went to Joann's after CrossFit this morning to pick out fleece fabric in different patterns. The design is basically two sheets of fleece fabric and a foam pad in between. You cut strips around the edges of the foam pad and tie the two panels together, so new sewing involved!

RJ supervised the whole operation, of course.

We got about halfway though the project today before Julie had to go home to get ready to go out with friends. I stayed on the couch and watched CNN. I had no energy to do anything else...so soreee.

CrossFit, Pet Beds, and Valentines

9:30 AM CrossFit, check! Wow, big class today, even though it was a little snowy outside. As an ice breaker, Coach Rel asked everyone in the circle to say their name and one thing they are looking forward to this weekend. It was funny to hear what people chose to share: playing with their pets (riding a horse, walking a dog), going to see Wicked, going to sports games, etc. Julie talked about a crafty project (see below) and I said I was excited about the curry rice that Mom's making for dinner. Hah.

Anyway, I went to all the lift days this week, but I wanted to practice my hang clean form. Maddie said “Nice work!” so I guess I’m getting somewhere! 3 x 5 at 70 lbs.

Partner WOD…Between you and your partner, accumulate the following:
200 wall balls (8 lbs)
100 med ball sit-ups (8 lbs)
50 cal row

We did the exercises bottom to top because it was a big class, and there wasn’t enough room for everyone to do the same thing at once. In the time cap, my sister and I did the cal row, the med ball sit-ups and 140/200 wall balls

Julie and I met up at Joann's around lunch time to look at pricing for fleece and foam pads so we can make no-sew cat and dog beds. The idea is that we'll make them and bring them to the local animal shelter, as an excuse to see the new facility and see the cats and dogs. If there's a stowaway in my purse, oh well! After we parted ways, I went to get a slice of Costco pizza and my free bagel from Panera. Yummm.

For my afternoon activity (since the weather was rather snowy!), I made some Valentine's Day cards. I bought this pack of Valentine’s Day embellishments a while ago, and I wanted to use them as the focal point of some of these cards. I used this previous Valentine's Day card as a reference. I haven’t decided if I’m going to send these out myself to friends or put them in the staff kitchen for coworkers to pick through.

Mom made curry rice for dinner tonight, so of course, I went over for dinner. That's 2 sit-down family dinners this week. That New Year's Resolution is off to a good start! :)

Performance Review

On this year's annual performance review, I received an "exceeded expectations" rating! I was hoping for that because when my teammate left last summer, I took on some extra work on top of the work that I currently do. It was nice to have the hard work pay off.

A celebratory shopping spree was in order, of course:

• New cat mug.  Bah ha, it even looks like RJ. I think he'd have the confidence to rock some pink sunglasses.
• New makeup and make up brushes from Milani and ELF (purchased online, hopefully it'll be shipped out soon!).
• New crafty items: ink pads and liquid pearl pen for Joann's. The ink pads were already 50% off and then I had a coupon for 20% off your entire order (sale and original priced items).
• New underwear from Victoria's Secret. The sales associate gave me one of those tickets that you tear off to reveal a coupon/deal. Mine was for a free full-sized lotion. I've never tried their lotion before, and yikes, they have quite a selection. I didn't want to take forever trying to pick one out, so I went with something safe: vanilla. And now I smell like cake! :)

An Awesome Friday!

It’s been a pretty good day! Let me count the ways…

1. I had a check-in with my boss, and she’s pleased with all the work I’ve done this year and even acknowledged that I took on a lot more work when my teammate left last summer.
2. I checked out a new craft store that opened nearby. I bought a new set of dies, but was most amused by this cat coloring book I saw on the way out. Obviously, it was meant for me. Maybe next time. What was interesting was that the location online didn't have any coupons. I clicked on another location to get their coupon, but the register wouldn't take it. WTH? The manager came over to explain that it was because the location wasn't officially opened yet. She was able to override the error and give me my discount, whew.
3. I baked some chocolate cupcakes to take to my parents’ house tomorrow for their birthday lunch. Of course, I ate one for quality assurance.
4. Ah, freshly laundered sheets are currently in the dryer. I will sleep well tonight!
5. With the weather getting warmer, it’s “no pants” weather inside. Bah ha. What’s the cat gonna care? It’s “no clothes” weather for him all the time, not even a collar.

CrossFit Open Games Workout 16.1 and a New Crafty Project

The day is finally here! The CrossFit Games Open have begun, something the gym has been talking about for months. The workout was released last night so I knew what I was getting myself into. It wasn't really the exercises that I was worried about. It was more the time because 20 minutes is a long time to be going all-out.

 

CrossFit Games Open 16.1 Scaled (AMRAP - Reps)
20-Minute AMRAP of:
25 Ft. Front Rack Walking Lunge, 35#
8 Bar Facing Burpees
25 Ft. Front Rack Walking Lunge, 35#
8 Jumping Pull-ups

I got through 5 complete rounds and tacked on 25 ft walking lunges and 8 burgees, 143 total reps. More fun to follow next week!

A few days ago, Jessie asked me if I would make a bunch of 3D crystal hearts for a project she wants to do with her students and linked a YouTube tutorial in her email for reference.

My first instinct was to say “But that’s not paper! This is totally outside of my comfort zone. Like in another galaxy!“ But I wanted to give it a shot before I said anything. I bought supplies after CrossFit this morning.

After a few hours, I made something resembling a heart! Hey, not too bad for the first day of trying! I will need more practice, but I’m getting somewhere.

Before

After

Crafty Loot

I decided not to go to CrossFit this morning because I wasn't feeling 100% yet. My goal is to make it to Monday morning's class though! My sister said that the coach said "We're missing a (last name) sister..." Yeah, well, I'm sure you don't want what I have.

I slept in a little and then went to the mall with the intention of only getting lunch. But THEN, I went to Joann's to "walk around" (err...we know how those trips go sometimes...) and came out with all these goodies. The die cutting items were 30% off. The colored pencils were on sale too and I had a coupon for the coloring book, which wasn't on sale. The coloring book and pencils are a Christmas present for a friend, so it's not like all of this was for me! (That's supposed to make me feel better).

Oh, and I got some stamps from the post office for this year's Christmas cards. I spent the rest of the evening working on some anniversary cards that worked placed an order for (40 cards, yay!).

Shoulders and Office Card Order

I managed to make my way to 8:30 AM spin class this morning. With the colder weather these days, it's getting more difficult to get out of my warm bed! The guy that usually has the bike next to mine was sitting a bike behind that one. Uh, that's weird because no one was sitting in his usual bike. I asked him what was going on. It turns out that he didn't have his spinning shoes and his usual bike didn't have the straps for regular shoes. Oh. I think it's funny that we all have our own bikes. We're just creatures of habit.

Afterwards, I went to Bed, Bath and Beyond in search for an outdoor doormat, but I didn't find one that I liked. I did find a peacock one that was pretty, but I didn't like enough to buy it. The search continues. I then went next door to Michaels where I got a new stamp. I like that it's not holiday specific so it'll be great for this year's holiday cards.

I went home and...feel asleep.  Heh.  But I did wake up and make my way to the gym to do Crush60, Day 42: Shoulders. This was the last workout for Phase 2. Onward to Phase 3...here we go!

This evening's goal was to do some laundry and work on my coworker's card order. Some cards I already had made because of yesterday's craft fair, but things like "anniversary card- go all out" and "birthday card with Greek columns," I had to put my creative thinking hat on. I hope he likes what I came up with!

Domestic Day Off

Ugh, it's going to be tough to wake up and go to the office tomorrow (I haven't been at my desk since Tuesday last week...).

This morning was spent in the kitchen.  I made a batch of spinach lasagna roll-ups and heated up some dumplings.  Earlier tonight, I did 2 Fitness Blender workouts to balance it all out: "Tank Top Arms Workout - Best Upper Body Workout for Toned Arms, Shoulders & Upper Back" and "Abs, Butt and Thigh HIIT Cardio Workout - Bodyweight Cardio Interval Workout."  My abs are definitely feeling it now, so much so that when I sneezed, ouch.

These are the two embossing folder sets that I bought at Michaels yesterday.  I hope to get some card making done this upcoming weekend. :)

New Craft Purchases

I made it to both spin classes this morning, YAY!  This was to make up for all the dumplings that I ate last night.  After class, I went next door to Giant to pick up a bottle of sesame oil and some ginger so that I could make some dumplings to freeze.  There were some people outside the grocery store collecting food donations.  I bought a few cans of chickpeas to donate.

Exercise (check).  Good deed (check).

I sold 4 cards today in my Etsy shop (it's been kinda quiet there lately).  Interestingly enough, 3 of them were Valentine's Day cards on clearance.  This repeat buyer will have to wait quite a while to use them though.

I bought 2 embossing folders at Joann's yesterday.  They were already on clearance and I was able to use a 55% off one regular priced item competitor's coupon.  I think the one on the left is especially feminine and pretty.  I can't wait to use these in future cards! :)

New Card and Samples from CVS

My goal today was to get a new pair of jeans, so Julie and I went to the mall today and made a beeline for Old Navy since I had a coupon from my email.  I tried 3 pairs and none of them fit right.  Blah.  Oh well.  I didn't walk away empty handed from the mall though because I took care of my Chik-fil-a craving.

After dropping Julie at home, I went to CVS to get some rubbing alcohol and the cashier gave me this bag of beauty samples.  Hooray!

I went to another mall afterwards to get some steps in as well as go to Costco.  Mom got me this really yummy spinach salad from them and I already finished it so I needed to get a refill.  Plus, I needed to get some strawberries and blackberries.  A 2 lb. container of strawberries was $2.99.  I might have to go back to get some more tomorrow.

I went to Joann's because Safeway spit out a 50% off coupon.  I came away with a new Spellbinders die.  For some reason, the coupon didn't work so the cashier had to override it and gave me the coupon back to use for another day.  :)  I figured the decorative vase could be use for a variety of cards: sympathy, birthday, every day, etc.  I, of course, had to use it for a card tonight.

Card Specs:
Paper: Die Cuts with a View
Brads: American Crafts- Mini Jewel Brads in White
Die: Spellbinders- Filigree Vase
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

New Neighborhood Cat, Oreos and Crafty Project

I'm not sure if there's a neighborhood cat bulletin that Harry the Cat put out about the food that Mom leaves out for him, but there was another cat that came by today to eat his food! Harry came by to visit around this time and then slowly sulked away because he was scared of this new cat. He looks very similar to Hans, but his coat isn't striped. If he comes by to visit more often, Mom will have to give him a name.

During my grocery shopping trip this morning, Safeway had these Peppermint Oreos out in the front, first thing you see when you walk into the store.  Ugh, they got me!  The ploy totally worked.  And they are delicious.

My goal today was to find a present for Robyn since we will be celebrating this upcoming week (even though her birthday was yesterday). I remember seeing that her current photoholders in her apartment were getting kind of full, so I decided to make one for her.  This kitty one turned out much better than the one that I made for myself a few years ago.  I got the fabric from Joann's (1 yard was on sale for $2.79).  The canvas was 50% off.  Less than $20 for a useful, homemade gift :)

Fun Filled Friday and Fall-To Layout #247

What a day!

• 9:30 AM 1-hr spin class.  
• Zipped over to my boss's boss's house to water his outdoor plants.  I haven't been since Sunday because Mother Nature has taken care of the watering for me the last few days.
• Staples to recycle 2 ink cartridges.
• Michaels to check out their stamp selection.  I got a bunch of new Studio G stamps.
• Sally's Beauty Supply to check out their 50% off red sticker items.  Came out empty handed.
• Target to pick up some photos that I got printed.  Bought some earrings on clearance.  (Sold 2 stamp sets on Etsy while at Target).
• Goodwill to look around.  Came out empty handed.
• Parents' house to show Mom the pictures I got printed.
• Baja Fresh to get lunch.
• Home for a shower and eat lunch...

**WHEWWW** 

• Post office to mail off the Etsy order that I got while I was in Target.
• Went to another post office because the first one had closed early (blah!).
• ATM...self explanatory.
• Gas station...self explanatory.
• Thrift store to look around.  Came out empty handed.
• Asian grocery store to buy items for tomorrow night's dumpling making session with Robyn and my sister.
• Costco eatery for a very berry sundae.  I had a few bites of Mom's when I went on Friday, but now I wanted one to myself.  The frozen treats at the eatery must be a popular item today because I saw them pouring more frozen yogurt milk into the machine.  The sundae was a great complement to the hot summer day.

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #247.  I have a few birthday cards that I need to make for this month, so I figured I'd make one of them today using one of the stamps that I bought today.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Deep Lagoon, Sour Apple, Yellow Ochre and Charcoal
Stamp: Studio G (bicycle and sentiment), Stampin' Up- Owl Occasions (gifts and party hat)
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost
Washi Tape: Container Store
Card base: Hero Arts Mocha Folded Cards

CVS Beauty Spring 2013 Clearance Finds, Part 2

I can't believe I was able to make it to the 8:30 AM spin class.  The 9:30 AM one was cancelled for the holiday weekend.  I figured that I might as well go since I was already awake.  Afterwards, I ran some errands (Target- got deodorant...a necessary gym item, AC Moore- cardstock that was on sale, and Giant- I needed to restock on Greek yogurt).  The rest of the day was spent cleaning and restocking my card inventory while watching NCIS reruns on TV.  Oh, and the nap on the couch was nice too.

CVS Beauty Spring 2013 Clearance Finds: See Part #1 here.  Here are some more make-up items that I found over the past week at CVS during their Spring clearance sale.  The interesting thing about the CVS locations that I went to was that none of them had clearance stickers.  I guess that's a really good thing because that'd mean that the beauty sections would be less likely to be picked through.  For a list of the items that are on clearance, visit the NouveauCheap blog post.  I think it's nice to try out new colors and makeup but without having to make the financial investment.  I would never feel this adventurous if there wasn't this sale.  No way in heck I'd reach for blue eyeliner at full price.

• Revlon's Super Lustrous Lip Gloss in Pink Pop, Pearl Plum, Coral Reef (75% off). I scanned my CVS card and a $2 off Revlon make up coupon popped out. That meant that one of the glosses came out to a whopping $0.19.
• The Maybelline items were Buy 1, Get 1 50% off.  I scanned the items so they were already marked down 50%.  The cash register wasn't ringing stuff up, but after talking to the sales clerk and showing her the ad, I was able to get the Buy 1, Get 1 50% off the 50% off price.  

Song of the day: "Here's to Never Growing Up"- Avril Lavigne.

Monday, Monday

Weather: It was freakin' 80 degrees today!  How the heck did that happen?  I feel like we went from winter to summer and totally forgot spring.

Weird dreams: I've been having weird dreams at night lately, so between that and RJ being a pain at 3 AM, I haven't been getting restful sleep.  For example, I dreamt last night that our office phone system Lync wasn't working and I was struggling to call into a conference call that I needed to be on.  I was super late and was stressing about that.  I never made it to the call because I woke up.  I was feeling so frazzled and frustrated this morning, so I decided that it'd be a good idea to stay home and focus on crossing off a bunch of things off my to-do list.

Card: Here's a card that I made last night using a new stamp that I got from Michaels.  I went to Michaels last week and found out when I got home that I got a stamp that I already had, ugh!  I went back yesterday to return it and found new stamps to buy.  They were in the clearance section because they were considered Easter stamps...45 cents each.  Yay, good deal!

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in French Blue, Dark Peony
Paper: American Crafts- Peachy Keen
Stamp: CraftSmart (bird/floral), Fiskars- Friendship Garden (heart)
Rub-On: Stampin' Up- Chit Chat (sentiment)
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Goodies from Michaels

While I didn't have luck at Michaels last week, I made up for it today.  I took advantage of the $5 clear stamp sale as well as the Christmas clearance (mwah ha ha).  Using up the gift card that Julie gave me for Christmas also helped.  I got the following items from Michaels and the total came out to a little over $7.  My goal was to get the Hero Arts clear stamp sets "Year Round Sentiments" and "You and Me" because I had seen people talking about them on YouTube.  I was disappointed when I didn't see them in the stamp aisle.  Good thing I checked out the Valentine's Day section because that's where I ended up finding them.  I walked around some more and found the Christmas clearance section and did more damage there.  It's tough to pass up Hero Arts Christmas clear stamp sets for $1.59 when they can be easily $15 regular price.  Too bad I have to wait until this Christmas season to use them.  The wood block stamp was $0.39!  This was another item that I saw on YouTube hauls that I had to have.  I must have taken the last one! I'm not sure about this glimmer spray that I got, but I figured it'd be worth a try for $2 (hah, that's the same excuse that I used for the gelatos that I bought last week).

I also tried some new candy too.  Both packs are yummy, and I would buy them again.

I worked on an Etsy order this afternoon and then later invited my friend Beth over to watch Tangled with me.  I had seen it before and really liked it.  I'll have to find a copy for my DVD collection at some point.

Organizing Craft Fair Items

Ever since I started doing craft fairs, I put all my cards in several cardboard boxes.  While this method has worked, I'm not liking it so much anymore because the boxes are getting kinda beat up and they take up a lot of room in my bedroom closet.  I saw that A.C. Moore was having a sale on under-the-bed storage boxes (3/$10), so I went there tonight to get some and I was able to consolidate a lot.  I even picked up some cute $1 Valentine's Day stamps.

Raccoon Love Card

Nails: The cashier at Staples complimented me on my nails.  Hee hee.  

Crafty Shopping: After watching a few Michaels hauls on YouTube yesterday, I ventured out to 2 of them today to see if I could find goodies for myself.  Being super picky about what I was going to spend money on, I only came out with a 2-pack of metallic Faber-Castell Gelatos.  I don't know what the original price of these are, but I got them on clearance and then I was able to use my 40% off coupon.  The final price was $1.27.  I didn't even use my own money because Julie gave me a Michaels gift card for Christmas.  Truth be told, I had no idea how to use these, but for $1.27, it was worth the risk.

Happy Mail: My friend Suzie sent me this stuffed kitty that she made.  How cute, right?  I think I'm going to name it Pokey...as in Garfield's teddy.  He'll hang out with Ginger on one of my bedroom shelves.  For Christmas, I sent her a bunch of my homemade cards because I know that she, too, likes to send snail mail.  One of the cards that I made came back to me.  I always find that amusing.

Homeowner win: My toilet upstairs has been giving me trouble recently, specifically the flapper.  I replaced it this afternoon (Mom actually had an extra one at home...she is prepared for everything!) and it seems to be doing much better.  Fingers crossed.

Movie fail: I borrowed several DVDs from the library yesterday.  One of them being Drive.  I have to say that Ryan Gosling was a motivating factor, as well as it's 93% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.  I started watching it tonight and got about 2/3 the way through and decided it was too awful to continue.  Gosling appeared wooden.  It was violent (too much for my tastes anyway).  Just plain not interesting.  YAWN.  I think the last time I had this feeling was when I watched Prince of Persia.  Again, the movie was so bad that a) I couldn't finish it and b) a hot actor wasn't enough to save it.

Card: I found some cute TPC Studio chipboard embellishments at Tuesday Morning today.  Each package has a raccoon, bee, and deer, and Tuesday Morning sold them as a bundle of 6 for $4.49!  I decided to use some scraps that were already near my paper trimmer, specifically the metallic red and the negative of a die-cut.

Card Specs:
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox, American Crafts- Hello Sunshine
Stickers: TPC Studio- My Funny Valentine (raccoon), Basic Grey Micro Mono Stickers
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Punch: Martha Stewart Garden Gate border punch
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Fall-To Layout #212

Sick: Ugh, not a good week health wise.  Been feeling a little under the weather lately with a cold.  It's times like these that I'm very thankful that my boss is understanding (she's getting over a cold as well) and the organization has the technology to allow us to work from home easily. 

Shopping: Unfortunately, with being sick, all my crafting mojo has gone out the window.  I didn't feel like working on my craft show inventory or any cards for the sake of creativity.  However, today, we're back to normal.  I even went to Michaels after work today to see what kind of 12 x 12 paper packs they had since they were on sale for $11.99.  While some other goodies were on sale (stamps, ink pads, open stock paper, dies), I came away with 2 huge paper packs - Recollections Bright and Basic and Recollections Mosaic Memories (this paper looks like My Mind's Eye Stella and Rose- and a thing of kraft cardstock.  The Recollections paper works really well for folding origami dresses.  My goal was to find a Bright and Basic back so I dug through the shelves.  The first time around, I came up with nothing.  I even gave up and walking around to the other stacks, but then I came back and physically got on the floor to have easier access to the bottom shelf.  Success!  I must have gotten the last stack!  I noticed that there was a Recollections Christmas stack, but I didn't feel like I HAD to have it.  I had some extra money on my gift card and my total for the three items came out to $22.00 even.  Funny, huh?

Food: I made a batch of chicken marsala this afternoon.  I redeemed myself because the last time I made it, OMG, the chicken was so dry.  Yuck.

Card: Here's my non-craft show inventory related card.  I broke into a My Mind's Eye 6 x 6 paper pad...it's the last one of the four that I bought at TJMaxx recently that I hadn't opened yet.  I used Fall-To Layout #212 as a reference.
Card Specs: 
Ink: Stampin' Up- Early Espresso
Stamp: Stampin' Up- Elementary Elegance (sentiment)
Paper: My Mind's Eye Honey Cake
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner
Stickers: Basic Grey Micro Mono Stickers
Floral stickers: Basic Grey Bloomers- Pyrus collection
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Foody and Shopping-Filled Saturday

Food: I wanted to try a new crock pot recipe today (Recipe #12 of 2012)- chicken cacciatore. I used chicken breasts instead of chicken thighs, but I don't think that made a big difference. I sampled a chunk of chicken and some peppers, yum. I'm sure it'll taste even better over pasta or rice. I also made a batch of Rolo cookies for a barbeque that I am invited to tomorrow. My friend Beth came over to sample. I ate 3 cookies for quality assurance purposes. Heh. She made a comment of how I'd make a great housewife because I keep my place really tidy and I can cook.

Shopping: I really wanted to get out of the house, so of course, I went crafty shopping (3 Tuesday Mornings, 2 Michaels, 1 Marshalls, and 1 AC Moore). I came away with some good deals. Doing some YouTube haul video research ahead of time was helpful.

• Cardstock, 25 sheets of silver, brown, and metallic red. 1 pack of multicolored cardstock page with red, orange, yellow, and green paper
• 2 sets of Tim Holtz embossing folders (total 4 folders). 1 embossing folder from Embossing Essentials (only $2 because I had a 50% off coupon, score!)
• Several stamps
• 1 Martha Stewart Garden Gate border punch

One lady at Tuesday morning had a huge stack of stamps (probably 10-15 of them) and a Tim Holtz embossing folder set that I was looking for. I was lurking to see if she'd drop it and I could snatch it, but unfortunately, she kept her findings close to her.
Card Specs (left):
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Pumpkin Spice. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Fired Brick
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Cupcakes (sentiment)
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Fly a Kite
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Embossing Folder: Tim Holtz- Dot Matrix
Other: Do-Jiggies (yellow flowers)

Card Specs (right):
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal. Versamark chalk ink in Sea Breeze
Stamps: American Crafts- Herbs (feather), Studio G (sentiment)
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Brenda Walton (seal)
Die: QuicKutz- Birds
Other: Liquid Pearl in White Opal, Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Fall-To Layout #165

Yard sale: I didn't have any luck this morning. I was looking to get a clear desk organizer to put on top of my craft table, but the lady wanted $4 for it and I was only willing to pay $3, so I walked away. I think that's the first time in a long time that someone wasn't willing to negotiate with me. Oh well, you can't win all the time. You win, lady. Good luck.

Card: With all the fun stuff that I bought earlier today, it would only make sense that I started using them tonight, right? So, that's what I did! I decided to make a card for Fall-To Layout #165 using some of the stamps that I bought today, and for $1 stamps (well, really, they were 60 cents each), they made good impressions with the ink. You can definitely create cute cards on a budget (at least, I'd like to think so). I couldn't think of what to do about the largest snowflake in the sketch so I took out some of the ribbon that I bought today and tied a bow. I stamped snowflakes on the red cardstock with red ink for a tone-on-tone effect, but I don't think that you can tell in the photo.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal, Warm Red, Ice Jade
Stamp: Studio G (sentiment, large snowflakes), Fiskars- Winter Wonderland (small snowflake)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl