One-Layer Wednesday #70

Yep, I gave in.

Gave into what, you ask? The Halloween candy? Oh, pish, I did that a long time ago.

I gave into turning on the heat in the house. Blah. I was hoping I could make it to next week to turn it on, but alas, it's just gotten uncomfortable in the house. Meh, I'll pay the money for the heat so that I can be comfortable in my own house.

Oh, yeah, and there's snow in the forecast. Before Halloween. Yep, I know, it's nuts. I hope this doesn't impact the Marine Corps Marathon on Sunday. That would really be unfortunate for Meg since she's running and for the rest of us that are cheering.

Crafty review: In the spirit of efficiency, I bought a rotary cutter to cut the fabric for my kanzashi fabric flower pins. Since I got a 30% off coupon in my email inbox the other day, I figured I could justify the cost. I ended up picking up an OLFA 28mm roatary cutter. I was looking for a Fiskars one since I was familiar with the brand, but they didn't have any at the fabric store that I went to. It works just fine and it definitely sped my fabric cutting process. I wanted to add these fabric flower pins to the inventory that I'm going to be selling this holiday season. I think it's a good idea to offer a variety. Even if one doesn't want to buy a card, perhaps they could be persuaded to buy a pin to accent their winter coat.

RJ: Another purchase that I made today was an automatic feeder. I don't want to keep depending on my parents to feed RJ when I'm gone overnight. I put some food in there already, and the cat promptly wanted to break in. I couldn't be mad at him since I'd probably do the same thing. I put one of my hand weights on the lid to keep it secure overnight. I will be both horrified and amused if he manages to get food out of there by tomorrow morning. Maybe this'll help with the 5:45 AM "I'M HUNGRY" wake up calls.

Card: Here's my take on this week's One-Layer Wednesday challenge #70: using only red and white. I grabbed two different shades of red chalk ink. I wanted the sentiment and accent butterflies to stand out against the flowers, so the darker red really helped with that.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Maroon
Stamps: American Crafts- Herbs (all)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

No Sentiment Card CARDS Magazine Challenge

At the office: We had an Oktoberfest event at work today, complete with beer, bratwurst, sauerkraut, German chocolate cake, cheese and crackers. While many of my colleagues enjoyed the beer and brats, I was very content with my cheese, crackers and cake.

Card: This week's CARDS Magazine challenge focuses on cards without sentiments. Ooo, this one was a toughy for me since I very rarely make a card that doesn't have a specific purpose in mind. I decided to try out the Cosmo Crickets Glubers that I got from ScrapbookSteals.com. They are like giant glue dots, and while they are very sticky, I still used my glue gun to make sure that the fabric flowers didn't unravel.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green
Stamps: Hero Arts- Cling Dots (background)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Rub-ons: American Crafts Rose Accents
Buttons: From Tuesday Morning and Michaels
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Molds from MoldMuse

Today didn't really start off on the right foot. The left side of my neck was killing me, and I thought I could last all day at work, but I ended up going home around lunch time because the pain got so bad. I'm hoping that a full night's sleep and a Salonpas patch will do the trick.

The good thing about today was that my sister and cousin came over to hang out around dinner time. My cousin hadn't seen my new place yet, so I was happy to give him the tour. "Wow, it's so nice! It kinda feels like a hotel." Well, that's because I've only been here for a month. Maybe if you wait a little longer, it'll look more lived-in.

My molds from MoldMuse arrived today so I tested them out tonight with the polymer clay that I purchased at a yard sale last weekend. I picked out 3 types of flower molds - sakura, rose, and mum. The rose and mum are easy to use, but the sakura one is a little more tricky with all the detail. Here are some of the flowers that I baked tonight. I can't wait to get some gloss to put on them and attach earring posts to them for homemade jewelry.

CPS #178

So, remember how I bought these Tim Holtz scissors? They are great! I love them! They definitely lived up to the hype in the craft blogosphere. Here are some highlights.

• I like how they have the cushion-y handles for a comfortable grip.
• I like the serrated edge for smooth and detailed snipping. Cutting out a bazillion panda ears and black eyes out of cardstock last Friday seemed easier with them, compared to using regular scissors.
• I like the non-stick material the shears are made of. I could cut up mini glue dots for today's card without worrying that my scissors were going to get all gummy.
• I like how there's a protective sheath to cover the pointy end when not in use. The end is quite pointy. Definitely not a set of scissors to be running around with, not that you should be running around with scissors anyway.

For cutting wider ribbon, I think I still prefer the pair of Fiskars scissors that I "borrowed" from Mom. The length of the Fiskars shears are longer, so I can snip ribbon in one snip. I can't really do that with the Tim Holtz ones because they are on the short side. I'd have to open and close them at least twice to make it to the other side of the ribbon, and then I risk not having a straight cut. Just my two cents.

I decided to work on CPS sketch #178 earlier in the week, rather than later. I took out the red American Crafts paper that I used in yesterday's card (and come to think of of it, Friday's card too), and used it as the main part of today's card. I also broke out some of the red flower ribbon to use as an accent at the top. In order to get the ribbon to stick to the card, I used my Tim Holtz scissors to cut mini glue dots into smaller pieces and stuck them on the back of the ribbon. I originally used a border punch on the bottom of the red piece, but then I thought the decorative edge would compete with the red ribbon on top, so I covered it with the green strip of cardstock. If I had a white gel pen, I'd do some faux stitching on the brown section. I'll have to invest in one (or a few) soon.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Stamp: Fiskars- Thank You (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Paper: American Crafts- Metropolitan

Anna the spin instructor is on vacation so there was a sub today. It was a tough workout, but it made going to the gym totally worth it tonight. The endorphins really helped get out of a Monday funk.

Happy link: Gives Me Hope (credit: Julie, my sister)

Song of the day: "Simply the Best"- Tina Turner

Lost: Voice

Reward if found.

"How much?" you ask.

Uhhh...

Umm, I have candy! Does 3 gummy bears count? Heh. I ate the majority of the bag yesterday.

Behold the medicinal quality of Tylenol and chocolate. Maybe it's just the Tylenol, but eating chocolate does improve my mood and I am feeling somewhat better today.

Other happy things from today:

• Woke up to a custom order from a previous custom orderer. It makes me feel good to know that the work I did the first time around was good enough to come back. Out of all the Etsy shops out there, she picked mine to do Mother's Day cards. :)
• I bought this print from Etsy today. I needed something to fill the space that my Hello Kitty clock used to be on my wall. The clock died a few weeks ago, and I haven't found a suitable replacement. Hello Kitty cannot be replaced. It's just not possible. I have many clocks I can refer to anyway. Hello? Computer, cell phone, alarm clock in case cell phone doesn't go off, etc. I love that Etsy shop...she's doing a promo until 4/25. Don't miss out!
  
• I won an Ebay auction for a We R Memory Keepers corner chomper the other day, and it was waiting for me when I got home from work today. OMG, yay! I've been wanting to get one for a while now. I wasn't a real fan of the Fiskars 2-in-1 corner punch, but I was tolerating it until I could find a good price for WRMK one. Yeah, I guess this goes against my goal of not spending so much on crafty stuff, but I couldn't pass a good deal up!

Crafty Review: I wanted to test out the WRMK corner chomper with my card tonight. I love it! With the plastic guides, I know when I've lined up the cardstock properly to punch a perfectly rounded corner. I like that the tool has a little space to catch the punched parts (you just gotta remember to empty it out every so often). You also don't have to exert too much pressure to punch through 2 sheets of cardstock. With the Fiskars one, I had to punch each corner individually, hoping that I have everything lined up. With tonight's card, I only had to punch twice and it came out perfectly. Yep, I'm a fan!

For tonight's card, I was inspired by The Little Engine That Could (the little children's book). The card is going to a friend and to make the train a little girly, I made it pink. I used a border punch on some yellow cardstock and adhered it to the card. I stamped some more and drew in smoke with a Sharpie marker. The final step was to round the corners. If I had to do the card again, I would have put the train in the center of the card because I think there's more white space on the right than I would have liked, but oh well. I think it turned out cute anyway.

Card Specs:

Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Prussian Blue, Warm Green, Yellow Ochre, Chestnut Roan, Rouge

Stamp: Inkadinkado (birds), K.I. Memories-It's a Boy (train, dashed line), The Paper Company Studio- Surf's Up (sun), The Paper Company Studio- Whimsy Greetings (sentiment)

Punch: Fiskars- Apron Lace border punch, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Martha Stewart: Fail

Crafty Review: For anyone that's curious about the Martha Stewart circle cutter, don't bother (in my opinion). I saw a video of it online and thought it'd be worth a try. I've been looking for a circle cutter, since I don't have a die cutting machine or a wide variety of circle paper punches. I own a Martha Stewart cupcake punch and I LOVE it, so needless to say, I had high expectations for this tool. Unfortunately, the little bugger didn't cut clean circles for me! I tried moving the cutter slowly. I tried taping down the paper that I was cutting. I tried putting the tool away for a little bit and trying again after 10 minutes. Mmmnope. No luck. Martha Stewart: fail. :( I'll be making a trip back to A.C. Moore tomorrow to return it. The search continues...suggestions are welcome!

I had intentions of going to the mall at noon today, but then I found this card challenge online (Our Crafty Lounge Design Team Sketch Challenge #2) and wanted to get started right away. I ended up going to the mall an hour later. Heh. I realized later on tonight that you had to use Our Crafty Lounge stamps in order to participate. Oops. Yeah, totally didn't do that. It really does help to read the rules, doesn't it? I had fun making the card anyway. I've been dying to find an excuse to use the pretty butterfly that came with one of my birthday gifts (thanks, Meg!). I made the origami flower card tonight because I felt like I hadn't been listing many new things in my Etsy shop recently.Card Specs (butterfly):
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Yellow Citrus
Punches: Fiskars Twist & Flip 2-in-1 corner punch
Stamps: K.I. Memories- Logo Daisy Doodle (flower), Fiskars- Kids Birthday (sentiment)
Paper: My Mind's Eye- Bloom and Grow (green leaf paper)
Embellishment: K&Company-Berry Sweet brads (butterfly)

I went to Barnes and Noble after going to the mall this afternoon and was taking a look at the most recent Stamper's Sampler- Take Ten. I thought to myself, "That'd be so cool if I could get one of my cards published." ::light bulb goes on:: I added "Get a card published" to my goal list this year. :)