Shoulder Press PR and Happy Valentine’s Day!

6:30 AM CrossFit, check! Test week, day 2…shoulder press! I got a new 1 rep PR at 70 lbs (+5 lbs from my last PR).  I tried for 75 lbs, but no go. I think I maybe go the bar up to my eyeballs, and then I had to rerack. We’ll try again in the next strength cycle.

WOD, 3 rounds, :40 work/:20 rest and transition
Push-ups (on my knees)
Kettlebell swings (26 lbs)
TTB (Hanging Leg Raises)
Row for calories

Happy Valentine’s Day! I got some Valentine's Day mail last week from my friend Laura's twin boys. Of course, I promptly displayed it in my gallery of kid art in my work cubicle.

Gotta be festive in red!

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! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

9:30 AM spin class, check! I was going to go to the 8:30 AM class, but all the bikes were reserved. That's okay though because the 9:30 AM class is an hour, as opposed to 45 minutes. I needed the longer class to burn off some of what I ate yesterday at the anniversary party! When I put my stuff near my bike, the person who had the bike in front of me for the previous class told me that she was taking an intro CrossFit class this week (not at my box, but another one). She had asked me about CrossFit a few months ago, so I'm glad to hear that she's taking the plunge...at least dipping her toe in the pool.  Ha ha.

There was a new person sitting in the bike next to me. I told her before the class started that she should get a towel. She went through the whole class without water and a towel (?!). Sigh. She also thought the class was going to be only 45 minutes. Oops!

I went to the grocery store next door after class to get some flowers for my aunt and uncle for their anniversary. I thought about buying some for myself, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. (When I went to drop the flowers off later, they happened to be having beef noodle soup for lunch. “Tina, would you like some?” Sure! I'm not going to turn that down!)

I went to another grocery store to get some cake donuts for my sister (ok, and some chocolate iced Bavarian cream ones for myself ), and there was a huge flower display in the front. I had a “F this! Treat yo'self” moment. It’s Valentine’s Day, and my birthday in a few days, why not? So I picked out 2 sets, one dark pink and one yellow. Now they are in a vase in the entryway.

I got cleaned up from the gym after I got home and took a nap with RJ hogging the middle of the bed, as usual. Now I'm waiting for the delivery guy to show up with my Indian food and I'll catch up on the Arrow episode that I missed this past week because I fell sleep on the couch.  Heh.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day Mail

My blogger friend Louise sent me this beautiful Valentine's Day card!  How pretty, right?  :)

Deer Valentine's Day Card

At the office:  My boss is in the office this week. In the middle of our weekly 1-on-1 conversation, someone told us there was pizza in the kitchen.  There was a pregnant pause.  She finally asked me if I wanted to get some.  At the same time, I was thinking "How quickly can this conversation be over so I can get some pizza?"  I enthusiastically said YES!  She laughed, "I know you too well..."

Fun snail mail: Meg, Robyn and I sent Julie a care package, which included several types of gummies, chocolate, homemade brownies, fun soap, and mustache erasers.

Card: Here's the last Valentine related embellishment from the opened package (I've used the bee and raccoon recently).

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal 
Paper: Chatterbox
Stamp: The Paper Company Studio- My Funny Valentine (sentiment)
Stickers: TPC Studio- My Funny Valentine (deer)
Punch: Fiskars Threading Waters border punch, Recollections (heart)
Other: Black Ultra Fine Point Sharpie

Fall-To Layout #223

Spinning: I finally got called out for being at lots of classes lately.  Usually, it's "Tina, where have you been, girl?" and then guilt ensues.  Nope, I've been good!  I also lipsynced to Justin Bieber, but who's really watching, right?

Card: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #223. This bee is the second embellishment from the My Funny Valentine set that the raccoon came from.  I'll have to find a good use for the deer that's left.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Charcoal 
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox
Stamp: The Paper Company Studio- My Funny Valentine (sentiment)
Stickers: TPC Studio- My Funny Valentine (Bee)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Floral Doily Motifs
Punch: Martha Stewart Garden Gate border punch
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen

Tuesday Trigger: Chiclectic

Ok, so I don't have a guy to share Valentine's Day with. Meh, no biggie.

So what does a single girl do on Valentine's Day? Well, THIS single girl celebrated by taking the day off. Well, I mean, I was planning to take the day off to take care of some financial stuff with Dad and it just happened to fall on Valentine's Day. But really, it's a day about love and while most of the focus is on romantic love, I think that loving and taking care of yourself is important too. So how did I do that today? Let me count the ways.

1. Slept in.
2. Read some more of The Hunger Games. I'm about halfway through.
3. Took a long mid-afternoon nap.
4. Responded to work email only once all day.
5. Went to spin class.
6. Watched a new episode of NCIS. At least I have my TV boyfriends.
   
7. Did my nails. French manicure. It got a little banged up while I was making today's card, but who's going to be looking at my nails that closely anyway?

Here's my card for today, using this week's Moxie Fab World's image as inspiration. I never thought to pair hot pink and orange together, but I think it works. Looks kinda modern, right?
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Paper: American Crafts- Metropolitan, Chatterbox, Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost
Stamps: American Crafts- Herbs
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Apron Lace border punch
White Gel Pen: Uni-Ball Signo Broad White Gel Pen
Pearl: Recollections
Flowers: Prima, Recollections
Brad: Tapestry by C.R. Gibson- Ruby Lemonade

Trigger Tuesday: Sweets for the Sweet

I wore my yellow puffy vest, white long sleeve, and black pants to work today. As I stepped into the hallway to go to the kitchen, the IT guy was like "Well, hello, bumblebee." Hardy har har. I wondered how long it'd take for someone to say something like that. It took all about 5 minutes. Do I know my officemates or what?

Here's my take on this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger Challenge (Sweets for the Sweet). Like whoa. Check out all that pink. Ok, so where to begin? Well, when I first looked at the picture, I thought the wrappers looked like the paper rosettes that are all the rage right now. I wanted to put a cream colored heart on top of the rosette to imitate the sweets in the picture. I completed the card with some pink and cream paper accents and of course, some rhinestones for some extra texture.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Rouge. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen, Tattered Rose, and Barn Door
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox, Basic Grey- Bittersweet, American Crafts Specialty Paper in Pearl (pink textured)
Stamp: Inkadinkado (flowers), Fiskars- Romance (sentiment)
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment punch, EK Success Scalloped Circle punch (2 inch), Marvy Uchida (heart)
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb

Song of the day: "Hello World"- Lady Antebellum. Have you seen the music video? It almost made me tear up.

Productive Monday

As part of my professional development, I told my boss that I wanted to take a class in non-profit budget and finance basics. The class was today, and I thought it was really informative. What I thought was alien language at the beginning of the day actually started to make sense towards the end.

I reloaded my ATG gun all by myself today. Go me! Julie did it for me at the beginning of the month, so I had to read the instructions (thank goodness I kept them) and was good to go. For tonight's card, I wanted to use this bunny stamp that I bought last year, but had yet to use. I paperpieced the heart, leaf, and pot to add some color to the image. To add some visual interest and texture to the card, I heat embossed the heart and popped it up on a foam square.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird and Chestnut Roan
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox
Stamp: Inkadinkado (all)
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment punch
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Swiss Dots)
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb

CPS #202

Julie went back to school this morning. The second the car drove out of the driveway, Ginger went up to Julie's room. I wonder what she's thinking in this picture.

• "Wahhh, Julie's gone. Cry cry cry."
• "Mwah ha ha, the bed is all mine. Mine mine mine!"
• "I'm hungry."

For this week's CPS sketch (#202), I wanted to use up some of the origami heart/postage stamp embellishments that I didn't end up using yesterday.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Paper: American Crafts- Dear Lizzy (pink), American Crafts- Letterbox (blue), Die Cuts with a View (hearts)
Stamp: Studio G
Punch: Fiskars Threading Waters border punch
Die: Cuttlebug

Martha Inspired

I was inspired by some Martha Stewart paper that I had seen in some scrapbook hauls today. I had yet to use the postage stamp-like die that came with my Cuttlebug, so I used it to cut some cream cardstock scraps that my friend Cristina gave me a while back. I cut 4 pieces out, folded some origami hearts, and adhered them to the cardstock pieces. And then I adhered them to the cardbase, stamped a sentiment and glued on some rhinestones for some sparkle. Ta da!

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Paper: Die Cuts with a View
Stamp: Studio G
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Die: Cuttlebug

In other news, I was THIS close to not being able to attend spin class this morning. Fortunately, some people who had called to reserve their spot didn't come to class.

And my sister made some yummy lasagna this afternoon. I will fess up. My contribution to the culinary delight was opening the aluminum cans.

Fall-To Layout #122

I received my very first issue of Paper Crafts magazine (January/February 2011 issue) in the mail today. One of these days, I hope that one of my cards is featured in it! It's nice to have goals, right? :)

Here's my take on clean&simple's card Fall-To Layout card challenge #122. The card design is intended to be long lengthwise, so either 3.5 x 6 inches or 4 x 6 inches. However, with those dimensions, it's difficult to find an envelope that size. Maybe a #10 envelope? I'm not sure. Therefore, I went with 3 x 5.5 inches. That way, this card will still fit inside an A2 envelope. I was having a difficult time deciding what to do with the embellishments. I wanted them to be the same shade of red as the border punch. I didn't have any Prima flowers that'd match, but I did have some cherry blossom paper punches. For a final touch, I added some rhinestones for some visual interest. I totally loving the red/pink/chocolate brown color combination.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch
Stamps: Fiskars- Romance (sentiment)
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox, American Crafts- A La Carte

Commitment

Inbox (1)

(Hooray, new email!)

Subject line: "what races are you doing?"

Uh oh. Busted. But in a good way! Knowing that someone read my New Year's Resolutions blog post (hi, L!) and specifically mentioned those running-related goals makes me even more committed to see them through. Would I sound wimpy if I told you that they make me nervous? I guess this is why "easy peasy" is not in the definition of "challenge."

After a week break from going to the gym, I was ready and eager to go to spin class tonight. I really welcomed the good workout. I was kinda surprised that there weren't more people there, given that many people probably had "work out more" on their New Year's Resolutions list.

I came up with this card when I was in spin class (I was paying attention to the workout, I promise). It's kinda like a word-find puzzle, except I already found the words for you. I wasn't sure about what I was going do do with the bottom half of the card when I was stamping the letters, but when I got a slight red smudge on it, I decided to cover it up with some red/white paper and tack on a black cardstock punched border. I think the card still turned out pretty. :)

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird and Warm Red
Stamp: Inkadinkado (alphabet), Fiskars- Friendship Flowers (heart)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Apron Lace border punch
Paper: American Crafts- Metropolitan
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

My computer thinks it's still Christmas season. I've heard several of the Vince Guaraldi Christmas music from the Peanuts TV show. Oh well. It's soothing.

New Year's Resolutions

Woot, happy new year! The family (+ Robyn) dinner last night was fantastic. We had a huge Chinese food dinner at a restaurant. My favorite dishes were the shrimp/crab ball and some tofu with this egg/crab/veggie sauce. I don't think the descriptions make the dishes sound that great, but I promise they were yummy. After dinner, we all went to my uncle's house and played cards and watched Over the Hedge until the ball dropped. The picture on the right is some of us (not everyone could fit in the frame) watching the ball drop in NYC.

Time for New Year's Resolutions. Let's revisit the ones that I posed last year and see how I did.

• Keep up with my blog and Etsy shop every day through promotion, posting, or listing. Check. This wasn't too hard. Even though keeping up with a handwritten journal was tough for me growing up, with the help of technology and my fast typing abilities, maintaining this blog wasn't a challenge at all. As for my Etsy shop, with the new shop tools, it's so much easier to manipulate shop settings and edit listings.
  
• Take a picture every day (Project 365). Err...this one didn't really go as planned. I thought I'd be able to take a non-card related picture every day, but my life's not that interesting. Maybe I need to make an effort to find the extraordinary in the ordinary.
  
• Maintain a healthy lifestyle (physically and emotionally) by continuing to attend spin class, not giving into my sweet tooth as much, and not taking b.s. from anyone. This one was also half and half. Spin class was a joy to go to this year, and I did somewhat pick running back up. However, I gave into my sweet tooth just as often.
  
• Partake in more random acts of kindness. I didn't really keep track of these. Is it still a random act of kindness if you already know the person? Are baking cookies and sending cards to people considered random acts of kindness?
  
• Learn a new craft. (Any suggestions? I'm leaning towards scrapbooking or crocheting.) I did pretty well with this. I learned more about scrapbooking through The Paperclipping Roundtable, but I only did one layout. And I didn't even get to share it because my camera ran out of battery power. I did try my hand at crocheting and sewing. I think I'll always be a paper crafter at heart, but I can't wait to explore making those fabric flowers further.
  
• Track my financial spending better by keeping receipts and entering data into MS Excel. I get an A+ with this one. I have a spreadsheet that has all my purchases itemized with different tabs on the bottom for each month of the year.
  
• Take a chill pill more often (a sister-submitted suggestion ::eye roll::). Hmmm. I dunno about this one. I'll let the people that know me better decide on this one. I probably freaked out as I normally do.

2011 Resolutions

• Repeats from last year: Keep up with my blog and Etsy shop every day through promotion, posting, or listing. Track my financial spending better by keeping receipts and entering data into MS Excel.
• Reach 625 Etsy sales by January 1, 2012. I'm currently at 485 sales.
  
• Complete a 8K in March 2011 without walking. I did this race in 2008, and my time was 54:22.
  
• Complete a 10K in April 2011 without walking. I also did this race in 2008, and my time was 75:55. It was a huge challenge for me because I hadn't trained very well for this race, and my knee was in a lot of pain during the last mile of the race. I want to do better this year.
  
• Continue to go to spin class, run more, and incorporate weigh lifting into workouts more often.
• Leave the nest. This is going to be tough as I have never lived by myself before. I guess it's time to grow up a little.
  
• Teach a class on origami. Hopefully this'll help me with my fear of public speaking.
  
• Increase my professional contributions at work and work towards a promotion.
  

I think that list will keep me busy in 2011. What do you think? Are there any goals that you have in 2011?

Here are 2 pictures that I want to share with you today. The first one is a squirrel that stopped by who had no tail! There wasn't even a stubby one! So weird. He seemed to be functioning find without it, but I dunno if he's able to climb across telephone wires and stuff like that. And then I also made a Valentine's Day card using the elephant origami model that I learned a few days ago.
Hope you all have a healthy and prosperous New Year! Let's do it.

Lunch With Steph

I was able to catch up with one of my bestest friends, someone that I've know since I was in grade school, Steph. She moved out west a few years ago, and we keep in touch pretty frequently via phone calls. She was in town for the holidays, and I was happy to be able to meet with her over lunch at TGIFriday's and catch up in person!

Besides lunch with Steph, because the restaurant was inside a mall, I was able to exchange my new running vest for a larger size and benefit on some of the end-of-the-year sales that the stores were having. The mall was packed! Perhaps this is a positive sign that the economy is doing better and people have money to spend?

Before heading out to lunch today, I made this valentine to post in my Etsy shop. Can you tell what it is? It's supposed to be a Scottish Terrier. I love how the jiggly eye adds a whimsical touch to the card.

Fall-To Layout #121

Well, I don't have a list of all the things that I did today.

Mainly because that list would be embarrassingly short. There would be a big block in the middle that said VERY LONG NAP.

However, I did make it to 8:15 AM spin class. That was my big accomplishment for the day. This was my first time that I had this particular instructor. She encouraged us to do some arm exercises in the routine today. Ummm, ok. But this spin class. Aren't we supposed to focus on our LEGS? I dunno. I tried it, but then decided to just focus on my legs and the bike resistance. Also, the lady kept the door to the spin room closed. Not smart. If I was a chicken egg, I would have hatched. It was THAT hot. At least I got my workout in for the day. The gym was giving away trial sizes of Burt's Bees lotion...how cute is the packaging (see picture below)!

The Digital Story of the Nativity...have you seen this? It made me smile.
This coin stop-motion video was cool too.

What a difference a day makes! Someone really wanted the pumpkin seeds in the pumpkin that we left outside. There's like nothing left but shells. See picture below.

My goal today was to figure out this origami crane/heart model. I had tried it a few months ago and it just wasn't working out. But I tried it again today in the spirit of trying out some new card ideas for Valentine's Day and I was able to do it after a few tries. Yay! I incorporated it into my card for Fall-To Layout #121, since I fell asleep early on Friday night without doing it. I wanted the colors of the other elements of the card to be a little muted so that the origami crane/heart would stand out more...like BAM!

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Martha Stewart- Doily Lace
Stamps: Fiskars- Romance (sentiment)
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

One last thing. Ben from BenDoesLife will be on the cover of Runner's World in April 2011. SO. COOL.

Casual Friday wear at the office tomorrow, through the rest of the year. Woot!

CPS #197

It's time for another office used computer raffle. Did I win, you ask? No. (Wah.) BUT just like this past summer, someone won on their first day! What is UP with that? I really think they need to change the rules on that. You should have to get through your probationary period of 3 months before becoming eligible to enter. BAH! A good thing that happened was that my boss won a computer. And since she's based in another state, I put her business card into the box for the drawing. Maybe I gave her card good vibes. Only those good vibes didn't transfer to my own business card...

Another thing that happened at the office was...when I was chatting with a coworker in his office, I saw the receptionist walk by with something in her hands. She backtracked and showed me what it was. OMG. More red velvet cupcakes? Yes, please! We both leaped out of our seats and followed her into the kitchen. She brought in some a few days ago for us to taste test for her. They were a little dry (she said so herself, so I didn't have to feel bad about giving her that same feedback too), but the ones today were much improved. I'm a fan.

Today was our first day of legitimate snow. I say legitimate in the sense that the roads got messy and shoveling had to be done. Since I wasn't planning to go to spin class because of the awful road conditions, I decided to shovel out our driveway (well, not the whole thing, just enough to get Dad's car in), our sidewalk, my neighbor's sidewalk (she opened the door with her kids by her side, "THANK YOUUUU!"), and my cousin's driveway and sidewalk. Yep, I got my workout in for today! Tomorrow's commute should be interesting. Hey, maybe there won't be a commute. If the roads are bad enough, I'll just camp out at home. Thank you, telework gods.

For the today's card, I wanted to try something different: heat embossing a background stamp on top of patterned paper. I usually think that patterned paper can stand alone because the papers I pick are often colorful or bold, but I'm going to think outside my box today. I heat embossed a cherry blossom pattern on top of a pick piece of leaf patterned paper. Hello, heat gun. How I've missed you. I think the card today could be used as a valentine for those that don't like the traditional red, pink and white. Anyway, here's my attempt at CPS #197.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment), Fiskars- Asian Inspired (cherry blossoms)
Paper: Die Cuts With a View
Flowers: Prima
Brad: Making Memories Brad Value Pack- Chelsea's Place collection
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb

The Weather is Snowy Outside, Crafty Inside

Hey, folks! Hope your weekend has gotten off to a good start. Mine started with the cell phone alarm going off and the internal dilemma of whether or not to go to spin class. I figured, ok, I'm already up. I might as well go be productive. I got to the gym, and *gasp* someone took my bike! I mean, I know that anyone can sit anywhere, but I felt like back in school, there was that unspoken rule about how the seat you sit in the first day of class is the seat you sit in for the rest of the semester. It's possible that "my" bike was her bike too. Oh well. I ended up taking the bike one seat up.

Afterwards, I went to the post office to mail off an Etsy order. The post office is located within a mall, and they were doing some sort of summer camp expo. Lots of booths were set up with information and goodies to encourage kids (and parents) to stop by. I found it funny how they were focusing on summer camp, and it's been snowing all day. Summer seems like a long way from now!

It's been snowing all day long. It started around 9 or 10 AM, and I think it's still going on (granted it's probably slowed down some). I thought the weather forecast was 2-4 inches, but I think we're approaching 6-7 inches. The road outside isn't looking too safe.

Although I was cooped up inside, I was productive today. Made a few cards, took a nap with the cat, and did laundry. Yep, super fun. Here's Ginger, who already had a head start on the nap this afternoon. I used this as my Project 365 photo today.

On to today's cards. Yep, plural. As in more than one.

Card #1. I really wanted to use a rub-on for this card. I started rubbing the flower on, and I noticed that the little flower offshoot was scratched and unsightly. Internal thoughts: "Oh, *beep*. Noooo. Ok, do not panic. I can make this work." I ended up cutting the bad part off, preserving the main flower. Whew, crisis averted. I don't like how the ribbon frayed slightly where I cut it, but I guess that's normal for that type of mesh (?) ribbon.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Stamp: Studio G (sentiment)
Punches: Fiskars Twist & Flip 2-in-1 corner punch and Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Ribbon: Wired Edge Ribbon from Michaels
Rub-on: American Crafts, Mini Marks, Accents, Book Three

Card #2. I dug out my watercolor crayons that I haven't used in forever and used them with this flower stamp from Inkadinkado. I had no idea what to do with the space on the bottom left. I guess that's what happens when you kinda make a card without a real plan. Heh. I decided to fill it with a ribbon bow, but I don't know if all the aspects of the card flow together. I thought I'd share anyway.

Card Specs:
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black
Stamps: All Inkadinkado
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch and EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch)
Ribbon: From Michaels
Watercolor crayons: Staedtler

Song of the day: "Cowboy Casanova"- Carrie Underwood. Heard this at spin this morning.

Spinning Surprise

I'm currently watching The Real Housewives of Orange County (It's a guilty pleasure, what can I say?) and eating the PBJ that I originally packed for lunch. Why didn't I eat it at lunch at the office today? Because I ate a bunch of committee meeting leftover food: egg breakfast sandwich in the morning and chicken parmesan at lunchtime. The PBJ still tastes fine and I don't want to waste perfectly fine food.

I went to spin class tonight and instead of the regular 45 minute class, a few people requested going for an hour. Thursday classes are really heavy on the sprinting, so I definitely got a workout in. Break tomorrow. Maybe I'll go on Saturday morning. We'll see.

On to today's card. I broke out this heart stamp from Studio G; I don't remember the last time I used it. I stamped it a few times on white cardstock with Versamark and heat embossed some pink glitter powder. I don't think I'll be using this glitter stuff very often because it has a tendency to get over everything. I staggered the heart image and was left with some holes. I looked around for embellishments that would fill that space. I thought of rhinestones, but the glitter was already sparkly. I saw the buttons that I bought a few weekends ago...perfect! Sorry it's difficult to see the glittery goodness in the picture.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Ranger Embossing Glitter in Pink
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red
Stamps: All Studio G
Punches: Fiskars Twist & Flip 2-in-1 corner punch
Foam adhesive: Making Memories
Buttons: Favorite Findings in Pink

Happy One Month Birthday, Blog!

My blog turned one month old yesterday! I promise that I won't be acknowledging every teeny weeny milestone, but I figured that making it to the one month mark was a big milestone for me. The major difference that I've seen in myself during this month of blogging is that I've been incorporating a lot of more stamping in my work and branching out into using card sketches. As much as I love origami and putting it on my cards, it's something that I'm comfortable with and I don't think I can really grow with my cardmaking if I just stick with what I'm comfortable with.

Thanks to all the blog followers! I hope that you continue to stop by and that I continue to keep things interesting.

I made it to spinning tonight, third night in a row. I couldn't miss Janice's class. The girl on the bike next to me had just run on the treadmill (she's training for a marathon) AND she made it to spin class. Wow, go her! We were both surprised to see the other person because of the recent workouts. I also told the gym manager that I loved the gym bag that I won during a recent raffle. It's amazing how much stuff fits in there. It's almost like a bag that Mary Poppins would have. What's wrong with showing a little extra gratitude, right? I'm taking a break from spinning tomorrow and you know that that means. Yep, more time for crafting! :D

I spent some time tonight remaking some of the Valentine's Day cards that sold recently in my Etsy shop, but I finished off my crafting for tonight with this "hugs and kisses" card. I suppose it could be in Valentine's Day territory, but not explicitly. Anyway, prior to making this card, I looked through some card sketches briefly. But then I figured I could challenge myself by going with the flow. I dug out a stamp set that I bought a few weekends ago and decided to use those circle images as the focus of the card. I used the foam adhesives to add some interest to the card since I didn't want it to look too flat.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan and Warm Red
Stamps: All from Studio G
Punches: Fiskars Twist & Flip 2-in-1 corner punch and Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Foam adhesive: Making Memories
Ribbon: "Damask Steel" from Michaels

Song of the day: "Knock on Wood" - Amii Stewart.