August Sister Challenge, Day 1

Today was pretty productive. Spin class in the morning (meh, wasn't really feeling the music, but at least I got a work out in), made some more origami dress cards while watching NCIS episodes, went to the grocery store to buy drinks for the company picnic next Friday, and whoo hoo, took an afternoon nap! :)

Since Julie is home for a few days, so the sister challenge has returned. Today, she picked out the Martha Stewart paper, and 4 circle stamps from Fiskars (none of which I've used before, I'm pretty sure). The card that you see is actually the second card that I made tonight. I didn't like the direction that the first one was going, so I recycled it and made this one instead. I really had to stretch my imagination this time because I wasn't used to using so many stamps that looked kinda similar. I did notice that they were all different sizes...and then they reminded me of a snowman. So I stacked 3 of the circles on top of one another and heat embossed them with white embossing powder. I adhered the purple cardstock and pink patterned paper and then added the ribbon. I found a good tip over at Darlene Design today about putting the mini glue dot on the card BEFORE you tie the bow to keep the ribbon in place. I've always done it after and then was frustrated that the ribbon didn't stay put while I was tying the bow. Duh. Then that left me with the sentiment in the center. It looked like it'd fit in a 1 3/8 circle punch, and look at that, it did! I attached the punched out circle sentiment on the snowman's tummy and put a nose on him for a finishing touch. It was either a carrot nose or a top hat, but space was running low up at the top of the card, so a nose it is. It's an out-of-season card, but winter will be here before you know it!

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black
Stamp: Fiskars- Wishes All Around (all)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch)
Foam Adhesive: EK Success

Good News, Bad News

Good news, bad news...bad news, first. I have been waiting for 2.5 weeks for my card display racks to arrive from FedEx. And they finally came today. One set was just fine. The other one came with a huge crack in it! ARGH! Now I have to file a claim with FedEx and get my money back somehow. Even if I wanted to someone make do with the broken card display rack, the company that I bought them from didn't give me the correct amount of screws!
Good news:

• I assembled the card rack that wasn't broken and put some cards on it to see how it'd look, and I think it looks a lot more professional than just putting the cards flat on the table. Yay!
  
• There was an ice cream social in our office building today. Each person got a ticket and we could go up to the ice cream truck and pick out a frozen treat. I picked out a pineapple popsicle. I wanted to pick something that you wouldn't normally find at the grocery store.
• I got a rain check on a Cuttlebug a few weeks ago, and the craft store left me a voicemail saying they've received it. Hooray! I promptly picked it up after work today and got a Sizzix Tim Holtz die to go with it. I was thinking about getting a Nestabilities set, but then I saw these flower dies and thought it'd be fun to make my own flower embellishments. I was afraid that I'd crack a B plate, but I watched some YouTube videos and found out that it's okay if it's a little tight going through the Cuttlebug.  The B plates sure do get pretty beat up though!

I thought I was going to use a flower cut from the die, but instead, I used the negative AND the flower as masks in tonight's card. It kinda reminded me of American Crafts' Dear Lizzy line with the color pallet. I added some gems for some dimension.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Burnt Sienna, Rose Coral, Chestnut Brown, Yellow Ochre, Warm Green
Stamp: Autumn Leaves- Build-a-Flower (leaves), The Paper Company Studio- Whimsy Greetings (sentiment), Fiskars- Friendship Garden (small flowers)
Die: Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Flowers (large flower)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

Georgetown Cupcake

There were a few festivities today to say goodbye to my boss's boss. She's moving on to a new position at another organization. So, how do we celebrate? Well, with what else? Food. We went out to lunch at a very yummy place (I got the pulled pork sandwich). I had conversations with people that I normally don't talk to very much at the office, so it was nice to connect. On the way back from lunch, I heard something about a cupcake celebration later on in the afternoon. To top it off, the cupcakes were going to be from Georgetown Cupcake! The cupcakery has been made famous because of their yummy goodies and the TV show called Cupcake Girls on the cable channel TLC. I got a red velvet one with cream cheese frosting.

OMG.

So

SO

GOOD.

As one of my co-workers noted, "The noise level in this room is directly proportional to the amount of sugar consumed." It was a happy office today.

I noticed that there were some cupcakes that were unclaimed. I waited to see if anyone was going to take a second one, and yes, there were some brave souls that snagged a second cupcake so that the rest of us didn't have to feel shy doing the same thing. I grabbed a key lime one and made a swift exit. Behold its awesomeness below. The lime zest in the frosting made it very yummy. Is it horrible that I enjoyed eating the frosting more than the cake?

Another staff person at work is leaving the organization next week, so I decided to make a card for her and have other people at the office sign it if they want to. I think the swirls on the vase makes the card less "blah." :)
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green, Chestnut Roan
Stamps: Fiskars- Just Between Friends (sentiment), Inkadinkado (swirl)

Breaking Out the Colored Pencils

I was determined to use a rub-on today. I started out with blue lotus flower. That didn't work. Then I tried cutting out a flower rub-on. That didn't work either. Hmmm. I thought about using a flower pot stamp with a leaf/stem stamp. ::light bulb on:: After I got the flower rub-on adhered to the cardstock and stamped the leaves and flower pot, I still thought that something was missing. There was still just too much white. Then I remembered a package of blending paper stumps that I had yet to open and use. I broke out my colored pencils and baby oil and used them to color in the flower pot and leaf. The baby oil is a substitute for Gamsol, but the technique is pretty much the same. I thought the card still needed some dimension, so I added some bling.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Warm Green, Chestnut Roan
Stamp: Fiskars- Friendship Garden (leaves, pot)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Rub-on: American Crafts, Mini Marks, Accents, Book Three (flower)
Color pencils: Prismacolor in Dark Brown, Peacock Green
Other: Red Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

I added my Trigger Target badge on the left. :D

Trigger Target, Hooray!

omigoshomigoshomigosh. (think Rhino the hamster from Disney's Bolt).

This morning, I noticed 2 comments from the lantern Tuesday Trigger, saying something about a) how my name was mentioned and b) that I was selected as one of the Trigger Targets! Wait, what? I was still in a sleepy haze, so I went back to Moxie Fab World to see what they were referring to. Suddenly, the haze clears. GASP! No freakin' way. Out of 50+ entries, I was one of five that was selected. What a fabulous feeling! :)

Another fabulous thing that happened today was that one of my coworkers stopped me in the hallway. This was also when I had my mouth full of food. Yes, very graceful. "Tina, I sent one of your cards to a friend of mine and she called me the other day to tell me that she absolutely LOVED it!" That was so SO nice of her to tell me that, and it definitely brightened up my day. ::warm fuzzies::

Ok, folks, we're going to try something new today: a card base that's NOT white cardstock. I know. Very shocking. I further challenged myself to use stamps that I hadn't before, so I picked out a star. I first cut out a 2 x 2 inch square and rounded the corners to create a mask. Then I stamped the stars. So then I was left with this blank middle space. I thought it needed something in there besides a stamped image, so I added some patterned paper and button (for dimension). I went back into my stamp stash to find a sentiment stamp that would fit in that small space and found a baby-related on. Perfect! Dismount.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blue Iris, Chestnut Roan
Stamps: Fiskars- Baby (sentiment), K.I. Memories- Cool Dude (stars)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Apron Lace border punch
Button: Favorite Findings in Ocean
Thread: DMC- ecru

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

Lazy Sunday

Wow...it's August! That seems crazy to me. Anyone else feel the same way?

Two weeks ago, I ordered some greeting card display racks to use for this upcoming fall/winter craft fair season. They still haven't come in the mail yet. I guess I must have been thinking about them a lot lately because I even dreamt about them during my afternoon nap! I was disappointed when I woke up. :P

Here's today's card. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I think all the different patterns are competing with one another. I added the red pieces in there at the last minute because I thought that having just the olive and black was boring. However, now that I put the red in there, I think it's over the top. Who knows? I might feel differently about it tomorrow. That disgruntlement aside, I like the clean and simple feel of the card.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Olive Pastel
Stamp: Fiskars- Friendly Flowers (sentiment), Martha Stewart- Patterns (floral)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Paper: American Crafts-Metropolitan