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

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. :)

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! :)

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

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

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 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