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

Early Bird

Wow, I managed to get to the office at 7:30 this morning. In fact, I think I was the first one in today. This is a rarity, I promise you. 8:00 AM conference calls will do that to you. On the bright side, I was able to leave early and take a nice long post-work nap. It was awesome.

You know what's not awesome? Feeling sore the day after a run. You'd think that because I go to spin class frequently and use my leg muscles that'd I'd feel totally fine. But no. Unfortunately, that's be a wrong assumption. Well, considering I hadn't run outside in about a month, I suppose the soreness should have been expected.

Let's go back to things that are awesome: food at work. There was a presentation, and there was pizza provided. Yay!

Oh, another thing that's awesome (and then I'll get to today's card). Remember the homeless guy with the radio voice? Well, it looks he's gotten quite a few job offers to pick from now. He was even on The Today Show this morning and eventually reunited with his mother after 20 years. I almost teared up when I watched the video clip of him talking to his mother. It sounds like he turned his life around, go him! :)

For tonight's card, I thought back to this home decor challenge. While I don't have any lamp stamps, that doesn't mean that I can't a lamp image of my own. By turning a flower pot upside down, I created a lampshade and then I tacked on a vase as lamp's body. Ta da!

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red and Prussian Blue, StazOn in Jet Black
Stamp: Inkadinkado (alphabet), Fiskars- Friendship Flowers (flower pot, vase)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox, Die Cuts With a View- Citrus
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Foam adhesive: EK Success

One-Layer Wednesday #35

SOMEone has been playing pranks on me at the office. Well, technically, it's the same one twice. I found my chair in the hallway instead of my office this morning when I came back from chatting with one of my co-workers. It happened again not too long after that. Of course NO ONE knows anything about it, and the IT guys and the administrative assistant insisted they haven't the slightest idea how the chair got in the hallway. ::eye roll::

I went for a run after work today! I can't remember the last time I did that. It's been a while, that's for sure. All the treadmills were being used at the gym after last night's spin class, so I told myself that I'd get a run in today. I managed to do 2.7 miles. This evening activity also gave me an opportunity to wear the new running vest (obnoxiously yellow for my safety) that I got for Christmas from Dad. I wonder if the vest had super powers. I felt like I was running faster than normal. Perhaps it's just a part of my imagination. Either way, I felt cool and official as I was running down the street. It felt nice to make a plan and stick to it. Going for a run was much healthier than my normal post-work activity: raiding the fridge.

This week's One-Layer Challenge (#35) focused on the color yellow. I was allowed to use other colors but yellow was supposed to be the focus of the card. I wanted to use my American Crafts Majestic stamp set, but I also wanted to think outside the box. What else could these swirly things be besides swirly things. Ah ha! Well, if I rotated the large stamp, it's kinda like a square. With a ruler and Sharpie, I made it into a house. The flowers in the lawn made it more like a home. I thought the congratulations sentiment stamp that I used yesterday worked for this card. It can be kinda like a "Congratulations on your new home!" card.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Warm Green, Yellow Cadmium, Yellow Citrus
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stamps: Fiskars- Friendship Garden (flowers, leaves), Anita's (sentiment), American Crafts- Majestic (square flourishes)
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Tuesday Trigger: Winter White

In an effort to be financially smart, I went grocery shopping today instead of getting a sandwich at Potbelly. Roughly a week's worth of lunches and snacks is equivalent to just 3 roast beef sandwiches. Yikes, there's some perspective for you! Grocery shopping is definitely the way to go if you got the time. Mom even donated a coupon holder that she wasn't going to use to me so that I could get my coupons organized. With my club card and coupons, I was able to shave off $7 off my bill. Woot.

Here's my take on this week's Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger. It's a very elegant wedding cake that's embellished with lots of flowers. Time to take out the Cuttlebug for this project! I used some flower dies to cut out all the flowers used for this card. Some were adhered directly to the card base and other with dimensional adhesive. To give the flowers some texture, I used some clear embossing powder (difficult to see in the picture) and went over the edges with some Distress ink. I took this as an opportunity to use some of the pearl brads that I bought this past weekend for a sophisticated touch. As a side note, who'd want to eat that cake? I'd feel guilty eating it because of all the work that must have gone into it to make it look so fabulous.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stamps: Martha Stewart- Patterns (on flowers), Anita's (sentiment)
Die: Cuttlebug- Flowers (flowers)
Brads: Recollections
Foam adhesive: EK Success

Song of the day: "River Flows In You"- Yiruma. I heard this beautiful music during this Operation Beautiful video on YouTube. Click here to learn more about Operation Beautiful. Who knew that a simple Post-it note could make a difference in someone's day.

In other news, I hope that this homeless guy finds a job on TV or radio and that the gig at WNCI works out. His voice is amazing! I almost didn't quite believe it when he was first talking, but like whoa, it's for real.

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.

CPS #199

Well, folks. Today's the last day of winter break. Everything goes back to normal. The Christmas tree and decorations need to go back into their plastic containers. I must remember to wear business casual to work tomorrow, instead of the jeans and occasional hoodie I've been donning since December 20.

My sister is going back to school tomorrow and for her last meal at home she requested dumplings. So for about an hour this afternoon, my sister, my mom and I wrapped up dumplings for tonight's dinner. Can you tell which one I folded up? Mine's the one in the middle. Maybe my origami folding skills paid off?

Because I got some Michaels gift cards, I went there today to do some shopping. I was able to get a great deal on the pink Scotch Advanced Tape Glider (originally $39.99, but bought with 50% off coupon) and a bunch of sparkly brads to put in the center of my fabric flowers (all 50% off). As you can see in the picture below, I was very eager to use the brads. I hope the ATG gun is as awesome as everyone says it is. I went to A.C.Moore on the way home and bought some felt to put on the back of the flowers, pins to complete my fabric flower brooches (50% off), and some glue sticks for my new glue gun. My goal is to not make any more crafty purchases until February 2, one month from now. I have enough supplies to keep me pretty busy.

Below are some of the brooches that I finished making today. The flower center on the bottom right is one of the brads that I bought this afternoon. I used my Tim Holtz scissors to cut the prongs off. Those scissors have been such a great investment! All the other flower centers are buttons that I bought last Thursday. I pinned a red flower with a sparkly clear gem in the center to my black pea coat. So cute!
I tested out my new ATG gun with my card tonight. The assembly instructions were pretty easy to follow. I love how I don't have to worry about glue warping my paper and I don't have to wait for the glue to dry to continue with my project. I decided to tackle CPS #199. I used some paper that I purchased recently and a fabric flower that I made earlier today. I wanted to make a non-traditional colored valentine with no reds or pinks in the card (I'm considering the color of the fabric flower to be red-violet). Perhaps there's a non-girly girl out there that'd appreciate it.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Stamp: Studio G
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch
Paper: American Crafts- Metropolitan and Letterbox
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker
Brad: Recollections Gem Brads

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.