In-Person Committee Meeting, Day 2 + Fall-To Layout #123

Hoooooray! My in-person committee meeting was a success! There was a lot of brainstorming going on the past 1.5 days. While competing priorities and weather got in the way of people's travel plans, we didn't let that get in the way of making this a productive meeting and I'm so happy that people were flexible. People who said that they'd participate over the phone did and stuck it out for a few hours. At the conclusion of the meeting, committee members seemed like they had a good time, and most importantly, my boss and my committee chair left on a happy note. All the hard work and preparation paid off, and I'm grateful for everyone's contributions. I'm so fortunate to work with such a great group of people. :)

Here's my take on this week's Fall-To Layout #123. Even though my first instinct was to reach for some Prima flowers, I decided to branch out a little and use some of the chipboard elements that I got for my birthday last year. I like how this card is fairly gender neutral with the bright orange and cool colors (blue and green). The ATG gun came in real handy because the tape adhesive doesn't warp the paper/cardstock like liquid glue does. My investment is paying off!
Card Specs:
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox (pale blue), Die Cuts with a View- Citrus (yellow)
Other: Me & My Big Ideas- Chipboard Elements, Ellen Starfish Icons (leaf, starfish), Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker
Foam adhesive: EK Success

Song of the day: "Yeah 3x"- Chris Brown. Independent of his personal battles, I think that Chris Brown did a good job making this song catchy.

In-Person Committee Meeting, Day 1

Whew! What. a. day. Today was Day 1 of my in-person committee meeting. I was happy to see that most people were able to make it into town considering the snowy weather we've been having on the East Coast. I'd say that today was productive, and with the strategic planning we did in the afternoon, it's nice to have some direction.

What's worse- falling asleep during a meeting or having someone call you out for falling asleep? That happened this afternoon to a meeting participant. Oops.

If you've been following my blog, you're probably very familiar with the committee meeting routine. There's lots of eating. This afternoon we had Middle Eastern food: hummus, chicken, rice, salad, and my favorite part: baklava. And then we took the group out to dinner tonight, where I had my usual chicken pot pie. I convinced the 2 co-workers to share a dessert with me: "a Chocolate Uprising, which is a chocolate brownie layered with vanilla ice cream, Callebaut Belgian chocolate and a warm caramel sauce." Everyone's eyes just brighten when they saw it brought to the table. After it circled around once, it still landed on my side. Yep, it tasted as awesome as it sounds.

It'll be an early morning again for my tomorrow. My goal is to get to the office at 7 AM. My ability to get to the school bus before 6:30 AM during high school is really a mystery to me.

Christmas 2010 Cards Scrapped

The snowy weather has put a cramp in my plans again. Well, not really MY plans, but the plans of some people that were supposed to come to an in-person meeting tomorrow. I got several emails and calls today saying "Uhh, sorry, Tina..." Oh well, what can you do? At least they can dial in on the phone.

I went out to dinner with my boss and my committee chair. We got Italian food, and I had some awesome meat lasagna. Yummm.

I took some inspiration from Nichol Magouirk's recent post about creating a page that would hold the Christmas cards she received the past holiday season. While I didn't have a fancy pocket like she has, I made my own with some adhesive and American Crafts paper. The snowflake was made by folding up a piece of paper several times and making random cuts in it. I felt like I was back in 4th grade art class. It'll be cool to look back upon this page in a few years and re-read everyone's holiday message.

Page Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red. VersaMagic chalk ink in Cloud White.
Paper: American Crafts- Merrymint
Stamp: Fiskars- Winter Wonderland (snowflakes), The Paper Company Studio- Christmas Expressions (sentiment, presents)
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 8
Stickers: American Crafts Chipboard Thickers in Darling (white)

Tuesday Trigger: Bright Spot

The slowly falling snow (and freezing rain?) put a damper on my spin class plans tonight. Instead of slipping and sliding on the road, I decided to not chance it, stay inside and scrap the people pictures from the wedding last Saturday. I intentionally used the same elements as the wedding food page, since these pictures were taken at the same event: Prima flowers, Cuttlebug diecut flowers, rhinestones, etc.

Page Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stamps: Martha Stewart- Clear Label Stamps (label)
Die: Cuttlebug- Flowers (flowers)
Flower: Prima
Button: Favorite Findings in Pink
Brad: Recollections- Rhinestone Brads
Stickers: American Crafts Chipboard Thickers in Typo
Other: Magenta Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

For this week's Tuesday Trigger, I wasn't feeling really inspired right when I saw the picture. However, after I started going through my stamps, I found a sentiment that would be perfect for today's card. Because of all the light shining through the window, illuminating the room, I thought the sentiment "celebrate sunshine" would be appropriate. I chose bright colors that were featured in the picture and embellished the card with some glittered chipboard. I love how the green paper is slightly embossed. It's also got a pearly sheen to it. 48 loose 4x6 paper for $1.99 at Marshalls. Score.Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Warm Green, Tangerine, Yellow Citrus, Orchid Pastel, Burnt Sienna
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox (brown zigzag), American Crafts Specialty Paper in Pearl
Stamp: American Crafts- Dear Lizzy- Warbler (all)
Foam adhesive: Thermoweb
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Chipboard: American Crafts- Fieldhouse- Glitter Blue Skies

I'm off to watch a new episode of NCIS. Later, gators.

Wedding Reception Food Scrapped

This year, I want to get better about actually printing out digital pictures. I guess it's an unofficial New Year's Resolution. I have an almost complete package of photo paper in my desk drawer, and I don't want it to go to waste. Solution: scrapbooking! I'm always awestruck when I see crafty bloggers showcase their work online. They are so talented in how they tell their stories through the photos and decorate their pages so creatively. Last night, I made an effort to learn about clipping masks on Photoshop and cropping some of the food pictures from Jenny's wedding reception and creating a scrapbook page out of them. I'll be scrapping people pictures this week. Thanks, L, for sending this one over :)

From listening to Paperclipping Roundtable these past few months, the possibilities of scrapbooking are endless. 8.5x11, 12x12, mini books, etc. I decided to go with 8.5x11 because that's what I had available and I could easily scan it using my printer. 12x12 is too big for my printer and that amount of space is kinda intimidating. I used pink and teal as accents because they were colors seen in the destination wedding photos. I used cream cardstock and die cut flowers out of it, similar to this card, which I gave to the bride and groom on Saturday. I finally found a use for a label stamp so that I could include date information. My place card is attached on the upper right. As an aside, I'm glad that I was able to incorporate so many different supplies in this page. The sooner I use things up, the sooner I can buy new stuff. Mwah ha ha.

Page Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Stamps: Fiskars- Romance (heart), Martha Stewart- Clear Label Stamps (label)
Die: Cuttlebug- Flowers (flowers)
Flower: Prima
Button: Favorite Findings in Pink
Stickers: American Crafts Chipboard Thickers in Typo
Other: Magenta Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Tonight, I went out to dinner with my current boss and my former boss. We went to Nando's, where I got a chicken sandwich, mashed potatoes (yum), and enough Coke Zero that I'm suspicious that it's what most of my water content is now.

Wedding Reception Recap

The wedding reception that I attended last night was really fun! I had a great time catching up with my graduate school friends and some people that I had seen at the bachelorette party. The bride was, of course, gorgeous in her white gown. The dining hall was quite decked out with greenery and candles and a picture slideshow from the destination wedding. The food was SO GOOD! I had the vegetarian option: "striped sun dried tomato and spinach ravioli stuffed with ricotta cheese and presented with roasted red pepper coulis and pesto creme sauce." And, it wouldn't be a complete meal without some dessert (I had some of the toffee, a chocolate covered strawberry, and a chocolate cupcake...whoops, sorry about the glare.). The mother of the bride was a busy bee in the kitchen last week, making all the goodies. When I was saying my good nights/thank yous, the groom asked me if I had taken pictures of the food. He has a good memory because at another wedding we had both attended almost 2 years ago, I took pictures of the food during that reception as well. Here are some pics from last night...I'll have to post one with the bride when it comes through my inbox.
My goal of not shopping for crafty stuff for a whole month took a nosedive. I went to Marshalls and found 2 packs of American Crafts paper (Dear Lizzy and City Park) for $5.99 each. Usually they retail at $20 each! Ok, the goal has been reset to no crafty shopping until January 9. Dang it, I'm a sucker for a good deal.

Here's my take on CPS#200. I wanted to make a birthday card for a family member's upcoming birthday. From what I've been told, his favorite color is purple. I chose to use kraft and black in order to make the card more on the masculine side. Edit: nope, wait, I change my mind. It still looks too feminine. Maybe it's the scalloped border or something? I dunno. I'll stick with this card.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Prussian Blue, Blackberry, Blackbird
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Stamps: Fiskars- Kids Birthday (present), The Paper Company Studio- Whimsical Birds (bird), Savvy Stamps (sentiment), Inkadinkado (balloons)
Paper: Die Cuts With a View
Other: Black Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Song of the day: "Just a Dream"- a cover of Nelly's song...sung by Sam Tsui and Christina Grimmie. Yep, again.

Guilt-Inspired Running

I woke up to snow this morning. It was kinda expected, but I was surprised that it was coming down so quickly. I had plans to go to 8:30 AM spin, but with the snow, I didn't want to chance it. However, this change of plans worked in my favor because then I kinda felt guilty for not going which led me to feeling determined to get a workout in today. I waited a few hours for the snow to melt and went for a 3.9 mile run. I realized when I got home that 8K = 4.9 miles. I'm just 1 mile away from the 8K length. I think I can build up to that by the end of the month. ::fingers crossed::

Off to a wedding reception tonight for my friend Jenny, yay!

Song of the day: "Just a Dream"- a cover of Nelly's song...sung by Sam Tsui and Christina Grimmie. Thanks to Julie for the link.