Leadership Conference, Day 3 + Fall-To Layout #135

Today was the last day of the leadership conference, and I think it ended on a really good note. You know how sometimes you go to a training conference, and you leave feeling like "ok, what do I do now?" I didn't come away feeling that way. I had a list of books that I'm interested in reading (hopefully, the library will have some of them) and ideas that I'm eager to bounce off of my colleagues when I get back to the office on Monday.

When I was saying good bye to the 2 people from the conference that work in the same building, we all agreed that we'd probably see each other in the Ben & Jerry's line for Free Cone Day next week. :)

Since the conference was kind of a trek from home, I decided to take that opportunity to scope out the craft stores in the area before and after the event. I came away with some loot, and every item I bought was discounted or on sale. Ready? 2 American Crafts paper collections (like I don't have enough AC paper), 1 American Crafts alphabet stamp set, 2 rubber stamps, 1 clear stamp set, 1 pad of watercolor paper, 1 Colorbox fluid chalk ink pad. The ink pad was a great find because I was planning to get one online. I guess it pays be patient.

Ginger the cat was very needy when I got home. Maybe Dad didn't give her enough petting attention. I was pleasantly surprised that the house wasn't in disarray when I got home. Dad kept things in order. Yay!

Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #135. I really wanted to use some of my new American Crafts paper, so I chose a yellow/red floral one. I created my own layered flower using some Primas and then added some garden insects to give some life to the white panel. The sentiment was a little tough to come by because I didn't want to add another panel in and I wasn't sure a sentiment with black embossing powder was going to stand out enough. I decided to use two different sets of black chipboard letters to create the sentiment.
Card Specs:
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Vintage Photo.
Paper: American Crafts- A La Carte
Punch: Martha Stewart Doily Lace border punch, EK Success Scalloped Circle punch (2 inch)
Brad: Recollections- Silver Circles
Flowers: Prima
Stickers: EK Success- Animals, American Crafts Chipboard Thickers (Tenant Phrases), American Crafts Chipboard Thickers in Typo
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Leadership Conference, Day 1+2

Hello, blogosphere. I haven't forgotten about you. I've been away at a leadership conference...the one that my boss mentioned last week.

**This will be a blog post about work related stuff. Card making will resume either tomorrow or Sunday. This would be a good time to close the window if you don't want to read my babble about this leadership conference.**

This has been a really good conference so far! I know that sounds kinda cheesy, but wow, I'm actually learning stuff. The facilitators are really energizing, and their positive energy has been inspiring and infectious. I came to the conference with a colleague and to be honest, we don't talk much at the office because our programs don't really collaborate. This was a perfect opportunity to get to know her better and do some bonding. I've also met some people that work in my building, but for a different organization. I hope that the group of us can meet up around the office and catch up sometime in the future. I think that'd be really great for networking purposes.

Two of the things that I've learned during this conference:

• Personal observation: There was a discussion about personal change styles. I identified myself with the "conservers"- people who accept the structure, are conventional, are predictable, may appear cautious and inflexible, may focus on routine. The other options were "pragmatists" and "originators"...basically, these people are more open to change. The facilitator asked us to raise our hands depending on which category we saw ourselves in. Out of about 50 people, I was the only one that raised my hand and identified myself as a conserver. Whaaat? I didn't know that until the facilitator said something. I was sitting in the front of the room so I had no idea that no one else raised their hand. After about a 5-second pause, another guy raised his hand. Uh oh. Hm. Even though I semi-singled myself out during this exercise, I'm happy that I had the guts to admit that I'm a person that appreciates habit. However, the take-away message from me from that exercise was "change isn't always better, but in order to be better, you have to change."
  

• General observation: Networking and being able to engage in small talk takes practice. I'm not really comfortable with small talk. However, I found that, at least at this conference, you just have to find something in common with the other person. It can be anything. For me, it was fashion (I complimented someone on her bag) and location (I started talking to one of the participants because I noticed that she worked in my building). This was a good exercise to get me out of my comfort zone.

True to conference protocol, I ate all day. There was food everywhere. To balance that out, I went to the facility gym to get a workout in and it went surprisingly quickly because I was busy thinking of two initiatives I hope to pitch to my boss next week (one about bridging programs and another about providing staff with a professional development opporutnity in house). I mean, I am attending a leadership conference and I'm feeling inspired to be more proactive within my organization. I needed to write this down and put it in public view so that I'd hold myself accountable for these goals.

Ok, that's enough work talk for now. I'm going to go watch Raiders of the Lost Ark on tv. :)

Gratitude and Food

I decided that I needed to create some Mother's Day cards for my Etsy shop, so that's what I did tonight instead of creating a one-layer card for One-Layer Wednesday. This week's challenge was focused on creating a sympathy card without using flowers or trees. Give it a try!

Today, I went out to lunch (Thai food) with people in my department. If you've been reading my blog for a while, food at the office is a common thing, but it's rare that I'd only eat with my department since two of the directors are off-site. It was nice to have a sit-down meal, chat and joke around. I'm very fortunate to work with a team of people that appreciates the value of camaraderie.

I'll be partaking in a leadership training the next few days. It'll be like a mini work adventure. :)

Tuesday Trigger: A Burst of Blooms

Today just flew by! Did it for you? I spent the morning at the office in a long but productive meeting. I was learning about IF/THEN statements and how to do them in Excel...and of course the peanut gallery had to make a comment in the following excerpt from an IM conversation today.

[11:06] me: i'm learning about if then statements right now.
[11:07] me: i'm actually learning something new! :)
[11:07] sister: whoa, whoa
[11:07] sister: gasp
[11:08] sister: you are getting deeper into this geekiness

Anywayyyy. Here's my take on this week's Trigger Target challenge. I went with flowers and tried to stick with the color scheme and mimic the layer of colors within some of the flowers by using buttons.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, French Blue, Warm Red, Tangerine, Yellow Ochre. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Weathered Wood.
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Stack 7
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Greetings (sentiment), K.I. Memories-Blooms (flowers)
Buttons: Bucket White, Bucket Red from Michaels. Favorite Findings in Pink.
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Labels 4
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Wee Memories Challenge #50

So, last Tuesday, after spin class, I decided to order something online. Some percentage of the proceeds was going to the Japanese earthquake/tsunami relief effort and I thought, "I get the item, and some of it goes to a good cause. Win-win situation. Love those." What did I get, you ask? An official Do Life t-shirt! :) It was waiting outside the house when I got home from work today. I quickly changed out of my work clothes so I could put it on and take a picture with it, complete with the BenDoesLife finger point.

This week's Wee Memories Challenge (#50) theme was color: "Tell us about your favorite color or use your favorite color palette ... any colors you want to mix up!" I would have to say that I use a lot of bright colors in my cards, but I am a big fan of red. I wanted to use some of the g.c.d. Studios paper and was inspired by this friend card from Kristina Werner where she used strips of cardstock. I, instead, used stripes of patterned paper for the visual interest. I also used a stamp set that I bought over the weekend on clearance. The entire Garden Greetings stamp set was $2.49, mwah ha ha. I paper pieced the butterfly and flower to tie them back into the patterned paper I used in the background and added some buttons for some dimension. Glossy Accents was added to the butterfly antennae, the flower stamen and dots.Card Specs:
Paper: g.c.d. Studios- Chianti Collection
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird
Stamps: Inkadinkado- Garden Greetings (sentiment)
Buttons: Bucket Black from Michaels
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Glossy Accents

P.S. Mom left today for a 3 week vacation to see her family and friends. Dad, Ginger, and I will have to fend for ourselves. This should be interesting...

Cherry Blossom 10-miler + CPS #212

This morning, I witnessed some awesome athleticism at the Cherry Blossom 10-miler. My friend Meg was running it, and I went to go support her. She had been sick all week and still mustered the energy to do it. I couldn't do it even if I was feeling 100%! Anyway, a few things from the race...

• Someone in the cheering crowd was wearing a macaw costume. o_0
• There was a dog with her owner and she was barking the entire time (prompted by her owner). I think she was very excited and doing her own cheering, the only way a dog knows how. Wooo, wooo, wooo.
  
• I was planning to meeting up with another friend Robyn to cheer Meg on, but our coordination wasn't going as planned. At mile 4, I was looking for Robyn while trying to keep an eye out for Meg. Meg runs by "Robyn's back there!" Oh, heh. Sheesh, we are a funny bunch. Leave to to the race runner to let me know where I need to be. I finally caught up with Robyn, and we walked to the finish line to see Meg finish.
• I posted the pics on Facebook and a classmate from undergrad posted on my Wall,"Definitely saw you cheering this morning! Hope you're doing well!" Lol. I hope he had a good race too.

I went back to Meg's to get my car, and then I headed out to do some shopping. I hit up Michaels, Joanns, Ross, Marshalls, and TJMaxx. I only bought stuff at Michaels: 3 stamp sets that were on clearance (which I already knew about based on my YouTube haul watching research) and some kraft cardstock that was on sale (because you can never go wrong with kraft).

When I got home, I noticed that my mochi/red bean cake looked smaller than the day before! GAH! What the heck?! Did the intruder not read the sign?! That's what it's there for! I asked Mom what the deal was, and she told me that she gave a piece to my cousin when he was over yesterday. Oh, ok. Yeah, that's fine. Crisis neutralized.

I felt motivated to go for a run this afternoon (it's been about 2 weeks since my last run, erk!), but then, I dunno if it's the pollen or what, but I was feeling totally zapped of energy and so I took a nap this afternoon. I hope I'm not coming down with something...I got a busy work week ahead of me.

Here's my take on this week's CPS sketch challenge (#212). I was inspired by a scrap piece of paper on my desk that I punched a butterfly out of already. Ah hah! Instead of having plain triangle banners or plain box-y ones, I can have box-y ones with a butterfly punched out of them! Instead of using string, I used an embossing pen to draw one in and use embossing powder to make sure that it stood out against the purple.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: Ranger Perfect Medium pen, Versamark
Paper: American Crafts- Dear Lizzy, American Crafts- Letterbox, Recollections, Die Cuts with a View
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Stamp: Inkadinkado (sentiment)
Punch: Fiskars Upper Crest border punch, Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl

Song of the day: "What the Hell"- Avril Lavigne.

Fall-To Layout #134

Random assortment of stuff that aren't involved to have their own paragraph.

• I want to go see the movie "Hop" that came out today. While the bunny's cute, James Marsden is cuter. You'd think that in him playing Cyclops that he didn't know how to crack a smile, but really, after he played other roles, he has a great smile.
  
• We had free breakfast at work today. Since the Global Health department was sponsoring it, they made it an international themed breakfast with crêpes, madeleines, and croissants with the usual eggs, bacon, fruit, etc. Yum!
  
• I made creamy taco mac again. I added in another can of tomatoes and pretended it made the dish healthier.
  
• Candy eaters surprisingly slimmer, says this article that I saw on MSNBC.com. Is this an April Fool's joke??? It sounds pretty official to me, but I'm not sure how that's really possible.
  
• The grid card that I made last Saturday was featured on the NorthRidge Publishing blog yesterday. You kinda have to scroll down to the bottom of the post.
  

My uncle is visiting from Taiwan. He came last night and brought over some treats, and of course, we dug right in. I came home from work to find one of the treats (red bean cake with mochi inside) half gone! I have to admit that I had a 1/8 slice last night while watching TV. SOMEone else (::cough:: DAD!) was the culprit. In order to prevent WWIII in my house, Mom gave me my own cake and wrote a note to any potential intruders. Thanks, Mom.
After doing some scrapbook haul watching research on YouTube, I found out that some TJMaxx stores out there are carrying new American Crafts products. I went to investigate and after some major digging, I found a 4 pack value pack of Thickers ($5.99) and a small wedding related stamp set called Boutonniere ($1.99). It pays to do your homework ahead of time, huh? I'll have to see what other locations have to offer sometime this weekend.

Here's my take on this week's Fall-To Layout (#134). I used this sketch as an opportunity to make a birthday card for my boss because her birthday is next week. I rummaged around for some scrap patterned paper and found this floral one from the City Park collection. Then I matched the colors in the paper to the ink that I used for the stamped flower images. I rotated the stamp so that the images were all the same. Then I added some bling, a sentiment and some color around the edges. The white gel pen was added as a finishing touch. Super easy card and I love how colorful and cheerful it is!
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Prussian Blue, Yellow Ochre, Rouge, Dark Peony, Warm Green, Amber Clay, Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Chipped Sapphire.
Paper: American Crafts- City Park
Stamps: Inkadinkado (flower), Savvy Stamps (sentiment)
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials