The Hitchhiker and a Blast From the Past

OMG, the weirdest thing happened to me this morning. I picked up my first (and hopefully last) hitchhiker on my way to work. This woman waved me down and asked her if I could drive her to the main street that I was on my way to so that she could take the bus to get on the Metro. I'm glad that I had my sunglasses on so she wouldn't see me eyeing her with suspicion. If it was a man, I would have made up some excuse about how I was late for work and zoomed off. But this woman didn't look threatening and I didn't have a far distance to go. I took pity on her because it would have been a long way to walk in the heat. She got in the car and I tried to keep an eye on the road and an eye on her purse. Was she going to take out a weapon? Am I going to be on the news tonight? As I approached the main road, she asked if I could drop her off at the Metro since it seemed like I was going in that direction. Mmmyeahno. I'm going to let you off at the light. That was the deal. I said something about having to drive on the other side of the street and not the side that the Metro was on. She understood, told me "God bless you" and got out of the car.

Why couldn't my hitchhiker be Bono?

Weirdness.

ANYWAYYYYY...let's talk about something more positive and less creepy. So, yesterday, a fellow intern from an internship that I did at a medical clinic 5-6 years ago contacted me via Facebook. She had seen the pictures of the cards that I made that I posted and she wanted to order a custom set of "Will you be my bridesmaid?" cards! I often wonder if people go through those albums on my Facebook and whaddiya know, people do! :)

Song of the day: "Just a Kiss" - Lady Antebellum

Commence Move

I'm one day closer to my settlement date, which means I have to pack up my crafty items to get ready for the move on Friday/Saturday. Crafty activities will resume once I'm more settled into the new place. Wish me luck! :)

Two-Step Masking Technique

One of the computer guys told me today that he knew this guy that had a cat that he needed to give away because his fiancé's allergy to cats. "Well, I know that you like cats." Aww, how thoughtful. Too bad I'm not already settled into my place, I might have considered it!

I was reading Papertrey Ink's Nicole Heady's blog this morning and I saw this post/video about a 2-step masking technique. I wanted to try it tonight, using my newest stamp set. I ran into a little trouble with the flower on the lower left corner. The scrap of cardstock was too thick and when I stamped the flower over it, some of the ink didn't make contact with the cardbase. I covered up the empty space left behind with the paper punched butterfly. Next time, I'll use a scrap piece of copy paper (like in the video) to avoid this problem.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green, Prussian Blue, Dark Peony, Rose Coral
Stamps: Inkadinkado- Nature (leaves, butterfly, flowers), K&Company- AB Lotus Greeting Stamps (sentiment)
Punch: Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Sunflower Yellow

Wee Memories Challenge #61

When Julie mentioned that she'd be coming home for the July 4th holiday, we made a plan to see Transformers: Dark of the Moon today. The movie far exceeded my expectations! I really felt that the 3D effects enhanced the already really cool special effects. There were moments where my jaw literally dropped, the scene was so shocking or awesome. I thought this article from msnbc.com described the movie well. I've seen several movies this summer already, and this one is definitely my favorite so far. Onward to HP7 Part 2 and Captain America.

Here's my card for Wee Memories Challenge #61: "Summertime." Hmm, what could be considered a summery image? I dug through my stamp stash and found one that was surfing themed. Perfect! Then I decided to incorporate as many colors into the card as possible, so I stamped the surfboard image over and over using different ink colors. The bottom of the card was missing something so I punched a border that looked like a wave and then added some hibiscus paper to complete the beachy/summery card.Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Rose Coral, Yellow Ochre, Aquamarine, Prussian Blue, Warm Violet
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Surf's Up
Paper: Die Cuts With a View
Punch: Fiskars Upper Crest border punch, We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Other: Black American Crafts Stamp Marker

Hope y'all had a wonderful 4th of July! :)

CPS #225

Dad's retirement dinner with his family went well last night. Many of my cousins brought their little kids, and they were soooo adorable. Here's Dad with his cake. Mmmm, cake.

Mother Nature was very unhappy last night. She gave us a heavy dose of thunderstorms early this morning (4 AMish), complete with exploding transformers (not the robot kind).

This evening, we invited family members and Robyn and her mom over for a July 4th BBQ, complete with steaks marinated by Julie, pasta salad, salad, corn, and homemade carrot cake with cream cheese frosting.

Here's my take on CPS #225. I wanted to continue getting some use out of the Inkadinkado stamp set that I bought on Friday. I stamped the images on a piece of kraft cardstock and heat embossed the sentiment stamp with some white embossing powder so that it stood out a little more against the kraft. Then it was time to pick out the paper, and I chose red to match with the flowers and the gray to contrast against the red and black. I adhered the pearls and made sure to save a little room for a butterfly in the upper right.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red, Charcoal
Stamps: Inkadinkado- Nature (butterfly, leaf, flower), K.I. Memories- Pet (sentiment)
Paper: American Crafts- Merrymint, American Crafts-The Goods Ceremony
Punch: Martha Stewart- Classic Butterfly
Pearl: Queen & Co.- Pearl

Yard Sale Success

Yard sale finds: Before I went to bed last night, I planned out a route for my morning yard sale adventure. I ended up going to 4 yard sales, but only had luck at 1. Meh, no biggie. At this yard sale, I found 2 Rubbermaid containers ($1 each), a cute yellow pot ($0.25), and 2 large Stampin' Up stamps ($2 each). Total: $6.25. I was thrilled. I was doing my mwah ha ha laugh in my head as I drove off. When I got home, I immediately wiped down the containers with a Lysol wipe and put my wood block sentiment stamps in one while putting some image wood block stamps in the other. I took the pencils, pens, scissors, etc. out of my two pencil holders and consolidated them into the one yellow pot. True be told, one of my pencil holders was the tall mug that I got for high school prom. The pot definitely feels more grown up.I did some more organizing in my room by deciding what crafty items could go to Goodwill and recycling a bunch of magazines. Settlement is less than a week away. The less that has to go to the new place, the better!

Animals: When I was on my way to my first yard sale this morning, I saw this woman chasing her terrier. He even ran into traffic! I was so afraid that one or both of them was going to get hit by a car. Good thing people were watching. And then soon after that, I saw a fawn running around the neighborhood. Its mommy was not in sight, and it was probably really scared. Again, I was scared that someone was going to hit it.

Card: Here's my card for today. I heat embossed the hydrangea stamp with black embossing powder and used my Tim Holtz inks as watercolors to color in the flower. I went over the flower centers again with my paintbrush to add a little bit of shading/dimension.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Personal Stamp Exchange- Black
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird. Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Peeled Paint, Vintage Photo, Tattered Rose
Stamps: Stampin' Up- Stipple Hydrangea, Fiskars- Just Between Friends (sentiment)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Off to dinner with Dad's family to celebrate his retirement!

Fall-To Layout #147

Confession: I haven't been running since the 10K about 1.5 months ago. I am also a) didn't go to spin class yesterday and b) hadn't tried out the running skirts that I bought a while back. ::hangs head in shame:: BUT the good news is that I did go running today WITH a running skirt! I bought them because I wasn't liking how my workout shorts were causing some chaffing. I have no problem wearing capris during the colder months, but now it's too hot to be wearing them. The running skirt was a nice alternative on today's 2-mile-ish run.

Other running related news: Did I mention that the HR director (who's an avid runner outside of work) developed a 8K training plan for me? Yep, she wanted to help me improve my March 8K time when I run another 8K in September. It's an 11-week plan, starting the week of July 10. I appreciated that she sprinkled it with some spin classes.

Card share: Here's my take on Fall-To Layout #147. I had to dust off my circle punch and dig out my circle dies for this card. It was also the perfect opportunity to use the new stamps that I got today.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Blackbird, Dark Peony, French Blue, Aquamarine
Stamps: Inkadinkado- Nature (butterfly, leaf, flower), Studio G (alphabet)
Paper: Die Cuts with a View- Mango Frost
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Scallop Sentiment border punch, EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch)
Die: Spellbinders Nestabilities Standard Circles Large

Onward to yard sale adventures tomorrow! :)