Snowpocalypse #2 in Full Force

Greetings from suburban MD, where we're buried underneath 21-22 inches of snow! No joke. For some places up north (i.e. NY, Boston), perhaps that's normal winter weather. However, for this area, it's historical. The snow was so bad that there was no postal service in this area today. I had to put a notice in my Etsy shop announcement saying that shipment of orders would have to wait until I felt it was safe to venture out to the post office. Hopefully buyers will be understanding.

Snow Pictures

There wasn't much we could to today other than stay at the house. There was no where to go because the streets hadn't been plowed, and the cars were still under a lot of snow. I spent the day helping Dad shovel a little, napping, yakking up a storm on the phone, and eventually making some cards.

Here's the card for today. I decided to try a new stamping technique called emboss resist that I saw on Nicole Heady's blog tonight. It took me a couple of tries to get the card just right. I don't think it was the technique that was particularly difficult, but getting the right intensity of color wasn't as easy as I thought it was going to be. I went from a dark pink to a medium pink and finally settled for a light pink. The embossed image is difficult to see in the picture on the left, so the picture on the right shows a close-up. I also used Mom's fabric scissors to cut the ribbon. Man, those babies are sharp! What a difference they made compared to the scissors that I used before.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear and white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: StazOn in Timber Brown, Ink It Up! in Pink
Stamps: Hot Off the Press- Delicate Patterns (script), SEI- Moravia (flower), The Paper Company Studio- Whimsy Greetings (sentiment)
Punches: Fiskars Twist & Flip 2-in-1 corner punch, Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Foam Adhesive: Making Memories
I also decided to start preparing for the next major holiday (Easter) with this new origami panda card. He (I suppose it could be a she) was very popular with Valentine's Day.
Song of the day: "According to You"- Orianthi. Repeat from yesterday.

Snowpocalypse #2: It Begins

My very understanding boss let me work from home today. I didn't think there was a point to go to the office only to have to come home in 4-5 hours. The Feds were closing 4 hours early so that people could get home before the snowstorm started. I WAS going to take the day off, BUT a) I didn't get what I needed to get done by today and b) I was already going to be cooped up at home because of the snow. I might as well be a good employee and get some work done (even though I was up until midnight emailing for work last night!).

It's been snowing non-stop since about 11 AM. I'm a little nervous to see what I wake up to tomorrow morning. The snow is seriously blowing around outside! The weather man mentioned that the snow this time will be wet snow, which translates to it being more difficult to shovel. Oh, goody. Even though I probably won't make it to spin class this weekend because of the snowy/icy roads, I'll probably get a workout by shoveling tomorrow. Oh, well. What can you do? I guess take snow pictures, shovel snow, and hunker down inside and make cards. The clear stamp lot could not have come at a better time!

Snow Pictures, taken around 5:30 PM

Here's today's card. All the stamps featured in the card are from the Ebay clear stamp lot I got in the mail on Monday. I really like the Autumn Leaves flower set because there are so many possibilities of the flowers you can create, since there's a selection of different petals and leaves you can use. I picked out a striped petal and a "loves me, loves me not" petal for this particular color. The pink, yellow, green color combo worked in this card so I used it again for this one.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, StazOn in Mustard, Cherry Pink, and Cactus Green
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Whimsy Greetings (sentiment), Heidi Grace- Paradise (green flowers), Autumn Leaves- Build-a-Flower (red flower)
Punches: Fiskars Twist & Flip 2-in-1 corner punch

I'll leave you guys with a picture of Ginger. So you've heard of "the Cat in the Hat"? I live with the cat in the box. I mean, seriously, how is this comfortable? Don't you get a crick in your neck?

Song of the day: "According to You"- Orianthi. Heard this on the radio recently, it's catchy!

Mmm, Sushi

We got about 6 inches from last night's snow. The county kids had a snow day, but the Feds were open with the unscheduled leave policy in effect. The roads were fine for me, so I trooped to work.

There's no card for today because I'm sleepy and not feeling particularly crafty. I did want to share with you some pictures from today. Left- Ginger's sleeping outside my parents' room. Maybe she knows that my mom would not be happy if she was sleeping on her pillow. She looks like she's in time-out or something. Right- Today was my aunt's birthday and we celebrated with sushi, hot pot, and Mom's carrot cake. I, of course, sat near the sushi so they would be easily accessible. Check out those California Rolls, yum! Ok, that's it for tonight, folks. Gotta go get some shut eye! :)

More Snow?

Oh, yes. It's definitely snowing outside right now. And there's supposedly more coming our way this upcoming weekend. BLAH! The road outside looks pretty bad. Perhaps we'll have a delayed opening tomorrow. I brought my work laptop home just in case the road conditions look too bad to drive in. I'm glad that I was able to get home from spin class tonight right before the snow started falling! Whoo hoo. Break tomorrow.

My aunt's birthday is tomorrow, so today's card is appropriately a birthday one. I used some of the stamps from the clear stamp stash that came in the mail yesterday. I foresee myself using those floral stamps frequently in the future. They are super cute. :)

Card Specs:
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black, Mustard, Cherry Pink, and Cactus Green
Stamps: Fiskars (sentiment), Heidi Grace- Paradise (flowers)
Paper: Martha Stewart (green), Design Originals (patchwork)
Foam adhesive: Making Memories

Happy Second Birthday, Etsy Shop!

My Etsy shop, KittyKatKards, turned 2 today! I can't believe that the time has passed so quickly! I have really enjoyed being part of the homemade crafts community; this has been a really rewarding experience so far and I'll continue to craft as long as there's a huge dose of fun that goes along with it. At the 2 year mark, here are my stats: 365 sales and 2170 shop hearts.

I did some craft space organizing this past weekend and put together a box of my cards that I didn't want anymore or that I wasn't planning on selling to the office. After giving my officemate first dibs on the cards, I put the rest in the office kitchen for my co-workers. I took a picture of the box before I left the house this morning, and I don't even have an "after" picture because all the cards were gone by lunch time. Even the box was taken!

To celebrate reaching 48 Etsy sales for January 2010 and keeping dedicated to spin class, I decided to bid on an Ebay auction for a HUGE lot of used clear stamps. I won, and much to my surprise, it came in the mail today. I'm wicked excited to start using them...um, like right now!

Today's card, of course, has elements from the stamp stash that came in the mail today. I was super excited about the polka dot stamp from Martha Stewart because I don't have any polka dot stamps and I think they are quite versatile.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, StazOn in Mustard
Stamps: The Paper Company Studio- Whimsy Greetings (sentiment), Martha Stewart (polka dots)
Punches: Fiskars Twist & Flip 2-in-1 corner punch, Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch, EK Success (rubber ducky)
Paper: My Mind's Eye
Foam Adhesive: Making Memories

I went to spin class tonight and saw a girl that I went to middle and high school with. Wow, talk about a blast from the past!

Well Rested Sunday

OMG, I think I slept around 12 hours last night. I woke up around 5 something and debated on whether or not to go to spin class, decided not to go, and went back to sleep for a few more hours. I went 5 days last week. I felt like I earned a day to sleep in.

Today was another card making day. Card #1. I wanted to try another origami model: the hippo. It didn't turn out as well as I would have liked. Something about it doesn't look right. I even added nostrils after this picture was taken and I still didn't like it. Valiant effort, my chemistry professor from college would say. Do you have any suggestions for improvement?

Card #2. I got the paper flower idea from this Little Birdie Secret post. This was a great way to use up some scraps. This is also the first time I've used brads in my cards. I picked up a set of sparkly Making Memories brads on clearance ($2 for 90 brads!) at Michaels a while ago and hadn't found a use for them until now. I used a dry embossing stylus to poke the holes in the center of the circles because my hole punch didn't extend that far. Yep, very high tech here. To add some interest to the white cardstock, I heat embossed a butterfly stamp from the crafty loot a few weekends ago. Hopefully the butterflies stand out a little better in the second picture.

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black
Stamps: All Studio G
Brads: Making Memories Brad Value Pack- Chelsea's Place collection.

I went to my uncle's house for dinner tonight. We had hot pot. Yum! :)
Song of the day: Hmm, nothing really sticks out in my mind. Anyhoo, gotta get ready for bed. Hope you all have a great start to your week!!

The Weather is Snowy Outside, Crafty Inside

Hey, folks! Hope your weekend has gotten off to a good start. Mine started with the cell phone alarm going off and the internal dilemma of whether or not to go to spin class. I figured, ok, I'm already up. I might as well go be productive. I got to the gym, and *gasp* someone took my bike! I mean, I know that anyone can sit anywhere, but I felt like back in school, there was that unspoken rule about how the seat you sit in the first day of class is the seat you sit in for the rest of the semester. It's possible that "my" bike was her bike too. Oh well. I ended up taking the bike one seat up.

Afterwards, I went to the post office to mail off an Etsy order. The post office is located within a mall, and they were doing some sort of summer camp expo. Lots of booths were set up with information and goodies to encourage kids (and parents) to stop by. I found it funny how they were focusing on summer camp, and it's been snowing all day. Summer seems like a long way from now!

It's been snowing all day long. It started around 9 or 10 AM, and I think it's still going on (granted it's probably slowed down some). I thought the weather forecast was 2-4 inches, but I think we're approaching 6-7 inches. The road outside isn't looking too safe.

Although I was cooped up inside, I was productive today. Made a few cards, took a nap with the cat, and did laundry. Yep, super fun. Here's Ginger, who already had a head start on the nap this afternoon. I used this as my Project 365 photo today.

On to today's cards. Yep, plural. As in more than one.

Card #1. I really wanted to use a rub-on for this card. I started rubbing the flower on, and I noticed that the little flower offshoot was scratched and unsightly. Internal thoughts: "Oh, *beep*. Noooo. Ok, do not panic. I can make this work." I ended up cutting the bad part off, preserving the main flower. Whew, crisis averted. I don't like how the ribbon frayed slightly where I cut it, but I guess that's normal for that type of mesh (?) ribbon.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Stamp: Studio G (sentiment)
Punches: Fiskars Twist & Flip 2-in-1 corner punch and Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch
Ribbon: Wired Edge Ribbon from Michaels
Rub-on: American Crafts, Mini Marks, Accents, Book Three

Card #2. I dug out my watercolor crayons that I haven't used in forever and used them with this flower stamp from Inkadinkado. I had no idea what to do with the space on the bottom left. I guess that's what happens when you kinda make a card without a real plan. Heh. I decided to fill it with a ribbon bow, but I don't know if all the aspects of the card flow together. I thought I'd share anyway.

Card Specs:
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black
Stamps: All Inkadinkado
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch and EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch)
Ribbon: From Michaels
Watercolor crayons: Staedtler

Song of the day: "Cowboy Casanova"- Carrie Underwood. Heard this at spin this morning.