Flower Tag

One of the techniques that learned in Sunday's class was to use Prismacolor colored pencils really heavily to color in images stamped on kraft cardstock. Instead of doing a card today, I decided to break out the tag die that I bought a few weekends ago. I stamped the Hero Arts Cling Dots (I knew I'd get a lot of use out of that stamp!!) and then the flower in the lower right corner. I colored it in with the colored pencils, laying the color on pretty thick as to cover the white chalk ink dots. The flower looked kinda lonely so I added some other flowers. The green flower as been sitting on my desk for a while, so I tacked it on and then the Prima flower, since I've been neglecting my bag of them. I used my Stampamajig to line up the sentiment on the top left. Maybe I'll make some of these to sell at the craft fairs this fall/winter? What do you think?

Card Specs:
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black. VersaMagic chalk ink in Cloud White.
Stamp: Hero Arts Cling Dots (polka dots), Heidi Grace Designs- Paradise (flowers). I can't remember what brand the sentiment stamp is from.
Colored pencils: Prismacolor in Carmine Red, Copenhagan Blue
Die: Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Flowers (green flower), Sizzix- Tags, Scallop Combo #2 (tag)
Flower: Prima (teal)
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials

Songs of the day: "Mine"- Taylor Swift. I had it on repeat at work, and I heard it a few times when I was in the car today. "Just the Way You Are"- Ahmir (Bruno Mars cover)...I like this version more than the one that's on the radio these days.

CPS #182

Today was the first day of school for the County schools. When the school bus rolled around this morning to pick up the high school students at 6:40 AM, my first thought of the day was "how on earth did I manage to get up and be ready to go to school at that ungodly hour?" :P

For the card today, I wanted to use some supplies that I bought yesterday and some techniques that I learned. This was originally going to be a Christmas card, but then I couldn't find a Christmas tree stamped that I thought was big enough for what I needed. So instead, I dug out an Autumn themed stamp set and used the big oak leaf. I heat embossed it with white embossing powder. Next, I chose some fall-y colors and grabbed some cotton balls. Yesterday, we used sponge dabbers to transfer ink to the card (see the JOY card from yesterday), but since I don't own any, I had to improvise. I guess this resisting technique isn't really new, but this is the first time I used cotton balls and dabbed the ink on rather than swirled like I did in this card. I used the dot stamp and new white chalk ink on the brown cardstock, and I like how the white isn't as intense as when you use white embossing powder. I used some scrap ribbon to finish off the card. This card was inspired by CPS's #182.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: StazOn in Jet Black. Colobox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Amber Clay, Olive Pastel. VersaMagic chalk ink in Cloud White.
Stamp: Hero Arts Cling Dots (polka dots), Inkadinkado- Autumn Foliage (leaf)
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch

Song of the day: "You Make My Dreams Come True"- Hall and Oates

Jennifer McGuire's Classes

Hooray, the day is finally here! Today, I took two classes taught by Jennifer McGuire. The first one was called "Color Your World," and the second one was "Winter Wonderland." Wow, what an opportunity! :) It was a day filled with cardmaking and learning new techniques from an experienced cardmaker. This was my first time using any sort of Tim Holtz distress ink, Hero Arts chalk ink, Hero Arts shadow ink, pearlized water, sponge dabbers, etc. I can see how those inks can be addicting. Like I need another crafty thing to be addicted to! Here are some of the cards that I made today (out of the like, 15 (?) that I made today), and also a picture of me with Jennifer at the end of class.
The class was done at A Happy Stamper, located in Northern Virginia. I hadn't been to a local scrapbook store before, since the ones that are close to my house are the chain stores like Michaels and A.C.Moore. Wow, it was like a cardmaker's heaven (well, duh, kinda goes with the name of the store)! They had such a variety of inks and stamps. If I won the lottery, that'd be one of the places I'd do a shopping spree at. I'd give into my crafty habits and also support the local scrapbook store. Everyone wins. But since I'm on a limited budget, I got a full Colorbox Rose Coral chalk ink pad (because my cat's eye one is getting very dry), a VersaMagic Cloud White chalk ink pad (I needed a good white ink when not embossing with white embossing powder), and a Hero Arts Dots cling dots background stamp (because it's versatile). I had to purchase my items quick and bolt out of the store before something else caught my eye...um, liked everything in the Hero Arts Holiday 2010 line!

Oh, P.S. I won a set of Hero Hues Latte notecards! :)

Pizza Casserole and Display Update

Ok, I don't mean to be a Negative Nancy, but I figured I'd get that funk out of the way. A few weeks ago, I purchased some card displays for the upcoming craft show season. One of them arrived broken, so I requested a replacement. The replacement arrived today (3 weeks later, ::grumble::), and it was NOT in pristine condition. One of the areas that you put the screws was totally broken off from the rest of the shelf! I will do my best to remain calm when I give the store a call on Monday morning. I want my money back, since getting a replacement didn't solve my problem. Redonkulous. Honestly.
On a more positive note, I added a new dish to my food repertoire: pizza casserole. Yummm. I did some calculations and found out that the entire casserole cost me about $14.00 total. It's definitely a lot cheaper than getting something from a restaurant. I have to keep reminding myself that even though there's work that goes into making food, it's the more economical thing to do. The next time I make this, I'll put more vegetables in, but otherwise, I think it was a great first try.I'm taking 2 classes with Jennifer McGuire tomorrow! When I first signed up for it at the beginning of the summer, I thought "Oh, it's so far away." And now it's tomorrow. Holy cow, time flew by these last couple of months.

Fall-To Layout 105

Funny things said at work today...

• Co-worker walks by, pauses, and backtracks. "Tina, are you still talking about food? Do you talk about anything else?" Ummm. Well, it IS a frequent topic of mine and it just to happened that I WAS talking about food. I was having a conversation with another co-worker about vegan food (his wife is borderline vegan, and I was curious).
• Another co-worker was trying to convince me to jump into the home ownership pool, even though I have previously expressed my hesitation. "I'd love the independence. I can walk around butt naked if I wanted to..." I suppose the freedom to do that is nice, but I don't think it should be the #1 reason to buy a place.

Today was a great food day at work. Because it's the last Friday of the month, we get complimentary breakfast sponsored by one of the departments. This month, the Accounting department decided to get breakfast from Panera. Bagels and scones, yum! Then because it was the last day for one of my coworkers, her department bought cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes. I had a red velvet one, just like last time.

In true Friday fashion, I tackled clean&simple's Fall-To Layout (#105). I don't think I followed the sketch exactly since the sentiment was supposed to overlap the images on the lower left corner, but at least the elements are where they should be. The rhinestones were added to give the card some dimension. I decided to test out a white gel pen that I bought last weekend, and I liked the card a lot more after I added the faux stitching.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Deep Green, Warm Red
Stamp: Studio G (sentiment), SEI- Winter Song (deer, trees)
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Punch: Fiskars Scalloped Sentiment border punch

Punched Circle Flower

Today's strategic planning meeting went superbly well, I was so happy at the end of the day. Yes, this is possible, even though I came away from that meeting with a huge to-do list. You should see my notebook. There are a bunch of items with a circled asterisk. That's my symbol for "this needs to get done by you." BUT at least there is a plan of getting things done, and anyone who knows me knows that I work much better when there is a plan. I even contributed a few things to the meeting, rather than just sitting silently. We all went out to lunch to a Thai place...I got pad thai with chicken. Yum! The cookies I made yesterday were all gone by the time I went into the kitchen at lunch time. Only the crumbs remained. Good thing I saved a few at home.

For tonight's card, I was determined to use some purple circles that I punched out originally for this card, but ended up not using. I arranged them in a slightly overlapping fashion and created a flower. I also had a small yellow flower from the last time I used my Tim Holtz die so I tacked that on as well. I wanted to add some texture to the leaves, so I used my Cuttlebug embossing folder. The card needed a butterfly to go with the flower so I stamped one and cut it out. I could have just put it straight down with foam adhesive, but decide to fluff up up the wings with some glue dots instead. The sentiment went on last with the help of a Stampamajig. It takes the guessing work out of "Will I be able to stamp this wood mounted stamp on straight?"

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Prussian Blue, Blue Iris
Stamps: Studio G (all)
Paper: Recollections Basics- Purple Damask
Die: Sizzix- Tim Holtz Alterations Tattered Flowers (flower)
Punches: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, EK Success Circle punch (1 3/8 inch)
Embossing Folder: Cuttlebug (Victoria)

One-Layer Wednesday #17

Leftovers at work, Day 2. Today was sandwiches from Panera. There was enough food ordered for about 15 people, but most of them left around lunch time to catch a flight. Well, we wouldn't want the food to go to waste, right? My loot today included eggs and sausage (from the morning) and a 1/2 roast beef sandwich, salad, pickle, chips, and 2 pieces of French baguette from Panera. Score! I declined a cookie (shocking, I know), but then when I changed my mind, they were all gone. Oh well. Hmmm, what to do. Ah! I know. Make my own. So that's what I did tonight. I made my signature peanut butter chocolate chip cookies, kept a few at home, and will give the rest away at work tomorrow. I feel kinda compelled to give back since I was quite the moocher today.

I revisited the One-Layer Wednesday challenge this week (#17). I haven't been in about 3 weeks. Oops. This week's challenge focused on border stamps. Hmmm. ::putting thinking cap on:: I rifled through my stash and found this shorter border stamp from an Asian themed set. I couldn't figure out what it was though. Are they berries? They kinda look like coral. I dunno. Anyway, I knew that they were the ones that I wanted to use tonight because I hadn't before. So, with 4 stamped images and a punched corner, the card was finished. I think the toughest part of the card was picking the non-sentiment stamp. Side note: awww, man. My rose coral cat's eye ink pad is almost dry. I might have to get the full size pad at some point...

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Green, Rose Coral, Prussian Blue, Creamy Brown
Stamp: Fiskars- Sentiments (sentiment), Fiskars- Asian Inspired (flowers)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper

All day strategic planning meeting tomorrow. I'm crossing my fingers that I can contribute something important.

Song of the day: "Praan"- Gary Schyman, heard from this YouTube video.