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.

Fall-To Layout #122

I received my very first issue of Paper Crafts magazine (January/February 2011 issue) in the mail today. One of these days, I hope that one of my cards is featured in it! It's nice to have goals, right? :)

Here's my take on clean&simple's card Fall-To Layout card challenge #122. The card design is intended to be long lengthwise, so either 3.5 x 6 inches or 4 x 6 inches. However, with those dimensions, it's difficult to find an envelope that size. Maybe a #10 envelope? I'm not sure. Therefore, I went with 3 x 5.5 inches. That way, this card will still fit inside an A2 envelope. I was having a difficult time deciding what to do with the embellishments. I wanted them to be the same shade of red as the border punch. I didn't have any Prima flowers that'd match, but I did have some cherry blossom paper punches. For a final touch, I added some rhinestones for some visual interest. I totally loving the red/pink/chocolate brown color combination.
Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch
Stamps: Fiskars- Romance (sentiment)
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox, American Crafts- A La Carte

Early Bird

Wow, I managed to get to the office at 7:30 this morning. In fact, I think I was the first one in today. This is a rarity, I promise you. 8:00 AM conference calls will do that to you. On the bright side, I was able to leave early and take a nice long post-work nap. It was awesome.

You know what's not awesome? Feeling sore the day after a run. You'd think that because I go to spin class frequently and use my leg muscles that'd I'd feel totally fine. But no. Unfortunately, that's be a wrong assumption. Well, considering I hadn't run outside in about a month, I suppose the soreness should have been expected.

Let's go back to things that are awesome: food at work. There was a presentation, and there was pizza provided. Yay!

Oh, another thing that's awesome (and then I'll get to today's card). Remember the homeless guy with the radio voice? Well, it looks he's gotten quite a few job offers to pick from now. He was even on The Today Show this morning and eventually reunited with his mother after 20 years. I almost teared up when I watched the video clip of him talking to his mother. It sounds like he turned his life around, go him! :)

For tonight's card, I thought back to this home decor challenge. While I don't have any lamp stamps, that doesn't mean that I can't a lamp image of my own. By turning a flower pot upside down, I created a lampshade and then I tacked on a vase as lamp's body. Ta da!

Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in white
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Warm Red and Prussian Blue, StazOn in Jet Black
Stamp: Inkadinkado (alphabet), Fiskars- Friendship Flowers (flower pot, vase)
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper, Fiskars Upper Crest border punch
Paper: American Crafts- Letterbox, Die Cuts With a View- Citrus
White Gel Pen: Inkssentials
Foam adhesive: EK Success

One-Layer Wednesday #35

SOMEone has been playing pranks on me at the office. Well, technically, it's the same one twice. I found my chair in the hallway instead of my office this morning when I came back from chatting with one of my co-workers. It happened again not too long after that. Of course NO ONE knows anything about it, and the IT guys and the administrative assistant insisted they haven't the slightest idea how the chair got in the hallway. ::eye roll::

I went for a run after work today! I can't remember the last time I did that. It's been a while, that's for sure. All the treadmills were being used at the gym after last night's spin class, so I told myself that I'd get a run in today. I managed to do 2.7 miles. This evening activity also gave me an opportunity to wear the new running vest (obnoxiously yellow for my safety) that I got for Christmas from Dad. I wonder if the vest had super powers. I felt like I was running faster than normal. Perhaps it's just a part of my imagination. Either way, I felt cool and official as I was running down the street. It felt nice to make a plan and stick to it. Going for a run was much healthier than my normal post-work activity: raiding the fridge.

This week's One-Layer Challenge (#35) focused on the color yellow. I was allowed to use other colors but yellow was supposed to be the focus of the card. I wanted to use my American Crafts Majestic stamp set, but I also wanted to think outside the box. What else could these swirly things be besides swirly things. Ah ha! Well, if I rotated the large stamp, it's kinda like a square. With a ruler and Sharpie, I made it into a house. The flowers in the lawn made it more like a home. I thought the congratulations sentiment stamp that I used yesterday worked for this card. It can be kinda like a "Congratulations on your new home!" card.

Card Specs:
Ink: Colorbox chalk ink in Chestnut Roan, Warm Green, Yellow Cadmium, Yellow Citrus
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stamps: Fiskars- Friendship Garden (flowers, leaves), Anita's (sentiment), American Crafts- Majestic (square flourishes)
Other: Brown Sharpie Ultra Fine Point marker

Tuesday Trigger: Winter White

In an effort to be financially smart, I went grocery shopping today instead of getting a sandwich at Potbelly. Roughly a week's worth of lunches and snacks is equivalent to just 3 roast beef sandwiches. Yikes, there's some perspective for you! Grocery shopping is definitely the way to go if you got the time. Mom even donated a coupon holder that she wasn't going to use to me so that I could get my coupons organized. With my club card and coupons, I was able to shave off $7 off my bill. Woot.

Here's my take on this week's Moxie Fab World Tuesday Trigger. It's a very elegant wedding cake that's embellished with lots of flowers. Time to take out the Cuttlebug for this project! I used some flower dies to cut out all the flowers used for this card. Some were adhered directly to the card base and other with dimensional adhesive. To give the flowers some texture, I used some clear embossing powder (difficult to see in the picture) and went over the edges with some Distress ink. I took this as an opportunity to use some of the pearl brads that I bought this past weekend for a sophisticated touch. As a side note, who'd want to eat that cake? I'd feel guilty eating it because of all the work that must have gone into it to make it look so fabulous.
Card Specs:
Embossing powder: Stampendous! in clear
Embossing ink: VersaMark
Ink: Tim Holtz Distress Ink in Antique Linen
Punch: We R Memory Keepers Corner Chomper
Stamps: Martha Stewart- Patterns (on flowers), Anita's (sentiment)
Die: Cuttlebug- Flowers (flowers)
Brads: Recollections
Foam adhesive: EK Success

Song of the day: "River Flows In You"- Yiruma. I heard this beautiful music during this Operation Beautiful video on YouTube. Click here to learn more about Operation Beautiful. Who knew that a simple Post-it note could make a difference in someone's day.

In other news, I hope that this homeless guy finds a job on TV or radio and that the gig at WNCI works out. His voice is amazing! I almost didn't quite believe it when he was first talking, but like whoa, it's for real.