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Monday, January 31, 2011

Meet Me on Monday


1. What do you put on your hot dog?
Typically, ketchup.  On the rare occasion I'll have a chili dog but it is rare.



2. Do you play Sudoku?

Sometimes on the computer.  Almost never on paper.

3. What is your favorite vegetable?

Probably the inner part of celery, maybe an avocado (is that a vegetable?)  In the summer, corn-on-the-cob.

4. Do you color your hair?

Not until a woman old enough to at least be my mother, probably my grandmother, "asked" my son who was 1 at the time, if he was having a nice day out with his granny.  I was 37.  I wanted to kick her teeth in.  I'd thought about coloring my hair to that point but I found my first grey hair when I was 19, was used to it, and really wasn't feeling enough vanity to do it.  Once I did, I actually liked the results but always ended up VERY itchy from it even if it was the "organic" version (I have eczema.)  Then I had a full blown reaction to the coloring that left me looking like Two-Face from Batman for about 10 days.  That was over a year ago.  I'd like to give it another go- I have water-based coloring powder ready to go but just haven't gotten up the nerve to try it.  However, I've also gotten another "are you his grandmother?" question and I don't really want to LOOK like a 40yr old mother to a 4 year old so I think I'll try it in the next week or three.

5. What is your favorite brand of clothing?

Whatever fits and is comfortable.  Obviously this dress is neither but I just thought it was fantastic and had to post it.  Truly, I can't remember the last time I wore a dress.  Truly.  Maybe the last wedding I went to?  That would make it about 6yrs ago.  Now that I'm a SAHM, it's jeans, long sleeve knit shirts, capris, tshirts, short sleeve knits... I'm probably a candidate for "What Not to Wear."

Friday, January 28, 2011

2011 Organization Boot Camp- 4.2

Embellishment week wrap-up. 
I spent some time on this one all at once.  Sunday/Monday I spent an hour, hour and a half cleaning up what I have, resorting it, dividing it, combining it, etc. and generally getting it the way I want.  Tuesday/Wednesday I spent about the same amount of time labelling and finishing up.
The blue drawer holds button boxes, the decorative hardware box, my eyelet box, etc.
The small totes/drawers are:
Bling, Froo (butterflies, flowers, etc.) Boy, alpha/sent (alphabets/sentiments), val/hween (Valentine's/Halloween), Xmas, EP/Glitter, Embellishments (bits of twine, staples, etc- things that really don't have a home) and Misc (chipboard, stickers, rubons that don't fit in one of the other categories.)
One of the embellishment boxes, the one beside the val/hween and Xmas totes, holds brads, dohickies and other bedonkles.  Yes, those are technical terms.  ;)

Imagine.  This all feels usable now!  Wow!  Crazy!

Valentine's card for Tiff's challenge

I did this one based on a sketch on Tiffany Guam's site- just wanted to see what I could do with it.  It didn't go as quickly or as well as I hoped but I like the result.  The lighting on the first one is a bit odd and shadowed but I liked the light going through the vellum banner so I included both.  You can't see it from the photo but the inner white layer is spattered/spritzed not just with pink but a shimmery pink which gives it a nice bit of depth in person.
 

Duh.  I meant to add the sketch.  Duh.

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

Love Birds Valentine's Day Card

This probably qualifies as one of my favorite cards I've made.


It goes into these challenges:
Crop Stop: Challenge #3 Squares and Die Cuts:  The challenge is to create a square card or layout and use a die cut shape on it. 
The card itself is a 5.5" square and I used Spellbinders Nestabilities' Labels 3 for the two layers the birds are on.  Both the Very Vanilla and the brown DSP are embossed as well as cut but it doesn't show well.
The Sweet Stop: SSS92

Craft Your Passion: Challenge #42: Use 2 patterned papers
Claudia & Company: Challenge #72: Recipe: 2 sheets of dp, 3 buttons, 1 image, at least 1 piece of decorative trim
Craft Your Days Away: Challenge #12: Love
Aud Sentiments Challenge Blog: Challenge #20:  Love
Do You Stack Up: Challenge #3: Pink
Pile it On: Challenge #4: Love is in the Air

Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Online Crop @ Coordinates Collection THIS weekend!

The Coordinates Collection is having their winter crop this weekend.  I haven't participated in this one in the past but I think I'll try to join in this weekend.

Jan 28-30.  As they say, "We'll be posting challenges and games, with lots of fun and fabulous prizes to go around, so make sure you hang out with us that weekend."


All the details, challenges will be found in the forum though there really doesn't appear to be anything there yet.  However, you can see what's been done in earlier crops.
 
Hope to see you there!

Monday, January 24, 2011

2011 Organization Boot Camp- 4.1

Ok.  So this week's Scrappily Every After Organizational Boot Camp challenge is all about embellishments.  And now I have to fess up.  I expected this was coming, was irritated with what I had, and started early.  I know.  Goody goody.  :)

I had some embellishements (larger sheets of letters, rubons, etc.) on top of my cabinet.  Those are gone but I'm not going to show you where they are yet.  I had baggies of other stickers, chipboards, etc. etc. separated into themes (Boy, Bugs, Misc, Letters/Sentiments, Butterflies/flowers) in this blue drawer.  They're not there either.


You can see I still have an Embellishment drawer though and the box below of EP and glitter (they were in two containers until yesterday but they go together in my mind.)  Two nooks over (sorry, didn't grab the picture), I have a divider box full of brads, charms, dominos, etc.


 In my cabinet I have a tin full of paint chips (sorry Depot, Lowes & Walmart!), two boxes of buttons,  HodPodge Hardware box, a box below that of eyelets,

and card candy from online swaps I've been in on a shelf below. 

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Meet Me on Monday



1. What is your favorite kind of fudge?
Why are these always multiple-answer questions?!  There's chocolate peanut-butter, orange creamsicle, mint, GOOD chocolate with nuts, blah blah blah. 
1/25 Note: Quite a few people have commented about the orange creamsicle fudge.  It probably came from The Candy Kitchen in OC, MD.  However, it was basically a layer of vanilla fudge with a layer of orange fudge on top.  Not to hard to make probably.


2. Is there snow outside your window?
Nope. All gone.

3. What is your favorite meal of the day?
Probably a good breakfast... at dinner time.

4. Do you text on your cell phone?
Nope.  I barely use my cell phone at all actually.  Don't like it.  BUT I would like to get an iPhone to keep the Boy occupied when we're stuck waiting places.

5. Waffles or pancakes?
Again, tough one.  A good pecan waffle vs. a good blueberry or chocolate chip pancake... who's to say.

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Fantastic paper giveaway!

40 winners will each get a "NEW, UNRELEASED Tim Holtz & Ranger assorted Core'dinations pack."  There are two packs available.  One matches distress inks, the other Adirondak.

It only takes a few seconds to enter- worth a shot!

Friday, January 21, 2011

Two great blog candy giveaways

Here are two giveaways that are worth taking a look at:

Dawn's Crafts:
Dawn's having a great "Share the Love" giveaway... she does fab giveaways pretty frequently!


Skittles & Scrapbook's Blog Candy:
I'm not posting pix of this one because there are so many!  She's actually giving away prizes to 3 different winners.  There's Cupcake Lite Cricut cart, We R Memory Keepers Goodies, and a great lot of paper, rub-ons and other goodies.

2011 Organization Boot Camp- 3.3

End of week 3 wrap-up for the Scrappily Ever After Organizational Boot Camp!  As I mentioned on Monday, I was pretty happy with my coloring tools, they just needed to be tightened up a bit and some labelling done.

In the end, I moved everything out of the cabinet and into the drawer units.  I was going to keep all of my markers together but decided it would be better to make a drawer of the occasionally-used...
  

and a drawer of the frequently-used.  The nice thing was that while doing this, I discovered that some colored pencils I've had for YEARS (can you say they were my mom's?!) aren't just colored pencils but watercolor pencils.  WHOO HOO!  That discovery definitely broadens my watercolor pencil spectrum!  I've used them as colored pencils in the past but at the time, didn't even know they made watercolor pencils.  I got the WC pencils I have now WAY back in college and didn't use them much until the last few years.  I've often regretted not having more colors but didn't want to get more coloring tools when I already had what I do.  Silly me. 
 

I also spent some time finally labelling the rest of my ink pads.  I knew it had been a while since I did the first batch but the Word doc I used was from '07.  A bit longer than I thought.  Definitely an improvement, esp. the non-SU ink pads that all look identical from the side.  Maybe I'll actually use some of them now!  Imagine!

Thursday, January 20, 2011

Play Day Pages

I tried something new this week.  A two page spread based off of three different challenges.  I liked two different sketches but neither one was going to house all of the pictures I had from one event so I thought I'd try both.  I also included items to meet a third challenge.  Overall, I'd say it met with moderately good success.

Here's the spread:
The challenges these pages are for are:

Better Living Through Scrapbooking-  January Challenge #2 (All of these are on the 2nd page)
1. Include an item from the event (a ticket stub, program, invitation, etc)- The play's flier, which was the only piece of paperwork I was ever able to lay my hands on\
2. include at least one stamp in your layout.  It's REALLY hard to see in the photos but the full 12x12 papers are actually stamped/rollered with SU's Hot to Dot wheel and VersaMark to help break up the solid backgrounds.
3. Include at least one hand-cut an item (flower, letters, etc.)  Nothing for this unless BigShot cut letters count and they're not hand cut
4. Use something metal.  I thought the enamelled mouse accent I've had hanging around for YEARS would be good here.  The color's not quite right but it seemed appropriate.

SEI's January Sketch:


My take:
Since this was an SEI sketch and the colors worked well, I incorporated some "Smarty Pants" mini-coasters on both pages.  I used SU's Glossy Accents on them as well as some punched cardstock circles to give them a bit more depth.  (Sorry to gray out faces and text but I haven't talked to my friend about posting pix of she and her daughter.)


Get Your Sketch On: GYSO #3


 My take
I initially tried to use the wavy shape in the background but I wanted to go with a circle to blend better with the first page and the addition of the flier really covered up most of the nuances of the shape anyway.  I added 2 more pictures and removed the title.

I've also entered it into Shannon's Sentiments #10 Challenge.

2011 Organization Boot Camp- 3.2

There was a bonus assignment this week.  We were supposed to put together a basket of seasonal items so everything is at arm's reach to make things for that season.  I put together my Valentine's things minus the paper.
It's something I've never really thought of doing because I tend to do more specific project work than an overall "seasonal" task.  I generally come up with a sketch and a plan of colors and embellishments and then gather only those items.  However, I want to give this a try and see if it's inspirational.  If nothing else, it reminded me of a Valentine's stamp set I forgot about and made me think of two punches in new ways when I realized I still don't have any heart punches.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Meet Me on Monday

or Tuesday as the case may be... again.




1. Do you like your ice cream in a dish, waffle cone, pretzel cone, sugar cone or cake cone?

Depends on the day and the ice cream and my money and where we are.  Surpise.  Not a straight answer.  Imagine that.  From me.  Typically I'll get a dish but I may get a waffle cone if I'm feeling REALLY wild.

2. Do you read the newspaper daily?
Hardly.  We used to get a Sunday paper for coupons but don't even do that any more.

3. Marinara or meat sauce?
Meat sauce though honestly, I'm just not a big fan of Italian.

4. Last time you cried?
Sunday.  You'll have this.

5. What word/phrase do you find really annoying?
I like Java's answer- Yes Ma'am because I don't want to be that old.  There's one I don't find annoying but I just don't get- a Jersey thing- "not for nothing."  huh?

Cute giveaway at Momsense

Do you have a baby gift to give or someone you'd just like to baby?  Momsense in NJ (don't let the name fool you- you don't have to be from NJ in any way to get something from this site!) is giving away a VERY cute pair of "Baby Cupcakes" from Sweet Cheeks Baby Boutique.  Entries are VERY low so she'd love to see you enter and you have a good chance of winning!

2011 Organization Boot Camp- 3.1

Here we go on the 3rd week.  I'm still quite happy with where my room is right now.  I just finished my glitterbird card and my workspace is almost completely clear of any left over detritus.  Yay! 

So this week, we move onto cleaning up our coloring tools.  Mine are pretty well organized BUT that organization is a bit scattered across the room.  Unfortunately, I'm not sure if I can change that much due to the space I have to work with.

My Copics are on my worktable in a container in a storage bag.  I'm going to get a Copics divided storage unit this weekend if the shop I'm going to has them.  I'd like to store them on their sides rather than standing up so nothing dries out.  There's also my sole bottle of Glimmermist at the end of the bag.

I keep what I can in one of my storage drawers.  These tend to be my more frequently used coloring tools- fine Sharpies (will likely move with the rest of the Sharpies), chalks, watercolor pencils (LOVE these), Plume pens, small containers of glittery paint, etc.  I would like to go through this and figure out what should be here (if anything) and what should be in the cabinet.

The container on the next shelf down has all of my acrylics and paint brushes in it.
There's a shelf in my cabinet where I have my larger Sharpies and watercolor crayons (LOVE these!!).  They're just too big to fit in the drawer with the other items.  I also have pastel chalks, colored pencils, crayons, etc. in the pink basket.  I don't use them often and actually plan to give them to my son eventually.  For now, I keep them there to protect them from him (he's 3) and keep them together and organized.  They are used ocassionally.

My ink pads are in an old cassette rack.  1. it works well though they're a bit long to fit perfectly and 2. these made for a good reason to finally part with all of my 80's cassettes that I wasn't doing anything with last year when I decided this is how I wanted to store my ink pads.  :)  There are a few on top that won't fit in the shelves.  I do need to go through and finish labeling my ink pads.  I've gotten quite a few more since I last did that exercise and there are quite a few non-SU ones that I can't even guess at the colors unless I pull them out.


Glitter bird card

I'm trying to enter at least one challenge a week this year.  This one goes into 4.  Not bad for one card.  I know some people manage to make one card fit like 8-10 challenges but I'm quite pleased with 4. 

The pix aren't great but there's no natural light today to speak of.
 

There's not much difference between the shots but the first is a bit more true color-wise while the second allows you to see the bird a bit better.

Challenges:
Glitterbabe's Challenge 27: The bird is a Glitterbabe image (I hope it's ok that I cut the stars off from around the bird.  I originally had them but a snafu required their removal.)  The bird is 100% glittered (except the legs) and the dk. blue paper actually has a fine sparkle to it.  I'd love to tell you what paper it is but I bought it at a vendor night from a woman who had repackaged everything and was just selling unlabeled packs of this stuff.  Wish I'd gotten more!  I also glittered the purple flower brad.


Moxie Fab's Jewel Tones color challenge.  Use nothing but these four colors.  While I don't have any Bazzil paper, I think I matched pretty closely.  This challenge is part of the celebration around Papercrafts "Colors Inspiration for Card Makers" release.


Friday, January 14, 2011

2011 Organization Boot Camp- 2.2

As I mentioned previously, this week was all about cleaning up our paper stash.  Since I'd already started that last week, this week was a matter of details.  I reorgainzed it all a smidge more, incorporated the SEI and Abbey Road papers I received, and redid some of my labelling.  I didn't do too much with the scrap box except to make sure what was there should be.  It's worked very well the way it is and I haven't come up with a better system so I'm leaving well-enough alone for now.




There was also a daily task yesterday of cleaning up our workspace again. I've been trying to be better about that on a daily basis- when I'm done a project, I clean it all up and start from scratch for the next one. It tends to only take about 5min but make a huge difference in the overall sanity of the room.  This before picture is the morning after I finished the 9 circle layout, ink, paint and all.


Before (can you tell where I had lunch?):
A few minutes later:

Thursday, January 13, 2011

One Little Word- PreWork & Jan

I guess after talking about the One Little Word class, it would be remiss of me not to post the work I've done with it. 
The first page is "just" a title page. 
The 2nd is a self-portrait taken specifically for the class.  I was lucky on this one.  I couldn't come up with any good timer shots I liked so I wasn't sure what I was going to do.  I happened to be taking pix of my son while sitting next to a mirror and realized that I was fully reflected in it and actually liked the way I looked.  Voila. 
The 3rd page is a descriptor of our word.  I wasn't able to get my hands on the page protectors suggested for the class in time and didn't feel like paying a load for shipping so I did what someone else suggested- sewed my own.  I just used a 8.5x11 protector and sewed in the divisions I needed and then cut them open at the top with an exacto blade.  I like the look and the fact that the thread can be changed to work with the page if desired.

What the Mailman & FedEx delivered today

I finally received my SEI order- it was caught up because of the weather.  However, I think it was worth it.  I heard the other week that they had a good clearance sale going on and went to check it out.  Turns out that some of what I looked at when at CKC this past summer was on sale now.  With shipping, this was 26.40.
Considering among other things I got 2 packs of paper that were selling for 19.99 ea. at the show, I'm pretty happy with the haul.

I also picked up some cheap stuff from Scrapcastle this week.  Turns out Mind's Eye's Stomp line is being discontinued (sorry, no pix on this one) so I got a bunch of paper and accessories for about $17 with shipping.

Finally, to go with my One Little Word class, to keep it in sight, I ordered a pendant from The Vintage Pearl.  It really doesn't curve as much as it looks like in the photo.