BR#2 Was In The House!

Today was a good day. It started too early, but then it always does on Workshop mornings. This is my own fault, because I am a creature of habit, and I have a Saturday-night-and-Sunday-morning-before-a-workshop routine that must be executed in the proper order, or the Earth will topple out of its orbit.

The workshop prep starts the evening before. Speaking of 'before', take a peek at the condition of my tables before the Clean Sweep:

My dining room table. Alas, as most of you know, this is normal.

The small table that, until a moment prior to this photo, housed my latest Heap In Progress. Here it holds the Big Shot, the Mini Heap having been unceremoniously dumped into that box on the floor.

This is the long table just after I moved the Big Shot. It houses my Carl cutter there on the left, and all the makings for the cards I had planned for the workshops. Over on the right is my very elaborate (not) set-up for taking pics of my cards. Two boxes of wipes support a piece of Kraft card stock. Real fancy, I know.

I cut and cut and cut and ended up with these piles of card parts all in a row. They were collated and put into bags for kits. Then I set up the stations.

This is the 'after' for the Dining Room table ...

... and the 'after' for the long table. All ready for my Customers on Sunday morning. Then I crashed.

This morning I: cleared the dishwasher; washed the dishes in the sink and put them into the now-cleared dishwasher; cleaned the bathroom; took my shower; went through all the junk mail on the kitchen table and set up the Shopping Area; paid a few bills I'd discovered in the pile of mail; updated my customers' Frequent Shopper cards based on last month's purchases; and sat down to catch a few moments of nothingness before The Ladies started to arrive.

This is my workshop-prep routine, and it works for me. If I'd tackled that kitchen table last night, my whole morning today would have been a total mess.

And the cat? She couldn't care less. Although, she did show amazing persistence in keeping ownership of one of the folding chairs, forcing several customers to change their stamping plans. "No seat at this station. Okay, I'll wait." CATS! Hmph.

I had several new customers today. At first, being new can be a bit scary, but one of the things I really like about this stamping hobby is we ALL get along, like kindred spirits. Perfect strangers one minute start helping each other with projects, then they become bestest friends and start planning trips to the LSS or a stamp convention. It happens a lot, and I love how people just 'get' each other.

Not to discount what ALL my customers stamped today (you are all wonderful and creative and I love you!), but I must tell you that BR#2 made an appearance at this afternoon's session, and she always has something up her sleeve. Please pardon me if I gush, but it has been quite a while since BR#2 has stamped, on paper anyway, and it was fun to see her in action again.

If you'll recall, one of my few rules for my classes is that you can mix up the card any way you'd like with the materials I have provided. Some people turn a card sideways, or leave off the ribbon (Ack! I KNOW!), or change up the colors - whatever. That's the whole idea, after all, right? My card is merely a serving suggestion ... something to get you started. If you want to do the card exactly like mine - fine, and most people do. Then there's BR#2. This evening I wanted to show you a her mix-em-ups from this afternoon.

This was my example card, taken pretty much right out of the catalog (p 126). There are four parts to this card: Vanilla base, Dusty Durango layer, Kraft layer, and some stamped-and-punched circles on Vanilla scraps.

This is BR#2's creation - just a wee bit different than mine. Notice she even inked up all the edges.

In true BR#2 fashion, she stamped on the back of her card, too, because a card has four sides, you know, and the back is soooo neglected most of the time.

One of the other customers liked #2's card so much, she did her own version, too. When she was just about done, she was stumped as to where to put the ribbon (good girl, you know the drill!), and called out for help. Someone had the loop-of-ribbon idea, and the card was complete. I love it!

This is the inside of her card. I almost never do the insides, so I like to see them do this kind of stuff!

Next up is my serving suggestion for the Neighborhood wheel card, inspired by the card on page 66 of the catalog. I wanted to blow the dust off my Watercolor Wonder Crayons, so I thought this would work. It did, but (note to self) this card took forever for people to color. Probably not my best choice for a class project, but they had fun playing with the crayons. (What is it about crayons that makes us all kids again?)

This is the outside of #2's version of the card. It was done after she did the inside. The only color is the dog house (stamped separately and cut out). She also wrote the 'hello'. Who needs stamps?! :-)

This - THIS - is the inside of her card. This is a very elaborate alternative based on the statement: "I am not going to stinkin' color all of those houses!". She stamped them on the card stock I had included for layering, cut them out, and made them pop-ups inside the card. Did you notice the clouds and birds drawn to match the stamp?

Pop-ups ... I might have to try that one of these days. I actually did one, once, and it worked, but never for a workshop/class. Hmmm .....

Next, I thought this card was safe, but she changed this one, too, if only a little bit. This is mine ...

... and this is hers. (bad light, sorry) Remember how I struggled to get a sentiment to fit in the 1 1/4" square? This solves that pesky little problem - no sentiment! The square used in its place is actually the flip side of the green patterned paper. She also used the double-slot punch for the ribbon instead of tying it around the whole layer. BTW, she stamped the sentiment on the inside of the card. (There's that 'inside' word again. I might need to look into this phenomena.)

This was the last card she made, saving it for last because she did not plan to change it from my sample. HA! It started out with a no-tie ribbon alternative and a punched-out sentiment for some added depth.

Then, just sitting there chatting with another customer who was working on the same card, she started to fiddle with the punch and realized it would reach her sentiment, and a light bulb went off. I SAW IT!!! The room actually got brighter! (I kid ...)

She did this. Punched out the sentiment ...

... and stuck it on the inside of her card.




Okay, enough about #2. I just wanted to show you what happens when a person with way to much creativity for one brain, and way too much energy, is left to her own devices and gets to actually play with some stamps and pre-cut card stock. I only wish I could think like that. Or maybe not. Actually, I am not sure I want to be inside that brain. Okay, then I'll just hope some if it wears off on me. Just a little bit, though.

I have all the tables cleaned up and ready for tomorrow evening's session. A load of laundry is in the washer and just about ready for the dryer. I think I'll sit down and be a slug the rest of this evening.

Thanks for stopping by!