Malamutes and Dragon Flies

I have a rule that I only buy stamping supplies that I like. They have to be something I would use myself on a card to send to someone. Why? A wise person once asked me what I would do if I bought stamps I did not like, then made cards with them, then the cards did not sell. I'd not only have the stamps, but I'd also need to store all the unsold cards. Uh-huh. Good point.

So over the years I have been pretty good about what I buy. Oh, I will definitely buy a snarky sentiment to put with one of the lady stamps I have, but that is because *I* think it's funny. I still hope it sells, but I made it because I liked it.

Last week I broke my own rule of not buying a stamp JUST to use on something to sell. I was asked (ASKED - someone INVITED ME) to do a craft show in Virginia. I (graciously) turned it down because it is across the river, and with that pesky Day Job and all, it sounded like work. Plus I'd need to get a VA tax license which also sounded like work. I have enough work; don't need more. But she was persistent, stopping by week after week to taunt me, and I finally caved and sent in my application. And I was accepted.

A few weeks ago when she stopped by, she strongly suggested I have items with Malamute images, because after all, this was a Malamute rescue group and they'd buy anything with a Malamute on it. I do not own a Malamute stamp, so I called one of my customers who does dog shows, and asked her, and she did not have one either. So I BOUGHT one. Online. Paid the shipping. And the image is a beauty. This is the first thing I made with it:

A pack of note cards. I did not even put sentiments on them - just the dog.

I looked up the colors, and they are pretty much Black & White, or dark grey and white. Either way, this stamp is so detailed, I did not even need to color it. This felt funny - not enough work - so I colored the tongues pink and outlined them with my W2 Copic. I think I can whip out many packs of these before mid-November!

Then I moved on to my next victim: the Dragon Fly die. One of my market customers suggested I make some dragon fly magnets like my turtle and crab magnets, so I obliged.

I am not too crazy about any of these, so I am calling them Mock-Ups 1, 2 and 3.

This is the first one I made. I think I made the string circle a little too wide. The dragon fly wings have little circle punch-outs that I did not want to punch out, so I stuck a mini glue dot under each one and used that to stick them on. Then I colored the punch-outs with my Ziggy gold pen. Eh, not too exciting.

Second try. I made the inner circle a lot bigger, and this time I colored the dots with black. Eh, I still think it is boring.

Last try tonight - copper wings! Okay, better, but I failed with coloring the punch-outs. I need to use a different pen or maybe glitter pen on the brushed copper card stock. Or maybe plain string.

So, yeah, these need work. Maybe blue is the wrong color for the top two circles. I might switch to green. Mmmmm .... green .......

In other news, I AM ON VACATION!!! Okay, it is a staycation, but I am not going to work for TWO WEEKS! YESSSSSSSSSSSS! But I will be terribly busy, doing all those thing one cannot do in 2-hour chunks after work, or crammed into a Sunday, along with laundry and everything else.

I have bigbigbig plans, I do. I hope that I have better luck with this list of tasks than I do on a typical day off when I only get 1/2 way done. I plan to use this staycation as blog fodder, so you'll get to see what I accomplish. One of those items is to finish The Other Room. Yep - it is on the list! Oooh, I have been looking forward to this for ages ... I am sooooo ready!

Tomorrow we are having a pot luck at our market. We usually wait until the last weekend in October, but some of the people will not be here then, so we set it for tomorrow, instead. Well, the people that KNOW about it will participate. Not everyone was there last weekend, and some of them do not read their email. But the rest of us will be ready.

I am bringing: Poblano Poppers (not as hot as Jalapeno Poppers) and Panzanella, which is a veggie + bread salad. I made the salad this week for work and it was a hit. (Sadly I did not win the cook-off, but the salad was all gone, so it was at least loved by the Eating Team.) I need to get bread, so I'll just bring everything with me, buy the bread and a few more veggies there, slice & dice on the spot, and assemble real-time. I spent some time this evening cutting up things like olives, onions, peppers, etc., and made the dressing. All set. Now all I need to do is get up at O'Dark Thirty to make the poppers. Man, is this place gonna smell goooooood. ;-)

That is all for this evening. Thanks for stopping by!