Quick & Easy Card

This is one of those projects that finally got checked off my mental list. Back in April, I spied some very cool finger towels in one of my Dad's bathrooms, and, well, I stole one. They're just fancy napkins, people. Sheesh.

So I had a paper napkin sitting on one of my "dump it here, you'll eventually get to it" tables, and I walked by it every day. Today was the day it got used. Lookie:

It's just a napkin, but do you now see why I needed to take it? Seriously gorgeous. Why did I wait until today? Well, because the technique I wanted to use involves plastic wrap and ... an iron. Digging into one of my closets to find my iron is not high on my list of favorite things to do, plus it was summer, and as you should all know by now, I don't do hot.

Today I decided to take out the iron and use it to iron two linen shirts I bought in the midst of a brain fart. Yes, they are comfortable. Yes, they are linen. Yes, they are cool to wear in the summer. Yes, they are machine-washable. Yes, they come out of the dryer looking like I slept in them. Actually, if I slept in one of them, it might look better than when it came out of the dryer.

ANYway, I had a plan: iron two shirts, then iron 6 napkin parts. I followed the instructions in this video from forever ago for the napkins. In 25 words or less, you use plastic wrap as the glue between the one-layer napkin top and your card stock, with lots of paper above and below to protect your iron.

I stuck the napkin to a piece of Very Vanilla card stock, trimmed it to fit a 5x7 card base, added a Soft Suede layer, and some twine (PTI) with a button (tessaann.etsy.com) for a spot of color. I may go back and add a small tag with a sentiment on it. I'm batting about 50-50 (can you bat 50-50? or is that .500?) with sentiments. About half my market customers say, "Oh, if it only said ..." or "... if only it didn't say ...", so leaving the tags off is just as good an idea as adding some, and it's way less work to not have to do them.

In other news, it is raining here. Not just any rain, but rain like Noah experienced where he had to build an ark. I strongly considered floaties for the Miata. And it's still raining. I don't know what we did to deserve this treatment. Even those hot-heads down the street in DC don't deserve the flooding the East Coast is getting this week. Seriously. But the good news is once it all passes on through, it's supposed to be a lovely weekend. Like 60 degrees lovely. Sweet!

That's all I have for you, except I might remind you to play along with us in my G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y. You still have a couple of days to enter.

Thanks for stopping by!

Blah blah blah

It is 8 pm and I've been home 20 minutes. There was an accident that closed part of the DC beltway, so all the side streets were clogged with bail-out traffic. It took me over 2 1/2 hours to get home. Before it got dark, I took the opportunity to not stress and I took some photos to pass the time. Here's one of note, which explains some of my stabbiness:

I took it with my phone to document the stupidity. I was in the process of turning right, and I'd begun my turn before the light turned red. See those two cars to the left? They gave themselves the right-of-way and turned left and fought me for the coveted partial space on that road. PITA.

On a lighter note, I am having a blast reading your responses to the question I asked last night for my G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y. (hee hee) You know me so well! Please remember to go back to that post and enter often!

I hope to have calmed down by tomorrow so I'll have something stampy to share with you.

Thanks for stopping by!

A G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y

As promised, I am finally getting to my 1000-blathery-posts-and-you-stuck-with-me-and-I-love-you-guys G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y post! For your (hopefully) enjoyment, I have selected the following two items from my stash:

A current Hostess Set from SU and a package of some DSP from Sale-A-Bration. Why these two particular items, you might ask? Well, let me see if I can explain ... um ... er ... I was a DIM WIT and ordered the same Hostess set in two consecutive orders. God, I need a keeper.

As for the paper? Well, um, I kept ordering and ordering in Jan/Feb and they kept telling me I'd earned another SAB set, and I already had the ones I wanted, so I got more paper.

Why do you want this paper? Let me show you!

It has houses!

... and MORE houses!

... and CLOUDS!

And because all the papers are double-sided, there are cutie-patootie petite designs on the backs, like this one:

So what could you DO with all this paper? I think they'd make wonderful Housewarming cards, or Welcome Home, or Welcome to the Neighborhood. What? You've never seen ME make anything with these papers? Well, er, that's ... kinda true. But I did open the pack to look at it! I DID! (The winner's pack is still shrink-wrapped, not to worry.)

SO, what do you have to do to win this stuff? All you need to do is answer a question! Easy-peasy. And that question is:

What is one of my pet peeves?

Seriously, you can only name one. Per comment. YOU CAN ENTER MORE THAN ONCE! YOU CAN! I have so many pet peeves, this should be stoopid-easy for my regular readers. For the rest of you - good luck! :)

Please post your entries to THIS POST ONLY. I shall consider all comments entered by 9 pm ET on Saturday, October 2nd. I shall select the winner by a totally unfair and subjective process that has yet to be decided.

So enter early and enter often! Let the games begin!

And thanks for stopping by!

Random Sunday

Today I bring you Random Sunday, mostly because I'm feeling random and unfocused. I've been working on a few things I thought I'd show you, then I may need to nap from the exertion. Seriously.

1. I finally made a card from the last batch of card parts left over from my September Stamp Camp kits:

I'm calling this my Three Amighosts. I'm also calling this a mock-up since I managed to mess up the alignment with the blue layer and there is no white border on the bottom. Pthth.

I got the idea to use the owl punch to make ghosts here. (She is way smarter than I am; it was NOT my idea.) I created "night air" by swiping my Vanilla Craft Ink pad across the Not Quite Navy card stock.

It looked blah, so I added a piece of orange taffeta ribbon under the sentiment. I'm pretty happy with it. Now I can finally use up the extra kit parts and put everything away from the Stamp Camp. ;)

2. I took a pic of the SUN, and I LIVED:

I also had dirt on my lens, and I got some refraction (is that the right word?), so it is not a great pic, but I GOT A PIC OF THE SUN! It doesn't take much to make me happy.

3. One of my tweeps wondered if I made any Christmas cards with just a tree on them. Well, yes, I have, in the past. Here is one I did several years ago. I went looking for the measurements for the squares, and I found this blog post, where she has an EXCELLENT tutorial about how to make them. Here is one I cranked out this morning:

(Yes, the whole thing is crooked, so it's a mock-up. Sigh.) The paper is from the remains of a parent sheet I got several years ago. The card base is Sahara Sand, and I used my largest oval Nestie to cut the opening. I still want to try adding glitter to the folded parts, plus I might add a Merry Christmas at the bottom like I did with the Halloween sentiment on my Three Amighosts card.

4. Bookmarks. I made bookmarks.

Forty-nine bookmarks (there were a few fatalities, or it would have been more). This is actually the end-result of many hours' labor, and I'll be GIVING these away. Truth. One with each Holiday Craft Show sale, and also with my online etsy orders. Now, if I maybe upload some cards to sell, that might actually happen.

5. A Farmer Mike epiphany. As I was sitting at my table at the farmers market yesterday, I made tassels for the bookmarks between sales. It was a slow day, so I made a LOT of tassels. 45 to be exact. I followed the video instructions to wrap the DMC floss around a piece of folded cardboard, tie the top, cut the bottom, then attach the binding around the threads.

Farmer Mike was watching me when I wasn't looking (and I can usually sense when he is hovering), and he said I was doing things the hard way. I followed his suggestion, and OMG, HE IS SO SMART! Allow me to share with you my new tassel-making method. Note: This only works if you are starting with a new skein of floss (are these things called skeins, or is that just yarn? Whatever.)

By the way, I took these pics at my farmers market table, which will explain all the plastic boxes you see. I told you sales were slow.

a) This is a new skein of floss:

b) Take off the wrappers:

c) Cut four pieces to use as your ties (just like you would in the original method):

Now this is where he stopped me. I was unwinding the rest of the skein at this step in the process to cut it in half and wind it around the cardboard. From this point on, I bring you Farmer Mike's Idea:

d) Take one of the ties and tie it through the already looped skein of floss:

Do the same thing on the other end.

e) Take the other strings and tie your bindings:

f) Cut the thing in half:

Done!

Since I only get two tassels out of a skein of DMC floss anyway, this was so much easier than the other method. I don't think things are as tight this way, but it's definitely an nice alternative.

6) A G-I-V-E-A-W-A-Y is imminent. Back when I hit 1000 posts, I promised you I'd give stuff away. And I will. I even have a clue as to what it will be and how I will do it. By tomorrow I shall have A Plan. Promise.

That is all my brain can handle today. I think I'm suffering from the fumes of cleaning supplies. Yes, I cleaned a little bit. I have a clean refrigerator, inside and out, and for grins I also cleaned the stove and dishwasher. I have clean stainless steel appliances. They don't actually "gleam", but I think they would if they could.

While I'm feeling domestic, I may fold some of these towels. And vacuum. Then maybe I'll stamp some more.

Thanks for stopping by!

Market Update

Well, it was SUPPOSED to be a glorious Fall day today, but it was still STINKING hot. Okay, not oppressive, but hot enough that we could whine about it, and that's what's important.

Let's get started, shall we?

First up: My standard first shot of the day - maters:

You can see my card rack over there behind the pole on the left. I get to listen to people drool about the veggies all day. ;)

Maters:

ACK! STILL with the okra:


Pattipan squash:

Roma maters:

Summer squash:

Zukes:

Cukes (or what's left of them for the season):

Sweet peppers:

Eggplant(s):

More eggplant(s):

HOT peppers:

Two ladies asked Farmer Mike about the hot peppers, and you could see the gleam in his eyes then he walked over to the bin to help them. He started with jalepeno and quoted the Scoville scale numbers to them. I chuckled.

Basil:

Some out-of-focus parsley:

Shrooms:

Lots and lots of Winter squash:

Farmer Margie still has some peaches:

Farmer Katie has these ... pumpkins:

Swiss chard:

Lima beans (gag):

Orange squash:

DOH! She still has cukes. Missed that. I hope she still has them next weekend.

Sweet onions:

She said they're PA Candy Onions. She warned me the oils/juice from cutting them is some of the worst she has ever experienced, but the flavor is sweet. I'm game, so I bought one.

The Fruit (from one side):

The Fruit (from the other side):

And cut flowers:

Let me warn you: I was sleep-deficient today, so I didn't bother taking any notes on what these fleurs are (past this first one, which we all know by now as "Monkey Balls"):

(hee hee) He did say it's a form of milk weed. Okay. Monkey Balls, Monkey Balls, Monkey Balls.

Please just enjoy these next few fleurs:







And because I could get closer:

..,. and these berries are almost in focus:


It's soccer season, so traffic and sales were slow all around. BUT, I made 45 tassels for bookmarks while I wasn't selling anything, so it was not a total loss.

I did manage to get a few "extra" pics for you. This first one doesn't quite qualify as a "What Not To Wear To A Farmers Market", but it certainly caught my eye:

And to leave you with an AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW, I bring you Joey:

A 6-mo-old Spaniel puppy. Look at all his puppy floof on his legs! So sweet.

That's it. I came home and die-cut 50+ bookmarks I'd printed a few weeks ago and finished attaching all those tassels. I'll blog about that tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by!