What I Did When I Should Have Been Cleaning

I love Spring. Isn't this pretty?!

These flower boxes were outside Angela's when I arrived this morning. Sigh .. I had to take a moment to admire their beauty, then I got over it and ran in to SHOP! And it was really, really good. I got some great stuff, which alas I cannot use until next week, because I am supposed to be cleaning right now for tomorrow's stamp camps. Hmph. I shall reveal my new goodies as I fondle them and maybe even use them.

But, as I cleaned and cut up and bagged the kits, I hovered over my stamping spot and made two more cards out of the Basic Grey scraps. Warning: Avert your eyes! Avert your eyes! There's more non-standard crooked fare ahead! Okay, you can look. :-)

This one evolved as I kept stacking up pieces until I made myself stop. All the scraps are from the Basic Grey 6x6 Blush collection. The largest heart was punched with my new SU Heart punch, and the smaller two were cut with my new Nesties. I added the SU Jumbo brads, well, because I wanted to, I guess. And that ribbon? Ah, I got it on a whim when I was busy justifying some online shipping a while back, and it has never been cut into until now. It is twill and it is yummy. No sentiment ... nowhere to put it.

And this one resulted from me playing with even more scraps, and I lined up all those skinny ones to make a panel. Then what to do, what to do ... I grabbed a left-over scrap pre-cut red oval and cut a smaller one out of a Vanilla scrap. The sentiment and flutterby rub-ons were left over from my Basic Grey card kit.

That's all the cards I could eke out and still get ready for my stamp camps.

Oh, before I go, I wanted you to see The Heap. It is in boxes and stored in the back seat of my car (no where else to put it). I told you this place was tiny...

Gotta go push around the vacuum and set up the stations and fold some laundry, especially the cat's nest sheets and towels on the Living Room chair.

Thanks for stopping by!

Am I A Bad Mom?

I bought a ton of food stuff for my boys so I could send them Care Packages (it's what Moms do for kids in college). I did not send them, because I was distracted in the baking aisle at the store and made them brownies instead. I sent them the brownies with some new socks as package filler. How much more 'Mom' could I get?

So now it is the end of the school year (my eldest has finals next week), and I still have these two Flat Rate boxes full of stuff. Just now I told myself I will not send these in time, so I rummaged through one of the boxes, retrieved a box of Breakfast Bars, and consumed one (okay two).

Am I a bad Mom?

S-O-R-R-Y

I wish to apologize for the shock I dealt some of you with yesterday's post. I know, it was totally out of the ordinary from my usual fare, and I probably should have warned you.

Oh, look, I did it again tonight! Hopefully this one is a bit more 'me' than yesterday's. Hey, it's all about using up those scraps, and the Basic Grey lends itself so nicely to this sort of card, I just had to go for it again.

And the s-o-r-r-y sentiment was NOT used because I was sorry about yesterday. Nope - it was because it fit in the space. It was only AFTERwards that I thought how stinkin' convenient it was that the sentiment matched my post title.

Lessee ... all the patterned papers are from the Basic Grey 6x6 Blush pack; the card base is SU white, as is the stamped panel; A Muse stamps; Copics to color; Nestability to cut the stamped panel; and ribbon from the stash.

And do you see that punched blue piece on the left side? I used one of my new Martha punches to make that. Not as easy as it looks, since it is not a border punch and I tried to make it into one. The first (failed) attempt is cleverly hidden under the top paper layer. AND, that fancy schmancy edge was supposed to be on the right side, but I mounted the top paper layer upside down, so I had to flip it over. Darned paper with an 'up' and 'down' pattern. Hmph.

Well, The Scrap Heap is all packed away in 1 1/2 boxes, and ready for Tuesday's Field Trip. So far the plan is for me to bring my Nesties and Cuttlebug embossing folders and dies, and I get to show #2 how it all works. The really funny part of this whole thing? First, the idea that I could teach her anything she did not already know about any craft known to womankind astounds me. But what's even funnier is she got her Cuttlebug before I did. She was out of town during the initial Cuttlebug frenzy on Splitcoast, and when we spoke I asked her if she thought I should get a Cuttlebug, and she hemmed and hawed and mumbled something that ended up being how she had just bought one herself, and she had had it shipped to my house (since she was not at home to take delivery). So *I* got her Cuttlebug, opened it, played with it, then ordered one of my own. (I am weak, remember?) She took it home and never used it. I get to blow the dust off of it to show her how it works. But, I also get to take hers home with me, since I am going to loan mine to one of my customers who is making her own wedding invitations. Heaven only knows what else #2 and I will get into, except I know we will be distracted by her new puppy. Yes, a new fluff-ball. Like I'll get ANYthing else done. Sigh ...

Ah, well, since it is Clean Sweep weekend, instead of focusing on making my kits and cleaning the tables, I plan to run a few errands in the morning, then head down to Angela's to pick up some, um, stuff she has on hold for me. Angela is such an enabler, and she just laughs at me when I ask her to talk me out of anything. Foul temptress. When I get home I will have MORE stuff to put away to get ready for my Sunday and Monday stamp camps. One of my projects (a bonus project, but still ...) is largely un-finished, so I have my work cut out for me. Hopefully, I'll come up for air before Tuesday. If I don't, have a great weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Something Completely Different

You are NOT in the wrong place. Nope. Crooked Stamper here, and I tried something a little different. Since I was still feeling the aura from that Basic Grey Card Kit experiment, I decided to take out one of my already-cut-into BG 6x6 packs to try my hand at mixing and matching.

Here we have papers from the Blush pack. We have the blue layer, a scalloped-edged brown piece (I used the SU Scallop edge punch for that) , a small piece of polka dotted paper (also scalloped), a pink flower strip, and a Nestie-cut piece of pink. Not too shabby.

That piece of lace made it onto the right edge because I tried to punch the edge, but since it has 48 layers (give or take a few), all I did was dent it, so it needed to be covered up. That lace was just laying on the table, so I used it.

About that white piece: I die cut it first and used a dauber to apply some Close to Cocoa ink before I took off the die (used it as a mask). I decided to break out my never-before-used Verve sets and see what I could use. The sentiment is from the Feeling Groovy set, and the image in the corners is from the Filigree Fantasy set. I inked them with Memento Brown, which may be my new favorite ink.

The jumbo brads are from SU, and I had not opened them until now. Lotsa firsts going on here! :-) At the last second, I stamped a little flourish image from the Filigree Fantasy set in the bottom left corner before I attached the sentiment layer on Dimensionals.

All in all, a total Stash card except for the base. This was kinda fun! I may need to make another one before the Clean Sweep this weekend.

Thanks for stopping by!

The Card Kit: A Case Study

Can you tell I was a Marketing major in college? Case Study? Man, that was a looong time ago.... So today's post is a collection of my thoughts, pros and cons, regarding the use of a Card Kit to make cards.

I have always resisted the Card Kit. Oh, they definitely have their place, like for beginner stampers, or for someone who really likes the whole 'put this here and you'll be done' aspect of a kit. Me? Not so much. To quote #2 when I told her what I'd be doing, she replied, "THAT'S CHEATING!" Exactly how I felt, too. So when I bought the two Basic Grey kits during my last rampage at Angela's, I did so with the understanding that I'd use the kit's instructions as a starting place, but I would make each and every card 'my own' by either adding something or switching it up from what the instructions told me to do. I am a rebel, so this was a perfect plan. Let's review:

Here is a (poor) shot of the kit package. Some of the cards are obscured by the labeling, but you can see most of them.
Following are my versions of each of these.

This one I call 'the birdcage' card, and I did not change too much. My ace photography skills cut off the right part of the card, but that part matches the directions. This one was just right and I did not change it. All I did was add the sentiment. They do include a lot of extra rub-ons, so it was not a real stretch to do this.

Ah, I totally changed this one, 'the butterfly' card. The instructions had every last bit of these parts clustered in the bottom right quadrant, and it looked too heavy for me, so (being a rebel) I spread it out a bit. Since I also have the 6x6 pack of the matching papers (surprise!), I took one of the brown dotted pieces and punched out some photo corners to add to the left side of the card. I like this one spread out like I have it way better.

This is 'the chip board bird' card, and I got totally radical by moving one of the yellow flowers from under the bird's chest to under it's tail. And I snuck in some ribbon.

As an added bonus, the dashed lines are drawn on both sides of the card, largely because I messed up. The pattern on the other side of the card (the one I started on) is not centered nicely, so when I went to add the chip board piece, it looked weird. I flipped over the card base and sure enough, that chip board looked great on the other side, so I drew more dashed lines. So someone will be getting a card where I decorated the back, too. (#2 would be so proud.)

This guy was another right-quadrant-heavy card, so I added the jumbo eyelet and some ribbon to add some balance. The jumbo brad also inspired me to put that piece of paper up on dimensionals, so all the pieces stuck to it also got raised up. This was okay until I attached that long green piece, and it was flopping in the breeze, so I put a skinny piece of dimensional edging under it for support.

This 'little hello' card I totally switched up. Again, they had everything (EVERYthing) in the bottom right quadrant. YOU CANNOT MAKE ME DO IT, so I didn't. That pink strip was supposed to be on top of the brown square, with the chip board flower on top of the whole thing. Nuh-uh. Once I spread it out, it needed something, so I added the small piece of ribbon and the left-over photo corners from the other card.

I actually made this card according to the instructions, largely because I liked it. I waited until I had all of the cards done, then looked over the remaining rub-ons and decided to add the white flourish and tiny butterfly in the green space.

I liked most of this one, except they had that chip board flower covering up that cool flourish-y rub-on over the bird cage, and I wanted to see the whole thing, so I needed somewhere to put that flower. I actually contemplated leaving it off, but the card did look empty without it. (Yes, I have a White Space issue, okay?!)

Once I moved the flower, there was that balance thing again, so I added a piece of ribbon. I also punched out two 1/4" circles, stuck them to the top left corner, and put some brads through them. I broke the Rule Of Three because they only had those two chip board circles on the bottom, so I used the same number of brads on the top. (Did you notice the printed patterns on those small chip board circles are crooked? Yep! Not my fault, this time! I do understand the challenge of getting a monster machine to exactly die-cut a pre-printed piece of chip board, I do! But still ... )

And lastly we have 'the Thank U' card. The only thing I did on this one was add the ribbon. HEY, I had a few feet of the stuff on my table, and in anticipation of the impending Clean Sweep, I used it, okay?!?!? Sigh ... Apparently, I also forgot to draw the dashed lines ... oh, well.


So what have I learned? I'll summarize for you:

1. Making cards with a kit is stinkin' easy.
2. Not having to think at the end of the day is really, really nice.
3. Making 8 cards without thinking is really, really nice.
4. Using a kit makes me fell dirty.
5. Using the kit made me think about what I could do to personalize someone else's idea.
6. Using a Basic Grey kit helped me to see that you can put weird papers together and it works!
7. I really should use more of my hoarded Basic Grey papers and mix things up a bit.
8. I still feel dirty.

I have another Basic Grey kit, but I may hold off until next week for that one.

Okay, that's it. Thanks for reading this far!

A Box and A Card

I think there is something wrong with me. Well, more-so than usual. I am usually horizontal by 9:30 pm, and this is the third night I have felt like I am on speed. I dunno what it is, and I am okay with it, as long as I do not drop some day around rush hour. That could be deadly.

So tonight, I went a little off-track in the stamping arena. A friend of mine who is a regular card-buying customer (who also happens to work with me) is part of a knitting & crocheting lunch-time group, and she wants me to bring in a box of cards so she can show them off to her fellow crafty pals and maybe sell some for me. (Isn't she nice?!) I just happened to have an empty box and since it used to hold envelopes, it will hold the cards nicely. But a plain white box, with an inventory sticker on the side of it? Nah! Let's see ... do I have any paper around here? YA THINK?! So I selected four sheets of retired Charbon paper from the stash in The Other Room and I did this:

Covered the box, I did! All four sides on the outside, and it is also lined on the inside, and I stuck a piece on the bottom, too! Used up almost the whole four sheets. Yay!

That sign is re-printed from the file I have saved from when I made my basket for Chloe's Coffee Shop - point & print. :-) I used a piece of scrap DS paper as a layer for the oval piece, then I stuck on some of my Hodgepodge Hardware. The ribbon is from the 3990+ feet of the stuff I have. It will not be missed.

I tied the ribbon around the box so it looks like it is holding up the sign on the front, but we all know it is not (holding anything). The sign is stuck on with Dimensionals, so the ribbon is actually just decorative. I never imagined I could actually get it tied tight enough to work like that. (I know me pretty well, I think.)

Nice seam, huh? Hey, I tried to match it and get it stuck down. I tried. At this point I am just happy it is not a dumb white box.

Since I am on speed, I decided to open my new Heart Nestabilities and use up a few SU DS paper scraps. This is what came out:

This card is loosely based on this week's SFYTT. And once again, it is 100% from The Heap. Yay!

I punched the hearts with the smallest Nestie in the bunch. The card stock and DS paper colors are Baja Breeze and Kraft. The circle sizes are 1", 1 1/8" and 1 1/4". The Baja Breeze circle is popped up, but totally not on purpose. I figured out that it disappeared into the same-colored DS paper strip, so I last-minute added the white circle, and since the Dimensionals were already stuck on, well, that's why they are popped up. Yeah, like I'd planned it. One of these days I am going to mess up so bad I'll create something fabulous and maybe get famous and be able to retire. Man, I crack myself up! I am so glad I take these things in stride and I just laugh a lot. :-)

PS: Did you notice: no ribbon! And yes, it is killing me!

I only have two or three more evenings before I need to get serious about packing up The Heap, so who knows what'll happen! Let's all be surprised! :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Heavy Metal

Heavy Metal music? Not in this house. But I did play with some Gold and Silver and Copper papers last night, all from The Heap. Hey, in just a few more days and I'll move on from this Heap thing, but for now, I'm on a roll.

It all started when I saw this card on SCS. In my mind I saw an Anniversary card instead of a Birthday card (I am always looking for ideas for Anniversary cards), which took me to Gold and Silver. So I checked The Heap, and sure enough, I had some Gold, Silver AND Copper in there, so I made these:

(Please pardon the awful lighting - The Heap is occupying my staging area, so I have been taking these photos on my stamping spot, sideways. Yeah, it looks like it too, huh?) So here is the Gold version. I used a Class A Peel sticker for the sentiment and a gold buckle from my stash as an anchor for the yummy SU ribbon.
Here we have the Silver version. I used another Class A Peel sticker (oh, look, it's crooked), and this time I used a Silver SU ribbon slide with the ribbon.

Copper Anniversary? Yep - Year #7. I only uploaded a small part of the card because I am sure you are sick of them by now. For this one, I had no Copper Class A Peel sticker, so instead I embossed the Happy Anniversary from SU's Hugs & Wishes set.

Aaaand, to totally break with tradition, I stamped something on the inside! This flourish is from the retired Noteworthy set, which I love, and it is also in the 'never, ever sell' drawer.


Moving on to something more dainty, I took the piece of 4 1/4 x 11 card stock I'd cut the other day and forced myself to make a dress out of it. I cut this one a bit differently to give me more room for the waist embellishments. I got smart this time with the collar and punched a circle followed by the next-size-up scallop with my Marvy punches (had to blow the dust off of them...they are so lonely). I poked the holes in the collar scallops with my paper piercer, which went much smoooother than the paper punch I'd tried, once (once was enough to convince me it was a bad idea). I punched both the waist piece and the bottom of the vellum overlay with SU's Eyelet Border punch. Did you notice I got two layers of ribbon on there? :-) Purple on top of green. And that purple flower on the collar is from my stash. I have hundreds of those plastic-y embellies in there, in many, many colors. They definitely qualify as SABLE.

Not bad for an evening's work, not bad at all.

Oh, I heard from the Farmers Market coordinator. I had asked her if we will have more farmers this year, because any more farmers will suck up all the space we crafters occupy in the pavilion, which means we'll need to have tents and set up on the lawn. Yes, she said there should be more farmers this year; that's the plan, anyway. It is a good thing for the market, even though we whine a lot about being kicked out of the pavilion and setting up on the lawn. Last year we were supposed to have more farmers, too, but they must have changed their minds, since we crafters got to stay under the pavilion. We are supposed to have one more farmer, another bakery (oh, just what I need!), and a guy who has grass-fed beef. Hmm, that's different, but oh, the possibilities for dinner! :-) I have a line on a tent from a friend who 'upgraded' last year, so I should not need to buy a new one. Sigh ... we really won't know what we've got until people show up (or not) the first weekend of May. We'll see. (It's almost Market time!!!! Yay!)

Thanks for stopping by!

As The Scrap Heap Dwindles

Hmmm, "As The Scrap Heap Dwindles". Could be a Soap Opera. Could be a new name for my blog. Or not.

I have officially been working on The Scrap Heap for a solid month now, and The Heap does not look any smaller to me. I am sure it IS smaller, since I have made about 150 cards in these past four weeks, almost all from The Heap, and if you believe in the concept that matter is neither created nor destroyed, then I'd say it MUST be smaller. It MUST.

So Sunday I decided that in order to make any significant dent, and to get rid of these papers that I once cast onto The Heap, the best approach would be to use large pieces of the stuff. No more of these small strips of paper for me, nononono. I'm talking double-sided card-stock-weight papers that would get cut 4 1/4 x 11 and made into a full card. BIG pieces. So let's see how successful I was, shall we?

I have seen several of these really cute dresses on SCS, so since I'd made a bunch of dresses last year during the Onesie craze, I started with that. I changed the shape of the neck (used a larger circle punch), angled the sleeves differently, added the vellum layer, yadda yadda yadda. (Can you believe that the word 'yadda' is not known to Blogger Spellchecker? Did you also know that the word 'meh' is in the dictionary, so it is a real word? Can you believe I am this full of useless information?)

This one was cut into the coveted 4 1/2 x 11 size card stock, because the inside is a light enough color for writing. The ribbon is from SU (so pretty...it's like cotton lace), I used the Swiss Dots embossing folder on the vellum, and used some Swiss Dot embossed white scraps to cut the collar and cuffs. I hand-cut the scallop on the collar. I suppose I could have looked for the next size up scallop punch, but, well, you know, that sounded like work, so it was just easier to do it this way.

This version is a 4 1/4 x 5 1/2 piece of the patterned paper stuck on a white base, and I made two of them.

I am particularly pleased with myself for that little white rose I used. I knew I had some in the stash, so I used two of them on these cards. Only 8 left!! Getting it to stay stuck was going to be a challenge, until I spied the needle and thread stuck in my work mat (see how convenient it is to never put anything away?!?!?), and I tacked the flower to the lace ribbon with the thread. You may kinda be able to see the yellow-ish thread stuck behind the lace.

I just think this flower is too stinkin' cute. The card will require additional postage to mail because of it (something I generally try to avoid with cards I sell), but I think this one was worth it!

Here is a strip of some dotted paper I have used recently, and while I cut one piece 4 1/4 x 11, I ended up using the part that was left for this card, and that big piece went back in The Heap (I was kinda sick of it). I wanted a horizontal image to cut all those dots, so I dug around in my stamp supply and ended up with the Classic Pick-ups set (which shall never, ever, ever be sold). For that fluffy ribbon, I cut off the selvage edges and just frayed it, then tied it together with a piece of linen thread. Still manly, I think. I put this one in my etsy store.

Next I tackled this piece of patterned paper. I cut three 4 x 5 1/4 pieces and was left with a few strips which I used on the next card.

I think that die-cut is perfect with this paper, and I think the time I first used this paper was with that same die cut. I think I still have it in my Market box, too, so of course it makes sense that since it did not sell yet, I made some more. Sigh.

I put a little bit of Stickles in the center of the die cut, partly because I thought it needed something, but mostly because I could.

Now THIS card has a story to tell. I started out innocently enough by cutting the brown mat and trimming the two strips of patterned paper to fit. Then I spied the punch-outs from the die-cuts I used on the previous cards ... I had 6 of them, and I started playing with them. I ended up with this 6-pointed design, and I really liked it! So I stuck it onto a piece of Vanilla and cut it out with my largest Nestie circle, and matted it with my next-to-the-largest Nestie scallop circle.

When I put it on the card, it looked like (get ready) ... the Ark in a synagogue, where they keep the Torahs. I could not get past that: a 6-sided star-looking thing ... two panels that look like doors or a curtain ... the circle mounted on top of the 'doors' ... I just could not get past it. So I did what the card told me to do, and I made it into a Mazel Tov card that someone could give for a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. (The Mazel Tov sentiment is from my PTI Mazel Tov set.)

Now I am all out of this pattern of paper - oh, darn! Sheesh, NOT! I am doing a happy dance, here!

Only a few days left before the Clean Sweep! Hopefully I'll be able to eek out a few more cards this week.

Thanks for stopping by!

PS: For the first time I am trying the scheduled posting thing to see if this publishes itself Monday morning. Fingers crossed here. Yes, I am always the last to the party .... ETA: Yay, it worked. I am such a Doubting Thomasina.

Netflix Made Me Do It

In a rare moment last night, I thought I'd sit still and watch a movie. I have three movies left in my Netflix queue, and I am getting serious warnings from them about adding at least six more, or else. Or else WHAT, I have no idea. I was not aware it was illegal to not watch movies.

So yesterday, disc 1 of 3 arrived from the series The Aristocrats. I opened the envelope and ... out fell the disc ... in two parts. Now most DVDs are in single pieces, at least if you want to play them, so my evening plans were now in a shambles. Thwarted!

Just look at this! Sigh ...












We all know I do not sit still very well, so I was forced to stamp something. :-) I took the opportunity to do something completely different, and I grabbed a new onesie punch I got a while ago. It turned out to be much smaller than I thought it would be (I really need to do a better job reading those measurements), so I had to thinkthinkthink like Winnie The Pooh and figure out a way to make it work. Blah, blah, blah, and I made this baby card:

All scraps, thankyouverymuch! The pinkish polka dot piece is a strip from The Heap, and it was tough to match! It is pink, but it has enough orange in it that it goes with none of the SU pinks. I ended up using Groovy Guava with a layer of white to help it blend. The sentiment is from the retired Riveting hostess set, and I used my SAMJ to get that circle to line up. I was just going to pop the 1/2" circle cut-out of the safety pin on a dimensional, but I opted to add the Build-A-Brad for a little more oomph. And I tied a bow instead of just a knot. FYI: I can only tie a bow if I turn the card upside down. Otherwise it comes out ... upside down. Apparently a lot of people have this problem, which is why most of my cards have knots instead of bows so The Ladies don't riot or something.

So what does a nice Jewish girl do on Easter Sunday? She stamps! And cleans the bathroom, and empties the dishwasher, and folds the laundry ... you know, Sunday stuff. My life just screams excitement, huh? Yeah, I can tell you are all jealous. :-)

Well, I'd best get moving. Thanks for stopping by!

National Limerick Day

Today is National Limerick Day, so, much as I did on National Haiku Day, I present you with a personal ditty I wrote waaaaaay back when:


There was a young lady of Ghent,
Who was looking in vain for a gent.
When none could be found,
She turned herself 'round,
And became the Mistress of Kent.


Hey, I was a kid, okay?! Actually, I think it is quite randy for an adolescent, don't you? And I did not even get kicked out of school!

Happy National Limerick Day!!!!!!!!