Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Gold Embossed Christmas


A little gold embossing ... one more card for Christmas.   (I will buy many of my cards this year and not worry a bit about it.  I'm not letting this hobby add stress to the holidays.)


Using a panel helps with the slight warp caused by the heat of the embossing gun.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Stamping is Good

Supplies:

Stamps:  WPlus9 Holiday Greetings
Paper:  Neenah Solar White
Ink:  Versmark, Colorbox Fireberry Archival Dye (this ink stains clear stamps)
Other:  Gold embossing powder, Faber Castell Big Brush red marker and SU green marker




Sunday, October 27, 2013

Christmas Bells

Fun coloring this gorgeous image from Flourishes.



Close up of the little bells....



MOOD WHEN DONE = Happy with the card.  Wishing I could squeeze just a bit more time to stamp! Looks like I may be purchasing some Christmas cards this year.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Flourishes Mistletoe and Holly
Paper:  Inchie Arts ATC and Flourishes White
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo
Other:  Copics, Ranger Glassy Accents; Iridescent Cord, Bells, Micron Black Marker (hand drew the border)


Saturday, October 26, 2013

Trip to Maine

We went to Portland, Maine for a few days in August.  Had a great time.  Here are a few pictures from that trip.













MOOD WHEN DONE = Thinking about our next trip!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Monogrammed Wreath

Totally stole this idea from Miss Amber at Damask Love here.  Thank you talented person!  Here's my super simple version (more versions to follow...)


And for those of you who prefer the "upright" version...


MOOD WHEN DONE =  Pretty good!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Clear and Simple Build a Wreath Winter and Alpha Monograms, and PTI Men of Life (chain at the top)
Ink:  Versamagic and Ranger Archival Jet Black
Paper:  Neenah Solar White
Other:  Ranger Stickles (on the berries), Black marker to outline the top layer

Monday, October 21, 2013

Gold Embossed Hello

I got hooked on stamping after I saw how embossing works.  And I still love it!



MOOD WHEN DONE = impressed I can stamp an even background....

Supplies:

Stamps:  Simon Says Stamp Best Mom Ever and Papertrey Ink Embroidered Blooms (sentiment)
Paper:  Cream cardstock (unknown)
Ink:  Versamark and Versamagic Pixie Dust (pink)
Other:   Gold embossing powder, gold and cream twine

Sunday, October 20, 2013

It's Coming....


Susan's post on holiday planning and keeping it simple prompted me to share a bit of what I've been up to.   Some Christmas card successes, and some not so successful!  The snippets above of 3 cards are an example of a good idea still waiting to succeed.

And now I'm off to see Helen Fielding, the author of Bridget Jones' Diary.  Should be fun!

Saturday, October 19, 2013

Inky Mouse

And by inky I mean -- Distress Inks, Archival Ink, Copics, Watercolor Pencils, Prismacolor Pencils, Gold Encore Ink, Distress ink mixed with Glossy Accents, Faber Castell White Brush Pen, and Water.  All that is missing is the partridge in a pear tree...

One of my favorite things to do is spend a few hours making an inky mess.  I've missed this.



MOOD WHEN DONE = Inky, Colorful and HAPPY

Supplies:

Stamp:  House Mouse, Impression Obsession Screen and Hero Arts (sentiment)
Ink:  (see above)
Paper:  Inchie Arts 2" x 3" mat, Mat, Memory Box Poppy Card, Amuse Studio green
Other:  (see above), paper towels, sponge, mist bottle, paint brushes

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Gray and White Thanks

For the past few months, I've been part of a local Stampin Up monthly club.  Great way to meet local stampers.  Decided to sample a photopolymer set from Stampin Up.  Quality is not as great as most of the companies I buy from -- Waltzingmouse, WPlus9 etc, but they stamp great and are priced well.



MOOD WHEN DONE = Well, that is complicated.  I am very glad the furlough is over, and am trying to get back to my normal schedule.  Going to take awhile to shed the #$%^!.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Stampin Up Another Thank You
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Neenah Solar White and Paper Source Slate
Other:  White embossing powder, red prismacolor pencil



Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Sweet Birthday

Needed a birthday card and here's what happened.





MOOD WHEN DONE = Happy to be stamping again!  Hope it lasts.

Supplies:

Stamps:  WPlus9 Sweets and Treats, Impression Obsession Diagonal Stripes, and Papertrey Ink Mini Blooms (sentiment)
Paper:  Neenah Solar White
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo
Other: Copic markers, black and white twine, Ranger Stickles, Clear and Simple Stamps A2 envelope die, Paper Source envelope

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Five Guys

Everything I'm writing here is 100% true except for the names.  I may have written about this before in my old Paperlicious blog.  I'm not sure.  If you are a long long time reader of mine, and read something similar before, I apologize.

My twenties and early thirties were interesting, meaning I could sell the rights to those years to the Lifetime movie channel.  (At first I wanted Sally Field to play me because she is so cute and could fly and all that.  But then folks might confuse me with Sybil.)



After getting through the muck, I woke up on New Year's Day 1988 a relatively sane and healthy woman and decided it was time to jump start my social life.  My resolution for 1988 was to date 5 different guys.

Tick. Tock.

By February I had managed to attract the attention of Ralph, a lawyer in my office.  He was a bit of an old soul, but essentially quite nice.  After one Thai dinner, Ralph asked me to lunch.  Woo hoo, a second date.  He told me that dating a coworker was a bad idea and that was that.  Rejected!  Hey, buddy, you started this..... but thanks for being Guy #1.

So March, April and May came and no numbers 2 - 5.

Tick. Tock.

Back then we had something cool called magazines and E Harmony was just a mish mash of musical terms.  To put the times in context, here is a picture of the car I drove back then:


So there was no internet dating.  Instead there were the "personal ads" in the back of these magazines like this:

M/W/M iso of ? with S/M/D/W/B/A/W Daytime only.  (Translation:  Married White Male in search of a lot, but certainly not lunch, with any woman at all --  single or married or divorced or widowed; black or asian or white.  I'm busy in the evenings with my wife and kids so don't even think about anything more.)

Yuck.   But there were other ads from supposedly single men and women looking for true love.  A typical ad from a "normal" guy would read:

S/W/M, loves dogs, ISO of LTR with S/W/W under 40 for walks in the park, dancing in the rain and cuddles in front of a fire and who knows where it will all lead. No fatties.  (Translation:  50 year old white guy thinks he wants a 25 year old white woman for a long term relationship but really can't commit and there is absolutely nothing wrong with the fact that I live with my mom. Must be very thin.)

I mean really, what was I supposed to do?

So I took out my own ad:  Pretty happy SWW ISO of a nice guy 35 - 45.  Commas cost money back then. Let the nice guys figure out whether I meant that I was pretty and happy, or almost happy.  I paid for the ad to run one month and for the magazine to provide a mail box.  The magazine agreed to send all responses to me in bunches once a week for 4 weeks.

So I waited.  After two weeks of publication, I got a manilla envelope from the magazine with 37 responses.  I set them aside unopened and waited the full 4 weeks.  And then I had a party.  I invited all my girlfriends over for brunch and we opened each envelope and took turns reading aloud all 128 of them.

A few shockers:  My friend Chris opened a letter and and screamed, "OMG this is from one of my clients.  He is creepy and going bankrupt."  And then she tore up his letter so we never learned his last name. Chris for the win!   Then Angela opened a letter and shrieked that it was from her husband's best friend, George.  Well, isn't this interesting...

George was Guy #2.  Dinner.  Another lawyer.  He wanted to know my I.Q.  Goodbye George.

My friends and I had selected only George and one other guy as possible dates  Picky bunch.

But Guy # 3 turned out to be someone I had met years earlier.  I bumped into him on the subway one day and we exchanged numbers and met for lunch and dinner a whole bunch of times.  Nice, but way older than I (James was probably 48 - 50 but at the time he seemed really old).  He wanted a serious relationship; I wanted to be friends.  Good bye James.

Guy #4 was the other ad responder who had been hand picked by my friends.  Larry said he worked for an advertising agency or a company that sold water bottles -- I just can't remember -- but he had a job and a car and said a few things that were not disqualifying.  He included a picture.  Not bad at all.

I met Larry at a restaurant and had a great time.  I accepted his offer for a second date and gave him my address.  Apparently that was "clue number one."  He picked up me and we had dinner and a movie and came back to my home.  I invited him in for coffee.  "Clue number two."

Larry wanted more than coffee.  When I demurred, he told me that I had sent a lot of signals -- see clues #1 and #2 above, and proceeded to try and enjoy himself.  "What did you think, inviting a virtual stranger into your home?  I could be a r**p*st."

Oh.

Out of nowhere I reached into the recesses of my brain and demanded to know if he had seen Fatal Attraction.  



Quietly I looked him in the eye and told him "Leave now or I will become that woman in Fatal Attraction and spend the rest of my life destroying your life."

Tick.  Tock.  Seconds of pure terror, and then he got up and left.

By then it was September and I decided there was no need for a Guy #5.  Single was awesome.  Do I what I want when I want.

Then in November 1988, at work, I ended a phone conversation with a particularly difficult person, noisily hung up the phone and muttered under my breath, "Jerk."  Looking up, Guy #5 was standing there looking for my office mate.

Hmm Guy #5 was cute.  So I thought about it and married him....



Saturday, October 5, 2013

Celebrating World Cardmaking Day with a Gift Set

This contains everything I love about stamping:

a set
pretty colors
paper, ink and stamps and not much else



A few pictures of the contents




MOOD WHEN DONE:  Happy, Colorful, Coordinated, Furloughed

Supplies:

Stamps:  Cards:  Impress  Rubber Stamps Big Bold Bloom Combo and Confetti Dots and assorted sentiments (Avery Elle and Hero Arts); Tag:  Clear and Simple Stamps File It: Stationery
Ink:  Hero Arts Charcoal, Pale Tomato and Cornflower and Versamagic Thatched Straw, Pink Grapefruit, Pixie Dust and Sea Breeze; Tag:  Ranger Archival Jet Black
Paper:  Neenah White Solar and Kraft
Other:  Kraft box with clear top from Etsy, Pink and White Twine

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Before and After: Gold Striped Christmas

Christmas season is here (well, in my craft room)....

The holly on the first two cards? Too light, too spare, and the leaves were too far apart.  Plus a bit of the glossy accents seeped out under the holly leaf.




So I added a few extra leaves in a darker color for more contrast.






And now I am happy.

All that gold.

And stripes!

MOOD WHEN DONE = Golden, in a furloughed pre holiday way

Supplies:

Stamps:  Technique Tuesday Jingle All the Way
Ink:  Colorbox Archival Dye Fireberry
Paper:  Neenah Solar White; Paper Source envelope; Pink Paislee Luxe Metallic Collection; random greens; red berries are white paper colored with Fireberry ink before die cutting
Other:  Clean and Simple envelope die; Memory Box Mini Holly Leaves die; paper trimmer, adhesive