Nerdy

Hello Friends -

I use the  term  nerdy with affection, love and maybe to recapture it just a little bit.

I love the way this card ended up.  The paper is from Jillibean Soup's Atomic Soup collection.  The digi is from Tiddly Inks and her name is Gertrude.  I printed the beaker and flask twice on another piece of the Atomic Soup collection then I pop dotted one on top of the other.

The sentiment is computer generated.  I must have printed that sentiment a dozen times.  I couldn't get it quite the way I wanted it and then, once I got it right I realized it should be brown instead of black.  In the end, the entire thing came together the way I envisioned it.

We survived the trek north but it was just as cold as I feared.  The Wonderkid has now returned to being trapped inside.  We have a tent set-up in the living room and he runs up and down the halls of my 92 year-old Granny's "retirement village".

I'll leave you with some unique and interesting pictures.

This is a piece of artwork around the corner from my family. I've driven by many times but this morning I decided to stop and share it with you.  I remember when this area was all corn fields.  Now, you couldn't find a corn field (besides this concrete one) to save your life.  Here is the Wonderkid to give you a little perspective of the size.

Yes, he is a little guy but those are some big corn ears.

No, I didn't want to show you the shamrock on the top of the water tower.  That isn't so incredible even for someone that loves St. Patrick's Day.

Yes, I know you've seen water towers before.  Who cares, right?  Well, have you ever wondered what you can do with the bottom of a water tower?  I know my mind goes in strange directions and these are some of the things I think about.  In this town they turned the bottom of the water tower into a ...

Fire Station. I was hoping they would have these doors open

but no such luck.  Take my word for it, the fire trucks are back there.  Here are the windows for the bunk rooms and other living areas.

Without actual trucks, the Wonderkid was not especially impressed but he thought this would be a good place to be a fireman (His current career choice).

Do you have water towers like this in your area?

Some days are just good

Hello Friends -

Today should not be a good day.  I woke up way too early.  It was raining like crazy, the dog was freaked because of the lightening and thunder (he is the biggest scared-y cat you can imagine).  It just shouldn't be a good day but for whatever reason, its been good.

Do you ever wonder what makes for a "good day" or a "bad day".  Do you ever have days where you think, "I shouldn't be in a good mood but I am."  or conversely, "What do I have to be cranky about?"  I'll admit, sometimes good and bad days are in direct relationship to the amount of chocolate I have consumed.  However, I don't think this one is a chocolate induced good day.

I'm thinking it is partially a good day because this card came together nicely.  I was following a number of rules to get to this point:

Rule 1 - it must be a shape card without using an electronic cutting device (cuttlebug/sizzix/etc are encouraged).  I didn't even know you could do this.  I'm so lazy sometimes because I have my cricut.  I must say with all of the frustration and anger at Provo Craft, I think more and more people are going to be figuring out ways to make things without their bugs.  (enough of my commentary -- don't anyone burn down my blog because I said that).

Rule 2 - use a digi from Tidly Inks

Rule 3 - use the following picture as inspiration

This photo should have put me in a bad mood.  What would I do with this photo?  It has way too many flowers in it for my taste and I had the hardest time finding an image inspired by the photo.  I ended up choosing one used by Melissa on the Design Team something I normally don't do but what is a girl to do?

Since I'm still not crazy about my coloring, I paper pieced the scarf and the dress.  I also hated all of the white space around Chi (the character which you can purchase here) so I made my own design paper by stamping a small flower/leaf set all around her.  I also inked all of the edges because it just wouldn't look right otherwise.

The exciting thing, not only did I make this a shape card, I made it an EASEL shape card.  Now how cool is that?  I found a great tutorial on easel cards at the Splitcoast Stampers.  Any time I want to find a tutorial for a different type of card, I head over to Splitcoast Stampers, they'll have it.

I carried the paper from the shawl into the mat on the inside.  I also stamped Happy Birthday on the mat.  I think this one is going to my aunt for her 70th birthday.  It is tomorrow so it'll be a day or two late.  Saying she is 70 really makes me feel old.  When I think of her she is in her 40's or so, certainly not 70.  On the Birthday note, tomorrow is also Christy's birthday, the artist that made Chi and all of the other Tiddly Inks.  So, Christy, you can have this as your virtual birthday card.

Here is a side view of the card.  You can see where the folds happen.

And that is my project for today.

You know what else made me happy today?  The UPS man.  I have a thing for my UPS man, not physically or anything.  He is my very own Santa Claus but he keeps giving all year long. Today he surprised me with a box from Custom Crops.  Now, I don't normally do haul photos or videos they feel a bit icky to me.  Too much consumerism and not enough of the creative/art side of things.  However, this is making me very happy.

I received my Jillibean Soup order.  Almost the entire box was Jillibean Soup.  Who can't be happy when they get all that yummy Soup, especially on a rainy dreary day like today.  Don't you love a big bowl of soup when the rain comes pouring down?

Here is what I now have

This photo doesn't even show the new Strawberry soup and all the kraft goodies.  My Jillibean obsession has gotten so bad that I've now created a box with only Jillibean embellies, prior to this the only designer with their own box was Tim Holtz (it is easy to have a box of just Tim Holtz embellies).  I wonder if Jill (founder/owner of Jillibean Soup) would find that nice or creepy?  I probably shouldn't mention that next week I'll be visiting the town where she lives.  You won't tell, will you?

I took some pictures in the rain today.  I think I'll edit them and put them up for you later today or tomorrow.

Bah Humbug Aperture Card

This seems simple enough but it wasn't.  First, I needed to look-up and make certain I understood exactly what an aperture card contains.  After assuring myself that I just needed to have holes in my card I was off to the races.  For some reason I decided this card would be embossed.

So, I needed to choose an embossing folder.  Let me tell you I went back and forth over folders for a couple of days.  Eventually, I was starting to run out of time and patience.  If you enlarge the photo, you should be able to see the lovely embossing I did with my Cuttlebug and Sissix embossing folder.  Again, I'm not certain what the folder is called.  I promise labeling and organizing my folders is very high on my list of things to do.

After I embossed the red Core'dinations paper from the Jillibean coordinating stack I pulled out my circle Nestabilities and cut a hole in the middle of the embossing.  Now, I'm not certain that is the best way to do make this card.  When I ran it back through the Cuttlebug with the Nestie some of the embossing became  a little less pronounced.  However, I don't think I could have lined the Nestie up in the middle without having the embossing already on the paper.  Any one have a suggestion?

Speaking of lining up the Nestie.  I don't want to tell you how many times I had to cut the card base to get that circle in the correct place.  Lets just leave it with I have lots of scrap kraft paper waiting for new projects.  Luckily I use it quite a bit.  I had to line up all three layers and cut them to get this card to look "right".  The embellishments are simple and straight forward but I think they are fun.  The hat pin, button, twine an patterned cardstock all come from Jillibean Soup.  They call the patterned kraft cardstock one of their "staples".  I think they names of their papers are so cute.

I added a ton of dimension to this card.  The button has two pop dots stacked on top of each other and then placed behind the button.  The Core'dinations in pop dotted and so is the sentiment.  The sentiment stamp comes from the Inkadinkado Holiday Wishes set.

Bluemoon Scrapbook Layout Sketch

This is my take on the Bluemoon Scrapbooking monthly challenge.  Here is a link to the challenge in case you want to join in.  They have a really incredible prize package, you get $40 to spend at Bluemoon Scrapbooking.  Do you know how much damage I could do with $40?  They have some stamps from Australia that I have been coveting.  They also have a little bit of Jillibean Soup paper and canvas stars.  Don't buy all of it though, I want to stock up on what they have. 

Here is a copy of the sketch.

I must admit, sketches often times help a layout come together very quickly. I hadn't used them until very recently but I'm starting to love them. 

I've had this Jillibean Soup paper on my mind for the last few weeks and I must admit I adore it.  I thought it looked fantastic with the Wonderkid's sweater.  If you click on the picture you can get a close-up of the entire layout.

Here is one portion of it.

Does he look like trouble or what?

The outer layer is Jillibean Soup Kosher Salt from the Lentil Soup collection.  I was on their website looking at papers and I couldn't find it.  I may be a very unhappy person.  I NEED my papers and I think I used the last piece of this one.  I'll show you a little trick later in this post, though.

The upper textured layer is from the coordinating Core'dinations Jillibean Soup stack.  I didn't sand it this time, although I thought about it for quite some time.  I loved the way it looked without the sanding.  It is crisp and clean this way.  The button comes from my stash but the bakers twine is a Jillibean Soup beanstalk.  They have a package of red and brown bakers twine.  It is so soft, I was amazed at how wonderful it feels.  

I used a Tim Holtz stamp from Stamper's Anonymous for the circle in the middle of the layout.  It is part of the Visual Artistry sets.  I don't know where they hide the names of each set so I can't help you find it any more than that.  I used Tea Dye and Frayed Burlap Distress Inks.  All of the cream paper has the edges inked with Chestnut Color Box inks.  It matchs the dark brown of the Jillibean Soup papers very nicely.

I promised you a little trick.  It was killing me to cover 10.5 inches of this paper and not do a single thing with it. So, I cut out the center (No one will ever notice except for you and me, and you won't tell, will you?)  Here is a picture of the back of the layout.

I know the photo isn't great but I took it after I turned off all the lights in my light box.  The Jillibean paper is around the Core'dinations.  I couldn't stand the thought of wasting all that paper.  Some might call my cheap, I consider myself frugal and maybe just a little bit of a hoarder.  If I had known I might have trouble finding more of this paper, I would have cut even more of the paper.  Isn't it yummy?  I haven't decided what to do with the piece I cut but I can easily get a couple of cards out of it or even use it as part of a layout.  That piece was big enough, it could be an 8 x 8 layout base.  So, do you blame me?  Am I crazy?  Do you do the same thing?

I think I'm going to go work out a better way of photographing 12 x 12 layouts.  I can't stand the angle that I have on this one.  I haven't photographed a layout in so long I hadn't worked out all the issues.  I'm also thinking I want some new Bristol board for my light box.  It never seems to end.

On a side note, if you are ever in Colorado and looking for a good photographer.  Andrea Flanagan is fantastic.  She took this picture of the Wonderkid.

I think I'll be back tomorrow with a t-shirt for the Wonderkid to wear on St. Patrick's Day.  

The MOJO is back

I considered taking a break on any crafting until next week.  I'm going to a Teresa Collins class hosted by my LSS, EMI Scrapbooking, on Saturday and this morning my guiltiest of pleasures happened -- Cleusa our cleaning lady came.  While this is one of my favorite days, it also means EVERYTHING gets put away, including all of my crafting items.  With all the interruptions (including life), my mojo was seriously shaken.

Add to all the other life things that happened, this box should have been very easy and IT WASN'T.  It is two of the cuts on the Cricut cart Bags, Tags, Boxes and More.  Normally, a cut like this would all be on one button.  The outside might be a regular button and the inside would be the shift of that same button.  For some reason, they put these two parts of the same box on two separate buttons.  OK, enough of the cut I'm too excited about the final product to get hung-up on the silliness of the cuts.

Lets get into the fun part.

First, the paper.  I am a huge fan of Jillibean Soup. I bought some of the Christmas Kraft paper last fall and I haven't been able to bring myself to use it.  I just take it out and stare at it every now and then. However,  I couldn't wait to play with it and I love everything about it.  This is part of the Atomic Soup line and is called Quart of Quarks.  Not only do I love the paper, but I think the names are all so cute -- everything is soup based.

Whenever I'm making boxes and other 3-D items, I liked to use double sided papers so the inside is as pretty as the outside.  Don't you love the other side of this paper?

The other exciting part of Jillibean Soup -- there is a matching Core'dinations stack.  Yippeeee!!! This is one of the embossed papers.  The stack has red, brown, green, blue and a white washed salmon/peach color. I sanded the front to bring out the numbers a bit more.   Now, I'm not normally one to buy the embellishments from a line.  I would rather make/find my own, but the embellishments with this line are so much fun.  The button comes from the Jillibean Cool Beans.    And...

Check out this very fun sticker border of the periodic symbols.  (You can click on the picture to make it bigger).  Doesn't it look perfect with the paper and the digi stamp.

The stickers next to Geeky Glen are also part of the Jillibean Soup page of stickers.

I've completely ignored the other piece of this project, the incredible digi stamp from Tiddly Inks.  You know how much I love Christy's images and playing along with the Tiddly Ink Challenge.  Part of why this works so well, the image is PERFECT.  I couldn't be happier with the entire package.  I am going to design a set of cards (I'm sure you'll be seeing them soon) which I'm going to put in this box and send to a Geeky friend of mine.  Don't you think she'll LOVE it?

This project was started as a challenge at Flaunt if Fridays.  Normally I don't consider myself a flaunt it kind of a person but this project has me excited enough to FLAUNT it.

Thanks for looking and hopefully I'll have something for you tomorrow.