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.