Nothing card related here yet. Sorry about that. I just posted this on my other blog, but thought I'd share it here, too.
In Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, Harry discovers Dumbledore's pensieve, a device that allows the headmaster to siphon off thoughts and look at them outside his brain. He tells Harry that it's useful when he has too many thoughts.
I want a pensieve.
My head is so crammed with thoughts that my memory circuits and gross motor coordination are suffering burnout. I remember, years ago, a virtual stranger telling me to be extra careful as I prepared our second house for sale. She said that stressed and busy people are so preoccupied with their thoughts they forget important things and get careless with their bodies. She recommended lists and staying centered in my body as I worked.
Before I started my Crazy Cleaning Witch frenzy on Monday, I reminded myself of this woman's sage advice and then promptly did the following:
1. I found the kids' Halloween cards in a box in the craft room. Forgot to give them on Halloween as planned.
2. I forgot an entire conversation about financials George claims we had. Suspect he had the conversation with his imaginary wife Bambi, who runs marathons, and has red hair without a lick of gray and large ta-tas. I hate her.
3. I forgot Jack had fed Daisy and thus committed the grievous mommy crime of entering a child's bedroom after he's supposed to be asleep. Remembered just as his eager and very awake face lit up that yes, he did indeed feed Daisy that afternoon.
4. I dropped a small bookshelf on my toe. No damage done, but as I had told myself "Don't drop this bookshelf on your toe" before I picked it up in the first place, I felt pretty stupid.
5. I have a bruise on my thigh. No idea where it came from.
6. I scraped a knuckle and cut a finger and didn't notice either until sticky blood caught my attention.
7. I decided to wait until Friday to move heavy stuff to the basement so George, who has Friday off, could help. Wait. That's actually sane and sensible.
This morning, George came downstairs and asked, "Do you remember telling me you sewed the button back on my brown pants?"
"Sure," I said.
He laughed. "Well, you didn't."
I clearly remember sewing that darn button on months ago. My brain is now telling me I've accomplished things I haven't in an effort to whittle the to do list down to something manageable, which is a clear indication that I need professional help. Pretty soon, when my house is ready to go on the market and I win my gold medal for "Best Staged House of 2011" Award, I'm going to find a psychiatrist and demand valium with a whiskey chaser and sleep for a week.
Maybe my mind will come back to me.
I think I'm going to need it.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Papercrafty and Personal News
There's a reason I haven't photographed my tag for the OLW this week. Do you want to know that reason?
Of course you do.
Here it is:
We signed a bunch of paperwork today to start the process of making this lovely new ranch home with a finished walk-out basement ALL MINE! And yes, the large basement bedroom with a lovely, south-facing window will be my craft room. We might also put a bed in there, but it won't matter. There's plenty of room.
And yes, that tiny little figure on the front walk is I. How silver my hair looks in the sun! At least I look skinny from that distance.
I'll be posting more pictures of the house on my other blog later, but frankly, I'm not going to have a whole lot of time for blogging in the next week. We have to get our current home staged for sale and on the market ASAP, which means massive obsessive-compulsive cleaning and de-cluttering. I've already warned my family that I will transform into the Cleaning Witch tomorrow.
Anyone who wants to come help me clean is welcome.
I did get into my craft room this morning before going to the builder's office, and I made about a dozen tags, the first of which will be posted before OLW71 ends, as God is my witness.
But cranking out all these tags got me thinking. With all I have to do in the coming months, I need to keep my Christmas simple, right? Well, the tags are simple, and I decided to do a series of ideas and tips for Clean and Simple Gift Packaging!
Doesn't that sound perfectly wonderful!!!??!?!?
This series will air on this blog toward the end of November.
In the meantime, I'll do my best to make stuff, take pictures of the stuff, and get the stuff posted.
But the Cleaning Witch obsesses.
Oh, my. Does she obsess.
Please pray for me.
Of course you do.
Here it is:
We signed a bunch of paperwork today to start the process of making this lovely new ranch home with a finished walk-out basement ALL MINE! And yes, the large basement bedroom with a lovely, south-facing window will be my craft room. We might also put a bed in there, but it won't matter. There's plenty of room.
And yes, that tiny little figure on the front walk is I. How silver my hair looks in the sun! At least I look skinny from that distance.
I'll be posting more pictures of the house on my other blog later, but frankly, I'm not going to have a whole lot of time for blogging in the next week. We have to get our current home staged for sale and on the market ASAP, which means massive obsessive-compulsive cleaning and de-cluttering. I've already warned my family that I will transform into the Cleaning Witch tomorrow.
Anyone who wants to come help me clean is welcome.
I did get into my craft room this morning before going to the builder's office, and I made about a dozen tags, the first of which will be posted before OLW71 ends, as God is my witness.
But cranking out all these tags got me thinking. With all I have to do in the coming months, I need to keep my Christmas simple, right? Well, the tags are simple, and I decided to do a series of ideas and tips for Clean and Simple Gift Packaging!
Doesn't that sound perfectly wonderful!!!??!?!?
This series will air on this blog toward the end of November.
In the meantime, I'll do my best to make stuff, take pictures of the stuff, and get the stuff posted.
But the Cleaning Witch obsesses.
Oh, my. Does she obsess.
Please pray for me.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Inspired by Amber Damien
Amber Damien published a spread of cards in the fall issue of Take Ten...and here's a sample of her technique.
Cool, eh? Corrugated cardboard gives a card such wonderful texture. I love how Amber used squares in a grid (grids, YES!) and raffia. It had been my plan to stick more to her layout, but I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing (just keepin' it real) and punched squares out of the kraft card stock I'd crimped in my Fiskar's paper crimper instead of the Indian Summer paper I'd planned to use.
You know, it takes pretty phenomenal lack of situational awareness to put crimped card stock in a punch and not notice that something is wrong.
Since I had some punched leaves (wow, this maple leaf punch has gotten a huge workout lately!), I played around with them on the crimped squares. A 3 x 3 grid looked too busy, so as I moved just three squares around on a cream card, I thought the blessings sentiment might break up the predictability of the layout.
Bingo!
Version two pulls everything to the center rather than left justified. I honestly can't decide which layout I like best.
I hope you all are having a lovely weekend, full of fun, loved ones, and inky stamps!
Cool, eh? Corrugated cardboard gives a card such wonderful texture. I love how Amber used squares in a grid (grids, YES!) and raffia. It had been my plan to stick more to her layout, but I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing (just keepin' it real) and punched squares out of the kraft card stock I'd crimped in my Fiskar's paper crimper instead of the Indian Summer paper I'd planned to use.
You know, it takes pretty phenomenal lack of situational awareness to put crimped card stock in a punch and not notice that something is wrong.
Since I had some punched leaves (wow, this maple leaf punch has gotten a huge workout lately!), I played around with them on the crimped squares. A 3 x 3 grid looked too busy, so as I moved just three squares around on a cream card, I thought the blessings sentiment might break up the predictability of the layout.
Bingo!
Version two pulls everything to the center rather than left justified. I honestly can't decide which layout I like best.
I hope you all are having a lovely weekend, full of fun, loved ones, and inky stamps!
Thursday, November 3, 2011
The Return of Smooch Painting
You might remember my cards from a while back that used Smooch just like a watercolor. If not, you can see them here.
Way back then (in September), I punched a bunch of leaves from the swatches of kiwi, pumpkin, and carrot Smooch-painted watercolor paper. Those leaves sat, unused, on my table until last weekend when the idea for this card popped to mind. Yes! I knew I'd think of something to do with them. Eventually.
Just goes to show if you sit on something pretty long enough, you'll figure out a pretty use for it at some random point in the future.
All it takes is a little faith and pixie dust.
Or, in this case, Smooch.
Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Falling Leaves
ink: Memento tangelo
paper: Papertrey vintage cream, Arches watercolor block (90lb hot press)
accessories: Smooch, watercolor brush, dimensionals, Martha Stewart leaf punch
Way back then (in September), I punched a bunch of leaves from the swatches of kiwi, pumpkin, and carrot Smooch-painted watercolor paper. Those leaves sat, unused, on my table until last weekend when the idea for this card popped to mind. Yes! I knew I'd think of something to do with them. Eventually.
 |
| 4.25" square |
Just goes to show if you sit on something pretty long enough, you'll figure out a pretty use for it at some random point in the future.
All it takes is a little faith and pixie dust.
Or, in this case, Smooch.
Supplies
stamps: Papertrey Falling Leaves
ink: Memento tangelo
paper: Papertrey vintage cream, Arches watercolor block (90lb hot press)
accessories: Smooch, watercolor brush, dimensionals, Martha Stewart leaf punch
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
Three Shades of Red
First of all, don't forget to click on over to Jennifer's blog and check out the OLW71 challenge! Tag, You're It! Too fun and so timely.
My card for today uses three shades of red, all from StampinUp: rose red, real red, cherry cobbler. The sentiment is in Memento rich cocoa.
This idea just popped into my head, and I rather like how it turned out.
It's so...I don't know...tidy.
Who you callin' obsessive compulsive?
Supplies
stamps: PTI Falling Leaves (sentiment), Autumn Acorns (leaves)
ink: SU and Memento
paper: PTI vintage cream
accessories: corner rounder
My card for today uses three shades of red, all from StampinUp: rose red, real red, cherry cobbler. The sentiment is in Memento rich cocoa.
This idea just popped into my head, and I rather like how it turned out.
It's so...I don't know...tidy.
Who you callin' obsessive compulsive?
Supplies
stamps: PTI Falling Leaves (sentiment), Autumn Acorns (leaves)
ink: SU and Memento
paper: PTI vintage cream
accessories: corner rounder
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
Inspired by Chelsea Edwards: Day 3, or Lessons in Stamping a Little Collage
Stamping a collage can be a little challenging. Getting the balance and colors right, and giving a sense of movement to the whole thing can be intimidating. But it's less so with a small 1 3/4" by 2 5/8" piece of card stock. If you ruin one or two or ten, you're not out much, so there's not much risk to playing around and trying to get it right.
My first effort was so-so (although the colors really do look more balanced in real life!). The red and dark brown elements form nice triangles that anchor the design. There are three elements of text, three fronds of leaves, five spots of light brown, one spot of green. The odd numbers work pretty well, but to my CAS-loving eye, there are just too many of them. Also, there are too many colors. The green is a bit too dark.
For better design, there needs to be either a third word or autumn and grace need to be closer together so they relate better because the triangle they make with the brown half pearls gets lost in the chaos of that green grunge splatter. Placing the collage in the dead center of the card makes the card look...odd.
As flawed as it is, I'm satisfied with it as a first effort and am not embarrassed to post it (you might feel differently, though!), but it's just too busy for my taste. So I tried again, this time with a Christmas theme. This one scores MUCH better!
The balance of color and design on the Christmas card works well. The strong focal point of the poinsettia grabs the eye, and the Grunge Me paint splatter stamp in very light green stays in the background where it belongs yet adds a fresh look to the bright red and green. The holly berries are accented with a red Sakura Stardust pen and match the red ink much better in real life, allowing the eye to move from the focal point to the sentiment to the border with ease.
Some tips for stamping mini collages:
1. It's a good idea to start with a strong focal point, then work from there. Put the focal point in a sweet spot. Draw imaginary lines to divide the piece into thirds; the two best sweet spots are the upper left and lower right intersections of the lines.
2. Use differently scaled shapes or images and vary the shapes. The Autumn card has too many elements that are roughly the same size and visual weight and a bit too much variety in the shapes. The Christmas card has repeat border of tiny holly and a nice, big poinsettia, and the round poinsettia works in contrast to the trinagles of holly and straight line of the sentiment. The grunge spatter relaxes the crisp images a bit.
3. The background needs to stay in the background with lighter colors as support.
4. Add a little extra something...bling, glitter pen accents, beads, buttons, ribbon, twine, etc.
5. Place the collage off-center as Chelsea did with her samples in Take Ten. This adds much more interest to the card and feels much more natural. Utilize either the sweet spots or the rule of thirds. On my Christmas card, the imaginary one-third horizontal line of the collage is lined up on the imaginary one-third horizontal line of the card base, leaving about twice as much white space below the collage than above...hope that makes sense!
Why not play around and see what sort of mini collage you can stamp!
Supplies
stamps: Autumn (Grunge Me, First Fruits, Turning a New Leaf, Text Style, Beautiful Blessings); Christmas (Peaceful Poinsettia, Holly Jolly, Grunge Me)
inks: Memento
paper: Papertrey
accessories: half pearls, Stardust red pen, sponge, gold half bead, dimensionals
My first effort was so-so (although the colors really do look more balanced in real life!). The red and dark brown elements form nice triangles that anchor the design. There are three elements of text, three fronds of leaves, five spots of light brown, one spot of green. The odd numbers work pretty well, but to my CAS-loving eye, there are just too many of them. Also, there are too many colors. The green is a bit too dark.
For better design, there needs to be either a third word or autumn and grace need to be closer together so they relate better because the triangle they make with the brown half pearls gets lost in the chaos of that green grunge splatter. Placing the collage in the dead center of the card makes the card look...odd.
As flawed as it is, I'm satisfied with it as a first effort and am not embarrassed to post it (you might feel differently, though!), but it's just too busy for my taste. So I tried again, this time with a Christmas theme. This one scores MUCH better!
The balance of color and design on the Christmas card works well. The strong focal point of the poinsettia grabs the eye, and the Grunge Me paint splatter stamp in very light green stays in the background where it belongs yet adds a fresh look to the bright red and green. The holly berries are accented with a red Sakura Stardust pen and match the red ink much better in real life, allowing the eye to move from the focal point to the sentiment to the border with ease.
Some tips for stamping mini collages:
1. It's a good idea to start with a strong focal point, then work from there. Put the focal point in a sweet spot. Draw imaginary lines to divide the piece into thirds; the two best sweet spots are the upper left and lower right intersections of the lines.
2. Use differently scaled shapes or images and vary the shapes. The Autumn card has too many elements that are roughly the same size and visual weight and a bit too much variety in the shapes. The Christmas card has repeat border of tiny holly and a nice, big poinsettia, and the round poinsettia works in contrast to the trinagles of holly and straight line of the sentiment. The grunge spatter relaxes the crisp images a bit.
3. The background needs to stay in the background with lighter colors as support.
4. Add a little extra something...bling, glitter pen accents, beads, buttons, ribbon, twine, etc.
5. Place the collage off-center as Chelsea did with her samples in Take Ten. This adds much more interest to the card and feels much more natural. Utilize either the sweet spots or the rule of thirds. On my Christmas card, the imaginary one-third horizontal line of the collage is lined up on the imaginary one-third horizontal line of the card base, leaving about twice as much white space below the collage than above...hope that makes sense!
Why not play around and see what sort of mini collage you can stamp!
Supplies
stamps: Autumn (Grunge Me, First Fruits, Turning a New Leaf, Text Style, Beautiful Blessings); Christmas (Peaceful Poinsettia, Holly Jolly, Grunge Me)
inks: Memento
paper: Papertrey
accessories: half pearls, Stardust red pen, sponge, gold half bead, dimensionals
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