Random on Purpose

Blitzed or Buried?

Warning:  this post is longer than usual, and sort of chatty.  If  you want, just scroll down to the pic of the red plate and go from there, as it's the only part that is "crafty" - everything else is just random, "my life" stuff...

I'm sure that by now you're all (whoever's still left out there in blogland) somewhat disappointed in the so-called "blitz" - I know I am!  Just so you don't think I'm a slacker, though - here's some photographic evidence of life as I know it this weekend:

 

This is a view of all five trees as seen from the hallway through the entry into a corner of the living room and past it to the dining area (yes, my apartment is small...)  That mess o' stuff in front of the dining room tree is a stack of boxes and bins (some empty, some not) that I have to dispense of tomorrow...  I still need to put a skirt around the tree in the living room, too.

 

These three little trees don't have any decorations besides some flocking and lights - it's supposed to sort of be a forest, and all of the snowmen, moose, and penguins I own are grouped under them, and on the Oriental trunk that is always in my entry, which got shifted to the far right against the wall for the season.  There are also commemorative tins and Winnie-the- Pooh stacking boxes and such on the trunk...

 

This is a small tree in an urn in the corner of my dining area (not really a room - just a leg of the L-shaped living/dining combo that is the usual setup for apartment dwellers.)  The shelf above it to the left has a wreath above it , and stockings and all - maybe I'll take a pic of it another day...  Above my kitchen sink usually looks like this:

 

but for now it looks like this:

 

I know it's a little cheesy, but this is my sentimental spot, along with the rest of the kitchen.  Starting at the top left:  A mug decorated by my oldest daughter when she was in kindergarten, a clay tree made by her sister (two siblings down the line) and a pinecone painted gold to make a tree (no clue now which of the six brought home this treasure, but treasure it is), and a Santa on a wire from the 1950's that was in my mom's stuff.  Below them is a collection of tins from Hallmark that I used to put tiny gifts in for my kids when they were very young, and an angel votive holder that I've had since junior high school.  I used to burn bayberry candles and look out my window at the Christmas lights on our street, which was usually wet, as rain is typical Christmas weather in that part of southern California.  The box on the right is topped with a rose topiary in a Christmas teacup that I put together for Greg's Aunt Laura when she was still alive, and two little ceramic elves that my mom used to put out every year as far back as I can remember.  They (Aunt Laura and my mom) are both gone now, but still represented here...  Below them are still more of the little tins.  The wall to the left of the sink has those little handprint-pressed-into-clay-to-make-a-plate things from my kids hung in a row.  There are more treasures on the back of the stove, but I just want to share this one:

 

We put this out every Christmas Eve, and it is SUPER easy to make!  It's just a red Melamine plate decorated with paint pens.  The little trees are just little green triangles with a little "stem" and a yellow star (all freehand - no artistic ability necessary - anyone can make a triangle and star...)  The snow is just white dots, and the writing is basic kindergarten print with some dots added.  The only tricky part is getting the spacing for the words!  I suggest tracing the plate onto scratch paper and practicing there until you get it how you want it.  Oh - and do the words first, then fill in the "pretties" around them...

Here's what my work area looks like right now:

 

 

I'm obviously in the middle of several projects, right?  I received my Close To My Heart order today (a small one - two stamp sets, some finishing files and some hardware), and started playing with them, and the mess next to the sewing machine is the project I walked away from to take four days off ( I have to deliver it Monday...)  And yes, those glasses sitting on top of everything else are reading glasses and necessary for close work like cutting out stamped images and coloring in stamped images and hand sewing and threading needles and all the rest of it - I'm freakin' 52 years old, and can need glasses now, I guess!  (No, I don't lie about my age - what would the point of that be, I ask you?  I earned every year, and I'm keeping them all, thank you very much!)  Anyway...

I had to go out today, as the cupboards were bare (again - how does that happen?), and I had a couple of 50% off coupons for Michael's and AC Moore I felt it necessary to use.  PLUS, some of the projects in my brain require embossing powder in gold, and I saw some new ones I wanted to test.  I purchased five jars of powder - three gold, one holographic, and one "Frosted Crystal", and will share my test results with you:

    

All of these are from Ranger, and I stamped with Versamark on white and black cardstock to emboss, so I could see what they looked like both ways.  "Enchanted Gold" was first up, and it is kind of a pale gold, but shimmers coppery and green when you move it around in the light.  "Goddess Gold" was a waste of time and money - it's mostly clear with hit-and-miss gold glitter.  "Roman Gold" is very gold, and has chunky glitter.  "Gold Tinsel" (not Ranger - Stampendous) is a very nice shiny gold with just a hint of glitter.  "Holographic" is pretty much like a Prisma-glittered watermark.  It would be very pretty as a background stamp tone-on-tone dealie-o, or used with colored inks to make them glittery.  "Frosted Crystal" all but disappeared when heated - no shine, even - but sort of looked velvety when I used it with colored ink.  Not worth the money, but I may hang onto it.  So, that's my review of these fine (or not so, in the case of the "goddess"...) products - hope that steers you in the right direction, should you be in the market for embossing powder! 

I shall continue on with whatever I can actually get around to and share, share, share!  I have a couple of things that I HAVE to get out of my head, so I HAVE to do some of this stuff, ya know?!  Hang in there with me, more's comin', fo' sho'!  Sweet dreams and all of that, and thanks for stopping by!

Not Quite a Blitz...

Well, I started out strong yesterday morning (technically, the day before, as it's after midnight here, but...) - got quite a few projects knocked out - but today I spent the entire day decorating for Christmas.  I set up five trees, decorated two of them, put lights on the other three, arranged the snowman collection, hung the stockings, etc., etc.  Greg has dubbed our apartment "The Christmas Tree House", because all the trees are in the living/dining room area of our little apartment.  That's okay - just kind of bright with all the lights!

I did finish one card this evening, though:

 

I started it - surprisingly enough - on Tuesday for the Splitcoast color challenge - Going Gray, Really Rust and Very Vanilla.  Too many other distractions to finish it until tonight, though!  I used the Santa from Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps' "Primitive Christmas" set, a flourish from Close to My Heart's "Legendary Moments" set, and the "Flannel Plaid" background stamp from Stampin'Up!  I stamped the sentiment (Studio G) in Really Rust on the twill tape, then went over it with a black journaling marker to make it stand out a bit more.  It's hard to see in the photo, but Santa's fur trim is Puffy Velvet Marker.  I scissor-distressed the edges of all the layers, and inked them up, as well.  I guess that's about it, and I'm going to bed now!  Tomorrow I just have a few random tidying up things to do on the decorating, and then it's back to the blitz!  See you later, bye!

And So It Begins...

True to my word, I've begun the "Holiday Crafting Blitz".  Depending on how enthused I get, how much time I have, and what else is going on, I may do multiple posts in a day (or not).  We'll just have to see.  Also, I need to put a disclaimer right here:  These are experiments - some successful, some maybe not so much - but I'm sharing all of them because they could spark an idea that you get all stoked about and improve on or whatever...

First, to reinforce the "Queen of Cheap" title, know that I am all about the "dollar deal"!  I regularly scout Target's Dollar Spot, JoAnn's and Michael's dollar bins, clearance areas, etc.  I've mentioned before that I love sequins, but here's the latest purchase, just so you can get an idea:

 

Snowflakes, Christmas trees, and snowmen - how can you go wrong?  Those were found at JoAnn's by the registers.  An even more thrilling score:

 

From Michael's clearance - they're called "Bangle Bling", and the idea is that you glue them onto your plain bangle bracelets to bling them up.  A TOTAL waste of great bling, if you ask me!  These beauties belong on cards, candles, frames, etc., etc.!  Anyway, the pictures don't do them justice (of course), and there's a whole lot of bling in there for a buck!  The least in a package are the black and white ones with gold frames - there's only 18 in there.  The other packs have 75-150 pieces in them!  Just too cool!

Okay, today's installment (or at least this morning's...) 

TINSELTOWN:

I wanted to do some silver stuff, and had this brainstorm to do something with foil and the Cuttlebug and such-like. I knew from past experiments that regular household foil is too fragile, so I pulled out the Heavy Duty Reynolds and some punches and the Cuttlebug.  In order to make the foil stable enough to retain the embossing and so that it would punch without tearing, I first cut copy paper into quarters (4 1/4" x 5 1/2"), cut the foil approximately the same size, and glued them together with a plain old glue stick (make sure you get good coverage so corners don't lift, etc.). Then I ran them through the Cuttlebug (I used the textile embossing folder), and punched, etc.  Here are some of the results:

 

This is a garland made with embossed, punched stars, silver thread and star stickers. I punched some non-paper-backed foil (still embossed, though), and sandwiched the thread between the paper-backed one and the non-paper-backed one:

 

 

I spaced them about 3" apart, then stuck star stickers back-to-back with the thread between about halfway between the large stars.

 

I punched two pieces with the round tab punch - one embossed foil, and one black (which I heat-embossed with Stardust embossing powder), made a thread hanger, and added some "bangle bling".  This is a view of the back before finishing to show you the construction:

 

These are snowflakes punched and sandwiched together with a thread hanger - one with sequins and bangle bling to make a dangly one, and the other just a single snowflake:

 

I punched a few other shapes, too, just for grins:

I also have a whole stack of doilies like this one:

 

so I did a couple of projects with them, too.  The first one, I cut down the doily into pieces and reassembled it, then added a snowflake from Stampin'Up!'s "Snow Swirled" set, stamped and embossed in silver, with bling in the center (I didn't add a hanger yet):

 

I cut another doily in half, formed each half into a cone, and added wired-ribbon handles:

 

I haven't decided what I'm putting in them yet, so they look a bit unfinished...  Last up is my favorite out of this morning's play session:

 

The black is cut with one of the Cuttlebug dies from the Heritage set, and the center is a button (plastic and velvet, believe it or not) that I've had for years.  I just clipped off the shank and pop-dotted it, then added a thread hanger.

That's pretty much it for the first installment of the blitz!  I hope you got an idea or two from these experiments.  I didn't show them on a tree or anything, because we haven't pulled our Christmas stuff out of storage yet (Greg's waiting for me to finish this post and get going, so we can do that...), so maybe later...  Meanwhile, I hope you're enjoying your Thanksgiving and thanks for stopping by!

Quick Announcement: Coming Attractions

I am in the midst of a pre-Thanksgiving sewing frenzy, so no posting today or tomorrow, BUT...

I am taking a FOUR-DAY WEEKEND, and going on a crafting, Christmas decorating BLITZ, and promise my most excellent promise that not only will I share the projects with you, but there will most likely be a tutorial or two in the mix, as well.  My plans right now include ornaments, gift tags, stocking stuffers and possibly a Christmas countdown calendar.  More projects as they occur to me and as time permits...

I guess what I'm saying is:  hang in there with me - FUN is coming!  Thanks!  Okay, as you were...

A Week Later...

So about this time last week I decided to make a card with a stamp that I love but have never used, even though I've had it for two years!  I started out well, but the inevitable side-tracking happened, and I've already explained the chaos that is my life this month, so it never got finished.  This morning Greg woke up about 3:00 because he was cold and turned the fan off, which woke me up (I sleep very lightly, and if there is a new noise - or a new absence of noise - or a change in the light or anything, yeah - I'm up!  Because it was too early to make noise cooking and whatever, I decided to check out the Featured Stamper challenge on Splitcoast.  It's one of my favorite challenges and I never seem to get to do it!

As luck would have it (you know how I really feel - no luck, serendipity, more like...) one of EbethNeu's cards (she was the FS) had elements that lent themselves well to the direction my card was headed.  Fabulous!  Her card is here.  My card is here:

 

The first, most obvious change I made is that I used a scallop punch instead of popsicle sticks (cute idea I'll probably use another day, though).  I also changed theme, colors, stamps and some dimensions.  I added a touch of ribbon, too.  All of these images are actually on one stamp (Stamps Happen, Inc.), just the way I have them lined up here, but I wanted the "Merry Christmas" on the dp (DCWV) instead of coloring it with Bic Mark Its like I did the other two panels, so I inked them up separately with Versafine Onyx Black (still LOVE that stuff!) and embossed them with detail clear.  Then I cut the panels out around the edges and mounted them on my dp panel with foam tape.  I tied a ribbon around the center panel, too.  I had a trio of dewdrops on the opposite end of the panel, but decided they just made that panel too heavy, and drew attention away from the tree, so I left them off.  Cardstock is Groovy Guava and Ballet Blue from Stampin' Up!  And that's the end of the story!

It's late enough to start cooking for the party, so I'd better head to the kitchen now...  Aren't you so proud that I managed a card and a post in the middle of the madness?  I'm thrilled!  Have a fabulous Sunday!  After tomorrow, I may get some semblance of normalcy (whatever that means) back in my life, so check back - I'll probably have fun stuff to share (time to think about starting those Christmas gifts, ya know...)!  Ta!

Catching Up...

That title is more hopeful than accurate...  I'm so far behind!  Still not feeling "up to snuff" since my dentist visit yesterday (what do they call that specialist?  endodontist or something?  anyway...), and a stockpile of work projects that need to get done before Thanksgiving.  Murphy's law was in full swing tonight, so after the bobbin ran out, the needle broke, and the seam ripper ripped fabric instead of a seam, I decided to say "when" and have a creative diversion.  My mojo is still shaky, at best, so I'm not sure I'm thrilled, but at least I DID something!

 

Actually, the title is accurate as far as this card - it's all three of this week's challenges on Splitcoast so far - sketch, technique and color combo!  The colors were Kraft, Basic Black, and Real Red - love it!  The technique is for the medallion in the center of the card, and is called "Triangle Fold Medallion".  There is a tutorial and a link to the gallery here.  I used my snowflake folder and snowflake die for my Cuttlebug to get my panels embossed and my corner accents cut.  The epoxy sticker in the center of the medallion is from Michael's from a couple of years ago.  Instead of cutting 2" squares to make my medallion, I punched them with a scalloped square punch.  The paper I used is from DCWV, and started out like this:

   

I wanted it red, though, so I did direct-to-paper with my Real Red ink pad on my punched squares (I alternated the positive/negative on my medallion - maybe you noticed...)  Not much else to say on this little project.  I'm wicked, wicked tired, and I can tell it's time for another Loritab, so I'm signing off and going to bed.  Thanks for stopping by, and have a great tonight and tomorrow!

Not Yet...

Wondering where I've been this past week?  Basically burning the candle at both ends...  This is the time of year when work is SLAMMED, because the decorating projects that everyone's been putting off all year have to be done "in time for the holidays", so it's always frantic, but I've had a couple of extra projects thrown in, to boot!

For one thing, I was asked to reupholster five barstools for the set of a local morning show, "Bridge Street".  There is a video clip here that shows the whole makeover for the set.  If you fast-forward almost halfway, you can see them talking about (and showing) these stools.  I got them on Thursday, and they had to be done by noon on Saturday - yeah, a little bit of midnight oil, that!

Also, we (Greg and I) are hosting and making most of the preparations for the big party Sunday for Thanksgiving/90th birthday party for his dad, so guess who a lot of that falls to?  Yeah, that would be me...  Time that I would generally spend making things to share with you here has been spent catching up on other work and/or making centerpieces, etc., for the party.

I was planning on doing the Splitcoast technique and color challenges today, but I had dental surgery this morning, and between the Loritab and the pain, I'm just not feelin' the mojo or motivation.  That said, I feel totally guilty about how long it's been since I posted, so I will share a couple of things I made at our monthly Stampin'Up! club this past Saturday.  Little side note on that:  I was this month's hostess, and went home from finishing the barstools, made cookies and hopped on over to Sherry's for that - no rest for the wicked/weary/your word here...

 

This one uses Cardinal Christmas stamps and Riding Hood Red cardstock and ink, as well as Top Note die-cut Chocolate Chip, which was also crimped.

 

This one is my favorite!  It uses Winter Post stamps and Chocolate Chip ink.  The sentiment is from Heard From the Heart.  The other colors are Real Red and Kraft - beautiful!

I'm gonna go lay my weary, ouchy head down now...  Hopefully I'll be up to doing something fun tomorrow.  I have lots of ideas floating around in my brain, just can't get enough oomph goin' to execute!  Have a great evening!

Challenging Colors

I was supposed to go over to Sherry's house tonight and play, but I've been a little under the weather today, so I decided I wasn't up to venturing out into the blustery cold and just stayed in.  I checked out the color challenge on Splitcoast and decided to give it a try.  For whatever reason, it was a REALLY hard combo for me - Basic Gray, Certainly Celery and Pacific Point.  The gray was where I ran into problems - I have to say that I REALLY don't like it with the green and blue (I prefer grays with warm colors - pink, red, coral, etc.), or with just one other color (I'd have been okay with the gray and green).  My first attempt was pretty sad:

 

The individual elements aren't bad, but I just can't get happy with them all together.  I did the image (from SU's "Gently Falling" set) again on white, and it was better, but I still wasn't feelin' it...  There was too much gray, so I broke it up with stamped swirls from "Priceless", and Cuttlebugged it with the paisley folder, but still...  Anyway, I decided to try again, and was much happier using significantly less gray, and adding a whole lot of white!

 

It's not as "fancy" of a card, but I think it's a lot more fun, and definitely easier for me to look at!  I used retired stamps - the "Time for a Tree" wheel, and the tree and sentiment from "Flakey Friends" - and my Bic Mark It markers.  I Cuttlebugged this background, too, but used the snowflake folder.  This card is larger than normal (5 1/2" x 6 3/4"), so I put the blue cardstock in the folder sideways and ran it through, then flipped the cardstock around and put it back in the folder sideways with the edge close to the previously embossed snowflakes.  You can't even tell where the break is!  Any way, I'm tired now, but I feel better about this color combo, and maybe I've given one or two of you courage to try and failand try again - it's all a learning curve!  I'm still doin' it! (learning and trying and failing and trying again - I even share my embarrassments with you!)

Time for Cheerios and then bed - y'all come back now, y'hear?

A Simple Something

I realize I'm slightly ridiculous, but I don't know how to stop myself...  I was having a really hard time getting comfortable and staying asleep Saturday night, so I eventually gave up and got up around 3:30 am yesterday morning.  One reason I couldn't sleep is because I had another card for the inspiration challenge floating in my head, plus a stack of ideas for tags for my Christmas tree, and every time I woke up, my brain would replay all of them, and I couldn't figure out how to tell my brain to stop!

When I got up, I started on the card, which was inspired by this little girl's dress:

 

Cute, huh?  There were a couple of colors I wouldn't necessarily have thought of throwing into the mix, but somehow it all works.  This is the card I came up with:

 

This was fun to do, especially because it was one of those times when the card was pretty much a complete picture in my head before I started, so it was fast to execute.  There's no stamping at all here - just cardstock cut, embossed, stitched or punched.  I used all Close to My Heart colors: Crystal Blue, Holiday Red, Pink Carnation, and Ponderosa Pine.  The lighter green is a random scrap from who knows where.  I used my Stampin'Up! 5-petal flower punch for my flowers, because it was about the right size, but the petals are pointy, like this:

 

I could've just trimmed them all into rounded petals with scissors, but I know me and curved cuts, and decided they'd be more even if I punched the roundness, so I took the same punch that I punched my flower centers with and stuck a petal tip into it like this:

 

I did that to all of the petals and ended up with this:

 

And it made me happy, and life was good...  To make the striped strip, I started with the Crystal Blue, and just cut 1/4" strips of Ponderosa Pine and glued them on, leaving 1/4" spaces between them for the blue to show through.  My pocket was pierced and hand stitched, because I know me and curved stitching, and decided it'd be more even this way.  Do we see a pattern here?  Why, yes - yes, we do!  (At least I can recognize...)

So far my little tag has no sentiment, as I don't know what occasion this card will be for, but I punched the tag (Marvy Uchida) and the flower (EK Success) and added a mini brad (?!)  The ribbon was from a Target $1 spot find, and I used my Swiss Dot Cuttlebug folder on the Crystal Blue and lighter green panels.  Yeah, that's it...

I also started a card for the Featured Stamper challenge yesterday, but there was football, and visiting friends, and NASCAR, and I didn't finish it yet...  I plan to do that later today if I can get caught up on work (ran out of thread on Friday's project, so I'm a little behind...)  Have a good one, and thanks for stopping by!  (I know I always say that, but I REALLY MEAN IT!  I very much appreciate that I have any readership at all, so THANKS!)

Skull Rock

I've done it again -  unintentionally lied to you...  There were several other items that I saved for this inspiration challenge to play with, but one in particular was not going to let me walk away:

 

You see, I bought a set that had skulls in it back before Halloween with the intent to do something Halloween-ish with them, but you know how that sometimes goes...  Yup, no time to execute, and now the time is past.  I still really like the stamps though, and it's not a Halloween set - it's "Rock Star" from Inkadinkado - so when I saw this shirt I decided to pull the skull stamps out and play.  Here's the card:

 

I know - way different from the shirt - but it's inspiration, not duplication, so I'm all good!  Lots of distressing here, but otherwise very straightforward and simple.  No abundance of layers or embellishments, and the only embossing is on the sentiment, which I embossed with detail clear on So Saffron and then went over with black.  Versamark darkens the cardstock, so it looks different than the base, which is also So Saffron, stamped with Sanded (both SU!)  Okay, off to finish dinner and then play with tags!