A La Card Monkey Sketch

As I sat looking out into my backyard this morning sipping a cup of Christmas Blend (and a touch of Hazelnut syrup), I thought about how much I love winter in the Cariboo.  I don't love that it lasts until April, but winter here, cold as it may be, is still sunny.  There are only a few inches of snow in the yard right now, and it's definitely chilly, but the sun is shining as brightly as it does on any day in July.  The smell of wood stoves is drifting through the neighbourhood, and I'm getting set to haul out the ornaments and put the tree up.

I wanted to make another Christmas card (my list seems to be getting longer each time I look at it) but wasn't feeling terribly inspired.  I headed over to the Card Monkey blog and used it to get the juices flowing.  I don't love Riding Hood Red, so I felt like I needed to give it a chance to shine.  I think it worked out quite well with this little sketch.

Inspiration Kimono

After a four hour card buffet yesterday I came home, made dinner, and plopped down on the couch to watch a movie.  Since my husband was out of town for the evening, I decided on Memoirs of a Geisha.  The book is absolutely amazing, and the movie is quite good also.  Though it isn't exactly true to the novel (really though, what movie is?), the stunning visuals of the film more than make up for what is lost in translation to screenplay.

I actually paused the movie after this scene to go and make this card.  It's wayyyyyyyy off of what I would usually make, but I love it.  It makes me wish I had a kimono to wear.

More Wreaths

This month my stampers club is making wreaths using our gorgeous Christmas papers.  Here are a couple of examples that I'm bringing for inspiration.

This one's not lit very well - sorry!

One More

Ok, I thought I was done with the Christmas cards.  Guess not.  My husband was up at 2:20 this morning to drive down to Kelowna for a course, and naturally, I had a hard time getting back to sleep.  So what did I do?  Went to the happy place (aka - craft room).

I'm having a card buffet with the ladies that I work with this morning, so I have all of their packages made up nicely, ready to go.  I wanted to throw in one more, so here's what came out of my brain this morning.

The first version was with Pear Pizzazz and Early Espresso, but it just wasn't doing it for me.  Crumb Cake and Chocolate Chip fixed that one.  I brayered the CC ink onto the Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder and then ran a piece of Very Vanilla through it.  I've only done this technique with coloured cardstock before, and the result with the thinner Vanilla was quite a bit different.  The coverage isn't quite as uniform, and I think it looks antiquey (pretty sure that's not a word).  Then I layered it all together and punched the ornament through all three layers so you could see through to the inside.  I had a heck of a time finding my Stampamajig, but it finally showed up.  You really need it for this one so that you can line up the ornament stamp on the inside correctly.

I still wasn't totally happy with it at that point, so I gave it a little shimmer spray, and outlined the ornament with glass glitter.  Much better.  This photo doesn't really do the card justice (the lighting here this morning isn't great), but the card is very lovely in person.

A Better Way

I called in sick to work today.  I've had a nasty bug for a few weeks that I can't seem to shake, so I decided that I would take the day off and try to rest.  I slept late, lay on the couch with a book drinking tea, had a semi-nap...  Now what?  One side of me tried to talk myself into doing some work (I have a pile of essays that need marking), but the side that knows the weekend's coming up said, "Just do it on Saturday," and won.

So here I am in the craftroom - what a surprise.  After looking around on Pinterest and my bookmarked blogs, I realized I have no reason for my room to be such a mess any more.  For the past few weeks I've been letting it slide, justifying the mess by saying that I am preparing for the craft fair.  Well, the last one was 2 weeks ago.  Time to get my butt in gear.  So, in great procrastinator form, I decided that organizing my scrap bin was priority #1.  Never mind the piles of things placed around the edges of my craft space - those can wait.

When I'm done working on a project or come home from a workshop, all of my scraps go into a huge rubbermaid drawer.  It's about 24" wide, 7" high, and about 9" deep.  There is a LOT of room in there.  I really didn't want to deal with it, and contemplated throwing the whole thing in the fire that's raging in the wood stove, but I thought better of it.  I decided that I would pull out all of the pieces that I had cut to card size and score them, and then put them in a nice little box, ready to go.  This took care of quite the pile (that's the bottom row in the pic).  Then I still had a lot of papers that has pieces punched out or cut away, making it useless as a card, but perfect for making base layers out of.  So then I cut as much as I could into 4 X 5.25 pieces.  Wow.  There were a lot of these (top row in the pic).

So then I was left with 489 little pieces.  If it was smaller than 3" square, it went in the fire.  Now I just have a nice little box of scraps (white and vanilla have their own box), and I have learned a good lesson:  Cut your extra pieces into matting layers before throwing them into the scrap bin.  This will save you time in the end, and keep your drawer nice and tidy.  Pat on the back for me.  

Now, I think, would be a good time to re-alphabetize my bookshelves...

Marvelous Markers Event

Black Friday?  How depressing.  How about Rainbow Sunday?  That's better.  Either way, I'm offering a deal you won't be able to refuse on these amazing markers.  

The Stampin' Write markers are a must-have for taking your cards to the next level.  So what's stopping you from getting them?  I know - the price tag.  To get the full set (Subtles, Brights, Regals, Neutrals) as well as the new In Colours, would cost $199.46.  WOAH!  That's hefty.  I can see why you don't have them - yet.

This is where my deal comes in.  For $145 you will receive the Marvelous Markers set (all 4 collections) as well as the 2011 - 2013 In Colours.  This is a savings of more than $50.  This price is all inclusive, no additional tax or shipping costs.

If you'd like to take advantage of this amazing deal,  please email me today.  Hurry though - this offer is only good until December 2nd!

I accept payments through Paypal.  This offer is valid for Canadian mailing addresses only.

This morning as the snow came down in an almost blizzard-like rate, I sat at my table looking out and decided that I'd finish making my Christmas cards today.  I've been meaning to try making an easel card for quite some time, but hadn't quite gotten around to it.

I ordered myself a package of Holly Berry Suite DSP once I finally realized that I really like it.  It seemed to call to me from the box.  Since I need really nice cards for the parents, I thought this would be the occasion to spend a little more effort on a few cards.

Here it is!  After a little bit of fidgeting trying to get just the right measurements, it turned out really well!  The only thing is, now I want to keep it!  It took me almost an hour from start to finish to make this one, so I hope the recipient likes it as much as I do!