Patterns

Believe it or not, I have been trying to get this card posted for over a week now!!  

It would seem that my secretary tends to overbook the calendar. I really need to fire her.  

Oh wait.  That would be me. 

Can one be fired from a job that one doesn't get paid for?

Sigh.

At any rate, I made this card for a fellow paper crafter, who just happens to be our office PR gal. We celebrated her birthday last week.  

I originally had just planned to use another print from this particular paper pack that had these wonderful flocked/raised flowers on it.  I was running short on time and was going to let the paper do all the work for me.

Then, I had a brain freeze and decided to embellish the card myself.

 No, I prefer to think that I took advantage of the excuse of needing to make a card to carve out a bit more creative time.  

Or, I had a brain freeze. 

The 5 inch square card base is Gina K's Pure Luxury 120# in Ivory.  I then ruined utilized several pieces of black paper in my attempts to try and punch out the decorative border, keeping a straight line.  I obviously failed and after the millionth attempt, (only a slight exaggeration, I assure you), I gave up and figured no one would notice the uneven framing of the patterned paper (from an old DCWV paper pack) but me.

The flower was die cut from some bright, rich red metal that a friend gave me.  I could not capture the actual color with my photo or correct with my limited photo editing skills.  The flower was die cut using the Tattered Florals Die.  I used a decorative wheel and the Cuttlebug Swiss Dots embossing folder to make the pattern and lightly sanded with a burnishing block.  

I had figured out that I could stamp on the ribbon BUT! Alas, another brain freeze attacked and I adhered the flower (with E600 glue, no less) prior to the stamping.  That rendered my trusty stampamajig useless as I could not bend up the petals enough to place the jig where I needed it to make sure my stamping was straight.  After several failed attempts to fashion a more narrow jig from Legos that actually worked correctly, I finally stamped on some velum paper and adhered with velum adhesive to the ribbon.

Note to self:  DO NOT USE YOUR PRECIOUS METAL FOR CO-WORKER'S CARDS!!!  It would seem that when other co-workers are signing the card, they don't appreciate the the delicacy of embellishments.  This poor flower was smooshed, smashed, bent and crumbled every which way!! 

That's it for me today!! I now need to change the creative gears and try to come up with a card for the Oldest Kiddo.  It would seem he needs a b-day card by Friday!!

Nope.  No panicking here!!

'Till next time!

 

She's Making Lists......

.......and more importantly, CHECKING off on the lists!!

Order invites for Newest Kiddo's graduation party:  CHECK

Individual Senior Boys Baseball collages put together and ordered:  CHECK

Coach's and Team Baseball collages put together and ordered:  CHECK

Teacher appreciation gift card (yes, I admit that that I caved to the convenience of a gift card. Survival is what we are aiming for in the month of May!):  CHECK

Cute presentation Teacher's Mug to give gift card:   CHECK, CHECK, CHECK!!  

Thank heavens for those paper crafter's who are willing to share their talents and templates online.  It is those saintly souls who make harried mom's like me not look quite so lame in in our gift giving.

Traci Cornelius has a wonderful video that demonstrates how to make this cute little mug. Since she did such a fabulous job, I skipped the step by step photos. This is truly easy  peasy to make!! You can find her video here.  

It actually took me longer to figure out what papers I wanted to use then the making of the mug itself.  The gift card peeking out the top will give you an idea as to the size of the mug.  It's tiny, but CUTE! 

I made the mug and handle out of Gina K's pure luxury 120# card stock as I wanted the cup to be more sturdy. You will notice in the last picture that the handle started pulling off the mug due to the stiffness of the paper.  I had used Scor-tape originally to adhere the handle, but had to resort to TenSecond Studios Humungo Killer tape to get the job done correctly.  The decorative papers are from Graphic 45's An ABC Primer line.  

Using up hoarded paper stash:  CHECK

I'm off to try and accomplish more check marks off my list before an afternoon of watching the Oldest and Newest Kiddo's baseball game.  To all you wonderful and under appreciated Teachers:  a HUGE THANK YOU!!

And to all you mom's (harried or cool, calm and got it together) HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

'Till next time......................

The End is Upon Us

The End of the YEAR is quickly approaching!!

Oh wait!  You didn't think I was referring to anything else did you?! (wink).

This time of year gets CRAZY with having 3 teen age boys. Baseball is cramming in 3 games a week. Senior recognition for baseball that will require me to go through 680 pictures multiple times in order to put together photo collages for the senior boys and their coaches.  Teacher's are cramming in as many last quarter  projects that might be possible to complete without parents hiring a team of hit men. Music performances are doing double services at the local churches, not to mention the spring concerts that will be upon us soon.  Award banquets.  Teacher appreciation days. School golf tournaments.

A family wedding to attend.  Oldest Kiddo's birthday coming up.

And let us not forget graduation and the party announcements that still need to be made up and sent out. And graduation cards for classmates.

Cloning. That may be the only answer to get all of this done.  

To add the final cherry on top, the Youngest Kiddo decided that it would be the perfect time  to break his wrist.

The Toad suggested he get a white cast so that I could custom paint it for him.  The first idea was to do the Terminator look with mechanical parts bursting out of the skin.

Uhhhh.  Nope!! It would seem that when mom has not drawn or painted in a loooong time, such skills required for that type of detail are no longer an option.

And yes, I did try.

Next option, Ironman.  As simple as this should have been, it took me several tries.  This cast has more paint on it than the Sistine Chapel.  

You may have noticed that I didn't share the top of the cast.  It would seem that became my nemesis. While it doesn't look bad, per say, it just doesn't look as good as the palm.  It looks like it went through a battle to get painted and it won.  Oh well!! The Youngest Kiddo has informed me that I'll have the chance to have another go at it in a couple of weeks.  Yes, this Kiddo will have the pleasure of multiple casts as he fractured the scaphoid bone in his wrist, which just so happens to have the poorest blood supply.  This meaning more x-rays in a couple of weeks to make sure it is healing.  

It goes without saying that further posting will be sparse over the next couple of weeks!! I hope the month of May finds you with plenty of time for creativity! Enjoy a few extra moments for me!!

'Till next time......................