Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Vicarious Card Swapping, Part 2

I got a little glue stick crazy this weekend with all of the fun cardmaking kits my sister sent me. Of course the more I made, the worse I got about following directions, as evidenced by this Halloween card and Christmas card.


For the Halloween card, things started out okay. It was a paper pieced pumpkin and I figured out the assembly process alright. But then I decided that I didn't like the color of the stem that was provided. Or at least I didn't like the color of the stem with the background paper.

So I traced the stem onto a different green. Then the inside of the card read "cute as a pumpkin" or something like that. Sweet, but not a sentiment I am likely to mail out to anyone. So I used another block of the nouveau green to cover it up on the inside. Then I trimmed a bit of the background paper off the front with the hopes of making the inside look on purpose (rather than like I had glued a sheet of paper on top of a message I didn't like).

And because somethings never change, even when I'm given all of the necessary materials and I have a giant tote filled with legitimate scrapbooking supplies, I can't help but improvise. Remember the flip flop layout? Well, the other one provided just the right touch of dimension to this card.

Check it - 3D pumpkin!



The same instruction sheet also had a mock up for this Christmas card. But because I just can't help myself, and I have a brand new crimper, I felt like the green background really needed to be a crimped green background. Texture is very important in cardmaking you know (or at least that's the story I'm going with).

Sadly if you crimp the paper it no longer goes all the way to the paper edge like it did when it was flat - so you have to trim it a bit to make it look like that was on purpose. And instead of a swirly, freehand approach, I wanted to attach my ribbon in a line. I like lines.

Then I could carry the line around to the inside of the card. See? Fancy.

Of course, the ribbon didn't really stick to the glue or behave in an appropriate manner of any sort, so I ended up taping it down underneath one of the gold boxes. Don't tell anyone, but this is probably not an acid-free, archival-quality solution. But it did help me to liberate my glue covered fingers from the uncooperative ribbon.

And the finished project...


I realize that the crimping doesn't show up in the photo, but it's there, I promise.


Monday, September 24, 2007

Vicarious Card Swapping, Part 1

This is a pretty good scam - my sister (and occasional co-blogger) frequently organizes/participates in card swaps at her local scrapbooking store. I guess everyone brings enough materials that everybody can trying making everyone else's cards.

Or if you live in another state (like me), and someone doesn't show up for the swap, you get an envelope full of materials in the mail without having to make any effort whatsoever. See? Told you it was a good scam.

Em saved me the extra kits and mailed them down with photocopies of her finished cards.
I went on a cutting and pasting binge over the weekend. See? (I was out of control with the new camera battery, so this may end up being 2 posts)
I liked this baby card kit - in part because I am not any good with stamping, or inking, or tearing edges, or any of the other fancy things happening on the center panel of this one.
But conveniently, the heavy lifting was already done for me. I also liked that there seemed to be enough ingredients for a second card.
I didn't totally follow how this car card was constructed based on the photocopies, so I kind of made it up.
I also wasn't that sure on the intent - at first I was thinking the race cars were some sort of "I'm in such a rush, just a quick note to say hello" kind of greeting. But then I thought it would be kind of crappy if you spent so much time handcrafting cards that you didn't have time to keep in touch with your friends (not to say I haven't done it, I just think you have to be more subtle about it).
Conveniently, I find I have need for a "thanks for helping me replace my hubcaps after some @sshole stole them off my car in broad daylight while I was at work" greeting card this week. So that's what this will be.

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Friday, September 21, 2007

Aaargh! No Batteries

Dang it. Of course the batteries in my camera would be dead when I have socky progress and card-making goodness to show you.

Sorry - stay tuned!

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

New Toys and New Projects

My birthday was last week and I scored some fantastic new crafty toys. (I also scored tickets to go see Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello - thanks Mom & Dad!) Presents totally rule.

Check out the adorable stickers my friend Tammy sent:

So perfect for Maddie's puppy scrapbook. See the one of the little devil with the sock in its mouth? Doesn't it look like devil Maddie?


(Although Maddie seems to favor chewing on my new rug to chewing on socks)


And holy crap, look at the crapper keeper, I mean scrapping tote my sister and brother-in-law gave me! It's friggin' huge. The box was ginormous. So fun.


As if that weren't enough, when you opened it up, there was all this too:


Honest to God scrapping supplies - not flip flops and whatever else I usually decide to chop up and glue to a page. I'm so fancy I can hardly stand myself. The nice thing is that now I can keep my toys some place accessible, yet still packed and out of the way if I have people over. (quite the upgrade from my current strategy of having papers and markers and gluesticks exploding all over my bedroom)

I keep putting all of my toys inside and the pulling them out and rearranging them and putting them back inside. It's like an anal-retentive field day.



As for actual crafting, I've started to work on some Cascade Fixation ankle socks designed by the lovely Turtlegirl. Since I went with solid colors instead of self-striping yarn, I thought they wanted a bit of a contrast color for the heel and toe. So, pink and orange it is.

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Friday, September 07, 2007

All I wanted was to buy some buttons

Grr. Bad customer service.

Slow but sure, I've made some progress on my ribbon-edged baby cardigan. This is the vestiness portion. There is some sleeve action as well, but they are still on the needles.


I thought that I would take the vesty part to the "world's largest button and fabric store" to buy some buttons, now that I know how big my buttonholes will be. Conveniently, the "world's largest button and fabric store" is in downtown Louisville and just a few blocks from my office.


I wanted to get some fancy, girly buttons since I'm making this for a fancy, girly baby. It is already blue so I thought we could hearts and flowers it up a bit. (I first met the baby in question when she was about 4 hours old. Somehow she already had a teeny pink bow in her hair. See what I mean? Fancy and girly)


The button store in question closes at 5:30 on weeknights. So I go barreling out of work at about 5:04 and arrive at the store at no later than quarter after.


Now, I've worked retail. I know how badly you want to be able to actually close the store at the time posted in the window. I know how annoying it is when you have that one customer who lingers long past the posted closing time. So I firmly intended to be in and out in 10 minutes.


I'm not in the store 3 minutes when they make the "(insert name of store) will be closing in five minutes, please complete your shopping and proceed to the registers" announcement.


Then, they shut off all of the lights in the button section where I'm standing. Immediately. After saying you have five minutes, I'm standing in the dark. I find what looks to be little pearl buttons of the correct size and make my way to the register.


Sarah's total time in the store: less than 5 minutes. Actual time: about 5:20. When I get to the cash register, where the lights are still on, I see that the buttons I've grabbed are actually a pale lavender and not the white that I thought.


Grr. I leave the stupid purple buttons on the counter and leave.


Forget this. I'll go to JoAnn's. I tried to support my local craft shops, but this is not the first time I have had terrible service at this particular store. So screw 'em. Clearly they don't need my business. So they won't be getting it anymore.


Okay. End of venting. I need to get back to the sleeve-making.

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