Showing posts with label scrapboooking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scrapboooking. Show all posts

Friday, January 9, 2009

Ants at a Picnic


This card started out with just the dusty rose-colored card, a 9x9 piece. I cut it down to 8.5 x 5.5, as if it were half of a letter-sized piece. That way it will fit into my purchased envelopes. Then I dug through the pile of embellishments on my table (remember the "Oversized Stickers). I found these checked tablecloth border stickers and I immediately thought "picnic". Of course what's a picnic without ants? I just happen to have an ant paper punch (imagine that!), so I grabbed some black card and punched out an odd number of ants. For some reason, an odd number of items always looks better on a page than an even number.

Then I picked a funky alpha stamp from Close to my Heart and stamped and matted. I used their Barn Red ink, which came out a little browner than I expected, but it matches really well now that it's dried all the way. I've noticed with some Close to my Heart inks that, although they appear dry soon after stamping, the color seems to change slightly over time. Also, if you apply paper glaze or glitter glaze on the fresh ink, it lifts up a yellowish tinge into the glaze. So it's best to let the ink dry longer before glazing.

I was challenged when it came to picking a saying for the inside. I didn't want to be specific to the picnic theme, and I search for quotes involving ants, but didn't find anything appropriate. "It's not a picnic without ants" is cute, but no. And this quote from The Family Guy - "You're an ant in the picnic of life" - definitely not. So I settled with "Don't let anything spoil your day".

When I made the tag, I followed them theme and used a piece of barn red ribbon for the tassle, securing it with a snap attached with the Crop-A-Dile setter. It is an awesome tool. I could never have punched holes in ribbon without it, not even with a leather punch.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Sense of Accomplishment


A couple of weeks ago, exactly when I can't tell you, but it was the day that University of Florida played football at Vanderbilt, I agreed to join in a Christmas Tag swap. And although I procrastinated hugely, I actually got all 40 of my tags done! I made 8 each of 5 different tags to share with 7 others. I am so very, very happy with how the tags turned out. I loved the process of creating something simple and (I hope) beautiful. It feels pretty darn good to finish something and then give it away.

We met for breakfast at Panera, caught up on what everyone's been doing (two of our group ran a half-marathon the previous day), and then passed around our tags. It's always fun to see the different creative directions each person takes. And I'm always excited to give and get anything with glitter on it. Love that bling!

For breakfast, I had English Breakfast tea and a Spinach Artichoke souffle'. It seemed more like a mini quiche me than a souffle, but it was absolutely delicious. If you get a chance to go to a Panera during breakfast hours, grab one of these babies. I promise you won't be disappointed. For a mouth watering preview, see picture above.

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Sam's Club

Last night we went grocery shopping at Sam's Club. Since we hadn't been in many months, we had to take a complete tour of the store, from electronics to automotive. You never know what you'll find at Sam's, and that's why I love it.

I've always purchased certain scrapbooking supplies there: gel pens, photo paper, inks, etc. Now they have real scrapbooking items - sets with paper and embellishments, carrier bags with goodies to go - but the real temptation was a huge chunk of printed cardstock. 320 sheets for $19.95! What a steal, right? Pedro kept saying, "How much paper do you already have?" over and over while my eyes glazed and I started to salivate. In the end, I put it back, after calculating that there were probably 16 sheets of each same design. However.....if three friends and I each put in 5 bucks, we would each get four sheets apiece, which are reversible, so that makes two sheets of each design, which is just perfect.....

Oh, how devious is the paper collector's mind!