Still Stuck on Pink

What can I say? I seem to be stuck on pink lately! Well possibly because now I have a bunch of pink scraps on my desk since I haven't cleaned it off since my other projects.

This card is for my friend Kristina whose birthday is actually today but I am a bit late in the mailing. It's a bit of an odd size, slightly smaller than 5 by 7, but is is going in a box anyway. It is going to be sent with a hat and scarf that I knitted for her in this soft variegated-blue suede yarn and a pair of red, silver and black earrings with a matching bracelet that I also made. Yes pictures of these items would be nice but really I barely had time to finish them, never-mind photograph them!

I am not sure that I am loving the blue on this card but I thought it sort of went with the scarf. I also think maybe I overdid it with all of the gems AND the Stickles. Oh well, it was really late when I finished it last night so I can't claim it is my best work but hopefully she will like it.

One cool technique I did discover was that my black India ink pad stamps really well on coated cardstock and looks fabulous with this reversed alphabet (meaning the stamp makes the background and the letters stay the color of the paper). I think it will make me use this alpha more often!

Directions:
Cut card to 5 by 7 side-opening and scallop the right edge of the front panel. Trim strips of patterned paper to 4.5 inches wide and approximate heights as shown. Wrap ribbon around pink panel and tie bow around the ribbon. Attach all strips to card, aligning with the fold. Glue strip of black pp inside the card front so it shows behind the scalloped edge. Punch scalloped circles from black & pink pp and layer with foam flowers. Top with rhinestone flower and tiny clear gem. Die-cut swirls from white CS using Slice. Position above and below flower embellie on blue panel. Slide corsage pink through the bow and into small foam flower. Top flower with small clear gem. Stamp name with alphabet stamps using black ink on glossy CS. Cut out individual letters and attach. Edge strip of black dotted pp with upper crest punch. Attach tiny gem in each "valley." Apply Stickles to ends of each swirl.

Supplies:
Strips of patterned papers left over from other projects (bottom pink strip is DCWV Summer stack, blue is Target $1 spot, white swirl I stamped -- see the previous post, pink strip is cut from a gift bag), black & white ribbon, white cardstock, Icicle Stickles, foam flowers from kid's craft dept, corsage pink, letter stamps, rhinestone flower, tiny gems, Slice, Fiskars Scallop Sentiment & Upper Crest punches, Marvy scallop circle punches, Xyron

Daddy's Girl

OK, really bad blogger I have been. But it was kind of starting to feel like work, with how nice it was outside there for awhile (finally!) and I said that I was out when it started to be too hard.

However I have actually done some scrapbooking lately and I thought I'd share one today. It uses an old photo as I am in a quandary about photo printing. More on that later. First the layout:

This one is me and my dad, as you can see by the cute little Studio G stamp that I used for the subtitle. This is an OLD photo, from 1994, that is in one of the four icky magnetic albums that I am trying to redo. Yes I know I should pull all of the photos out to minimize further damage, but the idea of having to store all of those photos in some organized way or risk having to resort them is too much for me to handle. So I am s-l-o-w-l-y redesigning these pages.

I knew I wanted to use this cute bird background paper from the DCWV Glitter Summer Stack (or is it spring?!) and the cordinating DCWV chipboard flower, which I ended up topping with a blue foam circle and clear gem to minimize the hot pink. Then I found the red vinyl stickers in my stash that I bought last year from Michaels' holiday clearance, figuring they didn't really scream "Christmas." I thought the black Making Memories rub on letters were a nice constrast.

It took me awhile to settle on the b&w polka dotted paper, which has been in my stash forever. I used my newish Fiskars Upper Crest border punch. The photo mat is a randomly a page from a yellow lined hotel notepad that was on my desk. The ribbon was already cut in my ribbon scraps bin, it's $1 kind from Michaels. I added the green dotted Making Memories leaves for a little contrast. The subtitle lable was the only item I used from the large K&Co kit I got at AC Moore, even though I planned to use more of that kit on the page. I stamped it with Staz On using the aforementioned Studio G stamp.

Finally, I though the upper right corner seemed a bit bare so I back-stitched with some black embroidery floss. That made the center seem a little bare so I added the sentiment sticker, the negative from punching the black dotted border and some cross-stitches. Ta da! Nice father-daughter moment captured.

So as to my photo printing quandary, the printer I have does not play nice with Vista and I have no way of knowing how much ink is left. I also think it is just not printing as nicely and I have started wondering how long the pictures are going to last. I thought it was more economical to print myself, and also more freeing since the pictures can be any size. I was also doing a lot of digital scrapbooking so it made sense.

But I am starting to think that for longevity's sake I should get my photos printed professionally. I want to use more of my paper scrapbooking stash and I think this will encourage me to not just default to digital. Also it is taking me so long to think up layouts with different sized photos and I think I am falling into the trap of thinking I need to scrap every photo. Maybe it would be easier to go back to having mostly 4X6s?

I am thinking about checking out www.scrapbookpictures.com but I'm open to suggestions.

Cleanup Weekend

Busy weekend, although very little crafting. I sat down to craft on Saturday afternoon, thinking I would finally make my husband a birthday card (his bday was Sunday). But my craft table just seemed such a mess that I couldn’t get started, plus I had picked up some new goodies at AC Moore on my way home from work on Friday and I wanted to play and find a home for them.

Highlights of my purchases: the Fiskars scallop sentiment and upper crest border punches, which I have been wanting forever! Well the scallop sentiment at least. I have the threading (or treading, I’ve seen it both ways) water punch and I love it but wanted one without the holes. I would have actually like one with a little bit bigger of a scallop and I think possibly the Stampin’ Up one may be, but the Fiskars one was right there at the store with no waiting, no shipping charge, and at 40% off, so it is now mine (I think I paid about $9.50 each?). I can use my Fiskars Cloud scissors for larger scallops anyway, which I have finally mastered now that I realize I need to draw a pencil line to follow to exactly line up the cuts. Eye-balling it just doesn’t cut it.

I also got some Basic Gray patterned papers off the clearance rack, 25 cents apiece. I really love their papers but the collections are so expensive! One day I’ll use a 50% off coupon and get a whole set, but for now I am happy to combine bits of the patterned papers with cardstock I already have.

Another purchase was that Ranger Teflon craft mat. Not really sure I needed it and I am positive that I had bought almost the same thing to use with my Melting Pot, which I haven’t used in, well, so long I can’t remember. But I can’t find that other mat anywhere and this one is much bigger anyway. What I am really hoping I can do is heat emboss right on top of it without melting my cutting mat underneath. There’s already a bendy spot on my cutting mat from an earlier unfortunate incident with the heat gun (and a melted spot on the carpet) so I am a little nervous about trying this but the instructions say it can be done with no adverse effects to your work surface. We shall see.
Update: I tried this and it seemed OK. Yay!

I had rearranged my punches last week, moving my giant scalloped circles from a tray on my desk to one of the large drawer in the Iris cart next to my desk that my Ribbon Ring allowed me to free up. Really don’t know what I was thinking, filling that drawer with rolls of ribbon, what a waste! (If you haven’t yet seen the Ribbon Ring, check it out! Love mine). I also moved my large circle punches, large scalloped circles and miscellaneous large punches (like the EK Success Whale of a Punch ones) into the same drawer, freeing up the top drawer of the Iris cart. I’ve decided to treat is sort of as a junk drawer but with little containers that I had picked up at Target storing various embellishments by color. These are mostly one-off embellishments that I made and had no other home.

Now my back-up Fiskars trimmer that I mostly use for scoring these days after getting my Making Memories cutter can no longer fit in the top drawer. Right now I have it on top of the MM trimmer which is on top of a large file box full of letter stickers underneath my desk. Not sure if this is going to work out but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to put it. It seems too large in the center of my Making Memories carousel organizer. I did move one of my rulers there, the 12 inch metal one, and put a push pin into the window frame to hold the 15 inch one. I also cleaned my entire craft table, sorting the scraps (for the most part) and putting everything back in its home. All of this so I could lay down the Teflon mat.

I never did make my husband a birthday card. I think he had a nice birthday though. On Saturday night I took him to a Polish restaurant we had never been to. He has this thing for goulash and has been talking about it forever so even though it seems like winter food, we decided to try out this new place.

YUM! If you are ever in Boston, try Café Polonia in South Boston! It’s right on the Dorchester line. I wasn’t sure about the neighborhood so was happy it will still light when we go there, but it seemed fine, and parking was easy, with plenty of resident spots that non-residents can park in for two hours. Mike started with beet soup and I had soup pickle-cabbage soup which was unexpectedly delicious. Then he had goulash with potato pancakes and I had the Polish platter, which was three pierogies (I had cheese, cheese and potato, and cabbage. The cabbage was so good!), kielbasa, Hunter’s stew (cabbage and meat, and surprisingly good!) and stuffed cabbage (not like mine or my mom’s, but still enjoyable).

Funny, I had bought a head of cabbage and 3 lbs. of ground turkey at the supermarket on Friday and was thinking about making stuffed cabbage. I think now I’m going to make unstuffed cabbage in the crockpot this week. Tonight we are having roasted chicken with vegetables. So easy and yummy! And cost-effective. It’s a big 6 pounder and was on sale for 79 cents/lb. We’ll have plenty of leftovers for sandwiches and such and I will probably make chicken broth/soup with the carcass. It’s probably a little warm for matzo ball soup but I am betting I can still tempt Mike with it. Mmm, the chicken is smelling so good, I can’t wait until it’s done!

On Sunday Mike and I went up to his parents house in NH and had a big lobster dinner. Well his mom and I had salmon but Mike and his dad are allergic to it. I also had two lobster tails. This is turning into the summer of lobster! I think it’s the fourth time we’ve had it. The best was when Mike cooked the giant 4 lb. lobster a few weeks ago. So good, although I’m still finding bits of lobster shell around the house!