The Amazing Zoei
>> Wednesday, April 30, 2008 –
video
Okay so it's been a while since I posted - so you know what time it is...youtube time! Enjoy!
A Claire Bear Day
>> Sunday, April 27, 2008 –
Operation Write Home
What a fun day—I got to spend it with my buddy Claire!! This photo of us was from my outstretched arm while we were at Cirque du Soleil. What an amazing show! We had an incredible time, and have a standing date to go again next time they're in town.
After we got home, we weren't quite ready for the fun to end—so we got out the Copics and Spicas and went to town coloring some Bellas! Here are Claire's tremendous cards for the troops, what a great talent she has!
And these are my creations for our heroes from yesterday...the first is based on the weekly sketch on the 2ps board.
Is the weekend really almost over????
Shamelessly "using" my stamps
>> Saturday, April 26, 2008 –
Operation Write Home
Yes, I am "using" my stamps. I hope they can forgive me. I'm using them to help me forget the pain. I hate aging!
I ache because I finally finished the bark project from a few weeks ago! But—the driveway is clear of the 4 yards of bark and 2 yards of topsoil! Woohooo!! And the yard is looking so wonderful now. I am thrilled—last year I did a big NOTHING in the garden because I knew I had a lot of overtime to work all summer, as well as a long trip to Israel, so I opted to plant nothing, water nothing. It looked hideous, and I was just embarrassed!
Not this year—I'm going to have flowers! And one evening this week I'm going to go pick out a new tree to replace the one I had removed after last year's storms—anyone have a fave tree to recommend? I love trees that turn color in fall, and I have a biiiig sycamore and some pines out front, and a vine maple in the back. I'm leaning toward a maple out front, but would be open to suggestions!
Here are a couple cards for you to enjoy: First, a House Mouse card, I just love this stamp!! It's colored with Copics.
This is an adaptation from one of Julee's sketches over at Poetic Artistry:
A card that came together nicely after I thought I had blown it, I kinda like the scraps that worked on this one:
I'm making a bunch of cards for someone putting care packages together for their local soldiers, and this was one more simple one that I made 10 of for her; stamp by Inkadinkado:
And these photos are my creations from I think the last week or 10 days? I think? Could be two weeks, I've lost track. I've been making simple cards, and using up scraps and already-colored images so I can get them OFF of my desk, it's been buried lately!
I need to get jamming on some Father's Day cards next. I have a few soldiers who got Mother's Day cards, but those early boxes went out before I had many dad cards, so I need to get another box in the mail in the next couple weeks for them.
Tomorrow, (I am SO excited) I'm taking my little friend Claire to CIRQUE DU SOLEIL!!! I have never seen the show live, and I can't WAIT! And to see Claire's eyes bulge when she sees the things they do will be a double treat. She's a delightful young lady and quite the performer in her own right, so I assume I'll take her back home with a new dream: to fly on a trapeze!
Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
More on elephants
>>
–
video
(Sorry, I'm still recovering from a day of yardwork. I'm slowly getting some energy back, so am heading to the craft room now!)
One amazing artist
>>
–
video
This is a little long, but SO worth your time. Seriously. Sit back and get ready to ooh and aaah.
... and the other? Inspired. Tasty. Maybe not amazing?
Tutorial slider card
>>
–
Tutorial
Hey check this out—someone used one of my tutorials! How awesome is that?
Her card (with video to show how it opens)
My tutorial
I think that's the first person who used the tutorial—or at least the first who let me know! :)
The most dangerous animal in Africa
>> Friday, April 25, 2008 –
Inspiration
I heard a talk this week about dangerous beasts in Africa. Top 10 listed by how many people they killed. And do you know what was number one?
Guess.
Just take a guess.
Lions?
Jaguars?
Hippos?
How about snakes?
Got more guesses?
Try this one on for size:
Yep. Mosquitoes. They kill more kids than anything else. 3,000 every day. The malaria epidemic they pass is compounded by the AIDS crisis—malaria weakens the body to be more susceptible to AIDS, and AIDS weakens the body to be more susceptible to malaria. And the cycle could be broken. If every kid across Africa was able to sleep under a treated bednet, the mosquitoes wouldn't have anyone to feast on. And they could turn into the annoying insects we think of here in the U.S.—instead of the most deadly animal in Africa.
So, why this random post about malaria? I do have a small personal connection to this. I have mosquito issues. When I was a kid, I got bitten by every mosquito out there. Even if no one else around got nipped, I did. "It's because you're so sweet!" Mom would say. BAH! It still happens. I get eaten alive by these critters, and I hate them. And the thought of ever going to Africa, a place I would love to go, is tempered by a fear of mosquitoes. I'd go, in a heartbeat, but would not be thrilled about the bug factor. And the thought of millions of kids just sitting out in the open, laying on a mat in an open hut with mosquitoes not held back by a screen in a window or a bednet over top of them—just scares me.
Today is World Malaria Day. And here's my challenge: do something. If nothing else, watch the video below. If you want to do more, find an org that provides bednets for kids across Africa. World Vision (who I work for) does, and you can give simply by clicking here to provide bednets and education for a family for just $20. There are lots of others out there too. Just do something.
Ink it up
Well I found this stamp, uhm, buried. It was a wonderful gift, and I sorta ended up burying it under stuff on my table! Well I inked 'er up tonight and here are the first two of them. I only have one question: if one designs a rectangular stamp with a rectangular border, why does one make it not fit with even borders on a 4.25 x 5.5 card? Ah well.
Scrap cards
I'm working my way through a scrap pile, hoping to catch a glimpse of the surface of my worktable soon... :)
Stop Pollution!
>> Tuesday, April 22, 2008 –
All about me
I won a ribbon for this drawing when I was six years old—Earth Day 1970!
Earth Day resolutions
>>
–
All about me
Shouldn't every day be Earth Day? I thought today would be a good day to start on a few things I've been thinking of doing for a while, and just never got around to. So here's my list of 10 small changes that I'm going to make in my own little corner of the planet starting today.
- Reset my thermostat. I have one of those automatic ones that comes on with a timer. And I was thinking this morning, it really doesn't have to be warm while I lay in bed doing email. So I'm going to re-set the times on it, both mornings and nights.
- Reset that silly timer on the outside lights. Daylight savings always wacks me out, and I have to re-learn how to change the timer; the other day I noticed the lights are still coming on early (while it's now still light) and I have got to change the timer. Today is the day!
- Get back to my to-do list! The number of times I head out without a plan has got to stop. I've been so busy that my usual list-making frenzy has gone by the wayside, but no longer.
- Host a weekly Hoarders Anonymous challenge here on my blog. It's been a great way to use the supplies I have and stop the shopping mania—and creates cards, not trash! I've posted a bunch on the 2ps stamping board, but I find if I post stuff here, somehow I feel "responsible" to actually DO it. Yes, you my readers are my accountability buddies!
- Be intentional about lights at work. I've been noticing a lot of our conference rooms have lights left on in them regularly, and I'm going to maniacally mess with light switches. Doesn't that sound like fun?
- Put out FREE items on weekends. I have a huge pile of things in the garage that have been waiting for years for the town recycling event, and I keep missing it. But 2 weeks ago I put out a few of the items with a FREE sign and guess what - those old file cabinets found a new home! Lots better than even recycling that metal. So on each nice weekend, I'm going to start putting out those items. I've got old computer equipment, a TV, some small furniture items. I'm too lazy for a garage sale, but I am going to find new homes for all this STUFF!
- Rig up that clothes line. I have an idea how I can do it, but it'll take a little ingenuity and a few power tools. This is the year. Once we get some nice weather, that is, we've had snow and rain in the last week!
- Learn how to compost. I've been creeped out by the thought of a pile of garbage, since I've had rodent troubles before. But . . . I think it could well be worth getting over the ickiness. I've been overhauling my yard and landscaping, and found a great spot I could put a compost bin, so I'm going to try it out. Wish me luck!
- Save a plastic tree. Finally make good on my promise to myself to carry a cloth bag with me while shopping. I'm pretty good about saying, "No I don't need a bag," but juggling multiple purchases sometimes doesn't seem worth it so I do end up accepting that bag sometimes. I always say to myself on those days, "I've got to put that cloth bag in the car!" and today, I will PUT it there.
- Plan weekly meal menus. I've noticed if I don't cook something on weekends with a plan for a bunch of leftovers, I can avoid consequences like eating too many ready-t0-eat meals (way too much garbage generated from all that packaging), eating out because I don't have anything good in the refrigerator, and eating out of *gasp* the vending machines at work. Do any other single people have these problems? Aiyee. Time to plan.
So what change are you going to make? Read more...
And the weekend count is...
>> Sunday, April 20, 2008 –
Operation Write Home
209! I'm scaring myself. Thank goodness for all the images already colored. And my basket of stash is seriously DWINDLING! Yay.
These are the weekend cards plus some others that arrived last week, and they're all on the way out the door tomorrow!
Keepin' on keepin' on
I spent some time working on computer projects and something for my job today, but this afternoon I dove back into card mode! Up to 129 for the weekend now, jiminy....
The round card is from a sketch by my buddy Dawn.
More productivity in my day
It's been a good day for creating! After getting home from the exhibit, I took a nap (yay!!) then got busy. I decided to dive in with a multicolored patterned paper, and use up a bunch of images I'd colored over the last month with my Copics. It seems I love to just color and don't really get to using the images very quickly. :P This batch made a nice dent in my collection of images—and I have 17 purple cards done.
Another of my production-line cards:
And these two are colored with Copics; the cow image is from the "out of the box" swap---we take turns sending a stamped image to the whole group, and then get to see what everyone does with the same image.
Any guesses how many cards I can get done by the end of the day tomorrow? Let's see if I can figure out what I have done so far this weekend . . .
- 16 masculine cards
- 17 purple cards
- 12 triptych green cards
- 12 peach cuttlebug cards
- 16 Godspeed cards
- 12 orange thinking of you cards
- 10 red car cards
- 10 maroon flower cards
Enough rambling. Time for bed. I napped so much today that I'm not real sleepy, but I'm going to try anyway since it's past 1am. G'night! Read more...
An exhibit you must experience
>> Saturday, April 19, 2008 –
Inspiration
Today I went to an exhibit I want to share with you all . . . and before you tune out because there's no card on this post (ha), know that the exhibit is:
- FREE.
- about the AIDS crisis.
- an experience that transports you into the life of a child affected by the disease.
- realistic - probably the closest most of us will get to going to Africa.
- sobering - but entirely worth your time and effort to get there.
So, get yourself there. It's an exhibit that's ok for kids to see; you can ask when you check in for the mildest 'lifelane' if you're concerned about exposing your kids to something tough. But it will transform them, and you. Read more...
Simplicity's the key
I wonder how long this urge to knock out cards will last, lol. I'm feeling the need to do something fancier on the next set, so we'll see how long til my next post. *grin*
Production mode
>>
–
Operation Write Home
It's amazing how much I can do in an evening when I make multiples of one design! Or 4 designs...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
