Up, Up and Away

I picked up a kit and made exactly one card from it. And none of these are it.  

I was pleasantly surprised to find several completed tri-fold cards hidden away in that box.

That could mean I made them and forgot about them. 

Or it could mean the cats took pity on me and made them for me.

Or it could mean I've taken to crafting in my sleep.

Which do you think?

The Fine Print: The card base for these cards is this really cool shiny metallic purple which really freaked out my camera. You can kind of see it here and there on some of the corners.  Kit stuff by Club Scrap "Up, Up and Away."

One of Those Sets

Do you have one of those stamp sets in your stash?  You know what I mean... the one that when you are rifling though things you pass it and wonder why you don't use it very often?  I'm sure I have more than one of those sets but recently I ran across this one.

I bought it because it has great images in it but I really love this truck. I thought it would be great for masculine cards and since I was making manly cards at the time I decided it was time to stop wondering about it and start using it.

As soon as I started using the set I remembered why I don't use it often.  This truck stamp does not stamp worth shit.  I tried different ink, different paper, different surfaces... and still it took me seven tries to get one decent usable image from it.

The stamp is by a well-known company with a good reputation for quality stamps but this one is just a lemon. I did buy the set used so maybe its previous owner did something horrific to the stamps or maybe that is just how this set goes. I understand that sometimes in life poop happens.  It might be happening right here.

The Fine Print: Stamp by a well-known company with a good reputation, you probably know who it is, papers and stuff from my stash.  I put the set in my sale pile but I feel kind of bad passing a lemon on to someone else. Then again the last time I passed on a lemony set the new owner had absolutely no problem with it. Maybe this set just doesn't like me?!

Bee All That You Can Bee*

*Unless you don't want to bother, of course, no pressure here!

Whilst rummaging around in an overly stuffed drawer of designer paper I ran across this black and white bee paper that I've had since my early stamping days.

Yeah, I know it isn't black and white now, but that is because I colored all those little bees in and then added the big queen bee in the middle and a greeting and called it done.

The Fine Print: Bee paper by Penny Black, queen bee stamp by Copper Leaf Creations, greeting by Peddler's Pack, circle dies by Spellbinders, and that's all there is to it.

Gone Quackers

We actually have rain in forecast for tomorrow according to the clouds and lightning bolt icon on my weather predicting machine.  That's kind of interesting.... and completely off season.

I still haven't bought myself any wellies* which is a shame because when it rains for real the rain hits the ground and bounces back up and you get soaked from the knees down.  Not that it is really going to rain tomorrow (she says as a flash flood carries her away).

The Fine Print: *Go Britain! Wellies is such a better name for rain boots than rubbers, which sound like I need some ribbed-for-her-pleasure Trojans. Seattle Girl and Row of Ducks stamps by A Muse Artstamps, oval dies by Spellbinders, designer paper from my stash, and yellow twine from A Muse Studio (it's baker's twine that I pulled apart to get only the colored strands.

Workdesk #313

It is time for another workdesk reveal courtesy of Julia's Stamping Ground. I'll start by showing you my desk from this past weekend. I had mentioned that I have a new desk organizer to put in place.  To get it in place I had to start by doing things like this (commonly called 'the piled high method').

I took everything off the top of my desk and piled it on the working surface. My original plan had been to empty all the drawers and do an entire desk re-org but I didn't/don't/still don't have that kind of time.  So I worked around with piles and heaps and shoved different things in different drawers. As of this morning it looked like this:

Here is a close up of my new organizer.  I kept one of the little plastic drawers I had before but now that I've gotten things somewhat straightened up I don't think I'll need it (which is good because my goal was to get rid of those).

Everyone one of my desk drawers is a disaster now but that is another project for another day. It's interesting how much pointless junk I had on/in my desk.

The Fine Print: BTW, Charles isn't overly pleased with the extra space on top of my desk. It has enough room for two cats and who ever met a cat who wants to share?

Duck, Duck, Horse!

I have these cards that I made the other weekend when I was working at my table instead of my desk. That was a nice change of pace and since the chair didn't roll I tended to stay right there and just keep working away.  I made a bunch of masculine cards in an attempt to use up some of these darker paper scraps and card bases.

While working on the cards I kept wondering if that was a duck or pheasant or some other bird. It wasn't until I was putting away the stamps that I realized that the set was called "Wetlands."  Yeah, I guess that means it is a duck.

And I know this one is a horse!  Hey, I'm pretty smart for a girl, huh?!

The Fine Print: Stamps by Stampin' Up--Wetlands and Horse Frontier.

Monday Musings

Last night when I was puttering around my desk making a big mess in the name of organization (reveal on Wednesday), I suddenly thought of a former coworker.  Kelsey was known for preaching unconditional love for your family--they are your family ergo you must love them no matter what. I, of course, don't agree with her.

Both Kelsey and I have unlikable awful family members.  She even has more than me since she comes from a bigger family.  Over the years her family has mellowed out while mine just keeps ramping up the crazy so maybe that explains her 'thou must love' view on families.

My thoughts are, why should your family get a free pass?  Why aren't they held to the same standards you hold other people to? I mean I know that you let your family treat you way worse than you anyone else because we've all been there and all done that. I don't see why we have to love them.  Heck, I don't even see why we have to like them. In fact, why do we even tolerate them? These are questions for the ages.

The Fine Print: Another question is why did I suddenly think of Kelsey? Perhaps my family is plotting something completely crazy.... now I'm a'scared!  Kitty stamp and die by Taylored Expressions, greeting stamp by Hero Arts, and paw print punch by EK Success.