Advice From Dio

Hi, I'm Dio and I'm gonna be your guest columnist today. As a Life Coach I kin give you sum excellent advice. Here is sum now: It is okay to be lazy, but sometimes you gotta move around a little bit so the vultures don't eat you.

See, the clouds were being rilly lazy this morning. I s'pose it is okay because dey were rilly buzy last making growls and lights and rainings. But if they don't git up soon, vultures might eat them.

My mom made this pretend pickture of me. It's called an Ay Tee See. She made a whole bunches of them.

The Fine Print: Window die by Taylored Expressions, cat die by Memory Box, scenery stamp and brick embossing folder by Stampin' Up.

Lookie What I Did!

You know what pocket letters are, right? In case not, they are trading card sleeves filled with homemade ATC-sized art and little bits of crafting goodies that you send to your friends.  The theory is that you received on in the mail and then promptly send one of your own to that person.

And by promptly, I mean within the next 3 years. Or at least those are the guidelines I'm going by.

I've received three of them myself and in return I started with the one the that had the furthest to travel (some 6000 miles and change). I sent it to this girl who kind of sort of like cats, so that made the subject matter easy to identify.

These ATCs made up the first row. I have whole selection of pre-printed cards from some Project Life Clone and since they were cat themed, this was the purrfect opportunity to use them. Of course, if you like cats, you know all about the Cat Butt and how it plays a prominent feature in cat ownership.

 You also understand the whole cats in boxes thing that shows up in the second row. And of course, we can't have dogs in our cat themed project, now can we?! Do you like my attempt at coloring a Siamese cat in the last ATC?

Here's the whole thing put together:

and the back: 

And  a close up of the wee tag:

The Fine Print: Cat butt stamp by Eat Cake Graphics, It's a Cat Thing by unknown, Just for You, Tabby Cat, Box Kitty, and Siamese Kitty by MFT, Orange Kitty (middle row) by Hero Arts, and Cool Cat Orange Kitty by Stampendous? (i forgot). Pawprint punch by EK Success. Fake Project Life cards by A Muse Studio. 

Shazam!

Back in October I joined an ATC swap where the theme was masks. I'm sure they were aiming for Halloween costumes and the like but I like to march to the beat of a different trombonist sometimes.

The Fine Print: Stamps by Mama Elephant, super hero washi tape from Michaels. 

Bugging Me

I zapped up nine of these little bug themed ATCs the other day. I love ATCs. And by that I mean I love what other people do with such small canvasses, layering on this and that and making things so artsy and creative. Me? The best I can do is make a tiny card. I did layer the umbrella even though it looks flat in this photo.

The Fine Print: Bug stamp by Penny Black, bug border punch by Martha Stewart.

Workdesk Number Tree-fitty

Hello and Welcome to the 350th week of What's on Your Workdesk Wednesday, a fun and oddly satisfying blog hop where we show off our work spaces.  This is mine from this past weekend.

From left to right on the desktop proper you'll see a bunch of cards. Some are incoming, some need to be outgoing (if only I'd get motivated) and some just need to be put in the Christmas card box (cranking those out this year!). There is a clear stamp of leaves that I used for the ATCs I started last week. The long card with the girl on it I finished off because I need to send a birthday card (and I still haven't sent it!),   There are pencils, ATC left overs, my notebook to keep me on track, Copics, foam tape, the finished ATCs, a pile of random cards and papers, scissors, rules, filmy cloth bag, more scissors, more tape, ink pads, more copics, and some new stamp sets.  Whew.  That's a lot.

The table behind me is getting quite a workout too. You can see my stamp travel bag in the background, my big shot, paper cutter, empty plastic bin with a mini catalog on top, cut up cardstock, a memoir, a stamp cleaner pad and of course, a geiger counter (you mean not every crafter has one?).

Here's one of the finished ATCs that I had in pieces on my desk last week that I was asked to share. The theme of the swap is "short and sweet." I hope this captures that.

The Fine Print: Possum stamp by Stampin' Up, greeting by DeNami Designs.

A Very Important Date

I've been thinking about ATCs lately and how I have several notebooks full of them. I tend to only look at them when I am trying to be inspired to make an ATC.  I don't make ATCs anymore so I don't look in the notebooks anymore.

So what to do with all these ATCs? Well, turn them into cards and use them of course! I have a friend who collects masculine cards to send as birthday cards to hospitalized Veterans. This are a couple of the cards I whipped together for her.

Hmmm.... I just realized that they both have rabbits on them.  Well that's how the bunny hops sometimes.

The Fine Print: Cards put together from various bits and pieces from my stash. I did not make those ATCs though.

Dream

I have too much of a headache today to update my blog.  But if I didn't have a headache, probably I'd show you this card.

This is a card I made by putting an ATC I made on the front of a card base.  I did a little bit more to it than that as you can see adding some layers, a punched border and some brads, but basically it is just an ATC on the front of a card.

The Fine Print: Check out that rowdy gingham card base I found in my stash! Diamond background stamp by Hero Arts, flower and greeting by Endless Creations, and other stuff from my stash.

WOYWW Number One-Sixty-Nine

The desk hasn't changed too much since last Wednesday, which will be distressing for those of you who thought it too clean last time.  I have a 3-day weekend coming up so I'm sure I'll mess it up then.

 

In the middle of my desk is a piece of scrap cardstock and scrap ribbon. They are there for no real reason.  I think that is the biggest news to report today!  The coolest thing on my desk is the multicolored hand-knit washcloth that was a surprise gift (right hand side of the desk). Underneath that is workshop kit I got from A Muse so I can force my friends to make some A Muse cards. It should be fun. Also on my desk is this card that I received from an on-line friend:

Here is a fab ATC I got in the recent women's accessories ATC swap.  There were a lot of great ATCs in this swap. I just grabbed this one to share since it was on the top of a pile on my computer desk (oh, now there's a desk I've never shared with y'all and I should have to appease the non-clean freaks).

Also I have this bin I bought a couple of weeks ago.  Then I hemmed and hawed over if I was really going to use it or not. I decided to keep it to help organize my life.  Stay tuned to see if it works!

And here's a cat for no real reason except for if I end up in the poor house it will be due to this bugger.  His name is Fido and he's older than dinosaur poop.  He also has a non-operable cancerous tumor in his intestines that comes with a short time span (as in don't buy Christmas presents for this cat).  He is the third cat I've had with cancer.*  I'm not saying my house is on a former toxic waste dump, but holy cow.

That's it for WOYWW. I don't have anything to share that I made this time being as I shared everything I've made recently in previous posts. I opted to read a book for pleasure last night instead of playing or doing homework.  Yeah, I'm taking a class this semester too.

Hey for you Blogger experts, is there a way to turn off comments on one particular post?  I have one post from back in March that the male enhancement people like to make spam comments on. 

The Fine Print: I could really do with a lemon meringue pie and yes, that thought is out of left field.  In case you are wondering how the first week of school went (from an employee perspective not a student one) we only had one crier this time. I told my boss he was slipping.

* The other two cancerous kitties are in the great catnip garden in the sky, it isn't Jack and Poppy for you Jack and Poppy fans.  

WOYWW No. 160

It's Wednesday and that means time for the latest and biggest snoop around crafting spaces on the Internet.  My desk is heaped with stuff today.  Monday I picked everything up off the floor, piled it on my desk to vacuum.  And then I left it.  This is the end result minus a few things that have migrated back to the floor.

Things have been shuffled around a bit. I was on the phone with my Mom last night and since I was trapped by the phone cord (so old fashioned, I know) and only had one hand all I accomplished was moving stuff around some.  It was terribly unproductive.  I did make this card though with bits and pieces.  I feel like it needs something more, but I'm not sure what.

I have a couple more ATCs from the WOYWW birthday swap to show off.  I got the fabulous oriental girl from Lottie. She is heat embossed to perfection and colored exquisitely.  The pretty in pink elegant birdcage is by Di (Pixie's Workshop).

The Fine Print: Hmmm... whaddya know? I don't have anything to put here. That isn't to say it ain't all good, cuz it's pretty good. In fact, you could say it's fine.

The Making of an ATC...

I have to make ATCs for a swap I'm in.  They aren't due until next Saturday and I realize that this isn't the Friday before, but really I would prefer to get them done early.  I just don't do it often.  First I ponder the themes we were given: scenic or flags.  When I signed up I totally was going to do scenic with a miniature Stampscapes scene.  However, I changed my mind once I heard the total number we had to make: 15.  If you think I'm making 15 Stampscape scenes, you would be wrong.  I opted for flags and wanted to use this stamp.

However, I was certain that this stamp had been used to death in previous flag/patriotic swaps.  I don't know why that mattered, but I felt the need to check it out.  So I had to get out my book of ATCs and check.  Surprisingly no one had used this stamp before. I was golden.

I knew I wanted to incorporate my blue shimmery paper into the design, so that meant finding it. I was pretty sure it was on the closet floor in a container of paper, and it was.  Doesn't everyone keep paper on the closet floor?  I keep a lot of stuff on the floor there.

Since this was going to be an ATC swap with multiple layers I rejected using the expensive 110 lb paper for the cards and opted for more inexpensive paper. I got a pleasant surprise when I found out that that white paper I found to use was shimmery as well.

Then it was time to cut up the papers. I've learned over the years not to cut up all 15 at once. It is better to make one complete one first because you just never know what twists and turns you will encounter along the way (this is called 'foreshadowing').

Then I had to go find some markers, with the help of my lovely assistant, Poppy.  However, the only Tombow maker I could find was a light blue one and I was terribly unhappy with the resulting image.  I wasn't sure if I should cut it following the waves or try to square it off.  I did the wave and didn't like it.  Worse though, was the color. Light blue isn't our flag's color, nevermind that our flag doesn't have a heart on it. I just did not like it.



At this point the camera declared its batteries dead. I complained to the cat for allowing the batteries to go dead while making a documentary. The cat was unphased.  At that point I decided to make dinner and feed the cats. As I was pulling shrimp out of the freezer (for us, not the cats) I noticed two things.  One that that shrimp needed to be detailed (as in tails pulled off, de-tailed) and that there were spare AA batteries in the freezer.  After dinner I pondered my ATC design.  Without a better blue, I would have to go for a different stamp.  I had some ribbon out to use on my ATC and that influenced me to try a certain set.  The ribbon was called Americana and so is this set.

 But puttering around with it wasn't doing "it" for me.

I then thought that maybe I should use my new A Muse stamp set. I mean, after all I sell the stuff and I should make more samples with it for the world to see in hopes that they will want to buy it.  People always want stamps they see samples made with, right?  Right!

However, the fun and funky grundge flag was too big for an ATC.

Then, Poppy reminded me that I had some older markers in the rolly cart. We both hoped that there was a darker blue in there and that it would work.  We were in luck.

I decided to square off (rectangle off, really, but that sounds dumb) the image this time since I didn't like it cut with the wave. I also decided that it would need a red mat to mimic the red, white and blue in the flag and in my ribbon.  I perused the red paper stash and found there wasn't enough red scraps in the right color for 15 mats so it was off to one of the many paper storage units for the nice dark red paper.

Once I got that matted, I started thinking about my ribbon. I knew I wanted to use that cool Americana ribbon, but how.  I thought of wrapping it around but then I thought that attaching it with a Fastenator staple would be awesome.  It would give my ATC another dimension and if I used the staples with the star cutouts in them, that would ever cooler. 

Image how shocked I was to discover that there were no staples with star cutouts!  Wherever did I get that idea from?  I did find a different staple with a starburst like design on it.  By that time I realized that to attach the ribbon with those staples would require me to have 30 of them (you know, 15 ATCs x 2 staples for each side of the ribbon [see, some math is useful]). I only had 24 of the starburst design, plus having two Fastenator staples per small hunk of ribbon would look really clunky.

I thought about using regular staples and started actually playing around with the ribbon and ATC.  That's when I realized that the ribbon wasn't going to work no matter what I did.  It made me sad, but sometimes that is how it goes.

I knew I had some red and white baker's twine that I could wrap instead of ribbon. I wondered if I might also has some blue and white baker's twine so I could put them together. I opened the twine drawer and what did I find?

Red, white, AND blue twine.  *ding*ding*ding* We have a winner.  And yes, the cat helped. Long ago I learned from my artistic mother that odd numbered elements were more pleasing to the eye than even numbered ones.  My ATC design was currently a main image and a wrap of twine, that's two elements. I decided that I would use the Americana stamp set and stamp "USA" in the bottom corner to give my that needed third element. It would be subtle enough to not be distracting but help make the eye happy. 

I also had to ponder if I wanted to knot the twine or put it in a bow. I knew a bow would look better but I also knew that I can't keep my own shoes tied, so how was I going to get a bow to stay put?  Why, with nail polish, of course.  Everyone knows that.  I mean, even my own husband knows that.*

I don't actually own nail polish though. I have this bottle of crap for soft nails that stinks a thousand times worse than regular nail polish, but I had to work with what I had.  I put that on the bow and spent the rest of the evening wondering just what on earth was that horrible smell?  Oh yeah!  That damn nail crap!  I got the ATC finished by then there was the whole business of what to put on the back of the ATC.  I had two ATC-specific designs to chose from.

Which one did I pick?  Neither.

I put some random stuff on there instead.  The slash is so I can number them.  I need to make 15 but sometimes I end up making more, so no numbering until I'm completely done.  See how ardourous this whole process is?  See how it can take the whole day to complete one project?  See how come I can't create anything at get-togethers away from home?  I think as I go.  I pull out a ton of stuff. I make a huge mess.  It is all part of the process.

Thanks for reading all this.  How do you  create?

The Fine Print: I'm too exhausted for this, really.  God Bless America flag stamp by Stampin' Up, Americana stamp set by The Angel Company, Let Freedom Ring set by A Muse Studio, Americana ribbon by Michael's, RWB twine by The Twine Bitch (okay, not really, I can't remember who makes it but wouldn't that be a fun company name?).  *Okay, true confession time. I had no clue that to keep a bow shut tight you put clear nail polish on it. My husband told me.  He learned it from his crafty mother.  My mother somehow missed teaching me this important life lesson.  Maybe that's why my shoes won't stay tied.