DeNami Valentine's

I got off my pity party horse from yesterday and reinked my Versamark pad so maybe, just maybe, we'll give heat embossing another chance.   I have a different brand of heat and stick embossing powder to try too.  Just probably not today.

The other night I dreamed about DeNami stamps. I assume that it is some kind of withdrawal.  I love DeNami!  You couldn't tell it by this blog though.  I guess this means it is time to break out some DeNami stamps.

I love their chickies!  I was totally excited when this time last year they came out with some cute kitty stamps, cute puppy stamps and some fun hearts.  I got them all.  It was the heart stamps I dreamed about so maybe I should go play with them next.

The Fine Print: Kitty Card--Tag, tag punch, and fine glitter by Stampin' Up, cherry twine by A Muse Studio, big circle punch by EK Success, scallop and smaller circle punch by Marvy, kitty present and open heart stamps by DeNami, not sure on the background paper.  Chickie card--pearl brads by unknown, red ribbon, yellow glitter, chickie with heart balloon, and greeting by DeNami, circle dot stamp by Endless Creations, scallop circle punch by Stampin' Up, circle punch by Marvy, background paper possibly by MAMBI (but it could be someone else but for sure not DCWV).

I am Not A Mused - The Latest Challenge

This week's A Muse Studio challenge is all about heat embossing.  Here is my card for that challenge.

Hey, this photo looks better today than it did last night.  I thought the pre-printed background had gotten washed out by the flash, so I took a no-flash photo as well.  Here 'tis:

I heat embossed the coral, the greeting, and the seahorse.  The sea star is embossed too but it was on the card already.  If you are here for the A Muse Studio challenge, that's it for this post.  If you really want to know how I feel about heat embossing, read on.  BUT!  You've been warned!

The Fine Print: pre-printed card from Michael's dollar bin, coral and seahorse by A Muse, Divine by Komodo Inc, Desert Rose embossing powder by Stampa Mania.

I hate heat embossing. I HATE IT.  My first introduction to it was at a hardware and hobby store in Alamogordo, New Mexico.  They had many, many samples of it and I was impressed.  They sold little embossing kits that included a Top Boss inkpad and some powders.  I asked a lady about it and she was mildly helpful, explaining that you stamped your image with that special ink, sprinkled the powder on and heated it to melt it.  Voila: heat embossing.  She said she preferred it on solid images.  I already had developed a dislike of solid images so I wasn't convinced.  Plus, what was this heating all about?  She gave several examples of heat sources: a toaster oven, a toaster, an oven, a candle flame, and a hair dryer.   Okay, those of you in the know can see where this is already headed for disaster!

I nixed the candle idea before ever trying it.  There was no toaster oven to try and the hair dryer didn't do diddly.  I turned on the oven and held the stamped and powdered image inside the oven.  I succeeded in turning my arm red.  Finally I turned on the broiler and when the element turned red hot I held the paper up to them and...  the powder melted.  So did my mother's patience.  What are you doing?! Get out of my oven!  It's too hot!  You'll singe your hair!

That seemed like an awful lot of work for the results.  Later I was introduced to a heat tool and attempted all sorts of embossing.  I learned a lot of reasons to hate heat embossing really quickly.   The powder doesn't stick when you expect it to.  It sticks to places you don't want it to.  It sinks into the paper. It flakes off.  It cracks off.  It brushes off.  It looks melted and it isn't.  It discolors the powder. The paper buckles. You can singe paper with it.  You can singe yourself with it.

The paper buckles

Heat & Stick powder that doesn't do as advertised and proof if you want a glitter heart, punch it out of glitter paper.

I've heard it all too.  Your heat tool is too close.  Your heat tool is too far.  Your inkpad is too wet.  Too dry.  Your powder is too humid (in southern Arizona?).  Your powder is too dry.  Pat lightly with a dryer sheet.  Rug vigorously with a dryer sheet.  Spray anti-static spray on it.  Blot it with this pouch of talc. Heat the paper from the bottom.  Heat the paper from the top straight down.  Heat the paper at an angle. Blow the excess powder off (results in me spitting on it).  Gently wipe the excess powder off with a paintbrush (not a good suggestion if you're twitchy).  Gently thump the excess powder off (no change).  Heavily thump the excess powder off (all the powder comes off).  Use a foil wrapped backing to trap the heat.  Use a silicon sheet to trap the heat.  Do it in the air so heat dissipates.  Brand X powders work best.  All powders all the same. Use only on glossy paper.  Use only on matte paper.  Brand X ink works the best.  All inks are the same (whoa).  You need to heat it in a box.  You need to heat it with a fox.  Don't heat it if you have the pox.  Heat it when wearing socks. After heating, suck on some lollipops (where did you think that was going?)

Anyway, I did notice I got better results at other places using other's tools. At that point I got a different brand heat tool and ditched the original brand of embossing powder I tried.  My life was somewhat better.  I still have failure and frustration a lot more often than I have success.  I recently have come to suspect that my Milwaukee Heat Tool might be dying, and for sure, my inkpad needs reinking.

Don't worry, my life isn't a complete downer.  Sometimes there is this:

Dopey Black Cat

New. All Sorts of Newness.

House Mouse and Friends Challenge #110-- check it out HERE
The theme for this challenge is to create something to celebrate anything that is NEW to you. Like a new beginning, a new job, a new house, new baby, new goodies, etc. Really anything that is NEW to celebrate ringing in the NEW Year
 
I've decided to join a new challenge and that right there is new.  

Here are some other new things.  My "Rah Team" card is to celebrate all sorts of new things at the college I work at (see, notice the collegiate looking background?).  We are celebrating a new semester.  We have a new team member in our department and that person is also my new boss.  So this is me standing on my head to impress my new boss.  It was a useless venture though because he already knew I was incorrigible since we worked in the same department at another work site previously.  I also used stickers on this card, which was part of my new goal for the new year, which was to use more stickers. (Note: that was a goal, not a resolution).

And speaking of new year, here is a card celebrating that, and check it out, more stickers!

The Fine Print: House Mouse stamps by Stampa Rosa (yeah, definitely not new), background papers by DCWV, circles and scalloped circles by Marvy, Spellbinders, and EK Success depending on the card, my mood, and the alignment of the planets, no idea who makes the stickers.

Note: I've edited this post to include the link to the House Mouse & Friends Challenge--duh!  That's a big oversight on my part.  In case you missed it, here is it again: House Mouse & Friends!

Workdesk Wednesday

I don't even know where to start this post since I have so much to babble about.  I guess I'll start with a True Confession (TC) because folks say once you have a blog you start sharing Too Much Information (TMI) and confessing to things you wouldn't otherwise.  I take my pictures for Workdesk Wednesday on Tuesday evening. There!  I said it.  I figure it is fair enough that way.  I take it before I go to bed and then I spend all day at work on Wednesday so it isn't like the desk is going to change any from when I took the photo.

My desk is clean again as I cleaned it off before taking the photo.  I did not, however, clean it off in anticipation of taking the photo.  I cleaned it off to play since it was heaped up too much for that, but I didn't get around to playing because...    ...see, I have the week off work between The Holiday That Shall Not Be Named and New Year's.  I didn't stay up very late during my vacation except maybe another hour on average, but what I did do is sleep later and later and later every morning.  I guess I got in touch with my inner cat.

Anyway, since I didn't get my requisite 23 hours of sleep, I was quite tired that first day back to work. I don't think blowing my nose helped either since I did so seven thousand and forty two times.  An hour.  I wanted to make a House Mouse card but like I said my desk had no room.  I sat down with the idea of cleaning it off so I could play.  So I sat there and shuffled things around, pondered about how exhausted I was, and signed deeply every ten seconds. I hate when people sign deeply every ten seconds so all that accomplished was me annoying myself.  I did get the desk clean as you see but it was time for my next project: 

Yeah, it was totally bedtime, so no House Mouse got made.  And yes, hubby and I have separate blankets.  It is the secret to a happy marriage when one person likes to roll up in the blankets (me) and the other likes them tucked in tightly (him).  And yes, I have a towel on my pillow because I drool so much that one day I'm doing to wake up drowned (that TMI we talked about).

Back to the desk, though, on the left side is the House Mouse stamp and paper ready for action and on the right side is piles of Valentine's doo-dads, also ready for action.  There are more VD (Valentine's Day) and spring papers tucked up under the overhang.  You can see my new Martha Stewart anywhere punch that a friend convinced me was the bomb.  She is right.  It punches out kind of a Celtic knot pattern and there is a guide on the punch so you can punch out a whole row or whole sheet of it into a nice pattern.  I have some new unopened Tonic cutting tools on my desk that were a gift.  My desk is poised for play!

Here is a picture of the table behind me that I did not clean off (cuz that's like work).  This is a different angle than I've taken before.  You can see my new Big Shot and my old Cuttlebug.  There are all the holiday punches that I have not got around to putting away yet.  There is that same basket o' crap that has been in the last several photos of my table (starting way back in October I think).  You can see that even my stool is piled up with stuff.  The new Stampin' Up mini is on the top of that stack. Also in that stack is new paper my hubby got me including the Black Current Stack which is AWESOME.  In the foreground is another stack of papers topped with directions to a double-dutch fold card that my friend and I were going to try.  Now, look in the upper left of that picture.  You can make out part of my Eight Foot Stack of Paper that I often talk to my friends about.  I don't think I've mentioned it here on the blog though, but there it is.  My hubby thinks I have too much paper.  As if that were possible!

I promised I would post of picture of my flower bottles, so here's that.  I took all my flowers out of their various containers and put them in big jars by color.  As you can see, I still have overflow on the next shelf in random containers.  There was a length of time when no card was complete without a flower or two or six or more on it.  I'm not anti-flower now; they just aren't the embellishment of choice these days though.  The table is sitting in front of this bookcase in case you are trying to get the layout of the land.  Lots 'o crap (TMI and TC all in one).

Gumball Machine

I decided to spend the day curled up with a good book instead of spending time with my crafting desk.  I think that's because 1) it is a good book, and 2) some evil being buried my clean desk under mounds and mounds of stuff.  Who would do such a rude thing?

You can't tell it on this scan but the bubble of the gumball machine was covered by A Muse's Crystal Clear Glaze.  I have used other brands of clear dimensional glazes before and was very, very impressed with this.  It came out of the bottle so smooth and applied neatly.  I'm hooked!

The Fine Print: Stamps by A Muse Studio from "Sweet Love" set, oval and scalloped oval by Spellbinders, scallop border by Fiskars, and background paper by Basic Grey.

January Spotlight

It is time to think all things pink and red and frilly and sweet for your sweetheart.  This month's spotlight includes 10% off of select Valentine's sets: Sweet Love, Quick & Cute Valentine's, Friends Fur-Ever, Sweetheart Background, and Love Conquers All.   

There is also an assorted paper pack called Rock Candy.  It includes 4 sheets each of the following colors: Bubblegum, Shell, Orange, Apricot, and Blush.  A Muse's cardstock is smooth and wonderful to use.  It is 80lb weight and white on the backside. so great for card bases. 

The Friends Fur-Ever set is the first A Muse Studio set I bought. It is full of cute little animals and sayings and could be used all year round.  In fact, most of these stamps can be used for occasions other than Valentine's Day.

I confess that the Love Conquers All set was my least favorite of the bunch, but I heard so many people ooh-ing and ahh-ing over it so I had to give it a try.  What do you know?  It is kind of fun and I've shared two cards I made with it.

The Fine Print: Blogger is driving me nuts today!  Background papers by Basic Grey, stamps by A Muse Studio "Love Conquers All" set, glitter heart paper by DCWV, heart die by A Muse Studio, scallop border by Fiskars, solid and scallop oval by Spellbinders, Bubblegum card base, and blush sheer organdy ribbon by A Muse Studio.  I'm going to drink heavily now.

A New Day in the New Year

I'm not going to tell you to have a happy new year.  You can do whatever you want with the new year.  Just remember, it may be our last year if you put any faith in those Mayans. Personally I think they did it just to mess with us.

Here's a non-alcoholic new year's card I made for a friend.  I know she, like me, was tucked safely into bed by the time midnight rolled around and her body was alcohol-free.  I don't quite get why folks want to start the new year with a hangover.  Hangovers make you do weird things...  like eat menudo.   *shudder*

I'm not into new year's resolutions either.  I figure if you want to do something, you should just do it.  There is no need to wait for an artificial start like a date change.



That said, while I was making my holiday cards I did set some crafting goals for myself.  They are to use up the adhesives I have in my stash.  I have my favorites, as all crafters do, and I use and buy those over and over, ignoring all the other ones I have amassed.  Time to put those to use.  Who knows?  Maybe I'll find a new favorite!  I also want to try to remember to use stickers more.  I have quite a collect of those too.  Those are some modest goals and I have already worked on them.





From the inside of the card



For those of you who want and expect new things in your new year, stay tuned!  Tomorrow A Muse Studio announces their new spotlight items at 10% plus a fun new paper pack.  There's a new catalog in the works too....  I'm all a'twitter with excitement.

The Fine Print: skating squirrels and row of trees by A Muse Artstamps, snowflakes from the Snow Crystals set by A Muse Studio; celebrating boy and party dog by MAMBI, greeting by A Muse Artstamps scallop rectangle punches by Marvy, scallop border by Fiskars.  Adhesive used: double stick tape, from the adhesive stash.