Lucy's Lovely Lines

Lucy's Lovely Lines is a monthly sketch that Lily pad cards hosts. Here's the sketch for this month:

When I first saw the sketch, I'm gonna be honest I wasn't too excited. I've never been fond of change and this was a little different than the norm... it's square. It was so different that I figured I wouldn't play with it. There's a ton of challenges out there and there is no way I can enter them all every time. Course that is the easier road.

A number of days past and I didn't think anything of it. Then Laurel Beard made a video and made it look easy ...I decided to give it a whirl. Thanks Laurel!

Here's my card:

The square is craft cardstock, the stamps are from Lawn Fawn's new on the mend set. I wanted to make a chain of band aid's that didn't have smiles. I was gonna do hearts or flowers in the center but the stamp just wouldn't work with me. I tried 5 or 6 times of inking and removing the smile and it just wouldn't budge so I keep the smiles.... thankfully they are really cute. I colored them with Copic's E50, E00, and E11. The paper is Cosmo Cricket Salt Air.... I am just loving this paper, I really should get another pack. I embossed the sentiment then made a dash to the first aid kit. No, I didn't get a paper cut. Originally I thought a bow made out of gauze would be really cool, and it came out ok but it was on the dull side so I used some ribbon instead.

Before I glue everything in place I play with the elements on the card to make sure that's where I like them. In that process I thought stitching would be nice so I added the dashes. Then I glued everything down. I decided to add enamel accents to the center smile, the eyes came out great.... the mouth not so much, I blame the bottle. lol it was prolly user error but who knows. I ended up cutting the center of the middle band aid out and making a whole new band aid to replace it. That smile was out for me.... the wet part I cut out happily stuck itself to the inside of the card very frustrating. I solved that issue by putting 2 band aids on the inside to cover the ickyness up.

I pushed myself and am very happy with the results, it turned out to be a really cute card. I don't think it's a perfect square but its close enough, I ished the measurements. For those of you who know me... yes I ished it.. hard to imagine but I did. Please understand I am an exact person who likes exact numbers. With Dk's help I have learned to ish things.

I can bake.. it's exact ..the less exact you are the worst your results... easy.. cooking on the other hand.. not so much. Cooking isn't exact cooking is ish. I cringed many a times when in my trainings in the kitchen Dk would say on purpose "no I'm not gonna give you an exact number". Thankfully ish doesn't bother/limit me anymore, now if only I could get over this stubborn streak.

The Replacement

This is the card I ending up making for Sarah. As stated in a previous post I made a card initially for her but I just couldn't let it go so I made a new one. A friend of hers graduated with her Masters and the University's colors are navy and orange.

I used the Hero Arts envelope stamp, inked it with faded jean distress ink and then sprayed it with perfect pearls for that blingy shine. I stamped it on a piece of navy paper and mounted that on an orange Hero Arts card. The orange paper is from Cosmo Crickets salt air mini deck and the sentiment is from Close to my Heart. Again I colored the ribbon to match.

The card is simple yet it's really nice and I found the perfect place to enter it :D

CAS-ual Fridays

I discovered this challenge in my surfing. A clean and simple challenge.. my favorite type.

Actually I had start a spreadsheet to keep track of all the challenges I've found. If I'm making cards I may as well try to win free stuff at the same time. How else am I going to support this habit? er ah I mean hobby.

CR84FN29

Yea another C84FN challenge! I didn't play last week I tried but one of the main colors was peach. I own 1 peach item.. a bic permanent marker. I for the life of me couldn't come up with a design so I left it alone, can't play them all. I'm excited about this weeks color choice. :D

Here's their color combo:

And here's mine:

I am very happy with how much faster cards are coming together, this practicing stuff really does work. huh.. who knew?

This card had the most interesting forming period. Let me explain. The fortress, where my desk is at, is just on the other side of the garage. I parked, come in, sit down and pull some stamps out. I hadn't planned on getting to serious into crafting as it was almost dinner time. After playing with the Jenni Bowlin paint dabbers from this post, I wanted to use them some more so I decided to stamp with them. I grabbed Hero Arts Stamp set (Leaf Clusters) and stamped... very cool results. Note to self do this more often.

Loving the butterfly stamp set I got I pulled them out, stamped them on scratch paper and colored with Copic's. (V12, V15, & V17) I added some stickles and enamel accents to the butterflies and walked away to let everything dry. Bummer the Stickles don't show up in the photo.

The BFF comes over just about every day :) She came in and said she needed a birthday card and that the recipients favorite color is purple. Sarah, there's a card drying downstairs and its perfect for her. We had dinner and went to work. Who knows what I said but it got Sarah signing .. I want money.. lots of money.. the song is by The Flying Lizards and was in one of my favorite movies ever Empire Records. I put a clip of the part she was signing. To funny at least we thought it was. Anywho that was behind the scenes... back to our scheduled program...

I wanted to frame the painted area and purple seemed to be perfect color however I didn't have the right shade so I took a Hero Hues envelope and cut it down to size and used that. The sentiment was stamped with Memento's Grape Jelly and embossed with clear powder.

We played with 4 different ribbons, none of them worked. I don't own much purple.. not to self buy more P colors. So we made the ribbon. I took white crape ribbon and stamped it with alcohol inks purple twilight with a touch of wild plum. I just adore making my own ribbon. It's exactly the color I want and lots of fun at the same time... messy but fun. I could have made paper with the alcohol ink but I didn't think of that at the time. At least now the envelope color matches perfectly.

Now how do we get that money stuff?

An Embossing Challenge

I wasn't too sure where to begin with this Lily Pad challenge. I am limited by my tools as I don't have a dry embosser...(My plan is to get one for my bday, thanks Mom!) So I pulled out some old stamp sets.

Way back in the day, 98 or 99, I went to a Stampin' Up! Party. It was fun and I decided to try my hand at stamping. I got some things, brought them home and was just lost as to what to do with them. I didn't have the money to put into a new hobby, lol something's don't change. (We'll I have some money now, but I keep saying I should get a second job to afford more stuff.) Plus how do I use it? The internet existed but it wasn't remotely like it is now so I packed everything up. Through the years I'd put it out, wish I could use it and set it aside. I'm prolly one of the only people with a mint condition 14 year old heating gun. Thankfully I took care of my stamps and they are still in great condition. I'm glad I have officially started this hobby.

Here's the card I did:

That sunflower set was itching to be used so using white StazOn ink, I stamped it and embossed it with white powder then colored with Copic markers YR15 and Y19. The center I started out with some light browns but I didn't like the look so I took E47 and covered it all, added a few layers/dots and it looked much better. The leaves are G21, G24 and G28.

I stamped a blue card with Hero Arts woodgrain stamp using Memento ink's Danube blue. That sentiment is from Close to my heart, for every occasion. I just love that set, as I said before way expensive but totally worth it.

Funny ha ha, but not so funny at the time was that sentiment. I wanted to heat emboss it however the white ink just didn't stamp right. So I grabbed, what I thought was my white gel pen, but turned out to be star glitter something. I went with it and it looks great.

This card is for a very special women who unknowingly answered our prayers. Thank you for being our miracle Janet!

Lawncaping Challenge #10

Woo Hoo! Another Lawnsacaping challenge :D Yea.. This challenge makes me happy. At least that was until I saw the theme... polka dots.. polka dots? Really? Don't get me wrong they have their place but dots and I don't usually get along. They don't appeal to my simple nature.

(Oops I forgot to add their pic, here is their inspirational photo)

Not wanting to miss this challenge, as it is my favorite, I started a card and it just wouldn't come together. I spent hours on it and still it was blah and unfinished. I keep hitting that creative "brick wall". Something I learned a long time ago is to just walk away, so I set it aside figuring I'd get back to it with fresh eyes and that creative spark would ignite.

Nope... not for 2 days.. nothing. Kind of frustrating of all the challenges I wanted to partake in this was one of them. Perhaps new stamps will help. lol :D This past Thursday was Lawn Fawns new summer release. Oh joy 9 new stamp sets and one set I felt was made just for me.

You see awhile back my sister in law asked me to make her some get well cards. She also wanted me to make some cards that said "Wishing you a speedy recovery". I found Get Well everywhere but nothing about speedy recovery. I expressed my frustration to a local shop keeper, who will not be named, and she said.. Lawn Fawn makes one of those.. NO they don't I assure you I know their catalog and there's nothing there. Yes there is.. let me show you. The stars aligned and I was shown the 9 new sets that were slated to come out the following month. Of course I ordered some and patiently waited with my mouth shut.

I went to pick up my new stamps and while I was there I checked out all the poka dot stuff, got some paper, ribbon and made my trip home. Playing with the new stamps the juices exploded, I had so much fun putting this card together I couldn't sleep. I just adore this card. Initially I made it for my BFF who needs a congrats card with blue and orange however I love this card so much I can't let it go. Sorry Sarah you're not getting this one.

As I said blue and orange where the main focus (local university colors) so I started with the blue paper. Initially I was going to have a blue card but it needed a pop so using Jenni Bowlin paint dobbers I made a border for the front card piece.

As I like to keep things simple I struggled with using the poke a dot ribbon. I didn't want to overdo it, plus the brown ribbon wasn't enough so I layered it with yellow and bam! My piece de resistance:

I just love that boarder and those pin wheels. I could have gone with a safer bet using a plain ribbon but that brown is just perfect. It's a fun card that makes my heart ecstatic.

Katie

One Layer Wednesday #54

In my web surfing I stumbled upon a new card website called Simplicity. A card blog designed around keeping things simple. My favorite philosophy.. less is more.

Their challenge is one layer.. yah one layer you can't add additional papers... nothing. Oh wow.. this got the mind thinking. The theme is make a baby card based off a some really cool cakes.

Mine didn't quite turn out to look like the cakes but I did create something sweet that I won't be embarrassed to give away.

My creative brain is starting to really kick into gear now, this was the first card I created that was actually what I envisioned. I'm proud about that. Never have I been able to get what I'm thinking out on paper, so needless to say I'm excited. Who knew this practicing thing really works?

Course this begs the question.. Do we want what I'm thinking down on paper?

CR84FN #28

First I'd like to say I'm still learning and am very new at this. It's a cute card but all I see are errors however I learned they are not errors it's... embellishment opportunity's.

This weeks CR84Fn color challenge:

I just love those colors, here is my card:

It looks better here than in person, lol don't tell the receiver though. :) It's a hero arts card stamped with a Penny Black background stamp.... I don't remember what color honestly. (I pulled it from my stash) The butterflies are from Hero Arts too. I put enamel accents on the body and used those cute type stickers.

I learned from this one, that is what matters. :D I know I shouldn't be so hard on myself. Those butterflies are cute.

What's in a Name?

A different sort of post for you today. The folks over at Lily Pad are having a name their mascot contest. I was planning on entering without telling my followers (all 10 of you yea!) however Dk insisted that I explain my idea. He's right I can be obscure.

Here is their mascot:

The name I came up with:

Azure Loki

Azure - 2a: the blue color of the clear sky 2b: the heraldic color blue

Loki - the god of mischief (Norse Mythology)

He's what I call a pretty blue and all of his posts have been crafty, sneaky and silly. I find the name to be fitting. It has a "Hollywood" ring to it. Your welcome to give the contest a try.

Lets just hope he's not like his cousin the Blue Poison Dart Frog.

Adventures in Marketing

As I stated in yesterday's post Dk has crazy marketing adventures. I thought I would share some of the joys with you. If you don't know already Dk is an amazing chef. He's always had a passion for food, which was then set a fire with school.

A little back story

Just before we started dating he was laid off from his job in the photo industry. He had been trained on the old school photo stuff... things like film and development. His job went bust thanks to things like digital and photo printers and he was forced to find a new career. We than started dating. (Not by my choice mind you, but you do what the Lord tells you to do and the Lord made it very clear I was to date him. Funny how the Lord knows best, perhaps one day I'll learn to listen better and not drag my feet so much.)

We discussed his options and decided he would go to Ai for Industrial Design. Industrial design focuses on the form of things. Best example, look at your mouse, an industrial designer designed the sleekness.. buttons to line up perfectly with your fingers, form to your hand that kind of thing. It was a good fit for Dk, plus it pays decent as he was heading towards starting a family that mattered.

Now Ai has many majors, so it's not uncommon to have a Photoshop class next to the machine shop lab or even a sewing lab. Here we are 2 years-ish into Dk's classes, newly married and they schedule his classes to be right next to the kitchen classes. The kitchens are huge with big open windows, lots of counter space.. a chef's dream. He would stand there watching on his break recognizing the foods commenting to me over the phone how the student was going to burn something and sure enough they did. After lots of prayer it was made clear he was to switch majors.

I on the other hand, until we were married and living together, couldn't tell you where the market was or even what you could buy there. Ok ok I knew you could buy food but I wouldn't, in my wildest dreams, venture far from the frozen food section. Once Dk sent me to the market to get groceries, just after we were married, and I was lost. I ended up mindlessly roaming the isles giving up and leaving empty handed. That happened to me more than a few times, but not anymore. :D

Jokingly I say I went to culinary school to. You see Dk does we have termed "info dump". What that means is the second he see's me he fills me in on everything he's learned. Decay- I enjoy the info dump just let me go to the bathroom first. I'll say it again he is a wealth of knowledge. I being pretty smart have learned from his rants and am proud to say can hold my own in the kitchen and at the market...I digress.

Sometime later Dk had found a local Korean market and the marketing love was born. I know we are blessed to live in a unique part of so cal. Within a 20 min drive we have Korean, Vietnamese, Mexican, Japanese and Indian markets. I bet Dk will chime in and remind me of one I forgot. We also have the, as we call them, white people markets. They all have their niche and specialties.

This past weekend I went with Dk to 2 markets, Dalat a local Vietnamese market and Altayebat a local Middle Eastern market. The best part of these markets are the little nuances like the music they play. Just yesterday Dalat had a remake of Katy Perry's hot and cold song sung by chipmunks and yes they were singing in Vietnamese. No I'm not kidding lol.

Altayebat's cashiers are the nicest checkers ever. Plus the manager is a huge, huge Star Wars fan and plays eastern remakes of the songs from the sound track. Shopping to the Imperial March is a whole new experience.

But the best thing about these markets are the prices. O-wow. For $14.63 at Altayebat we got 4 avocados, a 3.7 lb cauliflower, a .5 lb of cucumbers, .5 lb of a zucchini, fresh mint, .5 lb of lemons, mushrooms, a 10lb bag of potatoes, squash, pita bread and a huge 1lb bag of spinach. At Dalat we picked up softball sized artichokes 3 for a dollar, to prove it here is a pic.

All the signage is in English so we find what we need rocking out to crazy tunes. I'll be honest asking where stuff is can be a bust sometimes. Ironically all the men behind the counters speak Spanish. The turnover rate at the meat counter is so high that the meat is super fresh plus at Altayebat's its blessed in the name of Allah so that's good.

Another day I'll fill you in on the other markets and some of the games we play while at them, but now I have some cards to make. :D

Let There Be Light

In the beginning I took poor lit pictures, dark and unprofessional. Not anymore, I was shown the way and followed the light.

Thanks to this post from Lily Pad Cards I was shown how to make a great light box for next to nothing. My hubby being the photography major, coupled with his knack for making cool stuff got right on the case.

The down sides to the light box suggested is your "stuck" with using it one specific way. I mean it isn't open for change in colors, special effects that sort of thing. Since I have yet to figure out what I want and the fact I don't have a craft station as the original design shows we had to alter it some. (I was given a desk by that I mean my husband granted me permission to join him in his fortress of solitude.) Here is the light station we created. By we, I mean my hubby did while I was sleeping.

First... use what you have, don't go out and buy a box if you already have one, same with the other items if you have something that will work just as well use that. We happened to have a 12x12x12 ish box for eggs, I believe it was picked it up on one of Dk's crazy marketing adventures. (I should do a blog post about that LOL.) Vellum is also something we had on hand but tulle would work, tissue paper, a sheer curtain even. Just keep in mind that the lights get extremely hot, fire isn't what you want in your paper crafting work space. Be creative.. but be careful.

The lights were purchased from Wal-Mart as the post suggested. Btw they were $8 not $5, the joys of living in so cal. White poster board ($1) and natural light bulbs also made the list of purchases. Not too sure what watt of light bulb to get we picked up both 60 and 75 watt. They were just under $4 each. The lights can handle as much as 100 watts, we are debating on trying those...we'll see.

We played a bit and using the 75 watt bulbs took the photo from a previous post, tweaked it some in Photoshop and I went to bed. :D When I awoke this is what I found:

Essentially it is just 2 sides of a box, forming a 90 degree angle. We started with a sturdy box so keep that mind. Remember it doesn't have to look super pretty no one's gonna see it. You could paint it or bling it up afterwards, if you that's important to you. Dk cut the poster board to size and clipped it on with alligator clips as shown:

Initially I picked Dk's brain to so I could give ya'll better instructions.. however that didn't work. You see he's a wealth of knowledge and I am a visual person to the extreme so we agreed he'll make a post explaining how to make the light station. The first photo we had taken didn't have any filters however during the night Dk added some acrylic to make a filter. (It was left over from his 1st major the second time he went back to school :D)

What I like about this is we can change filter colors, poke holes do all sorts of stuff to give what I'm photographing a nice effect. We're still tweaking things here and there, making it work better for our needs. Like everything it's a work in progress. I'll keep you posted with any major changes.

Now I just need to find a good place to store it.

ColourQ Challenge

Oh Blogger we just started this relationship, if your gonna be disagreeable I'll have to question my loyalties. I hear that this past week issues are abnormal and Blogger is stating they are in the process of fixing my old posts. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Onto today's post:

I have no idea how I happened upon the ColourQ blog but I did, they do challenges based on color :D I like colors so I thought I would give it a try. Here is their inspirational piece for challenge #84:

and here is what I was inspired to make:

I used Inkadikadoo stamp set Garden Delight and stamped them on white Neenah card stock. For the plants I used distress ink and for the flowers I colored them with Copic Marker y08.. I think. The butterfly was created by stamping alcohol ink on glossy paper. The sentiment is from Lawn Fawn. I put stickles in the middle of the flowers and then using a pin I pulled the dollop out of the center, it kinda gives it a star shape kind of pattern although it doesn't really show up in the photos.

Katie

A New Challenge

As stated before I am really enjoying card challenges. I need a basic idea as to what to do before I can start creating. Since they are so popular I'm guessing I'm not the only one. Through a new friend I was directed to the CR84FN challenge and I thought this week's color pallet would be kinda fun so I decided to try it out. Bright Pink, Gray and Cream.

Here is their graphic/inspiration photo:

And here is my attempt:

I used the Penny Black Majestic Composition background stamp inked with Memento's London Fog (gray) on a piece of cream paper. It was the only cream I had, I'm not a big fan of the texture. {Note to self by cream card stock}. I then used spun sugar and warn lipstick distress ink to pink it up some, the spun sugar just wasn't pink enough.

The gray strip of paper is Neenah solar white card stock that was inked with the London fog aka gray . I love how it's a little thinker ink on the bottom. :D. I found in my stash the pink argyle pattern and cut out diamonds. It's made by Heidi Grace designs. {killer sale at one of those chain stores, 5 sheets for a dollar}

The sentiment is called Every Occasion from Close to my Heart. Let me just say they are worth the money, by far the most expensive stamps in my stash however they are really, really nice. Not as nice as Lawn Fawn but I just adore that font, great set.

I think the gem is hero arts and the ribbon we picked up from wally world last night when we picked up the lights for my .....new PHOTOGRAPH STATION!!!

Sorry about the yelling but Iz excited. I cannot tell you how happy that station makes me. The best part is it only cost me $23 to make! I will most definitely be making a post about the station and how we created it very soon.

Katie

Lawnscaping Challenge #9

Nothing like last min! Lawnscaping challenge #9 is about to close and I'm submiting a last min challenge. Woot! go last min.

I kept it simple using Lawn Fawn sets Banneriffic and critters in the forest. The banner and trees were stamped on Lauderdale paper from Basic Gray. The front middle tree has been pieced together then I glued the top of the tree directly and the bottom of the piece with pop dots.

Come on win.. mommy needs a new set of stamps!

Katie

Idea's

Sorry I haven't posted much these last few days. I have made a few cards however my photos came out a little blurry and I know enough about photography to be too embarrassed to post those. It doesn't help my hubby has a degree in photography. I digress.

I have been thinking more and more about cards in my daily activities. Sometimes not for the best but I'm being creative so that's the plus. Let me elaborate.

My hubby is a night owl and I am not. I knew this going into the relationship. When we were engaged a good friend, who had been married a long time, gave me some advice. She and her husband had some issues previously and the counselor stated to them that not going to bed at the same time was straining their relationship. Now I am no expert, I have no idea why they suggested that or the reasoning behind it. What I did know is I wanted our marriage to start off with a good foundation so I relayed the information to Dk. Every night when I'm ready to go to bed he comes with me and stays until I'm asleep, which is usually pretty fast. We have dubbed this time as giggle time. We are happy people who laugh a lot, those precious 20 mins is filled with tons of laughter about all sorts of stuff.

So last night we were talking about my black raisin for a heart. LOL (Please understand I'm the polar opposite, and will give the shirt off my back.) Instantly a new card pops into my mind. Picture it a card with a heart on the front then on the inside a little black raisin with a sentiment something like "See what you did to me!" I could not stop laughing. Dk suggested that would make a perfect card to go with divorce papers.

At least I was being creative right?

Katie

Apples

Growing up I was convinced I was the milk man’s kid. I was nothing like my mother and from time to time I would approach her calmly and explain it is ok you can tell me the truth. If I had turned out to be the milk man’s it would have made perfect sense. Since I wasn’t the milk man’s then this apple must have rolled down to the next tree, it was the only way to explain how different we are.

Now don’t get me wrong my mother is an amazing woman. She worked in Labor in Delivery for the local county hospital for years. She served her Country and single handedly raised 2 children. She’s always there to help or support me in whatever random thing I’ve picked up and I’ve picked up some random things.

In the more recent years I have learned not all moms are created equal and I got one of the best from the barrel. I have come to realize I’m more like her and less like the milk man. She even blurts crazy stuff at the dinner table, at least now I know where I learned that from.

It’s interesting how this apple really didn’t far as far from the tree as I thought. I’m sorry it’s taken so long for me to truly appreciate her. I am proud to be her apple. I don’t have children of my own yet (they just won’t put their heavenly Lego’s down) but I will strive to be as good as the example I’ve had.

Let’s just hope this tree isn’t planted on a hill.

I less than three Lawn Fawn

A few months ago I started making cards and have been having a great time doing it. I’ve met some great people and have learned tons. Being on a pretty tight budget and starting a new hobby I have to be very careful how I purchase items. The large craft chains have amazing prices that allowed me to purchase the basics at a steal. Their selection of particular brands wasn’t the best so I started looking at the local stores. My local home store, as I like to think of them Stamp Fever, has a nice little selection.

So here I am on a budget and can only get the basic’s so spending $15 on a set of stamps was not something I was excited about. I could by stamps at half the price at one of those chains. But I liked the look of the Lawn Fawn sets and I really needed some sentiments, so I got a set.

I broke open the package and already I felt something different. The stamps felt.. dare I say elegant. They have a weight to them. I mounted them and stamped… Oh My Goodness I was in love they are crisp and clean…. anywho I could go on. A wise man said.. “Buy quality”….. that lessoned was learned!

In my most recent class our instructor gave us homework. Mind you I hated homework growing up. Home was a time to do home stuff, aka play, and school was a time for doing school stuff. I would have much preferred a longer school day. Long story short I wasn’t to happy about being given homework but then at the same time, it was something to do with cards so it couldn’t have been that bad. The homework given was enter a contest …. a contest?! Trust me I am the least competitive person on the planet. I wouldn’t do my best as a kid, and still don’t really, just because it’s much more important that the other person win. Winning gives confidence and that is the last thing I needed, I digress... needless to say I did as I was told.

Let me just say this contest thing is kinda cool, it gives me direction and gives me an opportunity to enter into win free stuff, being on a tight budget free is good. Plus I don’t know who I’m competing against so I won't feel bad If I actually won. Then I found, thanks to my homework assigning teacher Nancy, there is a Lawn Fawn contest website. :D Whoo Hooo!

Two wonderful things married together makes my heart very happy. So here goes my first of hopefully many entries into the Lawnscaping Challenge. The current theme… Let’s Party. Which is exactly how I felt. The song It’s time to Party by Andrew WK kept running through my head.

My entry:

Using I think every single Lawn Fawn set I own, I stamped a white card with all the party ish sentiments using tumbled glass distress ink. I filled in the holes with other colors here and there. Balloons are always a fast and easy way to spruce up a party so I jumped into the wrapping paper bin to get ribbon. While there I found yellow tissue paper. I just love how the tissue paper is a little transparent. It needed something a little more so I stamped up some flags on I believe Basic Gray Lauderdale paper cut them out, and glued them on.

Nancy, I think you’ve created a monster.

Katie

Lawn Fawn sets used:

Critters in the Forest, Harold's Abc's Sophies Sentiments, fly free, lunar lights, and Bannerific

Particles vs. Practical's

You will learn pretty quick English isn't my strong suit and I would be totally lost if it were not for spell checks and a wonderful little thing called the dictionary. What I lack in other areas makes me stronger is some. Thanks to my decades of YMCA camping I have a strength in storytelling. Hopefully that will make up for all the typo's and grammar issues you find in this and all future posts.

Yes I am aware I have named my blog quark and crazy as it sounds it was intentional. You see one of my other strengths is to watch and match exactly what I see. When I was little I was told not once but twice in 2 different sports I would go extremely far if I choose to. Merely because I would watch a more advanced student and could mimic it exactly. (I am eternally grateful my mother didn't encourage the sports lifestyle.) The same goes with sounds. I can mimic sounds exactly as heard. In my many travels people would be shocked at how good I could speak a foreign language. Having only a remote clue as to what was being said I could respond as if I grew up in that part of the world. It's a wonderful strength to have when in foreign country, here in my own not so much.

If someone says adventually instead of eventually that's what I pick up and I am forever cursed with saying the word incorrectly. As you can imagine that can get me into trouble. So when Dk and I were dating and I did something kinda kooky.. which I am known to do. Who knows what it was, I do all sorts of random stuff... Anywho I chocked it up to it being a quark. I was then corrected and told by my all knowing boyfriend its quirk.

OH er ah oops ha ha

Now I learned it as quark and teaching a middle aged dog to relearn a trick isn't the easiest of things. So between Dk and I we still use the word quark. I had a board member correct me once, since then I try to be extra careful in public. I also try to check words as I use them just to make sure I'm saying exactly what I think I'm saying.

The best example of this is Dk and I enjoyed a show last summer called The Choir. I being the inquisitive person I am, decided to look the choir director up on the internet. I start typing Gariff that is what the youth called him ergo that's this name. Instantly I hear laughter.. what did I miss? It's Gareth not Gariff.

Oh lol those particles will get ya every time!

Katie

Quarks : any of several elementary particles that are postulated to come in pairs (as in the up and down varieties) of similar mass with one member having a charge of +²⁄₃ and the other a charge of −¹⁄₃ and are held to make up hadrons

Lily Pad Inspiration Challenge

A wonderful fairly new blog Lily Pad Cards is a wealth of inspiration. They are having their first Inspirational Challenge. I have throughly enjoyed their posts and thought I would take that challenge. Of their month long blogs, the blog that most effected me was their post The Frugal Crafter .

This opened my eyes to seeing past the usual for card making. I'm just a baby in the world of crafting and my cards show it. Well at least some of them do. That blog really touched me. I don't have to go to a craft store to get expensive paper or have that high end gadget in order to make a cool unique card. All I need to do is look around.

At work we use these phone messaging "thing-ies" so I tore one out and started to play with it. It wasn't being to corporative. After some playing I created a card but I wanted to make sure the embellishments were a little different, like me. :D

Again looking around... what form of communication do I use, the phone came to mind. If you have every played with it phone cord is really cool and you can make all sorts of stuff with it. However I have no clue where to get it nor did I want to spend money that would defeat the purpose. So what's like phone cord but is something I actually own? Networking Cable! We have tons of it. (long story) I found a small piece, took it apart and this is what I came up with.

Its a little different but cool at the same time.Thankfully I can still hide behind the I'm just learning statement. :D It's gonna wear off fast the way I keep using it.

The Start of Something New

Me blogging? What has the world come to?

I wasn't been a big fan of blogs, they seemed to be a fuel for the look at me's. Which if you know me I am not one of those. Of course the family blogs are important they show us into worlds we wouldn't normally be a part of. Recently I discovered the world of "crafty" blogs. Blog's set up to teach and show how one created something cool like a card, flower or remote controlled satellite watching our every move. Ok ok I was exaggerating with that last one. The point is I have seen a real purpose for some of these blog things and have decided to take the plunge.

As I'm still a "kid" who has yet to figure out what she's gonna be when she grows up I have yet to see the direction of this blog. My hobbies and interests have a tendency to change. My current interest is card making, sparked by a wonderful gift from the Mother-in-law. You see I received a Cricut for Christmas.

Great! That's awesome! Is how I felt when I got it, however those feelings quickly turned into.. er what is it exactly? And most importantly what do I do with it? Not wanting to disappoint I turned to YouTube. (If you ever need to learn about how to do something check YouTube, although let me just say not all video's are created equal.) YouTube is great however I needed more instruction, a live body I could question. After finding some local stamp/scrapbooking shops I signed up for classes. That was a few months ago now. Since then I've had a number of people in the card world ask me to start a blog and so here we are.

A new adventure...