Ballpoint Bliss

Friend

2012-01-31T08:58:00.001-05:00

I was playing around with a CTMH stamp set I had sitting around for almost a year, but never used, and made this card. it's just one layer, plus the flower. I doublestamped the sentiment on purpose, with the hopes it would give a drop shadow effect.

CTMH stamps don't work well with a lot of dye inks other than their own, but they are very good with Tim Holtz distress inks.

Challenges:
Kreative Stempelfreunde - old-fashioned
Heart Song Inspirations - brad (in flower)
Incy Wincy - flower
Bunny Zoe's Crafts - photo inspiration
Touch Twin - colors

Traditional Valentine

2012-01-29T07:32:00.012-05:00

To me, this is the basic traditional valentine.

Two kinds of punches, fussy cutting, folding and a little stamping, embossing and beautiful paper - it really isn't as simple as it looks.

Challenges:
Crafts 4 Eternity - CAS
Lily Pad - patterned paper
Polka Doodle - template (scalloped edge around the heart)
Simply Create Too - Love is in the air
Stempelsonne - Valentine

Valentine treat boxes

2012-01-28T00:57:00.000-05:00

A girlfriend of mine who works for Hallmark came over today. I always tease her that my cards are better than hers. She brought with her a bunch of leftover envelopes, and we made bag-alopes.

This are made from pink envelopes. We embossed them with an embossing folder my mother gave me years back, and ran red ink over them. a heart punch was used to make little tags, and we closed them by folding over the top, punching two holes, and running ribbon through. These were practically free to make, as we didn't pay for the envelopes, and the tags were punched from scraps (after making so many valentines, I have a few red scraps!)

Challenges:
Fairy Fun Fridays - anything but a card
Mami Doodles - for a loved one
Poodles Parlor - valentine
Stamping for the Weekend - embossing
Crafty Creations - valentine for a kid/not a card

Wiggly eyed cats

2012-01-27T17:25:00.001-05:00

The best thing about stamping with friends is the ideas they suggest. My girlfriend suggested the wiggle eyes and the ball of yarn on this card.

I spent ten minutes after I glued the eyes on just shaking the card to make the eyes move. I've half a mind to make an animation!

Challenges:
Charisma Cardz - Pretty in Pink
Craft Us Crazy - love + animals
Hanna and Friends - pink and gray
Fab n Funky - eyes
Little Darlings - polka dots

EDIT:

Yes, I love Paint Shop Pro.

Year of the Dragon

2012-01-25T15:49:00.000-05:00

I love dragons, so I had to do at least one Year of the Dragon card.

The metallic gold part is from a box of chocolates. Everything else is from the pile on my desk.

Challenges:

Clear It Out - scraps

Cards and Things - sketch

CCEE Stampers - Lunar New Year

Rainbow Lady - Year of the dragon

Bling it on - new beginnings

Cat valentine

2012-01-23T09:10:00.000-05:00

This card features two things that I've had for a ridiculously long time but never used. the first is this adorable stamp from My Paper Moon. It was just so cute, I had to have it, but for some reason, I have never inked it before now. The second is this little cat-shaped tag. I don't even remember where I got the tags, but it seemed horribly important to have them at the time.

My little "friends" stamp just barely fits! It's not strongly valentine-ish; I suppose I could use it at other times of the year.

Challenges:
Cupcake Craft - all you need is love
Nettie G - pastels/spring colors
PanPastel UK - two of something
The Paper Players - CAS with a tag
The Squirrel and the Fox - critters

Shabby sympathy card

2012-01-22T14:14:00.000-05:00

I was tasked to create a sympathy card for the ladies in my bowling league to sign - one of our members lost her sister. Since I had the Shabby Vintage paper handy, I decided to use it for a background.

The Certainly Celery cardstock picks up the Peeled Paint color in the background. the paper in the center rectangle is the reverse side of the larger background piece. The stamp is an old TAC stamp - I always like to use butterflies on sympathy cards, or dragonflies if it is for a man - they are so symbolic of death as rebirth, a very uplifting thought when one loses someone special.

Challenges:
Dream Valley Challenges - animal
Fashionable Stamping - butterflies
2 Sisters - embossing
So Artful - colors
Twisted Sketches - sketch (and this is the first time I've used the blue in this paper stack)

Swallow Valentine

2012-01-19T15:19:00.002-05:00

I bought some dies from AMuse recently, and thought I would try them out. One is the swallow, which comes in a set of two (the other swallow is small enough to fit on an inchie!), and the sentiment is stamped on one of the vintage labels set.

The paper is the same Tim Holtz Shabby Vintage, only this is the design on the back of the paper I used yesterday. The stamp is out of the dollar bins at Joann. those acrylic stamps don't hold ink well but if you tap them in Versamark before the regular ink, they work okay. The ink is the Fired Brick distress ink, which really warms up the cool colors of the Shabby Vintage.

Challenges:
Craft Us Crazy - valentines
Crop Stop - vintage/shabby chic
Delightful Sketches - vintage/distressed
Moving along with the Times - things with wings
The Craft Garden - monochrome
Cardabilities - sketch

Shabby Vintage valentine

2012-01-18T22:07:00.000-05:00

I love the Tim Holtz paper lines. I love the colors and the designs, but what I hate about them is that they are such beautiful, strong, assertive designs, I can hardly bring myself to cover them up. I bought this Shabby Vintage paper pack almost 2 years ago, then despaired of using it, and stuck it in the back of my scrapbook paper file, where I had forgotten it until I was searching for valentine paper. I don't want to make a card that is just a background paper and a sentiment, but what else to put?

I punched the heart from white, then dry embossed it with a cuttlebug folder I had forgotten I had. I used the reverse, so the fleurs des lis would stay white, then lightly distressed heart with distress and gold metallic inks, a red heart offset helps it stand out. The sentiment was a leftover from when I was testing my new stamp earlier this week; I got the fancy cut on the ends by weaseling it into a corner punch. a little gold organza ribbon seemed to tie the whole thing together. None of it is bold enough to outshine the Tim Holtz paper, though.

Challenges:
Scrapbook Sisters - sweet Valentine
Gingersnap Creations - Favorite paper
Truly Scrumptious - something forgotten
Alota Rubber Stamps - heart
Artistic Stamper - vintage

Punchart Valentine

2012-01-16T11:24:00.000-05:00

I occasionally try to submit my cards to "Clean and Simple" challenges, but they always get rejected, because I always do too much. Even if it's a single layer card, I do too much coloring and embellishing. For this card, I really tried to rein it in.

Except for the sentiment, there is no ink on this card. All the design is punching, or in the case of the scallops, hand cutting (AMuse has a die that makes a big scallop like this, it's on my wish list). The heart was first punched out of red cardstock, then I punched a flower out of the heart, and then I punched a swirl to make the stem. I cut the scallops out of the card base and punched the holes (I punched a hole in red for the flower center; I glued a strip of red to the inside of the card. So there you have it - three pieces of cardstock (four if you count the flower center), no coloring, no embellishments. If this isn't clean and simple, I give up.

Challenges:
Crafty Bloggers Network - monochrome
Lollipop Crafts - no embellishments
Penny Black - love and hearts
CAS-ual Fridays - scallops
The Stamp Man - red

Phone book flower Valentine

2012-01-16T01:00:00.000-05:00

I'm determined to make these valentines - if only there were people that I love. (just kidding)

I'm really loving this color palette. It is so much more elegant than almost anything with pink.

I used old telephone book pages for the flower and under the ribbon. I did the faux stitching to pick up on the real stitching on the ribbon. I can believe that with all the border punches I own, I hand cut the scallops. I did punch the heart with a new heart punch, though. The word on the heart is from a stamp that has "Happy Valentines Day"; I only needed the one word.

Challenges:
Crafty Catz - Something new (heart punch)
Fun with Shapes and more - no black lines
Polka Doodles - vintage
Phindy's Place - Embossing, ribbon, sewing
Paper Play - stitches

Pink valentine

2012-01-13T16:59:00.000-05:00

It's so hard to make a pink card! It gets sticky sweet very quickly. The glittery background paper is from a pack of baby girl papers, and the pink heart was cut freehand from some pink handmade paper. the white ruffle was added to offset all the pink, and the word was strategically cut from a "Thank you" diecut.

What it lacks in elegance, it makes up in texture.

Challenges:
Art Impressions Stamps - pink
Pixie Dust Studio - heart
Southern Girls - sparkle
Do You Stack Up - pink
Paper Pretties - sentiment as focal point

Red flower valentine

2012-01-12T18:50:00.000-05:00

I was feeling the urge to work on some valentines, and started poking through my patterned paper to see if I had any that I forgot about. This paper is one of those that I have had forever. I love the vintage fabric look to it, but I keep forgetting I have it. It happened to be very close in color to this punched flower I had lying on my desk, a leftover from my son's art project (his girlfriend doesn't like florist flowers because they are treated with so many chemicals; he made her paper ones). The rest of the card just came together.

It's a little squished in the scanner, but it would get squished in an envelope, so I guess it is better to see how it will look to a recipient. The little heart on the vellum tag is punched from a scrap of the same painted paper - I love painting paper rather than using colored cardstock for a lot of things, but I have both on here. The sentiment is from a CTMH stamp set I bought several years ago - I have used the doodles in the set, but the words don't often see ink. it was the only "friends" stamp that was mall enough to fit on the tag, though. The only thing new on this tag really is the baker's twine. Well, it really isn't new; I just haven't used it before today.

Challenges:
Aud Sentiments - use your scraps
Color Create - red, cream, sage
Gingersnap Creations - ribbon
Heart2Heart - stamp on tag
Incy Wincy Designs - vintage

S card

2012-01-05T18:27:00.001-05:00

The Milliande challenge issued was to create a piece featuring words that were meaningful to us beginning with the letter S. Her example was text-heavy and shapeless, so I tried to think of another way to put words on a card other than in a list. I don't know why the idea of a playing card came to me, but I ran with it.

This is, of course, an ATC, which is the same size as a playing card. It feels unfinished, but I am stuck - I am at that point where adding more doesn't feel like an improvement, but I know it isn't the best it could be, either. This is the reaction of a woman who has ruined a few cards by putting too much on them.

Anyway, the words are things that are important to me, and the images are too. Hatter, artist, bowler, that's me. Card player, too. None of those words start with S, though.

Doodles Unleashed assignment 1

2012-01-03T13:08:00.003-05:00

I was intending to do the Strathmore series last year, but got sidetracked. Fortunately, I was still on their mailing list, and signed up to do the new series this year. This workshop is called "Doodles Unlimited", taught by Traci Bautista, and is about using mixed media. for the first lesson, Traci basically encouraged us to use every art product we own on a nice base of fancy Strathmore watercolor paper (did I mention Strathmore is sponsoring this free workshop). I own a lot of different media, and I didn't feel like using all of them, but I will tell you what I did use, and what I learned in the process. I might still do more to this, but I just got tired of looking at it.

The first step was stenciling with colorwash sprays. I happen to have a few bottles of the Adirondack colorwash sprays, so no problem there. Actually, it was a problem. the problem is that the Adirondack sprays need to be heat set - which I forgot about. So, when I started adding acrylic paint, the spray ink started to mix with the paint, and I got some interesting effects, but I also had to cut my painting short, or the whole thing would have turned to mud. Lesson learned.

Thwarted in my painting, I went on to the next step, which was adding subtle color and texture with alcohol markers. I was still worried about the colorwash running, so I didn't use my good Copics, I whipped out my Bics. I have to admit, I was not impressed with Traci's big graphic flowers, so I went my own way with geometric doodling. I wasn't liking it - it was just getting cluttered, not pretty, and I didn't see how there was going to be a focal point to it. I looked out the widow to the trees in my back yard, and decided that I needed a tree on my painting, so I went back to my acrylic paints, figuring that the colorwash couldn't do too much to brown and black, and started making branches. I I made the thinner branches with the markers and also with pens.

It is way too busy - I needed more paint in the background, and a lot less doodling. a little white highlighting would be good, too, but seriously - I am so sick of looking at those branches it isn't funny.

EDIT:

I added white, in the form of snow (white gel pen, correction fluid, and paint). I thought it would add more contrast. I'm not convinced that it helped. I am thinking about splattering white droplets to create a snowstorm, but part of me thinks that it is a destructive impulse, and not something that will really improve the piece.

Vessel

2012-01-02T16:13:00.000-05:00

Milliande's prompt for today is to think of ourselves as a vessel for seeds of creativity, or something like that (I'm not deep enough to really get it, I think). I experimented a little with using Copic markers over acrylic paint, which worked out well, and then I detailed it a bit with my Uniball micro. I like how well the Uniball micro works over other media, and I especially like that it is waterproof, but it is not Copic proof. using the Copic markers over the Uniball ink caused the ink to smear and the markers to pick up black. Yuck! (Please learn from my mistakes!) So I finished with ballpoint pens, which are pretty good, but dry slowly on things other than regular paper.

The woman on this ATC is up to her eyebrows in dirt, but in the dirt are nuggets of silver and gold. She is able to see the good in her life and find inspiration to create.

These exercises are so therapeutic!

Rose Hip

2012-01-02T11:32:00.000-05:00

Last year I made a stab at art journaling with Milliande. I wasn't planning on doing that series again, but the prompt for the first day showed up in my inbox yesterday, and I got sucked in. The theme this year is "Seeds of Creativity", and the prompt for yesterday is "be the seed". Don't ask me why, but rose hips immediately popped into my head. It is a negative thought (negative thoughts were the reason I dropped out last year). I didn't want to lock my negative thought into a journal, so I did a little ATC instead.

Roses don't really propagate through their seeds; they are a plant for cutting. The first time I saw rose hips on a rose, I thought they were tumors, and that the plant was diseased. It might as well be. The petals are gone, and the plant is a mess. Rose hips are good for their vitamin C, so they are more for eating rather than planting. I guess the critters in my yard will enjoy them.

I feel like a rose hip. I am a swollen, ugly thing, the remnant of lost beauty, just waiting to be devoured.

Silver paint plus ballpoint pen

2012-01-01T22:28:00.000-05:00

When I was using silver paint on my inchie yesterday, I had a lot left on my palette, even though I only squeezed out one drop. I wiped it off onto an ATC blank, imaging that it might make a nice start to a background. After it dried, I looked at it, and grabbed a nearby ballpoint pen, and started doodling around the silver.

It was fun following the color around, and seeing what manifested itself.

Challenges:

Stampalot - monochromatic

2 Sisters - white and silver

Hiding in my Craft Room - freestyle

Fairy Tale - something easy

Sisterhood of Crafters - black, white, and one other color

Star inchie

2011-12-31T13:42:00.003-05:00

I haven't made an inchie or played with my punches in a while, so I thought I would whip up a quick inchie for the lottery before the year ran out.

The basic star shape is from a Martha Stewart corner punch my buddy Diane gave me - by sticking it back in upside down, I was able to complete the shape. the background is black glitter paper, and the silver is paint. I'm not that thrilled with the silver middle to the star, but the heat is on; I had to submit the inchie photo before the day is out. more glitter with by redundant, I think. Maybe I will glue some crystals in the middle?

LATER:

Crystals didn't look right to me, but I did have an extra pearl (real freshwater pearl). I think it looks nice. It will be considerably harder to mail, though. If it had a bezel, it could be jewelry!

Challenges:
Fabulous Friday - something new (first time I ever glued a pearl to a paper project!)
Fashionista Friday - scraps (everything in this project is a leftover)
Shelly's images - black, silver, gold, and bling
Creative Card Crew - Christmas lights
Sparkles Forum - anything but a card
Gingersnap Creations - Starry Night

2012

2011-12-30T17:59:00.000-05:00

A number of challenges are requesting a New Year's theme, but who sends New Years cards? Still, it is too early for me to work on valentines, so I need to take my inspiration where I can. I haven't done an ATC in a while, nor have I done a zentangle recently, so here is my New Year's zentangle ATC:

It was refreshing to do zentangles after so long.

New Year Challenges:
C.R.A.F.T
Cute Card Thursday
Paper Pretties
Whimsical Wednesdays
Wicked Wednesday ATC Challenge

Oh Deer!

2011-12-28T18:32:00.001-05:00

My house is emptying out, person by person, so I felt the need to go sit at my crafting desk. It was covered with scraps from various Christmas projects, so I decided to throw together a couple of quick Christmas cards.

Although I have the stamp set with the deer, I stamped these a couple of years ago, before I bought the set, with the thought that I would make cards from them. That was the year that it snowed heavily in early December, and I decided that a photo of my house in the snow was a preferable card image.

Anyway, everything else was scraps, except the Merry Christmas banner on the second card - I just bought that stamp a couple of months ago. You may notice some strange shapes - the gear shapes are waste paper from when I did a steampunk pennant, and the triangle on the second card is from a different pennant. When you make pennants, you get triangular scraps.

So, now I have a head start on next year!

Challenges:
Cooking it up with Katie - anything goes
Crafts and me - Christmas
Creative Belli - "Christmas" sentiment
Divas by Design - Christmas
Oldie but a Goodie - Christmas Animal

12 Tags pennant style: Day 12

2011-12-13T15:55:00.001-05:00

Tim's last tag of the year was not great - a tissue flower, and one of those weird dolls without any arms, and no color to speak of. I decided to use a backgound with more color in it, and set about making a tissue flower (really you can stamp on tissue, you don't need to buy it reprinted), when I realized that I didn't like tissue flowers. They just look more crumply than flowery, and I didn't want a thick embellishment on my pennant, either. I thought about what I really wanted on a pennant that I hadn't used yet, and realized that I hadn't done a dreidl yet. I made my dreidl out of some scraps of painted paper I had lying out, and it all came together very quickly after that.

My hebrew lettering leaves something to be desired. You can still tell it's a dreidl, though.

12 Tags pennant style: Day 11

2011-12-13T14:38:00.001-05:00

Sorry that I fell behind - My husband came home from his business trip and immediately wanted to know why I wasn't being more productive. Apparently, making these pennants does not qualify.

Anyway, Tim did an interesting technique using UTEE and shrink plastic. Trying to copy his technique reminded me of all the things I both love and hate about working with UTEE. The candles below are made with the shrink plastic technique - the color is from the burnt UTEE. Double-dipping the tips is what gives them the melted candle tops. The menorah is punched from cardboard and heat embossed with platinum UTEE in the traditional way. The textured portion on the base is a happy accident - I don't know why that particular area wouldn't melt right, but it looks good.

I would like to remind everyone that any plastic that has a 6 in the recycling emblem will work as shrink plastic. I used a cookie tray from a bag of Oreos.

12 Tags pennant style: Day 10

2011-12-10T15:02:00.001-05:00

Tim did a packing tape transfer onto foil for his technique today. I was pretty thrilled, because I love packing tape transfers, but mine did not come out nicely. In fact, it shredded. I always use the thinnest possible paper for my transfers, so using the thick printed cardstock gave me a lot of problems. I finally threw up my hands and finished the pennant using an older technique where I just glue images to fragments and make ornaments that way.

Fragments are even thicker than ribbon bows, so I didn't hesitate to use gold braid on this pennant. I would like to make a comment about Tim's seasonal stack, in fact all his stacks - the colors are dim and gray-bluish. It put me off using them until it hit me - they only look good after you distress them, and a yellowish ink, like the antique linen or the tea dye, balance out the bluish gray and bring the color into a normal, usable range. This is such a Tim Holtz thing to do, to create papers that need to be distressed.

12 Tags pennant style: Day 9

2011-12-10T00:38:00.000-05:00

Tim taught us a very cool double embossed background today. I got an interesting effect with my background stamp, but it was a little too grungy to use completely unembellished, so I gave it a little something something.

It's not Tim style, but it makes me happy.

12 Tags pennant style: Day 8

2011-12-08T17:37:00.001-05:00

Tim did a steampunk tag. I have not ever done steampunk, and today proves why. Tickets, clock hands, vintage advertising and gears do not automatically make a paper project steampunk.

Ugh. As much as I wanted to use the Santa's Flight stamp on a pennant, this was not the right one.

12 Tags pennant style: Day 7

2011-12-07T18:18:00.001-05:00

This was not Tim's best tag day. Consequently, this isn't my best day either. He buried his flaws under a big bouquet of froufrou, but I am getting tired of froufrou tags, and did not create the necessary gigantic embellishment with 6 different textural layers. I did make the distressed background, the embossed sentiment, and played with stuff that I don't normally use for embellishing, in this case tissue from a sewing pattern and some raffia.

It is good to have a few ugly ones - it makes the others look better.

EDIT:

I couldn't stand it any more - this pennant was too muted and bland. I restamped the bird with black ink and added some more embellishment, including sparkly red crystal stickpins.

Tim, you win this one.

12 Tags pennant style: Day 6

2011-12-06T14:23:00.001-05:00

Tim's tag today is centered on a faux enameling technique on metal. I didn't have any metal today, not even an old aluminum can (recycling pick-up was yesterday), so I used another enameling technique. This one involves 3 colors of embossing powder.

At the very top (this is the gutter, it will either be covered or cut off) you can see the original color of the cardstock. after three layers of clear EP, the surface was smooth and dark. I then stamped versamark snowflakes on the clear embossed surface, and embossed that with silver EP. Finally, I stamped and embossed white snowflakes on top of that. each layer sinks into the previous as you heat it, giving the appearance of a smooth enameled surface. I didn't want to cover it all up, so I just added a bow and small charm.

EDIT:

Maybe less is more. Here is how it looks without the bow. (If you think it was better with the bow, say so in the comments)

12 Tags pennant style: Day 5

2011-12-05T14:44:00.000-05:00

Tim's tag today featured a relatively complicated background with a simple diecut wreath on it. I decided to go easy today and just cut a sheet of printed cardstock for my background, and focus on the wreath. I didn't have the die (no surprise there, eh?), but I did have a pine branch punch that I had intended for years to use in this way.

There are a LOT of little punched branches there! I used Core'dinations cardstock for the branches so I wouldn't have to worry about white edges. I could have done more, but it didn't need it.

12 Tags pennant style: Day 4

2011-12-05T07:25:00.001-05:00

Tim's frosty, painted tag had a lot of layers of paint and texture on it, and I tried to do the same, but it just wasn't working. Also, my son Gordon disapproved of the monochromatic look of the snowman and insisted I give him more contrast. I think Gordon was right.

The embossing border is not waste plastic, but waste aluminum for a drink can. The limbs of the snowman are cut from the branches of a punched tree. I accept that not everyone can draw a deer, but really, anyone can draw a snowman.

12 Tags pennant style: Day 3

2011-12-03T15:24:00.001-05:00

Tim's tag featured a subway art stamp with a matching embossing folder, and his ever popular custom stamp pad technique. I've never done the custom stamp pad, nor do I have the subway art stamp and folder, but I do have a tool I like to use - Paint Shop Pro. I downloaded some subway art here, modified to to fit on a pennant with PSP, and then glittered up the words that I printed out.

I passed on the holly, because I did that two days ago, but I did throw some stars on there, mostly to cover up spots of smeared glitter/ink. As Tim says, "Mistakes are opportunities for creative embellishment".

12 Tags pennant style: Day 2

2011-12-03T08:58:00.000-05:00

Tim's second tag featured a diecut deer. I don't need no stinkin' dies; I drew and cut out this myself.

I made the wreath out of lumpy yarn, dragged through my distress ink pad to darken it a bit. The green at the edges of the pennant is some green cardstock I used to back the thin music paper. I could have trimmed it closer, but I liked it showing.

12 Tags pennant style: Day 1

2011-12-02T20:58:00.001-05:00

It's December, so Tim Holtz is doing his annual 12 tags of Christmas. Last year I didn't bother, because I never did anything with the tags from the year before, and I didn't want a bunch more tags sitting in a box taking up space, but this year, I had a plan. I'm participating in a pennant swap, which will give me a few nice pennants for a short string, but I thought that if I made Tim's tags into pennants, it would flesh out the collection and make a really nice display. Tim's first tag featured a Noel die cut, which I didn't have, so I cut my own Noel freehand.

I also didn't have the die to cut and make a pinecone, but I did have some red glass beads and some punches. Cool trick - to cut holly leaves, use a scalloped edge scissors but turn the scallops to the inside.

EDM 6 - beloved toy

2011-11-26T21:10:00.000-05:00

I have a number of favorite toys still cluttering my life, but this was the nearest at hand for this challenge. this is Scorch, a Beanie Baby dragon my Girl Scout troop gave to me.

He would be more impressive if his wings didn't sag. They sag in real life, so that's how I drew them. They are also iridescent wings, and the fur is a tie-dye pattern, but I wasn't able to draw all that.

Mitten for swapping

2011-11-16T19:32:00.001-05:00

AMuse Studio makes a terrific die in the shape of a mitten that is 4 by 5.5 inches, and deep enough that you can cut a shaped folded card with it. My AMuse hostess club decided to do a mitten swap, and this is what I made.

It is tricky to make something that looks like you put some effort into it without making something so elaborate that it defies good taste or looks like you are showing off. The green cardstock already had a nice linen texture, so I didn't mess with that. The white cuff is flocked (white flocking is also an AMuse Studio product). My highlight is my poinsettia, using punched flower-making skills I demoed earlier this year at a shoebox swap. The end result is a mitten that is distinctly me, but not overdone (I think).

About the flocking - flocking works best with a dry adhesive. I was stumped on what to use, when I remembered that I had accidentally ruined a full sheet of mailing labels this morning (I only needed to print one, but it printed the whole page). I found that I could adhere the flocking to the sticky side of the labels, then cut the labels to fit the cuff of the mitten.

Challenges:
Creative Craft Challenges - minimalistic
Hooked on Craft - diecut
Karen's Doodles - anything but a card
My Partner in Crafting Crime - recycle (mailing labels)
Totally Gorjuss - Christmas Traditions

EDM 5 - Bed

2011-11-16T13:31:00.001-05:00

It is easier to sit and draw a bed than it is to make a bed. However, the bed would have been easier to draw if I had made it first.

Again, my perspective is not so good. The problem is that I focus on one part of the picture at a time, rather than sketch in the whole thing at once, and then filling in details.
At least that is what I think the problem is.

EDM 4 - Mug

2011-11-15T16:00:00.000-05:00

I drew this while waiting for a girlfriend at Panera. That is supposed to be my receipt and pen in the foreground, but it is hard to draw with a pen that you are drawing, all at the same time.

Santa's Flight 6

2011-11-14T22:59:00.000-05:00

It is easy for a card to get boxy - endless series of rectangles stacked on top of each other. One of the great things about this stamp is that it adds the look of a curve even when there isn't one anywhere else.
The designer paper is a leftover from a TAC workshop - it was already cut to size! The image is colored with pencils and highlighted with glitter pen. Distressing also breaks up the boxiness, as does the circle paper clip and ribbon.

Challenges:
Forever Friends - Christmas is coming
Catered Crop - colors, theme, inks
Pile it on - traditional Christmas
Drunken Stampers - up in the air
Hiding in my scrap room - super scraps

EDM 3 - purse

2011-11-14T16:29:00.000-05:00

The hard part of drawing my purse was to figure out how to set my purse so the handles weren't weird. I ended up hanging it on a chair.

I obviously have problems with perspective.

Santa's Flight 5

2011-11-11T15:40:00.000-05:00

It was time for me to color this stamp with copics, but since the figures are so tiny, it didn't really matter.

The large gold background piece is really just a scrap sheet of newspaper that was used when my daughter was spray-painting something. It had a naturally distressed/grungy look to it that spoke to me. However, it wouldn't glue down nicely - it wanted to warp, and the edges kept curling up. I sewed it in place out of necessity, but I love how it looks and how it adds texture to an otherwise flat card.

The pattern paper was a scrap left over from a different project, and the kraft card base was from a stack of kraft bases my buddy Diane gave me. Finally, I stamped the sentiment where I did to disguise the smeared ink. It is really very grungy in every way, but I like it!

Challenges:

Crafting for all Seasons - texture

Anything Goes Challenge - stitches

Tip Top Tuesday - Christmas

Cards for Men - masculine Christmas

Craft Your Passion - brown

Santa's sleigh 4

2011-11-05T18:33:00.001-04:00

I keep calling this stamp "Santa's Sleigh", but it really called Santa's Flight. Today I wanted to use some kraft cardstock, and also try layering the image, instead of stamping it directly on the card base. I colored the image with the Pencilled Twinks technique, and used some little punched stars for embellishment. The stars are great for covering mistakes and smudges!

The twinks and the metallic paper that I used for the stars add a lot of shimmer that you can't see here. The sentiment is from CTMH, and is glittered.

Challenges:
A Gem of a Challenge - cold and frosty
Crafty Hazelnut's Christmas - sparkle
Creations by Gill M - transport
Fun with Shapes and more - Animal Christmas
Stempelsonne - Santa Claus

Santa's sleigh 3

2011-11-04T11:39:00.000-04:00

I'm determined to get my money's worth out of this stamp! This time I thought I would try a portrait orientation - yes, it fits. I heat embossed black on the blue background, then used metallic pencils to add some color. The paper was chosen to echo the harvest colors of the pencils, and it was looking pretty dark, so I whipped out another diecut foam snowflake, put a white offset behind the punched edge, and perked up the coloring with a white gel pen.

Challenges:
4 Crafty Chicks - diecut
CCEE Stampers - 4 different embellishments
Crimbo Crackers - anything goes (Christmas)
Paper Play - Button
Stamp with Fun - Button

Santa's sleigh 2

2011-11-02T19:31:00.000-04:00

Santa flies at night, right? I knew I needed to try and work in a dark background for this stamp, so I embossed it in white on a dark blue, then I embossed the sentiment in dark blue on white for the bottom part of the card. it just was too flat-looking, so I used a little distress ink to develops some texture, and finally built up an embellishment combining ribbon, a button, and a foam snowflake.

Challenges:
More Than Favors - Button
The Paper Shelter - Christmas fun
Whimsy Inspiration - Monochromatic
PaperMinutes - Blue and white
Stamp-n-Doodle - embossing

Santa's sleigh

2011-11-01T18:28:00.002-04:00

I bought a stamp last month that I thought was the perfect Santa's Sleigh stamp - it is sold by A*Muse. I thought it was time for this stamp to see some ink, especially if I want to have anything to mail out this year.

The ivory background is the card base. The ribbon is some leftover from previous year's giftwrapping. There is a tiny touch of glitter added with glitter pens.

Challenges:
Creative Craft Challenges - Fancy edges
Ribbon Carousel - anything goes
Catered Crop - colors, theme, ink
Christmas Inspirations - Bow
One Stitch at a Time - Christmas

More Joy

2011-10-24T08:28:00.001-04:00

I had leftovers cut for my shoebox swap, so I made a few more cards. When I was coloring one of them, I made a real mess; I couldn't stay inside the lines for anything. In desperation, I cut the letters out, and decided after I cut them out, I didn't need to glue them on white; Kraft would look just as good. I also forgot to put brads in the cardstock before I glued it down, so I tucked in a foam snowflake instead.

I might even like this more than the original card I designed! It was a lot of work, though. I wouldn't mass-produce this one.

Xmas shoebox swap

2011-10-22T20:28:00.000-04:00

We did a Christmas-themed shoebox swap this time, and our little group has grown to 7 members, so we were instructed to not make the cards too complicated. Here are the cards - can you guess which one was the one I designed? (people who were in attendance are not allowed to play)

This is such a great group of ladies!

You will know which one is mine the next time I post - because my next card is one made from leftover scraps from the shoebox.

Cardinal Necklace

2011-10-20T21:37:00.000-04:00

This isn't me, it's a friend of mine. The cardinal is the mascot for the university where she teaches; I had to make her a school spirit necklace. I had never done square stitch or a row of fringe before, so it was a lot of fun to make.

I would love to make a spirit necklace for my daughter, but I think a cavalier is a lot harder to bead.

More Spiders

2011-10-18T18:22:00.000-04:00

I love making these spiders! I made three today - one this morning, that I gave to a friend, and these two.

A couple of Halloween projects

2011-10-17T22:42:00.000-04:00

Bead or make cards? Bead or make cards? It's too hard to decide, so I did a little of both.

This little spider was fun to make, and looks great on my red hat. It's so much more interesting than a flower or ribbon.

It's not a complicated card - some pretty background paper, a couple of punches and die cuts, and a few scraps.

Challenges:
Cheerful Stamp Pad - Halloween
Dream Valley - Halloween
I Did It Creations - animal
Whimsy Inspiration - punches, diecuts

Not where I wanted to go

2011-10-12T22:25:00.000-04:00

Did you ever program an address into your GPS, then realize that after you arrived where the GPS told you to go, it wasn't really where you wanted to be? This card is kind of like that. I bought some of that fancy XpressIt blending card for copics, and thought I would experiment with it by stamping some images and coloring them, for use on cards. I stamped an old stamp set that I hadn't used in a while, then built up an old background from cardstock that matched the colors I used. Unfortunately, by the time I got the background together, I realized that the images I stamped were too small to fit nicely in the arrangement, and ended up using an old digi I had colored many moons ago on cheap cardstock. I have no idea what I will do with the nicely colored ones, but this is not any of them.

Guess who?

2011-10-10T12:02:00.000-04:00

It's funny how the most innocent sentiment can seem sinister on the right card.

If you don't know who this handsome devil is, well, all I can say is that I'm glad I didn't use Lovecraft or Stoker.

Challenges:

Cupcake Crafts - Halloween

Corrosive - Purple plus one other color

Quirky Crafts - Spooky

Stamptacular Sunday - distressing

Crafty Pad - vintage

Secret Crafter - sparkle

Southern Girls - masculine

Crafts and Me - use a digi

Gingersnap Creations - Horror Story (the real horror is having me for a friend!)

You can always find challenges to play in at Feline Playful.

Mini-ring necklace

2011-09-04T13:16:00.000-04:00

So, I attempted the Right Angle Weave with the mini (3mm) jump rings. The result is a little messy, but I'm wearing it.

I used black curling ribbon as the cord. It is very strong and very thin, and expands to fill the hole, so it is perfect for threading big hole beads like pony beads, and it keeps the rings puffy in this necklace for the most part. I just think it isn't a good design. The RAW doesn't provide enough direction for the beads(rings) this way. I may just chop it up and start over with some other design, but not until I think of one. I'd rather have a complete mediocre necklace in my jewelry stash than unused findings in my beading stash. I have no qualms about cutting up a project to make something else.

Mini X factor bracelet

2011-09-03T21:46:00.002-04:00

I bought some jump rings through the mail. I guess I wasn't thinking about size, because these turned out to be tiny - 3 mm wide. Since the jump rings I normally buy are 6mm rings, these were very cute and tiny by comparison. However, I had no idea what to do with them!

I thought I might try using them in an X Factor Bracelet, like I made for Gordon a while back. However, I was not going to be able to get beads through those tiny rings, so I thought I might try ribbon instead. The effect was nice, but I will say that the satin ribbon I used was quick to snag. Here is a close-up:

You can see it is very much like the bracelet I made before in design, but look at the size of it next to an ordinary ballpoint pen(click for full size image):

Those rings are so tiny they are more like skinny beads than findings. If it were not for the snagging, I think it would be fun to try with a metallic gold ribbon instead of the black satin. The multitude of rings gives it a faceted look that really sparkles!

A lot of them came in the bag - I might try them in a right angle weave. you don't need beading needles to bead with jump rings. I used tapestry needles with the ribbon!

Label Card

2011-08-30T00:23:00.000-04:00

One of the cards we made at Chris's workshop involved using the Nestabilities Label1 die on three pieces of paper stuck together. It looks better than it sounds.

It says "Be Fabulous" on the little tag. Now, I wanted to recreate this card with my own papers, but I was getting tired of the Reece paper set. I used Tim Holtz's Seasonal Paper Stash instead, with a tag snagged from the Reece packet, Label2 instead of Label1 (I only have Label2), and some faux vellum that Becky reminded me how to make:

I don't know, I think I just lost control of the idea.

Vellum pocket card

2011-08-28T15:15:00.000-04:00

This is another card that I assembled according to Chris's directions. This used a vellum pocket to hold the tag, and I don't really ever use vellum, so she gave me a piece of hers.

The first thing I noticed after I glued everything down was that I used the wrong paper. (you can see Chris's version here.) I was supposed to use a very interesting textured background paper, and instead, I used solid colored cardstock. the result was a little plain, so I stuck some bling in the corner. I'm not sure it improved anything.

You can see the stamping on the tag through the window. Anyway, I had to do it in Reese paper too, and was in a quandary about what to use for vellum, when I found an old (7-8 years) sheet of patterned vellum that I had bought and never used - I never know what to do with vellum.

A tree stamp in the background seems to give that little something that keeps the solid background from being bleah. I am loving using these tags!

Challenges:
Fashionable Stamping - ribbon
Just Add Ink - something from your stash (vellum)
Stampin' for the Weekend - holidays
Winter Wonderland - a decorated tree
Pixie Dust Studio - tag

Ribbon and Lace card(s)

2011-08-27T23:10:00.001-04:00

My friend Chris had a stamping workshop last week, and the theme was to make cards using the TAC Angelique paper packet. The TAC paper sets come with a sheet of tags, and although the tags are all very nice, a lot of people, including myself, have no clue what to do with them. The workshop offered us the chance to make 5 cards right then with the papers in the packet, and also gave printed instructions for 5 more, with photographs.

If you know me, you know I am a pushy person. This comes from years of working as an air traffic controller, then more years married to an even bigger control freak than myself. Anyway, I saw the five cards that we were supposed to be able to make at home after the workshop, and I immediately started grousing - they all required equipment or materials that I did not have at home. Chris pointed out that the five cards to do at home were supposed to inspire us to make similar cards with what we had, and not the exact ones, but I persisted. Chris was very nice, and gave me the stamps to pre-stamp my images, and she let me diecut the shapes I needed to finish the cards, but that was not enough for me. I wanted the special lace and ribbons and fancy paper she used. We had some fierce words, which we never do, but the bottom line is that I paid extra and got the extra trimmings. It was a fair conclusion, in my mind. However, it occurred to me that after making such a stink about getting the extras to make the other five cards, I had better actually do them, or I was never going to hear the end of it, not from Chris or any of the nice ladies who watched me make an ass of myself.

Here is the first of the do-at-home cards that I did:

Chris coughed up the lace and the ribbon. This is pretty much exactly what she designed, except I think my bow is a little large. I did want her to know that I could do a variant, that I wasn't a total idiot incapable of following directions with my own materials, so I also made this one, using the Reese paper set (all the sets have identically sized tags, but in colors to match the set)

As I pointed out to Chris, I didn't have the nice lace, so I punched a lace-like border from a brown paper sack and gathered it. I had gold organdy for a bow, but somehow the bow and lace alone didn't look quite festive enough for a Christmas card, so I pulled a gold star from my stash. I made the star a while back - it is a punched cardstock star covered with a gold foil candy wrapper. After the gold ribbon and the gold star, I grabbed a Stardust pen and glittered up the lace bits and also some of the circles in the paper (too bad glitter doesn't show in a scan).

This was fun! I will have to try it with the other 4 cards waiting to be made.

Challenges? Sure, why not!

Mark's Finest Papers - use lace

Alphabet challenge - 3 embellishments (lace, star, bow)

Crafts 4 Eternity - Christmas

Crafty Catz - metal and lace

Phindy's Place - make your own embellishments

Paper Cutz - star

Sew many challenges - border punch

County Fair 2011

2011-08-26T22:01:00.000-04:00

I've been putting off posting these mostly because I hate getting photos out of the camera. However, I did very well at my county fair this year. For those unfamiliar with the rules, a person can only enter one item in each category. For adults, there is only one first (blue), second (red), and third (white) place awarded in each category, and yes, there are plenty of nice pieces that don't win anything. This year, I placed in every category that I entered. Almost everything here has been featured on my blog before, so I'm not worried about showing them to their best advantage here, I'm just letting you know how they did.

Actually, I did this painting a little over a year ago, but my daughter has been hanging it in her apartment until early this month - she is living in the dorm now and can't have it on her wall. My son wants it for his apartment, but I did want to get it into the fair, so he was willing to wait a couple of weeks for it. There are tons of painting entries at our fair, but 90% of them are dog portraits or landscapes.

Blue ribbons for earrings, jewelry set, and wirework. I knew my wireworked necklace was fab, so I wasn't surprised there, but the other two - the earrings were simple dangles using the fair trade paper beads for Ethiopia. They were not as elaborate or glamourous as the other earring entries, but I might be the same thing as with the painting; the judges were happy to see something different. The jewelry set was not really a set. It was my red rope necklace, and some completely unrelated earrings that I had made with some of the same red beads.

I knew my ATC should win, because it was probably the best ATC I have ever made. I keep forgetting that the winning card is always a fancy fold card. I should be glad I got second place for my basic Tim Holtz style card. Some of you may recognize the the card with the deer and the tree, and know that I didn't design it. I made it at a shoebox swap. However, the card category was "card made from a kit" and I think it qualified. It was a cute card. I feel a little guilty about the Maccabee basket - certain family members were quick to remind me that my sister did the coloring, and my son thought up the basket shape, so really, I guess they were the real winners.

So, that was how I did at the county fair. One of these days I'm going to enter the state fair.

Bead maille Bracelet

2011-08-16T23:48:00.000-04:00

I love the look and feel of chain maille, but the few times I have tried it, I was really put off by the opening and closing of the individual rings - it felt very unsatisfying. As I got better, it seemed that I only needed to manipulate half the rings, and leave the other half alone, but it was still boring and time-consuming.

I had read about bead maille, which is basically chain maille using rings of beads for some of the rings. I didn't know if I would like it, but then but then I saw there was a free pattern at Lark Crafts, and it looked very nice in the picture, so I studied it to see how to make it. In the pattern, the beaded rings are made first, then the over 200 jump rings are added. Ugh!!!! I looked closer and asked myself if the same pattern could be executed by adding the jump rings as I went along, before the beaded rings were woven shut, and yes, they can!

I made this bracelet without opening a single jump ring! I bet it was a gazillion times faster than the original pattern instructions, too! he especially liked the button closure, as it was very easy for him to put on.

I also have to mention that as soon as my 23yo son saw it, he tried it on, and claimed ownership of it. It is a thrill to make a piece of jewelry for one of my boys! My daughter claims more than her share, it is nice to make something a man would like.

EDM2 - draw a lamp

2011-08-09T18:13:00.000-04:00

It started out just being the lamp, but then the rest of my front yard around the lamp decided it needed to be in the picture, too. I did remove a couple of pickup trucks, though.

EDM 1 - shoe

2011-08-08T17:24:00.000-04:00

There is a book, Everyday Matters, which has inspired a yahoogroup, and encourages people to stop thinking about learning to do art someday and to start doing it right now. The yahoogroup gives out challenges weekly, and has a backlist of over 300. I thought it would be good for me to write down the list in my doodle book, one to a page, and then whenever I felt like picking up a pen, I could just open the book and see what I am supposed to draw. The first one is a shoe.

It's not special. It's just my first challenge. I included the spine of the book in the scan to make a point to a friend of mine in the EDM group - it is better to chop off part of the image than to deliberately distort the shape of the thing you are drawing to make it fit.

Anyway, there is a bit of a story behind this particular pair of sandals. Four years ago, I noticed a frined of mine had these great sandals, and I told her how much I admired them every time I saw her wear them, which was every warm day that I saw her, because she wore them a LOT. She took a hint and when she went back to the store where she bought them (a boutique near her favorite vacation spot) the next year, she bought me a pair. These were the best sandals ever - the beads on the top were colors that went with all my outfits, and the molded sole was so comfortable! I wore the things every warm day (I wear Skechers Shape-ups on cold days), but last Monday, one of the straps broke. I knew my friend had already been on vacation this year and wouldn't be able to pick me up another pair, so I called the boutique myself to see if they would ship me a pair.

The nice young woman on the phone said that they didn't carry that style any more, but that the sandals they sold were not made by them, and I might do better to found out who makes them in order to get them. I googled a bit and discovered that they were actually GrandCo sandals (I wanted the white ones on the top left of the page). Unfortunately, the site only does wholesale - I needed to find a retailer. more googling, and I found a shop that sold the black one, but not the white. This should tell you how desperate I was: I called them to see if they could special order me a pair. The nice lady on the phone said that they used to sell them, but no one was buying the white ones, so she took them off the website, but she had a few in the back room - what size did I wear? It turns out she had exactly one pair, and sold it to me for half price - how cool is that?

Relieved that my sandals were on their way, I went out the next day with my family in the Skechers, because I need comfortable shoes, and we were at this mall in Rockville, MD, when my daughter comes up to me and says she saw sandals like mine at the Hallmark store. Of course, I had to go look, and although they were not exactly the ones I bought online, they were GrandCo sandals, and I had to buy a pair, because I couldn't wait for the mail. These are the ones that I drew. Although theya re not as pretty as the others (which came in the mail Saturday), the three straps hold them very close to my feet, and they are even more comfortable, no flopping at all. I wear them in the house all day - better than barefoot. I love GrandCo sandals!

Green rondelle necklace

2011-07-31T13:22:00.008-04:00

When I bought these green rondelles, I had no idea what to do with them. My mother talked me into using them to create a necklace for this large lampwork pendant.

It's mostly stringing, but the bail is done in ladder stitch.

Murano glass heart

2011-07-30T16:22:00.000-04:00

As soon as I saw this glass pendant for sale online, I knew I had to have it. Here it is, on a necklace of glass seed beads and Tibetan silver filigree beads.

Doublewide purple tennis bracelet

2011-07-27T17:00:00.000-04:00

I don't know what to say about this bracelet. It started out with green crystal rondelles. Don't ask me how it ended up with purple bicones and red accent beads. It will look nice with a red hat, I'm sure.

Patriotic necklace

2011-07-25T11:23:00.014-04:00

I have been wanting to make a necklace in patriotic colors for a while, and I just realized that I had the beads I needed to do it.

I started out just making a bracelet, but I liked it so much, I decided to extend it. The base is a 2-needle right angle weave done with silver-lined E beads. After that I wove a diagonal string of blue seed beads and red E beads, then decided to weave it on the back too. The diagonals on the front and back ran toghter, and making it look like I wound a spiral around the base. I might have to do this again, using just red seed beads over the silver base, as a candy cane look for Christmas.

Box Cards

2011-07-24T13:36:00.030-04:00

After making the pouch in my last post, I thought about other ways to send small gifts in the mail, and remembered that there was a box card that I wanted to try. It uses a whole 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of paper, so I wanted to test and make sure I understood the folds before using a paper that I liked. I grabbed one of the more atrocious papers in my collection, a sheet from and old Michaels Slab (remember those?) and went to work.

A striped paper was probably not the best choice, but the results were good enough that I chose to complete the project into something I could use. This would be good for mailing inchies or an ATC, or maybe even another bracelet.

I did wonder about the dimensions - could I alter the size? I ripped a page from an old Vogue magazine (thanks, Mom) and trimmed it down to a 9 x 6 rectangle, and made all the folds at 1.5 inch intervals.

This ended up being 3 x 3 inches, a very usable size for me, and not bad looking, either, if you don't mind the closeup of Jessica Alba's face on the back. This is how cheap I am - I would rip a page from a magazine rather than waste a sheet of Slab paper.

The sum of the parts (not great)

2011-07-23T13:36:00.000-04:00

I worked on my bugle bead necklace some more last night, and finally figured out how to attach all the pieces.

After I got everything attached and tried it on, I immediately saw the things I wanted to change, the main thing being that the fringe is way too short. I think I will retry this piece, and see if I can make it look like the beaded ball is a slide.

I like showing you my misses as much as my hits - it's like letting to peek into my brain. I hope it isn't too scary!

Inspired

2011-07-22T10:17:00.000-04:00

Last week I went to a TAC open house, and we did a couple of Make-n-Takes, in addition to grousing about price hikes and whatnot (can't have a new catalog without complaining about price hikes! except last year, they thwarted me by dropping the prices. Now they are back up again). Chris always designs nice things, but I really didn't see the point of making a little cardstock pouch - what was I going to do with it? Cheryl looked over at me and said, "Juliet, you could put one of your bracelets in it!". (Cheryl is so smart!)

It was a brilliant idea! I had a bracelet that I needed to mail out, so when I got home, I made this:

It is a little thank you gifty for a wonderful friend who sent me these Martha Stewart punches that she didn't want (I can't even say those words without stuttering - "Martha Stewart punches I don't want" - nope, just can't do it) among a LOT of other things, including the heart-shaped button on the bracelet, and the embossing powder on the word (you can't tell it from the scan, but it is a clear powder with an interference finish - Diane sent me a bunch of these, and they are so fun to use!)

I hope she doesn't like the pouch TOO much - she might want her punches back!

Playing with bugle beads

2011-07-21T18:02:00.000-04:00

I have a container of mixed red beads that I picked up at Walmart when they were downsizing their craft department. I couldn't turn down 60 grams for only a buck and a half, but over a year later, I still hadn't used any of them. I looked at the container and thought about why I was having a hard time getting inspired, and I decided it was the bugle beads. I don't really like bugle beads. They have sharp edges that will cut your thread, and their shape makes them awkward for most bead weaving. I decided to challenge myself to use the bugle beads.

They made a nice strap woven with gold seed beads, and I quickly decided that I wanted to add a beaded bead with a beaded tassel as a focal point. I had never done a beaded tassel before, but it seemed pretty straightforward, so I just sat down and played until I got one.

The fringe parts were easy, but i didn't know how to attach them at the top, so they are tied to an E bead, which is a problem. I don't know how to attach the fringe without all the thread showing.

I skipped that problem by trying to remember how to make a beaded bead. I finally gave up and went online, and found this video tutorial. It looked like what I had in mind, so I whipped one up.

It's a nice little ball, about the size of a marble, but there is no clear way to attach anything to it.

What I have are three nice parts and no way to make them a whole. Any ideas?

Gold netted necklace

2011-07-21T09:03:00.000-04:00

I have been working the past few days on this necklace, which is one of the more demanding jewelry projects I've undertaken, at least in terms of time spent. However, I was happy doing it, because as it was working up, I felt that I had what I really wanted - the perfect rope necklace.

It is everything I wanted. I love the colors, the weight, the boldness and the delicacy. It is exactly what I have been trying for months to achieve.

However, I don't like how it looks when I put it on. I don't know why. I liked the other rope necklaces I've made. This is also the first time I've felt this way trying on a piece of jewelry I've made. I'm always in love with my own work (vanity), and I should love this piece most of all. I don't, and it is making me very sad.

Red tennis bracelet

2011-07-12T15:39:00.000-04:00

I was looking at my stash and saw that I had a single strand of red bicones. I counted them - 80. 80 isn't enough for a lot of things, but it is enough for a tennis bracelet. I thought I would try it with the crystal iris beads instead of gold ones, and found that since the gold ones are a little smaller than the crystal iris ones (11/0 instead of 10/0 - if you are a beader, you know what that means), I wasn't using as many bicones as I thought, and wove my row with only 36 red bicones, leaving me with enough for another bracelet. As I was weaving, though, it occurred to me that the button I was planning on using was a little wide for the bracelet - could I make the bracelet twice as wide?

Yes! It was surprisingly easy to add another row down the side. It is a really good width for the button, too. I think I might have to try this with the purple bicones, next.

It's kind of funny - I spent over 25 bucks at the bead expo just on fancy toggle clasps, and now my new favorite way to close a bracelet is a button.

Skinny Bracelet

2011-07-11T17:55:00.000-04:00

I just got a package of crystal bicones in the mail today, 1200 fire-glazed purple ones. I had a thought that I could make a few bracelets as prizes for my Red Hat Bunco next month (we don't play for money, these are just small token prizes). I love the colors that bounce off these beads!

I left it unfastened so you could see the loop with the button. I really like the button as a closure. I thought this pearly button looked great with the crystal iris seed beads. When it is fastened, you don't see the loop at all.

The pattern for this can be found here at Deborah Roberti's site. She has a lot of good patterns for basic jewelry, and sells patterns for more elaborate pieces. I don't really care for a wide cuff bracelet most of the time; a skinny one like this suits me fine. A bracelet like this is very economical, too. 100 bicones and even fewer seed beads are enough to fit most wrists, so it could be made with leftovers from a larger project, too.

This isn't very different than the pattern I use for my tennis bracelet, except I use seed beads along the whole side instead of bicones. I knew I couldn't be the first person to think of arranging beads this way.

Tennis anklet?

2011-07-07T20:22:00.001-04:00

I few months ago I made this tennis bracelet, but it was really too long. I did show it to a couple of friends, who both liked it, and asked for it to be an ankle bracelet. It was too loose on one of them, so the other snatched it up. The first one pouted, so I promised to make her one, a little smaller.

I do not know what is up with this pattern; I tried to make it smaller, but it ended up bigger - over ten inches. I did use a button for a closure instead of a toggle. Let me know how you like the button - I do need to make this the right length, and I don't know which is the best way to fasten it. I have plenty of buttons and toggles, and even a few lobster clasps (but those are all silver), and I value your input.

Russian Spiral Weave

2011-07-07T10:01:00.000-04:00

When I went to the Bead Expo in Fredericksburg a couple weeks back, one of the vendors had several samples of a beautifully woven necklace. I wanted the pattern, but wasn't willing to buy enough beads to be offered a copy, so I settled for the name of it - Russian Spiral. As soon as a got home, I started googling it. I started playing with some of the beads that I bought at the expo (the short glittery sample below) and quickly realized that to make a long rope, I was going to need a LOT more beads than I had purchased. It was taking me about 20 of the larger beads (4mm) per inch.

(click for detail)

I ordered 800 of the blue bicones off ebay, and started working on the first full necklace. Two bad things happened - first, I realized I only received half the order (I emailed the vendor, the other 400 are on their way), and second, I realized that my tension was terrible. for the weave to be attractive, it needs to be tight. The loop I completed with the blue beads is long enough to slip over my head, but sloppy enough that I think I will just cut it apart and start over when the other beads arrive.

The red necklace is my third attempt. The red beads are from a bag of E beads that I have had forever, and that I had mostly used as spacers. The bronze iris beads are ones that I bought at the Bead Expo. I never thought I would run out of those red beads, but I ended up cutting apart another project and tapering off with smaller, duller beads just to scrounge enough to finish the necklace. Still, I really like it. The red and brown together makes me think of chocolate covered cherries. I was able to keep my work tighter, but it was still the most difficult part of doing the weave. Does anyone have any good suggestions for maintaining a good thread tension?

My Shoebox - Tim Holtz cards

2011-07-02T19:09:00.002-04:00

First, let me apologize for not posting Chris's shoebox swap card - I don't know where it is. If you have been inside my house, you probably aren't surprised to hear that. I will post it when I find it, though.

So, I promised to show you my card, and not only did I design a card beforehand, I made one while I was there, because Tim Holtz has so many great stamps, you could make the same card a hundred times and they would all be different. Here are my cards:

These are both based on Tim's second Christmas tag in 2009, if you want to see the tut. I just used painted cardboard flowers and corners instead of the metal ones that he sells. It's pretty fancy for a card with only one layer.

Challenges:
allsorts - free and easy
Craft your days away - vintage
ECP Challenge - gold
Less is More - shades of blue
Card and scrap - punches
Craft Garden - bird (first card)
Crafty Ann - uplifting sentiment
Art Impressions - distressing

As always,you can find lots of challenges to play in at Feline Playful.

Cheryl's Shoebox

2011-06-30T15:01:00.001-04:00

Cheryl had so many fun techniques in her card! I have baker's twine, but I haven't used any of it yet. I certainly never thought to use it like this! I also love the huge grommets and popped sails, they add so much dimension! This will be a great birthday card for my son, Ben, who just got his Class B sailing permit last summer.

Lois's Shoebox

2011-06-29T14:59:00.001-04:00

I've been talking about the shoebox swap for almost a week now, and today I went and had a great time. The first cards I want to show you were ones that Lois offered. The other players all had special techniques or stamps that they wanted to showcase, but Lois gave us the basic materials for two different cards, and let us customize them to our own tastes; I really feel a sense of ownership over the art in these cards, and not like I just assembled a kit. Thank you, Lois!

Tim Holtz style

2011-06-28T20:52:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I have a shoebox event with some stamping friends, and today I was putting the finishing touches on my card. One of the important elements of this particular card is the gold splatter. Splattering is terrible at shoebox events, because nobody wants to get splattered. I tried other ways to get that same look, but there was no help for it. I had to splatter. Tim uses Perfect Pearls, but I have Stargazers. Stargazers won't be too bad. It doesn't stain, and wipes off of hard surfaces, no problem. Since we will be doing this in a kitchen, this should be fine. We have to get up to emboss, so getting up to splatter shouldn't be an issue.

I did some test runs on ATCs before doing the sample card, just to make sure I wasn't forgetting how to do it.

It took me a while to figure out how to do the mitered faux metal corners, but now I really like them - I might use them a lot. I also decided that it was easier to glue the flowers together than to attach them with a brad.

I can't show you the sample card until tomorrow - a couple of the ladies read my blog, and I don't want to spoil the surprise too much. One of them might lock me out when she reads about the splattering, though (it's her house!). I really like building up a background like this - it has a lot of texture for what is essentially a single layer card.

Challenges:
Clear It Out - clean and simple (okay, maybe not too clean)
Creative Craft - make your own background
Deep Ocean - flowers
Going Grey - anything but a card
Tip Top Tuesday - T is for Tim Holtz Technique
Cheerful Stamp Pad - favorite background

Postage stamp inchies

2011-06-25T12:56:00.000-04:00

I needed to make some postage stamp inchies, and I found enough patriotic postage stamps that I decided to use them for my 4th of July inchie mingle, too. Here are my patriotic ones:

You have to love postage stamps - they are little works of art in themselves. To make them my art, I just put them on a gold leafed background and added a touch of bling. The other stamps were harder, because not everything looks good with a star on it.

The stamps are so big that in order to see any background, I had to offset them. I thought adding an alpha gave them some cohesiveness. Finally, I had one stamp left. This inchie is for a special friend:

Challenges:
Fairy Knoll - sparkle
Fairy Tale - America
Off the Wall - red, white, and blue
Stamp Something - red, white, and blue
Craft Us Crazy - red, white, and blue
Paper Play - stars and stripes
Stamp Insanity - stars and stripes
Divas by Design - anything but a card

Airplane inchies

2011-06-24T18:16:00.001-04:00

One of my girlfriends reminded me that it was almost the end of the month - did I remember that there were mingles due? One of the mingles was travel themed, and since I had already made metallic cardstock, and had my punches handy (including my my loved but rarely used airplane punch. Why do I love it? Because I used to be an air traffic controller. Why don't I use it? Because I don't think anyone but me would appreciate a tiny little airplane on their card) , and my desk was a total mess, I thought I would make airplane inchies. The messy desk is relevant because near my elbow was this lovely scrap of rainbow brayered cardstock which was begging to be used as a background.

I liked them, but I didn't know if anyone else would. So I did the test - how would they look on a card?

I like them on a card, very much. Maybe I will send the completed card, and not just inchies. Note: metallic doesn't scan well. Very shiny in real life, though - just see my previous post.

Challenges:
Bloggers Challenge - things with wings
Fun with Shapes and More - lilac and pink
Poodles Parlor - come fly with me
Simply Create - fly with us
4 Crafty Chicks - clean and simple
Shopping our stash - neglected tool
The Sketch File - sketch
The Cheerful Stamp Pad - things with wings
Pollycraft - travel

Not so metal flowers

2011-06-24T15:11:00.000-04:00

A couple of days ago, one of my stamp enablers suggested a shoebox get-together, which is to say, we create a card, put all the materials to make it in a single shoebox, and let everyone else make a card like ours. I opened my mouth before thinking and said I would do a Tim Holtz style card, which was met with some approval, but after I got home, I realized what an insane prospect that would be. Everything Tim Holtz designs is created with the idea to use as many of his products as possible at one time. It would be silly to try and fit all things necessary for a Tim Holtz card in a single shoebox.

However, I was not going to completely abandon my original idea. I have done nice things with Tim stuff that weren't strictly Tim, and looked through my past photos and scans for some inspiration. I stumbled across this old tag:

I remembered that I particularly liked it at the time because instead of running out and spending 20 bucks on Tim's metal flowers and metal corners, I made my own out of cardstock. I think my flower-making skills (all my skills, actually) have improved somewhat over time, so I decided to base my card on this tag.

The first thing I needed to do is make "metal" cardstock. For me, that involves metallic paint and black or brown cardstock. Then I whipped out the punches, to create the components. Here is all the stuff I used:

The two colorful pieces of cardstock that you can see underneath are how they look dripped with paint and the colors smeared around with a credit card. as blotchy as it looks as a big sheet of paper, punched into small pieces, it looks tarnished - everything Tim needs to look old, right? Here is a close-up of the flowers:

The reflection makes it look particularly shiny, but actually, it looks like tarnished metal. I made some dimensional flowers, and then I realized that maybe a mailable card would be better, so I worked on some flatter flowers (the ones on the left will all lie flat in an envelope).

Obviously, I will bring the cardstock already painted, but now I am wondering if I should punch all the flowers, too, and just let the other players assemble them. This is just the flowers - I also have to consider how I am going to do all the other parts, as well. Damn you, Tim Holtz, and your dementing effect on my brain!

Spiral to donut

2011-06-21T14:43:00.000-04:00

My daughter caught me beading on the deck, and snapped a picture. Click to enlarge.

It's not the best picture of me ever, but you can see that I am wearing a necklace that I made, and also that I am making something else - a spiral (thanks, Vicky!). My daughter didn't like the spiral. I don't know why, if it was the shape of the color, but I could see that I didn't want to make a long rope of it like I originally intended, so I brought it around and made a donut.

I think this will make a nice focal bead, and plan to make some smaller beaded beads to complete a necklace. I will have to use some other pattern to make the rope necklace that I want.

Ndebele stitch

2011-06-12T14:10:00.001-04:00

I have wanted to try the Ndebele (herringbone) stitch for a long time, but I couldn't find a tutorial that explained what happens after the first four rows. Then I found a tutorial that was a lot less tightly woven but easy to understand. I thought I would give it a try with some cheap beads that I had bought at Michaels, and after a dozen or so rows, understood what I was missing in the other tutorials. I worked it tighter and tighter as I went, and finally brought it around to see if I could invisibly join the ends. The pattern doesn't naturally twist, I just thought I would throw that in with the rest of the experimentation.

The packet of beads I was using had five colors, and since I only used three for this bracelet (too small for adults, only 6 inches around on the inside); then I tried it again with just using two colors.

I like the width of this one. It might be good for a rope necklace. I don't know why I'm making these tiny bangle bracelets that no one can wear.

I want to figure all all the complexities of this stitch before I break into the new stash of crystals I bought yesterday at the bead expo. I will also say that this stitch eats your thread like crazy.

I also saw two other patterns at the expo that I want to try - tubular netting with inset pearls, and the Russian spiral. I also picked up some fun lampwork beads, and a packet of tila beads (thanks, Jeannie!).

Yes, going to the bead expo does mean that I will be doing a bit more jewelry before I make more cards.

Green bead necklace

2011-06-09T23:11:00.000-04:00

A while back, they had these bracelets at Target with big green beads and little chinese coins as spacers. I liked the little coins and cut the bracelet apart to get them, and then had no idea what to do with the beads. They are a strange green color, unlike any of my other green beads.

Today I was looking at a different dubious purchase, a small packet of reject beads that I got on clearance. As sometimes happens when you have glass beads in a little baggie, there was glass dust in the bag which made the beads look dusty and ugly. I have seen it often enough to know that these are real bargains - the glass dust cleans off easily, and the beads look great once you can see them. So, I had this 50 cent bag of little glass beads, and I was trying to figure out what to do with them, and I looked at the green beads, and it hit me.

I couldn't get it to lie neatly in the scanner, but basically it is four strands of these purplish little beads held together with the big green beads. The purple and green are both off in the same way, and it really works. Sometimes I surprise myself.

Playing with jump rings

2011-06-08T15:05:00.000-04:00

I bought some cheap colored jump rings ar Michaels a while back, just to experiment with chain maille techniques. I finally committed to opening the packaging and putting some of the links together.

These links are of poor quality, not suitable for wearing, but they come in packages with 5 different colors in them, so if you want to practice a pattern before doing it in earnest, the different colors are very useful. I don't think I could have done this with all one color without practicing with the color rings first. I'm also beginning to see the merit of rubber jump rings. About half the rings in this piece do not need to open, and if they were made of rubber, it would have enough give so that one could put on a bracelet without a clasp.

Peruvian Necklace

2011-06-07T22:16:00.000-04:00

Over a year ago, I went to a bead store and fell in love with some Peruvian clay beads, and found some gemstones that went with them, and a large donut to hang in the middle. With the finished product firmly in mind, I came home, stashed the beads away and forgot all about it.

Today, my aunt Ena came over to visit with my mother and me, and to craft. Ena was stitching together some knitted afghan panels, my mother was upcycling more Christmas cards (she will be leaving tomorrow with over 50), and pulled out some copper wire and went to work.

It came out very much as I had imagined it would. I think this one will be entered into the county fair this year.

What's cookin'?

2011-06-06T18:41:00.001-04:00

Just playing around with Paint Shop Pro - It's been a while since I made a card this way. This is for the Dude Time Doodles Sketch challenge.

More Xmas cards

2011-06-02T19:04:00.000-04:00

My mother and I have been going crazy upcycling the old Christmas cards into new ones. Some are really difficult, like photo cards. The ones my mother hates the most are foiled cards. Here are three cards that I made from one foiled card - the scans are not great, because the foil doesn't scan well, but you will get the idea.

The card featured three Santa ornaments in blue, red, and green. At first, I thought I would only use the red, because I'm a stickler about such things.

It wasn't much of a remake - I just cut a rectangle out of the card front, and layered it up. I hated to see the other two Santas go to waste, though. I tried fussycutting them:

The sentiments are leftovers from other cards. I don't think any of these cards are particularly great, but my mother thinks they are good for a dollar. Whatever. It's about keeping them out of the landfill another year, I suppose.

Recycled Christmas cards

2011-05-31T07:55:00.002-04:00

My mother is collecting old Christmas cards from her friends, and creating new cards from them, selling them for a buck each. She brought her stuff with her, and I have been having fun remaking these cards with her. It is hard making something that is really different and not just pasting the old card front on a new base, but here are a few that I think came out well:

The worst part of the process for me is that all the cards have to have sentiments in them - I usually leave my cards blank inside for a handwritten note. The other hard part is restraint - my mother insists that a dollar card can't be TOO nice - no metal embellishments, limited layering, stuff like that. She isn't too happy about my use of ribbon, either. Sometimes a grouse at her and tell her she can charge more if she wants, but mostly I try to do it her way.

Sparkly flower inchies

2011-05-30T14:24:00.000-04:00

What makes a good inchie? Some people hand draw them, which is inherently desirable, and some collage them with many layers. Mine feature backgrounds punched out of old Christmas cards, sequins, bling, and stickles.

They were not hard to compose, but they are very sparkly!

Challenges:
Kenny K Krafty Girlz - flowers
Cupcake inspirations - inspiration
Challenge up your life - recycling
Crafty Catz - pink and green
Fun with Shapes - sparkle

Patriotic

2011-05-29T19:13:00.000-04:00

My mother has been visiting me, so I haven't been online like I usually6 am, but I have been crafting. Yesterday, we went to Michaels because neither of us has enough crafting supplies (that's a joke - ha ha), and we ran into a friend of mine who wants to swap inchies on Tuesday. Obviously, we have to make inchies in order to swap them!

Here is a set of patriotic inchies that i whipped up from scraps on my desk. the stripes are red and white paper strips cut and pieced together, and the star is a large gold brad. These were fun to make!

While I was working, I noticed an image of cowboy boots left over from a project I did yesterday, so I made an ATC to go with.

There is gold embossing between the stripes, and the word is made with my label maker. I heard a certain song (can you guess it?) on the radio this morning, and it has been stuck in my head all day. It's that time of year!

Challenges:
Sentimental Sundays - anything but a card
Fairy Knoll - Memorial Day
Just Add Ink - fussy cutting
Little Miss Muffet - metal embellishments
Stamp Insanity - red white and blue
GingerSnap Creations - cowboys

Happy Memorial Day! Go decorate a grave!

Red Hat birthday

2011-05-24T13:35:00.001-04:00

I remembered another birthday for next week (what does it mean, all these older women being born in the same couple of weeks?), and I also remembered that she had seen every RH card that I had made already, so I needed to make her a new one. She is a woman of color, and I can't bring myself to put white women on cards that are being mailed to black women. It just isn't right. Fortunately, I had this image from Digital Two for Tuesday, good for any woman of any color.

Unfortunately, it lags in a lot of other areas. This is one of those cards that I liked when I was putting it together, but not so much once I scanned it.

Challenges:

KB Cute - girly

Stamps R Us - digi

Card Cupids - bright and bold

Dream Valley - old (cardstock) and new (painted paper)

Scrappy Frogs - birthday

Sparkles - metal (brads)

Just a hare late

2011-05-23T15:01:00.001-04:00

I just realized last night that I had two Red Hat birthdays this week that I forgot to send cards, so I searched and found this coloring book image online. I knew I could find rabbits in top hats, but this one with an Easter bonnet was perfect.

You may be wondering why the hats are purple if they are going to Red Hatters. It is part of the Red Hat Tradition that on their birthdays, instead of the usual red hat with a purple outfit, they can wear a purple hat with a red outfit.

The painted paper is something I quickly whipped up with red, violet, and pearl acrylic paints and a squeegee. It looks less gray and more pearl in real life. It adds that bit of texture that says "I did art on your card". I didn't like the aspect ratio that much on the image, so I used the Out Of the Box technique on the second one.

On the inside it says, "Happy Birthday, just a hare late".

Challenges:
2 Sisters - use a digi
Allsorts - birthday
Fairy Knoll - flowers
4 Crafty Chicks - brads
Cards and Things - sketch

chipboard ATC

2011-05-19T09:34:00.000-04:00

I decided to try the Chip Art tools to make an ATC. Since I didn't have a chipboard ATC blank, I made one. The sentiment is from a Firecracker Designs by Pamela rubber stamp set. Since Pamela isn't selling them any more, I hope she doesn't mind.

It looks pretty simple, but it felt like a lot of work. I tried drawing lines on my piece to line up the letters, but they are still all over the place. I don't know if I'm motivated to do this 8 times to make enough for a swap, or even if other people would consider this artsy enough to want it.

I do like the technique, though. If I can get circles to punch, I might make word tokens for my other projects.

Dad inchies

2011-05-18T22:56:00.000-04:00

I'm still playing with my Melody Ross Chip Art tools - today I thought I would try inchies. I didn't have square inch chipboard, so I used the next best thing - a double thickness of cereal box cardboard. Just glue the coated sides together, and it will pass for chipboard in almost every way except edge on.

I used a slightly different coloring technique with these. I painted them with espresso paint thinned a little with pink to lighten it and add texture. I then inked in the embossed letters with an ink pen, then washed over it with an aquabrush to soften the ink and make it look more like tarnish. It looks a lot like old metal in real life.

I still can't seem to get my letters straight, but I think it adds to the charm. These are for a mingle, but I would do this again to make embellishments.

Two quick cards

2011-05-17T22:37:00.000-04:00

My mother sent me a gift - the Melody Ross ChipArt starter set that is for sale at HSN. If you want the set, the price is amazing. I decided that I would make my mom a thank you card with some of the chipboard and tools in the set.
Stamping into the chipboard was pretty easy, but I was at a loss as to how to color it. The Melody Ross site suggested that I paint it, then glaze it with a contrasting color, and wipe away the glaze leaving the darker glaze color in the embossed areas. I have paint, so I gave it a try. I didn't have regular glaze, so I mixed my paint with sparkle varnish instead. The results were not that great, so I took glitter pens and filled in the embossed areas that way.

The paper is my very last sheet of my favorite CTMH paper, Discovery. This is not my best card ever, but my mom will understand. My mom is like that. It sparkles, but you can't see it. That is the downside of scanners.
I had a lot of the glaze left, so I spread it on the base of the second one layer card that I had printed out but hadn't colored yet. I started with just the Bandanna technique, but my glitter pens were right there, so I threw in some color, too.

Now, I know this looks like the blue color is grainy, but those grains are actually glitter. Here is a closeup with the light hitting it at an angle. It's really very sparkly.

I'm liking the one layer card. I may make more.

Challenges:
Timeless Tuesday - Spring
CupCake Craft - in the garden
Stamp with Fun - green and pink (first card)
Magic in the air - embossing
Creative Inspirations - glitter

Single Layer Card

2011-05-16T21:57:00.000-04:00

When was the last time that you made a card with only one layer? I downloaded this image from dover, and decided that I didn't want to do anything but use my watercolor pencils on it. After that, I thought a little gold leafing pen would frame it nicely. That's it. One layer.

Challenges:
Incy Wincy - clean and simple
Squigglefly - anything but the usual
Stamps R Us - use a digi
There She Goes - photo inspiration
Card Cupids - no patterned paper
Cheerful Stamp Pad - color my world
Fresh Brewed - inspiration

Panic!

2011-05-09T14:34:00.000-04:00

My computer died. Some stuff I saved in time, other stuff is gone forever. If you sent me an email over the weekend, that is gone forever. Please write me again!

(yeay! I was able to rescue my sigtag!)

not quite a honeycomb

2011-05-04T14:08:00.000-04:00

Jeanie was nice enough to show me her beading blog, which was absolutely intoxicating with its eye candy. I was particularly intrigued by her honeycomb weave bracelets, which I had never seen before. I supposed that I could figure out how to do it - it looked a lot like a right angle weave, except with a honeycomb, it would have to be a 60 degree weave (don't you hate math geeks?). I had some green E beads I had been wanting to use for a while, and some copper 11/0 beads, and started playing.

I noticed something right away when I started developing the honeycomb pattern - it liked twisting very much. I also didn't like the waviness as much as I thought I would, so after I completed the length, I put a row of green on each side. I like it a bit better this way. I made my own closure from copper wire.

Red wrap bracelet

2011-05-03T10:23:00.000-04:00

This bracelet took me a lot longer to finish than I thought it would, but it is over 30 inches long, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.

This was inspired by the wrap bracelets of Chan Luu, which are made with leather sides and not beaded ones, but I like the beaded sides. What I didn't like was the behavior of the red beads in the middle. They are flat rectangles, but instead of lying flat against my arm, they are determined to stand on their edge. I guess I should have known better - Chan Luu makes hers with round beads. Mine closes with a red button that matches surprisingly well - I don't know how Chan Luu closes her bracelets, but I suspect that they have to be tied, which is not as good.

The length allows it to be worn as a necklace, too, which is a good thing. I have some heavy cord, I will try this again.

Maybe

2011-05-03T09:59:00.000-04:00

Osama Bin Laden was killed by Navy Seals who flew in from Afghanistan. My son is a Navy Seal in Afghanistan. I don't really know anything, and my son wouldn't be allowed to tell me even if he wanted to (my boys know better than to tell me when bad people are shooting at them), but there is a little tiny warm fuzzy in my heart.

Of course, I would think my son is heroic just for being a Navy Seal in Afghanistan, even if he never kills anybody. Actually, that would be nice if he never has to kill anyone, but if he did have to kill someone, Bin Laden is a good target.

I'm just sayin'...