School Spirit necklace

The school colors of the local high school are blue and green.  my neighbor, who has a high schooler too, asked me about a necklace in the school colors that she could wear as a band booster.  This is what I came up with yesterday:

It improves on other necklaces I've made in that it has a slight curve to it, so it lies comfortably on the collarbone without folding over.  I'm worried it might be a little prissy, though.  I will try some other designs, though.  After all, whatever she doesn't wear, I can!

More round Robin ATCs

Here are a couple of ATCs that I made from kits assembled by Ragina Wells:

These are a good example of mismatched palettes, or at least they were - most of the papers were tinted with distress inks to bring the colors closer together.  I suppose I should have taken a "before" scan.

Round Robin ATCs

I joined a small group in which we each make 8 little kits with ingredients to inspire an ATC, and send them round robin around the circle, and when the kits come home, we have 8 ATCs made by other people with our stuff.  It's a small group, only five people, and we do two kits from each person.

Here are the ATCS I made from kits I got from Virginia Bell:

She only had one Halloween kit in the box, but since it will probably be past Halloween when the other people get her kits, I felt that I ought to do it.  The bird one - it was a strange mixture of elements, that's all I have to say.  That is a big problem with the kits.  People will mix colors and patterns from all different palettes, and expect you to make them work.  It's tricky, but fun.

20 cards for $12

When I heard the price for this workshop, my jaw hit the ground!  How can you pass up a deal like that?  In addition, we all brought food to share for dinner, so it was a great evening.  The demo/hostess, Carolyn, gave us six sheets of 12x12 paper/cardstock, full size cutting diagrams (she drew them directly onto the gridded placemats that demos always seem to have), and unlimited access to her stamps and embellishments.  She didn't predesign the cards - we went our own way with the papers after we cut them.  Carolyn asked me to scan what I made, so I decided to show you as well.  If you are a stamping demo, this is what I can home with - two each of the following cards and envelopes, plus lots of leftovers for me to play with later.

I could have gone a lot fancier with the layers and embellishments, but I was really scrambling to get 20 cards done in three and a half hours (I arrived late).  I'm ready to do this all over again, this time with Christmas papers!

Get well

I almost never send Get Well cards, so I almost never make them, so when I need one, I can't dig one out of my stash, I have to make it right then.  Here is one I whipped up yesterday for poor Lynn Stevens - her appendix burst, so she has been in the hospital all week, and has suffered through some dreadful surgery.  She is not someone I have ever met in real life, but she is a Technique Junkie like me, and had always had great comments about the cards I post to the group, and has been very encouraging to me about getting published - I couldn't just sit this one out.  

 

The Pencil highlights technique didn't come out quite right, probably because of the metallic textured cardstock I chose, but once I had my pencil in hand, it seemed a simple thing to handwrite the sentiment.  You may remember the Kitty digi, it is one of my favorites.

This card also happens to meet several challenges -

• GingerSnap Creations - neutrals plus one color
• Fab 'n' Funky - black and white and one color
• Some Odd Girl - monochromatic (are we seeing a theme yet?)
• Stamp Insanity - metal
• Sisterhood of Crafters - three flowers
• Paper Pretties - animal

Whew - It's taking longer to blog about it than it took to mail it! Oh, by the way, if you also know Lynn and want to send her a card, I will be happy to pass on her address, just email me.

Again with the hair

Ben got tired of how awful his dreadlocks were looking (it takes a while before they fully lock), so he decided braids would be good enough.  I do like the braids better, but they have to be removed and redone every couple of weeks, and it takes  two to three hours to do.  I will say that teasing the hair before braiding it makes the braids hold better.  He is sleeping in a shower cap to reduce fraying, but it still gets fuzzy.

Why don't teenagers ever smile?

Blue and Green

Danise asked me to make a necklace for her niece.  She said that her niece liked blues and greens, which, in my limited little brain, meant that she would like either a blue one or a green one.  Don't ask me why it didn't occur to me to make one that had blue and green beads together.  Anyway, I was surprised when she mailed me the beads she wanted me to use, but here they are.  They look really good together, I think.  I especially like the catseye beads.

I think I'm starting to get tired of  this design.  It's time for me to start making something else.