Busy Busy…

Posted on | September 6, 2010 | 12 Comments

Just a few days before the trip and I have a list of last minute stuff. Since it’s just the girls and I there’s nobody else to rely on but me, myself, and I in terms of what to bring… or what makes it to the car. I have to remember to bring the important stuff and not be like our California trip where I left my camera on the kitchen counter. AURGH!!! That was the worst photographic trip ever!! Also, even though a drive to hubby’s family in Mississippi is a lot longer than our we’ll be passing through a few countries so I need to remember to have with us our passports (ALL of them, we have two each since as a military dependent we have to have a regular passport and another one – a no pay they call it – where the UK Visa is stamped — weird I know) and other documentations. BUT, in between all the prepping I managed to relax a bit while the Jove was napping and created this.

I’ve been eye-balling this digital kit by Quirky Twerp, The Retrospect 365 set (paper, elements, and tags) at The DigiChick and I found the perfect sketch to use it on: Sweet Sketch Sunday. If you like Webster’s Page or Prima you’ll LOVE this kit. So so so pretty and the colors are just so vibrant!! I felt a bit guilty when creating this card because a lot of gorgeous images were covered in the process. The below is just the paper!

Here I just want to show you how my card (and I do this for a lot of my work) looks from the side. I am not heavy on the glue. I use different size dimensionals and even when I use adhesive (ATG 1/4″) I’d only glue the bottom (or top or side, depends) part to give the card a more 3D effect. For example on the tag. The flower above it I used the ATG just on the bottom and one dimensional, close to the tag. I like to center my dimensionals if possible for two reasons, to not be too visible from the side and to also give it a more airy look — like nothing’s holding the paper on.

I did a few things on this card. I sprayed the tag and base with Tattered Angels ink. I tied two bows through one hole on the tag. The seam binding, Martha Stewart, I scrunched on the spot again. Then I rolled some twine (Etsy) around the tag and tied a big bow. I also didn’t cut the loose ends too short for a more “fun” feel. The little lace is Melissa Francis and the button’s from PTI. I did a lot of trimming. My hand went numb a bit but all’s good. Layered here, layered there — followed the sketch I did — and voila.

Here’s the sketch. I promise it looks just like it!!! For the base I did that flower pattern paper for the dark top portion. The tag is the light portion of the base. Then for the scallops, well if you look at the card there’s a line on the right side. That’s my divider line and instead of scallops I left it as is. For the center it’s obvious and I actually do have a strip of scallop paper, look to the left of the butterfly. The green strip.

I love sketches because they give me a starting point and after that I can move it around as I see fit. The stamp sets I used are Ever After from WPlus9 and Vintage Frame from Waltzingmouse.

Have a great one. I am super super sleepy right now. I’ll prob. edit a lot of stuff after I get up and have some coffee {::SMILES}. Been up late the last few finishing a few things up.

The next time I post it’ll probably be from Germany. Until then!

Today’s the Day

Posted on | September 1, 2010 | 7 Comments

For you to get yourself a WPlus9 Ever After stamp set and for me to get a Chip and PIN (EMV) bank card!!!

Yes, I am going to be like the Western Europeans and a lot of other countries (some Asians too I think… not sure about African countries and E. Europe) and no swipe and sign when using my debit/credit card. Half the time it’s been a stinkin’ hassle keeping our American bank card.

How does one use this chip card? You use a chip card like you’d use your credit/debit card at an ATM station, the machines that don’t swallow your card. Stick it in and enter the PIN. It’s less paper too. There’s no paper to sign and that extra credit card receipt. Also, there’s no international transaction fee. We’re lucky that our bank, USAA (BEST bank ever!!), waives ours (at least for a year) but most don’t. The fee ranges from 1-3%. If you ever overseas, check your statement. You’ll see the charge AND the transaction fee. It adds up!

Weeks ago I made an appointment but I had to cancel. I made another one two weeks ago for today. I know, right? Two weeks to schedule an appointment to open a bank account!! In the US one can just walk in to a branch and 45-minutes later walk out with a bank account. Hopefully tomorrow I can get everything taken care of and in a week or two have a shiny new card that I can use anywhere. We can’t even use a self-service anything now because they don’t take swipe cards. Sucks!

Card details…

First of all I love the color combo. I used sky blue, purely pomegranate, kraft, vanilla, mellow moss, and yellow. I had a lot of fun with this card because I used a lot of my favorite things on here. The best part was that I did a lot of sewing. I think my machine and I are buddies now! What did I do? I cleaned AND loosened it up. I guess that’s what that little knob was for. Before the thread was too tight and that’s why the thread always broke mid-way when I did zig-zags.

I’ve been loving layering my bows too. The base is PTI twill yellow ribbon. After I made the bow I tied another knot and bow, the crumpled seam binding from Etsy, over the twill knot. Then over the two I tied another knot and bow with the baker’s twine. To cover all the layers I added a button. The sentiment came from two different sets: Magical Moments and Funky Flowers.

Here I just want to give you a side view of the flower layers. I used dimensionals on the Gardenia and the leaves I just put a dab of glue on the bottom edge so that the only the edges would stick and not the whole leaves. I like it this way to give the card a more fluffy/3D feel. The rose, kraft paper, I glued on to the card base. It’d be too thick if I used dimensionals on everything.

The pattern paper that I used came from Paislee Press which is available tomorrow at the DigiChick. She’s guest designing and I couldn’t be happier – LOVE her!! I can’t wait to make a scrappy page with the kit!!

Ok, that’s it! I’ll be posting in a little bit too for another Sept. 1 release. Stay tune!!

Help Me Decide!

Posted on | August 24, 2010 | 10 Comments

On a bed and breakfast in France!! I have Chardon Room and Buttercup/Autumn Leaf to choose from. There are no reviews on them but they all look good, three (French) stars, and breakfast included in the price. I am having a hard time because, I’m not sure which way we’re driving back. We need to catch a ferry in Dunkirk, France, I haven’t purchase yet but aiming for 4p (with a 3:30p check-in). From the Chardon we can go via the French highway, which is paid toll, and will cost around 22 Euros + 4 hrs, or through Belgium which will be 4.75 hrs and no toll cost (I am leaning more towards the French tolls though). If we stay in the Autumn Leaf (M doesn’t want to sleep in her own room) it’ll be 21.40 Euros + 3.5 hrs. Of course the one that takes longer to get to the ferry is the closest to everything we want to see (a few places we can walk to them), granted Autumn Leaf is only 20-30 miles from the sites we’re interested in.

Chardon has a dinner option where Autumn Leaf ask that guests go find themselves a restaurant. I like the idea of eating breakfast and at least a dinner at the B&B and chit-chatting with the owners and other folks there. I am wanting to practice a bit more French. I can’t do that at a restaurant, except just to order food and stuff. At the B&B I’m hoping that I’d feel a bit more unconscious about my (lack of) abilities and speak. I do love both places though.

The two B&B are unique in their own ways. Both, via emails, have been very helpful although I do feel a bit more warm and fuzzy towards the Chardon gentleman whom I’ve been corresponding with. I love that he offered to continue answering questions whether we stay there or not. My main interest in the Chardon is the location, the meals, and the owner. For Autumn Leaf, it’s the house, the interior of the house, and that it’s a bit shorter distance to the ferry and we can have a longer lunch break or more little stops. Jovie is a good traveler but ya never know, right?

Which would you choose? I have told both that I am considering two places.

My project….

I decided to participate in the Card Pattern’s sketch. It’s been a while since I did one. For this card I used some digital paper from the Digichick. The butterfly was from a Making Mischief kit by Karen Lewis and the other pattern paper was by Sugar Plum Paperie, Tiny Princess. I was playing with mellow colors with a splash of boldness. I’m not sure if I achieved this or not but I kind off like how the card turned out. For the stamps I used a Stampin’ Up! set called Central Park and PTI’s tag stamp.

So that’s it for tonight. I hope you all can help me and gnight for now!!

Celebrate Today

Posted on | July 27, 2010 | 8 Comments

Today was a great day… actually this week should be a great week because:

I have everybody here with me, no school for M and off work for hubby
I got a lot of projects done
I got invited to do something super fun — still a secret {::SMILES}
We did all the dishes (BIG deal for me!!)
We had a yummy salmon dinner, no head!

Here’s one project I did today. I used 2S4Y’s sketch for this card. I was going through some die-cuts and found this butterfly. I think I prefer it a bit bigger but it’s pretty cute. The designer paper I used came from the DigiChick. Which speaking off… not about the DigiChick but my printer… I am not very happy with Canon. I have a printer which is for sale in the U.S. and the UK BUT the ink has two different chip models and of course I can only buy my ink in the U.S. Since today’s printers uses a chip on the ink cartridges, even though the ink cartridges are the same exact ones, the printer will not register the new cartridges unless they carry the right code… which is stored in the chip. So so lame!! So I thought of removing the chip from my old ink cartridge and gluing it on the new one but then I read that these ink chips also tells the printer that it’s full, half full or empty. So even if I did swap my printer will think that I have an empty ink cartridge. GRR!! I’ve been wanting to print some new papers from the store but I’m just going to have to be content with old leftovers until I get my shipment in from Newegg. GRR!!

The printer is not going to make my week any less fun… it’s just frustrating. Oh, how about the base? They don’t carry Cannon inks. They carry everything else under the sun but no Cannons. GRR GRR GRR!!!

Market Saturday

Posted on | July 17, 2010 | 15 Comments

I look forward to Saturdays. Saturdays is market day and today we went to the Bury St. Edmunds market. I think this is my favorite market. It’s bigger than the other one we’ve been going to, Ely, and if you’re there in the later part of the afternoon some of the stalls sound like auction sites. The men would be screaming out bargains. Two for two they’d say or whatever’s in the bucket is a pound.

These are our loot from today:

I think this was about £12 of goodies. The bread there is DELICIOUS!! It’s almost 10 p.m. here and there’s only 4″ of it left! We did forget a few things… or I didn’t think we were out of: onions, carrots, and tomatoes. Oh well… I always forget something, nothing new here.

I did get a chance to make a card too while Jovie was napping. She’s been a pill all day today! Who knows what’s wrong… probably from the immunization but she is unbearable almost to be around.

I used Taylored Expression’s sketch for this. It’s the first time participating there. I’ve always wanted to try, esp. each time I see Sankari’s work but just always miss it. So here it is. I used Mehndi Medallion and some digi-paper: Danielle Engebretson A Grand New Day and Quirky Twerp Bona Fide paper.

Just something simple for a busy Saturday. Have a good one!!

Materials:

Cardstock: SU and orange is Clear and Simple Stamps
Digital Paper: the DigiChick by Danielle and Quirky Twerp
Accessories: Ribbon by Offrey, button from PTI, Nesties, and Cuttlebug Template