Colourful squares

This one's bright, that's for sure. I'm thinking a nice cheerful anniversary card. Not for my husband though, 'cause I'm sure he'd make some smart remark that it looked like I wanted to move to the U.S.



For:

Taylored Expressions: sketch
Delightful Sketches: punches

Hey, it's an easel card.

Kind of a generic card, I think. You could put "Happy Birthday" inside or "Just wanted to say hi." You could also do "I'm sorry." The little girl looks so contrite, doesn't she? Maybe she had decided to make a tent out of her mom and dad's bed and piled an absolute load of toys under the covers and then swore to her mom that she cleaned it all up and her mom believed her and then late that night her mom had to clear all the toys out of the bed so she could sleep in it........oh, wait, that was my daughter.



For:

Posh Designs: sketch
Stamp, Scrap & Doodle: girlie
Practical Scrappers: buttons
Papertake: do something different I've never used Glossy Accents (the polka-dots on the dress, I know it's hard to see) and I've never used decorative tape before.
OCC: blossoms
Creative Inspirations: easel card
Charisma Cardz: girlie with flowers

It's good to have some on hand....

.....but you hope you never have to use them.



I haven't been overly thrilled with my pictures as of late. I'm positive it's the camera. (It surely wouldn't be the operator!)

For:

CPS: sketch
Little Red Wagon: sympathy
One Stitch at a Time: flowers
A Spoonful of Sugar: 3D

Insanely ridiculously simply card

Sometimes you just gotta do one.



Digi is a freebie from Meljen's Designs. (Thanks Meljen's!)

For:

Card Patterns: sketch

Darn Tattling Dog

Made this card for my dd for her birthday. On the inside it says: "You should have heard what word your mommy said when she pulled the cap off her Copic marker and it splattered three big spots of ink on the paper. It was terrible. I can't believe she kisses you with that mouth." (Bet you never knew dogs could communicate so much in just a couple of barks.)

Seriously, it says "Happy Birthday."



I wasn't too happy with the photo of this.

For:

EtsyInspired : For this print.
Hope Stamps Eternal: cupcake inspiration
Meljen's: for the little ones
Practical Scrappers: buttons
Aly's Sunday Challenge: animals

Doing a happy dance

My card was featured on Little Red Wagon! Yay! Thanks to their design team (that means you Dee).

Just tilt your head a bit....

Seems I was on a bit of a lean when I took this picture. Yeah, I'm too lazy to go through the whole process again.




For:

Taylored Expressions: sketch
Design Dollies: brown, orange & teal
Allsorts: stitching
Creative Card Crew: happy birthday

Second week in a row!!

Sweet! Hope Stamps Eternal picked my card again this week for their Cupcake Inspiration. What an honour! Thanks to them.

(If my profile pic looks a little bigger than usual don't be alarmed, it's just my swelled head.)

Another BoBunny Cardstock Sticker

Gotta love 'em. They make a shameful Copic colourer with a poor stamp collection look good.



Now I've completed all the challenges in the Practical Scrappers Spring Challenge Blog Hop. Yay me!

For:

Practical Scrappers: sketch
Scrap That Poetry: poem
Cupcake Inspiration: cupcake pic
Pollycraft Monday: pink & brown + yellow

The year was 2007....

...and my oldest graduated from kindergarten.



I kicked it a bit old school with the one background paper.

For:

Sketchy Thrusdays: sketch
Cupcake Craft: childhood memories
Papertake Weekly: cutie pie

Stolen from a Casey's Restaurant.....

.....radio commercial. The inside of this card, that is. But it is something I wish I had come up with on my very own.






For:

Practical Scrappers: glitter/bling
The Cuttlebug Spot: glitter/bling
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle: birthday
The ABC Challenge: sparkle
Tuesday Taggers: birthday
EtsyInspired: For this miniature. (You should see this stuff. It's really cool!)
One Stitch at a Time: torn, shabby or distressed
Creative Card Crew: birthday

Gorgeous day outside.....

...so here's a card. Yeah, I know, one really doesn't have to do with the other.

This was my first time trying a sketch from 365 cards and my first time ever doing a "white space" sketch so I wasn't completely sure of the rules. I did leave the white space white but there is something in it...but it's technically not "something" just raised white space. Anyway.....



So you can decide for yourself whether I'm cheating or not.

For:

365 cards: sketch
Little Red Wagon: dry embossing
Penny's: open
Aly's Sunday Challenge: buttons

There's no denying that.......

Hey, hey, hey everyone. Hip, hip, so hip to be square.

Not exactly sure what occasion this card could be used for. I guess if you know someone who has teenagers and they told you that their kid just rolled their eyes at them when they were trying their best to be all fasheezy you could pat them on the back and say, "Hey it's okay. Being an antwacky Melvin ain't so bad." Then you could give them the card.

For:

Posh: sketch Last challenge I followed Posh's sketch to the letter. This time I took some liberties.
The Shabby Tea Room: squares
Crafty Ann's: sunshine (It's there, look closely on the 2.)
Pile It On: say it with words (no images)

Blinky # 3

Woo hoo! I get just as excited when I "win" a blinky as when I win some blog candy. Strange that, 'cause I'm not competitive at all. (Anyone who knows me irl is now choking and sputtering on their beverage.)

Thanks to Hope Stamps Eternal for picking my card as one of their Top 5 for their Cupcake Inspiration # 53 challenge.

April snow brings.....

....yucky things. I looked out my window earlier and saw SNOW! Really not that unusual I guess. I have seen it snow in June before. Still, not fair. IMO, once the snow is gone it shouldn't be allowed back until November.

Here's a spring card anyhow.




For:

Design Dollies: April showers bring May flowers
Cupcake Craft: make your own flowers

....and back to cards.

My very first easel card. I'm such a goober when it comes to looking at pictures and trying to figure out how to fold things. (It's what ended what might have been my very promising career a an origamist...?...origami-i?...origamagi?) It took me awhile to figure out how to put it all together despite some great tutorials on the web. I used this one.



For:

Little Red Wagon: sketch (Turn your head sideways, you'll see it.)
The Pink Elephant: nature
Pile it On: easel card
Stamp, Scrap and Doodle: wings
Quixotic: spring
Pixie Dust Studio: things with wings
Cupcake Inspirations: photo inspiration

An Excerpt of My Day: The Interview

Okay, a couple of things you need to know for this to make any sort of sense:

1. I'm quite happy being a sahm but with my youngest going to Kindergarten in September I have been perusing the help-wanted ads for the last little bit now in search of something very part time.

2. I have no luck getting jobs. I realize that not being college or university educated is a bit of a liability but I am fairly intelligent. Still any job I've had in the past has been menial and has never required much thought. I do, however, have quite a bit of volunteer experience in some areas.

3. All the jobs I have had have basically been on-the-spot hires. I have never interviewed for a job.....until today when, after sending them my resume, I was called for an interview for a position with our small town's chamber of commerce.

4. Yep, I really can say it backwards and I do it really, really fast too. (And I'm insanely, ridiculously proud of it.)


7:42 am: Send older kids out the door for the bus. No way I'm telling them I'm going into town at the same time as school starts, even though it's pouring rain. If I take them to school I will be late for the interview, it's practically guaranteed.

8:03 am: Print off references and extra resume. Be amazed that the file containing my resume hadn't spontaneously combusted and the printer actually worked. Put in folder by door so I don't forget them.

8:17 am : Dress for interview. Pick the only business casual shirt I own which is a nice light blue with 2/3 length sleeves. (Yes, I know the proper term is 3/4 length sleeves but I have big long monkey arms so the sleeves are 2/3 length on me.) Apply makeup (which is generally something I only do on special occasions) and fix hair (which is generally something I do only every day).

8:32 am: Go over talking points in my head, decide to wow my new potential employers with my ability to be able to say the alphabet backwards at an incredibly fast speed only as a last resort. Might as well keep something back to impress them later if they decide to hire me.

8:45 am: Say hello to my dad who has dropped by to watch my youngest. (I hear bringing children to job interviews is generally frowned upon.) Get admonished by him for not being ready, listen to a mini-lecture about how the worst thing I could do would be show up late, feel like I'm 15 again for the next 6 and a half minutes.

8:51 am: Leave house for interview. While driving check passenger seat 12 times to make sure I've brought my folder with references and resume.

8:57 am: Arrive at interview site. Find the door locked. Immediately panic thinking that I'm supposed to meet the lady at her place of business rather than the chamber office.

8:59 am: Get let into office and meet W whom I didn't realize would also be interviewing me.

9:03 am: Sit down at table and artfully arrange myself in a being-interviewed pose. (Leaning forward, making eye contact, smoothing my shirt to make sure the buttons aren't gaping as I suddenly remember why, in addition to the whole 2/3 length sleeve issue, it is that I don't wear this shirt.)

9:04 - 9:22 am: Proceed with interview. I do well, I mm-hmm in all the right places, nod, say sure when the situation calls for it, don't make any interview faux pas liking picking my nose or giggling when they tell me what my "duties" would be. Got my wacky personality reined in, hog-tied and stuffed in my folder with my resume and references.

9:23 am: Realize that they are doing all the talking and not asking me any questions. Really, aside from the formalities, I haven't said more than a few words. Question whether this is a good or bad thing. Decide it's good - they want to make sure I know what the job entails before letting me sell myself to them.

9:26 am: The interview ends. Rather abruptly. I manage to not let my surprise show. Honestly, I've said nothing! Panic in my head a bit, give them my references, handshakes, lots of smiles from them, they thank me profusely for coming, I thank them profusely for having me, and I start feeling fairly confident that things went well and I might have a pretty good shot at this job.

9:27 am: See the next interviewee on my way out the door. She's got university educated stamped on her forehead. (I wasn't aware we could be so blatant in our self-promotion.) She's caring a very official looking briefcase, not a bright red, plastic, dollar store folder she stole from her 7 year old with the promise that he "could have his home reading folder back tomorrow."

9:37 am: Arrive home. Tell my dad that, "No, I was not late" adding a few choice words, but only in my head.

9:38 am: Replay interview in my head. Feel pretty good about it.

9:54 am: Replay interview in my head. Feel like it went okay.

10:17 am: Replay interview in my head. Wish I had said more about what I could bring to the job.

10:39 am: Replay interview in my head. Positive I tanked it. Go bite a huge chunk off one of my kids' chocolate bunnies to console myself.

10:59 am: Stare at empty plastic bag. Poor bunny never had a chance. Vow to buy ds #1 another chocolate bunny when I'm at the grocery store today. Cheer up a bit when I realize that to make the ruse work I'll have to eat half of the new bunny to make it look like it did when ds last saw it.

11:00 am - 3:04 pm: Go about day.

3:05 pm: Sitting at desk working on card. Phone rings and call display lets me know it's the lady who interviewed me. Let the phone ring exactly 2 and a half times, don't want to seem too eager.

3:06 pm: Find out I didn't get the job. But, she did say a number of times, that I gave an excellent interview. Said the only reason I didn't get the job was that someone with a lot of experience had also applied. Bet it was that darn woman with the briefcase. Told me she'd keep my resume on file and let me know if anyone through the chamber was looking for someone part-time.

3:11 pm: Reviewed what this experience has taught me. People think I'm pretty darn awesome.....as long as I keep my mouth shut. So, hmmmmmm, nothing...really....new.......

But on the bright side, I now have an interview under my belt and I got to write something on my blog that didn't have to do with a card. Look at that! Expanding my horizons as we speak.....or read......but I'm typing, you're reading.......hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm................................................

I ♥ Bugaboo Stamps

I really, really do. They have some great stamps and here is one of them. Also, they have freebies every Friday. Check them out.




For:

Kaboodle Doodles: digi girl
Pollycraft: open
One Stitch at a Time: open
Practical Scrappers: markers

If I was going to do this again I'd be a little less glitter-happy but seeing as this was already the second attempt at this card due to a freak Stickles incident I decided to just let it be.

Happy Easter!

My early riser had me awake even earlier than usual this morning....it was 5:13. I stayed up a bit later watching a movie last night so, uggg. It's only 11am and it already feels late. But I shall try to rally so I can look presentable at all the family functions we're to attend today. I'm a fairly good actress, I'm betting no one's gonna know I'd rather be curled up in a quiet corner, singing softly to myself while licking chocolate off my fingers surrounded by empty wrappers.




For:

Taylored Expressions: sketch
If the Shoe Fits: eggs
Penny's Challenges: Easter
Charisma Cardz: animals
Pile It On: animals

Now where's that darn chocolate.

Hey!

'Nuff said.




For:

Limelight Papercraft: sketch + rhinestones
Everything But the Kitchen Sink: string

[Insert another boring title here]

(I've really got to start racking my brain so I can think of exciting titles. I'll put that on my to-do list.)

Seems I'm into the quick, easy cards as of late. Still I've always found the more I tried to fancy my card up the less I liked it. So I make my cards simple.....like me.



For:

Design Dollies: red, turquoise, black & white
Practical Scrappers: rubons

Quick, Simple & Green

And I mean green in more ways than one. Sure the card colour is green but it is also enviromentally conscious. I pulled the buttons off a card that just didn't work out, found the piece of string in the junk drawer and used a scrap piece of patterned paper.



It's for my oldest ds for Easter as well as the following challenges:

Unscripted Sketches: sketch
If the Shoe Fits: going green
Allsorts: alter or recycle something
Daring Cardmakers: eggs
Everything But the Kitchen Sink: string
Cute Card Thursday: Easter/egg

Whoops, looks like I was too late for the Shoe. Maybe next time.