The Power of Pinterest

Okay so, I eat my meals (well, the ones where I'm not eating with the rest of my family) in front of the computer. I figure it's more time efficient that way, the whole two birds with one stone thing.

So, this morning I'm noshing away, checking my emails, looking at some blogs.....and then I got sucked in by Pinterest. No biggie, I have most of today off, was planning on shopping for a birthday present I had to get and some groceries, so spending a little bit of time on one of the biggest time-sucking sites ever wasn't too big of a deal. After about half an hour or so I forced myself to close the Pinterest window and got up to get ready to go.

And, that's when I noticed it. All three windows that are in view of my computer were completely covered with snow. So covered with snow, in fact, that I had to to another part of the house to try to find a clear window. And when I did find a window I could see out of.....well, I really couldn't see anyways because it was absolutely storming like crazy-cats out there! Not only could I not see my neighbour's place (Before you exclaim, "Holy Christmas Cookies!" I do live in the country.) I couldn't even see the road, it was snowing and blowing so bad.

In hindsight, while I was poking around on Pinterest, I did say to myself, "Geez, it's getting kinda dark in here" and I briefly wondered why. But, I obviously didn't wonder enough to pull my head out of my.....Pinterest board, to bother to turn it 120º to look out my looking-out window.

So, there you have it. Pinterest has the power to make people unable to glance away from their computer screen.

But, I have a feeling most of you already knew that little tidbit.

Anyhoo, here's a card I made.....

Digi was a freebie from Dilly Bean Stamps.  Hmmmm....the photo makes it look like it's a bit more of an assault on the senses than it actually is.  I had a heck of a time getting a pic of this.....first try was without the button on the bow and I got the photo all edited and everything when I realized that it needed it; second time I changed location and the pic ended up looking like I was perched on a ladder 10 feet above the card; third time it turned out too dark; and this was take # four.  So, hope you'll forgive me for not going with another go 'round.

'Sides, if I did want to try for another photo, I'd have to try to clean off one of my windows first.   Along with the snow,  it's -30ºC out there with the windchill.   And, as much as I love you guys, I don't love any of you that much.

No offense.  :-)

For:

Dilly Beans:  hearts & love
The Kraft Journal:  sketch + use kraft paper
Crafting From the Heart:  anything goes/use flowers
Cutie Pie: spots & dots + cute
Incy Wincy:  birthdays
Love to Create:  anything goes
Milk Coffee:  emboss it
Crafty Ribbons:  ribbons & buttons
Aud Sentiments:  sentiment for a girl - Too vague???
As You Like It:  favourite texture - Love my embossing folders!
A Creative Romance:  use a sentiment
Card Makin' Mamas:  stack it up
Chocolate, Coffee & Cards:  teddy bears
2 Sisters:  embossing
Allsorts:  Ladies Day
Di's Digi Designs:  tic tac toe - digi, sentiment, embossing
Catered Crop:  good birthdays
Challenges 4 Everybody:  anything goes
My Besties:  brown & pink
The Squirrel & the Fox:  something spooled
Card Mania:  use a sentiment
Deep Ocean:  just for a girl
Divas By Design:  sparkle - flower middles are a glitter pen...though the picture makes them look less than glittery

Yearning for Spring

This week at

Rosanne wants us to shake off the winter blahs and has picked "Yearning for Spring" as our challenge this week. Any project with spring colours or a spring theme will do.

I went with both colours and theme.....

and made my first Easter card of the year. Digi is from Stamp Fairy.

You know you've got at least a bit of spring fever in your blood so why not head on over to Little Red Wagon and enter the challenge? And be sure to check out the wonderful projects the other Girlfriends have done.

Another Card for Me

Those one or two of you who actually read my blog will probably remember this post about how I decided to do more crafting for me, rather than always crafting to make cards for other people. Well, I was all over selfish with my crafting time again and made me another Me Card.

And this is it.....

Digi was a freebie from A Day For Daisies, whose digis I love, but I find I don't use them very often as they are also just so gosh durn pretty, that I find I can never do them justice.  But, I've discovered that if I colour them on textured cardstock, I'm much happier with my colouring attempt.

Anyone else having a hard time getting good photos lately?  I find it always happens around this time of year and it doesn't seem to matter where or when I take the photo.  With this one there's little dots of Crystal Stickles on all the drawn dots on the stamp, which you can't see worth beans in this pic.

Just in case you're wondering about the quote....it's from The Book of Token by Paul Foster Case which is a book of poetic meditations that contains some of the most profound material ever written in the subject of Tarot and Qabalah.  Now, before you go thinking I'm really deep (I'm about as deep as a puddle on a completely flat surface in the middle of a drought) or even a free-thinker, well-read, or arsty.....that quote is also from an episode of Xena: Warrior Princess, which is how I actually came to know about it.  And, the blurb about the book was copied and pasted from a review, of course.

See, I'm as plebeian as they come.

 For:

A Day For Daisies:  add green
Love To Create:  anything goes
Though the Purple Haze:  pencil colouring - Colouring is done with Prismacolor pencils
Tuesday Throwdown:  anything goes
Crafting When We Can:  lots of bling
A Creative Romance:  let's get sentimental
Crafty Creations:  keep it simple
Crafts Galore:  add bling
Allsorts:  Ladies Day
Crafty Girls:  anything goes

Been busy......

......but who hasn't, right? Thought I'd post a card.

And there it is. Really not much to say 'cept digi is from QKR Stampede.

For:

QKR Stampede: Friends are special - Am I pushing it with this??
Catered Crop:  good birthdays
Glitter 'n' Sparkle:  bright funky colours
Crafty Sentiments:  anything goes
Crafty Creations:  keep it simple
Doodle Pantry:  anything goes
Emergency Crafters:  pink or red
Milk Coffee:  girly
Polkadoodles:  sugar & spice (= girly)
Kitty Bee Designs:  use red/pink

Anything But a Card....But With Paper @ Little Red Wagon

This week at

it's my turn to pick the challenge and I thought I'd go with "Anything But a Card" but it also has to be made with paper. It doesn't have to be all paper, 'pecially if you're going with an altered item, of course, but it's gotta have some paper in it, so no sewing projects! (Those only make my feel bad about my own poor sewing abilities. :-) )

This is what I did......

...and I went with an altered project. Now, I realize that this is supposed to be a matching bookend set....I really don't know why I don't have the other half. Maybe there was only one when I bought it, maybe I didn't realize you were kinda supposed to have two....really, doesn't matter 'cause I gifted this to a friend, so it doesn't bother me that there's only one of them. :-D

You know you want to try something other than a card so why not head on over to Little Red Wagon and enter the challenge? And be sure to check out the wonderful projects the other Girlfriends have done.

And now for something cas.....

(If you're looking for my Little Red Wagon post, just scroll down.)

....which is not my go-to style but I still like to do it now and then. Actually, I don't know what my go-to style actually is. Hmmmm.........nope, still don't know. But, I'm not going to let that ruin my day. ;-)

Here's the card.....

Digi was a freebie from Dilly Beans and I just love the double outlines on it. It was wonderful to paper piece....because I used my Silhouette. Can't imagine I wouldn't have cursed my head off if I was trying to fussy cut some of those pieces myself!  And, I actually stamped the sentiment.  Hey, I know most of you are saying, "So what?" but my sentiments are usually computer generated so stamping one is out-of-the-ordinary for me.

For:

Dilly Beans:  shaped cards
Artistic Inspirations:  anything goes
2 Sisters:  embossing
Card Makin' Mamas:  make it sparkle
The Stampin' Boutique:  cas
Pile It On:  stripes and/or dots
613 Avenue: anything goes
Challenges 4 Everybody:  anything goes
Come and Get It:  make it girly
CAS on Sunday:  making the rounds

Pocket @ Little Red Wagon

This week at

it was Joanne's turn to set the challenge and she wants to see a pocket on your project. I hemmed and hawed a bit and finally made this......

....a pocket full of hearts. Fitting for Valentine's Day, I'm thinking.

Why not head on over to Little Red Wagon and enter the challenge? And be sure to check out the wonderful projects the other Girlfriends have done.

I Guess I Talked Too Much Last Time....

...meaning on my last non-DT post 'cause now, I don't seem to have anything to say. Maybe I'm all talked out.

Bwahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. That'll never happen. You all have just been granted a temporary reprieve.

I did make a card though....

Digi is from Birdie Brown, who is, unfortunately, no longer in business. :-(((

Oh, and I would like to say that those flowers had the bling already attached....and I didn't notice the one was off-centre until I was looking at it on the computer screen.  I always feel the need to mention stuff like that as little details like that bug me, and I would never stick bling on that off-kilter.  I'm definitely fixing it, but you'll forgive me if I don't go though the whole photographing, photo editing, uploading process again, right?  Yeah, I knew you would.  You guys are the best! 

For:

Challenges For Everybody:  anything goes
Pile It On:  use ribbon - The black polka-dots strip and the pink with the parallelograms strip are both ribbon.
The Squirrel & The Fox:  use embellishments
Scrap-Creations:  favourite embellishments - Definitely bling!
Papertake Weekly:  anything goes
Top Tip Tuesday:  girly
Crafty Girls:  anything goes
Crafty Ribbons:  anything goes with ribbon - The black polka-dots strip and the pink with the parallelograms strip are both ribbon.
Delightful Challenges:  anything goes
Southern Girls:  bling it, bling, bling
Creative Moments:  add some sparkle
Penny's Paper-Crafty:  something old, something new - Ribbon is new, everything else is old
Crazy Card Party:  glitter - I know, I know...it's really hard to see in the photo but the white underskirt is all glittered up

Feeling the Love @ Little Red Wagon

This week at

Jodi's in the Valentine's Day spirit and she's "Feeling the Love" which simply means that she wants to see cards/projects inspired by the word "love".

This is what I did.....

I think that patterned paper's got the love theme covered.  Digi is a freebie from MelonHeadz Illustrating.

You know you're feeling the luuuuurve, so why not head on over to Little Red Wagon and enter the challenge? And be sure to check out the wonderful projects the other Girlfriends have done.

P.S. Today is my oldest's birthday. He's 13 - I can't believe I have a teenager in the house - eek! Anyways, his brother had told me that since I posted his grease-face pic on my blog two weeks ago that I needed to post a photo of his older brother too. Only fair I suppose. So, I went with something in the same theme.....

I'd have to look it up to be sure but I'm thinking he's two and a half - three here. And, yep, that's diaper cream. A little easier to get off than grease, at least.

Get Inky @ UnstampaBelles

Well, it February now so it's time for a new challenge at UnstampaBelles. That challenge is "Get Inky" and there's also a twist - show us your getting inky process. Just remember - no stamps!

This is what I did.....

I rolled the wooden circles in ink as well as used mist. I've also got some bits and bobs on there, Thickers and a really cool fabric heart.

Now, I have to admit to being a bad DT member here....I completely forgot to take any pictures of the making of my project - d'oh!

So, why not head over to UnstampaBelles and enter the challenge? You have until February 28th to do so and you'll be entered into the drawing for a prize and you might get picked as one of the Top 3. So, go enter!

Not Doing It Anymore

Subtitled: A Shift In Crafting Perspective

Now, before all the challenge sites I regularly carpet bomb with my cards get to celebrating, thinking that I mean I'm not doing crafting at all anymore....you'll need to stow those noise makers (Bwah hahahahahaha...Upon proofreading I discovered I had originally typed "nose makers" rather than "noise makers". Hey, if any of you do actually have a nose maker, I'd like to put in a request for a new one that's smaller than the one I'm currently sporting. Thanks.) and blow-ticklers for another day. I'm still pumping out the cards, I'm just changing some of my current thoughts/processes when it comes to crafting.

See, I don't buy cards at all. Any card I need, I make. All. Also, my mother buys cards off me so I make all her cards too. And, for holidays and occasions my kids seem to think that me making a card for their Grandma to give to them doesn't count as me making a card for them so I have to do double duty.  What I'm getting at here is that all my cardmaking time is spent making cards that need to be made, and while I can often combine something that I want to make with a card that needs to be made, I really do take into consideration what the person receiving the card would like to get and ignore something that I'd really like to do instead. Don't get me wrong, I find having to make certain cards a great motivation....needing something done, seems less like wasting time (I don't know about you but most of my crafting time is borrowed time when I should really be doing something else), and crafting towards a specific goal does get my butt in my crafting chair more readily and often.

But, because of this, I have lots and lots of digis that never get coloured up simply because I don't know how to make them into a card that will work for one of the cards I need to make. And some of them are pretty darn awesome so it's quite a shame.

Well, I've decided to try to steer the boat in another direction (so to speak), just a little bit anyways. I will admit, I do find crafting solely for my own enjoyment difficult as I tend to end up feeling guilty spending the time on me rather than doing whatever else it is I should be doing. But, and this is how the title ties in, I've decided that if I could not make some cards that I would normally make, then that wouldn't be time wasted, more like time shifted, to me rather than to them.

And by "them" I mean hubby's sisters & brother and their spouses. Yep, hear that In-Laws? (None of whom even know I have a blog, much less read it.) I'm ain't making birthday cards for you no more. Oh, and you too, [insert brother and sister-in-laws name here], you're getting to axe too. So there. (In truth, they won't care in the slightest. I never once got a "thank you" from any of them for a card I made. Hey, I know it's not fine art or really even good or anything, but a quick "thanks for the card" email would have been polite.)

So, that's what I'm not doing anymore. And, last night I decided to test out this new perspective and I made a card that's just for me. Really, who would I ever give this to?

But, when I was done, it had made me happy.  So, mission accomplished.  Then I made sure to send myself a "thank you for the card" email because apparently myself is a bit touchy about that.

Digi is from The Octopode Factory.

For:

The Male Room:  music - Sentiment is from the lyrics from "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone"
Deep Ocean:  fantasy
Artistic Inspirations:  anything goes
4 Crafty Chicks:  anything goes
Crafty Girls:  anything goes
As You Like It:  your style - I think that whole post kinda explained my style.....
Paper-Crafting Journey:  embossing - The "shadow" under the snail is embossed....yeah, I know it's not a ton of embossing or anything.
Left of Centre:  cute and/or creepy
QKR Stampede:  anything goes
Totally Papercrafts:  cas
Winter Wonderland:  digi days
Crafty Catz:  anything goes
2 Sisters:  embossing - The "shadow" under the snail is embossed....yeah, I know it's not a ton of embossing or anything.
Drunken Stampers:  anything goes
The Crafting Cafe:  embossing - The "shadow" under the snail is embossed....yeah, I know it's not a ton of embossing or anything.
Dream Valley:  no designer paper
Challenges 4 Everybody:  anything goes
Come and Get It:  cas
Dragon Fly Dreams:  favourite song - Okay, I'll admit, it's not my favourite song, but I sure do sing along to it (much to the dismay of all those within earshot) when ever I hear it.