Moving

No, I'm not moving again; rather I'm walking/jogging on the treadmill.

What may be normal for most hasn't been for me.  I just prefer sedentary.  Crafting, working, reading, writing, watching TV -- not a lot of movement.   But I also got a good long look at a bunch of stroke victims at the nursing home where my mom was and I'm not ready to be that sedentary.

So a couple of months ago, I bought sneakers and got on Mike's treadmill.  I'm slow, as in my first walk was 1 mile and it took 35 minutes.  I'm down to a 17 minute mile, most of which is walking with a few moments of jogging thrown in.  My distance is now 1.1 miles 4 times a week.  Progress.

Now the amazing part is that I don't hate it.  I don't leap out of bed and run down to the man cave to get on the treadmill but it turns out that I really like the feeling of working up a sweat.

I've decided to track my progress on the blog -- you'll find the widget in the upper right.  Now I have to keep moving!

Poinsettia Tag Card

Ah coloring....

Relaxing.  I stalk Jill Foster's blog and this tag is the result!

MOOD WHEN DONE = A little Bing Crosbyish and don't tell me you don't know who that is.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Flourishes Poinsettias and Pines and PTI (sentiment)

Ink:  Memento Tuxedo

Paper: Neenah Solar White

Other:  Copics, Faber Castell gold marker (excellent), Ranger Distress Inks, twine, rhinestone

Happy Birthday (and some talk about selecting stamp sets)

Love this squiggle frame from Clear and Simple.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Reasonably content

Supplies:

Stamps:  Clear and Simple Curly Label Frames 1, Stampin Up Itty Bitty Banners, and Lawn Fawn Cruising Through Life
Ink:  Ranger Archival Jet Black
Paper:  Neenah Solar White
Other:  Faber Castell Big Brush Markers, Stampin Up yellow marker, Ranger glossy accents, dimensionals

Talking:

I have developed a bad habit of taking my time to carefully look at stamp set offerings, buying a few knowing at the time that they will be exactly what I want, and then finding myself disappointed at my choices.

I never noticed this before -- I suspect because I bought a lot more sets in the past and so there was always something lying around to love!

See that curly label frame above?  I do like this a lot.  I love that whimsical style and think I will use this frequently.  When I went to find something to put inside it, though, I had almost nothing that worked, except this pinwheel.

So, I'm looking for advice on selecting sets.  How do you ensure that you buy what you like???

Snow Boy

Love this little boy.

MOOD WHEN DONE = It is 4:20 am, I've been up for 2 hours and about to go on the treadmill.  I possibly need a nap.

Supplies:

Stamps:  Clear and Simple Stamps Winter Woodlands
Ink:  Versamark
Paper:  Amuse and Neenah Solar White
Other:  Paper Source Embossing Powder, Red Copic (to draw in scarf), glue, paper trimmer, embossing buddy, heat gun, time to commute to work to earn the $$ to buy this stuff....

Mittens, Many Mittens

Used the Silhouette to create these cute mitten cards.

I made a lot of these, using different color combinations, but am only showing you a few of my favorites.  I love the crisp fun look of these cards.

The cards are prefolded Memory Box (white interiors), and the sentiment is from Papertrey Ink's Inside Out Christmas.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Accomplished

20 cards in 20 minutes

Pressed for time but want to send out hand stamped Christmas cards?
Me too!

Here's a design that uses one stamp (Impress Merry & Bright Chalk), a pre-cut and scored card) (Memory Box), one ink (Hero Arts Unicorn) and some glitter glue (Ranger Stickles).  The large stamp contains everything you need -- sentiment and accents so all I did was stamp at a slight angle.

Using the assembly line method, I made 20 cards in 20 minutes!  I varied the colors of the cards, using what I had on hand.  Most of them are the Memory Box Graphite cards that produce a fun "chalkboard" look that is so popular now, but I slipped in a few other colors as well.

MOOD WHEN DONE = Well, I started the day dragging and a bit overwhelmed but I'm wrapping up the afternoon feeling Merry and Bright!

Hey

What happens when you have insomnia...just a silly fun card.

Colored the envelopes so that there was a bit more pink and so that each color was in as much of a triangle as possible.  Purposely didn't fill in each envelope to keep it more casual.

Went wild and centered the sentiment rather than put in in the lower right.  Stapled the sentiment first and then adhered it so that the inside of the card doesn't have staples poking through (shudder).

MOOD WHEN DONE = Guilty   I've pretty much been ignoring my girlfriends lately so it is time to fix that!

Supplies:

Stamps:  Neat and Tangled  Just say hello
Ink:  Memento Tuxedo
Paper:  Cream  (unknown)
Other:  Tombow markers, Stampin Up pinking die, clear rhinestone, neon pink Copic to color rhinestone, mini stapler, glue

Noel, Noel

In a major coloring slump, so I broke out the Silhouette.

and so you can see the glitter:

Supplies:

Stamps:  that would be none
Paper:  Neenah Solar White, Memory Box Holly
Ink:  that would be none
Other:  Memory Box Holly die, Silhouette, glitter, Xyron sticker machine, Iridescent cord, Corner Rounder, glue, circle die, Copic marker (to color the NOEL on the top card), money to buy all this stuff....

MOOD WHEN DONE:  Frustrated at lack of coloring mojo but happy to use the Silhouette and glitter. It's all in a day's craftiness.