JAI 103 Challenge

This weeks Just Add Ink challenge was to just add: red and white. As soon as I saw it I thought “no way, too hard!” Then an hour later an idea hit me and I had to have a go. This is what I came up with.

 

Now it isn’t how I imagined to start with, as my “great” idea managed to not work for me on several levels. After several rounds of tweaking it looked ok. I showed it to Frosty, feeling like it wasn’t amazing but considering the hiccups it wasn’t bad. Well the response was luke warm at best. The words weird and an oddly squeaky “it’s ok?” were uttered. Hmmm… so in bed last night it hit me how I could rework it to be less “weird”. So today in between vet trips and clingy kitty cats I managed to made it into something fit to share.

The front is acetate (what a headache to photograph) which I embossed with my cuttlebug and then lightly sanded to give definition.

I also stamped on to the acetate with white staz on ink. (I love that stuff.) I pinched the top layers together with a tab and a brad.

The stamps used were SU life definitions, sprinkles, punch bunch and the little with love phrase is from a Tatty Teddy freebie set from a DoCrafts Magazine.

After all the issues I had with this card I am glad I stuck with it. It will make an appearance later in the year for a friend’s wedding anniversary.

January Report Card

I have been thinking about how exactly to moniter my progress. I have decided to test out a report card/grade sort of  system (which no doubt will need some sort of tweaking).  There are also a couple of areas I shall allow some wiggle room. For the grading I think I’ll work with a percentage as I made sure from the outset these were all quantifiable goals. So here’s the breakdown:

Daily

Plastic bags                                              3/0                            0%

2l Water                                                     10%                           10%

Weekly/fortnightly

Blogging 3x per week                          6/12                           50%

Marathon training                                4/12                           34%

Sew Weekly                                              0/4                             0%

RAK card                                                   2/2                             100%

(In the month not so much of the fortnightly, yet)

Wear a dress                                             7/4                            100%

Monthly/Bi-monthly

Bike ride                                                     0/1                             0%

(we started to get ready to ride then I remember I had a busted helmet and the one I had been using was out on loan)

Dinner guests                                           1/1                              100%

(Fish n Chips totally counts)

Read a book                                            in progress                 10%

Enter challenge                                       1/1                               100%

Girls night out                                          n/a                                  n/a

New recipe                                                 1/1                               100%

New movie                                                 2/1                               100%

(two reviews in progress)

Somewhere new                                       1/1                               100%

(it was somewhere I had been before but I will explain in a future post)

Clean Polly                                                 1/1                                100%

Scrapbook page                                        0/1                                 0%

Other

Gallery/museum                                      0/6                                 0%

Year of cards                                              6/80                              8%

32 assorted others                                   0/32                              0%

Total average score: 46%

Well it’s not a great mark. It’s not even a pass but I think if you start low you can always go up, right? I have learnt where I am going wrong in a couple of places but I will have to be more strict organised if I want to start achieving some pass marks. I think though that generally in my life I’m missing that anyway and I’m hoping that other areas of my life will benefit from this too.

If anybody is wondering, the calendar at the start of this post is one I made at a Stampin’ Up workshop with Kristine. Check out some of her other lovely creations here.

Now a cute kitten photo to finish with. My two little boys (who are growing very fast) playing in a box and having a cuddle. So cute I just had to share.

JAI 102 challenge

I have been reading and watching the challenges at Just Add Ink for a while now but have never been brave enough to give one a go… untill now. This also means I can tick #15 for January off my list. (A reminder of my list is here.)

This week was: Just Add Kathy Tanner, one of the design team members at JAI. I went and had a look around her blog and this is what she inspired me to make.

I drew my colours from this one and I loved her reoccurring themes of squares and ribbon flowers. I wanted my card to be postage friendly however so I went for a flat flower (SU triple treat flower stamp) but still managed to work in one of those fabulous SU antique brads. (Those that know me well will know I lusted after these brads for a very long time but have been very miserly with using them. “I’m saving them for good!”)

It also gave me a chance to play with lots of different embossing folders while using up some scraps. I will admit I am a hoarder and throw out very little when crafting. I feel pretty pleased with the result but I do need to work on the photographic skills so I can actually do these creations justice.