Tuesday, April 22, 2014

"Dinner for six for one" --Joey "The One with Phoebe's birthday dinner"

Except not six. More like 3 cards for 1 post. But there was no FRIENDS reference for that.
I don't even know why I thought of that quote. But that was the first thing that popped into my head when I started this post so that's the title :)

First up we've got a birthday card inspired by this week's CASE Study's challenge #187:


I won't lie, I really wasn't sure where to start with this one. I even looked through the cards already posted for some help and I was still flailing. There was so much freedom with this that I just drew a big blank and my whole brain went derp.

After spinning around in the chair in the craft room for 30 minutes, unable to think up anything, I decided I'd just play around and over-stamp some card. When I looked back at the challenge I realized that I had used colours from the inspiration so woohoo. Eventually I ended up with this:


HAPPY BIRTHDAY BADDIEBINS!!!! I need to get better at my photography skills thought because some the colours in the picture are kind of off...that butterfly is coming out pretty pink/bright magenta but it's actually more of a dark purple/deep magenta :S oh well, can't do shit about it now, I already gave the card away! Either way BaddieBins loved it so that's all that really mattered!

My next card was based on an extra special inspiration challenge because Runway Inspired and CAS(e) this Sketch! teamed up for it! I always find it really awesome when blogs team up because usually I always try my best to combine different inspiration challenges when I make a card so when the blogs do it ahead of time I always feel that it's like "they read my mind".

Plus it feels like going to a concert of a band you love and having another band you love headline with them and it's getting two concerts for one! Like when Fall Out Boy toured with Panic! at the Disco (that was an AWESOME concert omg and twenty-one pilots opened for them and just, omg. best. day. ever. Seriously, the set list that night was one for the history books!) 

Or like the joining of two already-powerful houses to rule the land! Like the Targaryens and the Martells when Rhaegar Targaryen married Elia Martell ....except wait, no, that didn't work out so good so maybe not that marriage specifically. It's more like when Baelor the Blessed (of House Targaryen) ruled on the Iron Throne and married off his cousin Daeron II to Princess Myriah Martell (of Dorne) and also married off his sister Daenerys (the first, not the Khaleesi) to the ruling Prince of Dorne Maron Martell which finally united Dorne with the rest of the Seven Kingdoms and there was peace.

But I digress.

*important note*: That Game of Thrones reference is a history lesson! It took place around 197AC, about 170 years before Robert Baratheon won the rebellion and took the Iron Throne so any fans of the show that stumble across this page don't have to worry about spoilers! :)

Anyway, here is Runway Inspired #58 and CAS(e) this Sketch! #73:


And here's what I got up to! Happy Birthday to KhaleesiPaula!


The "blood orange" flowers of the top were the first thing that stood out to me.


*FUN FACT* This goes through my mind every time I think of the colour blood orange.

The black and blue colours were the next ones I noticed. I was going to go with red flowers but a second glance at the photo made me change my mind. Black was the main colour of the shirt so I decided I wanted black flowers! I did more over-stamping for part of the background because it's really my go-to technique.

The sister had commented when she saw the card "You really like that technique, don't you?" To which I had to honestly reply, "Actually it's just because I am seriously incapable of nicely-stamping single stamps." That's it. That's the only reason I do over-stamping. If I could nicely stamp just a few things on a card I would but I can never get the stamp exactly in the proper place nicely or have the stamp go on evenly! It's just so much extra work that I don't bother. Over-stamping is easy because it's all messy and it's supposed to be messy and people think "oh you're so creative and you took so much time for that technique" but really it's because I'm lazy. Maybe I'll get better at normal stamping. Maybe. Eventually.

And for the last card of the night....Brace yourselves. Winter is coming. Yes, more Game of Thrones. And not just a Game of Thrones reference but a GAME OF THRONES CARD!!!!

TA-DA!!!!

Yes that is dothraki under the miss you. It reads "me nem nesa" which is a very common saying in Dothraki
they said it a lot on the show as well, it means "it is known"
It is written under the "miss you" sentiment because, well, it is known that I miss her! :)
This card isn't for a challenge, this is just a card. I said I'd do a GoT/LOTR-themed card for KhaleesiPaula and I decided on GoT. I would've done a map of Middle Earth but there was no "narrow sea" in Middle Earth I could use and since we always call the Atlantic Ocean our "narrow sea" the GoT map seemed like a better idea. This is a partial map of The Known World of A Song of Ice and Fire. Westeros on the west/left side, Essos on the east/right side. (It's missing the Shadow lands beyond Asshai (which has ghost grass that the Dothraki believe one day will consume the world) and Sothoryos because the card is only so big)

I am the pink heart in Dorne (because I am the Princess of Sunspear, Arianne Martell. It makes sense if you know me) and KhaleesiPaula is across the narrow sea riding on Drogon's back. If you didn't know that GoT has dragons then you clearly didn't watch the first season and I can't help you so it doesn't matter if you get spoiled.

For GoTshow fans who are not caught up on season 3 LOOK AWAY! For those who are all caught up to season 4: yes, that is Drogon breathing fire on Astapor. I made it as up to date as possible in terms of the show, not in terms of the books. For book fans: I hope you caught that final A Dance With Dragons reference ;)

The map I found was actually incredibly detailed, it had pretty much all of the cities names, it had the mountains, rivers and lakes, it was very intricate. I NEED IT FOR MY ROOM. However the size of the card made it impossible to see anything. So I put some vellum paper on top and labelled all the important places.

Westeros rollcall! Starting in the north I've labelled: The Wall, Castle Black, Winterfell (skipped out on the Dreadfort because I'm not a fan of their house SHAME ON THEM, SHAME ON THE BOLTONS BOOOOO and The Iron Islands because I couldn't fit it on the page). 
In the south we've got: Casterly Rock, King's Landing, Highgarden (I ADORE MARGAERY) and Dorne.

Essos rollcall! Starting from the left I've labelled: Braavos, Pentos (skipped the Free Cities because there are so many yet so little space). 
In the right we've got Vaes Dothrak (where my tears dried out, oh Khal Drogo...) The Dothraki Sea, The Red Waste, Qarth on the right side of the Red Waste, Astapor on the bottom left side of the Red Waste, Mereen on the top left side of the Red Waste. (Skipped Yunkai because I couldn't fit it in)
At the bottom: Valyria! (or what is left of it)

This card was a TON of fun to make but it was also a pain in the ass. SO much work because...well who has dies for dragons? Or a stamp of the map of The Known World? But once that is made omg I will be the first to buy it.

That's it for now! If you thought this post had too many Game of Thrones references, you should read the card :P

-Happy dreams!

Thursday, April 17, 2014

THING part IV (the final installment)

This should probably be the last thing for today....unless I have a spurt of energy and manage to finish my cauliflower pizza post! (But don't count on that. It was 11:40 am when I started this post and I was already exhausted ...and then I had to pause it and now that I'm back finishing it up it's 10:59 pm)

Looking back at the ListOfUpcomingBirthdays I realized that I needed more boy-y-birthday cards since there are 2 coming up in the fam and the only cards I have seem to be a little too girly for the father and the comrade. My imagination was pretty worn out after the CAS(e) this Sketch! cards I made and all I really wanted to do was watch a mind-numbing amount of The X Files but I came across the new sketch for Mojo Monday! Check it out below:

Mojo Monday #341:


I knew I had to make this as masculine a card as I could so I put away the butterfly dies and opted in for some neutral-toned cardstock.


 I wasn't sure if I wanted to interpret the sketch differently and try to change up some orientations but, honestly, exhaustion overcame me and I decided to give up on trying to be creative-r with the sketch and went with doing a straight imitation of it. And I'm quite glad I did! It was a very well-oriented sketch and it all came together quite nicely! Nearing the end of it I felt like something was missing from it so....I caved and added some sequins. But they're maroon! Super masculine! Maybe. Whatever it's for my dad; I could probably make him a barbie-pink card and he'd have to love it (Damn I wish we had some barbie stamps!)

I wanted to combine this inspiration challenge with a colour challenge but I couldn't find one that I particularly liked for this card so I consulted my trusty Martha Stewart paint chips! I wanted an olive-coloured theme but as I looked through most of the samples I noticed they were all very....I don't know. All I could think was "I DON'T WANT THE CARD TO LOOK LIKE A LIVING ROOM! Luckily I found a paint card that had a very un-living-room-green that matched some cardstock and poof! Thank you for my colour scheme, Martha Stewart!

Well, staying up all last night might've been a really bad idea, I keep falling asleep at this screen so, hell yeah, it's definitely bed time!

-Happy dreams! ZZZzzzzzz

THINGS PART 3

Oh man, I know that challenges say that you can make as many card entries as you like but....posting 3 in a row is so many kinds of awkward   >.>

But here I am with my third card. I actually have a really good reason for it! I was going to try a different sketch or a different inspiration but I realized that because my cousin (whose birthday is coming up in 3 weeks) is a twin I had to make another card similar to it and I couldn't use the first CAS(e) this Sketch! card because I wanted to give that to my other cousin/their older sister. (It just seemed like the kind of card I'd give to that cousin. Honestly, I don't know why I have such control issues over who gets which card. Just add that to the list of things that's ADORABLY weird about me. ADORABLY weird. Not to be confused with the list of things that's just-legit-batshit weird about me. That's a much longer, scarier list.)

I had a lot of trouble coming up with an idea for this card. I wanted to do something like card 2 (the circles) but I couldn't think of anything that wasn't just a copy of it. And I thought I could try doing something like card 1 (with the flower picture grid) but, again, everything I came up with was just another copy. Then I figured I'd try a mix of the two.

This card had no outside inspiration challenge influence over colours, I just decided that since I couldn't have a stampocalypse on card 2 then I'd have to do it for card 3 and I pulled all of the stamp pads The Sister had! Funny enough it's got a similar colour theme as card 2/Curtain Call's confetti crush.

Here's CAS(e) this Sketch! #72 again:

And here's what I got up to!

*FUN FACT* musical selection for this card was "Wake-up Call"
unfortunately not the one by Maroon 5, the one by Hayden Panettiere.
It's NOT a good song but it's hella catchy.
Though to quote the internet, "You know what else was catchy? THE PLAGUE"
This card makes me think of New York at night. Don't know why it just does. And because it's "New York-y" to me it's earmarked for my cousin in California! (If she lived in New York it'd match better but hey California = USA and New York = USA so po-tay-to, po-tah-to. Or to get mathematical for y'all :
If A=B and B=C then A=C! ...that's the right example, isn't it? I can't remember. It's been so long since I took a math course so honestly I could just be talking out of my ass)

*FUN FACT* I LOVE this black card (the background). It's so deep and dark and everything I wish my soul were. 

-That's it for CAS(e) this Sketch! #72 cards :) Stick around, I've got a Mojo Monday card coming up!

Things! Part DEUX!

So I had actually made a list of the upcoming birthdays for which I'd be requiring cards and I felt like I should be really proactive about it and just have a bunch ready to go so I decided to make a very girly birthday card for one of my cousins (her birthday is coming up in a few weeks!) 

I knew I wanted to try CAS(e) this Sketch!'s challenge again and go for something a little more CAS-y but I needed some colour inspiration. And that's where Curtain Call came in! I remember seeing their challenges on other crafter's blogs (I creep a lot for inspiration, what can I say) and I thought that I'd give it a try. Lucky for me I absolutely loved their theme!!! (luckier that I had the colours available!!)

Here's CAS(e) this Sketch's #72 challenge again:


This is what Curtain Call's Confetti Crush inspiration challenge looks like:


And here's what I did with it!

Of the three cards I did inspired by CAS(e) this Sketch! #72 I think this is my favourite. I just love the colours AND I love how CAS-y I managed to make it. (which was a damn challenge because I wanted a stamp-and-sequin-pocalpyse!)

I really really wanted to put a butterfly on it but I decided against it because I had already put one on the previous card. (Seriously though, somebody give me a trophy for it because I have a butterfly addiction)

-There's one more CAS(e) this Sketch! card coming up! Stay tuned :)

Things!

I clearly failed with that new week's resolution as this post/link-up is so last minute it's a little but embarrassing.
*FUN FACT* It's actually a lot embarrassing....

The sad thing is that I've known about CAS(e) this Sketch!'s challenge for a while and I actually made the card but I just never got around to posting it! Whoops? I actually made 3 cards using this week's sketch challenge because....you know, I don't really know why. I just felt like it I guess.

CAS(e) this sketch! challenge #72 looks like this:


This is the first card I got around to doing.

*FUN FACT* As I stamped the "happy birthday to you" sentiment I said to myself
"Okay, don't mess this up, you've got one chance. THIS IS ALL OR NOTHING"
Which made me think of O-Town's song "All or Nothing" and one thing led to another....
musical selection was O-Town's "All or Nothing" for the next 2 days  :/ #noregrets
I completed it over the weekend and it kind of just sat on the craft room table ...watching me make other card and collecting dust. I really liked the idea of cutting one picture into a grid but omfg what-the-balrogs batman! IT WAS SO MUCH HARDER THAN I THOUGHT IT WOULD BE. I almost gave up halfway through but I'm glad I didn't because I actually really like this card :) (I think it's the dark brown cardstock. I'm slightly obsessed with it. It reminds me of ....4th year coffee catch-up dates at medsci) But it's kind of a huge deal that I like it because these past two weeks because I've felt very blah about everything I've made so I'm really glad that I'm not disappointed with this one :D

-Stay tuned! I've got 3 more cards to post!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Butterfly things! With a sketch! And pastel colours! So many things going on I'm like a multitasking wizard

So I've known about The Card Concept's butterfly theme inspiration challenge for quite a long while (The sister told me that it'd be right up my alley since she knows how much I love butterflies) and even though I add a butterfly to pretty much every card I make I was having trouble coming up with anything that I thought was good enough for a butterfly challenge.

Here's The Card Concept's Challenge #7!


 Since I couldn't really come up with anything I left The Card Concept's card alone for a bit and I started looking at Freshly Made Sketches. I don't recall when I first stumbled onto their blog but I'm quite glad I did! I find I usually need a sketch to start a project (though lately it's becoming harder for me to follow sketches! Maybe I'm losing my crafting touch, who knows. BUT I am pretty good at zombie/alien arcade shooting games! DAVE & BUSTER'S WAS SO MUCH FUN I cannot get over it.) and I quite liked the rectangular-ness Freshly Made Sketches' sketch 131 so I thought it'd be a great place to start!

*FUN FACT* I actually had a dream I was playing zombie shooting games. I was both in the game and the player. While I do love zombies and I love being scared I woke up almost peeing my bed :/ That dream was a whole different level of scary!!! ...But I did wake up wanting to play it.

Here's Freshly Made Sketches #131!

After spending about 10 minutes blankly looking at cardstock I realized I needed help with a colour scheme! I wanted to follow The Card Concept's butterfly colours but I didn't really have any cardstock or ink that matched in a way that ....didn't piss me off (maybe the lighting was off in the craftroom but everything just looked wrong. Who knew there'd be so much drama in card-making!) I remembered coming across Colour Throwdown in another card challenge about two weeks ago (just looking through other entries and reading their posts) so I figured that I'd give theirs a shot. I'm glad I did because this week's Colour Throwdown's inspiration challenge was absolutely beautiful! I'm such a sucker for pastel colours.

Here's Colour Throwdown!
*FUN FACT* Every time I've looked at this picture I started craving mini-eggs
*FUNNER FACT* It's time to take a break from this post to go eat a few mini-eggs :D

So I put all these challenges together and this is what happened. I would classify the card as "Clean & Layered":


I really, really wanted a light, pastel-yellow but unfortunately we didn't have any. This is the lightest yellow we have that isn't ....the colour eggshell, but I do think it's actually quite a lovely colour. I don't think the butterfly is prominent but...I guess I like the card enough to post so oh well.

And now it's time for a nap! I stayed up all night watching Game of Thrones! (the latest episode and random season 3 ones. Oh how I wish I had dragons) I hope you all enjoyed The Purple Wedding as much as I, and the rest of the world did! Game of Thrones, doing weddings right since 2011 ;)

I also hope you all enjoyed Margaery Tyrell's face reactions as much as I did: her expressions give me life. I would watch an entire episode of Game of Thrones of just Natalie Dormer's facial exressions caused by Joffrey antics!

-Happy dreams!

Sunday, April 13, 2014

Things! For you to look at! With your eyes! :)

I am really cutting it close lately, right? Blame the procrastinator in me. It shows up late to all events and won't seem to ever leave. My resolution for the week is to be way better at being on top of things!

I had quite a bit of trouble with this birthday card. I find making cards for boys just ridiculously difficult. It might have something to do with the fact that most of The Sister's stamps are flowery but, honestly, it's just me. But the theme at CASology this week was "wet" and I decided that I'd go with
wet = water = blue 
as my theme and it made it much easier to make the card masculine-ish. It's for my nephew who turned 10 today! (where has the time gone??) which is a really hard situation since most of The Sister's stamps are not only flowery but grown-up-py. (I mean we have a ton of grown-ups in our family and only like 5 kids so statistically speaking the stamps make sense. But try telling that to a card for a 10 year-old.)  Luckily I found the cutest cupcake stamp and I figured it's was a pretty kid-friendly image so I just went with it!

*FUN FACT* omnomnomg I love cupcakes and I make a pretty mean rum-filled, Guiness-chocolate cupcake with roasted marshmallow-nutella-fererro rocher and candied bacon frosting. I spare no calories when it comes to dessert!

I also remembered that Mojo Monday had a new sketch out and I decided to make a card that could also be entered there! (I guess I figured I'd make the card-making just a little harder just for the hell of it?)

*FUN FACT* It was a mistake because it was a damn lot harder! But at least it's done and I feel semi-accomplished

Here is the Mojo Monday 340 sketch challenge:


And here's CASology's week 90 cue card:


And here's what I made from it!


I think it's CAS... as much as it embarrasses me to admit, I'm still not really sure about the whole concept! I really gotta read more about it. And I think it somewhat follows the MM sketch. The angle of the white card is the opposite direction because ...when I first stamped it I the blue polka dots stamp was NOT on my side and decided to stamp unevenly :3 Thank goodness I was able to just flip it around and use the back because I was so not in the mood to re-cut that paper. I think it sort of works, I'm still a little iffy. But what I AM proud of is that it's a card that's relatively suitable for a 10 year old! That's really what was the most important goal of the card because holy problems batman cards for kids are haaaaaard.

Welp, that's all for now kids!

-Happy dreams!

Friday, April 11, 2014

I made a thing! (that still has nothing to do with that cauliflower post...)

So I've had a ton of other card challenges I've been meaning to enter but so far I've been pretty blah about making any cards (plus I haven't really had the time) but I really, really wanted to enter this week's Runway Inspired challenge.

I've been in the mindset lately that having creative freedom over a card is a good thing. But I think I might've been wrong about that :P I had a ton of trouble with this challenge.  I even tried to use sketch challenges to help me come up with something but nothing worked. Eventually I got to playing around with some dies and decided that I absolutely had to use a bike. I don't know why, I can barely even ride a bike, but I don't know I just felt I had to.

*FUN FACT* That saying "it's like a riding a bike" IS A LIE. It's NOT "like riding a bike" The saying should be "it's like  RE-LEARNING how to ride a bike" because let me tell you, last April IceQueenJenny, WonderfulChris and I rented some bikes to go nightriding because it was our last night at the house, and I crashed into a tree. A TREE.

Here's this week's challenge inspiration:

*FUN FACT* I want this dress SOSOSOSOSOSO much
The main thing that stood out to me was the pastel colouring. I LOVE pastel colours. They make me think of warm spring days and Easter and chocolate Easter eggs (because I eat so many mini-eggs) and they make me happy. The next thing I thought of was Europe. (I know, weird right?) I guess it's because of how busy the print is? Somehow that reminded me of how busy the London tube is? I don't know ,whatever.  All the "love" words made me think of France (because France is my one true love oui, oui monsieur poisson! I'm channeling the first French I learned which was through The Little Mermaid) and then I remembered my dear friend CharStar (who lived in France for like 10 years as a child) is leaving soon for a trip and I've been meaning to make a "safe travels" card for FOREVER and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity!

And here it is!


I didn't end up using the "safe travels" sentiment because I thought it looked too loopy next to all of the hearts so I went with a "miss you" sentiment because, well, obviously I'll be missing her loads. I used white ink to stamp on a bunch of Paris stamps over the black card (which oops you can't read too well in this picture), not because she's going to France -she's going to Africa for a volunteer/Master's assignment trip- but because she's so very french! Then I went with hearts because of "love" because I'm unimaginative and whatever it's my card I can do what I want.

I don't absolutely love the card but I like it well enough to post. I do really like the bicycle die. I used pale pink cardstock and stamped some script using a dark purple and then once that dried I die cut the bike out and over that I stamped the outline of the bike. Now that I'm writing it that was a lot of work for a bicycle and you can't even really see it in the picture but in person you can see the purple underneath and I kinda love that.

That's all for now! If I don't skedaddle I'm gonna be late for my movie!

-Happy dreams

Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Moar things! And Holy-Word-Limit-Batman! So many thoughts, I apologize. Just scroll to the picture

So, after I rushed out that last post, I had to put some finishing "touches" on the birthday card that I had put on hold earlier that night. Fast forward like 2 hours later and the card was done! I was feeling pretty jazzed that I was going to be able to make the deadline for the Simon Says Stamp Wednesday Challenge but when I went to check the linky, POOF! the link was closed :( For a second I thought I broke it but after refreshing 2 or 3 (or 5) times I took it as a sign that submitting the card was, alas, not meant to be and that it was definitely time to sleep.

*FUN FACT* I did not go to sleep, I actually crawled into bed, proceeded to watch 2 episodes of Psych and the pilot episode of The X Files on Netflix on my phone.  
*FUNNER FACT* BaddieBins was the inspiration for The X Files episode. She finished her The X Files marathon about a week ago and she started up on Doctor Who because I tweet/talk so much about it and she wanted to see what the fuss was about; I figured that I should do the same with The X Files. She says that Scully is her spirit animal so I think I should figure out what she means by that.

Well, I checked their blog today and woohoo the linky was open! They had to extend the deadline an extra day because it accidentally closed early. Whatever the reason I was extra jazzed.

I meant to get this post and my card linked up wayyy earlier but life got in my way (Insanity workout -which, yes, kicked my ass-, family dinner preparations, job applications -though I don't know why I bother because the zombocalypse will happen before I manage to get a job, I must just be qualified for nothing-, kitchen clean-up duty after making the mess for dinner, etc...) and then it was 9:45pm. I started at that time as well but having just gotten my laptop reformatted I was trying to install Microsoft Office 2010 (that's what used to be on my laptop, is what's on my sister's laptop, and it's what I used to use at school so I don't love Office XP all that much. what can I say I'm a creature of habit!) but I couldn't find the other disc that had the product code, I couldn't figure out where the PIN was, I couldn't A LOT of stuff.

I can only take so many Microsoft punches in the face. I may do Insanity workouts but I'm frail and useless so I gave up on that.  The clock at that time was reading 11:20 pm. I still had tons of time to get a post up and the card posted! AND I could probably get to sleep at a decent time too.

*FUN FACT* We all know I don't really mean "sleep" OF COURSE I mean The X Files Netflix marathon, but let's try to keep up appearances ;)

But, again, it was not meant to be. TheMother asked me to help her with some stuff and I couldn't say no because she works a lot of hours (she spends WAY too many hours at work: 10-11 a day, every day! It's fucked up ridiculous but she doesn't listen to us. ...Hmm, I guess I get it from her) and she gets home so late because of it so if she needs help I don't really mind. I'm going to be up at all hours of the night anyway I might as well spend my time doing something relatively useful.

And that brings us to 2:20 am! Right now! The only reason I stopped working was because the computer did a thing and I couldn't stop it. But I took that as a sign that it was time to post!

The Simon Says Stamp Wednesday challenge this week was "Happy Birthday"

*UPDATE: After showing the card to my sister she told me that it would also be eligible for a Paper Smooches SPARKS challenge because the jar+bee I used is one of their stamps! AND if I hurried I could still make the deadline! So yay! I'm also entering this card into the April 6-12 Anything Goes challenge

Check out their banner below!
I want a banner! ...But I don't know what it'd be for :3
I should make my own house sigil! But all the good animals are already taken.
And I'd totally want a dragon symbol but the Targaryens went mad and that's not cool.
Plus I totally see myself as a Khaleesi. What can I say, I identify with Daenerys.
She's badass and I want dragons!
Gonna tell you up front: BE PROUD OF ME. If you saw my last post I mentioned how butterflies are just okay, I mean whatever, *ahemI'M-OBSESSED-WITH-THEMahem* and I was going to put a butterfly on this card (I wanted to so badly, I had it all picked out and everything!) BUT I DIDN'T! I was strong and I kept that butterfly in a drawer so I wouldn't use it!

  

 It's my first attempt at a shaker card and Holy-shaker-card-problems-Batman! It was a damn shitstorm. I don't remember having so many problems with one element of a card since....the very first time I ventured into the craft room and tried to make a card. I watched a tutorial on how "easy" it is to make shaker cards and shut-the-front-door because I was lied to. That video was all lies and photoshop and oscar-worthy movie editing/sound mixing and she was a wizard or something because I haven't been lied to like that since I was 17 and in my first real relationship with HeWhoShallNotBeNamed. (Not Voldemort. Though he would've been a better choice. Two Harry Potter References and #ThrowbackThursday to high school AND proper use of "#ThrowbackThursday?? I am on a roll: self-five! 10 points to Gryffindor!) 

I wanted to give up and just use some damn butterflies but I stuck with it and I'm glad I did because IT MAKES NOISE WHEN YOU SHAKE IT! Also using the bee in the jar helped me come up with the "happy Bee day" sentiment and I thought it was clever and punny which means I am clever and punny and 5 extra points to Gryffindor because I can!

Hope you're all having pleasant dreams (and practicing Occulmency! Never know which baddies out there are accomplished Legilimens!) I'll try and chill with the Harry Potter nerd-outs.

-Happy dreams!

Tuesday, April 8, 2014

Look I made a thing again! (Yet still can't seem to finish writing about cauliflower...)

So I know this is very last minute but at least I've churned it out!  I'd been stumped all day with the inspiration for the CASE study challenge #185 but I really, really, really wanted to make something for it. I don't know why, it just stuck with me and the fact that I couldn't come up with a card idea just really nagged at me and, quite frankly pissed me off. There was an internal argument of,
"Holy what the mac and cheese just think of something already!! Time's gonna run out!"
"NO! I GIVE UP. It's too hard! And stop telling me what to do!"
"NO you can think of something! I KNOW YOU CAN! YOU ARE WOMAN, HEAR YOU ROAR!"
"NO I CAN'T! I'M STILL REELING OVER WHAT HAPPENED ON MARVELS AGENTS OF S.H.I.E.L.D TONIGHT EVEN THOUGH I TOTALLY SAW IT COMING 25 MINUTES IN! I AM INCONSOLABLE RIGHT NOW. IT'S LIKE TEEN WOLF ALL OVER AGAIN!!!"
Seriously. With that racket going on in my creative center it's a wonder I can get anything done. Also I'm....probably way too invested in television. Oh well. Back to the card: I had actually given up and started on another card for an upcoming birthday but this challenge just wouldn't get out of my head.  (Even after the Marvels Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode)

I was just playing around with the Memory Box butterfly dies (because I love making butterflies. Honestly, I have like 6 different cutouts in different colours just ready to be added to any card. There will come a day when I make a card that doesn't have a butterfly. But that day is not today. It's also not going to be tomorrow either. Maybe in a couple of weeks.) when I thought to make a butterfly in red. The red cardstock made me think of the CASE Study challenge and I figured I had a pretty little centerpiece. After a quick consultation with a Martha Stewart paint colour card I was on my way!

*important note*: Paint colour cards are AWESOME. They're free at Home Depot and Canadian Tire in their paint section and they are SO beautiful and there are so many and it's perfect cardstock and palette inspiration! If you haven't been doing it already, then definitely get to a paint section and stock up on some colour cards :)

Anyway, here's the inspiration (which is so many levels of gorgeous I want to scream! ...and throw a garden party and use those invitations)



And here's what came out of my brain:

*FUN FACT* musical selection for this card was Dream "This is Me" and "He Loves Me, He Loves You Not"
*FUNNER FACT* They're not very good songs but they're catchy. How catchy? HELLA.

This may very well be the cleanest and simplest card I've ever made! If it's not the simplest card then it's damn straight the fastest! I procrastinated quite a bit on this (old habits die hard, what can I say?) but the time crunch really pressured me to get the idea that popped into my head onto the paper and I think it helped :)

I think this kind of card considered clean and simple (I'm not sure) but it to me it's pretty clean and simple. See, I'm kind of a stamping fiend. I love stamping flowery things and foresty things and backgrounds and it's all very
"I LOVE STAMPS!!! STAMP STAMP STAMP!!! RAAAAARRRR!!!"
 that's constantly going on in my head, so I really pulled back with this because the inspiration was so simple and .... I dunno just super classy to me (not that a stampocalpyse can't be classy too, don't get me wrong!!!) I wanted to make something very simple. I think this might be as simple as I can get. I take after my sister, I just love adding accents!

And now I think it's time for a midnight snack! I started month 2 of the Insanity workout and holy-shut-the-front-door it's kicking my ass. But I think I'm getting better at it? Premature enlightenment or not, I'm feeling pretty badass after the workouts :)

-Happy dreams! (and happy snacking to any fellow midnight snackers out there!)

Look I made a thing!

So I was hoping that my Cauliflower Pizza post would be up by now but too many things happened the past week and I couldn't get it finished :(

short story: I was in the process of getting my laptop wiped/re-formatted at Best Buy so I was busy backing things up and then all of a sudden it was the weekend and I had to turn in my laptop but the post still wasn't done and now here we are using This Sister's laptop to shoot out this quick post!

Last night I had a lovely after-dinner coffee catchup date with the incomparable j.Hunts (think I'll make a post about that adventure sometime next week) and when I got home I peeked into the craft room to see what my sister was up to. Turns out she was making a Mother's Day card! I honestly don't know when mother's day is exactly, I rely on my phone calendar or google to remind me which Sunday it falls on each year, but I do know it's not for a while. However, following my sister's pro-activity I decided to make one as well!

I don't recall when I came across the My Favorite Things blog, it was sometime in the last 2 weeks, but I am glad I did! I had skipped out on crafting all last week because I was feeling very blah and just super un-inspired (and I guess too busy enjoying cauliflower pizza!!) so I really wanted to get back into it this week but I couldn't figure out where to start.

*FUN FACT* I get stumped like this quite often. It's usually then when I turn to marathonning the LOTR trilogy or GoT or....brushing up on Dothraki.

BUT then I checked the CalendarOfArts&Crafts and saw that there was a card challenge ending today with a sketch! so it was pretty perfect timing. The sketch acted as my much-needed starting point and the time crunch motivated me to really buckle down and get to it! I guess I can practice Dothraki another time. Though, to be honest, I think it's high time I re-learn my High Valyrian. I gotta be ready for this season!!

*FUN FACT*  If you hadn't noticed before that I nerd out HAM on Game of Thrones, you will notice soon. Me nem nesa y'all.

So without further ado, because this whole post has been very ado-ish with so many words, here's the lovely My Favorite Things Get Sketchy challenge:



And this is what I made:

I was debating whether to keep the green in the center to follow the sketch properly
but as I was about to fix it down I was suddenly overcome with this complete desire
to have it be askew. I don't know why, I just suddenly absolutely did not want it in the
centre. But I was torn because then the sketch wouldn't match! I really can't explain
it. (Maybe it's the pre-Crimson wave?) Well, after making it off-set I cut a velum
border to make it seem more like the sketch and I think that's appeasing my very
weird inner turmoil.


The rules don't state that a MFTstamp has to be used which is lucky for me because the craft room is seriously lacking their stamps but after their recent release posts (there's been a countdown ALL WEEK!) I'm definitely going to have to change that. They have some of the cutest stamps!!!

That's all for now, I stayed up pretty late last night from that coffee (I should have gotten a decaf drink but decaf coffee is dirt water and goes against every fiber of my being so...you win some, you lose some) so I think I might take a quick nap or maybe attempt to make some coffee!

*FUN FACT* yeah it's going to be a nap. Who am I kidding?

-Stay lovely and happy dreams!

Thursday, April 3, 2014

Skype dates, hashtags (am I using them right?) and plans for healthy pizza!

Hello lovely people!

I've got lots of plans for today but hopefully my ambition isn't stronger than my will (like it usually is) and I can get through it all!

First up: KhaleesiPaula news!!!

Background Story: She and I met through mutual friends sometime in third year at UofT but never really hung out. Then in our final year we were ANA301 (human embryology) class buddies and, as we sat together and furiously attempted note-taking, bonded over our mutual love of some very cute boys in that class, Tolkien novels, champagne, and having to get ready in bathrooms (because we lived so far from downtown Toronto) and since then have been very close friends. She is wonderful and lovely and beautiful and oh so smart and I am a better person just by knowing her and YOU are all better people just by having read about her!

So the other day I finally got to have a skypedate with her and catch up on what's been going down the past few weeks and it was so lovely seeing her again (as always) and it very much brightened up my day :) Exciting news is that for her birthday (the 29th) her parents and brother are going to London so she'll get to spend her birthday with them! I am very excited for her because she's had to spend the last couple of birthday away from them (being in Dublin) so she's very happy that she gets to see them this year! We were also talking about next year's birthday and how (I think) she'll be done med school by then and she's hoping to get to spend her birthday back in Canada -which I would be very excited for- but if it's not Canadian-birthday-celebrations are not possible then I'm just going to go over there and say Happy Birthday for Canada! AAAND she gave me her official address so I'll be sending her a birthday card!! I'm actually super excited about that because I love getting mail and I think people love getting mail (when it's not spam ads or bills) and I'm super excited to make her a card :) There are a ton of card challenges and now that I know it's going to be mailed across the Narrow Sea, I'm extra motivated to make an extra lovely card!

*FUN FACT* I always need lots of motivation when I craft because I get frustrated easily and tend to just give up and go marathon The Lord of The Rings movies, and you can only do that so many times in a week.
*FUNNER FACT* Marathonning The Lord of The Rings movies and livetweeting/liveblogging is ONE OF MY FAVOURITE THINGS TO DO
*FUNNEST FACT* Y'all are in for a treat because I am now going to have to do that post.
*FUNNER-EST FACT* I think KhaleesiPaula's card is going to have to be a mix of Tolkien and Martin to bring together her love of GoTs and LoTR. I'm gonna make sure to put in some Elvish, Dothraki and High Valyrian. My inner fangirl is freaking out right now I'm so excited


We also got to talking about our new health diets. We're both on health kicks and, yes we complained quite a bit because all we want are nachos and cheese, she recalled this run that our friend (also from UofT, also in Ireland for med school, also lovely and kind and smart and wonderful) Meerkitten! had done last year and how they throw coloured powder at you! Well, that sounds like a RIDICULOUS amount of fun and if you think so too then you should CHECK IT OUT HERE!! It's called the Color Me Rad Run and it looks like a lot of fun and we're thinking about doing it when she's back for the summer! (The Hamilton location run because the Toronto location happens too soon and she won't be back for that) We're still in the process of thinking about doing it because a 5K run is a little daunting but if we can't train enough for it this year then we'll definitely be doing it next year !

Next up: #ThrowbackThursdays!

*FUN FACT* I don't actually know how that hashtag works, or how any hashtags work. Whenever I use them I use them wrong and I'm okay with that because I don't like being told what to do! ...Also I use them wrong because I don't know how to use them >.>

But as a treat for reading so much about The Lovely KhaleesiPaula here's a picture of why she's so wonderful:

Does this count for #ThrowbackThursdays? I seriously still don't know what that phrase is for.
Also "Dothraki" is what she meant to spell. For any GoT readers out there.


She drew this out for me during one of our study sessions at Gerstein Library and I was having a particularly bad time with studying my exam material.

*FUN FACT* The building in the back that says EX that's on fire is our Examination building. UofT built a building just for having exams and you can FEEL THE EVIL IN THOSE ROOMS. It's filled with the dead hopes and dreams of past students. Many of mine are in the room.
*FUNNER FACT* I kept this picture showcased in my pencil bag for the next 2 years 

 Lastly: HEALTHY PIZZA!

Being on my health kick/diet/whatever-it-takes-to-get-skinny, I found a recipe for a Cauliflower Pizza Crust courtesy of Eat. Drink. Smile (you can find the recipe if you CLICK RIGHT HERE!! She's also got lots of other recipes that look super delicious!) And I'm going to attempt to make it tonight for dinner.

So stay posted because I'm hoping to get a post documenting my possible SUCCESS (I'm really really hoping it's a success and not a failure like the time in 10th grade when I tried to make cookies, halfway through decided I wanted the cookies to be chocolate so I added a bunch of cocoa powder in the bowl thinking it would work, and they ended up harder than my countertop)

-Don't go away, we'll be right back!