Skill Development

The Lindy's Stamp Gang Nantucket Starburst colour shot set arrived today.  Yeah!  Unfortunately, the weather affected me so badly I couldn't even twist a top loose, let alone fill the container with water and begin to play.  I learned the other day this particular collection isn't about glitz; rather, the soft shimmer.  This is perfect for the purposes intended.  Next batch will be all about the glimmer and glitz.  Hopefully the weather and extreme temperature changes won't keep me from enjoying the little things in life tomorrow and I can find time to play with the colours.  At least the temperatures will be a bit more bearable throughout the weekend.

It may take another three weeks before the first I am Roses package arrives as they originate and ship from Taiwan.  In the meantime I've began playing with the Flower Shoppe Cricut Cartridge.  Though the flowers come out pretty, there was "something" missing.  After watching a few videos I believe that missing something is my fear of manipulating the paper overly much once cut and inked, which took the potential of something great into amateurish attempts.  There's at least twenty pounds of paper in this room - excluding the premium papers - and I'm still too stingy to let loose and have fun with new creations.  Perhaps this is common to new crafters, but probably has more to do with my more conservative nature.  I've watched a few videos specific to the cartridge and learn more each time.  It's a shame there's no group in the area specific to Cricut. 

The function of every tool in the Cricut tool kit was readily apparent except for the spoon looking thingy.  I finally found a use for it!  Having lost the embossing tool purchased in the earliest days of card making, getting the flowers to soften and curl was a bit of a challenge.  This Cricut tool and a variety of metal crochet hook sizes does a great job.  The spoon tool (for lack of a better description) works especially well for petal embossing in the sizes I'll most use.

The box of scrapbooking goodies came in much earlier than anticipated.  I immediately passed most of the materials to my sister after she got to play with some of the stamps and inks.  She's been scrapbooking for a much longer time than I, and makes stunning pages, but has never incorporated stamping into her designs.  Now hooked on the concept, I donated most of the stamps and inks that came in to encourage her new skills.  But not all!  Some were much too precious to let go.  In the end, we fairly well split the box down the middle.

On to more skill sets and advancing in others!

Latest LO

The LO mentioned last post is now 99.9% complete.  There's a journaling note required completely forgotten about.  I think it looks tacky, but may be able to correct it with some glitter in the morning.  (This tag will be removed before framing the page.)  The only other item left to attend involves good sunlight, camera and tripod.  I'll edit this post to include the photo after a satisfactory picture is cropped and sharpened.

This LO has much more white space than I'm accustomed to allowing, but in doing so I've allowed the eye to draw to the ares that were most important, or important as I saw it.

The photo of Martin and I used on the page is one of my all-time favourites!!  There's a little bit of silliness, and a whole lot of adoration caught at the most perfect moment.  I knew this would be the first photograph of the both of us to scrap when the right combination of time, inspiration and motivation hit.  And it did. 

It probably gets old, but I'm proud of the display.  I take pride in all the LO's done, but some don't have the same ooomph that rare others do.  This is one that gets framed and posted in our bedroom, along with the birthday "card" page completed last November.  Finally!  Some "art" for the room.  (Term used loosely.)

Even though decorating the coloured pencil bucket was a little over the top, I am proud of it.  Tonight while perusing YouTube, I found several videos featuring decked-out ATG guns.  Some looked professional, some looked as if they graduated 1st grade colouring class and never advanced from there.  It's theirs, and as long as they take pride in it, that's all that matters.  So now I'm thinking... given some down time, it might just be worth the effort to follow suit.  No doubt whatever I do will end up looking like the 1st grade child that failed that colouring class.  LOL.

Next week I hope to knock out three or four "everyday" scrapbook pages.  There's currently two semi-assembled pages featuring Johnna and her quirky ideas of scrap worthy events.  One involves all the not-so-major scraps, bruises, and rashes she proudly displayed for the camera, and the other concerns her foot and hand prints at age ten.  (Actually I thought of it, and she jumped at the notion.)  Also thought upon, but as yet began, are the 2012 snow photos and a few more pages from this past Christmas.