DIY Twine Embellishments

I saw a couple of cute embellishments at the scrapbook store last time, but I thought to myself, I could make something like that myself! Without shelling out $4 for it! One of the embellishments was a package of these twine flowers from Jillibean Soup:


I also recalled seeing something similar here on the The Twinery blog:

So I took a stab at doing it myself and here are the results:



Summery colors!

Black and red!

Steps:
1. Start out with a punched circle for the base.
2. Mark the center of the circle for the starting point of the twine.
3. Cover circle with double-sided tape.
4. Wind twine around in a circle, starting in the center.
5. Secure end with a bit of glue. I used Matte Accents and that seems to be holding well.

Not a Fat Baby

A couple of weeks ago when I went to the doctor, he said my belly was measuring a tad ahead of schedule, so we had an ultrasound to take some baby measurements. Turns out baby's size is normal and we got a 3D picture from the ultrasound. Yay! Except that the baby had a foot all up in her face and didn't want to move it, but that's okay.

At first when I was looking at the 3D images, I couldn't make out what was what, so in my head, I was starting to get all like, WHAT IS THAT?! IT LOOKS HORRIBLE! But then Greg pointed out all the features and all was good. (A visual for what the thoughts in my head sounded like is when Bill Hader's character in this SNL Milkshakes skit goes "Nooooo! Nooooo! I'VE ABANDONED MY CHILD! I'VE ABANDONED MY BOY! I'VE ABANDONED MY CHILD! I'VE . . . Oh, here he is.")

Scrapbooking Old School

I was listening to a Paperclipping Roundtable (episode #13) the other day when something they were talking about made me think about the time in high school that I dabbled in scrapbooking. It was somewhere around 1999 or 2000 (sophomore year) and I had just gotten back from a summer church trip that a bunch of my friends were also on. I had taken a bunch of pictures on the trip and gotten them developed, so I had this idea that I didn't want to just put them in a photo album - I was going to scrapbook them!

I went over to Michael's to get some supplies (not a lot, because I was on a limited budget) and this is where - when I think about how it was then versus how it is now - I'm like, whoa. A lot has changed. I remember back then, there was maybe one aisle dedicated to what scrapbooking was at the time. The paper offerings were, for the most part, 8.5 x 11 sheets of what was basically stationery paper. There were also die cuts, stickers, and decorative edge scissors. Here's an example of the sweet stuff I picked up:


It's such a big change from when I next got into scrapbooking/paper crafts in 2006, when I bought supplies to make wedding invitations, and now, where there is an entire section in Michael's dedicated to scrapbooking and paper crafts. I think I saw in a recent Michael's ad that they've revamped their scrapbooking section, so I'll have to check that out . . .

One-Year-Old Birthday Card

We went to a one-year-old birthday party for Gracie (Julio and Stephanie's baby) yesterday and that occasion called for a birthday card, of course:


Clouds from using the Fiskars XL cloud punch on graph paper. Toothpicks for posts, with yellow baker's twine strung between them. Hand-cut number one.

Greg also took a bunch of pictures of the party, but I'll let Stephanie post/blog those pictures once they're done being processed.

Sausage Fingers and Tummy Crumbs

I know it may be hard to tell in the picture because there is no baseline for a point of reference . . . but I think I have sausage fingers right now. I don't know how much to attribute to swelling versus weight gain, but that's beside the point. I stopped wearing my rings a couple months ago because I was afraid that my fingers would get so sausage-y that I wouldn't be able to get them off. Good thing I was proactive about that.

In addition to sausage fingers, I've also found that I need to periodically check my belly to make sure that there aren't things like food crumbs sitting on it. How did I come to that conclusion? A few weeks ago, I was working out of the office (normally we are at client sites) when I was in the break room and ate a couple Girl Scout cookies (I think it was the same day that I ate three donuts, but again, beside the point). So I ate some cookies in the break room. Walk back to my office, which is almost on the other side of the office, do some work, then at some point later, get back up to go to the break room for water. And cookies. And that's when I noticed that I had crumbs on my belly, before I had eaten any more cookies. Burn on me. That's my lesson to check my tummy for crumbs if I'm going to eat something without a plate.


Last night, I was in the middle of preparing to publish this post when I stopped to take a few bites of ice cream before going to bed. I didn't notice at first, but Greg pointed out that I had dropped some ice cream on my belly. Awesome! Further evidence that I need to be more careful when I eat.

Email is Like Our Lives

Lately, I've gotten away from the "snippet of our lives" type of posts in favor of craft-focused posts, but looking back on older posts, it's fun to read about non-craft stuff too, because it's a snapshot of what we were doing at that point in our lives. So . . . I'm making an effort to (at least more often than I have as of late) blog about non-crafty stuff, as well as the crafty stuff.

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Greg and I have different "styles" of maintaining our house / junk. For Greg, everything has its place and everything should be put back in its place. For me, I don't mind having stuff out or having it pile up, because for the most part, I'll still be able to find all my stuff. Our different "styles" is a big part of why Greg supports me having a craft room in our house. I follow (try to, at least) Greg's ways for the rest of the house (neat and tidy, which are good qualities), but the craft room is where there could be (and there usually is) stuff all over the place. It's funny, then, when I see our two different approaches in other aspects of our lives:

Me: My email is down to 2,400! I've been filing emails.
Greg: Nice. What was it at before?
Me: Like . . . 3,200 or something.
Greg: I need to organize my inbox too . . . I'm up to 13. Probably file some stuff away.
Me: Heh. Whatevs. Our emails are like how we live our lives!

Pink Butterfly Baby Card

My dilemma with cardmaking is that sometimes I make a card I end up really liking, and then I don't want to give it away. So I hoard it until enough time has passed that I'm less attached to the card. But I was good. I sent this card to its intended recipient. Heh. I think it's safe to post now since she most likely received it already:


Butterfly and starburst punches went well together. I also decided that the top note die cut needed a little bit extra something before getting adhered to the card, so that's where my $1 Wal-mart roll of white crepe paper streamer came in handy.

I think this weekend, I'll play around with my photography "skillz." Maybe read up on some of Greg's photography books (maybe I should prioritize reading up on being a parent and such, but . . . meh). I've decided that I should learn how to use my Digital Rebel on more than just the auto setting.

Cesar Chavez Park Photo Session Layout

I finished this layout a while ago, but never posted about it.

Pictures from this photo session at Cesar Chavez Park. I also did a separate layout of just the sunset pictures from the same photo session, but I like how this page turned out better.




I started out with some Basic Grey patterned paper, but it was a lightly patterned neutral sheet. Elle's Studio tags were used for the focus of the layout, with the middle of some of them cut out to frame pictures, journaling, and a title. The corners were finished off with Glimmer Mist and doilies.

In other topics . . .

We haven't talked to our Japanese exchange student from last spring, Mako, on the phone yet, but she's been active on Facebook and says that her and her family are okay after the earthquake and tsunami over there. I guess I shouldn't find it as crazy as I do all the damage that was done, especially since there have been other fairly recent occurrences of earthquakes and tsunamis in other parts of the world, but it just highlights that no amount of disaster readiness can ever prevent something like that from happening. All you can hope for is that you've minimized the damage and that you've thought of everything you could. :(

Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice Layout

Layout from when we found out the gender!


I had an urge while making this layout to fill every single spot of white space on the paper. I don't know why, but I did. I may go back and add some more stitching to the bottom right, but I haven't decided. Or I may just call it good because I'm already pretty happy with it.

I hand-cut the title using the CK Big Boy font. I did two layers - one blue for the outer/bottom layer and one pink for the inside/top layer. Took a lot of work, but I like the end result. Also a fan of the paper ruffles - it helped to wet them with a mini mister first, then crumple and ruffle the paper.

Last night, I went over to Cindy's house with Stephanie to craft it up. Made some progress on baby thank you cards, as well as the December mini book that's been in my queue since January. My goal is to get that done before the end of March.

Martha Stewart Crafts Products

I've found Martha Stewart's line of craft products to be kind of hit or miss. I have a handful of Martha Stewart products, a few that I've thought worked great and the others, I think could work better.


1-inch Starburst Punch and Classic Butterfly Punch
I really like these two punches. I use them a lot. I bought the starburst punch at Michael's and the butterfly punch at Wal-mart. Overall, I think they are on par with other punches, so they're among the Martha Stewart products I have that work well.


Circle Cutter
I haven't really used this circle cutter in earnest (i.e., on paper that I care about for a project). I have, however, tested it out on scratch paper and the results have been okay. I read the reviews on Amazon after I bought it and the reviews weren't that favorable, but I tend to agree with them. It is a little hard to use with the rotating mechanism not being super smooth, thicker paper is harder for it to make clean cuts, and it is a challenge to keep the paper from moving as you're cutting (you can't just put a spot of adhesive on, it has to be enough to hold it tight). I saw a video where Kristina Werner used this circle cutter with a glass cutting mat and it seemed to work well, but I don't have a glass cutting mat and don't really want to spend the $20 to get one. Seems like a lot of extra effort and money to get a product to work like it should.


Score Board and Envelope Tool
Seeing as how the only moving part on this scoring board is the little compartment at the top, which doesn't affect the functionality of the actual scoring part of the board, there's no reason why this product shouldn't work well. And it does. Because moving parts are not integral to its functionality. So . . . thumbs up on that.


Doily Lace Border Punch
This border punch works decently. The main issue I have with it is that if you are punching cardstock, it can be very hard to push down the handle for it to punch through the cardstock. I've found the Fiskars border punches to be better in that respect. I think it has to do with the design of the punch - the Martha Stewart punch has a relatively wimpy lever handle while Fiskars border punches have a wider lever handle.

Good Weather Weekend Outing

This past weekend, the weather in Phoenix was fantastic. There are two short windows of spring and fall during the year where the weather in Phoenix is enviable while other parts of the country are contending with cold and snow.

On Saturday, we went out all date-like and did a bunch of things. It was fun - we don't normally go out like that in the interest of saving money. And plus, I tend to like vegging at home, maybe to Greg's dismay since he's a doer.

Downtown Farmer's Market
On the walk to the farmer's market from our car a couple blocks away:

Breakfast burritos:

Pulled pork sandwich and brat, with me nom nom'ing:


No picture of the snow cone that we got, but it was "tiger blood" flavor (coconut + berry flavors). It was good, but I don't think any snow cone/shaved ice here will ever compare to the mango shaved ice we had in a Taiwan mall food court when we were there in 2005. It was like fresh snow, topped with cream and fresh mangoes, and we have yet to discover something comparable here.

Japanese Friendship Garden
We decided to walk around the garden since the weather was so nice.







Frances and Smeeks
Also known as, "We almost took some photo booth pictures." I decided that since we were already going to be in the downtown area, we should go to Smeeks for photo booth pictures. I made this decision after we already left the house, so Greg didn't do his hair, and we eventually decided to go back for photo booth pictures on a day that Greg had a chance to do his hair.


Rainbow Donuts
Donut holes from Rainbow Donuts. I like this picture for its perspective.


Amano Bistro
Bread with olive oil and vinegar:

Tomato and basil bruschetta:

Poblano chili and mushroom pizza:

Ribeye in cream sauce with fingerling potatoes:

Blog Design Update

Sometimes I get a hankering to change up the look of my blog. I decided I'd give the new Blogger templates a try. I'm not knowledgeable enough with the code to do anything fancy, but I can Google it. In any case, I just tweaked the colors of one of the pre-existing templates, put together a new header in Photoshop Elements, and called it good enough for my current skill level.

I first did a header with carnival tickets (which I scanned) that I have in my scrapbooking supplies:


I didn't feel like it meshed with what I was going for though. So I nixed that header and went with one where I pieced together digital tape strips:


I used these tape strips from Pugly Pixel:
Patterned tape strips
Solid tape strips

There's a lot of other free digital stuff on Pugly Pixel that looks fun to play with. I think I'll have to check these out too:
Velvet strips and corners
Vintage fabric deco tapes
Scallop and starburst medallions
Dot your dots
Paper buffet (all you can eat) <-- I think this is my favorite, with all the variety of elements

Security Training

I spent the last six days, including the weekend, attending (computer/information system) security training for work. It was really interesting, but made for long days.

It also made me kind of paranoid. Not that I wasn't already a little bit. But maybe that was also a product of the instructor, who made it openly known that he is a paranoid kind of person when it comes to security. A couple examples he told that made me be all like, scary much?:

• A site called pleaserobme.com that used to compile public information about your house (where it was, how much it was worth) if you ever said you were going to be out of town on a social networking or other public site. They don't appear to do it anymore, but this Huffington Post article talks about it: Please Rob Me: Site Tells The World When You're Not Home. I was already wary of ever saying online when we were going to be out of town, but this just solidified it even more.
  
  
• The teacher told us about how, as a graduate student, he would teach courses and give his students an assignment where all he would tell them was his full name, and their task was to spend no more than $20 and find out as much information about him as they could, to illustrate just how much public information is available out there and why people should be careful with what they share. He said he stopped giving that assignment because it was freaky, but some students were able to get a lot of information, such as where he was born, where his wife was born, his children's names, where his children were born, where his parents were born, and even his parents' prom picture. Parents' prom picture! I can understand more if we're talking a prom picture from the last 10 or 15 or even 20 years or so because those do make it onto Facebook and such. But my guess is that this guy's parents are pretty old since he himself was in his mid-forties. He also added that he stopped grading that particular assignment at home because his wife would see how much information his students found out about him and his family and she was not a fan. Heh.

Sometimes I google myself to see what's out there . . . but it's still creepy because although I can control what I put online, I can't control what other people put online (public records, schools, professional associations, etc.) that seem innocuous, but all together, makes for a lot of information that I don't have control over.