New Tool and a Quick Get Well

So...... I'm home sick again for the past few days with what seems to be a reoccurence of a sinus infection from early last month that didn't completely clear up.  I swear that as I get older, when I get sick it seems to take so much longer to recuperate.  Or maybe I'm just babying myself.  And not to mention the fact, as I told a friend recently, that coughing and sneezing has now become and adventure of it's own and I shall not go into details.  

Today I rounded up enough energy to do two worthwhile things...... otherwise I was "just as useful as the g in lasagne".  

My dear HWNSNBP truly went overboard ordering Christmas gifts from my Amazon wishlist (which comes in very handy if your family wants to treat you to something that you really want).  Not only did he splurge for a set of Copic Markers that I mentioned in a previous post, but he also got me this nifty little tool called a Cuttlelola Electric Dotspen.  I had seen this little gadget reviewed on two blogs that I follow (Understand Blue and Life Imitates Doodles) and having wanted to try my hand at pointillism, without jeopardizing aggravating my creaky neck, this seemed to be worth wishing for. It is a little more expensive that your average stamp or die set, but it's a tool and I've always said that good tools make all the difference.

It's battery operated, but rechargeable right to a USB port and you can use it while it is recharging. There are two speeds and it's not at all noisy.  It comes in a nice little tin, which is also a plus.  There is an advisement that it contains magnetic parts and therefore shouldn't be near watches or cards with magnetic strips and also not be used by someone with a pacemaker.  (Shucks, I just noticed that I put the box down on a pile that contained a giftcard I was registering - hopefully because it was still in the box, it didn't do any harm.)

Here is my first try with it.  I freehanded a flower on a thin sheet of cardboard paper, and I'm pretty pleased with the outcome.  Can't wait to do some more experimenting.  Next step will be adding color.  Then changing the subject-matter and so on.

Secondly, well actually I'm going in reverse order because I did this card this morning and the new tool later this afternoon.  One of our friends recently had some surgery and we wanted to wish him well and since HWNSNBP was passing by their place today on another errand, I quickly put this card together and he picked up some sweets on the way to go with it.  

For the watercolored background I used one of the backs of those Color Burst cards I cut off. I had my cheap set of watercolors nearby and again, since I was in a hurry, I took my spritzer and spritzed the set with water to activate them. Then I picked up some colors in complementing families and quickly added them in no particular order, and without cleaning my brush in between to blend them. I did have to dry it with a hairdryer.  The bear and the fish were stamped and diecut and then I quickly added some color to each with markers.  I added the sentiment by hand and lastly attached some silver cording to the string of fish.  This friend takes our big snapper blues that we catch during the summer and smokes them for HWNSNBP as a winter/holiday treat.