Using More Leftovers - CAS and Not So CAS - PP236

Using up some more of those leftovers I found on my craft table.  A couple of Clean and Simple Flower cards for the Paper Players challenge and one a little more involved..

All these cards are made with leftover scraps - even the card bases were already cut and ready.  This one's just a couple of pieces of dsp and a Susan's Garden daisy.

I had been playing around with this new Essentials by Ellen Blossom set stamping the flower in VersaMark and embossing with clear EP, then daubering on some ink to match the colors of the base and dry embossed panel.  I threw on a couple of leaves too.  Just left them flat this time.

This one is not so simple.  I took the leftover scrap from that Massa Leaf die cut because, even though it was not planned, it came out pretty well centered on that piece of Wild Wasabi cardstock. On the white underneath I used one of the stamps from the Essentials by Ellen stamp set - it's part of a flower - and stamped that in Wild Wasabi ink where the openings would be so the leaves had some interest. Again, the back of the purple flowers was three shades of ink schwooshed around on some white cardstock and then die cut with the darker die cut over it.

Because I wanted those dotted leaves not to be in competition with the leaves that came with the die set I just didn't add any.  Instead I used some little flower heads from another Susan's Garden die in So Saffron cardstock with some pan pastel centers to spice it up a little.  

Yeah, those colors above are really not what I see IRL even with doctoring but I hope you get the idea.  

I've got a few more, {who am I kidding?}, a lot more leftovers to put to good use.  Stay tuned.

GROUND LEVEL

The old man who lives at the oak tree's GROUND LEVEL.

Jingle Belles - Mission EMBOSS-ible

I am old enough to remember the original Mission Impossible TV series and have had this theme song running through my head since I saw the title of this challenge (thank you Lauren!)

So now maybe you will too!   Pretty catchy, huh!  Even Kirby liked it.

Okay, back to my card.  I dry embossed the background panel with Sizzix Poinsettia embossing folder.  I used a VersaMark pen on the edges of that panel and added some gold embossing powder.

Then I stamped the images from Watercolor Christmas in VersaMark ink and also embossed them with the gold ep.  Then I fussy cut the images out.  I actually stamped each image twice and only used the center of the second flower popped up to give the flower some more dimension.

I found some cool lace in the Target $ bin last weekend which I used here.  I think the only thing, well, two things I would have/should have done was find some gold beads for the center of the flower and add a sentiment on the upper left-hand corner but I can always do that later.  

You can see the sparkle a little better in the picture below.  I only used Very Vanilla cardstock on the whole card popping the embossed panel up on the backing which was kind of necessary as the lace folded over the edge was a little bulky.  

I'll be back with a second card before the two-week deadline.  Your mission.....should you decide to accept it, is to leave a comment on the Jingle Belles blog (and/or here).  "As always, should you or any of your I.M. Force be caught or killed, the Secretary will disavow any knowledge of your actions." This post will self-destruct in five seconds.  Good luck.

RISE - And a School Story

The wind has been blowing so hard the last couple of days.  I watched one of the many flags we have RISE and fall with it.  It actually was blowing hard enough to push it past horizontal.

I struggled with this prompt and realized, pulling up the driveway after work, that I had an opportunity not once, but twice today to take a picture of a ladder in our office which I could have used which also would have been a stretch, but luckily the flags caught my eye.  I know it's also a bit of a stretch but the temperature which should be on the RISE has fallen again.  The brook across the street had it's RISE over the weekend with the rain and melting snow contributing to that and it has fallen.  And I wasn't planning on baking anything that might need to RISE.  So this is my feeble attempt at this particular prompt. 

And I promised a story from school. 

Our custodian had to check out something in the boy's bathroom.  He always makes sure that there are no students in there when he goes in so he asked a boy who was leaving the room if there was anyone in there.  The child said no and then continued the conversation telling the custodian that he liked the bathrooms in our school............

because there was a urinal for every day of the week.  He said he used the first one on Monday's, the second on Tuesday's, and so on.  The custodian asked him what he did if say, someone was already using the number two urinal on a Tuesday when he got there.  He said he would just wait.  Even if the other ones were free, he would just wait.  The custodian told him that he guessed it was a good thing we didn't have school on Saturday and Sunday, he might have to go all the way to the other wing to use the bathroom.

GREEN Treats - Happy St. Patrick's Day

Someone brought in delicious Irish Soda Bread.  Another person brought in chocolate chip cookies and Irish Potatoes (not pictured).  And there were GREEN candy kisses.  I wore the hat on a dare from HWNSNBP.  We were at $Tree over the weekend and found the hats - a pkg. of 5.  I was going to fill them with treats but he blurted out the dare and I accepted.  I'm afraid he didn't remember that I work in an elementary school and wearing something like that on a holiday would not be totally out of the ordinary.  I shared the other 4 with some of the staff, attached the hat to my head with some double-sided tape and definitely won the dare.  Now I have to figure out what the prize should be.

We were lucky enough to have a small group of bagpipers visit the school this morning.  This is them coming up the hall just as they finished.  They make a point of visiting all of our schools on St. Patrick's Day and told us that they had a bunch of other stops to make today as well.  The children came out of the classrooms and lined the hallway as the pipers paraded down the hall.

And one more GREEN thing - a Shamrock Shake!  That will be the last one for this year.

HAPPY

Today's lunch - HAPPY face fries.  Well, they really call them Smiley Face fries but they look HAPPY don't they?  Or does this make them look HAPPIER with their ketchup smiles?

I was so HAPPY this morning when I looked over my shoulder as I was doing my stationary bike and saw this sunrise unfolding through the trees.  I've been following a photographer from down the shore area who takes and shares spectacular sunrise and sunset shots on Facebook and can't wait to see what will be posted tonight.  If it was this beautiful here I can only imagine what it looked like over the ocean or the bay.  

Another thing that made me HAPPY today was sending this card that I finished yesterday off to a friend.  I was attempting to organize some of the stuff on my craft table this weekend and what you see is made up of all leftover parts not used on past cards.  The card served double-duty as the person I sent it to just returned to work after being out for awhile and I realized that while I was out of work earlier this year, I missed her birthday.  So I attached this to one of those gourmet chocolate bars and wrapped the whole thing in tissue paper and was able to send it interoffice mail.  That was much easier than trying to mail it USPS with all the dimensional flowers.

I've got a couple other "leftover" cards to share later this week.

What made you HAPPY today?  I'd love to hear.

P.S. - I'm also HAPPY that the new season of "Dancing With the Stars" starts tonight!

IN THE PAST - Tie Inspiration

A few summers ago, HWNSNBP was working in the front yard and came across this horseshoe partially sticking out of the soil.  We assume that it had been there for many, many years when there might have been farms in the area and people got around on horseback.  Or perhaps the people that lived here before us - we've been here for more than 30 years - played horseshoes in the front yard. In any case it came from THE PAST.

And speaking of the past, it was in January, when I was still home from work that I snapped this picture of Michael Strahan, or more specifically, his tie.  I loved the colors and thought that it would be a great inspiration for a card.

And as my boss's birthday is approaching I used the colors and pattern to make his card.

I punched those squares out with a 3/4" punch and then ran them through my Xyron to make them stickers.  I took a sheet of copy paper and started laying them down as close to the pattern in the picture as I could.  I trimmed the edges and then adhered it to the card base.  I still love those colors!

INCOMPLETE - Pi Day

Today was Pi Day.  So Pizza Pie for dinner and.............

Peanut Butter Cream Pie for dessert.

Which is now INCOMPLETE.

We started cleaning out one of our storage areas on the second floor today and made some donations to the Rescue Squad for the White Elephant.  That job is INCOMPLETE as there is plenty more to clean and go through.  

I did finish a card I started last night (not posted yet) but left yet another INCOMPLETE as it was getting late.  

I hope to get a lot more done tomorrow!

REVERSE and Staff Surprises

This was a hard one.  REVERSE.  Then I hit upon the thought of taking a picture of the REVERSE side of my little stained glass bluebird.  Through the window you can see the REVERSE side of the bird but also make out some of the kitchen and also the reflection of the house and backyard.  A little confusing but kind of like a puzzle.  Is that lantern hanging from the ceiling in the kitchen like the plant in the round glass ball?  Are those trees growing in the dining room? Is there snow on the floor?

My little celebration today was getting chosen as the "Leader of the Pack" by the staff for doing something special for them each day for the last two weeks during testing. The students have been taking a new standardized test on computers for the first time.  There's been much in the news about it but I won't get into that here.  Needless to say, the staff was freaking out about it.  I talked with my daughter who teaches in another state that has already been using computers for testing (a different test though) and asked her if her administration did anything to lighten the mood during their testing week.  She said they put candy in their mailboxes once or twice.  Then I remembered what one of her teachers had done for the class when she was in 4th grade (I think).  Every day there was a little treat with a message on her desk.  So I came up with some treats for each day of the week.  Keep in mind that 4th grade was one week and 5th grade the next so not everyone got something each week.

The first day was a piece of bubble wrap and some chocolate with the message.........

The second day...........

Day 3.............

On Day 4 I baked Inside-Out S'mores.............................

Day 5 the first week.....................

And Day 5 the second week (couldn't find enough orange slices)..............................

And also on Friday the last week I gave these out to the teachers who had helped with extra duties/recess, etc. (essentially any staff that was not directly involved with administering the test).

I stuck around a little later than I normally do most days to sneak these surprises into the right mailboxes so they would find them in morning because some people get in before I do.  And one day the first week I had to put two days' surprises in the boxes because of a snow day and doubling up on the tests for the next day.  

I tried to keep it simple with the tags just printed on copy paper, punched and tied up with different colored cotton string each day.  

There were some surprises of my own today.  One teacher left me a bag of microwave popcorn with a tag that said "You make the school pop".  Another gave me a card and several people send me e-mails with thanks.  So I think it was a worthwhile use of my time.

The second round of tests is in May and I've already warned them not to expect the same thing now that they're no longer novices and should know what to expect.  

I'm fading fast, so if anything doesn't seem clear about any of the above, please drop me a line.

SHARP and Phone Doodling

Today's photo prompt is SHARP.  I had a packet of sharpened pencils on my work desk.  Well, I really have all the packets of the remaining pencils available at school right now until our next supply order comes in.  If I left them in the Supply Room they'd be gone by now.  Better to have the dozen or so boxes where I can dole them out as need because we are known to have pencil hoarders in our school.  

Seriously.  One year I ordered (I thought by accident) 800 dz. pencils.  That's a total of 9,600 pencils. They came in cases of 1,440 pencils and the 6+ cases couldn't all fit in the main Supply Room.  We had to put 3 cases (4,320 pencils) in the office closet.  Some of those were put aside for testing leaving 3,600 pencils.  Mid-year I was informed that we were running low on pencils in the Supply Room and found that there were only 29 dz. left (348 pencils) meaning 5,632 pencils were used by mid-year. Dividing that by 300 students that meant that on average each student had already used 18.84 pencils.  I have all these figures because I had to explain to my boss why we needed to order more pencils.  Feeling very Nancy Drew-like I titled my report "The Case of the Missing Pencils" and he got a kick out of that.  

Some more playing around with SHARP pencils and markers.

And here's the phone doodling referenced in the post title.  This was done at home while talking to a friend on the phone for, well I won't say how long, but I rolled all those flowers, doodled the post-it and folded the origami bird.  She was on speaker phone and had no idea of what I was up to.

Now I have to plan what I'm going to do with those flowers!

Paper Players - PP235 and PART OF ME

I saw the color challenge from the Paper Players this week and decided to play along.

I was having so much fun with my new Easter Eggs stamp set and die from A Muse that I used these colors to make two cards.  

On this one I also used a new embossing folder that was gifted to me by my blogging friend Sabrina and the greenery is a Memory Box die. 

On this next one I used the egg stamp in Crumb Cake on the panel first and then added half a kraft and half a white doily to it.  I found some So Saffron ribbon in a drawer and tied that around the panel.  The egg was watercolored and popped up.  

Then I added some little punch pack flowers in Crisp Canteloupe and So Saffron. I daubered the edges in inks of the same color first and then gave them a squish on a mouse pad to cup them up into more of a 3-D shape.  The centers are sticky pearls that were colored with a Wild Wasabi Blendability (which, if you haven't heard have been discontinued).

I love when I can use a stamp more than one way -  like this one for a background.  

Today's photo prompt is PART OF ME and this is PART OF ME inside and outside of a puddle.

It got up to 60º today and there was a lot of snow-melt.  This puddle is one of many at the end of our driveway.  The sheet of ice that it once was has melted enough for me to be able to get the mail from the mailbox without worrying about slipping.  That's what happens when your mailbox is at the foot of a hill and mostly in the shade even during the winter.  

Jingle Belles Round 2 - I'm Dreaming of a Bright Christmas

Remember the inspiration photo from last week (see below) - this is my second card for this Jingle Belle Challenge.

I saw those scrolls on the placemat and wanted to get them represented on this card.  I found some cool pink paper at Mike's this weekend and some lime green glitter paper also found it's way into my basket.  The argyle paper is from a paper pack and I've had those ribbons stashed away.

I used the glittered dots from the ribbon for the ornaments on the tree but first I put a dab of glue on the back of them to glue them to a piece of white paper so I could cut them out.  I had tried a punch but it would not go through the fabric of the ribbon, so I thought attaching them to the paper first would make them easier to cut and I was right. 

I used a Rich Razzleberry card base for this card as I did for last week's.  I like the unexpected surprise of opening an envelope expecting a Christmas card and seeing such wonderful non-traditional colors.  

My little personal celebration came today when I went into the supply room at work and found a box of donated book covers that just so happen to be printed on kraft paper.  Since they were donated and not purchased with school money I took a few of them and I'm going to try to make one of those origami cubes that I did out of the post-it notes with them.  The paper seems sturdy enough, yet thin enough to fold without bulk.  You'll see my triumph or failure in the future.  

PEACEFUL

Turn up your volume - I was struck by the melodic sound of the water dripping out from under the melting snow along with the sound of the birds in the tree overhead.  It was such a PEACEFUL sound a picture didn't seem enough.

Happy BIrthday

It may look a little feminine with all those flowers, but this card is for HWNSNBP's birthday today. The stamped image of the birds in and on the nesting box surrounded by flowers reminded me so much of our box in the garden when the clematis trailed over it.  Of course I probably should have gone with a purple flower which would have been true to what we had here, but once I got started with the pink I didn't want to restart.  I loved this set so much that I splurged on the whole package from Heartfelt Creations as a birthday present to myself making this probably right now the most expensive card I've made. 

I had to secretly get this done while he was out officiating his basketball games and even took the pictures in the stamp cave so he wouldn't be able to see it ahead of time.  

Those birdies not on the box are rather large in comparison to the ones on the box but they reminded me of the juvenile blues who often look a little chubbier than their parents.  

We have not had any bluebird sightings here in the yard for several months, but the weather is turning and we are hopeful that they will be back soon.

Happy Birthday my love!