Time to Make a Mess. . .I Mean Make Cards!

 

The Christmas Card Crafting Kit

It's that magical, wonderful time of year--Christmas card creation! Otherwise known as the season the craft room looks like a blizzard blew through. 

To get started this year, I ordered my first card kit from Stampin' Up. I was impressed with all that came in it. There are enough goodies to make ten cards from two different bases, including decorative envelopes.

Cue the Christmas music and let's get started!

There are several videos that show what you can do with the card kit, but I went straight to an original design. Here, the silver border accents the silver Noel sentiment, and I love the curved front of the card that reveals the stamped row of trees on the inside.

In addition to the kit, there is also the Cricut library of cards. I've already made two cards using a new foiling tool I bought over the summer, and I'm very happy with the results. 

 

How about a pop-up card? Yes, this actually folds flat for mailing. It's another one done with the Cricut. I'm hoping the recipient is as happy with it as I am.

Here is another Cricut design I love. It has multiple layers of snowflake cut-outs that look like decorated cookies. Yumm!

 

Though I've saved so many card designs on my Pinterest board that I still want to use, I also took advantage of a two week online class featuring various techniques for making Christmas cards. Each day had two different instructors showing their card variations along with tips for using the materials.

Here are two techniques I learned in the classes that use an embossing folder with foil and ink blending. 

 

Card making will continue for the next month and I'll share more creations next month. I have another kit on its way and I can't wait to enjoy more time in the craft room!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Two Craft Rooms

 

 

 

We recently organized our craft room in preparation for the holiday season. I love that the crafting table now has so much more space for working on projects. All of our inks, papers, stamps, vinyls, and embellishments are together in drawers, on shelves, and in paper cubbies.

Fall is also the time of year I'm busy in the kitchen making jams, applesauce, apple butter, herbal salt, and my husband's favorite, fruit cobblers. I try variations on old recipes and some new to me, making the kitchen what my husband refers to as my tastiest craft room.

I am so happy to grow and cook good food for us. I mentioned to a friend at work that I’d planted cabbage for the first time and he introduced me to the ease of making sauerkraut. Not only did I find out it is extremely simple, but it is a fermented food that has great health benefits.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiNl0Jv6xTw&t=619s

Since my cabbage won’t be ready for six to eight weeks, I purchased a bag of coleslaw mix and added a bit of jalapeño pepper from the garden. This video provided easy instructions, and in just two weeks our first batch was ready. The result was excellent.

Our first batch of sauerkraut!

With the fresh jalapeño, we found out as the video mentions, a little goes a long way! I'd like to try adding a bit of garlic in a future batch, which will be fresh from the garden next year. 

As the garden vegetables produce their final crops for the year I'll be back in the other craft room making holiday cards. The kitchen craft room will be busy as I cook up gifts of soaps, pasta, cookies, and other ideas I gather from that great internet resource--Pinterest!

Herbal salt and apple butter from our garden.

 

 

No Bears Were Seen

 

Photo by Francesco De Tommaso on Unsplash

Leavenworth FB photo

We spent two days out of town a few weeks ago, the first time in two years. Yes, we had a lot of anxiety about breakthrough infection, but most of our activities were outdoors in Leavenworth, WA, a small Bavarian-styled village and our favorite vacation destination.

We were able to enjoy our favorite hike, the Icicle Gorge trail, twelve miles from civilization. “Enjoy” might be a stretch for me since I am deathly afraid of encountering a bear in the woods and had a firm two-handed grip on the bear spray canister the entire 4.16 miles. The winds picked up that day and lodge pole pines knocking against each other make for a horrific sound in the forest!
 

 

We also had a lot of fun during our first time metal detecting along the banks and in the water of local rivers, though we didn’t find anything more valuable than quarters. While trekking to one river where my husband wanted to search, we encountered a lot of bear scat. The animal that left that would easily outweigh both of us, so I offered a compromise. Instead, we searched a river bank at a lower elevation where the temperature was beyond cool and the water was glacial runoff. I shivered, but at least I wasn’t eaten by a bear!

On the way home I was able to pick my fill of elderberries (oh, yes, bears love these, too) that became jam the same afternoon. September kicks off a big preservation month for me and these foraged berries are just the delicious start.

Photo by ceit wonders on Unsplash

 

What's So Funny?

Image from Pinterest

Wikipedia defines wit as "...a form of intelligent humour, the ability to say or write things that are clever and usually funny. Forms of wit include the quip, repartee, and wisecrack."

Who hasn't thought of the perfect quip or comeback a minute, hour, or day after your conversation has ended? There’s a name for that phenomenon -- l’esprit de l’escalier, the spirit of the staircase, which refers to the perfect retort that arises at the wrong time. 

Writers have that gift of time--if the perfect line doesn't come to you in the first draft, you have revisions to hone your prose.

I write to expand my communication capabilities and to stretch my mind. To that end, I plan to take a romantic suspense book I wrote a few years ago, but never published, and revise it as a romantic comedy.

Photo by Ben White on Unsplash

Oh, it will stretch my mind and capabilities! The problem is, no one who knows me would say I’m a “fun” person. I get things done, games aren’t something I enjoy. 

 

 

But I like to find humor in things, make puns, and create fun new words like awesumma (awesome with a Latin twist). Humor and word play are skills I’d like to improve and I expect it to be an enjoyable pursuit.

Humor combines with wit in one of my favorite figures of speech, the paraprosdokian. This is found in a sentence or phrase where the latter part is surprising or unexpected and causes the reader to reframe or reinterpret the first part.

Here are a few examples from Winston Churchill, a master of the paraprosdokian. More examples can be found here.

• If I agreed with you, we'd both be wrong.
• I didn't say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.
• I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not so sure.

Similarly, authors need to find fresh ways to express familiar phrases. Instead of her heart pounded, readers are more engaged with her heart hammered like a metalsmith on six Red Bulls.

Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash

Photo by Giulia Bertelli on Unsplash

 

 

 

See the difference? 

So, here's hoping my funny bone isn't broken and I can turn my romantic suspense story into a light-hearted, smile-inducing romance. Reading other romance comedies for research is a lot of fun!

Photo by Cathal Mac an Bheatha on Unsplash

 

Neighborhood Sharing

 

 

https://littlefreelibrary.org/about/

In my neighborhood and many others in Seattle you can find "Little Free Libraries". These often look like tiny houses and usually have two tiers of books inside. Some may be dedicated to children's books, but most have titles for all ages.

The concept is that you take a book and leave a book. There is one on my street and there may be one on yours. You can look up locations at the Little Free Library site linked here.

The Little Free Library site also has plans for creating your own Little Free Library, and a link to register your location.

In addition to occasionally dropping off a book, I recently created bookmarks to add to the Little Free Libraries in my neighborhood. Making the bookmarks gave me a new creative outlet where I can apply all my card making techniques and supplies, and the bookmarks are perfect accompaniments to books.

This first batch is made from DSP--double-sided paper. Each bookmark is vinyl covered for durability, and the decorations on the end of the ribbons are little trinkets I've found while out on walks.

There is a tab on the bookmark that slides over a page to help keep it in place:

My next batch of bookmarks were made from metallic paper and included new tassels that I bought. Each one also has a stamp on the back: a hedgehog, rain, field of flowers, coffee mugs, and a sentiment "Sparkle with all your heart". I love having a new way to share my paper hobby with others.

In addition to Little Free Libraries, our neighborhood also has Little Pantries where people can leave food for those in need. On a walk this week we found a Little Pantry refrigerator stocked with juices, salads, and fruit!

Little Free Libraries feed hungry minds, and Little Pantries feed  hungry bodies. Both are wonderful ways to share with our neighbors.

 

Photo by cyrus gomez on Unsplash