A Day

My 64th Thanksgiving is come and gone.  I found myself at the point of a teary meltdown...was it before or just after we ate?...I can't recall.  I was considering the mountain of work still to be done, with so many hours of effort behind me and it just felt like I couldn't go on.  Then, I took a breath and looked around me; at my family, all engaged in conversation, happy, warm, well fed, together.  A perfect moment in a perfectly blessed day. 

Some Favorite Things

A couple days ago I came across a design that just filled my head.  I actually thought I had dreamed the design, because I could not recall where I had seen it and so I deluded myself into thinking maybe I had created it in my dreams...as unlikely as that was.  It featured the newish Tim Holtz silhouette die, and a piece of plastic for a "dome".  My version uses these elements, coupled with Tim's Floral Garland strip die and some paper from that French dictionary I just bought, mounted on a Tim diecut.  The artist who REALLY created the design that inspired me is  www.digthatcrazychick.blogspot.com.  Check her out! 

Random

 

 

Yesterday I took some time to play with new Marianne Creatable Die/Emboss patterns.  As I'm spending a goodly amount of time watching Clare Charvill's Youtube channel, I can't help but want some of the lovely embellishments she uses.   eBay to the rescue.  What I hoped to achieve was the dry emboss technique.  And so it was that yesterday in the laboratory I toiled with this, that and the other thing trying to emboss with the little steel dies.  Not.  Cutting I can do, and you will see that these leafy designs do cut nicely.  (the black swirly things above).  Last evening, after making a mess at my work table, with little to show for it, I turned off the lights and shut the door. 

During the night my thoughts kept going back to embossing; including a 2 a.m. perusal of Youtube tutorials on how to use my Big Shot for such things.  There is no workaround; I had to purchase 2 special embossing pads.  Again, thank you eBay.  Still, the itch to take scissors and glue to paper was with me this morning so I made some use of the scraps and such that were still littering my table. 

Too Good To Cut

 Do you ever see something and just have to have it?  I know...too often.  Stay with me.  Recently a food blog I follow by David Lebovitz posted pics from an old French dictionary.  This was the page that started it all.  

 The colored "plates" blew me away and the hunt was on.  I found a good selection of individual pages, plus the more rare volume, on etsy.  I think the vintage French "Dictionary" is really what we in the U.S. call an encyclopedia because there are multiple volumes to a set.  And each volume was quite expensive. 

 Letting my fingers fly over Google, etsy and eBay, I narrowed down my search to "vintage LaRousse" and ultimately "Nouveau Universel".  There was one nice 2 volume set on etsy for $100.  Still, I Googled on. 

While there are many colored plates, mostly there are thousands of pages of definitions with illustrations on every page. 

Amazon.com had 2 sellers with copies of this edition from 1949.  For $25.  I chose the seller who was closest to me, expecting a slow arrival, and expecting the volumes to be in poor repair.  Because, after all, I planned to cut up the pages to use in my paper crafting.   

Well, ahem, the books arrived in a blink, and they are in excellent condition.  Too good to cut?!  Yes, I know I could scan the pages and make photocopies, but I much prefer to use original ephemera.  So, I, gulp, think I will cut, certainly the black/white pages. 

Fall Back Extra Hour

I DO NOT LIKE losing daylight when we turn back the clocks to end day-light-savings time.  Maybe because it shortens the time my horses are turned out to their large pastures, or maybe it's just because 4 pm is too darn early for pitch black!!!  (deep breath).  OK, so last night I decided to use the extra hour I gained with the "fall back" to craft; a bonus crafting hour.  I headed up to the studio right after coffee and feeding the horses, before breakfast.  I cannot get enough of this Graphic 45 "Curtain Call" collection; I even used one of the patterns for the die-cut flowers and leaves.  I decided to make 2 more circle easel cards.  All 3 will go out in tomorrow's mail to special friends.  Even though I'm thinking seriously about launching into a Christmas theme, I think I want to make something with "BirdSong".  I waited so long for those papers to hit the store, then I've hardly used it. 

Tim's November Tag

Here is my version of Tim's November tag.  I know I'm in good company, anticipating the click over to each calendar month 'cause that means a new tag from Tim.  What would we do without him?!  As is often the case, I don't have the materials Tim uses, but I have plenty of Tim stuff that works just fine.  Here I used his papers and three of his dies; flower garland, festive greenery and the bell jar, which I just had to use again.  THANK YOU TIM.

Circle Easel Card

 I have been immobile for a couple days due to a muscle strain in my back.  Today I am up and around and fit for crafting...after some triage vacuuming.  I just found tutorials for Circle Easel Cards on YouTube; that was just the thing for today's brief craft session.  I decided to use Graphic 45's Curtain Call collection, an older pattern that I just purchased from ScrappyJack on eBay.  I traced the circles from a template and hand cut the pieces, first from brown cardstock, then from the G45 papers. 

 I needed to watch the tutorial closely to see how the easel was formed.  It is a simple concept but sometimes my brain needs extra TLC.  After bringing out some purchased flowers and leaves, I decided to cut my own using my new Tim "Floral Garland" strip die, along with flourishes from Spellbinders.  I added a bit of sparkle with Platinum Stickles and a jet rhinestone.  Everything was inked with Distress Black Soot. 

I want to comment on dies.  Tim's dies are an investment, but they work.  I wanted a flourish die and opted for this Spellbinders design because it was inexpensive.  However, I am frustrated every time I use is (fairly often); the die just does not effectively cut a clean pattern...even though I now run it through my Big Shot forewords and backwards for a double whammy.  Guess I'll be shopping for another Tim die.