Excuses & Chit Chat, A Couple of Tips, & A Couple of Cards!

Hello!  I want to start out by saying this is a long post.  Lots of chit chat. Thanks in advance for reading!  I can't believe it is already the 18th and this post marks only my 5th for the month.  That is so awful!  Yes, you always get the Saturday sketch shares, and tomorrow will be no different, but I am speaking of all the other posts you usually get in between!  And the crazy part to me is that I feel like I have been out in my stamp shack non-stop.  It's those classes ... not complaining, just stating the facts!  The prep always seems to take so much longer than I think it will.  Take this week.  On Sunday, I spent about 3 hours getting the class kits ready, Monday about 6 hours, Tuesday about 8 to 9 hours.  And then Wed. morning I was up at 7 a.m. to put all the pieces into each clear envelope for the kits, which took another couple of hours.  Yep, it does take time.  But, once I am there at the store and enjoying the company of the ladies, I totally forget about all the prep time!  Last year, I made a bunch of different Thanksgiving cards so I could have each one on the blog for a different day.  This year, with time constraints, I am making one card x 20.  I will show you that card, but it will probably be next week, before I do.  I am using the MFT girl holding the pumpkin with some great paper piecing.  (You know that is my favorite thing to do!) So, I have been cutting out different pieces while watching t.v.  I finished all the cutting last night and so I am now working on the card bases.  Next on my list to get to, is a mini gift project for my stamping friends.  Last year, I made desk calendars for them and this year I am making a companion item to go along with that.  The fun part is that I had on my computer the desk calendars I made last year and so this year I found out which one I made for each person, as they were the same design but different papers.  So, I will be making the companion piece in each of those same colors.  I scouted out my paper drawers yesterday and I think I found enough scraps for each to make my idea work!   I am not going to elaborate any more than that, as "they" read my blog!  The Monday after Thanksgiving I have to do more prep work for two cards that I am teaching at the little local scrapbook store out here.  This is the second time I have taught a class there and only the second time they have ever had an outside teacher.  So, let me show you those cards ... enjoy! 

Both cards use the same set of stamps and as part of their class fee, they get the set of stamps to take home.  The store's classroom is set up in the middle of the store, and they have room for 6, but she sold 9 kits!  So, I guess, some will be sitting at a card table!  Reminds me of my first store location!  Anyway, you can see the first card is similar to the one I am teaching this week at The Crafty Scrapper, but the sketch layout is different on the front of the card.  At the store, I picked out this group of papers to use from Bo Bunny called Blitzen, but then when I was home, I had a lot of trouble with the colors, because the designer paper doesn't have a true red or green that would match the inside honeycomb.  In the end, I only used one of the papers along with the dot papers from Bo Bunny, the blue and the red.  And then adding the green ribbon, which I think allows it to flow with the green inside.  I added the black as an accent to get it to pop.  Funny, how adding black, can work like that!  The second card is called a Criss Cross Pocket card.  I taught the card type a couple of months ago at The Crafty Scrapper.  It is such a fun card.  Maybe I will make one of those for Christmas and I can show you all the steps to make it then!

 Also, on my list of to-do's is my Sketch for You to Try card by the end of this month, and one more class prep early in the week of 12-4.  That will be my Treat & Tag class I am teaching at The Crafty Scrapper.  Every year by Thanksgiving, it is a goal of mine to know what card I am making for Christmas or at least have ideas of what stamps you want to use.  Thanksgiving is next week, and I don't know.  I might repeat a couple of the class card ideas or ... well, I have to get my thinking cap on!  I prefer not to mass produce, so I might try to make one card and make 4 to match.  The problem is that week in Dec. that I am prepping and teaching, it is unlikely that I will have to time to create too.  But even so, there are still 20 days, give or take, before Christmas cards need to go in the mail, so surely 12 of the 20 I could make a design.  I was also thinking of making a couple of gifts, but that might not happen.  Enough of my yada, yada, yada, excuses,etc.!  Let's go on to something else ...

I have a couple of Tina tips to share!  Woo Hoo!  The first is about making the honeycomb pads go further ... I recently found out that I could get more stamped trees out of one honeycomb pad if I flipped the pad over and stamped the tree upside down.  The key is just to make sure that the horizontal arrow that is on the clear stamp is going the same way as the arrow on the pad.  Here is a pic of the trees stamped on the honeycomb pad (part of the pad is cut off)...

Tina tip two is about when you are die cutting and you need the die cut to stay exactly where you put it while you are running it thru the machine.  I used to use tape, but it was kinda of a hassel, so I recently saw this trick and tried it and liked it ... use a post it note!  Easy to grab and it works!  Here is a pic:

And last but not least, sometimes you need a very slim strip of paper and your paper cutter dosen't allow you to get a straight cut when you are doing such a small piece.  See the strip on this card under the nativity? Here is a pic ...

A lot of the border punches will give you this strip after your border is punched.  The punch I am showing you is made by Fiskars, but many others will do the same.

O.k., well I still feel bad about not doing more blog posts, but I feel somewhat better just knowing that I have let you know what is going on in my little stamping world!  I will show you cards and projects as they get finished.  And, I will be back tommorrow with the Saturday sketch share.  See you then!

Happy Stamping!
Tina