Everything But The Kitchen Sink Sketch Challenge

Here's my card for this month's Everything But The Kitchen Sink Sketch Challenge:

It's a little more "girly" than I usually make, but it's what I came up with. Not sure if I like it or not? I like it, but I guess it's not one of my favorites. Anyway, have a good night!

Supplies: All patterned paper is from the Earth Love Mini Deck by Cosmo Cricket, the "happy" is some Thickers from American Crafts that I got real cheap at Big Lots (yay!), the "birthday" is from a remarks letter stickers book, I used a tag stamp from a stampology clear stamp set called Journaling Tags that I got on clearance at Target for super cheap (yay again!) and embossed it with clear embossing powder using some versa mark ink. Oh and the string and buttons were just from my stash o' stuff!

What? Four days off?

I have had the past four days off from work and I have kept myself very busy! Here is a little glimpse of what I have accomplished:

1. I made a wreath out of some boas, a grass wreath, a staple gun, and some ribbon.
All I did was staple a boa into place on one end, then wrap it around, making sure that the brown wreath did not show through, then stapled the other end. I used about 5 or 6 boas (I'm not sure exactly because I started this project several weeks ago only to discover that I did not have enough boas to cover the entire wreath, and I don't remember how many I used in that first stage).

Here is the final result! I actually found the idea here on a blog that I follow! I wish I had made the bow bigger at the top and I always can because it's just tied. I love this wreath because it will be so easy to change out the ribbon based on the season/holiday!

2. I cleaned my entire house from top to bottom (well almost). I did do some major cleaning and knocked 1 room off of my "I've got to declutter this place before putting it on the market" list!

3. On Saturday, I had some not so great news with shared with me when I had someone here to look at my heating system because we always have a musty smell when the heat kicks on. That was being caused by two things. One was that the air return duct work under my house had come loose and had a huge gap in it - that problem got fixed (not to mention that it was supposed to have been fixed last year when we had someone else tell us the exact same thing)! The second reason is that we have water standing under our house! Yes, we did just have a TON of rain this past week, but it should not be getting under the house! The builder did put a "trench" around the foundation and that is where all the water stays, but this is probably the source of the musty smell. I have no clue who to call to have this fixed, so any ideas would be appreciated!

4. We went to see the movie, Avatar this weekend! I was NOT looking forward to seeing it at all and only went because I wanted to get out of the house and this was the only movie that my husband wanted to see. Well, I loved it...Go figure!

5. I taught myself to knit! I did a little learning swatch to learn the basics, and now I am in the process of making a very simple scarf - just one color and no pattern, but it's just my first one!

Whew! What a weekend! Back to work tomorrow to work 7 out of the next 10 days!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink Challenge

I am pushing the deadline on this one! I just have not been in a very "crafty" mood lately and I had to make myself sit down to participate in this challenge! I love these challenges because they are so different! So here we go...click on the image below for all the other great entries: Can you guess what the challenge was this time:

How about now:

It was to use toothpicks! How creative Kelley! I loved the idea and when I saw it, I got really excited, but I had a hard time coming up with something to do with them! Here's what I came up with for this challenge:

It's very simplistic this time! I look at it at times and I like it, but then other times not so much!

Anyway, I hope you all have a great night! I'm heading to bed as soon as I get my desk halfway cleared off at least!

EBTKS - November Sketch challenge

The girls over at EBTKS added a new challenge - a sketch challenge based off of something in the home. This one is based off of one of the girl's fireplace mantle.
Here's the sketch (and link): And here's my card (with the kitchen sink in the background - ha ha....I just don't have the greatest lighting in my house and the kitchen counter seems to be the best place so far when I need to take pictures on rainy days like today):

The paper that I used was some glitter paper that I had from a 4.5 x 6.5 "Mat Stack."
The "Thanks! Thanks! Thanks!" stamp is from American Crafts' "Thanks" stamp set, stamped with some versa mark ink and then embossed with some silver embossing powder (I can't remember who makes it though). It is stamped on some black card stock and applied with some foam adhesive.

I had so much fun with this challenge that I actually made another card! This one is my favorite of the two (yes, again with the kitchen sink :o) )

This one I made with a stamp set that I just HAD to have! It's called "Coffee Cafe" by TPC Studio. The little stamp on the inside of the card in the circle is stamped in Chestnut Roan by Color Box and the "I like you a latte" (lol - I had to have the set for that one stamp really) is stamped with Versa Mark ink and embossed with clear embossing powder on some brown card stock. The paper is called "simple stripe" by Three Bugs in a Rug from their Simple Pleasures collection. It is a two sided piece and the blue/brown/white patter was the other side of that same piece. Oh and some white thread and foam adhesive!

Could you hold please?

The other night at work I got a phone call from one of our regular customers. You know the type - the ones who are needy and require a 20 minute conversation about absolutely nothing and when you hang up after those 20 minutes, you have only spoken for maybe 3 of those minutes other than the occasional "yes", "uh huh", "I understand", "really?", "whys that?"....

The customer asked me to find out how much a particular medication would cost on their insurance. So I politely ask the customer, "Do you mind holding for a minute so that I can run that through your insurance and get a price for you?"

The response that I got about knocked me on the floor! I can honestly say that it is a first for me in the 10+ years that I have been working in a pharmacy....

"Sure, I'm just sitting here resting on the commode."

I cannot look at this customer in the same way anymore! I'm just thankful that I did not hear any strange noises while I was on the phone!

A 2nd EBTKS Card

So I decided I would make another card using TP for the Everything but the Kitchen Sink challenge. For my first card, the tp was disguised and it could have been pretty much anything. However, for this 2nd card I wanted to make something that you could tell that TP was used (not used TP - that would be gross)!It's pretty simplistic, but I thought it would be a cute card to stick in with my hubby's lunch one night when he leaves for work! I used staples to secure the two "points" and then used glue dots to keep the rest of it attached to the card to get the shape - surprisingly this was a lot harder than it might look!

On another note, here is a better picture of the first card that I made for this challenge! I decided that since it was such a nice day out I would take advantage of it and take a better picture with fantastic natural light!

Everything But The Kitchen Sink Challenge - November '09

Wow! Thank you girls for a TRUE CHALLENGE! I had no idea where to begin with this one. This month the challenge was to use toilet paper! Oh my goodness, I had no idea where to begin! I just went to the bathroom and grabbed a bunch of it and brought it into my office/craft area and started twisting it, crunching it up, trying to use it as a "dabber" for paint to create a background effect....which turned into my crazy card! (click on this logo above to be taken to the page to see other entries)


For my card, I ended up taking the TP and applied it to some kraft colored card stock (a little smaller than the face of my card) using some Platinum colored metallic craft paint I had in my closet. It ended up creating a textured background that, surprisingly, I really like!

So here's my card! It looks a little better in person, but you get the idea! I hate that the greens of the wreath and the "Season's Greetings" sticker don't match (and I may end up switching out sentiments if I can find a good one that matches), but for now it will do!

I hope that everyone has a fantastic rest of the week! I get to work two 12 hour shifts on Wednesday and Thursday - but at least I only have 3 flu shots left to give for the season (unless of course we end up getting the H1N1 vaccine - which I not so secretly hope we DON'T)! I gave 47 flu shots over the course of my 3 day weekend PLUS did all the other normal stuff I have to do at work - it just about did me in!

Supplies: TP :o) , platinum colored metallic craft paint, green felt cut into a circle/wreath shape, red Christmas ribbon from my stash of stuff, the "Season's Greetings" sticker is from the Paper Studio, kraft colored card stock, chocolate brown card stock, the wreath and sentiment are applied using foam dimensional adhesive.