Out of Steam!

You know those days, when you feel you've just hit a brick wall?! For me I know it's one of those days when I don't feel like stamping! Yep, that's today. Here's why, besides the previous week or more of posts of craft fair stuff: I haven't ordered my DD's birthday present yet (birthday party in 11 days!); haven't heard from roofers yet and we need our entire roof replaced desperately; still waiting to hear from heating/cooling guy to install new air return; can't finish my calendar project because I forgot to buy magnets (TWICE) and my craft room (aka bedroom) is a wreck among many other things! Mostly, I've just done so many projects lately that I'm out of steam!

Well, here's the only thing I could muster yesterday. Trying out different Christmas card ideas for my upcoming SAS. I doubt this one will make the cut. I suddenly and without warning decided to try the old Emboss-Resist technique where you clear emboss something, in this case J-O-Y, onto either a stamped piece or patterned paper as I did here. Then brayer a dark color, chocolate chip, over and wipe the ink from the embossed area. Obviously I couldn't entirely hide the pattern in the paper, which I sort of like, but it's also kind of muddy so I'm not completely sold. Stamping in versamark on a busy paper is tough to see and line up so I wasn't happy with the spacing, but fixed that with the felt flower and build-a-brad. Finally, I used Tombo Mono Adhesive (which I love) to glue down the layers but then decided my JOY panel was too low and couldn't move it for ANYTHING! So, ideally it would be a tad higher so the label didn't interfere as much. You get the idea?! Overall it worked out much better than I thought it was going to while brayering on that chocolate. It nearly went to the trash can.

I did try a second idea and reworked it over and over until I finally was running late and had to leave so it's still in a state of incompletion. Maybe I'll get to it after I finish my cup of tea (full octane). Sorry, hope I didn't totally deplete your energy sources! I'll get my act in gear, promise.

~Kristin~

Oh forgot to tell you that my winning contest entry finally made it to the SU website, but guess what?!! It won't open... well, for me anyway. Others are saying they can see it so that's good. Not sure why I can't. OK, see ya tomorrow... hopefully, I'm volunteering at school so we'll see.