Clear out of nowhere.

So for the past couple of days I've been stewing on Christmas card design, and then today, clear out of nowhere, I decide that I wanted to try my hand at papercrafting a Christmas tree ornament.  Why not take that paper layering technique apply it to a Christmas shape and color scheme and add a whole for a ribbon?

Well, DUH!

And that's what I came up with. ☻

Did I mention that I did True Scrap this past weekend? It was really fantastic - and that really means something coming from me.  I don't spend money easily, and it's hard to 'wow' me with regard to scrapping education.  But the variety of classes, the caliber of the presentations, the amount of inspiration? AMAZING.

I mention this because the card I shared yesterday was fairly me-ish: that color palette, the circles, the "joy" title (that I've used several times before) are all very me.

This bird?  Maybe a little less me and a little more True Scrap inspired.  And that's a-ok.  Otherwise, woo-wee, that was a lot of money to stay in my own little box. ;)

But there was some serious distressing and Glimmer Mist flinging going on and it made me want to get in on the action.  That would be Nic Howard, Erin Bassett, Francine Cloudin and Jen McGuire all crowding my brain with messy goodness.

This back end that's curling up?  That's Nicole Magouirk's influence.  She's been doing this thing lately where instead of adhering things down nice and tidy and flat, she's letting some edges ride up in a little.  Love that.  The back side of the bird's tail has some white paper flakes that I didn't notice until I saw them huge on the photo.  That's been fixed. ;)

Oh.  That's juicy.

So I really dig the way this came out.  When the Ted and Molly came home I asked them if they'd want to give this ornament to their teachers as Christmas gifts and they both gave an enthusiastic yes. So after dinner I cut out pieces parts for 13 more.  Dang those middle schools with different teachers in every subject area. :P

Not sure about the glitter smears.  I'm not in love.  Molly says that it looks weird because it's just in the three spots.  Not sure that's going to make the final cut.  But I have a couple of days to decide since that's the very last step.  If you want to cast a vote one way or the other to shove me off the fence, I will happily listen to your opinions!

As always, thanks for stopping by and taking the time to look.  I love sharing and I hope something here spoke to you.

The prototype

You know you're a crafting nerd when your working on your Christmas cards and while you're settling on what the final design will be you happily refer to it as the prototype.

I have only the faintest idea where this will end up, but I like the beginnings.  For whatever reason, I ♥♥♥ the Dr. Suess color schemes for Christmas - real red with a lime-yish green and even light blues.  I don't know if I associate those colors with watching How the Grinch Stole Christmas but that color scheme makes me happy.

Check it out:

Not exactly the best shot, but you get the inspiration hopefully.

Clearly this isn't "it".  Still just playing around with color choices, placement, dies...and the jury's still out on the baker's twine bow.  I'm not sold on it and while I can see myself stacking 7 layers of the word "Joy", tying that bow on every card might push me over the edge.

I have to shop for paper.  Wish I had come up with this a month ago, before Archivers had that big sale - I would have bought more of that light blue ledger paper.

Also contemplating this combo:

That background paper is from SEI, and while it's new-to-me, I don't know if I'll be able to still get it in any quantity.  Plus, I'm not sold on whether it's "blue" enough.  Maybe I need to break down and find some actual blue holiday themed paper? Crazy talk!

I'm positively giddy that I'm making cards this year.  I haven't made cards in literally ten years.  This year I'm starting early and keeping it realistic.  Eeeeeeee!

The light at the end of the tunnel...

I take two classes every semester, but this semester one class is online and one is on campus.  What's the big difference? The online class is only 8 weeks long, whereas the on-campus class is 16 weeks long.  Lest you think that the 8 week class is easier: no no no.  Let me repeat: NO! They cram 16 week's worth of material into 8 weeks, and that means multiple assignments a week, reading out the wazoo, and writing. God Almighty, I hate writing.  (at least academically)

But: HOORAY! Today was my last day of my online class.  I still have two assignments to turn in, due next Wednesday, but the big stuff is behind me.  And I simply could not be happier about this.

At any rate, tonight I had my headset on and I was watching the power point while sitting at my scrap table and something in my Making Memories desktop carousel caught my eye.  It was the enormous Sharpie marker I bought a while back, used once for its intended purpose and then forgotten about.  In online learning you're watching a power point, and usually it moves at a snail pace.  One of the things that I've found is that I need to have some mindless activity to do, because if my eyes aren't engaged on something mindless, they'll find something mind-full to focus on and take my brain with it.  I mentioned shopping at Hollo's Papercraft in a recent post. In a more recent trip to Hollo's I picked up what I think are dividers for an index card file box. They're super think, and frankly, I'm not fond of the color.  The stack I bought was about 3 and a half inches think and I think $3.99...so yeah, crazy huge quantity of something I'm "eh" about.

Enter the gigantic Sharpie marker:

So yeah.  It's not super black, but it's better than it was before. And I'm suddenly looking at this stack of dividers wondering how many that marker can color before dying.

So what will I do with this? I'm thinking I'll punch holes in them and use them as mini-pages in my RIT mini-book.

And yes, I WILL finish that project.  I've lost a lot of steam because of the forced school break I've been on, but I've invested too much money into this to abandon it.  That said, I am excited to get back to the table.

As always, thanks for stopping by.