And now it's PERMANANT

I think my mojo is backpacking across Europe.  It seems to have been gone for an awfully long time.  Today I decided that I was going to scrap something, ANYTHING, with or without it.  I printed out some pictures.  That only sucked away took about two hours.

Aside: I cannot say enough good things about Inkpress PhotoChrome Luster paper. Fantastic stuff. Professional looking, the same weight and feel as traditional photofinishing paper.  Gorgeous. And as an added bonus, it's less expensive than Epson paper.

Which leads me to: I recently picked up some fancy Epson paper.  It was heavy weight with a lovely luster finish.  And maybe if I weren't a scrapbooker I'd think it was perfect.  Certainly it wouldn't sag and buckle in a frame like lighter weight paper would.  But I am a scrapbooker and it was a barrel-full frustration and it looked like poo when I cut it.  I'm sticking with my Inkpress from here on out.

So anyway, I spent a better part of the day sitting at my scraptable doing a whole lot of nothing.  Ted came in and out several times and when I finally had something  going we had a little exchange:

Ted: "Oh no. You're scrapping Shoreline Singers?"
Me: "Uh. Yeah. What's the matter with that?"
Ted: "Now it'll be permanent."

So there you have it.

Nothing amazing. But like I said, my mojo is on a drinking spree in Dusseldorf, so this was the best I could really expect.  And I'll let you in on a little secret. This is actually Shoreline Singers v2.0.  The first time around I worked from the top down and decided to do the journalling on the bottom after the big picture, the title and the borders were down.  But I'm an adventurous gal. So I wrote it up, did a couple of test prints to make sure everything was lined up correctly and then crammed 3 to 4 layers of cardstock and photopaper back into the printer. Yeah. Not my wisest move.  But in fairness, I've had Epson printers that I could shove all kinds of things into.  Apparently my R1900 is a little more delicate.  And what happened was that it pulled it in a little and then spun its wheels a bit, then laid the print down right at the top across the hounds tooth and the the title. It actually looked kinda cool, and I was able to send it through so that it printed on the bottom.  But *I* knew that it was a mistake. So I redid it.

The fonts are Katfish LET and Impact for the title and AvantGarde BK for the journalling.

Thanks for stopping by.  And if you see my mojo, tell it I'm missing it...

Hello again old friend!

Been a while, huh? I'd say I missed you, but honestly? No time for that! December in retail is rough. December in retail while finishing up my first math class in over 20 years? Even more fun!  But in reality, as busy as it was, it was the best December I've had in eons.

So I shared that bird ornament that I made.  I wanted to show the final product.  Ted is selling Malley's chocolate bars for his Shoreline Singers trip. I have literally cases of these chocolate bars so I figured I'd use the opportunity to unload a few. Or 26. ;)  So here's the what Ted and Molly handed off to their teachers for Christmas:

I don't know what my problem was the night I took the picture (although, the fact that it was like 1 a.m. might explain it), but that is one crappy ass picture!  Ugh. Very uneven exposure.  But it'll have to do, because it's the only thing left of this project. So it's two Malley's bars (Crunch, to be specific, because the  pink labels of the Pretzel bars would have been just wretched), wrapped in a little kraft paper, a wide satin ribbon tied in a simple knot, and the ornament tied to that.

Look at all those birdies!

Riddle me this: Why didn't I make one for myself?? Silly me!

So moving right along!  What's up next?  Two things: Valentines Day and Layout A Day. These two concepts don't really jive together all that well.  While I haven't actually signed up for LOAD yet, if I do I need to kick out any Valentine's goodies sooner rather than later.

Oh! And guess what? The World's Most Wonderful Boyfriend (it's in all caps because it's official) got his lucky girlfriend a BRAND. NEW. CAMEO.  Did you hear the Bob Barker Price is Right announcer voice? If you don't you should reread that last sentence with the proper inflection.  Go ahead. I'll wait.

So yeah. New Cameo.  Woo Hoo!   But I have to admit - sort of feeling a little pressure.  Like "here's this amazing tool! Make AMAZING THINGS! HURRY! NOW!"  Only wow, I think that pressure is sitting on my creative mojo.  It'll come back, but I probably have to stop yelling at it and wait for it to ease back into the room.

In the meantime, I'm kinda jazzed about this:

There's nothing actually creative about this. It's even done in the same color scheme shown in the Silhouette library.  And - shhhh, don't tell the manfriend, but it didn't even require the larger format of the Cameo.   It's not finished yet, I need to add a tag with a Valentine greeting to it, and maybe a handle.  BUT, I think it's adorable. I asked Molly what she thought of it and she liked it, so I'm going to make a ton of them for Valentine's.  I'll stop at b.a.Sweeties  and pick up pink and red and white candies to fill it.  I think it'll be great.  I'm excited about it...  Stay tuned.  This is just the first draft, I'm hoping to tweak it a bit to bring on full on adorable.

Hoping to see you again soon.