Debating...

This came to my email just 2 days ago and after I casually mentioned it to Christian he said I should go for it....What do you think? Honestly? It involves going to the casting call, a 5 minute video, and an 18 page application that looks somewhat like a psych evaluation...See it here. I'm seriously considering doing it, if anything for the experience, because there's probably a lot more interesting people out there than me that they would like....Let me know!

Also, I've got a few quick, easy, and inexpensive valentines day decorations coming up in the next day or two :)

My first published project!!!

If you've been reading my blog long enough you'll remember that back at the end of August I was excited that I was getting one of my projects published. (You can read the post here) When I signed the publication contract it stated that I wasn't allowed to show the project to anyone until two weeks before the on-sale date of the magazine. Well, the on-sale date is February 5, which means I can now share my project with you!!!! I'm so excited!!! It will be published in the March 2008 PaperCrafts Magazine. Their website is here. They are always looking for projects! Go ahead, submit! Here is where you find out which ones they need at the moment. So without further ado...my project!

Easter Surprise Card

I designed the track system with brads to enable the top to slide up and down. Christian is the one that suggested that I make it an Easter egg with chicks inside. (Thanks Christian! Don't let the accountant persona fool you, he's actually quite creative!!!) When I get the magazine I'll post the page and instructions. I had to write them up and take step by step pictures for the publication, and then they were going to edit and refine them...so as soon as I have the final I'll post it here too. Thanks so much for looking!

More of my family pictures

My dad sent this picture to me today. It's got a better picture of my sister than the one I took at her work. This was taken at the MTC after they dropped me off at the airport.

Hoping for a snow day...even though I'd already had enough.

Well, I woke up giddy this morning, hoping that there was lots of ice to be found and was sorely disappointed. Off to work I went.

However, I visited my family in Northern Utah last weekend...well it was supposed to be Thursday night through Monday morning, but I think I wished for too much snow! (I was secretly hoping it would snow a bunch because it's been too long since I've seen lots of snow!) It took forever driving to the airport Monday morning because of all the snow. I finally got to the airport 25 minutes before my plane was supposed to start boarding. The roads looked like this:

(My dad definitely gets the award for winter weather driver extrodinaire!) I checked in my luggage while my dad checked the tv monitors to make sure that my flight was still leaving. He came back and said it was. I was so worried I wasn't going to make my flight that I asked the lady checking in my bags if she could call the gate and let them know I was on my way. She told me no and then asked me what time my flight left. I told her and she went over to her computers for a second and proceded to tell me that my flight had been cancelled. That's the first time I've ever had a flight cancelled. So she walks me over to the ticket counter so they can reschedule my flight...while walking over there, I'm thinking, well, I'll be a little late getting home tonight, but nothing prepared me for what happened next. The lady at the ticket counter then proceded to inform me that she couldn't get me on any flights until Wednesday! My dad and I looked at each other in shock and then looked back at her and verbally confirmed with her a few times that there were no flights until Wednesday, and it was Monday. (What I didn't realize when I booked my flight in November was that the Sundance film festival was also the same weekend...so it was really busy in Salt Lake City.) I rescheduled for Wednesday and got back into the car. I won't lie and say I wasn't happy to spend a few extra days with my family. :) I found out later that a plane had actually slid off of the runway that morning...good thing they cancelled!

The reason for the visit was that my brother was leaving on his mission to Fresno, CA, Spanish speaking. I went out for one last visit to see him, and my Dad, who will be taking a job in Germany for the next two years. My mom and sister are staying in Logan, UT to finish up their school while my dad works in Germany and my brother is on a mission to California. It was pretty hard to leave, harder than most other times. But after an extended trip of almost an entire week I'm back. Here are some pictures I took while I was there:

This picture is of me, my brother, mom and dad after going to the Logan Temple. (I'm a little stiff because it was really cold!)

This is a picture of my sister making ice cream for me. She works at Cold Stone!

I've been trying to practice taking pictures in general so here are some of my favorites I took while there:

Admidst the kleenex...

I was able to create some cards today. I seem to have caught a really bad cold, one where after a while it hurts to blow your nose because you've already blown it 5 times in the last hour.

On another note, my camera has been annoying me lately! I haven't been able to take any close up pictures of my projects without them going fuzzy. I couldn't figure out why there wasn't a close-up setting on there. I finally pulled out the manual and read it...and found the button. So enjoy these extra close-up pictures of some of my latest cards.

This one was really simple. The finished size is 3" x 3 1/2". I stamped 3 hearts, cut them out and adhered to the card with foam tape. Stamped the xoxoxo, and tied a chocolate brown ribbon. Probably took about 5 minutes.

I've been wanting to try heat embossing images onto ribbon, so this was my first attempt. I had trouble with the first image...too much static on the ribbon:

The embossing worked, but it wasn't a clear image, kind of looks like it's snowing. I don't have one of those de-static things from Stampin' Up, so I thought about what the next best thing for removing static would be and came up with: A dryer sheet! I rubbed it on the ribbon and then stamped and put on embossing powder and as you can see it turned out a lot better!

This one reminded me of strawberry lemonade. I started out with the ribbon. I've had it for a while and hadn't used it on anything yet.

Look at the close up of that bow! Amazing! (Ok, so maybe I got a little too excited about the close up function on my camera!)

This image and ink are from Stampin'Up. It's groovy guava. Very cute!

I also tried heat embossing on this one. It worked alright, but because of the fabric content of the organza ribbon, the heat gun melted part of the ribbon and made it a little crinkly. I didn't mind the crinkly, it gave it a little texture, but the melted part I hid on the inside of the card :)

Hexagon Boxes Anyone?

Wood Grain Hexagon Boxes


Directions:

1. Download template here. Find a wood grain image online that you like. I like to look at Wilsonart Laminates , or Treefrog Veneers. Once you find an image that you like, right click on the image and save it to your computer.
2. Print the wood grain image on photo paper or cardstock, then print the templates onto the wood grain. (Any other pattern will work too!)
3. Then follow the directions on the template to finish up!




To print the three different graduated sizes I printed the template at 85%, 100%, and 125%. Hope you like it!

450 Wedding Announcements - Check

Well I finished all 450 of the wedding announcements. It actually wasn't too bad. Here's the final design!
They worst part was punching all of the monograms to adhere to the satin ribbon. I thought for sure I'd break my paper punch, but it still works great, even after all that!

Basically I made the black and white damask image and did double sided copies with the damask on the front and inside flaps, with the bride and groom's picture on the inside middle. The vellum overlay has the wedding information printed on it. I gate folded the announcements and wrapped a satin ribbon band around it with a monogram. The finished size was 5" x 7". I had Office Depot trim the cardstock and vellum for me. If you're doing mass cutting it's a GREAT deal! They charge $.75 per cut and they can cut up to 500 sheets at a time.

Did you know....

...that it costs $650 to fix a motor and regulator in a car window. That's how much it was going to cost...but we decided to fix it the ghetto way, well, not really because we don't have clear plastic duct taped to the window. But they were able to prop it up somehow, nothing visible, but we're not supposed to touch it. That was only $55 and they topped off our oil which is now leaking at a much faster rate. So much so that if the car is running for an extended period of time, grey smoke comes out from under the engine. It's not really noticeable yet, but it does smell like burning oil. Yuck! I was really worried that our car was going to catch on fire. I can see it now, driving down 75 and my hood bursts into flame. The service guys at Toyota of McKinney were very nice and assured me that it was highly unlikely that it would burst into flames. I do have to commend them for their efforts. Before, I had always been told not to take your car to the dealership, but I had a headlight go out a while back (this was one before I got pulled over for another one being out) and took it to the dealership to have them fix it. They fixed it for me on the spot and $2 later, I had a fixed headlight. They had only charged me for the part. I thought that was nice of them. This week we took the car in on Monday and they gave us a loaner car for the day....which turned into 4 days. I was very impressed that they didn't charge me for the loaner car when I only had $55 worth of repairs made on the car. Anyways, I would recommend them highly! They always treat me like I just drove up in a brand new car, when really I drive up in a car that smells like burnt oil and has 204,000 miles on it now. :) Hope everyone has a great Friday!

I have a few projects that I'm going to try to post tonight when I get home, along with another template in the next day or two!