I love Papertrey Ink

So Papertrey Ink is doing contest to win some great products.  All you have to do is post your favorite card that you have made.  I am new to card making, I started in October.  I use Papertrey's blog and team for inspiration and color matching.  The more I create I can tell the better I get.  My October cards are kind of embarrassing. :)  But now when I look through everything I have made it is hard to pick my favorite.  But if I had to pick one it would be a Christmas card, of course.

I loved all the Christmas stamps.  I actually bought too many Christmas stamps from Papertrey during the holidays.  I just couldn't help it, I wanted to make everyone Christmas cards to give out.  I was actually worried what I would do after Christmas, I was worried I would not be able to make more cards.  Thank god for Birthdays and Valentine's Day.  

Well, I have made more cards this week for people birthdays and just for fun.

For our favorite Aunt Rea

For Papa John

For Grandma

Just for fun

For Banana's mom

I hate posting pictures of my cards because right now I just use my iPhone camera.  My new Panasonic GF2 is on order, I pray it gets here soon.  The Godfather says my pinks look like oranges right now.  I need a great camera now.

Is today Wednesday?

I totally forgot what day it was.  I don't know if it's because it was cold and rainy yesterday or because Addison usually has robotics on Wednesdays and he didn't but all day I thought it was Tuesday.  Well, I have to get some homework done before my class at 6 so this will be short.  It's my least favorite class.  One reason is because it's at 6 o'clock at night and I just want to cook dinner and stay warm.  Another is there's only 8 people in the class and I'm the only girl.  Why are there so few woman engineers?  I guess we will touch on that subject later.  Another reason is my teacher talks really monotone so I start getting really bored and sleepy very easily.  But the class is interesting it's Audio Technology, so it's all about sound, what we hear, acoustics, and music.  Maybe I can be the engineer at Philips Arena one day.  :)

Well, let's talk about paper.  One of Ayanna's co-workers asked me to create some bridal party invitations.  I thought I would show you my process.  It basically entails making a card taking a picture and texting it to Chamel and The Godfather.  Oh and of course asking my husband, but he is color blind so his opinion doesn't count.  Oh and he also thinks everything is wonderful and beautiful I create so he's not a real critic.

Well here's the process.....

First I started with this card but I felt like something was missing and The Godfather said it was too white.

Then I tried to change the background, make the white a cream and add a flower.  I thought the flower was too big and I still didn't love it.  

Then I decided to flip it around and add a frame.  I also decided to let the birdcage hang instead of using the stand.  I really liked this and so did The Godfather but I felt something was missing. 

This finish product.  I decided to add and empty cage to symbolize how they are getting married and together now.  Do you like it?

 Once I figure out a design it doesn't take me long to mass produce.  The design part is what takes forever, this process took about 3 days.   I hope she likes it, so I can start making these.

Oh and before I go we have to talk about food.  I used my ice cream maker last night.   Addison wanted chocolate ice cream so I made chocolate ice cream.  It was about a 3 - 4 hour process but the end result was delicious.  I'm so excited about all the other flavors I can create.  I'm thinking Neapolitan ice cream with a Neapolitan cake.  Someone needs to have a birthday pronto.  I'M READY!!!!

Happy Humpday

Yesterday, was a very busy day so I did not post or cook but I did bake.  I went over to Melissa's house last night and we baked honey oatmeal wheat bread.  It turned out great!  Pictures will be posted soon.

I also started my new semester yesterday and it was great being back at school.  My college has been building a new Engineering building for the last year and it is finally completed and opened.  So I get to have my classes in a new state of the art facility.

Isn't it nice?  Yes $33.3 million later we have 23,300 square feet with 36 labs, 12 classrooms, 2 seminar rooms and a 200-seat lecture room.  This is a big deal because our old building was really old, I think it was built in the 60s.  So it's great that I get to spend my last two semester and this new building.

So every morning I see Addison off to school, clean up, start some laundry, and while I'm eating breakfast I surf the internet.  I look at cooking blogs, tech blogs, photography blogs, baking blogs.  Something usually inspires me to make that, cook that, bake that, or buy that.  But, today nothing.  Anthropologie is even having a sale and nothing.

So I thought I would let everyone know where I get my stamps.  I found a wonderful place online called Papertreyink.  I love them because they sell clear stamps that you just put on an acrylic block.  I like being able to see where my stamps is going to be.  I also love them because you just don't buy one stamp it is a collection of stamps and they also show you pictures for inspiration.  I also love love them because they have the best paper.  It's thick enough to make cards that stand up and it's not expensive.  I have looked around at other paper and this is the cheapest by that amount you can get.  You can get 50 sheets for $9. Mentioning the paper they have matching ribbon, matching buttons and matching felt with any color.  They call it Perfect Match.  This makes it so easy for me. There all lot of different shade of reds, blues, and greens.   I also love love love them because they come out with die cuts that match the stamps.  So you never have to worry about cutting around a stamp to make it 2D.  They come out with new collections of stamps, paper, and dies every month on the 15th.  They preview what's coming out about 5 days before and then everyone goes online and talks about it on a forum.  Then at midnight everything goes up for sale.  I have stayed up many times deciding what to get.

This month I'm excited about this stamp.

and these dies to go with it.

My shipment arrives tomorrow.  I can't wait to make birthday cards.  So if you know anyone that's having a birthday soon let me know I'll make a card.

I also purchased this stamp and die last month

These will be used for our Valentine's cards.  

And this stamp and die I purchased last month 

Which I already showed two cards I made.

Well for nothing to say today I sure did say a lot.  :)  I will post pictures of Melissa and I baking later.  Bye.

Hard drive is dead

Yep, I was right.  My hard drive crashed in my MacBook Air.  I knew it because it started making a clicking sound about 1 month ago and then I noticed it started running really slow.  Luckily, I have a Time Capsule that backs up all our computers everyday so I didn't lose anything.  So I want to remind everyone get an external hard drive and back up your computers.  You don't want to lose 3 years of pictures and documents.  Ok I'm done being a geek.

I didn't end up cooking because after the Apple store took forever and Addison needed to go to karate I was not in the mood.  But, I will be cooking and baking tomorrow.

I did get two thank you cards done.

Aren't they cute?  Addison's godmother sent him the coolest Christmas present and I told him he had to send her a Thank you card.  I let him choose one to send to her.  

I am also trying to finish up desk calendars for people.  

I love the way they are turning out so I want to make them for everyone, which is bad.  Sending JT to Michael's looking for a certain stack of paper is not good.  I think it's funny that JT is getting good at shopping at Michael's and Joanne's fabric.  Hey he's an Eagle Scout he can do anything.  

Oh and one more thing.  If you all didn't know I have a passion for architect.   My favorite architect is Frank Lloyd Wright.  He has created this:

And of course my favorite Fallingwater:

Isn't it beautiful?  Can you believe this was someone's family house?  Wright built it in the 1930s for the Kauffman family.  You can read about it here.  I keep crossing my fingers that we can win the lottery and JT can build me my own Fallingwater.  :) 

Oh wait, where was this going.  The reason why I mention this is Addison's godfather (gay husband) bought him is own Fallingwater.  Well, it's the Lego Fallingwater but it's still breathtaking.  It took JT and Addison all Sunday to complete it.  The building instructions were over 100 pages.  

Don't they look serious?  Well here's the finish product.  

Isn't it cool?  Don't you just love how they did the windows and the water?  We are excited about theses Lego Architecture.    Oh and The Godfather (I like that better than Gay Husband, it seems more scary)  also got Addison the Lego White House for his birthday.  

Love it!  We were thinking about putting a Lego Darth Vader on the steps, since Addison's has a shirt that says Darth Vader for President.  As you can see we love Legos, we can't wait to collect them all.

Whew!  That was a long one.  Bye for now.