Fun in the Fall

So much has been going on--First, the Holtz cruise was just wonderful! I am putting up a separate page just for the cruise. You can check out Tim's blog for some pictures of the projects that we did. (No, mine are not done). Anita and I made mugs for all the Cultists and didn't take time to finish the journal or tray (besides, this way we can stretch out the cruise fun a bit longer). It took me two weeks to catch up at work from missing a week for the cruise. I can't believe that it's the end of first quarter and that quarter grades have already been entered.

Last weekend was time for being lazy and reading. I also caught up with Jennifer McGuire's online class that I had registered for and that aired the week before the cruise. I really enjoyed the course and recommend it to anyone interested in stamping techniques; the information was clear and well-organized. Some of the techniques were familiar, but with an interesting twist. Here is the tag that I made using several of these techniques. I plan to share more about it on the Tags page (as soon as I have a bit more time).

This weekend is for play (and cleaning up my craft room, organizing cruise pics, and updating the blog) The hot weather finally turned cooler the weekend we returned from the cruise, but then it rained constantly. At last it's just warm and dry; perfect weather to ride with the top down on my Miata or ride the bike. Friday evening Michael and I rode the bike down to Ormond to the Iron Horse Saloon to people and bike watch at Biketober Fest. It was definitely an eye-opening experience because of the costumes (or lack thereof) and interesting tatoos.

Yesterday, I cleaned off my craft table and put away most of the great stuff we received from the cruise class. (You will be able to see the piles of class supplies in the picture). In the afternoon, I worked on my charm swaps for Tobi's bird theme. I really like them. These are for plan B. (Plan A was a different model, but it was overly ambitious and I had to move on.) My next bird was made of zipper tape and Tim's rosette ribbon that I died with Distress Stains. A blue pearl is the egg. I have had the blue bird beads for several years; they are leftovers from when I made a Cinderella bracelet for my niece.

I got my fingers inky this week. I showed Kitty how to stamp with textured wallpaper and made a card using distress inks and perfect pearl misters. The words had to be restamped and mounted on top because the pearl misters made it had to read (the pearls bleed through the ink unless you've embossed the black). To make this I lightly rubbed three shades of distress inks (including the lovely new seasonal distress purple that I was able to purchase on the cruise was one of them) onto a piece of textured wallpaper (from samples at a hardware store like Lowe's). Spritz a few times (three or four) and then press onto a piece of cardstock. You can respritz and stamp again for a second generation softer look. Overstamp with selected images and black ink. I masked the flamingo for a cleaner look. Tim has more info and a video on his blog showing the three seasonal colors for fall. I can't wait to see the winter collection.