How Sweet You Are

I’ve come to the conclusion that I haven’t been using my Slice anywhere NEAR enough. It sits there within reach, right on the corner of my desk, looking so cute and compact, yet lately I hardly ever pick it up. I think maybe it’s because I’ve been so caught up in my CAS (Clean And Simple) kick that my creative juices have been flowing in a different direction. Yesterday, however, I couldn’t get owls off the brain, particularly that big owl stamp from Hero Arts (man, I wish I would have gotten that one before we left the States!). I seemed to recall that my new Just Chillin’ design card had a few bird designs – pulled out the booklet and sure enough, there was this cutey-patootey little owl! Now, you may be wondering about the little orange chipboard “wing” piece. No, that’s not just added finery, my friend. That piece was born out of necessity. See, the owl shape is supposed to have a narrow crescent cut out of the right side to represent a wing. Unfortunately, one end of the crescent tore pretty badly instead of cutting cleanly – but I couldn’t waste perfectly good patterned paper! Chipboard to the rescue! I dug out a package of chipboard shapes I found in the Michaels $1 spot; this little photo corner worked perfectly to camouflage the damage, and gussied up my owl in the process. I didn’t like the legs that were part of the owl, so I snipped them off and drew in my own with a gel pen.

Needless to say, I’m brainstorming some more ideas for my Slice (and my Cricut, too!). It’s just way too fun not to play with!

Card Supplies:
Stamps: Studio G (sentiment), Hero Arts “Designer Woodgrain;” Ink: ColorBox pigment “Chestnut,” Versamark; Paper: kraft cs, K & Company “Contemporary Papers;” Accessories: Making Memories Slice/Just Chillin’ design card, Colorbök chipboard, buttons, Uniball Signo gel pen (black), dimensionals, embroidery floss

Calling Cards

So here it is- my very first Photoshop project! I know, I’ve been using this paper a lot – but it’s the only nice digital paper I have to work with (the rest is all freebie stuff that doesn’t really look all that great). It took me a while to figure out what I was doing, but I’m finally starting to get the hang of things (after SEVERAL missteps, lol).

I created each individual calling card as a new blank file, at 3.58”w x 2.16”h. After opening the digital papers that I wanted to use, I resized each paper from 12x12” to 6x6”, which gave a better scale for the small dimensions of the cards. I then dragged each paper onto a blank calling card, added a white rectangle and inserted my text. Once each card was to my liking, I flattened the images, opened a new 8½ x11” blank file, and dropped in my cards. A little moving around to get everything just so, flatten the image, and easy peasy! Save and print! For completely winging it, I think they turned out pretty cute.

Cards like these are great when you’re in a second-language situation and don’t want there to be any mix-ups with your contact information (like in our case where there is another street that sounds very similar to our street – better to have it written out than risk having something sent to the wrong address!). I’m sure I’ll be tinkering around with other patterns/designs in the future, but for now these will do the trick!

Products used: Andrea Victoria “Pina” digital paper pack, Trebuchet MS font, SimHei font, PSE6

Musings on Creativity

This whole idea of creativity, inspiration, and putting form to that inspiration has been swirling around in my head for a few months now. Exactly what is it about a certain fabric/layout/picture/color/ad etc. that moves me? How can I give form to the creative ideas that are welling up inside me?

Growing up, I was always encouraged to try my hand at creative things, from drawing to papier-mâché to counted cross stitch. My mother is very artistic (she even had a private art tutor as a child!), and she had myriads of ideas for me to try. To my chagrin, I never could draw worth a lick, and as I entered the teen years my focus turned to friends and clothes and school.

A few years out of college, I began working in the advertising/promotions department of a small publishing house. One of my tasks was editing copy for an assortment of ads, promotional pieces, and catalogs. Through working with the various project coordinators, I began learning to look not just at the spelling/grammar/punctuation of the pieces, but to also look at the overall layout/design. Listening to them as they “talked through” a mockup piece, musing about colors, fonts, even photo choices, really opened my eyes. Around the same time, I was invited to my first Stampin’ Up party – finally, I had found my creative outlet!

I’ve come a long way since then (my first cards were pretty atrocious!), and I still have so much more to learn. I’m at a point now where I’m getting restless again, searching for ways to better express my creativity. It’s an almost uncontainable urge to create something lovely, something beautiful. I wholeheartedly agree with Travelingmama that as created beings we have within us the inherent desire to create – whether it’s through papercrafts, cooking, music, writing, decorating, photography, sewing, oh, I could go on and on. I look at the world around me, and I’m inspired by the colors, the textures, the people, the buildings, the food… I am amazed by the creativity in this world, and it makes me want to participate in making something beautiful.

"Ever Grateful"

I just had to make another card using this great digital paper from Andrea Victoria! I printed out a contact sheet of all the papers, resulting in little 2x2 scaled-down swatches. Then, using a 1 ¾” punch, I cut out my squares (with enough paper left over for some circle punches in varying sizes for later use). I love how I can resize the papers and just print out what I need, and even better, I’ll never run out. It’s a great option when you’re overseas and can’t just run to Hobby Lobby or Michaels to buy some new paper. (Boy, I sure do miss those trips to Hobby Lobby… sigh…)The only thing I have to be careful of when using digital paper is printer ink - it’s really frustrating to have a half-full color ink cartridge that’s useless because I’ve used up all the yellow, lol! (And ink cartridges here aren’t cheap.) Ah, well, it’s a give and take!

Card Supplies
Stamps: Stampin Up “So Many Sayings” (hostess set); Ink: ColorBox fluid chalk “Charcoal;” Paper: Georgia Pacific white cs, Andrea Victoria “Nina” digital paper; Accessories: dimensionals, 1 ¾” square punch

Shopping Bag Love

This reusable shopping bag is another one of my Hong Kong finds – don’t you just love the damask print? I got it for crazy cheap, like US$2.50 or so, and I probably could have gotten it a little cheaper but I wasn’t in a bargaining mood. It’s made of a light-weight nylon, and it folds up into a little snap-closure pouch. Bags like this are like gold for us, because here in China a law was put into place last year banning free plastic bags at stores – customers have to pay extra if they want bags for their items. We’re not just talking grocery stores, but bookstores, home décor stores, convenience stores… It’s definitely a great move for the environment (since June, about 40 billion fewer plastic bags have been given out at supermarkets), but it also means it’s essential to have a little reusable bag tucked away in your purse/bookbag at all times. For heavy-duty shopping, I recommend Envirosax; they’re really sturdy, can hold about 44lbs. each (or the equivalent of two plastic supermarket bags), and have really long straps so they fit comfortably over the shoulder even when full. We brought a set with us to China, and use them every time we go grocery shopping. And they come in a ton of cool designs, too!

(Oh yeah, that's my new polka-dot apron hanging beside the bag - gotta look cute when I cook!)

And Darkness Fell...

Image courtesy of Sky News

This morning at 9:35 am Seth and I experienced a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon – a total solar eclipse that plunged the city of Shanghai into complete darkness for six awe-inspiring minutes. It was aMAZing!

The sky was overcast when we woke up, and it started raining minutes before the eclipse was supposed to begin, so our carefully-laid viewing plans were flung aside. Nevertheless, we stood with bated breath at the window, straining to see something, ANYTHING, when all of a sudden, darkness began to fall. Within seconds the sky was eerily black, as if time had ceased to have meaning and night had returned. I opened the window, and could hear cries and exclamations of wonder from the murky shadows as people stopped what they were doing to gape at the heavens. For those six minutes, we were no longer “foreigners” and “Chinese,” but we were all just “people,” experiencing something together that took our cumulative breath away.

It will be 300 years before Shanghai experiences another solar eclipse; today was truly "once-in-a-lifetime."

Traveler's Inspiration Challenge 3

This is for Traveling Mama’s Traveler’s Inspiration Challenge 3. I had such a hard time getting a decent picture of this card! Just when you think you have a (small) grasp on lighting/Photoshop… lol. Anyway, as soon as I saw the inspiration pic I knew I had to use this cute little swimsuit stamp. I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandma lately (who just passed away), and one of the memories that keeps coming to mind is how she used to take me to the Y to go swimming. I’d have so much fun playing around in the pool; then, after we’d changed back into our street clothes she’d put a tiny little dab of her cologne behind my ears – I always felt so grown-up and glamorous! For the card, I stamped the swimsuit with pigment ink and heat embossed with clear ep, then paper pieced with a scaled-down swatch of digital pp (love the versatility of digital!). Added a sentiment underneath, and voila! A super-easy, fun little card, with a happy memory to go along with it.

Card Recipe
Stamps: Provo Craft Simply Chic (swimsuit), Stampin’ Up “Many Happy Returns” (sentiment); Ink: ColorBox pigment “Ochre”, ColorBox fluid chalk “Charcoal”; Paper: Andrea Victoria “Pina” digital paper, Georgia Pacific white cs; Accessories: clear ep