March Madness

This is the one time of year that I really love basketball. Not that I don't like basketball usually, it's just that I like football, and of course baseball, better. However, I love the whole NCAA March Madness thing. It's really the only thing that we talk about at work. There have been all sorts of articles about how much productivity has decreased nationwide because of it. As an anecdotal evidence, traffic at one of our websites went down 90% right when the first game started. We're just all obsessed.

I WAS in first place in our office pool tonight until Duke had to go and lose. Now, I know they weren't seeded very high, but I expected them to win one game. I thought that if someone just told them "Hey, I know it's a rebuilding year, but you're DUKE and you have COACH K" they would go "oh yea, right" and win at least one game.

And Marquette, I'm disappointed in you too.

Go Georgetown!!!

Product Review 1

I thought that it would be fun to do a weekly (roughly) product review. It will allow me to use some of my stash and do something creative, and maybe someone out there will even find it useful. So without further ado, here is my first review:

American Crafts Felt Flowers and Punctuation

The first project that I created was this card. I thought of it as a birthday card, but I suppose it could be for any type of celebration. I used a Fiskars' texture plate to make the pp (Provo Craft) a little more interesting. I have not hand sewn anything for awhile, but the card seemed boring without it. The stamp is by K & Co.

I also did a 12 x 12 layout. It was so beautiful outside today that I had to go take a walk and capture some late winter pictures. I cannot take credit for the design- it is by Amanda Probst. Chatterbox pp, Bazzill cs, Marvy Uchida pen. I also used American Craft thickers letters because they matched. They're one of my new favorite lettering tools.

There are things that I really love about the felt flowers and punctuation. They add great texture, come in cute colors, and spice up any page. You get a lot of different pieces in the container, so it is well worth the money. However, I haven't found a good way to adhere them besides brads and staples. Liquid adhesive shows through, and glue dots and my roller adhesive only stick to them sometimes. The major thing that I don't like about the American Crafts felt sis that each container doesn't contain all the shapes in all sizes and colors. I was looking for the largest flower in one color, but found that it was only available in two other colors. The advantage of the packaging is the variety, yet it seems like there was never the piece I was looking for. My suggestion to the manufacturer: make even numbers of each shape and size and each color. Then I would buy the whole line!

March Madness Week 1

This is my layout for March Madness week 1.*

It's based on a sketch challenge. I'm still not quite sure if I like it. I think it's a little cramped-I'm not used to putting so many things on a layout.

One thing I really like about it is that it's my first process layout. Usually I just sit down, maybe with an idea in my head, and create a layout. I didn't feel like scrapping this week, but I knew that I wanted to get this layout done tonight. So Tuesday, I told myself that I had to pick a theme, Wednesday I would pick the papers, and Thursday I would do the layout. I figured breaking it down would make it seem like less work. Tuesday I decided to do the layout on my roommate Beth's birthday a couple of weeks ago. Wednesday I chose this cute paper from SEI. Then I saw the 7Gypsies tag and the ribbon. Next came the Scenic Route chipboard letters, which were followed by the American Crafts felt flowers. Just when I thought I'd picked out all the embellies, I remembered that I had brackets to match the flowers. I could not resist starting to put the layout together. This morning I woke up and knew that I had to put ric rac at the bottom of the tag. When I got home tonight, I added the pictures and a few more embellies.

Overall, I'm thrilled with the process, I'm just not so sure about the result. I'm so happy that I used my stash. I've never done a layout with a mini picture before. I think I'm going to do it again- I love the look. I'm also happy that I reached (at least once) the point in my scrapping abilities where I just "know" when something needs to be added. To channel Ali Edwards, that's so cool.

*For those of you who don't know, I hate the idea that someone would put my picture on the Internet without my permission. Therefore, I try to extend the same courtesy to others, so I block out the faces of people in my layouts. If you want to see the layout without the blurred faces, just leave me a comment or email me.

Now This Just Isn't Fair!

Dizzy yesterday, head pounding today. Now really, this just plain isn't fair! (As though life has to be fair) Ok, my head is not actually pounding YET, but my vision is completely blurred, which is always the first step to a migraine. I only feel like this at home. Maybe my apt is making me sick. Hmmm. I'm so sick of complaining and being in pain. I want to feel better and get my life back together NOW.

On a happy note, the people at the post office were super sweet to me today. I was trying to find one of those large (10x10x8) Priority mail boxes to send a bunch of stuff to my brother, but they did not have any. It was the second post office I went to that were out of them. Why the run on boxes that size? Besides the box problem, the stuff I wanted to send was fairly heavy, and I was worried it was going to cost a fortune to mail. The person working at the post office found a box behind the counter for me (for free) and weighed everything before I packaged it up so I would know how much it would cost. She even gave me an ordering form so that I could get the boxes I want delivered to my apt. She was so helpful and friendly that it's making me smile even now.

Hello

Hi to any sneaky people who might be reading this :)

I'd wanted to write more, but I'm really dizzy, so I better go rest (after I check the aforementioned board for a little March Madness).