My Hometown Circle Journal

Hi,

I was invited by a crafting buddy, Cathy, to participate in a Circle Journal that she is hosting. I am excited. I have never done one before. After this is over I would like to maybe make one with my mom and my sister.

I know that you aren't supposed to make your cover before hand....because they can get dinged up in the mail. (Put it inside a heavy duty padded envelope...then inside a regular envelope...hopefully they will pass the heavy duty envelope around.) I did this becuase I wanted each person to add a bit of their hometown to the cover.

The theme for this one was My Hometown. I went and found promotional information about Athens and created a collage. I then typed out some experiences we have had since being here. WHy we moved here and what makes it my home. Then I mailed it to the first person on the list and she will create pages about her hometown.

It should be lots of fun.

Jennie

The Rest of the Daily Challenges

Hi Again,

Yesterday's challenge was hosted by nermalski. She wanted us to create something to do with time. Luckily for me our clock had died and I had told Sheldon I wanted to save the parts. He thinks I am a pack rat. However, I did use the parts in less than a month.

Then, today's challenge was hosted by Midweststamper. She wanted us to create a collage. I wasn't sure what I was going to make. Then I saw a cassette tape holder on Sheldon's desk. I stole it from him. Sunshine had made a collage out of a tin and it made me think of creating something 3d like the diorama's that I used to make in grade school. I used Rocky as my inspiration. He drives me crazy. But he is still my baby.

Daily Card Challenge

At PaperCrafts Magazine's website we have started a daily card challenge for anyone who wants to partcipate. Each day a new person creates a different challenge. It has only be going on since Sunday...but everyone seems to like the idea. It has been fun and really helped my creativity and getting out of my comfort zone.


Here are some of my cards.


Sunday's challenge was posted by stampcrazymom and it was using Turqoise/Cocoa brown/Orange. I ended up making 2 cards. Sending her one of them.









Then on Monday, Cheryl posted her challenge and it was create something in red/white/black. I only made one card for that one.




One Tuesday, Fluffnstuff did a monochromatic card challenge. I made 2 cards for that one.






I am going to have to post the other ones on another post.....Not able to do all the pictures together.

Still on the photo craze....

Here are some before and after's....hopefully the after's look better.

Before

After

Before

After

New Photographing Tips

Yesterday, on Paper Crafts Magazine's MB I posted a nosey poll to find out how everyone photographs their cards. I received a few suggestions and here is what I did.

I didn't have black foam board like Angela suggested...but one of my file boxes is black. So I used the lid for the bottom and the box for the background. (You can even see the kitty hair in the pictures..I will have to clean it off better.)Then for the actual pictures...I placed the stuff on my bedroom floor. In front of my windows. (It is late morning here.) Then I took my halogen floor lamp that has 2 lights and turned them both on. One can be moved around like a spotlight so I tried to flash it on it. (It is still about 4 feet away.)

Then I did the camera w/o flash. Set the aperature to 2.6. The timer for 2 seconds. And put the camera on a tripod. Just took a bunch of pictures. I didn't do too many....took me a few minutes.

Then I went onto photoshop and the only thing I did was sharpen the pictures a little. And did some brightness/contrast on the Flower Lady. Then I cropped them and resized them. Added my blog name. (I will have to work on the watermark next. But this works.)


Thanks to everyone who gave me advice yesterday. It is amazing the difference with natural light.My dh gave me the sharpening tip....if you have photoshop and have never done it....it is so funny. Because if you do it then hit the undo button and keep looking at the before and after...the before looks so blurry.

Almost Organized

As a picture I posted on the PC Gallery last night stated...I keep talking about being organized but have I shown it. Well here is what my craft studio looks like now. Not too bad. :)

I have also included a picture of all the boxes and things that I pulled out and then had to put back into my room. Pretty much none of the shoe boxes came back in. They were a nice try but didn't really work. They took up too much space. They are still sitting in the living room until we decide if we want them for any other project.

It feels good to be a step closer. The next projects are filing the papers into the filing cabinet, cleaning out the closet, and figuring out inside the cabinets.

Sassy Women Swap

This is the collage that I made as my sample. It is a 4x4 collage. I guess it can be considered a mixed media design.

I don't know if this is the direction I want to go with for this swap. :) I only have one dream catcher...and like how it turned out. I used matt board for the background.

Covered it in painted paper towel (USed acrylics--2 blues, pearlescent white, gold, and used dyes...purple, green, pink). Then I layered a gold heart (I cut for a Valentine's project I never used) a star (came with some buttons I bought) a purple flower....then I used a safety pin to do the dream catcher...my dh's mother bought me that for Christmas. I used an image of a ballet dancer I found on NY Libraries images. Added a quote that I printed and inked the edges and some crystals.

Is it Sassy enough?

New Projects

I have been feeling pretty creative lately. :) Probably has something to do with wanting to procrastinate on school. But, I have been doing good so far this semester. Had my first test in Biology and made an A (with a 6 point curve). Been doing my workouts for Weight Training and Health & Fitness. So I am on track. Not only am I getting grades...but I am getting fit. I have done pretty good about keeping on track with my eating plan. Not perfect but a heck of a lot better than before.

So here are some projects I have made:

One I love the most....is this rendition of weedsgalore flower lady card. I put my spin on it. But overall everything is her idea. I just loved it and wanted to make the card.

Second is a card I made for Papercrafts contest...using products packaging. I used a sales tag from a stuffed animal. I think it is darling....and I have my oldy but goody Fat Cat Stamp.

Next, I made this fun Santa card. I used a pattern for a quilted tree runner in a Christmas decorating book.

Lastly, I have a few swap projects that I made.

Today's weight loss...

I hope I don't become overly obsessive with my weight loss. However, I want to take the time right now and see what I can do.

I am basically considered a sedentary person....so for my height and weight that means I need 1900 calories a day to survive.

I am trying to do 1200 calories a day. (Not including extras of veggies (squash/zucchini/peppers...stuff like that....and fruit.)

Today, so far....I have had 750 calories....plus, I worked out and burned 252 calories. Yeah....so hopefully that helps towards the weight loss.

I will be back with more.

Here we go...

September 4, 2007
Today’s food diary

Weight
191.4

Breakfast
1 Slice Pizza Hut Pizza with Pepperoni & olives 360
Dr. Pepper 100

Lunch
Peanut
Butter & Jelly Sandwich (Whole Wheat Bread) 274
Dr. Pepper 100

Dinner
Turkey Italian Sausage (1.5) 270
Red
peppers, yellow squash & Onions 75
Dr. Pepper 100

Dessert
Weight Watchers Cookie Dough Sundae 170
Water

TOTAL 1449

Today’s Goal:
was to eat 1200 calories. Sheldon
and I purchased diet soda. So no regular soda for the week. That
should reduce my calories somewhat.

Tomorrow’s Goal:
Exercise at the gym---30 minutes on the elliptical. 30-40 minutes of
weights. Eat 1200 calories.

Stamp Shelves

Yesterday, Sheld & I met my parents in Greenville, SC. We had lunch at California Dreaming and my stepdad gave me the shelves he made for me. I told him a few months ago that I would like some shelves to store my stamps. The finished project is fantastic. They look like something that would be in a store. They hold all my stamps (except for my stamp sets)...with room to spare.

Sheldon was nice enough to hang them last night. I was also pretty creative in figuring I could put skewers into the dowel holes to hang my ribbon.

Halloween Time

Yeah!! Halloween is just around the corner. Growing up, I loved getting to go trick or treating. Then in high school (I hated) my mom would drag me to look at all the kids coming to the door. She loves Halloween.

Since moving to Georgia...we have bought candy every year. But, we haven't had one single kid come to our door. I guess everyone here goes to the mall. I will still buy some candy, just in case...I don't want any tricks.

The last couple of days have been hard...so I have been wanting to keep busy. I used my new corner punch that my friend Cheryl sent me and I love it. I want to use it on every project. And I have used it on everything I have made. Which is these two Halloween inspired swaps. One is Halloween cards and the other is Halloween Tags.