paper: pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Before this month of Write it Down is out, I wanted to give you a little update to this story by sharing proof that I am actually getting into the habit of using supplies I’ve been saving for a special day. The paper front is going pretty well and I think I am using more from my drawer of old rub-ons than I have ever rubbed on in the past. So now I’m starting to get into the heavy stuff…bits and pieces that I’ve picked up some time, somewhere with some idea of making them into…something. This little slate is one of those.

I have two, so I think I might have originally thought they would make cute book covers. And they would, but if I have had them for at least three years and they are still in the packaging, somehow I don’t think it’s going to happen. So instead they can live on a wall or a shelf. At least this one. This was the original idea I had in my head when I started thinking about stamps. I like her a bit more in real life than I do in the photo, but in general I just get giddy with cute, simple things like this. Even if I resulted to using stupid flipping text speak to make the message fit into five hearts. (For the record, you can make the chain as many hearts as you like…it’s just that five fit onto the chalkboard.)

Click for print-sized card.

Today I drew a little girl with stripey socks and a red skirt and a banner of hearts in her hands.
...because Bev asked me if I wanted to make something.
...because the little girl had been in my mind for weeks.
...because I wanted to share an idea.
...because we need more art on our walls.
...because I have neglected my supplies long enough.
...because I wondered if I could really draw her at all.
...because it was more fun than doing the ironing.
But really, because making silly little things doesn’t feel silly to me. It feels happy.
And happy is an entirely different thing.

xlovesx

Comment [5]

Just have to say thank you to Wendy from Bad Girls Kits for inviting me to be their guest designer for March. The kit was entirely stuff I never would have bought for myself, but it was lovely fun once I got started. Can I tell you a little secret? This was the first time I had ever used a real, live Prima flower. Ever. I know that is so shocking that I may get thrown out of the world’s scrapbooking club, but seriously, I’d used just about every kind of flower out there except for the Primas. It’s crazy, I know. I’m still not quite sure how it happened.

(And to those of you who aren’t members of the world’s scrapbooking club, let me just explain the level of this seriousness in two ways. One, in scrapbooking, the word ‘prima’ actually means ‘flower’. As in, ‘Hold on, I need to stick a prima over there and then maybe I can call it done.’ Really. But even more impressive is the visual factor. Sure, you can look at this tour of a scrapbook room, but zoom in on her collection of Primas. See all those jars and bottles? Primas. That is some mad devotion.)

Suffice to say, I tried to use a ton of flowers and I still have half of them left. Which is okay, because although there are a bunch of projects I made posted on their website throughout March, the kit club subscribers will also get a special little class with a project from me to download next week.

Click for print-sized card.

So there’s still time for me to find a few more blank spots to fit a few Primas, I’m sure. They should make bumper stickers for crop bags. And one should read ‘If there’s room for a brad, there’s room for a Prima!’

xlovesx

Comment [6]

Oh my goodness, do you know how many places you can get a free daily horoscope on the internet? So many. I didn’t know because I had never looked until right now. Because I don’t go out of my way to read them.

I will, however, read them if I happen upon yesterday’s newspaper or a magazine from this time last year at the doctor’s office. Really it is only the out of date horoscopes I am interested in. I don’t like knowing or pretending to know the future. But I find it funny to look back and see if it was right.

You know the thing is they can always be right, right? If you read the one in yesterday’s paper. It’s now time for an embarrassing admission, you see. Please tell me that most of us have had moments in life where we needed to be a bit…creative…with employment. So one year when my Christmas job at the mall came to an end, I fell into something…interesting. I read tarot cards. Except I knew I was just spouting rubbish, because my entire training in tarot cards came from one paperback book bought from Spencer’s Gifts and repeatedly watching this episode of My So-Called Life on a worn-out copy-of-a-copy-of-a-copy video tape. Because of that, I prefaced every reading with a speech about everything being for entertainment and not to take any of it seriously and people seemed to get that, so that was how I paid for my books one semester. I had a sociology class that term with a completely inane self-published textbook and I was always half-tempted to tell the teacher how I had raised the ridiculous $75 for her mandatory stack of photocopies, but of course I never had nerve like that. The textbook was probably the worst I ever used, but that didn’t mean I wanted to risk not getting a good grade. Survival over humour, you see.

Click for print-sized card.

And seriously, I cannot tell you how many times I said that ‘one door closes; another door opens’ line during this particular stint of employment. It covers everything.

xlovesx

Comment [5]

Years ago we used to play a game at crops where we didn’t know anyone. It was a little spin-off of the radio programme Desert Island Discs, and the idea was that given a set amount of time, you had to meet three new people in the crop room and discover what book, album and luxury item they would hope to have with them if they were stuck on…a desert island. I always found you learned just as much from whether people could choose their items easily as what they chose—for some there is one book that comes to mind straight away, for others it is a chore to choose from a selection and still others wonder if they are saying the right book to make a good first impression. Everyone squirms a little and in the end it was usually good fun. Though on looking up Desert Island Discs, it does appear that the BBC have to pay royalties to the copyright holder to keep the show going, so if I now receive an invoice in the mail, I won’t be surprised.

What I have come to learn is that actually I would be far, far too dreadfully stressed out to enjoy the first few days on a desert island. It’s far too likely that I will have forgotten my book, my album and my luxury item in a taxi somewhere along the journey. I’m starting to think I might need to walk around with them stapled to myself as a precaution, but I think it would interfere too much with deciding what to wear every day. Seeing as I have slept in a tent exactly one night of my life and I was not so successful with the sleeping as I was with the shivering. I was also pretty good at the hearing every single little sound. And frankly, the wondering if we would be attacked by puffins. So really, my chances of unwinding on a desert island are quite slim, considering I will be listening for polar bears, getting a sun burn and convinced that if I shut one eye, it will be pecked at by a sea gull.

Click for print-sized card.

That doesn’t stop me from thinking that John Malkovich’s choices are essentially a perfect episode.

xlovesx

Comment [2]

This is happening more and more. People who arrive in the courtyard of our building despite not living here or knowing anyone who lives here. Sometimes they bring cameras. Having met a few more people now, I’ve learned they fit into three categories: the architecture tour, the women’s rights tour and highly annoying door-to-door sales scams.

I am hoping that all three will collide one day, and all the good people learning about the crazy contrast of architecture on our street and the good people learning about where women held secret meetings and chained themselves to train stations will turn on the scammers and tell them to go away for good. Because clearly the first two groups represent why I love this place…and the third just represents something less than humanity, especially as I am convinced that they are targeting the oldest of our neighbours and I have no patience for scams like that.

Moving on…

Click for print-sized card.

I found a solution for the scammers when they ring my buzzer, anyway. I tell them I’m the cleaner and they seem to lose interest pretty quickly. Whatever works.

xlovesx

Comment [4]

I just can’t get over the wonderfulness of this girl. She lives far away. But she inspires humour beyond belief. Because seriously, ask anyone else and I am not funny. I am just not. But around Tia, suddenly I am funny.

Or at least she laughs at the right time. But I’m going with I’m funny.

This is the card for her.

Click for print-sized card.

xlovesx

{If the posting seems a little confusing…we spent a big chunk of time this weekend rebuilding and fortifying things behind the scenes so what happened a few weeks ago doesn’t happen again. Things are looking good now. But I have all the cards for twenty-nine days, gosh darn it! So I’m posting them. I just need like an extra day where I don’t have to do anything else – like laundry, eating or moving anything but my finger tips – to get them all up. And that’s clearly not gonna happen. So I’m getting there. I think we’ll be all caught up in the next 48 hours, right through to 29. Which is cool, because at the end of 29 there is SOMETHING SUPER COOL. And everyone loves super cool, right? Right.}

Comment [5]

Read more about this monument here.

I love it when cropping weekends show girls at their best, and ScrapBowl was definitely one of those. Ashlie and Marirosa worked their socks off to make this event way bigger than it has ever been and it was such a treat to meet so many awesome scrappers in my classes. Thank you all so much for coming and playing! (By the way, everyone should have received their post-class PDF email by now, and I think I have caught all the names in my inbox. If you were in class and didn’t receive one, please email me and I will send it again for you.)

The day before classes started, Ashlie and Marirosa had arranged for us to tour the capitol building together. I secretly thought I would be too exhausted and too…expatriated…to appreciate it, but I was so wrong. It was a fabulous and inspiring day, even if we had to be whirlwind about a few landmarks. After all, you’ve got Donna, Kristina, Stacy, Paula, Margie, Tia, Jen, Emily and I all in one car. We need to go to places like Paper Source and Lush. And probably Starbucks. But from start to finish, the weekend was a great time with a fabulous helping of girl power along the way.

So a girlie card in tribute then:

Click for print-sized card.

May girl power be a good thing and not just a silly saying.

xlovesx

Comment [6]

Click for print-sized card.

xlovesx

Comment [4]