QOTD

"Content precedes design. Design in the absence of content is not design, it's decoration."
— Jeffrey Zeldman

Mixed Results

thank you bird
Originally uploaded by Kalyber

This card is the one day winner of the flickr contest I held with a handful of my cards. It got the most views (5) in the first day it was posted to the groups Paper Crafting, Rubber Stamping Inspirations Gallery, and the
PAPER FUN GROUP. I realize 5 views from over 2500 members is small but in my modest gallery that's pretty good. So I thought I'd share it with all those who may not be on flickr.

The white panel is embossed with a Cuttlebug folder called birds and swirls. The colored sections of the embossed bits were actually colored with SU markers on the folder before the paper was laid on it. The results are mixed with this technique. When I ink the raised surface with an ink pad it looks pretty darned good with dark debossed areas and light embossed areas. Inking in the recessed areas of the folder made the ink slide up the sides and forced it out of some of the images edges altogether.

The bird was cut using the Birds & Blooms Stampin' Up! Sizzlits Die. It's mounted using EK Success 3D-Dots which, at 1/8" thick, add a lot more depth to the bird than the Stampin' Up Stampin' Dimensionals I generally use would have.

I rounded the corner with the We Are Memory Keepers Crop-A-Dile Corner Chomper (man what a mouthful). I love that I can chomp through several layers of card stock at once. It's brilliant.

The sentiment is from a long retired SU set but the lines were a bit too long so I lined up a couple of strips of repositionable tape with the sides of the white panel to mask the edges and then stamped the words. This insured that the line would not go beyond the white panel. A bit of genius I thought.
The best bit is that the tape can be reused. It looks weird having bits of repo tape stuck to the side of a shelf or hanging off the edge of my drafting table but it seems a waste to toss it when I can, and will, use it again.

The Big Chop

AfterFrontCropped
Originally uploaded by Kalyber

If you read this blog you know that I had issues with my hair. It was getting too long for my comfort, getting caught under purse straps and in coat zippers. Yes you read the “had” correctly it is much shorter now and the girl who did my hair had time and patience and straightened it for me too.

It will curl with the first drops of moisture so this is a very temporary doo. Here it is. Short. Straight. Sleek. And if you believe a 17-year-old girl, Sexy. “You look 35,” which is a fairly significant age reduction for a hair style to pull off.

Tomorrow it will be back to curls because I don’t have, nor to I care to invest, over an hour to devote to a hair style, even if it does last for 3-4 days.

Our regularly scheduled bitching may be postponed for a while. I’ll let you know after I shower.

SINGLES AWARENESS DAY

I don't celebrate Valentine's Day, or more appropriately St. Valentine's Day. Yes I'm Catholic and know he was a saint. He lost his head for the love of Christ. Now Hallmark and other manufacturers have people "losing their heads" "for the love of Christ". I just looked up the origins of the modern celebration of Valentine's Day in the New Advent Catholic Encyclopedia.

The popular customs associated with Saint Valentine's Day undoubtedly had their origin in a conventional belief generally received in England and France during the Middle Ages, that on 14 February, i.e. half way through the second month of the year, the birds began to pair. Thus in Chaucer's Parliament of Foules we read:
For this was sent on Seynt Valentyne's day
Whan every foul cometh ther to choose his mate.
For this reason the day was looked upon as specially consecrated to lovers and as a proper occasion for writing love letters and sending lovers' tokens.

At the office there are several single women who sit together and we will be celebrating Singles Awareness Day. We don't NEED a partner to have fun and be happy, but it would be nice to have one even if it was just to have another adult to talk to over dinner occasionally. So to all those of you who feel like something may be missing this year or any year on 2/14 Happy Singles Awareness Day.