Beware of Excellence
But watch out: being remarkable is addicting. It’s like regular exercise or healthy eating. When you first start a new exercise routine or diet, the adjustment is hard for a while. But after about 3-6 months of following it consistently, you build up a natural addiction to it.
Once you get used to regular exercise, you’ll feel bad when you’re not doing it. The same is true with being remarkable: do it once, and it’s scary. Do it a few times, and you love it. Stop doing it, and you’ll get depressed.
I thought about the old job where if you performed miracles, say getting a project done well in record time to meet a deadline, it was then expected of you all the time. And you know what, I liked it that way. I liked being a 'go to' person for good designs done quickly. I delivered beyond my departments expectations enough that it became the sales departments expectation. If that makes any sense.
Reading his post I began to understand what was going on with me this past weekend. I haven't been REMARKABLE lately.
Today I got a nice little packet in the mail from Jamaica at Effer Dares. I WON AGAIN! This win was based on speed instead of a random draw. I was one of the first 15 to post my design for their last dare. Anyway Jamaica sent a bunch of different papers and stickers and an invitation to play. I scurried up to the studioffice and resumed being REMARKABLE.
I'd love to share it with you but you will have to wait until they have posted Dare 169 to their site.
I love how this card turned out. I inked the solid/patterned balloons in the Papertrey Ink Up, Up and Away set with 2 colors then spritzed it with water before stamping to get a watercolor like look. I stamped the outline in black and missed the mark, there is a fine white line that should be filled with black. But you know what. I love it. It looks like I went in with a fine white pen and added highlights on the pink balloon. The balloons and clouds are cut with Papertrey Ink dies. Of course. All papers are Stampin' Up!
This card has an awful mess right in the middle. I love making cards because that awful mess is covered by a pretty little focal point that hadn't occurred to me when I started. Loving the combination of Cameo Coral and Kiwi Kiss, unfortunately they are both retired. All papers and ink are Stampin' Up! The flowers are from "Four of a Kind" the free set Papertrey Ink gave to big spenders at CHA.
Lastly this page is remarkable only because it is finally done, after 2 years. It's a lot better than I had anticipated given that I was just slapping it together so I would quit moving the brochures and postcard from the Art Institute around the studioffice. Now I can finally put it all away. It's nice to get things put away. The paper is Basic Grey Motifica™ Chalk. I don't know if you can even buy it in paper form anymore, I got it for 10¢ in a clearance bin ages ago I loved this line. I did find some items from the Motifica line in digital form on the Basic Grey site.
All this being REMARKABLE business is tiring. Either that or it's past my bedtime.
Until next time,
Happy Crafting,
Katie
2 comments:
Katie, your cards look wonderful. It is quite remarkable that you kept your scrapbook page for two years and now finished it. If I get stuck with a project, it usually gets filed under T. Good for your to keep at it until your page is done and looking great!
Hugs and smiles
Beate I didn't start it 2 years ago I've just been moving a post card and a folder of brochures around my studioffice for that long. It's done because I got tired of moving looking at the bag the postcard was in. : )
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