Defacing books: Is Outrage!

Today has been great--the weather finally broke and temps today were in the 60s (finally!), I had lunch with a good friend, got my rear end kicked by my Pilates trainer, and things with the boys went pretty well today. Oh, and I made a ton of cards. I'll show those another day, but I wanted to show a few that I made yesterday. I saw this card from my fellow Philly Inker, Ilina Crouse, a few weeks ago and saved it as a Good Idea, and then decided earlier this week to tweak it for myself. I don't have the Newsprint dsp, so I decided to improvise. Anyone who has been to our house knows we have a LOT of books. (60 boxes worth, the last time we moved). It is inevitable in a dual-academic family that this would happen. Anyway, we have old books, new books, books saved for children when they get older, books for rereading again and again, books for dipping into only occasionally, you get the idea.

So, I thought, well, we have all these books, surely some old book must have an appendix or something that I could tear out and use for a border. So I started stalking our shelves, looking for something with dense text, old typeset, and the right width. I found the first two easily enough, but the last was difficult. So I improvised. At the back of my (very old) edition of Dr. Zhivago is an appendix with Zhivago's poems. I confess, though I'm a Russian/Soviet historian, I've never been able to get into that book. I loved both movie versions, but the book is pretty obtuse. Pasternak might have been a brilliant poet, but his prose is quite dense.

I took a deep breath, asked forgiveness of the book gods, and tore a few pages out of the appendix. I cut them up into strips and assembled them into a longer collage strip that I used on the bottom of my card. I dirtied the whole business up with some basic black ink and that was it! I really love this card, but I think I'll wait for the Newsprint dsp to attempt a series!

I liked the layout so well, I tried a different color scheme and came up with these cards as well! (As a kind of funny aside, I was watching Archangel while making these. It's a thriller starring Daniel Craig and is set in modern Russia).

A fashionista in the making...

I don't know if this is true of toddlers in general, or just my toddler, but my son is a little obsessed with shoes. My shoes in particular, women's shoes in general. I'm not sure whether to be concerned by this or not. He's actually given me fashion advice on my footwear (which has turned out to be impeccably correct every time). He's fond of his own shoes, to be sure, but he really likes putting mine on and taking them for a spin. So it shouldn't have come as a surprise to me that he wanted to try on my sister's Betty Boop heels when we were visiting my parents a few weeks ago. He did pretty well in them, despite the height! Well, in any case, his (hopefully passing) interest has provided plenty of blackmail material for the future!

I should add that he doesn't particularly get into my husband's shoes that much. Occasionally he will try them on as we are putting on shoes at the door, but mostly he goes for my shoes instead. I guess shiny bronze flats beat out boring black Rockports any day! (Either that, or my son is basically just a magpie in disguise).

I made this card in a hurry for a friend who had her birthday this past month. It is an easy layout that I've taken to using--I just changed up the color combinations a few times. It is such an easy card to customize--just change the sentiment, or color scheme, and it looks quite different! I'm pretty pleased with how this one came out. I've started remembering to stamp the envelopes too, so even the outside was purty! This is another great example of how to make great cards with just paper, stamps and ink!

Supplies:
Bravo Burgundy, More Mustard, Old Olive cs
Elements of Style stamp set
Bravo Burgundy, More Mustard, Old Olive inks

Simple Thanks

I'm off to IHOP in about 20 minutes with the baby to have breakfast and grown-up conversation with a friend (what a novel concept!), so this post will be short. After the Deep Thoughts of three days ago, I don't have much else running around in my sleep-deprived brain.

This simple card uses the Razzle Dazzle set, which I confess has been a tough set for me to get into. I like how this card came out and the simplicity works. I made 10 of these for some friends at seminary. It was while making this card that I made the unfortunate discovery that my Riding Hood Red ink had gone mouldy! It is just over a year old, so I was a little put out. I called Stampin' Up! and they replaced the whole ink pad! Thanks, SU! This card is a great example of how to make beautiful cards using just paper, stamps and ink. All the other stuff is just frosting! (Although if you ask my mother, there's no point to cake without frosting, but that is a whole other discussion...)

Supplies:
So Saffron, Baja Breeze, Whisper White cs
Riding Hood Red, Baja Breeze inks
Thank You Kindly, Razzle Dazzle stamp sets

On C.S. Lewis

Forgive me a digression into Deep Thoughts. I promise there is a card at the end of it, so if you don't want to read it all, just scroll on down to the end. Here's a sneak peek just so you know it is there:

When I was 18, I had to read Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis for a required Theology 101 class in college (yes, I went to the kind of college that required theology). My brash 18 year-old self hated the book and dismissed Lewis as a bumbling idiot. I discarded it and vowed never to read anything else by him again. (I had never gotten into the Chronicles of Narnia as a child, preferring Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys to Lewis' fantasy world of Narnia). A few years after college, after my conversion to Orthodoxy and a lot of hard knocks had broken down the formerly brash version of myself, I took a job in Moscow and moved to Russia for what I thought was going to be a long time. It was there that I rediscovered Lewis.

I borrowed the first book in the space trilogy from a work colleague who had a large English-language library and devoured it. I quickly read the next two, hardly able to wrap my mind around the deeper philosophy of the fiction. Out of the Silent Planet whetted my appetite for more of Lewis. I read The Problem of Pain next, and found myself writing down a lot of excerpts from the book in my quote book. I read a few more books by Lewis during my time in Moscow and have continued to ruminate on them in the years since.

Now that I'm in my early thirties, I think about Lewis from time to time. I struggle often with the purpose of prayer. I sometimes think that there is no point to prayer because what is going to happen will happen, regardless of my praying about it. I admit that I don't take nearly enough time to pray and when I do, it is usually rushed, distracted, and hardly mindful. I've read many a mommy blog that tells me I should be using my middle-of-the-night vigils with the baby to pray. I do think of it when I'm up with the baby (or the toddler, for that matter) in the middle of the night, but in truth, I'm just so enraged at the loss of sleep and the realities of modern motherhood that I can't pray then.

So when I found myself woken at 4 a.m. this morning by a cranky baby who refused to go back to sleep after being fed and changed, I raged inside my head. I think most of us have an inner toddler who occasionally wants to have rolling-on-the-floor-foot-kicking-screaming tantrums, but being mature adults, we squelch the impulse. At 4 a.m., when the baby has had me up past midnight and my husband is away on business, I was having a harder time suppressing my inner toddler. I lay in bed and listened to Boo fuss and squirm in his crib as five minutes became 15 and 15 became 30 and then an hour and then two. I got up every 5-10 minutes to put in a paci, or rub his back, soothe him, rock him, swaddle him, etc., but inside, I raged at the injustice of it. I had woken up with a sore throat and still felt the vestiges of fever clinging to me and I just wanted to go back to sleep for a few more hours before my toddler was up for the day. I wanted to scream out loud as the fussing turned into full fledged wailing and I feared the crying would wake up my toddler who would then be up for the day. At that point, I brought the baby in bed with me and put up with his pummeling me before settling somewhat, during which time I started thinking about Lewis again. I raged in my head about the uselessness of prayer--hadn't I been begging God to put the baby back to sleep so that I could get some more rest? Hadn't I argued with God that I was recovering from an illness and that I was single parenting for a few days and needed my sleep? Hadn't I beseeched Him to let me sleep so I could have more patience with my toddler today?

Telling secrets.

Then I remembered what Lewis wrote about prayer: "I pray because I can't help myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God; it changes me." As I thought about that, my rage ebbed, and my inner toddler quieted. The more I thought about it, I became aware that my inner monologue had transformed into a dialogue of prayer. And felt some small change. So when my toddler woke up earlier than usual this morning because his diaper had leaked (and a bit cranky to boot), I sighed a bit with resignation and pushed myself out of bed to take care of it, but I didn't have an angry tirade in my head. I am desperately tired today, but I'm hoping it is nothing a little caffeine and sugar can't help. My throat is still sore, and I still feel the mild effects of a low-grade fever, but I will make it through this day. Not because God answered my prayer, but because I was somehow changed by it. Which is not to say that I'm not going to have this conversation again the next time I'm woken in the night, but I'll try to remind myself to pray, not because it changes God, but because it changes me.

Thank you to those who bore with me to this point. Today's card uses the Mercy Kerin Tuesday sketch, which I used as a rough guide. I flipped the main elements and left out one, but I think it captures the spirit of it. I like this color combination, but I'm not sure how well it works with this card. I got a little pearl happy on this one--I kept thinking it needed something and kept adding; I hope I didn't overdo it. I'm still not sure on the verdict for this card. I stamped the floral from Elements of Style in Melon Mambo and then used a blender pen to swirl the ink from the stamped image around, which is why it is so light. I added a little Daffodil Delight to the centers of the flowers, colored the leaves in Wild Wasabi and added some Daffodil Delight sponging on the background to warm it up a bit. The trick with adhering the pearls is to pick them up between the blades of your paper snips or on the tip of your paper piercer--it keeps the adhesive back on the pearl instead of on your finger! Between my family and my husband's family, there are five birthdays, a few feastdays and one anniversary in October, so this card will definitely come in handy!

Supplies:
Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White cs
Elements of Style stamp set
Melon Mambo, Tempting Turquoise, Daffodil Delight inks
Jewels: Pearls
Paper snips
dimensionals
circles #2 die, Perfect Details texturz plates (borrowed)
Melon Mambo grosgrain ribbon
scallop edge punch
1 3/4" circle punch

Happiness is a die cast car

Toddlers are fairly simple people. They want to be fed at pretty regular intervals, cuddled occasionally, given baths once in a while, kept on a regular sleeping schedule and have access to toys. I think it is nearly universal phenomenon that little boys love cars. My little boy is no exception.

Every time we go into a Rite Aid, he makes a bee line for the die cast cars display and happily plays with the cars while I do my shopping (while checking on him every 30 seconds or so). I've never bought him one because he has other cars at home, and technically the die cast ones are for age three and up. But today was different. I'm still a bit feverish, but not as run-down, so we did a few errands in the neighborhood this morning, which included a Rite Aid run. Piglet asked me to go play with the cars after we'd picked up his Zyrtec and I was looking for a large envelope. I said yes and he was happy for the next 10 minutes. We were getting ready to leave and I noticed a yellow Mini Cooper on the display. My sister just bought a yellow Mini Cooper and I thought it would be a fun gift for her. But I didn't think it would be fair to buy one for her and not for Piglet--he wouldn't understand it. Plus he is getting pretty close to three by now. I let him pick out the one he wanted (white VW Beetle with red markings on it like a soccer ball) and we paid for both of them and he has been happy as a clam playing with the cars since we got home. Brilliant. He asked to play with the yellow Mini too, and I said it was okay for today, but that he had to keep it nice for Auntie B so we could mail it tomorrow.

Today's card is another birthday card I made two weeks ago for a kid in our church. Well, he is in jr. high, so I guess technically, he isn't a kid anymore, but he seems very young to me. (Or maybe I'm just getting older). I got this color combo from the always fabulous Color Coach. Have I mentioned how much I love this tool?
(Okay, maybe I have, just a time or two).

Supplies:
More Mustard, Cajun Craze, Night of Navy, Whisper White cs, retired dp
Pedaling Past, Teeny Tiny Wishes stamps
Night of Navy, Cajun Craze, More Mustard inks
blender pen
square lattice EF
more mustard grosgrain ribbon (clearance rack)
more mustard designer button
glue dot
scallop edge punch

Get thee behind me fever!

Well, I'm back after a nice week at my parents' place with the boys. I'd hoped to hit the ground running and get the house back in order plus do some damage in my stamp room, but alas, I've been felled by the mighty flu virus or some such thing. I started feeling rotten yesterday afternoon and by early evening was running a low grade fever plus lots of body aches and a pretty decent headache. I went to bed earlier than usual with chills, and then woke up this morning in a bad way. I'm mostly just wiped out now, and I can tell I'm still running a little bit of a fever, so I'm in pajama pants and a tshirt, just lounging around for the most part. Unfortunately, moms don't get to be sick on the couch all day. Thank goodness today was a babysitting day for my toddler or I'd really be up a creek. He is napping now, and the baby seems pretty content to just sit on my lap, so I'm probably going to spend the afternoon on the couch watching Alias.


I do, however, have some eye candy from before my trip. The son of a friend of ours turned one in August and we were invited to the birthday party, which was held at Valley Forge National Park. It was an incredibly hot and steamy day, but the kids had fun. This is the card I made to go along with the gift we brought. I think that ol' sock monkey is perfect for children's cards. I also like the watercoloring effect--it completely changes the look of the image, in my opinion.

Supplies:
Pacific Point, Daffodil Delight, Real Red cs, Watercolor paper
Chocolate Chip, Real Red, Not Quite Navy ink, Staz On
Birthday bliss, Sock Monkey stamps
Aqua Painter

A good day with no mistakes in it.

I'm happy to report that today was a good day with (almost) no mistakes in it. :) The boys were good this morning while we ran errands and went to the park, both took good naps this afternoon, I had a great walk/talk with a friend and dinner came together easily. Oh, and I got Boo to eat some baby oatmeal for supper. Solid foods, here we come!


Just a quick post today--I wanted to share a quick and easy baby card that I made for another friend who just announced her pregnancy. I'm extremely happy for her and can't wait to meet her baby in the spring! I used the new Baby Steps stamp (I double-mounted it so I could use the image and the sentiment separately) and a fresh color combo from the Color Coach. I'm definitely going to come back to this one! I must admit that I wasn't a fan of Tangerine Tango when it was an in-color, but now that it is part of the brights, I find myself turning to it more often. I might even say that it's becoming a favorite!

I stamped the elephant twice--once in Tempting Turquoise and once in Old Olive and cut out the Old Olive ears and popped them up on dimensionals. Pretty stinkin' cute, if I do say so myself!

Supplies:
Old Olive, Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise, Tangerine Tango cs
Baby steps stamp set
Tempting Turquoise, Old Olive, Tangerine Tango ink
Heart to hearts punch
5/8" grosgrain ribbon (old olive)
textures plates for big shot
dimensionals