Tuesday, March 26, 2013

A Night Owl's Revenge

What do President Obama, Winston Churchill and Elvis Presley have in common?  They were all night owls!  A new study suggests that the 15% of the population that find it hard to get up early, but hit their stride later in the day are more likely to exhibit the kind of intelligence that leads to more prestigious jobs and higher income!  At last! Vindication!

I've told you before that I have been a Night Owl living in a Lark's world!  I was always on the wrong side of that old adage:  Early to bed and early to rise, make a man healthy, wealthy and wise!  I would struggle to get up in the morning, but always managed it.  I could function fairly well if I didn't have to do too much deep thinking.  I'd be dead tired come 5 pm, but at 7 pm I would hit my stride with an amazing second wind, and could be extremely productive and creative well past midnight.  I would force myself to bed so I could get up in the morning, but it was always difficult to get to sleep!


Now, this new study suggests that night owls score higher on inductive reasoning, lateral thinking and creativity than their early bird counterparts, leading to jobs requiring creative thinking and new ideas, which often get the big bucks!

I wonder how many of us papercrafters fit that bill!  I bet there is a higher than average proportion of Night Owls among the stamping community!  But thank heaven for retirement!  It allows me to exercise my right to be a Night Owl without the social disadvantages!

Today was like that!  I worked hard all day on designs for one of my upcoming classes, but things were just not coming together.  A little freaked by dinner time, because the class was the next day,  I gave up and made dinner and chatted with my DH a while.  Then I headed to my craftroom to try again, and....
just like that, I finished all 3 designs without a problem!

The first one was created for my Beginner's class with a theme of Heat Embossing.  It also fits the criteria for Dyamic Duos Challenge #45 this week:


One of the uses for heat embossing is to provide a water proof outline for water coloring.  One of my favourite stamp sets for that purpose is Elements of Style.  It looks like a complex image, but the extra lines allow you to water colour fairly simply and have it look like you spent SO much more time on it!  I inked up the stamp in VersaMark and stamped on Whisper White card stock.  Then I added Black Stampin' Emboss powder and heat set it.  I used Stampin' Write markers in Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink, as well as a neutral, Crumb Cake, and blended the colours a bit using a Blender Pen.  When using a Blender Pen on Whisper White cardstock, instead of watercolour paper, be very careful not to overdo it and have the paper pill or get soggy.

I added some Crumb Cake taffeta ribbon and used the Needlepoint Border Textured Impressions Embossing Folder to add the design to the bottom of the Pretty in Pink panel.  I stamped the little hummingbird in StazOn Jet Black and fussy cut it out and popped it up on dimensionsals.

Great fun and such pretty colours!  Thanks, Dynamic Duos! 


Please leave me a comment!  Tell me if you are a Night Owl or a Lark!  When do you do your most creative work?

Stamps:  Elements of Style (w118611; c120045)
Paper:  Regal Rose (105130), Pretty in Pink (100459), Crumb Cake (120953) and Whisper White (100730) card stock
Ink:  StazOn Jet Black (101406); VersaMark (102283); Stampin' Write Markers in Regal Rose (119702 -with all the bright colours), Pretty in Pink (100045) and Crumb Cake (120967)
Accessories:  Stampin' Emboss powder in black (109133); 3/8" Taffeta Ribbon in Crumb Cake (122966)
Tools:  Heat Tool (129053); Blender Pens (102845); Needlepoint Border Textured Impressions Embossing Folder (129383)

4 comments :

  1. Heather, I LOVE your post today!! Might be the first time that I've ever seen a picture of Winston Churchill on a papercrafter's blog :o) Lovely card - you've used the perfect colours for this week's Dynamic Duos challenge - thanks for joining us!

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  2. What a beautiful card, Heather. I can't imagine ever being able to produce such a card. You are indeed so talented. I hear you on the 'second wind' thing. I can accomplish three times (at least) as much between 7 pm and midnight as the rest of the day. Makes it really hard to get up at 5!!!

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    1. Thank you, Eunice,but you will, indeed, be producing just this card - at the next Beginner's class! And it is not as complicated as it may look! My other Beginner class did a stellar job!

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  3. This is one of my favorite Stampin' Up stamps (wish I had it...smile) you did a beautiful job with the coloring.

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