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)

Sneak Peeks

I've been neglecting my blog a bit because stamping as a business is keeping me really busy.  I guess once I learn the ropes, life will settle down a little, but there is sooo much happening.  I've been coming up with projects for my upcoming workshops and Stamp Club Technique Night, so thought I'd share them quickly.  Here is a card I've designed for my workshops:

 

I love the two colours, Pool Party and Certainly Celery together, and Elements of Style is such a pretty stamp set.  I'm so glad it's not on the list of discontinued stamps!  The back panel of Certainly Celery is embossed with the Framed Tulips embossing folder, using the Big Shot Die-Cutting Machine.  The images were stamped with Pool Party and Lucky Limeade ink.  I added the oh-so-lovely Lucky Limeade Organdy ribbon from the Sale-A-Bration catalogue.  (I know it's not available now, but it is so pretty and I have to use it up, right?)  A few basic rhinestones added the requisite bling and voila!

The next card is for my Stamp Club Technique Night, which is spotlighting Vintage techniques this month. 

I wanted to keep it on the simple side, but still be able to use some basic aging and distressing techniques.  The stamp set is Nature Walk, another of my favourites that made the cut and will be around for another year.  The background DSP is from the Beau Chateau collection on a card base of Crumb Cake, which was also used for the Little Leaves Sizzlit.  The Marina Mist echoed the colour in the DSP and was punched with the Modern Label Punch, which also cut out the sentiment (from Teeny Tiny Wishes).  I used some more Certainly Celery as a matte for the DSP and all the panels, including the image and sentiment on Very Vanilla, were sponged with Crumb Cake ink and distressed.  Pearls always add to a vintage look.

Have a great Wednesday!

Packing a Punch!

I'm hoping today's post will pack a punch, but I don't have the punch I needed for the card I made today for my good friend, Dee's birthday.  I wanted a small 5 petal flower punch, but had to make do with a 4 petal Sizzlit die with my Big Shot.  Four petal flowers look stylized because of their symmetry, and I wanted something a bit more realistic-looking.  I made quite a few layers and staggered them to give the impression of more petals.  I decided to join the Pals Paper Arts Challenge#132 this week.  It was a colour challenge with our palette being Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink and Certainly Celery.

Here's my take on the challenge:

I like those three colours together and the stamp sets, Stampin' Up's Elements of Style and Elementary Elegance are beautiful.  I used the embossing folder Petals A-Plenty on the Certainly Celery and Pretty in Pink panels.  But those flowers just are not doing it for me, even with all the manipulating I did - curling, separating, crumpling, sponging and everything short of feeding them to the cats! 

I just need to order myself some new flower punches or dies, but that will have to wait for awhile since I just made a large order for some business basics.

I would also like to share a Get Well Soon card for my daughter, who is recovering from surgery.  She loves ochre and brick colours and so the palette I used for this card is More Mustard and Cajun Craze.  The DSP I used is from the Well Worn pack.

The stamp sets are Daring Adventure and Teeny Tiny Wishes, and even though the wishes are teeny, we're hoping that the thoughts and prayers are big enough to help her feel more like her lovable self! 

Have a wonderful Easter weekend!

LIfe is a Matter of Moments

As I was crafting a card tonight, I was thinking about the sentiment, "Life is a matter of moments", and how true it is.  I can't remember every detail of my daughters' childhoods, but each daughter brings a series of precious moments to my heart: a grin, an exchanged look that exchanged so much more; a squeal of delight; a broken heart; a moment of triumph!  How can you express the essence of those moments to another?  There are no words.  How wonderful to have memories!

Here is the card that inspired all this philosophy:

I used a new stamp set, Elements of Style, that was delivered as part of my Starter kit and it fit this design perfectly.  I made the card for the Paper Players Challenge #88.  Here's the sketch I was working from:

I used Not Quite Navy for the card base and the back panel is from the Brights collection Patterns Designer Stack.  The strip is from Marina Mist cardstock, and the scalloped edge was achieved by using Edgelits Adorning Accents.  I added some Very Vanilla Satin ribbon topped with some navy grosgrain ribbon and a small sentiment from the same stamp set snipped and attached with glue dots.

The main panel is stamped on Very Vanilla Cardstock with Not Quite Navy ink and a little Marina Mist added to the flowers using a Stampin Write marker.  The sentiment piece was punched with the decorative label punch and the sentiment is also from Elements of Style.  All the Very Vanilla panels were sponged with Not Quite Navy ink.

With a few basic rhinestones to finish off the look, it was ready to go!  I have a friend who loves hummingbirds and this card would be perfect for her.  This one is for you, Jen!