Tuesday, December 30, 2008

ALMOST THERE

This is going to be a short post, but at least it will make it up before the new year! The reason for the shorty? I've got a full arm cast on my left arm, from the tips of my fingers to about 4 or 5" below my shoulder! There are not enough words to describe how I feel about this, this THING! Arrrgghh! OMGoodness, I can barely type, it's a one-handed effort as the left hand is stuck in the permanent "handshake" position. Great for a door greeter, not-so-much for a crafter. Evidently, according to the MRI, I have moderate to acute tendonitist and a torn muscle in my elbow, or however you might describe that. The orthopedic surgeon thought that "immobilizing" my arm would help it heal, but I am here to tell you that I'm pretty sure the only thing this cast has done is make me feel like a feral animal. The urge to gnaw this thing off is overwhelming. Grrrr.

Have you ever thought about turning an accountant into a hair dresser? It can't be done, uh-huh. He is hair dryer impaired. Not happenin'. Sigh. Only six more days to go. SURELY I can distract myself with enough Hallmark TV and sleep to get through the next six days. I tried working on my projects, as most of my Christmas was supposed to be handmade, but I gave up after I painted the table--several times, glued my Kleenex box to my leg, and then inked more of my cast than I did the project I was working on. The handshake position is not condusive to holding anything other than someone else's hand. I give up.

I did get my lengthy tutorial done on my Birthday Book (Days to Celebrate) before being "casted", so go take a look. It's on Lori's blog at clearlyistamp.typepad.com.

Cheers!

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

A FINISHED DAYS TO CELEBRATE BOOK




I've been promising a picture of this project for quite some time, so enjoy the photos of this particular version. I have another one using patterned paper that I'll try to post when I finish it. I'm working on a tutorial for this project, and if you know me, you know I am nothing if not thorough when it comes to documentation! :-)

Here is a brief synopsis of some of the tools I used to complete this project.

*Zutter Bind-It-All with brass 3/4" wires
*Cricut Tags, Bags and Boxes Cartridge to cut the tags (I also trimmed 1/2" off the bottom of each tag)
*Stamps from Clear Dollar Stamps; Log It, Days to Celebrate, Colossal Title Outline and Coaster Calendar
*Ribbons are American Crafts
*Buttons, eyelet and brad from Hobby Lobby
*Inks used; Memento Tuxedo Black, Memento Lady Bug, VersaMagic Jumbo Java for aging, Versamark for clear embossing, and the Kaleidacolor Autumn Leaves for the book title
*Paper is Bazzill and Neenah Solar White
*Copic 0.35 black multiliner pen to write in Date, Name, Birth and Anniv on the tags (there are stamps included in the Days to Celebrate set that you can also use to stamp in those headers)

Finished size of the book is 4 x 6.

What I really like about the Log-It stamp set is the grid can be used for all kinds of things. I chose to use it for this project and in the right-hand columns I put the year the person was born (so I don't foget how old they are) and used the last column for anniversaries. If you put the year the person was married, you won't let their 25th wedding anniversary go by without that special gift... like I forgot my brother's 25th wedding anniversary because I did not reference my handy little book. Sigh.

Look for more hints and tips in the full project tutorial, coming soon-ish.