Fox in Socks

"Try to say this please...." -Fox

I'm in this really cool Dr. Suess swap and I have Fox in Socks, one of our family favorites, and Sally from the Cat in the Hat. This one is my Fox page. I only have 1 out of 10 done but they aren't due until February. Here's what I will be making!

A close up of fox. He has liquid glass on his socks!

Colors : Cranberry, Starspangled Blue, Autumn Terracota, Black
Paper : Carnival B&T ('07)
Stamps : Star Struck, Whimsy caps and lowercase, Storytime lowercase
Accents : Bright blue and orange eyelets, second generation arrow in SSB


This is my fifth 12x12 swap page and it's the first one that my original graphed out design didn't get used. I did CUT my pieces to the original design but after laying it out I just wasn't feeling it. After going back and forth with what to do I finally got to this and I'm quite happy with it even though it's so different from the original plans.

Recipe : The page itself is pretty self explanatory. I cut cranberry and autumn terracota cs strips and two bigger star spangled blue b&t strips then set them side by side to make a small bit of striped background. 1" squares were cut on the diagonal to make the corners for the photo mats and page. FOX was cut out using our dimentional alphabets as a template (I have to make 10 of these so I didn't actually use the chipboard on the page). Arrow was first stamped with black then the inside stamp second generation in star spangled blue, cut out and glued. 'in' and 'Socks' were just stamped directly onto the page and fox was scanned from the book then printed out in color and cut out. After everything was glued down and the eyelets were set I put liquid glass on his socks and let him sit overnight to dry. His quote was printed from my computer, both fox and the quote were printed onto cardstock.

Pretty Thank You

Colors : Hollyhock, Honey, Vineyard Berry

Stamps : Playful Petals, For Every Occassion, Rustic Flowers

Accents : Gold Embossing, Cuttlebug Embossing, Gold eyelets, Gold hinges, Olive Organdy, Piercing tool

I wanted to make an elegant card for my neighbor, who this card is for, but found I have no elegant flower stamp sets. So I tried to use playful petals in a more elegant way and it turned out a lot prettier than I expected :D This is also using my own color challenge for the month.

Recipe : Card front was honey distressed in honey. Then vineyard berry cut to size, embossed with swirl embossing folder on the cuttlebug, and reverse corner rounded with a small circle punch. Matted onto card front then gold eyelets put in corners. Flower was first the big distressed flower in Rustic flowers stamped honey on honey cardstock as a guide. Playful petals swirl petal stamped in embossing pad over each of the rustic flower petals then gold embossed and entire flower cut out. Gold embossed 7 swirl petals and cut out each individually. Flower inside stamp was rolled on the embossing pad (just around the outside and a little more on one side) stamped on honey then embossed in gold and cut out. Thank you stamped in hollyhock and rolled in vineyardberry. Script shading done with a versamark pen and embossed in gold. Reverse corner rounding, honey distressing, and a piercing tool to make the sewing holes. Hollyhock CS cut for mat, reverse corner rounded and distressed in hollyhock. Positioned and glued the honey flower piece first, then the hollyhock mat for the script. Olive ribbon across the card then taped to the back of the card front. Thank you glued down over ribbon and centered on mat. Hinge attached. Hollyhock embossed petals attached with pop dots. Brad used in center of the petals to pull the middle down. Flower center piece attached with a glue dot to the brad. Versamark pen used to trace over some of the dry embossed swirls, then heat embossed in gold. Then the entire card was attached to the card base to hide the embellishment backs and ribbon tape.

Let it Snow

Colors : White daisy, holiday red, crystal blue, grey wool
Stamps : Winter Reflection, Snow Friends, Newly Fallen Snow, Christmas Scripts
Supplies : Vellum Circle tag, White Daisy Sassy Strands, Blue dot organdy, pop dots, shimmer chalks, stazon white, blending pen, acetate sheet

The front:

The Inside:
Laying down. You can see the snowflakes better this way I think.
This was my first attempt at an acetate card. The pop dots really add a lot of dimention to the card itself that I probably didn't need the sassy strands and tag but I wanted to do a bit more texture since I usually make simple cards. I keep trying to figure out how to make wowie cards :D One of these days I'll get it!

Recipe : Acetate was cut 4x8 and scored in the middle to make a 4x4 card. Small snowflakes stamped on the front with white stazon then big snowflakes on the back. Set to let dry. 2.5x2.5 square cut from textured white CS then stamped on with image and script. Colored in with blending pen and matching inks, background distressed with shimmer chalk, white shimmer chalk used on snowman. Image pop dotted onto a grey wool mat 2 5/8 X 2 5/8. 3x3 mat cut out of hol red and glue dot to the INSIDE of the front acetate card panel (This is to hide the glue dots that will hold the stamped image to the front). Snowman on matted cs glue dotted and centered over the red cs to the front of the card. Bird stamped, colored, cut out, and pop dotted to the front. Inside was stamped and colored on white CS 2.5 x 2.5. Red back glue dotted to back for the mat 2.75 x 2.75. Snow flakes were stamped in versamark then run over with shimmer chalk. Shimmer chalk used to highlight script. Sassy strands wrapped around card and tied together. Snowflake stamped on vellum tag then attached with scrap blue ribbon to sassy strands.

Just one of the many reasons....

My hubby likes to make voices for the different characters when he reads to our daughters. The one that cracks me up the most is his voice for the Knox in Dr. Suess's Fox in Socks which is a strange kind of lispy femmy male voice. I don't know why it makes me laugh so hard but it does. So tonight he starts reading the potty book to the girls and makes the babies in the beginning sound so hilarious with some sort of higher pitched but raspy voice. I couldn't help but bust up laughing after asking him why the babies sounded like that and he just said "Shhh.... I'm trying to read the story" then continued on. It reminded me that this silly thing he does is just one of the many reasons why I love him so much. Even after eight years together he still makes me laugh on a daily basis.

A Lesson Learned

So I just sent my first four 12x12 swap pages out today and was floored by how much it cost me in shipping. $20 each for the round trip to two different hostesses. The one thing I can say is I'm glad I didn't actually have to buy product to make the swaps as well since I had everything on hand, but still.... that's a lot of money to pay on shipping. I've just found out that it's best to just send it all priority flat rate in the 8.95 box and to print the label from the USPS site which will give me delivery confirmation for free and save me 65 cents. So a round trip would still cost me $18. Not much of a difference, but still two dollars is two dollars right? That will at least help me on my shipping for my next swaps. But even still, if that's the cheapest I can send out swaps in, than 12x12 swaps are seeming to be very unaffordable. I did get another tip though and that's to sign up for the same hostess on multiple swaps so you can just send one box with all the swaps in it. That sounds really good except I notice that different ladies hold the swaps I want to do.... ARGH! It's just a no win with the shipping costs. I'm wondering though about hosting a swap now. I won't have to pay shipping, I get to pick the subjects, I can participate in the swap, and I can give out goodies too which I think would be really fun! My only concern is, I don't know how 'popular' I am on the boards and am worried that no one would sign up. Maybe I'll just wait it out and try after the holidays when people aren't swamped with the seasonal stuff and I'll have had more experience with the shipping swaps thing now that I have a friend that has kind of taken me under her wing to help teach me the tricks of swapping ^_^. That and a little experience goes a long way lol.

Birthday Party!

Colors : Autumn Terracota, Orchard Bouquet, Goldrush, White Daisy

Paper : Days to Cherish ('06)

Stamps : Giggle Caps and Lowercase

Accents : White brads; stickease; Autumn Terracota brads, conches, and photo clips

Using the days to cherish papers that match the cherish calendar. I had to use bubblegum again for the pink just because my orchard bouquet still looked too purple. It might be the color combo itself that makes the orchard bouquet seem more pinkish. I did the Small Packages layout in Imagine (pg 74-75) turning the left layout once counter clockwise to fit my vertical photos. It went perfectly with all these birthday party photos.