Hmmm... maybe that title should be 'Good News / Suckers', or perhaps 'Good News and Suckers'? Whatevs! Y'all will get my drift in a second or two...
Ready for the good news part?
You'll recall1 that in October, I was the guest designer for i {heart} papers, an online store that carries everything a paper crafter could want or need. I had made that guest design commitment several months in advance, and by the time it actually rolled around, I hadn't stamped for months2 and I had given serious thought to packing up my acrylic mounts and inks for good. My craft room could be turned into a playroom/den for the boys, etc.3 But a deal is a deal, and I had met Kate at CHA in 2012 and really liked her a lot. So, I dusted my stuff off and got to playing with a variety of products from companies I adored (like Paper Smooches) to those I wasn't too familiar with but thought looked like fun (Technique Tuesday, Lawn Fawn, Gourmet Rubber Stamps, etc.).
To my delight, and to my boys' dismay, I re-discovered the pleasure I experienced when I first started stamping, so many years ago. For that, I truly credit the liberty I found in dabbling4 with IHP's vast inventory of all that's au courant. I am THRILLED to now be joining the IHP design team - I think it's a perfect combination for me: the structure of a team environment5 with the freedom to explore and create with a plethora of product. Color me excited!
For my first official IHP post, I created a bumper crop of cuteness (this is the sucker part of the post, btw):
I think I may have mentioned before that Carter was wanting me to create homemade Valentines for his classmates this year...
Carter's teacher is Miss Hartsock, so how could I resist using Lawn Fawn's adorable My Silly Valentine stamp set? Answer: I couldn't!
I first stamped the cute socks with Memento Tuxedo Black ink on white cardstock, colored the heart and the sock edges with Copic markers, then fussy cut them out. I cut my kraft circles with circle Nestabilities, stamped the socks, then 'highlighted' them with a light blue prismacolor pencil and odorless mineral spirits.
I created 27 of these (there aren't that many kids in his class, but he'll have a few extras to pass out to teachers, therapists, office workers, etc.). Note the washi tape - my first ever use of it! I really thought it was just a passing fad, but after this year's CHA, I am comfortable in saying I was wrong in that prediction. Washi tape was everywhere at CHA and it appears it's here to stay for a least a few more seasons. Very fun and easy to use, especially if you're doing any sort of mass-production. IHP carries a wide variety7 of washi tapes with fun patterns.
Side view:
Backside:
(Isn't his handwriting getting nice and legible? #proudmama) And on the inside...
A Charms' Valentine lollipop - mmm... cherry! Charms are the best lollipops ever, IMHO. You can find them online, but they're more expensive through those sources. I bought two bags for $5 at my local Walgreens. :)
Funny-but-true-story: While I was putting these together (it took me a couple of evenings to get them all done), Carter asked: "Mom, when did you become a craft genius?" Man, is that kid following in his politician daddy's footprints, or what?!
*************EDITED TO ADD!**************
Ugh! I'm such a dummy! I almost forgot, what with all of my excitedness for me - there's something in this FOR YOU, too!!! Kate has generously donated a $10 gift certificate to i{heart}papers to help me celebrate! All you have to do is follow IHP on Facebook and/or Pinterest. If you follow IHP on both, you get to enter twice. Just leave me a comment (or two) and let me know what YOU are planning on doing/making for Valentine's Day, as well as which way(s) you're following IHP, and I will randomly select a winner.
Supplies used:
From i {heart} papers: Lawn Fawn's My Silly Valentine stamp set; Copic markers; washi tape; Memento Tuxedo Black ink; Dimensional Dots
Other: cardstock - White (Georgia Pacific), Tempting Turquoise SU!), Kraft (PTI), Red Hot (MFT); Circle and Pinking Circle Nestabilities by Spellbinders; Tuck 'N Close Notecard die (Taylored Expressions); Crop-a-Dile; Charms Valentine Lollipops
Footnotes:
1. Of course you'll recall what I was doing in October, because (like Sting, himself) every breath I take, every move I make, you're watching me and committing those acts to memory, both short-term and long-term. Because you have nothing better to do and I am The Most Interesting Woman in the World. I don't often drink beer, but when I do... ;)
2. You'll recall (see footnote 1 - I'd put a footnote here, telling you to do just that but I think it might be a bit tacky to put a footnote within a footnote) that Carter had a big ol' surgery/recovery/immobilization/rehab period from April on.
3. And, as I'm sure you know, once you give up prime real estate in your house to other family members, you will NEVER get it back! That's a serious surrender that should be done only when one is absolutely certain. That's like giving up a kidney.
4. I used to think being a 'dabbler' was something to be avoided, at all costs. There's a great passage from a wonderful novel, The Here and Now, by Robert Cohen (who was my teacher in 2002 at the Bread Loaf Writer's Conference and for whom I have great admiration and affection) that has haunted me for over a decade... damn it, I've been searching through that book for the last half-hour and haven't been able to find it. Guess I'm going to have to re-read the book and get back to you, because it's just that good.
The gist of the passage is how utterly disappointing it is when you discover that instead of being an expert/genius/one of the great ones, you discover you're merely a dabbler, flitting from one thing to another. It's heartbreaking and funny, simultaneously. Now, I recognize I am what I feared (and must have sensed - why else would that passage have affected me so? I even brought it up in a conversation with Rob. C) when I first read that: I am a dabbler. With a few more years on me, and having survived a few more of the requisite kicks in the teeth that life occasionally serves up, I have come to the realization that that's okay. I wonder if I'll be struck by that passage in the same way, reading from the vantage point of my early 40s (as opposed to early my 30s)? In so many ways, I feel like a totally different person than who I was 11 years ago, when I first read that book (and paradoxically, I feel exactly like who I was at, say, age eight...). Interesting experiment - I'll let you know how it turns out and share that passage when I find it.
5. This is going to sound insane to some (if not most) of you, but I need deadlines and requirements to get me off my duff and into my studio. Even though I love - in theory - creating for the sake of creating, left to my own devices, this is what I'd look like 95% of the time:
It reminds me of something Carter and I were talking about this morning, as he was getting ready for school. He had checked out a Junie B. Jones book from the school library, and he was discussing how he needed to get it read before Monday so he could return it and get a new book. I said, "Don't you have all of the Junie B. Jones books up in your room? Why do you check them out?" His response: "Because if I check them out, I read them, but if I don't, I won't." Makes perfect sense to me.
7. I'm going to have to come up with a list of synonyms for 'variety', I can see... ;)