Keys to Success

This one is a card made for my boss to use at one of the many graduation parties she has to attend this summer. Two simple stamps, a couple of letters, and some hand-stitching to attach the keys... simple, but I love it! (just like this post! hehe)


As always, if you want more details, you can email me - jenn@hatterschmuck.com

Welcoming Kennedy

One of my daughter's friends from work is expecting a baby. Of course, the father has run off and she has very little family left, most of which has already told her that they can't help her with it. So the coworkers threw her a shower and my daughter asked for help. I made a few clothespin photo holders for game prizes -



and a quilt for baby Kennedy. (Who the ultrasound says is a girl... cross your fingers!)



And I think four for today is plenty... I still have a few more to post later this week. Thanks for looking :)

Dream & Become

The season is right for graduation cards and my only card "customer" so far (my boss) requested a couple of options for some graduation parties she had to attend this month. I have several quotes which are fitting for graduation and this quote by William Arthur Ward is certainly one of my favorites - "If you can dream it, you can become it."



There is really nothing fancy to this card and no funny creative story to tell. I just liked it. Sometimes, I find that the simpler something is, the happier I am with it.

Portable Pockets

In addition to being creative with paper & ink, I also enjoy sewing. Nothing too fancy or elaborate, because I'm still working on the skill set, but I really enjoy the puzzle of figuring out how to create something useful with as few steps as possible. I made tote bags for my Mingler roomies and made a slightly more elaborate one for my door prize donation.



Over the years, I've also been sewing small drawstring utility bags for the storage of dice or gaming pieces. Since we have to leave the office to use the restroom at work and not all of my work pants have pockets, I made myself a slightly larger one which holds my feminine products and allows me to discretely carry them to the bathroom when needed. Ta-Da! The portable pocket was born.

A friend just opened a store in the nearby town, selling board games, card games, dice games, and role playing materials. The perfect place to market the portable pockets... so I made a few and put them in the store, including a small display. He made my first "sale" about a week ago. It's not destined to become a huge money maker, but I'm excited anyway.

I'm baaa-aaack

Computer repairs can be frustrating, especially when you send it for repairs and it comes back un-altered. But we did manage to figure a work around and after giving it enough time to ensure it wouldn't die on me again, I'm back in business. Yay!

You would think it would have given me a lot more time to create, but somehow, other things kept coming up and I didn't get as much done as I would have liked to.

That said, I did get several things done and will inundate you with posts now to "catch up".

The first is a card I did for fun. I wanted to practice shading with colored pencils and mineral oil and I thought that black and white would make the colors more vibrant. Although I definitely still need more practice, I am happy with the card overall.

new ATC

I wanted to play with Gimp on the new PC (and my internet went down) and I have an ATC due for swap on the 21st - just in time for Earth Day. It seemed like the perfect time to play.

I have to say, I love using the layers as transparencies and reducing opacity so that you can still see the layer below it. If I ever figure out how to do THAT with paper, ink, and stamps, I'll probably lose ALL other hobbies, because it will become an obsession. lol

Anyway - I take credit for none of the images - they're all brushes downloaded from various sources at deviantart. If you're interested in one, let me know and I will share the info.

Lovely Daisy ATC

For the Mingle, I participated in 3 swaps; one of them was a season-themed ATC. We were to pick our favorite season and create our card to match it.

I couldn't decided between spring and summer, so I just went with daisies!



The ATC bases came from my LSS and are a creamy vanilla color. All the stamps are from the CTMH "Lovely Daisy" set, which is a few years old so it's probably dc'd by now. I stamped the biggest image in CTMH Sunkiss Yellow for the background to give it a little texture, then added the main image in SU Soft Suede and the phrase in Ranger Distress Peeled Paint. Once everything had time to dry, I used my blending pen to color the flowers and leaves - SU Crushed Curry, Soft Suede & Wild Wasabi, more Peeled Paint, and some CTMH Plum Mist. Then I applied Crystal Effects/Glossy Accent/Liquid Glass (yes, I had a little left in multiple bottles, so I ended up using all three. They really are the same, just different labels.) to give the main flower some dimension. I left this to dry over night.

In the morning, I clipped the top corner and used my CTMH Distress kit - the stipple sponge with some SU Chocolate Chip ink and the edge distresser to roughen up the clipped corner. I wiped the ink off the 3D main flower so it was all nice and shiney again, added some CTMH Purple Pansy organdy ribbon to the corner for a bit of fun, put some CTMH Buttercup CS behind it and mounted the whole thing to a new card base so I could stamp the back with my artist info.

Voila!

Thanks for looking!

as promised

Sorry this is so late! I got sidetracked building my new computer. Yes, I built it.

Jas was kind enough to order my parts to make sure nothing was missed and walk me through the process, but I did all of the physical labor. They physical assembly went fairly easily - it took just as long to install windows as it did to assemble the computer! lol

Anyway - as promised, here is a pic of the card I traded in tonight's local swap.



The base started out white. The green outline was traced around a diecut from a Tim Holtz Sizzix die, then while it was still in place, the amethyst color ink was "smooshed" all around it using the blending tool. The lovely lady (who's stamp manufacturer is sadly unknown, as I have lost the original block/label she had before I unmounted her) and the quote (an Angel Company stamp) were then stamped with Versafine in black, embossed with clear powder, and colored with copic markers.

All in all, very simple, but I love the nice clean lines and the happy colors.

Hope you like it, too. :)

So there I was ...

showing Megan the cards I designed for the Mingle swap using my new SU stuff. (Since it's an SU only swap, I was afraid that I was going to feel limited, but it was sort of nice to sit down with limited supplies and think "inside" a box for a change.)

One of the bosses wandered through, commented on how much she liked them... and then asked me if I would consider selling my work. Of course, I said I would! We talked price a bit and she asked me to make her five cards in the same style, but in her preferred colors. I whipped them up for her over the weekend (at the new creation station!) and she was thrilled to get them on Monday morning. She's already sent one of them out in today's mail, too, so I know she really liked them.

Okay - reality check. I know. It's just one small sale, it's only five cards. But it's a start, right? Get off my dream ;)

Holy whirlwind of creativity, batman!

Last week, I ordered my new desk. Nothing fancy, mind you - just something sturdy, with a couple of small drawers, that was on clearance at Target.com and would work for both my crafting and my new computer. They promised to ship it out the next day so it would arrive to me this week.

Surprise! It arrived on Friday! So Friday night, we rearranged a bit and I got it set up in my corner. I was pleasantly surprised at how sturdy it is and there was really very little assembly to it - just attaching the legs and tightening/replacing loose screws on the drawer runners.

So... you can't just let a new desk sit there and collect dust! Since we don't have all the parts for our computers yet, I decided to use it for crafting - with the Mingle coming up, I had roomie gifts and a door prize to make, plus I wanted to make myself an apron, and needed to finish my card swaps for that AND my local ATC swap. And for the first time since the move, I finally had something sturdy enough to put my sewing machine on1

WOW did I get a lot done!

I finished:
- roomie gift #1
- roomie gift #2
- my door prize donation
- my apron
- a cloth cover for my ribbon holder/hanger
- my ATCs for the Mingle swap
- some thank you cards for my boss (YAY - this will get its own post!)

Sadly, I cannot post pics of the roomie gifts, ATC, or door prize til after the Mingle (for obvious reasons)... or even of the cards for my boss, because they mirror a design for a Mingle swap. And I'm having a hard time getting good pics of the apron or the ribbon holder. But I promise pics as soon as I can.

Then, last night after G's wrestling banquet, I came home and sat down at my desk to whip up some ATC cards for tonight's swap. Sadly, I was feeling much more "schmuck" than "creative" when I walked in the house. I stood before my shelves baffled and finally picked to things I decided to make work.

As soon as I sat down at the desk, though, inspiration struck and within a short while, I had an idea. I mocked up a "prototype", decided I didn't like the colors, but the concept was good, and was on my way. Lots of stenciling and a catnap later, I was stamping, embossing, and coloring my way into a card that I actually like - and promise to post pics of tonight after the swap. Sadly, I have no card reader here at work, so even if I did take a picture, I still can't post until tonight.

Tonight, though, after the swap and picture posting, it's back to the batcave - I still have cards to finish up for the Mingle and an over-the-top nametag to design for the Mingle.

Yay! We have stamp-age!

My custom stamp arrived today. I was sad that they didn't give me a discount for requesting unmounted rubber, but the turn around was really quick and I was lucky enough to have a stamppad and block with me at work today, so I was able to test it already - and it works quite nicely. I'm excited to start putting it on the back of my cards.

Yay!

... now back to work... lol

digital stuff

I'm loving Gimp. I downloaded some brushes and have been playing around with them.





I made these. I think the spring will be for the local ATC swap, but the other was just for me - which I may yet print and fame, just because I love it.

(If you want to know more on the brushes, let me know and I will figure out which sets they're from.)

woot!

It's been a productive day, at least here on the computer. My poor neglected house might beg to differ!

Besides finally posting several pictures here, I decided that I need a stamp to use on the back of cards when I make them. If I start doing that now, and passing them around, then when I finally get things started, my "business name" will be circulating. Okay, it won't go very far, but at least my friends will know it to share around, right?

So I went to a nifty website to design my stamp. I played with a few of their fonts and found one I really like, which they credited to fontdiner.com

Well, I didn't want to chance infringing on their rights, so I went directly to their site, discovered that it's okay to use for personal right, but I will need a license if I begin using it commercially. I emailed Stuart over there and he was nice enough to respond right away. He said as long as I buy the license before I go commercial, I can use it now for my personal stuff. How awesome and understanding is that? (And really, he has some awesome fonts - you should really check it out!)

The other font used was good old-fashioned century gothic - you know, the one that has been on every windows computer you've ever owned? Well, right up until Windows 7, that is. I was quite shocked to see that it wasn't there anymore, but luckily still had it in my windows.old directory. So I restored all my old fonts from there, too, and ended up not having to download and pay for a bunch of fun stuff again.

Well, since I've got all that now, I went ahead and ordered my stamp, which should be here in no time.

Then I thought "Well, I've got this cool new logo type thing, why not make it a real logo". Then I remembered why - I can't afford to buy and install a graphics program to create it with!

Today really has been my lucky day - I found the wonders of GIMP. I love open source software, but I especially love it when it does exactly what I want it to do - and easily. I spent a little time with the online tutorial, then managed to create a "logo" for this blog, as well as a brush to use on my images. So back I went through my blog and replaced all the pictures with stamped versions showing that they're copyright to me.

Watch out, world. I may actually be figuring out what I'm doing!

Of course, first I get to go have dinner with Jason and Garrett. I've been waaaaay to busy to cook! lol

.. and one more...

Okay, just one more for now.

This was another idea I had for yule cards this year, but in the end, I decided they were too labor intensive for me to get done. (And ultimately, I got almost NONE done, anyway, so I guess I was right!)



Card stock is CTMH grey wool and Georgia Pacific for the white, the black is from my stash and I don't remember who made that. The flourish and bird images are from Scrappy Cat. I also used CTMH grey wool ink and Versafine black ink, with a few touches from a Starburst glitter gel pen that are hard to see in this photo.
The bird was stamped separately, then cut out and adhered over the grey stamping. I liked the effect.

another one

I know - silly to post all these at once, right? But they've got pics uploaded and I haven't posted in so long, I almost feel like I *have* to do something... before I get sidetracked again!

So here is a cute valentine. I made a few of these, but then decided it was sorta pointless, since I don't send valentines! Thankfully, I left the insides blank, so they are still usuable for something else.



Papers are BoBunny, border punch is a Martha Stewart. The hearts were cut out with a cricut. (I think Basic Shapes, but please don't quote me.)

... on another roll? ...

And since it's been FOREVER, I should probably go ahead and post this.

Okay, I know it's not something that I created. But it is something that helps me be more creative, so that sorta counts, right?

This is my new ribbon storage. (No, it's not all of it. I still have a plastic bin full, and a sorter full of smaller pieces, but this is the stuff that I tend to use most often.) I love the way it's out in the open so I can see if I have the right color, and workably accessible - I just pull out the pin, pull off how much I need, and I'm good to go.



The best part is that it's portable. I can wrap it in a bag or pillowcase and take it along, as is. No more packing/unpacking the whole lot. I think it needs a shaped zipper cover, but I'm not too good with sewing zippers yet, so that is on the 'someday' list.

holy cow!

I haven't posted in forever... I got so caught up in the whirlwind that was moving, and then in the whirlwind that was wrestling, that I have sadly neglected this!

I did at least take time to be creative. I made this wonderful sign, which now sits on my desk at work and is actually visible from the entrance, before you even step foot inside the firm. (I sorta like that. I admit it.)



I bought the letters on clearance at a local store forever ago, so I don't remember who made them or if they're even still available. Sorry for that. I added some acrylic paint, then more acrylic paint, then flowers, rub-ons, bling, and of course ribbon.

I'm very happy with it. It's been on my desk since shortly after New Year's and still makes me smile when I see it.