Resolutions

I like to post silly polls on the blog.  Y'all get a glimpse into my life from all my blathering along side my projects.  Polls give me a tiny glimpse into yours. 

Comments are better glimpses since I actual get to read what you like or what you want or what strikes you as funny or what awesome idea you have...  but too many of you don't like to leave them.  How about making that one of your New Year resolutions?  Leave a blogger a comment - once a week.  That really isn't a hard one - bet you could even keep it until February or so...

I know some people are really serious about their resolutions.  I went to a party in December a few years ago and met a woman who had given up chocolate as her resolution and she had KEPT IT!  Seriously, this girl had eaten no chocolate for 11 1/2 months.  Of course she was a tiny little thing and obviously already had plenty of self discipline but SERIOUSLY?  No chocolate all year?   I share this story so you will realize that resolving to leave blog comments is a very reasonable plan.

Me?  I think resolving to improve ourselves or our homes or our world is fabulous BUT I'm not hung up on timing my resolutions with the start of a new year.  I prefer to think of each day as a new start.  And sometimes, while dieting, daily won't do - I have to take things one meal at a time.  I have a weight loss bet with one of hubby's best friends - who can lose the most (% loss) in one year.  I should have mine off before then, but the year he wants to lose his weight will make me work at keeping mine off.  Dec. 26 next year will be our weigh in.

Whatever you decide about New Year resolutions I hope you will come visit Blinkin' Thinkin' & Inkin on a regular basis this next year, bring your silly heart, order some punches from your SU demo (or me) and have MUCH fun as we keep on playing with colored paper!

Stay safe with all those party people on the roads Thursday night!

Good bye to 2009

Talk to you next year...

More White Beards - Sneezy

I am not good on sending get well cards.  I have good intentions but by the time I get around to making the card AND getting it mailed... friends have long since recovered.  The solution?  Have some cards ready to use.  Yeah, I know, you have probably been doing that for years but sometimes I'm a little behind in the smart department.

But now that I have some cute little dwarfs punched (with names like Sneezy and Doc) I think I can get excited about have those get well cards ready to roll.

But I'm not in the card mood today so I have to do something else.  I think I'm going to make a basket of dwarf themed things to drop off when someone is under the weather.  And the first is :  "For when you are Sneezy"

Here is the how to for Sneezy

Hat - large oval and 1/2 large oval hole in apricot appeal

Face - 1.25 circle. large oval, heart to heart and leaf from Two Step Bird in blush blossom

Eyes - small heart in white, standard hole punch in black

Beard - circle scallop

NOTE  = Small Heart and Two Step Bird are available from SU on January 5

Trim as shown below:

(use wide oval to trim around 1/2 large oval hole)

Sponge with bravo burgundy and add a couple of pen lines as shown

I have ideas for some of our other dwarfs - but college girl is still in town - will post soon

More White Beards

Did you miss me?

Did you have a good holiday?

We had snow all day Christmas Eve! (This is North Texas - and this is my first white Christmas EVER!)

College girl in the snow

We had good food and good times with family - and that makes a successful holiday in my book.  Not everything went perfectly - the drive to my parents house was a bit harrowing but hubby drove us safely down the slick roads and around all the accidents (Many Texans don't know how to drive on snow or ice) and I couldn't find a crucial family recipe but it all turned out well in the end.

I haven't spent much time at my desk but I did get in a little time.  It appears that even with all those Santas I punched, I didn't get my fill of men in hats and white beards...

Way back when I was first starting the "pointy chin men" my upline, Jenifer, commented something like "what's next? the seven dwarfs?"  I said I wasn't going to make them, but I did.  She planted that little idea seed and it finally took root.

I'll tell you how I made them when I figure out how I'm going to use them... 

Sneezy on a get well card will probably come first. 

Can you remember all the names?

Happy Holidays

Tis the day before Christmas and all through the house.
Not a creature is stirring except Mom and her mouse.

The family is snuggled asleep nice and tight.
But Mom is up early making sure all is right.

Are the packages wrapped?  Does each have a tag?
One more trip to the grocery, should just be one bag...

Yet there on the desktop there came quite a clatter.
No crisis, no problem. Nothing really the matter.

It is just Mom regretting she has nothing to share
To all her dear readers, from here and from there.

So though I don't have a cute share from a punch
I want you to know that I love you a bunch.

I love that you visit!  I love that you come!
I love that you copy the things I have done!

And now that I'm sounding a bit like dear Seuss,
And don't want you to think that I'm hitting the juice

I'll end this short poem, this small bit of rhyme...
Wishing you a Merry Christmas just this one last time

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Camel

Ardis emailed me on Tuesday,  "My BFF is a camel person at Christmas time. Have you ever made a camel from punches?"

Well actually, the only camel I have made was from felt.  My first Christmas, in my first solo apartment in the early 80s, found me wanting a tree but I had NO budget for ornaments.  I had to make all my ornaments  I made three from felt - a red walrus with holly in his mouth,  a purple hippo holding a book of carols and a camel with a Santa hat.

So I pulled the camel off the tree and rebuilt him from punches.

Here you go Ardis, hope it is in time to use for your friend.

Body wide oval snipped in with wide oval at bottom

Legs word window

Feet 3/4 circle

Neck wide oval next to previous wide oval hole

Face large oval

Saddle wide oval folded, scallop oval snipped for fringe, word window

Tail - snipped from scissors

Hat - piece of large oval, piece of word window, 1/2 circle

Gingerbread Man

I was sitting here at my desk half listening while the girls watched a movie and started looking around for inspiration for something to punch.  Grabbed the basket with our Christmas Cards and saw one that had a tiny gingerbread man on it with a big polka-dot bow.  So I started with the bow thinking that might come in handy sometime and before I was finished I had the gingerbread man too.

Here is a little pictorial "how to" on the bow

two Large Ovals

1 inch Circle - cut flat on the sides

two Full Heart

two Wide Oval trimmed in on end

Sponged edges and start assembly

and here it is on the gingerbread man

Gingerbread man is all wide ovals except the head is approx 2 inch circle with Circle Scissor Plus

Icing is Scalloped Square - re-punched offsetting the scallops to get rick-rack effect

Cheeks are the new Small Heart (available Jan 5)

Dancing Penguin

Hubby fusses at how much time I spend at my craft desk but occasionally I see a glimmer of interest in what I do.  Yesterday he pointed out a darling penguin on some wrapping paper in an ad from the "bull's eye" store.  My immediate response "Oh!  I can do that from punches!"  (a frequent refrain)

Since I hadn't shared a penguin this year here he it...

Wide Ovals, small heart from Heart to Heart (trimmed for top feathers) wings are pieces of 1 inch punch, feet are circle cut in half.  He is very easy and very happy.  And he'd be happy to dance on a gift tag - if you are needing ideas to finish up your wrapping!

Dog Requests

STOP!  Don't do it!

Please, do not ask me to make YOUR dog from punches.  I have accepted a couple of requests for specific dogs but dear readers.... there are over 200 breeds of dogs and I cannot make them all.   I have not even made my own precious pooch from punches.  Stampin' Up! has a wide variety of punches but not enough variety to get the shapes I would need to make all those precious canines.

That being said... I did try to make a Lhasa Apso puppy for Donna D. -  I'm not sure how successful I was but I couldn't resist trying to make one of the cute faces she has on her blog.

Wide oval, large oval, half inch circles and wing from SU's new punch.Two Step Bird (available Jan 5)

Carey, I've tried to do Roscoe justice but I haven't been able to do him from the photo I have - maybe if you caught him in the act of eating swaps and snapped a picture?

I will try to make some dogs as the Inspiration Fairy allows but please do not email me specific dog requests - but do try your hand at making your pet.  You can go back and look at some of the other dogs I've done and use those as a starting place.  Dachshund,  Mutt,  Max.   Take a photo of your pet and look at it - try to see the SHAPES that compose the dog.  Round?  Oval?  Triangular?  Pull out your punches and give it a whirl....  You just might surprise yourself with your own creativity. 

Of course nothing we create will warm our hearts like those big old eyes and that wagging tail!

Pet your pooch for me.

Max

Since so many of you loved the Grinch, I thought you might like to make his dog, Max.  I threw this together quickly - I didn't even get out a sponge or ink (horrors!) - so fancy it up to your heart's content....

Small oval and 1 inch circle for head

Large oval body

1/2 circle cut in half for paws

word window cut in half lengthwise for legs

Small oval ear - trimmed - and the piece trimmed off became the tail

Punched a 1 inch circle then punched a wide oval around the hole - then trimmed in the curved 'point' with scissors for antlers - tied with linen thread

heart to heart for eye white

standard hole punch for eyes and nose

Don't get excited about putting Max WITH the Grinch - they are not "to scale".  This dog is a bit too large for the Grinch that I showed earlier this month. 

My Christmas Card

My friends and family should have received their cards by now so I can share this with you....

I told you all that I thought this snowman was cute.  And even after using him on so many cards and projects - I STILL like him.

This is what is called a "joy fold" card - I don't know how it got the name - maybe someone named Joy popularized it?  Whatever - it worked well for me this year. 

The blue part lifts up to reveal the sentiment.  The wish big circle element is on dimensionals and it holds the focal point down until you are ready to open the card.  This gave me space to have a cute card front, record my holiday message, include a short note about our family AND include a wallet size photo of my girls.

It is all Stampin' Up except I borrowed a snowflake embossing folder from a friend.  This has embossing, stamping, punching, texture wheel, sponging, ribbon, marker details and on and on 80 times.

I am not good about getting cards out during the year, but Christmas Cards are MY THING.  I know lots of stampers make a variety of cards at Christmas but for me that creates the AGONY of deciding "which card goes to who?"

It is much better for me to mass produce one themed card.  And I make a layout with the card, photo and  letter which serves as the "divider" in our chronological Christmas scrapbook to indicate the change in year.

INFO:  College girl should arrive home today or tomorrow so my posts may not be daily during the holidays.  You need to be finishing up your holiday preparations and enjoying your family anyway - not surfing blogs!  (grin)

I'll be here - just maybe not everyday.  Have a great weekend!

Brrrr-th day Bear

If you spend much time blog surfing, I'm guessing you have seen Laura Lipe's darling polar bears.  They are just precious, not hard to make and perfect for this time of year.

As soon as I saw them I knew I'd be copying Laura's idea.  But of course, I had to change things up.  I got the bear up and out of the snow and commercialized him a bit.

Today - Dec. 17 is the birthday of a dear dear friend of mine and she happens to work for a bottling company and one of their advertising campaigns is why I chose this bear for her.  I bet you can guess which company.  She loves pink and she loves girly, so the new Sending Love Specialty paper (available Jan 5) is the perfect choice to use on this tri-shutter card.

Did you notice the snowflake on one of the inside panels?  It is from our snowflake punch - I just trimmed down the points a bit to get a different look.  I 'borrowed" this idea from Linda Aarhus.


I hand delivered this card last night when I met the birthday girl for a yummy Tex Mex dinner with lots of chatter and catching up.  Gosh, what would we do without GIRLFRIENDS?

Happy Brrrr-th day Pam,  I love you!

I love you THIS MUCH Snowman

The Inspiration Fairy was nowhere to be found yesterday - maybe she is busy Christmas shopping? 

But it is okay, because inspiration was delivered to my inbox, thanks to Janine Wills, a member of the Stampin' Up Late Night Stampers yahoo group.

Janine stamped and shared the cutest card.  A snowman with the opossum (from the retired set Mini Mates) hanging from his very stretched out arms and her sentiment was... 

outside: "This Christmas, as always..."
inside: "I love you THIS much". 

So so so cute!  She mentioned that the inspiration for her card had 2 birds on his arms.

Here is my version - recycling a previous snowman - with Janine's idea and 2 birds on a tag...

This is a BIG old tag so let me show you each side

Left: 

buttons from my stash and my sloppy printing

And sorta the right side:

And in case you want to make a tiny cardinal:

blurry photo but you can get the idea:

half a 3/4 inch circle red

half a 1/2 inch circle red sponged with bravo burgundy

half a standard hole punch black

quarter standard hole punch summer sun

I can see using this idea in some form or fashion as a border on the bottom of a scrapbook page.  Alas and drats, there is no room on my desk for a sheet of 12x12 paper - MUST clean up before I scrap.

Honest Snowman

I commented a few days back that I live in the "land of little snow" and that got me thinking about what most of our snowmen have looked like...

Oue snow (the few times we get some to stick) is almost always gone by the next day and the snowmen are reduced to melting piles.  And the piles are not pure white, they have plenty of dead grass rolled up in them.  But snowmen are so magical, they can look good even when they are melting.  Snowmen just make you smile whatever their shape!

Ribbon is from my stash and was chosen to represent the brown grass in the yard this time of year.  And the sentiment was computer generated.

Obviously I was undecided on hats...

Winter Girl

The Inspiration Fairy and I decided that we needed a Winter Girl since we did a boy yesterday.  Shirt and Jacket and Face are very similar - don't you just love the puffy jackets? 

Her skirt is the scallop square punch trimmed from the middle of the corner scallops. 

The hair is the scallop oval.  (actually, several of them)

The tights are the word window - stamped with the new solid stripe stamp (available Jan 5).   You might remember that is the same stamp I used to make the boy's plaid jacket.  I think this is going to be a squatter stamp.  A squatter stamp is the one that takes up residence on your desk and never gets put away.   My recommendation?  Put this stamp on your first order of the new year.  It isn't very expensive and I am going to MAKE you NEED it before we are all said and done.

The background of the Winter Girl Tag is the new Dot,Dot,Dot stamp - I think you might need it too so just go ahead and order it with the striped one.

Let's look at the Winter Kids together.  Wouldn't they be cute off the tags and on a scrapbook page?

P.S. Time is running out to order your ornament punch to make these faces!!!!  Don't think unavailability will make me quit using it!  If you don't like what I've made so far, I will keep going until you just can't stand it.  But then, you might not be able to find one.  Get your ornament punch before Jan. 4th when the mini catalog ends.

Winter Guy, Santa and Ellen

I live in a large suburb of Dallas that still has quite a bit of "little town" atmosphere.  Our local arts group puts on great live productions at the Uptown Theater - the old movie house on Main Street that has been renovated and reopened.  Thursday night my friend Liz and I went to see one of our favorite kiddos, Michael, on the opening night production of Miracle on 34th Street.  Dang, he was good and his mama, Amy, had found him the best (most authentic) costume for his role as Jake - a speaking part as he sat on Santa's lap. 

Of course I couldn't take photos during the show, and Michael pulled the hat with the ear flaps off as soon as he possibly could, but I did get a photo of him autographing Liz's program.  He has been dancing publicly since age 3 where he could be seen  performing to Greased Lightening (music in his mind, moves from John Travolta) during lulls in the action of his soccer games.  His Mom is the coach and she eventually taught him to dance only on the sidelines not on the field during the game.  Oh this kid is CUTE!

This is my winter guy inspired by Michael and his costume...

This uses a couple of new things from the Occasions mini catalog that will be available January 5.  One is the heart punch for the whites of the eyes.  Regular readers are used to seeing me use the smallest heart in the heart to heart punch for this - but the new Small Heart punch is even better for this - it gives you just a little more white showing so you can put the black part of the eye in different places and get more 'expression'.

The other new item I used is the solid stripes stamp which will be sold as a single stamp (not in a set).  It is just what the name says - solid stripes.  For this jacket I wanted a subtle plaid effect so I stamped bravo burgundy onto red with this new stripe stamp but I stamped it again with the stripes running the opposite direction.  Ummmm,  I think you will be seeing me use this stamp and this punch a lot!

Here is a photo of the hat in progress so you can see how to make it...

Wide oval punched on the edge of the paper to get flat bottom - then I just snipped up both sides with scissors to get the angle you see here

Flaps are small ovals punched on the edge of the paper to get flat "inside" edge. 

Hat brim is small oval snipped with scissors (actually I just picked up a random scrap from my desk but you might not have the same mess I do)  I put the brim on a bit of dimensional to adhere it.

Sponging info - I am no artist so I can't tell you how to sponge and highlight your pieces the "right way".  My sponging is usually so you can distinguish one piece from another  - like seeing the sleeves against the plaid jacket.  I usually just go around the whole item - but on these sleeves I decided the inside of the elbow would be darker. I guess it works - but however you add sponging, it will give your punched characters more depth so play with it and when you figure out the "right" way please come back and teach me!

At the Miracle on 34th production you could have your picture taken with Santa so....here I am with one of my best punch characters in real life!

See my new bifocals? I like 'in your face' readers so I got 'in your face' glasses too. Not so sure I like how I look with them but I sure like how I SEE with them.

Tall Snowman

We don't get much snow in North Texas so it is a real treat when we get enough to make a snowman.  This is a photo of a photo I took in 2004 (the last few months before I went to a digital camera).

Notice there is no snow left in the yard - we had to use it all to make this tall guy!

I used this as my model for this silly snowman

So while snowmen (three circles) are one of the easiest punch art things you can make - don't be afraid to dress them up and change them up a little bit and make them unique.  These are the same glasses that the bookworm wore.

 

Since I am born and bred here in the "land of little snow" I'm all out of snowman experience so tomorrow I'll have to show you something else.

Kissing Snow-folk

Rather than just standing there as most snowmen do, when you "build" TWO snow-folk you can have them interact. 

The snow-boy here is the same character I make on my gift tag.  My snow-girl thinks he is kinda cute. (I personally agree with her)

I put this pair on a another gift tag...

and the pink mini tags are a sneak peek of the new Tiny Tags set and the new Medium Jewelry Tag punch.

The new tag punch doesn't have the hole in it.  I added that so I could string it on the linen thread.

Snowman by the Light of the Moon

Ever wonder what snowmen do to keep from being bored at night?  Well. if there is enough moonlight, they might look like this:

I realized that I had a couple of snowman posts this week so I thought I'd just make a series of them so this must be Number 3.   Pretty easy punching except the holly leaves. 

To get the holly I actually drew a holly leaf then pushed a circle punch into my paper just far enough to snip on the lines - of course I had to flip it over and use the back side so you couldn't see where I missed  and the pencil marks showed.  So it isn't an exact science but it works!

This snowman with his nose is a book (literally) goes on a gift tag as a hint to what the gift is.  It will be no surprise, we are all big readers in our family and come from reading families so lots of books have been given over the years at Christmas.  Just a little ribbon, the top note die and some dimensionals - and I'm done!

Chatter about punches now:

Thanks to those of you that participated in my silly poll this past week.  I feel so powerful knowing that I got 42 of you to purchase a punch!  bwaaaa haaa haaa  (evil laugh)

Now I need you two shy people to step on up and email me your requests.  I have several ahead of you that are waiting on the inspiration fairy to do her thing but you might as well ask in case she shows up with what you need.

And I got my first three punches in the new SU (EK Success) style.  I like them!  Of course even though they will stack nicely, I have NO ROOM for them so a punch reorganization is required.  Lots of potential in these babies.....   You can buy them starting January 5th. 

But dang I am going to miss the ornament punch!   I sure hope it winds up on some dormant list so you can still buy it during "off ornament" season.  Don't the powerful of SU read my blog?  Don't they know the versatility of  that punch?  DON'T TAKE IT FROM ME.  Oh, that is right, I bought it - they can't take it from me.  Have you bought yours?  January 4th is the last day of the Holiday Mini - and the last day to purchase it (that I know of).  Contact me or your demo - it may soon be gone forever...... OH NO!!!!!

Tag Swap Results

We did a tag swap at our meeting Monday night - and since we were planning on these being for personal use we didn't limit our supplies to SU only (although mine were all SU). 

I swapped the Snowman in the Moon tag and the Peppermint tag (with the ribbon choice corrected) and this tag:

I LOVE THIS SNOWMAN!  He is on our family cards this year too - simple and easy to mass produce but still just as cute as could be!

Here are the tags I received from the swap:

And here are the closeups:

first by Eileen Flannery (it opens)

Now 3 by Becky Adams

and 3 by Jenifer Lange

Aren't they all wonderful?  I'm sure you can glean an idea or two (or three) from these!