Aloha!

 Aloha!

I have been waiting to get my tropically fun Hula girl, island flowers, Hawaii themed embossing folders and the rest out to create with!  The supplies I used were components to the June Spellbinders  clubs.   I started subscribing to the All Crate membership, there are some extra freebies included, and a couple exclusive dies as well.  I know it has sold out early in recent months, so I dare not let my membership go, although you can pause, I believe.  I haven't felt the need to, however, because I fell in craft love with each month since I've joined.  My link will show you September's offering, there are a considerable amount of elements in the Large Die Set, and I really liked what I saw in the remainder of that kit....that little fox, well I'm smitten...

So, ALOHA!  It's been 4 decades or better since I've been to the islands, and I'm over the moon excited to say, I'm headed to paradise within the next few months.  I remember the last time I was sitting on the stretch of beach where our family time-share condo is, telling myself, that if I ever found my soul lost, I will find it there on that beautiful little stretch of land in Maui.  I recognize I've been through some personal, deeply hard stuff, and it's time for me to see that sunset...  My lil family has traveled, just not over the aqua marine ocean, where the first whif you smell off the airplane is orchids...  We used to travel there yearly, when I was a teen/young adult, I just never did after I grew up and started my own family.  I'm excited, to say the least, and my grown up kiddos are coming too, so...it will be even more fun.

(my little stretch of beach on the insides here) 

 

 I LOVED this episode of Craft Roulette.  I wish I had had more time, because I kind of rushed my card.  I definitely want to use these dies again in the near future.  As always, I learn something with every single card...and this one, I kind of took the plunge without trying to figure out how things actually are put together.  The hula girl can be a little tricky with her hula skirt, and I skipped extra little components like inside fire, etc., simply because I didn't have a ton of time.  All in all, though, I'm ok with that...my goal isn't to take 10 hours making a card...  That being said, it did turn out to be about 4...lol...

So...here's the scoop:

1.  Project/Gatefold:  I don't make many of these, for one, they are hard to take a photo of.  That being said, they are incredibly easy, and something different.  No matter how much I score, or adhere heavy card stock to the front, it still pops open... oh well, inside an envelope, it won't.  In the meantime, pretty fun to make, so, I don't freak when I see this parameter pop up.  I've made more Gatefolds since I started participating in Craft Roulette than I have in a lifetime....hahahaha...I don't think I ever had..it would be interesting to see how many I've done in my 127 contributions.

 

2.  Colors/Vacation:  Aloha and Island vibes here....  Oh, how I can't wait to see that crystal clear ocean!

 

3.  Element/CAS From Last Week's Gallery:  I CAS'd Pam Kennedy's card!  I loved the patterned paper she selected and the kraft card stock backing.  I pulled similar leaves out of the pattern on her paper, and tried to go with similar colors!  I will say, there were a few others in the Gallery that I was inspired by as well, it was very hard to choose.  I did pull from a couple other cards, I loved the layout of Brie Barron's card, if you picture my card without my hula girl...you'd see a similar layout.  Lastly, Xal Storm, when I saw the image on her card...I knew I was doing a hula girl...I kind of already knew I was going to anyhow, but seeing her card, sealed the deal..."Vacation" sent me in that direction from the getgo.

 

4.   Random/Paper Strip(s):  Had I paid attention to the parameters closer, I could have finished this card sooner.  Not sure why I was thinking THREE "Paper Strips".  Well, I have 3 now, lol...  My beach on the inside of the card, are not ONE, not TWO, but THREE paper strips!  lol  (I could also be stretchy pants here, and say, I used paper strips to die cut my hula girls tiny little flowers on her arms and ankles...)(I like my beach much better...my THREE beaches, lol)

 

So, what did I do different or learn this week?  Well.. for starters...I am getting in the habit of IMMEDIATELY using a  Magnet Sheet when I pull apart and use my dies.  Otherwise, I risk losing a tiny little die...sort of like I lost some ephemera last week, that I NEVER found.  Gone gone GONE goner there.  I honestly do not know where my "changed my mind", "I decided not to use paper pieces" disappeared to!  (you can read about my blunder if you choose...I promise you, I have a ghost in my room)

 

I have a big ole mess on my desk...but I'll share one more thing I started doing.  For starters, it isn't going to help me use up my GIANT supply of colored card stock...  BUT...  I started  cutting all my die cut pieces out in WHITE...and coloring up with my alcohol markers...this card, I decided not to dig through my scraps, but go all white, and color accordingly.  Now, call me lazy, which I am...I simply didn't want to get up and rummage through my scraps, cut into a new sheet of some color, or even move my body to my Big Shot, on the other side of my table.  My room is busting at the seems with inventory, and it gets hard to navigate to the "other side" without something falling on the ground off of my conference size table.  That, plus I have a bad hip and either my room is shrinking, or....or....yikes...  you know, covid or baby weight there...  Instead, I used my  Intri-Cut Die Cutting Machine I purchased awhile ago...it's more portable (stored on my side of the table) , and IF I can find surface space...I can cut away without having to move, lol.

 

I think I covered my bases here, and then some.  I realize I'm chatty, and I often don't proof read...it's not because I don't think I need to, it's because my time is so pulled in 10 different directions, with lots of distractions, I do this sitting at my desk in the factory when I need to play hooky for a few!

 

It starts again tomorrow night!  I may need to skip, I have 1000 fortune cookies shipping all over the nation, that...and so much more, like chocolate horseshoes, purple candy coated milk chocolate owls, and HALLOWEEN is starting to ship to our retailers, it's crazy town already!

 

BOO!
 

 

Aloha!