March of the Penguins

I have decided I like my local hardware store. Unlike Home Depot and Lowes (which we don't have in town anyway), the store carries some exotic woods in the warehouse out back. I bought a 15 inch piece teak so I could make a gift for my sister and her husband and for my cat sitter. I bought enough so I could make one for us too.

These penguin puzzles are a bit less complicated that he cat puzzle I made for my parents. But they also took me less time to sand!



Working with teak was a new experience. I can see why it is used for outside furniture, since it is very oily. I sealed the wood before coating it with varnish. I used no stain, since the wood is so lovely in its natural state.

Here is one penguin pair. This set has been sent to my sister and her husband.

Note cards

My niece will traveling abroad during the spring semester. Her Christmas wish list is short. She only wants money so she spend it on her travels to Brazil.

Bleah. I hate giving money for Christmas. Half the fun of choosing a gift for someone is wrapping it in pretty paper. Wrapping a check is boring! I put her check in a stamped card from my stash. I wasn't even motivated to make her a new card. If I had something Brazilian-themed, I may have been inspired.

I still wanted to give her something she could unwrap. So, I decided to make her a set of "Note" cards. My niece loves music, so I searched through my stamps for music-themed stamps. I settled on 4 designs and made 3 of each. If she has 3 of each, maybe she will use them instead of save them?

Two of the cards have cats on them. My niece isn't into cats. (The poor dear has never experienced the joy of living with one.) But since I like cats I have cat stamps, and I am sure that some of her friends like cats so she can send the cat note cards to them.

They are all one-layer cards. Here are the four different cards:





I put them in a clear box with some envelopes and decorated a belly band with one of my music stamps which I didn't use on the cards.



Stuff used:

Pink note cards:
Stamp: Stampin Up Notable Notes
Paper: Neenah Classic Crest Solar White (looks off-white in picture)
Ink: Palette Noir, Stampin Up Pixie Pink
Other: Stencil made with an oval Nestablilties die, sponge

Yellow singing cat cards:
Stamps: Cat Song by Cornish Heritage Farms, sentiment from Studio G
Paper: Stampin Up So Saffron
Ink: Palette Noir, Zig Millennium marker Prismacolor pencil
Other: Acrylic block for drawing the square

Blue guitar cards:
Stamps: Geetar by Stampola, Swirls by Autumn Leaves, More Great Greetings by Stampin Up
Paper: Stampin Up Bashful Blue
Ink: Palette Noir, Versamark, Prismacolor pencil

Lavender sax cards:
Stamps: Blues by Rubber Cottage, sentiment from Studio G
Paper: Stampin Up Almost Amethyst
Ink: Palette Noir, prismacolor pencil
Other: Gold stickls for saxophone, Scor-Pal to score lines

Belly band and box:
Stamp: Cats on Treble Clef by PFY
Paper: computer paper, Papertrey white, Stampin Up Pixie Pink and Almost Amethyst
Other: Nestabilities dies, box from Papertrey, plain envelopes from Staples

Christmas cards

I haven't blogged in almost a month! I guess I have been busy.

Before Thanksgiving, I had my Christmas cards stamped and done. Or, so I thought. When I got them out to sign them this week, I realized I had not stamped the sentiments inside. Taking care of that did not take long though, and all the cards were put in the mail yesterday. I am sending out only 15 Christmas cards this year.



The photo doesn't really show the sparkle and the depth of color that these cards have. The base card is shimmery, as well as the mat behind the tree layer. The tree and sentiment are embossed with silver, and the ribbon adds another silver element with another texture. I had planned on stamping the tree on the shimmery paper, but it didn't make the tree pop. The Handsome Hunter paper was the perfect match to the shimmery green paper. I had a half sheet of the hunter paper left in my stash, which was not enough. My Stampin Up demonstrator was willing to loan me some sheets so I could work on my cards. (I will order more, with my next order!) Her husband was a sweetheart and even delivered it to me at work, since my demonstrator was out of town when I figured out I needed the paper!

While Ed was signing the cards, his comment was that the cards were "kinda pretty". That means that he thinks they are very nice.

Stuff used:
Stamps: Snow Swirled set by StampinUp!
Paper: Stardream Emerald, Curious Metallics Galvanized, and StampinUp Handsome Hunter
Ink: Versamark, embossed with Silver Ranger Super Fine detail embossing powder
Other: Ribbon from Michaels