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

cat puzzles

When I cut my fretwork ornaments, I had so much fun that I decided I wanted to cut more wood. Plus, I saw some fun projects in the scroll saw magazines which I wanted to try. So, I located a couple of boards I had purchased years ago, put a new blade on my saw, and had more fun.



I will be giving these kitties to my parents for Christmas. They really don't need more dust-collectors in their small retirement apartment, but I do think they need some cats. Plus Mom seems to really like my scroll-saw work. (She leaves my scroll-sawed ornaments out all year long!)

Here are the cats, assembled into a puzzle.



I made two puzzles, by stacking an oak board on top of a poplar board, and cutting both puzzles at once. This way, the cats would be different textures. I also used 3 kinds of stain to make the cats look different. Half the cats were stained with Cherry stain, and half were stained with Fruitwood stain. There was not a noticeable difference between the stain colors on the oak pieces, so I over-stained the fruitwood-stained oak pieces with a Red Mahogany stain marker.



Red cats, brown cats, yellow cats, and tan cats.

I sanded the cats carefully so that the fronts and the backs of the puzzle pieces looked the same.

Here are the two puzzles. We are keeping the set that is lying down in the picture.

Ornaments

I have been playing with my scroll saw.

I created this year's ornaments, and have almost completed next year's ornaments.

Here are this year's ornaments. They are made of Kiaat wood. I must say, this has been my most favorite wood to cut. It cut easily and while I was working with the wood, it gave off a mild aroma, kind of like incense.



Here are the almost-done ornaments for next year. They are made from Narra wood. It is similar to Kiaat, but I didn't notice an aroma while cutting it, although it is supposed to have an aroma too. I do not intend to 'finish' these until January 2010, since I signed and dated the 2010 ornaments with the year 2010. Not only do I want the date to be the year I give the ornaments, but also the year I make the ornaments. To keep the ornaments from being 'finished' this year, I will wait to add the hanging threads until the next calendar year.



Here is one 2009 and one 2010 ornament, alongside a quarter, for scale.




Last year, I posted pictures of the ornaments I created last year, along with pictures of ones from previous years.

2001, 2002, 2003, 2004's ornaments can be found here.
2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008's ornaments can be found here.

Gargoyles

Do you ever see something in the store that you just have to have? Now, I am not talking about toilet paper, which is pretty much something that a person has to have. I am talking about something frivolous that makes you smile and makes you keep thinking about it later after you leave it in the store because your depression-era parents have ingrained frugality into your system so much that something has to be on sale in order for it to be purchased.

No? That doesn't happen to you? Well, it happened to me.

I was in Michaels and wandered through the Halloween section and saw some gargoles. I had a coupon, but it was for one item, and there were three gargoyles which were a set, but they were individually priced. I looked days later, and they were still there. I considered printing 2 coupons and using one from the paper and buying two gargoyes one day (tip: send your DH through another checkout line with a coupon and an item so you can use two coupons with one trip) and buying the 3rd gargoyle the next day. But what if someone bought the one I had left in the store and I ended up with a set of two? This would not do.

Finally, a week arrived when all Halloween decor was 30% off, but when I was at the store on Monday and saw there were two sets left, I didn't realize they were on sale. Thursday, we returned to the store and we looked high and low and there were no gargoyles. I was so bummed, but I kept my chin up and looked for silver ribbon which I wanted for Christmas cards. When we got to the checkout line with the ribbon (no coupon needed, since ribbon was on sale), Ed glanced up and there were the gargoyles by the checkout stand. They were un the clearance area where I never look. Oh, happy day! Ed has such sharp eyes! (Being a foot taller than I means that he didn't have to look up to see them, so that may have something to do with it.) So, did I buy them? Absolutely yes!



See no evil. Hear no evil. Speak no evil.

I took them to work and have them sitting on my corner hutch above my computer in my cubicle. They are staying there, well past Halloween.

Halloween 2009 cards

I haven't stamped in a couple of weeks, so I haven't had any new cards to share. Then I realized that I had not shared a picture of the Halloween cards I made to send to family members. (And one card for one Halloween-lovin', card-appreciating friend of mine who oddly enough did not send a Halloween card this year. I hope she is okay.)



I made the cards over a couple of months! Back in August, I had the layout in mind, then I needed to order some card stock for the bases of the cards. Sometimes a card needs a dark background. A dark background can cause a problem when making a card, since something is usually printed inside the card, and that is where the card is signed. So, choices have to be made. A person could cut the background to be the exact size of the finished card and mount it on a folded light-colored card. Or, the card base could be dark and the writing inside is one with a white gel pen. This method works okay when the pen behaves. I have yet to find a white pen that works the first time every time and then doesn't blop and skip! Another workaround for the dark-based card is to glue a light-colored liner inside the card. A final method is to try to find card stock that is dark on one side and light on the other. I can't find card stock like this locally, so I had to mail order mine. A funny thing is that after I placed my order, I was at Michaels craft store and saw pre-folded black cards that had white insides! However, the cards were folded on the long edge, not the short edge, so they wouldn't work for the cards I had in mind. When I make vertically symmetrical card I prefer to have the fold at the top of the card. Actually, I like most of my cards to fold at the top, so the card can sit there looking like it is on a little display easel, and I can feel artistic or something.

Anyway .... I had stamped the main images onto little white squares of card stock, and there they sat until early October. Then I finally sat down and colored them, and I got all the parts cut and assembled. I even mailed them on time earlier this week.

The drippy stuff was made with a punch. I was not able to buy that punch last year, and I was so happy to see it was made again this year. I bought it as soon as I saw it in the store, and lucked out that I could use a coupon on it. I have other plans for the punch too.

Stuff used:
Stamp: Haunting Halloween by Stampin' Up
Paper: Stampin' Up Whisper White, Gable Green, and Tangerine Tango, Core'dinations Black Magic (color= Abracadabra)
Ink: Palette Noir (? either that or Versafine Onxy Black), Prismacolor pencils and odorless mineral spirits.
Other: Martha Stewart Drippy Goo punch