adventures in crafting

hmm it seems that i could be doing better than posting once or twice a week...

One problem this time of year is it's not only hard to leave home, but it's increasingly difficult to be anywhere other than the back deck.  I do occasionally swap for the front deck, but the back one has a dining table (handy for meals, books, a laptop computer) and a view of the bird feeders:

I did leave home last weekend, to spend time at Strawberry Fest downtown - no pictures, but I bought the cutest hot air balloon crocheted over a Christmas bulb.  Afterwards there was a meeting of my friends' family craft club, where we were working on yard art created from bicycle wheels, an idea AJ found last year in a magazine - Better Homes & Gardens, maybe?

The consensus was that we needed smaller, colored glass dessert-size dishes, which we hadn't had much luck collecting from thrift stores and yard sales.  More shopping will be needed!  Well, maybe not "shopping" as much as "junking"...

Craft club is as much about food as any other craft.  One winter day we taught ourselves cake decorating, although none of us will be on Cake Boss any day soon.  Carol's contribution last week came from another magazine, Woman's Day, this time, or it may have been Family Circle.  I went searching and couldn't find it, but it's the current cover on the newsstands now:

Carol retired from a position with the school system recently, and although she sells real estate, it's a possibility she has a little too much free time on her hands.  Of course, I think she needs to get started in paper crafting.  Then she could make things like this card I designed for the Less is More Monogram theme:

Unfortunately, I am once again too late to post for the challenge.  I originally planned to stamp the monogram, but the only alphabet set I own seemed small for a focal point.  Then I remembered having a Sizzlit die set called Broadway Melody, which I had to have because the letters are created with a music-note motif, and it was on sale (it may have been retiring).  So, in spite of the border punch background being so new that it's not even available until July 1, I believe this card does qualify at Shopping Our Stash for THIS week's challenge to "use some of those tools we *had* to have but don't use often".  As does this card, since I never seem to think about the crimper unless someone else reminds me:

In this case, Nisha reminded me, when she taught this card at her stamp-a-stack event Thursday evening.  Please excuse (or ignore) the little schmear on the the sentiment - she did not teach it that way.  ;)  It's so totally ADORABLE! - I probably will have to use it at my 10-for-$10 stamp-a-stack, too.  Which is next week, so maybe I should design four more cards to go with it...

Or three more, as I'm pretty sure we'll be doing this card, because it demonstrates a technique I learned at Less is More to emboss a background that is wider than the embossing folder:

Well, I guess I better get to "work" (heh heh)