Winnar!

I got a call yesterday from the Paper Source in Palo Alto.  That holiday card contest that I absolutely had to do?  I won!

And there it is.  It features a freshly baked gingerbread couple, but oop, someone's leg has been bitten off!  Following rules, I used only materials one could find at a Paper Source:

Basics:
 - 5.75" square folded cards in Pool
 - square cards in Eco-White (30% post consumer waste! Better than 0%)
 - glitter paper for envelope liners
 - 6mm satin ribbon in Pool
 - VersaMark ink pad for the background

Gingerbread people:
 - this cute couple
 - VersaMark ink pen for inking
 - white embossing powder
 - silver paper for the baking sheet
 - vellum for the parchment paper
 - little gems

Adhesives:
 - Zots (gingerbread people, ribbon detail)
 - Xyron sticker maker (ribbon)
 - glue

A lot of time was spent agonizing over what sort of paper or pattern would work best on the background, and I eventually just tried out pressing the VersaMark pad on the card itself, which turned out much better than I expected, especially after using the heating tool.  For the gingerbread people, the lady was inked using the pad, but her poor little husband (or S.O., or friend; I don't want to assume) was inked with a VersaMark pen--excepting his mouth. Using the same pen, I gave him his rather unhappy mouth, and embossed them like that.

My favourite part of this year's card is definitely the vellum paper that I ripped to resemble parchment paper.  That, and the greeting on the inside, which was inspired by a Kate Spade card I saw on display at a card shop on University.  I had already planned to write, "Wishing you a tasty Christmas," but this was better:

I printed it on vellum using my current favourite font, Alte Haas Grotesk, and it's secured by four Khaki snaps, to match the gingerbread people.

The only thing that's missing from this post is a few pictures of the mess that I created while making this card, and about 20 others which were mailed to friends and family.  There was excess cookie "dough" everywhere, glitter, punched off corner points... and of course, a bunch of little gingerbread man feet everywhere.  Messy.

But it was all worth it!  I wasn't expecting to win, but I'm really excited.  I meant to make a post with my holiday advent calendar, but that's going to be postponed!  That's how excited I am! Now I have to figure out what I will do with a $50 gift card to the Paper Source.  Somehow I don't think that will be difficult at all.

Thumpa Thumpa

My little heart goes pitter patter as I read this article:

The 32 Most Commonly Misused Words and Phrases

I will admit I have used "alright" in the past, but not likely for any sort of formal document... although that is a poor excuse.  Occasionally I have to stop and think about "stationary" versus "stationery", but at least I stop to think about it.  "Could of" is one of the things that drives me mad, as does "whose" and "who's", but look, look, look!

19. Literally- If you say “His head literally exploded because he was so mad!” then we should see brains splattered on the ceiling.

Thumpa thumpa. <3 <3 <3 I could, like, literally die because this list is so good.

December

Frequent posting is aparently not my forte. But fear not, a new block of carefully proofread text has arisen from the depths.  And since I last posted, something great has happened:

I won!  With a total of 50034 words, I completed a barebones novella.  It's going to need a lot of work, still, before I could even consider letting someone else see it, but hey, I finished NaNoWriMo for the first time in four years.

What's more, today I sent off the last of my Christmas cards, which is momentous since I started working on them in October.  After making about twenty cards, I sent them off to friends and family, keeping one for myself, and giving one to the Paper Source for their card contest, which I may have mentioned previously.  The two people who were there when I submitted it were pleased with my card, although I don't think they would have let themselves come across as anything but impressed.  I meant to mention that the vellum paper is supposed to represent parchment paper, but it didn't occur to me until afterwards that it might not be obvious.  In any case, I thought that idea was brilliant.

Since Saturday, I have found myself to be in temporary possession of a sewing machine. My ultimate goal is to create a Christmas advent calendar, which I'm working on for sure, but this is what I spent most of my Sunday doing:

A tea cozy! I followed a pattern I found on the Rusty Bobbin, which worked extremely well.  Materials I used:
 - iredescent flocked taffeta (fabric.com)
 - cotton batting (also from fabric.com)
 - beige broadcloth for lining, which I found in the remnants bin at Jo-Ann (I'm finding lots of useful bits of fabric in there)
 - baby blue piping

I only bought half a yard of the taffeta, and I have bunch left over, so I'll have to make another tea cozy for the next teapot I want to get (a smaller pot for just me).  The one pictured above also fits right over my glass tea kettle, so I might make a third to cover that and keep it clean.

So far in my advent calendar, I've made up to 10 bags.  The idea is to have 25 little cloth baggies that we can fill with goodies, and put up one every day.  This project is on hiatus until I can get new thread, however, since I've just about run out.  That isn't necessarily a bad thing--bags 1 through 10 have been made using blue thread on white cloth.  I don't think anybody is going to complain.  I should be done before Christmas, at least, but we'll see about my speediness in posting about it on here.