Jennifer Lan's blog

First cards of 2011:

Well, I decided to go ahead and post up 2 cards today. They're nothing special. :)

I wanted to "practice" on some Valentine's cards, because I was thinking of doing 14 cards a day til Valentine's for the hubby. But, decided that since, my birthday is on the 7th, I'd rather just skip a week, and claim it for myself and just do 7 cards a day beginning on the 8th. lol. ;)

The first card is very simple. I just wanted to use the 40 cents pack of flowers. I ended up printing out a sampler pack of Papertrey Ink's papers. I didn't even know they had that option! I was thinking of getting some of their papers, and am glad they have little samplers so that I could get a feel of their papers. You can check out the samples HERE. I downloaded most of them, so that I could print them out later. ;)

I used the "Simple Valentine" paper sampler for this card. I must say though, that what's on my screen is more of a hot pinkish color, while when it printed it was a pretty muted pink.Could just be my printer though. I did get ahold of a photo printer today.. but more on that later! LOL

I used Kraft paper for the base card. Layered it with a red paper from the K&Co Ka-Zoo paper pack. Borders are from various places. Although, in real life, the bottom border is more of a sheen pink, whereas the camera made it look more reddish. And I spelled out the world "Love" with the Martha Stewart Alphabet punch.

Second card, is just a very random "Use your scraps, woman!" card. I pulled out a various scraps, and hoped they looked okay. And somehow the colors looked great together! I also use Papertrey ink's paper sampler in "Bitty Stars Basics".

Again, the colors are a bit darker than they normally are. My photoshopping skills are bleh today. lol. Because it is scraps from the scrap box, I can't really say where each piece is from, just that I used Kraft for the card, another flower from above. And the sentiment was stamped from my cousin when she gave me a box of goodies. LOL. Let's just say i didn't see anything wrong with it, although while trying to trim it, the glitter was flying everywhere LOL. :)

So, that is all for today. I just wanted to post something up for my cousin, since she was wiating forever for a Cards only post. :) I have a digital layout to post either tonight, or tomorrow because Shell released another kit.  So yay. :)

Oh! That photo printer. Well, I was thinking of asking the hubby if I could get a small photo printer that prints just 4x6 and 5x7 for my birthday. I just wanted something small, and accessible so that I could print out pictures when I want to do layouts or have a picture that i just want to frame at that instant. Well, i was looking around yesterday and couldn't decided on anything although I kept looking at printers that prints up to 17"! LOL. But that's for later on, because i don't need to print out my 12x12 layouts now. Anyways, my aunts and cousins moved last week, and they live next door to us. They left a bunch of stuff that they 1) didn't need, and 2) that they couldn't bring with them since they are moving to a smaller apt or moving in with someone else. And what was over there? A Epson All-in-one printer that prints  out 4x6 and 5x7 photos! Just exactly what I needed. I don't care that it can print regular too, but since I've been doing some 8 1/2 x 11 layouts, that's an option too. :) My regular printer works fine for printing documents and whatnot. So yeah, this is a LONG post. lol. Maybe (and i say this loosely, since I have TONS of projects to finish the next few weeks) I'll start being able to do more scrapbook layouts. :)

Very random, indeed.

I was browsing around Tim Holtz's blog and came across his new paper packs and saw that there was a giveaway for 40 lucky winners to win both packs. :)

I never really win giveaways anyways, but it's really exciting to enter your name into something and then wait. Kind of like the lottery.. except way cheaper. ;P

Enter HERE to win these packs.

AND Cordinations has another giveaway with 5 paper packs that ends tonight. :) Enter HERE.

It features Basic Grey, My Mind's Eye, Jenni Bowlin, Fancy Pants Design.

I think that either way, I'm going to have to add these to my WANT list.

Oh yeah, don't mind the quietness around my blog. I have 6 unfinished cards. Well, I think they're unfinished, but they might be finished. I just think they're missing something. I'll TRY to have these posted tonight. Also, I've been trying to finished up my last posted Crochet project. I was half way finished and realized that I messed up in the middle and had to start over. So, now I'm working on 3 crochet project, trying to convince myself that those 6 cards ARE indeed finished, and finishing up the last touches in the scrapbook album. Whew. Let's hope I get out of this lazy posting mode, and start posting!

I wish..

I wish that I could say that this post is actually a real post. Complete with pictures of cards, that my cousin has been waiting for-ever for. (She has stated that she only wants to see cards, no more layouts, or side projects. LOL!)

But, it's not. :T I've been not feeling really crafty as of late. I've been having little blocks when i sit down to start/complete a project. When it happens to writers, it's called a 'writer's block'. So, was is it called when it comes to us "crafty" people? lol.

Instead, the closest thing that I've come to anything crafty is this little thing.

Can you tell what it is? Everyone's been guessing a "hat" or a "beanie". It's neither. It's a plush toy! I'm not working on it right now, because of that little piece of blue paper. I need to crochet 16 rows, and so far, I'm only on row 4. I completed one row today. I started on the other 3, 2 days ago. And this is only 1/4 of the project. I'm trying to get it done by next week.

i was going to finish up some more cards, since I have started on 3. But, instead, I just felt like playing Sims 3. I haven't played since my cousin last came over, and I'm now needing to update all 5 base/expansion/stuff packs. -___-

Here's to being lazy today, and working on stuff tomorrow! Oh.. can you tell that I chose to learn how to crochet first? Actually, no, I started with knitting first, but after having some real issues trying to knit a scarf, I switched over to crochet. So far, it's WAY easier. Except when I try to read pattern directions like this:

T-shirt dress

I have a small Hollister shirt that I don't wear anymore, and decided to turn it into a t-shirt dress for Trinity.

It fits her, but it's way too long. I decided to turn it into a dress. I didn't want to cut the shirt any shorter, but I did want to take in the sides and the back.

After deciding for awhile, I pulled out my best friend: Mr. Elastic. Well today, Mr. Elastic decided that he didnt' want to be friends, and refuse to work with me. So, today's project took about an hour.

I placed elastic on both of the sides, to pull it up a bit. Here, I ended up tucking the shirt under just to see if I would decide to turn it into just a shirt instead. So, just pretend that it's long in the front as in the before picture. :)

Here is the side of the shirt with the elastic.

Now, the back is too big and doesn't fit her too well, so I decided to cut a V-shape onto the back and sew it together to bring the front a bit smaller. Then, I sew another elastic across the back.

I don't have elastic thread at the moment, so I couldn't do ruffles in the sleeve, but I will be doing that. I think I'm gonna just leave it as a dress. I'm pretty much done for today, I don't want to sew anymore. But I do have to take it a bit more in the back as it isn't sitting right, although you can't tell in the pictures.

Am I..

• Baking? √
• Cooking? √
• Scrapbooking? √
• Making Cards? √
• Sewing? √
• Felting? √

Now, I can't decide if I want to start this year with learning how to Crochet, or Knit. I'm very interested in both, but I'm sorta leaning towards Crochet, but only because of these little boogers!

I had also talk to my cousin about trying to make my own bath products. But, for some reason I didn't venture into that. So maybe this year!

I think the one thing that I do want to do, but won't get into til later is trying to make jewelry.

Anywho, I started on Trinity's dress, but despite looking through my overflowing ribbon box, I don't seem to have enough of any of the wide ribbons that I was interested in. Looks like I'm going to add that to my shopping list.
My mom also asked me to hem her jeans the other day. My first time on this sewing machine! I'm still a little bit rusty, but I'm getting the hang of it. She even brought home one of her co-workers jeans so that I could hem those too. I actually took my time on that, because it's too much pressure to do anything for somebody that I don't know. lol
Speaking of hemming, I have to hem Trinity's jeans. She's tiny, and short. Alot of her jeans are way too big on her. Thank god, toddlers jeans have an resizable elastic band. As they grow older, you can move the elastic band to fit them. My mom got her a size 4 jeans. They fit her perfectly (a first!) length-wise, but they are way too big. *sigh. lol. I tried using the elastic band, but she's so small, that the jeans just bunched up and looks weird.

Speaking of sewing, I have a few maternity shirts, and a dress!, that I would like to take in. haha. I'm thinking a sewing post may be coming up soon.. ;)

Can't shop when it rains..

Because it practically rained all day, and even flooded the streets, shopping was out of the question. I just wanted to pick up extra felt, and floss, but instead I worked on some projects.

First, I rummage through this pile of photos, and put together just a quick page of each child. Did a small "journal" card about what they currently like as of today. I just need to do some embellishing to finish up the pages.

Then I pulled out the felt, and decided I wanted to make an egg. First egg, failed.. horribly. But the second came out not too bad. I may make another one and not add the stuffing to the "white" part, just the yolk.

And then, I decided to work on a play tea party set for the princess. First up, the Hello Kitty placemat.

Because this was a test run, I simply cut without precision, and just threaded with regular sewing thread and needle. I'll make another one with embroidery floss.

And then, I started on the cup, but stopped midway to see if I can make a cookie. But that failed horribly. lol. The thread wasn't thick enough to pull up the sides together. But at least I know it'd work with floss.

Now, I'm way too tired to do anything else. So, I'm just gonna call it a day for today, and watch soem "American Dad". :) Hopefully, it won't rain too much tomorrow. I definitely need to pick up extra colors of felt to make a "sandwich" and "chips". :)

Today..

I am working on some journaling cards for the albums. I created them on Photoshop, printed them, and cut them to correct sizes. I have 4 spots each for each child, and one for myself to journal about whatever it is that I want to journal about.

Also, I finally went to Hobby Lobby and picked up some felt. $0.25 per square is not too bad, until you realize that it's 40% off at checkout. -___- Looks like I'm going back tomorrow for the others that I wanted or to pick up doubles.

For the rest of today, I'll be journaling some, and breaking out my sewing machine to create some felt fun. :)

4x6 Layouts

This cold weather here in Houston, has 1) made me sick and has my allergies acting up 2) feeling really lazy.

So, I plan on staying in today and working on my 4x6 digital layouts. I need to have them printed by tomorrow, or Wednesday at the lastest. So that I can have these adhere to my 2011 calendars that I bought at the Target Dollar Spot, and then mailed out, and hopefully arrive before the year is over with. :)

Here are just a few that I've finished.

This is 3 out of 24 that I'm doing. It's going to be a long, and busy day. For some reason, scrapping 4x6 pages is way harder than 12x12 for me. Why is that?

Also, is it weird that I have those 2 random people in the back on the last one? I'm thinking I should go back in and crop them out.

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Edit: So, I decided to edit the last layout and crop the two random people out. Doing so, I had to change the picture just a bit by using a different frame. I also slightly made everything else a bit bigger to fill out the "open space". Here's the edited version.

I would like to...

I would like to be more consistant with my sceapbooking. I started on a project called "week in the life" by Ali Edwards but stopped after day 3. I was going to do the "December Daily" but never really started.

But, I've decided that for 2011 I will engage more with these projects, even starting Project 365. Making cards has made scrabooking a bit better for me, and does keep my interest, but what gets to me is the journaling. I used to love writing. My cousin would know. When we were younger, we kept a notebook. Once a week we would trade off the notebook, and whomever had the notebook would fill it up with stories of their life for that week. What happened to that notebook? I have no clue, but I think I should get a few, and decorate it!, and start writing again. Maybe, it would help. Btw, Lindy, wanna start a new notebook? Lol!!

I'm still working on the album, and a mini album of my cousin and I. I have a few sketches ready for cards, and will be adventuring in felt once I make my way over to Hobby Lobby!

Next week will be a busy week for my blog. Sorry, no pictures for today. I'm baking a cake for my 7 year old cousin for her birthday. I'll try to post up a picture of it, if I remember to! Lindy, "heytell" me and remind me to. Haha!

Besides, Mapquest and Maps apps, Heytell is becoming my best friend. Besides, I think my cousin responds to it faster than when I text her. Haha!

Merry Christmas, everyone ! :)

Checking in!

Hello!

I've been through a hectic week, my in-laws are flying in from everywhere and have been here since last week. It started off as a family emergency, and have progressed to a tragic event. So, we haven't been home enough since last week for me to do any crafting.

Can I admit that I still have a few Christmas cards to finish and mail out today? *sigh*

But, in the meantime instead of working on those, I've been over at HomeSpun Threads store, picking up patterns. :) All 29 of their patterns is free today! So, you know me, I've gotta put my sewing machine to use, and pick them all up and try a few out. If you're a sewer, definitely check out the store and get the patterns. If you're not, get them anyways, who knows, you might get into sewing one day. ;)