Ahoy!

Ahoy, there, Mateys! ;o)

How are you all today? Lots going on in our house, as today was the first day of school for my two youngest sons, Elliott and Dominic. Elliott started First Grade today, and Dominic started Kindergarten at our local Montessori school. We heard about Montessori toward the end of last school year, and filled out applications for all three of our boys, but only the youngest two made it in. They get a high volume of applications, and they have only limited placements available, so Chaztin is on the waiting list, and will hopefully get in next year. We've had zero experience with a Montessori school system so far, but we've heard wonderful things about them. In fact, I read on Jennifer McGuire's blog that her young son Collin attends a Montessori school, and they couldn't be more thrilled with it. So we're looking forward to this new adventure. I hope it will be a really positive one for all of us.

In other positive news, the roofers which have been here all last week should be finishing up today! It will be nice not to wake up at 7AM to the sound of pounding nails (not that I can sleep in until 7 anymore anyway, since school's back in session). Because of the thick black clouds of sticky dust coming down all around us, I've had to keep most of the windows in the house closed, including my office, which has turned it into a furnace. I've avoided it as much as possible, though I did go up the other night and make a quick birthday card for my Grandfather. His bedroom is decorated in ships, so I thought he might enjoy this.

I started with some kraft cardstock, folded into a standard sized card. I trimmed down a sheet of Moxxie patterned paper, then tore off the bottom and layered it over a strip from the B side. I sanded the top and sides to give it more of a distressed feel.

I stamped the image from Hampton Arts and colored it with Copics. And that's when a happy accident occured. While attempting to trim it down, I misjudged the placement and sliced right through the right side of my image. After throwing a mini silent hissy-fit (this was somewhere around 2AM and the boys room is right next door to my office), I realized that I could restamp and color the image, or I could calm down and find a way to make it work. I think you can see for yourself which one I chose. I carefully sliced up the rest of the image (LOVE that on this new Fiskars trimmer, I can get such thin, straight strips. Never could have done that on my old one.) and mounted it on a scrap of silver-gray cardstock. I popped that whole piece off with pop dots, and threaded some white embroidery thread underneath three times, then tied it off in a little bow. Simple, stylish, and masculine.

Well, I hope you enjoyed my card for today. I can hear the workers out there taking down their ladders, so maybe I'll even get a little crafting time in tonight. Throw open those windows and let the inspiration flow in with the breeze. :o)

Have a great evening, everybody!