Sigh . . .

OK, I'm here. After talking to a couple guys at work today, I've come to the conclusion that my computer is fine, and my Internet service is currently crappy. No one is certain as to why. Someone mentioned the word "bandwidth" and a couple of other terms that were over my head. I noted that the trouble began when it got so cold, which someone acknowledged as a possible source of the trouble. Everything was fine tonight until about 6:30 when it started acting up again. I didn't call the cable company today, thinking I'd give them one more chance. Well, they've had it . . . Like stamping, the computer at home is supposed to be fun, not a source of frustration.

The cards that I have so far (my intention was to have one more, until I decided I'd best do this while I can) are very simple. I made the first one last night prior to resorting to housework. I needed a card for a friend, an elderly bachelor, who used to visit me and my co-workers every Tuesday afternoon at the newspaper after the weekly paper was printed. He usually brought candy or cookies he'd baked. His cookies were oatmeal raisin cookies made from his mother's old recipe, and I loved them even though I'm not particular fond of raisins. Actually, I think I kind of came to love Orville. Back to the card, I challenged myself to make it from the scraps that I had laying in a little pile on my desk. The colors are Bamboo, Desert Sand, and Chocolate on a New England Ivy background. The stamped image is mounted on Autumn Terracotta, and the raccoon (from CTMH's Raccoon & Friends) and sentiment (from Impression Obsession) are stamped with Cocoa. I sanded all of the cardstock pieces (my favorite distressing technique). I used my paper piercer and the Stampin' Up guide to pierce around the edges of the focal point image and mounted it on the card with foam tape. I probably could have added some metal (brads or something) somewhere, too. Guys like metal, although I think this particular friend will love the card without it.

My second card is not at all what I intended, but rather what I ended up with, keeping in mind that stamping is supposed to be fun! I meant for the card to have an acetate overlay with the words stamped with ivory paint on the overlay. The brads were intended to hold the acetate to the card. It was going to be my rendition of this card on Stampin' Kub's blog. That's where the sigh comes into the picture. My color choices, Autumn Terracotta and Black, were made because I wanted to color the monarch butterfly realistically. That's the first "yuck." I don't know if it was the stamps (from the Faith set) or what, but there was no getting a successful image on acetate. The butterfly is OK - pretty actually in person. It was colored with markers - Sunflower, Autumn Terracotta, and Grey Wool. Because I didn't want to leave any edge on the butterfly, I didn't attempt to cut around its antennae. Rather, I cut them off and replaced them with a couple of pieces of black wire. After bending its wings a bit, I attached it to my yucky card base with foam tape. While the card isn't a total "oops," I may just scrape my butterfly off and see if I can't do better. We'll see. I wasn't even close to Stampin' Kub's cool design. Working from memory doesn't always work, and because my substandard Internet service was not available at the time, I couldn't exactly pull up his site for reference. Sigh . . .

I'm going back to the drawing board now with the attitude that my cardmaking/Internet trials and tribulations are not very serious - just a little frustrating now and then. If you don't hear from me one more time tonight, it won't be for my lack of trying. Later . . . maybe!