2 Days with Deb!

On the left is an assortment of stuff I made with the help of Deb Gerlach who hostesses a Stampers' Six class and an occasional crop. She's also got the most laid-back dog, Molly, who mostly watches everyone come and go, offering her fluffy sweet little ears for a pat. Deb herself is great at coming up with cool ideas and has a fun, chatty manner that's really encouraging. She let my friend Kathleen and I experiment with all her cool toys during the crop. I had no idea how much the S.U. markers rock, though the cost of a full set nearly made my swallow my tongue. That'll have to stay on the wishlist awhile. More affordable are the brads which I liked because they are freakin' razor sharp--they poke through the paper so easily. On the other hand, if you have a strong aversion to punctured fingertips, you might not like them as much. Me? I don't mind bleeding in the name of craftsiness and pretty sparkly brads.

So, on the left is my favorite project we did, mostly because...well LOOK at it. There's a cute orange kitty poised amongst some great Addams Family-esque images. The fence totally reminds of the part in the credits where Gomez (Admit it! He's a mad hottie!) is shown sharpening the finials on the iron fence that surrounds the Addams home. The house, while not as spacious as the Addams' is still one I'd move into any day of the week.

The moon? Yeah. It's just a dot that comes with the set. Uninspired, yes, but it worked for the layout anyway and could be handy, I suppose, if you lack anything, you know, round. Loved the tree so much, I had to find a way to cram it in, even though it wasn't included in Deb's original design. I was torn about including the witch. No, I'm not anti-witch, but quite the opposite. Is the whole pointy-hat, flying, big-nosed image insulting or charming? Not one of my friends who is of the witchy persuasion has a visible wart or greenish tinge (unless they eat something scary, which pretty much makes anyone green, regardless of religious persuasion). So, what's the consensus? I'd really like to hear. I just think it's kind of worrisome any time I see an oversimplified depiction of the people of any religion. On the other hand, if they made a stamp depicting a little bald black-robed zen monk, I'd buy it myself. But what if it had, say, the features of a character on an old anti-Japanese WWII propaganda poster? That changes everything.

Anyway, I loved the project overall. I'm really into making itty bitty 6x6 scrapbook pages all of the sudden so it fit in nicely. 12x12 is my usual preference (8x8 once was. I'm interested in trying some 8.5x11 next.) but I love how the shape and size of the paper totally changes the way the whole project turns out.

The cards were fun too. Watercolors are always fun since water is always fun and paint is always fun. I liked pretty much all the methods. The crayon kind were new to me so that was probably the most fun. I immediately picked up some of the watercolor pen thingies at an online yard sale (cheap!) on yahoogroups that I really like:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/StampinUpExchange/

You can only get retired stuff (not currently available from a rep) but you can find some pretty great stuff really really cheap. If you happen to know of something similar for Creative Memories stuff I would be ever so happy to hear about it. :)