a day off ... and: CKC / Tulsa purchases!!!

The show that I'm stage managing opens THIS Friday night!!!  We had a technical rehearsal that lasted until a little past 11pm, last night.  What's a technical rehearsal?  In English, "technical rehearsal" translates to "pure living hell."  Want to punish a misbehaving child?  Send them to me, I'll make them sit next to me as we run light cues while stopping and starting a rehearsal FOR TEN HOURS.  They will never misbehave again...

But TODAY - ladies and gentlemen - I have had a day off...

It's been so so nice.

How did I manage a day off when the show opens on FRIDAY?  Because the rented sound system is being delivered, installed and tested.  And I don't know nothin' bout installing or testing no sound systems!

SO:  I thought I would use this moment to share with you MY CKC / TULSA SHOPPING HAUL!

I know you've been holding your breath.  Haha.

But I love seeing what people buy.  Why?  No idea.  And I love sharing.  Because you never know, I might be stuck and ask for advice and one of you lovely people with good memories might say, "Kory! Grab those classy embellishments you scored at CKC!"

Take a look at these classy alpha stickers and ... other sticker-y fun!

Classy embellishments- lots of the hit "9 to 5" collection from October Afternoon, the kickass wood cameras from Studio Calico that everybody and their mom are stickin' on stuff AND those very cool letter tiles...

A plastic bag of Tim Holtz 'singles,' and other randomness AND some fun brads- sock monkeys, robots, gears, taxi cabs.  Sock monkey ribbon and mustache ribbon!  (The sock monkey brads and the matching ribbon and mustache ribbon were gifts from Darla!)

Can't forget the PAPER!  Tons of papers!  Most of it from Studio Calico and My Mind's Eye...for a quarter a sheet!  You couldn't beat that deal with one of Joan's wire hangers!  A couple of small pads.  Some neato twill chevron ribbon.

And OF COURSE: the TAPE!  I had to fight myself to keep from buying one of every roll that I stumbled upon... and when I say fight, I mean fight.  Even the ugly rolls tried to jump into my hand.

And the best part about CKC?  Apart from buying all the cool stuff?  I got in for FREE!  Yes!  For FREE- mynsecond favorite four letter 'F' word.  When I approached the woman selling tickets, she glanced at me, handed me a wristband and said, 'Oh, you don't hafta pay, honey.'   I guess she assumed me to be an uninterested man who was there against me will.   Sadly, somdid many ofmthe women inside the convention- as they pushed past me, grabbed things I was reaching for as if my uninterested was keeping them from picking the item up and made annoying noises as if I was the one taking up valuable space.  I almost said something rather rude to one nasty person who kept hitting me with a giant bag- but then I realized it was her ass.   Not every person was nasty, tho- one fun lady that started talking with me as we dug thru a mountain of paper began declaring, to the crowd, that she was taking me home to marry her daughter.

So that's it for my CKC shopping excitement.  I loved it.  And Tanya and Darla made the best CKCompanions.  It better be a tradition from now on, ladies!

See you soon with MORE Halloween excitement!

-kory

Halloween Cards!

I found myself with a spare ninety minutes, yesterday!

An entire hour and a half all to myself, before I had to head back downtown for more rehearsal.  That's right- we open the first show of the season IN ONE WEEK.  Two days ago, the director fell ten feet to the stage floor.  Why was he on top of the set and how did he fall to the ground?  I don't know.  What I do know is that he must be part cat, as he somehold tucked and rolled and walked away.  Six more days of rehearsal and the show opens and I'll have a little more time to myself!  Hurray! 

Sooooo- what did I do with my ninety minutes, last night?  I made Halloween cards!  Yeahp.  Continuing with my love for all things Halloween, I grabbed my brand new 6X6 paper pad from MY MIND'S EYE and my new Tim Holtz stamps and had some fun.

I love to emboss.  The 'Happy Halloween' up there was embossed using Martha Stewart's embossing powder- which seems to work the 'best' for me- it melts so smooth and gives such a professional touch.  It's a wonder I made another card, after this one- I spent about fifteen minutes running my finger over the embossing.

I made this one with a stamped scrap of tissue paper (left over from a project that I've yet to show you!).  I used two strips of My Mind's Eye paper which was left over from the next card I'ma show you, a strip of Mr. Holtz's Halloween tissue tape, two little staples- all on a base made from a dark silvery-gray cardstock which I stamped a 'screen' background onto with Archival Ink.

My last card is my favorite.  I stamped a tag cut from Mr. Holtz's 'Tiny Tabs and Tags' die with an image from the new My Mind's Eye Halloween stamp set.  I cut a strip off the My Mind's Eye paper and flipped it over and covered the seam with a bit of black ribbon.  I tied the jute cord around and into a bow onto the tag and a button from Prima (which I colored black with a Distress Marker- it was blue). 

Where did I get that classy jute cord, you ask?  FROM THE DOLLAR TREE! 

Yeahp- that's right.  I found yet more craft supplies down at Da Dee Tee.  It seems, lately, that I'm finding more craft supplies at non-craft stores.  In fact, I'm working up a blog idea post all about that- but until then, if you're in need of some classy jute cord- perfect for Halloween AND Christmas- head down to the DT, fight through the crowd of humanity and grab some craft supplies.

later!

-kory

Scrapbook Day and BRAND NEW My Mind's Eye!

Happy National Scrapbooking Day!

I saw this now, AFTER the 'National Holiday.'  We really should push for this to become a federal holiday.  Really.  After reading about some the marathon crops that many of you were attending, you definitely needed to call in sick Monday!

What did I do to celebrate NSBD?  Make a new mini-album?  Make fifty amazing Pinterest*-worthy layouts?

No.  I went  out to celebrate Cinco De Mayo.  Why do WE celebrate Cinco De Mayo so crazily suddenly?  I thought I could at least take some pictures that I COULD scrap-  but I forgot about that plan until 2am when the bars closed and I was pushed out a door and had to wait until they found Holly Busch and pushed her out the door- that was when I remembered I was supposed to be taking pictures.  And are you ready to see this award winning photo?  Here it is:

Yeahp.  I guess I had my finger over the lens.


Oh! Kory!  What was the '*' after Pinterest up in the paragraph up there all about, huh?

WELL!  My favorite online home of scrappytainment, Scrapbook.com, pinned by NYC layout to their Vacations board.  On Pinterest!   And yes, I know they pin LOTS of layouts - but still,  I couldn't help but feel like I should wash my face and put on clean clothes.

So anyways, I'll try to celebrate National Scrapbook Day next weekend.  I'm usually a week behind on holidays.


So, didja see the new collection, NOSTALGIA, just out from MY MIND'S EYE?  I love their papers.  They always look great.  They're rarely overwhelmingly feminine, very versatile- just greatness.  Usually, their stuff reminds me of some kind of great vintage wallpaper from some classy cruise ship.

Check out a few of my favorites:

photos from http://mymindseye.typepad.com/

photos from http://mymindseye.typepad.com/

photos from http://mymindseye.typepad.com/

photos from http://mymindseye.typepad.com/

photos from http://mymindseye.typepad.com/

It's okay.  Take a few minutes to go wash your face.  I'll wait.

Aren't those GREAT?!  I WANT THEM NOW.


Alright.  It's Benadryl time.  See y'all.

-kory

New Page Wednesday!

First of all- don't let that blog title fool you into thinking I'm going to upload a new page layout every Wednesday.  I'm not that disciplined.  Also, it isn't even Wednesday.  It's Wednesday Eve.  So I've already misled you twice.

My good friend, Holly, gave this photo to me.  It's a picture taken of us at her wedding.  It was a beautiful wedding with an even better looking open bar.  And I can tell this photo was taken very early in the evening, as I look spectacularly sober.

I swear, this photo looked a hundred times better when I was looking at it on the little view-screen on the back of my camera.  Hmmm.  I bet that you're now wishing you had a nickel for every time you've heard someone complain about the quality of their photo on a blog.

But Kory, WHAT beautiful products you've used! What ARE they?!

Glad you asked!

-Textured Cardstock, Ivory, Hobby Lobby (Store Brand?)
-Ripple from the Brook Collection, Crate Paper
-Julianne Vintage, Die Cuts, K & Co (Plaque with date, under photo)
-'Script' Embossing Folder, The Paper Studio / Hobby Lobby
-Regal Crest, Tim Holtz/Sizzix Bigz Die (Leaves on sides of photo)
-EveryDay Fun Borders, Kraft Funday: My Mind's Eye (border)
-Thickers, Amy Tangerine, 'Goodness'
-Distress Ink, Victorian Velvet and Broken China (on the 'leaves')

There it is!

I think it turned out very great, very simple looking, and a memory of a very great and beautiful day.  However, Holly was a little cranky that I had to call her to ask, "WHAT DAY DID YOU GET MARRIED ON?!"

And I still swear it was in July- it was too freakin' hot that day, to be wearing a suit outdoors...


-kory

Gray Monday

What a horrible Monday! It was dark and gray outside, a bit of a storm in the afternoon.  And my mood fit the weather.  I was ... DEPRESSED!  Yes, all capital letters.  The worst part of Monday?  It lasted for twenty four hours.  I hate Mondays- how original is that?!

With all that doom and depression surrounding me, I 'proceeded to push all sharp objects aside*' and use my lunch hour to drive up to Paper Crown.

This is such a great store.  If you're in OKC, go check it out.  If you're not in OKC, go check out their blog.  There's lots of great photos.  The store looks great- the way she places product is amazing.  Definitely a lesson for other shop owners!  I usually find lots of new and/or hard to find stuff, such as Crate, October Afternoon, Graphic45, 7Gypsies...and on and on- I even see cool stuff that I didn't even know about before-

Here's a picture of the store- I tried finding one that really shows the inside of the store, but this is the best I could come up with-  I should've asked if I could take a photo! 

Photo from PAPER CROWN:

Check that out- even the lighting is good.

I picked up a few more pieces from one of the best collections out there- KRAFT FUNDAY from My Mind's Eye.  I happened to be at the store right around the time the stuff first went out.  I bought two stamp sets, a pack of borders and some papers.  The more I look at the papers, the more I feel like I have to buy more and more.

http://mymindseye.typepad.com/blog/

http://mymindseye.typepad.com/blog/

Aren't those nice?!  My only complaint is that the text on the 'oh happy day' banner doesn't come out when you stamp it- and I've tried everything, from light pressure to quick and light pressure to different ink, to blowing on the ink before I stamp- I've even tried it on the full moon and stone cold sober.  Is it me or just the stamp?  If anybody else has it, and it works- let me know the secret!  (The stamp I'm talking about is n the first photo, under the two star stamps.)

Now, the papers!  I love Kraft.  It just looks nice.  It's sexy.  You can use it with nearly anything.  And My Mind's Eye has made Kraft even sexier with these great colors and patterns.  

I think my favorite is the paper in the bottom right corner- the one with the black chevron pattern.  Whoa. It's nice.   

While at the store- I also picked up a package of clear buttons from 7Gypsies.  I think I bought them for the cool metal container they came in, more than for the buttons.  And I finally picked up a box of those nifty bingo/game number pieces.  Love those.

If you're in OKC, go to Paper Crown.  It's at Penn and Britton Rd, and she told me there's going to be lots of new stuff coming in within the week- whoooo, I can't wait for the new Tim Holtz products to start coming in!!! 

If you're not in OKC- go check out Paper Crown's blog.  It's still worth looking at, even if you're not able to drive on over!  

Alright- Monday is gone.  The rest of the week best look better!

-kory