Take a deep breath

I might have mentioned in past posts I've been taking a class on Tuesday nights for the last 2 months. It's a Mind & Body class that teaches you different ways to deal with stress. Each week we practice some form of relaxation and were told to take several deep breaths an hour. This sounds easy enough but you forget. The women I've met in this class have meant so much to me I wanted to leave them with a reminder of our homework and that I'm there for them. The Serenity Now set by My Favorite Things was the perfect match for this project.

Each magnet is made up of some Basic Grey paper from my collection of scraps and a woman colored to match in lotus position. I sandwiched these together in 2" x 3" glass and wrapped in copper tape. I had the intention of soldering them all but I think the color combo of most looks better with the copper. Okay, really I took the lazy way out but with this much work for the 10 I had to make I didn't want to screw them up when I got to the point of solding. I think they will like them just the same. Now I'm off to fill out 10 cardss to each of them. Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Nathan!

Today is my nephews 3rd birthday and we're planning on celebrating with a BBQ. I needed a quick and simple card (since he doesn't care about the card) to go with his gifts. I logged onto SCS to see who the Featured Stamper was and it's my pal Maren! I'm a huge fan of hers and she is just about the sweetest person you could ever hope to meet. It was easy to find inspration in her gallery!

I cased the layout for this card and changed up my images and colors. It's a 5 1/4 x5 1/4 sized card which is a little larger than I usually make my square cards. I stamped the fun Doodle Factory guy on glossy white paper and colored him in with markers then added a few dots of Sakura glaze pen. I used scrap strips of Cosmo Cricket paper. Then I added the Thickers numbers which had been rubbed on the ink pads to the end of each strip. They will add a fun texture Nathan can touch.

I also wanted to post some magnets I made last night with my soldering kit. I used an old Hertz map from one of Jay's trips to Germany to make magnets for his desk at work. The circle patten is one I drew and then colored with some markers. I covered the backs with a piece of copper cut from a copper adhesive sheet and then wrapped the edges in copper tape. These were fast and fun to make.

My first solder!

I finally did it, got the nerve to break open the Simply Swank soldering kit! After making that Serenity Now card I knew I needed that in my cube at work. This was the perfect excuse to use the soldering kit.

The piece measures 2" x 3". I used stamps by My Favorite Things and layered the cut out image on some funky Basic Gray cardstock. I know now I should take a class on this. Yes I was able to do it but it was tricky and in the close up you can see how uneven my solder job was. BUT I think I did a pretty good job for my first shot. The jump ring was really tricky, but I got it in after about three tries.

I like that the kit has everything you need but wish it also included a glass cutter. From what I saw at impress this is where they are making the cash on purchases after the kit. I intend to learn how to cut my own glass so I'm not limited to the sizes that are sold. It's also about $4.50 per set so I think I can do it much cheaper if I make my own. The cord length on the solding iron makes this a little hard to work with. It's about 6" shorter than my SU embossing gun. The embosser fits from the outlet to my desk great but this is a dangerous stretch. I'll have to get a power strip in there before using it again.

I can't wait to make Christmas ornaments and all kinds of goodies with this. I'm so glad I bought the kit. Now I just need to get myself into a class!