That's a Wrap...

Well, I am right this minute under a tornado watch, warning, whatever...danger danger will robinson!

A big storm is heading this way...one that's basically Cold-Front, meet Gulf-Rainstorm...the cold front is moving across Texas from west to east; the rain storm is moving north/northwest on shore from the Gulf...the cold front is like 20-30 degrees cooler than the rain storm...mix em together, you get volatile fire and brimstorm.

And tomorrow is supposed to be sunny with a high of 72 degrees....

Man, well, not even a cool-off for us! Geebers. So, I'm greeting this approaching storm with a big ole YAWN. When ya live in Texas, Life is supposed to be tough, Texas Tough. {Eyeroll} But seriously, folks....

Anyway, I might lose electricity, so I thought I'd go ahead and post something now. This will be a sundry-type post, cuz I gotta lotta to talk about.

1. Roger Clemens, did he or didn't he? Yup, he did IMO. This one is close to home for me, cuz us folks in and around Houston have been hearing the local buzz and reporting for while now, and we can probably gauge this a bit better. Roger WAS a great pitcher, but he is also very egotistical and big-headed, and countless number of folks around here can testify to that. He was also right in the middle of trying to make a bazillion bucks at his career's end when all of this broke, so I'm sure he must be pissed off. Listen, when he started that 'retire/rehire' crap AND when he and Bagwell blew our chances at the World Series by insisting on playing in it instead of being focussed on winning it, Houston fans started realizing Roger is a big jerk and will do whatever it takes to get what he wants. If that includes steroids, hey, it fits his career path. And the kicker is Andy Petitte. For Roger to be telling true, Andy has to be a pathological liar, and that doesn't even make sense. So, don't misremember this, Roger, you are an ass, a steroid-taking ass, and not in your wildest dreams can you ever even approach our great Nolan Ryan, you poser. No matter what you do, you cannot surpass his strikeout record, so give it up, dude, and save what little amount of dignity you have left.

Oh, and P.S., Roger's lawyers are saying now that it wasn't Roger who wanted that Congressional hearing as a venue to try to bully the public into believing him, but for at least two months we in Houston have hearing in local news stories that it WAS Roger's wish to do just that. Yup, did anyone in the national media think to research that? Nope. Par for the national media course...

2. I have been praying for the families of the students in Illinois who were the latest victims of the American college shootings. As a mother of a college student, it just makes my blood run cold every time one of these occur. Senseless, and seems to be defenseless, too. I don't know what the answer is, since college costs are ridiculously high already. The easy answer is to build a protective perimeter around each campus. But even that alone wouldn't do it and if parents had to pay for it, no one but the ultra wealthy would be able to attend. All I know is, the kids are sitting ducks as things are at present. It seems that we need walls of all sorts to protect us these days... This weighs on my heart every day.

3. All Hype, No Chocolate - DH and I had agreed to not give Valentine's Day stuff to each other, but Hubs just couldn't resist getting a box of chocolates for both of us. How sweet, right? Well, Hubs was sweeter than the candy, it turns out. He spent $10 on a box of Dove milk chocolates, and while I got a cool heart-shaped box to alter out of the deal (he said that was why he bought that one, awwww, does he know me or what? lol), the candy sucked. Here is what we got: Now, I ask you: is $10 for 12 little candies a good deal? Maybe if it were Godivas! Shame on you, Dove!

4. Okay, on to lighter things. I was reading Gina's blog yesterday and saw her awesome "hair pretties" box she made for her DD from a recycled food box she thought was shaped well and made sturdily. Well, I can so relate. I have empty boxes and containers shoved and stuck into every crook and nanny, I mean nook and cranny, LOL. I thought I'd snap a couple of my hiding places for you:
Gina, is your mouth watering? LOL

5. I've had some questions about how my ATC's can look some neat and tidy around the edges, so I thought I'd share what I did. I made a little tutorial for you.

Sometimes, I wrap my ATC's. I learned how to do this from the little old ladies I used to swap with back in 2006, before ATC's became cool in the scrap world and were renamed art cards. I don't make every ATC this way, but when I don't feel like dragging out the paints or taking the time to paint, stamp or collage a bunch of backgrounds first, then I do this.

For an ATC wrap, you need some paper, some sturdy card bases and some dry glue and some wet glue. I use my Tombow blue tape runner and a glue stick for my glues. For my card bases, I use manilla file folder stock (either the stock sheets from Office Depot or I just use new folders - do not use old ones because they get worn and bended. You need a base that is crisp, thin and coated a bit. You can also cut up a clean cereal box, which I sometimes do also.) As for paper, I try to choose thinner, more flimsy papers, like Doodlebug, Rob n Bob, old Chatterbox, DCWV slab papers. Cardstock can work, but I tend to save that for my greeting cards and layouts.

I cut my paper into 4" x 5" sheets, paying attention to which way the paper design goes. This is a great way to use your larger scraps. An ATC's finished dimensions should be 2.5" x 3.5" (and should fit into a nine-pocket baseball card page protoector pocket...I always keep one nearby when I'm making ATC's and I measure twice, cut once). If you look at the above photo, you can see the backs of a couple of ATC's and how nicely this size of cut paper covers the back, enough for you to then adhere another sheet of paper with your ATC information on it. I have an ATC stamp I use, and I stamp several times on a sheet of Avery letter-sized sticker sheet. Then I can cut out all my ATC backs, fill out and stick them on.

Anyway, you take a base and place it in the center of the back of a sheet, trace around the base with a pencil, then glue-stick up both the sheet and the base, then stick the base to the sheet backside and burnish. (Since you've traced onto the paper, you know where to put the base and where to put glue on the paper, see?)

I burnish anything I glue, either with my fingers or my Ranger roller:

Then, after I burnish it, I cut the four corners off the sheet, so you end up with flaps to fold over and it looks like this:

Then, I apply dry tape runner to all outer edges of the flaps, then I run some gluestick on the inner flap and on the base where it will meet the flap. It will then look like this:

Then, I fold the long flaps first, making sure the crease is tight and hugging the base edge (remember, you don't want your finished ATC to be wider or longer than what it is supposed to be). Then, the short flaps. Then, I burnish, and voila:

If you make ATC's or art cards, give this a try! If you like to recycle cereal box - types of packaging, this is a great way to hide them, plus you get a sturdy base for cheap! You can put another paper or cardstock on top of the covered base, and you can also wrap your base with watercolour paper and paint right on it. There are lots of creative ways to utilize this technique.

Well, here's hoping we all survive this latest winter storm. I'm gonna go take a hot shower and try to call it a night. Maybe I'll sleep right through it!