Oh Whale Penny Spinner

Happy Saturday!

I'm sorry it's been so long since I posted!  You know when I don't post for so long that either a) life is crazy busy or b) I'm not in a "happy place" to be posting.  I like to keep things light and happy ... and long and rambly ... and to be perfectly honest, since my last post life has been a combination of a) and b).  There has been a LOT of stress around here lately and I'm only just now started to crawl out from under it all.  Last week was particularly stressful for me as I was dealing with a lot of issues with Rebecca, my eldest.  In a nutshell every day she was telling me that she didn't feel well.  Rebecca has a lot of anxiety (WAY too much for a little almost-10-year-old) and I attributed her not feeling well to stress.  Problem was she kept telling me nothing was stressing her out.  It got worse and worse every day to the point where I was having trouble handling it and simply didn't know what to do about it.  The poor lamb would go to school (only because I made her go) but 3 times she called me on the verge of tears begging me to let her come home.  Again, thinking it was anxiety I kept encouraging her to practice her breathing and other coping skills we've learned over the years but nothing was helping.  Thursday and Friday I was on the verge of tears all day struggling with how I could help my little girls.  We've worked with psychologists in the past but it really hasn't helped.  Friday morning I took Koda out for his walk and tried to clear my mind and really "hear" what Rebecca was telling me.  I simply couldn't figure out what had changed in the last week that had thrown her into such a tail spin.  And then it hit me.  Milk.  This week she had a lot more milk than usual.  I instantly figured she must be lactose intollerant!  I can't even tell you the level of excitement and pure joy I felt at the thought of it.  All the pieces started to fit together!  She usually drinks juice (way too much for my liking but if she doesn't have juice she generally doesn't drink at all so juice it is).  This week we didn't HAVE any juice (I only buy it when it's on sale and it hasn't been on sale lately) so she's been having milk!  Then I saw the patterns that were staring me in the face the whole time.  She wouldn't feel GREAT when she left for school but half an hour later she would be feeling REALLY bad ... makes sense!  She has cereal with milk or toast with milk for breakfast ... 20-30 minutes later she feels icky.  For lunch she has cheese ... then she feels icky ... she has banana bread and MILK at bedtime ... and then feels icky 30 minutes later.  How could I not see it???  I have taken her off dairy and hopefully in the next few days she'll be back to normal ... and I won't be a total walking bag of stress!  (on the up-side I've had some GREAT workouts this week *lol*).  So that's had me from blogging for a while ... that and I don't have a lot of projects to share!  Again, not a lot of time for happy creating time!  So thank you for coming back to see what the heck was going on and why I hadn't posted *lol*

I DID manage to come up with a card I loved.  It wasn't easy, though.  I had Technique Class looming over me and no technique in mind.  I finally decided to do the Black Magic Technique (thanks to Alicia's inspiration with the bookmark she made her sister) but the day after I decided to do that technique Stampin' Up! announced that there was a supplier problem and the watercolor pencils were no longer available!  Ack!  No point showing a technique when no one can buy the supplies to do it at home!  So I needed to come up with something else.  I tried for DAYS to come up with something ... I tried about 5 different ideas - all epic failures.  Then I slowed down and realized I needed to start prioritizing my life!  First priority was to make Rebecca's brithday invitations!  I WANTED to hand them out yesterday ... but didn't quite get them finished BUT in making the invitations I realized I was using a technique I could teach - the Penny Spinner card.  Well ... maybe that's not a technique per se ... but it's cool and that's what I decided to do.  Her is Rebecca's invitations (we are having a swimming party):

Hee hee - love this little guy!  When you tilt the card he spins - so cute!  I switched the sentiment for Technqiue Class ...

I love the color combination (thank you very much my beloved Color Coach!)  I used Island Indigo (yay!  This In Color is staying as part of the "main" color line for a few more years!!) and Rich Razzleberry.  The waves are made with the Oh Wave jumbo wheel (page 29 of the mini - $10.50) and the whale and sentiment are from Oh, Whale! (page 29 of the mini - $20.95 clear; $27.95 wood).  The whale is punched out using the Happy Whale Clearlit die - page 29 - $9.95. 

So!  For those who might not know how to make a Penny Spinner card, I have a little tutorial for you :)

It's really very simple.  First you punch a slit in your card front using the Word Window Punch.  You need to punch it 3 times along the length of the card.  For this card it was very easy to line up the slits.  I flipped the card so the "sky" section was facing my stomach ... and then pushed the card stock into the punch as far as it would go.  It was the perfect spot!  Then you just move the punch over and do it again .... and again.  For this card I then went back and punched the slit just a HAIR bigger ... it gives the penny slightly more room so spin.  As you can see from the picture below a dimensional only JUST fits in the slit - I like to give it just a smidge more room for better spinning. 

Once you have the slit you centre a penny behind the slit ... and place a dimensional on it.

 Then you place a second penny on top of the dimensional ... making a dimensional sandwhich :)

 Than you add another dimensional and add whatever image you like to the top of it.  A few years ago I made a Penny Spinner card with a bowling ball - very cute.  There are all kinds of ideas you can use - birds, bees, butterflies, wheels, balls ...

 

I wanted to show you how I got the clouds embossed just on the top section of the card ... but I got a little "delete" happy on my camera and deleted the picture!  ... so I'll jut have to TELL you what I did!

When I put my card stock into the Cloudy Day embossing folder and headed over to my Big Shot I quickly realized the folder is about 2 mm too long to fit into the machine sideways.  No problem, I thought, I'll just turn the folder to go through seam-first.  Wrong!  When I turned it I realized the card stock sticks out too far and THAT was too wide to go through the big shot.  Rats!  Hmmm - I wasn't gunna let THAT stop me - I wanted clouds so I was gunna have clouds.  I grabbed my Craft and Rubber scissors and cut the top layer of my embossing folder in half lengthwise (from the edge to the folded seam)!  It's ok!  Don't panick!  Iif I ever want a FULL card base to be embossed it still works just by closing the top flap ... and if I just can handle having a cut folder I can always buy another one ... they're only $10.95!

So that's it for today ... I'm off to finish Rebecca's invitations and perhaps craft for fun.  I hope to post again soon but next week is pretty busy.  I have the joy of going for a colonoscopy on Tuesday.  Good times!  You ever had one?  I have.  Not a lot of fun.  Monday I get to drink a 4 litre pail of sludge ... and have nothing but jello and/or soup broth all day ... Tuesday is the fun of an enema and the colonoscopy.  Something tells me I won't be up to crafting Tuesday *lol*!  Having said that you just never know ... so pop in again and see if I managed to get some happy time in.

Thanks again for checking in ... until next time - have a stampy weekend :)

Tam