Card Crafts are CHEAP!

I've been on this brain kick for a few months now thinking that I might be able to start making some side cash flow with my crafting obsession.  I have found myself recently reading about people who have had successful etsy stores  with thousands of sales and positive feedback and wonder "could I do that?"...I'm still not sure and you know me, I tend to air on the side of caution before diving in blindly.  SO in the meantime my recent craze has been carding and hoarding completed craft projects!

I know I've said this before but I am LOVING the $1 card making bins at Michael's right now.  ALSO, you can download their mobile app to have coupons they scan right from your smartphone at checkout.  Tommy always teases me that I waste the cashiers scan for my 50 cents off of a $1 stamp, but he should appreciate my frugality.  I'm thinking about cleaning out the couch cushions after this so I can find spare change for a new stamp!   So in a nutshell, $1 bins rule. It cost me hmmm...$3 to make 8 cards and I'll totally use the stamps and the ink again!

What you need:

• Blank Cards & Envelopes - Totally in the $1 bin right now!
• Stamp Pad - Pigment Ink I find works best for paper cards. 
• Rubber Stamp 
• Colored Cardstock Scraps
• Glue Stick

What to do:
Get creative. You can't really screw these up. 

1. Punch.
2. Glue. 
3. Stick.
4. Stamp. 

I tend to find myself only liking the wording on some of my stamps, so I'll only ink that part and just pretend the picture part isn't even there.

When you stamp the card, I stamp in one or two colors and then color in the image with colored pencil or marker.  I've been in the colored pencil mood, but sometimes I want bolder colors and will go marker.

Yes Evie. I stole some of your pens as props for my card photo shoot.  Thank You!  The color scheme of them went well with my stamp ink.

Next on my list of things to learn:  How to take better pictures...perhaps I should start with getting a better camera.  These photos were taken with my smartphone.  Not bad, but whatevs!  

My Name is Katniss. I'm the Mockingjay. I Should be Dead.

FYI if you haven't read yet...I might SPOIL a few things for you if you read this post.  But there are a few things I've got to get out...

What in the WORLD just happened with this triology!?

• Book 1: Very suspenseful. Pretty Good. Set the scene for potential edginess.  Love Triangle Begins...
• Book 2: Mediocre as far as suspense goes.  Worse than the first. Still leaves you needing to read the third book with all the unfinished business.  Love Triangle Continues...
• Book 3: WEIRD!  I won't say the book was bad. It DID finish the story. But NOT suspenseful.  Love Triangle just fizzled even though she ended up with Peeta.

I feel like Suzanne Collins is a quazi decent writer, but it's like she got lost with her ideas when she was writing this.  It felt like she started a series and wasn't sure of how it would end herself until she wrote it.  Call me a planning control freak, but Suze, you should have thought this one out a little more.  If you're going to try and follow the trend of turning your third trilogy book into 2 films...I'm NOT sure how you're going to drag this one out...

There was a lot of death in this book.  Which I didn't necessarily have a problem with.  I did get the vibe though, that she was going for this dramatic reaction with the death of poor baby Prim...but seriously, Prim was hardly part of the story.  She was just in Katniss' mind all the time.  I'm not one of those "fans" that is trying to say Prim's death ruined the story but it was like she was going for another Rue reaction.  Didn't happen for me.  Won't shed a tear when that one is portrayed on the big screen.  Well, maybe I shouldn't guarantee that...I've been quite the movie crier lately. Haha.

Now it would have been dramatic had Katniss died after all those times she defeated death then Prim rose to the occasion of becoming the Mockingjay or something...but nope.  I was irritated that Finnick died.  I loved Finnick.  His character became so involved and actually productive, then poof! Dead. Prim, whatevs. Finny...COME ON! WHY???!!!

As far as the Love Triangle goes it just fizzled.  There was no suspense. It ended up Peeta by elimination, not choice.  Dull.  I started getting to the point in the story where I could have been satisfied having her end up alone by choice or even dead to save someone else...but it just wrapped up pretty calmly. 

Overall I think the "bigger picture" that really hacked me was the fact that this series started on Katniss being this defiant, independent, determined  individual not afraid to stand up for family, love and what she believed!  Book 2 these characteristics kind of diminished and once District 13 gets involved they basically conformed her into their own little President Snow.  She was a robot.  She was constantly protected and unable to think for herself and take her own risks.  The more I'm thinking about it, the more I think I would have been ok with her doing something dramatic that saved the day and ended up killing her.  Maybe I'm cynical but I was just looking for a little more edgey drama.  I kept falling asleep in this book.  

Try again Suzanne Collins.  I know you've got it in you.  I liked where you were trying to go with this, but it just didn't pan out in a way that worked. 

The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

I wasn't exactly sure what to expect of this storyline after the ending of the first book, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that Peeta & Katniss BOTH haf to go BACK into the Arena.  I kept thinking -- "how will they get out of it THIS time..." So of course this whole Gale/Peeta plot thickens and I realize that people are such suckers (including myself) for this theme in a book trilogy - Twilight, Hunger Games, Fifty Shades...

As if this whole Hunger Games craze wasn't turning Twilight Saga enough as it is...Robert Pattinson may be joining the cast for Catching Fire's Movie as Finnick.  I suppose out of all the characters in the book Finnick is the one who I haven't decided on his image in my head, but Edward?! COME ON!  And let me guess...Robert Pattinson is already negotiating his role as Christian Grey when Fifty Shades of Grey goes film.

So I find myself in the SAME predicament I was in as I read the Twilight books...I have this fondness and sympathy for BOTH Peeta & Gale and I feel myself getting pissed at Katniss.  Dang. Maybe girls really are as confusing as guys say...

The end of this book wasn't as much of a cliff hanger to me as the first, but I still read the last one too.  I can't not finish what I started....I know, I know...I haven't finished the third of the Millenium Triology. I needed a break.  Anyways, being a 28 year old, (am I 28 now? Sometimes I have to do math to remember my age) I'm still finding it hard to believe that this story is being read by 9 year olds!?

Whatevs!  All in all, I'd recommend this series over Twilight any day.  I might even admit that I was so enamored by the first movie that I am excited to see the next two...and what, let me guess...they're going to make the last one into TWO films? Hah. We'll see.  Have a FABBOO weekend and READ ON my friends!