Runs with Scissors… on campus!

Hello, hello, hello. Oops, it looks like I got started saying hello and couldn’t stop. I do hope your corner of the world is warming up and looking more like spring than winter. The youngest RWS grandchildren enjoyed the Milwaukee Zoo last week all bundled up in their snowsuits against the 30 degree weather. The little ones enjoyed it and Mom and Dad didn’t have to fight the crowds.

Have you enjoyed the week of Bookmark beauties? Something amazing happens when you have the Bookmark die in your hands. The urge to make something pretty won’t be denied. Keep it one layered if you like or indulge in the layered look. I usually struggle to combine elements for the layered look, but the Bookmark set makes it easy.

The Bookmark die set includes three smaller dies that help you decorate the beautiful base bookmark to your heart’s content. I used the “swirl” and added a butterfly from the Perfect Pairing stamp set. I did something fun after I created the colorful background by blending Memento Luxe inks (again). I sprinkled just a little gold embossing powder onto the inks before they dried and then heat set the inks and embossing powders. Love the touch of sparkle.

The Playful II die in combination with the Playful stamp allows you to create a two layer flower, using any pair of colors, or even the same color for the stamped flower and diecut outline. Here I’ve created a look of heavy embossing by outlining the Playful flower with a white diecut. The texture adds so much.

The Geometric Border anchors the Soar image perfectly. The set includes three different borders, each one ready to add a touch of elegance to any design. The bird cage and butterfly image perfectly complements the beautiful sentiment. This set would be perfect for graduation cards and includes other sentiments and an image that make it just right for sympathy, thinking of you and encouragement. It’s like having a box of greeting cards in one stamp package.

Back to School Part Two
(see Part One HERE)

 How I loved learning! When on campus, I forgot that I wasn’t still in my twenties. My requirements included taking one Physical Education class. To show how out of touch with reality I was about my age vs. the age of the traditional student, I signed up for a running class. In a moment of blessed clarity, I realized what I had done before the semester started. Quickly, I switched to bowling. And that could be an entire story, too.

But there was no more unkindly reminders of the age difference than the day I was brought back to harsh reality by a classmate saying to me, “Oh, how I wish my mom would go back to school”.

There were benefits to being an older more experienced adult student, too. I may be the only University of Wisconsin student who talked her Teaching Assistant into changing a grade. I took a theater class (counted as a Literature requirement) which involved attending live theater productions and writing a review afterwards. I received an A on the first paper I wrote, but a B on the second which had been critical of the director’s talents. And the director was the professor in charge of the class.

The second paper was head and shoulders better written and my assertions were well backed up by examples. I was certain my criticism of the professor was responsible for the lower grade. The Teaching Assistant agreed with the points I made and also agreed the second paper was the better of the two. But she kept insisting she never changed grades.

Perhaps an 18 year old freshman would have accepted her answer, but I had no tolerance for the philosophy of “it’s never been done before”. Before I left her cubbyhole office, my grade had been changed from a B to an A.

I took a music class that consisted of attending a live musical performance every Friday afternoon. For years the class was graded based only on attendance.   No tests, no exams, no pop quizzes. It was pure Friday afternoon enjoyment. I had been told by my daughter that the students had nicknamed the class “Clap for Credit”.

Oh, and as fate would have it, that was the first semester that a final exam was added to the course.

One of the joys of my University experience was sharing study time with my daughter who lived on campus. We would meet in the large study hall at the top of the School of Education building. I’m sure we were one of very few mother-daughter teams attending the UW at the time. One day a young man from one of my classes came up to me and asked me for my notes from a class he had missed. I cheerfully handed them to him for copying and heard a gasp from my daughter. Kathy was enrolled in the School of Business, a very competitive major requiring a high grade point to maintain enrollment. The first two years were planned to “weed out” lower performing students. Kathy explained to me that no one in the business school would share notes with someone who missed a class. That person might be the one to take your place due to a higher grade point average. Luckily, the School of Education was not so competitive.

The University calendar was set up so the semester would finish before Christmas break. That meant the weeks leading to Christmas were filled with study and then final exams. I was not able to do the usual preparations for the family’s Christmas.

Driving the hour’s drive from campus to home the day of my last final, I was feeling weary from the stress and missed sleep due to studying. I was feeling guilty that there wasn’t enough time before Christmas to bake any of the traditional cookies that the kids looked forward to when they came home for Christmas.

It was a dark winter evening by the time I pulled into the driveway, and the yellow lights from the kitchen window reminded me how glad I was to be home.

As soon as I got out of the car I noticed an amazing smell. And it was coming from my kitchen. The door opened directly into the kitchen and there, before my very eyes, was the kitchen table filled with containers and trays of Christmas cookies, nine varieties in all, baked by Mr. RWS himself. He had taken the day off from work to bake cookies because he knew how much it meant to me.

It was a very Merry Christmas that year. I had returned to school at last, I had earned 19 credits that semester in addition to the three from summer school, we had Christmas cookies and I had a month before classes resumed. Little did I know that the next semester would start without me.

TO BE CONTINUED

I am thinking I overindulged in the cute and sweet theme here. Perhaps I should include sunglasses when sending this card. A little duckie from the Buddy and Duck transparent set and sweet red checked gingham is almost as good as chicken soup to make you feel better. The variety of fonts used in the Penny Black sentiment die sets offers something for everyone and every style. I like the casual look of this font.

The goal of stamping the Va Voom! image on kraft paper was to keep things simple. I kept coloring to a minimum and added the clouds from the Silver Linings die set (a must have) to add some feeling of motion. I think with the addition of these Fab Friends ladies from the So Special release Penny Black has created a new category: EXUBERANCE! These ladies know how to have fun and live life.

After seeing a few cards using black as a background in social media lately, I had to give that design idea a try. I kept the colors bold and bright when coloring this cutie from the Sweet Smiles transparent set so that they would pop against the black background. I kept the black area small in order to keep the card cheerful. See what I mean about the variety of fonts used in the sentiment dies? That font is perfect for Yay and helps make the card itself a celebration.

Cooper and I each manage about four weeks between haircuts. For me, the first week I am unhappy with my hair because it has been cut too short. The second week I start to like it and that lasts into the third week when I begin to look pretty shaggy. After four weeks I am entitled to use the emergency entrance into the beauty shop.   I am thinking Cooper’s haircuts follow the same time table. Here he is, a few days before his grooming appointment. He gives new meaning to the phrase “shabby chic”: more shabby than chic I believe. You will notice there are no photos of me at this stage of the haircut cycle.

Oh my goodness. Speaking of time cycles, I just noticed it is time to clean up, put away, and close up shop here at Penny Black’s blog. It’s been another fun visit for me and what’s even better is that I can go to the Penny Circle Flickr Gallery to enjoy your work with Penny Black stamps and dies. I am delighted you enjoy my stories (the kids are tired of hearing them) and leave such lovely comments.

Shop for today’s featured Penny Black supplies:

• Card No. 1: 30-346 Perfect Pairing, 51-195 Bookmark
• Card No. 2: 30-347 Playful, 30-283 Snippets, 51-205 Playful II
• Card No. 3: 30-345 Soar, 51-196 Geometric Borders
• Card No. 4: 30-336 Buddy and Duck, 51-221 Feel Better
• Card No. 5: 40-430 Va Voom!, 30-350 Sentiment Collection, 51-033 Silver Linings
• Card No. 6: 30-349 Sweet Smiles, 51-222 Yay, 51-191 Gift Card