Thursday, May 5, 2011

On Challenges and Fishing!

Good morning, Blog friends!

Image by Hambo Stamps; colored with Prisma pencils. Paper piecing
using complementing designs and colors I made with Adobe Illustrator.
Sentiment set/printed on desktop. Font by Pink Broccoli. Papers by
American Crafts, "Everyday" collection. Supplies: bakers' twine,
ATG adhesive and Foam mounting tape by 3M/Scotch,
machine stitching, Ranger Glossy Accents, white gel pen.
I  hope you haven't thought I've abandoned you this week. I have been busy in the Paper Jungle making new projects ... and learning new techniques. Here's a little peek!

The card at right represents the answer to two of my personal goals in cardmaking, sort of my "Bucket List" for my life in the Paper Jungle. 

First, I want to begin participating in more challenges. Why? Because I think they will help me stretch out of my comfort zone.  This card was made for Splitcoast Stampers' Wednesday Card Sketch challenge. 

A second goal is to earn a position or two on incredible Design Teams.  As I announced last week, I have joined my first Design Team (or DT) at Creative Pointe's Diecut DesignersAnd I have posted two cards recently, made with two of their SVG files. 

Digital image of Wee Henry from HAMBO STAMPS. Colored using
Prisma pencils and Copic markers. Sunshine cut from Cricut's Pooh
and Friends cartridge. Sentiment set/printed using Adobe Illustrator
on papers from American Crafts, "Everyday" collection. Kite cut from
Nikki Sivils Scrapbooker LLC paper, "We Are Family" line. 
Accessories: Ranger Glossy accents on inner tube; AWI Action Wobble
behind Wee Henry; Ranger Stickles for "water" in Wee Henry's mask;
acetate backing for mask, pop dot behind worm's head for dimension;
twine, ATG adhesive by 3M/Scotch.
The card above, as well as this one shown here, feature simply adorable digital images from one of my favorite companies, Hambo StampsHambo Stamps currently has a call for members of their DT, and these two are my entries into that call. I'm crossing my ink-covered fingers that I'm selected later this month.  Please cross your inky fingers for me, too!

Some of my other lofty goals for my "work" here in the Paper Jungle are to:

3. Continue sharing Tips and Ideas that I've found helpful, have developed or enhanced... things like how to make your own embellishments or crafting supplies.

4. Produce more Tutorials on how to make dynamic cards, and show them both photographically and on video via YouTube. 

5. To enhance #4, Tutorials, install and learn video editing software to improve the quality (and reduce the length!) of my educational videos.

6. Install and learn to use my new Microsoft LifeCam Cinema webcam, so I can have more live interaction via U-Stream crafting videos.

7. Work toward getting my cards published in some of my favorite crafting magazines, such as PaperCrafts by Creating Keepsakes and Cards and Cricut Magazine by Northridge Publishing.

8. Continue to learn and grow by attending classes and conventions in this craft I love so much.

9. Improve the look, feel and content of this blog, CardMonkey, and work toward developing "sister sites" that promote papercrafting blog hops, and a "college" for cardmaking. 

10. Keep CardMonkey's site enjoyable, by featuring fun projects, blog hops, challenges and ideas. Offer more blog candy along the way, and to this end, work toward fostering sponsorship arrangements with companies that support the world of papercrafting.

The measure of whether I'm achieving many of these goals is garnered through growing the number of followers I have here on CardMonkey, as well as getting feedback from YOU

It gives me tremendous satisfaction to show, teach and share. As a Chinese proverb says:"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

To end this long and perhaps boring brain dump of my personal goals, let me leave you with some smiles:

Art from the website header at http://www.hambostamps.com/
I thought that quote above was a Biblical verse. Not so, per that mastermind, Google. But in searching, I found some humorous takes on it:
"Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and ...
... he'll spend his whole day in a boat, guzzling beer and come home empty handed."
... you'll get rid of him for the entire weekend."

... you'll soon wind up learning how to scale a fish to grill it to perfection for him, while he watches baseball on TV."

... he'll wind up cooking it at a 5-star restaurant in New York City, where he'll sell that fish for $65/plate, become a famous chef with his own TV show, and he'll wind up leaving you for a woman who likes sushi."

... he'll catch and eat all of the fish you would have normally caught for yourself."

... and you'll lose a paying customer."

(and my personal favorite...)

... and you can sell him some fishing equipment."


Whatever your plans, enjoy them... make it a sunshine-
filled day. Go fishing!

3 comments:

Bunnyfreak said...

Love your goals. I am looking forward to the tutorials. While I enjoy a go U-tube tutorial, I also appreciate when there is at least minimal written instructions/guidelines with the blog post. I do most of my blog reading on my "almost smart" phone or while watching tv with my family;so I can't watch videos at the time.

Jessica Buffa said...

Not boring at all....I so look forward to reading your blog posts. They are quite enjoyable. I hope you reach the highest peaks of achievement on each and every goal you have put in place. You are very talented and it shows! Happy to be a faithful follower! Funny quotes...TFS!

Unknown said...

Love your goals.. Would love to coordinate/participate in any way I can... Let me know... we could team up.... :)