It's ONLY PAPER Q2 Challenge Team Chat

Sounds like a great weekend, grammadee!

It was supposed to rain all day, but after some showers the sun is bright and cheery now.

Went to apply for a job based on an internal referral and suddenly decided my résumé needed a major overhaul. I guess it didn't occur to me in January or February because it didn't seem to be broken. I was getting hits, I was getting interviews, I got two offers, and the things that didn't pan out I didn't know that until after I started at the ill-fated new job (IFNJ). Sent my updates to two trusted advisors and my boss from IFNJ (which sounds like an MBTI type, but isn't), who says she loved my résumé as it was, but offered to review it for changes anyway. She's traveling and may take a couple days to get back to me. One advisor gave input. Hope to speak with the other by tomorrow morning. I do want to complete that application fairly promptly, without moving too fast and potentially weakening it.

Tried to cut a Club Scrap project -- two boxes filled with 8 cards each from a Special Release page kit. It's a little more complicated and less turnkey to follow one of their special project sketches with an unrelated paper collection. I just did the screw up and screw up more trying to fix it (on only the third sheet I cut), so I'm not sure I can really pick it back up, though I have three or four extra sheets for this. I need to do something other than keep hitting "get mail" like a drug-seeking lab rat....

EtA: Heard from my advisor who like the approach and can meet with me first thing tomorrow. I'll take the meeting, have the discussion and then finish the application.

In the meantime, cut most of the rest of the project with one wee mistake (that can be made up from the miscut pieces).

Thank you very much, grammadee ! But it's less "able" and more "must to keep my sanity!"

My weekend M/O is generally "craft in the morning, adult in the afternoon." Although actually both weekends morning also have MOVE inserted between the crafting -- yoga Saturday and dog hike (with friends and their dogs) Sunday, weather permitting. While unemployed, I do try to sneak in some crafting, for the sake of the sanity as mentioned above, but try to keep it to an hour. If I have an interview planned or application to be completed, I usually complete that first, but if it's just a networking meeting or look for new leads day, I just right into the craft room first thing. This morning I had the call with the recruiter and then a few applications, so I haven't crafted yet.

I seem to be caught up on all my "must do" items. I have a new stamp set coming from Altenew to try some watercolorish or maybe watercolor adjacent techniques with. I have had a couple of 12x12 "pizza" boxes set aside to make a "spray tray" along with a HA metallic sprays technique kit. I have EXACTLY one class/card left from last May's Altenew Secret Garden retreat (wouldn't it be a treat to finish that before the turn of the month?). I'm not really loving the project I started yesterday, but that might be more of a reason to finish it, not less.

And there is always, always, always more tidying to do. There's always a bin of stuff that hasn't quite found its home since the big switch from artmoire to craftinet. It gets smaller [little woven bin]...and then I pull out a project (or two) and somehow what's left after cleaning up gets embiggened. Someday I will figure it all out....

I watched (well, started to watch anyway) a Jess Crafts video with a Dbug One Sheet Wonder and thought of you. joblackford.

My new Altenew flowers, three ways:


The top is layered the usual way with all the stamps and various die inks. The dark pink looks softer in person. I just realized I missed a layer on the pink one. That might have helped.

The technique I saw in a video was to scribble on just the solid layer with water color markers in a couple shades, spritz with water, then stamp onto the stamped outline (on water color paper). They used the Altenew watercolor brush markers, which are like those hollow water brushes but filled with liquid watercolor. I don't have those markers, so I used the brush nib on my water-based marker. Those are the bottom right pair. I had alignment issues with the pink and I'm not sure what went wrong with the purple. I think the different formula of medium might have been an issue. Or maybe the darker purple was a bad idea and I needed to stick with softer colors.

It occurred to me that if watercolor markers or water-based markers worked, water reactive inks would too, and I have 9 or 10 HA Reactive cubes that have come with various kits. I tried those first, they're the bottom left. I think that technique has some real possibility. 

I like that the set has different flowers, not all the same shape/species. There's also a bud and a leaf, both with two or three layers, but no real outline layer, and three small outline stamps -- two smaller blossoms and a little spray of 3 blossoms/3 leaves. Seven dies, one for each element. I think it will be versatile and fun to play with.

I've drunk my coffee and done the dinner dishes. But find myself utterly unmotivated to hit the craft room. I guess that means it's time to make the spray tray? Something not exactly creative, but productive?

EtA:

So, truth be told, I'm kind of reeling this morning. Shortly after i laid off the second time, my boss offered to look at my résumé, but also said she was sure it was fine -- she loved it! She hired me! And, of course, both of my professional recruiter-advisors had given my revision a thumbs up!

Since I had this crisis of confidence and decided to update, I sent it to her for review. She sent back a surprisingly long list of constructive criticism. This included the thing about not listing accomplishments. I don't have accomplishments. I've never had accomplishments. The very first time I was laid off, back in 2009, they sent me to an outplacement service where they used to berate me incessantly and tell me I'd never find a job without accomplishments on my résumé. I felt near-suicidal after every outplacement meeting, so I stopped going. I did get a job, partially on the basis of experience they told me to remove. I've gotten many jobs since then. Of course, some of them sucked, but that's a whole other story.

So, I'm sure my ex-boss means well and is trying to be supportive, but all the despair and negativity from that early outplacement experience just came flooding back and sapped every ounce of oomph out of me.

But I was able to complete my spray tray! And now yoga. Maybe I'll return with a little mojo restored.

Good morning, Team, and welcome new a shiny new week!

Next weekend is Double Stuff and International Scrapbook Day AND the last weekend before Mother's Day! Sounds like a triple whammy of great reasons to start plotting now to have a super crafty one! See grammadee's post here for more info: 2peasrefugees.boards.net/post/4108492/thread