A Beautiful Tuesday

The weather since Sunday has been just gorgeous! The sunshine is making everyone more cheerful, it seems, (or at least almost everyone, lol!) and everything looks better. The trees and flowers are blooming, the grass is bright green and growing at a ridiculous rate, and spring, glorious SPRING, is finally really here!

I find myself wanting to be outdoors. I want to start wearing really bright colors. I want to wear sandals and ankle bracelets, and it's definitely time to get a new toe ring. There are some things that just shout "spring/summer" as soon as you put them on. Summer is my most favorite season, but I really love the spring because winter is gone and summer is coming and I can be warm and have the anticipation of even better days coming.

I think it is time to dig out the beach/patio chairs and sit outside after dinner. The little kids will be riding bikes up and down the block, the older kids will be skateboarding in the street and everyone will just be in a better-than-usual mood.

My DH is getting ready for his next trip- this time he is heading to the Pacific Northwest. I'm not quite as jealous this time- the lure of Mount Rainier and the daily rains of Oregon pales compared to my desire to see Monument Valley and the Grand Canyon. He also will be gone a LOT less than a month this time. Again, I am happy and thrilled for him that he is able to fulfill this, literally, dream-of-a-lifetime.

My aunt just got out of the hospital, so I will be sending her a card. It is one I made for the National Scrapbooking Day party on SCS Flybabies; this one was a sketch challenge. I still need to make a special envelope for it- and I will be able to do that in only about a minute, thanks to the Enveloper. This gizmo is a recent inport here from England and I REALLY like it.

I originally got the Top Score/Enveloper combo from Crafters Companion. I think they both work really well. Many of the posters at SCS are totally addicted to the Scor-Pal, with some others voting for the Scor-It. Both of those are more expensive than what I paid for the CC combo- which was a lot less than at the CC website. During a recent The Angel Company promotion I was able to get the Scor-Pal for 1/2 price, so, having read so many rave reviews at SCS, I did. Now I'm working on comparing them.

When it comes to scoring cards, for me the Top Score is easier- I don't mind moving my cardstock, and having the notations right on the board so I don't need to calculate is really nice. The Scor-Pal *might* give a little nicer score but it is close. However, when it comes to making envelopes, the Enveloper has the Scor-Pal totally beat for ease. Cut your paper to the correct size, make 4 scores determined by the chart and marked right on the board, fold, glue and VOILA! A beautiful envelope.

With the Scor-Pal you need to start from the dimensions of your card, make calculations, cut your paper, find the score lines, make scores, do some more cutting, then fold and glue. Notice the difference. Now, I'm a pretty smart person and all that is not difficult, but WHY would I do more work than I needed to do?

Another item is size. Since I use the scorer only for cards, I don't need it to be the more than 12" x 12" size of the Scor-Pal. The CC combo not only fits in my craft travel case, it fits in the front flap space. BIG difference. AND, noted here for a few special friends, the Scor-Pal is basically battelship grey while the Top Score and Enveloper are PURPLE!!! (Hi, D&C!!!)

I'm going to keep using the Scor-Pal for cards for a while, to see if I can discover what it is about this that makes so many at SCS such firm believers in the product. But, for envelopes, do not even TRY to get my Enveloper away from me!!!

You know what? The heck with waiting until after dinner- I am going to go find DH to set up the chairs outside, and go sit in the sunshine NOW.

Here's the sketch challenge card I made Saturday and will be sending to Auntie (the image is an Elzybells stamp):