Baby Girl Card

A friend of mine is having a baby girl - well, technically she should have already have had it already. This is a little card for her. The carriage stamp and sentiment is from Michael's 1.50 spot, and the embossed paper is from Michael's as well. I love Michael's. Nothing too terribly remarkable about this card, except that I made it with my friend Angela, who is very particular about everything on a handmade card being 100% perfect. If a cut of mine is off by 1/32nd of an inch, I'd still use the piece. She would start over again. Yeeeeesh. No need to be THAT perfect! It's handmade, all part of the charm.

Owl Card

I made this card with my friend Eunice. That's her owl stamp there... Love it! At approximately 9:30pm at night, this is the conversation that went down:

Eunice (with caution): "Sooooo... are you... finished buying stamps for the year?"
Me (with caution): "Nooooo..."
Eunice: "Soooo... The stamp store at Granville Island is having a midnight madness sale tonight, the whole store 40% off - 50% off, if you wear your pyjamas..."
Me: "You waited THIS LONG to tell me!?"

Less than 15 minutes later, we were on our way. :D Weee! I love stamps!

Assignment 03: Chick Flick Music

He wrote: Bittersweet Time


She wrote: Maybe One Day


For this assignment, we were to write a piece for the background of a chick flick. This usually means piano as a somewhat focal instrument, with strings accompanying. Liam went in a sentimental direction, while mine was described as at first sounding like Enya, and then turning into "The Legend of Zelda" music. (Sidebar: I always thought Zelda was the dude in the boots and elf hat. Turns out, Zelda is the princess he is trying to save! Go figure... all these years...anyway, back to the music stuff).

I am easily sidetracked. For me, when writing something I flip through my sound bank and play each sound to find something I like. The danger of doing this is finding completely unrelated sounds for completely unrelated styles of music. In the midst of trying to write this Chick Flick piece, I came across a sound I thought would be perfect for carnival music. And then, the only thing going through my mind was carnival-esque music. So, I closed the file I was working on, opened up a new file, and started writing something completely unrelated. So here it is, the carnival music that incessantly played through my mind while trying to desperately write something wistful, and reflective:

Carnival Ride:

Hip Hip Hooray

This is one from the archives. I had my friend Sandy and her sister over for a card making extravagaaaanza a little while back. I pre-cut some designs for them and we spent the night putting the cards together. This one is one of the cards from that night. The bird stamp is from Imaginesence, the Hip Hip hooray is from the Michaels $1.50 spot. The bird has clear acetate over it with a white diamond Stickles border. Black dots were done with a Gelly Roll Glaze pen. I love pens. But that's another post, for another day.

Fruity Card

This card was inspired by a 3D apple sticker I saw at the store. The apple sticker was similar as shown, but much smaller. I decided to cut out my own (by hand!) and give the apple some friends - the pear, and orange. The metal embellishment says "happy" - not that visible. The green dashed border and cloud border are from a piece of patterned paper, that happened to the same color as the blue cardstock base. I think the fruits are pretty nifty myself...

Assignment #02: Funky

He wrote: A Funky Dalliance


She wrote: Plotting a Scheme (80's style)


I will title the postings I write for the 2 week assignments with Liam (music dude - yes, Liam, that is how I have referred to you - would you like a more prestigious description? Liam (Audio Designer Dude for Next Level Games), as "Assignment #". Makes it easy to keep track of where we are in terms of what we've accomplished.

For this particular assignment, the theme was "make it funky". This means, no traditional orchestral instruments allowed (i.e., flutes, clarinets, oboes, bassoons, french horns, trombones, cellos, violins, violas, double basses, timps, etc.) What's left is synth sounds, or sounds created through manipulating real sounds, or just more electronic sounding sounds. Check out the pieces above.

Note: You'll notice how Liam's piece is much louder than mine - this is because he properly compresses the music afterwards. I lack the know-how on this. Until I learn, his pieces will be at the proper volume. Mine will be softer.

Note 2: I've updated the last music post with Liam's rendition of the "heroic" theme. Check it out below on the last music post as well...

Assignment #01: Heroic

EDITED TO INCLUDE:
Hello! Just an update to this post. As mentioned earlier, I met up with an old highschool classmate recently; we'll be writing songs every 2 weeks, along a common theme/stated guidelines. He's given me permission to post his works here as well, so you can compare the two. This is the first week, "Heroic"... check out his, check out mine.

PS - Purely by chance, both pieces ended up being 1:28 min tracks when recorded into webstream format. Weeeeeeeeird.

He wrote: Time Marches On


She wrote: Determined


Well, it's been a looong time. For no good reason, really 'cept that I was out having fun. Activities included, but were not limited to: playing tennis, running a half marathon, visiting China, Whistler, Vegas, sporadic States trips, hiking up mountains, and just enjoying the summer.

Recently, by chance, I met up with an old highschool classmate who now works in the music industry as an audio designer. For me, when writing isn't my job, its hard to find a reason to do it. For him, when writing IS part of his job, it's hard to find a reason to do it (outside of work). So now, both of us will be writing regularly, 1 - 2 minute clips every couple weeks. I will post my clips here.

The first clip is called Determined. The theme of the week is "heroic". That means horns, and open fifths, thirds, and sixths. Enjoy, and I'll be back soon. (For reals.)