Stamp It! Excitement

Have y'all gotten your hands on the newest copy of Stamp It! yet?

If you have it, go check out page 69 (heh) and you'll spot this card:

I love my Puppy Love set from There She Goes, and since my dad loves dogs as much as I do, I thought this image would be perfect for a father's day card.  Then that Verve sentiment matched so perfectly and everything just fell into place!

So speaking of publications, I've been a bit behind in my book reports, and I've been reading quite a lot on my Kindle (much to the detriment of my bank account).  Click on the pic to be taken to the book's amazon page.

 Losers is about the 1996 Republican presidential race.  I'm a fan of Michael Lewis, and this may be one of his best books (Moneyball being the best, of course).  It's funny, insightful, and makes you love John McCain.







22 Britannia Road, for all of the hype, did not impress me.  There's better World War II stories out there. 










Before I go to Sleep was quite the page turner!  A woman loses her memory every morning, but starts to keep a journal to help her remember. 

 Big Girl Small was a book I noticed in a Canadian bookstore.  This was probably my favorite book of my vacation.  I just loved Judy!  Highly recommended!!








Ok, so if Losers was one of Michael Lewis's better books, The Blind Side is not.  I'm not a football fan at all, so I admit that was some of the problem.  I wanted to know more about Michael Oher, not about some old NFL player.  Not a bad book, just an ok one.

This book sadly showed the limits of the Kindle.  This is the start of a new YA series based on odd photographs the author has found, except the photographs are quite small and hard to appreciate on the Kindle.  The book was fairly entertaining, though, in a Harry Potter way.

Believe the hype: Unbroken is that good.  I've been reading it to my husband in the car for the last month and we both loved it. Laura Hillenbrand spent seven years researching and writing the story of a WWII pilot who survived a plane crash and an amazing survival at sea, only to be taken as a Japanese POW.  HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY recommended!

You had me at woof.

Well, it seems I may have become addicted to my Silhouette.  It's still a bit of a learning curve, especially when trying to cut PTI paper--some of it cuts like buttah (red, ocean tides) and some of it (black especially) cuts shreds like shredded cheese.  But through determination and only a small amount of swearing, I made this card for the Embellish magazine text challenge.

I made the square in the silhouette software and as I was dragging the text to see if it would fit, I happened upon the super-cool trick of wrapping the text around a shape, then you can weld it and it cuts it out as one shape.  Did that just blow your mind like it did mine?  The fighter planes are a silhouette download.  Take a look at an extreme close-up and notice (a) the beautiful cuts and (b) the text background-I printed the glossary of an old flight manual (thanks to Lindsey of Bashful Blogging for the excellent Google Books idea).

I'm sure right about now you're thinking, "Man, Meg has really let herself go over summer vacation.  I mean, what do planes have to do with 'woof'?  And I'm pretty sure Jerry Maguire said 'hello,' not 'woof.'"  Ok, I'll give you that Jerry said "hello" but that's probably because he didn't have the cutest corgi in the whole wide world.   (You know, someone should make a crafting romantic comedy.  Maybe the meet-cute could be fighting over the last clearance pack of paper.  Oh, no, wait, maybe she's in the hardware store buying magnetic vent covers for nestie storage and he's in the hardware store buying magnetic vent covers to actual vent coverage and then the pottery scene from "Ghost" is redone with ink and stamps.  And it could be titled "Squeeze, Pull, Jerk"^[1]) Anyway, all that to introduce my next card:

To answer your questions:
1) From a sign I bought at Homegoods. 
2) From the fact that I was planning on using Hawaiian Shores scrunched ribbon for the collar, which ended up not working, but I still liked the color scheme. 
3) Transfer paper.  I cut out the letters, then peeled away all the paper from the carrier sheet, leaving the letters on it.  Use the transfer paper to lift them up all at once, apply glue using quickie glue pen, then adhere the letters and peel away the transfer sheet.  There was still some wiggling, but much closer to perfect than I could have done without the transfer paper.
4) Yes, that is a silhouette of Addison.  I made the silhouette in GIMP, then imported it into the silhouette software and used the trace feature.
5) Yes, it does seem heavy on the lower right, but I had no idea what to add to the top left to balance it.  Any suggestions?

So there you have it.  Let me know if you have questions I didn't answer.

^[1]referencing how to use the ATG, of course.

Doggies and a Bug

Ok, how cute are these pups in the VW? This card is for my dad for Father's Day. I had a fire-engine red 1972 Beetle when I was in high school and always drove around with my two goldens in the back, so I know my dad is going to love this card! This is also for a Viva La Verve challenge. I hope to finish all five VLV challenges this month.

I stamped the VW from PTI's Enjoy the Ride, then used a post it note to mask while I stamped the dogs from PTI's Tiny Treats: Valentines. I colored the VW with copics (adding a little frosted lace stickles to the headlights) and coated with glossy accents (I really should buy stock in glossy accents with the amount I'm using it). I cut it out and layered it onto a cream circle (small nestie circle #5), then cut out a square (small nestie square #6) from my "practice sheet" of clear embossed wood grain (from Wplus9).

The stars dp is from October Afternoon and the red strip was versamarked and clear embossed with PTI Polka Dot Basics II. The sentiment from Enjoy the Ride was stamped and embossed with black embossing powder (also proving my theory that black embossing is much easier to do on smooth patterned paper rather than card stock..almost no strays here). The whole shebang is mounted on PTI Dark Chocolate.

I get an unexpected treat this week! My mom found a last-minute deal on a flight so she is coming to hang out for a few days. Looking forward to lots o' shopping and food and girl talk, so my blog may be quiet for a wee bit. Enjoy the weekend, everyone!

Father's Day Card

Another Snoopy card for my DH's father, this one for Father's Day. Maybe this one will actually be given instead of staying on his desk. I used this week's Mojo Monday sketch--this week it's a prize week! I also submit this as exhibit 14a as proof that you cannot make a bad card with this paper from SU's Washington Apple pack. For some reason, I thought paper piecing this stamp would be easier than trying to match the colors in the dp. I started with stamping onto PTI Spring Rain and then stamped, cut out, and adhered using my xyron (in order from bottom layer):
Sand from PTI Kraft
Ocean from PTI (aptly named) Ocean Tides
Sun from SU So Saffron
Beach chair & umbrella from SU Chocolate Chip
Beach umbrella from PTI Bitty Star Paper
Beach chair from SU Washington Apple pack
Snoopy from PTI White
Beach chair rails from SU Chocolate Chip

Extreme closeup:

I think it ended up being worth the effort to cut out. I printed the sentiment using Ablemarle font. The ribbon is a Hobby Lobby $.99 spool that matches pretty nicely. I cut the scallop edge using my corner rounder with the corner guard removed.

Have you finished your Father's Day card(s) yet?

(another question--are the photo showing up ok for you? I'm struggling between making them big enough to see the card nicely versus running over the right sidebar. Fellow bloggers...what size do you normally size your photos to?)