Hello Out There!

Ok, this is getting ridiculous now.  My stamp desk and blog have been feeling so neglected.  On the other hand, my powerpoints for school have been rockin' recently, so maybe I should just start posting those instead, in case you wanted to catch up on your high school math in the middle of your crafting. 

What's that?  You'd rather see a card instead?  Ok, I guess you caught me in a good mood, so I'll share one.

After seeing this photo, I feel like maybe I should turn the card 90 degrees to the left (and also rotate the sentiment banners).  I used Karen's Sweet Sunday Sketch from I-don't-want-to-talk-about-it weeks ago.  All sorts of October Afternoon Thrift store happening here.  Maybe too much?  I am in love with that Impress flower, though. 

Book Reports:
Book #9: Moonwalking with Einstein by Joshua Foer.   I was suckered into buying this when I read a review somewhere that compared it favorably to Malcolm Gladwell.  Yeah, notsomuch.  A few of the memory tricks were pretty neat, but there just wasn't much "umph" to the story.  Based on the other reviews, I may be an outlier. 

Book #10: This is Where I Leave You by Jonathan Tropper.  Perfect vacation book--laugh out loud with lots of good scenes.  Makes me want to read more of his books. 

Book #8 Update: The Help comes out in paperback Tuesday!

Card Collections and Corgi + Camera

Last weekend I spent some time making a set of cards for my mom's birthday gift.  I started by CASEing two cards I listed in my 2010 favorites post on Splitcoast that both used the Stampin' Up Manhattan Flower embossing folder: this one by hskelly and this one by jovialjudy. I made a couple more with the same embossing folder to round out the set, but I admittedly do not like them as much as the CASE'd ones.  Here's the whole set:

(Ha, sorry for the random background.  Were you wondering what my pantry door looks like?  Mystery solved!).  Here are some single shots of the two cased cards:

(watercolored with SU markers and aquapainter, PTI Fillable Frames sentiment)

(Embossed and sanded pre-patterned Core'dinations cardstock, Waltzingmouse sentiment, white pearls colored black with copic)

I also made her the OH-EM-GEE-CUTEST mini composition notebook.

I mean, check out that one bird reading her name!  This is some Cosmo Cricket paper, Sage Shadow modern label punch, and PTI bitty dot ribbon.

Now, I hate to brag, but I know many, many of you will be very jealous of my next statement: we hit seventy degrees yesterday!  So after taking Addison to the v-e-t (all clear!), I had a photo session with her in the backyard.  Here a few favorites:

Happy Sun-dog, everyone!

Three Things You Need To Know Right Now

1. Will Ferrell is going to be on The Office this season!

2. ZooBorns is the most ridiculous website ever.  I want to send out every post to every person in my address book.  So I thought it would just be easier to send y'all over the website so you can add it to your own blog reader.

3. My close, warm personal friend, Emily, aka Artsy_Em, is the Featured Stamper for this week's Splitcoast Challenge! Her gallery and blog are both amazing--so much awesomeness to pick from!  I chose this card to case since it involves two Emily trademarks: stamped background and kraft!  Here's my re-imagining of it:

I used most of her color scheme (I couldn't bring myself to break out the yellow, and used Antique Linen distress ink instead), cut the flowers out of PTI's Distressed Dots using the Peony Nestabilities die (instead of stamping), and used the Happy Birthday sentiment from PTI's Enjoy the Ride.  It's so easy to make a card when you have such great inspiration!

I hope everyone is ready for the weekend--I sure am!  More good news: we're supposed to hit 60+ degrees on Saturday!  Woot woot!  Stay warm wherever you are, my friends!

CAS 78 Guest Designer

The theme for this week's Splitcoast Clean & Simple challenge is.....wait for it.....wait for it.... Ways to Use it: POLKA DOTS!!!  I cannot think of a better theme for me, unless it was Chocolate Covered Polka Dots Featuring Puppies.  I ended up making three cards!

This one is the "cleanest" and "simplest" of the bunch.  I actually already had the Eat Cake Graphics dog (name "Zero") colored, so all I had to do was cut him out. The hat is from The Cat's Pajamas, I colored it with copics (red) and aquapainter and ink (baja breeze).   The patterned paper is retired SU Sweet Slumber (LOVE).  I stamped the Eat Cake Graphics sentiment onto So Saffron using Memento Rhubarb Stalk, then matted with Baja Breeze and popped it up on foam tape (Zero & his hat are popped, too).  The Riding Hood Red is embossed with a Sizzix polka dot embossing folder.

I know what you're thinking, "baby?!?"  But I love those super-fun-bright modern nurseries you see every once in a while and thought this would be a fun card for chic new mom.  I used three sizes of Nestability Blossom dies to cut the Rose Red, then stamped each one with increasingly larger polka dots from PTI Polka Dot Basics II in Fresh Snow.  Then I crumpled and mashed and crumpled and mashed and snipped the petals of the larger circles.  I cut three Kiwi Kiss blossoms the same size as the largest flower, then glue dotted them underneath--I think it looks more proportional than using the next size up of the blossom die.  I added a button from my stash and the SU Jewelry Tag punch stamped with "baby" from PTI Mixed Messages.  I cut two Nestabilities Label One dies from PTI Summer Sunrise and embossed them with Swiss Dots.  I also cut some smaller edges from the Label One die in Kiwi Kiss.  Everything is mounted onto PTI Hawaiian Shores.
Close up of the flower:

Finally, I'm pretty sure this last card left the clean and simple building a while ago, but it *is* just one layer, so that's gotta count for something, right?!?

How could you *not* have a happy birthday after recieving this card?  This is another Eat Cake Graphics stamp that I stamped & colored directly on the kraft base, adding a paper pieced outfit.  I printed out the sentiment onto PTI bitty dot paper, cut out, and used my xyron to adhere.  A fun PTI Berry Sorbet ribbon finishes it off!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by today!  I know it's going to be a blast being a guest designer this week--I bet my eyes will be crossed by the end of the week looking at all those fabulous polka dotted creations!!!  Wheeeee!!!!!!!!!

Corgis Love Chuy's

Ok, ok, for all you grammar sticklers out there, the technically correct plural of corgi is "corgwn" (pronounced cor-goon).  But wikitionary says "corgis" is more common so I'm sticking with it. 

We just had a new Mexican restaurant, Chuy's, open in Birmingham.  As some of you Texans may know, each restaurant has a distinct decorating scheme.  Ours is offering a free appetizer for anyone bringing in a framed picture of their dog for the wall.  Of course I couldn't let Addison have an undecorated frame!  (Yes, some people in my household called me a dork for doing this, but you know, whatev.) 

I used some October Afternoon Fly a Kite paper. I just traced the frame and cut it out.  The polka dots were the perfect number/size to use some letter stickers I've had forever.  And then my new SU jewelry tag punch was out on my desk, just begging me to use it, so I printed "corgis" and "chuy's" onto PTI Rustic White and punched out, then punched a heart from PTI Berry Sorbert.

And how much do you LOVE this flower? And the color combination, which I drew from the stickers?  I cut Nestability blossoms from Baja Breeze, Berry Sorbert (x2), Old Olive, and Soft Suede. I used PTI Polka Dot Basics II in Memento Rich Cocoa, stamped off once onto scratch paper first.  The button is from my button stash, tied with some linen thread.  

I also tried stretching out of my comfort zone yesterday by making a vintage-y card for this week's Mojo Monday sketch.

I stamped Elements of Style onto some Riding Hood Red patterned paper and embossed with white.  I then rubbed some So Sahara ink over it to tone it down. I punched out 1 inch squares, matted with 1 1/8 inch black squares.  I inked the fancy ledger from Notably Ornate with Memento Rhubarb, then added some Tuxedo Black to the edges, stamped, and cut out.  The sentiment is from PTI's Delightful Dahlia, the background paper is from SU Love Letters.

Now I'm off to play some Dare to Get Dirty challenges and, of course, eat some Chuy's.  So you can be honest, how big of a dork am I for making that frame?!?  :)  Hope everyone has an enjoyable weekend!

SU Loot!

I spent yesterday morning reorganizing my SU colors and as soon as I filed away the last scrap, my doorbell rang--UPS with my SU order!  Yippee!!  So of course I had to sit down and start playing!

I think this is my favorite card of the bunch.  I cut out a Nestability Label One from copy paper and used it as a mask to stamp the Elements of Style flowers in River Rock.  Then I used the negative of the mask to stamp the flowers in Soft Suede.  I watercolored them using Pink Pirouette, Baja Breeze, and Wild Wasabi inks, then sponged over the whole thing with River Rock.

This one gave me fits trying to get a nice image using Misting with Markers technique for this week's ResQChallenge (well, probably last week's by the time I post this). Either I didn't spritz it enough or I would spritz too much or I would spritz too much on one section and not enough on another.  Definitely need more practice!  I used Ruby Red and Old Olive markers on PTI Rustic White.  The image and sentiment are both from Just Believe.  The red is Cherry Cobbler--such a yummy color!  It's on a kraft card base that I stamped repeatedly with another image from the same set in Versamark.  And I love the pattern so much I did another card with it:

Who knew River Rock would make me like Soft Suede?  But it did and I do!  I used Soft Suede ink for all the stamping, then cut out the label from River Rock and adhered.  The sentiment is from PTI Mixed Messages.

Tech Tip update: First of all, I'm glad I'm not the only one who didn't know that middle-click-link-to-open-in-new-tab trick.  I read about it on a geek website (lifehacker--go ahead and add it to your google reader now.  I'll wait) and they started the article with "Everybody knows [about this trick]."  Really?  Everybody?  Anyway, Maria and Charlene were also introduced to the scroll function, which happens when you click the rollerball when the pointer is not on a link.  And my real-life friend Laura said on a Macbook, it's command + click on trackpad to open the link.  Did you know the elevators in Apple stores do not have call buttons or floor buttons?  They just open on every floor every time.

Happiness in 4 Inches

This card so sweet that my teeth hurt! I think I've finally gotten the hang of these paper flowers.  I tried making the really smooshy ones like Dawn and the cut-out-a-petal-and-roll ones like Tim Holtz and, well, let's just notice the fact that you haven't seen either of those kind on a card from me and leave it at that.  But the ones die cut from a blossom nestability I am all about!

I started by cutting 3-4 of each size of the three smallest nestie blossom dies from PTI Melon Berry. I then stamped PTI Polka Dot Basics II in PTI Vintage Cream ink, using the smallest dots for the smallest blossom and working my way up to bigger dots for the bigger blossoms.. After cutting and distressing by crumpling them up, I layered them and secured with a brad. The bottom two or three layers I had to attach with glue since the brad wasn't quite long enough. 

I totally cased this layout by dahlhousedesigns, swissdotting & inking some kraft, then inking a big scallop rustic white square with SU Blush Blossom.  The sentiment is from Wplus9 The Birds & The Bees, with the flag trimmed using the same big scallop nestie.

So this morning was fairly exciting: I got a nasty virus on my computer!  Fortunately I have in-house tech support so I'm now back to normal, but just a reminder to back up your computer!  If you haven't tried Dropbox, I'd highly recommend it (unless you don't like things that are awesome)! If you use this link we both get an extra 250 MB of space (you get 2 gigabytes to start with!).

It's Cookie Time!

We all know that it's cookie time all the time, but this week is super cookiebaker time on SCS.  Charlene is not only the Guest Designer for the CAS challenge today, but also the Featured Stamper for yesterday's challenge!  Take a gander at her gallery and blog and just try not to be inspired--impossible!

This is the card for today's CAS challenge, based on this cake from the outrageously expensive inspiration cake website.  I know, I know, who am I with all this orange?!?  The flowers are from some Costco Inkadinkado sets, stamped in Colorbox Tangerine Chalk Ink onto PTI Soft Stone paper.  The sentiment is from PTI Mega Mixed Messages.

This was my card for the Featured Stamper challenge yesterday, based on this card from cookiebaker. I really liked the one-stroke copic coloring she did on her flower, and tried to emulate it using PTI's Delightful Dahlia.  I used R22, which worked nicely with PTI Berry Sorbet ribbon.  The sentiment is from PTI's Birthday Basics.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday yesterday!  Our neighbors decided to set off some fireworks, which Addison was none too pleased about!  We watched The Proposal which was surprisingly better than I had thought it would be. Anyone have any good rentals to recommend?

Happy Fourth of July!

Happy Fourth of July to everyone, especially those with brave family members in the military. I love this stamp from Eat Cake Graphics and went right to it when I read Late Blossom's One Layer Wednesday patriotic card challenge.  I stamped it with PTI True Black onto PTI kraft, then used my Staedtler Watercolor Crayons and an aquapainter to color it in.  I wanted the flags to be the standout, so I kept their clothes fairly muted.  I used one of those horrible-finger-pain-inducing discount tiny punches to punch out the stars. A few landed on the paper and  I thought it'd be a fun way to add some subtle interest to the top of the card, so I glued 'em on-I hope it doesn't put me over my one-layer limit! 

Yesterday was a "no-computer" day for us (we spent the day watching movies, swimming, reading, and playing Wii instead!), so I have a couple more cards to share from the last few days.

I was still in a "pretty" mood on Friday, so I made another embossed & waterpainted flower, this time using PTI Delightful Dahlia.  After embossing it on SU Whisper White, I used SU Pretty in Pink and Regal Rose markers scribbled onto a CD case to watercolor with my aquapainter.  My "tip" is to have the aquapainter tip mostly dry, that way you have more control over where the paint goes.  I squeeze out one drop of water, then use a rag to dry it off.  I pick up some color from the CD case, then do one or two quick strokes onto a scratch sheet of paper and then start painting.  I covered the whole thing with Pretty in Pink, then added some shadow with Regal Rose, then went and added some more Pretty in Pink.   Get out your favorite flower stamp and try it-you'll feel like such the artist!

I decided to use it on a corner bookmark, which was this week's tutorial on SCS.  I used some SU dp for the base, covered with PTI Ocean Tides card stock, stamped with PTI's Text Styles in Versamark.  I layered some white ribbon with PTI Sweet Blush and Ocean Tides, and punched the border using Martha Stewart's Cornice Edge border punch.

Due to the no-computer rule yesterday, I had to-gasp!-try to make a card without using a challenge!  I was updating my stamping index and realized I hadn't given Wplus9's Funky Foliage the true inking it deserves.  I started by brayer the sky with Memento Summer Sky (good name!), using torn post-its to mask the bottom.  Then I covered the sky and brayered the grass using Memento New Sprout.  I guess I didn't do a great job of lining up the post-its since I was left with that white line, but I decided it looked kind of funky (in a good way).  I stamped the trees using Memento Rich Cocoa and Bamboo Leaves, cut the image into 3 strips, and matted onto PTI Dark Chocolate.  For the bottom layer, I tore the edges of PTI Spring Rain and SU Certain Celery, and added a white strip between them.

Wishing everyone a safe and delightful Fourth of July!

Three Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me

I'm going to make you wait until the end to read about the three things, since they are not stamping related (and because I'm a blog tease).  First the card for today:

I set a goal to try and finish all 5 Viva La Verve challenges for this month.  I love sketch challenges and I'm starting to really get into inspiration and color challenges, and the VLV challenges are a great combination.  This is for the 3rd week.  I was inspired by the second bedroom; I think I would have keeled over if I had this fabulous room as a kid (or as an adult).  I used the color combination, of course, as well as trying to keep the whole card feeling as glamorous as the room.

I saw Becky's flower today and thought that it was maybe a distressed flower I could handle.  I have not had much luck in making my own look as wonderful as all the million tutorials.  Like Becky, I cut out my blossoms using Nestabilities, then stamped PTI Polka Dot Basics II and PTI Text Styles in Hibiscus ink, crumpled, and cut the petals of the two middle layers.  The green layer is 3 blossoms the same size as the largest pink, then I cut them in half and overlapped them in order to get the green layer just slightly larger than the flower.  I cut the ends of the rhinestone brad off and glue dotted it to a black button.  The tag is stamped with PTI Mixed Messages.

The pink layer is embossed with a Cuttlebug embossing folder, the ribbon is from PTI and the brads are from Hobby Lobby.  I stamped the spring moss layer with leaves from an old SU set using Versamark.  Now I just need to figure out which one of my friends is glamorous enough to full appreciate this card! 

Ok, now the moment you've all been waiting for.

Three Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me

1) The Curly Girl Method/Hair Plopping I stumbled upon this when looking for a new flat iron. I actually use a low-sulfate shampoo instead of no-sulfate (Tresemme which was on sale at Target for $3.99 for a huge bottle), but my favorite part is the hair plopping.  My hair, which is usually bleh and wavy and frizzy and meh, ends up with fabulous curls with little-to-no effort except waiting for it to dry.  I can't believe I've been going to hairdressers for 30+ years and not one has told me about this.

2) Next-day Bread Bags.  We eat sandwiches for lunch quite often and love fresh bread from the grocery, but hate how we end up throwing away half the loaf the next day because you could use it to drive nails into steel.  A few weeks back we were at Publix looking for bread and the baker asked if we were eating it today or tomorrow.  We answered "tomorrow" and she handed us a bag from a pile near the bread. --it's a "tomorrow" bag instead of the "crispy" bag they normally use.  The bread is fresh and soft.  I mean, there are no signs around saying "Hey, if you're going to eat this tomorrow, put it in one of these bags!" and when I told my friends, they had no idea about it, either.  Maybe it's just a Publix thing?

3) Eye-fi is awesome. This was my anniversary gift.  It's an SD card that uses your wireless network to upload the photos automatically to your computer.  So by the time I'm done taking my 10 card photos, they are already in Picasa, ready for me to edit!  No hooking up the camera, no taking the SD card out to put in a reader.  I've been using it for the past few days and love it.

What are some things you wish someone would have told you about earlier?

New Stamps! Woohoo!

Someone mentioned Wplus9 stamps on Splitcoast the other day and I bought a few sets as a consolation prize for myself for not making the CAS DT finals (but I did end up winning a guest designer spot! yippee!  and the three gals that won made some a-maz-ing cards!).  I ordered on Wednesday and got my stamps yesterday in the mail.  I must say I am impressed by the quality of them, and can't wait to ink more of 'em up.  Does anyone know what W plus 9 stands for?  I keep thinking of Kate Plus 8.

These wonderful flowers are from the Woodgrain sillouettes and Woodgrain sillouette additions sets. She's having a deal where you can get both sets for $33, which saves you $5.  Add another $19 set and you've got free shipping at $50!  And these are BIG sets, ones that would cost you $24 each at other clear stamp companies.

I was inspired yesterday by this crib bedding at the inspiration challenge site (Heck, I was inspired by the whole site.  Inspired to win the lottery!).   That nursery with the huge windows and glider almost makes me want to have a kid. Maybe I'll just take the windows and glider and trade out the crib for a dog bed.

I stamped these flowers with some Colorbox pigment ink and added clear embossing to make it a bright card for the Fireworks CAS challenge.  I matted with both Kiwi Kiss and black, then added some Kiwi Kiss striped grosgrain because it's so yummy!

BTW, here is my $1 foam-core board "light box"

I got it from somewhere on SCS. The nice thing about it is that you can fold it half to store it.  Yes, I'll probably upgrade some day, but for now it's working for me.

(to my blogger friends: have you tried using draft.blogger.com?  It has many nice feature upgrades!  Like being able to choose a picture right from your picasa albums instead of copying & pasting links and fun customizable layouts.)

Taylored Expressions(ish) Challenge 115

I made this card for last week's Taylored Expressions Challenge, but I ended up veering from the sketch a bit.

I had planned to make the butterfly the extra circle by the ribbon, but it just didn't look right. I also had planned to add some SU flower brads on the top and bottom, but they were too big for the space. I'm so mathy and rule-oriented that I always feel like I'm taking a walk on the wild side when I don't follow a sketch exactly (Yes, that's what passes for excitement in the corgi creations household).

The stamps are Verve Petals & Stems. I love this new-to-me old SU dp I found and wanted to use all the colors in it. So I stamped the flower using versamark onto Regal Rose and Pretty in Pink (I think--I'm never sure of the SU pink color names), embossed with clear embossing powder, and cut out. I did the same with the flower centers and butterfly with So Saffron paper. Then I used zots small glue dots to put it all together--I must say I like the thickness of these when I want just a little dimension.

I stamped the stems using Old Olive classic ink, which actually worked pretty well with the clear stamps. I can't pair the smaller stem in this set because it's too "wonky" when compared with the bigger one, (I'm not saying I don't have issues) so I just covered the bottom of the panel and stamped the bigger one again, making it shorter for the smaller flower. The sentiment from PTI Birthday Basics is stamped using Colorbox Rouge chalk ink. Can you believe how well that ribbon coordinates? It's some American Crafts that I've had for quite a while. After matting the image in old olive, I used foam tape to pop it up.

I think I've already mentioned all the supplies, but if you have any questions, let me know!