Happy Halloween!! Muaaahhhhhaaaahhhaaaa!!!

RU SKRD??? You should be. Cuz I think I bought all the Nestle crunch with caramel in them! Man, those are good. Just one set of trick or treaters so far. Here's what I was for Halloween. The company I work for is called American Light. So I did a little tribute today. Hope you like it!!

I was at a play till 11, up till 12:30 putting sticky strip and ribbon on my shirt, punching holes in the lampshade for the teeny battery powered christmas lights, using floral wire to wire the lights and the shade to a headband, punching out stars and using sticky strip to put them on my jeans. Then up at 4. I'm worthless tonight. Hope I make it longer than my trick or treaters!!! Love Halloween!!!

When I'm a Grownup

I'm going to eat ice cream for dinner. That's what we all said when we were little, right? Everybody dreamed of forgoing the broccoli for unlimited cupcakes or candy at six sharp. Well, I'm LIVIN' THE DREAM BABY!!! I had Haagen Daaz coffee ice cream for dinner. And kind of a lot of it. So there.

Last night, as the Rockies fell to the Denver stamping curse, I completed the treat bags. DH laughed at me because I kept documenting the whole process and oohing and aahing. The little patties are SO DANGED cute with their scallopy clothes!! Here's the first of them going into their spooky home.

Now what would you have for dinner if you could come home and there was a big serving of ________ just all prepared and waiting for you? Leave a comment and tell me. Me, I'll always pick ice cream. If there was ice cream that tasted like butter, then I'd pick that.

EEK! LOOK AT THAT SCARY LITTLE CAT!!! I'm sorry I scared you. It's okay if you peed a little when you saw this spooky creature. No one is judging. It's kind of an evolutionary reponse, really. You're supposed to be scared of scary little cats.

AHAHAHHAAAA - oops - I did it again. And I bet you just changed your pants!!! Sorry. It's good for you. But look at Spooky on the little tab... awww! Me likey!!!

I'll give you a minute to clean up....

I bet you feel better than when you started!!! Now, did you hear the news that antioxidants are bad for us now? Seriously? Let me tell you people something. There is nothing wrong with some red meat, some wine, coffee, cheese and butter. Everything else is fashionable, but never lasts. We always come back to the basics. Oxidants, I suppose. Tasty, buttery, cheesy, steaky, winey oxidants. Live it up my people.

On to Rubber Stamper - unless I read my issue wrong, the magazine is no more. While I did not care much for the direction the magazine had gone for a few years, I'm sad to see a stamping publication disappear, or in this case, get absorbed into another magazine. Interestingly, there is also a list in this issue of stamp companies which have gone out of business. Strange and fascinating list. Some companies that I thought of as big names. So before falling asleep I pondered this and wondered if the success of the big names has played a part in that. Similarly, I wondered if blogging and great stamping sites have contributed to the decrease in demand for print magazines. My own behavior tells me that one can see, customize and absorb more images on the internet (especially on the really well run gallery sites) than I can from a single magazine, whose charm lasts minutes, not hours. Something to think about tonight. While you peek at my little treats all boxed up and ready to go to work with me this morning and wait patiently for Halloween!!

113 Lucky Posts!

A magic number! That's what my last post was, and 13 is my super extra lucky number, so hoo-aaaahhh!!!


Sorry it's been so quiet. I worked like a million hours this weekend and am just getting back to stamping. I am about halfway through the treat bags, and you ladies were right - they're easy, but I made some mistakes (as I'm happy to so that you don't have to!! ;) )



Go to Cambria's link on how to make them. When you put them together, it's extremely important where you put the sticky strip - fold it and mock assemble it so you can see what I'm talking about. On the non-DSP covered sides, you want the sticky strip to go across the top so that the flaps are secure at the top of the box. You'll see what I mean. Also, I couldn't really spare 50 jumbo brads, or as SPam would say - I'm "hoarding" them, so I made my own hole reinforcers instead out of pumpkin pie cardstock. I punched with the large hole on the Crop-a-Dile and then punched out that hole with the 1/2" circle punch. Punch, punch, punch!! Then black gingham ribbon for the handles and tonight during the World Series, I will punch the scallops and assemble the peppermint patties. I love Cambria's tabs on the outside but I will have to decide if I have the energy for 25 of those.

The Rockies have not yet called me to see how I'm doing this week. To this, I attribute yet another SKUNK by the Sox. When are they gonna learn?????? There's still time if they call me after game three, but if I were the manager, I wouldn't chance it.

If you're reading this in my beloved Texas, or better yet, my beautiful, bright shining city on a hill, then if you don't know it already - the Tuna Texas team is back on stage at the Paramount with their newest play - Tuna does Vegas! I'm so excited I can't stand it. Front row seats on Tuesday!!! Get tickets if there are some left. If you're not in Texas, get here quick!! These guys are brilliant!! And there is absolutely no way even an exaggerating Irish girl can explain this magic, so I won't attempt. Just trust me.

Hopefully I'll post a completed treat tonight or tomorrow. Hope everyone went outside this weekend. *sigh* So pretty. Wish fall lasted forever.

TGIF!

No, but really - TG!!!! Look - here are Sjane and Schriss!!!! Sjane is the one from whom I was separated at birth and lived a somewhat parallel life with until we met each other through Stamping. She now knows how much Schriss and Spam laugh at me at our meetings!!

Jane made a stunning vertical criss cross card, which brings me to a true confession. I am such a rut girl, that I never even thought of turning one of these to the vertical orientation!! I finally got to talk to Jenn on the phone this weekend, and she gave me that idea, so of course my parallel universe twin shows up with her card this way! This is so pretty, and I know love the ornate tab stamp she used which I've had and never done anything with.

Speaking of that lovely stamp, check out Spamelita's glitzy challenge entry at left! Wow!!! See the dazzling diamonds on the flower embellishment and the stamped ones? This is so beautiful. Speaking of beautiful - isn't Spam beautiful?? Now she brought the cutest projects she made. An adorable gift enclosure with a wreath (Yes, Schriss, it's a WREATH) on the front made from the scallop and half inch punches. So cute and simple. I will attempt to recreate.

We always tell SPam she looks like Jackie O. Except more glamorous, as one would expect for the inventor of the Eye-Phone. Her glasses have these sassy little rhinestones on the sides. Adorable!

So on to inventions. You are not going to believe this. You know how I'm always talking about Schriss' cutting skills. LOOK AT THIS!!! Look closely at the paisley accent on the insert. THAT IS ALL HAND CUT! Now, that might lead you Understand Blue readers to think to yourself - was Schriss a butcher in her former life? The coyote, the precise cutwork, the paper piecing that has an uncanny resemblance to surgery? Hmm.. I will never tell. it's one of our ssssecrets.

These were absolutely beautiful, and despite everyone saying this was a real challenge not to use color, I think they were hustling me - because if this is what they struggle with - imagine how pretty the easy stuff is! Great job ladies!

I'm off to clean and organize my stamp room, and then concentrate on Halloween treat bags, which MUST get crossed off my to-do list this weekend!

Here's an idea for you. I entered an SCS challenge this week and sent the sample to someone on the RAK list. Do you have a bunch of cards you haven't sent out? This is a great way to do something nice for someone, so I encourage you to check out Splitcoast (link in my links at right) and put those cards you're making to good use. (Or you could send them all to me =) )

Hasta la Vista!!

(Insert Card Pictures Here) !!!!

Hello! Close your eyes and imagine the most beautiful, the most embellished, grey and black and white SSecret SSwaps on the planet!!! Why must I imagine them, you ask? Great question, I reply - mostly because my camera battery is dead, and these lovely cards are locked inside its unconscious little body. I am about to get on a plane for Dallas, so I will not be able to update you until this evening, provided that Game 2 of the World Series does not lure me away before I can post them... Oh, PS - if you think the bad luck of the Colorado Rockies in Game 1 is NOT related to the injury I sustained at Coors Field in August - THINK AGAIN, BLUE BLOG FANS!!

So stay tuned! They are so pretty - you won't believe what these girls did.

Insomnia!! (AND BIG NEWS!!!

I'm not a good sleeper anyway, but really? 3:30? Is that an acceptable time to wake up?? I think not. Now what I wish I could post is my black and white and grey criss cross card for the SSSS challenge, but the S in SSSS prevents me from the big reveal until after tomorrow night. You might have to wait TWO days!!

It's so pretty I'm actually going to send it in for this month's WOW - Art File for Stampin' Up! I won't win, but maybe it will make it on the showcase! The only bummer is that something about it (heh heh) makes it very difficult to photograph. BUT, it's already cropped, photoshopped, watermarked and ready to go for tomorrow night or early Thursday!!

Today I have for you my favorite (all-time) retired Stampin' Up! set and some cuttlebug action. It's hard to see in the photo, but I took craft ink and sponged on top of the cuttlebugging to highlight it and it looks very cool in real life. This is a case of a splitcoast card that used the flutterfly stamp from Stampendous, which I have and love also.

Ready for the big news???? I have been asked to be a guest designer for Starving Artistamps!!! It's true! I'm not making it up!! I got my invitation this weekend!! So stay tuned for my first assignment. In the meantime, check out their beautiful stamps on their website by clicking the link above or here. I LOVE their botanicals, the butterflies and I really really love the fossils. I'm hoping I get a fossil assignment!! The butterfly images are from actual species of butterflies, and I'm a tad obsessive about my butterflies, as you know!

Anyway, try to hold your breath until tomorrow so that you can see my colorless creation, but more importantly, the creations of SPam, (inventor of the Eye-Phone) SChriss (Coyote Slayer) and Sjane (Who will receive a nickname tomorrow I'm sure!) - the most talented ladies I know!

Okay, it's still only 4:19!!!! WTH????

See ya.

Roses

I saw these yesterday at Randall's and had to have them. Aren't they beautiful?

Stamping l8R. Gotta walk now.

WSC - Couldn't quite bring myself to Christmas..

It is October after all. And I still have office Halloween treats to make.. Did you see the ones Beate posted from regionals? Those are adorable, but are they too much work? I have 25 to make and don't have a scor pal. Are they harder than that little bag we made from convention that I turned into a Halloween bag in an earlier post? Your input is much appreciated. But that aside, I really was digging this color combo, which I know could lead one into the Christmas temptation, but I resisted with all my might. Whaddaya think? PS - 57 here this morning and sunshine all day. *sigh* Hope everyone is having a great Friday.

It's nice to be missed!!

Thank you for missing me! Really put a smile on my face to get a "where have you been" email bright and early from my favorite barista! The back story doesn't matter. Let's talk about... Relaxing. Tonight is my first relaxing night in a while. I made myself some insanely fattening comfort food, some peach tea in my pretty cup and sssSTAMPED!!

I was looking at the fan club gallery for this month - head to splitcoast if you haven't seen it - and oh my. The fall items are especially inspired. And Zindorf is a dirty girl now - well deserved! So you can imagine the cards over there. Wow.

I combined my pretty cup and the fall gallery and made myself a blue card. Now it's stamped in Brilliant Blue on the pages of Food & Wine magazine. Then I overstamped the large leaf with Going Grey (stamped off), then again with VersaMark & clear embossed. For the cut out leaf, I stamped it in white craft, then versamark and clear EP. CS is night of navy, going grey and ballet blue blue blue blue blue!

There's a little more than meets the eye here, ladies & gents. As you well know, there's a $400 order behind every card!!! My order came today and included this stunning With Gratitude Set. Look back at the post about my cup and I think you'll see why I ordered it. Well then, after the cup, which made me need the leaves, Pam told me the Build A Brads were available! JOY!! So of course I had to order a million of those. Oh, I hope I can stay up till like 9:15!! I want to play with them. Speaking of staying up, I fell asleep at 6:15 tonight. Weathered, I was. So I had to order the Weathered background stamp. You know, freedom of expression and all. Then I think Kristina Werner or some other stamping goddess made me decide I needed Priceless. Now I just gotta remember where the cards I wanted to make reside in cyberspace. Then, with my free merchandise, I finally broke down and got the Simple Delights Simply Sent kit - ohhh I love those stamps!!!

So, tea --> leaves --> brads --> JOY --> Weathered --> PRICELESS SIMPLE DELIGHTS

=)

Speaking of priceless simple delights.. My friend Jenn became an official barista!!! Congrats, chickie! You are now part of one of my most prized rituals. I look so forward to my wee hour Starbucks visit every morning. Kat, Jason, Michael, Zee are my friends who give me inner peace every morning and truly start my engine. Thank God for baristas!

Which brings me to a lame-ish Zindorf case. She did the coolest version of this card, with some warm fall colors. Mine didn't turn out the way I wanted, but it's a fun technique. I'm a huge fan of masking, and I thought hers was really creative, so even though I'm not setting a good example, visit her gallery and think outside the box when masking. It never occurred to me to stack these coffee cups.

Hey - I miss you guys too. But I'm back and should be posting daily again. A weekend of leisure looms.

Mothra Found!!!!

I'm so excited I found the picture of the green version of Mothra. I promise I'll get back to stamping. but this is coool. It was in 2005 in May. So are the mothras late this year? Global cooling maybe? Hmmm..

Anyway - isn't he beautiful? Mom - you found what kind of moth it was - do you remember?

Seriously - I promise I'll stamp something this week.. =)

Mothra!!

Remember all those great campy movies at the drive in? Jason and the Argonauts (WTH is an argonaut??), Godzilla vs. Mothra, The Blob? *sigh* Loved the drive in. I have never really understood how a giant moth was supposed to scare us. Moths are so benign and soft and clumsy in a way that makes you feel sorry for them. Not scared they are going to eat you or go crashing around downtown destroying things. But I suppose LSD may have had something to do with the production of those "horror" movies. Anyway, two years ago, this spectacularly huge and emerald green moth was clinging to the wall next to my front door for two days. He was beautiful. Never seen anything like him. Well, until last night. I walked out to get something out of my car, and his cousin, a slightly smaller, brown version, was sitting on my porch. To give you an idea of scale, I put my paw down there. I have big hands as you can see. This guy is not to be sneezed at!! I highlighted him so you could see him better against the brick.

For Shanna!

Is there really anything more wholesome and American than a 4H winning recipe? (If you don't know what 4H is, and you have kids, you need to find out!!!) At my WCMD camp (thanks again ladies!!) I told them I was bringing my famous Velveeta burgers to the coast to feed the cousins. The story of this recipe is the story of a great family - the Sistrunks - in Bryan, TX. The daughters were the queens of 4H, and their mom was an absolute angel. We were cooking with them for a lot of fun years. One year, they won the state cooking contest with a recipe for some very cheesy sloppy joes. Without revealing my age, I will say that this all took place long before microwaves, if there were ziploc bags, we didn't have em, and in most cases, before AC in our station wagons!! These yummy sandwiches were meant to be assembled, wrapped individually in foil, and then "cooked" on the dashboard on road trips!! They were wonderful that way. They have retained a timeless quality I think you'll enjoy! I must also add that I am violently opposed to fake cheese, fake butter, low fat or skim anything, so I bring you a Velveeta recipe with only love in my heart - if I like it, it HAS to be good!! And if anyone needs to get married in a hurry, no man can resist these!! So here it is - do try it and let me know!!:

2 LBS lean ground beef

1 LB Velveeta (don't try anything else - believe me, it doesn't work)

1 Onion, minced

1 tsp garlic salt

1 TBS chili powder (I like 2 =))

8 oz. tomato sauce

salt & pepper to taste (I use about a tsp of salt and no pepper)

Brown the meat and onions until the meat is cooked. Drain & return to pan. Add tomato sauce & all spices. Mix. Add Velveeta & stir until all melty and fabulous. Serve on hamburger buns! This freezes so well, and is way better the second or third time.

JennZinSpiration!!

Two projects tonight!!! Inspired by Jenn's gift, I really absorbed the black and white and blue combo into my soul and did a flowery twist on it for an extremely simple thank you note.. If you aren't a blue chick like me, I think actually a set of cards with yellow, or greens or fall colors would be stunning. Just a great set of design elements in that cup. One thing the cup has that my card doesn't is embossing. It has raised leaves every now and then. If I had an appropriate cuttlebug template that matched my stamps here, I would have used it. I think it would add a lot.

Second, I was once again amazed and inspired by Zindorf!!! She just does amazing things with simple images. Stunned. So here's a blue version of her lovely tree combo.

I think that I will use the Food & Wine technique as part of the Jennspiration layout this weekend. I think that a vivid color stamped on that print would have a similar pretty effect.

Hey - anyone have any cute Halloween treat ideas? I was going to do the little treat bags out of DSP, but I'm on the hunt. Give me your best stuff ladies!! (& gents I hope!)

Have a good night. I'm off to watch the Office, all Tivo'd up and commercial free baby! Yee-HAW!

.... (gasp) ....

I AM COMPLETELY SPEECHLESS!! THAT IS WHY I AM TYPING!! I am just amazed by the sweetness of my friends. Especially my friend Jenn who sent me something this week that is so beautiful that I got all misty over it when I pulled it out of the box... Oh, it just makes my heart ache it's so pretty... Look for yourself. Oh, a blue leaf.

Ohhhhh.. Thank you Jenn!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is one of the most beautiful things I have ever received. Big hug. This is a girl who UNDERSTANDS BLUE!! Look at the box!

I know that the rest of you think I'm lying about my WCMD event because I haven't posted anything, but I promise I really held it. I've just been working like a maniac. Today I worked umm 15 hours. Ouch. But my stamp camp - it was great!! I met a sweet new lady who found me via my blog - funny, talented stamper. Here are some of the projects. This first one was fun because we used Watercolor paper and that AWESOME Stamp of Authenticity set. I truly always loved libraries, library cards, the way the books smelled, and this set reminds me of that whole experience as a kid.

This second one, also a CASE was very fun. I stamped on the pages of Food & Wine magazine, which has more matte magazine pages than most, so it made the petals really pop. The centers are actually stamped on images from the magazine. I did the different colors to show you that if you look through any magazine, you will find elements that match our cardstock colors! How fun is that. Use a different stamp set and this technique and post a link in the comments to this post!

Then I had my Christmas Club - really kind of a stamp-a-stack event. Everyone can come make 5 copies each of three Christmas card designs, so you can go home with a little stack ready to send. These were the three for this time.

So that was my week in stamping.. My plans for the weekend were cancelled so I'm hoping for some quality stomping and stamping this weekend. I wouldn't mind a little sleep either. Does anyone else imagine card designs before they fall asleep? I came up with some crazy yellow number in a trance before I nodded off last night but don't remember it. Pretty sure it was ridiculous.

I miss you guys! Leave me a comment so I know I'm not all alone! =) Have a great night.

Alien Abduction!!!

Well, maybe not. As Mulder & Scully say - the truth is out there. And the truth is, I have not been abducted by aliens... I have been abducted by work. It's crazy right now - very busy. And this weekend, I have World Card Making Day, followed by my Christmas Club (yay!!) and then I'm off to the coast until Monday night. So I thought I'd sign on and say HEY and don't give up on me!!




I am going to post a few things in the hopes the girls won't see them tonight! =) - Hey girls, don't peek! Stop reading!

The first is a birthday present for a friend. Have you been to my mms.com? Do you know that you can get custom imprinted M&M's - any color (guess what I picked)? They are AWESOME!!! They deliver them with little cold packs so they don't get melty. So here's the can I made for them.

OOH - CHRISS, PAM - LOOK - I FOUND ITS HEAD AND LEGS!!!! RU SKRD? U SHOULD BE!



Okay, anyway, I CASED this pretty flower card from OnStage, which I got a week after Chriss got hers - what the heck? That's all I can do tonight. But I will post my Christmas and WCMD projects when I get back .. Please come back!!