From Stampin' Up!

Just thought I would share this note from the home office with you today.


The Power of a Card April 28, 2008
Last December, Shelli Gardner lost her mother. She shared the news in a personal message to demonstrators and employees alike. Almost immediately, Shelli began receiving messages of sympathy and support, compassion and concern. Many demonstrators shared their own memories of Shelli's mother, while others shared treasured memories of their own mothers. Some messages were simple; others were longer. Shelli read each message, and each one touched her heart and reminded her of what really matters in our lives--those we love and care about.
Chances are good that you have experienced the power of a hand-stamped card yourself. Maybe you've been struggling with sorrow and pain when a card has brightened your day. Perhaps you've sent a card that helped someone feel appreciated and worthwhile. Whether you're the giver or receiver of these heartfelt expressions, you've seen and felt the difference they can make.
Cards made by Stampin' Up! demonstrators and customers hang on bulletin boards and refrigerators and are tucked in scrapbooks all around the world. And just because a card isn't kept, doesn't mean it isn't treasured. Anytime we realize that someone is thinking about us, is aware of us, is reaching out to us, we are buoyed up, strengthened, and encouraged.
That's the power of a card--the ability to quietly change someone's day for the better. As Shelli read each of the cards expressing sympathy for her loss, she resolved to make sure she sent out a card every opportunity she got. We invite you to do the same. It's a little thing that can make a big difference!

Well do ya?

I do. Such a Monday.

Doodle Factory Fairytale (NEW) and copics. Made the dots with my white gel pen.

The greeting is hand written on a piece of Pumpkin Pie and punched with the SU Word Window punch and accented with a green galore brad.

WATCH OUT!!!

EEK - look who's "Chicken in"!!!! Those cute chickens better be careful!!!

The fox is from Doodle Factory Urban and the chickens are from Doodle Factory Country. Feeding my coloring urge, I am!

I'm sleepy after all the hail and thunder and long days so this is my last post of the day. I wanted to do an SU contest submission today but I'm fading.

A little birdie told me...

Again, I apologize for the horrible photo. IRL, I swear this is a cute, not washed out card!! Oh, how I miss u, Photoshop!

I hate to talk about something sooo personal, but I found out that my CAPACITORS ARE SWOLLEN!! I know it's gross. But apparently, that means that your motherboard is sick. So in addition to the processor replacement, they are going to have to do a boardectomy. Wowza. Hopefully soon I will be back on line! I'm about wearing my laptop out!

This card is colored with a crimson copic, and the image is from the highly adorable A Little Birdie Told Me" set. You can't see the glitter in my pic, but his shadow is glittery as well as the stripes on the DSP. Maybe you will get this card in the mail and be able to see it up close!

Gonna have to re-watch Lost tonight to get all the clues. Cannot believe the weekend is almost gone. Hope you had a good one!

Black, White & Blue all over!

I created this card for the Caardvarks Challenge. The challenge was to create a black and white card and use just one other color. Of course, my "plus one" HAD to be blue. My photo doesn't show the iridescence on my butterfly - I smooshed my Opalite Glacier Blue pad all over it and it really is lovely. The butterfly is from Wonderful Wings. Oh, I love that set. The "thanks" is from Much Appreciated, and I used the stamp positioner to stamp it twice so that it had a blue shadow. Hope you like it!

Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge

I'm seriously impaired without Photoshop! Shows what a terrible indoor photographer I am!

This is for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. The flowers are stamped in Tempting Turquoise and Cool Caribbean, and also in So Saffron for the punched centers. They are mounted on So Saffron prints paper. The sparkly piece is just tempting turquoise embossed with VersaMark and Iridescent Ice EP. Then I punched holes and put a turquoise strip on the inside to reinforce the horizontal line of the sketch.

It's Good News Friday!!!

It's true! I hardly know where to start!! Let's start with the kindess of my friends! Neelam, the brand new demonstrator in my group, dropped off a wonderful present at my house! Unfortunately, my computer was in its death throes so I'm just now posting a pic! This girl has a Kristina Werner like style which I love. Her compositions are very much like graphic design and she just has an eye for layout. She used rubons on this absolutely heavenly blue pail which has found a new home on my desk. The yummy cookies INSIDE the pail? Um, well.... :) The gorgeous card lets you see what I'm talking about. Gorgeous. Thanks Neelam!!! Sweet woman.

Then, three of my customers sent me cards this week. Vicki and Yvonne have been challenging each other lately to be creative and active stampers, and they have absolutely outdone themselves on these Zindorf inspired creations - LOOK AT THESE! Actually, has anyone seen Michelle Zindorf? I'm starting to get concerned that V & Y knocked her on the head and stole her cards, because I think their work in Z's style is incredible. I have not mastered that style at all, partly because of the patience it takes. Look closely at all the layers of color in these cards. I CANNOT believe they sent me these. You girls are amazing.

Then, probably my most active customer who is always making invitations or gifts or cards in large quantities, took the time out to send me this beautiful card! Judy always picks color combos and textures that really make her cards spectacular. On this card, I thought she stamped that big image on the background paper but it is actually part of the design. Then on the top, she used one of my all time favorite Stampin Up! sets. I'm not sure if the top panel with the words is hand watercolored or if it's background paper. It has these beautiful warm plum and peach and pink puddles of color that look like watercolor to me. Judy if you're out there, leave a comment with what you did since my photo does not do it justice. It's a gorgeous card.

Then, more good news - they called about my computer today. It was my processor, and they have replaced it! It's only $150, and my sis is going to pick it up tomorrow while I'm at the grudge match chili cookoff tomorrow. Hopefully I will have my photoshop back, my financial record, my Adobe Illustrator, all the things that make me who I am back!! YAY.

Okay, but there's still MORE good news!! Stampin' Up! is now accepting credit cards!!! Why is this great? #1 - demonstrators who wanted to take credit cards before this had to do it through a 3rd party, like PayPal, which meant we had to pay a percentage of the transaction to that vendor. Not a huge deal, but why should we pay someone else so they can give us our own money? Don't get me started on taxes again!! Stampin' Up! is actually paying all our transaction fees for us, so it is absolutely no cost to a demonstrator to take them, and it's much more convenient for our customers to be able to just give us a credit card at the time of the sale and not wait for a payment request. Some people didn't want to go to the trouble of setting up a PayPal account just to pay me, so that is wonderful!!! Reason # 54,987 million to be a Stampin' Up! demonstrator!!

Add to this list that I get to go to my two fave restaurants in the whole wide world this coming week - Flemings and Uchi, it's really truly summer now, with 90 degree days, so I can't wait to have long hot walks, LOST was fabulous last night and so was The Office and I have come up with a great storage solution for my Nestabilities!!!

Judie suggested a magnet in a CD case. I thought about that, but I really do have a very small studio, so shelf space is at a premium. Then last night, at 2 AM, I had a brief bout of insomnia, during which I pondered this, and remembered that I had a strip of magnet tape bought for a forgotten craft project past. I almost jumped up and implemented my idea right then, but I knew I would make too much noise. So I waited till I got home today. And look!!! Hanging on my door, sticking firmly to my previously unused and forgotten magnet tape - my nestabilities!! Now I need to make a few things with them since they're at my fingertips!

I couldn't bring myself to throw away my paint chips from the studio remodel, so I put one to good use today. The little owl I think is technically an "inchie" since I punched him out with my 1" circle punch. The ribbon was a freebie from Ellen Hutson. The cardstock is So Saffron, Bashful Blue and River Rock. Pretty sure they stole these for the paint chip! Perfectly matched!!

I'll be gone tomorrow but hopefully get to stamp on Sunday!

In the meantime, go check out my new buddy Kim's awesome new blog HERE. Turns out she's a neighbor of mine! She wanted to send a card to Nikki and that's how we started talking. She's also a Stampin' Up! demonstrator so hopefully there are lots of fun events in our future!

Hope you're having a good Friday!

*Edit - the owl is a Stampin' Up! image from ABC images. The "Hoo" is from Oliver and friends.*

ABC images is absolutely freaking adorable. I am crossing my fingers and toes that they don't retire it!!

11,000 and no computer

It's all about balance, yes? I just discovered the other day that my blog has passed 11,000 hits!! WOW. At 13,000, I'm going to give away something spectacular since 13 is my lucky number!!

Anyway, I don't have my computer. The computer hospital thinks it's either my motherboard or my processor. Ohhh - this is awful. At least my wireless network is back up so my laptop is working for the time being. So yay - 11,000! Boo, bad computer.

SO, since tonight Lost comes back on - Come on, there have to be some Losties in the Understand Blue audience - I thought I'd make a card in honor of the show! I know you understand! :)

I was inspired by Kristina's color challenge for the color scheme.

Hope you are having a great Thursday!

Kristina's Color Challenge

These colors are tough for me but this was fun. The layout is cased from Dawn McVey (Thank you my beloved UB readers!!!).

Wild Wasabi, So Saffron, Pumpkin Pie & Sahara Sand. Nice together. My photography is awful because the dead computer has my Photoshop CS3 on it. GRR.

WARNING - BLOOD AND GUTS!!

One would expect that after an apocalypse, correct? Well, what "lies beneath" is fairly frightening. I fretted about my computer situation all day. I have a graphic design project due, as well as the credit slides for my TV show. And no way to do them. Grr. So I came home and ripped my computer open to see if I could find a tumbleweed, a porcupine or something obvious in there that was causing my issue. I hooked up a second monitor to see if that was the problem, but came to the sad conclusion that my video card is dead. I'm so mad. I believe my computer has an integrated video card rather than a modular one, which completely cheeses me off. However, my beloved sis found a place that might be able to replace it for me tomorrow. Hopefully all my files are safe. We will see. Either way, I got my wireless network working so I can at least read my email. EEK. Anyway, computers fascinate me. Once I opened it up, sprayed some dust out with one of those little magic cans, I just looked around with the flashlight. They are much more beautiful on the inside than they are on the outside - all brilliant green with those gorgeous intricate patterns and teeny writing. I could have stared for hours. But I tried to document a few things in case the tech needed them. (Serial numbers blurred here because for all I know there are some weird spammer freaks that steal that sort of info). And then, I thought I would just show you what a hideous mess of wires a computer leaves behind. As I disassembled it, I taped pieces of paper (you can see some bottom left) around the cords telling me where to plug things back in. My descriptions are these: "Jack on left above pink box" "USB two from right under green square". It would be so fabulous if we lived in a world where WORDS were okay. Like my mouse plug says "mouse" on it, and the little hole it goes in is labeled "mouse". Hard to imagine, I know!!!! Anyway, everything's a mess! So now I'm off to look for a card project for my class tomorrow. And read my Stampin' Success magazine (YAY) which came today!!!

Tracey with Starving Artistamps is headed off to Akron, Ohio for the rubber stamp convention - if any of my dear readers are from Ohio, go check it out - she has an incredible booth!!

See ya

Apocalypse

There has been one at my house. Something went terribly wrong with my computer at home. Whatever happened also killed my wireless router so I can't use my laptop either. So I have major problems on all sorts of fronts, not the least of which is my inability to blog from anything but my blackberry.

Stay tuned. I have no intention of this lasting a long time. However, if I owe you an email forgive me. The crackberry is not optimal for all communication!

WARNING - CORNY POST!!

tee hee...

I LOVE these Veggie Couture stamps from Lockhart Stamp Company - I bought them from Ellen Hutson. They're so cute! I need to get the rest of them - I just got a few of them. Ellen Hutson is WONDERFUL. Besides great stuff to buy, they always throw in a sweet little thank you with your order. And they ship FAST! Which, as Yvonne knows, is essential when you just HAVE to have that 8 millionth stamp to make a card you just HAVE to copy right this very instant!!! The greeting is from one of my fabby new Inque Boutique stamp sets called Mini Fantasy words. Corn Dress is colored with Copics, but of course!

I also got the Nestabilities dies and have been reading in the wonderful SCS thread about challenges and joys "nestled" therein.. I did them in a different order this time and it was easier, I swear. I took Jerri K's advice and did: A, C, Nestability smooth side down, cardstock, B. It worked like a charm. I liked it so much I put two nested dies in there to see what happened and that's how I got the sassy saffron ring. I did it in a different order yesterday and it also worked fine.

I promise I will only bring you my honest opinion of stamping products on this blog, so here goes an opinion for ya.

I gotta tell you, the lack of instructions in such an extremely expensive product is a more than a tad offputting. Especially back to back with my great experience with the Inque Boutique video on their homepage. So you plunk down 25 bucks for some nested dies and the packaging offers the following:

1. Zero permanent storage (I prefer products that come to you in the package you can store them in - these are stuck on a piece of cardboard with double sided tape and encased in a cheap plastic case meant to hang on a retail display). This isn't a total deal killer for me - lots of companies are bad at this, but why give me something to throw away for you? Can't you throw it away yourself? CD's are a great example of a product that is packaged in its own storage. Can the rest of the world please get with the program?

2. Zero instructions - the cardboard they are stuck to has lots of marketing statements like "Universal! Works in most Leading Die Cut Systems" and "Use to cut Paper, Cardstock" and "Serious Value for Beautiful nested shapes". Well really? How the h--- do I do that, exactly? Oh, I know, I go to a place that has great instruction - Splitcoast Stampers!!! The insert does have the website address on the bottom, but doesn't say anything like "Go to our website for instructions & projects" - it just lists it. I was SHOCKED when I opened the package expecting to find detailed instruction sandwiched in there. Then, sadly, at the bottom of the useless cardboard, "Made in China." :( I'm not a fan of that at all, I'm not gonna lie.

HOWEVER, all that being said, the product itself, thanks to the help from my SCS sisters, appears to work just fine and I think it is something I will use. If you are thinking about getting these though, you really need to do some research. On the SCS thread, I read things about people's Cuttlebug spacers breaking when embossing with them, so I think if you do it wrong, you might have problems. I have not had any of those, but I also haven't figured out how to emboss yet. One link said you need a special mat to emboss with, but I haven't read any farther than that, so I have absolutely no pretense that I am an expert or anything of that sort!!

So tonight I'm adding Inque Boutique to the blue list. Tomorrow I will be checking out their innovative storage solution and I'll let you know what I think. Good stamp storage is the white whale of my creative life, and I won't rest until something clicks!

I hope you all had a great weekend. My sister and I had an editing breakthrough today and did a fantastic voiceover of one of my shows. We are committed to making the May 9th deadline for submitting a summer show. So stay tuned for that, and hold me to it! :)

OMG

I believe I've found the perfect stamp!!!! I clicked on the link to Inque Boutique from SCS the other day, and then found a local store that carried them. I was hooked by the video on their homepage that explained why their product was different from other unmounted stamps. Holy cow - they weren't kidding. These stamps have no foam, need no cling mount and are high quality rubber. They have a cling backing and a foam sheet that you place under the cardstock to stamp on. They are pre-cut perfectly, and SHAZAM - they have the image printed on the CLING side so that when you have them on your acrylic block you can see the image!! the perfect features of rubber and polymer stamps in a high quality rubber stamp - I LOVE THEM!!! I am in no way associated with this company, or have any reason to tell you this other than THEY JUST MADE THE BLUE LIST!!

WOW. Did I mention they are crazy inexpensive? I got mine at Felicia's Scrapbooks - a scrapbook/stamping store I could WALK to from my house and just discovered. The owner is very sweet and it's a great store.

You're gonna freak when you try these, I promise.

Fat Country Baby

Have y'all heard that song from the fake country album on Saturday Night Live? It's so hilarious - my brother in law sings it all the time. It was on when Jennifer Aniston hosted. It goes "Ain't nothin' cuter than a fat country baby eatin' peaches off a hardwood floor" - OMG THAT CRACKS ME UP!!! Well here's a fat country baby for ya. He's colored with Stampin' Up! Bliss Blue marker, Ballet Blue Marker, and then highlighted with a Sakura glitter pen. The ovals are with Nestabilities dies (Yes, Chriss - I BOUGHT THEM) and the DSP is all from the 6X6 Stampin' Up! pads. the dots are with the white gel pen.

Fun Sketch Beate!!!

Mooving Day

Not for me! I'd rather eat a spider than move! But it seems fun with this pretty cow announcing that we've moved into this lovely green house with the white picket fence, doesn't it? Not a cardboard box in sight!!

Doodle Factory Country Images - the house and tree are one stamp. The fence, the cow and those bigger grasses are separate images.

Copics, but of course!!! I love the colors I got on the cow. Pretty, pretty cow.

Just Mawwied!

That's how a chick would say it - "mawwied". I mean, they just have little beaks - they can't possibly talk right!! :)

This is more from Doodle Factory Country, and more of the hoarded paper. Look how 3D it looks. I will be so sad when it's gone.

I stamped these in Brilliance Black (PS - ALWAYS heat set this! Sometimes I get all impatient and then I smudge it. Don't be me) and colored them with Copics. Chriss, look at all the careful cutting - you have tainted me!!

Oh, and the little banner is from Doodle Factory Urban. I hand wrote the greeting. Seriously, when is Kristina Werner going to hand write my stuff for me?? :)

Home Sweet Home

Put your hands together. Two things I love - rabbits and birds. And I'd like the local chapter of Hoarder's Anonymous to acknowledge that I used some retired Stampin' Up! paper on this card. I've seriously hoarded this since I bought it. I loved the wood textures - it looks so dimensional and real. There's a gorgeous lace pattern in this package, as well as some blistered white paint on boards that I'm STILL hoarding! So there! I'm sure recovering from hoarding takes MULTIPLE steps!! :)

These images are from the Doodle Factory Country Stamp set from Starving Artistamps. I colored them with copics and cut them out. I hand wrote "Home Sweet Home" and popped it up with dimensionals. And speaking of dimensionals, I hope none of you throw away your dimensionals when there are still the edges of them on the sheet. Just because they're not nice little hexagons doesn't mean you can't use them!! I love cutting up the little edge pieces for teeny things like the little sign on this card. The twine and brad are Stampin' Up! and the card base is 5x5 Very Vanilla.

Happy Saturday! Oh, PS - want some free Doodle Factory stamps??

You say Goodbye, and I say Hello..

Well all sorts of things to talk to you about tonight. First, Goodbye.. Last night, after a fun Happy Hour with my friend Ruthie, who owns Blue Box Events (yes, I choose all my friends based on whether or not their companies have Blue in the name!! ) I came home and turned on my Tivo'd Martha Stewart show in my stamp room as I do every day, and just got my heart broken when I learned that PawPaw, her chow, had passed away on Saturday. I've been seeing PawPaw in her magazine for more than a decade and I loved that dog. It was like he was my pet. Such a beautiful and sweet dog. I will miss PawPaw too. Visit her blog to see more pictures and leave a comment for her if you want. She lost her mom recently too, so Martha has grieved a lot this year!! I love this picture of her snuggling him in his last hours. Goodbye Paw Paw.

Then - for some REALLY big, fun and thrilling news!! This is a big HELLO!!! NEELAM IS NOW A STAMPIN' UP! DEMONSTRATOR!! YAY!!! This is so exciting!! Neelam is a neighbor of mine and an UBER talented stamper - she always kicks our camp projects up a notch with her creative touches. She is also quite hilarious, and she has quite possibly the world's most beautiful daughters. So a round of applause for her, please, and if you're going to convention, you will get to meet her!! I totally can't wait for convention!! Her demonstrator number is north of 2 million - mine is in the 36000's, so you can see how many people have signed up between May 2001 and now! Fun!

Then, for Hello #2 - OMG LOOK AT THIS!! I got this card from my friend Yvonne - and I have a lot of things to say about this. FIRST - this is a "just because" card, which just squeezes my heart. Please remember when you're stamping that the most important element of a card is the POSTAGE STAMP that goes on the envelope because you're sending it. I can't describe how fun it is to get a handmade card in the mail - I LOVE it, so please share what you make. it makes people so happy!!! SECOND, when I flipped it over, I noticed that Yvonne has gone all professional on me, and stamped on the back is "Greetings by Yvonne" and her email address - how brilliant!!!!! But THIRD, and most importantly LOOK HOW FREAKING CUTE THIS IS!! I'm thinking that sassy Yvonne used copics, because the colors are brilliant and blended. And I'm so excited that my photo shows the Crystal Effects she put on each dot on his shell. Then the beloved cuttlebug played a role, the brads, the twine, and my favorite part - the fact that she separated the three pieces of the background from each other so that you can see the card base in between. It's like adding an extra layer - STUNNING! I love this stamp and the greeting. Yvonne, if you're out there, post a comment on this entry and tell us where you got that stamp - her card says it's a "stamp of the month" but I don't know what that means. If it's a Stampin' Up! stamp I'm gonna be so embarassed!!

Finally, I know you won't believe this, but I actually did stamp last weekend. I just didn't have time to post. So to kick off my weekend of stamping and catching up, I will share last weekend's creations with you. I told you I got those stamps from ArtNeko, with the gorgeous bunnies, the blue fox and lots more. I got a sheet of "year of" asian stamps - so for all the Chinese New Year symbols, there are these beautiful little images. This year is the Year of the Rat, in case you didn't know. I made a whole set of these with one for each animal. I thought it would be fun to use them as birthday cards, so if someone was born in the year of the dragon or the tiger, that would be the card that they got. I went super minimalist and spare. Because the images are so small I didn't want to overwhelm them with color or detail on the rest of the card. Hope you like them. I'm including a couple close up s of the different images so you can see how cute they are. I used Basic Grey patterned paper, basic black ink, and a narrow strip of Real Red on the top third of each card.

So this weekend, get ready to see some cute Doodle Factory cards! I'm finishing up my Design Team work on the Doodle Factory Country Images, and I'm sooooo excited about the new Fairytale set - I should have that this coming week. I actually went on a bit of a stamp binge so I'm hoping to have lots of new images to play with in the next few weeks. I hope I have a lot of time to stamp. More importantly, I hope YOU all have a lot of time to stamp. Take care.

Meet Nikki

Meet Nikki Gilbert. I've known Nikki since before she was born... Well, sort of. I've known her dad, Mike, and mom, Cherie, for 17 years. Mike manages one of the divisions of the lighting company I worked for. He is one of the sweetest, funniest, and most positive people I have ever known in my life.

You can probably see that on his face.

I would like you to read this story about my friend Mike and his daughter and then email me if you would like to send Nikki a card.

The last few weeks have been tough.

Thanks for reading.

Stop me

Seriously. I emailed my husband today and told him if I have the slightest urge to make any plans whatsoever this weekend to lock me in a closet. I am so behind on life. It all started with my beloved Tiger Tiger Woods. The Masters had to be Tivo'd, starting Thursday, which required watching it after work until like midnight. A GOOD THREE HOURS PAST MY BEDTIME!! I get up at 4:30 every day, so you can imagine the toll this was taking... Then, Saturday night we went to a Round Rock Express, which also, with commute, kept us up till about midnight. Then Sunday - OMG I don't want to talk about Sunday... First of all, let me just say, that coming in second in the MASTERS after like the worst game of your life IS NOT TOO DANGED BAD SO DON'T BE DISSIN' MY TIGER WOODS IS ALL I'M SAYING!!!

BUT, then after a Masters party, I had to come home and do my taxes. TAXES LET ME SAY SOMETHING ABOUT TAXES!! It is completely unacceptable to give up 25% of my income in taxes, take what's left, buy stuff, pay taxes on the stuff I buy, take what's left (at this point like 15 cents), SAVE IT, get taxed on what I earn, DIE AND THEN HAVE SOMEONE PAY TAX AGAIN ON MY DEAD 15 CENTS PLUS INTEREST. I AM SO MAD RIGHT NOW.

Another late taxy angry evening. Then I had TO PAY THE BILLS LAST NIGHT OMG I MIGHT ACTUALLY KILL SOMEONE. DO YOU SEE WHAT HAPPENS WHEN I AM TAXED AND CAN'T STAMP??

So.... I did go have sushi tonight with my sis which was wonderful. (paid with my stupid post tax money and then paid TAX on it grrrrr) and I'm hoping that I can get back on the stampin train tomorrow.

I did make four thank you cards at 4:30 this morning and I actually mailed them. NO THEY WERE NOT TO THE IRS.

Seriously, can we get a flat tax in this country???? I have two Master's degrees and do not need to be flipping to the table on page 39 to figure out what the heck is lower - the standard deduction, the itemized deduction, the deduction you get if you have the super secret deduction password - DID I SAY I WAS MAD??

:)

Hope your taxes are happily behind you.

The Blue List

Has a new member today, thanks to my warm & sweet cupcake of a sister in law - Jessica.

She introduced me to this, which is AMAZING!! As I told you I am not fond of sweet drinks, but I do like fizzy. This is the perfect fizzy barely sweet drink!!! It's Pellegrino, which I love, and orange juice. It's sooooo.... good! You have to try it. And how about that SASSY blue can???? God bless the Italians too, who have conquered marketing to the degree that they have discovered how to give us less product for the same money! :) - the cans are only 11.15 instead of 12. See - capitalism is still spreading its glorious light around the world!

Speaking of cupcakes, by the way - look closer at Judie's card to me - THAT CAT IS EATING MY MARTHA STEWART CUPCAKE!!! Complete with my silver bows!!! Ohhh - I love that!!!! haha!!

Have a great Sunday, and send happy thoughts to Tiger Tiger Woods!!!!!

Things that really should be blue

The list is so long!! I have to start with what's in my studio of course. And it will shock you, but in addition to the romantic relationship between sheep and goats on my shelves, there are also foxes and bunnies happily co-existing in here! It's like the garden of Eden!! I think the constant stream of Martha Stewart and FoodTV emanating from my Tivo has a soothing effect on the creatures who occupy my creative space. I may just have solved the whole world peace problem!! I can't wait to get a Nobel Prize!!

Now what was I talking about? OH - yes. Blue stuff. Wait - one more ADD moment. On my walk last weekend, I looked down into a little wooded area that I like to go stomping through sometimes (there are nice trails in and out of the woods) and I saw what looked like two giant timberwolves!! I froze, and they froze and we looked at each other for what seemed like an hour. Then they trotted off into the woods without eating me. However, they were the two HUGEST coyotes I have ever seen in my life!! They were super scary. Now, you know I love all creatures, but coyotes are bad here because they eat cats and dogs and bunnies. As you also know, I AM NOT A FAN OF THE CIRCLE OF LIFE, SO I DO NOT CARE FOR THIS A BIT.

I just pretended that they went into the woods and ate little bowls of coyote chow, so that's what we're gonna go with here on UnderstandBlue. Coyote Chow.

If you've never seen a coyote, they really are very beautiful creatures, with big fluffy foxy tails and lots of different colors in their fur. They are very skittish and it's rare to see them running around during the day..

Okay, so on to what I would have LIKED to have seen in addition to the wolf-otes. A brilliant blue fox. Wouldn't that be cool? Especially one that got along great with some little blue bunnies that like to come out after dark and nibble on little grasses.

All coloring on both of these was done with Copics. On the fox card, I stamped the teeny foxes with Opalite Golden Mist ink, and then colored in and around them with the fine point end of the VersaMarker. The moon on the bunny card is colored with the Sakura glitter pen.

The fox and the bunnies are from ArtNeko.

Whoa, I am sleepy all of the sudden. Might have to do a nap before the Master's starts.

But first - two GLORIOUS cards from friends. Dear sweet Judie from Hawaii sends me a card that made me laugh out loud when I opened it this morning!! This is hysterical! this chubby little cat not ONLY took bites out of the cupcake, but out of the PRESENT! Then on the inside it says "Seize the cupcake!" Thank you Judie!! (She used more of that pearly paper for the cuttlebugged panel, the cupcake and the presents.)Then, I get this gorgeous card (right) from Nancy, who is fortunate enough to work for the Twins baseball team!! A DREAM job! My photo doesn't do this card justice. The envelope and flowers are watercolored and perfectly cut out. Seriously - PERFECTLY. I'm dying to know how she made the scalloped oval frame too.. Nancy - if you're out there will you post the answer? The base of the card is a lightly textured gorgeous blue and she used glue dots to have the ribbon remain 3D, all the way from Minnesota! This is a beautiful, simple card and the note on the inside was incredibly sweet. I have the best stampers in the world in the audience!!

Thanks for writing!

Don't forget - I mail out all the cards I make. If you are not yet on my mailing list, sign up with a private email to me! :)

Happy Saturday. I'm going to watch my beloved Tiger Woods and then off to a baseball game with my dad tonight. The weather here is stunning right now. Hope you're having a good Saturday.

omg!!

OMG I TOTALLY GOT PICKED FOR THE RUNWAY IN THE SPLITCOAST VIRTUAL STAMP NIGHT!! I'M NOT KIDDING!! CLICK AND THEN LOOK FOR "I LOVE MY THREADS"

A Purple Cow

I actually WOULD like to see or BE a purple cow, so I'm sorta lying to you through this card, but forgive & enjoy.

Race Relations!

Since it's the hot topic on TV, I thought I better address it on my blog. No one should judge my goat because he misses his sheep girlfriend, alright??? That kind of prejudice has no place on a stamping blog!!

I made the ground and sky with Copics, as well as did all the other coloring with them. I was scared to death after I colored the mailbox because my green was really dark. But when you lift color with the colorless blender pen, the Brilliance Graphite Black stays put, and the details reappear. That ink is really something. I got a little smudge on another card and just out of desperation I tried to erase it with my white Staedtler eraser and holy goat if it didn't come right off!!! What the heck? It's magic, I tell ya.

Hey - just one more day this week and then stamp-o-rama for me this weekend. Well, a little laundry-o-rama and maybe some stomp-o-rama too.

Beyond Inspiration

My dear sweet friend & customer, Vicki, has been inspired by Michelle Zindorf and is just blowing me away with her creations. So tonight, put your hands together for the incredibly talented Vee!! (PS - she is the woman who inspired me to actually SEND OUT the cards I make. Wonderful woman) Now, the fact that they are blue makes me even more fond. But seriously - wow. Happy Tuesday everyone.

My cup runneth over!

With freaking ridiculously, insanely adorable stamps. My friend Tracey - the owner of Starving Artistamps was nice enough to send me a link to Art Neko Rubber Art Stamps when I was on the hunt for some great petroglyph stamps. As is my custom, the second I got on the site I got distracted by all the bunnies and foxes and flowers, OH MY!! So I bought like 8 bazillion stamps. But these bunnies... OOOOH do I love these bunnies.. And they cried out for this greeting, also from Art Neko. My small bunnies are glittered, in case you can't see. The bunnies are colored with copics, I used Basic Grey patterned paper, and Stampin' Up! Double Stitched River Rock Ribbon. The card base and layer are River Rock, and I highlighted that little heart in the greeting with the white gel pen then the Sakura glitter pen.

This card is like Harry Potter. I was heartbroken when it was over! :)

Wait till you see what I'm onto next - DOODLE FACTORY!! Yeehaw!!

I wish...

I had a moment like this. It's been so hectic!

But I sooooo love this little Stampendous reading mouse! This card was for a limited supply challenge during Virtual Stamp Night on SCS. It's nice to have to keep it simple sometimes. As I said on SCS, I was looking for the perfect greeting for this card. My habit when I'm looking for a greeting or an image (which is easier in my Stampin' Up! catalog than looking through all my sets) I for some reason look through the catalog backwards. I have always done this. Bizarre. Anyway, I found one that was about reading and it HAS to be the only stamp set in the whole catalog that I don't have! But luckily I have the Simple Delights set, which is at the FRONT of the catalog (of course). Only when I was taking the picture did I realize how perfect the greeting was for the concept of a limited supply challenge. I think it's great to make clean, simple cards sometimes to remind us how striking they can be. We all go through those phases where we want to stick every embellishment in the room on a card! So I hope you enjoy the minimalism tonight.

Look closely at the books. If you are new to Copics, learn something the easy way that I learned the hard way. The colorless blender REMOVES color. I thought it just blended colors without changing them, which is not the case. And if you put the colorless blender down on top of color at the edge of your image you will get bleeding of the color past the outline. I did this a bunch before I figured out how to use the blender to create highlights. Think how fun this would be on a balloon! So to make the spines on the books, I just colored the book completely with a solid color, and then went back with the colorless blender just in the center of the spine. It lightened the color and created my hightlight. Fabulous. It's amazing how things work when you use them as they are intended!!!

PS - Hostess Club Members - would it be okay if May's club meeting was on Sunday the 4th? I will be in Dallas that Saturday for work. Please leave a comment on this post with your feelings! It would be at 10 AM like normal.

Have a great Monday - tomorrow is Uchi Tuesday!!!

PPS - Jenn is shocked that I didn't get any comments on my last post with all my cards. You guys are still with me right? :) Don't forget to say hi!

On my shield...

I lost the VSN battle. I really wanted to finish all the challenges this weekend, but I didn't have enough time. I did eleven of the 19 (is that right?) challenges though, and anything that gets me stamping is a GR8 thing! So if you have never participated in a Splitcoast Stampers Virtual Stamp Night, I encourage you to do it. ESPECIALLY if you're not feeling creative. The speed and variety of the challenges will break through the toughest of artistic blocks!!

Thanks to all the incredibly talented, patient and sweet ladies who hosted the challenges, made comments and posted amazing cards.

My last two uploads of the contest are soo... appropriate. One is a MONOCHROMATIC BLUE CHALLENGE CAN YOU BELIEVE IT????? I was so happy. The second was a "red carpet" challenge where the focal point had to be red and evoke the red carpet. I really don't know why these Doodle Factory Creatures make me want to help them feel more confident about themselves, but they do. I love telling them how pretty they are!! I hand cut the red carpet with my Martha Stewart Craft Knife, and the background paper is from Basic Grey. I colored the "goddess" with Copics. Now that I see these two cards together I'm feeling rather patriotic!!

Sorry for the Silence!!

Sorry I've been so quiet. It's been a crazy busy week & weekend. But I have lots of pictures for you today! Get a bevvie!! But first, a few items for the blue list.

1. Google. This might seem obvious, but LISTEN UP!! The marriage of Google and my crackberry is finally complete!!! I love my crackberry with all my heart and soul, but they do not offer a wireless sync with my calendar. Seriously Blackberry - get rid of the retarded non-functional desktop blackberry synchronization - if I wanted that, I'd have a Palm Pilot! Anyway, thanks to GoogleSync, I NOW HAVE TWO WAY SYNC WITH MY CALENDAR!!! So if I'm at my desk and put something on my calendar, it shows up on my phone calendar, and vice versa, complete with reminders, recurrences, etc!! Does this degree of bliss over my phone make me a geek? Do I care? No. I'm ECSTATIC. Thank you Google - add this to your long list of life enhancing tools!!

2. LaCroix Grapefruit Flavored Fizzy Water. I love fizzy water. I know some people think it tastes like alkaseltzer, but I love it. I don't drink soda (aside from the rare irresistible Wild Cherry Pepsi) I do drink unsweetened tea, and I just really don't like sweet drinks. I know you would think all the talk about cupcakes would indicate otherwise, but it's true. I like plain drinks. And I am violently and morally opposed to artificial sweeteners, much as I am to artificial cheese and artificial butter and artificial body parts. All of it is gross. So put your hands together for a faintly pink grapefruit flavor fizzy water with no fake stuff and nothing sweet. I DIG IT!! I've actually loved this for a while but am just now sharing it.

3. Franco Sarto shoes. Again, I've been a devotee for years, but these shoes are amazing. I buy almost all my shoes on Zappos.com, which has free shipping both ways, so you can easily return things that don't fit. For Franco Sarto, that's not a problem for me, because their sizes are very true and also the world's most comfortable cute shoes, but it comes in handy! Anyway, check out THESE bad boys I'll be sporting this week. They're so cute I might have to sleep in them!! *sigh* I love shoes. If I were a dictator or otherwise flush with illicit cash, I would totally be an Imelda Marcos type with a shoe closet the size of Idaho.


Okay, back to stamping for now. First, this adorable bag that was demonstrated at Regionals. Very easy and they just use one sheet of 12X12 paper. This lovely lady posted such an easy to follow tutorial, no way could I improve on it. Her name is just beautiful too.

Then we did this hysterically cute Mother's Day card with yet another purse made out of punches on it. This is probably my favorite purse punch. The handle is made from the two oval punches. I am going to make some thank you cards with this same pattern today. I think they're cute as can be. This is called an easel card. Yvonne and I were talking about how we kind of always do the same layout and this was an attempt to get away from that.

Then, I will share with you some of my VSN creations for your entertainment. Visit the VSN forum on Splitcoast to see the details of the challenges, or look in my SCS gallery to see which challenges I entered.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend. Sadly, it's almost over!!

Hopefully I will get some more stampin' in!

Take care!