Taylor's Cupcake Challenge!

I've got cupcakes on the brain. Today we edited our "Hey Cupcake" episode - in combination with a Fresh Cuts card for the episode that's due tonight at midnight (I left Cynt editing at 4!!!), and by itself for submission to Martha. It's an adorable card, but I can't reveal it since it would air next week. So I thought I'd console myself with Taylor's Cupcake Challenge, which I've never participated in! I love her blog though.

So this card features the cupcake image from ABC Images (you KNOW how much I love that!), Chocolate Chip cardstock, which, thanks to my friend Vicki, features the Swiss Dots Cuttlebug Folder!!! The scallops are done with the small flower from the Boho Blossoms punch (Wild Wasabi) just for something a little different! The ribbon is Martha Stewart self adhesive ribbon, which might just be the best invention since STAMPS. I used a rub on from the Love & Happiness set, and added a Boho Blossoms punched flower (Wild Wasabi), with a punched out 1/4" circle of chocolate chip and accented with the gel pen. The cupcake wrapper is colored with my cocoa Copic and lightened with my Colorless blender. The top is made with Martha Stewart Craft Glue and Martha Stewart Blue Topaz Coarse Glitter.

Made some wicked good Carne Guisada tonight. Soooooo good. Hope you guys had a great weekend. I can't believe it's almost over. Good thing a long weekend is coming!!!

G'night!

Moki Madness

Moki can get pretty wild on vacation, apparently!!

I colored him with Copics and then embossed him, masked the rest of the "scene" with post its, and brayered on Bashful Blue, Taken with Teal and Ballet blue for sand, sea and sky.

There is iridescent ice on the sand and the moon. These images are a hoot.

Sentiment is from the matching set.

eScape Event

Well that was really fun!! The eScape group made this adorable little note box along with 4 little 3x3 notecards. We made two versions - one with the LeJardin paper like Kelly made on her site and then a chocolate and saffron version.

Not one cell phone rang and we just had a few mimosas and solved the world's stamping problems. What a great Saturday.

Here are a few pics. (sorry - we were by the window!)

The pattern is very easy and is courtesy of Kelly Lunceford (atomicbutterfly on SCS). Her instructions are just too good for me to try to recreate. You will enjoy her blog too.

Black Magic

I've tried black magic before - I tried for a whole stamping session with my friend Chriss but I have never done anything I liked until now. It was Michelle Zindorf's tip about dipping the pencils in Odorless Mineral Spirits before coloring that really made the difference. Without that, the pencil sort of drags against the white ink and leaves voids. With it, they become much smoother and more like oil pastels - wonderful tip

Karen Barber is the queen of the Black Magic Technique, so check out her work.

On this card, I stamped the bird in White Craft and heat set it. Then I colored it with blue and purple Koh-I-Noor pencils. Then I went around the outside and inside details with the white gel pen. (Does anyone know of a white gel pen with a very fine tip?) Then I made my own tag with a turquoise metal frame, some lovely lilac cardstock and my greeting from the same stamp set - the Always set, and finished it all off with rhinestone brads and dots from my white gel pen. The card base is lovely lilac, with a tempting turquoise layer, lovely lilac and basic black.

Whaddaya think?

Off to WineStyles for my stamp camp - Hope I didn't forget anything!!

Booty Call!!

Tee hee.... There was a call for brads at SCS for the Limited Supply Challenge tonight and my Pirate Booty answered the call!

This is from the Doodle Factory Tropics set, along with the sentiments that I JUST GOT TODAY AND I'M SO FREAKING EXCITED!

I colored it with copics and added the booty brads!!

The card is mounted on a base of Ruby Red.



Now - I can't even look at this picture without gasping - this came in my Martha Stewart email today.. WHOA. Where were cakes like this when I was getting married? TALK ABOUT "SOMETHING BLUE" - WOWZA.

*sigh*

I will post more but I gotta get ready for my stamp camp tomorrow.. Busy weekend ahead!

How about you?

Ahoy!

Fun - this is for the Ways to Use It Challenge on SCS. It was ways to use BIRDS!! If I have time to stamp this weeked (doubtful) I will enter more of these challenges because I love birds!! This is a Doodle Factory Tropics Image (brand spanking new) and I don't have the sentiments set yet so I had to hand write! I really wanted to use the "Just Keep Swimming" one BAD!! :)

I laugh out loud every time I see that teeny parrot on the parrot's shoulder - completely makes me crack up!!!

Hope you're as happy as me that it's almost Friday!!

No, really - super happy over here!!

What friends are made of!!

Besides like sugar, spice & everything nice, they're just made of time. The time it takes to send a friend a card, call, email, text message.. You know. It just takes a minute.

So lookie at what I got. Yvonne has PURRFECTED the brayer technique and has been BEYOND inspired by Michelle Zindorf.. This card is so technically perfect and beautiful. But the best part was inside and that's just for me!! ;) The columns have all this depth of color I'm not sure my photo does justice. Also on the grass and rocks... This card is actually a limited edition of 8, so I'm feeling pretty darn special.

Same with this from Vicki, who is also the student become the master of Zindorfia. The inside of this one made me all teary eyed!! These pansies have either glitter or iridescent ice embossing powder on them and they are incredible. I'm so tempted to buy that texture cube she has - that's the corners of the image - a gorgeous marbling texture and others on the same block. Correct me in a comment if I'm wrong but I believe that the block is from Magenta.

Thanks friends. :)

Kristina's Color Challenge

I love this one! Purely Pomegranate, Regal Rose, River Rock, Wild Wasabi & Whisper White. I felt like whipping out the Rango Mini Zoo because I've been wanting to use this little house so bad! I realize I have a little Escher impossibility thing working, but hey - long week!!! The houses are colored on the dark side with pomegranate, on the light side with Regal Rose. The shadows are pomegranate. The ground and sky were sponged with River Rock and then Wild Wasabi on the ground. Then I sponged the shadows with pomegranate. The card base is wasabi, with a pomegranate ribbon and layer under the focal point. The patterned paper is River Rock. The greeting is in Pomegranate.

What a fun challenge.

Sleepy.

Oh - I owe AT&T an apology - it was my modem. I will not be gluing the doors shut. I got a modem at Best Buy and everything is AOK!

G'night.

SO MUCH TO TELL YOU!!!

1) My DSL is out. They say it's my modem. I say watch the news for a crazed woman going down to AT&T and gluing all the doors shut so that they have to stay there until they've learned their lesson!! I am CERTAIN they are lying. We will see.

2) My Wine Styles eScape event with Kim Williams is this weekend! Want to have a mimosa, some fabulous food and have a relaxing stamping event with NO computers or cell phones within miles? Email me for details!

3) I'm teaching a class at summer girls camp on Friday at Marmalade Skies with that treat container - Pictures to come!

4) I finally got to stamp yesterday, but of course had no internet, so I'm posting from Starbucks.

5) Speaking of Starbucks - I finally had the new Frappucino yesterday! Austin is a test market for a "fresh" Frappucino - just milk, ice, coffee and syrup - totally customizable! You know how I feel about fake food, so even though I've never had a Frappucino I decided to give the fresh ones a try yesterday and holy cow!! FABULOUS. I just had a tall coffee frappucino with whole milk and it was amazing. Just lightly sweet, which I love, and the most incredible taste!! You can tell them more or less sweet now - I just let them make it how it comes and it was perfect!! My only feedback is going to be that they need to really make sure all the ice is ground up - I got big ice balls in the bottom of mine which made it a tad hard to drink. But overall A+ - I hope they roll them out to a Starbucks near you soon!!!

Okay - on to stamping - FIRST - FREE DOODLE FACTORY STAMPS FROM STARVING ARTISTAMPS She is giving away the new Tropics set (OMG) and two greeting sets - read the post and see how to win! I'm anxiously awaiting my greetings so I can show you my Tropics Creations with Moki - that artist is absolutely brilliant!

Speaking of Starving Artistamps, I used a Zindorf layout for this sweet little Doodle Factory Thank You. this is SUCH a sweet image - doesn't Rupert almost break your heart with that expression???? Now, I have to work 10 times as hard as Michelle does to create her layouts I'm sure, because she has this gift for visualization that I don't have. But here's what I did. First I drew an upside down "T" on my card with a pencil to demarcate the "corner" that Rupert is standing in. Then I stamped and colored him with Copics. His colors aren't quite as blue as what I wanted but this is a layout I will definitely do again. Then I colored him with a versamarker and embossed him. Then I lightly brayered More Mustard over the top half of the card. I put post its horizontally across it and sponged Really Rust and Close to Cocoa and Pumpkin Pie across the bottom, then put the post it notes vertically and sponged More Mustard on the left "wall". I stamped Rupert again in More Mustard and colored the image in with my MM marker.

The greeting is from the new Fairytale and Country Sentiments Set from Starving Artistamps.

Next - I love the Unique Sentiments - this one screamed out for Mimo!!! The sentiment is actually in an outlined font, but I filled it in for this dark cardstock. The card base is Elegant Eggplant, with Basic Grey patterned paper, Certainly Celery grosgrain ribbon, a little arc of dots over Mimo with my Spica glitter pen, and some rhinestone brads. You can't see the glitter too well, but it's super cute in real life - "don't worry".. tee hee.

Hope you're having a great Wednesday - we are having some kids in our office this week for a stock trading camp and it's a BLAST.

See ya.

Inspiration Challenge

This card is for the Inspiration Challenge at SCS - I absolutely love the Frank Lloyd Wright/Mondrian geometric look with all those primary colors.

I drew the lines with my Micron pen and just used scraps of Basic Grey patterned paper, Summer Sun and Brilliant Blue.

The greeting is from Full of Life, and I made a little joke with myself with that square rhinestone for a "window".

Tee hee.

Gotta go to work now. Bummer.

CU soon.

Treat Yourself!

A few items of note - great response to my morningstar farms info!! So many of you already loved their products - my sister in law said their corndogs are amazing, my mom loves the Okara patties and I can't wait to try the other things you posted. I'm super impressed. Might be all I eat from now on - no one has ever heard of Mad Vegetable disease, right?? :)

Second, I don't know how many of you are on Gmail, but if you're not, let me tell you - it's a great email service because it comes with so many other useful features. Today's feature of the day is the Google Calendar. It's great for a billion reasons (you can share it with people you choose, it's wirelessly synced with my cell phone, so if I add an appointment on my phone it shows up on my desktop, and vice versa. As far as I know no one else besides a Blackberry Enterprise server for Outlook does that and that's only for business - either way, it's fabby since I can't remember anything!)

BUT - the best thing is, that you can have as many calendars as you want - so for example, there is my main calendar, with all my appointments on it. I set this to share with my sister/producer so that we could sync our events. THEN, we have an Understand Blue Calendar with just our production and editing deadlines. Now, here's the beauty of it all - with a click you can select multiple calendars and all the appointments show up on your calendar!! And you can color code each calendar - so all UB events are blue, mine are green, etc. So if I really want to see my events, the UB schedule events AND my sister's calendar all at once so I don't overschedule, I can do that! Then for my normal daily view, I just un-check the UB and sis calendars and go on about my day. I bet for people with kids this would be a great tool - all those sports calendars in one place!! PS - Google Sync can sync all, none or some with your phone.

Now HERE's the best part. I am old and senile as you know, and one of the things that I've never found a good system for is keeping track of who I need to send cards to and who I already sent cards to. So if any of you have ever gotten two birthday cards from me, that's why. Sometimes I write them on my calendar or on my stamping mat or somewhere where I'm sure never to see it again. No worky. So today I realized, I should set up a CARD calendar in Gmail - so I can just quickly add an event when I've sent a card and what it's for and just click over to that calendar to see what I still need to do - LOVE IT. Can't wait to get it going. So I better send some cards!!!

Anyway, on to stamping. I saw this adorable chocolate holder on SCS - Stampin' Library Girl has a wonderful sample here that I will be making for a Marmalade Skies class next week. The lovely and talented Rochelle has instructions here - this is exactly what I used for my project.

The base of mine is Chocolate Chip. The DSP is from Martha Stewart, and this gorgeous owl, Ezner, is one of the very first Doodle Factory sets I got - Doodle Factory Animals.

I colored him with Copics, punched him first with my 1 1/4" circle punch and then punched the border with my 1 3/8" circle punch.

The Treat Yourself greeting is from the new Starving Artistamps Sentiments, and I punched it with my word window punch and added a self adhesive rhinestone.

To top it off - a self adhesive pre-tied ribbon from Martha!

On the inside, the bottom is folded up and the chocolate is actually tucked inside a word window opening - you have to punch a little extra on each side to accomodate the chocolate - just line up your punch with the centered word window and scooch it a tad to the left, punch, do the same thing on the right.

Secure the inside flap with sticky strip or glue dots (that's what I used) and just for extra insurance, put a glue dot on the back of the chocolate as well.

Put your dsp on the front of the flap, and keep the treat closed with a velcro dot, a magnet or adhesive.

So cute and compact and quick!! Hope you're having a great weekend. I gotta work all weekend, starting in a few hours.

OH - PS - backup was successful!!! Next week is a re-run of the first UB episode that there was a sound problem on, then the week after that starts my patriotic episode with my sassy new graphics.

Hope you can tune in and watch!

Not about stamping at all!!!

Really, it's not. It's about the newest item for the Blue List! I'm so excited! I went to the store, which wasn't really thrilling me after three nights of raging insomnia. However, I wanted something good to eat and I thought I would get a box of GardenBurgers, a veggie burger that I really enjoy. It doesn't try to taste like beef, which I appreciate in a vegetable! :)

However, they didn't have any of the actual Garden Burger brand at Randall's, which made me exhale loudly and repeatedly through my nose like an angry cat. No one really cared, in case you were wondering.

However, since I was already there staring at the other vegetarian products, I started examining the Morningstar Farms products and found three fascinating things: Artichoke bites, broccoli cheese bites and Chik'n patties. They looked so tasty on the box with their crunchy breading (I'm SUCH a marketer's dream) that I bought all three.

Now, let me tell you in case you've forgotten my bone-in filet fetish - I AM NOT A VEGETARIAN. I'm not a health nut by any stretch. However, I don't really eat a ton of protein in general unless it's really good, and I have some rules for my food.

1) It can't come from China. Those of us who have pets who ate pet food last year and got sick pretty much know how that ends.
2) The ingredients can't start with "mechanically separated (fill in the animal blank here)
3) The label can't include the word "parts", "lips" (check the Slim Jim label - I'm not making this up) or "meat products" - it's either meat, or it's a product, not both.
4) I prefer food that comes from America, England or, really, from about 500 miles from my house. Not being elitist, just really trying not to die or accidentally eat GHB.
5) ABSOLUTELY no fake dairy products or sweeteners. I don't like plastic cheese, fake butter and I'm allergic to Phenylalinine, which, once you say it out loud, kind of takes its appeal away. Guess that's why they call it Equal. In general, I think it's best not to eat things that end in "-anine", wouldn't you say? God didn't go to all the trouble to make sugar cane and bees for us to eat something produced in a lab.
6) It really needs to taste good.

All that to say I would never eat a real, mechanically separated chicken patty like they have at Burger King - BLECH. But I thought I wouldn't mind a vegetarian version given how lovely it looked on the box.

OOOOOHHH MYYY WAS THAT A GREAT CHOICE!!!

Not only did this thing have the most marvelous, crunchy, fried feeling crust, but it tasted like a yummy piece of chicken!! I was enthralled!!! I made myself a bagel sandwich with it - mayo, melted havarti - oh freaking my.

The best part? 140 calories, 9 grams of protein, 5 grams of fat. Not bad for something that really felt like a comfort food.

So if you're open minded enough for a meatless entree - give this a shot. I got the plain kind - they have flavored ones too. I'm going to try a parmagiana with it next.

Spectacular.

Tired tonight, so no card. Did I mention the insomnia? About to start hallucinating. I'm sure the chicken will give me peaceful dreams.

Hope you're having a good night!

:)

Me.

Fashionista!

I made this card for the Central Theme Dirty Dozen Fan Club Gallery on SCS - I love the fashion theme - and I thought the ladies outdid themselves this month! I combined it with yesterday's color challenge (Craft, Soft Sky and Black), which I think is lovely.

This is an image from She's All That, and to make her dress, well, that wasn't the easiest paper piecing I've ever done. Since the iamge was solid, I couldn't stamp it onto my paper and cut it out with black - so I stamped it in Versamark and embossed it so that I could see it to cut it out. I accented her with my white gel pen and a glitter pen and the scallops are with 1 3/8" circle punch. I finished it with some rhinestone brads.

I submitted an article to Craft Magazine today - wish me luck! It's just an educational piece on getting things straight on your cards. Vicki - you were my inspiration!!

:) How's your Wednesday?

Mourning

Gonna do a little tribute every now and then for some of my favorite retiring sets. As usual, some make me so sad. I have them, of course, but can't use them in my camps etc. after they retire because - well it's CRUEL to show some perfectly nice stampin' peeps something they can't have! How would YOU feel?

So here's the first black armband ditty - Perennial Favorites. I love this stamp set for its modest simplicity and boldness. I love the font of the little seasons. I love that it only takes up four square inches in my bookcase I love it all. And I will miss it!

This card has a mournful simplicity! I panicked because I almost ran out of Basic Grey, which I love, so I ordered ten million packages and kind of feel like I should use it, ya know? So I combined it with that stunning silver hardware (the card almost weighs three pounds now), my Spica Silver Glitter Pen and a piercing template from my friend Vicki!!! Thanks Vee!! It's one of those round plastic canvas dealies that are used for needlepoint. It's just fabulous for this!! I accented the wings of the cut out butterfly with my clear spica glitter pen and my silver spica. Topped it off with a rub on from Love & Happiness.

Oh, and speaking of Vicki - lookie lookie!!!!!

Vicki sent me (& my club girls) this gorgeous simple card with a stunning embossed image. I can't get enough of this color. She is kind of the queen of embossing. Check out her gallery. She does amazing work with Zindorf's techniques also. Very talented, sweet and generous woman, my friend Vee.

Hope Tuesday is going well for each of you. I missed my show today. :( Anybody catch it?

Oh - PS - NO POSTAGE DUE LETTER IN MY BOX TODAY!!!

Bad Hair Day?

Yeah - you know what I mean. But first, some flowers...

I saw a very similar card on page 164 of the Cards magazine I got today - it's the July edition.

I thought of Embrace Life for two reasons - first, because the shape lends itself to this big bold color blocking. But more importantly because it's so tempting to do delicate asian colors and patterns with this set, and I think it deserves some color sass. So color sass it is.. I used Copics for coloring, and the Crop a Dile for the little punched out dots in Cool Caribbean, Green Galore and Summer Sun. I used the Gift Labels set for the greeting. I love the little shiny rain dots - there's one in the greeting and several on the "weed" in the background, which is highlighted with a white gel pen.

Then, a Rango Zoo image to cap a bit of a bad hair day. Love those old fuzzy Stampin' Up! Fibers. And more exciting, today I received 8 GAZILLION greetings from the new Starving Artistamps sentiments OMG - head over and look what you can SAY!!!

Then, finally, more meditation on the postal service. You know I love mail, and I'm amazed how much of it gets to me and from me to other people for a relatively low cost. But what I will never understand is why there is no business sense in some of these large arms of government. Ponder for a moment, the cost of doing the following:

Getting a piece of mail in the post office.

Processing it.

Realizing that it's 20 cents shy of full postage.

Taking out from a drawer which contains some arcane supplies, up to and including this retro envelope.

Writing the name and address of the unsuspecting recipient in the appropriate one of the 87 possible lines on the retro envelope.

Putting said envelope with recipients bundle of mail.

Letting the bewildered and frustrated recipient search for 2 dimes and put the envelope back in the box. (Where is the mail at this point? Is there some sort of postal Gitmo, where debtor mail is held and waterboarded until said recipient coughs up some coin??)

Picking up the envelope - COUNT THE CHANGE!

Keeping track of the change in your vehicle.

Returning and turning it in at the Gitmo window, which I imagine has bars and a grumpy old lady smoking a stogie.

Retrieving the exhausted post confession mail piece.

Performing some elaborate accounting entry to account for the order that has been restored to the universe with my twenty cents.

Depositing the twenty cents.

Driving BACK over to my place and giving me the letter.

FOR TWENTY FREAKING CENTS??!!!! Seriously - if it's a damn Pottery Barn catalog, there's a good chance you're gonna see me on the news!!

Have a great night.

Double Quickie!

Really - I have 7 minutes to get out the door for our Father's Day dinner at Flemings - YAY. We filmed all day (my hiney is hurting!) and I thiiiink we got a great segment for the Martha Contest. I can't wait to see the edited version!

Here's another Rango Zoo card - who doesn't love a bunny, I tell ya. I saw a baby cottontail on my walk this morning - I'll see if the cell phone pics are clear enough to post. I hope he didn't find the MILLIPEDE I saw later ... UGH. Pic of that coming as well. Anyway, I colored my Rango Bunny with Copics, popped him up with a dimensional, and used SU! grey taffeta ribbon and Basic Grey Scarlet's Letter paper. I wrote the greeting with a white gel pen and stuck on some gorgeous clear half pearl thingies. He's so sweet and small. I'm into small stamps right now.

But enough of that for right now - MOMMA NEEDS A STEAK AND SOME FERMENTED GRAPES IF YOU KNOW WHAT I'M SAYIN' :)

Quickie

A quickie post - I'm about to go film. I went to Australia in February of 2001 and fell in love with aboriginal art. The bowl in this picture is one of two I brought home (the other one is blue) and it's made from camphor, and it smells wonderful. Aboriginal images seem to always include dots, which is just enchanting - lots of them feature very high contrast images that really make the stripes and spots pop out. These Rango Zoo stamps give me a flashback every time I see them. Australia is a wonderful place, and these little creatures are adorable!!!!

Hope you're having a great Sunday. Happy Father's Day!

Kristina's Color Challenge

Hey everybody - Here's my entry for Kristina's color challenge - I thought it would be fun to do Martha's little shirt for Father's Day. The color challenge is for Rose Red, So Saffron, Old Olive and Going Grey. Tough since I only had a scrap of Going Grey left. I used MY BRAND NEW SASSMONSTER SPICA GLITTER PENS OMG OMG OMG to write Dad. Wow are these nice pens. The card base is Rose Red, then Going Grey, then Rose Red, then Old Olive DSP, then a So Saffron Tie with teeny Rose Red Stripes and Saffron Ribbon. Fun. Thanks Kristina!!

PS - very sad about Tim Russert. He sure seemed like a nice man, he was from my hometown, Buffalo and 58 is awfully young. :( He loved his dad a lot and talked about him often, so I hope you all have a great father's day, whether your dad is with you, or has gone ahead.

Sneak Peek!

Well it's time to go to work, but here's a sneak peek of a couple things. First, a card I'm filming in the studio today! We have an hour and a half in the real TV studio instead of my living room which we're hoping will speed up production. I can't show you the cards I'm going to make because I'll be turning them in for Martha's contest, but here's a little taste!!

Who wouldn't love a blue glittery cupcake?

When I reveal this, I have an important product alert for you too. People are so creative!!

Then Kristina's color challenge - hmmm.... what can I make with this? Stay tuned!!

I Miss you, my hard drive

Yesterday was not good. My sister's hard drive, containing all of our edited TV footage, died!!! Do I have a computer curse? Or an electromagnetic field around me that kills electronics? Possibly. So last night I was just sick. So was she. However, I got a short text message last night that quite possibly her neighbor recovered the files from the dead drive. Pray that that is so!!! And yes, we will have 8 backups of everything from now on!!! That is hundreds of hours of work we are talking about. So if you got any brief and personality-less communication from me yesterday, that could be why! I'm back! :)

This card features the little donkey from Doodle Factory Fairytale and from the moment I saw "her" - I wanted her to be pink!!! I colored her with some of the fabby pinks from my new copics set. Love those darn markers!!

Episode 2 tomorrow!!

Okay - Episode 2 of Understand Blue airs tomorrow! Get your DVR's going - and cross your fingers that we have no technical difficulties!

I'm really excited because we finished editing the show that will air July 1 - a patriotic episode. You know how patriotic I am!!!

This week's show (tomorrow) features the Embrace Life stamp set.

Next week's is REALLY fun, because it's the book with the chopstick binding from Leadership.

Then we will re-air episode one because of the technical problems and then the patriotic episode. I have no idea what we're doing after that - there's a lot of editing to be done between now and then.

I'm thinking of doing a black and white episode and actually filming it in black and white - what do you think about that??

Also, an employee of Carbonite posted a comment on last night's post - those people are on the ball!!! Check out their blog - it's interesting and actually answers some of the questions I had, like backing up an additional drive - I have two internal hard drives (have I ever done anything the easy way) and I couldn't figure out how to back up my second drive. Anyway, they seem very nice and accessible. After a voiceover and quick editing session, plus 15 graphics I have to redo for the show tonight I don't feel like checking my desktop computer for backup status, but I bet all my files are safe and secure, so I'm happy!!

Have a great evening - tune in tomorrow!!

Un-Lazy Sunday

Here's the recipe:

1) Sleep in a little - like 8.

2) Do Laundry

3) Go to Starbucks, where they put an extra shot in your drink. Discover this by uncontrollable shaking during #5

4) Go to Target to look for a Wii. Fail.

5) Grocery Shop

6) Clean out fridge

7) Start cooking roast

8) Put rest of groceries in newly clean fridge

9) Wash car

10) Pull Weeds

11) Get clean

12) Eat roast for early dinner - WOW. Pork roast, green beans (the skinny ones) yeast rolls with honey. mmmm.

13) Get sleepy

14) Stamp a card or two

15) Now I'm off for editing and voiceover

But some things to show you. A GORGEOUS card I received from Vicki - she's been such an inspiration for advanced Zindorf techniques - I'm sure you can see why!!! Everything she does is amazing and I'm lucky enough to be on her distribution list. This is being proudly displayed in my studio as I type.

Next, my old boss' birthday is coming up. He is a great man with an eye for really pretty things. His gifts are always extremely beautiful and unusual items, chosen thoughtfully and among my most cherished possessions.

Obviously I couldn't do a yelly monster! :) So I chose one of my fave Zindorf cards ever for inspiration. She amazes me. I didn't have a cute little bird like hers, so I used the swallow from Carte Postale. I stamped him in Versamark and embossed him with some ancient red EP I had forgotten I had! I used my post it note "moon" as a mask and brayered soft sky all over. Then I sponged Not Quite Navy in the sky and bottom right, and Ballet Blue for the water. The "weeds" are stamped in Adirondack Black (they are from Embrace Life) and colored in with a Not Quite Navy Marker, then accented with a white gel pen. I mounted it with Soft Sky and Not Quite Navy. I really like it, and I think it's manly enough without actually featuring a shovel or boots!! Actually I think it would make a very lovely 4th of July card!

Next, my darling sister in law Jessica just got a GIGANTIC promotion!! I'm so proud of her. She is going to be the director at the childcare center she works for. She's such a creative and kind girl and this promotion is well deserved!

So I made her a yelly monster card!! The inside looks funny because I deleted what I wrote, but the monster is so cute - I never get tired of him. He's my favorite Starving Artistamps Doodle Factory creature. The designer paper is Basic Grey, with Stampin Up textured Pumpkin Pie cardstock as the base. The ribbon is SU celery grosgrain. He's colored with copics and his teeth, eyes and bellybutton :) are accented with a glitter pen. I used the cuttlebugged leftover in Bashful Blue from my last card. Enjoy - I'm off to my second job! :)

PS - guess what I found on on Martha today? ALL OF THE "MANILA" FOLDERS THEY USE AT HER COMPANY ARE SHADES OF BLUE!!!!

Double Dare

Okay - I can't believe I got through a challenge finally! I took my computer apart, replaced the fan (it's still making the airplane sound, but it's a different airplane sound) and decided to sign up with Carbonite Online Backup so that I can just walk away if it all goes to Hades in a handbasket at some point. I'm impressed so far with Carbonite - they do a free trial and they don't even ask you for a credit card to do this - so it actually is a FREE trial, and not a "we're going to hope you don't remember you did this in two months and charge your card eternally" trial. So depending on if this actually works, they might make the blue list!

Anyway, I thought the inspiration challenge at SCS was absolutely stunning. So I headed to Beate's for a layout and combined both challenges in a blue card - how lucky is that? Something about her sketch challenges makes them very easy to work with no matter what stamp you pick up or what idea is in your head.

This is a Bashful Blue base, with a cuttlebug embossed strip of the same. Then there's a Gable Green strip, clear embossed with the flower from Fresh Cuts and then sponged with green galore. This matches that pretty lime bolster in the inspiration piece. Then, I don't have a hyacinth stamp, so I fell back on the ever lovely Bloomin' Beautiful vase with flowers. I colored these with copics, clear embossed, and then sponged them with Bashful Blue, Green Galore and Ballet Blue. This piece is on watercolor paper. The greeting is from Much Appreciated.

Enjoy - I'm gonna go relax.

SASSMONSTER WINS the Belmont Stakes!

Club was extra fun today. Two new people joined - a sweet friend of Yvonne's and my friend Emily from down the street! So that is very exciting. We're going to have a big event at WineStyles to celebrate Stampin' Up!'s Escape promotion on June 28th - if you'd like to join us for mimosa's, stamping, and absolutely no cell phones, computers or other electronic devices, stay tuned!!

So here are the club projects. The first one is a card that reminds me of sorbet colors - very ice cream-y and pretty. The card base is Cool Caribbean, and it's layered with the Groovy Guava designer paper from the Ginger Blossom Assortment, and then the flower "windows" are on Whisper White. The flowers are stamped in Cool Caribbean and then colored with the blender pen and Groovy Guava Ink. The bird is stamped in Cool Caribbean and carefully cut out and popped up with dimensionals. The ribbon is the double stitched Groovy Guava ribbon. I love that stuff. The greeting and the flowers are from Embrace Life, and the world's most beautiful bird is from Always.

This is not a typical color combo for me but I kinda liked it.

The second card is the patriotic card inspired by a layout in this most recent Cards magazine. They really had some cute patriotic stuff this year. All the designer paper is from the Prints series - Brilliant Blue and Real Red. Then the Independence Day set for the greeting, a rhinestone brad and some stars made with both star punches out of Very Vanilla Cardstock. Cute, simple and quick. Try other combos for the Fourth - Bashful Blue and Rose Red, Ballet Blue and Really Rust - think outside the patriotic box - you just have to evoke the flag, like the dots and stripes do on this card - you don't have to recreate it. I love the Fourth of July and all the bright and happy designs that go with it.

Next, we have my SASSMONSTER!!! Okay, so Sassmonster isn't really gonna win the Belmont Stakes (which I'm anxiously awaiting right now) but if my sassy blue and black card decided to compete, well... I'm just sayin'!!!

This card features Boho Backgrounds, which I used for the little tabs on the sides of the card and also for the main image. The colors are Tempting Turquoise and Basic Black. You can't see it all that well here, but the part that opens is actually the black part - it's 8" x 4", folded vertically and corner rounded. Then there are Crop-a-Dile divots embossed on the right and underneath the black card. I stamped "thanks" from Much Appreciated in Basic Black and finished it all off with the scallop punch, the Turquoise Brad and some Turquoise grosgrain ribbon. I THINK IT IS MONSTROUSLY SASSY IS ALL I'M SAYING!

Last but not least, my swap. This is a very simple card with the Fresh Cuts Notes and Fresh Cuts stamp set which I cannot get enough of. I stamped the main image in black in the center of the card. Then I stamped it again in Craft White on a 3x3 square of Basic Black and adhered it to the back of the front of the card. (sounds odd but you know what I mean). That way you can still write on the white bottom part of the card. Then I stamped the little branch image on the flap of the matching envelope. Just love this card. I think I'll try it in a few other colors too but boy is it crisp in good old black and white!

If you haven't seen this set yet (It's a sneak peek from the new catalog), take a look at the samples with it on Splitcoast - wowza. I'd post the link here but either my connection or the SCS site has been pretty hinky today.

Hope you're having a great Saturday - STAMP SOMETHING!! :) I'm off to find some challenges to work on...

Important Update!

I have changed the address of my Stampin' Up! Demonstrator Website - please bookmark my new site - http://understandblue.stampinup.net/.

With that out of the way, let's have a little fun.

First, I finally got to meet Kim, and she is just as wonderful in person!! She was nice enough to show up dressed in the most heavenly turquoise blue with a gorgeous blue necklace! :) She also brought me a BEEEEEAUTIFUL card and a candy bar slider. I promptly ate the Hershey Bar for dinner, since I didn't really have time tonight for real food! What a lifesaver! The card is a stunner - made with one of my all time favorite stamp sets. Absolutely gorgeous!

And man, is a Hershey bar extra yummy in combination with Wild Sweet Orange Tea!

I think along with a bone in filet, a nice cabernet, artichokes and pumpkin pie, I would like to add orange chocolate to my death row meal. Please tell the governor should I ever be sentenced! :)

You can't see it on my messy desk, but I'm experimenting with my stamping surface. I bought one of those See Dees mats to stamp on after reading about Michelle Zindorf's method. I'm adjusting to it - it makes my work surface smaller which I'm trying to get used to, and sometimes I forget and start using my craft knife or my hole pokey thingy and that is not good. But if I just love it after a while I'll let you know.

Now - for you Lost fans - you know that metallic grinding sound that the island makes? Well one of my neighbors decided to make that noise in their driveway until midnight last night. Yeah... I think you probably understand why death row is on my mind tonight. Don't think I didn't consider it!

I got up early to walk - about 5:45, and toyed with the idea of making some Lost noises of my own, but decided to live and let live :). My walk was an adventure as usual. After catching up with my beloved Sbux employees (who made an outstanding quad short breve no foam latte today, btw!!) I set off into the uncharacteristically cool June morning. It was gorgeous. Along the way, I discovered the bug of the day. This giant beetle is yet more evidence that yes, everything's bigger in Texas! Unfortunately, some careless driver ended his life before I got there (how the HECK did he miss him lumbering across the road??) but I would like all my friends from points north to imagine something like this flying around trying to get stuck in your hair on a summer night!! We have to be tough girls down here, I tell ya!!

When I got back, I saw that my heavenly blue morning glory had bloomed for the first time this morning. (Heavenly Blue is the actual name of the plant :) - it's a perennial morning glory and absolutely my favorite plant ever). Isn't it a stunner? I could stare at these flowers until I go into a trance, I tell ya. They're so blue they almost hurt your eyes.

Later today I will post my other club projects - you already saw the box, but I have a 4th of July card, a pretty pastel girly card, and a blue card that I think is just a complete sassmonster of a project - I hope you like it too!!

Have a good morning!