Leaf UR Day behind

And enjoy some art, won't cha?

I started tonight's projects feeling very ADD. Google Reader makes it hard to concentrate, with new blog updates popping up like those little moles you have to smash in that video game.

So I, of course, just give in - knowing that I have 90 cards to cut for this weekend's World Card Making Day event (which should be a blast) and 100 cards to make to sell at Maker Faire - and peek at the blogs.

Well that was providential. Because in all the stampy goodness, I found this. Two things I love - Ellen Hutson's site and Sharon Harnist, who thankfully included her Copic colors in her classroom tutorial. She was making an inchie, but I loved her coloring, so I thought I would make a very simple card using her color scheme.

Thank goodness I had this stamp - Lord knows the other 8000 stamps I have wouldn't have been juuuust right, you know?

So, two roads CONVERGED, and I liked this image so much I thought I would make this one of the cards for Maker Faire, so I'd love to hear your opinion as to whether anyone would buy this card. Be honest.

I thought I would keep the card very clean and simple, since the image is so rich and full of color. So the card is just a Very Vanilla card - AND OMG I AM STARTING TO DRINK THE SCORPAL KOOLAID - MORE LATER.

The panel the little Lockhart stamp is on is 2.25 x 1.5, also vanilla. I stamped it in Memento Tuxedo Black and then got to work.

Here is the ticket on the background. I started with this, and I colored the whole thing - and I went over it a few times at the edges to darken the color.

But then, I came back in with the colorless blender and lightened the color right around the dress to give it kind of a halo. Be careful going over the black ink - it can fuzz out if you go over it too many times.
Then, I filled in the dress with orange.

And when you look at this picture - or, you're doing it in real life - it looks a little flat at first.

The ticket to Copics is layering. Oh yeah, and patience. If someone can find out where I can buy some patience online please let me know!

But you also need to work somewhat quickly. As soon as I was done with the orange, I came back in at the edges with the brown. Then I went back over the line where those two met with the orange again to blend.

If they dry completely, blending can be a challenge if not impossible.

You can see from the closeup how the two fade into each other if you work quickly and carefully.

The next step was to go down the center of the leaves with Warm Grey #2.

At this point I have to make a disclaimer - I have no idea if this is what Sharon did - I'm just trying to approach her pretty image! But I put the grey on top - and even though it's a lighter color, Copics are magic, and this warm grey sits on top and adds depth and shading.

Look how pretty and soft they are all blended together.

For the acorn, I used Sharon's two browns - first the light all over, then the darker brown at the edges and on the cap.

Finally, I went over the acorn with the colorless blender pen to lighten the center and give the illusion of light.

My finishing touch was the Spica Glitter pen on the hanger. Sharon was more ambitious and used wire. I'm lazy and used glitter!!

Next, I chose the "grateful" greeting from Small Script. I stamped it in Memento again, but I had to use the stamp positioner. As you can see from this picture - I don't clean my positioning sheet too often, much to the chagrin of my TV producer, who wants all my supplies to look new! :)

But a lot of my stamps are mounted crooked, so a girl has to bust out the positioner when she needs to be precise!

You can totally see the greeting over that pear. Now I'm all nostalgic for the pear!!

I stamped that first because I popped the main image up with dimensionals, so I didn't want to stamp after a 3D item had already been adhered.

Now, when I flip it to stick the dimensionals on, I chuckle at my success! Supposedly, if your Copics bleed through to make a picture on the other side, you're doing it right!!

So I am excited to see this - almost a replica of my main image.

Finally - and this is important - if you are selling your cards, always put your contact info on them. I use tiny stickers and put my name, phone #, email and blog address. It matters! So get your angel policy stamps out and make sure people know who made their cards!!

Congrats tonight to Emily Cannata, who signed up to be a demonstrator today!! Way to go Emily!

She and Micki Daniel, my two newest group members, will be getting my newsletter tomorrow, with projects in it that I only share with my Understand Blue group - they never get posted on the blog! How's THAT for suspense?
I do that so that they can use the ideas in their business and they won't already have been exposed in our wonderful blogosphere and hopefully it will help them in their stamping efforts!

So welcome Micki & Emily and I hope everyone else is having a great night!

Want to buy this card? Click here.

Freebies from Stampin' Up!

Stampin’ Up! is looking for 400 stampers and crafters who are willing to participate in a market research panel discussing stamping and crafts. In exchange for their participation, Stampin’ Up! will send panelists a free goodie box of stamping and/or crafting products every three months . If you would be interested in applying to be on this panel, they can apply at the following link:

CLICK HERE TO APPLY


• Stampin’ Up! uses feedback for research only and does not share answers or personal information with anyone else.
• Stampin’ Up! will not contact you and ask you to purchase anything, or attempt to recruit you to be a Stampin’ Up! demonstrator.
• Panel members can expect to participate in the panel for at least six months. The panel is occasionally refreshed to gain new insights as well as allow others the same opportunity.
• There is no cost for to participate in the panel.
• Your only duty as a panel member is to answer surveys. Surveys typically take between five and ten minutes to complete.
• The frequency of surveys can vary depending on the research needs of Stampin Up! Panel members will receive no more than one survey a week, but typically should expect to receive one or two surveys a month.
• You can quit the panel at any time.
• You will be selected to join and notified via email if your background matches Stampin’ Up!’s research needs.
• You must live in the United States or Canada to be on the panel.
• You must complete at least 80% of the surveys sent to you to receive a goodie box.
• Stampin’ Up! demonstrators are not eligible to be on the panel.More detailed information about the panels can be found at www.stampinup.com/survey.

I'm working on a top secret project for my downline newsletter.... TEASE.

Bird Watching

I love birds. I know some people are deathly afraid of them, and I don't really want one stuck in my hair or anything, but they are very cool to look at. Especially ones made out of designer paper.

I needed to do something quick tonight. So the DSP birds are always a good bet.

The first one I made is from the new Basic Grey Ambrosia - wow is this stuff pretty. Just sizzix your bird, add a little matching strip and a chocolate chip hole punch for the eye, and it's a very striking ensemble. The card base is chocolate chip, and the greeting is in craft white from Absolutely Fabulous. I punched the eye with my double circle punch. So I have an extra eye or two laying around if anyone needs one! :)

The bird is popped up with dimensionals - I absolutely love the shadow this makes.

I liked it so much I had to have another. This time on Very Vanilla, with a chocolate chip greeting and a Holiday Treasures Designer Paper bird.

Now I'd love to tell you on that Basic Grey bird that I lined him up painstakingly to get that cool pattern just so, but I would be lying.

Now - onto some fun this evening.

Sweet Joan Ervin - a Dirty Girl who I finally got to meet at the Zindorf affair (yes, she left without a shirt) tagged me last night!!

The rules are as follows:

I have to share 7 random facts about myself and tag 7 people. If you have been tagged, you just post a link to your tagger and pay it forward - enjoy all this strange things you are going to learn about me & my 7! Darn it I wish I hadn't confessed to liking birds!! :)

So here goes:

1) I have a Master's degree in Slavic Linguistics. Seriously. It helps me stamp. Plus I can curse in Russian in an elevator and people just move over.
2) I met Timothy Leary and G. Gordon Liddy in college.
3) I have had a recurring dream of a 20 story wave coming towards a building I'm in since I was about 10. I have it a few times a year.
4) My favorite dessert is pumpkin pie.
5) I'm allergic to white tailed deer. One licked me in Johnson City and I had a giant imprint of an itchy deer tongue on my arm for an alarmingly long time!
6) I sometimes walk in my sleep
7) I LOVE roller coasters, and my favorite is the Tower of Terror in Orlando. I could start my day that way every day.

So here are my tag-ees!

Kristie Morrison
Lisa A.
Jenn Nahrstadt
Kim Williams
Neelam Kulkarni
LIbby Hickson
Tisa Jackson

I can't wait to see what you gals reveal!

G'night.

Variations on a theme of Thanks...

Each year, my little group of stamping friends talks about the fact that we don't as a custom send Thanksgiving cards.

Why the heck not? This is truly my favorite holiday. I love the weather, the food, the absence of that crazy pace and list of things to do that comes with the Christmas season..

It's an easier, more relaxed holiday, but with all the great things (most notably - pumpkin pie) that mark the end of the year, plus the opportunity to just be grateful.

And why wouldn't we send "thank you" cards whenever we got the chance?

I'd like to challenge you guys to build a Thanksgiving card list that rivals your Christmas card list! The colors and images are just as, if not more, beautiful than those of other holidays - especially from Stampin' Up! and it's a fabulous sentiment - be thankful!!

Shameless kitty cuteness I'm thankful for to follow. I'm still waiting for the Secret Service protection to start, by the way. Now that they've announced, they're supposed to get it, right?

Anyway, I borrowed the colors of one spectacular Zindorf tutorial for this piece. But my pumpkins are those beautiful bluish white ones that Martha Stewart always has in her magazines. I LOVE those pumpkins!!

I colored them with Copics, and then used my Eclipse tape with the added benefit of Maureen's tip in a comment on my first Eclipse post here. Thanks Maureen! Unrolling the tape and stamping all my pumpkins on there lead to much less waste! I really like this stuff.

Anyway, after I colored them, I brayered on Barely Banana, then Apricot Appeal, then Pumpkin Pie, then Really Rust on top. Before the Really Rust, I punched a 1" circle from Eclipse tape (TIP - adhere it to cardstock before punching - it's too thin by itself to punch cleanly) and stuck it in the sky to create a moon. Then I brayered the rust on.

Then I brayered Certainly Celery and then Old Olive on the bottom and removed the masks. I stamped the greeting from In Every Thing Give Thanks in Craft White, and that DSP is retired Halloween paper.

It looks like a Great Pumpkin scene from Charlie Brown to me - I can hear the music!

The second one I really enjoyed too. I love the little Mayflower from In Every Thing Give Thanks - it's so clean and pretty.

I colored that very quickly with copics - just the background, and then mounted it on black. I used the new extra wide double stitched Baja Breeze ribbon and stamped the same greeting in black. So simple and clean!!!

So, on the list of things I'm thankful for.. Some pics of my insomnibeests who will soon be in the White House.

Enjoy them. Beautiful little creatures.

Where the Candidates Stand

You guys are asking great questions about our next president and vice president!! I love engaged voters! I will answer them later in the post.

First, a Halloween ditty, and later, a little message to the bikers of Austin. Stay tuned.

Okay - I first saw these A Muse Halloween images on Julie HRR's blog and just adored them! Luckily a local stamp store had them in stock. I think I'll be making some of these for Maker Faire.

I colored them with Copics, including the shadows. I punched out a circle with my 1" punch from Whisper White for the moon and made a shadow on it with my Copic Cool Grey #1. I faux stitched around the top note with my white gel pen. Very simple and quick card, and MAN are those trick-or-treaters cute!!! Look at the little devils - adorable!!! They look like they walked out of Where the Wild Things Are..

Okay - let's talk about the Prez & VP. First of all, the little INSOMNIBEESTS got me up at 3 AM!! So the whole 3 AM phone call scenario where the red phone goes off and we need someone who can find it and answer the call - NO PROBLEM FOR MADDIE & SPLOTCHY - THEY'RE ALREADY UP BATTING THE PHONE AROUND AND DOING EXTREME WRESTLING AND AERIAL ACROBATICS. That is the kind of readiness we need in the White House. A wing of the White House that is preferably sound proofed and features some sort of cat airlock that keeps them from escaping and being noisy elsewhere.

The issues you are concerned about are lined up as follows:

Birds - against.
Naps - for.
Vacuum cleaners - against, but not because they're scared of them. (grr...)
Solution for the economy - sell America's dogs on Ebay to the highest bidders.
Mean bikers - against.
Catnip - legalized at last!

The town hall meeting for the Maddie/Splotchy team is now open - feel free to ask the candidates anything you want. Cats Across America tour begins in a week as soon as we can find a bus big enough for all their toys.

Now - a word or two to Austin's biking community. Austin loves their bikers. We are a bike friendly city, to say the least, although there is a group of people who are mean to bikers for whatever reason, which is really awful. And I'm talking about bicycles, not motorcycles.

However, there is an issue that makes me mad every weekend, so here's my open letter to the bicyclists.

I walk about 30 miles every weekend to train for my 60 mile walk in November. I leave at 6 AM and get home at about 11. I'm lucky enough to live in an area which has striped off bike/walk lanes in the street so the streets are pretty wide. When you walk 5 hours in one day, you understand the difference between walking on a concrete sidewalk and walking on asphalt with every bone, tendon and muscle in your body. I walk facing traffic for my safety and also so that I can hop on the curb when a biker comes.

HOWEVER, despite the fact that I get up onto the grass when I am within 20 yards of an oncoming biker, some bikers with really bad attitudes sometimes yell obscenities at me, or give me dirty looks or, like the guy yesterday, glare AND spit!!

For whatever reason, this militant contingent of bikers is completely offended that anyone who is not a biker has occupied the road they are riding on - EVER. Now, they can travel in packs of 40 bikers that take up all the bike lane and most of the regular traffic lane and that's no problem, but if there is evidence that someone has WALKED over the ground they will be riding in five minutes from now, it requires extreme rudeness and hatred.

Now of course they're not all like this - lots of the regular people I see say Good morning, or wave, or comment on the length of my walk, etc. and are my little biker friends. But there are these few buttheads that really need a lesson in etiquette. So to the butthead bikers, I say - get over yourselves. If you think that people don't like you because you're a biker, you're wrong. We love our bikers. People don't like you because you're an....

Be nice.

That's Maddie & Splotchy's campaign slogan.

Well, that and WILL YOU PLEASE WAKE UP RIGHT NOW AND FIND MY MOUSE THAT I BATTED UNDER THE COUCH.

Have a great Sunday! Thanksgiving cards up later today!

I'm tired of this election

Are you? Would you like a president who knows how to take care of Punky when he gets out of line? Would you like kind of a laid back Vice President with stripes and spots on her belly? Want a team that can be sitting perfectly still and then just APPEAR in another place?? THAT would scare the Russians!!

So I propose a new ticket - a ticket that would bring REAL change to the country. The kind of change that purrs and rids the country of mice and baby lizards once and for all.

Maddie n Splotchy 08. Get your T-shirt before they run out.

Let's do something that makes sense for a change!!

Life at 3:15 AM - a Tutorial

It's scary. Humans were not meant to be awake at that time.

However, apparently cats are. Let me do a horrible reenactment for you...

Cats: MEOWMEOWMEOWMEOWMEOW WE ARE DYING COME IN HERE SOMETHING IS TERRIBLY WRONG THUMP MEOW MEOW MEOW RRRAAAOOOWWWW

Me: #$&^@&*^#)*&)($*@#!

Cats: Oh, what are you doing here? I think I'll jump on your head since you're up and everything.

Man and beast. Living somewhat peacefully together for thousands of years. Pretty sure this is why cave people invented weekends.

Anyway, if you're up at some ungodly hour after trying to keep two wild beasts from coming in the shower, biting through the hairdryer cord, or climbing up your bare leg to say hello by sticking a paw in your mouth or eye - I SUGGEST YOU STAMP!!!

So I did. The gruesome theme may reflect my complete lack of sleep, or just be due to the fact that I cannot get enough of Halloween!!

I'm going to do a combo tutorial/product review for you on masking with Eclipse Masking Tape.

Masking serves several purposes. It allows you to place images in front of and behind each other by omitting part of an image, giving the illusion of depth and perspective. It also allows you to sponge or brayer a consistent background behind a stamped image without getting color where you do not want it.

Since I'm all Zindorfed up, I thought I'd do an atmospheric background for my super scary Fredo image from Doodle Factory Halloween II.

To get started, I peeled off a little piece of Eclipse Masking Tape from the roll and cut it.

Opinion #1 - the fact that it is on a roll and not in sheets, leads to a little waste, IMHO. I had to cut a strip off, most of which I didn't use, because I was using fairly small images. The fact that I had extra creates a storage problem. I think you all know how I feel about storage problems.

First, I stamped my Fredo image on my cardstock in Memento Tuxedo Black. Wow is he scary and somehow huggable at the same time.

In order to be the most efficient blue chick possible, before I cleaned my stamp, I stamped it again on the piece of tape I had cut. You don't need a very clear image because you'll just be cutting it out. Waste not, want not!!

Opinion #2 - The tape is perfectly sticky - it sticks hard, which is an advantage over Post it notes. However, this means you need to pay attention when you're stamping your image because you don't want it to curl up and stick to itself. The tape is very thin - excellent quality in a masking material because it helps eliminate 'ghosting' - or that little white void around your masked images. Also, the surface of the paper is appropriately matte - Post its can be a little too slick, which keeps your ink wet and leads to smudging.

When you cut out a masked image, stay inside the lines - meaning, cut off a teeny bit of the border. You want your mask to be slightly smaller than the stamped image. Because you're adding another layer that you're stamping on, the paper is a little raised, which in itself can create ghosting - making your mask slightly smaller than your image helps overcome this. Before you put your mask on - do any coloring you need to do. I added some pale purple and blue copic shadows to my gravestones because I'm pretty sure that's the color they are when lightning hits Fredo!!

Place your mask on your stamped images and start creating your background. I started by brayering Pacific Point (hold your surprise!) Blue across the top part of the card, and Adirondack Lettuce (Thanks Vee!) across the bottom.

Now the brayer adds even more ghosting because it's such firm rubber. If you still get a little ghost, just come back in with a sponge beside your image. I touched these little guys up a bit - it just takes a second.

Afterwards you remove the mask for what Michelle calls "the big reveal. This is when the crispness of the image underneath the mask leads you to be really pleased with yourself and forget how mad you are at Maddie and Splotchy.

Almost forget.

I took my beloved white gel pen and added the lightning as a final touch. Fredo looks very electrified to me, like a cartoon electrocution from my childhood.

Adorable.

I cut off the edge of the Top Note sizzix diecut I stamped on, and then cut a second Top Note out of Basic Black. I stuck those two together and added that to the Ghostly Greetings Stampin' Up! Halloween DSP, and then mounted all that on Pacific Point Blue cardstock for the finished card. I used the Graveyard Sentiments set for the greeting, and I cut the words apart on this greeting so that I could use them separately. I stamped just "Happy" and punched it with my Stampin' Up! arrow punch. I added an Old Olive Stampin' up! brad, and hand trimmed the shaft of the arrow to fit. I stamped the rest of the greeting right on the card and then popped up the arrow with dimensionals. The top note is also adhered to the card with dimensionals.

Final opinion - Eclipse masking tape is much more effective than post it notes, and I would definitely recommend it. You can keep the masks and reuse them by sticking them to your case or the back of a wood mounted stamp. The thinness and the matte surface as well as the right amount of stick-em outweigh the waste issue, which I will work on solving. I read about it on Ellen Hutson's site, and I'm sure you can get it in lots of places. She ships extremely fast and includes a goodie in her orders, so I like her a lot, MHO.

Now, how can I take a nap at lunch?

Simple Thanks

Sometimes I have to tell myself to BACK OFF! Keep it simple! Luckily some of the new stamps make that pretty darn easy. I needed a bunch of thank you cards so I whipped these out with Pocket Silhouettes, Very Vanilla, So Saffron and Chocolate Chip. I am trying to decide - with or without ribbon?

And here's a little shot of the reason it's so hard to get ready in the morning. Sometimes I get infested with little feline beasts and have to capture the moment with a complicated over the kitty mirror shot.

They love to look at themselves in the mirror. I can't decide if they have eating disorders or they are just vain...

Because Art Matters

"Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life." - Pablo Picasso

Do you remember the first time you felt creative? The first time your masterpiece was hung on the fridge? Your first recital, concert, lesson plan or great idea at work? Few things feel as good as a unique contribution of creativity to the world.

But I don't have to tell you that. Most of you are artists. So you know how important it is in a person's life.

Meet Darden Smith.

He created the Be an Artist program I teased you about. Through a strange twist of providence, I met Darden Smith, and have recently been given the opportunity to help him do something that absolutely melts my heart every time I hear about it.

His non-profit Be an Artist program has a simple mission - teach kids that art is that thing you do when you don't have to do anything. For us - it's stamping, of course. But for some people, it's riding a bike, or gardening, selling houses, welding or any of the millions of things that people are passionate about.

What if you could start all over and be so super focused on what you LOVED to do from the time you were old enough to read? Do you think you'd have a better chance at turning it into your life's work? Don't you think that's worth teaching to children?

That is what Darden Smith thinks. And he spends an awful lot of time and money trying to make that happen.

Watch this video ....

So on Monday, October 27th, I'm going to help him. And so are a lot of other people. Most notably, one of my FAVORITE restaurants in Austin - Fino, home of several of our most memorable secret stamping society dinners and both the best patio and the best tapas in Austin!

Fino will be the location for our Be an Artist Fundraiser. There will be a four course dinner, a private concert by Paris 49, and the chance to hang out with Darden Smith and see why Be an Artist is changing the world - one kid at a time.

I know you wanna come... :) But we only have a limited number of seats in the restaurant, so please contact me to reserve your seat!

If you don't live in Austin, please click here to make a contribution for this event and support this amazing program. Please enter "Understand Blue" as the company name on the donation form so that I can send you a special thank you gift from me. :) I think you'll like it. If you are donating on behalf of a company, then please enter your company name and use "Understand Blue" in the comments section.

Tomorrow morning I will post the Pocket Silhouettes cards I made tonight - I needed some quick simple cards and these fit the bill!! I hope you like them, but I'm too sleepy to photoshop.

So in lieu of my own stamped creation tonight, enjoy this.

World Card Making Day!

I bet you didn't know that I am actually the inventor of World Card Making Day.

At my house, I just call that EVERY DAY.

But - since the rest of the world will be celebrating it on October 4th, I thought I should join in.

So I will be having a free, WCMD event at a fun local wine shop with two of my fellow demonstrators - Kim and Neelam.

Everyone who attends will make 9 cards - three copies of a card designed by me, one by Kim and one by Neelam. Oooh - what is that? A sneak peek??

Each card will use the Pocket Silhouettes set - currently on SALE for 15% off. We three are sweetening the deal if you order your set from us this week - we are throwing in FREE SHIPPING!!

Enjoy door prizes, have a mimosa and some general stamping fun. Extra chances in the prize drawings for bringing a friend and/or placing an order while you are there.

So join us to celebrate the wonder of a handmade card on Saturday, October 4th at 11 AM - Click here to RSVP! Space is limited - first come, first served!

PS - if you're not in Austin - THIS SPECIAL ON POCKET SILHOUETTES IS GOOD FOR ALL MY BLOG READERS!! ORDER TODAY!

You Saw the World in a Darker Shade of Blue..

Did you know you could get to Sweden bloghopping?

You can if you are a Doodle Factory fan. Starving Artistamps is running a Swedish Collage Card challenge. There are some incredibly talented women from Sweden who send their DF cards in to Tracey and they have this very colorful, distinctive style - bright colors, square cards, lots of embellishments, and this sunny, sweet and humorous feel to all their cards. Those of us on the design team and fans of the blog look forward to the shipments of these cards halfway across the world to Tracey for posting. Browse the gallery and see what I mean.

In the meantime, if you want to get outside the rectangular card box and re-define collage - which I think we think of as more somber, with darker colors and more serious subject matter than these cards - challenge yourself to a Swedish Collage style creation and upload a link to your card.

Here's my version - this is from the new Doodle Factory Halloween II set - with Lorelei smooching an embarassed ghost with her movie star red lipstick!!

I colored the image with Copics (RV29, C5, V09, V04, YG13, G07, B60 and YR07) and used some Stampin' Up! retired Halloween DSP, as well as Green Galore, Basic Black and Lovely Lilac cardstock. The cute flocked X & O are from the paper studio - Hobby Lobby was having a big sale so I splurged - this is outside my norm but I knew I'd need em for the Swedish card!

Want the best part?

A winner will be selected by raffle for a FULL SHEET OF YOUR CHOICE OF DOODLE FACTORY SHEETS!!

So for everyone who has been coveting my little monsters, head on over to the Starving Artistamps Blog and check out the Swedish Collage Challenge!!! Enter by October 1!

I now have a kitten in my left hand so I need to be brief.

I will have some VERY exciting news about Darden Smith's Be an Artist program this week though!!! I cant wait to tell you. For those of you who are outside of Austin, Darden Smith is the musician who was kind enough to let me use Boy as the music for my show. If it's not already on your Ipod, when you hear it (click here), I think you will understand quickly why I love this song so much ;) So stay tuned for the news.

I hope to stamp a little more after the Maddie Bat wakes up and gives me my arm back. Till then - happy stamping!

Martha's Blog Contest

Check it out - Martha is running a blog contest!!!

I love her blog - so if you haven't subscribed, go check it out.

Well almost finally!

Thanks to Vicki for pointing out that I forgot one card!!!!Forgive me for the omission.

But I'm excited to post this card today for lots of reasons.

1) It's soooo beautiful - this was our "warm up" card in the Zindorf workshop - if you can believe THAT.
2) I'm sending it to my friend whose father has Alzheimer's.
3) I'm grateful to Cammie - a former fellow Starving Artistamps designer when I started - for her efforts to raise money for the Alzheimer's Association through her amazing prize giveaway. She designed the Whimsical Autumn set for Gina K and donated 100% of her proceeds to the foundation in memory of her grandmother.

This turned into a flurry of generosity and a giant giveaway from Papertrey Ink, Splitcoast Stampers, Gina K and tons of others. I think that it is a testament to Cammie's sweet nature that she has had an overwhelming response to her own generosity for a great cause. There are 5 million Americans suffering from this disease, and many more caregivers sharing that struggle.

So even though this is much bigger than stamps, head over to her blog and see how you can win more than $1000 in merchandise and tons of handmade items from people who have donated to her great effort.

And MOST IMPORTANTLY - make and SEND a card to someone you know who is caring for a person afflicted with this disease.

Have a great Tuesday.

Spooky Spider!!!!

I love this Decor Element so much!!!

Get your own Spooky Spider from me - surely your favorite blogger :) - and get a free stamp and a Stampin' Spot from me!! I have some very special incentive stamps for anyone who places an online order by clicking the green button to the right.

This sassy spider comes in three sizes, in black or in white, and you can get extra web for large jars also.

This is a limited time offer and expires October 31st. This spider will not be available in the new Decor Elements brochure with the new items, or in future catalogs.

Order yours today!!

And Finally, The Cards..

We even got a bonus project, which is the palm tree with bushes.

We got a lot of blue - LOVE THAT!!!

She also brought some of the cards she has posted and wow are they stunning in real life. If you remember that challenge card she did that was all black and greys - it is absolutely gorgeous close up.

Have a fabulous Monday!