One Million Giraffes

If you're a LOST fan (insert heavy dog sigh here...) then one of your most beloved lines on the show HAD to be "don't tell me what I can't do."

Well, here's one of my favorite "don't tell me what I can't do" efforts EVER - One Million Giraffes.

Apparently, Jorgen does not believe it's possible to collect a million handmade giraffes via the internet by the end of the year. I think Jorgen is wrong and that the owner of this fabby idea will win that bet.

This is one of the early people I started following on Twitter, because I was completely charmed by the idea. The blog is so sweet and such a great testament not just to creativity, but to the fact that people are endlessly looking for an outlet for their creativity - and if a giraffe project comes along, by God, people will make giraffes. Squeezes my heart, it does. (Disclaimer - I'm not responsible for you becoming addicted to that blog. )

So, since I'm a Penfessional, and I got some awesome Hybrid Technica pens, I thought to myself - "Self - why don't you draw a giraffe with your fancy pens?"

I did not let the fact that I can't draw stop me, either. :)

I picked these pens because the info on them says they're great for Manga, hence, Copics.

And SURE ENOUGH - they are spectacular with Copics - no smearing, quick drying perfection! Since they have a rollerball, they definitely have more precision than my much beloved Copic Multiliners. There's no fuzziness or bleeding at all. If I could draw, these would be my go to pens!

But I did my best to capture the essence of giraffeyness by drawing that glorious neck. I just crosshatched to make the spots. I stamped the word "Journey" and some numbers in Versamark and clear embossed before coloring with Copics and rubbing ink over the image, because that neck is a journey and a mathematical miracle.
So my little guy is now officially one in a million. Why don't you make one?

Have a great Sunday.

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You're Never Too Old for a Teddy Bear

So...

If you are a frequent visitor to my blog, then you've seen the photo at the very bottom of my blog of a stunning blue tree I saw in Chicago. I saw it and photographed it about 15 minutes before meeting my aunt Maureen at the bottom of the Hancock Tower. She greeted me with the softest white teddy bear and asked me: "are you too old for your aunt to bring you a bear?"

I wasn't. :) He's been a permanent resident of my studio since that trip.

I carried him to lunch at the top of the Sears Tower, and to the Bean, and through all the beautiful places she took me that day, explaining the history of this and that in a way that only someone who loved art and loved Chicago like this woman did could do.

She found me the rabbits in Millenium park and then turned around to point out the larger than life, big, important building that her husband worked in.

She was silly, beautiful, serious and fun. She wore insanely cute shoes that were inappropriate for the occasion, just like I do. She was irreverent when it was hilarious, and reverent when you least expected it.

She. Loved. Animals.

She's gone now.

But I think you will see a few things here you will love and understand. She was loved. She was beautiful. She wore great shoes. What more can a girl ask?
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If A Bear Giggles in the Forest...

Do bears giggle?

WELL I HOPE SO!!

Nina Aslund thinks they do anyway, and she is releasing her new Antidepresstamps line in our blog hop today! Ha - it makes me laugh every time I see it. Stamps ARE antidepressants.

If you want to start at the beginning of the hop, click here. One of the hoppers has a full set of Nina's images to give away to one of you, so you won't want to skip any!

This release at Starving Artistamps includes the Gigglebears, Birds and Bees. I worked with the birds and bees and I'm UBER stoked about having a honeycomb background stamp! I've only been waiting forever for an image like this. I <3 honey. And bees. As long as they play nice.

My first bee is crazy nice - he is giggling! I colored him and a strip of the honeycomb background with Copics. I glittered my happy bee's wings with Stickles™. For my next card, I used one of the birdies, and I made up my own species color, which apparently is a cross between a parakeet and a robin. :) I paired it with an October Afternoon Report Card and the new Stampin' Up! newsprint DSP. The ribbon is silk May Arts.
I have more fun projects with these images coming up, but now, it's time to get on with the hop! The next stop is Jenn!

Here's the full hop list in case you missed any.

Starving Artistamps
Irene (Our Doodle Factory Artist)
Nina
Donna
Juliana
Me (You are here)
Jenn
Dawn
Laura
Lori
Eva
Tracey

Leave some comment love and maybe you will win! And if you want to use my discount code (savetenLF) for 10% off other purchases at Starving Artistamps, you better hurry - it's expiring in a few weeks!

Have a hoppy day!


Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :) Want to see my other blog?

Father's Day

Okay, so I'm a little late. Just a day, though! That's not too bad. Yesterday got away from me. You'll see why later in the post.

So, one day, I'm hopping along the bunny trail that is my Google Reader content, and I see this incredible little owl. He literally stopped my heart. He looks like a barn owl.

I have a story, too long to tell tonight, about a little barn owl that was hit by a crane truck that I rescued in Corpus Christi. I named him Hootie. He lost his wing from the accident, but he went to live at Wayne's World in Sinton, TX, and when I called and asked about him, they told me he ate 37 mice and was doing fine. I think you're having an okay day if you are nomming 37 mice after you got hit by a truck.

Anyway, I love owls. If you don't love owls, there's a good chance you're completely crazy. Or there's a possibility you are a mouse.

So I had to have this one. And I thought he'd be perfect for a Father's Day card, with all his wise seriousness.

Stamps: Hope Grows (Gina K), Sentimental Journey (SU) Ink: Memento, Ranger
Paper: Pumpkin Pie, Summer Sun, KI, Whisper White, Basic Grey
Accessories: Copics, Holtz die, Big Shot, Corner Chomper, Nestabilities

My friend Dana came to see me and brought me this fantabulous Tim Holtz Regal Crest die and I LOVE it! I shaded gently with copics to make the little banner look 3D.

I colored the owl with Copics and then rubbed various distress inks on the background.

My own dad is incredibly wise, although he has never eaten any mice, and taught me everything I know about card games, cursing, the danger of unprotected left turns, parallel parking, parallax, antipasto and the scientific method. So Happy Father's Day, wise Bob. :)

Now this weekend, I was working on some samples for the new Starving Artistamps release - and I'm so excited about this!! My dear friend and fellow DT member Nina is the creator of the Antidepresstamps line and you will GIGGLE, I promise. :) The hop is this Wednesday, the 23rd.
Come on back now, you hear?


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Sometimes There's Just Grey...

Stamps: Country Morning, FYI, Canvas Paper: Soft Sky, Basic Grey Boxer, Whisper White
Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black Accessories: Copics, Nestabilities, May Arts ribbon, Top Note Die

What better color for an I miss you card than just.. grey? Well, maybe a little blue :)

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Please Fix the World, Love, Me

There are some things that need to be fixed. I'm not talking about big things. I'm talking about things that should be completely under our control as humans, and yet, they are broken.

Let's start with something I never use. (This is how you know I'm totally sincere in my wish for a fix.)

Ironing boards. See? I told you I don't use it. But LOOK. Do ironing boards HAVE to screech like a thousand dementors when you open and close them? As a person that never uses them, I'm particularly offended and victimized by this sound. Is bare metal on metal the best America has to offer the ironing public?

Grocery carts. I do use these. I really like the teeny ones. However, I wish they had a hook under the handle I could hang my purse from. They're so small and perfect for my groceries, but when I have to put my purse in there, there's not enough room. A little hook would be so easy.

I will solve more of the world's problems later this week, but now we better have a little art. If your ears have been screeched off by an ironing board, this is candy for your eyes.

I did this card for a Virtual Stamp Night challenge called Muddy Water - the challenge was to use browns. I was working with a dye ink stack for the Splitcoast Inkadinkado Product Focus at the time, so I played with the earth tones. First, I stamped the little fawn in rust. Then I smooshed the dark brown ink onto my acrylic block for a palette and used my blender pen to add shadows to the little fawn. I also just used the blender pen on the image to soften it a bit, since fawns are soft. :) I highlighted his little spots with a white gel pen when I was done.

Stamps: Inkadinkado Paper: Stampin' Up! Presto Patterns, Early Espresso & Very Vanilla

Ink: Inkadinkado Earthtones dye stack Accessories: Tim Holtz Sizzix die, SU! taffeta ribbon

Now - funny story on the background.

So I love this Presto Patterns paper. It's beautiful, especially when you combine ink and Smooch Spritz, which I did here.

However.

I take out a piece of the paper for this card, cut it up and start rubbing brown ink into it.

At which point the words "Mole" and "Harelip" appear - presto! I'm not kidding. Now I don't know what this paper says, but I knew I did not want that on my card! So I flipped it sideways and decided to use the text as a vertical pattern. I once sent a friend a card with a dictionary page on it that I did not notice was covering the topic of poop quite nicely. So I'm a little warier now. :)

Hope you have a great Wednesday!

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Delicate Flowers

If I lived in a climate that didn't destroy delicate flowers with the blazing heat of a thousand suns, I would fill my yard with blue hydrangeas.

I remember when I was little, my mom had some unusual flowers. We had this pale purple rosebush that produced these completely unforgettable roses. For some reason they were called silver roses. The color was beautiful, and also somewhat creepy because it was so different from all other roses. Truly unforgettable.

And, because our weather was a bit milder there, she had hydrangeas. she taught me the trick to make them blue, too, because after a while, they will all turn a pale greenish white if left alone. To make them blue, you need rust, believe it or not. So she would stick rusty nails in the dirt, and whaddaya know - they'd turn blue again.

Never underestimate what makes a color tick!

So I used a hydrangea for my swap for the Splitcoast North Texas Shoebox Swap in Dallas this weekend. It was the most incredibly fun, well organized and relaxing stamping event I've ever been to!

I made mine with all sneak peek items from the new catty :)

Stamps: Because I Care, Perfect Punches Ink: India Ink, Ballet Blue, Green Galore, Old Olive, Crumb Cake
Paper: Crumb Cake, Newsprint DSP
Accessories: White Gel Pen, flower, button, twine, Ballet Blue Ribbon, Scalloped Square die, dimensionals, Modern Label Punch

Hope you had a great lazy Sunday!!

Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :) Want to see my other blog?

Birds with FLAIR

I love birds.

I know some people are scared of them, and I'm sorry about that. It's possible that a fear of birds is on the same chromosome as the white food aversion in my previous post, in which case, our telethon will find a cure.

But I love them. In all their feathered varieties. If birds ever go out of stamping vogue, well, I will just be out of vogue, cuz I love em.

I went on a huge spendstravaganza at Archivers (mostly the fault of Libby and Dana, I might add) last weekend, and I got this ADORABLE Unity Birds of a Feather set with these curly twirly cutie head birds.

So it was a perfect time to join the Unity Friends with Flair blog hop today (hence justifying my purchases)! I made this little card with lots of my new toys from that trip, including that October Afternoon grid paper, the sassy Abbey Road brad, my new Tim Holtz die, and some old tie dyed felt I unearthed this week. I love die cutting felt!! The background is also Unity - from Going Retro. The little birdie and acorns are colored with Copics and paper pieced.

I love his sassy orangeness.

For a full list of Friends with Flair hoppers today, click here!

What do you have up for the weekend? I'll be shoebox swapping!

Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :) Want to see my other blog?

The White Food Telethon

I don't know if you're aware of this but there's a very serious illness afflicting many of your fellow citizens, regardless of your home country.

It's so tragic, I can hardly even type about it.

It's called WHITE FOOD AVERSION DISORDER.

The symptoms are horrible. They include dislike of the following delicious items: mayonnaise, chicken fried steak gravy, ranch dressing, alfredo sauce and, in extreme cases, MASHED POTATOES!

I am familiar with this disease because my own brother in law is afflicted with it. He was not dropped on his head as a child, or forced to live in a cupboard under the stairs. The other family members appear normal, and consume white foods. One of my downline also has this disease.

There is no known cure. A fellow stamper, my friend Kim, and I were having coffee last week and we discussed this terrible affliction, from which her own OFFSPRING suffers, and we wondered why there isn't more awareness of it. We really think that it deserves a telethon. Perhaps sponsored by Hidden Valley and Duke's Mayonnaise. Let's stop the needless white food deprivation of a large percentage of our population. Let the white food averse people come out of the shadows. They deserve our support.

I made this card for today's Ways to Use It Challenge. It was BUTTERFLIES! You all love butterflies and probably have a squillion butterfly stamps, so play along! Link in a comment if you play. :)

Stamps: Artistic Etchings, All a Flutter, Elements of Style, Unity May Store Kit
Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Sky, Basic Black Paper: Whisper White, Newsprint
Accessories: MFT scalloped scallop die, SU ribbon, Ellison stamp frame die, sponge, red gel pen, markers.

Have you signed up for the UBlue Cyber Club? Attended one of my Webinars?? Come on - get your geek on! :) Want to see my other blog?

Rain Would be Less Humid

I pretty much almost died in the jungles of Austin this morning.

I set out for my walk at about 6 AM in an atmosphere of absolutely apocalyptic humidity and heat. It was so still, and the world looked positively post-zombie attack.

There wasn't another idiotic soul about. Just me, and my impending heart failure from the jungly heat.

The farther I went, the worse I felt, and the emptier the world got.

Everyone else was clearly already dead of some sort of humidity related illness. I envied them.

Nothing in the swampy town where I grew up and battled the elements with AquaNet had prepared me for today.

When I was done, I truly felt ill and was completely worthless. I had a Frosty for lunch. I am just now feeling human again.

I have an appropriately watery card for you in tribute to my near death experience!

This was one of the cards I made for Virtual Stamp Night. This challenge was to use water on a card. I busted out my new Lawn Fawn stamps and got to work. I also combined this with a tent card challenge - I had never made one of these before!

First, I stamped the clouds in Whisper White craft ink. After the ink dried, it was really too pale, so I thought I'd outline them with my Copic. As I started doing it, I realized the craft ink was resisting the Copic! What a great find! It meant I didn't have to be careful at all.
Inside the card I stamped the little raindrops in Versamark and clear embossed them.


I LOVE the way the raindrops look in clear. I will be using these a lot!

So how's the weather in your part of the world? Not jungly I hope!

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Need to Poison a King?

Allrighty. I admit it. I have a twisted sense of humor. But you knew that already or you wouldn't even BE here today.

I've also read an awful lot of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie and Dick Francis.
So after I made this card and got ready to upload it for Julia's Ways to Use it Challenge - which was There's No Place Like Home, I thought to myself - this would make an awesome card to give someone with a poisoned tart of some sort - Homemade and to DIE for!! They'd never suspect a thing! Plus it's super cute. (insert evil laugh here)

This is with more sneak peek goodies. New cardstock, ink, accessories, TOYZ. Yum. :)
Stamps: Homemade Cardstock: Early Espresso, Newsprint DSP, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Ink: Early Espresson, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Eyelet punch, 2" Scallop Punch, Early Espresso Ribbon, Corner Rounder, Rhinestone

What are you making today? MWAAAHHHAAAAAA...

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In UPS We Trust

If you had read the juicy homages to the UPS man I've been seing on Splitcoast today from anxious Stampin' Up! demonstrators you'd be more than a little amused and also perhaps a wee bit worried for the men in brown.

We love our UPS man, stampers. They are the symbols of bright hope in our world. They each have a unique sound that our trained ears twitch to, no matter how far their booted feet are from the door.

They have been fed brownies, hugged, probably kissed and DEFINITELY chased down the street at this time of year. I've noticed that mine darts nimbly to the truck evading all of my attempts to catch him with a little UPS man net so that I can go see what else is in his truck.

Mine has been here twice today, along with my FedEx guy. It's a good day.

It brought me my SNEAK PEEKS from the new catalog!! WHEEEEE! I had that same paralysis I always have - what do I play with first??

So I picked my faves - the new Cherry Cobbler cardstock, the Newsprint DSP, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder and Studio Sketches.

I watercolored the image with Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler and cut the edges with the card fronts die.

And that's just the beginning!! Maybe they should rename UPS - SU!PS!
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