But What Would You DO?

People are so cool.

The other day, Suzi Blu asked the most interesting series of questions about creativity.

The focus of the conversation was what exactly you would do if all of the burdens that get in the way of your art were lifted. So we decided to indulge ourselves in a little exercise about what our perfect creative day would be. Move past all the things we think keep us from creating at our maximum potential now - so assume you have unlimited resources, the perfect space, and no encroaching deadlines - and imagine what that would be like.

What would you DO with a day like this stretched before you?

It's a harder question than I thought it would be to answer, so I took a few days. I tried to figure out what does go into my creative process when I do have time. What I found is that I have a process that I follow every time that I create something, but it is fractured. It's broken up by obligations, space issues, distractions, money. If I remove all of them, I've decided my day looks like this...

I have to absorb to create. I love to take in a lot of creative content to get inspired. I use Google Reader, Pinterest, Splitcoast and the natural world. The first part of my day would be to go to these creative wells. Spend two hours on intake.

I don't feel comfortable going right from intake to creating. I need a break of either sleep or walking to turn it into inspiration. So on my perfect day, I choose a 3 hour walk. I like to take pictures of random things on my walk, and I think it's a critical part of the process, even though most of them just stay on my phone. They help me frame the world.

Post walk, I would do a little organizing. There's some weird mania that goes with crafting that compels me to take a mental inventory of what I have, which is best done by putting things away.

Then, I would create. Ideally on a sunny day, with news on TV in the background, and a creature sleeping on my desk. The news gives me a distraction when I need it, and I do actually need it. I am not a marathon crafter. I need to craft in little bursts and be able to look away during a project, wander around, listen to and look at things. I call this artist ADD.

After I create, then on to photography and writing. I consider writing an essential part of it, because I rarely make things without a story. When I do make things that aren't part of a story, I don't enjoy them as much.

At the end of this perfect day, I'd do two more hours of intake. There is nothing more inspiring than the art other people create.

Time is wealth, truly. Think what all of us could do if we just had the time.

Stamps: Anytime Greetings (Retired), Sense of Time (Retired) Ink: Basic Black, Soft Suede Paper: Newsprint DSP, Crumb Cake Accessories: Smooch Azure, Gold Lame and Moonlight, Ribbon, Top Note Die, Big Shot, Distressing Kit

Since I didn't have a lot of time today, I created a quick and simple card. I stamped the little angel and then painted it with Smooch. Love that sparkly paint.

I wonder what I could do with it on my perfect day...?

What is your perfect day?

If you blog it and link me, or tell me in a comment, I will enter you in a drawing to win this stamp set.

You have to comment by July 4th at 11:59 PM to be eligible!

Loveyameanitbye.

A Question of Perspective...

I've participated in a few really different art challenges this month, and they made me ponder perspective.

A friend sent me this great article with 47 things you should know about yourself. It's fantastic - you should take the time to read each of them. One of them dealt with what is called the "canonical perspective" that people draw objects with. If you ask people to draw a coffee cup, nearly everyone will draw them from this angle:

I repeated this experiment with my friends Yvonne and Chriss at our stampy dinner last week, and they drew the cups this way too. But this isn't the way you normally see your coffee cup. You rarely have your chin on the table when you are looking at your cup - you're normally above it. And yet our brains picture this canonical perspective instead.

So when the Austin Fiber Artists challenge group issued a challenge to create a piece of art with an aerial view, I picked an aerial view of a cup. A teacup, to be exact. The only other requirement was that it include some sort of fiber. I made a cup of my favorite Wild Sweet Orange tea on a saucer, on a doily, on a blue table.

I just mixed acrylic paints to get the right blue on a small canvas. The doily is from MFT. The saucer I cut with my Big Shot Circle Die, and I edged that and the handle with a Pentel Sunburst Gold pen. The tea is Peach Parfait ink, applied directly to the cardstock, and then covered with Crystal Effects.

I stuck the teabag string into the Crystal effects while it was wet to attach it. That's what tea really looks like from my perspective.

Speaking of perspective - here's something that will make you think, from our family in Minot, ND.

On Mon at 4pm we got the 48 hr. official evacuation notice from our home.  With a call to my brother, at 4:45pm, we began to plan evacuating our home on Tuesday morning. Four pickups, one flat bed trailer and one extended horse trailer arrived at our home at 6 am and began moving all our 34 years of belongings.  Two trips to Glenburn,  (23 miles north of Minot) with each vehicle we called it a day for our movers.  Our evacuation time was cut to noon on Wednesday. With one more trip on Wednesday morning, with the 4 vehicles,  by 10:30 AM, we headed out of town before Minot's north exit was cut off from the valley.

 

We are tired, sore, and still moving on God knows what, but we are safe.
 
Took a little break on Saturday from all the chaos in town and stayed in the country.  That helped. Sunday after the crest, we went in town on back roads where cars have a hard time getting through.  The devastation is so much I can't even express it.  We still do not know how far the water got up in our house. I'm sure to the third floor and maybe the eaves.  Last night. I looked at some photos on Facebook in our part of town and all you can see is rooftops.  Couldn't sleep.  Today I spent all day calling FEMA, deferring payments, etc. Tomorrow will be the same.

 Here are some photos from a fellow stamper from Minot of her home and neighborhood in Minot. I can't even imagine.

If you had less than 48 hours to try to salvage everything you've ever owned, what would that do to your perspective?

Please keep these people in Minot in your prayers. 

If you want to help, you can text Minot to 80888 to donate $10.

The Land of Swirly Twirly Butterflies

I'm spending this weekend making a movie for the 48 Hour Film Project, and I couldn't be happier to report that both unicorns AND glitter are involved. But that's really all I can say.

The rules are simple. You show up on Friday and draw for a genre. Genres include things you might expect, like romance, western, etc. But they also include some unexpected things, like the genre we got this year - birthday or anniversary. Each genre comes with a required line of dialogue, a character and a prop that have to be incorporated into the film. So our line of dialogue is "Don't tell me what to do," our character is a soccer coach and our prop is a purse. With this info, you may then start working on the film - writing a script, getting actors, filming, editing, etc. until it's time to turn the movie in on Sunday evening.

It's like a card challenge on crack. This is our fourth one, I think, and we have learned a lot each time. I highly recommend doing it at least once. It will really make you appreciate even the very simplest things that happen in Hollywood flicks, I promise.

It also makes you really appreciate how much control you have over something like... stamping! :)

I made today's card for the All Things Unity Challenge #34

  Squee! Butterflies are the unicorns of stamping!! How can a person resist a butterfly challenge??

To make the butterflies, I used a secret technique that I will show you if you plan on stopping by the Splitcoaststampers booth at CHA next month! :) I will post a tutorial after the show, but if you are going to be in Chicago, please stop by and say hello and see it in real life!

After I made the secret blue prettiness background, I stamped the butterfly from the February 2011 KOTM on it and cut them out. I love nothing more than cutting out a little flutterby and popping her wings up off a card. It's cosmic! To top off their loveliness, the butterflies have little pearl antennae. The greeting is from the March 2011 KOTM.



I think these little butterflies DO believe they can fly. So do I. :)

Got butterflies? Play along!! I'd love to see what you make, and I'd love it even more if you won all that Plaid Mod Podge-y goodness! We could have used some Mod Podge on the set today!

Keep Calm and Carry On

Way back in the old days - 1939 to be exact - governments used to make posters with a wide variety of ridiculous things on them. For example, here's one urging people to be frugal, apparently by poking relatives in the arse with a needle. I guess it's wasteful to take the torn pants off the person wearing them before mending..

I always wonder if people saw these posters and ran home to slap the sugar out of people's hands and turn off all the lights, or if they thought to themselves, "Hey - you know what's wasteful? You printing a bunch of posters while I'm getting stabbed in the arse and rationing sugar!"

I'm pretty sure you know which one I would have been thinking.

However, there's one government poster that I absolutely adore. Those Brits - they always get it right. They produced this lovely poster in 1939 that is now a cult favorite. It's message was simple - let's not get our undies all in a bundle should those pesky Germans show up and ruin everything. Let's just...

How very British of them! It cracks me up every time I see it, in all of its fun new forms.

I decided that there was no personality more suited for adversity than a stamper, though. We just stamp on through whatever comes our way. I decided that that sentiment needed to be on a t-shirt for all of my stamping events in July, so feel free to grab one for yourself in my shirt store! :) You can choose the color and size and style. I had to have a blue one, of course...

Dana and I ordered ours today so that we can storm a few places together spreading stampy calm :).

Speaking of Old World, today's Try a New Technique challenge on Splitcoast was to make something look Old World-y. I decided to go for a sepia look with watercolor and the flowers from On the Grow. The whole thing took about 4 minutes - it's amazing how easy and quick it is to watercolor with just a single shade - in this case, Soft Suede.

The background DPS is retired so I don't have the name of it - but it has the coolest leaf pattern on the back! Sorry - but the pattern wasn't Old World so you don't get to see it. I swiped my faux frame with a gold pen to make it look like an old world frame. Oh - I embossed it with my polka dot embossing folder too. And I drew the joints of the frame with the gold pen, and popped it off the card with dimensionals.

Feeling frazzled that it's already almost July? Don't worry peeps. Keep calm and stamp on :).

Loveyameanitbye.

An Open Letter to Clint Eastwood

Dear Mr. Eastwood:

I bumped into you once. Literally. Outside an art gallery in Carmel with George Rodrigue paintings that I wanted to see. You were much taller and much thinner in real life than you looked on screen.

It was cool being able to say I bumped into Clint Eastwood.

You went on with your life, thankfully, but I've often wondered if I jostled some sort of darkness loose in you. You began to make some beautiful, but incredibly dark and tragic movies.

I tried to like them just for their art, because they are unquestionably great art, but a girl can only take so many snapped necks, and wronged women and on and on and on.

Don't get me wrong - I love dark art. My favorite authors are Orwell and Hardy and Dostoevsky. I love Edward Gorey and Tim Burton.

But honey - these movies are DARK. You gotta cheer yourself UP with Dostoevsky after Million Dollar Baby or Unforgiven.

I've wanted to send you some Calvin and Hobbes, or maybe a calendar with pictures of bunnies on it, just in hopes of lightening you up a tad.

And then I watched Invictus last night.

What a spectacular, sunny and inspiring movie that was. The music was so beautiful. You even took the two potentially Eastwood scary moments and made them charming and funny. I didn't have to cover my face even one time, and I could sleep after it was over.

Clint, my friend - I do believe you have a blue sky somewhere inside that lanky frame. Thanks for letting us see a bit of it.

Love, Lydia

Stamps: Four Frames, Silhouette Sentiments Ink: Basic Black, Poppy Parade, Cool Caribbean, Kiwi Kiss 

Paper: Whisper White Accessories: Decorative Label Punch, Sponge, Blender pen

Happy Father's Day to Clint Eastwood, my dad, brother, inlaws and all you other dads and accomplished actors, directors and people I've bumped into in another life...

You Should Focus...

I'm reading Outliers. Well, I'm listening to it on my Ipod. Well it's not really my Ipod, because it's just a little Ipod icon on my Iphone.

So I am listening to a book on my phone. Except it's not really a book - it's a recording.

Well you know what I mean.

See how hard it is to focus?

Anyway, the book is about the magical 10,000 hours that turn people into the best at what they do.

10,000 hours is about 5 full time work years. It's when you really start to get good.

Want proof? Go look at your Splitcoast gallery or your blog and see where your cards really started to take on what you think of as your own personal style. If you've been doing it for a long time, it was probably at the 10,000 hour mark. Maybe you're not there yet, in which case, you have a ton of joy ahead of you. It's a really great book - I highly recommend listening to it and thinking about exactly what it is you choose to spend your time on.

If you're not spending most of your hours on something you REALLY want to get good at, you should find a way to make that happen.

It made me think of a technique, of course.

Spotlighting.

It's an oldie, but a goodie, and I love it every time I do it I think because I love a solitary pop of color anyway, and this technique just gives me an excuse.

Stamps: Bella Toile, On the Grow Ink: Soft Suede, Basic Black, Poppy Parade 

Paper: Crumb Cake, Poppy Parade, Whisper White 

Accessories: Small oval Punch, Medium Oval Punch, Blender Pen, Trinket Keys, Dimensionals, Cherry Cobbler Twine

One thing you need to focus on is that this lovely background stamp is retiring at the end of the month. :( I haz a sad. If you want to get your paws on it before it's gone forever, you can order it here.

If I were any good at focusing, I would have realized that I failed to put a glue dot on my key before I took a picture, and now it's immortalized forever just flapping around in front of my greeting.

*Sigh*

Guess I need a few more hours....

You Gotta Have a Little Narwhal

Remember that little narwhal from Elf? When Buddy the Elf was leaving, he floated up and said "Bye Buddddyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy" in that goofy little voice?

Loved that little fella. When I was little - well, actually to this day - I really had Dr. Doolittle aspirations. I loved all the lizards and horny toads in our neighborhood, and we had these SPECTACULAR blue and yellow butterflies that were almost as big as our heads. There were black and white shiny zebra bugs all over our willow trees, and oh yeah - there was the asp I befriended...

If I spent enough time outside to make little friends these days, this is what I'd pick: a baby wild hog, a polar bear, a narwhal, an elk, a bunny with a stopwatch, and a fox :).

Stamps: Friends 24-7 (retired), Nikoart (various) Ink: Poppy Parade, Peach Parfait, Summer Sun, Gable Green, Tempting Turquoise, Orchid Opulence, Basic Black  Paper: Crumb Cake, Whisper White 

Accessories: Merry Medley On Board Chipboard, White Acrylic Paint, SU Fancy Fibers Bright (Retired), SU Postage Stamp Punch, Post it Notes

I made this card for the Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger, which I found extremely beautiful.

I was trying to figure out what we all love about rainbows, and I settled on variety. There's a little something for everyone. I mean, you gotta have a little narwhal or life is just boring!

Also, has anyone ever noticed that they are the unicorn of the sea? Do you think some drunk North Atlantic fisherman (I actually know nothing about narwhal habitat - shocking - so substitute appropriate body of water here) saw a Narwhal and made up the whole unicorn thing to explain why he never came home that night? Just occurred to me.

Anyway, to make the little postage stamp, I cut a 1" square into a post it note with my paper cutter and then used that as a mask to sponge colored squares. I then punched them out with my Postage Stamp punch and stamped the critters on them.

Hey look - it makes an L! :)

Hope you're having a colorful week!!

All Things Manly

It's pretty hard to believe that it's almost Father's Day, isn't it? I really have no idea where 2011 has gone, and when I look at how full the old Google Calendar is for the rest of the year, it is apparent that effectively, it's already 2012!

But it is the week to take a sec and tip our hats to the boyz, the spider killers, the lawn mowers, the people who can't find the mustard in the fridge but can change a tire...

So it's a SUPER time to for the All Things Unity Blog's Get Manly challenge!

I decided that for my manly creation, I was going to paint a little picture of the man cave. I think we can all agree that a comfy sprawl in front of the TV is something we all think of as manly. We are never sitting in front of the TV because we are always stamping, so it's sort of the male holy land, undisturbed by the XX chromosomes!

First, I did a little woodworking for my manly card. I vividly remember one episode of Trading Spaces where they painted one stripe of gloss paint and then a stripe of satin paint to make a faux wallpaper and I LOVED it!! I've always wanted to do that, so I've done it on a small scale here. I took a piece of Crumb Cake cardstock, and painted on a coat of gloss Mod Podge onto it and let it dry. I used a piece of River Rock to make the satin strips, by painting Matte Mod Podge on it and letting that dry. Then I cut the strips to 1/2" x 2 1/8" and glued them on a Crumb Cake card base. For the top, I laid down a Plaid stencil and sponged Extreme Glitter into it. The iridescent glitter really picked up on the green tint of the River Rock. The whole thing is sort of muted and manly, and I think that completely compensates for the fact that I used glitter on a manly card.

Next, I made "molding" between the stripes and the wall by layering two 1/8" wide strips of Very Vanilla onto a piece of 1/2" Very Vanilla, and painting it with Mod Podge gloss. 

Finally, I moved in some comfy furniture and hardware to complete the man cave. That is the good life, isn't it?

Stamps: Unity Kit of the Month - November 2010 and June 2010 Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black 

Paper: Crumb Cake, River Rock, Very Vanilla, Whisper White, Poppy Parade  

Accessories: Mod Podge gloss, matte and Extreme Glitter, paintbrush, Stampin' Up! Hodgepodge Hardware, glue

 
Hey - you're standing in front of the TV!!! :)


Now a little birdie told me that they are giving away all this loot as part of their All Things Unity Challenge, so maybe you better stop by the ATU blog to enter your own manly card for a chance to win!!

I've heard that Mod Podge is the new duct tape. Just sayin'.

Loveyameanitbye!

With Love

 *Sigh*

I had a lovely lunch yesterday with some amazing stampy friends. The guest of honor was my sweet friend Libby, who is moving soon.

Libby is one of my original stampy idols when I first discovered stamping blogs. I still can't believe that we got to become friends, and that through her, that I met so many other talented and fun girls.

Libby lives at the opposite end of town, but she and I have violated that unspoken Austin law never to cross the river often -  to stamp, experience the deliciousness that is Taco Deli and Phil's and do all the arty and crafty things that Austin has that brought us together in the first place.

I will miss this sweet, gentle girl and her beautiful kids, one of whom I'm fairly certain will be the next Jack Hanna, and the other - a ballerina :).


I thought I should make her a little something blue.

Stamps: Delicate Doilies (July 1), Love & Care Ink: Basic Black, Whisper White  

Paper:First Edition, Crumb Cake, Pool Party (July 1) 

Accessories: Perfect Pennants Die (July 1),  Scallop Trim Border Punch, Pearls, 

Early Espresso Twine, Designer Buttons (Deck the Halls - retired), 2.5" Circle Punch

To make the rosette, I used a strip of First Edition DSP, that I punched on one side with the Scallop Trim Border Punch. I followed this tutorial to make it, with one change. After you adhere the ends together and form it into a rosette, instead of glue, I just stuck a small strip of Sticky Strip across the back - it's fast and holds it together. When you're ready to put it on your card, you already have adhesive on it.

I did a Direct to Paper tutorial this week (If you missed it, it's here, including a video) and so I used White Craft Ink to fade the print on the First Edition DSP so that I could stamp a greeting on it. I dried it with my heat gun, and then used a circle punch to punch an arc out of it so that it wouldn't show behind the Pool Party scallop that I cut with the Perfect Pennants die.

It's soft and sweet, just like my buddy. I wish you the best, Libby, but man, do I haz a sad.

Bon voyage girlie. See you on Twitter.

xxoo.

I Dream, You Dream, We All Dream of Ice Cream..

If you don't find ice cream inspiring, I really don't think it's possible to inspire you!! Luckily, I am inspired by dairy products of all kinds, and ice cream is certainly tied for first. With butter.

Anyway, looks like the Moxie Fabbers are too, so this week's Tuesday Trigger is the perfect inspirational storm! Check out the trigger image - squee!!!

Yummy, eh?

Well I was so tired yesterday that I thought I might actually die of tiredness. I stayed up as long as I could and then fell into a twitchy coma. But before I drifted off, I had what I thought was a great idea for the trigger. Kind of rays of neapolitan joy radiating out from an ice cream cone! I'm glad I remembered it when I woke up, because I think it turned out kind of fun.

Stamps: Sweet Scoops Ink: Crumb Cake, India Ink Black  

Paper: Pretty in Pink, Chocolate Chip, Whisper White, Crumb Cake  

Accessories: Chocolate Chip and Pretty In Pink Markers, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Two Way Glue Pen

Since I already sort of had it planned out in my dream, I thought it would be fun to live craft it with my friends on Ustream. I recorded so you can see how long it takes me to make even the simplest CAS card. Also, people are in a little chat box on the live broadcast, so you will hear me answering their questions and talking to them from time to time, not having discussions with the voices in my head. :)

If you don't see the video player above, click here for my Moxie Fab Ice Cream Card Video.

I hope you enjoy!

I'm off to get a little something cold and sweet!

This Post is NOT About a Congressman in (or out of) his Underpants!

Surely that's a relief to all of you!!

It's actually about some more sneak peeks - again, not of anyone in their undies. Perhaps our elected representatives should take up stamping, so that they have an awareness of what is appropriate to share on the internet!!

Like, for example, patriotic cards! I saw the Patriotic Linky Party on Craft Test Dummies and I just had to bust out the pennants for some red, white and blue fun.

Stamps: Fabulous Phrases, Pennant Parade (upcoming) Paper: Just add Cake (upcoming) 

Ink: Poppy Parade, Basic Black, Pacific Point Blue, Whisper White

Accessories: Petite Pennants Builder Punch (upcoming), Stars #2 die, Itty Bitty Shapes Punch Pack, Cherry Cobbler Twine, 1/16" Circle Punch, Corner Rounder, bling, Perfect Polka Dots Embossing Folder

Now I did have some unclean thoughts (not related to a Congressman) while I was blinging my stars, but I really like them so I soldiered on. To me, they look like cupcakes with those silver sprinkles.
Mmm... sprinkles.

I stamped the first "celebrate" in black, and then stamped it in red and blue, stamping off twice moving away from the center. I love that font. I stamped the pennants in white craft ink before punching them out.

When I went outside to photog my card, the sprinklers had just finished costing me $200 and my rosebush looked beautiful!

How's that for a beautiful start to a Wednesday?



Hope it's all coming up roses for you this week!

Oh PS - I'm teaching a bleach techniques class at Scrapology tomorrow evening - contact them if you'd like to join us!

Got Hurt and Missed Work? Have I Got a Card For You!

Heh heh...

This one is for my friend Dana, who is getting her knee fixed today. I hope she's got Aflac!!!

Stamps: Sneak peek set Cherish Friendship Ink: Basic Black  

Accessories: Peach Parfait marker, Sizzlits Alphabet - Go Go Boots, Big Shot , Aflac idea from Kathy (Stampin Wrose on Splitcoast) :)

Good luck Dana - you'll be running around in no time! Actually, more importantly, you'll be running around Salt Lake City with me in no time!! :D

Anyone interested in a little UBlue happy hour this year in SLC - just email me!

Another Million Dollar Idea...

I know. Hard to believe I have so many of them.

But as I was sitting in my 115 degree car scraping off my registration sticker with a razor blade so that I could put the new one on, I realized what a stupid exercise that is.

Why don't we have a little barcode or tag like a toll tag that stores all our info and gets updated when we get an inspection or renew our registration? Since they're scanning our tag at toll booths, think how many people they could scan on our highways for expired tags or inspections, freeing up our police officers to arrest all the bored students that are going to be vandalizing and stealing things this summer, or the people who are driving around Austin like lobotomized ferrets!

More importantly, think how happy I'll be not to be scraping stickers off my window and putting new ones on! Don't those stickers drive you nuts? You have this ONE CHANCE to get them straight, while squishing your head between your steering wheel and your boiling hot windshield, and praying you don't get a bubble under there. It's very stressful.

I'm glad I survived it. But it made me think about getting things straight, which is very hard for me on my cards. My head appears to be two degrees off based on the adjustments I have to make to my photos. Apparently I'm tipped a wee bit counterclockwise. So simple things like putting a row of images across the front of a card are pretty challenging for me. I actually wrote an article on this topic in Scrap n Stamp magazine called Straight Talk. 

I have to come up with little systems to help me, so I thought I'd dissect today's card for you. First, since I was going to be stamping a row of images, I needed a line on the front of my card. But I can't do that straight without lining my ruler up on my grid sheet. Then you can draw your line with a pencil or score it - I scored mine.

 Next, I had to find out if my stamp was mounted straight. Since my head is crooked, there's really no way to know without stamping it. So what I do is line up the vertical and horizontal edges of my wood block with lines on my grid sheet and stamp it. If it's all wonky, then I know I have to use the stamp positioner to stamp that image with. But look - it's a milagro! It's straight!

 So now I can just use the line I scored to line up the bottom of my wood block as I stamp across my card. From years of using the same few sizes of wood blocks, I know that the 3" x 1.25" wood blocks go nicely four times across the front of a vertical card. So voila!

I covered up a score line with the outrageously sassy new scalloped edge polka dotted ribbon from the upcoming catalog. The stamp set is Chere Amie (upcoming) - I actually bought this set in both the English and French versions because I just like my greetings in French sometimes! I love this bold, sassy font. I stamped it on Just Add Cake (upcoming) DSP - LOVE notepaper!! - in Early Espresso. The card base is Crumb Cake and I added dots with my white gel pen.

I used today's Featured Stamper Challenge for my inspiration - Taylor's gallery is full of beautiful things, and I picked this Fly Free card - I loved the kraft, the dots and the simplicity.

See what kind of little rabbit trails a girl goes down when her registration expires? You never know where inspiration will come from. Keep an open mind. :)

Cherrypalooza!!

Don't you love the way Rainier cherries look?

I love all things cherry - dried tart cherries, fresh cherries, maraschino cherries, cherry vanilla ice cream, cherry cough drops... I could go WAY Forrest Gump on cherries!!

Did you know that cherries have anti-inflammatory properties? Also, despite the fact that Turkey appears to be the world's largest cherry producer, Travers City, MI proclaims itself the Cherry Capital of the World and produces the world's largest cherry pie.You own it, Michigan!!

So I have some Rainier cherries for you today with more sneak peek goodies. I used the Border Lace Punch, the new Pennant Punch, the new colors - Pool Party, Lucky Limeade and Calypso Coral and a blender pen. The stamps are Cherish Friendship, Pennant Parade and Fabulous Phrases. The paper is Crumb Cake, Just Add Cake DSP, Whisper White and Lucky Limeade. I punched the little pennants out after I stamped them and just made them all shark toothy.

Sweet, eh? With the right stamps, life is just a bowl of cherries!!

Loveyameanitbye.