A Splotchy Mystery is Solved!

At long last the mystery is solved.

Splotchy is a coyote.

For three years, we have wondered what the bizarre squeaking and yowling and chirping and trilling coming from this quirky little animal was. He does it at various times of the night and his favorite place to do it from is the little ledge on the eyebrow window thingy 9 feet off the ground. After these noisy sessions, he has high anxiety and will flop down on my neck with his little heart rate elevated and breathing heavily.

We looked for patterns. Oh, it's the full moon, we said.

He's looking for his mother, we said.

Today, he didn't eat lunch, and yesterday he did, we said.

We didn't throw the mouse enough, we said.

And then, this morning, we heard it.

A very faint conversation. It went like this:

Coyote: yip
Splotchy: yip
Coyote: yip yip
Splotchy: yip yip
Coyote: howwwwwlllllll
Splotchy: howwwwllllllll

I busted out laughing before I was even awake.

That poor little idiot has been talking to coyotes we couldn't hear. He's probably thinking "WHY AM I THE ONLY ONE ANSWERING THEM? YOU PEOPLE ARE SO RUDE! MADDIE HOW CAN YOU SLEEP THROUGH THIS??"

Poor little messed up orphan thinks he is a coyote. I forgive you now, sweet, confused little furry friend. And I'm going to go have a chat with those coyotes.

Hey - you know what else is splotchy? A giraffe!

I got a chance this week to take out Zoo Review - one of the sets I was most excited about in the new catalog, and so of course I haven't had time to touch it! Isn't that always how it is?

But, I'm starting to think that color challenges make me feel more creative. Because the TouchTwin color challenge today SCREAMED giraffe to me.

I sent this card off to a coworker who loves giraffes and their combination of graceful and awkward, which is so, so charming.

The greeting is from Blessed Mother, which was in the Summer Mini. 

Stamps: Zoo Review, Blessed Mother Paper: Crumb Cake, Crate Paper Accessories: ShinHan TouchTwin Markers: B143, B182, BR96, YR21, Y141 Scalloped Oval Frame Die, Big Shot

Here's where I put the colors.

Don't forget to play in their challenge - (use TTC02 as your keyword if you upload to Splitcoast) - you might win yourself some markers!

Oh, and I  have a little trick for you. Think you can't "see through" those Big Shot dies to use them on an image you've already stamped? Well you can!

Sometimes I stamp and color an image just for practice that I have no intention of using. But then when I'm done, I like it and I want to die cut it but how do I line it up?

Well I have die cut vellum for most of my Big Shot dies and I keep them in a little folder. When I got done with my giraffe, I put a little Dotto down by his feet, and I tacked the oval from the Oval Frame die onto him, lined up like I wanted it cut. Then I just lay that face down onto my die, lining up the top part of that vellum shape onto my die perfectly, and then running it through - and voila - my giraffe was cut just like I wanted it to be! Nifty, eh?

So what IS the correct way to impose a talking curfew on a coyote anyway? Got any tips for me? Because you know I love this little thing, but he needs to be a little less chatty.

Loveyameanitbye.

Seeing Red

Seriously. Finally! I slept until almost 8 which is about four hours longer than normal, so I'm feeling very crafty today. Also, I've had a LOT of caffeine. So it could be that too.


Either way, I have some WAY fun stuff to show you today.


First, I decided to tackle today's Inspiration Challenge with some new toys. Stef picks out the most unbelievable stuff every week, and this week's color combo really grabbed me.

So my new goodies came out of the box: Field Flowers and the Dotted Scallop Ribbon Border Punch. Can you believe I didn't already have either of these? GAH. I've been wanting that punch ever since Megan Daves showed us how to use it as a teeny scalloped border at convention.

So what I did is stamped the base images in Crumb Cake, and the detailed image (it's a two step stamp set) in Poppy Parade.

Now for the fun part. I punched a strip of the ribbon border punch out of Poppy Parade cardstock and stuck it behind my flower panel. I stamped the greeting from Hand Penned Holidays in black half off the white panel and stamped it again on my card base and just lined them up.

Then I noticed all the teeny weeny dots from the border punch all over my mat and I thought they'd look so cool on my card front!!

Adhesive is easier than you think for these little buggers. I just put a little dab of glue on my mat, and then used my piercing tool to pick up each dot, rub it in glue and stick it on the card. SO easy! The piercing tool has magical qualities for holding small items.

I think the dots really add something too - it was a little plain before.

Now, after that, I did something SERIOUSLY fun.

I made a purse out of a box of animal crackers!!

Wanna see? Come on over to Project Reanimate.


Hope you have a great Caturday!

Playing With Our Peeps!

I had the weirdest dreams last night.

First, I dreamed that Shep Smith was my brother and we were on a trip at this place in Snow Bird we went to when I was little. Thankfully my dream did not include the trip up the scariest road in the world that leads to Snow Bird. I'm surprised this road doesn't pop up in nightmares from time to time. Oh - wait - now I'm scared to go to sleep tonight!

At some point during the vacation it turned into that whole "I forgot to show up for a History test" nightmare. Why do we have those scary school dreams all our lives? Were we that anxious? I really enjoyed school for the most part, minus the odd differential equations and astronomy episodes, so I don't know why I still panic about it in my sleep sometimes.

Thank goodness there are no tests in stamping!

But speaking of school, one of my favorite stamp sets in the world is Greeting Card Kids - I used it for my Christmas card last year and I might have to use it again. I have a general rule that I don't really stamp humans, but this set is such a sweet, sweet exception that I used it for the Playing With Our Peeps challenge on the Touch Twin blog. You should play too because you might win a set of 12 markers! You have two more days to play.

 Stamps: Greeting Card Kids Ink: Memento Paper: Real Red, Silver Glimmer, Mocha Morning Specialty Accessories: ShinHan Touch Markers: YR132, YR133, R11, R14, R131, R139, CG0.5, CG2, CG3, CG4, GG1, 120

Part of the reason I don't stamp humans often is that the images can be too realistic, not realistic enough or just creepy! But these have a Campbell's Soup / vintage look that I love. I decided to highlight the apple and the book on this card and do the rest in skin tones and shades of grey to get that contrasty pop I love so much.

The background is that fun fuzzy Mocha Morning Specialty paper, Silver Glimmer Paper and some Real Red Satin Ribbon.

Aren't they sweet? They just warm my heart. I hope they don't have test anxiety! :)

What are your stampy plans for the weekend? I plan to get my Witching Hour on again to get some things done.

Get Your Cray On!

Today, my Crayon Rubbed Embossing Tutorial was featured at Splitcoast. Why are crayons so fun, and why are there so many cool things you can do with them? Have you ever not felt just happy when you opened a box of crayons, saw all the fun colors and smelled that waxy smell?

Anyway, in case you missed my tutorial the first time, it's a fun way to get another use out of your squillions of embossing folders. You can have a flat version of their designs in a fun resist technique.

It's especially fun with the spider web, which I used in this updated sample. The little spidey is from a retired set called Web Wishes that was too adorable to let go of. I love the little eyelashes on the spideys. 

Stamps: Web Wishes Ink: Tangerine Tango, Basic Black Paper: Basic Black, Very Vanilla, First Edition, Tangerine Tango Accessories: Silver Glass Glitter, Simply Scored, Border Punch, Circle Punches, Markers, White Crayon, 

Spider Web Embossing Folder

My second sample was for the inspiration challenge from Sweet 'n Sassy this week. I LOVED the inspiration image

 It begged for a Pool Party background - so I came up with this:

Stamps:  Sweet 'n Sassy Simple Pleasure, Ink: Pool Party, Memento, Early Espresso Paper: Whisper White, Early Espresso, Accessories: Ribbon from my friend America Kuhn, Corner Rounder, White Crayon, Brayer, Punches, Hemp Twine, ShinHan Touch Markers: G48, B171, RP9, BR107, BR93,GY48

If you want to see the video, check it out below or if you don't see a player, click here to watch the tutorial.

I have other samples in the tutorial gallery here.


I hope you get to sniff some crayons this week! :)

The Witching Hour And How It Improves Your Weekend

Many years ago at Convention, I saw Belinda Ellsworth speak about the Power Hour. Basically, it's just a good time management system where you divide an hour into quarters and you go all out in each 15 minute segment on various activities. It makes the activities less intimidating if there's a start and end time.

Well I've adapted that for weekends where I need to get a lot of stuff done and I don't know where to start. I call it the Witching Hour.

Sunday I had ten projects that really needed to get done so I busted out the Witching Hour. I set a timer on my Iphone for an hour, and then I do one thing and one thing only - I did one hour of email/computer time, one hour of office cleaning, one hour of cutting 12x12 cardstock down to 6x6 and grouping it by color, etc. You can get ten giant projects done in a Sunday if you do it this way. The key is committing to that one thing for the full hour and not letting yourself do anything else in that hour unless you finish early.

One of the things I really needed to do, but is kind of boring and so I never do it, is labeling stamp sets. My current SU sets sit in a bookcase to the left of my desk and the bookcase is a dark cherry. On the clear boxes with black type for the labels, I can't see the names of anything. So a while ago, when I got a new set, I started sticking the label onto an Avery 8366 sized label before putting it on the box. MAN does that make it easier to see. The problem is I had tons of sets I got before I came up with this idea, so it was always a "someday" task.

You can see that the unlabeled set in the upper left hand corner may as well be wearing an invisibility cloak!

Well the Witching Hour knocked out this task and so now I can actually see my stamp sets.

I also made a discovery when I went to go get more labels a few weeks ago. LABELS ARE SUDDENLY OUTRAGEOUSLY EXPENSIVE. It's $24 for a box of 750 of these labels. The Office Depot generic version is $20 for 750.That's about $1 a sheet. So we're paying $1 for a sheet of paper, in essence.

I was grumbling in the label aisle about this and I noticed these little smaller packages of labels near the price tags. Oddly enough, they were $2.79 for 252 of them. Hmmm. So instead of .03 PER LABEL these (by the same company - Avery) are .01 per label.

What's up with that? I bought them, but I was not happy that there is a nonsensical price difference depending on where in the store the label is.

Maybe I should send my little witchie over there to straighten them out!

Stamps: Out on a Limb, It's a Wrap Holidays, Spooky Bingo Bits, Grateful Greetings Ink: Basic Black, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party Paper: Whisper White, Lucky Limeade, Pool Party Accessories: Circle and Scallop Circle Dies, Big Shot, Brads, Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon, Blender Pen, ShinHan Touch Markers

Well, she's not actually very scary. But I think she could shake some things up with her cuteness!

This fun telescoping card was one I made for VSN. This is such a simple fun way to make a super interesting motion card. There are telescoping card instructions in our Try a New Technique challenge.  Good old Joan - always making me think outside the box!

Here are some random things from the Blue List that I've been enjoying lately.

• I love this shampoo.
• This is a cool way to do nekkid stamping. 
• I made these Caramel Apple cookies and they were awesome. (I used dark brown sugar)
• My mother in law tipped me off to these crackers.
• I'm really enjoying this cooking show and the first episode of this comedy was great.
• After what seems like forever, this is on its way to me and I have one day to watch it before Season 3! HA! Need coffee!

Hope you have a great week!

Stamp Nekkid!

That's right!! We can now go all kinds of Harry Potter with stamps!

I saw this crazy awesome techniques on sweet Holly's blog this week for "no line stamping" and I was so intrigued! It's a way to use stamped images without the black outline we are all used to, and it gives your images such a soft, painted look!

The stars aligned because I received this amazing LightPad as a birthday gift last month, and instead of what Holly did - stamping the image in a light color and then using that to guide my coloring, I actually stamped the image in black on copy paper, put it on this amazing LED light table and then colored nekkid!!

I wasn't nekkid. but I wasn't actually coloring in a stamped image, you little gutter minds. I was coloring a blank piece of cardstock with the illuminated image underneath it!

I love the way it turned out!!

I actually colored this image last week, and then when today's Free For All Friday Challenge was to make a MOSTLY BLUE card - Taylor and Korin and Amber and I could not resist playing along.

So I popped this little beauty on a Pool Party Hello Doily image and voila! Nekkid stamping rules!!!

Stamps: On the Grow, Lighthearted Ink: Pool Party, Basic Black Paper: Whisper White

Accessories: 2.5" circle Punch, ShinHan Twin Touch Markers: BG171, BG178, Y35, YR33, Y38, GY47, GY48, CG1

 Now I have some fun news for you!

I have picked a winner for the milk carton die from our Fall Fun Blog Hop and it's Cathymac, who shared her recipe for Pumpkin Bread! Email me Cathy! :) Congrats!

And in even MORE fun news, and the reason it took me so long to post the winner, I made a mini cookbook out of all the recipes you shared with me so that you guys can all enjoy what everyone shared!! How fun is that??

Access the Fall Fun Blog Hop Mini Cookbook here.

I am having my monthly stampy class tomorrow if you want to come - we will have all our clothes on, I promise :).

Loveyameanitbye.

  

Keep Your Faith in Beautiful Things

An Ode to the Spork

Was it Taco Bell that pioneered the Spork?

That was the first place I ever encountered the Spork - where it perfectly scooped and scraped that oh-so-comforting king of southern comfort foods - refried beans - out of their waxy little cup for some serious nomming.

It seemed like even though we didn't know it, we had been waiting for the spork - all of humanity wandering around, sporklessly, eating food imperfectly, missing - we didn't know what. Certainly the last little bit of pintos 'n cheese.

And then they sporked us and all was right with the culinary world again.

I'm confused about why the spork has not made it into silverware sets as a standard. Perhaps there aren't as many refried beans as I think there are outside of Texas.

Anyway, one of the VSN challenges was to do the bandana technique, which I had never done before. While I was making my faux bandana print for the challenge, I was thinking that the white gel pen is kind of the crafting version of the spork. It just makes everything better - helps you get a little more out of everything stampy.

For the bandana technique, you basically just stamp a pretty bold image in black or another dark color onto colored cardstock. I used Island Indigo cardstock and stamped an image from Baroque Motifs in black. Then I just kind of doodled around with my white gel pen until the cardstock looked bandana-y. What do you think?

It would be so cute with a paisley stamp. I thought it would be cute in kind of a country design, so I paper pieced the chicken from Walk This Way and tied a little twine around it. The greeting is from It's Your Day.

Amazing how much more interesting you can make a simple stamped image with a little white detail.It just sporks it up a notch, yes?

I love inexpensive crafty tools that you can do a bunch of fun things with.

Viva la Sporks!!

Don't forget - join me at Scrapology Saturday to make cards for our troops and our firefighters. No cost - just come out and stamp some cards for the bravest men in the world!






 

Blaming the Telephone For Watergate

I saw a brilliant tweet.

It said "Blaming Twitter for the London riots is like blaming the telephone for Watergate." (via @stealingsand)

Amen to that.

Unless you have been in the middle of a giant disaster, like we have in Austin this week, you can't possibly treasure the real value of social media for connecting people who need things to people who have things people need.

I focused a lot of my social media requests on people who needed livestock transported out of the fire - they needed trailers and space to put the animals and they needed it FAST.

Magically, the word got passed around, and case after case was solved in hours, and sometimes, in minutes. It was nearly as good as passing buckets of water hand to hand. I guess it's the modern barn raising.

People who want to help just need a way to do it. Twitter and Facebook have been a huge help to Austin this week. I have to say thank you to everyone who forwarded one of our messages and pleas for help. And to whoever took in the 100 birds and the 40 horses. God bless you.

On a related note, I was amused this week to notice a pattern among older newscasters. Instead of "Twitter" they ALL say "Tweeter." Instead of Snopes, they ALL say "Snoops." How can it be so consistent? It cracks me up when some old network codger says "I hear that Tweeter thing is popular." BWAHAHAHA.

I realize I will be one of these people one day. But it's still really funny right now :).

Every now and then while I'm shoveling off my crafty desk, I get the urge to make a card with what is sitting within reach. I did that the other day and I love this card.

I put the decidedly vintage Hello Doily together with my sweet, modern witch from Out on a Limb, and doggone it if it isn't crazy cute!!

The greeting is from one of my fave sets - I love bold greetings - Lighthearted. I finished her off with Dazzling Details (hard to see in this pic but her broom and hair are sparkly :) ) and F122 & F124 ShinHan Touch Twin markers.

I'll be using another stamp from this set at our FREE Cards for Troops event at Scrapology on Saturday. Come on out and make cards for free that we will mail to our troops, with the help of the lovely and talented Keri Sereika. The event is all day - 10-5 - and I'd love to see you and stamp with you!

Hope you are all safe this week! Loveyameanitbye

No Labor Here, Just Fall Fun...

Yay for Labor Day, where we are free from laboring! Welcome to our Fall Fun Blog Hop. There are dozens of talented stampers on the list today just waiting to show you some cute fall projects while you lounge around in your PJs being grateful that you don't have to work today!

And guess what? A bunch of us, including me, have prizes to give away - so don't miss any stops on the hop!

 Before I show you my project, here is the list of hoppers today **Note - Hop Starts at 8 AM CST**

Lydia Fiedler
Libby Hickson
Kim Williams
Michelle Single
Lee Murphy
Sara Henton
Yapha Mason
Lisa Adametz
Jimmi Mayo
Jeanne Streiff
Bev Gerard   
Shannon
Dana Keith
Joan Ervin
Maren Benedict
Teresa Kline
Hannah Clark
Dina Kowal
Wanda Cullen
Korin Sutherland
Taylor Usry
Monika Davis
Harriet Skelly
Kim Schofield
Cathy McCauley
Mary Marsh
Julia Aston
Bridget Finlay
Alison Habetler
Leslie Hanna
Sue Farrant
Michelle Hanway
Misti Oblander
Judy Rozema
Jenna Barber
Tammy Hershberger
Eva Dobilas
Kerri Michaud
Cheryl Navarrete
Neva McMullen
Marianne
Samantha
Cindy Wallach

Now, for my project, I debated for WEEKS with myself about whether I should go with Thanksgiving or Halloween, and I settled on Halloween, because I LOVE Halloween gift projects. Doing these before Halloween is not my customary, procrastinat-y style, so I feel a lot more organized than I must have been feeling when I accidentally ordered a SECOND Mini Milk Carton Big Shot die!

But my disorganization is your good luck, because that is what I'm giving away today! All you have to do to be entered to win, is to leave me your favorite fall recipe in a comment on this post!

Wednesday I will draw a winner, so be sure and have your comment posted by Wednesday, September 7th at noon central!

To show you how much fun you're going to have with this die, I made a SQUEE-worthy little box with it. An outside the box box, if you will. I stumbled across a tutorial for making a hexagonal box from this die in this post by Kerry Bunting and fell in love!

So here is my version, in a spooky Halloween theme..


I cut the two mini milk carton boxes from Basic Black Cardstock - and you will need two full sheets to do this little box. The side panels are little 1 3/8" x 1 3/4" pieces of Pick Your Poison Designer Series Paper.

For the six images on the sides of the boxes I combined the images from Piece of Poison and from Dark & Dreary. I just stamped them in Basic Black on Whisper White and punched them out with the 1 1/4" circle punch, and layered them on Basic Black punched with the 1 3/8" circle punch.

Squee! I love that little rat!

The top is held together with silver elastic cord. How cool is that that you can make this hexagonal box out of the milk carton? People, in particular - stampers, are so clever!

You have to have treats, so I filled mine with decorated Hershey Nuggets. I brayered Peach Parfait Ink onto some address labels, and then stamped them with the uber fun new set that matches address labels - It's a Wrap Holidays. Oh how long we've waited for a stamp that matches our little nugget labels! I pounced on it!

So what do you think? Are you DIE-ing to have this die for your very own? You know what to do! Leave me a comment with your fave fall recipe in it and you're entered!

Now that I've spooked you with my wickedly sweet box, head east to Atlanta, and go see what my friend Libby has cooked up!

  

You Are Loved, Tomato Cobbler, You are Loved

So I'm so mad at all of you.

Well, not really. But I can't believe that I told you I was going to blog the best recipe in the world, and then I didn't, and you weren't even sad! IT'S THE BEST RECIPE IN THE WORLD!

Well, until the next recipe that I think is the best recipe in the world. But for now, this one dominates.

It's Tomato Cobbler, and it's just as good as it sounds. I got it from this blog. As a result of this recipe, I am now completely addicted to thyme. Here are my edits.

Filling:
3 TBS extra virgin olive oil (And if you call it EVOO I will poke you with something)
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 pounds tomatoes - I use homegrown Sun Golds t
1 tsp. coarse Real salt and freshly ground pepper, and red pepper flakes to taste

Biscuits:
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 tablespoon fresh thyme (2 is better)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter Miyoko's vegan Butter
3/4 cup heavy cream or buttermilk Chobani Oat Extra Creamy.

Make the filling: Heat 3 tablespoons of oil in a large high-sided skillet over medium heat. Cook onions, stirring occasionally, until translucent and lightly browned, about 25 minutes.  Let cool. Toss onion mixture, whole tomatoes and red-pepper flakes with 1 teaspoon salt and some pepper. I also threw in fresh thyme here.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk together flour, baking powder, thyme and salt in a bowl. Cut in butter with a pastry cutter or rub in with your fingers until small clumps form. Add cream or buttermilk, stirring with a fork to combine until dough forms. (Dough will be slightly sticky.) 

Transfer tomato mixture to a 1 or 2 quart baking dish - I think mine is 1.5ish. Spoon 5 clumps of biscuit dough over top in a circle, leaving center open. Brush dough with cream. Bake until tomatoes are bubbling in the center and biscuits are golden brown, about 45 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack. Let cool for 20 minutes. Enjoy the following view - it won't last long. I've halved this and done it in a loaf pan.

Seriously one of the most amazing things I've ever eaten. And a huge improvement on my previous Tomato Pie recipe. It also reheats beautifully.

So since I excelled at domesticity on that front, I think I'll refrain from any guilt about not dusting or ironing or doing any of that boring stuff. Why do it in real life when you can just stamp it?

Stamps: House & Home, You Are Loved Ink: Pool Party, Basic Black 

Paper: Calypso Coral, Pool Party, Whisper White, Domestic Goddess DSP 

Accessories: Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon, Scallop Punch, Circle Punch

 

See - I wasn't really mad at you. You are loved! :)

So how about THEM tomatoes?

I Bring You Peace. And an Exploding Battery.

Never a dull moment.

On a conference call yesterday, we all heard a terrible sound towards the end of the call.


If you're a fan of LOST, it was exactly the sound the security system on the island makes right before it makes people implode.


Wisely, we ended the call.


As I went to hit the End button on my Blackberry - oh how poetic is THAT? - I see the dreaded white screen of death. Blackberry users know what I'm talking about. Praying that the end was not near, I popped the battery out for 15 seconds and put it back in. Sort of.


The back cover wouldn't close. It was weird - it was like I didn't have the battery seated right. So I messed with it a bit. My red light briefly went on and then off and I figured that Blackberry had calculated the precise end of my contract with AT&T and self destructed my phone at that particular moment. They do that, you know. I didn't have the patience for a mega phone carrier yesterday so I just left it.

But curiosity got me later and I went back later and took the battery out again. That's when I discovered that it had become roughly the shape of a shredded wheat biscuit. It had exploded, I guess, inside the battery case - thank God the case held, because I was holding to my ear at the time, as you will recall - and it was now all poofed out and destroyed.


Hmph.


Thankfully, I happened to have a battery in the purse I used ten purses ago, so I worked backwards through discarded purses, popped it in and thankfully the explosion had not killed my phone and I'm phone-ful again. But it made for an interesting day.


After all that business, I really needed a little Shalom!

Stamps: Shalom Ink: Versamark Paper: Whisper White, Silver Glimmer  

Accessories: Pool Party Ruffled Ribbon, Lace Ribbon Border Punch, Craft Knife, Silver 

Embossing Powder, Square Lattice Embossing Folder

I'm not gonna lie, I love this card. :) It's so cool and clean and wintery and sparkly.

The challenge that I hosted for VSN was called God Bless Texas. The challenge was to use the Texas flag as either a sketch or an inspiration so this was my sample. I'm hoping God does bless Texas with something cool and wintery sometime.

So what is exploding in YOUR ear this week? Nothing, I hope! :)

Loveyameanitbye.

Whatever You Do, Don't Send Me Chocolate!

Yeah, so I burned my hand on the mailbox yesterday. That was just a few days after burning it on our back door. Metal stuff plus this summer are not a good combination.

As I danced around by the stupid group mailbox saying some unladylike words and flapping my hand (by the way - why do we think that helps?)  I thought how sad it would be if someone had sent me chocolate. I could imagine it melting all down through my mail, and dripping into the sad little metal mail condo beneath mine onto some unknown neighbor's Netflix envelope.

But I snapped out of it quickly because I had a package! More on that later...

So guess what today is? I know, I know - one more day until our holiday weekend - but what ELSE? It's Thursday, so that means it's the Ways to Use It Challenge on Splitcoast.

Today's challenge is to use paint - which you KNOW I love to do. I thought I'd try something I've wanted to do for a while with the Beautiful Wings Embosslit Die. First, I ran it through the Big Shot with some Early Espresso cardstock. But after cutting, I carefully took the cardstock out and left the little butterflies in the cardstock frame - I didn't pop them out since the teeny ones are so teeny. I wanted it to stay all together while I painted it with some Plaid Pool Blue acrylic paint. I used two coats - it dries fast on cardstock. After the second coat was dry, I sanded each little butterfly with my sanding block so that the embossed areas were brown. And LOOKIE!

Stamps: Four Frames, It's Your Day Ink: Soft Suede Paper: Early Espresso, Mocha Morning Specialty DSP 

Accessories: Sanding Block, Seam Binding, Paint, Beautiful Wings Embosslit, Big Shot, Decorative Label Punch, 

Bling from a friend :)

I love that blue/brown combo! I realized, of course, after I had the whole card put together that I used two different colors of brown... I should have pretended that was on purpose, but it's a little late for that now. If mismatched brown cards start showing up all over the internet though, please inform people that I originated that style! :)

So what was in my package at the infernally hot group mailbox? Aside from the most beautiful hand stamped cards I've ever seen, and lots of love from my sweet friend Lee, there were all sorts of stampy goodies, including that gorgeous blue bling you see above... serendipity! Thank you Lee, you little angel!

So come on over and play the challenge today - when you upload your card to the gallery, they keyword is WT338.

To see the other beautiful creations from our Ways To Use It challenge team, stop off next at Michelle's blog!

I'll be back tomorrow with my new favorite recipe!

In the meantime, whatever you do - DON'T send me chocolate.

Kthxbai.