Want FREE Handmade Goodies? (and the cutest kitten ever?)

But wait - there's more.. There's also the world's CUTEST kitten!!! But first...

You know how I feel about buying handmade. If you don't, please click here. It's not trivial.

To support the handmade art community, some Etsy sellers have gotten together for an unbelievable Cyber Monday event you won't want to miss!

Cyber Monday is the Monday after Thanksgiving, and is called that because of the unusual spike in online purchases for the holidays.

A group of talented ladies who do incredible work, and then also me :), have teamed up to bring you a crazy bunch of gifts if you shop online on Monday.

If you purchase $20 in merchandise from ANY participating Etsy shop, you will receive a handmade item from EVERY ONE of the participating shop owners. So, let's say you buy $20 worth of jewelry from my friend Bunny. You will receive gifts from SIX shops! WOWZA!! Don't miss it.

You can see the official announcment in my shop, and you can visit all the participating shops to pick out what you want for Cyber Monday.

On your mark, get set, GO HANDMADE!!

Oh - I promised you a kitten.

Here you go. 1) You are welcome 2) I apologize to your family in advance for you watching this video 5,000 times and forgetting to bathe or cook.



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?




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?

I'm Thankful For..

Blue skiesThe mysteries of nature

My favorite cathedral

People traveling safely to parts unknown

Photography, to help us remember

Americans who give the last full measure of devotion

Symbolism

The details

Clean and simple design

Buildings that don't leave out the curves

Coconut Cream Pie

Stained Glass

Art

The magic of light and shadow

And, of course, each of you. I hope you are having a safe and happy Thanksgiving. And if you are from outside our borders, a safe and happy Thursday upon which your American friends give thanks for your kindness and friendship!

Loveyameanitbye

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She Shoots, She Scores!!

And by she I mean me!

I scored big at Half Price Books today. I found an old Bible, a Russian dictionary and FIVE copies of a little Schubert sheet music book - whee!! This one is the first sheet music I've gotten there that was the smaller scale print that I like! Whee! Lots of cards coming with this fine little print! Wait - you can see one right now!!

Paper: Cool Caribbean, Whisper White, Real Red, Music sheet Accessories: Real Red Polka Dot Ribbon, Silver Cord, Merry Sizzlitz Die, Merry Details Die, Circle Die, Big Shot Machine, Self Adhesive Rhinestones
I die cut a blue and a red bird so the bird would have a shadow that was blue.
All supplies Stampin' Up! (Except Music)

This is absolutely my fave Christmas color combo. I've been trying hard to design my own personal Christmas card with this combo, but I'm still struggling. Hopefully it will come to me in my sleep tonight!!

Are you making your Christmas card? Tell me about it!

On Cyber Monday, which is the largest online shopping day of the year - the Monday after Thanksgiving - I will be participating in a very special event.

To support a handmade Christmas, several Etsy sellers have coordinated a fun giveaway..

Spend $20 in any participating shop's store, and you will receive a handmade item from EACH OF THE OTHER SHOPS!

It's going to be quite the affair, so stay tuned for deets!


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Rejoice!

A few things today. First, if you are not watching LOST, you should be. It's the most complicated, deep, interesting show I've ever seen. It has a reference to nearly every book I've ever read, and I've read a lot of books. It has philosophers, authors, artists, theology - pretty much everything you could possibly imagine. It's a challenge. You can't say that about much TV.

Sadly, the last season begins soon. In preparation for that, over the lull between seasons, I've been re-watching the entire show to prep for the last one. Without giving LOST newbies too much context, on a later show, there's a very important baby, being carried by a very important woman, wrapped in a deep blue blanket. It's a very striking and symbolic scene. As I've said before, blue is an essential part of the Christian story of Mary, who sometimes is depicted wearing a light blue, but mostly a deep, jewel blue.

"The older, classic and more representative color is dark blue," according to the Rev. Johann Roten, S.M, director of the Marian Library-International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton. "Mary's dark blue mantle, from about 500 A.D., is of Byzantine origin and is the color of an empress."

Maybe that's why Christmas will always be a blue holiday for me.. the sky with that star, Mary and baby in blue, the nice wintery blue that everyone understands in December. That's what I worked with for this card.

Stamps: Doodle Factory O Holy Night, Sentiments Christmas Nativity, Paper: Stampin' Up! Whisper White and Basic Black,
Ink: Stampin' Up! White Craft Ink, Memento Tuxedo Black Ink,
Accessories: Copic Markers, Acetate, Big Shot, Circle Die, Corner Rounder Punch, mini glue dots

Rejoice. :)

I know it's hard to tell, but this is a true snowglobe card a la Libby Hickson. I folded acetate in half and ran it through the Big Shot with my circle die, positioning the fold just a bit inside the circle so that it made a little folded card for me - same with the white. I covered up the glue dot holding the cardstock and the acetate together with the black base of the snowglobe, which is just a 1 x 3.5" strip, corner rounded.

Baby Jesus lives outside the snowglobe, popped up on top of the acetate with dimensionals.

I know it's Thanksgiving week, but for lots of reasons, I couldn't resist a blue nativity card. :)

What is up for your weekend? I'm doing another fair Saturday and then I really need some sleep before Thanksgiving...

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So Angry About All Those Years with ...

I am SO glad I broke up with the old collage substance. He was no good for me. He never dried, he was clingy, and goopy, and ... Well I'm just glad it's over. I put him out with the trash.

Thanks to Claudine Hellmuth, I am now craft dating matte gel medium.

He's polished, professional, neat, easy to be with. Just better in every way. He makes me happy every time I see him.

I busted him out last night to make a happy little holiday canvas. I had some canvases left over from the art I donated to the benefit for Amy Bouquet's Cat Haven Fundraiser, and I decided to infuse them with a little candy striped Christmas-y goodness. So easy and fun.

Stamps: Patterned Pines Ink: Kiwi Kiss, Barely Banana, Melon Mambo Paper: Whisper White, K&Co

I think it makes kind of a fun, non traditional looking holiday decoration. Are you making decorations? With my two insane tiny tigers, a tree is out of the question this year, so I'm having to get a little creative with decorating the house. I'd love a link or description of what you're doing! I need ideas!

Have a great Thursday!

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It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's...

An angel made out of Big Shot stuff!!

Wouldn't this make a fun little ornament or desk decoration for your co-workers for the holidays?
I just ran some brushed silver cardstock through the Big Shot with the Petals a Plenty embossing folder, then cut out two of the Beautiful Butterfly wings - but note, when you do this, you have to make sure the embossing/debossing side is the right direction since one of the wings will be flipped.

The wings are turned upside down to make them look more angel-y, less butterfly-y.

The cone for her body is just the Circle die, with self adhesive rhinestones around the bottom.

After you form the cone, and put it together with sticky strip, cut two teeny slits on either side of the narrow end, and use these to insert a punched 1" circle of silver paper into for her head.

For her hair, I just made a little lasso of silver cord, tied around the middle and then cut. I attached it with mini glue dots.

Very quick and easy! Got the holiday spirit yet? :)


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Reports of my Absence Have Been Greatly.. Accurate

I would love to say exaggerated, but that would be a lie. I was working hard getting ready for the two shows I had this past weekend.

The first was the South Austin Artists Co-op Show. This one is held in what used to be an Albertson's grocery store. When Albertson's moved out, they abandoned most of their store fixtures, which now serve as display spaces for the artists. There were lots of different types of art there, which made for a great day. I even got to meet a blog reader, Connie, who was so sweet and fun!

Here's my table before the event started. I got the revolving card racks from Displays2Go and they are AWESOME! Very well made and I think they'll last a long time. They hold a squillion cards. Seriously, a squillion.

The second show was at the Jewish Community Center and it was absolutely the best run, nicest show I've been to. My biggest sellers were my Sassy Maddie notecards, the pencil daisy cards and these little Bar/Bat Mitzvah money books I copied from Nichole Heady - I sold every one I made. I decided to leave them generic so that they could be used for either.

The other art at this show was amazing. I saw the most delicate, beautiful mosaic done with teeny millefiori beads and pretty glass. It wasn't what you think of traditional mosaic at all. The lady a few booths down from me was from England and she made these freaking ADORABLE bags with sassy little ladies on them! The stitching and embellishment is incredible up close. This chick has a lot of style!
What are you guys up to? Working on stuff for the holidays? I think I had a vision of what my Christmas card will be the other day, so I will finalize that this week so that I can make them over Thanksgiving while I'm watching Christmas Vacation!! :)

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The Stamping Sweatshop...

Yay! It's Friday!!!

The stamping sweatshop is in full gear! I'm the only sweatshop employee, and I'm also the sweatshop master, so every time I feel like slowing down, I have to yell at myself. It's very exhausting!!

But I have my two shows this weekend - you can see the details on my facebook page if you'd like to come by.

So I've been working hard trying to get lots of different types of cards ready.

I cranked out some onesie baby cards the other night for both shows and they're sooo cute!!


Each one has a little animal from Niko Art on it that I colored with pencils. These are so simple and cute!! Tonight I need to make some generic cards for any occasion and then I think I'll be ready for a long weekend of shows!!

If you're in Austin, come on by!

Happy Friday!

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Let's Mix it Up!

Let's mix it up, shall we? This weekend I'm doing two art fairs - on Saturday, the South Austin Artist's Co-op show, and on Sunday, the Hadassah Bazaar at the Jewish Community Center (Details here on the Understand Blue Facebook Page).

To prep for Sunday I've made some beautiful Hanukkah cards - quickly becoming my favorite holiday cards because of their BLUEness, but the nice lady putting together the show also asked me to come up with a "mixed" holiday card for people who have half Christian, half Jewish households and want a nice holiday card.

I was stumped until yesterday, when I came up with a nice, wintery, simple card I think does the trick!

What do you think? The star is from Mazel Tov (Papertrey Ink) and the tree is from my FAVE sizzlits die - Merry Details - the one with the bird with the foofy tail. I now have 8000 foofy tailed green birds I can do something with after making these cards.

The icicles are from the Martha Stewart Icicle border punch, which works for drippy goo for Halloween or for icicles! At first I added glitter to the icicles, but it broke up the simplicity and I bagged it. BAG IT DANO!

Greeting is from Sincere Salutations and the ornament hanger is from Tree Trimmings.

Happy Tuesday everyone! You've been so quiet - what are you making this month? Tell me! :)

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Variations on a Theme of.. Man I Love These!

I just do. They take a long time, but they're so worth it! They are just variations on this card, and I'm making them for the South Austin Artists Coop next weekend - are you coming to see me?

I'll be there Saturday and at the Hadassah bazaar on Sunday - contact me for details on either or both if you will be in town!

In the meantime, enjoy these little ditties! And today is the last day to vote for my book in the Blurb contest - click the link in my sidebar at the top to vote, or if you're seeing this in a reader, click here.






Have a great Monday!!!

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What Alice Means

As I sit here waiting for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland, I think about Alice and what she means.

When I was little, and my dad read me that book dozens of times - the annotated version so we could see the notes and the chess moves - I loved Alice because it was an impossible world. A place where sometimes you were big compared to the world, sometimes you were small. Sometimes a smiling cat puzzled and amused you from somewhere over your shoulder. Sometimes mean queens did bad things to you, and sometimes wise rabbits led you to amazing places where you learned things you didn't think were possible. Now, of course, things are different. I'm all grown up. Now I love Alice because, well - it's so much like real life. :) I fell in love with these little Alice images from Niko Art on Etsy, and thought to have her looking out of a rabbit hole from the inside of the card might be fun. I colored the images with Copics and my white gel pen. The branch is from Branch Out - Stampin' Up!

If you haven't read the book, please do. The best version is here.

Speaking of rabbit holes, there's been a techpocalypse at Casa Blue. My main PC will not stay on, and AT&T has lost two towers, which apparently my air card for my laptop depends on, so I have no internet at my house. :( So if I'm a little sporadic, it's because I didn't have time to go to Starbucks to blog.

Hope your technology is safe and sound and that your are all happy!

Loveyameanitbye.

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It's All I've Got Tonight

God Bless them.

Stamps: Service & Sacrifice Ink: Basic Black Paper: Kraft, Graphic 45 Communique, Whisper White
Accessories: Ballet blue & Real Red markers
All Supplies Stampin' Up! unless otherwise noted

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I'm so Tired I Need to Sleep on Your Butt, Please

No, I mean it. I'm really tired. I'm too tired to lay my head down on my little fuzzy blanket. Your butt is here, and I'm sleeping on it.
This is what happens when you combine cold weather, a space heater and some long stretches of crafting by "the feeder" - yours truly.

There is no way that was comfortable. Do cats not get cricks in their necks like we do during bouts of extreme sleeping? Someone should figure out why and make a vitamin out of it for us! I would love to sleep on Splotchy's butt and not have a crick.

Anyway, I'm in mass production mode. I have two craft fairs in one weekend coming up. I need lots of cards. So they need to be simple. I turned to Jennifer McGuire, one of my idols, for a sweet and simple card. She always makes just punched patterned paper sooo beautiful. The cool thing about this kind of card is that every single one of us can make a card like this in two seconds with scraps and any stamp.

Stamps: Hero Arts Ink: Basic Black Paper: K&Co giant box of sale paper Accessories: Retired Heart Punch, 1.25" Square Punch

I hope everyone has a fabulous day!

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Today is Special..

On October 4^th, 4 teenagers armed with knives broke into a home in a small town in New Hampshire. Alone and sleeping inside were a mother and her 11 year old daughter. These 4 boys broke into this home with the intent to rob and kill anyone inside. They stabbed the mom, Kimberly Cates, to death and left her daughter, Jaimie, for dead in their driveway. It was a completely random act, their home was chosen only due to its secluded surroundings.

There is no way to explain this. Not to you, me and certainly not to little Jaimie, whose life is forever altered.

I will say that I do believe that all things work together for good, certainly more for good than for evil. Whatever happens to this little girl, this event will shape the special person she will be. There will probably be times when people won't understand her, because they don't know her story, and times when she won't understand anyone else. But, as they say, life has a way of course correcting. We can all pray that little Miss Jaimie makes her way through life with peace and grace.

And, since we are stampers, we can do what we do, and that is, make a card. Shine a little ray of handmade sunshine on the subject.

To see what this joint effort is all about, to send a card yourself, and to see the card I made for Jaime as well as the full blog hop, click here or on the button below.

Thanks for stopping by.

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Ghosts & Hobo Cats Say Happy Halloween!!

My cats are hobo cats!! They used to fly around with a little bandana on a stick with their cans of tuna, walking the tracks, looking for a place to stay.. I had NO IDEA they hung out with GHOSTS!!

Spooky!!!
I love these little images. They are from a wonderful girl on Etsy - Niko Art. They are so whimsical and sweet. I thought maybe this wouldn't scare you too bad tonight.

I just colored them with colored pencils and added some Night & Day paper and ribbon from the dollar bin.

Hope you are having a sweet & spooky night!!

Oh, and in case you weren't here this time last year, here's a little trip down memory lane!!!



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If it Doesn't Have to be White...

Or black, or green or whatever it's supposed to be.

You know how everyone brings gifts to weddings all wrapped in about 4 variations of the same paper. Off white/white, ornate patterns or stripes, silver bows - you know.

Well what if in the middle of that big pile of Macy's sameness, you plopped something wrapped in red and white polka dots? Tiffany blue with white birds?

It would be the design coup of the decade. You would end up on the Design Sponge site, or Swiss Miss or something.

So do it.

Make your next wedding card, um... HOT PINK, maybe, okay?

Stamps: For the Bride (retired) Ink: Craft White Paper: Sahara Sand, Basic Grey Indian Summer
Accessories: Prima Flowers, self adhesive rhinestones, Chocolate Chip Satin Ribbon, Rubon

I don't know, it's just a thought.

Happy Friday, everyone. Loveyameanitbye

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Balloon (girl) Tutorial

I confess. It was a hoax.

I was not actually in that balloon. I did not go zipping across the continental divide in a mylar balloon from Walgreens.

I just wanted a stamping reality TV Show!!

So I'm really sorry if you thought I was zipping through the sky in a piece of tinfoil and you were worried about me. I was safe in the attic with my Big Shot making you a card.

You're not mad at me are you??

But seriously - if you want to give me a stamping reality show, I'm available. I will not eat bugs or be someone's weird maid/nanny/wife or make out with someone by a pool with tacky colored lights. Actually I won't eat anything I don't want to and I probably won't do anything else I don't want to do. That's MY reality - how do you like that?? But I will stamp my little butt off for you.

Like I did for you today.

My friend and fabby downline, Angelique, came across an amazing blog she shared with me today, and it got me feeling all pink and foofy. This woman's work is like the best candy you've ever had!!

So I came home and tried something.

I ran some old Pale Plum scrap through my big shot with my fave die. Srsly. I know I say everything is my favorite because everything is, but I love this dang Bird and Leaves die!! Now I wanted to use it as a stencil, so I had to deal with the other pieces.

Good thing I have some leopard tape!

I just taped down the other pieces so that when I sponged I wouldn't have any stray sponging, and I got to work.

First, I cut a white Top Note. Then, I sponged Pretty in Pink and Chocolate Chip in the bird stencil.

Leaving the stencil in place, I stamped the big image from Fresh Cuts in chocolate chip over the whole bird. First, I did it with just the script part, but it wasn't defined enough - so I decided to include that leaf part for visual interest.

Next, I stamped over all that with Pretty in Pink, stamped off once, with the Fresh Cuts image.

Stamps: Fresh Cuts Ink: Chocolate Chip, Pretty in Pink Paper: Whisper White, Chocolate Chip, Patterned Paper (Basic Grey Indian Summer) Accessories: Rhinestone Brad, Rub On, Word Window Punch, Big Shot, Top Note Die, Birds & Leaves Die, Stampin' Sponge, Ribbon
All supplies Stampin' up! unless otherwise noted.

Foofy enough? I love pink and brown. I think they look edible!

I'm having a Google Reader Webinar Thursday night if you want to learn how to organize all the blogs you like and get rid of all those email subscriptions! Register - top right sidebar.

And if you haven't done so yet, please vote for Maddie & Splotchy's book in the Blurb Contest - each person can only vote one time, so it's a really well run contest. Plus, it's Maddie & Splotchy! They would appreciate it!

What are YOU guys up to? Leave me a story about what you've been doing while I was in the balloon. The best story wins a box of Sweet Treat Cups! How about that?? I miss you guys and I'd love to know what you've been doing to get yourself a reality show!!!

Loveyameanitbye

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I Wrote a Book

It's weird how things converge sometimes. My sister is a member of the Pastel Society Of Austin, and she forwarded me an invitation for one of their meetings, where the guest speaker was a book designer. She was going to talk about self-publishing. I was interested. I went.

Her presentation was mostly about Blurb.com - her chosen self publishing site. I filed it away under someday.

However, I also subscribe to ModernCat, which is where I learned of a book contest, sponsored by Blurb. One of the three categories was pets. Put your hands together.

To enter the contest, you had to design, upload, publish and purchase a book. It was a great learning experience. Now I am in the contest.

I decided that the book should not really be about Maddie and Splotchy. It should be about why any of you even know about them. The sad truth is, you know them because some unknown person was unspeakably cruel. A difference of ten seconds and they might have been two out of millions of kitties and puppies who are dumped, neglected, abused and never seen by any of us. Thank God a sweet, sweet woman (thank you Amanda) did see them, didn't miss the window, and they are part of me now. But it can't remain unsaid that our culture needs to value and protect vulnerable things, because I believe the heart and soul of America does. And I'm certain that culture gets built one person at a time. So I decided just to say a little something about it.

So yes, it's a contest, and yes, you can vote for me and make me happy, but the message is this:

"The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated. I hold that, the more helpless a creature, the more entitled it is to protection by man from the cruelty of man" -Mahatma Gandhi

The preview shows you just a few pages of the book, because unfortunately, each preview page shows up in search engines, including my photos, which are unprotected by watermark.

However, if anyone wants to purchase the book for a Christmas gift, I will donate $1 from each book sold on Blurb from now until December 31 to A Place to Bark, because you guys know how much I love my dear friend Bernie who, as much as anyone on this earth, understands compassion and kindness to the furries. And I know the book is really expensive, but that is because this is on-demand publishing - so they make each book when it's ordered instead of printing tons.

So you wanna see? If you like what you see, please cast a vote and leave a comment!! If you love it, buy one!

She's Mine Now

A Tale of Two Rescues

By Lydia B. Fiedler

Book Preview

Now, art.

I heard a joke on Twitter the other day and I'm dedicating this post to it. "I went to the doctor today and I'm senile but hey - at least I'm not senile."

Yeah, what he said.

Anyway, I totally forgot to post the projects I entered for the Artisan Awards at convention. Or maybe I did and I just forgot. There's really no way to know for sure, so I'm going to try to find them and post them. Where did I leave those things??? Oh, here's one..

Remember my technique of stamping a silhouette image and then coloring it with pencils?

Well that's what I did here. I stamped on kraft cardstock with Sahara Sand ink, and then colored with white, aqua and charcoal pencils. I also took micron pens and outlined the petals because you do lose some detail when you add pencil.



I know you are all very happy it is Friday, as am I. :)

Loveyameanitbye



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?




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?