Karma Chameleon

This card is the second VSN Challenge card - we were supposed to be inspired by a rock star!!

So on my frigid walk to Starbucks - wet hair, tennis skirt, 37 degrees, 25 mph winds - I thought that the bright colors and sort of gypsy look of Karma Chameleon would work great with my little Sizzix bird!

Now, I am not sure if Boy George can be considered a "rock star" - but he's awfully colorful and easy to translate to stamping!

So I stacked up a few sheets of Basic Grey Ambrosia DSP and cut out some birds and started piecing this one together. I tried to stay with warm colors - I used to really be obsessed with that orange eyeshadow old Boy George wore. Looking at this picture I have no idea why!!!

I loved the eighties at the time but oh my gosh we all looked like idiots!!!

Glad that's over with. Nice to back in Levis and shirts with no shoulder pads.

Oh, and on last night's topic - a few answers and observations.

1) OCD is a completely affectionate term!!! Mike knows I like to clean things with rubbing alcohol! :) I think all stampers are a little OCD. And so are Mike & I! That's probably why we like all the same TV shows! Here's a good example of some of the dilemmas I have as an OCD Virgo. When organizing the markers, you discover that there is a Y - Yellow group, but then there's a YG - Yellow Green. There is B and BG. R and RV. OMG THERE ARE ONLY 9 DIVIDERS - WHERE DO THE BG'S GO WITH THE B'S OR THE G'S? THE YG'S AND THE BG'S CAN'T BOTH GO WITH THE G'S THAT DOESN'T MAKE ANY SENSE OMG I CAN'T BREATHE!! :) Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the idea. You will see that it all worked out.

2) Next answer to a question - for my OCD marker fix, I purchased the Magpie storage system (3 of them) from Overstock.com - my first purchase from that site and I'm pleased! It's the perfect depth for the Copic Sketch markers, sharpies, glaze pens and my microns, Koh-i-Noors and white gel pens. It's a little short for Prismas and my pastel pencils though, so they're staying in their cans for now.

They sit on my bookcase, and each of them have a little drawer. Can't decide what's going in there yet.

Off to do more challenges!! You'll be hearing from me a lot this weekend!

Don't forget - my Google Reader Webinar is Monday - email me to sign up!!

Virtual Stamp Night Starts with a Bang!

Love the first challenge - it was to use three identical images in a row..

Since I already had old Red Clark out, I thought I'd use the book for the "letter" in this image.

The typewriter is from Puns from the Past. Now for those of you born in the 80's, the "typewriter" is the old school HP laser jet.

I cut a slit in it with my craft knife and slid the paper in, curving it with my bone folder.

The card base and panel are kraft.

To answer a ? - I have three sets of the Copic sketch markers - coveting the rest!!

And now - a message from all the sleepy occupants of the house - one of which is sleeping on my shoulder.... time to watch the shuttle launch on Tivo and go to sleep..

What Virgos Like to do after Work..

Organize their markers by color. *sigh*

Mitten Cupcakes

If there is a list somewhere of the most fun things in the world, you know that includes both cupcakes and baby mittens, right?

Well, as Joey on Friends says - PUT YOUR HANDS TOGETHER!!!

A friend is having a little girl soon, so I thought I would make her some little cupcakes with those adorable teeny baby mittens and BABY TIGHTS!! I love baby tights!!

Have any of you wondered why at some point the world decides that girls are no longer allowed to wear ruffly bloomers and tights and wear little tiara's and glittery shoes? Why do we allow that - we should be wearing these things all our lives. You should totally be able to rock up to work in pink glittery Mary Jane's and a tiara and not have someone think you've escaped from somewhere.

The front cupcake is the baby mittens - the cuff part is what you're seeing on top.

For the tights I just rolled three pairs together and they really look like frosting!!!

Then I crimped a 2.25" strip of Pirouette Pink and stuck it together around the little goodies with Sticky Strip.

I put the mitten one in my clear paint can and tied the most adorable Winnie the Pooh pacifiers onto the handle with white organdy ribbon.

I tied a piece of that wide Pirouette Pink grosgrain ribbon around the outside.

I guess I forgot to take a picture of the top. I Coluzzled a piece of Pirouette Pink for the top. Then I stamped the little sheep from Dilly Dally and punched it with my 1.75" punch. I colored it with Pirouette Pink and the blender pen and then added glitter.

What a fun and simple baby gift.

This post has been brought to you by Splotchy Paprika, who knows not his (her) own cuteness.

Jealousy, Statistical Anomalies and a Retreat!

Amazing how all those things can be related in a single post, but it is what it is...

First of all, I'm just sick with envy over the new Doodle Factory Christmas Set. I didn't order it yet and I'm sad. If you want to order it, don't forget - you get a discount - enter promo code SAVETENLF at checkout. On top of that, if you order this by Christmas, they're throwing in the matching greetings for free!!

Anyway can we talk about me now?

In my despondence and covetousness, I cracked out my other DF Winter Set I bought last year and whipped up this little ditty for you.

It was really fun and easy. First, I punched three holes in a post it note as a guide for my ornaments.

The punch I used was my 1 3/4" circle punch.

Then I covered up two holes at a time with other Post Its and then stamped my cute little deer in the opening of the third.

Wash, Rinse, repeat.

Then, I took my .05 micron pen and traced the openings. I used the same pen to draw the hozzles ( I just made that up. I think it's a real word for something else. I like it because of the buzzing of the two z's. ) of the ornaments as well as the hangers.

Then I poked holes for the silver cord and threaded it through.

I added Stampin' Up! felt flurries and a rhinestone brad (clear) from the Pretties Kit.

Since I didn't really leave room for a greeting, I just handwrote "happy" and "joy" and "merry" along the edges of the ornaments with the same pen.

When I started this project I envisioned covering the ornaments with Crystal Effects to make them raised and shiny, maybe because Emily and I had a session at Sbux this afternoon where we were emoting about our Crystal Effects. I bet the people who heard us thought we were in a cult.

But, I also bet they secretly wanted to BE in our cult.

But I ended up just adding glitter and I think I like it like this. Do you?

Statistical Anomalies - what are the odds of a girl like me having exactly two readers who owned Pintos AND two readers who like Select-a-size paper towel shreds!?! God Bless America is what I say! Or, as Jane said - that's what makes a horse race!

Although I did not have a Pinto, my first "car" (and I use the term loosely) was a 1976 RUST colored Buick Century. I hung fuzzy dice from the mirror because I wanted to make a statement about the level of class that car communicated. I was not happy about the damage to my image.

But wait.

Forget about how it looked. How about the fact that it died at every stop sign, requiring me, the 16 year old girl with poofy 80's hair, a large checked satin shirt and tights on, probably some hideously huge earrings, glasses that make an aviator look sissy, hopping out, popping the hood, and STICKING A BALL POINT PEN INTO THE CARBURETOR TO HOLD THE FLAP OPEN AND GET OXYGEN IN THERE, GETTING BACK BEHIND THE WHEEL, STARTING IT, ALARMING PASSERS BY WITH THE LARGE FLAME SHOOTING OUT UPON IGNITION, RECLAIMING MY PEN CUZ I'LL NEED IT, CLUNKING THE HOOD CLOSED AND DRIVING OFF WITH MY FACE ON FIRE?

HOW ABOUT THAT?

YES, I'M SCARRED. I don't want to talk about it anymore. Stop asking me questions.

Now - my dear friend Julie Ann Moon, is hosting a creative retreat!! This fabby weekend will take place at the Compass Center in Mount Calm, TX. It will be Jan 15-18, and you will have sleeping quarters, all meals and two four foot tables, power, lighting, everything you need to quilt, stamp, scrapbook or felt your little hearts out!!!!! These fill up fast, so if you'd like to register, contact Julie Ann asap!!! This woman is one of the nicest, most energetic people I've ever met. This retreat is going to be a BLAST!!

And finally - don't forget - my webinar on Google Reader and RSS feeds is Monday, at 7 PM Central - if you haven't registered yet, you have to email me to sign up!! Don't miss it - you are going to learn a ton from yours truly, the uber nerd!! :)

Hope you're having a great night!!

Lydia

Rub Ons Promotion!

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Red Clark on the Border, Part II

More of Red Clark's western adventures today..

Now for those of you out there who are cringing at me tearing pages out of a book, let me tell you - I understand.

I worked at the Rush Rhees Rare Books department for four years. We had an extensive Victoriana collection. We had John Updike manuscripts. We had *gasp* John Gardner's manuscripts. It was a great place, where we lovingly restored books page by page and carried them around wearing white gloves like they were baby birds.
I never let anyone fold down the corners of my books, and I have a hard time writing or putting a book plate in them.

But there are a lot of old books in the world, that if they weren't being sold for a quarter somewhere, would be in the trash. So I'm just reanimating Red Clark. See? You didn't even know who he was before. And you had never laid eyes on: "Don't argy! I'm goin' to hit 'em all of a sudden just like God A'Mighty throwed me at their heads!"

So on to part two.

If you are going to stamp on old Red directly, you are going to need to use a pigment based ink. Since the paper is deteriorating, it's very absorbent, and dye based ink just disappears.
So I stamped Upsy Daisy in Basic Black Craft. Then I heat set it, at which point clouds of old book dust rose up, and then I brayered River Rock all over it. The card base and ribbon are River Rock also.

Now some of you have asked if the kitties still help me blog. Yes, together at ten pounds, they are still draped over my arms in my office, sleeping and heating up my arms to supernova.

Tonight, it was just Maddie. :) It's hard to take a picture in this position - you have my actual view here looking down at her - so sorry for the extreme closeup. Didn't reallly bother her too much, as you can see.

Ever Stolen a Library Book?

You know you're only supposed to borrow them, right? I think what happens is that some people just borrow them for a really really long time. They intend to bring them back - they really do.

But you know, the time just flies - one day, it's December 1940, and the next - dang it - it's 2009! Where does the time go?

I'm fairly certain that is what happened to the person who borrowed the book I just bought for $1 at Half Price Books. I love Half Price Books. If you haven't been there, you need to go. I went for stamping materials, because I knew I could spend like $5 and get more than I would ever need.

Yes, while I was there, I could not resist the temptation to fill in some holes in my Nancy Drew collection, including a very lucky #13. ;)

However, I was looking for older books with more weathered pages, and I stumbled upon a real gem - Red Clark on the Border by Gordon Young.

It's a real rip snorter of a Western - a Young Western, to be exact.

With language like "Plumb sure!" and "purt near" and "say Boo!" I could not resist it.

However, it wasn't until I was actually using the book while filming my TV show that I realized that it had been stolen from the American Lending Library!! I opened the book up (on camera) to talk about it, and lo and behold - PURLOINED!! "Never sold - only loaned"!!

Well, American Lending Library - someone sold it to Half Price Books. And they sold it to me. For $1. And I'm using it to make some fun cards. So if you ever catch up with the person who borrowed it in the 40's and has 8 billion in late fees, would you mind giving me a cut?

Anyway, you know I like to make little recycling jokes with myself. Like taking the magazine, that used to be a tree, and turning it back into a tree, right?

Well I did the same thing with old Red Clark from the 40's.

Since I was using a leaf of this old book, I thought I'd stick a leaf on it and have a little fun. I also added the "telling my story" barcode from the Take Note Rubon Set.

The leaf is stamped in Brocade Blue (Why don't I ever use this?) on Very Vanilla and cut out. The circle of the book page is punched with my 1.75" punch and sponged with Brocade Blue and Chocolate Chip. I deliberately salvaged the "say boo". :)

I plumb sure like it! I reckon it's purt near what I pictured when I walked into Half Price...

Happy Monday!

Google Reader Webinar!!

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Do you have 40 email subscriptions in your inbox every morning mixed in with your regular email?

Do you have 8000 bookmarks that take an hour to get through?

Do you have a 60 bazillion Gigabyte word doc with all the card pictures you've right clicked and saved, completely uncategorized and hard to wade through?
Want to organize your favorite news sites, blogs and other content so you can read them on YOUR time on YOUR terms and not feel pressured by your messy inbox?
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The webinar will take place with Go2Meeting, so you will just sit in front of your computer at the appointed time, and hear the audio either from your phone or on VOIP, whichever is more convenient. You will see everything I'm doing on my computer, and I will walk you through each click in real time.

The cost? $5 - unless you're in my Understand Blue Demo group. All UB demo members attend for free.

Once you are registered, I will pick a date that works for everyone. Anyone who cannot be scheduled in the first session will go into a second session.

When you have paid via paypal for your session, you will be sent the meeting instructions.

Don't wait - you will need to be registered before the holidays so you can organize your great holiday ideas for quick retrieval!!

Don't miss this! Click here to email me and receive registration instructions!

The Worst Invention Since the Pinto & A Tutorial

I bet you can't wait to hear about the domestic equivalent of the Pinto - but you're gonna have to suffer through my Cuttlebug Batik tutorial first!!!

I learned about this through SmilynStef's blog - she had the most amazing post of some cool finds, among them, Stamping Mathilda's incredible technique!!! She calls it resist, but to me it looks like batik, so my apologies to that talented woman for liberties with the name.

I tried it, and tested it for you, and found it to be so incredibly brilliant and easy I thought I'd share!

So here we go. I used a very modified Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge for my inspiration.

First, cut a piece of wax paper about the size of your Cuttlebug embossing folder. I chose the pumpkin one that I got recently and didn't have time to use before Halloween.

Place the piece of wax paper carefully in the folder and run it through your machine.

The finished product is actually really pretty all by itself and would probably be cute on a card.

But we need to shrug off the stamping ADD I get all the time and just soldier on.

Next, carefully place this embossed wax paper between two pieces of Whisper White the same size as the wax paper. It's important that it doesn't slip around, so once you put the sandwich down on your mat, make sure the top piece and the wax paper don't slide.

Now - and I know this will horrify people who know me and my proclivity for purchasing knits and other alien fabricated materials which do not wrinkle PRECISELY to avoid this implement, but *gasp* - you are gonna need an iron. I went and bought one. Geez - irons are EXPENSIVE. No wonder I don't like them.

Anyway, after you read the manual because you've never used one before, fire that puppy up. Mine was on cotton or something I think - the important thing is that it NOT be on steam.

Gently iron the sandwich until your inner voice tells you its ready - 20 seconds or so - but just iron the whole thing.

When you pull it off you will see the faint design on the paper. This does not photograph well.

However, grab your brayer and stand by for magic! I used So Saffron Ink for mine. You will see after you brayer both pieces that one is a positive and one is a negative - incredible!!!

This one is the other half of the one I used on the card. (So, it's from the opposite side of the wax paper.)

You can really see the difference in the two looks.

I love techniques that let me get multiple useful pieces!

I give this technique an A+ for easy, quick, stunning results!

I'm going to share another technique with the dreaded iron very soon.

But now, the domestic Pinto.

For you young 'uns, the Pinto was a car made by Ford that had a less than desirable feature - namely - it exploded. When you think you are buying a car and you find out it's actually an IED, you tend to be a little snarky, to say the least.

Well I'm here to tell you, I feel exactly the same way about so-called "select a size" paper towels!!! If there were a bleep machine in my house on the days I realize I have mistakenly purchased these, dogs for miles around would be howling for hours at the high pitched sounds coming from my residence.

Those %#^& thing are like a practical joke!!!

#1 - You don't get to "select" a size! Every time you reach for one of these you get a little shred of towel that is EXACTLY the size of the piece that's stuck to the glue on the inside of the roll when you're done with it.

#2 - The only people who could POSSIBLY want one of these little shreds are people WHO DIDN'T WANT A PAPER TOWEL ANYWAY!! So sell them something else - like a cottonball or a bandaid or an eyepatch!! But those things are not paper towels, and should not be sold as such!!

#3 - I'm pretty sure they are just factory seconds that some freak headed person decided they should just sell in a meeting where some really stupid and greedy executives decided he/she needed a raise and promotion to supervisor of TPS reports. And we wonder what's wrong with Wall Street. - IT'S SELECT A SIZE PAPER TOWELS.

And if they think I haven't noticed how they HIDE the fact that they are shreds on the packaging they are WRONG. They make it impossible to tell.

I have no use for 1/10th of a paper towel, and any person who does, like maybe Sheryl Crow, who said we should all use ONE SQUARE OF TOILET PAPER to save the cave spiders or prevent global warming, should have to hand cut them with their hemp knives or burn a piece off with their bongs!!

I feel SO much better now!

Hope you are all having a great Saturday and have homes filled with full size paper towels. I fell asleep at about 6:15 yesterday, so I was peppy enough to cook a fabby meal, which I hope to have soon!

CU L8R

Ink Pads + Cat = Easy decorated guest Towels

This is a quick little ditty for Kristina's color challenge. I used the adorable set we got at regionals - Best Wishes and More.

I stamped the flowers in Elegant Eggplant, Pacific Point Blue, Taken With Teal, and Pumpkin Pie. (Sorry my colors are washed out in this photo - I hate the time change - there's not enough daylight for photography after work!) I punched the centers of the pumpkin ones and mounted them with dimensionals. I thought the white space really showed off these vivid colors.

The center panel is popped up too.

Great question on the tree Ink Pattie!! I want to try that!

Splotchy takes "Handmade" to a whole new level in this week's tutorial. She likes to teach frugal decorating tips in this uncertain economy. She is such a good jumper I didn't even know what was happening until it was over and she was sitting on my Riding Hood Red ink pad during the creation of my reindeer card. I ran into the bathroom with her and had her stand on a guest towel while I warmed up the foot bath of shame. When I was done I had to snap a pic her little paw art!! Only then did I understand her crafty and generous nature!

Maddie, who doesnt have a crafty bone in her body, just pouted while Splotchy hogged the spotlight.

It's almost Friday! :)

Comments are fixed!!

Sorry about that! Please leave me comments. Pretty please?

Blogger's new feature doesn't work with my template. If any of my fellow bloggers have customized their templates and are wondering why they're not getting comments anymore - I can help! :)

L.

Hot Googlie Holiday Season

Well when it's 80 degrees, we Texans can still conjure up some Christmas spirit, so don't underestimate us.

For example, a person can just trot down to Starbucks, where the airconditioning is set on STUN (like 67 degrees) and have a Peppermint Mocha, or, as of today, a GINGERSNAP LATTE, and feel quite festive in ones shorts and t-shirt.

That's how irreverent little Christmas cards get born here on UB. You sit around in your shorts with your peppermint striped ribbon and think - hey - it's all about the nose, right???

And you bust out a little googlie eye card that really gets quite to the heart of the whole Christmas matter by drawing your attention to the nose, lower right.

The nose is Riding Hood Red Cardstock punched with my 1/4" circle punch, and the images on top are from Winter Post in Basic Black and Riding Hood Red.

Simple, and I hope - fun!!

Please - seriously - understand that googlie eyes are not just for Halloween!! Our national stamping security depends on it! :)

Have a great day!

L.

Techno Blackout Day 2, Cold, Hungry for Data...

It's cold here with no internet. I think the other non-internet enabled prisoners on Planet Techno Blackout are eyeing me for food. Everything is grey. No LOLcats. I hope help comes soon.

The faceless monopoly is supposed to come tomorrow.

1) I doubt they will come in "the window". (What they call a window, most people call a month, with a margin of error of two weeks. Idiots.
2) They will not fix it. They will tell me it's my computer, which it is not.
3) The fantasies I have of what should happen to the giant telecom, sadly, will probably not come true. Instead, I will be sent, once again, to a phone bank in a foreign country where they will bark scripted nonsense at me and express fake concern over my inconvenience, the magnitude of which they cannot POSSIBLY understand.

So a quick lunchtime post. Two views so you can really see the star.

This is another gift card holder, with yet another 3D embellishment. Take your large star punch, and fold three punched stars in half (carefully - the point is tricky). Adhere the folded sides together into a 3D star! (The paper is from the hostess prints pack) 3 is arbitrary - more stars would add more layers and even be cuter!

Add an item from "Crazy for Cupcakes" and voila - cute birthday gift card holder!!!

And you can download the scallop envelope box instructions here from this nice lady.

And I apologize for being so behind on my email!! It's tough with no computer...

Have a great day!

I miss you, Internet!!

Wow - Techno Blackout

Not really sure what's going on in the world - has there been an electromagnetic pulse bomb or something? My DSL has been out all weekend. I'm not happy.

Anyway, here I am at long last - thank the Lord for Starbucks wifi.

Had my club Saturday and it was great - a few new faces and fun projects. At least I thought they were fun! :)

This first one is one of those scallop envelope boxes - these are made with the scallop envy die from the Sizzix - just cut four of them and assemble them into a box! You've probably seen these on a million blogs, so I won't do a tutorial, but I did want to share that the felt flurries are cool because the ones with the larger holes in the middle actually slip over a rhinestone brad from the pretties kit. So this medallion was all assembled with the brad already attached and I just slipped the snowflake on.. Cool

So I'll share what I have and hopefully get my DSL working at some point in the next few days and post the rest.

The gift card holder was the most fun I think. It has this little 3D Christmas tree on it that was SOOO easy and fun I can hardly stand it.

I got this from a blog that's bookmarked on my main computer, but since I have no internet, I can't tell you what it is. I'll update the post with the link as soon as I'm restored!

But here's how you make it.

Cut a circle with your Coluzzle. To determine how large your circle should be, you should align HALF of the template on the space you have to work with. The folded tree is the height of exactly half your circle. I'm sure there's a math term for that, but I don't really care. :)

For me, that was the second biggest circle on my Coluzzle.

Then you will take that circle, and fold it in half. For this project, it is important that your edges are lined up very well and that your creases are tight.

Next, take that semicircle and fold it in half.

This is where a larger circle will serve you well. I tried a very teeny tree, and it's much harder to fold the smaller circles as well as the larger ones. Don't say I didn't tell you. :)

For the last folding steps, you will need to fold each of the two quarter sections in thirds. Hopefully my picture says it better than my words do!

While you are folding, don't worry about whether they are mountain or valley folds - you can refold everything and get it going in the right direction when you're done folding. Just keep all your edges lined up.

Finally, when your creases are all good to go, hold your little tree so that you have two folds and two edges toward you. So in my picture with the notches cut into it, just imagine the right and left edges folded flat against the tree, with the tree facing you just like it is in my picture. Then you can cut your notches. The tree will be adhered to your project just as it is shown in this picture - the two edge pieces will lie flat on your card.

The dimensions of the gift card holder are 6 x 4.25 - scored at 1 and 3.5.

The 1" part becomes the flap that holds the card.



Last but not least, we did this fun little mittens card from Scandinavian Season. I love this set more and more every time I use it.

The colors are Kraft, Ruby Red and Old Olive and the paper is Holiday Treasures.

Hope you have a good Monday and that I can actually communicate again soon!!

L.