Fill in the Blank...

I will let you. But stay with me for a minute first.

I need to share a few of the reasons I love Santa Fe. And trust me, this is just a few..

I love Santa Fe

Because these are windows.

And these are doors.

And these are gates.

And these are trees.

And this is graffiti.

And that's just the first thirty minutes I've been here!

On the way here I read some incredible magazines.

The first was Artful Blogging, which absolutely stopped my heart. I had just had the coolest conversation about blogging, sparked by this month's Atlantic feature on it, and I picked this up at the same time I grabbed the Atlantic to find out if women and blogging should rule the world. (Yes, of course I already know the answer).

Not only is Artful Blogging a beautiful and inspiring magazine (man, do I have a lot of work to do on my blog!) but it shares my deep deep philosophy about what blogging is and should be - positive, beautiful, peaceful, mannerly. A force for good on the internet. You need to go buy this if you have a blog and see what I mean. It will awe you, I promise. I guess I need a subscription. *sigh*.

In addition to that, I read "Where Women Create" and "Hand Crafted" and a bunch of other beautiful magazines. Man. I might need a second job!

Wanna share? If you want me to send you a copy of the crazy luxurious and extravagant Stampington publication - "Hand Crafted" you need to just be the first person to fill in the blanks with what I am thinking. (I bought an extra because I'm senile. :))

I need you to just give me the two words that complete this sentence in my head.

"Santa Fe is a place that truly _____________ ___________".

:)

Back tomorrow with some Thanksgiving stuff. And the day after with the Understand Blue Official Christmas kickoff.

Oh, and some very exciting news.

And maybe a tail of two kitties.. heh heh.

RETAIL THERAPY!!

Want to fight all the bad economic news with 20% - 50% off some great Stampin' Up! STAMPS & ACCESSORIES?

Come on - your country needs you!!

You can order these great bargains in your jammies - pumpkin pie in one hand and the mouse in the other!

Don't wait - supplies on these deeply discounted product bundles are limited. After you click the link below, click promotions to see which products are on sale.

Your favorite demonstrator (me, in case you forgot) is ready in cyberspace to assist you with all your Thanksgiving Shopping needs - just click here to start your spree and choose "Shop Now" in the upper right!

Remember - everyone who places an online order during this sale - Only November 26 - December 1 - will go into a drawing for a $20 Stampin' Up! gift certificate!

Give thanks for Stampin' Up!!

:)

Snowy Modern Art

It came to me in a dream.

Well it would have been a dream, because I would have been asleep, if there weren't two cats, that despite their SUPPOSED five pounds apiece, can actually, through a miracle of feline centripetal force, propel themselves into things with the gravity of Pamplona bulls. Some of these things include, but are not limited to:

Wood blinds
Beds
Windows
Toilets
Other Cats
Lamps
My sternum
Things with bells on them that I'm pretty sure they manufacture under the bed.

So the nap was not to be. Instead, I was picking them out of the slats of the rocking chair, pulling things out of their mouths and resisting the urge to duct tape them to something so I could have a moment of peace.

Now, of course, that the nap window has passed, Maddie is snoring away in the new carrier I bought and Splotchy is all draped over the chair chasing rabbits. Evil beasts.

But when I was TRYING to sleep, I came up with this mosaic sky and white winter landscape idea, and had plenty of time to make it during my forsaken nap time.

There's a website called Folding Trees that has some gorgeous paper sculptures on it and I used that for inspiration.

I hand cut the hillsides after making my mosaic sky out of Bashful Blue, Baja Breeze, Soft Sky and Brocade Blue with my paper snips.

Then I punched out my frosty deer and snowflakes with my Martha Stewart punches and they and the hills are mounted with dimensionals. The mosaic is just attached with SNAIL.

I think it's kind of frosty & fun. I thought about glitter but it was so clean and crisp I just left it.

Hope you're having a sassy Tuesday - Thanksgiving is almost here!

Cruella De Vil works in my Building!!

Seriously. Because who else could have left THIS in the parking garage?

I am not kidding - if I ever come out and see someone smoking a cigarette in a HOLDER, I'm gonna lose it!

Rolling around on the ground giggling, eyes watering, can't breathe, might pee lose it!! I'm sure Cruella is really going to be embarassed.

Really. I'm serious. Who does that?

I'll tell you who does it.

That broad with the Dalmatian coat, that's who!!

Remember?

I very rarely watch live TV. I didn't have a TV for most of my life, and the vast majority of it is a brain sucking wasteland, most of it is mean spirited or trashy and TV generally degrades the world, so I opt out. I like Lost, The Office and - pardon me, but it's funny - It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Sometimes I'll catch those live, but TiVo is my friend.

I "hear" most TV while I'm stamping in my studio, and only from my DVR. Martha Stewart, some FoodTV stuff I record and a handful of other DVR'd shows are running in the background getting marginal attention.

But today, I was passively absorbing an SNL re-run and there was one of those Chris Farley skits where he had a talk show where he would invite famous people on, like Mel Gibson, and say things like "Remember, Remember in Lethal Weapon when you...." and then he'd basically do that for every scene in the movie.

There was always something kind of sweet and sad about the Farley skits. Like he put a little bit of his own story in them. Sometimes to the point where you felt uncomfortable for him. But then he made you giggle uncontrollably and you got over it. Sorta.

Anyway, I thought it would be fun to send someone a card where the only point of the card was to ask them to remember something fun you did together.

Like - remember when we snuck into the local abandoned house that was sooo scary and had the secret room with suitcases in it and that guy with a shotgun in his underwear chased us to your car, which didn't start?

Or - remember that time we wrapped that kid's house and everything was good until I shoepolished the doorbell?

Or - remember that time we had your birthday party in your car at the mall?

Any little story that would bring a smile would be a perfect use of this card. Feel free to borrow my stories. :)

The letters were cut from one of my Half Price - well, actually $1 - books called Street of Knives by Cyril Harris - with my GoGo Boots alphabet Sizzix die. Super dramatic cover on this one, trust me!

The elephant is punched with my new Martha Stewart elephant punch from Real Red cardstock. His little ear sticks up. The card base is Basic Black.

Remember?

B Yourself

Even if you are the black sheep.

I had that "Family" stamp from Make it Count that I was going to use because I thought that would be hilarious, but I didn't want anybody who was the black sheep to relive any painful memories! :)

I think we all think we're the black sheep, right? So just B Yourself!

The sheep are Martha Stewart Punches. I hand cut the little pieces of land from River Rock cardstock and the card base is a 4.25 x 4.25 square of Soft Sky.

The letter is cut from my Big Shot with my GoGo Boots alphabet die.

You know what? The black sheep are more fun to go bowling with!

This one is for a magazine for a punch feature.

Expecto Patronum!!

I don't know - I guess the little white deer made me say it!!

I cannot believe that my buddy Lisa of Flatfish Paper Arts and I had the same urge to go clean out Martha Stewart's punches this weekend, but we did!!!

Here are two new ones I got - the little evergreen tree and the Patronus from Harry Potter. Or something like that.

Her punches rock! I got a few more and I'll work something up a little later after I fight off the urge to nap that is pretty overpowering right about now.

When I was in Petco (right next to Michael's) they were blasting Air Supply and I accidentally totally started singing out loud. How in the world do people restrain themselves from singing "I'M ALL OUT OF LOVE, I'M SO LOST WITHOUT YOU"??? Well I don't restrain myself, so there.

Anyway, this card is so simple, and it's for Beate's Weekend Sketch Challenge. I used my oval Coluzzle (finally replaced the blade! That thing lasted like six years!!) to cut the Baja Breeze DSP for the left side. Beate's sketch had a rectangle, so I just curved it a bit.

I adhered some of the little trees flat and popped some up with dimensionals. I used two way glue and glitter on them - as usual, horribly photographed.

The little Patronus is popped up with dimensionals on a 1 3/8" BB DSP circle.

I embossed the greeting rectangle with my Crop-a-Dile.

The Peace, Love & Joy is from All Holidays.

Hope you are less sleepy than me this afternoon!

Want to see some cool sites? These might get you in the holiday mood! Or at least save you some money...

How about...

Daily Candy
Cyber Monday
Woot

RU SRS?

Really? You actually think that despite the fact that I have my Christmas card design conceived and ready for prep earlier than I have in like 18 years that I'm actually going to SHOW it to you?

You present shakers!!!!

I SO am not going to show it to you!! Many of you will be receiving this card so I'm sure as heck not gonna spoil the surprise!!!

However, a peek isn't gonna hurt anybody right??

Let's go ahead and get a few Captain Obvious things out of the way..

Yeah, Blue.

Words.

Sparkly stuff.

Birds.

Come on, you've MET me, right?

Now today I had the most GINORMOUS creative breakthrough which totally 4011% improved my prototype, so the peekies u see here are totally beta, man.

2.0 is gonna COMPLETELY ROCK THE MISTLETOE!!!

Don't underestimate the process of prototyping a card design. If you could see the litter of discarded pieces of this card in my studio right now you'd either lose all respect for me or be so blissfully happy that you are not the only one who tries 30 times before they get it right. It's all part of the art we love - embrace the failures!!

(This gave me an idea - why doesn't someone start a stamping maid service? People who come just restore your stamp room after a card??? No toilets, tubs or floors - just clean up the scraps, put the ink pads and markers away and make it ready for me to start over? I'd give someone like a billion dollars to come do that right now!!!)

Now, on the Christmas topic,I know that some of you, my beloved readers, are in places with a winter, but yours truly is in the great Republic of Texas. We don't really "do" winter.

However, today, the mercury dipped a bit. Quite a bit. It was colder than a well digger's... well, you know.

But I have a disorder. You know that SNL skit where that guy has Voice Immodulation Disorder and can't control the pitch or volume of his voice?

Well I can't cover my hands or my feet. I feel extremely claustrophobic with gloves or socks or regular shoes on.

I attribute this and all other quirks to my near drowning when I was a baby. Sometimes I attribute it to growing up in a seriously Africa hot town. Sometimes I attribute it to the fact that I had to wear gloves when I moved from Buffalo to Africa Hot, Texas, population 35,000 at age 3 because I used to pass out in the heat, like a little Yankee does after that sort of a transplant. I had to wear a hat too.

Sometimes, I don't attribute it to anything. Sometimes I'm just happy to wiggle my fingers and toes, even if they're cold.

Hope you are happily wigglin' your fingers and toes tonight.

Happy Friday.

You can take your Hypotenuse and ...

Look. This is an art blog. If you came here expecting me to be good at math, well - you really have some misdirected hope.

Let me sum up my theory about quite a few things actually. The stupider the words you use to describe what you do - the more likely you are to be covering up the fact that no one is going to be interested in whatever it is. Let me give you a few examples, and if you are still awake at the end of this list, you will be rewarded with a card for Kristina's Color Inspiration #31.

Hypotenuse.
Molality. (Interchangeable with Molarity)
Config.bat
Defragment.
Stochastic.

Good golly- I'm boring myself to death.

Why do I bring this up? Well, I have been doing a little editorial work lately for stamping, and one of the challenges of a Dawn McVey style perfect card is getting your elements perfectly straight on your work.

So tonight, prepping for the challenge, I thought I'd snap some pics of what I did with the little starbursts to line them up.

I lined the card up on my grid paper, and then laid this awesome triangular ruler I have had for like 4011 years down on my cardstock, lined up with one of the horizontal lines on the grid, to help me place my dealy-boppers straight on my card.

Well after I took the picture I was all - WTH ARE ALL THESE WIERD MARKINGS ON MY RULER??? WHO IN THE WORLD PUTS NUMBERS ON A RULER ALL CRAZY WITH 64 RIGHT NEXT TO 30?

This is clearly a stupid ruler and I bet there's a word for it - like a "Hypotenusish Heuristic/Stochastic Molality Model Calibration Device."

You know what I would call something like this? A TRIANGLE SHAPED STRAIGHT HELPY THING.

People everywhere would instantly know they wanted it.

Sheesh. Simplify, my people - SIMPLIFY.

And on that topic, as I've told you before - I really love Julie Ebersole's style - lots of clean white space and crisp images.

I feel like the colors in Kristina's challenges should take center stage - so really, I take an Iron Chef approach - let the secret ingredients shine. She always picks a harmonious combo - harder to do than it seems, so tonight I just let them be who they are!

I used a really fun two-step stamping leaf from an incentive stamp set called Perfect Match. (Do you know about incentive stamps? Stamps for 50 cents!!! Email me to learn more!) For the Elegant Eggplant, Pumpkin Pie and Close to Cocoa leaves, I stamped off once (twice for Eggplant)
before stamping the center of the leaves. The outlines are stamped with Basic Black, as is the greeting from Season of Thanks.

The little medallions they are on are punched out of matching cardstock with a Martha Stewart punch. They are adhered to a Whisper White card base with Snail, but the leaves are cut out and popped up with dimensionals.

So here is the full card. I hope you like it.

To answer a question about my webinar - the new Google Reader Webinar scheduled for December 2 is for those of you who missed the first one.

If you want to read what some of my attendees said, click here!

This seminar will teach you how to organize your favorite blogs and stamping projects for easy retrieval, without taking up one kilobyte (completely stupid word!!!) on your computer, and if your hard drive crashes - you'll still have all of it!!!

So check out this post and sign up for my December 2 Google Reader Webinar - it's live, interactive, and only $5!!

Now - do you want some words that AREN'T stupid? Some words that make you smile and feel all warm and fuzzy every time you hear them?

How about...

paw
purr
fur
nap
warm?

Next Google Reader Webinar - Don't miss it!!

A Belly Full of Snow Tutorial

I did this shaker card for VSN.

I don't do them often, and I don't have a good explanation for you about that. Is there a gene for shaker cards? Could I be missing that gene? Do you think they could splice it into me like they do with roses?

OH WAIT I FORGOT TO TELL YOU... DID YOU SEE THIS?

Anyway, so I didn't do a whole shaker card, I just did a shaker BELLY. Love that word.

Here's what you do.

First, admire how sparkly your Diamond Dust is underneath your desk lamp. Aahhh. Remember you are supposed to actually be doing something with it and re-focus.

Then, punch a 1.25" hole from white cardstock. Center your 1.75" punch around that hole and punch out a little ring.

Punch a 1.75" circle from acetate. Or, for the ghetto version I did, use a cello bag!! (It was on my desk!!)

Adhere the acetate or ghetto bag to the ring, and then lay it down. Trim dimensionals - Use the leftover edge pieces - and carefully stick them down. They MUST be touching or you will spring sparkly leaks. If this card is for someone you don't like, then leave big gaps! ;)

Carefully spoon Diamond Dust into the ring. Don't fill it up.

Then remove the backing for the dimensionals. Do not attempt to do this before adding sparklies or you will regret it when they are all stuck to the dimensionals and you have to start over!!

Adhere a 1.75" circle to this and voila! Shaker belly!!!

Very quick, easy and not intimidating!

What is intimidating is the resolution of my new camera. So fine, in fact that I had to censor a closeup of my ghetto circle because you could see every line in my paws and they looked old and hideous! Vanity prevailed over the tutorial! :)

Note to self - investigate better hand lotion!!!

Have a great Tuesday!!

Moulin Rouge Inspired

This card was for the Moulin Rouge Inspired Challenge for VSN - the challenge image was a cool collage, below.

Obviously I loved the blue picture, but all the warm, bright colors around it were very cool.

And I know I've done a BILLION variations of this same card, but hey - I like it. I really don't know what is going to happen when this butterfly stamp falls apart. (Wonderful Wings, Stampin' Up!)

I colored the image with my Koh-I-Noor pencils and blended them with Gamsol. Did I ever tell you the best way to use this stuff?

8 Billion years ago, when the earth was young, I went a ginormous stamp expo where a lady was demonstrating this technique. She sold the Gamsol in these little bottles with fuzzy tops - sort of like the things you moisten envelopes with. You just turn the bottle upside down and get the fuzzy part wet, and then you can just stick your little blender onto the fuzzy thing when you need some more.

Even though you are wowed by this great description, I will take a picture for you. :)

The Google Reader Webinar Part One was last night and it was awesome!! We had a lot of fun and hopefully everyone learned a lot. I will be scheduling the second one today or tomorrow, so don't forget to sign up. The actual webinar will be before Thanksgiving. If you let me know a good day, I will try to accomodate everyone!

Have a great Tuesday.

Blue Bunnies

I love Blue Bunnies as you know.

These are for the VSN M Challenge. I love it when they do animal challenges.

It gives me a chance to color stuff blue that shouldn't be. I never miss an opportunity like that!!

These little guys are from Firecracker Designs by Pamela. The rightmost bunny is just half a bunny - so he's designed to be sticking out from behind the other one, which is really easy and cool - no masking!!!

I colored the design with Copics. Then I mounted the bunny panel with dimensionals.

The greeting is from On Your Birthday.

VSN is over, and I did all but four challenges! I'll be posting more over the coming days.

Don't forget - my Google Reader Webinar is TONIGHT!! It costs $5, and you can still sign up and log in tonight at 7PM Central time!

Email me to sign up for this - you don't want to miss it! :) I'll be emailing everyone who signed up this afternoon with confirmations and passwords.

Spotlighting Challenge

Here's the spotlighting challenge for VSN!

This set is Fruit Stand - this is the set I won from Shelli's Creative Challenge and I just love it.

I stamped it in white on Going Grey.

I then colored around it with a white Prismacolor pencil, and then shaded it with a grey Prismacolor pencil to make it stand out. For the spotlight part I used a red pencil.

The patterned paper is Basic Grey.

Super fun and simple card. I know it's a little somber, but it's brighter and prettier in real life! :)

Shop Swap & VSN Challenge - Busby Berkeley

I read Beate's post today (I'm a little behind on my blogs) about not liking to grocery shop, and it gave me an idea.

I LOVE to grocery shop. Now, as you know, I hate it when strangers hang on my back like monkeys, but I love the actual shopping. (Splotchy and Maddie felt compelled to demonstrate what happens to me every time I go, those little camera hogs. These are the two most common situations I encounter at the store. Splotchy is playing the person behind me. Maddie is me. Thanks Team!)

I wish that Central Market would just shut down to everyone but me one day a week so I can wander around, sipping sample wine and making little "hmmm" noises when I find crazy cool things, like eggs with no shells or candy that makes you pretty or tiny pickled grapefruits. I would probably do that every day. And with pepper spray for the clingers, I really enjoy grocery shopping now. For example, I have recently discovered True North - which they should just call True Religious Experience, because that's what they are. Run out and get the Pistachio Crisps and see what I mean. (Oh and PS - they're with the nuts, not the crackers, for some odd reason.)

However, most people I know despise grocery shopping. And while I don't understand this at all, I respect it, because I despise EVERY OTHER KIND OF SHOPPING. I get hives even thinking about a mall, and I only go once a year to stock up on Dior lipgloss. I shake the whole time I'm there and am assaulted by the sight of people who are pretending to enjoy the bright, loud, crowded, fluorescent light infested stinky place where everyone walks on the wrong side of the walkways, skeevy cell phone people at kiosks say outrageous lies like "Hey want free cell minutes for life and J-Lo's butt?" that they think no one can say no to to lure them into their four square feet of sales hell. As you might have guessed, I'm more than capable of saying no in that voice that Linda Blair had in The Exorcist and pairing that with a look that makes them pee their khakis. (That's the only small shred of enjoyment I get from the experience, btw.)

Anyway, I know some people enjoy this depravity. And I enjoy the depravity of the grocery store.

Why don't we all just swap? You go get my lipgloss and I will get your grapes!!! We would both be so happy!!! Me with my shiny mall-free lips and you happily eating the grapes that appeared on your porch.

Think about it.

Here's the "E" challenge from VSN - the challenge was to have a geometric focal point to your card, reminiscent of Busby Berkeley dance routines. FUN!

I made a paper medallion with Pacific Point Blue and Whisper White and a rhinestone from the Pretties.

I added a rubon from the Take Note set. Don't forget - you can order the sale priced rubons from me online and be entered in my drawing!!

I'm going to try to finish all the challenges but will probably be posting them over the course of the coming week, so you won't see a billion posts from me like you have today.

:) Hope you're having a great Saturday!

Coffee Themed Striptease

Hey - I don't make this stuff up!!!

This is for the fourth VSN Challenge - a Striptease! Don't send the kids out of the room. This is a PG13 post.

The Striptease challenge was to put something on a card that can be removed. See? Was that so bad?

So I looped a piece of candy striped ribbon around a Starbucks card and tied some gold cord around it.

Then I made a little sleeve for it out of Chocolate Chip DSP, punched a Riding Hood Red top note and used stamps from Winter Post and Like it a Latte to embellish. I love that little peppermint stick. Starbucks cards are a funny size.. Never noticed that before right now. I also have absolutely no idea why I'm using kraft cardstock on everything I make. Must be a fall thing. Looks cool with that red though doesn't it?

There's Dazzling Diamonds on the foam.

This was very simple & quick!

More challenges to come! :)