"Hey Honey" - a sweet romantic tutorial by Danielle Steele.

Well maybe it's by me. And only the bees get naked in this story. Actually - are they naked? Is fur considered clothing in the animal kingdom? Perhaps a topic for another day.

I'm so excited that the gag order has been lifted from Stampin' Up! and we are once again allowed to show you sneak peeks at new products!! I've been so sad hiding my pre-ordered goodies from you, and being the only one who knew about these cute bees and the heart punch and the little valentine birds, and the french rooster and the...

Wait.

I better slow down.

One adorable bee at a time.

SERIOUSLY THESE ARE SO CUTE!!!!

This is the project I made with Just Buzzin By from the upcoming catalog. It's a little gift container that I made out of an acrylic greeting card box. My customers will be making this today at my customer appreciation party - I hope they like it! I will also be giving away $200 worth of stamps and accessories, so I think they will be happy!!

Here's how you make one of these when you have full bee access to the new catalog.

Take the box, folded flat, and, using a ruler and your bone folder, score a line three inches from the bottom crease of the box (NOT from the bottom flap.) This will give you two containers from each 6" box that are 3" tall. So economical!! Then just cut along the crease with your rubber scissors.

The outside of the box is simple. Two pieces of Basic Black cardstock - 4.75" x 3.75", corner rounded and attached to the box with sticky strip.

**Tip** after you put the sticky strip on the outside of the box, lay it down on your desk and rub it from the inside of the box to make sure it's perfectly stuck.

Lay one piece of the cardstock on your desk and center the box on it. It will overlap a bit. Flip the box and attach the other piece, being very careful to line it up with the first piece of cardstock, because the box will sit upright on the bottom edges of the cardstock, not on the bottom of the box itself.

Cut a piece of So Saffron DSP with the Top Note die and your Big Shot. Stamp the greeting on it and stick it on one side.

Stamp your hive and three bees in black on white. Color with a blender pen and your So Saffron and Close to Cocoa Ink pads.

Go over the bees and the sign with a Summer Sun Marker. Cut them out carefullly.

Punch two small Ruby Red hearts and one medium black heart WITH THE SASSY NEW HEART TO HEART PUNCH!! This has three different hearts in one punch, each one ridiculously adorable!!

Assemble your hive and hearts on the top note panel.

Using sticky strip, run a piece around the bottom and sides of your box and attach your grosgrain ribbon, having them meet on one side of the box, about an inch from the top.

Cover the seam with your medium black heart.

Fill with my absolutely fave chewy candy - Bit O Honey - and give away!!

Use the rest of your day to kitty watch.

Hope you have a great Saturday!

Cigarette BUTTS, Recession Kits, Lip Gloss - Are you my mother?

I just couldn't decide which to lead with! I mean, if you had a small donkey that dispensed cigarettes from his butt, you'd think that would be the lead story, but maybe you don't know about Dior 157 lip gloss, or the fact that Maddie's mother is a ball of green yarn, or the winning lottery numbers!!

SEE WHAT I MEAN??

It all started with a White Elephant. Which is today, at work. Having been in many, I know that liquor and cash usually rise to the top of the list of items to be stolen. So I decided to build a Recession Kit - with some champagne (you know - that whole rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic urge everyone gets...) and a possible actual recession cure - lottery tickets for a jackpot of 7 mill on Saturday! I had the whole thing all put together, when I remembered a gag gift my friend Ruthie gave me last year - a little donkey, that when you pull his ears - a cigarette comes out of his butt!! It's hysterical!!!

Since I don't smoke (never have, never will!) the cigarettes have rested in my burro's box until today, when at the last minute, when my kit was put together I remembered them and decided that no recession is complete without a little smoke to comfort a person clutching their champagne in a paper bag in the soup line!!

So I popped one in my little cello bag with the lotto tickets and gave myself a wicked case of the giggles!!!

I hope it's a big hit!

The little bottle topper is the Ski Slope DSP, with accents from the Wish Simply Scrappin' Kit, and letters from my Sizzix and the Gogo Boots alphabet dies. I punched the hole for the top of the bottle with my scallop punch.

While working on this project, it got verrrrry eerily quiet in the house. That's never good.

Then, suddenly - purring. I look over and Maddie has emerged from the depths of my studio with the yarn from my fuzzy chicks and is nursing on it and purring. I knew she was a yarn orphan! The green is a little startling though. Who knew a green fuzzy yarn ball could have an inky black little kitten? Not me!

Finally - if you don't have some of this - you need some. Ask for it for Christmas. It's absolutely the best in the whole world.

It is the latest addition to the Blue List. (see sidebar for other goodies)

Hope you have a great Friday!!!

I WON THE NOBEL PRIZE!!

Well, no, I really didn't. I don't think I'm really eligible for any sort of Nobel Prize. That being said, in all its brazen unfairness, I ask you - why aren't there Nobel categories like:

• Most innovative profanity combinations in traffic
  
• The most insanely expert pig latin speaker
  
• World's biggest fan of butter

Those are all things that really matter in people's lives. Not mitosis in pre-Cambrian amygdalline flagellates. Right? I mean - no one can hear pig latin without giggling. THAT is step one to world peace, my friends - giggling. I HEREBY NOMINATE MYSELF FOR THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE.

WAIT - I had something to tell you! I won First Prize in the Instructables contest!!! I'm in the company of greatness there - my fave card in the contest was the block print, which also won First Prize!!! And there's something wrong with you if you don't love the Christmas dinosaur next to me!!

Thank you so much for voting & looking! I won a cool cutter system and a seriously awesome t-shirt! I dig that little robot so much!!

Now - onto my secret project for my customer appreciation party on Saturday. I'd love to tell you about it, but I know some of the appreciat-ees are watching, so mum's the word.

Happy Thursday!! Sorry if I skrd u with the bear attack!!!

BEAR ATTACK!!

Do NOT look at this if you have an irrational fear of bears, like me.

I promise, you will be shaking when you see these photos.

Possibly because you're giggling.

But click here at your own risk.

I need your votes!

Because I'm not a governor of Illinois, and I have to do things the old fashioned way! :)

Go check out the Holiday card contest on Instructables - I entered my Snowglobe card in there - and vote for your favorite card!

Happy Monday!!

Frankly My Deer....

Okay - first things first - you guys are GOOD!!!

Many of you scoured Google for the image in my previous post and tried to find that painting - bravo. (And now I have that song stuck in my head too!!!) My parents narrowed it to two artists without Google. But InkyPaws went above and beyond - not only identifying the painting - Botticelli's Virgin and Child, BUT she got the source for this image - this year's Christmas stamp!! I took the cover of my book of stamps from my Christmas cards and I could not bring myself to toss it - it's too beautiful! So I framed part of the image in my 1 3/8" punch and reused it! What's ultra sassy is that even the covers of the self adhesive stamp books are self adhesive. Awesome.

Now I'm super embarassed that I thought John the Baptist was a chick - but come on, he looks like Nancy Drew here - surely it's not just me. :) I like my boys to look like BOYS.

On to today's bid-ness.

This card took literally 50 seconds.

It's a good thing, because I was crying so hard about the fact that this stamp set is retired that I didn't have a lot of time to get it done before my desk got wet.

Come on Stampin' Up!! Please reconsider Merry & Bright!!! No way is anybody gonna come up with a little deer cuter than the one in this set!!

It's the perfect little Christmas set. It was one of the ones I said I couldn't live with out!! I'm going to go all Scarlett O'Hara on somebody and rip down the curtains and start yelling if this situation isn't remedied ASAP!!!!!!!!!!!

Where can I get a big poofy dress and a dramatic flaming background?????? HURRY!!!

The card base for this one is Confederate - I mean, Pacific Point Blue, and then I used my Pentel pen to draw the wiggly box, peace and dots. The gold cardstock for the punched elements is the super yummy shimmery gold from Stampin' Up! I colored the tree from Merry & Bright - DON'T RETIRE IT OR I WILL BURN THIS PLACE DOWN AND YANK POTATOES OUT OF THE EARTH WITH MY BARE HANDS - with my blender pen and Pacific Point Blue Ink.

IF YOU CAN LOOK THIS STAMP SET IN THE EYE AND RETIRE IT, WELL, THEN, FRANKLY MY DEER (tee hee....)

Have a great Sunday.

This Post Sponsored by the World Cat Wrestling Federation

They will be live in Vegas at the MGM on January 21st - but don't sit in the front rows unless you wanna get DIRTY!!!

Stay tuned for pics.

But first - I want to give you a little challenge.

The first person to comment with the answer to where I got the main image for this little notecard is going to win a bunch of my blog cards - they're just sitting here on my desk not getting used, so why shouldn't you have them?

I'd tell you how to make this card, but then I'd be giving the answer away - so I'll have to tell you L8R.

But ain't it purty? Love the vivid colors and the little lady looking on.

So - while you ponder that, some world cat wrestling photos.

The pics are hard to snap because the furry skull thunking happens so FAST - they are in and out of the frames at lightning speed!

But Maddie has started this new fighting technique - have you seen this? She does this crazy donkey kick where she backs up to Splotchy and whacks him really hard with her back foot. Check photo #3 for details.

I love #8 where Splotch is all wound up for the strike.

I'm not even sure I can sort all the cat parts out in #6 - but you can see Maddie's very glimmery eye shining out - hilarious!!!

Never a dull moment, I tell ya.

Happy Saturday!

And PS - be patient while I work on my new blog background & header - you may have seen some strange things this morning during construction!!

Warm Thoughts

Like, let's see....

The complete bliss of the morning visit to Starbucks.

You can see that the Coco understands what I'm talking about. Look at her face. She knows.

She decided to paint her little toes for the occasion, choosing "You Make Me Vroom" by OPI for the winter months. I think it works. :)

My inspiration for this card is this fabulous painting by Creative Thursday. Look at the bunny. Ohhh. I love them.

So I put Coco on a piece of Red Basic Grey paper that I painted with some Golden (that is the brand name) Iridescent Gold Deep Fine acrylic paint and a foam brush. I put the same paint on the striped piece below. The fuzzy ribbon is Stampin' Up. Coco is stamped in black and colored with a Cadmium Red and a Pinkish White Copic. The gold is a Pentel Sunburst Metallic gold rollerball pen. It has a fine enough point that you can get in those little dots and stripes pretty precisely. me likey.

Here's a closeup of that pretty paint and the gold pen.

Coco is pink because she's all warm and happy.

She's drinking white coffee because she likes dairy okay??? :)

Now, one more warm thought before I go.

Peanut Butter and Jelly cookies. OMG. I made them the other night and holy cow - you need to make these for your neighbors. Then eat most of them because you don't want your neighbors to get fat. Or because they are DELICIOUS!!!

I saw the instructions on the Zakka Life blog, which I'm addicted to.

It's easy - take your fave PB cookie recipe (or buy the dough). Put the cookies in the oven and bake them for exactly HALF the time. Take them out and make a depression in them - I use the mushy stick thing from my molcajete, but your thumb or the end of a wooden spoon would work - whatever. Stick some jam in there. I used Central Market's Morello Cherry Jam (OMG - Jenn, you know what I'm talking about) and put the cookies back in the oven for the rest of the time.

HOLY COW THESE ARE GREAT. The jelly gets kind of chewy the next day and it's even better. But if you can resist eating all of them while they're warm, you are stronger than me! :)

Try em tonight.

I will keep busy by fishing cats out of the trashcan.

Hope you have a great Friday lined up!

I'm going to do some much needed cleaning and organizing so I can create tomorrow!!

Take care.

My Christmas Wish

Look. You hear "Indie" everywhere now. Its officially a buzzword. But if you're one of thousands knowingly nodding and pretending you know what it means because you're afraid of being shunned for your lack of hipness, never fear!! It's our little secret. Read this and you'll be flinging it around at cocktail parties like a frisbee!!

It's derived from the word "independent" and refers primarily to artistic creations. "indie" records might be made without a record label, saving more of the transaction to really be between artist and consumer, and possibly better for both. Magically, maybe cheaper for the consumer AND more profitable for the artist. Lots to be said for axing the middleman, eh?

Etsy.com is the home of Indie arts and crafts. You are all Indie. I'm Indie. We're Indie-ans!

No, we're not Indie-Americans!!! :) But we all benefit from the proliferation of independent art revolution. It helps us stay unique and put our own stamp (tee hee) on the world. Love that.

I recently went on a studio tour where I got to meet some local artists and craftspeople in their own workspaces. Much to my surprise, one of them was Jody, my old pet sitter and owner of The Furry Godmothers!! She is the sweetest woman you will ever meet and she has started One Eared Cat, which produces the funnest Indie crafts, like this INSANELY CUTE messenger bag I bought. You need to click over and check out her kid's clothes if you think this is cute!! All of her designs are hand stitched and so whimsical and cute.

Speaking of whimsical Indie-ness, I just ordered a family of Owlie ornaments from Nikki at WhiMSy Love. She even made me a custom blue one!!! ACK - he's so cute!!!!!!!

Her work is so freaking fun. She will make you smile, I promise.

Then, there's Leslie Bonnell - owner of the Stitch Lab and Glitzkreig, as well as an accomplished jazz singer and costume designer. She is, the absolute queen of craft in Austin, and a very giving, intelligent lady. She understands color and style with her DNA.

Check out these insanely sassy cuff bracelets I got from her!!! I actually sent her to Nikki's website when I saw them, because both these girls LOVE vintage buttons.

I was thinking about these ladies on the way to work today, after hearing about the billionth layoff in Austin and walking past the empty offices of the people who just moved out of our building this week and I wanted to ask you all a question.

Do you know how much good the $300 you were going to spend on an Ipod or a video game system or some other big box product would mean if you spent it directly with a person who made something with their own hands to try to improve their lives and yours?

I think it would do so much more than you think it would.

So here's MY Christmas wish.

Please spend your Christmas money buying Indie. Support people near you or in cyberspace who make something, or do something that they love. Something unique and valuable. Something that maybe pays their bills. Something that you can only get from them - whether that's a meal at a local restaurant, or arts, crafts or handmade furniture. It will matter more this year than maybe any year in your lifetime.

To you and to them.

Just think about it. And ponder the absolute truth in the statement from Nikki that really reveals the soul of independent art:

"Manly owlie hineys are hot."

There ya go. Love ya.

;)

Wanna See What I'd Look Like as Santa?

Click here!

White Trash Snow & New Webinar!

Hi everyone.

Sleet is what you get when hail has babies. It's like our white trash snow down here since we never get the real thing. It's just kind of a cold thunderstorm. Not really a toad strangler or a gullywasher - just a chilly thunderstorm with hail babies.

Don't miss my next Google Reader Webinar - next Wednesday at 6:30PM Central time!!!

Fill out the form below to register and read what people who took it had to say.

Then - stay tuned tonight for the world's cutest handmade indie craft adorableness!!!!

Register for Webinar

Rear Ended!!!

But first, a cupcake. Magically, my day was bookended by cupcakes today!! Love it when that happens. The rightmost bookend was arriving home to find a Package from My Favorite Things containing two sets - It's a Cupcake Kind of Day and this one - Cupcake Flopsey!!!!

How could I not sit down and make a card instead of paying the bills or working on my secret project??

The paper is Basic Grey and I colored my beloved Flopsey with Copics and sassed him up with punches, ribbon and a rhinestone brad.

Come on - no wonder the company is MFT - bunnies & cupcakes? Its like peas and carrots!! They ARE My Favorite Things!!!

Okay - we start the day getting rear ended by Congress again. Really? One more thing I have to pay for? But then I read this hilarious post about a buddy REALLY getting rear ended (Sorry Mike :( ) and listening to the guy who hit him tell his insurance company he was admiring the scenery when he plowed him.

He's right - Austin drivers are, uh, unique. I thought I'd relive for you just a SAMPLING of the times I've been rear ended here in the last 18 years - cut down from the full list to save time..

Okay - true stories.

1st time I was rear ended in Austin, I was in my firebird, bright red. I see the lady behind me, obviously on drugs, and say to the DH - she's gonna hit me. BAM. Pull into Oak Hill Liquor. She pulls behind me. Gets out, twitches a lot, rubs her face, talks to herself, clearly on some substance they arrest you for on Cops. Drives off. Yeah.

Second time, 360, extremely plastic (Austinites - insert neighborhood here) Mom in a crossover, a woman who has never experienced real life in any of its forms, talking on her cell phone AND checking her plastic surgery in the mirror. Polo clad baby in the back, probably already enrolled in Weight Watchers for toddlers. I see her (defensive driving mirror checker that I am) in my mirror and think - she's going to hit me. BAM. She's all like, well, like, uh, like uh - the light was like, uh green, like. Whatever.

#3 - A woman with LITERALLY ONE EYE, probably 85 years old, waiting behind me on the access road of Mopac, realizes Matlock is on or something, guns the car from a dead stop, pushes me out onto the freeway. I back up, get out, she gets out and starts waving her cane at me and screaming. Says she couldnt see me. In my massive taxpayer funded SUV. Hmm. I think I know why.

#4 - Guy, Mustang, reading a map. Look in my mirror, sigh, take my foot off the brake, wait for the inevitable. He was really nice.

Yeah, there's more. But I gotta go. :)

Happy Monday!!

Don't Eat Yellow Snow!

That's just the kind of good old common sense wise little Maddie likes to give Splotchy.

Of course, that was BEFORE I caught her telling him - "I don't have to outrun the bear - I just have to outrun YOU!"

Siblings. I swear.

Fake it Till You Feel it!

That's what they told us at convention - I swear!! This lady was talking about how she was all 96 kinds of snarky on the way to a workshop, but when she got there, she laughed and smiled and faked cheerful, and before long - she WAS cheerful!

That is my cure for artistic block too. If your mojo is hiding behind your laundry, your lack of sleep, or the butterscotch pudding your two year old has smeared on your carpet - just create something until your creativity returns.

Feeling humbug-y? Fake it till you feel it baby!! Grumpy little Marmalade from the new Doodle Factory Sweet Shoppe just needs to check out this video and he wont even remember what Bah Humbug means!!! :)

Want Three Wishes?

Hey - I have a winner of the magazine - if that was one of your wishes - stay tuned!!!

I love Gesso, and snowmen, and DSP. I was excited to see the GPP Challenge be a Gesso throwdown this month! Even though I'm late, I still wanted to play.

So put your hand together baby!! It's a quilty, gesso-y, snowmany wish card.

In this case, I used Gesso to do two things - mute the bright colors of the DSP, and also to play with the idea of snow on the card.

For the Snowman, I used a retired set that I love - Cold Play. It's a build your own snowman set, so his pieces can be played with. Fun.

I stamped him on kraft cardstock in Basic Black, and then colored him with a white pencil. I cut him and his little arms out.

But, for the important part - begin
your card quilt by punching 12 1.25" squares.

To figure out how these go on my card, I always lay them out on my grid paper to look at spacing. It really helps. Then I just transfer them to the card and start sticking them down.

When using Gesso, it's important to stick them down really well so the corners don't curl on you.

Using a foam paintbrush, start painting the card with Gesso. As you know me to be impatient, you will not be surprised that I do the supremely un-artistic method of pouring a puddle of it onto my card and swooshing it around until I have the opaqueness I'm looking for.

You need to leave a little time for this to dry and then you can assemble the other pieces of the card - including adding the "wish" rubon from Season of Cheer to the belly of the snowman, the little snowflakes from the same rubon set to kraft cardstock and then punching them with your 1/2" circle punch and matting them on circles of DSP. I used Soft Sky ribbon for his scarf and mounted him and the snowflake pieces with dimensionals.

Oh - and for the little stitches between the squares - my Prisma fine line pen.

So.. why don't you take a minute and tell me if you had three wishes, what would you wish for?

I'd sure love to hear.

If InkyPaws was wishing to win the magazine for her answer "Understands Blue" - then, well - your wish is granted... :)

Email me your address!

Everyone else - wish big!! Can't wait to read them.

Lookie - It's snowing! :)

Look closely at my blog and you will see little snowflakes falling! :)

Red SCHMED!!!

Pink is just as good, I think. Hey - that rhymed.

For all we know, Santa looks BETTER in pink!!

Wanna know what's not good?

Putting down your lovely and delicate white rub-on on your Kiwi Kiss cardstock and then realizing two things:

1) You are a bit clumsy, and wrinkled one of the letters when you were putting it on the card.
2) The font is a bit too delicate for the color of the card, and is hard to see even if it weren't mangled by your ineptness!

No fears!! Grab your adhesive eraser, and ZAP - mangled rubon has gone to the big studio in the sky!!

The little doves (?) are a Martha punch in Pirouette Pink, and the ribbon is Pirouette Pink also.

This card, including the operator error and picking out both rub-ons, took 5 minutes.

My Blogging Sisters - Are Your Readers Mad at You?

They might be...

I've been researching RSS feeds to prepare for my Google Reader Webinars and I've found some interesting things out there in the cyberworld. Here are two.

#1 - RSS Readers, like Google Reader, are becoming much more popular than email subscriptions because of their ease of use.

#2 - Do you know the number one reason that people unsubscribe to a blog's feed? It's because the blogger has elected to publish a "summary only" feed - meaning pictures and full content are not included in the feed, and the reader is forced to click to the site to see the content.

These readers are angry. The abbreviation "PITA" (pain in the...) came up quite a bit in the articles I read.

Remember - we are in a visual occupation. Art has to be seen, not read about. Make a splash in the reader and you've done what you wanted to do when you started blogging - connected with people who love what you love.

The bottom line is, the purpose of an RSS reader is to aggregate content. If people wanted to click to individual sites, they wouldn't have switched to a reader.

In an article on searchengineguide.com, Stoney deGeyter says

" What? Your summary feed doesn't have headings, boldings, bullets or anything else that catches my eye? Well, you better hope that your first few sentences really grab me. And I mean I really have to be convinced to click through. It's a mental thing really. I don't mind clicking if I know I want to read something, but not if I just think I might want to read it. The summary may be partially convincing, but not totally. I'm then forced to move away from my primary screen to another screen because I think I might be interested. You're making me think too hard.

Countless times, after reading a summary, I've been on the edge. I think I'm interested, but not entirely sure. Do I click or do I keep scanning available blog posts. Sometimes I opt for the former, wishing I opted for the latter. Now, more times than not, now, I opt for the latter. If the summary isn't entirely convincing I won't click."

The biggest misconception about RSS readers is that they do not "count" towards your site statistics. This is the reason most people put a summary feed rather than a full feed into their feedburner.

Not so. There are numerous ways to track ALL your site statistics. So if that is the reason you are potentiallly losing subscribers - there's still time to fix it. Here are just a few ways to get stats.

1) Feedburner. Most of you burn your feeds with Feedburner. It provides detailed statistics about the two types of subscribers you have - those who subscribe in a reader, and those who subscribe via email. It's updated daily.

This even shows you which RSS readers they use, and the nice pie chart shows you how many of them are subscribing via email vs. a reader. Since mine is about half and half - I certainly wouldn't want to alienate half of my readership by not providing a full feed.

If your interest is in advertising on your site, you can provide these reports to potential advertisers on demand. So any service you're using to track just clicks on your website, is doing you a disservice anyway. You're not getting the whole picture - for example, people who saw your content in a reader and DIDN'T click. So don't hang your readership on clicks.

2) Google Reader - set up a Google Reader account and subscribe to your own feed. After a few weeks, look at one of your posts inside reader and click "Show Details". You will see this handy dandy bar graph of your average number of posts - how many subscribers you have (via Google Reader) and a 30 day view of how many posts you had, and how often those posts were read.

Good stuff there. You will also be able to see how your post looks inside a reader and adjust if it's not reader friendly.

For example, I used to use a blue background that exactly matched the background on my blog because it made the photos pop out. However, in the reader, my cards with a weird blue border around them in a sea of white just looked ghastly. I wouldn't have known that if I weren't subscribing to my own feed.

3) Google Analytics - I love this. Like all Google products, it's free, and does heavy duty analysis on your site. For example, the dashboard gives you a great overview by whatever time period you choose. Total visits, where they come from in the world, what percentage of your visits are new vs. returning, etc. Critical info. Free.

Enough geek talk. This is just three ways to get site stats. There are a billion more. Don't lose your readers over statistics.

I'll leave you with this - the Stampin' Up! Statement of the Heart.

I do believe that this is the real reason all of my blogging buddies blog, whether they are with Stampin' Up! or not.

I think we are all teachers in our heart of hearts, and we love that fun moment when someone learns to do something they're proud of - that moment cannot be replaced by any other endeavor - it's wonderful.

So I hope you have a great night and that this information was useful for someone or saved you a reader!

Back later with a card.

It's not Pink, but...

It's not red and green either!!

I was surprised to find that I like this color combination - I've never been a burgundy gal. Possibly scarring from growing up immersed in Texas A&M culture where people found it endlessly amusing to buy maroon clothing, cars, pet sweaters, live in houses with maroon fake flowers, wear maroon hats, Aggie shoelaces and other items to show their undying devotion to the team.

Through a strange twist of fate, I now live in the rival town where old ladies wear burnt orange buttondowns, orange rhinestone jewelry, have orange clad fru fru dogs and drag their husbands (wearing burnt orange golf shirts and driving burnt orange SUV's) to tailgate parties regardless of their age.

I guess I was just destined for the college town mania scene. But I don't have to like it. :)

However, I do like Soft Sky and Purely Pomegranate. There's nothing even remotely football-y about it. It's soft and pretty and I wouldn't flinch if I saw someone wearing this combo.

The little tree is from Merry and Bright, and is colored with re-inkers and my blender pen. The greeting is from All Holidays.

Could the pomegranate ribbon be any prettier? Seriously?

On to serious issues. Have you gotten gas lately? Have you noticed that gas pumps now interrogate you like you are at Guantanamo Bay? In the old days, when pay at the pump was new, you used to put your credit card in, choose your fuel type and fill up your tank, distracted only by whether or not you had hand sanitizer in the car to clean off the Ebola that most certainly lives on gas pump handles.

Now, it goes more like this:

You take off your gas cap, put the nozzle in, and swipe your card.

Pump: Please enter your five digit zip code and press enter. (BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP)

Would you like a car wash? Yes/No (BEEP)

Are you sure you wouldn't like a carwash? We have like seven levels of carwash available - level 7 includes a small howler monkey that cleans your door locks with a soft bristled toothbrush. Yes/No (BEEP)

Did we mention the howler monkey? He smells like cherries. Last chance. Yes/No (BEEP)

Would you like a receipt? Yes/No (BEEP)

Are you late for work? Yes/No (BEEP)

Would you like to be? Yes/No (BEEP)

Would you like to enroll in our free point system where you can accumulate valuable gas station merchandise, such as stuffed tigers and 64 oz plastic cups? Yes/No (@*&#^#*$& BEEP.)

How do you feel about testing cosmetics on animals? Essay (BEEEEEEEEEEEEEP)

Do you know your carbon footprint number?

I'm starting to think this would be quicker...

Have a great Wednesday!!

Do Something Good Every Day - a Tutorial

You should you know.

I have some news I'm sitting on - that makes two things I'm sitting on - my hiney and some news.

But I will give you a hint.

It's really cool.

It's part of a project that I've been working on and will show you soon, and the purpose of the project is to reanimate things that you would otherwise throw away. They are reanimated, not recycled, because they will be art, not functional things, and there will be a little twist, where the new life they have gives a nod to the old life they had. You'll see.

Tonight, an example.

First of all - I made my own snowglobe!! Who doesn't love a snowglobe?

"The devil" is the only possible answer to that question!!

But I digress.

I made this card for Shelli's Creative Challenge this month.

It's a very simple card, but I do need to do a quick tutorial for some of it. So settle in.

First, let's talk about the base of the snowglobe. It's made with the word window punch and Basic Black Cardstock.

To make the base, you need to get creative with the punch.

The bottom of the base is just a regular punched piece with this punch.

The second level - the shorter one - you have to modify a little.

The height of a punched word window is about 3/8".

So cut a longish strip of Basic Black cardstock that is 3/8" wide.

Feed one end into the punch and punch what will become the left side of your snowglobe base, leaving the right side squared off.

Then take the small piece you've punched and insert it into your punch from the opening, line it up and make it the length you want your finished piece to be, make sure it's level, and punch - it will round off the right hand side of your snowglobe base perfectly.

My top level is maybe a little less than 1/2" shorter than the standard word window length.

When that is done, use mini glue dots to attach it to.. ?

What is that? Look at the fabby texture, the nice warm kraft color. How much did THAT cost? It must be some crazy new accessory that's all the rage.


Or - How about - it cost - nothin'!! Yep - it's a piece of a sleeve from my Thanksgiving beverage at Starbucks!!

I originally saved it because I thought I could use the printed side. I love the black logo, the surprising red, the parentheses. But when I took it apart, I loved the reverse side even more.

And, as a bonus, the white side is very smooth and holds my mini glue dots nicely to stick to my card.

How about that?

Now - No stealing sleeves from my beloved Starbucks, ladies!! You're just gonna need to drink a lot of coffee! Remember - you can sleep when you're dead!! :)

To make the snowglobe part, I just stamped the little snowman from Merry & Bright in black, and watercolored him with Bashful Blue and Rose Red and my Blender Pen. Then I punched him out with my 1 3/8" punch (he has a greeting on the bottom, and this way I didn't have to do any omitting.

I carefully covered the little circle with Crystal Effects, and then gingerly sprinkled just a little bit of Dazzling Diamonds glitter over it.

Set it aside to harden - and really leave it alone. I tried to touch mine like 4011 time and had to fix the Crystal Effects afterwards. I hate waiting. But you need to. Do as I say, not as I do.

Attach this cute little guy to the reanimated coffee sleeve with dimensionals - I used four to make sure he was level.

Then stick this panel on your card and add a sassy brown rub-on from Season of Cheer, which adds the "nod" to the original purpose of the reanimated item - because coffee is nothing if not warm.

:)

Hope you enjoyed the homemade Snowglobe.

Have a great night.

Don't forget - webinar for Google Reader is tomorrow night. If you want to attend, click here. Or just fill out the form below!!!

You don't want to miss it!!