Delicate Flowers

If I lived in a climate that didn't destroy delicate flowers with the blazing heat of a thousand suns, I would fill my yard with blue hydrangeas.

I remember when I was little, my mom had some unusual flowers. We had this pale purple rosebush that produced these completely unforgettable roses. For some reason they were called silver roses. The color was beautiful, and also somewhat creepy because it was so different from all other roses. Truly unforgettable.

And, because our weather was a bit milder there, she had hydrangeas. she taught me the trick to make them blue, too, because after a while, they will all turn a pale greenish white if left alone. To make them blue, you need rust, believe it or not. So she would stick rusty nails in the dirt, and whaddaya know - they'd turn blue again.

Never underestimate what makes a color tick!

So I used a hydrangea for my swap for the Splitcoast North Texas Shoebox Swap in Dallas this weekend. It was the most incredibly fun, well organized and relaxing stamping event I've ever been to!

I made mine with all sneak peek items from the new catty :)

Stamps: Because I Care, Perfect Punches Ink: India Ink, Ballet Blue, Green Galore, Old Olive, Crumb Cake
Paper: Crumb Cake, Newsprint DSP
Accessories: White Gel Pen, flower, button, twine, Ballet Blue Ribbon, Scalloped Square die, dimensionals, Modern Label Punch

Hope you had a great lazy Sunday!!

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Birds with FLAIR

I love birds.

I know some people are scared of them, and I'm sorry about that. It's possible that a fear of birds is on the same chromosome as the white food aversion in my previous post, in which case, our telethon will find a cure.

But I love them. In all their feathered varieties. If birds ever go out of stamping vogue, well, I will just be out of vogue, cuz I love em.

I went on a huge spendstravaganza at Archivers (mostly the fault of Libby and Dana, I might add) last weekend, and I got this ADORABLE Unity Birds of a Feather set with these curly twirly cutie head birds.

So it was a perfect time to join the Unity Friends with Flair blog hop today (hence justifying my purchases)! I made this little card with lots of my new toys from that trip, including that October Afternoon grid paper, the sassy Abbey Road brad, my new Tim Holtz die, and some old tie dyed felt I unearthed this week. I love die cutting felt!! The background is also Unity - from Going Retro. The little birdie and acorns are colored with Copics and paper pieced.

I love his sassy orangeness.

For a full list of Friends with Flair hoppers today, click here!

What do you have up for the weekend? I'll be shoebox swapping!

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The White Food Telethon

I don't know if you're aware of this but there's a very serious illness afflicting many of your fellow citizens, regardless of your home country.

It's so tragic, I can hardly even type about it.

It's called WHITE FOOD AVERSION DISORDER.

The symptoms are horrible. They include dislike of the following delicious items: mayonnaise, chicken fried steak gravy, ranch dressing, alfredo sauce and, in extreme cases, MASHED POTATOES!

I am familiar with this disease because my own brother in law is afflicted with it. He was not dropped on his head as a child, or forced to live in a cupboard under the stairs. The other family members appear normal, and consume white foods. One of my downline also has this disease.

There is no known cure. A fellow stamper, my friend Kim, and I were having coffee last week and we discussed this terrible affliction, from which her own OFFSPRING suffers, and we wondered why there isn't more awareness of it. We really think that it deserves a telethon. Perhaps sponsored by Hidden Valley and Duke's Mayonnaise. Let's stop the needless white food deprivation of a large percentage of our population. Let the white food averse people come out of the shadows. They deserve our support.

I made this card for today's Ways to Use It Challenge. It was BUTTERFLIES! You all love butterflies and probably have a squillion butterfly stamps, so play along! Link in a comment if you play. :)

Stamps: Artistic Etchings, All a Flutter, Elements of Style, Unity May Store Kit
Ink: Crumb Cake, Soft Sky, Basic Black Paper: Whisper White, Newsprint
Accessories: MFT scalloped scallop die, SU ribbon, Ellison stamp frame die, sponge, red gel pen, markers.

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Rain Would be Less Humid

I pretty much almost died in the jungles of Austin this morning.

I set out for my walk at about 6 AM in an atmosphere of absolutely apocalyptic humidity and heat. It was so still, and the world looked positively post-zombie attack.

There wasn't another idiotic soul about. Just me, and my impending heart failure from the jungly heat.

The farther I went, the worse I felt, and the emptier the world got.

Everyone else was clearly already dead of some sort of humidity related illness. I envied them.

Nothing in the swampy town where I grew up and battled the elements with AquaNet had prepared me for today.

When I was done, I truly felt ill and was completely worthless. I had a Frosty for lunch. I am just now feeling human again.

I have an appropriately watery card for you in tribute to my near death experience!

This was one of the cards I made for Virtual Stamp Night. This challenge was to use water on a card. I busted out my new Lawn Fawn stamps and got to work. I also combined this with a tent card challenge - I had never made one of these before!

First, I stamped the clouds in Whisper White craft ink. After the ink dried, it was really too pale, so I thought I'd outline them with my Copic. As I started doing it, I realized the craft ink was resisting the Copic! What a great find! It meant I didn't have to be careful at all.
Inside the card I stamped the little raindrops in Versamark and clear embossed them.


I LOVE the way the raindrops look in clear. I will be using these a lot!

So how's the weather in your part of the world? Not jungly I hope!

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Need to Poison a King?

Allrighty. I admit it. I have a twisted sense of humor. But you knew that already or you wouldn't even BE here today.

I've also read an awful lot of Nancy Drew and Agatha Christie and Dick Francis.
So after I made this card and got ready to upload it for Julia's Ways to Use it Challenge - which was There's No Place Like Home, I thought to myself - this would make an awesome card to give someone with a poisoned tart of some sort - Homemade and to DIE for!! They'd never suspect a thing! Plus it's super cute. (insert evil laugh here)

This is with more sneak peek goodies. New cardstock, ink, accessories, TOYZ. Yum. :)
Stamps: Homemade Cardstock: Early Espresso, Newsprint DSP, Daffodil Delight, Whisper White
Ink: Early Espresson, Crumb Cake
Accessories: Eyelet punch, 2" Scallop Punch, Early Espresso Ribbon, Corner Rounder, Rhinestone

What are you making today? MWAAAHHHAAAAAA...

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In UPS We Trust

If you had read the juicy homages to the UPS man I've been seing on Splitcoast today from anxious Stampin' Up! demonstrators you'd be more than a little amused and also perhaps a wee bit worried for the men in brown.

We love our UPS man, stampers. They are the symbols of bright hope in our world. They each have a unique sound that our trained ears twitch to, no matter how far their booted feet are from the door.

They have been fed brownies, hugged, probably kissed and DEFINITELY chased down the street at this time of year. I've noticed that mine darts nimbly to the truck evading all of my attempts to catch him with a little UPS man net so that I can go see what else is in his truck.

Mine has been here twice today, along with my FedEx guy. It's a good day.

It brought me my SNEAK PEEKS from the new catalog!! WHEEEEE! I had that same paralysis I always have - what do I play with first??

So I picked my faves - the new Cherry Cobbler cardstock, the Newsprint DSP, Vintage Wallpaper embossing folder and Studio Sketches.

I watercolored the image with Daffodil Delight, Crumb Cake and Cherry Cobbler and cut the edges with the card fronts die.

And that's just the beginning!! Maybe they should rename UPS - SU!PS!
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America, I Gave my Best to You

If you don't see a video player, please click here.

Home of the free, because of the brave.

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Come On, You Know You Want to Try a Little POT!

HAHAHAH - I'm going to get all sorts of crazy people on my blog now. Welcome people with the munchies. I'm about to disappoint you! :)

I'm right in the middle of my Virtual Stamp Night challenges. The very first one I did was the Flower Pot Card challenge.

This was a great way to get my brain all sideways right off the bat because I'm such a single layer, non 3D kind of gal.

But like most things, once you try them, you have to admit to yourself that you're having fun. And fun I did have!

First of all - I got to play with my favorite new toy!!! (Stop yelling, I know they're all my favorites when I get them.) It's the new Flowers, 3D die from Sizzix. OMG I LOVE THIS DIE!!! You can zip out two 3D flowers in just a minute that are just like the ones Joanne created in her tutorial but without cutting them yourself. I'm in LOVE WITH THIS THING.
So what I did was I hand dyed some white cardstock with blue ink and then cut the flowers with the die. You just roll the die cuts around a skinny paintbrush or something similar and VOILA - pretty 3D flowers!!The rest of the flowers are from the Pretties Kit, and I just rubbed ink directly on them and then sprayed them with my alcohol bottle that is actually my glasses cleaner (my desk is messy, I grabbed what was close) and smooshed it around with a sponge. I used glue dots to adhere the pearls from the Pretties kit in the center of each flower.

Some of the flowers are actually attached to the card insert, which is here:
The flowers and greeting on the inside are from the Unity May Store Kit and the bow is May Arts silk ribbon.

So, are you still afraid to try a little pot? Come on, you know you wanna! :D

If so, the tutorial I used to make it is here.

Big plans for Memorial Day? I hope everyone is having a safe and happy weekend!







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Zentangled

That's a fun word right? Zen + Entangled? How could THAT be bad?

I just learned the word for the first time here.

Basically, it takes doodling to a high art form. You can see professional examples here.

It's truly amazing, and highly addicting. It's practically free, unlike stamping :), because you just need pen, paper and time.

I loved this challenge because it really made me try something new!

I die cut the chick with my big shot, but the rest is just zentangling!!

Give it a try - I promise you'll be hooked!

Are any of you participating in Virtual Stamp Night this weekend? You should! It starts at 6 PM Eastern tomorrow and is a weekend of challenges, mojo renovation and cool new ideas for your holiday weekend!

Whee! See you over there.

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Have a Little Faith

That's what John Locke would say, anyway.

If he were still on my TV on Tuesdays. Which he's not. Which depresses me. *sigh*

But you know what doesn't depress me? The color combo challenge on Splitcoast today. I LOVE this color combo. I loved how people used it for Christmas cards because the green is so much more beautiful than Christmas green. Know why? Cuz it's got more BLUE. :)

I freaked when I saw the "dessert option" in the challenge to use notebook paper because I had my gorgeous Unity May Store Kit sitting on my desk which has this fantastic ruled paper image in it. Put your hands together, people!

Stamps: Unity May Store Kit Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Bermuda Bay Paper: Bermuda Bay, Kraft, Real Red DSP
Accessories: Big Shot, Clear Circle Bigz die, Bermuda Bay Ribbon, Strong Red Copic Marker,
White Gel Pen, Slot Punch, Corner Rounder

I guess you get imprinted by some images and then you love them all your life. Since I grew up in the 70's, I was imprinted by those great spotted mushroom images that were all over the stylish fabrics, appliqued onto our jeans, doodled on our notebooks. Every time I see one, I have to have it. And I have to color it red.

What are your "must have" images that you can't resist? Not that stampers can resist any image, really...

But do share!


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Goodbye, Smokemonster. I Loved You.

In order to properly ready for yourself for the contents of this post, please click here before proceeding.

Please note that I'm in a ball on the floor with my waterproof mascara on waiting for the beginning of the end in four hours.

Goodbye Sawyer, Vincent, Dharma Initiative. Goodbye Hurley, Ben, Martin Keamy.

Goodbye smokemonster, scary clicking sounds, references to all my favorite books, beautiful ocean.

Goodbye to the surprised screams that used to punctuate my Tuesday evenings.

Goodbye spreadsheet with timelines and connections.

I'll miss you so much. I'm not sure I can go on. Now, I will be LOST.

Here's my little paper tribute to the hatch. OH GOD I WILL EVEN MISS THE HATCH.
Yesterday's inspiration challenge on the site was based on Amy Atlas' amazing site. Since I'm a complementary color gal, I chose this post for my Lostie farewell.

Stamps: Going Retro (Unity) Paper: Whisper White, Kraft Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Corner Chomper, Copics (BG05, BG0000 YR68, YR61), Copic Multiliner, Crystal Effects

To draw the frame, I corner rounded a piece of cardstock with my Corner Chomper on the 1/2" side and used that to trace after I stamped the lamps. I covered the glass part of the lamp with Crystal Effects.

None of which eases the pain of never hearing Desmond say "See you in another life, brothah" again. :(

For those of you who don't watch LOST, here it is summarized by cats.

If you don't see a video player, please click here.

If you want to get in touch with me this evening, it's not gonna happen. After that, I will be inconsolable for days. Maybe I'll see ya at Christmas. *sigh*


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Murder in The Year of the Millipede

You know how I feel about animals. You know that I go out of my way not to squish pillbugs on my walks. I try to look the other way on spiders in the house even. I'm pretty live and let live as far as the animal kingdom goes.

However, a girl can only take so much.

It's a harsh environment, Texas. We have scorpions and brown recluse spiders. We have tornadoes and cacti. I see rattlesnakes on my walk. Things are trying to kill us constantly, so part of the Texas experience involves sturdy snake proof footwear, hats and sometimes - we gotta kill back.

Each year we get invaded by a different sort of horrid creature. The first year we lived in this house there was a 10 year cycle of this disgusting moth, whose nasty little spawn climbed up the trees and built dangly, sticky webs all over all of our trees. Wormpocalypse made our neighborhood look like a horror movie - dangling heinous webs with wiggly worms at the end of each thread. I'm scarred.

One year, it was these crazy ants that acted like they were on meth.
This year - it's FREAKING MILLIPEDES. THEY ARE ALL OVER MY HOUSE MAKING ME YELL.

There's been a lot of surprised shrieking these last few weeks. The cats pretend they can't see them.
So if I jump when you say my name, now you know why. I'm a bit on edge with all these extra legs around.

WHAT WAS THAT??? Oh. It's a piece of ribbon. Everything is ok.

Speaking of ribbon.. today's Free for All Friday challenge was to use button and ribbons in a creative way.
I thought I could maybe count silver cord as ribbon, right?
So I covered some pink bargain buttons that just happened to be on my desk with a bunch of glue dots. Then I looped the cord around to make petals, stuck more glue dots on and attached them to some stamped stems from Awash with Flowers. I colored the stems with my pale pink Copic Marker. The greeting is from Unity's Store Kit for May, which I'm in love with. The "grass" is a strip of Basic Grey Indian Summer that I fringed and cut a little curve into.

These cute little flowers are probably the only ones in Texas that don't have a millipede on them right now, so they're pretty much my favorites. :)

Happy Friday!


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Wax On, Wax Off..

Okay - now that you've had a day to let it sink in, let's talk about how we get all up in this wax thing.

First - you need a couple things. Contrary to your (my) hoarding instincts, you may already have some of these things, and if not - pop out to Walgreens. Here's a list:

• Wax - there are sites that sell Encaustic wax specifically - many sites. Google them and look for good pricing and shipping. These wax blocks are rectangular, frequently from Encaustic Art in the Netherlands. However, if you want to just see if you like this technique, just get yourself some crayons and give it a whirl.
• Iron - the only feature of the iron you need to worry about is the surface. It has to be completely smooth, with no steam holes. Many travel irons are like this, and all craft irons are. The size and shape don't matter, although there are encaustic irons with special tips for certain looks - but don't start there. Start simple. I had a craft iron from Global Sugar Art already.
  
• Glossy paper - this can be glossy cardstock, a magazine page - anything with a slick, coated surface.
  
• Stampin' Up! grid paper or another large stack of paper to protect your work surface and to clean your iron with.

Now here's where it goes all crazy easy.

Turn on the iron. Low will work on many irons - on mine, I had to set it to Acrylic. You want it warm enough that when you touch a crayon or wax block to it, it liquifies the wax and you can create little puddles of color.

Start with two colors - a light color towards the top of the iron and a darker color below. Coat the iron, and then just move it across your cardstock from left to right. After you've done this - keep going! Without re-waxing the iron, move your iron around on the wax you already put down to make patterns. Re-wax your iron, even with different colors, and go back over what you've done - it's completely forgiving!

One tip - cut your cardstock before using this technique. The wax will get all over your die cut machine or paper trimmer if you cut it afterwards.

To clean the iron, just leave it on, and iron on your paper stack to remove the wax before moving to another color.

I'll eat a bug if you don't like this technique!!!

If you want to see a video of Birgit creating her wonderful images, click here for her tutorial.

In the meantime, here's my second card with this fun waxy goodness.

I cut the circle out of glossy with my Nestabilities™ and then did the Encaustic background. Then I stamped the image from Elements of Style on top with Basic Black craft ink. Now that will never dry on wax, so I blotted it. You could use Staz On for a quick drying result.

Then I stamped the same image on white cardstock, cut out some flowers and attached them with Glue Dots®.

I glittered the flowers with Dazzling Diamonds Glitter.
Then I finished it with a tag, some ribbon and a greeting from Carte Postale.

Are you hooked yet?

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I'm Not an Addict, It's Cool....

No, really.

I can step away from this new technique and not think about it. Not get distracted when I'm supposed to be working. I can. I have it under control.
NO I DON'T. MY NAME IS LYDIA AND I'M ADDICTED TO WAX!!!

Encaustic wax, that is. We have a tutorial coming out in the Splitcoast Newsletter today so soon you will all be hooked too, my little stampy zombies. Mwaaahhaaaaaa!
I first saw this technique in the fine art galleries in Santa Fe. My sister and I almost fainted when we saw the beautiful landscapes artists made. We even went to an art supply store and found some insanely expensive supplies for it, and I promptly put it out of my mind.

But then this tutorial came up and Beate talked me into trying it. And no one will ever see either of us again.
First of all, it's not as expensive as it was in Santa Fe. Second, it's really easy and addicting. And finally - it's BEAUTIFUL!!

I will post another sample later today and a detailed tutorial. But how about those mountains, eh?


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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?

It's Raining, It's Pouring...

Well, it's raining again. It's been raining for years. Seriously - years and years with no end to the raining. I would like to call for a moratorium on grey and all forms of weather that include water. I'm gonna need some sunshine, and some blue skies and some dry, hot days. NOW.

I suppose I could take it if it were raining PEARLS though.I cut the little clouds with my cloud dies from My Favorite Things. The flowers are MFT too and I colored them with Copics. The layers are Baja Breeze and Whisper White.

I'm on a bit of a corner rounding binge - it's probably the rain!

And, on another note - have you seen this video yet? This kind of passion is so much more than his musical gift. You can't learn that. It's a gift.



If you can't see the video above, click here.

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Goodbye Callie

My friend Sue's Callie, sister of Toonces, is gone. She was a beautiful kitty, and her feeder is a wonderful human being who probably really needs a hug.

There's not one animal that has ever come into my life that hasn't left a huge hole when they departed. And as I know Sue to be someone who feels the same way, my heart just breaks for her. There are few things harder. I'm so sorry, Sue. Good thing you have that little smartass Toonces to keep you company.

I'd hug you if you were here.

Okay, quit looking, because I'm sending you this card. Seriously. Go back to Twitter.

Is she gone?

Here's what I'm sending her.

Stamps: Mark's Finest Papers Ink: Pirouette Pink, Tangerine Tango
Paper: Always Artichoke (Stampin' Up!) Basic Grey Max & Whiskers Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: White Gel Pen, Corner Rounder, Nestabilities, Ranger Blending Tool,

If you have some furry creatures, give em a squeeze. It goes fast.

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Don't Run Over Me

And I won't make scary faces at you.

Here's what happened.

I set out on this morning's 9 mile walk. We got a cold front, so it was all windy and dramatic and cool. This was nice because the bikers don't so much like windy and cold so I could stomp in the bike lane unmolested. Much easier on the old knees than the sidewalk.

Anyway, a WIDE assortment of texting/drunk/applying-mascara/possibly-English-or otherwise-unfamiliar-with-our-driving-customs drivers attempted to kill me this morning by swerving around in and out of the bike lane. This is why I walk facing traffic. Sometimes I actually carry small rocks and things I can throw at cars whose drivers are occupied playing Words with Friends instead of watching the road.

So in the home stretch, a little less than a mile from the house, your understandably tired author sees an SUV make a quick little dart towards her.

Having had enough for the day, I quickly made this crazy combination gang sign/scary face/less than ladylike gesture.

Only to discover it was my friend Sam.

HA!!! Hilarious emails ensued. He said he actually died and came back to life from the scary look.

That'll show him. :)

I made this card for today's Inspiration Challenge. The inspiration site is soooo beautiful! I chose this coffee cup ensemble for my inspiration.

Stamps: Fabulous Flowers, Woodgrain, Spring Solitude Ink: Pacific Point, Basic Black
Paper: Whisper White Accessories: Black marker, ribbon (All Supplies Stampin' Up!)

What are you using for inspiration today?

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Yeah, I Was Saving it for Mother's Day!

Well.... Maybe not.

See, I got this beautiful set - Elements of Style - at Leadership this year. In case you were wondering, Leadership is in JANUARY. I had all these great intentions of going home and making things with it right away because it's sooo beautiful, but did I? Or did someone change the definition of "right away" to "five months later"? Because if someone did, I'm very timely!

Anyway, today's Free For all Friday challenge on Splitcoast is to get out your gel pens. Purrrfect since I basically sleep with my white gel pen under my pillow, I love it so much.
So I whipped up this little ditty!
I stamped the floral image onto some paper I just got yesterday - it's DCWV At Home - and it's all these cool glittery blue patterns. I was at Michael's for paint, but then this paper jumped out in front of me and yelled I'M 60% OFF AND I'M BLUE and I temporarily forgot my mission and just got it. I cut it with my Top Note die and then colored the image with my white gel pen.

The card base is Not Quite Navy, embossed, and the ribbon is Basic Grey satin.

I used Nestabilities for the oval, and I used the greeting from the set, but I colored the center part with my marker and stamped just the sentiment.
After I got done I thought my mom would love this card - so it will be arriving in a mailbox near her soon!

So Happy Mother's Day to my mom, and to all the moms who read my blog! If you have any great Mother's Day stories to share, feel free!



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Cloud-die Days...

Ever since Maddie started predicting earthquakes with her whiskers, I've been understandably nervous about natural disasters. The pictures of those freak waves in France this week make me want to hide under the bed. But that would mean getting rid of the dustbunnies. I decided I'm just not scared enough to dust.

Anyway, in case you're worried if clouds really can die, I don't think they can. :) BUT - clouds can be DIES! And I got to PLAY WITH SOME! Whee!! I love clouds!

These little steel cloud dies are the newest release from My Favorite Things - and can I tell you my favorite thing? They are made in America - yay for jobs!

Second favorite thing? They're insanely cute. The first project I made with them was with the Fancy Favor die and it's so sweet! Who should I give this to?
What I did was ran the cloud die through my Big Shot and then used the three little clouds as a sponging template. I dotto'd them down onto my white Fancy Favor bag, and then sponged Soft Sky and Cool Caribbean all around them. There are three different sizes of clouds so it made for a cute sky, yes? And I HAD to have a bunneh.Even a sun-lover like me loves a fluffy little cloud. I have a squillion more projects with these I'll share soon!

What are you kittens up to?


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It's an Adventure Being a Girl...

Well, pollenpocalypse has ended. At least the phase where the entire world is yellow and pounds of gross fluff pile up on my car every day. During pollenpocalypse, I refused to wash my car. Each day, I basically had to dig my car out from this disgusting pile of oak pollen and drive around Austin among the other victims - the place looked like a taxi convention for a month! And since I have to park under the odious tree, washing it would have been an exercise in futility.

So yesterday, I felt it was time. However, I had a challenge.I have weak hands, as do most girls. They are made for stamping. And so each time I have to go to the car wash and grip that insanely difficult spray gun for an hour, I regret it for days. It makes my hands shake and hurt. Those things are made for men, not delicate little stampers like me. Why hasn't the car wash mafia invented a trigger that clicks into place like a gas pump? There are two possibilities: they aren't smart enough, or they don't care about our paws.

Well I care about my paws. So, cranky from the oak pollen, I went to the carwash prepared. With zip ties. You can't keep a good woman down.

Before I turned the water on, I hog tied that little sucker into the on position. Mmm hmm. BOOYA. Washing the car was easy and pain free.Which allowed me to stamp today. :)

Now the motto of my university was Meliora - meaning better things.My zip ties ameliorated the car wash.

Whoever wants a size A Stampin' Up! acrylic block, leave me a comment telling me a story about you ameliorating something! Creativity deserves creative tools!

Now, I saw this FABULOUS tutorial on Splitcoast a few weeks ago and I have been experimenting with it since.

The creator of the tutorial was nice enough to include metric and American measurements for us. It makes an adorable 3 x 3 card, and I made some cute little notes. Thank you Sally!

Then I got lazy. I didn't want to measure anymore. So I came up with the lazy person's method - grid paper!

I cut a piece of grid paper to 5.5" x 4.25" and Dotto'd it to the inside of my card. Then I just used the grid to evenly space my 1" and 1/2" punched holes.
Bonus - you can use the first grid paper you punch as a template. So here is what I made - a five minute, clean and simple punched card! Give it a shot!

Stamps: Cheep Talk Ink: Basic Black, Summer Sun Paper: Whisper White, Tempting Turquoise
Accessories: 1/2" circle punch, 1" circle punch, black marker, grid paper
(All supplies Stampin' Up!)

So - tell me a story! Win a prize!

Loveyameanitbye.

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A Birthday Wish...

What is the perfect advice for a person about to have a birthday, I wonder....?

When you're as advanced in age as I am, what you know for certain (because you can't remember your phone number or where you put your keys) is that it all goes entirely too fast.

You realize you should have gone to Paris with your only $100 when you were 18 and weren't scared of anything and didn't have any bills.

You would have been an "early adopter" of things like Microsoft stock.

You would have worn a bathing suit more during those years you thought you looked too fat.

You would have invented YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. Seriously - how hard was THAT?

This weekend, a girl I ADORE came for a visit with her daughter/clone, whom I also now adore. We had lunch, stomped around Art City Austin, had a margarita and went to Sugar Mama's for cupcakes.

And then, right when I was getting sad that she was getting ready to leave, we saw a fire truck parked in the parking lot of the office where I get my allergy shots.

We impulsively pulled in and asked the firemen if they would like some cupcakes. They seemed very happy to have been the recipients of a Random Act of Cupcake.

I think we were happier than they were just at the joy and surprise. Maybe RAC's will become a viral phenomenon. How cool would that be?

So maybe the best advice you could give someone who is to about to have a birthday is - enjoy the ride. And the second best? Make sure everyone else does too.

Stamps: Cats Pajamas Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black, Summer Sun
Paper: Whisper White, Real Red, Basic Grey Ambrosia
Accessories: Copics, Nestabilities, Sponge Dauber, Pentel Silver Slicci Pen, Top Note Die, Big Shot, Crystal Effects

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Somebunneh Misses Somebunnehs

I don't know what happened here. I don't know if the bunneh was bad and got expelled from bunneh dance class somehow. I don't know if someone forgot to pick the bunneh up for dance class. I don't know if little bunneh was a surrealist and the other bunnehs, who are clearly impressionists, shunned little bunneh.

All I know is that somebunneh misses somebunnehs. Time for a reunion.

Stamps: Tutu Much (Cat's Pajamas) Ink: Basic Black Paper: Whisper White, Basic Black
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, Corner Rounder Punch

I do know that when I saw these bunnehs, I pictured this painting in my head.And THAT is how a stamp becomes a card.

Welcome back, little bunneh.

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Awash with... Birthdays!!

Happy Friday peeps!

I think you all know what April 22 is. Or if you don't, you sure should! It's my sister's birthday!

It's celebrated all around the world. Really!

I have a few stories about the old sis (and of course, I had to throw in OLD, since she's older than me).

First, she taught me to read. When I was 3. Yep, 3.

Since reading is so central to my enjoyment of life in general, you can imagine how grateful I am to have had a few years' head start on such a thing. I credit my English major, my ability to learn foreign languages, and my fondness for making up words to this sweet gift.

She kept me from biting my nails. Ever. One day, I wanted my nails painted. I think I had been biting them. She said she would paint my nails, but only if I would never bite them again. I so desperately wanted my nails painted that I agreed. I never had that habit. And I have nice nails as a result.

She introduced me to sangria. My mom reads this blog, so I shall not reveal HOW she did this - but who doesn't love sangria?? Come on. :)

She had a dog that ate an entire bag of dried squirrel corn off my back porch and then went shooting through our neighborhood at 110 miles per hour in an extremely entertaining incident.

She passed on the house that I now live in, which is why I live in it, and I love it.

She was no less than 50% responsible for an incident which involved a gallon of boiling peanut oil, my patio, and some of the most insane giggling our neighborhood has ever witnessed.

We shared a room when we were little. I remember being granted a remodel at some point when I was very young by our mother. She must have told us we could have whatever colors we wanted, because I remember a wee bit of a grimace when we said "pink and purple."

But that's what we got. Purple bedspreads and these crazy psychedelic purple and pink curtains that we loved so much. I can see them in my mind to this day.

So when I went to make a birthday card for my sis, I knew I needed to dredge up a little 70's action.

Stamps: Awash with Flowers, Petite Pansies Ink: Basic Black
Accessories: Prismacolor Pencils, white gel pen Paper: Sahara Sand

This is the new Awash with Flowers set from the upcoming summer mini. Everyone is being all civilized and making nice pastel-y samples with it. Me? I want you to hear Elton John and Wolfman Jack when you see this card.

Happy Birthday Cynt! :)


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The Yada Yada Volcano

So this ash cloud.

First of all, great name. I've been muttering "ash cloud" at the people who climb on my back in line at the grocery store and enjoying it immensely. It's a very easily misunderstood phrase, and yet perfectly innocent. Heh heh.
Anyway, today I cracked the heck up when I heard a newscaster refer to the volcano - whose real name is Eyjafjallajokull - as "the Yada Yada volcano."

We were probably separated at birth.

Anyway, I made this card for the color challenge on Splitcoast this week. I like to do the challenges that are truly challenges for me and this one was - Going Grey, Apricot Appeal and Sage Shadow. I almost never use AA and SS.

PLUS - I got a new toy! This gorgeous cathedral Sizzix die. I LOVE IT. And cathedrals are grey, so that was a good jumping off point. My Marrakech paper had the other two challenge colors in it, so bam - we have a challenge card!! I put patterned paper behind the windows for stained glass, and I colored on the die cut itself with colored pencils and my grey marker to give it some dimension. Then teeny little rhinestones on top.

If I had a cathedral, not only would it have teeny rhinestones on top, but I'd call it the Yada Yada Cathedral. :)

Loveyameanitbye.

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I'm one of THEM now...

I never thought I'd see the day.

I used to go to stamp retreats with THEM. Some of THEM came to my classes.
I didn't understand THEIR strange ways.

Maybe you don't either. Yet. (Insert evil laugh here)

Who am I talking about?

THOSE people! The people that put PAINT and other crazy substances on their stamps!
My stamps were like surgical instruments in the old days. Unmarred, perfect, never used with any sticky things that might leave traces behind. I never even really liked craft ink because it was so messy.

And then, those fun little papier mache boxes broke my brain! I spray em with Smooch Spray, I dab em with paint - it's crazy. I don't even get scared when I do it! And if there's a little paint left on the wood block - I'm okay with it!

I'll post some more of the boxes after I unpack from the Lone Star Ladies show I was in this weekend. It was a fantastic show.

I just felt like I had to confess that I was one of THOSE people now. You deserve to know, dear readers.

Now, to answer the BURNING question everyone has about what in the world to do with all those retiring Stampin' Up! Colors...

How about we make cards with em? :) I know - crazy talk.

But here's one.
For the little sun, I punched a circle out of copy paper with my 1.75" punch and Dotto'd it to my card front. Then I sponged Summer Sun and Only Orange around it and removed the mask. I stamped the image from Asian Artistry in black and then stamped a second image for the bird. I colored him with Ballet Blue.

I added gold highlights to the bird and the bamboo with my favorite gold pen. I've had a billion gold pens and most are sort of watery and skippy. This thing is a dream. It stays opaque, which I love - it's like having a very skinny line of gold paint. It's the Pentel Slicci in gold. Mine is the .8mm. They come in all sorts of fun metallic colors. I got a few of them to try when I became a Penfessional! Really, I've always been a Penfessional. I LOVE pens. I have a squillion of them. If you've got a lead on a good pen - GIMME! But it's nice to be official and all. Grownup coloring rocks!

What are you peeps up to this lazy Sunday?

Ready to see some cute boxes and some fun with fabric and the Big Shot this week? Is there anybody out there that didn't get some of the Sale-a-Bration sets yet? If so, maybe I'll give some away for more trivia this week..


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How I Became A Crafty Secret Agent

So I'm on a mission.

I need those little pieces of hardware you can use for feet on some boxes I'm making. (See previous post.) Tim Holtz has some perfect ones. I didn't have time to order then online, so I've scoured Michael's, Hobby Lobby, Archivers, and I finally go to a small LSS that I'm pretty sure won't have them. But a girl's gotta try.

I look around the store, and finally go to the counter. I ask the girl if they carry any of the Tim hardware, and without even blinking, and WHILE maintaining a patter of meaningless conversation with me, she very stealthily writes a post it note and hands it to me, out of the line of sight of all the other workers and customers.

I've seen enough episodes of Chuck that I know when to just shut up and accept the secret note. So I do.

I tell her thank you, step outside and look at the note.

It says "Aaron Brothers."

I MARVEL at the commitment to general crafting this woman has! She was like some movie heroine in a WWII flick who knows she has a moral obligation to save the crafter, but she cannot give away our position to the Germans, or all will be lost!!

The Underground Craft Railroad is alive and well, people! And Aaron Brothers did have a spectacular collection of Idealogy stuff. Thank you, little resistance fighter. Thank you.
If I had a present to give her, I'd give it to her in this can.
Whaddaya think?

It was so easy - sheet music, cut with my punches and scalloped circle Big Shot die, sponged with Summer Sun for the flowers, and stamped on with Branch Out.

I added little self adhesive rhinestones to the flower. I cut the butterflies with my Bold Butterflies Die - once in sheet music and once in vellum, and added rhinestones down the middle.

I wrapped the handle with taffeta ribbon.

And, my people - we have a winner from my last challenge!

Miss Melody - also known as lacyquilter on Splitcoast - was the first to identify the service ribbon as the Global War on Terrorism Service Ribbon.

Congrats Melody!! Email me and I'll tell you your prize choices!!

Loveyameanitbye.


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A Blogger in Distress!

Help! I'm tied to the railroad tracks!

Mmm , no, not really.

I just got all distressed out with Beate's tutorial this week. This is incredible. I really didn't believe it was going to be as easy as it looked, but it is sooo easy.
Start with a papier mache box.Cover your stamp with acrylic paint - the Ranger dabbers make this easy, but a foam brush and Delta or something similar would work.

Stamp it on the sides of the box. I used Polka Dot Punches so that you could see what fine detail you can get even with paint.

Paint the lid of the box too and sand the corners. Then, rub brown dye ink into the surface of the box and the sanded areas. When you have the color you like, take a damp cloth and remove the dye ink from the stamped image. You won't believe your eyes! I thought I had totally covered up my little heart, but I guess Celine was right - the heart does go on... :)

I'm so excited about this - I've made a bunch of them I will be selling at the Lone Star Ladies Show on April 17th - are you coming?

Now don't everyone run to the craft store at once.




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Happy Easter! It's Drizzling Sharks!

Happy Easter everyone!! I love Easter and all its hopeful, colorful joy. I love that my irises have picked this year, and actually this day, after being moved from our old house 7 years ago, to put out flower buds. I think they wanted to see if we'd stay here.

I love bunnies.

I love Cadbury Mini Eggs.

And I love sometimes how my subtlety is so subtle I have to explain it. FAIL. For example, I stamped this little chocolate bunny on a part of a dictionary page that has "bunny" on it. Which of course now you can't see. Oh well. The EASTER BUNNY knows, so there. :)

Stamps: Stampin' Up! Chocolate Bunny, All Holidays
Paper: Cool Caribbean, Whisper White, Dictionary Page
Ink: Distress Walnut Stain, Versamark
Accessories: Clear embossing powder, heat gun, Martha Stewart Self Adhesive Ribbon.

Now today I really wanted to walk. I got up. It was raining. I pouted. I waited. Then I just stomped off, finally.

It was so humid and awful and drizzly. Not springy and lovely at all. Unless you're spending spring in the jungle in Vietnam.

I was hoping to find Easter eggs on my walk for a little color.

However, it's so wet and nasty, that apparently it drizzled SHARKS.


Landshark.

I don't make the news. I just report it.

And I take no responsibility for you having "It's Raining Sharks", sung to the tune of "It's Raining Men" in your head right now.

Hallelujah!


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Clean and Simple Saturday

A little clean and simple Saturday action today. Which reminds me, I really need to clean the old craft pile.

I recently did a little re-org in here, which involved some new Ikea bookcases that Cheshire Kitten tipped me off to.

I love them, and I got things where they go on them, but I haven't finished organizing the room yet, so I need to get after it.

So that it looks all clean and shiny, like this:
I debossed the lines with a ScorPal and my bone folder and then stuck teeny pearls at each intersection. The two stamps in the center are Butterfly Accents and Simply Thanks. That spotty look on the butterfly was a happy accident that I'm going to recreate.

I inked it up in Tempting Turquoise and then reached for my water mister because I wanted a watercolory look. But apparently at some point, I had put rubbing alcohol in there instead of water. What was cool is how it gave it sort of a polished stone look with less spreading of the ink than water does. So it's my new technique :).

What are you doing this lovely Easter weekend?

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Well, There are Creatures, and Then There Are...

CREATURES!!!

The only way I can describe why I love the Doodle Factory so much is that there is a really wacky sadness in all the creatures. It reminds me of all the great stories of my childhood - with the occasional misfit monster who is sweet and lovable, but just wrong, and rejected by his little world.

Of course, those always have happy endings, thank goodness - they find an equally misfit monster love interest and usually ride off into the sunset with their talking donkey.

Whew. I feel better now, so I better introduce you to my little friends!! They are Irene's latest creations and they are the second set of creatures. The first set was the first Doodle Factory set I ever bought. They are SO fun to color. After I made this card, I got all the way to Photoshop before I realized it wasn't blue! How do you like my yellow and green misfits??

Stamps: Doodle Factory Creatures II Paper: Kraft, dictionary page Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Accessories: Copics, Very Vanilla Satin Ribbon, dimensionals

They're not misfits, they're special :).

The next card is inspired by the last two episodes of LOST. OMG what is happening on that show??? Are they in hell, are they not in hell? Who's the bad guy? Who's the good guy? Where's Vincent? ARGH.

This little guy looks like he knows. Stamps: Doodle Factory Creatures II Ink: Memento Tuxedo Black
Paper: Kraft, Basic Grey DSP Accessories: Rhinestones, Sizzix ovals die, Copics

Are there any LOSTIES out there? Please say yes!

If you wanna meet all the new creatures, hop on over to Tracey's blog and maybe you can win the whole, wacky, slightly sad and totally snuggly set!!

Where has this week gone? Wait - where did March go?

Loveyameanitbye.


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