Thanksgiving for Martians

Let's say you just landed here from Mars and you were wondering why #turkey was trending on Twitter. Or, for that matter, #stretchypants or #stuffing. I assume, of course, that the first thing aliens would do is check out Twitter.

Let's say you weren't fortunate enough to be born in a place (earth) where the whiff of poultry seasoning transports you in a manner more magical than that of the ruby slippers to the happiest of places in your mind.

Well first, how sad for you, little Martian.

I'd totally invite your sorry little green butt over for turkey if you landed in my field!

I think what I would explain to you, little Martian, as you sat across the table from me, glowing, on this most hallowed of Thursdays, is that what is cool about Thanksgiving is it that it is about making things.

At least, as a crafter, that is what I treasure about it.

Humans like to make things. Especially things with pumpkin pie spice. And with paper.

One of my favorite humans - Beate - suggested we give ourselves a little Thanksgiving challenge  to make something crafty for today. I'm ever so thankful for this oh-so-talented-and-sweet girlie! If I wanted to show you, little Martian, someone who really knows how to MAKE stuff, Beate would be exhibit A.

I thought I should make the turkey the star of the day, as it was written, and as it should be. So I modified this week's Spirelli tutorial by sweet Susie Nelson to accommodate just a turkey tail.

Stamps: Grateful Greetings Paper: Whisper White, Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Pumpkin Pie Ink: Early Espresso Accessories: Snowflake Punch (legs), Googlie Eyes, Glue Dots, Large Scallop Punch, Twine, Embossing Folder

He's wayyyy to cute to eat. Even if you've just arrived via the mother ship.

I hope you all have a fabulous Thanksgiving, or at the very least, a nice visit here from Mars.

We come in peace.

Loveyameanitbye.



             

Harrowism

I survived.

So I don't want you to worry about me - but it was close.

I had to drop off some card samples and things at Scrapology yesterday for some upcoming classes. Scrapology is out by the lake, and the commute involves a perpetually-under-construction-and-horrifyingly-high-speed-and-dangerous-road-upon-which-drivers-behave-like-pithed-frogs stretch of highway that can age a person on the best of days.

But yesterday was not the best of days.

This is because while I was trying to navigate in the four inches between me and oncoming traffic on the left and the four inches between me and the concrete construction barrier on the right, I suddenly became aware of  a LARGE ANGRY STINKBUG FLYING AROUND IN MY CAR!

Companies whose employees have a need to perform the equivalent of the game of Operation after 86 shots of espresso should be recruiting me at any moment now because I did NOT veer into either oncoming traffic or the construction barrier, despite my vociferous screaming and brain twitching.

For the love of all things holy, can we PLEASE eradicate these things from the earth??

By the time I got to a light, rolled down the windows and flailed around like I was in a very sub-par 80's music video, I am quite positive my life was shortened by decades and many people around me tweeted videos of my fit.

GAH.

Thank goodness that I could totally conquer anything after that!!!

After I got home, I tackled two challenges since my adrenaline was coursing. First, the incredibly pretty Color Throwdown.

That combo could calm any stinkbug elevated heartrate!

Then - my friend Korin said she hadn't stamped in a WEEK! That is WAY scarier than a stinkbug - so we held our own challenge, inspired by this pinterest beaty.

How perfect are those two together? So here's what I did - I used those fun glasses for my design.

Stamps: Tags Til Christmas Ink: Early Espresso, Pool Party, Tempting Turquoise, Poppy Parade Paper: Whisper White Accessories: Ultimate Glue pad, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, SU Rhinesones, Twine, Dimensionals, brayer

Now, I can categorically state that "naughty" does NOT include the EVIL that is a stinkbug. Naughty is something cute, like when your cat bats something onto the floor or when your baby colors your couch with a marker.

Stinkbugs - they are harrowing.

Loveyameanitbye.

Today Stinks - Literally!!

I think potpourri should be outlawed in public places.

Don't get me wrong - it's fine with me if you want your house to smell so intensely of cinnamon that primitive spice traders show up at your door with jewels to trade.

It's a free country.

But when I walk into Michael's, as I did this morning, and am hit with such an overpowering potpourri smell that my liver curls up, my face sweats, and my head aches in the first ten seconds, it seems to me that second hand smoke would actually be preferable.

Follow that with a quick sprint through Bed Bath & Beyond, and I am about to have total organ failure!

I can still smell and taste it. Bleh.

I wish Michael's had a drive through. However, I did use my snazzy Micheal's phone app to save 40% off one item and 25% off my total purchase including sales items, so I am pretty happy about that. I never did like paper coupons, so this is awesome.

But it DID inspire me to make a card, as such bizarre things often do!! I laughed so hard when I saw this stamp from the Unity Kit of the Month that I HAD to use it on a card for this stinky occasion.

I took my design principle from this week's Moxie Fab Tuesday Trigger challenge, which is not only Moxie Fab, but reminds me of the accessories of my youth!

Here's the Tuesday Trigger:

It cried out for a retro treatment, and so that's what it got. I put the image in the corner so that I could use one iteration of each of the colors in the inspiration piece.

 Stamps: Unity KOTM November 2011 Ink: Basic Black Paper: More Mustard, Pumpkin Pie, 

Early Espresso, Crumb Cake, Taken With Teal, Very Vanilla, Chocolate Chip Accessories: 3/4" Circle Punch, Taken with Teal and More Mustard Stampin' Write Markers

Does that not crack you up?? I especially love the element of my beloved procrastination in the sentiment. So there's my Moxie Friends with Flair!

Now - do you want to meet my new favorite gadget? GAH I am in love with this thing!!

Meet the new Kindle Fire!

I skipped over the whole Kindle phase the country went through. It didn't interest me.

I really, really like real books, so I didn't see the point.

But after I experienced IBooks for a while, I started to see the allure of having all those e-books in one place. But the Ipad is not a good reading platform. It's too big, you can't read on your back - if you brained yourself with your Ipad (I tend to fall suddenly and violently asleep while reading) you'd really be sorry. It's just a really awkward way to read.

But when I started to see the specs on the new Fire, I was intrigued. And my mom loves her next generation Kindle, so I thought I'd dive into this one.

And holy cow am I glad I did!

First of all the packaging and presentation is very Apple-like.

Then, unlike any other piece of the digital world I've ever owned, when I pressed the on button, it said "Hello, Lydia" and already had my account pre-loaded on the device!! No syncing, entering passwords, plugging into my PC - it's a DIGITAL MIRACLE! All I had to do was start reading!

And did I read! I don't really have time for real books anymore - I get most of mine on audio so I can listen while I walk. But this thing is bewitching. I read for 4 hours straight in my first sitting. I love the bookmarks and all the little fun tricks. The size is really, really nice. Big enough to read comfortably and small enough to hold comfortably.

If you're an Amazon Prime member (which for me - since I don't shop in real stores willingly, and buy pretty much everything on Amazon - pays for itself a thousand times over) you can even share your books for free with other Kindle users. So really, every one of your reading friends can have a virtual book club - how cool is that?

You need one of these. It's totally going on the Blue List. 5 stars from this girl. If you scroll to the bottom of this page you will see all the features, which I haven't even played with yet because all I've done is read.

Anyway, I hope you have an unscented, literary, stampy rest of the weekend!

Loveyameanitbye.

I'm Feeling Pixellated

You know how you felt the first time you saw this Dow commercial?

I love those ads.

I feel that way every time I open Photoshop and start working with an image, especially when I blow it up enough to see the pixels.

I'm halfway through the incredible Steve Jobs biography  - (I'm listening to the audio version, thankfully unabridged) - and the parts where they explain how he invented some of the effects we see on our desktop daily - windows layered on top of each other, for example - is amazing. It seems like a simple thing that we all take for granted when we are moving windows around on our desktop, but it is not simple at all, and was actually pretty revolutionary. Every little pixel matters.

It inspired me for the Free For All Friday Challenge on Splitcoast.

I thought I would take the simple concept of basic colored pixels, and make it pretty. Well, and perhaps blue. :)

I just took a 3x3 square of watercolor paper and used a pencil to grid it off into 1" squares. I thought I was going to have to erase the pencil, but I didn't.

Then I used my aquapainter to color the squares with: Bermuda Bay, Taken with Teal, Brilliant Blue, Cool Caribbean, Tempting Turquoise, Pool Party, Not Quite Navy, Baja Breeze and Buckaroo Blue.

I stamped the greeting from Word Play in Basic Black and then stamped it again on some Tempting Turquoise and punched out the world with my 3/4" punch.

Thanks for looking at my pixels. :)

If you want to come play along, the keyword is F4A91. Happy Free For All Friday!

I'm Selling This Card For 12 Million Dollars

Yep.

This dude sold this boring photo for 4 million because he only took six photos or some nonsense so they were rare. Seriously.

This photo.

It gives me narcolepsy.

Hey - you - wake up. I know it's a boring photo, but you need to keep reading.

So if some shyster can get 4 cool ones for that, surely I can get 12 million for my card, of which there is only ONE!

It's first come, first served by the way. No shoving.

Today's 12 million card is even MORE special because it's for TWO challenges - the Color Throwdown (CTD168) and the Touch Twin challenge (TTC05). Since these were the colors for the throwdown...

Naturally, I had to make Tami's little gnomie sort of Santa-esque. He's so cute as a garden Santa.

Stamps: Gnome one like you (Gina K) Paper: SU Patterns Pack Ink: Memento Accessories: SU Polka Dot ribbon, Twinery Buttercream twine, ShinHan Touch Twin markers: R11, R14, R131, YR135, 120, CG0.5

You probably better hurry before I decide that 2 challenges means double the price, my gnomies!

I do accept PayPal.

Loveyameanitbye.

A Skeleton In My Craft Closet

It's true. I'm ashamed of my crafty past.

I remember a time when I - are you sitting down? - didn't "get" die cuts.

I used to walk around my LSS, looking at rows and rows of pre-cut shapes - this was in the days before personal cutting systems were affordable - and  think - those are so BORING! So what if I have the outline of a bird?? Pffft.

It looks so horrifying all typed out like that. What a numbskull I was.

I just felt the need to air that little shameful secret so that we could move on with our relationship. I hope you still love me and can find it in your heart to forgive me.

Because now, as I frequently tell my stampy friends, should my house catch on fire or be in the path of a meteor, the FIRST inanimate object I would run out the door with would be my beloved, beloved Big Shot.

I was lucky enough to take part in a fun little Sizzix/OWH blog hop over the weekend with some now beloved dies, so I thought I'd share my fun.

My friend Dina posted a link on Facebook to a Better Homes & Gardens project that I used as my inspiration for the hop.

I liked the way it turned out so much I did it with my monthly stamp class. The Leaves #2 die made it a cinch - especially since the original project used a template, and I'm wayyyyy too lazy to print and cut things out.

All I did was cut the leaves out of Crushed Curry and score them with my Simply Scored. After mountain/valley folding them, I sponged them with Poppy Parade.

The birch trees are hand cut from Frostwood Lodge paper and was kind of an afterthought. Well, truthfully, my room was a mess, and that particular paper pattern happened to be lying face up on the floor and voila - I give you "afterthought."

See what people really mean by the words they use?

So do you have any crafty secrets you'd like to confess? I won't tell a soul... ;)

The Forgotten Felt!!

HOW does a person forget that they have some cute felt mittens, I ask you??

It really makes me wonder if I've forgotten other really important things, like that I won a Nobel Prize, a lunch date with Bruce Willis or where I left the Hope Diamond.

Frightening.

Anyway, luckily a VSN challenge reminded me that I had such cute fuzzy mittens and I had to bust them out for a quick card with my fave winter color scheme - aqua and red.

Stamps: Bright Christmas Ink: Craft White, Basic Black Paper: Pool Party, Whisper White  

Accessories: Stitched Felt Winter Wishes, Jumbo Brad, Large Lace Ribbon Border Punch

So what cute thing might YOU have forgotten you have?

Whatever it is, I hope it isn't mitteny and fuzzy and red!

Maybe you should dig around in your stash to find a little holiday stampy treasure!

Watch Out - I'm Officially a Deputy Now!

Yepper. I got me a shiny star badge and everything.

I found out I was a deputy on the way back from Starbucks this morning - they told me on the radio.

Apparently, there is a phone app that deputizes Austinites to cite their fellow citizens for illegally parking in handicapped spots. Yep, there's an app for that.

Now that I am deputized with this app, I'm going to go ahead and expand my authority to include issuing cybertickets for: people throwing cigarettes out of their cars, girls wearing their pajamas to Starbucks, people who drive on the shoulder in traffic jams because they think they're special, and also to the guy that wears only a white thong while he bikes around town.

I'm thrilled that I can start to clean up our town! What a great place this is going to be with Deputy Blue on the job!

I guess that poisoned apple thing struck a chord with a lot of you! I got lots of nice notes about it, and my friend Lynne sent me the CUTEST tutorial by Amanda Corbet for making a 3D apple with the heart punch. I had to make one.

I'm hosting the Ways to Use It challenge on Splitcoast today, so I used the apple to challenge people to use "space" around their card with a 3D or popup element. If you want to play along, the keyword is WT348.

To make Amanda's cute apple, just punch out 25 hearts. Trim off the bottom, fold them in half, sponge them with Lucky Limeade and Cherry Cobbler and stick them together. It's just as cute freestanding as it is on a card. The stem and leaf are from the bird punch.

How about THEM apples??

Hey - don't sass me. I'm a Deputy! :)

Once Upon a Time... There Was Candy

Have you seen that new show Once Upon a Time? I LOVE it! It's the next best thing to LOST.

It's premise is fairy tales, which are just the most timeless and timely stories. Of course, they are also terrifying in part, and that spooky element is beautifully done in the show.

One of my favorites - Snow White - is prominently featured - and with her, one of my FAVORITE themes - the poisoned apple. I loved this in the Bible, in Snow White, I loved it in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and everywhere else I've ever seen it.

It's such a classic struggle of temptation - anyone who has ever been on a diet knows that - against carpe diem. It's always a page turner, and no human can fail to empathize.

I remember my mother's parents - whose home was so completely elegant and filled with exotic and beautiful things - had a dish of ribbon candy on their coffee table at Christmas. I LOVE ribbon candy. The urge to eat about 85 squillion pieces of it every time I was there was pretty powerful. But my grandparents were not the kind of people who would let that kind of thing go by. I think they would have gone all fairytale on me!

So this week, when I saw these amazing Peppermint Christmas Tree Ornaments - I almost fainted! I was transported back to my seat on my grandmother's green velvet couch in front of that dish of gorgeous mint candy and I HAD to buy them and craft with them. Seriously - look how cute they are. They have GINGERBREAD MEN ON THEM!

And since I had this week's Color Throwdown combo to inspire me, the rest was easy! This combo really said winter/holiday to me.

And because today is the Stamps of Life/Twinery blog hop, I thought I'd hop right in! I'm feeling hoppy this week!

Now, when I saw this candy, this color combo and the hop, a flash of inspiration struck me, which doesn't happen very often, so I really felt like I should take advantage of it. 

Remember the tried and true 2-4-6-8 box from the early days of stamping??

Well I measured my peppermint candy tree and the diameter of the base is 2" and it's 3" tall. So here are the instructions for this impromptu box.

Start with an 8.5 x 7" piece of cardstock. Score at 2, 4, 6 and 8 on the 8.5" side. On the 7" side, score at 2, flip it and score the other end at 2.

Cut on your score lines up to the main body of the box. Cut out the tabs for the 1/2" pieces - it folds nicer this way. Before adhering your box, use the SU Scalloped oval punch to punch a window in the end panel. Then, put it together, pop in your cute tree, adhere two of the top flaps closed and tent two of them and secure with twine and VOILA!!!

Stamps: Joy2Christmas (TSOL) Ink: Basic Black, Pretty in Pink, Lucky Limeade, Riding Hood Red Paper: Pool Party, Whisper White Accessories: Aqua Painter, Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, Martha Stewart Tree Punch, Scalloped Oval Punch, Twinery Caribbean & Maraschino Twine, 1/8" hole punch, Two Way Glue Pen, Simply Scored 1.25" Circle punch

Seriously - it's like a chalet of sugary goodness!!!
 
Now if you are on the TSOL/Twinery hop and came here from Stacey Winter's blog, then your next stop on the hop is Caroline Stender. You DEFINITELY want to visit everyone on the hop, because if you leave comments for everyone, two lucky peeps will win prizes!

Oh - I'm sorry - did you say something? I was nomming on my peppermint Christmas tree! Stop looking at me! :)

Loveyameanitbye.

Bluebirds Aren't Blue and Other Shocking Revelations

Today all Monday type feelings and incidents have been waived. It is an extremely special non-Monday-esque day, because today we are wishing our friends at Sweet 'n Sassy a happy birthday with a blog hop!

I am so glad I've gotten to know the sweet and sassy girl behind Sweet 'n Sassy - Korin - because I just adore her and we both speak FLUENT LOLcat!

In honor of her birthday blog hop, I decided to rock your world with some crazy facts today!

I found this article called 5 Nature Facts Kids' Authors Should Tattoo on their Forearms. It's fantastic. She talks about the most common mistakes people make when representing nature in children's books.


Since I stumbled across this article while searching for the proper coloring for a bluebird, I found this one the most fascinating - bluebirds are not all blue. She points out that the only head to toe blue bird on our continent is the indigo bunting.

One day, in Mt. Hope Cemetery in Rochester, I startled an indigo bunting when I was walking back to my dorm.


I truly thought I was having some sort of out of body experience because I have never, before or since, seen anything so beautiful in nature. To call that color blue doesn't even do it justice. It is an electric, other worldly blue, and until I got back to the library to look it up (yes, little chickens, we used to have to go to the library to look things up) I thought maybe it was an exotic escaped parrot or perhaps a sign from heaven. I'd love to see one again.

 Indigo bunting photo courtesy BillMarchel.com

Anyway, the next most beautiful bird in the world, is, in fact, the bluebird, whom God was nice enough to color in my absolute favorite complementary color combo!

Here is the illustration from the article above:

And here is my stamped version of him! I loved this little bluebird so much, the only other color I used on the image was grey.

Stamps: Sweet 'n Sassy Praise the Lord Ink: Memento Paper: Stampin' Up! DSP, Whisper White Accessories: Dazzling Diamonds Glitter, SU Rhinestones, ShinHan Touch Twin Markers: B66, B143 YR24, CG0, CG1, CG3, 0

Isn't he gorgeous? I was actually proud of his little hiney when I was done!! If you listen carefully, you can hear him tweeting happy birthday to the Sweet 'n Sassy peeps!!

So do YOU want to say happy birthday to them? Because if you stop by everyone on the hop, some SERIOUS prizes await four of you! You have until 11:59 PM on November 9th to hop so you better head to the next person on the list - my sweet friend Harriet! If you want to start at the beginning, start at Korin's blog and take the whole tour!

Here is the full list of hoppers!

Korin Sutherland
Holly McMillen

Taylor Usry

Kim Schofield

Monika Davis

Lydia Fiedler

Harriet Skelly

Makiko Jones

Jerusha Borden

Mary Marsh

Lori Craig

Kim O'Connell

Chris Dickinson

Stephanie Wright

Shannon White

Janette Olen

Katlyn Traxler

Deb Felts

Stephanie Serrano

Jessica Fick

Kim Singdahlsen

Mary Faus

Sandy Domelle

Bridget Finlay

Ceal Pritchett

Dina Kowal

Margo Smith

Shelby Goolsby

Tami Mayberry

Lorie Souther

Darsie Bruno

Cathy McCauley

Beate Johns

Janice Melton

Jacquie Peifer

Lisa Hjulberg

In the meantime, please remember that the bluebird of happiness is chock full of orange!! Next thing you know, I'll reveal that the moon is not, in fact, made of cheese! Stay tuned!

Loveyameanitbye.

I Invented Something Awesome

 As usual, this invention came to me when I was in the grocery store.


Once again, everyone had their stupid juice before reporting to work this morning, so the aisles were full of pallets, there were no bags in the produce section, and none of the self check lines were open. Sheesh. You'd think someone had disrupted the time-space continuum today or something. Oh wait - well, nevermind.

Anyway, as I stood in the mile long line for the express lane, and the howler monkey children of Mr. Oblivious behind me crawled all over my cart and my back, I had a flash of inspiration.

You know that everyone's pet peeve is the express lane loser with 17 items acting innocent under the 10 items only sign, right?

Well since we have scanners, why don't we use them for something other than a shockingly loud beep?

Here's my idea.

Each time an item is scanned, it's added to the express lane tally. Once the number of items allowed in that lane is exceeded, a red police light on top of the lane starts flashing, a police style siren sounds and a loud, recorded voice comes over the store loudspeaker saying "MAXIMUM NUMBER OF ITEMS EXCEEDED ON EXPRESS LANE NUMBER TWO. MAXIMUM NUMBER OF ITEMS EXCEEDED ON EXPRESS LANE NUMBER TWO." Over and over, like the voice of Big Brother in 1984, the shaming message will be bellowed until a manager arrives at the lane, scoops up all the items over the allotted number and flings them into a restocking bin to be put back on the shelf. The offender gets one of those fluorescent orange round stickers they put on your Coke boxes unceremoniously stuck on his shirt so that people in the parking lot will recognize him as an Express Lane Transgressor and shake their heads and mutter at him on the way into the store.

I'd be ever so grateful for such technology.

Speaking of grateful, I'm grateful that Holly posted this awesome telescoping image technique (not to be confused with the telescoping card technique) for the Try a New Technique challenge.

I was a wee bit of a rebel and alternated colors on mine, but I really like the way it turned out!

Stamps: Leaves of a Tree, Always Thankful Ink: Basic Black, Poppy Parade, Summer Sun Paper: Whisper White, Domestic Goddess DSP Accessories: Rhinestones, corner rounder, Circle die, Circle punches

Snazzy, eh? I need to try this with images for coloring and with larger stamps - it's really fun.

What are you peeps up to today? I hope that you plan to head for the grocery store. I also hope you snicker to yourself in the checkout line, picturing the siren and the red flashing light. :)  

Wow Bags

I was talking to my friend Korin yesterday about those early creations we all made when we first got obsessed with stamps.

Now, of course, we think they are so lame and childlike compared to what we make now, but back then, it was like the sea had parted when we had more than one layer on a card (all layers were square of course) or did something crazy like put organdy ribbon on a card.

One of the very first things that just flipped my lid was a "wow bag". I'm so embarrassed to even talk about it. Take a white lunchbag, and using a rolling stamp, roll a hot pink pattern diagonally, then a lime green line, then pink, and so on. Punch two holes in the top and put a huge, hideously bright pink organdy bow on the front. People would literally SCREAM about it at stamp classes back then.

How far we have come, ladies. How. Far. We. Have. Come. Now I guess we're making all the things that will embarrass us in ten years.

Some things stand the test of time though.

I still enjoy coloring directly on my stamps with markers and "huffing" to get multicolored images. I decided to use that for my first....... drum roll please ...... guest spot on the Color Throwdown blog! Squee!! I'll be hanging out there every Wednesday for a while and I'm very excited! This first color combo was MADE for me and this technique too!

How beautiful is that? Here's my take.

Stamps: My Friend, Warmest of Wishes Paper: Whisper White, Crumb Cake Ink:Basic Black 
Accessories: Baja Breeze & Olive Markers, White Twine, Rhinestones

How's that for a wow bag?

 

Come play along with us with this pretty combo and add your link here. 

 

A Heffalump, Reimagined...

I started listening to the Steve Jobs biography this morning on my walk. It is amazing.

I was very sad that I had to go to work and stop listening because it was riveting.

It is really amazing the role that providence played in this man's life. You'll see what I mean if you get the book.

Anyway, right at the beginning, the author talks about how Steve Jobs transformed SEVEN industries. Imagine that!! Personal computers, music, animation (Pixar), digital publishing, phones, tablet computing, and one that the author says he "reimagined" - retail stores.

I was shocked the first time I was in an Apple store and an employee came up to me and said "Are you ready to checkout?" Well yes, I was. As a person who LOATHES shopping, I'm ALWAYS ready to check out. I assumed I'd be lead to a cashwrap. Oh no. Thanks to Steve Jobs, he checked me out with some magical handheld device and sent me on my way. I never stood in a line or did any of the things I hate about shopping. It was magical.

Reimagined.

That's a nice word.

I bring you a little reimagined stamping tonight. I told you about "no line" coloring, that I learned from Holly. I love it. It really changes things. And for a person who has been stamping as long as me, that's a pretty big deal.

I did a little video on it for you. If you don't see the player below, click here for the No Line Coloring tutorial.

Easy, huh? Shocking how different that is from the outlined stamp images we are used to.

Here's my finished card, with that adorable Elebration set. So stinking cute.

Supplies: Bermuda Bay Cardstock, ShinHan Touch Markers, B171, B65, B68, Silver Glimmer Paper, Dies, Twine, Punches.

If you could reimagine something, what would it be?

Loveyameanitbye.

Lord, I Hope This Day is Good....

You know that song by Don Williams - Lord, I Hope This Day is Good?

Here's the song if you've never heard it.You should listen to the whole thing before you read my modified lyrics so that you know how to sing it quietly to yourself. Ready? Okay - here are my lyrics:

Lord, I hope this day is good
I've sneezed more than any one human should
I should be thankful Lord, I know I should,
But Lord I hope this day is good.

Lord, have you forgotten me?
I've taken allergy shots faithfully,
I've got Benadryl on my nightstand,
So Lord, I hope you understand

I don't need cedar and I don't need molds,
Send down the flu bug Lord, send down the colds
But when you're planning just how it will be
Plan a good day for me.

You've been the king since the dawn of time
All I'm asking is a little less crying,
It might be hard for the devil to do
But it would be easy for you!

SERIOUSLY.

Sometimes I wonder why I live here.

Then I drag my sneezy butt over to East Austin to a gourmet milkshake truck food trailer, and I remember.

But still. I could use a break from the mold.

Today is the final day of the Hope You Can Cling To challenges, and I'm hosting the very last one. I decided to make it a sprint to the finish line - no slacking - so my challenge is a Costume Party!

Basically, you have to make a project that is the opposite of your normal style. So if you are a clean & simple stamper, you have to make a foofy card. If you're foofy, you have to go clean & simple.

For my stamping "costume" I went 3D, because I'm so not naturally a 3D project kind of girl.

I made a matchbox die "dresser" with 24 matchboxes and decorated it with some Lost & Found paper, brads and ribbon. I'll be doing a tutorial on this for Splitcoast later.

You still have tons of time to come play - the upload deadline is November 7th at noon central, and there is $7500 worth of prizes on the line - so what are you waiting for?

If you play in my challenge, the keyword for the Splitcoast gallery is HYCCT1131.

Achoo. 

Bless me.

She Ain't Scary, She's My Witchie...

You know.

Like "he ain't heavy, he's my brother."

 Did words have totally different meanings in the 70's? Because when I think about lyrics like that or "it's the dawning of the age of Aquarius" or "I'd like to be, under the sea, in an Octopus' garden, in the shade" I really have to wonder.

It's probably what the people of the future will say about LOLcats and The Real Housewives of (fill in the blank). I mean, really - are we implying there are fake housewives somewhere?

You can really confuse yourself if you think about these things long enough.

What I'm NOT confused about is being SO completely stoked to be the Featured Fan on the CPS blog today!! I'd really like to be Tami Mayberry when I grow up. She is a bottomless well of inspiration!

The second I saw this week's sketch I knew who was going in that little circle too!!!

Ooooh, hoooo witchy woman, see how high she fli - i - ies... Sorry - I slipped back into the 70s lyrics. This sketch was CRYING out for my sweet little witchie, don't you think??

Stamps: Greeting Card Kids, Fabulous Phrases Ink: Memento Paper: Whisper White, Silver Glimmer, Prints Pack DSP Accessories: Black Scalloped Dotted Ribbon, Jewelry Tag Punch, 

ShinHan Touch Twin markers: PB75, PB73, YR33, YR23, GY47, GY48, Y45, BR97, CG0, CG2

Seriously - how cute is she??? And since I think there's nothing on EARTH more encouraging than a smile, I  used Cindy's sweet Hope You Can Cling To challenge for a little extra inspiration.

And I'm so excited that I've figured out how to capture the little glimmers on the glimmer paper in my pictures!! I hope there's glimmer paper in heaven.

What are your plans for the weekend? Have you seen our prize list for Hope You Can Cling To? If not, you may want to change your plans so they include a little stamping... :)