Why Trends Come Back - Mystery Solved

When I was headed into fifth grade, we went clothes shopping before school started.

This was really something we only did for school and it was a big splurge - very different from the way people shop now. I haven't changed much - I hate shopping - so I go maybe once a year and if I find anything I like I buy 8 of it just so I don't have to go back.

We planned how many of each type of thing we were going to get, and we didn't get much, and we didn't shop anywhere expensive.

I remember how the prospect of new clothes for school was exciting for about 5 minutes before the ennui of trying things on endlessly and hating them all set in. And when you're that age, you have all that anxiety about showing up in the wrong thing or being teased endlessly about wearing some less than ideal brand - in Bryan, TX in that decade, there were definitely brands that made you an outcast. For boys - it was wearing Toughskins jeans - the Sears version of the infinitely cooler Wranglers. Personally, I think kids clothing shouldn't even have branding visible on it - it's nothing but trouble. But I digress.

One item that we bought that year has burned the whole trip into my memory - I even remember precisely a shirt we bought from that trip - a bright plaid shirt with little gold threads in it. But forget the shirt.

The item I whined and cried about and had to have was a blue coat.

Mind you - a child in Bryan, TX doesn't have much use for a coat. However, stores in Texas have buyers in New York, and so each fall to this day, we see sweaters and coats and scarves and a million other impractical things we'll push past in the vain hope of finding something we won't die of a heatstroke in in December. Like shorts. And flip flops. And bug spray.

But this coat was spectacular.

It was a soft, almost periwinkle blue suede, with that fluffy lining that is now in Uggs. It had huge, fluffy lined pockets, and the cuffs were the fluffy lining too. It was basically like wearing a large, blue, stuffed animal.

It was the most beautiful thing I'd ever seen. And my mom got it for me.

I loved that coat so much. I was so excited the first day I actually got to wear it at school and I was petrified I'd leave it somewhere.

I don't know why that blue coat crossed my mind today - maybe because I'm listening to the Longmire Mysteries on audiobook - (I highly recommend them if you like the series they are based on) - and Longmire was enjoying the last day without a coat before the snow started, and my mind turned to coats.

I realized when the coat crossed my mind why exactly it is that trends - even horrid trends like stirrup pants and mall bangs - come back around every so often.

It's because some woman who loved her crazy blue suede coat when she was 12, gets older, stops caring what people think about what she wears (one of the real benefits of getting older), and she says - I'm going to get a coat just like the one I had in fifth grade, dang it.

She finds one, or has it made, everyone her age wants one too, and BOOM - we are back in that decade.

(Thanks a lot to whoever missed their stirrup pants, you psycho!)

Glad to have that mystery solved! :)

Today's card is another Brusho leaf - I only did one 9 x 12 sheet of these practicing for my retreat, but I have gotten so many cards out of that sheet. Each one is so different and fun.

This card was actually for Teresa's Hope You Can Cling To Challenge earlier in the month to make a freestyle collage card.

Teresa has SUCH a beautiful, airy style on her cards, and collage is something she excels at.

It is hard for me because I'm kind of a minimalist, so I worked on this card for a long, long time before I liked it. All the supplies are listed below.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I love the little (probably unintentional) pops of yellow in with the pink.

Don't forget that $5000+ of crafty prizes await you if you enter the challenges before November 7th!

And don't forget that my mini retreat before OnStage Live in Dallas is just a week away - we have a few seats left so don't delay - I will close registration soon!

Loveyameanitbye.

She Can't Be Beet!

Many of you probably know and love my friend Kathy Racoosin - the brainchild behind The Daily Marker and the 30 day coloring challenge.

She's beautiful, she's HILARIOUS and immensely talented.

She designed the stamp set I'm using today - it's part of the new My Monthly Hero Kit from Hero Arts - and it is GORGEOUS.

When I got mine (It's a HUGE stamp set with 30 images) I didn't know what to do first - I love all things botanical, and I knew a scene was in my future. But as my eye went wandering around, my twisted little brain saw something that I could do with the ornament/terrarium images and some of the plants.


And I did it. :)

I have the soul of a gardener, and if I can make a plant out of something I'm going to do it. And as you know - I think beets are not edible, but they are BEAUTIFUL just as plants. Their magenta and bluish tones just speak to me, so that's what I tried to capture. I stamped the images in Smoky Slate on Canson Mi Teintes Pastel Paper and just made up the rest with my Polychromos Pencils.

This is a pretty large image so I had a lot of room to add light and shadow in. It was really fun. I added a gold foil sentiment that I cut with the Greetings Thinlits. (PS - if you get those bumps from the release holes in the dies - just burnish the whole die cut with your bone folder.)

Then I moved on to a more traditional use of the set once I had that out of my system.

I LOVE masking and scene building and I loved the potential of this set for that - the rocks, the plants - I felt like I could build my own fairy tale. I really love the miniatures in the set - the tiny mushrooms, the gnome - it plays into all the children's books in my head - the Borrowers, the Silver Nutmeg...

First I masked numerous elements to build the scene, starting with the gnome, then the plants and then the rocks. I built the scene in Smoky Slate, and colored it with Derwent Inktense pencils. After it was colored, I put all my masks back into place, and sponged the water and the sky with Distress Inks. Seriously - how freaking cute is this?????

I deliberately didn't glue down the spiky parts of the plants and sort of curved them up off the card so that it has a 3D look. Squee!

My sister just added a little pond in her backyard. I might have to get her a tiny gnome. So fun. A very fun, zen day of painting and coloring with this one.

We have a little hop for you to show off the wonders of this kit too - be sure and visit all my friends - they are so talented and I'm excited to see their vision for these fun images - these are some of the most talented people I know. I saw a peek of Libby's and Sandy's - and wow.

Hero Arts
Kathy Racoosin
Sandy Allnock
Lydia Fiedler (you are here)
Libby Hickson
Amy Tsuruta
Jayne Nelson

PS - the kits are in limited supply - when they're gone, they're gone, so get in line early :).

And, speaking of Hero Arts, and one of my favorite people on the planet - Jennifer McGuire - today begins her Share Handmade Kindness challenges. Hero Arts designed stamp sets, and are donating the proceeds from sales of these sets to the Kind Campaign. Throughout this month, she challenges ALL of us to share an act of handmade kindness with someone - you can make a card, cookies, you can knit something - anything that just will make someone's day and was born out of your creativity.

I love her focus on the power of handmade gifts to uplift people, and I love this challenge idea with my whole face - what a great way to head into the holiday season. When you participate, just watch Jennifer's blog, and remember to use the hashtag #sharehandmadekindness.

She is truly one of the kindest people I've ever met, and this challenge pretty much tells you everything you need to know about her and the fine people at Hero Arts. Seriously good eggs.

Here are two cards I made with the kindness sets.

The first one was done with the Wrinkle Free Distress technique for Angie's Hope You Can Cling To Challenge. I used Twisted Citron, Chipped Sapphire and Peacock Feathers Distress ink.

 The next one - oh my goodness this one is a long story.

Someday, I will tell it - but please know - it started in failure. There's hope for us all.

I made the background by dropping Ranger alcohol inks on Duralar. The side the ink is on is actually the side that's adhered to the card base.

This card may remind you of biology class, in which case, you're welcome. I loved biology. Except for that time I got an F for refusing to do something.

Either way - I think it's pretty, and I love this sentiment.

Let's make the world a kinder place, shall we? :)

Loveyameanitbye.

Bring me Your Souls!

If you don't live in Tejas, then our beloved Dia de los Muertos (today) might be a bit of a mystery to you.

From the outside looking in - all the skull and bones imagery associated with this holiday might seem a bit dark, but it's really quite the opposite.

It's a great day, where you honor the dead with little altars of their favorite things, and colorful clothing, sweets and little dolls. The dolls are my favorites - teeny calacas (skeletons) in colorful clothing - even animal calacas.

The premise behind it is that the dead would be offended by sadness or mourning - so the day focuses on bright, happy colors, imagery and celebrations of their lives, while acknowledging that they are no longer with us with some beyond the grave artwork.

I'm always confused when I leave the southwest at the perception that these images are sort of macabre - I can assure you that to us they are not. The entire holiday has a festive, fun air - the costumes and makeup are beautiful, and there is NOTHING that a Texan loves more than a beautiful, colorful sugar skull (calaveras to us). Actually - to a southwesterner, it's a much bright, happier holiday than Halloween, which can have sort of a spooky air. Dia de los Muertos is not spooky at all.

The idea is to encourage the souls of the departed to visit - to wake up for a day and celebrate with their loved ones and all of their favorite things.

It's sweet, and fun, and one of the traditions I enjoy most at this time of year.

I hope after I'm gone that my loved ones will make me a little altar with coffee, and art supplies and calacas and calaveras and that I can come haunt - I mean visit them on November 1st.

Thankfully we have the perfect skull in the holiday mini to calaverasize - it's from Howl-o-ween Treat. I used the Flower Patch stamp set, the Perpetual Birthday Calendar set, the Remember This set and some hand drawn elements to turn this into a happy sugar skull. This is my sample for my Hope You Can Cling To challenge from yesterday. Don't forget - you still have one week to make cards for this challenge and have a chance at winning $5,000 in crafty prizes! Check it out here.

And check out my colorful calaveras here!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I stamped the skull initially in Pumpkin Pie, so that the eyes could be orange. Then I white heat embossed the little flower over the eyes. Then I masked the outside of the skull to do the stamping inside. After I removed the stamp - I overstamped the outline with the MISTI again in black.

Super fun and perfect little skull shape for this. The line on the card is hand drawn - that's part of my challenge.

I also colored this GORGEOUS calaveras from Simon's sugar skull set - if you want one with all the designs on it already, you can't go wrong here.

Hope you're having a great weekend and remembering your departed loved ones with joy.

¡Feliz Día de los Muertos!

Loveyameanitbye.

My Future Zombie Self

I cannot resist zombifying stamp images.

It's so bad that I think I might actually qualify for a Social Security Disability program of some sort.

It's SO much fun.

What's funny is I checked out of the Walking Dead at Terminus - it just crossed a line for me that I couldn't recover from. Up until that point, despite the darkness, I really thought it was a well done show. I don't mind darkness - I'm a fan of Thomas Hardy, Jose Saramago and George Orwell if that gives you any clues - but there's a limit to my tolerance for depravity and brutality. I prefer struggles of the soul, I guess. That's what was so unusual about Breaking Bad - it was able to overcome the brutality of some parts of the show with the really elevated soul struggles. But I digress.

I like my zombies funny - like Zombieland or Shaun of the Dead (my fave - although you have to calibrate your ears to the English accents - I remember feeling lost in the first few minutes because they may as well have been speaking Japanese.)

There's just something hilarious to me about the whole zombie thing. The fact that they lumber around as if they've been pithed.

The growly sounds.

The groupthink.

Maybe it's that they remind me of politicians, with their lack of higher thought and their voracious appetite for my stuff.

Just take, take, take. Hmm. If only I had time to make a wickedly funny political satire. Sadly, I'm writing a blog post.

One thing I LIKED about the Walking Dead before they crossed the line was that they gave you hope through a few characters that maybe there was a glimmer of a soul left in the zombies. Just a tiny chance that they retained their humanity. This, of course, is how you hoped they differed from politicians.

Also the immortality is sort of oddly appealing. I think everyone thinks - well, I guess if I get to come back, I'm not TOTALLY opposed to eating brains and lumbering around in a torn shirt with a bunch of strangers.

Their hygiene leaves a little to be desired though. I don't really get that part. If I were granted a zombie afterlife I think I'd spiff myself up just a bit. You know - you want to stand out from the other zombies. Try to have a little zombie self-respect. Maybe lure your victims in with your sparkly and clean zombie outfit.

When I saw the Make It Crafty collaborative zombie challenge with Sandy Allnock, I scoured my stamps for the perfect image to zombify.

When I found it, I squealed.

It's like a preview of what I'd be in the zombie afterlife. hehehe.

I give you - my future zombie self.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

See? I'm not scary.

Come a little closer.

BOO!

Happy Halloween, y'all!

Loveyameanitbye.

The Evil Acorn and a Lot of Mid-Brain Shenanigans

You can say we are evolved beings, capable of higher thought, and the most advanced life form in the galaxy.

But the fact of the matter is, when there's a full moon - everyone becomes a complete lunatic.

Luckily I have two little beasts living with me that tip me off a few days before the full moon that society is about to break down.

I notice little psychotic breaks in the cats - bouts of crazy brain, some fighting and I look up at the sky and say to myself -

People go completely off the rails on the internet and off for a few days, and then, thankfully, recover. For slightly less than a month.

The best thing to do is to not respond to anything during this period in which humans come down with crazy brain. They can't help themselves, and we should leave it all to the professionals, God help them. Take a moment to appreciate the nurses, police, baristas, firefighters and Community Managers who are on the front lines of each full moon battle.

I can't say for sure that that was my inspiration for my card for today's challenge, except that I can.

I had tried for DAYS to make anything halfway decent, and failed, and then the mid-brain full moon induced crazies I observed lit an inspirational fire, and I completely perverted the adorable Acorny Thank You set and twisted it to my dark purposes. Muahahahahah!!

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

My apologies to the designer of this cute and innocent stamp set. #sorrynotsorry

The team challenge for today was to choose any technique from our tutorial section at Splitcoast, so I did the bokeh technique in the background with two different alphabet sets, just very lightly though so it didn't interfere with my stamping.

I had forgotten about that fun sentiment from Mingle All the Way.

Anyway - I'll go back into hiding now and wish you the best in your own battle against Full Moon Crazy Brain, or FMCB. The struggle is real, y'all.

Loveyameanitbye.

Why Water Is the Devil's Work

Okay - pre-post disclaimer:

If you are even slightly inclined to think or comment "we need the rain" or "I love rain" or "I sleep so great when it rains" - you need to stop reading this post right now - go fix yourself a beet salad with green bell peppers and Velveeta and read something by Henry James, because we will never come to agreement on this or anything else, and I still want us to be able to be friends. In spite of the fact that you like beets and green bell peppers and Velveeta and Henry James and rain.

Go on.

Okay - for those of you who remain - I have to tell you the revelation I had after I woke up in a dire panic at 4 AM to the sound of rain on Friday.

Well I actually didn't have the revelation at 4 AM.  All I had at 4 AM was anxiety and the sound of water hitting various objects in the back yard, a nervous cat, and my mental to do list.

I had the revelation at about 8 during my walk in the woods, after being awake for four hours unnecessarily.

I realized why water induces complete panic in me and all other normal people. (Here's the part where my parents start calling me to tell me I'm crazy. HANG ON I AM TYPING A BLOG POST.)

Let's go back to the cave days, when all our little amygdala reactions made sense and we weren't all numbed by yoga music, Angry Birds, Kardashians and the Kindle.

Let's say the cave version of me is sleeping in the cave and am suddenly awakened by water sounds. This can mean one of the following things is happening.

• The cave is flooding. We live in a cave for God's sake. It's on the ground. If it fills up with water it's Poseidon adventure, but with larger foreheads and probably lots of rodents. 
• Someone (I live with cave people, after all) is peeing in an unauthorized area. This is every woman's worst nightmare. You know I'm right. Every woman on earth is in a state of high alert, asleep or awake, for a peeing sound.
• It's raining. My favorite Saber Toothed Tiger one shoulder throw is out on the grapevine, getting wet, and ensuring that I'll smell like a long dead goat for the rest of the year's social occasions.
• Let's say I live in a barren desert cave community - the sound of water at night can only mean that the tiny amount of water that my dear husband Thag walked miles to bring us is spilling onto the sand and we're all going to die. 
• We live near the ocean and suddenly a giant tsunami is consuming our world, and because we are cave people we didn't notice earlier in the day the ocean disappearing from view and all the animals fleeing for their lives. Now we are starting to be clued in, as the water starts to cover up our cave address pole, or whatever cave people had outside their caves.

The modern manifestation of these worries for me is this crazy terror that that the roof is just going to turn into cheesecloth, or all the pipes will burst. Rain is just terrible. And it's completely not my fault. It's just my cave self-preservation genes.

This is why you should walk every day. It really helps you solve mysteries in your everyday life and relax you after you've been terrorized at night by rain. Seriously!

I also saw deer prints - running deer prints - for nearly a mile. That was a much longer trot for me than the deer - his/her stride was about 10x mine. I think the rain was chasing him :).

I do really love - rain aside - being outside. Which I can't do when it rains. Yet another reason to support the normalcy of pluviophobia.

One thing I can do when it rains is stamp, though.

Kim's challenge for Hope You Can Cling To (we are giving away more than $5000 in crafty prizes, btw - are you playing? Still tons of time!) was to have use a transportation theme - representing all the requirements a cancer patient has to go to and from treatment, and what an important role these trips play. She's so creative.

I decided to do something that's been in my head for a while, born out of something I used in my latest online class featuring the Hearth & Home Thinlits. I combined my fave galaxy background I featured here with the Sleigh Ride Edgelits, with an extended cut from the window die. Then I created the Police Box header and flyer in Photoshop, glued them to my die cut, and then coated the whole thing with gloss medium.

I tried the windows in vellum and they just didn't look right, so I cut teeny pieces of Pacific Point cardstock to make the dividers and put them on Whisper White. I randomly sponged on Night of Navy on the Police Box to make it look a bit distressed. The sentiment is from my favorite Project Life Set - Let's Get Away.

Let's Get Away - from rain. This weekend at my class - half the class couldn't make it because of flash flooding - and then halfway through class, my venue started filling with water!

It's always an adventure here, that's for sure.

Speaking of adventures - I have a new online class ready for you - holiday themed of course! You can read about that here, and catch up on any other classes you missed. 

AND - don't forget my mini-retreat in Dallas in November - we are close to capacity for this event! Reserve your seat today! The event runs from 10-3 on Friday before OnStage.

Loveyameanitunlessyouarerainbye.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I also have a new online class for you!

This one is featuring the Hearth & Home Framelits, Happy Scenes stamp set, as well as

Pencils - The Devil's Work

I think you know I hate pencils. Not colored pencils - I love colored pencils.

But regular graphite pencils give me the heebies! I hated using them when I had to do math - I hated the way they felt on the paper, the fact that they never really erased all the way, and that they would smear when your hand touched the paper. I much preferred pens - alllllll the pens!! So I never wrote anything by choice with a pencil in school, only when forced to by some dictatorial teacher.

However, in art, graphite most definitely has a place, even if it gives me a little PTSD.

Especially with tortillons, they blend so nicely and make soft, nice shadows. So, for that reason, they are allowed to stay in my house!

This card is for Lee's Hope You Can Cling To challenge called Pinkalicious - this is a word challenge and I LOVE word challenges. We had to make a card with things that are words we could form out of the word Pinkalicious. So here's what's in my card:

spunk
pink
ink
piano (I listened to @_mrgrand_ on Periscope while I made this card.)
uncap (I had to uncap my Brusho)
panic (I couldn't find my sequins)
pluck (I had to pluck my sequins out of the container with my QuickStik tool)
plan
ulna (you can't make a card without your ulna, you know)
pin (I stuck it into my glue to clear the clog)

BOOM. Word challenge accepted!

I used Lighthearted Leaves (I can't stop using this set and dies) and Brusho in an emboss resist. I actually don't know how I got this pink - there isn't really a pink in the Brusho set, so it was kind of a happy accident. I've kept every scrap from that session and I put a scrap on the inside of this short-front card, as well as die cutting a piece for the hello with the Greetings Thinlits.The pencil I used was a Faber-Castell 2B Jumbo drawing pencil, and I used a Lowe-Cornell tortillon. The drawing pencils have super soft leads.

Built for Free Using: My Stampin Blog

I made a super quick little video on this for you. Such an easy and fun way to add a little interest.

Even if it requires a devil pencil.

Don't forget to register for our Understand Blue Mini Retreat in Dallas the day before On Stage Live. You do NOT have to be attending OnStage to attend this mini retreat - so anyone who will be in the Dallas area that day is welcome! Space is limited, and registration will close soon, so don't miss your chance!



Loveyameanitbye.

The Enabler Gets PUNKED!

Sometime early in the year, when I was remodeling my studio, I started converting all my photopolymer stamps to the envelope storage system, which has saved me a ton of space. You can read about it here. So someone told me that I could use Duralar to stick my cling stamps to inside these pockets. So, like a good little shopper, I bought tons of Duralar to get started.

But I bought the wrong kind.

I bought the opaque kind, which NOTHING sticks to. So now I had a ton of Duralar and no use for it. So for the past few weeks I've been obsessed with finding fun techniques for it.

Just to keep it real - a LOT of Duralar has gone in the trash.

But I did find two really fun things to do with it recently. One we are trying at my retreat.

The other was pretty simple - play with Adirondack alcohol inks on it.

Each color has a mind of its own and does unique things.

The side with the inks on it is somewhat sticky and textured where the inks got on top of each other. But when you flip it over and put it against white cardstock it looks pretty cool. So that's what I did.

This is for today's Challenge Chicks challenge by Kelli. It's a 3-2-1 challenge - we had to use three layers, two embellishments and one sentiment - no images. It's also for an upcoming Hope You Can Cling To Challenge that I can't reveal yet.

And speaking of unrevealed, the sentiment is also something that will be revealed on November 1, and it's something I really think will change the world.

How's THAT for a tease?

Loveyameanitbye.

Ricola - The Steve Jobs of the Cough Drop Industry

I thought I caught Ebola on the way home from Ohio.

You know, when you sign up for that flight where everyone sounds like they have TB? Then you play the Southwest Air lottery as you're sitting in your seat, hoping the one that sounded like a horse in the throes of the plague does NOT sit in the middle seat in your row. Of course, he/she always does. It's either going to be that or the person with the stinky, E. Coli-ridden airport burrito the size of a car battery going in that middle seat, people.

Next time I'm just buying two seats.

I was so careful.

I NEVER touch the tray table or the magazines. Those are just fertile petrie dishes. I always wear loose clothing so that I can put my seatbelt on while only touching it with my shirt and not my hands. I don't touch my face. I glare the ojo at people who cough.

PS - if you fly when you're sick, you should be in prison. I'm just saying.

So anyway, a few days after I got home, I felt the beginnings of airplane Ebola. I had a fever, a sore throat, uncontrollable scream-sneezing.

And then today, in the depths of despair, after covering up all the mirrors in my house so as not to see my Draculean (I just made that word up) face, I tapped the weather app on my phone. And I saw this.

As usual, Texas is trying to kill me.

Alternaria is by far my worst allergy.

If I could set off a nuke right now that would target just alternaria and banish it from the earth, I would. With no regrets.

If anyone knows if there's a place on earth where alternaria does not grow, please tell me. I will go through level 6 decontamination to make sure I'm not carrying spores, and I will move there right now. I don't care if it's an iceberg at the North Pole. I'm there.

So I bought some cough drops to try to help me survive. I went for my go-to Ricola as well as some Halls Mentho-Lyptus. (I am sad the old Halls ones that taste like Listerine aren't made anymore.)

I started with the Ricola, and as I felt the ornery, square drop of death tearing the roof of my mouth apart, I thought - the guy who invented this thing was the Steve Jobs of the cough drop industry.

He said - forget about smooth, oval shaped cough drops that don't tear your mouth apart - what the people need is a pointy cube of death that will take their mind off their searing throat and sinus pain.

And you know what? He's right. I've been a Ricola fan since I was 13 and had my first job at Calico Natural Foods. I just deal with the horrid mouth pain so that I can get the delicious herby magic the death cube delivers.

Sometimes, you have to think different. (If you're Steve Jobs. If you're a normal person, please think differently so that all the English majors don't twitch to death.)

Anyway, I made a card for Dina's Hope You Can Cling To challenge that is basically a self-portrait of me today since I look and feel like the undead.

I actually really struggled with her challenge, which is to use an image of a hand, or use your hand to finger paint, etc. I could have taken the easy route and done the fingerpainted clouds I LOVE to do (learned this from Jeanne).

But a challenge should be a challenge, right? And since I don't normally stamp humans, I had to scour my collection for a human with a hand.

And butter my butt and call me a biscuit if I didn't find the perfect one from the Holiday Mini - the little vampire from Haunt Ya Later!

Isn't he fangastic?

And you can see not ONE hand but TWO. The sentiment is from Happy Scenes.

Winning.

I colored him with Copics.

If you are in an alternaria-free zone this weekend, enjoy yourself. I'll be scaring little kids with my scream sneezes and puffy eyes.

Loveyameanitbye.

PS - don't forget to sign up for our mini-retreat the day before OnStage Live in Dallas! First come, first served, and seating is limited!